My Travels with Tintin – Singapore
My Tintin album from Singapore came with an interesting decision… what language do you choose? There are four official languages – Malay, English, Tamil, and Singaporean Mandarin.
In the end, I chose Mandarin – mainly because a) I already have one in Malay, b) Tamil seemed unlikely to be easy to get my hands on, and c) English… well, English is boring. Luckily, I was able to get my hands on a copy of “丁丁在刚果” (Tintin in the Congo). Like my other Simplified Chinese edition, it was translated by Wang Bingdong, and published in 2010 by the China Children’s Press and Publication Group.
When I first arrived in Singapore, I thought my task was going to be easy. After all, the Singapore Tintin Shop was in walking distance of my hotel. Strangely enough though, despite being in the heart of Chinatown, they didn’t sell any Chinese language editions. If I’d wanted an album in English, I could’ve taken my pick, but that was it. I was disappointed, but vowed to continue my search – with the English edition now firmly set as my “back up plan.”
Of course, I also had other missions to complete. As I mentioned on my Loch Lomond Tanker project post, I found a Dapol re-bagging of the venerable “OO gauge” Esso tanker kit at Hobby Bounties. It’s located in the Katong Shopping Centre. So, while I was there, I thought I’d see what else the shopping centre had to offer. One of the shops that caught my eye was a bit of a junk shop – they had all sorts of things for sale – and there on the floor was a box of comics and magazines. I quickly rifled through the box, and there, big as life, was the Simplified Chinese edition of Tintin in the Congo… score!
I might’ve preferred a copy of Cigars of the Pharaoh – given that Singapore is on the map of Tintin’s journey to Asia – but I wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth. I’d completed two Tintin-related missions in one outing. Can’t complain about that!
My trips to Singapore:
I’ve been to Singapore twice, both for work, but the second time my family joined me and we had a little “add-on” vacation. The first time I visited Singapore was from October 21-26, 2017 for a work conference and, there wasn’t that much to tell. The conference was in the Marina Bay Sands, and while the upper deck looks spectacular, the conference was held in the much more humble lower levels. I arrived on Saturday night, so I really only had the Sunday to myself before meeting up with colleagues and having two days of meeting followed by days of the conference.
For the most part I was confined to the downtown area, although on my “free day” I did have a chance to visit the Tintin Shop in Chinatown and take a trip out to the Katong Shopping Centre to score a great model kit and complete my Tintin album mission. The rest of the time was spent in meetings or on the conference floor – although one of my local colleagues did host us for an informal dinner at his house one evening. It was nice to catch up on a personal level, and I remember Rob telling me a great story about a time that he went on an impromptu tour of New York jazz clubs with a entertainment reporter for the New York Times. I was so jealous! I’m a huge jazz fan… but that’s a story for another blog!
However, I was lucky enough to be able to attend the same conference the next year… and this time I decided to invite my wife and son along for the ride! The front end of the the trip was more or less the same as the previous year. I arrived on October 27, 2018, so a day earlier than I did the day before. Given that I had two free days this time I basically replicated my missions from the year before. I went back to Hobby Bounties, and checked out another hobby shop a little further afield. I didn’t need to look for another Tintin album… but strangely enough I found one on the Sunday morning “flea market” that I stumbled across. That one was a Hong Kong edition – so I’ll tell you about it in more detail on my Hong Kong post.
The conference was more or less the same blend of meetings and networking events, but I convinced my wife that she and my son should fly out the following Friday (Nov. 2) and spend the weekend and a bit checking out Singapore. It helped that we had very good friends who had been living in Seoul move back to Singapore (their home) earlier in the year. So we had a chance to have a bit of a reunion.
I met them at the airport late on Friday, so our adventure didn’t really being till Saturday morning (Nov. 3). We spent most of the day walking around the downtown core. We wandered through Clarke Quay and rented a little scooter to go for a bit of a ride. Then we made our way down to the waterfront, saw all the tall buildings, including the Marina Bay Sands and it’s impressive “boat on top of a hotel” shape.
That evening we had dinner with our friends from Seoul. They are a lovely Singapore family and because they were our downstairs neighbours, and the kids all went to the same school, we were very close. It was sad when they left Seoul, but we were happy to be reunited with them in Singapore. Dinner was lovely – some local cuisine – but the company was even better. It was so nice that my wife and her friend decided to schedule some “tea time” on Sunday morning to view the amazing Gardens by the Bay. I think they had a lovely time, chatting, catching up, looking at all the exotic plants and flowers (and architecture!). Meanwhile my nine-year-old son and I decided to fulfill his dreams of riding on a double-decker bus and sitting right at the top in the front. We didn’t really have a destination in mind, so we just rode it around until it reached the terminus of the route… and then came back. A cheap and easy thrill for him, and a nice city tour for me.
Afterwards, since we were there, we stopped to take some pictures with the Merlion. It’s the “mascot” of the city, so a must-see. Apparently, the story goes that in the 13th century Malay Annals, a prince from Palembang was shipwrecked and washed ashore to an island. There he saw a creature which he believed was a lion. So he named the island “Singa Pura” which means “Lion City”, from which the name Singapore was derived. The fact that it’s half lion and half fish I think says something about the dual nature of Singapore. In a lot of ways I think of it as “Asia for Dummies” – because between the Chinese, Indian and Malay cultures and traditions there’s a diversity you don’t see in a lot of other parts of Asia. It’s also mixed in with a complicated history as part of the British Empire. I find it interesting, but if Singapore is “too Asian” for you, then you may as well not go anywhere else.
In the afternoon we visited the Sri Veeramakaliamman Temple. It’s an old Hindu temple, constructed in the style of South Indian Tamil temples. Sunday seemed to be a busy day, there was a lot going on,
Before we left Singapore, we had time to squeeze in a visit to the National Museum of Singapore. As I said, Singapore is a country designed by the coming together of Chinese, Malay, Tamil people wrapped up in the British Union Jack. The history of the country is rich, so it was interesting to see how this amazing place developed – both over it’s 700 year history, but also more current events in the 20th century that set it on its current path. I feel like I learned a lot and we spent a good portion of our day there. In the afternoon we headed down to Orchard Road to check out (on a recommendation) the shopping. It was interesting, but probably a bit too high-end for our tastes. All in all though, our Singapore adventure was well worth it. I do wish we had a bit more time (and maybe energy) because we didn’t really have a chance to explore the Santosa side – that’s the beach-side resort part of Singapore, but it’s not a bad idea to leave something in the bag for next time, right?
