Survived the Singapore Haze

I travelled to Singapore this past weekend to see Alex in the thick of his research with his new team, working on energy efficiency in building facades.  He goes every day to his lab at CREATE,

where the Berkeley team has a grant from the Singapore government to improve their building energy. The clocks on the right tell the time in Singapore and in San Francisco!  He will continue to work on this project when he returns to Berkeley in August.

Somewhat ironically, I left busy, congested Bangkok to be greeted by Singapore's haze, which arrives this time of year, every year, when Indonesia burns their palm tree forests and the smoke travels across the sea to Singapore.

But pollution levels hit an all-time high of 401 on the Pollutant Standards Index!  The upside of this was that Alex works with one of the world's leading experts in air quality, who insisted that we promptly move into a four-star hotel to avoid lifetime damage to our lungs. 

Comforted by the fact that we could return to our air-conditioned hotel room, we donned our masks and braved the Singapore haze in all its glory. 

Even in the haze, Singapore's manmade beauty cannot be matched.  I was awestruck by the buildings, which are truly the best of today's architecture. 

The Helix bridge (far left), Marina Bay Sands Hotel (center), and Art Science museum are pictured below.

In addition to being the most strikingly beautiful city I have ever seen, Singapore is also the most shockingly expensive city I have ever seen.  (says the New Yorker). 

Our Singapore Slings at the colonial Raffles Hotel nearly broke the bank, but it was worth it to pretend like we were British colonials for an evening.  The Raffles hotel is not only where the Singapore Sling was invented, but also where the last Singapore tiger was shot!

In addition to spending way too much money on drinks, we also traveled to Pulau Ubin, a jungle island across from the main island, considered the last "village" in Singapore, and how the whole country was in the 1960s.  We hiked to the top of a tower overlooking the jungle,

Had fresh fish and Tiger beer (Singapore's home brew) by the river,

And Alex pulled some dirt bike tricks.  (there is a huge dirt bike park here, apparently one of the Island's attractions though we were one of the few people we saw all day).

We made it out of the jungle island alive and back to Singapore reality.  We explored Chinatown, Little India, and strolled through Singapore's Botanical Gardens on Sunday!

It was a treat to walk the streets of clean and efficient Singapore, but I am glad to be back in Bangkok, where I can do much more without fear of fines like those listed in the subway station below!