SINGAPORE

Chris and I spent this morning making plans and flight reservations for our next major destination: The wilds of Borneo! We then walked a few blocks to Sim Lim Square, a chaotic seven-story mall consisting entirely of electronics stores(!), because gadget guy Chris is thinking of buying an underwater camera housing. After looking around at all the shiny things for awhile, I got antsy and decided to do some sightseeing (Chris doesn't have much of an interest in big cities, so I left him to wander in electronics wonderland).

First I took the MRT (Singapore's clean and efficient subway) to City Hall station and walked around the Colonial District, which contains remnants of Singapore's British past including impressive City Hall and Supreme Court buildings, museums, and in the middle of it all, a large Cricket Ground (of course). I also visited Singapore's memorial to its civilian victims of WWII (many residents were killed during the Japanese occupation), a solemn white spire in the center of the city.

I then made the obligitory pilgrimage to Singapore's most famous landmark: the Merlion. This is a big statue on the harborfront of a half-mermaid, half-lion beast shooting water out of its mouth like a firehose, and it's the most retarded-looking thing I've ever seen! Apparently it was the demented creation of Singapore's tourism board back in the sixties, which might explain things (they must have all been on some serious hallucinogens). I guess the lion part makes sense (singapura means "lion city"), but the fish tail is just weird. I guess it was kind of a success in that it's given Singapore a mascot, albeit a stupid one. Anyway, like all the other sheeple, I took a bunch of pictures of it.

Tonight after meeting up with Chris again, we had dinner at a pan-Asian food court near our hostel, where we met a chatty local named Ro who gave us tips on taking bus, trains, and planes to various places in Malaysia.

People met today:

• Alex from France, and
• Jeffrey from the U.S. (specifically, Maine).

Both really nice guys who we're sharing a dorm room with.