Monday, May 30th, last full day in singapore, had the tour of the city yesterday.  Went to China Town, visited one of their more important temples, which was built about 1840's to enable Chinese sailors to pray for a storm free sea, or to thank them for the calm seas, and Singapore was the prime north/,south travel route to and from China. Across from the temple was the wharf for loading and unloading the ship's, but today it's about a mile inland from the harbor, and inbetween are dozens of tall skyscrapers built not on the fill, but down to bed rock.  Whether it's Chinese, Indian, Malay... there is a style to their neighborhoods, with ethnic styles thrown in.  The buildings from that period (1800's and after) are all two story, with the second floor over hanging the first with columns to support the hangovers, and between the buildings and the columns exist  sidewalks, protecting pedestrians from rain or providing an escape from the sun.  It was law even back then, shade is a valuable commudity.  The decorations, types of columns, colors, distinguished one ethnicnity from another.  Even the hostel I'm in  has the columns which are wide square massive things, with minimal doodads reminding one of British colonial construction, even if I'm in Little India this building which has been thru many renovations reconstructions must have had some type of British roots.  Others on the street are of the two story variety, or a whole block was rebuilt with ten story tall structures.  This can no longer be done because the city officials are trying to keep the ethnic feel to the neighborhoods, so the traditional two storys will remain, with a store on the first part of the first floor, depth deep into the building is flexible with living quarters, storeroom or garage entrance from a direction except the frontage road.  Upstairs are living quarters.  It really is a stylistic statement to have the variations of the same building throughout the area.  And the shade sidewalks are enjoyable, though a good number of the sidewalks are just a street side extension of the business, which you can wind your way thru, or walk the streets edge for faster progress.  On the tour we did both.  The gardens have been in existence approaching 150 years, have been rated amoung or  the world's best.  Don't remember the exact acreage but at least a hundred or more. The rubber tree was hybridized here, other research is being done, and they have the world's largest most diverse orchid collection, and much hybridization has been done.  The whole city istree and plant covered.  It is very clean and except for merchant debris at their store, very clean, so unlike Cairo and Dehli.