Always learning when traveling

Took the Bugis Walking Tour a couple days ago which is an area that Yuko used to work in and it is a bustling interesting area with a combination of old and new. The Intercontinental Hotel is right in the midst and had the most beautiful flower arrangements throughout the lobby. The area has lots of shophouses and varied architecture up and down Waterloo Street.

Of course there are temples and one that is dedicated to the Goddess of Mercy is said that wishes made in there get granted. It was crowded!

We ended up at the Singapore Art Museum, which is an example of colonial architecture and has over 4000 pieces of Asian art. We quickly zoomed in on the Asia Pacific Signature Art Exhibition, which was truly unique. It presents the work of 15 finalists and all were thought provoking and seemed to all show humanity has both beauty and cruelty. One looked like a beautiful rug until up closer you saw it was minute pieces of pictures of animals being slaughtered intermixed with glorious landscapes. Another was a wooden sculpture that made it seem that the wood had been under a brutal attack. Still another had splatters of red showing the death and destruction of suicide attacks in Pakistan, but looking closer some of the spots showed delicate flowers. It stated "that even from violence and death, life and hope can still blossom." We had our picture taken in front of a soon to be demolished Vietnam area backdrop which was a tribute to the artist's hometown. All very touching and well done. Hopefully we are going to museums in the search for knowledge, but our underlining motive is they are air conditioned !

Before heading home we stopped for a drink and some nibbles at the "Chijmes" We enjoyed a great dinner there last year with John and Yuko. It was a convent (Convent Home of the Infant Jesus..CHIJ) and a chapel. It now has many indoor and outdoor restaurants and a wedding chapel. It takes up a huge space right downtown and is another great people watching place.

The last few days we have been playing tennis in the morning, jumping in the pool and then reading poolside. Not a bad start to the day. Some days we walk Nicky to school before our tennis. She looks so cute in her uniform and big backpack. Today it took us one hour to play one set and we were both dripping (my sweat ball look). Dick finally prevailed at 10 to 8 but it does show we have built up a bit of tolerance to the heat.