Musings from Singapore: my 'hood

The street next to mine, decked
out for Mid-Autumn Festival

My neighborhood is named Geylang. It is NOT a neighborhood that caters to ex-pats. There is no Swensen’s or Mexican restaurant. I’m pretty sure you’d be hard pressed to get a hamburger, a milkshake or a decent martini anywhere around here. But totally authentic, delicious Chinese food? Yes. Ditto for Malaysian food, Paranakan food and Thai food.

In fact, it’s so authentic, that one night The BF and I were wandering around my neighborhood checking things out and scoping dinner options. We wandered for about an hour and only found a handful of restaurants (not counting hawker centers) that had menus with English words. We then started looking for restaurants that had menus with pictures. Even if there’s no English, we can pick things by pictures.

Which is kind of a fun adventure.

The street next to mine, decked out for Mid-Autumn Festival

Most days I take the bus to and from work. It’s a quick ride (maybe 8-10 minutes) as my office is in the neighborhood just adjacent to where I live. However, this means that most days I am the ONLY white person on the bus. I’m also usually the tallest. Couple this with the fact that Singaporeans like to stare at people anyway and I pretty much get stared at a lot.*

Within one block of my apartment, there is a mosque, a Buddhist cultural center/temple, several chandelier stores (Other appliance stores, too, but MULTIPLE high-end, shiny, sparkly chandelier light fixture stores. Why does one neighborhood need more than one of those?) and a hawker center food court on EVERY corner. They advertise everything from fresh Fish Head Bee Hoon (this is the one nearest my apartment) to Hokkien Mee (popular Malaysian food) to Frog Porridge (no clue what this is or where it comes from. I'll check it out and report back.)

Hawker center food court with sidewalk tables

These little spots are always bustling and busy even late. With some indoor seating, but mostly sidewalk tables, the busy hawker center food stops make the neighborhood lively. The food is very good and fresh. So fresh, in fact, that the place advertising Fish Head Bee Hoon keeps a giant fish tank in the store and I have seen them scoop a fish from the tank and take it to the kitchen for cooking. I mean, that's fresh.

The view from my front gate. On the left side of the pic
is the hawker center that serves fresh fish head bee hoon.

It's a fun and lively little neighborhood. I love how close and convenient it is to work. And I love that I am getting an AUTHENTIC Asian experience and not living in ex-pat central. But it's VERY different than my 'hood in Seattle. Toto, we're not in Lower Queen Anne anymore.

*I mentioned to people at work that I got stared at on the bus and they said "oh yeah. of course. Singapore people like to stare. We just stare at people all the time. It's a thing."

Upstairs Neighbors

I REALLY don't get my upstairs neighbors.

First of all, they're about my parents' age. Which is fine, except that I don't exactly live in an apartment building (or neighborhood) that I think really appeals to that demographic. My building is an older building, with shared laundry rooms and no dishwashers in the units. Like much of Seattle, we have no air conditioning and the building could seriously use a paint job. But my apartment is pretty big and in a great location and REALLY cheap for what/where it is. The LQA is great for me because it's a short bus ride or walk to my office, there are lots of shops and restaurants and stuff within walking distance and I'm close to downtown. But I'm also a 20-something year-old single girl who does not have a lot of money. If I had been working for 30 years and were in a dual-income housing situation, I would not choose this apartment; I'd live somewhere nice. If I were my parents' age, I'd want to live in the suburbs. And if I had a pied-a -terre, it would not be on the lower east side of Queen Anne; it'd be a Belltown loft. So the fact that these people live here perplexes me.

Second of all, they have odd habits. They vacuum. A LOT. And right now (9:30pm on a Sunday) they're moving furniture around. And they're heavy walkers. And sometimes they yell.

Third of all, I have seen them sitting fountain side, reading and sunning by the fountain in my building's courtyard. The dude has creepy toenails. They are really long and crusty-looking and yellowish. Ew.

I havent figured out which car in the parking lot is theirs, but that might be another item to add to the WTH list.

New Neighbors

I really kinda love the building across the street, from what I can tell through the windows, it has fantastic fixtures and cabinets, great molding, beautifully redone.

It was empty for a while. The owners put it on the market, but it didn't sell, so they listed it as a rental and it finally got occupied. Since the new people moved in, there have been a couple of odd incidents. Cars parked out front with car alarms, people coming and going at odd hours and one night last week, there was a guy outside yelling up at the window, before sneaking in the fence gate and around back.

But today, I noticed that I can see pretty much directly into the bedroom of the building from my couch.

My living room windows open onto my building's walkway. To prevent being unknowingly viewed by neighbors and others walking by, I keep my blinds lowered and closed. But this week, it's been pretty hot (for Seattle) and since there's no air conditioning, I'm relying on breeze and fans to stay cool. Tonight, my blinds were closed, but raised up about a foot, so the open window wasn't blocked. When sitting on my loveseat, casually looking around, I saw CLEARLY into my neighbors' window, whose blinds were also lifted a couple of feet. It's dark outside, lights on inside, VERY easy to see in.

I have no idea what their faces look like, but I do know that the bed is either on a very low frame, or directly on the floor, that the guy has a bit of a beer gut, but the woman is very toned and tanned. His red plaid boxers were worn "plumber style" and her black bra was a great match to her black thong.

By this point, embarassed though I was to see my neighbors in a state of undress, it was sort of like a trainwreck. Couldn't. Look. Away. They would sit (on the low bed, out of view) for a while, then get up and walk around. Then leave the room, then return. All while remaining in the same state of undress.

I reckon the hot weather made them want to wear as little clothing as possible. Yeesh.

New Neighbors

I got some new upstairs neighbors recently. I remember seeing them move in, but I dont remember exactly when that was. Maybe between Thanksgiving and Christmas? Anyway, new neighbors who I've not yet met.

I really don't know if the apartment was vacant for a while or if the new people are just thumpier than the previous tenants, but I have noticed a SEVERE increase in noises from above since the new people moved in.

To be fair, their thumping hasnt woken me up or prevented me from having fun, entertaining, sleeping, showering, etc. I just hear them. When I'm up at odd hours, I hear that they're up. They take showers around 4:30am-5am and go to bed 10pm-ish. I dont know who he/she/they are but I know their schedule.

They also seem to vacuum a lot. I mean, A LOT. Maybe they vacuum a normal amount, but compared to how much I vacuum, it's a lot. I hate vacuuming. I didnt own one until a few weeks ago.

And like Pavlov's dogs, every time I hear their vacuum, I look at my floor. And realize exactly how dirty my rug looks and I feel bad and think I should probably get up and vacuum. Which is exactly the kind of judgment I was trying to avoid by living alone. Crap.