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| Sunset Narita Tokyo ~ photo credit DrewTW |
Hiya,
I finally made it to Singapore after 31 hours in the air (not including layover and time sitting in the airplane waiting to take off) and I was exhausted. I slept in yesterday and then we went downtown for lunch and dinner. It didn't take long to notice a few things about the city of Singapore. The first thing we noticed was the temperature. The high yesterday was 32 C, which make sense since we're around 1 degree North. The second something I read about but didn't really mean much until I saw it: the whole city is extremely clean. There's no trash anywhere, even in the alleys and nooks and crannies. I'm told this has two purposes: it keeps the riff-raff down and lets them collect rainwater/stormwater for the water treatment plant and they don't have to treat is as much. The third thing I notice on the way to downtown was the sheer number of skyscrapers, most of which have the name of some bank at the top, usually international. Singapore has set itself up as an international business place and as such everything costs more here too, thanks to the influence from all these high-fallootin' bankers. Regardless, Singapore is a beautiful city! It's very easy to get around since everyone speaks English.
Another note: We had dinner at a Singaporean/Indonesian restaurant and I got a fried whitefish with chili and a peanut curry with fish side. The curry tasted exactly like at Lemongrass in Fairbanks! Go Lemongrass! Speaking of lemongrass, I also had a lemongrass-infused lemonade that was so good I think I might try to make something like that at home.
Anyway, we are scheduled to leave Singapore at ~15:00 to fly to Diego Garcia. Even though this is only a 5-hour flight, I'm still glad to have had a rest between flights.
Next message will come from the other side of the equator on a 12 sq mile island.
I finally made it to Singapore after 31 hours in the air (not including layover and time sitting in the airplane waiting to take off) and I was exhausted. I slept in yesterday and then we went downtown for lunch and dinner. It didn't take long to notice a few things about the city of Singapore. The first thing we noticed was the temperature. The high yesterday was 32 C, which make sense since we're around 1 degree North. The second something I read about but didn't really mean much until I saw it: the whole city is extremely clean. There's no trash anywhere, even in the alleys and nooks and crannies. I'm told this has two purposes: it keeps the riff-raff down and lets them collect rainwater/stormwater for the water treatment plant and they don't have to treat is as much. The third thing I notice on the way to downtown was the sheer number of skyscrapers, most of which have the name of some bank at the top, usually international. Singapore has set itself up as an international business place and as such everything costs more here too, thanks to the influence from all these high-fallootin' bankers. Regardless, Singapore is a beautiful city! It's very easy to get around since everyone speaks English.
Another note: We had dinner at a Singaporean/Indonesian restaurant and I got a fried whitefish with chili and a peanut curry with fish side. The curry tasted exactly like at Lemongrass in Fairbanks! Go Lemongrass! Speaking of lemongrass, I also had a lemongrass-infused lemonade that was so good I think I might try to make something like that at home.
Anyway, we are scheduled to leave Singapore at ~15:00 to fly to Diego Garcia. Even though this is only a 5-hour flight, I'm still glad to have had a rest between flights.
Next message will come from the other side of the equator on a 12 sq mile island.
Love you,
Drew
Drew
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| Alexandra Canal ~ photo credit DrewTW |
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| Photo credit ~ DrewTW |
The Alexandra Canal runs right through the Downtown Core of Singapore and was used to transport goods into the city back in the day. Now it's a popular place to walk and have lunch. Or a Guinness!
The narrative in this letter sounds like you. If you would have omitted the greeting and closing of this letter I would have thought you had written it.
ReplyDeleteThat is a really neat observation, thank for sharing.
ReplyDelete