We’re staying the first few days in Atrani which is a small town 10 minutes’ walk from Amalfi Town.
Food is good, the weather is great (sunny and a comfortable 25C/77F), and of course the scenery is fabulous: a whitewashed jumble of architecturally interesting buildings squashed between the blue (and clear!) Med and thousand foot lush green cliffs.
Leaving on Friday with Susan for the Amalfi Coast, just below Naples, Italy.
Flying business class on Air France (cashed in frequent flyer miles)
Some random photos taken around Singapore
The common Singapore bills and coins.
The smaller bills are plastic (as will the larger ones in the future), so Singapore is joining the likes of Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand, Canada with plastic bills.
I met up with my friend Sue and her boyfriend and two more friends for dinner on Sunday,
Starting from City Hall MRT, it’s a 15 minute walk through underground shopping arcades to and malls to reach the Esplanade on the north side of Marina Bay.
We ate a tasty seafood dinner at the open-air hawker centre with a view on the water, despite it threatening to rain (luckily we only got a handful of drops, as the covered tables were all taken). Family style of course. With a beer, dinner came to S$23/US$18 each.
While I enjoyed the stingray and always enjoy trying something new, I don’t think it was worth the premium price (though not as expensive as chilli crab!)
Good conversation, nice to meet new people, good food, being outdoors. Excellent evening!
After dinner we walked south along the bridge (towards Merlion Park) to watch the nightly light show put on by the Marina Bay Sands hotel (both laster lights and a lit fountain).
Some tidbits of enlightenment about life in Singapore from that evening (i.e. from locals):
Some amusing signs around Singapore:
I was going to pop over to Pulau Batam, Indonesia (a 45 minute ferry ride) for a few hours today, but not in this weather. Visa-on-arrival for US$10 for 7 days (slightly more for a longer visa) for many nationalities at many ferry terminals and airports in Indonesia.
Though it may clear up a bit around lunchtime, in which case it will still be doable…
This island was suggested by Singaporean Sue and her friends at dinner last night (no, she does not go by “Singaporean Sue”, that’s just how the sentence ran 
since it’s a shorter ferry ride from a more convenient ferry terminal (vs the 2 hour ferry ride one-way I was considering to Pulau Bintan).
As in high of 32 C, feels like 42C. Low of 27 C !!!
(that’s hi 89 F feels like 107 F, low of 80 F for the Celsius-challenged)
Wow. Even in the evening – it doesn’t cool off nor get less humid (esp. compared to NYC/Toronto in the summer). thought it wouldn’t bother me, but wow.
A/C never felt so good. Especially after slogging up and down Mt Faber well, Mt is an exaggeration – really it’s a hill).
Today it was a little sunny this morning, which made it feel hotter (if not in the shade). And very humid. Then a nice refreshing pre-storm breeze kicked up and it was like god (little ‘g’) turned on the A/C – both the temp and humidity improved, even while it was pouring down. So I ducked into a cafe for this flavourful and colourful latte (and a little snack), and bonus, they had wi-fi. Yes, I did have my netbook with me – for all my complaints about it being slow, it is small and light, barely noticeable if I’m carrying a knapsack anyways.
Did a little bit of blogging, eating and shopping this morning. Well, it’s 2pm now, how did that happen. I’d better get sightseeing…
In Mustafa, the huge 24-hour Indian department (mega-)store in Little India, they have funky imported foods (I bought some snacks and an Indian pizza slice), and random things like 3 rows of suits for 4-year-old boys (I’m guessing the age – i.e. they’re really small).
On the street I saw a “Remittance Kiosk” for Indian Overseas Bank, which clearly states it is not an ATM but only for remittances back home to India.
And I saw some serious laundry lines (poles?) on the apartment building above Tekka Centre, which houses a wet market (fresh fruit/veggie/meat/fish) and hawker stalls right next to Little India MRT.
While eating at the food court, I began to notice the Malaysian menu items, having just come back from Penang and learned a teeny bit of Malay (esp. food items). Ironically I saw the two items I was trying to find the previous day, teh narik (milk tea) and nasi lemak (rice in a coconut sauce with toppings).
Note: Malay is the largest ethnic group in Malaysia, and Malaysian is one of the 4 official languages (the others being English, Mandarin and Tamil).
Tip: this website has a useful text description, plus google maps, of all the bus routes on the island. I wish I had seen that before someone sent me to wait on the wrong street for a bus!
Misc notes: