We spent most of the day in Singapore'S Chinatown. How can Singapore have a Chinatown given 60% of the population is ethnic Chinese? Well, when colonial Singapore was established by Sir Stamford Raffles of the British East India Company, the native population was not Chinese but Malay. However, the new colony attracted many Chinese immigrants. Raffles directed that sections of the town be set aside for the different ethnic groups, including the Chinese immigrant. Read more about it here. At the bottom of this page is a photo of one [View Full Entry]

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Okay... I'm still alive! I have been trying to write an update every few days but something always seems to crop up What a whirlwind time that has been. .. Quite literally. The day after the last blog Tokyo was hit by a typhoon which was interesting to say the least - I can never work out the difference between a typhoon, hurricane or just a big storm but this one was a typhoon. Typhoon 18 to be exact - no names for them in Japan. I sat in the lobby of the hotel all night actually, doing some email and [View Full Entry]

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Day Three October 4, 2009 We awoke at 7:30am which is very early for us especially on a Sunday. Of course the first thing I thought about was that one of our kids may be trying to reach us via skype so we turned on our computer and sure enough hooked up with Jared and Laura who are celebrating their one year anniversary in Puerto Rico. We had a great conversation with them, skype is amazing if any of you are looking for a free way to communicate over the Internet with voice and picture. We enjoyed breakfast in the lobby [View Full Entry]

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Meine Lieben Dass eine Businessstadt einfach unfreundliche Bewohner hat, ist seit Singapore keine berechtigte Aussage mehr. Wahnsinn, was ich da an Gastfreundschaft, Hilfsbereitschaft und Feundlichkeit erfahren habe. Ich bin echt beeindruckt, und versuche, mir davon ein Stueck abzuschneiden. Mit Singapore Air hatte ich ja einen super deal. Hab einen Stopover fuer eine Nacht gebucht, mit Hotel und Flughafentransfer. War ziemlich guenstig, aber hat sich voll gelohnt. Da ich waehrend dem Flug ziemlich viel geschlafen habe, kam ich gut erholt in meinem Hotel an und verspuerte denn stark [View Full Entry]

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It was warm and humid just like the previous days…I reluctantly got up from bed, took a bath, and sluggishly ate my breakfast. Though I woke up feeling a little bit down, I definitely don’t want to spend my last day moping around. I spent most of the morning lounging at the reception area, thinking of which places I could still manage to visit before my flight later in the evening. I was awakened a few times during the night ... or maybe dawn … by noises of roommates packing and people chatting at the reception area, but the place was [View Full Entry]

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We left malaysia and crossed the border at the very posh crossing. We checked into our lovely Chinatown based hotel and the headed off for a walk towards the river. It was very similar to the London docklands area, but cleaner. We sat on the river side and I had my first Starbucks. At 7pm we met the rest of the group for a lovely last dinner and a Durian tasting session, which I still couldn’t bring myself to try. The smell was just too bad. [View Full Entry]

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Had a couple of nights in Singapore on the way to Melbourne We flew from London to Singapore on the new A380 Airbus Business Class great seats with lie flat beds fully horizontal rather than at 30' angle. Stayed at Swissotel Merchant Court. Good hotel in great location alongside river at Clarke's quay. Walked from Clarke's Quay to Raffles and around Marina Bay on first day and Chinatown on second morning. Went to 70th floor of Swissotel Stamford to the free viewing area - great views over Singapore. flew on to Melbourne on overnight flight.Derek & Joan [View Full Entry]

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The moment you step outdoors in Singapore, you are blasted with an incredible, humid heat. Right now, it is 90F ("feels like" 97F), and it is not pleasant at all. It's no wonder that Singaporeans take so kindly to shopping malls, with their air conditioned goodness. Also, I am getting bitten by a gajillion mosquitoes. I don't know how much more I can last at this computer before I dive back into my air-conditioned room. I was up early (see earlier entry), so I snagged some free breakfast from the hostel and chatted with the surfer Jonah, who had spent a [View Full Entry]

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Alright, well nothing new has transpired since the last entry other than my dinner which is explained through pictures below. However, I'll bullet point a few thoughts before heading off to bed. The de facto form of begging in Singapore seems to be selling tissues. A large portion of beggars are blind Taxis are mostly Blue Hyundais Singapore is by far friendlier (at least at first) than Tokyo. Any first-time non-Japanese visitor to Asia would probably have much more fun in Singapore than Japan. English is the official language, and still manages to retain an "Asian" feel. Gum is [View Full Entry]

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The gathering was at the homely Hachi Tei Restaurant located at Tanjong Pagar. Tucked away along the quiet street of Telok Ayer, the family restaurant boasts a relatively comprehensive menu @ modest prices. From bento sets to soba to sashimi, there was a bit of everything for everybody. Eight of us gathered (AL & Ms C, EK & XMM, Mr K, Mr KFC and JC) for my 29 years 363 days and XMM 2x years 361 days celebration. As I welcomed (or should I say dread) the Big Three reality to hit me hard tomorrow, there was a general sense of [View Full Entry]

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