Singapore

My first photo with my new camera - an art performance by an Italian group that were hanging off the side of a mall dancing on the wall
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Okay, I love heat and I am used to humidity after living in DC but boy! this is some intense heat and humidity. I melt every time I walk outside. I hate air conditioning and I have never been happier to have one right above my bed. Sorry, I digress but I am just overwhelmed at how HOT it is!!

So I arrived after my 12 hour flight from Sydney, with a stop in Adelaide, and made it to the hostel from the airport using the very efficient MRT system without any problems. I was expecting the customs to be very strict as there are so many restrictions as to what you can and can't do here so I was shocked when after I retrieved my bag I was able to just walk out of the baggage claim area without even speaking to anyone or walking through a metal detector. Seems strange but I guess they are relying on the very strict laws in place to restrain people from doing anything wrong. One thing that I am very glad that I decided to buy before coming here was a waterproof liner for my backpack. It saved me as when I got my bag it was soaking wet! Thankfully the bag had kept all of my clothes nice and dry. Whew.

One of the many groups of school kids practicing being hurt and applying first aid. Rather funny sight
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Singapore is also not cheap, less so than OZ or NZ but certainly not what I was expecting for S.E. Asia. I paid $18 singapore dollars to stay in a dorm room (I had thought I had seen the last of dorms when I left OZ) with 10 beds and the mattresses had plastic covers on them so anytime you moved you made a whole lot of noise. Granted, it was a great place to network with fellow travelers and it was in Little India, where I was happy to find lots of south Indian food options.

The other interesting thing about this place is that there are so many different cultures coexisting and everyone can speak English. The majority of people are Mandarin Chinese with Malaysians being the second biggest population followed by Indians. Staying in Little India was fun but really strange in that I was surrounded by the people, food, clothing, and language but I felt as though I was in a hollywood movie set where they had the wrong location. The architecture wasn't in any way reflective of India and the streets were so clean without the normal hectic rickshaw traffic and wandering animals that I was thrown. As I said before, I was very excited to be able to eat masala dosai again, my favorite Indian food by far. I'm not sure how I didn't get fat being in India, all of the food isn't that healthy, but very tasty nonetheless!

Juana and I at the quary
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I headed off on my first day to Chinatown, another very clean area with several beautiful temples scattered amongst the streets and many streets lined with markets selling trinkets and food. I stumbled upon the city museum on my way back to the MRT and I had fun looking at all of the models of the island. I didn't have to see this museum to know that the city is in the midst of a construction boom, everywhere you look you can see cranes.

It was when I was in front of the oldest Chinese temple in Singapore that I had a fateful Adria spaz attack and this time, instead of breaking something on my body, I dropped and broke my camera. A very big and expensive oops. So the next day I spent the day shopping around for a new camera. I guess that I chose a good location for breaking my camera because there were plenty of options in terms of electronics. I ended up paying what I think (at least according to the price at Amazon.com) was a good price for a Fujifilm Finepix S5700. I am still figuring out all of the settings but excitingly it has 10X digital zoom capabilities, the one thing that I was missing on my old camera. It is also twice as big as my old camera so I have to adjust what I can fit in my daypack but I think that it is worth it, at least so far I think so but I'll let you know if I change my mind. I should mention that I was planning on treating myself to a stay at a resort hotel for my upcoming birthday but my clutziness has dictated that I have just given myself a camera. Happy Birthday to ME!

For those that know me, this is VERY appropriate
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So this was my first foray into the world of couchsurfing, an internet phenomenon that a couple of people introduced me to where you can stay on someone's couch for free or meet up with them and do things with a local. I had a great time meeting up with Juana, a local Singaporian who showed me the shopping streets, the art museum (for free on friday night) and the Esplanade arts center, a building that looks like a giant durian. Her couch wasn't free but she was an excellent host of the city and on Sunday we spent the day on the island of Pulau Ubin. I met her at the MRT station where we took a bus to get to the ferry terminal where after a short 15 minute ride in a bum boat we arrived on the island where we rented mountain bikes for the day to explore. I should mention that Juana went out until 4:00AM the previous night so she is quite the trooper to do this with me! The island was used as a quary for many years and there are a series of quary lakes scattered about and a pretty large network of trails, both paved and dirt paths. The island is also home to a camp for children and they were out in force practicing their life saving skills. We passed lots of groups of them at the side of the road "playing" injured while their friends performed first aid. We encountered the most lively group when we stopped at a beach to take a break. They decided to play star wars, using their empty water bottles as Darth Maul lightsabers they staged quite the impressive battle where 3 of them ended up injured (fake injured). It was hilarious to watch and the one boy was really hamming it up lying there quoting lines from Star Wars movies. The island doesn't really have a lot of touristy things to do, thankfully, and after a quick drink stop and some more riding around we took a boat back to the mainland where we hit the local food market where I sampled some of the foreign fruit and ended up buying dessert for dinner (how was I to know that the dumplings in ginger soup were meant as a dessert?). They were filled with red bean paste, peanuts, and sesame paste and they were quite tasty!

A lizard at the Botanic Gardens
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As I spent a whole day shopping for a camera I decided to stay one more day to check out the other sights that Singapore has to offer. I had a VERY long day of walking around starting in the Botanic Gardens, which were definitely a highlight, and then doing some quick window shopping along Orchard Road. From here I headed to Clarke Quay where I walked along the river to the marina and the infamous merlion fountain. From here I headed back to the Esplanade where I took a second look at a very interesting art exhibit where the artist used a single line to complete larger-than-life size drawings. I should mention that I had the luck to be in Singapore for their Arts Festival and I tried to see as many free things as I could. After this I walked over to Sky City, a project that one of my old co-workers had said she had worked on, and I got totally lost in the unending shopping mall! I did stumble upon the world's largest fountain in time to see the free nightly show where they project lasers into the water, it was a very cool effect! After figuring out how to escape the shopping mall, I walked back to the hostel where I collapsed from over exerting my legs!