Bouncer at a night club in Singapore zapping Eunmi with a Swine Flu temperature reading gun. Pump was the name of this bar. They had a pretty good cover band playing.

I was the next victim of the Swine Flu Gun.

Singapore is known for having some of the best chili crab in Singapore.  Jumbo was strongly recommended and revered as one of the better seafood restaurants in Singapore. This restaurant is known for having some of the best chili crab town.  Eunmi had been talking about chili crab in Singapore for a month, so this portion of the trip was unavoidable.

Eunmi has finally reached the promiseland. She was concentrating on the menue as if she had to make a mid-crisis decision. I was not allowed to talk during this time.

Snapshot of the pot of gold. We ate way too much.

Eunmi in bliss.  The little brown things on the white plate were fried baby squid. I thought I ordered calamari. They tasted more like fried grasshoppers.

View of a harbor in Singapore at night.

The crane-looking structures on the right are part of one of those bunjee-launch things that you find at fairs and carnivals.

With a name like that, how can you resist?

Two “screaming multiple orgasms.”

Alcohol is really expensive in Singapore. Almost outrageous. These two drinks were $20 USD each. And that was a weekday night in a bar, not a night club.

You’ve never been to Singapore but you think its clean because you heard about the kid getting caned for spitting out a piece of gum on the ground? You’re absolutely right. I don’t know if there’s no garbage because everyone is so civilized in Singapore, or if everybody is just scared of getting caned. Whatever the case, their policies are effective. There isn’t a single piece of garbage on the ground.

Singapore is a gorgeous city. Everything in the city seems well designed. We spent most of the day just walking from place to place with an occasional train ride. Singapore isn’t geographically a huge city, but it is populous with 5 million people. It’s a city/country kind of like what Hong Kong was before it rejoined China. The entire country is tiny – only 275 square miles (that’s basically a 16 mile by 16 mile square). It ranks 3rd in the world for population density. However, the city didn’t feel overcrowded at any point during my visit.

Lots of construction.

Statue of Sir Stamford Raffles, the British stateman known as the “Father of Singapore.” He is credited for vastly expanding the British Empire, and founding Singapore (the “lion city”) in a strategically advantageous location for trade. Today, Singapore is the 2nd busiest port in the world.

The famous and historical Raffles Hotel. Widely regarded as the most luxurious hotel in Singapore. The entire street level of the hotel is full of luxury shops. If you love expensive purses, this is definately the spot. If you have a girlfriend who loves expensive purses, stayaway from here.

Another nice hotel with sports cars being tropy parked. I think this one may have been the Four Seasons.

Interior of a Ferrari F430 with the steering wheel on the right side.  You drive on the left side of the road in Singapore. Probably since it was colonized by Britain, similar to Hong Kong.

While eating at an Indian restaurant in Little India, I took this photo since it was a pretty good sample of diversity in Singapore. Lots of Indians, Eastern Asians (particularly of Chinese descent), Malaysians, and Westerners.

Indian woman in traditional robe.

Street view during a weekday in Little India.

Kerbau Road in Little India, Singapore.

Indian woman shopping in a market for vegetables.

Indian shop owner selling decorations of some sort.

“Civil Defence” truck. Looks like a fire truck os some sort given the pipes and valves in the back of the truck. Can’t hold much water, so lets hope the fire is within proximity of a fire hydrant.

For some reason, “Kee” is everywhere in branding of restaurants and food in Singapore and Malaysia. Here’s a good one.

That’s the Merlion in Merlion Park, Singapore. A Singaporean icon, the Merlion is an imaginary creature that is half fish, half lion (not as cool as the Liger). This is the original Merlion, one of only 5 Merlions in Singapore. Two are located in Merlion Park. This is the biggest of them all, weighing 40 tons.

An eager bystander waiting to see what happens next.

He is rewarded with my huge head filling the hole in the Merlion.

A close-up of my humongous head peeking through the Merlion. I was hoping for a better photo – you can’t really see my face. However, by the size of my head, you can clearly tell it’s me.

You had to be there to understand why I really enjoy this photo. The Merlion is huge, and its sort of the centerpiece of the area. Everybody there is looking at the Merlion. Everybody knows you can’t break rules in Singapore, there are signs everywhere. Everybody knows about caning in Singapore.

Eunmi told me she didn’t want to involve herself in any illegal activity like taking a picture of me with my head peeking through the statue. I finally convinced her that I’m going to jump up on the statue and if I get arrested and sentenced to getting caned, she can continue on the trip without me. She finally unwillingly agreed.

People love getting their picture taken with the Merlion. I like the woman posing on the far right side of the photo above.

That’s the little sibling of the big Merlion, here at Merlion Park.

Eunmi looking glamorous in the lobby of the Intercontinental Hotel in Singapore.

Singapore is really expensive. At the same time, its also really nice. So, we decided that Singapore was the one place where we would splurge on our trip. We looked at a few nice hotels, but in the end, we decided to stay at the Intercontinental Hotel due to its proximity to everywhere we wanted to be. Really can’t complain about any part of our stay at the hotel. Definately would stay there again.

That’s me looking really lazy. It had been a while since laying on a nice bed. Pretty sure I passed out within a few seconds of my my head touching the bed.

Bathroom was nice. It had a nice jacuzzi tub, but we both opted for the shower on the other side of the bathroom.

The pool felt especially nice since it was so dang hot in Singapore. Probably about 85 degrees Fahrenheit with high humidity. Actually felt more like 95 degrees.  Mostly business folks staying at the hotel, so we had the pool area pretty much to ourselves.

I can’t remember if this photo was taken from the pool or our hotel room, but you can see how commercialized Singapore is, but how nice it looks at the same time. Lots of trees on the hotel grounds as well as the public streets. No evidence of garbage or filth anywhere.

Bar lounge area at the hotel. Nice and quiet with lots of light.