First day in Singapore, and i'm not exactly liking it that much. I'm really hot and uncomfortable in moving from 12 to 26 degrees. It was snowing in Japan just a few days ago! The hostel is friendly, but there are a tad too many ants and fleas for my liking. So far i have been to Chinatown, which was quite interesting as i visited a Chinese temple, a Hindu temple and then a mosque within about 10 minutes of each other. The architecture is an interesting mixture as are the different people, but its just not gelling together for me. The sights seem to have become a bit Disney. I ride the subway and arrive in different pockets of Asia each time, but it all seems a bit Epcot. I had lunch in a market in Chinatown where they sold live toads and tortoises in horrible conditions. I bought some duck and rice and settled down to eat and found the guy selling it was watching me eat/grimmace at every bite (there was more bone and grissle than meat). He was determined to chat with me about China and its relationship with the world. His conversation was considerably better than his food!

I sought a cable car ride up a mountain to view the city in the hope that the full skyline would better gel the experiences and neighbourhoods together for me. Unfortunately it was shut, so i headed back to Little India where my hostel is - i'm already bored of the men staring at any white woman that passes by. That reminds me of a conversation with a guy in the mosque. He was telling about Islam generally and then started going on for ages about sex and marriage. He kept referring to how we are naturally attracted to each other because we are human and that is the natural way, but we don't touch each other because we have control and order(and can think of plenty of other reasons why i didn't!). I couldn't get away from the conversation fast enough! Fortunately he moved on to the architecture of the mosque and i was able to escape and explore it for myself.

I've signed up for a trip to the zoo tonight for a night safari. Its supposed to be great fun so hopefully it will improve my opinion of things. Right now, i'm liking ice cold beer and the music in Little India. Until tonight i think i'll just sit at the bar with a drink and a beer and think of things i could be doing in Japan! Sigh