From Singapore...

Singapore in a few words: Good food, great weather, fast subway, lots of shopping, small room.

We're starting our 3rd full day in Singapore, with plans today to check out another ethnic neighborhood (Malay, perhaps?) and go to the Night Safari with our old Singaporean friend, Chye.

So why don't we just get to some pictures.

Rachel had few goals for this trip: her only expectations were to eat lots of food, including "at least one good dessert every day." Well, thankfully this island is full of all different types of food. We've had Indian, American, Japanese (see above: conveyor-belt sushi!), and will find some room for Singaporean and Malay and maybe Thai and Korean before we leave. Yummmmmy!

The weather is great - the sun is hot, but it has been windy so it has been downright gorgeous to spend time outside. Right now, I am sitting in shorts on a bench swing outside the hostel, typing away as I look at the tropical flowers in bloom across from me and feel the ocean breeze on my neck. It's a wonderful thing. Speaking of hostel - the place is nice. Our room is tiny, and I feel like I am back in college because of the communal bathrooms, but considering it is half the price of most of the hotels we looked at, I think it is a good choice.

It is Chinese New Year, so the first couple days were strange because this majority-Chinese city was largely shut down for the first day we were in town because of the holidays. Orchard Road, which is a tropical version of the Magnificent Mile in Chicago, was a ghost town when we went on Tuesday. But we will be able to see some special sights because of the holiday. We went to Sentosa ("Asia's favorite island resort") yesterday to see the flower show. Paths full of thousands of flowers of all types, and particularly lots of orchids (Singapore's national flower).

On Sentosa, we also took a walk on the beach. (Confession time: in Malaysia, we never went on the beach. Even though our resort had a private beach. Seems strange, in retrospect. But we're just not "ocean people." We did, however, go swimming in the pool.)

And to prove that we went in the ocean...

The strange thing about this beach is the view. This has to be the only famous beach spot where you look out on a harbor full of freighters and oil refineries. So just think - if America's oil addiction continues and certain congressmen get their way, here's what the coast of Florida could look like before too long...

And though we are married and no longer deserving of a hongbao (the red envelope full of money that is given to unmarried Chinese children/young adults each new year), we have seen a lot around. Here's Rachel in front of Singapore "largest ever hongbao lantern," which is made entirely of red envelopes. I wonder how many people made their living this year building it...

Gong xi fa cai!

-alan