A Few Pictures from Singapore

It's already been 2 weeks since my trip to Singapore. A few days after returning to Taiwan I got sick and I am still fighting it. Fever, horribly sore throat and now maybe a sinus infection. Jacqueline says it's because Singapore was hot and Taiwan is cold. Could be. But today she also tells me that there is a throat infection going around caused by eating sweets. Hmmm... I choose not to believe that. But if it were true I would certainly be a prime candidate for catching something from eating too many sweets! Jacqueline tells me lots of things about illnesses and most of it sounds like Chinese superstition to me. But she is never sick so maybe she is right! Last week when my throat hurt so bad she told me I should cut an onion in half and put it in my bedroom, then it would absorb the virus. Sounds crazy to me but of course I didn't try it and I continue to be sick. She (and every other Asian person) also tells me that I should not drink ice water. Asians do not drink cold beverages, only room temperature or hot. We Americans like our drinks cold! In fact, that is one thing we have learned to say in Chinese quite well: "Bing shui" or "ice water" because if you don't say BING you get warm water - yuck. Well, as usual I have to start out by apologizing for the pictures I am going to share. When I went to Singapore I elected not to bring my good camera. I was trying to travel light and I didn't anticipate sight-seeing, just lots of girl talk. I kicked myself for that decision many times as I took crummy pictures with my camera. So here they are: The view out my hotel window. We stayed out of the main downtown area so this doesn't look like much. The downtown area is filled with architecturally interesting high-rise buildings. I tried to capture some with my camera but it just wasn't good enough. (kick, kick.) Here we are still a bit at the outskirts of town, at a quaint waterfront area.

I loved this statue in front of The Fullerton Hotel. The hotel itself looked quite amazing - it reminded me a bit of Buckingham Palace. I don't remember checking rates there but if I ever return to Singapore I will have to see if it's in the budget. (Likely it's not.)

We rode a cable car to Sentosa Island where we spent one day. This rope bridge leads to...

...the southern most point of continental Asia. (Note the camera in my girlfriends hand. She brought a good camera! Kick, kick.)

On both of my trips to Singapore I have been astounded by the number of ships in the vicinity. It is like a ship parking lot. When you fly in you see ships for miles - not just one here and there but loads of them everywhere you look. We climbed a 4 story observation tower in Sentosa and could see some of the ships.

Late in the day we found some beach bars where we sat for an hour or so, until they kicked us out.

We strolled through a whimsical park on our way to dinner.

Then, as I flew home, the sky was so amazing that I just had to try to capture it with my camera phone.

Nothing else exciting to report for now.