Singapore

Singapore is very clean. It is incredibly modern and developed. The big thing everyone knows about Singapore is the rules, $1000 fine for chewing gum, fines and caning for littering or jay walking. It is pretty strict country but you can easily see that it works. The roads and sidewalks are impeccable and the MRT or subway system is very clean, it is like the train in the Atlanta airport, but it goes all over the city. We were only in Singapore for a few hours, so we had to make our time count. We walked around the downtown area, we found the merlion after a long and hard trek around the city, it is a statue of a half lion half fish that spits water, it is a big spot for pictures. I had some amazing food, that was a fun experience too. The street vendors were all taken off the street and put into areas that look like food courts, called hawker centers, they are very cheap and very good. Each place has a letter grade given to it by the government that denotes its cleanliness, so you know what you're eating. While we were there we had the first thunder storm of the trip, it was a good one too, plenty of thunder crashes and lightning strikes. For dinner we went to an American bar, I had pizza and we played pool, it was nice to have a little shot of home in the middle of a major asian city. Vietnam tomorrow, as you can probably tell I am a little distracted while I write this. I will write again in a week when I'm back on the ship. Take care.