When in Singapore...

...get a massage...in Chinatown. Well, tomorrow being Monday, my first day at work in Singapore, I thought that I might treat myself. Let me take a few steps back. Last night in Chinatown, among the food, antique, inexpensive-silk, hooka, toy, etc. ad nauseum vendors, I was approached by a young Chinese man peddling - wait for it - The best massage in the world!

Last night I was able to resist. Today however, it was all I could think about. One hour and $45(Sing) was all that was required. Who would pass that up?

After a great morning/afternoon walking tour of Arab Street, I caught a cab back to the hotel. I forgot to mention that the skys opened up and a very hard quick rain began to fall - It was refreshing...but I didn't want to be soaking wet - Taxi!

I freshened-up (full-shower...there is no wash-your-face-and-feel-better here) and began my walk to China town for the best Massage Ever! Now, please don't think I'm naive. I considered every why-this-is-a bad-idea scenario. I'm in exctasy while Mama San is going through my wallet writing down credit card numbers, preparing to sell me into sexual slavery (fat chance), finding a way to convince me that $45 Sing is really $100 US or something like that. But, I was not detered. Especially when I played the best-case scenarios in my head.

On my walk, the skies opened up again. Fortunately, many of the sidewalks are narrow and coverd by the second floor of the buildings they border. I popped into little store and bought an inexpensive yet high quality umbrella (notice I am not saying cheap.) Walked for about 10 min or so and was smack-dab right in the middle of Chinatown.

I weaved in and out of the narrow people-packed streets. Then, like a light from heaven shining down on me, I heard the phrase I came here to hear -only this time it had been down-graded from "Best Massage In the World" to "Really Really Good Massage, You Like, c'mon I show you."

I shrugged, and said, "Okay."

Well, I did not get robbed, cheated, or sold into sexual slavery. I was, however, convinced to pay for another 30 min - I was weak. It was a great massage, San San, took very good care of me. She worked out a lot of knots and kinks and - get this - she told me, "Don't drink ice water, drink warm water" she continued, "And, don't drink Tiger Beer (local Singapore beer), Drink only Heineken, no ice!

After my 90 minutes had passed, I dressed, and in a pleasant almost euphoric haze, made my way from Chinatown to Boat Quay (pronounced: Boat Key) to find some inexpensive Thai food and a warm Heineken. The pic to the right is my view of the Singapore River at Boat Quay.

The pad-thai was grand and the warm Heineken was, well, I guess - good for me! And, while it is not quite the "happy ending" I imagined in one of my best-case scenarios, it was still pretty damn good.