Wonderful murals abound
Hello from Singapore, Southeast Asia's financial center. After traveling for 24 hours through 13 time zones, we arrived at Singapore's magnificent Changi airport at 8 AM. Feeling like space cadets, since we could not check into our hotel at that hour, we decided to take public transportation into town. We took the 45 minute train ride, which dropped us off in Chinatown, where our hotel is located.
Our KeSa House hotel in the evening
It was a good ten minute walk to get there. The heat and humidity added much discomfort to these two sleepy bodies, but we made it, and the staff was happy to let us store our bags until check-in time. At the front desk, an unlikely event happened. A young European couple was checking-out at the same time, when the young man asked me "Are you Italian?". I said "yes, how do you know?" He replied that he saw my phone holder in the colors of Sampdoria, the soccer team I am a fan of since the 1950s. "Oh, you know the team?", I said. He said, "Of course, my brother is one of their players". Turns out he is the brother of Kristoffer Askildsen, a Norwegian midfielder on the time for the past four or so years. He asked if he could take a picture of me holding the phone cover so he could send it to Kristoffer. I also took a picture with them, while looking in every way the way I felt, sweaty and exhausted. It seems that I keep having Sampdoria-related events happening on our trips.
Kristoffer Askildsen's brother and his girlfriend.
By then it was almost lunch time, so we checked out the area and decided to stop in a place that served Chinese BBQ skewers. It was quite good. It provided enough energy for us to stroll around Chinatown for a couple of hours, visiting markets and temples. Visiting Chinatown was on our to-do list anyway. It's an amazing place, with aromas emanating from the multitude of dining spots, lively markets, and amazing Buddhist and Hindu temples. I decided to forego carrying my camera around, so any pics taken today were taken from my android.
The Sausage man
So many simply amazing murals!
This fruit is called Durian. It has the most awful, disgusting smell. Many places, including the trains have signs that state "No Durians". People claim that, when cooked it tastes as good as it smells foul. Maybe we'll try it someday.
This Hindu temple is right next door to our hotel
The temples are amazing. We were particularly impressed by the Buddha Tooth Temple, claiming to hold a 4,000+ year-old denticle of Buddha himself. No photo could convey the atmosphere while Buddhist scholars sang their mesmerizing hymns.
The Buddha Tooth Temple
Buddhist scholars chanting
At long last we were able to check-in. While we did not want to, we ended up sleeping until past 9PM. I was surprised that Diane was willing to go out at that hour, so we did just that. Had some scrumptious waffles and ice cream, walked around the neighborhood a bit, did some breakfast shopping for the morning, and were agape at all the ultra luxurious Porsches, Mercedes, top of the line BMWs, Maseratis and Rolls Royces. This is after all where the movie Crazy Rich Asians was filmed. It is now 1AM, and time for some very serious sleep. Thanks for following us along this new journey. Talk to you all tomorrow.
Just one of the many Crazy Rich Asians of Singapore
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