First trip - Day 3

 Sent: Wednesday, June 07, 2006 4:33 AM

Subject: Asia - Day 3

I finally got a decent night’s sleep, around 6 ½ hours.  I am over my jet lag thankfully.  Steven, the Brit from yesterday, met me at the hotel at 8:00 and brought me into the office.  We had a meeting scheduled for 9:30 AM, and I was able to call home and talk to the family before they went to bed, the first time we have spoken verbally since I left.  After the meeting, Steven gave me a lift back to the hotel where I packed and checked out.  I put some shorts and comfortable shoes on, stowed my bags with the concierge, grabbed my camera and headed out around noon for some sightseeing around.  It was a gorgeous day,  80’s, and surprise – very, very humid.

 I walked down Orchard road with the intent of reaching the Esplanade, which is Singapore’s answer to the Sidney Opera House.  It is a large complex on the water front with great views of the city.  It looks like the skyward-facing eyes of a very large fly.  It took about an hour and a half to reach so I assume it was around 4-5 miles.  I took many pictures along the way I took a taxi back to a location near the hotel and bought food from a street vendor – some deep fried crab meat on a stick (satay style) and something called a “Curry-O”.  This had a pastry crust and was filled with who knows what; I recognized some fried egg, some chicken, in a curry sauce, the rest of the contents are a mystery.  It tasted good, sometimes it’s best not to know.

On the way back to the hotel I ran across a place called “Dan Ryan’s Chicago Pub”.  I had to see what this was like so I went inside.  The walls were covered with Chicago pictures and memorabilia.  They had typical American food (which I did not try).  It looked very much like an American bar.  The bartender was Lily, a girl from Indonesia.  She looked Chinese and is of Chinese descent.  Her grandparents were related the Chinese royal family, they fled to Indonesia in WWII.  Lily was sent by her parents to Singapore at the age if 13 to get an education.  She has no other family on the island and has lived on her own for 5 years.  Brave girl.  We talked about Chicago and her home in Borneo.  She knew that Dan Ryan has an expressway named after him and she asked if he was a “nice man”.  I explained that in Chicago you don’t have to be nice to get things named after you, you just have to have clout. Then I explained clout – that was fun.

After leaving the pub, I returned to the hotel, got my bags and grabbed a taxi to the airport.  The cab driver was friendly and we talked mostly about weather.  It is always summer in Singapore.  It is hottest in March and again in September, but the difference is minimal – The daytime and nighttime temperatures don’t vary much either.

All in all, Singapore was a great experience.  The local economy was built on trade and this continues today.  Shipping provides much of the countries income.  The people here are from all over the world; mainly Chinese, Malay, Thai, Indian, and many Brits left over from the colonial period.  Most everyone speaks English, some quite well, which makes this a very accessible place for a guy like me considering its location.  Because of the abundance of government subsidized housing, there are no homeless in Singapore.  Foreigners are not allowed residence unless they have a job.  The government charges high taxes, but pays for many services in return.  The whole city is manicured by an army of landscapers.  There is a dark side to the society as well.  According to Steven, the Singaporeans are obsesses with what they refer to as the “3 C’s”, Condo, Car and Credit Card.  The government subsidized housing is still quite expensive, you buy it from the government over time, but the units are small and cost around $200K US.  Cars are status symbols and extremely expensive, around 2-1/2 times what the same vehicle costs in the US thanks to the heavy taxes the government places on them.  Personal credit card debt is frequently a problem and there is a growing suicide problem associated – the bankruptcy laws are very harsh. Nonetheless, the standard of living for most Singaporeans is well above the average, especially for this part of the world.

This evening I fly to Hong Kong.  More later perhaps.  I am taking a train from the airport in Hong Kong to the Kowloon station, and taking a hotel shuttle from there.  This should be interesting to say the least.