The foreign life

       New rules. I have to learn the rules. It can be confusing sometimes. But I get by. So far.

This picture was sitting at the front desk of our hotel. I wondered what they had against prickly balloons. I wasn't going to ask, my imagination was having a good time with this one. Turns out that reality is pretty amusing too. The sign means no dogs and no durian. The front desk clerk one durian fruit can stink up the entire hotel. I looked it up. Here's what the Smithsonian website said:

If you’ve smelled a durian even once, you probably remember it. Even with the husk intact, the notorious Asian fruit has such a potent stench that it’s banned on the Singapore Rapid Mass Transit. Food writer Richard Sterling has written “its odor is best described as…turpentine and onions, garnished with a gym sock. It can be smelled from yards away.”

It looks like this:

Do you see those short little boats? They are ferries. They hold about 20 people each, and you have to crouch to go inside. They tip a lot, you have to move slowly and choose carefully which side you sit on. The cost is less than a dollar, and the trip is less than 2 minutes. A pretty cool experience, most people inside are smiling like it's a great adventure. 

The big gold building is so close, but we haven't walked to it yet. Maybe tomorrow. There is a new bridge we can walk, if we can get out on a shady day. The trick is to walk, then find air conditioning and cool off, then walk some more.

We thought we were walking to a Chinese temple or something. Turns out it is the city hall. What a hot walk, but worth it. We just followed the peak from our hotel room.

There are some tall official looking buildings, and there are many more multitudes of haphazard store fronts. It's keeps my eyes busy. I love it!