Golden Thai

I went to dinner last night with a new friend at a very nice Thai restaurant--the cab drives you up to door, doormen open your doors (in this case with umbrellas), and the whole affair is first rate, yet the prices are, of course, absurdly inexpensive. My companion, a bit of a connoisseur, ordered several dishes for me to sample and without fail they were all amazing. The pineapple rice comes served in a hollowed out half pineapple, the mussels surpassed all previous mussel experience and I love mussels. There were so many other plates I could not begin to remember them all but suffice it to say that when people go out to eat here, they don't hold back.

I do have email, but I cannot access it either from school or home. I have to go to an internet cafe and that is not always so convenient. I'm sorry that it has been difficult for me to get there but we work long days and depend on drivers to take us home. By the time we get to leave we are usually starving. Once home, it is difficult to find the motivation to get a cab and go out again--particularly when one has to be up at 5:30 the next morning. I will make a point to get there this week, very likely on the weekend.

In Singapore I'd met this Nepalese fellow who I could barely understand but who was so kind I gave him my email address. Last I'd checked he'd sent me 5 emails in very broken english. His were a total of 5 of the 70 that were in my inbox and so, email is just a poor way to get a hold of me right now. This problem will soon be taken care of but by that I mean the Indonesian "soon" and not the American. The Indonesian "soon" is equivalent to the American "someday."

This is the "MerLion" a creature half fish half lion which is supposed to symbollize Singapore whose name means City of the Lion, or something rather close to that. Prior to the British East India Company's establishment of trading post there in the early 19th century Singapore was home to tigers and pirates. Now it a global financial power, but as I learned last night, not even all Singaporeans go to school.

One is allowed to climb up to the mouth of this thing and look out over the city. The previous photograph was shot from that venue.