Southeast Asia – Day 5: Singapore – Day 5

Monday – September 18, 2023

We started our day as we did most days, by going down to grab breakfast in the hotel. I was a little stressed because I had foolishly made reservations for the ArtScience Museum at 10:30 instead of 11 or later which would have given us more time to sleep in or have a leisurely morning.

My thinking at the time was that I wanted to get the museum out of the way early in order to have the rest of the day to freely explore the rest of the things on the itinerary. I any case, I told Brad that we needed to leave by a certain time in order to get to the Museum for our reservation time. Despite this as my self set departure time approached, he went up to get another coffee.

Stuff like this annoys me because I hate being late for things. However, he drank it down fast and we were able to make it to the museum in time.

ArtScience Museum

What is there to say about a museum. It’s hard to describe but essentially there are interactive exhibits, dark spaces with cool and disorienting lighting. There was an exhibit about different animal and insect habitats that showed how they interact with their environment. It used a combination of light, sound, smell and video to get you into the zone and was pretty interesting. There was an exhibit on AI generated art which was… unsettling. And lastly there was a theater with a series of short films with topics about various social issues.

By this point I was bored, the museum was not as cool, fun, big or as interesting as I thought it would be. Brad was watching a movie and I told him I was gonna be outside. I took some of the time to get pictures of the bay front, but that too got boring. In hindsight, what I should have done was to go into the mall or something, but instead I just sat around and waited for him, which was annoying.

Bay Front/Marina Bay

Once he finally came out, we grabbed lunch at a spot right near the entrance of the museum. I got a sandwich and he got pasta. After lunch we walked up to and partially across the Helix Bridge to check it off and say we did it. I wish we had had time to walk all the way across it or to hang out in the area at night.

We then went to the famous floating Apple Store, again just to check it off the list. When exiting out the bottom of the sphere, there is a tunnel, presumably underwater, that leads you back into the Shops at Marina Bay. Once in the mall I looked for a restroom and found one, just to find there were only two stalls and both were occupied. After waiting for a frustratingly long amount of time, I bailed.

At around 14:30 Brad and I made our way back out to the Bay Front and bought tickets for a 15:00 boat cruise. In the meantime, I still needed a restroom, so I went back into the mall, this time to a different restroom, only to be faced with the same problem. This time I waited it out and got everything taken care of just in time to make it to our cruise departure.

The cruise was exactly 45 minutes long and just went around various parts of the waterways. One of the things that I took a note of was Clarke Quay which had been recommended by a co-worker. My plan was to go back there in the evening. Spoiler alert, I didn’t. There was also a cool area on the other side of the water called Riverside Point that I wanted to visit in the evening but also didn’t get around to.

During the ride we saw another boat cruise company, the one I had looked up before departure with older cooler, more authentic looking boats. This bummed me out because, despite the fact that I’m sure the cruise took you on the same dumb route, I wanted to be on the cooler boat, instead of our dumb red one. I realize how childish this sounds.

When the cruise was over, we tried heading to our next stop, ION Orchard. Google said we needed to take the 106 bus, but what it failed to say was that the route was not operating that day. Likely due to the dismantling of the Formula 1 track. So, we walked all the way around the Shops at Marina Bay for nothing. We then went back to the MRT and took the subway there, what we should have done in the first place.

ION Orchard

The only real reason I wanted to go to Orchard Road was because the exterior of ION Orchard is one of the places featured in Season 3 of Westworld. When we got out of the subway, it took me a while to get my bearings. When I finally did, I found an exterior view that I thought was close to what I was looking for, but not quite what I was looking for.

HBO has since taken Westworld down, which is a whole other rant I could go on, and thus I am not able to rewatch through the season to confirm. However, after other general research, I believe it was the exterior view I was looking for.

This lead to me frustratedly walking down Orachard Road with Brad in tow, trying to figure out where I was going. This, combined with Brad getting the extra coffee, taking long in the museum, the bathroom issues, us going on the “wrong” boat cruise, me being hot, tired and hungry, led me to be in a hangry bad mood.

We decided to go into the Orchard mall where I was in search of Tokyu Hands- one of my favorite stores in Ikebukuro, Japan. Before finding it, we stopped at one of the food stalls in the food court an I grabbed a couple of drinks. We sat and rested for a bit which sort of helped better my mood. We then made out way to the sub-level of the mall and there in front of me was my beloved Tokyu Hands.

Though it was much smaller than the one in Ikebukuro, it was still cool and filled with fun household goods. This really elevated my mood. After a bit of browsing and game plan discussion, Brad and I decided to split as we had different itineraries. This was the best thing for me because, though he hadn’t really done anything wrong, I needed to get away from Brad.

Red Hill

I hopped on the MRT and took the subway out to Red Hill station. As was the case with ION Orchard, and a few of the other things on my ‘to see’ list, I literally rode all the way out there just to take a picture of the station as it is one of the Singapore sites featured on Accidentally Wes Anderson.

After getting off and taking my picture, I rode back to City Hall and walked back to the hotel. There I chilled, changed, wrote, and did some Google Mapping before heading back out into the night. I took the MRT Telok Ayer and navigated the little back streets to Shukuu Izakaya.

Shukuu Izakaya

Shukuu Izakaya is a Japanese restaurant I had come across while researching this trip. It felt like a cross between an authentic Japanese restaurant you would find in Japan and a place that was merely themed to be a Japanese restaurant. The truth likely lies between the two but regardless, it looked cool.

When I walked in, a little after 20:00, the place was fairly full but there was some space. The host walked me through the main room and over to one of the side rooms. “Can I sit in the other room?” I asked. He then walked us back over and I point to a table, “Can I sit there?” “It might be a bit crowded” he said. “That’s fine,” I replied and he seated me at the table I’d spotted from the entrance.

I ordered edamame to start and for mains, got the beef noodles. The food was amazing, the best meal I had the entire time I was in Singapore. Not to knock it, but I think it was an easy win since most of the other food I ate were of necessity and more of an on-the-go nature, rather than a planned sit down meal.

As I ate, I listened to the part English, part Mandarin(?) conversation of the man and the woman seated at the table next to me. At the end of the night, I offered them my edamame as I could not finish it. This led to the woman, who later introduced herself as Ivy, asking me where I was from, what brought me to Singapore, etc.

We got to talking and I found out that this was her “go to” spot for dinner. We then talked about travel and that she wanted to go back to the States but that she was not sure how it would be since she’s Asian and thought that racism would be an issue.

This took me by surprise. As someone who has only ever been white, it’s not something I’ve really ever taken into consideration when traveling somewhere. In my mind, though racism exists here, I would never have thought it was so bad, or so much worse than anywhere else, that it would deter someone from coming here. It really made me sad that she felt that way and I didn’t really have much of a response for her other than that I was sorry.

It was getting late and as much as I wanted to keep talking with them, I had a reservation at a nearby cocktail bar at 21:00. Ivy gave me her card and told her to reach out if I was ever coming to Singapore again.

Native

After saying goodbye, I walked a couple of blocks over to the bar. Native is a spot I had heard of in a Qantas travel log video. The thing that stood out was that, as the name implies, the bar tries to use mainly locally sourced ingredients. The video featured a cocktail which had grasshopper in it which is what I wanted to try.

When I got to the spot, I told them I had a reservation and they told me I needed to go upstairs. So I went out the front, turned the corner and went up the stairs the next door over. At the top I told them I had a reservation. The hostess told me I wasn’t in her system but luckily there was a place at the bar for me.

Before ordering anything, the bartender handed me a small cup of sake on the house. I then asked to order the drink with grasshopper in it, only to find they no longer served it. I was bummed and ended up ordering some coconut drink that I didn’t enjoy which was served in a hollowed out coconut. I struggled to finish it and before I was even done, the bartender offered me another small drink on the house, this time gin based.

“Are you trying to get me drunk?” I asked. I politely refused as I was determined to finish the drink I had ordered and then promptly leave. I was listening to the conversation of the guy and the girl next to me which was obnoxious. Not only were both of them separately on vacation and were now on a date, seemingly Tinder while abroad, but they were comparing travel notes- how many countries they’d been to.

The woman seemed very basic and the guy was eager to get laid. To be honest, I was low key jealous that I hadn’t had a meet cute, with the exception of Anna on the plane. After paying, I went back to the room. I was planning on going out to Clarke Quay and/or Riverside Point but I was more inebriated than I anticipated. Though we did a lot, this was probably the “worst” day of the trip so far. Back at the room I posted my pictures to Instagram for the day before going to bed.

It’s About Time

Friday 9/27

On September 24th, the Hunters Point Library finally opened to the public. I was so excited that I decided to bike there on Friday, my first available day off.

Hunters Point Library

I first saw this library back in 2015 (which is apparently when construction began) when I was an instructor for Bike New York. Ever since seeing the building, I was looking forward to checking it out as it seemed very modern and chic, and because I’m a design and architecture nerd.

However, whenever I would pass by it, it was still under construction. Apparently this was something that had been in the works for 9 years. I found a multitude of articles about the delay and the $40 million price tag. However, I kept following it online until finally I found an article that posted an opening date.

When I got there, the first thing I noticed was that there was no bike parking. I had to find a place to lock up across the street. However, considering all they had dealt with to get it completed, I wasn’t going to complain.

Hunters Point Library

The library itself is beautiful. The layout is very minimalist and almost industrial, using light wood and concrete in the design. It is very unconventional as well and you sort of have to zig-zag across the structure to make your way up to the higher levels, making for an airy and open design.

When I got to the top level, I was a bit bummed that the roof, which was meant to be a patio for lectures and to just sit and relax, was not open yet as it was still under construction. I guess they just figured, “let’s get this thing open already.”

Hunters Point Library – interior

The only other complaint I had was that there was only one computer that was for searching the catalogue! I don’t understand why, of all the computers they had in that area, just one was for searching. It also seems odd that they would just have a catalogue computer on one floor and not at least one on all of the floors. However, I guess I shouldn’t complain as it was at least cool to finally check it out and I’m sure they are still working out the bugs.

Manhattan Movie Bench

After having explored and photographed the library for half an hour I made my way to stop number two. I biked over the Queensboro Bridge into Manhattan (mention the bit about how I biked far passed it and had to double back) to find a movie location.

View from the bench from the movie Manhattan

There is a clip in an episode of Family Guy where Stewie and Olivia are sitting on a park bench, looking at a bridge and Stewie says, “This really is a great city, I don’t care what anybody says.” However, not until I was watching the CNN docu-series The Movies did I realize it have been stollen from the Woody Allen film, Manhattan.

So, a bit of Googling lead me to the location which I decided to make a quick visit to before continuing on my way. I’ve never seen Manhattan and thus I don’t necessarily care about it, but it’s always fun to go to famous locations.

Apple 5th Ave

Next I made my way to the recently re-opened 5th Ave Apple store for a third attempt to try and go in without a line. However, despite it being open for a week, there was still a line out front. Now, I’m not sure if perhaps the line was only for people who were buying something but, regardless, I didn’t even want to waste the time it would take to lock up my bike, walk over and find out, so I continued on my way.

B&H

After that failed attempt, I made my way over to and down 9th Ave to 34th St to visit B&H Camera. I was looking for a backpack to replace the uncomfortable Away bag I’d purchased, and was in search of a wrist strap for my GoPro.

I found Incase backpacks, the brand I was looking for, but I couldn’t find the specific model I was interested in. I then moved on to the camera section where I ended up finding a wrist strap that was considerably cheaper than the one I had found on their website which was great.

Not that you care, but I wanted the strap so that when I go on my next vacation, if I want to take the GoPro into a body of water, if I drop it, I hopefully won’t lose it. However, as a secondary precaution, I bought a “floaty” for the camera so that if I do drop it and it slips off my wrist, it will at least float to the surface.

Jeffrey Deitch Gallery

Next I made my way to the Jeffrey Deitch gallery in Soho to check out the Tokyo Pop Underground exhibit.

The first thing that caught my eye was a statue of a Golden Robot. I was familiar with the design of the robot due to the cover of the 2001 Aerosmith album, Just Push Play which was illustrated by Hajime Sorayama. It was fascinating to see a three-dimensional version of an image I’d been familiar with for 18 years.

Hajime Sorayama’s golden robot statue

The next big feature item in the room was the skateboard wall. The wall was covered in hundreds of used skateboard decks. The decks had been flattened in such a way that the nose and tail of the boards no longer curved up, making it look like a two-dimensional image.

Whats more, the decks appeared to be layered “over” one another as if they were all piled on top of each other. However, the decks “below” were cut in the middle so that the decks “above” could fit into the negative space in between to give the illusion of sitting on top.

Skateboard wall

From there, I made my way to a dark room with six glass rectangular cases, three on either side, that were lit from above and below. There was a mirror on the back panel of each case. In the cases were more of the Hajime Sorayama robots, this time in chrome.

There was a pole sticking out from the back of the case into the back of the robots to make them appear as if they were floating or hovering in zero-gravity in the cases. It gave them this haunting yet ethereal appearance.

Chrome robots in glass cases

The last piece that really intrigued me was one in the lower level of the gallery. There was a dark room with a projected image of an anime character, a young girl in a nightgown, on the wall. Towards the far wall was a single light bulb which was turned on and hanging from the ceiling from a wire. In the middle of the room was a podium with a computer mouse on it. Below the mouse was a label which read, “Click mouse, then wait.”

So, I clicked the mouse and the projector whirred to life. The anime character suddenly fainted and fell to the ground, lying on her side for a bit before the image faded to black. Then a noise came from the ceiling and a ceiling mounted printer printed an image of the collapsed character.

Anime girl

It was so bizarre, like a piece of performance art. On the ground were hundreds of other printed papers from the other visitors to the gallery. Pleasantly confused, I made my way to the last stop.

K&M

I headed further south to K&M Camera to check out their inventory of Incase backpacks. Upon entering I immediately found the bag I was looking for but, in doing so, accidentally knocked over all of the other backpacks and a shelf of cables and other equipment sitting above it.

Embarrassed, I took the bag to the table to examine it. I was ready to buy it but it was more expensive than it was listed on the Incase site. I asked if they could price match the website and though they could not do that, they could check Best Buy and B&H. They found they “same” bag on the B&H site for even cheaper than it was marked on the Incase site and gave it to me for that price.

I knew this was not the same bag, having just come from B&H, however I was not going to correct an error in my favor. So, I got rung up for the lower price and then the guy I was working with needed to get the non-display bag for me to take home.

However, when I got to my bike, I noticed that he had given me a different model. I then had to walk back to the store and exchange the one he gave me for the floor model I had been looking at. This should have been easy except that the floor model had a security device that he had to fumble with before I could finally leave with my bag.

Lunch

I biked down to the Fulton Street station since I had two backpacks to awkwardly carry and hopped on the train back to my apartment to grab a small lunch. While eating, I realized that there had been one other thing on my to do list that I wanted to get done. This one, unlike the others, was time sensitive as it was a one-day-only pop-up shop.

Modern Anthology

I hopped on my bike one more time and took a ~20 minute ride to Smith Street in Brooklyn to check out the Never Not Riding x Modern Anthology pop-up event. I had one thing only in mind, a 5-panel hat that I wanted to get as a sturdier cap to wear than my cycling cap.

Upon entering I immediately found the hat I was looking for and, as luck would have it, I got the last black one. I grabbed it and held onto it while walking around the store and chatting with the owner of MA and the founder of NNR. I also grabbed a free beer and relaxed for a bit.

Never Not Riding hat and stickers

I was stoked to be getting this hat. To top things off, it was a little cheaper than I thought it would be, and, the founder Nemo, threw in some NNR stickers for free as I was hoping he would. A very solid/productive day off.

Saturday 9/28

Since Friday had been so busy, Saturday was deliberately more chill. I basically just did laundry, returned my Away backpack and applied to more jobs. However, in the evening, I met up with my buddy Kris for a little birthday shin-dig on his roof.

We chilled for a bit before heading out to grab pizza and eventually bar hopping around Crown Heights. The star of the night however was Butter & Scotch. I had been there once before but had never indulged in their cocktails.

The one I ordered was really good, Ciao Bella, and the one my friends got was also good. I bought Kris a slice of cake since B&S specializes in desserts as well. It was a really fun night and was nice to be able to just bike there and bike home when I was done.