Saturday, May 10, 2008

Singapore

Here I am in Singapore (for a conference). For the first three nights, I've been staying in a hostel called Sleepy Sam's Bed & Breakfast, located near the Sultan Mosque. In this photo, Sleepy Sam's appears in green on the left:

Sultan Mosque (with Sleepy Sam's in green on left)

On the first full day, I remained in the neighborhood of the hostel, visiting the Malay Cultural Centre, followed by a few Hindu temples in Little India:

Sri Perumal Temple

I thought of entering the MRT (subway) at one point to get away from the heat, but it turned out this was impossible since I was carrying a bag of durian slices:

MRT regulations

The durian, incidentally, was disappointing (nothing like Thailand).

On the second day, I went for a jog in the morning (5:30 am) along the Marina Promenade. This was nothing really to write home about; portions of the promenade were blocked off for construction, and I ended up running part way in the middle of the road. After two breakfasts (Penang stewed noodle + the hostel breakfast of toast and fruit), I walked over to the Asian Civilizations Museum, where I encountered a Late Tang Luoyang epitaph on display (which was very cool since I'm into Late Tang epitaphs these days):

DSCN6662

At lunch time, I strolled down the Singapore River, looking for food:

Singapore River

The restaurants on the bank of the river seemed overpriced, but I found a South Indian restaurant one street off the river.

That evening, I met two colleagues (Khee Heong and Von Glahn) for a dinner of Hainan-style chicken.

In subsequent days, I will be occupied with the conference, and probably won't post any additional information. I'll be moving out of Sleepy Sam's and into the university visitor's lodge later today.

2 Comments:

At 1:38 AM, Blogger i gotta go! said...

hi nick! :) i'll be going to singapore soon, and was thinking of staying in sleepy sam's. i was hoping you can give me an idea on how the rooms are.

i've been checking online reviews, and they're pretty mixed. couldn't really help me decide. hope you could help me out. :) thanks!

 
At 10:42 PM, Blogger i gotta go! said...

thanks so much for your response! :) i've just sent an email to sleepy sam's, inquiring about room availability for their private room. hope you're enjoying your travels!

 

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