Singapore

Singapore, a 50-year-old country of five million Chinese, Malays, Indians, and Eurasians, is a letter-perfect picture-book currently unfolding the apparently real life story about a government that works, about a healthy population that works hard, about a modernity that climbs towards some type of futuristic efficiency, about an escalator that crawls when you're off and, motion detector alerted, accelerates when you're on.

It's supported by a big brother government, sure, but an odd, kind, transparent big brother at that. It's bolstered by the financial and biomedical sectors, and, ensuing, blazoned by luxury brands and hotels. It's framed by fishable, windsurfable, divable water.

The only question left: where is the culture?

The culture and excitement are wholly concentrated at the hawker food centers spread throughout the country. Family, friends, family and friends gather here to eat from their favorite stall or share plates from different vendors. Cafeteria seating and price, yet gourmet ingredients: from bbq pork (char siew) to crocodile stew (not bad, really), from papaya salad to mango pomelo to durian (see below) -- your sweet, sour, spicy, and salty comes in all its variations. Leonard (pictured to my left), my Dad's colleague's nephew, was a great host taking us to his favorite two hawker centers. We ate, and ate, yet still didn't cover everything on his must eat list. We'll just have to return.