Malaysia, 9 Oct 2006 --

We spent the last 4 days or so exploring Singapore, and we have come to the conclusion that Singapore is, in fact, the city of the future.  The city is ultra-modern, multi-cultural, multi-theological, Disney-land spotless, and packed to the gills with artsy events. 

During our visit, we were fortunate that the Singapore Biennale 2006 was taking place.  For those of us who were unaware, a biennale is a bi-annual contemporary art exhibition hosted by a city.  Singapore’s government has obviously thrown a great deal of money and support behind the event, and cultural, governmental, and commercial venues throughout the city were transformed into exhibit spaces for modern art installations.  The main venue (containing 200+ works) was a former military camp (others included mosques, temples, and the court chambers at city hall).  It turned out to be something like an art scavenger hunt, and was a fantastic way to discover parts of the city we might not otherwise have seen. 

While in Singapore, we were also fortunate enough to stumble across the ‘Mr. International, 2006′ contest, sponsored by urban male.  The pictures (mostly from the ‘cultural costume’ portion of the evening) have to be seen to be believed.  We sat in the back row, (mostly) successfully stifling giggles as these guys came out in one ridiculous costume after another.  Would you believe they had a Mr. Latvia?! 

Singapore pictures are here:

 I also posted a few more pictures from Kuala Lumpur (check out the very unhappy monkey):

 

…and some pictures from our jungle trip to Taman Negara:

Sorry this isn’t the most descriptive post ever….I’ve gotten this picture processing and uploading down to less than 2 hours, but by the time I’m done with that I don’t have time for anything else!

We’re in Kuching on Malaysian Borneo at the moment…off in search of proboscus monkeys in the jungle tomorrow.

Categories photography , Malaysia