Singapore

In January I had the amazing chance to attend the Asia for Animals Conference in Singapore.  Alone! 

I had the honor of representing the American Samoa Humane Society at the conference.  This made me very nervous!  I was going to a conference with people from all over the world and people would be asking me questions!  These people were all pros in the animal field and here I was, just a volunteer.  But the conference was great and so were the people.  I learned so much while I was there, I now feel slightly overwhelmed with all the ideas I could help put into place in American Samoa.  People are making a difference in much larger places so why can’t I try to help in such a small place?  I am working on it but not seeming to get anywhere.  If you would like to see more about the conference here is the link:

http://www.asiaforanimals.org/

A bonus to getting to go to the conference is getting to go to Singapore!  As you can imagine there are no direct flights from American Samoa to Singapore so I also got the chance to visit Sydney, Australia for a day! Here are some pictures from my trip:

SYDNEY

St. Mary's Cathedral

Royal Botanical Gardens

The Sydney Opera House!!!

Lunch on the Sydney Harbor

The city sights.

 

Art Gallery of NSW where I saw a Rupert Bunny Exhibit and a living room built around a statue.

 

 

SINGAPORE

Bright Lights, Big City

 

The Merlion is the symbol of Singapore.  Silly Merlion.

 

Jeremy Goldberg, a friend from AS got me in touch with a friend of his in Singapore.  So I got a tour from a local.  Siti was wonderful, she too me to all the great sights and eating spots.  Thanks Siti!

 

Singapore is a synonym for shopping!  And I did a lot of it!

China Town was so neat!  It was almost the Chinese New Year so everything was decorated and you could buy all kinds of decorations for your house. 

Little India was an interesting place full of workers who have migrated from India to work.  I probably only saw about 20 other women walking around the streets that afternoon.  

 

Raffles Hotel, famous for a drink called the Singapore Sling.

Sentosa Island, a hot tourist destination, was not so hot for me.  The Beach had views of huge cargo ships and tankers as far as the eye could see. 

 

Singapore is so fancy they have escalators in their parks.

The largest of all the Merlions lives on Sentosa and lights up at night.

To get the full view of Singapore I rode to the top of this tower.

 

Little Arabia, full of neat shops, but don’t get there too early since they don’t open till around lunch time.

I got to hear the chanting from this temple, it was very beautiful.

One of the best meals!  A lamb stew with salad and rice.  yummy!

 

The man who owns this store, made all of these shoes, which are used for weddings and special occasions.  They are tiny beads which are hand sewn.

 

Unfortunately the only Sumo Wrestling I saw was on TV, sorry Pawpaw!

Oh yeah, stopped in INDONESIA too! Got slightly scared when one of these guys took my passport and left with it. 

Ummm, is he coming back? 

Oh yes this is what we do here!

Not cool.

A great trip!  And my first trip alone! It was a wonderful experience and I am so glad I had the opportunity to go!