Singapore is one big shopping mall. It's like all of the best of California squeezed into a city the size of L.A. But it's cleaner, newer and more expensive. With McDonald's, Denny's, Mrs. Field's, Starbucks, Esprit and the Gap we have to remind ourselves that we're in the far east, 7,000 miles from home. Outside of the downtown area, there are miles of high-rise condos.

The cars are impeccably clean, right down to the dump trucks, cement trucks and tractors which are washed on the job site before rolling onto a public streets. Driving is in restricted area's only and special permits are required to go from residential to financial, shopping or other districts. This limits driving and cab opportunities from one section of town to the next. For a populated big city the air is incredibly OK to breath unlike other cities we have experienced throughout the world and US. We have never experienced so much air conditioning (aircon to the Singaporeans) in fact on some streets you can feel it blasting out of the buildings. We met up with a Singapore friend we met in Greece, YunYun Teo, who is a reporter. She interviewed the family and Ken about his cancer and how it changed his life and it's impetous for this adventure. She has been a great hostess and given us the personal touch tour through Singapore.

Instead of going to Sumatra as originally planned, we are leaving this afternoon via train for Melaka, Malaysia with little idea of where and what we will be doing. With the value of the currencies in these region falling, except for Singapore, we have gotten an inkling what our US dollars will get us, so the shopping just may continue out of control. If anybody has any suggestions for Malaysia or Thailand, please let us know ASAP. See you in Malaysia!

- The Grants

              
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