For the past couple weeks we've been busy back in Austin starting our home renovation projects and getting ready for our final 2-week journey to France and Switzerland, which we're really looking forward to. Si je parle français aussi mal que j'ai fait à l'école, je vais avoir un temps difficile, cependent! :) In the meantime, here are some of the oddities we came across in Singapore:
We saw these signs in a lot of places, but I really think the whole 'caning' thing works a lot better as a crime deterrent than our often lenient jail sentences. We never felt like we were in any danger, and since the standard of living is so much higher in Singapore than in the other places we visited in Southeast Asia, there weren't even people trying to rip us off at every corner!
Here is an example of the 4 languages on most signage in Singapore: English, Mandarin, Tamil, and Malay.
No durians on the subway! (a very stinky fruit popular in tropical Asian countries)
Illustrated instructions for using this public restroom:
A FANTASTIC dynamic parking sign, letting you know how many spaces are currently available in each of these lots!
And another fantastic sign, this one at the bus stop, letting you know which buses will be arriving and when.
Need a hip joint? These were for sale at the pharmacy down the street from our hotel.
Giant boat on the roof of Singapore's new casinos.
Odd things for sale at a booth in Chinatown... shark fin, frog, giant lizard, etc.
And now by reading the ingredient list of these pills in Chinatown, we can see where those items above would be used...
Another stand in Chinatown, "The Last Sausage Kiosk Before the Equator":
We had quite an appetizing selection of desserts to choose from in Chinatown:
Brian chose this mango ice thing (that dark area at the bottom turned out to be a core of baked black beans). I was kinda glad I had the vanilla ice cream!
Lightning counter on a tree at the Singapore Botanical Gardens - this tree has been struck 4 times already!
And the last night we were in town, we came across a group of Asian line dancers doing their thing right outside our subway stop. Kinda made us feel like we were back at home in Texas. :)
Turns out we didn't need to visit northern Thailand after all... we could have just gone to the "Chieng Mai" Restaurant in Paris!
f I want crepes that suck, I think I'll just make them myself instead of going to "Creposuk"...
Mommy, mommy - can I ride on the horse with the tequila barrel??? (seen on a merry-go-round near the Eiffel Tower)
An old-timey Paris subway sign
I'm not sure the "Fokop" Business Center is the first place I would go for assistance...
"I like nothing. I am Parisian." Fair enough.
The common abbreviation 24/7 seems clear enough to me, but in France they seem somewhat confused, as evidenced by Example 1:
And Example 2. What do these mean???!
I had never seen subway trains with tires on them until Paris:
The sign on this grave is to make the occupant aware that they are about to be displaced unless they continue to cough up the rental fee...
We saw a ton of these rental bikes all over Paris - neat idea!
Mime practice in the park...
Public street toilets
A very very old Citroen...
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