To Singapore and Back

Early Friday morning, I hopped a bus with Wearn and her dad to travel to Singapore.

View from a high-rise apartment building in Singapore

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Sadly, we weren't traveling for pleasure: Wearn's father's older sister's husband passed away earlier in the week and we were traveling to attend his wake. So while I wasn't able to more fully explore Singapore, I was able to honor Wearn's uncle's memory and participate in something very special.

The bus ride took about five hours and then we took a cab from the station to the apartment building where Wearn's aunt lives. We quickly met up with some of Wearn's other relatives, grabbed a late lunch (chicken rice, sorry no pics) and set out in the building's patio area. The building has a pretty big, open space on the ground floor which was taken up by tables, mourners, banners, a large alter and the coffin. After sitting at one of the tables for a bit, someone brought around boxed drinks and some nuts and candy. The tradition is that when someone passes away, everyone comes to pay their respects and stay up all night with other family members. So, I stayed up until very late at night, playing cards with Wearn's dad and aunt. Wearn's aunt also tried to teach me some mahjong, but she couldn't quite recall some of the rules.

Wearn and I also took a bit of time to meet up with one of Wearn's very old friends, Siew Kee. We all walked back down to the food court Wearn and I ate at before and grabbed some drinks (coffee for me, fruit over shaved ice for Wearn) and chatted for a bit.

Singaporean food courts: They look about the same as Malaysian ones

We walked back to the apartment building with Siew Kee and then waited about thirty minutes for a cab for her (they were all heading into the night-club district, so they weren't stopping for us). Afterward, we returned to the mourners' tables.

There wasn't really a proper place to sleep for the night, so I slept on the floor (concrete. ouch.) until it was time to catch our cab back to the bus depot.

Night-time, from our room's window

And that was Singapore.