What money can’t buy

While money can allow you to go anywhere, do what you want to do, or buy something you like, money can’t buy you everything. Like taste. Even if Singapore touts itself as having a lot of money and being the only first-world country in Southeast Asia, there are stark reminders that being rich doesn’t always guarantee sophistication or class. Case in point: Clarke Quay (pronounced as “key”). Carlos and I took the MRT from Jurong East to Clarke Quay station, where we met up with Ate. We then went to a row of shophouses by the river. These were turned into bars, clubs, and restaurants and have become one of Singapore’s night hotspots.

Clarke Quay was named after Singapore’s 2nd Governor, Sir Andrew Clarke. If I hadn’t googled it, I would have assumed they named the place after Sir Arthur C. Clarke, the British scifi author, inventor and futurist. Mukha naman, diba?

The most prominent signature architectural landmarks are these huge futuristic umbrella-like structures in the middle of the shophouses. What were they thinking? Do they really think it’s cool? It’s like the management thought of a way to upgrade the area and had this bright idea of mixing the old with the modern. But instead of stopping with modern, they went way beyond it like, 10,000 years past modern and ended up in tacky futurama. It’s so gaudy. They have these air vents looking like anime characters, and not like the cute ones, mind you. Even the map displays look alien. I don’t care if there are changing lights during the evenings, which give these metallic umbrellas a certain kind of night-out-on-the-town mood. It’s still looks like a mother ship decided to take a crap by the river. Darth Vader called, he wants his TIE fighters back.

I’m sorry Ate, I know you like the area. Apparently, so does the Sith Lord.