I didn't explore much in this visit. After the class I went mainly for dinner. Friday, we just walked around the area, to Raffles Hotel. One place of interest in Singapore. A very expensive hotel with British colonial architecture.

















But on weekends I went to places like the Bird Park, and last weekend the zoo. It's an interesting place. They have polar bears and also penguins. I saw kangaroos and lemurs. I touched and stroke a lemur, it was cute, and its fur was soft.

We spent the day there walking. Had lunch there and continued the walk because there were still animals we hadn't seen. I was surprised to see penguins in Singapore - first at Jurong Bird Park, and then at the zoo. I thought only the Japanese who brought and keep penguins in Osaka Aquarium are the crazy ones...

I wanted to go to WOMAD the evening, but we left the zoo tired and still had to move our bags to another hotel (yes, it was again on personal account). I might be crazy to be thinking of dragging our stuff and going by MRT. So maybe it was a good thing that the concierge who helped us with the bags just carried them outside to a taxi. He expected a tip, which I found unusual in Singapore.

So we checked in at Robertson Quay Hotel, a budget hotel just beside the Singapore River, not far from Clarke Quay. It was our second time staying there. The room is small and the shower room is too small but since the hotel rate is relatively cheap, that's what we got. (Sadly, if we convert the rate to our currency we could afford a 4- or 5-star hotel in Bandung.) We ended up not going to WOMAD. Since the ticket was not cheap for us, it was not worth going when we had only a little energy left. I'm not likely to go to night events in Jakarta. Traffic and safety/security issues if going home very late at night, especially by public transportation. Too bad, because I like arts events. &&@#^!@%*# In Singapore I feel free to go almost anywhere anytime with convenient public transport and safety/security in most places. Now back to real life with many limitations. We went back to Jakarta Sunday afternoon. And today I've been in a terrible traffic jam again, as if this city was saying "Welcome back!" to me. I don't smile nor swear - there's no use.