M-whY

Singapore has enough racial diversity to support several ethnic neighborhoods. On the banks of the Singapore river is the historic Colonial District, where buildings serve as a reminder to the city's British history. A thriving Little India farther north, home to the Mustafa Center superstore. There's even an Arab Street, though I'm not sure what exactly is there, other than a couple mosques maybe?

And of course, Chinatown. The whole idea of a Chinatown in a city where 75% of the population is Chinese seems a bit ludicrous to me. But it was only a short hop away from Funan IT, so I swung by to take a look.

Much of Chinatown looked like any other part of Singapore. Shopping mall after shopping mall after shopping mall. I've been in this part of the world for about two weeks now, and I still haven't gotten used to the heat. The shopping malls all had air conditioning on at full blast, and I often stopped inside them to cool off before venturing outside again.

My hair had gotten uncomfortably long again, so I looked for a place to get it trimmed. With the abundance of hairdressers and salons available, it was surprisingly difficult to find a suitable place. I didn't need an expensive haircut, and the majority of shops looked like they specialized in women's hairdos. In the third shopping mall I wandered through, I finally saw a unisex salon.

Hairdressers in Singapore (and probably in many parts of asia) do a much more thorough job than the ten minute buzz service you get at Supercuts. For about the same price, they shampooed my hair before, paid careful attention to detail during, and then rinsed off any bits after.

"Where are you from?" asked the girl who was trimming my hair. I wonder what tipped her off I wasn't a local. Was it the backpack that I was carrying? Or maybe the fact I preferred speaking in english?

"I'm American."

"Oh, you look Japanese." That was unexpected. It's not so surprising when I heard it in Australia and New Zealand, but usually when asians make a mistake in my nationality, they guess Korean.

Totally satisfied with my haircut, I continued looking around Chinatown. Outside one of the shopping malls, someone was marketing some sort of ion cleansing treatment. What happens is you soak your feet in a tub of ion charged water, and they claim that it causes toxins to seep out of your body through your feet. After sitting around for half an hour, this is what the water becomes.

I didn't try it, partly because of the cost, and partly because I'm dubious of their claims. And if it did work, I'm not too keen on seeing what came out of my body. With all the junk I feed myself, the water in my tub might just turn into black tar!

Plenty of camera shops could be found around Chinatown as well. Not much effort is required to inquire about prices, which is exactly what I did. The responses amazed me; prices were even cheaper than the Mustafa Center. It made Sim Lim look like a complete rip off. In addition, the shops were quite willing to bargain.

Originally I had my eyes set on the Panasonic SV-AV10. But the salesman strongly recommended against it, citing battery problems stemming from poor design. Instead, he recommended the SV-AV25, the next generation in the same line, where Panasonic had supposedly fixed the engineering flaws that accompanied the first model. We settled on a price we were both happy with. I don't know if I could've gotten even a better deal elsewhere, but as long as it was a significant discount from prices in the US, it was good enough for me.

James Bond, prepare to meet your match!

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