Blogs from Chinatown, Singapore, Asia - page 11

I left Australia today after almost three weeks. It’s the longest I’ve been in another country so far. I can think of few countries where I could say that and still wish I’d be there longer. My day in Darwin was less adventurous than expected. This morning I did my weekly check-in back home and finally finished getting caught up on postings. I also went to the Parliament House to check on tours. They only do guided tours on Saturdays so I was SOL. I did a self guided tour but found the information that was provided to be a bit too timeline oriented and detailed for someone unaware of the city's and territory's basic past and current state of affairs. I had really hoped to learn more about the latter. My interest unsatisfied, I later ... read more

Singapore These photos show the hustle and bustle of Singapore, we are back for a couple of days in March. By the I should have the of this blog lark. ... read more

Singapore is like nowhere else we've visited in South East Asia. The zero tolerance to crime results in a country that is extremely safe and super clean and with English being one of the four national languages (along with Chinese, Indian and Malay) communication rarely caused a problem; a welcome change. The pace of life here is definitely faster, with the busy subways and malls resembling a western society more so than an Asian one. In saying that, a visit to Chinatown or Little India, where the streets are lined with food stalls, Bollywood music blasts out from tiny shops and the smell of incense wafts through the air; you feel right back in the heart of Asia. Singapore has somehow successfully adopted and merged the positive attributes of western and Asian life to create a ... read more

We cruised into Singapore on Halloween—one of the few places in the world where it is not a big celebration yet. The ship’s staff had a pumpkin carving contest on the pool deck right before we docked at the container pier. The cruise ship terminal was fully booked but since Regent provides free shuttles in most ports, it was not a problem getting into the city. Later that evening the Mariner moved to the passenger terminal which is located between Sentosa Island and the main island of Singapore. We like Singapore a lot and feel it gets kind of a bum rap as being boring. Some say it is like one big theme park. Everyone has heard the stories of strict gum chewing laws and caning for minor infractions. We have found it to be a ... read more

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 and decided that we would head to Chinatown for the morning. Chinatown is a very large area of Singapore with shops and stalls through out the area. Restaurants, and food markets selling foods that we ... read more