Singapore Girl

Our first stop was two nights in Singapore. During the 70s, when I was living in KL, our occasional trips to Singapore were exciting adventures. Even then, it was a modern metropolis, an efficiently functioning island state that is one of the cleanest, if not the very cleanest, cities in the world. In KL, our shopping was very limited and life was unsophisticated. A weekend in Singapore would provide dazzling shopping opportunities and an insight into more westernised, urban living.

Teenagers see the world slightly differently, and, looking back, the two highlights I remember from trips to Singapore are my first ever visit to McDonalds and my first ever experience of bowling. This, I thought, must be how the American teenagers whose magazines I used to read must live.

Kids my own age were also very different. My friends were a cosmopolitan bunch: Asian, European, American, Australian. We came from different backgrounds and cultures but shared a love of horses and spent a lot of time together as a consequence. When we met up with a similar bunch from Singapore, however, they just seemed more sophisticated, more confident and louder.

My conclusion was that Singapore was where it all happened. It was a vibrant, worldly place and those who lived there were comfortable in their own sophisticated skins.

I first remembered my youthful impressions of Singapore on the long flight out. We flew Singapore Airlines – my first time with them in over 30 years. The stewardesses wear the same sarong kebaya uniform and the service is very good. I remembered how I used to watch those young women on short flights between KL and Singapore and think how professional, grown up and confident they were. I wondered if I could ever be anything like them. Now, I looked at them with different eyes. Still professional and confident, but so very, very young!

Singapore was the ideal place to start our journey in Asia. Rather European-feeling in its efficiency and order, but of course tropical in climate and culturally mainly Chinese. Many of the place and road names still echo the colonial history, whereas Malaysia has converted much more to the vernacular. I knew I was back in Asia, but not quite home. The city felt familiar but still a place for a weekend away, not to live.

We would have two nights in Singapore, allowing us a day as tourists before heading towards my old home. The pilgrimage had begun, gently, easing me back to the life I had left so suddenly, so very long ago.