Here's where I've been working this week.

Thursday night I had excellent Chinese food with my colleages.



Singapore actually reminds me a bit of Austin. It has lots of tall, modern buildings and it's warm and humid. Singapore is like this year-round though, and it's definitely more humid than Austin. On the left in this photo you can see an advertisement for the run that I ran a few days ago.

There seems to be no shortage of culture in Singapore. This building houses the homeof the Singapore Chinese Orchestra.

Here I am in the CBD: the central business district.

On Friday, we had lunch in this food court. We had spicy chicken rice.

Last night I went for a walk along Orchard street and stumbled upon the Apple center, where a big event was underway for the introduction of Mac OS X 10.4 ("Tiger"). Today my colleage Leak Peng will show me around Singapore. He has been very welcoming and eager to show me his home city.

Today I joined my colleages Leak Peng and Pauline for the JPMorgan Chase Corporate Challenge, a 5.6 km long run in Singapore.

The race course followed the raised roadway in the distance and the river.

The bug-eye building is a concert hall.

Here we are after the race. I finished in just over 39 minutes. I'm happy with that result considering the high heat, humidity, and the number of people (7000) running the race.

We were really happy to be done.

And this is a view from the finish line of the hotel where I'm staying in Singapore, the Swissôtel Stamford.

At lunch on Tuesday we went to an big food court with many restaurants. There were Chinese and Indian restaurants galore, but I decided to try some local cuisine.

I had something called a popiah, made with crab meat and a bunch of other stuff.

Many of the streets here are lined with trees. Singapore is a lovely city.

Here's a view from the office building where I've been working the past few days in Singapore.

No bamboo scaffolding here.

Trade is a big part of Singapore's economy. Here is a big container ship port.

My colleages and I met for a coffee at the Starbuck's near the office. Here's my colleage Otto on the way to the office.||

On Monday morning, I caught an early bus from my hotel in Hong Kong to the airport. I didnt' get much of a chace to appreciate the building when I arrived in Hong Kong, but this time I had a couple of hours to spend enjoying the place. It's an elegant and flowing structure of long curved vaulted ceilings.

Here's an interior shot of the airport.

Here is the breakfast I had Monday morning: lamb with curry sauce and miso soup.

This is the immigration form I had to fill out and give to the customs officer when I arrived in Singapore. As you can see, Singapore lives up to its tough-on-crime image.

Moments from landing in Sinapore. You can see land reclaimation work in the distance.

On Saturday, I went for a run. I thought I'd hike to the top of the mountain in the distance. It is higher than the top of the peak tram, so I thought it would be a really good exercise.

Hong Kong has an amazing skyline.

I ran to the West end of the city and then up Victoria Road.

About halfway up the mountain, I took this photo at a rest stop overlooking the sea.

The foliage was thick and lush. It was quite warm and humid outside, so it was good that I brought water with me.

Nearer the top, there were stairs that cut straight up the slope.

At the top I found the Mt. Davis Picnic Area. There were some students there, as well as some people working on the trails and a group playing paintball in the ruins of an old British battery near the summit.

Here are the ruins. The battery was desroyed by the Japanese in 1941.

Here's the view from the summit of Mount Davis, looking back to the East. As you can see, I overshot my goal, the peak to the left in the distance. Hong Kong city is to the left of this mountan range and the South part of the island is to the right. I believe that's a graveyard in the foreground on the right.

Here's a view toward Hong Kong city. Kowloon peninsula is visible in the distance, across the harbor. The tall building peeking over the hill is IFC2.

And here's a view to the Souteast. I'm guessing that the land in the distance is the island of Lantau, where the airport is situated.

This isn't the best self portrait becuase I was exhausted and the sun was in my eyes; but you can get an idea of the weather by how sweaty I am in the photo!

I walked down the mountain by another path that took a more direct route than the road.

As you can see, the wilderness on the mountains is almost like a jungle.

I was really tired at that point, and had run longer than I had originally intended; so I caught the tram back toward the East.

Here you can see the HSBC building in the foreground and the peculiar Lippo building in the background.

And here's one of my favorites, the Bank of China building. Apparently, the design was chosen to balance out the visual effect of the HSBC building.

Here's another view of the Lippo building. Very interesting, eh?

And finally, a building so skinny that it can't have much more than one apartment per floor. There are many buildings like this. They almost look too skinny to remain standing. The bedrock of Hong Kong is granite, so I suppose the buildings are quite stable.

Tonight after the meeting I joned my colleages for dinner at this restaurant on the East side of Singapore.

The food is served on a big lazy-Susan in the middle of the table.

One of the appetizers was a plate of satay skewers. Very tasty! My colleague from HK Christa seems to agree.

The main course was black pepper crab. Here I am toasting a pint of the local Tiger beer with my colleage from HK, Pauline. It's bee a long day and I have an early morning tomorrow, so I'm going to hit the sack.

Hello from lovely Singapore! My hotel room is on the 36th floor, so I have a great view.

The hotel room is very nice. I think I'll be quite comfortable here.

And did I mention the view? More photos coming soon. I have a meeting with the customer today at 17.30, so I'm going to take a quick nap before the meeting.