pictures worth 1000 words?

So now I got the photos here, I have NO idea what I ended up doing to get them here!  These are New Year's Eve. The Korean restaurant filming the"feast", a street in Chinatown strung with lanterns, a buddhist temple in the background of the Chinatown festivities, and more lanterns (because they were everywhere!)
I am being really good to my wrist so this will be short. (That's what I said last time!)
Chiang Mai is about 1,000 k's (I think) north of here (it's a three hour flight). The weather there last week was highs of mid 70's, low of mid 60's, full sun, and no humidity. I was looking forward to getting out my one sweater I brought for cool evenings, and enjoying relief from this heat here. HA! I just checked the 10 day forecast in Chiang Mai and they are expecting 92, 93, 94. WHAT?  I don't know what that is celsius, but I know it is hot. And they say thunder storms!! What??
The heat here is very heavy. The weather on the computer shows thunder storms every day and high of 31, low of 27. I would say most days are around 29. Above is damn hot, below is not bad. IF there is a breeze. With no breeze it is hot, damn hot. It doesn't really cool down in the evening. No clothes seem to make you cooler. Most of my summer stuff is for at the cottage. Where it is rarely this hot. So I will be bringing back lots of clothes that I will not be wearing here. When I see the muslim women in their black long robes, heads covered, I shudder. Dress is very causal here. I have not worn jewelry yet. It is too hot. And too dressy. I even have taken off my left hand ring. It gets too hot under the ring! But when going down town, I try to remember to throw a scarf in my purse. Because some AC is so cold. At church, they must have it set to 20. All the women pull out shawls to wrap themselves and their children for the service. I just think the expense of that! Yikes!
The Singaporeans speak "singlesh". It is english with a very heavy accent. And very fast, repeated at least twice, at full volume. I say "I'm sorry, I didn't get that" and they say it again, twice, fast, and at full volume. A lot I miss.
The rapid transit is marvelous. You buy a plastic card, put money on it, and tap it on a screen when you get on and when you get off. The bus, the MRT (Mass Rapid Transit= trains), our little shuttle bus. It is so slick. The trains are all wifi. You can text, they are so smooth. They are silent. In the station you can not hear them coming, you only see the headlight. Then they stop, you wait at a door, the doors of the train open, the doors in the station open and you get in. But it is very orderly, people wait at the side for those exiting the train, and then get on. We could do so much better in TO. TTC, the better way. HA! At every door there is a seat for pregnant women, handicapped and elderly. They always get up for me. Yikes! But I don't mind. The ride to downtown is about half an hour, so I am happy to sit for the ride.
My white hair really stands out here. All the Chinese women colour their hair unless they are really really old. I don't think the Indian women go gray, or not many. and not much. So I really do stand out. I went to a street market to take something back to get repaired. I was there 4 weeks ago. I was having this little booth guy make fobs for access to our front door, from the plastic card the management gave us. I had him make me 2 red for us, and 2 green for Rod and Nancy for their building. Well, when I came up to him, I said he had made these red fobs, but they didn't work any more. He said "I made you 4, 2 green". I had even forgotten I had done the green ones as well. I asked how he would remember. I was amazed. I guess my white hair does stand out. I have to say as I walked way, I checked to see if people were staring at me. I don't think so. But either that guy gets NO business, or he has an amazing memory. Or I really stand out!
Better sign off and ice my wrist.