2005-09-24 - Singapore

			IMG_3282 24-Sep-2005  10:33am   I had an extremely kind offer from a person I met via work, that if I was ever passing through Singapore, he would show me around. Well within the year I took him up on the offer. Thank you Ali, I had a great time - what a facinating place it is.
			IMG_3260_mod   Just arrived in the airport after my 15 hour flight. Stopping over half way from NZ to London was a really good idea!
			STICHED_3261   The view the next morning. Singapore: one city is the entire country. I would guess you could travel end to end in about a 40 minute taxi ride. (I did this! But in two taxi rides.)
			IMG_3266 24-Sep-2005  3:30am   Out of the hotel and time for a walk around.
			IMG_3267 24-Sep-2005  3:46am   Me being me, I'm still really naive about a lot of the places in this world. Honestly, when I arrived in Singapore I really didn't know what to expect. Which I personally think, makes just getting out and discovering all the more exciting. What I found really interesting was the mix of cultures and religions all in together. Sure you have that in London - but here there are temples of different sorts dotted all over the place, in between houses. In less than an hour I walked past 4 or so.
			IMG_3270 24-Sep-2005  3:47am
			IMG_3271 24-Sep-2005  4:00am
			IMG_3276 24-Sep-2005  7:23am   Ali at the Nangyang Technological University, where he works.
			IMG_3278 24-Sep-2005  7:34am   Yeah me. Finally a photo of me. ;-) (Hmm... looking like everyone back in NZ fed me a bit to well too ;-)
			IMG_3277 24-Sep-2005  7:29am   The amazing thing about Singapore is that when they decide that they need something, that's it - it gets done. In this case, the government has decided that there's a strong future in technologies such as chemical, biomedical and materials science, so they're backing it by piling resources into the university. The university is only about 25 years old. Here you see two new towers being constructed, which will probably both be in use within a year. Ali showed me through some of their well-equipped labs where he is designing some test rigs for distance (internet) based education.
			IMG_3282 24-Sep-2005  10:33am   After the brief university tour, we went to see some of the city.
			IMG_3284 24-Sep-2005  10:38am
			IMG_3285 24-Sep-2005  10:59am
			IMG_3286 24-Sep-2005  11:00am   The porcupine / hedgehog. An opera house, I believe.
			IMG_3287 24-Sep-2005  11:04am   Terrible photo of the iconic statue of Singapore, the mer-lion (as in mermaid + lion).