Hazy Days

Despite the thick haze that's been clouding over Singapore & Malaysia this last week (from the Indonesian forest fires), kids yesterday thought nothing of playing with sparklers...setting potential fires in the middle of fields, for the Chinese Lantern festival. Window watching from Sean & Waten's apartment was an interesting site...apparently the indoor kitties aren't as scary as the cats that live outside my door. Here's their kitty...

Hanging out with the locals is the best part here. Local hawker centers, outdoor food courts are open late into the night and serve...well...mainly inexpensive Tiger & Baron's beer. Yes...strange as it is...I have begun to like, or at least not mind, the taste of cold beer. on a hot day ( At $9 hiballs my rum & cokes will have to wait!) Great conversation, swapping our stories from different parts of the world. Random tidbits follow...

Hawker Center Pics: Stalls last night closed at midnight...and opened at 2 am.

• "Takes you ONLY One hour? (to get to work?) This is Sing-a-pore! First time I've heard anyone say ONLY one hour!" (It takes some of us one & a half hours; NTU is really far from everything else)


• "Singaporean police are just bored, la...they have nothing to do here!"


• Stories of Banff Hotsprings...- 30 degree weather...and Canada's not so strict marajiuana laws (death penalty here) surprised a few Japanese friends. Special orders have been placed...for the Canadian Mooncake :-)
  
• Our cab driver home ensured us the suffocatingly thick haze was deliberate burning of land, not forest fire. "You think it's nat-u-ral, la?! They are selfish, it is the government, la! They don't like it, they burn it. Cause trouble for everyone else