I din have much chances to travel when I was a kid. I recall listening with amazement to my primary school friends who used to travel every holiday to different countries, disneyland, white winters in snow, skiing, sakura flowers. I was even more amused when some of my school mates would skip school just to go on holiday. Being young and innocent was a strong advantage then because I never really knew what I missed hee.
As I have more opportunities to cross the borders, I was fascinated by the rich and vast diversity of cultures out there! (we dun get travel & living programs at home till 5yrs ago...)
I was impressed by how smart the Romans were, to build towns, cities, ports, libraries (with underground links to brothels), colosseums, even public toilets with proper sewage systems. All these were built more than 3000years ago! How clever they were!
I was awed by what man can do, building all the magnificent architectures all around the world.
Some experiences remain stuck with me for a long time like experiencing a turkish bath. Hee... you sit in a steam room to sweat it out until you cannot tahan anymore, then you jump into an ultra-chilling cold shower and back into the steam room again, jump into the cold shower again. Repeat at least 3 times. This process opens the pores on your skin and allows the dirt/toxins to be perspired out of your body. The cold shower helps to close the pores ( I think). Next you lay down on cold marble slab about the height of a chair and a huge turkish man will rub you with a foamy sponge. He will scrub and scrub you front & back until you can see the white foams change into slightly greyish foam (white+dirt=grey). Then he'll rinse you down with spring water. Feeling totally refreshed and 100% clean. It was such a treat!
More than 15yrs ago, when my parents decide to bring me to Lake Toba along with their friends and friend's kids. We were brought to a village on the island where they have unusual burial practices or rather, they do not bury the dead until the corpse is totally decomposed! We were brought to a special forest that had some species of the trees which absorbs the bad odour from a decomposing corpse. So when we were there with the guide explaining to us the varies degrees of decomposition, we were not infused by bad odour at all. I recall being fascinated by the various states of decomposition of the corpse and after about 1 month or so, when all the flesh/proteins are ingested away, leaving behind the skeleton, the family will return to collect the remains of the corpse. And do a proper burial for that family member. I can still recall how the corpse were neatly place in rows for the decomposition process.
Many other wonderful traveling experiences were made up of interacting with the drivers, stall holders, service staff of the restaurants, hotels, cab rides, museum attendants that we visit. The first hand interaction with the locals gives us a good sense of the culture of the place. The Italians are crazy drivers but totally polite on buses/trains, they will give their seats to any ladies. The French loves to sit outdoors to enjoy the sunshine and a good wine. The American meal can easily feed 2 Asians any time. The Thais are so polite and friendly with their gestures.
These are true first hand experiences of the people that makes up the cultural experiences for a traveller.
With the increase in foreign talent-scouting, can we say that Singapore is giving our tourist a true-blue first hand experience in Singapore? I walk into our Orchard Road malls, its flooded by service staff from neighboring countries who at times have difficulty understanding english. I try to ask about the discounts offered in Giordano (in Suntec City) and was greeted by "可以說華語嗎?" Instantly, I felt as if I am not in Singapore! Our first language in school is english, how come I cannot speak that in our own malls to ask a basic question in the shop? In almost all the service centers that I've been to for the past 6months, I have yet to be served by a Singaporean. We are talking about Starhub, M1, Sony Ericsson etc.
Even the hawker centers are now flocked with foreign talents, I get ultra salty fish soup from more than 1 food stall wondering if I'm actually tasting overseas version of our local delight. I find it really weird to imagine that I'll be eating prata prepared by a non-indian, can we really say that its one of our favorite indian cuisine if its no longer prepared by our Indian friends?
This phenomena does not limit itself to within our shores, when I was in Guangzhou a few years ago. My relatives who were native folks there shared that they can no longer place their orders for food in cantonese (native dialect in Guangzhou, China) because most of the service staff that works in restaurants are no longer native folks of Guangzhou. These service staff comes from other parts of China with little comprehension of the Cantonese language so hence part of the culture of ordering food in Guangzhou was lost. Its pretty different experience to order dim sum like xiao long bao, har kao, siew mai, lor mai kai etc in Mandarin. Part of the fun of ordering food in dim sum places is in the use of Cantonese itself as we do not have much opportunity to use it in Sg. So you can imagine our immense disappointment.
When we were in Chiang Mai, Thailand, we were lured by the travel agents to visit the elephant reserves along with the visits to the tribal villages of the Long Necks and Big Ears. So thrilled to visit the natives of the rural outskirts, we had to wait till our necks were long for this part of the itinerary as its the last bit before we head back to our hotel. What was disgusting about the "visit" was that these "tribal folks" are not thais! They belong to tribes outside of the Thai border. They were the foreign talents lured by monetary rewards to display their native practices of inserting metal rings around their necks as a sign of beauty and enlarging their ear lobes by wearing heavy earrings (2 separate tribes). The "village" is a poor attempt to mock their homes with attap houses built on stilts, their tribal clothes were like uniform to them. Those who were not "on-duty" that day wore normal tee-shirt & jeans like any regular folks. What was worse is that they were not allowed to leave the premises on their own, almost like a form of imprisonment!
The benefit of these foreign employment is beneficial to the business owners as it reduces their operational cost for manpower. However, it totally removed the joy of interaction with a native for a tourist. We are unable to fully immerse in the culture of the place. Which leads me to my next question:
What's the point of traveling?
When my prata is no longer flipped by an Indian man in his sari?
When my dim sum is not ordered in Cantonese?
When my sushi is not prepared by a Japanese Chef?
When its just a job for them and not a passion of sharing the rich culture of the place?
Labels: foreign talents, Jen, travel
