Sweat and Kiasu in Singapore

Excerpt : 

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How I Fell for an Unlikely Place

Sweat.

On a Saturday morning in February, sweat was about the only thing I could think of, climbing to the summit of Bukit Timah Nature Reserve.

Excuse me, perspiration—except, no, I mean sweat, drenching my T-shirt, dripping down my neck, steaming up my glasses so badly that I had to take them off.

At one point, my ten-year-old son studied me as we chugged more water. “I can see the sweat on your face!” he cried in mock horror.

This led to a string of giggled nicknames for me as we slogged on. “Saltskin” was my favorite, “Easy Sweat” a distant second.

“TREE OF LIGHT” © MARTHA NICHOLS  (MILLENIA WALK SHOPPING MALL, SINGAPORE)

In the spring of 2012, when my husband was a visiting scholar at a university in Singapore, I came prepared to sweat. My suitcase was stuffed with tank tops and T-shirts. We’d landed just north of the Equator, at the tip of the Malay Peninsula, where temperatures average 88 degrees Fahrenheit.

Yet, it’s shockingly easy to avoid sweating in Singapore—my first clue that all was not what it seemed there.

Even if you can’t afford air-conditioning in your apartment, you can escape to a refrigerated cafe or mall. The subway is air-conditioned; buses are air-conditioned. Or you can choose to hike in a protected area of rainforest.

In Singapore, sweating has become a lifestyle option.

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Martha Nichols is Editor in Chief of Talking Writing.
To read more, please refer to this  link : Sweat and Kiasu in Singapore