i was watching an episode of a travel show on the fine living channel this morning, called any given latitude. i must say, i did like the host - she was less square than most of the other travel show guides (um, rick steves and rudy maxa, anyone?). as it's my first time watching, i'm not sure if she is always the host or not. anyway, she was in singapore, a destination i had never really considered before... well, add it to the ever-growing list! our lovely host convinced me that i would love the mix of cultural influences from malaysia, india, and china. i also liked the idea of it as a tidy, well-maintained city with plenty of more rural islands like pulau ubin that are just a short boat hop away... you could take a ferry for $2, and rent a bike for $2 when you get there to explore the island with. and you could try all sorts of exotic fruits in a street market, or hang around their chinatown for the day. and english is common, of course, due to it's history as a british colony until the 1960's.
she went to this crazy aquarium place on the island of santoso (?) called underwater world that has glass tunnels that you can walk through as the sealife swims all around you. oh, and you can swim with pink dolphins. wait, pink dolphins? yes, pink dolphins! have you ever heard of such a thing? actually they are called indo-pacific humpbacked dolphins, and they are actually not as cute as they sound. oh well. whaddayagonnado. (ps - their website describes it as a "heart-melting moment" that is "educational cum enjoyable". ick - that's a pleasant way to put it...)
there was mention of a flea market on pasar lane in little india, which sounded interesting. i love me a flea market! also in little india, there were these beautiful flower garlands that are made for hindu devotion temples... beautiful.
and there was also this crazy beautiful, ultra-modern space age restaurant designed by adam d. tihany (the designer of per se in NYC, as well as plenty of other amazing looking restaurants around the world) that seems like it would only be done right in asia. it's called the line, located in the shangri-la hotel ($375 a night! eek...), and it seems to be a buffet to the extreme, with 16 gourmet food stations throughout the restaurant.
and of course we'd have to go, as she did, to the raffles hotel to have the famous singapore sling cocktail.
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