ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 20 ต.ค. 2024
- Full transcript:
Growing up, my family and I were not globetrotters accustomed to the glitz and glamour of Milan or Paris. Neither did I desire to tour the continent as part of a graduation trip despite being an English Literature major. My upbringing ingrained in me the idea that Europe was a luxury I could not and did not want to afford. The furthest my family had gone was down under to New Zealand which even then, was a singular trip my parents had scrimped and saved for - an exception rather than the norm. Given my overall ambivalence, a trip to Switzerland was therefore an unexpected journey but one I would not regret as a shutterbug.
Flying halfway around the globe with me was my 10 Litre Wotancraft Pilot which held my Nikon Z6, the Z mount 24-70 F4 S and the 40 F2 as well as the F-mount 20 2.8 AIS. The 40 F2 however saw relatively little action as it was far easier to remain inconspicuous shooting streets with my Pixel 6. Let’s see if you can tell with certainty which piece of glass made each shot. Long exposures were either handheld or done with the help of the Ulanzi MT-33 flexible tripod. For the rest of this video essay I want to share 2 notions that were consistently on my mind as a relatively less travelled Singaporean. Do note that I won’t be having any form of commentary on the photos taken or the places travelled to. You may wish to ask for more details in the comments since the pics are all numbered! And yes I’m aware that sensor dust is visible in a number of shots.
Firstly, what never fails to strike me each time I travel as a Singaporean is the vastness of foreign lands, in contrast to the smallness of our island state. Singapore is a blip on the world map, occupying less than the area of a pin’s tip on a model globe. In addition to being dwarfed in terms of land mass, our local poets have also lamented just how manicured our garden city is with its orderly streets and pygmy parks. My friend who harbours the intention of migrating also dreams of being surrounded by swathes of unspoiled wilderness, hiking in the coolness of the alps rather than drowning in the tropical heat and humidity of our concrete jungle. That being said, with Singapore’s industrialisation of the 70s and 80s in the rear view mirror, much has been done to re-green the island. The vision of being a ‘garden city’ was introduced in 1967 and has recently been reimagined. We dream of being a biodiversity model for others as ‘a city in a garden’. Hey, I mean we got some screentime in Planet Earth II. Without discounting Singapore’s efforts, having pristine alpine horizons as far as the eyes can see is still a treat and a revelation.
The second thing which struck me was how old Europe and Switzerland feel as compared to the relative youth of Singapore as a nation state. In terms of modern statehood, Singapore is 59 while Switzerland is 176. Of course, both places have been around since antiquity but I’m talking about how historical each country feels. I felt this in Lucerne walking the Chapel Bridge and admiring the Lion Monument as well as when I was in Bern, strolling down the cobblestone streets. In contrast, you are met with glass and steel modernity almost everywhere you turn in Singapore. The fact of the matter is that with our limited landspace and competing land needs, the preservation of sites and monuments can be an uphill battle. While we do have several 19th century temples, churches and mosques, tourists are far more likely to note the ubiquity of our copy and paste shopping malls. I grew up studying the founding of modern Singapore as marked by the arrival of Raffles in 1819 and the chequered history of British colonialism. In the textbooks of my youth, Singapore pre-Raffles was always portrayed as a sleepy fishing village. The history pre-dating the arrival of the British was always brief and bordering on the mythical; like the tale of Sang Nila Utama who founded the kingdom of Singapura in 1299 after his lion sighting. Well, since my days in school, historians have dug deep, both literally and metaphorically to move beyond an anglocentric self-understanding. Pottery fragments have been unearthed at Fort Canning following an archaeological excavation and the National Museum now highlights how the Malay annals has records of Singapore dating back to the 13th or 14th century. The history syllabus in schools too, now has more focus on the pre-colonial centuries.
That’s it! I hope you enjoyed this format blending my photographs as well as my reflections as a less-travelled Singaporean. I know that it’s a sharp departure from my travel vlogs with my wife but I will sporadically spit out such content as and when the mood strikes. I’ll see you in my next video. However, don’t be in a rush to leave yet as there will be more of my favourite photos taken in gorgeous places like Vevey, Montreux, Leukerbad and St Gallen . I invite you to stay till the end and to leave a comment if you enjoyed this video.
Timestamps by parts of Switzerland:
00:00 Zurich
01:03 Lucerne
02:03 Interlaken
02:52 Kleine Scheidegg
04:06 Bern
06:15 Broc
06:22 Geneva
06:38 Vevey
07:34 Montreux
07:58 Leukerbad
09:14 Aletsch Glacier
10:08 St. Gallen
10:54 Rhine Falls
11:20 Zurich
Any photographs that you liked in particular? (I printed pic #65 for my living room)