These are pictures of my Mom and I in the Arab Quarter in Singapore. It is one of the touristy areas of Singapore, or at least the main street is, and the mosque you see is one of the big landmarks, but I love these pictures. I also admit to a great weakness for the cloth merchants that line the main street here. I don't think I have ever seen such a selection of silks and lace.

The tall building you see in the back was also neat. It is an art nouveau masterpiece from an era when someone could actually buy land in the middle of the city and it is encased in a square block of land and called Parkview. It also houses the Austrian Embassy.

The picture is taken from the outer door of the Malay Historical Center, which was originally the palace of the local sultan when Raffles, the Englishman who is credited with Singapore's existence as a colony in the form it was (free trade, etc.) showed up and decided that clearly the sultan's palace should be his, and moved him somewhere else.

Interesting fact about Raffles, by the way, is that he made many enemies in England (and Singapore) through his actions and had a mixed reputation until he died and his widow wrote glowing memoirs that cemented his reputation in a very positive light. Though, in his defense, part of the reason he annoyed people in England was his anti-slavery stance.

Also, for Kate, he was a famed botanist and named like twenty birds or plants.