Singapore Report

I went to Singapore.

I expected a tropical island with beaches. Like Hawaii.

Nope.

It is like downtown Chicago, IL, or Manhattan, NY.

Temperature is a constant 80 - 96. The highest temperature has been 96 there.

The humidity is probably always in the 90% range.

It does rain, I was caught in one downpour as I was walking up Ft. Canning Hill. I was soaked but enjoying it. I have been rained on in Singapore.

There are no beaches there for your enjoyment. I do not think swimming is considered a thing to do in Singapore. No Olympic swimmers will ever come from that country. If you want beaches, you are supposed to go to Thailand.

If you go to Singapore, bring triple the amount of underwear you were planning on taking. I changed about three times each day. Greg does have a washer and dryer to get caught up.

What to bring to Singapore for Greg.

1. Chewing Gum, Dentyne Ice, all flavors. Might be able to be used as currency

as chewing gum is not available in Singapore.

2. Advil. The biggest bottle you can find.

3. He likes peanut M&Ms. M&Ms can be purchased in Singapore.

4. When you go past the passport check in go to the Duty Free Shop, this is what you can buy and bring in

a. Buy one bottle of liquor

b. Buy one bottle of Wine

c. Buy six pack of beer

I did not go through a customs check whatsoever. On my ride back I talked to a

Singapore guy and he said in the past seven years he has only been searched once.

He travels a lot to many countries.

If you see a sign for COLD STORAGE that is the grocery store. There is one close by Greg's place. It opens around 9 AM.

There are lots of McDonalds there. No Big Macs though.

Breakfast can be weird. The British like hotdogs and baked beans for breakfast.

The juice that I had was delicious. It might have been mango or some other exotic juice. But it was very, very good.

Beers are expensive. On Sunday we did find a cheap place, Botoon Tak or something like that. Beer was only 4 bucks there. Normally a beer is 8 to 10 bucks. This was the first place, EVER, that I had to pay to use a toilet. It cost 20 cents to use the bathroom.

A Singapore Sling is available for your enjoyment at Raffles Hotel for 21 Sing Dollars.

Three good things about Singapore

1. NO TIPPING. But as a stupid American you do not know that initially. This

might be because they charge so much for everything, because everything is imported that they feel tipping is not needed. Or it might be that they want everyone to be friendly and not be mad when someone does not tip.

2. Everyone is friendly.

3. They speak English. It might be very broken English, but they mostly understand it.

New foods I tried

Jellyfish, not much flavor. Not offensive, but no point to it.

Grass Jelly, not recommended. Different texture, funny taste, it is edible but

there must be better.

Sea Coconuts, no idea what it really is, but it was good. It has to be a sea creature of some sort, unknown as to which it is.

Oyster Omelet, absolutely awesome. But, I like oysters.

Beer of Choice, TIGER Beer. Good beer to drink.

Foods I saw but did not try

Boiled Pigs Trotters

Pig Brain Soup

Pig Stomach Soup

Snake Wine

Greg did make me ride a bike about 20K on Friday during rush hour on Orchard Road.

You need to understand, Singapore is the most crowded country in the world with

around 10000 people per square mile.

Part 2

Greg is into bike riding. Which is good. he has a second bike available for use.

So, Greg took me riding on my first day in Singapore.

You need to understand there are problems here

1. Jetlag

2. New country

3. New City

4. They drive on the other side of the road

5. They are nuts

6. I am rusty on my bike riding.

7. I woke up from drinking beer.

My nickname for Singapore is the DOUBLE DARE Country. Everyone double dares you to hit them on the road.

Pedestrians, they walk right out in front of you.

Bike riders, did not see many, they are probably the smartest because they realize you should not ride a bike on the roads. Scooters, they will cut you off and stop right in front of you Taxi cabs, might be the safest drivers, but those stripes on the road mean nothing to them Buses, they prefer to sneak up on you and honk Cars, mostly driven by women with burrkas on. I believe they are trying to wipe out the infidels with this method. Let their women drive cars and take out the American bike riders.

At a stop sign or intersection it is a free for all. Everyone will pull out halfway double daring you to stop or hit them. If you stop they move right in. Which is their strategy. Another thing they like to do is to use intersections for going round about. I mean, pulling not just a U Turn but a 90, 180, 270, or maybe even a 360 because they are confused and remembered they were going the right way.

So, you have lanes on the road. Taxis will sort of drive between the lines, but then the scooters will drive on the dashed lines. So, on a four lane road all heading in the same direction this is what you have across the road, 4 cars in their lanes, 3 scooters on each dashed line separating the lanes, and on the shoulder of the road, another two lanes of scooters. All driving like a bat out of hell. Maybe 6 inches of space between each vehicle driving at 100 KPH.

Cab drivers might be 100 years old with bad vision. You will know this when you ride with them because they will go 20 KPH. But they get you there via the most efficient method because they are afraid to be on the roads themselves.

Greg did make me ride a bike about 20K on Friday during rush hour on Orchard Road. You need to understand, Singapore is the most crowded country in the world with around 10000 people per square mile.

But I foiled his plot and survived.

For your enjoyment, Singapore puts down lines on the road for drunk drivers.

Part 3

I must say thanks to Greg and Alyssa for their hospitality.

Beer was great. Tiger beer is very good. Food was great, I tried new stuff and a lot of seafood and Asian food. Met some fun people in John, Rika, Junco, Alan, Trent, and Michael.

I did more stuff in the time I was there than most Singaporeans have done in their lifetime.

If I could find my list of stuff Greg had planned for us, but here is stuff I can remember,

Drank Sake in Tokyo on my way there

Greg's neighborhood bar and their darn good rock band on Friday night's

Saturday mornings

Orchid Gardens, Orchid is the national flower of Singapore with over 700 species

Watching American Beauty with Greg and John and getting very drunk on wine, champagne,

and beer

Night Safari at Singapore Zoo

Singapore Turf Club, John cleaned up, Alyssa picked winner on last race

Brunch at Sentosa

Beer Pong at Sentosa with an American walking by and saying with unbelievable aplomb,

"BEER PONG!!"

Put my feet in the Singapore River (Greg has not done that! Too dangerous he says.)

Dinner at Hawking Stands at Newton's Circus

Chinatown

Little India

Beer Drinking on Emerald Hill

Brunch at Fullerton

Having a Singapore Sling at the place it was invented, Long Bar at Raffles

My first Full Body massage and Facial. The facial was with an attractive Korean

woman(my eyes were covered and I could not ogle her), but the full body massage

was not quite up to my fantasy standards. Can you say Mongolian Mud Wrestler?

Running the stairs at Ft Canning a few times, Greg ran more than me.

I did have fun, otherwise I would not have gone.

How many people can say they rode a bike down the middle of one of the busiest roads in the world with Islamic women drivers behind the wheel? Not to mention, the blind cab drivers!! Great story.

Greg is winning the contest for biggest risk taker.

Not only does he run with the bulls, he rides a bike in Singapore.