The more interesting parts of Singapore

I mentioned in an earlier post that Singapore was interesting (and this is a post regarding the more interesting parts) but mostly just a huge, sterile, air-conditioned mall.
But, I'm glad I got to see it and experience it--

Kath and I ate a lot of GREAT food there--the most interesting part of Singapore is that there are many very distinct cultures thriving side by side while still keeping many of their original traditions. Singaporeans LOVE to dine out (it's the second-most popular thing to do there, after shopping of course), so there are literally thousands of excellent food choices in the city. This is sadly the only photo of food I got, but it was delicious and fun! Two flavors of chinese broth--one simple veg/chicken broth, the other spicy lemongrass. Then it's put on an electric hot plate on your table to boil and you go to a giant buffet to get your soup ingredients and cook them at the table. There were many unidentifiable items--some more recognizable like 17 flavors of fish balls (not kidding), chicken feet, seaweed, etc.
Here is ours:
The only downside to this meal was that we were served warm beer over ice. yuck and yuck.

We also had a most excellent Sizchuan dinner with my friend from Berkeley, Cheng-Han (thanks for the excellent food and hospitality, CHY!). It's apparently my PhD advisor's favorite restaurant in Singapore and it was coincidentally two blocks from our hostel! I've always heard people say that Sizchuan cuisine is so different from other styles of Chinese cooking, and this was unlike anything I'd ever had and it was really tasty.

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The first thing we did was visit the Botanical Garden (of course). It was beautiful. And perfect. with no weeds. Great labeling, calm, quiet, organized--everything a botanical garden should be! Exactly what you would expect from Singapore--it was also huge. We only saw about 1/4th of it and we walked a long way. There was a ginger garden, a fancy restaurant, a fern gully and more.....
Here is me with a giant orchid:
They had all their orchid-breeding labs (very sterile, cultured environments) with HUGE windows to the outside, so you could watch all the awesome hybridization, culturing and breeding they could do. I can't believe I didn't take any photos?!....It was super awesome--two of my favorite things--plants and laboratory!

Here's just a shot of a cool flower that had interesting inflorescence structure growing straight out of the tree trunk. They were pretty large flowers, too.
Here is Kath and I underneath these really long roots that were dangling down from the trellis's vine above us. The garden trimmed them into a nice walkway canopy. Really cool so I had to have a photo:************************************
Kath and I took a walking tour of Little India (just followed a route in a guidebook) which was great. Here are some highlights:
Huge and intricate Hindu temple carvings: (click on the photos to zoom in)

The same temple, other angle and farther away.
The next building is a beautiful masjid (mosque). The great thing about mosques in Malaysia and Singapore was that they would freely allow women visitors who were appropriately attired. They also had a very nice summary brochure about Islamic religion--difficult to find a decent unbiased summary that explains quite a few fundamental tenets of the faith. We saw a handful of mosques, but I only took photos here--the color scheme was especially nice. Go Packers!
There were many, many stalls selling various Hindu and Indian articles. The smells, colors, flowers, were beautiful--here's just one corner of one stall of many.....
And here is some architecture in Little India:
We also had some great indian food on our walk--GIGANTIC crispy dosa, two excellent sambals, samosas, lhassi....mmmm.......

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The last thing we did was go fabric shopping before Kath had to get on the plane. A great way to spend the rest of your local currency ;-)
We found an amazing wonderland--an entire 2-3 block length of street with NOTHING. BUT. FABRIC. STORES. with a couple rug stores thrown in the mix. Here's just a little shot down a section of the covered walkway entrances to all the stores--it's like an infinity of fabric! I wasn't mentally prepared for all of the fabric, but managed to pick out a nice cotton for a dress I have in mind.