TRAVELING AROUND THE WORLD: Our Tales of Delights and Disasters by Shelley Row Page B

small group of people meditating underneath a highway overpass. It was pristine and clean – no trash, no graffiti. A Starbucks operated under the same bridge on the opposite side. We were told that there is a substantial fine ($300) for littering so people simply don’t do it. It’s amazing how pleasant it felt to stroll through such a clean place. It makes you care more.
     
    The other thing I didn’t realize about Singapore is how multi-cultural it is. The city seems to be a mixture of Chinese (the predominant culture), Malay, Thai and East Indian, with others thrown in for even more variety. There were Chinese temples, Buddhist temples, mosques and Christian cathedrals. It was a sophisticated urban environment filled with young people lapping up culture, food and drink from all over the world. We saw every type of ethnic food you can think of. For example, there was a restaurant, O’Gambino’s, which was advertised as an Irish Italian bistro bar. Figure that one out! And it was situated between Australian and German restaurants. We tried to stick to “local” foods, although I was never quite clear what was considered “local.” Would that be Malay, Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese, Korean or East Indian?
     
    We went to a “hawker” market for lunch. These markets are clusters of vendors selling all types of local cuisines – mostly in the open air. I watched a tiny man grill my chicken satay over charcoal that he fanned with a banana leaf. Mike came away with freshly steamed prawn dumplings. Awesome. One of my favorites was a dessert of fresh mango served with sticky rice and coconut milk. So yummy! Like a flavorful rice pudding. And there’s the ubiquitous Singapore Sling which originated at the Long Bar of the Raffles Hotel. We made the trek over to Raffles and discovered a charming, old hotel that reeked of old-world British culture with a top-note of Indian. So civilized. So civilized, in fact, that it felt cold and pretentious. We tried to have lunch at their outdoor café and never got service. The Long Bar was better with its dark wood interior, bamboo-leaf ceiling fans, and peanut shells on the floor. Mike watched as I nursed my Singapore Sling (they serve 800 per day on average) as we shared a tender beef kabob for lunch.
     
    Singapore is a mecca for shopping, but that was the last thing we needed to do as our luggage was already brimming over. So we walked and walked through this beautiful city. Each morning, I ran around the waterfront or through lush, spotless parks. This is the perfect place for walking. Pedestrians – unlike in Bangkok – are treated with great care. No matter the circumstances, if a pedestrian is hit it is automatically the fault of the driver. Crosswalks are meticulously signed and large urban streets have underground tunnels for pedestrian access. You could eat off the floor inside these tunnels. All the bridges have large, flower-encrusted pedestrian walkways.
     
    The weather was just as I like it – warm and humid. It was quiet in the heat of the afternoon but the riverfront came alive with activity at night. A large marina development was across from our hotel. It is connected across water by a free-standing pedestrian bridge that is wrapped in a spiral truss. The bridge springs to life at night with twinkling colored lights. All the bridges, in fact, are beautifully lit. We took an evening boat ride under a full moon, and enjoyed the lights of the towering skyscrapers and the ornamented bridges. The marina development was celebrating its grand opening, and we happened to be on the boat in front of it as they shot off fireworks. Very fun. Oh – and the boats are all electric so that cruising along the river is quiet and pollution free. Impressive.
     
    Since we weren’t shopping, what else do you do in a tropical paradise? You go to the botanical gardens. The park was huge and filled with walking trails around lakes and through a rain forest. The plant life was lush and