Perhaps foolishly, I gave up my only opportunity for a famous hawker stand meal just so I could take a ride on the Singapore Flyer at dusk. You really don’t want to know what I had instead — suffice to say it was one of only two gastronomical transgressions during my trip around the world…

Despite reaching a maximum height of some 42 storeys the experience wasn’t at all thrilling — and really, the same could be said of my entire weekend in Singapore.

It seems that this small island city-state is positioning itself as the Vegas of Asia — the sterile, family-friendly kind as opposed to the one with gangsters and Frank Sinatra. You can see the towers of the massive casino project there already under construction to the left in the photo above.

Maybe it’s because I was bummed that I wasn’t able to meet up with an old friend there, but Singapore was for me too gentrified and joyless, and left me craving a more authentic Asian experience. And boy, did I ever get it…

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What better way to spend a Saturday morning in Singapore than in an air-conditioned shopping centre? Here’s a quick video tour of Funan DigitalLife Mall:

It’s entirely true about the prices of local kit here. Check out the price list posted at Funan’s official Nokia outlet:

When you consider the exchange rate — $1 SGD was equal to just a bit less than $1 CAD when I was there — these prices aren’t exactly a bargain. Compare, for example, that N86, same as the one I had with me. You can currently get one unlocked in Canada for less than five hundred bucks, and with free shipping!

A quick look at Sim Lim Square… A white N97 Mini that I spotted on a ground floor booth piqued my interest, but at over $800 CAD it just didn’t seem like a good value.

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Here’s something a little different — an audio clip describing my first taste of durian fruit on the famous Bugis Street in Sinapore’s Chinatown:

Download now or listen on posterous

My First Durian.wav (1181 KB)

Here’s what the “meat” looks like. The durian monger was packaging them to order so I paid a buck or two to sample a little piece. No way I could have finished a whole one…

… But lot of folks do, apparently. Right beside the stand were a few tables with some diners (all women) enjoying a durian of their very own.

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Here’s a little video I shot from my hotel room upon my arrival in Singapore:

I knew I was going to be in the same neighbourhood as where I had stayed with Second City some eight years prior, but I didn’t think I’d be that close — literally everything I remember was within a block of where I was staying.

It was kind of cool walking into the lobby of UE Square and seeing the same Delifrance exactly where I expected it to be (although there were no le financiers this time around). But walking through the lobby of the DBS Arts Centre felt nostalgic in an uncomfortable kind of way — I guess I’m not one who likes to dwell on the past too much…

The strangest thing is that I also remember an empty lot behind the Roberston Quay Hotel — who knew that I’d be staying at a brand-new hotel there seven years later?

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(It’s the humidity, dammit—a very sweaty yours truly with new friend Audrey Wong in Singapore, 2002…)

My blogging gig at iLaugh necessitates an open chat window to my boss via MSN Messenger. I have to admit that I’m still learning much the etiquette necessary to be an internet messaging master—like when it’s okay to let a conversion hang versus a proper sign-off. But it’s another person on my buddy list who’s taught me a neat trick.

Audrey Wong, who graciously chaperoned me on a tour of Singaporean nightlife in 2002, has been an on-again, off-again penpal via MSN ever since. We don’t chat as much as we used to, but in the past two weeks that I’ve been back on chat I’ve noticed that when online she frequently changes her screen name to reflect her mood, as in:

“Stressed Out”,

“Maximum Drey”, and most recently

“Drey is Down”.

It’s hard not to feel like a stalker when someone posts their state of mind for everyone on the internet to see. Thankfully, she pinged me for a quick hello this morning, and is only down because she’s stuck staging a corporate event on an island resort in China. Sounds rough…