Singapore, Day 3 and 4

Day 3 started with a relatively late wake up (about 10:30am, even though bed time was after 5am earlier that morning). We went to the rink for a semi-final game in our bracket. This was single elimination, and we got eliminated. At the end of the tournament, we played six games and were 2-4. Not spectacular, but there were a lot of other fast and skilled teams there. We played pretty well over all. So after that, I headed back to the hotel, showered up, and headed back into the city.

First stop: little India. Lots of Indian groceries and other shops. Many streets did not have proper "sidewalks," but the stores sort of had this shared covered walkway in front of their stores as seen above. A couple of Pakistani shops thrown into the mix as well. Some incredible Indian food was had.

Contents of one store. I guess religious idols of some sort.

A mosque.

Singapore is famous for their strict laws. This was really big in the news a few years ago when some American kid got caught spraying graffiti and ended up getting caned. However even with strict laws, to quote an ad I saw on a bus: "Low crime does not mean no crime." Most of the city is very clean, but I managed to find some graffiti afterall. (It says "Punk is Resistance".)

From little India, I walked over to a section called Arab Street. This big mosque seemed like a center-piece for that neigborhood. There were a large number of cloth/fabric stores as well as dress stores in the area. Very pretty neighborhood.

Another view of the main dome of the mosque from further away.

I walked by this sign which I thought was funny. It reads "State Land/Enter at Your Own Risk"... not sure what it's supposed to mean. Are there dangerous animals on site? Or are they simply saying that if you trip and twist your ankle, you can't sue the state over it? Anyway, I risked it.

Here's a sign you won't see outside of southeast asia (the one on the bottom right). It says "No durians". A durian is a tropical fruit that when opened, smells something like raw sewage and is very, very strong. (A bunch of the fruit caused a terror scare a few years ago on a flight in Australia.) The other signs are also interesting as they give you a good idea for now steep the fines are for simple violations ($1000 for smoking!).

Finally that night, there was an end of the tournament banquet. I went to bed relatively early (maybe 1am or so), but I had to get up at 5am the next morning because we had an early 8am flight back to Seoul. This is me waiting in line for check-in not having an easy time trying to stay awake. Then we flew back to Seoul and that brought the trip to its conclusion. I had a great time. I really liked Singapore, and this will probably be the only time in my life where I'll have played ice hockey in the tropics! Good food, good memories, good times.