Play nice

Wednesday, March 4th

Didn’t sleep well last night. We tried to go to bed early but that backed fired and resulted in both of us waking up around 3:30am and tossing and turning until around 6am. But the amazing breakfast and coffee worked wonders and we felt pretty good today. The coffee here is so good. It's espresso based and it's lovely.

We started the day visiting PSA – which is the corporation that runs the port in Singapore, as well as some others around the world. The tour was very interesting and the port is amazing. After PSA we went to the Newton market which is a stall food market and had lunch. I had chicken curry that was wonderful – Malay style. After lunch we went to the US embassy. Someone from the State Department and the Department of Commerce spoke. It was very interesting. Here are the highlights:

-US has a trade surplus with Singapore.
-Singapore is a very unique country in its region – stability, rule of law, strong economy – US needs to play nicely.
-Might not be a democracy as US would like but good to work with because things get done.

After the embassy we went to the orchid garden. It was wonderful and very hot and very humid. After the garden we went to Biopolis which is an area the government has set up to attract intellectual capital to Singapore. Since the country does not have any natural resources, including lacking its own water supply, it is trying to make intellectual capital a resource. We heard about the medical side today. It was interesting but we were tired and the man presenting was incredibly bright and had tons of information to impart on us that we were not able to absorb.

Tonight we went to Boat Quay and had dinner at an Indonesian food place. It was OK. Afterward we went to Clarke Quay. It is a strange place - very Vegas. It has the fake building fronts made to look like the colonial part of the city with winding alleyways built in. As for the bars and stores it was as though they took their customer base and segmented them based on their interests. There was a microbrewery, a retro bar, and what not. But the most entertaining/disturbing bar was called Clinic. It has wheelchairs and hospital beds that you sat on and you sucked your drink out of an IV bag. Gross. We did not go. The whole area is outdoors but it has a several large umbrellas over it that act like a roof. It was so humid that condensation formed on the umbrellas and dripped down on you...pleasant.

**No pictures from today because the camera is dead**

Merlion

Tuesday, March 3rd

We got up this morning and had a wonderful breakfast at the hotel. Great fruit! We did a tour of the city and saw the sites. First we saw the Merlion - which is what it sounds like - a mermaid and a lion captured in stone. Not sure why they have this - guess I missed that part of the tour - but it's down on the river and allows for a nice view of the water front. We also went to a Chinese temple and had lunch at Raffles Hotel. Raffles was the Brit who founded what is today Singapore and there is a colonial hotel built in his name. We had a great lunch there but some of us learned quickly Singapore's strategy of taxing behavior they want to deter....such as drinking. A beer set people back $12 USD each. Not a cheap way to spend an afternoon or an evening.

Tonight we went with a couple people went to Little India for dinner. Walking over there was an experience. If you closed your eyes you would not have known you were in Singapore but maybe a little further west actually in India. The streets were filled with stalls selling saris, flowers, and spices. We let Faheem, who is Indian, handle the ordering and he did not disappoint.

Brian and I went home with a crew after dinner and crashed - between the Merlion, $12 beers, and Indian food we were done. So far we really enjoy Singapore. It is amazingly safe and culturally diverse.

Long Planes

March 1st and 2nd
After a long flight(s) we arrived in Singapore around 1 AM in the morning. I felt pretty good and was excited to be in Asia again but after so many flights and time zones Brian and I weren't very sleepy. So we went to Cheers, a 7-11 style market, across from the hotel and bought a bottle of Tiger, the local beer, and two Thai style cup-o-noodles. A great and yummy end to the day.