FEAST Conference Jakarta 2023

The day was supposed to begin with a bike ride to a local market, but instead we used scooters. It was my first time on a scooter and let's just say, I loved the experience of scooting around town.  The market was full of vendors selling everything from fish, meat, tofu delicacies, a variety of eggs, flowers, dried fish, spices, and a number of vegetables that I have never seen before like Anglo Gourd and fruit called Mangosteen. In the raw meat section there were many cuts of meat including pork which the Chinese love, and a variety of chickens including a small black-skin chicken known as a Spring Chicken according to Pat.  There were many tables and chairs for people to gather and eat a hot cooked meal prepared by the surrounding vendors. Kind of like the indoor food courts in North American Shopping Plazas, but outside in the fresh air. I was intrigued with the vendor who sold hot food in a paper cone!!  This market is situated in the courtyard of public housing whi...

Hello from Singapore.  It is 4:00 a.m. I am wide awake, so it's a good time to write about my first full day in Singapore. I arrived quite late to my destination after spending an eternity in the Singapore Changi Airport which is beyond vast. After entering the terminal, I followed the sign to the right which seemed to indicate the direction of baggage. Sadly it was the direction to Terminal 2's baggage carousel. Suffice to say, I walked, I went through passport control, and then rode the train back to Terminal 1 where I was supposed to have been in the first place had I chosen to go to the left after entering the terminal.  It took me some time to explain to the officials that I already went through a passport control albeit the wrong passport control in Terminal 2.  It took the officer a little time to locate the information and corroborate my story; only then was I allowed to pass through the control system toward baggage. My suitcase was no longer on the carrousel bu...