| QUICK UPDATE Where are they now? |
| Singapore |
| 8/7/2002 Back in Singapore. Got Kristen on the plane and on her way back to Los Angeles. We are doing laundry (or rather, having it done), enjoying the fastest internet connections I've ever used, and relishing the order and neatness of the Lion City for 2 days. Tomorrow we'll be meeting up with the son of a friend of my mother's. He lives in Singapore, and I'm interested in talking to him about the experience. There are many ex-pats (Americans and Europeans) sweating away here on the equator, working in all manner of industries and making a really nice living. (7/21 - 8/7 See Thailand) 7/21/2002 Leaving Singapore. Took an evening bus to Malaka, Malaysia this afternoon. Should get us in at about 10 pm. The trip to Thailand begins...... 7/19/2002 Yes, Singapore. Had to get Kristen's passport renewed for a year so we could travel through Malaysia and Thailand. The US embassy looks like a fortress from the 1600s. Not a good choice for projecting anything other than a hostile image overseas. Have to write to the State Department's Building Comittee and let them know that we didn't like it at all. That is what we found to complain about so far. :) We ate at Mos Burger. We don't really know what it was, but it appears to be a Japanese hamburger chain that sells meat that is at least partly beef, or at least it tasted like beef. More likely it was seaweed or tofu. Not bad. We met our hosts for the next 3 nights through globalfreeloaders. Frank (formerly of Munich, Germany) and his wife Ho-Ping (an IT consultant with PwC in Singapore) offered us a place to stay for the weekend while we waited for the passport to be ready. They were really great, and treated us to a meal of local dishes that we'll never forget. Unique, to say the least. 7/18/2002 Singapore still... Sorry, I messed up the date convention with the 17th below. We took the subway back out to the airport to pick up our niece Kristen, who will be traveling with us for 3 weeks. She arrived after a 19 hour flight in pretty good shape. She was able to sleep on the plane, but it was a struggle to keep her awake until 7 pm so she would not be wrecked for days by the jetlag. Had to get a room in a small, noisy Chinese hotel, right above a busy restaurant. It was after midnight when things quieted down enough for Monica and me to get to sleep, but with cold A/C, it wasn't all that bad. 7/16/2002 Singapore Mercedes. If you want to get run over by a Mercedes, just come to Singapore. About 40% of the cars on the road are brand new Daimlers. If you're going to drive a car here, you drive the best. A BMW is the pinto of the Lion State's roads. We, like 90% of the population, took the bus, taxi and subway around the city. It is a great system and keeps the pollution to a minimum, necessary because with so many people in such a small, hot and humid place, an ocean of vehicles would create air as foul as that in Bangkok. It was HOT and humid, and we survived 3 nights without the benefit of A/C, just a big cool stone floor and a big overhead fan to get us through the night. With temps never moving more than 3 -4 degrees C from 29, and near 100% humidity, it is a wonder that it is possible. For you in the states, think Washington DC in August, 94 - 100 degrees, and wet as a blanket. This is the rule when you're one degree north of the equator. Our first night back in the northern hemisphere in 6 months and 7 days. 7/17/2002 We arrived at 11 pm, called home (it was 7 am in LA), and headed for the hotel. Poon, our friendly Chinese cab driver with a big Benz, told us that it had only been 28 degrees (Celsius!) that day, not too hot. I spent the next day in the roof-top pool with my friend Tony Kirkwood (our friend from Melbourne), soaking up rays, sweating and drinking lots of duty-free gin to ease my system into the proper tropical mode. Monica and Pauline(Tony's wife) went out shopping, arriving back several hours later with silk and an appetite for more. The rest of the afternoon was spent on the roof, drinking gin. It's about the only way to adapt to the weather. |