I see why this is the destination for our "rest and relaxation" trip. It's a nice change from India. It has given us ample room for thought on why countries are different from each other and the like. It's hard to make sense of why India is so different from this place. Perhaps the future of India will be more like this. Will that be a good thing? I suppose in some ways. In other ways, no.
Some more pictures....
^ The boys checking out a place along the waterfront where you choose your meal from a tank and proceed to chow down.
This place serves the cooked duck with the head still on. It seems very honest to eat like this, I suppose.
^ The family by one of Singapore's many skylines.
^ The merlion is the symbol of Singapore. This is Aidan and Jonah catching the plume of water from a great distance. Pretty cool, huh?
^ Jonah decided he did not like his haircut. He chopped his bangs off again. We did not respond with giving him a buzz cut. It's kind of cute and funny, but one wonders when he will stop doing this.
^ One place where we went was the Raffles Hotel. Built in the Victorian era, it went into decline after WWII. It has had a renaissance since 1991, when it was refurbished. It was very beautiful and made one feel the prior era, one that always has an appeal to the historian in me. Tara was enthralled. Dad - we got you golf tees from this place, we'll bring them this summer. This is the birthplace of the Singapore Sling, you can see Tara sucking one down.
This place was a haunt for Joseph Conrad, Somerset Maugham, James Mitchener, Noel Coward, Liz Taylor, Queen Elizabeth the Second, George Bush the First, Lord Mountbatten and a host of others. There are pictures of them in the hotel's museum. Mitchener is one of my favorite authors, and I have always had a strange affinity for Lord Mountbatten - so, it was great to see these guys in this setting. A really nice hotel it was.
^ The boys finished the day in the pool at our apartment complex.
Overall, a good day. Very nice city.
