Raya Holidays @Singapore

Wonderful Singapore - taken from Esplanade

Yeap! I spent my weekend enjoying myself at Singapore. For your information, that was my first time at Singapore and it's a shame because I am a Johorean and Singapore is not really far away from me. Been alive for 23 years and I have not even seen Singapore! Most of my friends would laugh at me for that, I know. But really, I have always thought that Singapore (apart from being cleaner than Malaysia) is about the same with Kuala Lumpur - so why bother going right?!

How wrong I was.

I was not really excited about the trip at all. It so happened that 3 of my sisters would be there plus my parents, so I thought it would be fun to join them. Otherwise, I would be home alone. My flight was at Saturday morning. I bought Malaysia Airlines instead of Air Asia because I was anticipating a hectic Low Cost Carrier Terminal (LCCT) due to the "balik kampung" fever. So I opted to pay extra to Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) instead. Flight was scheduled at 9:20AM and I reached KLIA at 8:15AM. I was whistling away as I looked forward to getting my Sausage McMuffin breakfast while waiting for the time to board the plane. 

Halfway to McDonald's, I saw the big crowd at the Passport Customs downstairs and I knew I have no choice but to gobble up my breakfast as fast as possible and join the long queue at the Customs. I could only imagine a bigger crowd at LCCT to be honest. Trying to stay optimistic, I continued making my way to McDonald's only to be greeted with another set of long queue at the restaurant itself! The next thing I knew, I spent 20 minutes waiting for my turn to purchase my McMuffin and by the time I walked out from the restaurant, it was already 8:40AM. I had not eaten my McMuffin, I packed my breakfast up and decided to eat them on the plane but I had to finish my hot Milo as it was not allowed onto the plane.

So I was queueing up at the long Customs line waiting for my turn and I took that opportunity to nick a few sips on my Milo. I had to apologize to a few Muslims who were around me as they were all fasting and to drink right in front of them might be a bit rude and unpleasant, but I guess they were all in Raya mood to be caring about me drinking Milo right? So minum saja lah!

The queue was painfully slow. The lady in charge of my line was taking her own sweet time clearing the passports and a few old men behind me were already groaning. Still, I managed to board my plane on time, and enjoy the orange and guava juices offered on board with salted beans and of course, my McMuffin! Even the air stewardess was teasing me, "Ohhhh, nice burger!!!" I could only reply her with a weak smile as I was looking forward to getting off the plane. The journey was kinda unpleasant as the craft was old and the air-conditioner was not cold enough. The businessman behind me did not heed the "turn-off-your-mobile-phone" order and his phone rang halfway taking off. The small kid sitting 2 seats next to me kept looking at me munching at my McMuffin as if hoping that I would dish out another set of McMuffin from my bag and gave it to her.

The plane landed at Changi and I took the MRT to Amara Hotel, Tanjung Pagoh. My parents were already there. We checked-in and started exploring the city. It was a very awesome place to visit indeed. If I were to walk in a shopping complex at KL, I would see loads and loads of ladies in "tudung-s" but in Singapore, there were no "tudung-s" at sight! (Probably gone home for the Raya holidays) A lot of the people there are either Chinese or foreigners. Even if there are Malays, most of them are not dressing up like the Malays at KL, I was even surprised to see a Muslim lady dressing up with a mini-skirt and a bare-back top! 

And since we were constantly walking under the ground, my father termed all the people around as "termites". I could walk from City Hall to Suntec or Esplanade without seeing the Sun. The Chinese here speak English compared to Chinese at KL who would commonly speak Mandarin or Cantonese. It feels good, really, as I prefer to speak English rather than Mandarin. (I was raised from an English-spoken family). The waitress at my hotel were mostly Koreans or from Mainland China. I really enjoyed shopping in Singapore. Okay, the standard of living is higher plus the food is more expensive and the "wantan mee" is really bad here, but these did not really affect me significantly. The sight of the awesome Garden by the Bay, view of the city from Esplanade were enough to enchant me and make me wanna be back with my loved one in the future. Indeed it was so romantic at night that many young couples were hanging around the place.

Speaking of young couples, there is also another drastic difference between Singaporeans and Malaysians - the PDA level. My PDA does not stand for the medical term "Patent-Ductus Arteriosus" but rather for the term "Public Display of Affection". I remembered I could see kissing couples, cuddling couples everywhere at public. I remember how uncomfortable it was for me to stand next to a kissing couple and hearing the smooching lips-to-lips sound while I was trying my best to ignore that and continue taking photos from the top of the Esplanade. Or walking around at the Garden by the Bay and all of the sudden, a couple at a bench close to you started cuddling and kissing. Most of the PDA scenes were at night, probably because they could not hold their lusts any longer. I don't know, really. 

A new United jersey addition to my wardrobe!

Speaking of Singapore, a Manchester United fan would always think of the two official Manchester United store opened there - one at City Hall and the other at Marina Bay. I wanted to get my van Persie shirt from Singapore and the price offered at the City Hall store was SGD99. And worse still, they do not do naming customization. I did not want to wear a plain empty United jersey, so the guy working there suggested that I go to Peninsula Mall instead. I took his advice and headed to Peninsula Mall the next day. And it was a trip worth remembering.

Not being familiar with the place, I followed Google Map and was soon standing outside Peninsula Plaza and I was greeted with the most unexpected sight. The whole place was full with foreigners and most of them were Thais, Vietnamese, Bangladeshi and Indonesians. The plaza itself was very old. It was public holiday and that explained the amount of foreigners loitering around the area! Upon entering the building, I headed straight to the Info Counter to ask for any shops selling sports jerseys. The whole place was so packed with foreigners that I could not imagine finding a shop selling original United jersey around really! And to my surprise, the Info Counter itself was empty! So I had to explore the building myself. I took the escalator to the first, second, and third floor and I was greeted with unpleasant sight of foreigners loitering on the floor, and there was an unpleasant smell which none of them seemed to care much about. There was no jersey-selling shop at sight! Giving up, I left the building, making a mental note not to come here ever again in the future. Depressed, I planned to just buy the United jersey from Al-Ikhsan when I got back to Malaysia. 

However, I was still not satisfied, something inside me was telling me that I could get the jersey somewhere around the place (or maybe it was just my desire to get the shirt before the game against Everton on Monday). So I approached a lady selling shoes outside the building. She smartly noted that I had indeed come to the wrong place. In fact, there were actually two Peninsula buildings there. The one that I should go is Peninsula Shopping Mall and the one that i just went was Peninsula Plaza. Gosh, no wonder I was so lost inside the plaza!

So I crossed the next street and headed into Peninsula Mall and as I reached the first floor, I saw a jersey-selling shop. Smiling triumphantly, I entered the shop. An Indian man greeted me and told me that his shop offered name and number customization service. The United kit was priced at SGD89. Not bad. However, there was another Indian guy sitting at the counter. He seemed to be the owner, and was engrossed in watching his Bollywood show rather than talking to me. He was unfriendly and he snapped at me coldly that the customization service was not available as it was public holiday (just as I approached him to make my payment) and he added that I should come back on Tuesday. Without waiting for my respond, he turned his head back to his laptop and continued watching his show. Tactless. How do you expect to do business with this kind of attitude towards your customer? The Indian man who greeted me earlier looked at me apologetically. I smiled at him and left.

I headed upstairs and saw another 2 jersey-selling shop. I entered the one with more customers inside. This time I was greeted by an Indian lady and a Chinese man. Both of them were so friendly that I could not help being thankful that the guy downstairs rejected my purchase. And the United kit offered at this shop was just SGD80!

However for customization, it was SGD2/letter and SGD20/number. So after much negotiations, they agreed to sell me fully "van Persie-customized United jersey" at SGD120. I agreed on the spot. I was worried that the customization might take a long time and she assured me that it would take less than 10 minutes! I was very happy at that time. But it was the reaction from the Chinese man that caught my attention.

He seemed to be very unhappy that I wanted to buy van Persie's kit and was mumbling angrily when he handed me my van Persie jersey after he customized them.

Chinese Man: Why do you wanna buy his jersey? This guy is useless! He will be just like Owen! What if he gets injured tomorrow?!

Me: It's alright. My aim is to show this jersey off to my Arsenal friends.

Chinese Man: You dare to show off to me then I charge you more!

It turned out that this man's an Arsenal fan! No wonder he was so angry and emotional. We had great discussions about van Persie later to the point that he labeled van Persie as "van Pussy". I felt so sorry for him and the rest of the Arsenal fans. But I think you should all remember him for his contributions to your club rather than be angry at him leaving. If there is someone for you  to blame, it's Arsene Wenger. Do not be surprised if he sells Carzola next season!

So, I made my payment, collected my jersey and was soon jogging all the way home! I have finally gotten my van Persie jersey!!! I will definitely be back to Singapore in the future with my beloved one. But there will be no PDA from me, I can assure you that!

Fooling around with my new van Persie kit at Marina Bay