Singapore

The symbol of Singapore. A mer-lion.

Singapore wasn't really meant to be a stop on this trip, but since I didn't really want to go back to HongKong on the round trip ticket, I figured I would break my flight there and pick up my visa for India. Easy peasy, right? No, not so.

It was Deepavali, the Hindu festival of lights, when I was in Singapore.

But it was nice to be back in a "modern" city again. Yes, Hong Kong is pretty modern, but it still has that hectic feel that comes with Chinese culture. Singapore is a lot more laid back. In fact, on my first trip around the world, Singapore was the first place I visited where I thought to myself, "I can live here."

The arts center, sometimes called the durian by locals.

There wasn't a lot new to see, but I did visit a couple of places I missed the first time. First though, I had to visit the sight of my big break into show business- the filming location for "Bugis Street". It was completely different. It looked nothing like it did 12 years ago. New malls, new buildings, and even new streets. I guess it was a bit much to expect things to have remained the same. Though I read that most of the development was done to "improve" on the reputation that that location originally had.

I wandered around some places that I am sure I visited on that trip so long ago, but I was pretty hard pressed to remember anything I saw. Whether this is a failing of my memory or just the never ending march of time and development, who knows?

Since I didn't remember much of what I saw I thought I might as well visit some new places. So it was off to Sentosa island. It is a group of small islets just south of the island of Singapore that have pretty much been turned into a quasi-theme park with the theme being 'the beach'. It does feel a bit artificial at times, but who really cares since the reason you are going there is the beach, and that is what they give you.

Some nice beaches, actually.

The island is also where I found my first geocache on this trip. I had been looking since I set out, but was rather unlucky only finding locations with the cache missing or not being able to find the caches at all. If all you have is the Lat/Lon location, it is sometimes difficult to actually find the cache. For those of you who don't know what a geocache is but may be interested, go to geocaching.com and have a look.

Also here you can visit the southern most location of continental Asia. The place is a small islet just about a hundred meters south of Sentosa. Now if you are like me, you maybe be thinking, wait a minute, if it is an island, how can it be "continental Asia"? Well, apparently since Singapore is connected to mainland Malaysia by bridges, and Sentosa island is connected to Singapore by several bridges, and this little islet is connected to Sentosa by a foot bridge, that makes it part of continental Asia. Yeah, I don't buy their logic either, but I was there.

I also visited a jungle reserve/water catchment area north of the city that was rather nice. It is secondary jungle, but it is still nice to walk around in and see all the trees and such. You can see monkeys, birds, and even monitor lizards. They also have a canopy walk which is a bridge that allows you to walk through the forest at the top of the trees. It was a nice, but sweaty, day.

The reservoir with the jungle in the background.

The only other highlight of Singapore was that I got to meet an Internet friend I had been chatting with for a while. It is nice to actually see in person someone you have only talked with before.

There are not many photos from Singapore, but have a look. Hope you enjoy them.