When the invitation for us to visit Singapore came in early December, my wife and I were a bit reluctant. We had been to Singapore in 2004, along with our daughter who was seven years old then, and we did not expect to find significant changes in the small city state known for its tidiness and greenery. Our only child, who is now 18, also did not want to go if we decided not to. Having developed a strong bonding with us since she was a toddler when we were still in Saudi Arabia, she preferred to spend Christmas with us. [caption id="attachment_24553" align="alignleft" width="300"] The half-lion, half-fish Merlion is one of the major tourist attractions in Singapore.[/caption] But the invitation from my wife's niece Lala, whom we fondly call Darling, and who was recently promoted to Assistant Vice President in a multinational bank in Singapore at age 33, was more of a command: everyone must go for a family reunion that would include her parents and an aunt in Manila, a sibling who also holds a managerial position at the Vietnam branch of the same bank, and the three of us who had settled in Bacolod when my wife and I resigned from our jobs in Jeddah last April after more than 16 years of absence from our home country. It was an all-expenses-paid trip - from airfare to accommodation, food and transportation - probably to make sure that no one rejected the invitation. [caption id="attachment_24554" align="alignright" width="300"] Flowers are in bloom along a walkway on Marina Bay, one of Singapore's major landmarks. (Photos by Maria Angeline Mayor)[/caption] So off we went to Singapore on December 22. I didn't note if the sky was blue or gray or whatever description one can think of for the big dome. In fact, what I remember most on the day we flew was our much delayed Bacolod-Manila flight via Cebu Pacific and our worries that we might miss our connecting flight to Singapore. On our first two days in Singapore, Darling and her sister Badi guided us on night tours of Marina Bay and the Merlion Park. Singapore's skyscrapers are as common as those in other megacities. And so are the din and the endless flow of people on side streets. The city's river cruise has its counterparts in Thailand and Hong Kong. Since we were on personally guided tours, the only new insight I gained was the complex railway networks and the high-tech way of purchasing train tickets from digital machines mounted in megamalls. Without a guide, we wouldn't have known how to purchase the railway tickets and could have easily lost our way. This reminded me of how civilization – our long journey from the ancient caves in the wilderness to the modern offices in the high-rise buildings of megacities - has failed in its purpose to make life easier with every invention and new discovery it makes. Then and now, the rule of the jungle – survival of the fittest – has not changed and with the fast strides of advancement in our latest technologies, the pressures of living have even intensified. Since our vacation was timed during the Christmas season, Christmas trees and decorations adorned malls, street sidewalks and some thoroughfares. But Christmas in Singapore, a melting pot of the world's major religious groupings, appeared to be more like a tool of commerce. The Christmas motifs were crowd-drawers with tourists and residents alike posing for pictures beside Santa Claus and some animated cartoon characters which have nothing to do with Christmas. We celebrated Christmas Eve at Darling's company-rented flat, which is complete with a bedroom, a bathroom and lavatory, a kitchen where a washing machine was mounted almost side-by-side with a four-burner stove and a dining area with a fridge. There was no Christmas tree in her cozy transient home. But it did not matter. What was important was that we were a complete family, except for one of her two siblings, an artist, who had decided to stay home and mark Christmas with his girlfriend. One big revelation to my wife and I during our visit to Singapore was that Darling, who was so dependent on her mother for her meals before she was assigned by the company to work overseas, has become not only a young bank executive but a fine chef as well. She prepared an oven-baked chicken with broccoli and a bowl of pasta for our noche buena (midnight meal on Christmas Eve). The baked chicken and the pasta were a delight to my taste buds. I am not fond of pasta but I took two servings with gusto. Our six-day vacation to Singapore was capped by an afternoon tour of the Universal Studios, which was not there when we first visited the small country 11 years ago. Our group enjoyed the carnival atmosphere of Universal and posed for souvenir pictures beside movie icons and landmarks. Not a movie buff, the glitz and glitter of the theme park did not spark my enthusiasm. Throughout our week-long stay in Singapore, it was not the sights and sounds of the city that gave me thrills but the presence of the reunited family that had been separated by wide oceans. We used to stay in my in-laws rented house in Manila each time we took our vacation from Jeddah and considered that house in Blumentritt district also our home. We left Singapore on the warm night of Dec. 27 under a clear, starry sky. As we took off from Changi Airport on our way home to Bacolod, our brief family reunion in the tiny city state reminded me of the Filipino migrant workers scattered across the world and a little wisdom I gained when my family and I were still in Jeddah: that home is not a matter of geography but any place where one's heart is. Casiano Mayor Jr — The author, a former editor of Saudi Gazette, is currently running a travel agency in Bacolod City.
