Campbell Girls: Singapore

Good day everyone. It is my second weekend in Singapore and all is still well. I am currently sitting on the 18th floor of my hotel enjoying a very green view. I can see flowers, fish (a koi pond, I believe), traffic (pretty much constant), and more tall buildings.

I spent 3 days this week in Bangalore, India. It is hard to explain India, although, it makes China look calm and civilized. I think I was in Bangalore (population of over 8 million) for almost a whole day before I saw my first stop light. Imagine the chaos of all these people driving with no traffic lights or order, and that is what it felt like. Another interesting fact, is that there are almost no street signs, so the locals have to know where they are going in order to get anywhere.

On my way to work the first day, I saw poverty, people with no shoes, lots of motorcycles, cows in the road, etc. And, they honk. They honk to tell you to move, to tell you that they are there, and ... Because it is a habit. Very loud. However, once in the office, you couldn't really tell the difference from any other country (except that the electricity would go out during the day and the backup generators would kick on).

Several of the highlights included ... A ride in a Mercedes S class (very expensive), sat in a Tata Nano ( a car for masses that is under $3,000 USD), ate a Maharaja Bic Mac at the local McDonalds and tried my hand/eye coordination in a cricket batting cage.

I got back to Singapore early Thursday morning (3 a.m.). Worked in the Singapore office the rest of the week. On Friday night on the way home, I rode the local train system. Pretty cool once I figured it out. Singapore has a very elaborate train and bus system, that takes these electronic cards that track where you go ... So I had to figure out how that worked. I survived and made it to where I was wanting to go. Asians love to squeeze into the train though, so at one point I think was was touching like 5 people on all sides of me, and some were much closer that was comfortable.

Kristin shows up Sunday night (my time). Pray that her travels go well. Went to church last week at a church of Christ that holds both a Chinese and English service at the same time. Nice size congregation. I will go to a different one tomorrow just to check it out. I took a long walk this weekend at a botanical garden. Very nice, but I was sweating by the time I was done at 11:15.

In case you hadn't heard, we signed a 2 year rental agreement on our house in Peoria. Less that 24 hours on the market. What a blessing.

Picture - inside Singapore's airport, rated as one of the best airports in the world. Includes free movie theater, a swimming pool, a 3 story slide, and LOTS of shopping. I saw a watch that would cost about $30,000 (I didn't buy it).

Pictures - driving to the office in India. People walking, rough rode, and yes, a cow calmly hanging out. We had to stop for cows quite a bit, and this is in the city. They wander back home when they want food, but other than that ... They just wander.