Fine City

Unpublished from September 2018

The movie, Crazy Rich Asians, is a romantic comedy with the first full Asian cast in Hollywood in 25 years. I decided to see the movie in Kuala Lumpur after hearing a lot of buzz. It was my second movie in Malaysia. My first movie theater experience was when I saw The Darkest Minds. I expected that there would be an anthem before the movie, like in Thailand, but there wasn't. I assumed all the monarchies would have the same rules. (I'm still trying to understand what's expected in a monarchy.)

Crazy Rich Asians is a cute movie that I recommend if you want to see a light-hearted comedy about love and it's various forms. I recognized many of the actors from their other projects. The character that stood out the most to me though was Singapore. It is a city-state, which was formerly part of the federation that combined Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia. The movie highlighted all the great things about Singapore just like Girls Trip was a commercial for New Orleans/Essence Festival. I was already planning to be in Singapore a few days later, so I made mental notes of things to see there while watching the movie, including the building with the boat on top (Marina Bay Sands), the Gardens, Chinatown, and the Harborfront. I reached out to a couple of my FAMU classmates who previously lived in Singapore for suggestions too. My boyfriend would also be meeting me there, and I was excited about exploring the city with him. We had a wrench thrown in our plans when my boyfriend missed his connecting flight in San Francisco because the flight from Houston sat on the tarmac for 1.5 hours waiting on a gate at SFO. He was rebooked on a flight the next morning, which meant we lost a whole day together. We made the most of our time anyway. 

The only activity that was confirmed for our trip was a special dinner reservation at NOX that I rescheduled after the flight delay. We had the most amazing experience at Nox - Dine in the Dark. I found the restaurant online after seeing an ad for a similar restaurant in KL. We arrived at Nox a few minutes before our reservation, and we were the first people to arrive for dinner that evening. The host/bartender explained the concept when we walked in and let us sample a couple of appetizers that were on the menu that evening. We locked up our phones and watches and anything that might produce light. When we were ready, we entered a door where our visually impaired host, Bernard, was called to escort us to our table in total darkness. Once we were seated, he told us where the glasses and silverware were placed on the table and guided us on how to enjoy ourselves and remain safe over the 3-course meal. It took some time for us to adjust to the darkness and really relax into the experience. Both my boyfriend and I have general personal safety rules in public spaces.  We had to let go of all those rules based on sight at Nox. Instead, we used our other senses, paying special attention to the sounds around us. We enjoyed the food and drinks placed before us and tried to guess the ingredients based on taste, texture, and smell. He and I ate totally different meals - he's a carnivore who doesn't eat seafood and I'm a vegetarian who eats seafood (pescetarian). Nox has a set menu that they change each month. They ask guests for their food allergies and special diets at the time of the reservation, during the initial welcome, and the host confirms it when you're seated at your table. After dinner, Bernard escorted us back to the lobby where we had a pop quiz. The host asked us to write down what we thought we ate, what ingredients were in the drinks, what we liked most, etc. Then, he gave us a breakdown of our actual menu, and we were surprised by how many ingredients we missed. We also asked questions about the dining room layout, and learned it was much bigger than we thought. I was curious about how Bernard knew which meals came to our table and never confused them between the two of us. I learned that there is a sighted person in the kitchen who places the meals on different trays in a dumbwaiter and maintains the order making it easy for the visually impaired hosts to deliver them accurately. I highly recommend dining in the dark, and I plan to do it again in other locations. It is pricey, but well worth the experience.

After our fabulous dinner, we walked a couple of minutes and were transported to the streets of Istanbul. Beautifully decorated shops and restaurants with delicious aromas lined the Arab streets.

We also explored the following sites over the next few days: Singapore Flyer, Sentosa Luge, Chinatown, Little India, Chinese Garden, Harborfront, and Clark Quay.

Before seeing the movie and visiting myself, all I knew about Singapore was 1) I had a pen pal there in high school named Mahdia md Noor that I wish I could have met in person, and 2) they caned an American years before because he defaced property or something like that. At home, we like to say "Don't mess with Texas". People really should not mess with Singapore. They are on high security alert and seem to be in a constant state of fear. I first noticed when armed military walked back and forth through the airport. Also, everywhere we went there was a sign prohibiting something, from chewing gum to molesting (groping) women to trespassing, and the punishment was a fine and/or caning and sometimes death. Selling, using, and/or possessing drugs will get you killed. Check out some of the weird laws here: https://adventurousmiriam.com/10-weird-laws-singapore-get-trouble/

Don't mess with Singapore!

NOX