Day 1: Changi, Orchard Rd. & National Television!

Customs was a breeze, it took less than 10 minutes to get stamped in (US passport holders get 90 days in Singapore w/o a Visa requirement) for my check-in to emerge from the carousel, and for us to exit through the unmanned "nothing to declare" exit at customs. Sona (my cousin's wife) was waiting for us at the arrival area and I was very surprised that she recognized me with my large afro & big scuba diving goggles (my prescription eye-glasses). We did a little unwinding at my cousin's house before taking a taxi over to Orchard Rd. This is Singapore's main shopping strip with all the up scale western shopping you've come to expect, Prada, Gucci, Yves St. Laurent, you name it. Nice hotels with lobby bars abound, not to mention the packed streets. Young people showing lots of skin flood the sidewalks.

Customs was a breeze, but boy is it hot here. A cool 86 degrees F with HIGH  humidity and scattered showers. That's the standard forecast in Singapore throughout the year. We retreated  several times into AC'ed hotel lobbies and malls to beat the smothering heat. However, at one point on our walk down Orchard we were stopped by a young reporter and camera  crew. This "street team" for a Singaporean national tv station showed us just the face of an Asian woman and asked for our opinions we commented on her beauty and then they revealed the rest of her body. She was Singapore's premier female body builder and they were getting "opinions on the street" of how people felt about female bodybuilding as socially acceptable, a sport, etc. We'll get our 5 seconds of fame on national TV next Tuesday between 8:30-9PM (sorry for all of you out there who don't subscribe to the Singaporean networks).