Singapore Dream Revisited

Goh & Samantha – Singapore Dream

My friends Goh and Samantha stayed at my house while they were on their RTW trip last year. We met in Ushuaia, the tip of South America, during Christmas of 2008. They stayed at my house and my good friends Gary and Heather’s house in Austin while they did some badly needed maintenance on their Africa Twin. I told them that one day I’d come and visit them, which I’m sure they heard many times… but sure enough, I showed up!

They were excellent hosts and really made my trip to Singapore special.

Singapore is a hypermodern city. It is the future. Everything is perfectly clean and orderly. As opposed to the rest of the places I’ve visited in Asia, traffic rules are obeyed. This stretches well beyond speedlimits, but pedestrian traffic. Everyone even waits to cross the road! Crosswalks in Bangkok are a joke!

Their transit system is superior. The public housing system is completely orthaganol to the one in the USA. Public housing in the USA is something that most citizens are afraid to visit. The public housing in Singapore were spotless, crime free, and actually nice. I don’t know what Singapore is doing right and what we’re doing wrong, but we have alot to learn from them with regards to public housing.

Soo tasty.

Food. Food!!! FOOD!!!!!!! The food in Singapore did not let me down, when I was in Vietnam they told me wonderful thinks about this food so I had it always in my mind, You can also enjoy river cruises in Vietnam – see this Mekong River guide it helped me tons on my trip. So anyway this food reminded me of home in that there is no “Singaporean food”, but real singaporean food is collection of the foods of the people who live there. Like at home, we’d sit and discuss, “Which type of food do we want tonight? Do we have a site that tells us the best food spots around here?” In the USA, it is Mexican, Southern, Italian, or French. In Singapore it is Chinese (all types too), Indian, Malaysian (often “Muslim food”), or Western food. I tried all types of cuisines and felt like I was traveling all over Asia and even back home when eating Western Food. I was shocked by how good the western food was in Singapore. I had a really good steak there on my second visit!

Second visit? More on that later.

Samantha took me all over Singapore and was an excellent tour guide while I tortured her by making her speak English constantly. I met up with tons of G&S’s friends and biker buddies. They’re really lucky to have such good friends. I can see why even though they’ve traveled all over the world and seen so many things that they want to return to their little island of Singapore. It is only little in size, but big in friends and culture.

Legendary Singapore ZOO!

The worst part about Singapore. Durian fruits are everywhere!! That is a posed smile. They’re a nasty and foul fruit.

James (who drove to the base of Mt. Everest on his GS!!) treated us to easily the best meal of my trip and one of the best meals of my life. It was a seafood feast ranging from Chili Crab to fried calamari. The 4th frame is from another night out with the biker crew

Look at all those container ships

Goh Invited me as his guest to his friend’s wedding. It was an amazing time that featured shark fin soup. A very special treat… full of crab meat too!

Fun night out in Singapore

Fun night out in Singapore

Fun night out in Singapore

I returned to Singapore for a second time when my little sister visited me from the USA.  She first flew into Bangkok then we took the train to Chiang Mai.  We then flew to Singapore.  Here’s Singapore part II!

Lauren flew from the USA to visit me!! I’ve been bad at staying on top of photography, so this is our only picture together during the trip. It was great to see you LMG!

Bone goodness.

My birthday feast of Sup Tulang. Tasty marrow and a tiny bit of meat with a HUGE mess.  Everything was orange even the next day.  Happy 32!!