Monday, March 17, 2008

Singapore and Nepal

I know it sounds almost made up but for the last week Amie has been hiking around in the foothills near the Himalayas in Nepal. Amie, Cindy and Kim are all over there together having a great time. I am a little jealous but I've been having my own fun this week as well. A few days after Amie left I also left on a trip (although mine is a work trip, work trip, yeah right) and have been in in Singapore for 6 days. This post comes a little late since I've actually already left there but that isn't the point.

Singapore is a very strange place, strange in that it is NOT at all what I expected. It is a small country in South East Asia less than a mile from the equator and at the very bottom of Malaysia. The part that I found very strange is that short of the heat and humidity (which was not bad, think Hawaii) most of the time you could have very easily been in down town San Francisco. Asians, yes of course, but also tons of Americans, Brits (Poms) and every other nationality you could think of. Ok, they do drive their cars on the opposite side of the road (ex British Colony) and the food was much more diverse AND the streets were so clean you could eat off them but other than that, it was very US feeling.

I did climb the highest peek in Singapore (a small hill realy) and did go to the wild park at night to see Lions, Panthers, Bats, Spiders and everything else you can imagine that lives here including raccoons, yes, raccoons. They have them in the show, I have them in my back yard as pests but hey they also celebrate the rat over here so what are you going to do?

Despite my reputation I didn't get caned and I DID spit on the sidewalk a few times. Seat belt violation is $150, feeding the Monkeys in the park is $500 and drug smuggling brings the death penalty. It says so right on the immigration card when you enter, needless to say I left the tar heroion at home this time thank god.

Ok, I'm in Sydney now and am missing Amie a lot. The last I heard from here was a IM from here as she past through LAX. She has been out of range for over 7 days now and knowing I can't talk to her makes me want to all the more. I don't know when she'll be back in phone or internet range but I'll let you all know and will expect a large post from here then.

I'll also post on Sydney after I spend some time here and I can't wait to meet Amie in Bangkok early next week.

Also another big hello and thank you to Peter and Mary who came out from Canada to hang with Sam again while we are gone. Thanks guys, hope you are having fun with Sam and out of the snow.

Ok, got to run down to the pub. It is St. Patrick's day and I've got green on. I'll see if I can stay mildly sober before the boat cruise tonight in Sydney Harbor!

Dave