Singapore

We taught in this building at a company called Avantus, which was hosting the course for Microsoft.

It was 75 stories tall.

Are these guys in rapt attention, or just snoozing?

Can't figure it out from behind, can you?

Well, I'll never tell.

Isaiah Tan was a very capable videographer who recorded the three days of training for Microsoft employees who could not attend.

Steve Borg at work.

Faridah Razak consented to model her gorgeous outfit for me.

She said it was a traditional Malayan outfit, called a baju kurong.

Along with Faridah, Jackie (a really high-energy lady) made things click at Avantus.

There was a huge lawn area next to the building where we were teaching.

People hung out there with their lunches, or just to read the paper, or to watch the huge television screen above the adjoining Caltex House.

Notice that most people are all around the lawn, but no-one on it. It seems penalties in Singapore are severe for messing up grassy areas.

A view of downtown from the 37th floor, where Avantus was located.

If you get dizzy, don't look down. Can you imagine that there were an additional 38 floors above where we were? Whew!

The Raffles shopping center near the hotel had a below-ground food court and supermarket, where I got my supplies.

The lady on the left is frantically searching for a $1 coin, because you have to insert a dollar (refundable) into a receptacle on the shopping cart in order to use it.

Pretty effective means of controlling shopping cart "borrowing", don't you think? I offered the lady a dollar, but she wanted to be independent, so I said okey-dokey.

I...don't have a caption for this one.

Actually I do....

No, I think I'll leave it alone.

Yup, in Singapore, they have Boca Burgers, even the breakfast variety.

Carmen wasn't sure she wanted me to take her picture as she checked my supermarket purchases, but she smiled anyway.

Nice lady.

Here's another look at the lobby of my hotel.

I must say that I was a little unsure whether I did the right thing in taking this picture when I looked at the large gentleman on the right.

He didn't look especially happy about being photographed, and when he stood up and walked toward me I had visions of some crime boss who hates being photographed grabbing my camera and yanking the film out....

(Wait a minute, there's no film in this camera, it's digital!) Anyway...as I turned into the corridor toward the elevator, he was right behind me, then he turned left, into the men's room. Whew!

Raffles was ready for any kind of electrical system you might have brought with you.

The first two outlets were Far East standard 220 volt types. The third one handled plugs from Australia, New Zealand and Europe, and the fourth one was European.

There were also telephone, fax and Internet jacks.

On my last teaching morning, I left the hotel early so I could walk around the area and get some last-minute photos.

In the background is my hotel. In the foreground is the memorial to the civilian victims of a Japanese occupation, 1942-1945.

I'd never seen this before: a pedestrian "walk" sign that told you how many seconds were left before you had to get out of the pedestrian crossing.

You can probably guess that, with only 2 seconds left, I crossed pretty briskly after I took this shot.

The subway system had a cool ticketing procedure.

On the map you touch the station you want to travel to, and the machine tells you in the window on the left how much it will cost to get there.

You insert your money and you get a ticket for that amount, plus a $1.00 deposit.

I think the deposit is ingenious, because it means they always have in hand probably several thousand dollars from deposits, and it covers the cost of making the tickets.

Here's the ticket/card you use for the subway.

It's a reusable plastic card. You simply tap it on the indicated window on top of the turnstile gate, and then pass through, as it records your start point.

When you get off, you do the same again at that turnstile, and it deducts the appropriate fare. Cool.

Some subway stations had murals depicting life in the old Singapore.

All the subway cars I rode on seemed shiny and new.

Very impressive system, overall.

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Want more of Singapore? Check out the next entry.