Singapore Day 2

On our way to find a good cup of coffee, stopped on Orchard Street (a high-end city shopping street) and wound our way into a Beverly Hills type shopping mall to find "Wild Honey." It was a top rated breakfast nook, so we decided to try it. The food was great, and the Israeli owner told us he had just remodeled and had the light centerpiece hand woven in a small village in South Africa. This is also the place where Morris learned the difference between Shaksuki and Shaksuka.

Walked to the National Museum while admiring all the green spaces throughout the city. [Side note: Chewing gum is not allowed in Singapore and and smoking in public places is heavily fined. So, no trash from either.]

We learned about the history of Singapore at their National Museum and found Singapore's growth almost Cinderella like when compared to other developing countries.

In 1965, Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew made a decision to become independent from Malaysia. PM Yew's vision and focus developed Singapore from a shabby port into a thriving, clean, green, safe city. Since '65, they cleaned up lakes and waterways, planted trees, developed infrastructure, & instituted citizen responsibility.

We were also very impressed by the Museum's Exhibit on Plastics. Very educational as it explained in 3 parts: *Why did we start using plastics in the first place", *Current situation that is no longer sustainable and why", and *Who is leading the change: People, countries, and companies that are working on solutions.

For dinner, we meet up w Hamid, his daughter, and granddaughter at National Kitchen Resturant at the Art Gallery. Learned about Chicken Rice Rice (Rice that the Chicken Rice has been cooked in... too funny). Also loved the circular Ping Pong table at the gallery.

While walking around Clarke Quay, we saw beautiful artwork in the tunnel walkways, loved the colorful apartments above the shopping areas, and heard all about life in Singapore from Hamid and family. Then went to Arab Street behind our hotel to check out the night life and see one of the many "hawker centers" (open food courts established by the government to keep sidewalk vendors from clogging pristine streets).Read more