Greetings from Singapore!

For those of you recent joiners, after a quick return/stop-over in Bangkok for an evening and 1/2 a day, we have now been in Singapore since the evening of the 6th. After spending almost 2 1/2 weeks in Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia, we must admit it is nice to be back in a "westernized" environment - everything is SO clean and pristine, it's really amazing and makes me wonder why we shouldn't be so strict in the US.

Our first night here, we were craving some non-Asian food (aka good, old-fashioned western food), so we found a place that was known for their ribs - and yes, they were pretty darn good (not Tony Roma's good, but good). We left feeling fully satisfied and ready to take on another several meals of the rice and noodle sort. Yesterday, we mostly spent the day walking around and enjoying the super-clean streets and no-pollution air of Singapore. We also enjoyed a short (and pretty cheesy) river cruise, which included about 5-10 minutes of actual substance on the history and surroundings of the city and the remaining 40 minutes on really bad fluff from the pre-recorded, American-accented tour guide background commentary, in addition to some good songs thrown in.

We rounded out the afternoon with some shopping at a few of the 100+ malls on the famous shopping area of Orchard Road, conveniently on the street where our hotel is located; Mary Beth found a couple of things, but the real shopping didn't happen until we were on our way back to the hotel and I agreed to 'look' at one of the tailor shops (Singapore is famous for well-priced, tailor-made suits and shirts). Well, as these things always turn out, even though I really wasn't planning on getting anything, we finally left, but not before the purchase of a new suit and four dress shirts. The most impressive thing is that this was last night, and everything will be sewn up and ready by tomorrow morning - amazing.

Finally, we finished the day in proper high-Singaporean (tourist) fashion by each having a Singapore Sling at its birthplace - the famous, and very ritzy, Raffles Hotel:

(the very elegant Miss Mary Beth in front of the Raffles Hotel)

(the two of us having a Singapore Sling at the Raffles' Long Bar)

Being that ever since I have known her Mary Beth has always hated zoos (thanks to a bad experience at a very young age at the Dallas Zoo in the August sweltering heat; a trip which included a maimed toe due to some sort of stroller accident...), I was pretty shocked when she agreed to go to the famous Singapore Zoo with me today. Overall, it was pretty cool and likely the greatest zoo I will see in my lifetime. But let's be honest, zoos never seem to be as fun as you remembered them as a kid. Nevertheless, it was still neat to see the lions and tigers:

Tonight, we hope to make it down to Chinatown for dinner and be back in time to watch the opening ceremonies at 8:00 pm, on this 8th day, of the 8th month of this year, that being two thousand, and oh yes, 8.