Singapore

We had to leave Indonesia in order to renew our visas, so we traveled to Singapore. Unfortunately, the day we arrived was also the last day of the Singapore Air Show and so most of the hotels were full. We ended up in a seedy hotel in the red-light district. Walking to the subway was an experience in the middle of the afternoon so we made sure to use taxi when we returned in the evening. Fortunately, we were able to find a better hotel downtown for the next two nights. The hotel was very close to Orchard Rd., which is the famous shopping street of Singapore. Walking down Orchard Rd. was quite an experience, with mall beside mall. And most of the malls had large boutique stores such as Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Cartier, Prada, etc.

What we did appreciate were the book stores. I was able to buy a few books for my work at the university while Lori was able to buy books for Katie's school. Books are one of the main things that we miss here in Indonesia. My university's library is very limited and Katie's school's library is in pretty sad shape. It is very difficult to find English language books here and so any chance to buy books is important.

We had hoped to visit the zoo but circumstances conspired against us and it didn't work out. We got our visas and flew back to Indonesia this morning. Lori and I both agreed that it was nice to be home and it was even more interesting that we now feel that this is home.