Louis Vuitton has got nothin' on the Hawkers

It was my original observation that mostly what people do here is eat out at expensive restaurants and shop. Everyone, particularly the women, dresses impeccably. Never a hair out of place (no small task in this humidity. I, personally, look like Nightmare Alice most of the time.) And if I knew the language I would swear there is a Chinese equivalent for 'to die for.' It is indeed one of the most classy places I've ever seen. On the strip. And in the business district, along the waterfront and in Raffles Square.

But there is another, far more interesting part of Singapore. The Hawkers. I love the Hawkers. They are this humble little subculture that appeals to me on the most basic level...they are interesting and honest and kind and they make stuff. All kinds of stuff from the ornate to the cheesy. I met a lady who does oil paintings of the city. They are just hideous but the tourists buy them like they are going out of style - and well they should. Go out of style, I mean. People paint on rice and rice paper - anything you want. They will tell you about their customs and feed you weird stuff that they are delighted to share. This one little guy mixed me up some concoction of peppers and spices to put on my stir fry that he said was; 'A little spicy. You like spicy?' Holy shit. About blew my head off. We bought ice cream sandwiches from an ice cream hawker. He sliced a piece of ice cream from a frozen brick of it and slapped it between two pieces of cake. Viola. Ice cream sandwich. We saw a German guy right in the heart of Chinatown selling bratwurst and sauerkraut. We found ourselves in a town called Bugat, just outside the Indian district, where a guy fed us nuts and fried peas and watermelon seeds and sold us a couple zany things. We looked at some of the dried fish - we're not ready for that just yet. We talked to the lady in the 'Modern Times Departmental Store.' Her stand is anything but, but she can make you a custom shirt in an hour. For 20 bucks.

What a place! Football camp starts for Andrew tomorrow, so I lose my partner in crime. Bummer. He is a little sick of being dragged around the country, but I don't care. It is so seldom that we get to see so many things, and is probably my first opportunity ever to spend time with any of my kids one-on-one, learning right along with them. I have stopped asking him to stand in the forefront of my pictures, tho. He just makes no effort to hide his feelings about this little adventure we are on....