The salesman in the shop in Sim Lim Singapore told me to wave my hands around and so I did and so I purchased a Toshiba PDR M4 digital camera. With a 32MB memory card and an extra battery it cost 1000 Singapore dollars. Be careful with the salesmen in Sim Lim Singapore. They are very sharp unlike their cameras. Only the selection is good. If you are a good shopper, make only your selection in Singapore and shop anywhere else like Kuala Lumpur or Bangkok, both of which have cheaper prices but a smaller selection and much local knowledge is required to find good places such as Panthip Plaza Bangkok. It is not a bad little digital camera. It would benefit from a decent lens to give the photos more depth and clarity. It is now 4 years on since the owner has used it to take most of the photos on this web site. The price of the PDR M4 has dropped from 1000 Singapore dollars to 150 US dollars. The picture quality is good but not as good and foolproof as it should be. It has two automatic systems to adjust the focal length and the stop. It does seem to get the stop wrong quite often with an overemphasis on blue. Dark photos are common and the user needs to use a lot of manual features and over-rides to get good results. A much better buy is the Cannon Ixus series or if you can afford it Sony of course. Sony is the best every time.

Grace, from the Philippines and Singapore. She likes this photo. She wants to start her own guest house in Luson in the Philippines (Grace Homestay). Formerly manager of Goh Homestay. She was working as a maid in Singapore. Good luck to you Grace if you are reading this.

Visit Goh Homestay Singapore Alas no longer. He has gone out of business. He used to rent the whole of what is now the Summer View Hotel in Bencoulin Street (interesting worth checking out, now offers dormitory space and rooms). He then ran a guest house on the top floor up 76 stairs of a hot staircase next door to the Hawaii guesthouse in Bencoulin Street (not recommended, reports of bed bugs). For some Chinese reason the lease expired and he had to go and so he started a new place in little India. The location was next door to all of the electrical junk shops and business was difficult. Also the rent was high. Finally at the end of 2002 it became too much and so now both premises remain unoccupied, a case of landlords being too greedy. A pity, one more great stopover for travelers gone. Also mentioned in the Lonely Planet guide. Good luck to you Ming if you are reading this.

Bob Dylan and Julie, son and mother. Julie is an unmarried mother, who worked as a cleaner at Goh homestay. Every day she must bring Dylan in to work because she has nobody to care for him. He always behaves badly and so she will lose her job. Worse than that Dylan knows that he is a problem.

Jean Francois, French Canadian, - not seen for some time or maybe just too busy working to update his web site. There is a great section about Angkor Wat in Cambodia. He has a wife and a job in Japan. Good luck you Jean Francois if you are reading this.

Travel in South East Asia


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