Decompressing in Singapore

It's 5:08 our and it's Tuesday the 29th. I'm sitting in a cyber café in down-town Singapore kitty-corner to Raffles Place shopping centre (sort of across the street from St. Andrew's Cathedral). Singapore is great, were having fun and doing all the touristy stuff, but it's pretty expensive (but not compared to home).

Were settled into a budget place in Chinatown on New Bridge Rd. called the "Backpackers Cozy Corner". It's not on a corner, but it is cozy and there are backpackers there. Jill and I arrived here dead tired late Friday night after spending 18 hours on our flight from Vancouver (where we had spent the previous week). The weather here hasn't been as bad as I thought it would be, it's like a hot Toronto summer day with a bit more humidity (mid 30C during the day). Singapore is very different from home but all the things from home as well (i.e.,-McDonalds in abundance and Starbucks as well). The city is far more sanitary and litter free than any I've been to, there is no graffiti or uncomfortable gangs of youths like back home. The people are generally nice with a few who have obviously seen too many tourists (but everybody speaks English - even the very ethnic Chinese). We'll be leaving for a small island off the south-east coast of peninsular Malaysia called "Tioman" on Saturday.

There are tons of touristy things to do here and spend money on, the latest of which was spending the whole day at the Singapore Zoo and Night Safari yesterday. It is unlike any Zoo I've ever seen or heard of. They have things like free roaming primates and even free roaming pythons! The time zone for us is exactly 12 hours ahead of Toronto so as I write this most of you (hopefully) are sleeping. I'll keep in touch as often as it is convenient some places in Sing are really expensive but this place is (S$5,50/hour) 1/2 the price of the last one we saw. You can buy about S$1.15 with a Canadian dollar.

Love to everyone, I hope everything is great for everybody! I'll let you all know when I run out of money. We go to Sentosa tomorrow. The Singapore International Food Festival starts on Friday so we'll catch the opening.

A.