Singapore

Day 3/4- July 19, 20 – No Malaria

My travel luck continued today…which is great but tempered a little because I know that it is bound to run out sometime.

I woke up in my hotel in Tokyo and worked out (yes, all you non-believers, I do care about my health) by taking a quick jog through the beautiful Japanese Gardens behind the hotel.

Flight from Tokyo to Singapore – 3500 miles – landed on time

So after I got to Singapore, I met my friend Irene at her place which is where I’m staying while I’m here. Irene apparently doesn’t allow pictures of her to be taken so, for those of you that don’t know her, you will have to take my word for it that she exists. Irene lives in a cool old house which used to be residence to members of the colonial British government. The place is beautiful and I hope that I don’t have to settle for accommodations less than this for the remainder of the trip. I am getting spoiled.

I also hope that I don’t have to settle for a host less than this either. I wasn’t in the place two minutes before Irene had a local “Tiger” beer in my hand…and then another…quickly.

Singapore is pretty amazing. It is as crowded as any other big city I have seen in the world but ridiculously clean and friendly. English is the common language (from our colonial British brothers) so it is easy to navigate, order food or drink, catch a cab…really anything. I learned my second major subway system in two days, ate an awesome meal at a local food market (including fresh squeezed sugar cane juice…tasty and new to me) and threw back a few frosty Tigers at what would be comparable to the Plaza in KC. For those of you that don’t know the Plaza in KC, it is like the third ward in Milwaukee. For those of you that don’t know that, it is an trendy social area…except this one, Clark Quay (pronounced key), is on the Singapore river and is bristling with both ex-pats, tourists, and locals. It was a great day which brings me right now to what I am anticipating will be my first good nights sleep in what seems like forever.

Fast forward one day. OK, my second day in Singapore is ending and I’m beat but what a great day. I woke up a little late (totally acceptable considering the Herculean travel effort I have put in). There were so many highlights today. Number one, I got internet access for my computer at Irene’s and also got a card reader so I can now upload pictures. I am going to go back through some of the older posts and start adding pictures if you’d like to take a look.

Back to today. We went to Chinatown for a dim sum lunch. Dim sum is like Chinese tapas….basically a lot of appetizers...which everyone knows, is the best part of any meal. Some of the highlights: shark fin soup (please spare me any righteous prostolitising. I already feel bad enough because it tasted so damn good), fried chicken feet, pork porridge, soup filled rice cakes, and fried yam were all very good.

After, we went to Sentosa Island which is the resort area of Singapore. We took a cable car there from the mainland which was a cool sight, went to the beach, and I swam in the Indian Ocean.

I'll attach a picture as long as you all refrain from making any comments like, “Thank God they pushed that poor whale back in the ocean…”

For dinner, we met up with my mom’s friends Nancy and Jeff Mann at the East Side Seafood Market. Nancy has helped me plan for this trip quite a bit. She and Jeff have lived in Singapore for 8 years and have traveled extensively, well, everywhere but specifically around SE Asia.

They recommended the restaurant and I was not disappointed. The company and the food will make this a night I will always remember. We ate an incredible amount of seafood (Thanks, Jeff for handling the ordering) and I got to try some local flair: bamboo clams, sweet prawn (eaten with the shell), and a fried whole seabass were great. My favorite, though, was the chili crab. One very large crab smothered, no…drown, in a spicy chili sauce. Anyone whom has seen me polish off crab at the all you can eat crab extravaganzas in Vegas will appreciate my love for the spiders of the sea. This is one of my new favorite dishes. Now I just have to figure out where I can get some Sri Lanken crabs back home… also, though we didn't eat them, I'll attach a picture of some unique clams below. I don't even know exactly what to say except please keep your comments to yourselves.

Someone made the suggestion that I give the address where I am staying so people can look it up on Google Earth or the like while I am away. Irene’s address is 57 McNair Road, Singapore.

Tomorrow, I am going to start to book the Borneo leg of my trip and also take a walk around some of the local neighborhoods. I think that I have a special event tomorrow night so stay tuned….