Back from Singapore

Well, Monday afternoon Heather and I got back from our three-day vacation in Singapore. I'm telling people that it was more like a food-cation, but actually we managed to do quite a bit. We stayed in a hotel in Little India, so naturally we ate loads of great Indian food. We went to one South Indian restaurant twice, just for their curry set. It came with like three curries, yoghurt, rice pudding, and mint chutney. It was incredible.

We also visited Chinatown and a couple of Muslim districts as well. It was all a blast, and the people were very nice. Genuinely friendly and pleasant people, everyone we met. And the mixture of cultures is amazing - Tokyo likes to boast that it is an international city, but Singapore really is. Almost all the signs were listed in English, Chinese, Malay and something else - maybe Tamil? Everyone seemed to get along great as well.

On the other hand, there are stiff penalties for getting out of line in Singapore. Remember the American teenager who spray-painted cars, and then was sentenced to caning? That's just the tip of the iceberg. Eating on the train carries a $500 fine. And what's with the no durians on the train rule? Is this new? I guess they are pretty smelly and unpleasant.

That said, Heather and I were pleasantly surprised at how clean and modern all the trains and stations were.

Weirder still were these signs, also in the train station, urging people to be on the lookout for symptoms of psychosis in themselves should they crop up.

The thing to do in Singapore, if you're a conneisseur of exotic foods, is to go to one of the many food courts in the city. There you can pick and choose from a variety of foods from a variety of cuisines and enjoy them together. The problem is, Singapore sizes are closer to American sizes rather than Japanese sizes, and after two dishes between two people, you're really pushing it.

The last day, we visited a WW2 museum, which focused mainly on the atrocities committed by Japanese during the war. It seems like every country we visit - e.g. Korea, Vietnam, etc., we check out a place like this, and it's the same story over and over again. I'm not usually up for this kind of thing but this museum was actually pretty interesting. It's beside the current prison of Singapore, as that prison was used as a POW camp during the war.

After this we went to an island - ah, I forget the name. It was mostly a natural attraction, populated mainly by Malay people. We rented bikes and rode around a bit, and it was a great time. There was one point where we ended up biking off of the trail - thanks to me - and we ran into a group of excited - and BIG - wild boars. I turned around quickly and told Heather to do the same. I'm sure they were harmless but it sure scared the heck out of me.

Anyway, we had a great time, and we were naturally not too excited to get back to Tokyo. In Tokyo everyone seems so bummed out.