A Weekend in Singapore

I am using excerpts from a couple of e-mails sent to my brother during a time when I was in Bangkok.  This was going to be my third trip to Singapore.  Other times were in 2000.

Sept. 2004

Kade and I are doing our own bit of traveling tomorrow.  We're going to spend the weekend in Singapore.  Flights are fairly cheap and I have to leave and reenter Thailand because my 30 day visa has expired.   

 

Second e-mail:

Singapore is very clean and glitzy, and the skyline is very sleek and modern.  The single tower shot is of the Bank of America building.  Another picture shows one of several huge shopping malls on Orchard Road.  I even saw a Borders bookstore of all things - the first I have seen in all of Asia.  I also threw in an image of Kade dining at one of the sidewalk cafes where you can pick your meals from colorful advertising.  Food places like that are very economical.  There were several independent coffee houses, along with international and regional powerhouses like Starbucks and Pacific Coffee.

Don't be fooled, Singapore also has a long history stretching back to the days of Sir Stamford Raffles, a British pioneer, who established the Singaporean port for the East Indian Trading Company (something like that).  The Singaporeans have a very eclectic society made up of people of various ethnicities and religions. Singapore literally has residents from all over the world, with the majority of citizens being of Chinese, Malaysian and Indian descent.  Chinatown is absolutely a great place to find bargains and Little India has scrumptious food that you can eat right off of a banana leaf.  Oh, and if you want to find out more about Arabs, you can head over to Baghdad Street and try some Middle Eastern grub and buy some carpets. 

By the way, we stayed at the YMCA.  Decent room for $42 US per night.  Transportation in Singapore is first class.  Also, lest I forget, their airport has been voted #1 in the world.