Singapore

I have always thought Singapore to be any Westerner's gateway to Asia. It is very very traveler friendly (English spoken widely, clean, safe and metropolitan) and is brimming with diversity for you to be all culture shocked (Malay, Chinese, Indian etc). We stayed a few nights to catch up on each other, rest and explore the city. It was heavenly warm and sometimes overtly humid but I cared not either way because I was in a dress every single day. I think dresses are grand. It was great in Singapore as we got to meet up with an uni friend of mine and a relative which gives us a local aspect to our adventure.

Aaron and I made a point of not taking Taxis unless we had to. (Too late at night or luggage handling) We took advantage of Singapore's great public transportation system and got to know the MRT subway and bus routes well. It is a great way to get local and people watch. People are so fascinating, except if the guy standing in the subway next to you pooped his pants and you could smell his poop the whole way back home. Yuck. (He was horribly drunk)

One of the most memorable part of our first Singapore nights was going out with my friend Joy to Burgis, the Arab part of Singapore. Colonial stores are painted nicely and creatively with casual drinking holes here and there. A skip and a hop across an alley led to a street paved on both sides with persian rugs, hookah pipes and Singaporeans chatting over beer and jazz music. It was great.

Joy took us to Blu Jaz where a very talented Japanese gal with one heck of a personality was playing on the keyboard joined in with a bass player, a drummer and a dayan player with vocals.

We spent a better part of the day exploring Little India. Little India is so different that at moments, it did not seem like Singapore. Little India had different smells, smells of spice and air con coming off sari fabrics, potted with temples of colours and incense. It was not a city but a maze of culture sights and sounds.

Aaron having his share of herbal tea for a cool down

Singapore was so insanely hot and humid that I was fascinated and puzzled at the fashion practicality of Singaporean girls. The idea of tights, scarves and leather boots are all fine and lovely for the winter season but for an equator country like Singapore, with temperatures of 32C and humidity up the wazoo, I was hot just looking at the girls adorned with such fashion statements. Although, the locals are probably used to this type of heat but it is still bizare to see such wintery accessories in such tropical weather!

I don't come up to the polar bears' nipples at the Singaporean Zoo

Aaron reads up on possible places we could go explore

People watching at the quay