singapore

we are only in singapore for 3 days and 2 nights, which is plenty of time to be here. it is very clean and pretty, but it is also uber-modern with a mall every 100 feet. it just feels like a city. i could be in la, sydney, nyc and not know the difference. annette hates it here. i wouldn't say that i hate it, but i am pretty nonplussed. we are staying in chinatown, which is a pretty cool area, although there is not much to do if you don't want to shop. yesterday i walked to east coast park and got to bike for a few hours near the water, which was simply lovely. i also got to race some kids on their bikes. there is something quite gratifying about beating 3 year-olds on their tricycles. my ego was definitely stroked. i have been drinking a lot of coffee (there are coffee bean and tea leaf coffee shops everywhere!) and doing lots of crossword puzzles. this is a very expensive city and so there is not too much that i want to spend my money on. this is the first place since australia where we have had to stay in dorms. being in places like india, thailand, cambodia we could get our own rooms (granted they were not the fanciest or cleanest) for 3-5 dollars. here we are paying 15 dollars to share a room with 8 other people. but tonight we leave for bali. and go figure, the airline that we were on canceled the segment from singapore to denpasar, so we have to fly through tokyo from singapore to get to bali. what normally should be a 2 hour flight, is going to take us 24 hours (with a 10 hour layover in tokyo). oh, the joys of airline travel. at least i get to catch up on my tv. :)