A Hawker Center & the Asian Civilization Museum

Today I ate in a hawker center in the local neighborhood.  A hawker center is a collection of dozens of permanent food booths (quite small booths) where people gather to eat.  Many people in Singapore eat the majority of their meals at centers such as these.  This particular one is kilometers away from tourism, and thus it was quite an experience.  I am truly a minority in this neighborhood, a bit of a rarity, and that is apparent from all the stares I get.  Nonetheless, people are very kind and wonderful to me wherever I go.  But it is slightly odd to be the only caucasian amongst 1000s of locals. 

When I entered the center, I took a tour as I do normally and surveyed my options.  I ended up choosing the stall with the longest line - also a stall in which you can see the food and point to it.  This is quite helpful since half the time I have no idea what I am eating.  I love to try the local stuff/new stuff and so today I ate a plate of peppered-dried beef with some type of eggplant and greens, all topped with some sort of curry sauce.  Fantastic meal.  I also had the pleasure of eating with an old couple of Chinese decent (I believe).  We shared a few words, but language barrier gets to be an issue at times in the outer parts of town.

  

 

Rain inspired me to view the one remaining museum I have been wanting to see, the Asian Civilization museum.  For me there were two highlights.

The Singapore River Exhibit

The Singapore River is really at the heart of Singapore's history.   In the early days, Malayans traded here, and sometime after, Chinese traders began to arrive with new goods such as ceramics, textiles and even silk.  Trade would occur here for centuries to come.  When the British arrived, the river landscape changed when Cavenagh Bridge was constructed.  To this point, boats had been the only options to run people from side to side.  The river continued to serve as the region's major trade enter and did so through world wars, independence, all the way through the 1970s.

Time and modernization would eventually take a toll on the river.  Pollution from squatter waste, hawker center waste, overfishing, and boating pollution left the river lifeless, overcrowded, and foul-smelling, and time and modernization had pushed trade and shipping further down the shores.  So in 1977, a massive Clean River Project was undertaken, and by 1983, all trade ceased to exist on the river, ending a run of several centuries.  Today redevelopment into tourism, bars, pubs, shops, commerce and museums, has revitalized the era.  In 2005 a tidal barrier was built (where Marina Bay sits) at the rivers' mouth to make it Singapore's 15th reservoir - a move towards water sustainability to help meet demands for drinking water and other urban uses.

The Southeast Asia Exhibit

Here I learned many things.  Civilisation is believed to have occurred in the region for 40,000 years.  Rice cultivation is said to have begun around 2000-6000 years ago.  This process is quite neat as two seasons are ideal for wet rice cultivation - a very rainy season, and a very dry season.  Monsoons happen to make the region perfect for this.  Interestingly, in most places this is still a very labor intensive process and use of water buffalo is still paramount.  Today, 11% of the world's arable land is used to cultivate rice.  This really is a staple food here.  I eat it just about every meal!

Other exhibits I saw included the West Asia Exhibit which spoke a lot about Islam, and the China Exhibit which talked much about culture. 

Experiencing life here and visiting museums such as these, give a perspective on life, culture, and histories remarkably different from anything I have known either in the US or even abroad in Europe.  My appreciation for how people live and survive only grows.   Seeing is learning, learning is to leave ignorance behind, and appreciating how and why people live, act, and believe in the ways they do.  I consider myself lucky to have this and so many opportunities to interject myself into foreign cultures.

Singapore fun fact day 14: The Asian Civilization Museum occupies a formed government building known as the Empress Palace, a building formerly used by the Colonial and Independent Singapore governments