Exhaustion

I am exhausted! After spending the past few days walking throughout Singapore and loving every minute of it i finally hit my breaking point this afternoon. My entire body aches and there are muscles in my legs which ache that I didn't even now I had. I'm at the point where a Thai massage sounds perfect, but alas, I'm not in Thailand! I can't believe it! I guess I just have to get several when I get back.

Yesterday I finished without writing about Sentosa. I had mentioned that it's a magical island resort which in some ways in similar to Disney World, but also very different. I took the monorail across to the island and wandered a bit. There was a observation tower, a huge Merlion, a 4D show, the Images of Singapore only to name a few. What was on most interest to me was Fort Silosa - one of three British forts on the island from the colonial period and the only surviving one. I took a tour of that which gave a me a better understanding of WWII in Singapore. This is only one of the fascinating chapters of Singapore's history. While I have an understanding of the war in the Pacific, at least the American version, I am not very familiar at all with the British experience or the battles for SE Asia. I've enjoyed this opportunity to expand my understanding of that and added to that today as I visited the prisoner of war facility in Changi. Continuing with the evening at Sentosa before I get into today, I then wandered along the beach watching the sun set. Just like my first impressions of Singapore from the air, as I looked out onto the water all I could see were boats as far as the eye could see. I slowly made my way to the southern most point in Asia and had my Singapore Sling. Following that I headed to the Magical Fountain show which was a laser and light display with fountains which was neat and then began the trek back to my hostel. As I'm staying in little India, I decided to have Indian food last night and enjoyed a plate of steaming hot Indian food and an Indian beer. At the end of the night I realized that I had consumed a significant amount of liquor that day....but all worth it. Then I hit the sack.

This morning I took off and hit the last remaining sites near the river and headed out towards the northeastern part of the island and the Changi Museum. It was a former POW camp and has been converted into a museum. After just having come from Kanchanaburi and the bridge over the river Kwai and the Death Railway it was interesting to see the numerous mentions of that. This POW camp was the source of much of the POW labor which was sent northward to work on the railway. I then made my way into Changi Village where I met a fascinating man. We just happened to be on the same bus headed to the village - but with different purposes. I was simply visiting a site for the first time while he was returning to the sight where he met his first love while he was stationed on the island while he was a member of the Royal Air Force. We got to talking and pretty soon were engaged in a fascinating conversation about his experiences here and life. He actually has written a book about his time here, A Singapore Rose, and had just come from a book festival in Hong Kong. We had lunch together and continued to chat and he continued to fill in wholes I had about Singapore's history and told me all about his life. He then wandered down to the beach where he had met his girlfriend - who he describes as his first love (she is the main subject of the book). Fascinating man, wonderful afternoon. He had to head back into town for a meeting and I continued to explore and actually took a boat to another island and rented a bike and rode around for a while where I met some other folks. However, my time is up and I have to call it a night.

Until tomorrow,

RM