How small is the world? (2)
Do you still remember this picture?
If no, please see my previous writing before (How small is the world? 1): “http://mylongdistancestory.tumblr.com/tagged/husbandtalks”
In my previous blog I started to tell a story of a picture. Beginning with the book fair held in Jakarta, a book that impressed me a lot, going on with our journey in Malaysia... And then I felt it as it was going to be too long and boring to read, and decided to leave the rest for my next piece of mind :)
Let me tell some more about our backpacker day in Malaysia, as I am wrapped up in our failure to eat some fresh Uighur dishes we had been craving for. To say in short, we just couldn’t find the restaurant. We had another address that I had found on Internet and a phone number. After walking up and down on Jl. Langkawi (street) of Kuala Lumpur city, we resorted to calling them in order not to spend time and money again for searching another place. But the answer we got helped us end this pursuit of belly politics! The man on the other side only told “Kami tutup hari ini!” that means “we are closed today”. Well… Chinese New Year seems like a golden opportunity for the Malay and other nations living there, except for the Chinese who have to pay much effort for preparations. But the Malay even close their restaurants!
We finally gave in against this grim reality. As my wife had already started to complain about this long walk up and down the street, I offered her to enter to one of those spice paradises of Indian people rowed the roadside. The offer was accepted! We barged into a “Nasi Kandar” restaurant and ordered, or tried to order some big portions of rice, cooked in different ways. My wife asked for a portion of “nasi goreng” with meat, and I asked for my favorite Indian dish, “Biryani”. Why I told “we tried”? Because it is sometimes hard to communicate with Indian waiters at restaurants, just like we experienced when then. We asked for two glasses of iced “teh tarik” but got two heated cups :) It’s ok! At least we could eat our fill for only a few ringgits. Others are only details.
The photo taken in Batu Caves by a stranger who I think cannot speak any languages on earth! He didn’t react and respond to all our questions but just changed his gestures showing that he can’t understand anything :)
After this early dinner, we headed to the cheapest shopping places of Kuala Lumpur, some shopping malls in city center where you can find delicious Malaysian chocolates and streets of China Town which are full of street vendors. We bought some souvenirs and went back to the Commuter Line station, where we began the journey in the morning, to commute back to Selangor, to our hostel (a home-stay-like room actually, but so nice). We walked a long way again as I couldn’t see the path extending to the station but finally caught the last commuter train. Farhan picked us up at “Bangi” station although it was about 11pm and he had a wedding ceremony the following morning! It was the last part of that tiring backpacker day and the next day we were going to be special guests of the bride and groom and follow the couple for their post-wedding photoshoot in a beautiful side of KL, Putra Jaya. What a pleasure for us!
Let’s leave Malaysia experience aside and go to another world now!
We had arranged everything one month before Emel and Farhan’s wedding ceremony, booked our tickets, ordered a creative gift and planned our journey there (including a short visit to Singapore). Here I have to extend my gratitude to Farhan and his family again, who did not let us put our hands in our pockets to pay for accommodation, transportation, food, even snacks and many other things. But the most important side of their help was the hospitality we saw on their constantly smiling faces, which made us feel at home.
Thank you once again, family of Uncle Murtza!
After the day of wedding, we had to leave them and Malaysia to realize our plan to see maybe one of the most modern cities (and a country as well) in Asia. There you may enjoy a lot of attractions, travel easily by only using public transportation, see differently shaped and colored faces and hear four different languages anywhere. Yes, you know that “city-state” (or “polis” for ancient Greeks)… That is the Lion City, so-called Singapore (or Singapura, the Sanskrit phrase from which got its name, or Temasek, as Malays call). The reason for rather well development of this city-state is implicit in history. A colonial passion ruling most of the region for a long while, under different hegemonies, independence together with others but without equality and independence again but this time as a doorway to prosperity… Thanks to the sedulous figures in its recent history, there is nothing more to say about this successful model of unity in diversity (although that’s the official motto of Indonesia’s “Pancasila” policy, we may use for Singapore as well). Now it’s time for both its residents and outsiders to enjoy beauties of the city.
The famous Lion Statue in Marina Bay, Singapore.
Some may find Singapore as a concrete jungle populated by coldfish workaholic people (looking at its highly competitive business environment) and luxury junkies on the other side. If you have already visited this country and don’t think the way round, it means you have never seen the beauty it bears inside. I’ve had lots of Malaysian and Indonesian friends so far. I see most of them as my brothers and sisters. And you know one of them is my lovely beautiful wife and her family is my family as well. Time and again I told that Indonesia is my second home, second nation and family. And most of them are my coreligionists. You know how Muslims feel when they see other Muslims in any part of the world. Happiness and warmth… What’s the connection between these words about already known facts and the Lion City?
Let me give an example to elaborate it.
With my kind Singaporean friend, at Marina Bay, Singapore during Chinese New Year Celebration.
You may be aware of the recent unrest among Indonesian people, either related with politics or economic activities thought to be invaded by the so-called “other side”. There is an increasing intolerance between two different ethnic and religious groups (though there are many others taking a hand in). To say more clearly, that’s the intolerance between some Muslim groups and ethnic Chinese and Christians. Although it is not yet that big of a deal, it’s still a vexing problem for the society. People have still a long way to get over in this aspect. And there’s a lot to be said. Let’s delay discussion of this matter to another writing, which I plan to be about a great figure of Indonesia’s history, who has a big influence on me.
Although “Bhinneka Tunggal Ika” (Unity is Diversity) is Indonesia’s motto, it more fits to Singapore (in my opinion). I will introduce you with a nice Chinese-Christian Singaporean whom you see on the picture above. I met him at the “Appreciation Program for Winners of Indonesian Speech-Essay Contest” in Jakarta. There were about 40 or more people there with who I felt peace up to the bone. They had different colors, different languages and maybe different ideologies and religions. But we were all together in peace and loved one another. Please check one of my previous blogs titled as “Where can we find the peace?” to read more about that experience.
In Yogyakarta part of that program, I was surprised to see that we were going to stay at the same room, as we built a nice friendship in Jakarta. He was a real gentleman and a warm, helpful man. Later on I met him again when I went to Singapore to extend my visa to stay more in Indonesia.
Sorry, I forgot to mention. His name is Choon Hong.
He picked me up at Changi Airport, where I made him wait a long time as the immigration officers did not let me get inside easily, he took me for a lunch after kindly asking me whether I prefer some halal food or not and showed me round the city center before taking me to China Town where the hostel I was going to stay at was located in. Though he was busy for some family reasons, he promised to me to come back at night and travel together again. And he did so. He came back at about 10pm and we saw some more tourist attractions of Singapore, also drank two cups of Turkish coffee in a Turkish restaurant near Arab Street. He gave some advice to me for the following day I was going to spend there and took me to my hostel again, to China Town.
Both at night of the same day and the following morning I could find some time to experience Singapore’s unity in diversity. Just for an instance, please visit China Town and see how many temples of different religious groups are built there. I posted a photo there to say what a great tolerance people have in Singapore. See that here, please:
An Indian temple just beside a Moslem Mosque. Eventhough their worshipping program is rather musical, no one shows unrest.
My next trip to this beautiful city was with my wife, after the first part of our journey in Malaysia. This time we took a bus to go there from Kuala Lumpur, thus having a unique experience by passing a border by bus. It would be the next meet of us, Choon and I, this time together with my wife. He could come to see us at night as he had to join a family dinner for Chinese New Year celebrations. Look how similar it is with Muslims’ culture! Having dinner with relatives, visiting elders of the family and many more… We met at Marina Bay where they had already arranged every detail for celebrations and a street food where I had already eaten Turkish “döner kebap” cooked by a Turkish chef living there, just after we arrived to Singapore’s city center. Choon accompanied us a long time there again, with a nice conversation and took us to our hotel at night, treating some Indian bread and two cups of “milo” beforehand. We left him with good wishes until the next time comes to meet again. So what’s the specialty of this gentleman? Let me say to you what happened or not happened after we met and left. We didn’t be Christians, nor did he become a Muslim. We didn’t argue for any reason, but only had a nice conversation about the unity in Singapore. He told as that they celebrate holidays and holy (!) days of all different races and religions here. Muslims, Christians, Hindu, Buddhist, Chinese, Malay, Indian…
Thank you Mr. Choon for showing us the beautiful side of Singapore… Wish to see you again, anywhere in the world. Hopefully in my country, to have the pleasure of greeting you, this time not as the guest but the host.
Me, Indian-Singaporeans and Mustafa Center :) Glasses belong to my wife...
Let’s come back to the picture I put here and the previous blog, not to ruffle you more. Actually the story is already written by wife, where she admitted being a “trouble-maker”. Yes, that’s the secret of this picture. Trouble-making… A recent example of “troubles” made by my first-lady happened in our short honeymoon in Carita Beach, which is actually near our home in Indonesia, at Coconut Island resort. We went to the pool for swimming after checking in and went back to our room which seemed like a village house made by bamboo and some kinds of wood. It was a nice place to relax, enjoying sunset in the evening and walking by the sea. Let’s come to the trouble in this beautiful short holiday! The room was a small one for two, even did not have a couple-bed inside but two separate beds placed on the floor. We put them side by side and slept there at night. As we swam in the afternoon, we had some wet clothes to dry. And my wife had a big shawl, a gift from our crazy friend, Dara :) For prayers, she put it on those two beds which were covered with pure white bed sheets. Guess what happened after a while! When we took the shawl back from the beds covered with white sheets, we were shocked to see that its red color had already migrated on one of those pure white sheets! Once we checked the paper on which terms and conditions are written, we saw that we had to pay one million rupiah for any problem with beds and bed sheets! That was not the only trouble I had at that time. I also had (and still have, of course) a woman as my wife who easily gets flurried! Luckily she has a smart husband (hehe :D ) who can pore on every situation regardless of its severity and find reasonable solutions. We just went to a market opposite the entrance of our resort, bought a bottle of bleacher; put the sheet inside the trashcan after filling it with some water and bleacher. Consequence: it turned to be pure white again! The next step was only to put outside to let it dry!
Let’s come to the other trouble you have been waiting for…
Going back to our journey; that day at noon we arrived to Singapore, after a long bus trip from Kuala Lumpur. Of course Singapore’s immigration caused some trouble for me again and we had to wait there for a while, more than other travelers. I have no clue why they do this every time they meet me… Maybe they like me and want to keep me there a longer time to have a nice chit-chat, or because of my poor Turkish passport (not to insult my own country but this is the reality that it is not strong enough). Thanks to my wife, this time they did not question me more and let me go back to bus, though they followed me till there to check my passport again.
The first place we visited with my wife was the Marina Bay area as it was within walking distance from the last stop of our bus, the Plaza business center. We witnessed the beautiful and small artificial lake surrounded by concrete sky-scrappers, but well organized and good-looking ones. We realized the food street and a stand where some men were cooking Turkish döner kebap. I approached there and ask some of the men thinking they may be Turkish, “ne kadar?”, which means “how much?” in English. I realized that the man I asked the question was not Turkish, but he got that I was speaking in Turkish, calling the other blond man, the owner, to say there is a Turkish costumer. He greeted me well, he had a short conversation together and he made some discount for a chicken döner wrap.
The nice Turkish man with his super delicious chicken döner which I had been longing for.
Then we went to our hotel in Little India, using Singapore’s perfect subway line. We had a short walk until our hotel and went up by a lift to have some rest before going out again. Everything was going nice and smooth; we were enjoying our back-packer trip, except for a little unrest caused by the small room they asked us to stay at which didn’t seem similar with the one I had seen on the booking application. We had a rest for few hours and went out to further explore the Lion City and meet our dear friend, Choon again. First we had a walk in Little India, being lost in the throng of hundreds of Indian men! I still don’t know the reason why they were hanging around where there was nothing interesting. I had a chance to see my business center there (just kidding :D ) named as Mustafa Center, you may see on the picture above :)
Then we went back to Marina Bay area where we were in the afternoon as my wife wished to see the Gardens by the Bay which she had heard that had a wonderful view at night. Using the subway again we got there and saw that it really has a beautiful view at night! We met Choon near the Marina Bay, had some chit-chat together; I found another kebap seller and ordered a “pide” (a kind of Turkish bread) for 18 Singapore Dollars!!! And this man didn’t give any discount too! I punished him by not asking any photo :D (hehe). We spent some time there as I mentioned above and went back to hotel with Choon, before leaving him there.
Next day we woke a little bit late as we were really tired due to the bus trip from Kuala Lumpur and backpacker trip in the city. We started the day with China Town, where I had stayed in my first visit to the city and did some shopping there. We had a bus back to KL at around 2pm and had to hurry up in this very last part of our Singapore journey. After I showed the mosque I had prayed at before to my wife and some other nice places of China Town, we headed to another place near to the Plaza where the bus was going to set out from. We only had 15 Singapore Dollars left and had to eat nothing that could cost more than fifteen. We choose the Zam Zam restaurant near Arab Street, where I had eaten before with Choon. It is a Muslim-Indian restaurant that serves some Arabic and Indian halal food. We ordered a “biryani” and “murtabak” as they are my favorites and of course two cups of “teh tarik”! And guess what we saw on the receipt given by the waiter at the end of our meal. It was 15 Singapore Dollars! So we had no money after that meal, except for some chicken feed…
Last one hour of our journey… We, in deed, did not need any money too after that moment. If you have thought that this could be the trouble we had, you are mistaken! The trouble caused by my wife, again… :) We left the restaurant to pray at Sultan Mosque that we arrived only by crossing the street. I performed an ablution and went inside the mosque. As it was the time for the noon prayer, the others prayed together while I did not join them as I had no time and had to leave early to catch the bus. Before I entered the mosque, I told my wife to wait me in front of the fountain. But as you may have already guessed, when I went out she was not there! Darting about inside the mosque courtyard, I started to think that we would miss the bus! I had no money, and even didn’t know whether we could find another bus or not! There were only 20 minutes left and we had a 10-minute-walk to the Plaza. I waited 5 minutes, looking around the mosque. But I saw no one. Another few minutes, but she still didn’t appear! It was just when I completely lost my hope for catching the bus that she showed up from a different side I was not expecting her to be. I was mad as hell and couldn’t help myself shouting her “where have you been?? Didn’t I tell you to wait here?? We just have ten minutes, how can we catch the bus??”… But I had to calm down and think clearly. I checked the map I already captured on Google Maps and tried to figure out the road going to the Plaza. But this time we had to run! So we did. But helter-skelter we couldn’t realize the Plaza which was actually just in front of us, as at the previous day we did take another way to go to the Marina Bay. Batting around there I asked few people where the Plaza actually was, but they had no idea as well. I ran to a wrong direction when I saw the place on my left but had to run all the way back to get to its entrance. Finally I caught the bus and luckily they had not yet left the terminal. I asked them to wait until my wife arrived and bought a bottle of cold water with the chicken feed I had in my wallet.
Let’s finish this blog with the last words I told to my wife: “You really want to kill me! This time you really planned this to kill me!”…
See you in next adventures :)
