Guest Blogger - Sandeebeee

Melanie’s father is writing today.

Sue and I arrived in Singapore 6 days ago.
If Mel or Matt have given you an invitation to visit them do take them up on it! They have lots of room (compared to Manhattan) and things are very interesting here.
Some observations:

1. Everyone told us to fly first class. We didn’t. We survived. Easily. Lots of hours, with a rushed change of planes in Tokyo. Sue could’ve practiced her Japanese, but didn’t.
2. Some things are expensive here. Our suitcases were loaded with requested peanut butter and a ton of books.
3. Starbucks all over, but Sue is enjoying local coffee shops. 1/5 the cost and just as much caffeine.
4. Melanie has written about how well the country works. Clean, safe. Don’t need car. Is that really English they’re speaking?
5. Have visited lots of places here. Saw Matt’s workplace—no photos allowed for security reasons. Very impressive. Visited Asian Civilizations Museum—excellent. Lots of malls—way to stay cool and see things. One huge mall even has multiple theatres with performances by internationally acclaimed entertainers. David Copperfield just canceled. Go figure.
6. Went to Pulau Ubin. (Melanie probably wrote about this). Natural beauty island not far away. Saw monkeys, wild pigs, neat fish, huge lizards. We hiked, rather than rent broken down bikes.
7. Spotting lots of iPod ear buds on the street. Jer, hold APPL.
8. Have eaten in many different restaurants. Great Indian food. “Street food” (from hawker stalls) very tasty and amazingly cheap. We order by looking at pictures because we don’t know what any of the names mean. Lots of variety. Dinner for 4 for less than $20. Yet in a nicer waterfront restaurant a soft drink is over $4 US. Same restaurant/bar priced beer based on what time you buy it. Four different prices from $5 to $14 for a pint. Alcohol taxed heavily.
9. I bought 89 cents worth of bananas and was only charged 85 cents. To eliminate pennies they round DOWN.
10. Soft drinks available in cans and on street for about 60 cents US. We’re enjoying the lime juice. Tried sugar cane juice. Some drink places have soft drinks for 20 cents less if you get them WITH ice.
11. I had read about the foul smelling fruit called durian. Once, when I was really warm I saw a popsicle for sale that was durian flavor. I decided to take a chance—how bad could it be? I had 2 bites. Couldn’t try any more. Burped once per minute for the next 3 hours. Tasted like diesel fuel. Melanie says it’s an acquired taste.
12. Lots of dental offices here. Prominent signs offering whitening in all of them. Have seen many people missing several teeth—especially older, poor-looking people.
13. Played (rooftop) tennis twice with Melanie. Each time, the heat shortened our outing. She’s getting good. She tells me Matt’s getting amazingly good. Sue’s resting her knee, getting ready for upcoming Thailand trek.
14. Just outside our condo door is the huge swimming pool. Very refreshing.
15. Matt and Mel are living very “green”. They rarely use their air conditioners. (Sue keeps repositioning their fans to fully cover the chair she’s sitting in.) They shower turning the water on and off intermittently. (Their showers have “flash” hot water heaters.) They turn off electrical transformers for devices not being used. Before I left home, I turned off my cable modem so my neighbor would realize she’s been using my internet WIFI.

All in all, very interesting. As I’m finishing this, (watching game 4 of the World Series), Sue’s talking to cousin Judy. Sue says she loves the way our kids have adapted to living here. And then she adds, “it’s really hot.”