My meetings are going very well here in Singapore. I had the chance today to finally connect with some of the representatives from Australia that I really wanted to meet. They are here with the Singapore Arts Festival so it was a great opportunity for me to sit and chat. I think we’ve got a very good chance of pulling together a tour in Australia in 2009.
It’s been a very productive trip but it’s weird when I call home and talk with Cindy. We are exactly 12 hours difference in time so I am ending my day just and she is beginning her day. I tell her I know what’s going to happen because the day is now over.
It’s been very hot here – and humid. I do enjoy walking around the city. Just beyond the hotel is the Arab Quarter of Singapore so I decided to make my way that direction. Almost immediately as you turn down Waterloo Street, you see two temples – the Kuan Im Hood Cho Temple…
and the Indian Sri Kirshnan Temple.
In this area was a big market in the street – not really a street for cars but a very large walking area. There were vendors set up all over the place but it rained on and off so many of them were covered. I walked through the market for a while and then circled back around to Victoria Street. Just up the street about a mile is the Kampong Glam cemetery on the left, the gravesite of the Malay royalty. It has falled into very bad shape, much of it overgrown but it’s very cool.
After walked through the cemetery, I turned down the street and headed for the heart of the Arab Quarter. This street is very old and not as “pretty” as the rest but it’s filled with shops, food places and amazing fabric stores! I was able to find something very unique for our house so I’m excited to take it back home to Cindy.
Along the way, you pass by the gates that lead to Kampong Glam, the palace of the last Sultan of Singapore (now the Malay Heritage Centre) and then past the Sultan Mosque, the largest in Singapore. You could se the golden dome well before coming into the area.
Once I finished up with a few purchases in the shopping district, I made my way back up Victoria Street to my hotel. I still had a couple of meeting before dinner plans that evening.
I was very happy to be able to get together with Ren Hui and some of the girls from the Raffles School who coordinate our Healing of Magic program in Singapore at National University Hospital. It was good to meet with Kien Meng (who I met several years ago) as he assisted me in starting the program here. And a great pleasure to see Mr. John Teo and his wife Betsy, who joined all of us for dinner. John is very involved in the International Brotherhood of Magicians and Ring 115 here in Singapore. They are interested in expanding the magic therapy program to two additional hospitals here.
It’s been a very long day so I’m off to bed.