Marketing....

During my wanderings I passed a few fruit stalls and decided to pick up some fruit. I accidentally got collared by the most efficient fruit salesman I've ever seen.. I wanted: one pack of melon slices and a few rambutans (see next post). I ended up with: 3 packs of melon slices (only 3 dollars... one didn't seem to be an option with him) and 1kg of rambutans (I was lucky I didn't get 3kg "only 6 dollars"). The guy was impressive, I already had the bags of fruit in my hand by the time the protest came out....

Also stumbled across a great bunch of hawker stalls. These places are great, you would never dream of eating somewhere like this in europe. Lots of tiny stalls with a few plastic garden chairs outside. Here though, the food is great, safe and costs nothing. Had some wonderful satay... cost 30 cents a stick (6 for S$2... so one euro). Had to take a picture. Should have taken one of the cook as well, they have a charcoal stove which they grill the sticks on while you wait.... Great, almost caramelized chicken or beef with amazing peanut sauce. Yum Yum Yum..

Also had water melon juice (water melon blended with ice) which is unbelievable refreshing...

Street food and aunties

Had kind of a mixed experience today.... both really good street food and an experience of one of the downsides of the culture here...
I was walking through Holland Village, and I passed this tiny auntie sitting on the floor outside a shop in front of a little saucepan. She was selling very good malted candy (kind of like runny toffee) By the time I'd finished taking a picture of her, half of it had run onto my hand, so this is the remainder on the stick... It was very good, tasted a lot like caramel/toffee.



So to the downside... Singapore has managed to go from being a third world to a first world country in the space of 40 years. The downside, while they do provide a lot of great things for the people, is there is no welfare state system. So when you get old, you are supported by two things, either the money you have saved up, usually in CPF (central provenance fund, the very good government saving scheme. The second line of support is your family. Apparently there is a law which makes children legally obliged to support their parents in old age, with old folks being able to sue their children for support money if they need to. The problem is if you run short on either of these, you have to find ways of making money,which explains why many taxi drivers are 'retired' (although several I have talked to like working a bit when they feel like it for 'pocket money').

Often the people who end up clearing trays at food courts, or selling street food are elderly (who are referred to as aunties and uncles). I guess this is a pretty tough approach to take when it comes to state welfare, but in some ways it does put much more pressure on the family unit. The unspoken agreement being that parents will often spend huge amounts giving their kids higher education, but in return the kids must support their parents for 10+ years after they retire. (although thanks to the government housing scheme, most people own their apartment by this stage, making things much cheaper). While I don't think this is a great system for taking care of the aged, I'm not sure its much worse then the way many pensioners end up living in the UK...

yum...

Have just been walking around the (kind of) local area... just had a great little malay snack from a street stall. I think it was called Mutu Bambu (bamboo cakes). little white rolls, a brown filling which tasked of caramel, sprinkled with coconut shavings... very nice. (will try and remember to take a camera with me next time, then I can take post pictures as well as vague descriptions...)