royalty? might as well be.

this is too easy.

i woke up this morning at 7:30, and, as the last three days have been, i couldn't go back to sleep. alex was up when i went to the couch, and i posted the blog. chris and kat woke up and we had a wonderful breakfast: toad in a hole, bacon, baked beans, coffee and bloody marys. we topped off the morning with a four-hour trip to the pool, basking in the sun.

after our rough tan, we all came upstairs, worked out our itinerary for tomorrow's trip, and went to muslimtown for some shopping. alex and i meant to get a few things for monktown, but things just weren't as cheap here as we'd like-- we'll get better deals in malaysia and thailand.


the four of us met up with alex's cousin for dinner and we went to the hawker center in chinatown.


a. chinatown is crazier than china.
b. i'm not kidding.


alex's cousin, lora, who spent a semester in beijing, even attested to this. the streets were soo crowded we could hardly move. we arrived at the hawker center and agreed on dinner: a hawker center is basically a huge food court with each stall specializing in different dishes. by huge food court i mean over 100 stalls. our choice? rice (duh). chicken. pork. duck. and stingray. to answer your question, it was fantastic.


we left the hawker center and attempted to go to clark quay for drinks, but ran into a minor problem-- a parade. for what? the chinese new year.


by the way: the chinese new year isn't for three more weeks.


they're just as crazy about it here as you've always heard. there are signs all over singapore for the new year and decorations in tons of stores. that's my kind of new year: three weeks long. at least it's my year: the year of the tiger. go on china, party up. :)




..




it's 9.30 at night now. we just finished some ice cream and cookies, but alex and i have to be up by 3.30 in the morning to make sure we hit the train by 4.30 to make it up to taman negara. next stop: dead center rainforest. glad i've been taking my malaria pills.














Y rae. racho. d.