The last couple days in Singapore

We're home in Chengdu now (yay for my own bed!) so there's no more excuse to avoid blogging about the second half of the trip.

In Singapore we met up with our old Northwestern friend Chye, and went to the "Night Safari." Since it is a famous Singaporean spot and it came recommended by Sharon, Danielle, and Jenny we had to go.
It was fun to see the variety of nocturnal animals that you don't normally see awake and active when you go to the zoo. In particular, we liked the flying squirrels, fruit bats, leopards, and civets. We rode a tram through the park to see the larger animals, and also walked around the paths a little (including going in the bat and squirrel cages!)

From the shows, here are a couple videos that show a little of what we saw. On the left is a group of fire-breathing "tribesmen" (I don't know much more than that) and on the right is a video of recycling otters struggling to get that trash put away! Aren't they cute?



Later on we ate roti prata (friend flatbread served with curry sauce) and feasted into the wee hours. Thanks Chye!

The next day we toured through Chinatown. We went to a local history museum and learned about the various plights of Chinese immigrants to Singapore through the ages. They had a full-size reproduction of 1950s-era tenement housing that the majority of Chinese lived in (dozens of people crammed in tiny spaces), and so it was amazing to see how far modernization has taken Singaporeans in half a century since then.

Throughout the week, we have seen troupes of lion dancers (I think we saw 6 or 7 performances in all) celebrating the new year. But in Chinatown, while on the search for Slurpees and egg tarts, we came across a unique performance:

I'm not sure how that guy didn't break all his teeth.

Here's some more sights from the Chinatown streets, including Rachel's new dress:

Later that night, we met with another old Singaporean friend, Mun. We had a fun night on the town, from the English pub downtown to a Mexican restaurant in Holland Village, to live music at an American-style nightclub. I never went out to hear live music all that much in America, but it was therapeutic to sit there and soak up the sound all around me.

We thought we flew out at 7am the next morning, but it was actually 9pm (though there was a brief scare due to the misreading of 24-clock that made us think the flight was at 7pm, but that's another story) so we had another day free. Mun was kind enough to take us out for chicken rice (another local favorite). I'll miss the variety of food that we had there!!

So bye bye to Singapore! In all, the city/country was a lot of fun. We saw a lot of the island, ate a lot of good food, and enjoyed the diversity that is there. It was reminiscent of America to see the melting pot of people all around, and how the variety of people adds a positive dimension to the society.

-alan