Hanoi vs Singapore....

"Is it possible to fall in love with a city? I wouldn't have thought so once, but that was before I had been to Hanoi. I suppose I love my home city of Sidney, but that is more like the way you love your parents. It's where you come from, it's always there, and you don't usually have to think about it. But Hanoi was more like a passionate affair...."
-Pam Scott, "Hanoi Stories"

Hm...until some time ago, I've never really thought of Singapore as boring... It has its own characteristics, its own nook and crannies, its own quirkiness, and most importantly it's such a safe city that I can go around exploring on my own. As everyone who stays here knows, Singapore is clean, orderly, efficient, fast, honest - attributes that I've come to appreciate and really be grateful for...

But it's been 3 days since I'm back from Hanoi...and somehow the sights and sounds of Hanoi keeps re-appearing in my mind..the flower sellers in bicycle, the lychee sellers with their baskets, the sound of motorbikes and honks,the smell of fried bread, people eating at the roadside, barbers in narrow alleys, criss-crossing electrical cables,the green waters of Hoan Kiem lake, the hustle and bustle of the Old Quarter.... I walked around Singapore yesterday trying to get used to life here again, but throughout the walk I kept wondering, why is there no life happening a the edge of the street? why are people walking so fast? where is the vibrancy I've come to taste and love in Hanoi? Much as I feel like an unfilial child, I can't help comparing Singapore to Hanoi...The roads are too big, the buildings too plain, the pavements too empty, the HDB blocks too similar, the "historical" areas too artificial, the guys too made up, the girls also too made up, everything is too uniformed, generic and tailored..

Singapore government has tried its best to inject life to the city, by creating a lot of festivals, events, light-ups, campaigns etc etc... but these measured moves are the very things that prevent Singapore from ever becoming a vibrant city like Hanoi. I hope I'm wrong, but I think if there is one thing Singapore can never attain it is this: chaotic spontaneity. And perhaps it is a reaction from living too long in a society where there are pre-determined rules and protocols, even pathways to success in life, but I've come to fall head over heels for the beautiful chaos of Hanoi the moment I set eyes on the city. Indonesia is chaotic too, I guess, but i's not quite the same as Vietnam.. Maybe it's because the Vietnamese are not so different in physical made up from the Chinese that I didn't feel I stick out like a sore thumb, but is instead accepted and just effortlessly blend with the city inhabitants.

Was eating pho with my Vietnamese anh oi *big brother* yesterday, and I told him how it's easy to entertain oneself just sitting on the pavements in Hanoi looking around...because there's so much that's happening! Whereas in Singapore..I'm lucky that I love reading and walking around or else it'll be quite hard to find cheap, easy things to do to pass time..

Hmm....I still do feel an attachment to Singapore, simply because it's the city I grew up in.. A city that has sheltered me and pampered me and become my comfort zone.. but no, I can't imagine spending my life much longer here..

That aside, I went to take care of my visa applications for Paris yesterday,and the accomodation there is pretty much taken care of, plus there is a confirmation letter from NUS stating that I will indeed spend the next 5 months in Paris... Wow...I mean...I still have to look at the acceptance leter to believe it.. and I guess it's very lucky that this chance to spend time away from Singapore comes at a time when I'm not that keen to be here anymore.. Maybe after spending such a long time away, the maxim "Absence makes the heart grow fonder" will ring true.. I can only hope it doesn't become "Absence makes the heart grow fonder...of absence...".

I think of Paris and try to see how I will react to the city...I guess, being architecture buff and all, I will love it..but I have a hunch that Paris will be like a full course French dinner in a high class restaurant .. sophisticated, but snobbish as well....Singapore is like a plate of comforting nasi lemak... safe, standard, predictable,casual, though it gets annoyingly monotonous after some time... and Hanoi is like a bowl of steaming hot pho sold beside the pavement..eating it perhaps will increase the chances that I contract typhoid fever, but that doesn't make it any less delicious or tempting...