Day 1

The pictures say more than the words! Check them out

I woke up this morning to what sounded like a building being bombed and falling to the ground. In reality, it was some thunder. But due to the jet lag and the morning hour, it took me a few minutes to put two and two together...the pouring rain tipped me off. I took my time getting ready and planning my mode of attack. I had heard that about 10 minutes was long enough to be walking around outside due to the humidity, but my close proximity to the Chinatown and Downtown areas made me think I should take advantage of it. I walked through the park directly behind my hotel which spit me into Chinatown. My goal was to find the office, so I weaved my way through the streets of Chinatown finding a number of markets, malls and food centers...which just about sums Singapore up. Of course the architecture was very cool and there were a few temples along the way.

So like I said...markets, malls and food centers....

Markets: Chinatown had a very interesting market in the basement of an open air mall. I saw everything from fresh fruits and veggies, to all kinds of fresh fish, to live eels and frogs. Yes, frogs.

Malls: Singaporeans love their malls. They range from tacky(ish) crowded malls with small stalls and open walls with no a/c to extravagant, better-than-anything-else, humongous, large, everything-you-could-ever-want malls. They have all the main American and British stores. Oh, and are VERY air conditioned.

Food: Basically, it seems like Singaporeans always eat. Everywhere you go there is food. All of the malls seem like they have more food options than department stores. Every street is lined with places to eat with both indoor and outdoor seating. Then the city is filled with Hawker Centers, which are large, open air food courts filled with everything imaginable. If you're hungry, you probably don't have to go more than 1 minute away to have about 50 options. And that's not much of an exaggeration.

I walked many hours today. And in reality, I didn't think it was too bad. It's hot, but not crazy hot. It's just the humidity that's the problem...and the sun is pretty intense. But even if you're sitting outside in the shade, with a slight breeze, it's not too bad. With that said, I was pretty much soaked all day long. I walked through Chinatown and into the Central Business District (downtown for us Americans), and then figured out the MRT (subway transportation system) to the Promenade along the river back towards the CBD (Central Business District).

My impressions of Singapore based on the limited sites I have seen so far is that it is very clean, very modern, and very nice. Everything seems well run and very efficient. I want to start learning Chinese for a couple reasons. Everything is in English, but it's also in Chinese. Also, if two people know Chinese, they will generally speak Chinese, so it would be nice to know what everyone is always saying. With that said, knowing English is definitely good enough. However, being Caucasian definitely makes you stick out. In some ways it's good...I'm taller than pretty much everyone else. It'll be good for concerts! But it also makes me look like an automatic tourist...or at least that's how I feel. I was walking through one of the malls with my new SLR camera around my neck. One of the shop owners immediately targeted me, brought me in his shop, and before I knew it I had a different lens on my camera. I didn't buy it, but Singapore is definitely a great place for cheap electronics so I'm sure I will eventually.

I eventually made my way back to my hotel to cool down before heading back out to grab some dinner and find a grocery store. The grocery store was nice and had far more American items than stores in London did...but I'm getting the idea that it's much much cheaper to eat out than it is to buy food to cook. You can buy a box of cereal for $4-7, but you could eat two meals for that at a hawker center (roughly 2.50pounds or 3.75USD). Speaking of cereals, I'm pretty happy. You can get: Cocoa Frosted Flakes, Fruit Loops, Cocoa Pebbles, Honey Bunches of Oats, Kashi, and many many more. You can also get Jif Peanut Butter, Graham Crackers, RoldGold Pretzels, Root Beer, and the list goes on. You can also find McDonalds, Burger King, Carls Junior, Dairy Queen, Auntie Annes Pretzels, KFC, Pizza Hut, Nandos, 7-Eleven and probably a lot more I haven't noticed yet.

When I got back to my room after a 15 minute walk carrying a small bag of groceries, I was completely soaked. Probably because the breeze seemed to go away, but regardless it was pretty miserable. I think I'll be taking showers at night for sure.

Ok, that's enough for now. The pictures to this post will show you a lot more than what I described above with descriptions. Click Here!