Selene in Singapore!

One of my friends from Austin came to visit me in Singapore in May! She was on a business trip to Penang, Malaysia and ended up staying for 2 weeks with a Friday holiday in the middle. It was great to spend time with her and have 3 full days during the weekend to explore Singapore!

Over the weekend, we: went to Chinatown and tried ice kacang (pronounced ka-chang), went to the top of the Swissotel, walked to see the Merlion statue and Marina Bay, ate at Jumbo's in Clarke Quay, ate at Din Tai Fung, visited the Night Safari, ate brunch at the Swissotel, went shopping on Orchard Road, and got massages!

It was a wonderful weekend and was good timing because Kevin was in Taipei that weekend on a business trip. I got to have a ladies weekend and he got to have fun in Taiwan with his team! By the end of the trip, I had almost convinced her to relocate here! At least I have convinced her to come back and visit when she gets the chance.

Taipei, Taiwan

One week that Kevin was in Taiwan, I was able to visit over the weekend and see the city he visits for work when he is in Singapore. I think Taipei is a good mix of Singapore and Shanghai - it is pretty clean & safe and has lots of shopping & great food similar to Singapore, but it also brings the sense of adventure like Shanghai because English is not as widely spoken and bargaining is more prevalent in the markets.

Picture of the city

We also had a wonderful time over the weekend visiting Torako National Park which is known for its marble and granite rock formations. We went on a guided tour with about 20 people which was nice, but we were always the next to last ones on the bus because we were so busy taking pictures! Kevin's friend from work also accompanied us on the tour so it was nice to share the experience with her and her fiance.

Taroko National Park

On the tour, we had lunch at a local place where the tour guide kept saying we would "kiss a pig". We were not sure what she meant, but we smiled and nodded. Then, the servers brought us small pig-shaped figurines and we realized it was a cup for drinking rice wine. To drink it, you have to "kiss the pig" because the opening to drink through the figurine is on its mouth.

Picture of the pig and our lunch

We also ate dinner one night at the original Din Tai Fung, which is totally different than all of the other franchises. The franchises are all upscale and have open kitchens to show how they make the dumplings. It is all about the experience and the presentation. The original Din Tai Fung is all about speed - getting the food to you fast without the fancy show. They had a nice spicy dish that we haven't seen on other menus that is definitely worth going back for.

Me & Kevin at the original Din Tai Fung

Another highlight of Taipei is the jade & flower market. We went with one of Kevin's co-workers and got to experience the market that by weekday is a parking lot, and by weekend is a marketplace! We bargained on a couple of pieces of jewelry but didn't see eye to eye with the salesman on quality and price. The most interesting thing I saw in the flower market was the wide variety of Bonzai trees. I thought a Bonzai tree was a specific tree that was groomed and well-manicured. I didn't realize any tree could be a Bonzai tree! So, if anyone tells you that they are willing to sell you Bonzai seeds, that's like someone who is willing to sell some beachfront property in Arizona!

Kevin & Rich bargaining on jade

2 year anniversary in Bali!

Kevin & I just celebrated our 2 year anniversary on May 17, 2010. What a blessing to be able to celebrate our anniversary together! Last year, I would have thought being together on our anniversary was a given - but ever since we have moved to Singapore, we have been grateful to celebrate any special holidays or anniversaries together we can!

We were planning to rent a car in Bali - although everyone we talked to said we were crazy (including the hotel staff where we stayed) but for some reason, we were determined the traffic could not be that bad. After our flight landed late Friday night, we looked around the airport only to find that the car rental place was not at the airport (as advertised on the website!). One old man told us it was very far away (30+ min) and since we called and no one picked up, we decided to get a taxi to our hotel and get the care delivered in the morning. Apparently, the car rental place was only 5 min from the airport, and they could only give us a 50% guarantee of geting a car (even though we reserved online) because it was a national holiday. RIGHT. In some asian countries, a common thing taxi drivers will tell you is that there is a national holiday and stuff is closed, so that you will visit their factories or shops and not go where you want to go. This actually happened to us several times in Bangkok, and when we called them on it, they just laughed. Turns out, they weren't lying here. We managed to visit Bali during the holiday weekend that only happens twice a year, and is a whole weekend celebration of Hindu temple worship.

The good thing about visiting during the holiday was seeing the families in their traditional dress. The women dressed in very brightly colored shirts (typically lace and sheer material) matched with brightly colored (sometimes matching) pants. The men typically wore white shirts & pants, sandals, and a white hat. We tried to get pictures of the families together on their motorscooters (everyone drives those instead of cars in Bali) and sometimes you could see 2 adults, 2 kids and a dog on a scooter! Amazing to see not only the number of people they could fit on a scooter, but also how quickly (and dangerously) they navigated through traffic. Needless to say, we were grateful the acr dealer could not guarantee us a car, and we opted for a driver for the day instead.

Our first full day in Bali, we drove up to the city Ubud. It is the central arts shopping district near Bali and also has lots of interesting natural sites to visit nearby as well. On the way to Ubud, we stopped many times in the stone carving and wood carving districts. Tons of stone carvings lined the roads, making it hard to choose where to shop! Our driver was very patient with us as we frequently asked to stop and take pictures or get out and look around.

After we made it to the city, our first stop was the "Monkey Temple". It was an old temple that has since been turned into a park where lots of monkeys live and people pay to enter and experience wild monkeys in a fairly "natural" setting. We didn't pay to buy bananas for the monkeys because we heard they will climb all over you, and we wanted pictures of them...not on us. =) It was quite comical to watch and listen other tourists who thought holding them was a good idea..."Hey there little monkey...pretty monkey...you're so cute! ...OW! Quit biting me!!!" Glad that wasn't us! The setting was beautiful though - scenes of Avatar ran through my mind as I looked up into the trees that were hundreds of years old and clouded out most of the sky.

After seeing the monkey temple, we walked the streets of Ubud to shop. The area had tons of interesting handicrafts - baskets, carved coconut bowls, statues, etc. - but they are also known for their silver jewelry. SCORE! There were tons of beautiful earrings that were very affordable, so I definitely got earrings from Bali no problem. Such a fun thing to collect!

For lunch, we went to a place recommended by a friend - Naughty Nuris - famous for their pork rib BBQ. In Bali, Indonesia of all places! Having been deprived of good pork BBQ for far too long, we were determined to eat there, even though the wait looked like it would take hours. One group of older men called out to us, and said they would make room at their table for us to sit with them. They were an interesting bunch! From all over the world, the one thing they all had in common was they all had moved to Bali to live. We ordered iced tea, thinking it would come from a can, and it showed up as glasses with ice and tea. Uh oh, we thought. I told Kevin we needed to re-order our drinks since we couldn't eat the ice - it would make us sick - so we did. One of the older guys laughed at us and said we were paranoid, that ice wouldn't make us sick and they all drank it (they were all drinking beer - no ice - hard to trust...). We looked still unconvinced, so they pointed at the guy in the corner of the table where we were and said, "You can ask him - he's the owner of the place!" It was true! He was the owner of the restaurant and said the ice in Bali came from a company on the island that use purified water to make their ice. And he said the rest of the restaurants on the island that welcomed tourists also used the same ice. What a relief! We gratefully drank our tea and ate the best pork ribs we have ever had - and had a long conversation with the owner about NY Jets football of all things! Turns out, he is from NY and has been a life long Jets fan. He was amazed Kevin was from NY and his dad was a Jets fan, and we were too! What a small world. We told him to come and visit us in Austin whenever he gets back to the States, but since he always goes to NY to get his "city"fix, I don't think he will find quite the experience in Austin as he finds in NY!

After lunch, we headed to see the volcano & rice patties in the area. We got an amazing view of the volcano (not covered by the clouds like it is most afternoons) and were the only ones there to soak in its beauty. You could actually see the darker soil where the lava flows had been, and on the side of the volcano you could see smoke coming out! It hasn't gone off since the 70's so people leave near it, but it is still active, so I was fine being as far away as we were. The rice patty fields were another amazing site to see. Some of the fields had recently been harvested, so they just looked like plods of soil and water. The unharvested fields looked like tall green fields of grass, and their symmetry on the hillsides was incredible.

For dinner, we went to Dirty Duck, and had the most amazing roasted duck! The local veggies and spices were very good and the setting of the outdoor restaurant was very serene. From our candlelit table, we could see out into a big field of rice. The place was named Dirty Duck because when they first opened, the local ducks would walk from the fields into the restaurant and make the floors dirty! The place was magical in the night setting, even minus the dirty ducks.

The next morning, we got up early to go surfing! We paid for a semi-private lesson (one instructor for 2 people) and we were very impressed with the whole operation. The place we went was Oddessey surf school; they picked us up at our hotel, gave us surf shirts, gave us lockers for our stuff, took us surfing for an hour, gave us a break with cold water, took us out for another hour where they gave us more freedom to try and surf on our own, and then had a professional photographer capturing some of our shining (and not so shining) moments on our surf boards! They took 119 pictures of us and it was definitely worth it to have someone record or (few!) moments of glory! =)

After that, we went back to the hotel (Ayana) and spent some time in the infinity pool (overlooking the ocean) before heading out to Kuta Beach again for shopping. There was not as much shopping as we expected in Kuta, but apparently we didn't go far enough to find the kind of arts and handicrafts we were looking for. Once we finished in Kuta, we headed for the airport.

Getting through the Bali airport was quite a challenge - they tried to make us check a bag when we didn't need to (knowing they could charge us $60 USD to do so) and we finally convinced them we didn't need to, they tried to take our bug spray away (even though we came to Bali with it in a carry-on), and then they charged an exit fee as an added insult to injury from the long lines we had to wait in for everything. Once we made it out, we were finally able to relax. If we ever go back, we will definitely stay for longer - not only because customs was a nightmare - but more for the fact that we could get lost in Ubud for several days and we just might consider being life long surfer bums...

Pulau Ubin (old Singapore)

Since we decided to stay in town for the Singapore Cup Horse Race, we decided to visit Pulau Ubin (Pulau means island in Malay) – a small island off the coast of Singapore that is considered part of Singapore. There is a population there still of about 100 people, and the island is reminiscent of how Singapore was in the 1950’s. To get there, we had to take a bus to the coast and then board what we were told was a ferry. The “ferry” was actually a bumboat – a small wooden boat that can only hold 12 people and also doubles as a home for the owner! We saw one that was particularly decrepit and said to ourselves “as long as we don’t ride in THAT one”. Spoken too soon.

After we boarded the bumboat, we took a quick 20 min ride out to Pulau Ubin. The main pastime of visitors to the island is bike riding, since the roads are not paved and most of the island is old granite quarries and campgrounds. As we looked out of the windows of the boat towards the shore, we saw we were headed into a storm. On the ocean though, you can see for miles, so we hoped to ourselves we would escape the rain and enjoy ourselves nonetheless. Well, we enjoyed ourselves, but did NOT escape the rain. =)

When we got to the island, the place was packed with bike rental salesmen. After picking some very high quality bikes to rent for $8 each, we headed off to the left side of the island. We started to hear thunder and headed for a nearby shelter for cover. We were soon joined by 3 older men who also needed shelter, so we made room. The rain poured pretty heavily for a bit, and then died down; the silence occasionally broken by loud claps of thunder. After a long period of silence, Kevin decided it was time to go. I told him he should go out from under the shelter and look at the clouds to see if the storm had truly passed. He walked about 5 steps from the shelter towards the water, and no sooner had he gotten to the middle of the clearing, lightning struck the water in front of him and we heard the loudest clap of thunder we have ever heard! He RAN back into the shelter, covering his ears from the deafening noise, and the 3 old men in the shelter proceeded to chuckle at him. We then waited for them to leave and make it out of the clearing before we committed to leaving!

We continued to head to the left side of the island, but quickly noticed that every biker passing us from that direction was completely soaked and most were completely muddy as well. Easy choice – head away from the left! We then headed to the right side of the island, and saw some of the older homes in the area. It was amazing to see the architecture and serenity of the homes as they sat situated in clearings between the jungle and brush. As we were stopped on the trail to take a picture, 2 wild boars ran across our trail 50 ft in front of us! We froze. Those things can kill you! Our plan was to go medium speed past the clearing they ran through, and then speed up if more were on their way. After mounting up our courage, we passed safely through the clearing, and headed on our way. We made it to the part of the island where you then are only allowed to hike – the paths are too steep and unlevel to bike. We walked up to a large observatory tower (very smart after the storm had just passed!) and on our way back down, we saw a wild boar! We followed him and took some pictures, as we noticed from other observers, he was pretty unalarmed by humans.

After that, we continued walking towards the Mangrove forest. It was awesome to see how large and magnificent those trees are. They have adapted to their environment in such a unique way, and it was mesmerizing to see. We continued walking through the rainforest and it started to drizzle. We waited under a large tree for about 10 minutes, and the storm seemed to have passed, so we continued walking. After walking around the whole right coast of the island, the trail took us back through the rainforest. As we were under the shade of the trees, the heavens opened up and the rain was unstoppable! Of course, neither of us had brought umbrellas! We clung to each other by a large tree trunk and waited about 10 minutes for the rain to subside. We actually were quite dry because of the heavy leaves blocking the rain. After about 10 minutes though, the leaves got weighed down by the weight of the rain and we started to get sprinkled on. I didn’t realize how close we were to the shelter (about 100 feet, up around a blind curve) but the rain was so heavy that even in a sprint, we would have gotten completely soaked. While we were waiting, two ladies walked by under their umbrellas. They offered to let us borrow one as they shared one and let us walk back to the shelter. What a lifesaver! We were so grateful and thankful as we walked together up the muddy hill to the park shelter, and waited for another 30 min with a group of about 40 people as the storm finally subsided.

After that, we walked back to our bikes, brushed off our seats, and finished riding back to the dock to return our bikes. It was so amazing to really experience why a rain forest is so aptly named! We had a wonderful time, and will definitely not journey out on our own in the future without taking an umbrella.

Singapore Cup Horse Race

When we got invited to attend the Singapore Cup Horse Race, we knew it was a great weekend to stay in Singapore! Knowing the history of fashion typically worn at horse races, I thought I needed to buy a hat. Good thing I didn’t find one I liked – I would have been the only 1 of 2 people there with a hat on! Apparently, the new fashion to wear at horse races is feather hairpieces. You know – the ones pinned into the side of your head with bright fake colored feathers that stick up very tall to get attention. Too bad I didn’t save any of my dance costume headpieces from my 13 years of performance. I think they might have come in handy…

We went with a group of co-workers to the “Party on the Lawn” section of the race track, and sat/stood in a covered tent area beside the track with a very close view of the horses when they passed by for each race – all 0.3 seconds of it! The horses were very cool to see up close – the races started in the middle of the track for the short races, and our tent was on the left side of the track – so we only got to see them right before the leaders started pulling ahead. For the last & longest race though, they moved the starting line to right in front of our tent! We tried to get some close up shots of the horses coming out of the gate, but our shuttle speed could not keep up! They were just a blur of colors in 2 frames.

Since we have never been to the horse races – or even watched one closely on TV before – we were totally clueless as to placing bets. The world of horse betting is quite complicated! We had $5 vouchers each to place bets on horses, and we used them on the first two races with no money won. (We bet on the single horse winner, and that is hard to win). Then we branched out to trying different types of bets – top 3 to place (in any order), winner, first & second (in any order), etc. Altogether, we spent about $30 and made none. Guess we don’t have to worry about having a gambling problem. =)

One of our friends won very big on a $5 bet! He picked the top 3 horses to win (in any order) and changed one of the 3 horses he had picked at the last minute from listening to a friend’s advice. He also gave the lady $10 for a $5 bet, and she didn’t give him change, so he just shrugged his shoulders and figured it didn’t matter. When his 3 horses crossed the finish line as the Top 3 place finishers, he jumped up and down and realized he had won a bet that was actually doubled! I think his total win was close to $170. Pretty good return!

The Singapore Cup was a once in a lifetime experience…and we plan to keep it that way!

Kota Kinabalu (driving on Borneo island)

Two weekends ago we took a trip to Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia on Borneo Island. It is located southeast of Singapore, and was a short flight away. Fortunately, we were able to fly out in the morning and had time to figure out the car rental situation when we arrived. After renting a car and a GPS, we were out the door and headed for fun! We drove through downtown Kota Kinabalu on our way to the resort, and then realized we were going to get local currency at the hotel, so we kept driving.

Mount Kinabalu from a bridge (very far away & covered by clouds)

After arriving at the Shangri-La resort, and surprising the local staff by not having arrived in a taxi, we checked in and figured out what activities to do for the weekend. Intrigued by the local markets we saw in downtown Kota Kinabalu, we decided to drive back into the city for shopping and a local dinner. The market we found was in a huge covered building, and was crammed with every hand-woven basket, woven purse, carved mask and Borneo island trinket you could think of! We bought a large woven bag (to use as a beach bag), a nice mask, and a cool banana leaf candle holder. Everything was pretty cheap, similar to touristy things in the US, so we were happy with our purchases.

We asked one of the local shop owners to recommend a local place for dinner. She picked a place 5 stores over that served several local Malay dishes. The seating was on a worn, wooden deck with a great look of the sunset over the ocean. Looked great! We found a familiar Pineapple rice and then got adventurous with Coke fried rice (amazing!), Spicy Thai Beef (our fav dish!), Red Curry Beef, and Spicy Thai Lamb. We got some great sunset pictures and enjoyed the night so much, we decided to go back later in the weekend.

Sunset from the restaurant (no photoshop - promise!)

The next morning, we drove up to Mount Kinabalu. Getting to the park was a challenge, because our car (Proton) had an extremely tiny engine, and with the petal to the metal, it only peaked at about 55 mph max! (Did I mention that was only downhill?) On our way up to the mountain, we saw a small craft complex on the side of the road and decided to pull over. There were so many beautiful, locally made wooden handicrafts that we had a hard time choosing what to get! For about 35 USD, we got 2 wooden fish traps (look like decorative side table lamps), a wooden woven flat basket for drying vegetables (doubling as wall decor), a bamboo woven fruit bowl, and a bamboo woven flat bowl. The pieces all look very rustic and yet modern, so we are very excited to put them in our house when we get home!

Kevin in the car we rented - notice the side of the car he is on to drive!

After that, we headed up to the mountain. We ate a local lunch in the park, did a short walk through the botanical garden area, and hiked a trail back to our car. The trail was very short but it was very steep and curvy! The signs were also not very helpful - didn't correspond to the map's directions - so we took a bit longer than we expected. Once we were done with the hike, we decided to head back to the resort, and I got to drive back! I didn't think about the fact that driving down the mountain might have been more stressful than driving up, especially with a pack of 50 motorcyclists trying to pass you down a mountain with very narrow lanes! We survived, managed not to kill any motorcyclists, and made it back safely. For dinner, we decided to go to a local seafood place recommended by the resort. After driving up, seeing the "pick your dinner from the tank" style menu, we were thankful we had a car to drive back to the resort in! We ate dinner at the Indian restaurant on-site at the resort, and went through our pictures that night.

The next day, we ate a late breakfast and went to the Orang Utan (orangutang) Rehabilitation Center on site at the resort. This facility provides Stage 1 of 2 rehab for Orang Utans that have been either kept as pets and won't survive in the wild on their own, or have lost their habitats and have nowhere to go. We started our walk at 10:00am, and went into the jungle to see the morning feeding. Because of the large crowd of visitors we were with (about 30 people), the orangutangs put on a show! They went spastic and jumped from tree to tree, hung upside down, and even fell out of the tree and almost rolled down the hill into me! The trainers put a bucket full of cut up veggies and fruits on a platform for the orangutangs to eat, and also had a waterbottle filled with an orange juice and milk mixture. In order for them to drink the juice, they had to hold out their lips (looked like they were kissing the air) and wait for the bottle to be brought to their mouth to drink. Otherwise, they just grabbed the bottle and would run off. It was an awesome experience to see, and we got tons of cool pictures.

That afternoon, we went back into Kota Kinabalu to see the weekend market. We got there about 30 minutes before they closed the market down. The market actually closes down streets in the middle of the city, and once they start taking down their tarps, cars are already pushing their way through to start utilizing the streets again. I bought some great Malaysian earrings before one of the tents closed down, so the visit was a success.

Since it was early in the afternoon, we headed back to the resort to relax, and then went back into the city that night for dinner at the same place we had eaten 2 nights before. We ordered the Coke fried rice & Spicy Thai Beef again, but decided to go for 2 new dishes - Lemon Chicken and Black Pepper Beef. I loved the chicken, so I ate about half of that dish, and half of the Spicy Thai Beef. I had 2 bites of the Black Pepper beef but wasn't really into it. Apparently, Kevin liked the Black Pepper Beef dish, so he ate the whole thing. Once dinner was over, we went through a local seafood market and saw fish being cut up and cooked right in front of us. I just love walking through a wet alley only to find out I am walking through fish blood! After the seafood market experience, we were ready to head back to the resort.

On the morning we woke up to leave, I found out that Kevin and the last night's dinner dish had not gotten along well. We think he may have gotten food posioning from the beef dish he ate, but somehow I felt fine, and was able to take care of him on our way back to the airport. Trying very hard not to look sick, he made it through the airport in Malaysia and in Singapore, and he slept the rest of the day and night.

Overall, we had a great time in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia. Borneo Island had some awesome smaller islands off of it we could have taken some day trips too if we had more time and had booked it in advance. We may have to do that next time, if we ever decide to go back!

Monkeys in Langkawi, Malaysia (March trip)

PICTURES at this link: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2380203&id=11832762&l=546849d4c2

On our 2nd weekend in Singapore, we headed off to Langkawi, Malaysia. We flew out Friday night after work and arrived at our hotel around 9pm at the Datai. It was a beautiful resort - in the darkness it was breath-taking and intriguing. We decided to explore the resort, put our bags down, and walked to the beach. The resort is amazing - all the buildings are on stilts (like treehouses) in the midst of a 50 million year old rainforest! And the walk to the beach is no disappointment.

We finally neared the ocean as we felt the path become sandy and our ears began humming with the sound of crashing waves. We turned a corner and reached a clearing...wide open sky and a beautiful stretch of unoccupied beach. All ours!!! We pulled out 2 chairs from under the low branches of the nearby forest and laid down towatch the stars. It was so quiet, and more sky than I've ever seen before - a moment we will never forget!

The next morning, we checked out bikes and decided to go biking around the island. Before we even left the resort, we saw a side street to a parking lot and there was a monkey sitting in the middle of the road! We took a few pictures on our small cameras, and then I held Kevin's bike and watched the monkeys while kevin went back to grab his big camera. We took pictures of 3 adults and 2 babies, and when they ran up into the trees, we followed them down the hill to get a closer look. We were shooting pictures up in the tree (bad shots as the bright sun was the background) and some local workers said, "Look down there - lots of them in the trees, very close". We looked into the parking lot, and on a smaller tree, there were 2 adults and a baby monkey, about eye level, just hanging out and eating leaves!

We got very close and took tons of cute pictures and learned that these are the nice monkeys on the resort. They (black fur with white around the eyes) only eat leaves and don't bother humans. The other monkeys on the island (brown colored) have learned that food comes from humans, and for them, food is stolen from someone lower on the food chain. So, since they can get food from humans, they think we are lower on the food chain, and they will break into rooms to steal it, throw things at you, and make growling noises at you if you come too close. Fortunately, we were able to get close to the nice monkeys!

We didn't realize at the time, but soon found out, the crazy windy road we took to get to the resort was indicative of the entire area around the resort! We left the entrance and decided to head uphill...went about 10 minutes until the road dead-ended and came back down. The other direction we could have gone out of the resort was downhill, but we knew it would be a grueling struggle to get back up the hill when all was said and done. Not to mention the close to unbearable heat that was melted away by a downhill rush of wind. Back to the lobby we went.

we went back to the beach for some sun, swimming, and kayaking. After laying out and a short swim break, we checked out the last canoe and headed for an uninhabited island in the distance. Our journey took about 2 hours, but that was long enough for me to get completely fried in streaks across my body. After reaching the beach, we had our lunch on the sand, under the shade of the rainforest, and had the most amazing fruit smoothies (apple mint and strawberry mango) ever! After lunch, I realized how burned I was, and we headed back to the room before our Night Nature Walk and dinner.

We signed up for the Nature Hike and this was, by far, the coolest experience of our entire trip! Our guide walked us down from the main road of our resort, showing us wild live species and pictures of the various native animals. The best part was, he lived and breathed that jungle. As we stood there, he narrated the story behind the bird and monkey calls we heard - showing us the predatory bird that was being chased away by both the other birds and monkeys we saw. He also showed us native figs and explained for every one of the 1,200 fig species, there is a unique fig wasp that can only pollinate the specific fig it is designed for. Our tour ended with a description of native "flying" species on the island - squirrels, frogs, and SNAKES! Apparently, there ARE flying snakes. And apparently, they HAVE been spotted in the wild of Langkawi! I was now not concerned about snakes I can see on the ground, but snakes in the air as well...

After the Natur Walk concluded, we got ready for dinner. For dinner, we had reservations at the Gulai House, the resort's "in-jungle" restaurant. The food specialties were authentic Malay & Indian cuisines, of which we sampled and loved both! We were told we could walk back to the resort along the beach (even though we took a bus to get there) - so we did. Night walks on the beack - STRIKE 2!!!

(History- the 1st time Kevin & I walked on the beach at night, I had a scratched cornea (eye), was wearing glasses, and decided to walk barefoot. It was romantic until the ghost crabs followed the light of our flashlight and freaked us out by running right in our path the entire walk...STRIKE 1!)

This time, the path was not well lit, it was narrowly cut between the thick of the jungle, and was right after our Nature Walk where we learned this island has flying squirrels, flying frogs, and flying SNAKES! A wild boar had also been spotted by 2 different guests during the week that accompanied us on our Nature Walk. PERFECT. Each rustle in the bushes gave us more pep in our step and made us wonder if it was a flying reptile or a wild boar that was coming to get us! We made it back safely...needless to say...but not without a story and a memory we will never forget!

The next day, we explored the rest of the island - in 5 hours! We stopped at a local food stand on the side of the road to buy banana fritters - which tasted like fried balls of banana bread dough! Yummy! We were expecting slices of banana fried in dough (like we find in Singapore, even though it is a Philipino dish) but it was better than that! We went shopping for souvenirs - especially a vase & bowl we saw used in Malay custom to wash your hands before eating. We could not find a good one, so the hunt will continue when we are in Malaysia again!

As I write this, it has been almost 2 months since the trip, and while my sunburn is healed, I still have a splotchy tan to correct! =) It was an amazing trip, one we will never forget!

But this is normal lah...

There are lots of things here that people consider normal that are foreign to me:

1. Corn isn't a side dish...it's a dessert!

I can't tell you how many ways corn has been prepared that I have tried it recently, but in all of it's many forms, I am good with eating corn at any time of day, with any type of preparation. My favorite that I will definitely prepare in Austin is "cup corn". Steamed corn in a styrofoam cup, with butter and salt. So simple. SOOO delicious!!!

2. People older than you are called "Auntie" or "Uncle".

You say this at grocery stores, to your friend's parents, and to your waitor at dinner. It's kind of cool because it makes it feel more personal when you talk to people. I haven't personally embraced it to the fullest and used it on a waitor yet, but I might by the end of this assignment! :)

3. When you want to emphasize something, you say "Lah" at the end of it.

Ok lah...
Yes lah...
Nooo laaahhhh
Ok, I do it for you lah...
Tomorrow lah...

Ok I guess you get the point! :)

4. People here are very conscientious of the cleanliness of their utensils.

I can't tell you how many times I have seen local people taking their own tissues and napkins and wipe off the silverware before they use it. Now it makes me wonder how clean the utensils are that I have been eating off of. Oh well...haven't gotten sick yet!

5. The common belief is that the only way to be cool is to eat & drink hot things!

I guess it makes sense, because it makes you sweat. But I am not a fan of sweating every hour of my waking life. Most of the foods here are fried meats, hot rice, soups, or fried breads. I am amazed at how skinny people are here given what they eat! My only theory is that fried foods fill you up faster, and hot foods make you want to eat less because you are already hot. Doesn't sound very scientific, but that's all she wrote.

It has been very fun to learn the ways of this new culture and experience the new foods and customs in Singapore. I hope to bring back the recipes and fun exciting things I have learned here to Austin and share them with all of you!!!

This is the MALL that never ends...

One amazing thing about Singapore is the HUGE shopping malls. Despite their daunting appearance (some are 5+ stories tall), they are quite multi-purposeful!

In brief, here is the extent of a shopping mall here :

• you could get plastic surgery ("slimming treatments")
• go to the doctor
• do your weekly grocery shopping (in the basement of every mall)
• go to the gym/yoga class
• go to physical therapy
• drop off your kids at tutoring
• pick out curtains, furniture, etc. to redecorate your house
• get a spa treatment

...all before you get a nice hot meal and shop for clothes, shoes, purses, & jewelry :)

Needless to say, I have only utilized a small portion of the available services offered, but I guess it is nice to know everything you need is practically under one roof!

10 things that never change

Lauren-made altruisms (my recent observances in Singapore):
1. Bad Starbucks is still 10x better than vending machine coffee
2. Old people still dye their hair strange shades of blue that don't look normal
3. Waiting in the bank line at lunch hour is never a quick process
4. Teenagers are still "too cool for school"
5. Old ladies love to sit and talk together to pass the time
6. Scrambled eggs just aren't as good when you aren't making them yourself
7. Cash disappears faster than spending money on my credit card
8. Buses are inconsistent, consistently
9. Taxi drivers are like a box of chocolates...
10. Pictures can't fully describe what it is really like to be here

There are many things that are different, but it is amazing to see that despite all the differences, there are some things that never change.

Wearing red in Thailand

We just got back yesterday from our first trip to Thailand! We went to Bangkok for 3 days on a short trip before work started up and stayed in the heart of the city. The city was similar to Shanghai in that there were lots of markets and people trying to get you to ride in their taxi or "tuk-tuk" everywhere we went. It is hard to fit in anywhere in Asia when you have blonde hair and have a 6'8'' person walking with you! Lots of taxi and tuk-tuk drivers asked us where we were from, probably to gauge how much money we were willing to spend, and we started saying "from Singapore" so they would give us a better price.

PICTURES link: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2380201&id=11832762&l=8156b1ca10

The first day, we spent the entire day outside of the city. On our way to see the floating market, we actually saw sea salt farms! The workers actually section off areas of water near the shore and use rakes to scoop up the salt that has settled in the section. Then they make individual piles of sea salt (very impressive to see en masse) and compile them all into one large mound that is flat on top and in the basic shape of a rectangle. It was very cool to see, and something that we will have to go back to spend some quality time taking pictures of.

We also saw a "train market" on our way - a market formed along train tracks that shuts down for the few minutes a train passes by each hour! We missed the train schedule, but we did get to walk the tracks and view the goods for sale. The most interesting thing was that people weren't interested in us! We actually felt quite invisible. It helped us get some great pictures though! =)

Train market

The first part of the day we went to the floating market. There is an entire group of people that live in houses right along the water and use canals as their main mode of transportation. They also sell food and souveniers from huts along the canal or from right out of their boat. There were may traffic jams, and being a boat driver there would be quite a stressful job! I think there were about as many foreigners (called "farang") as local people, but it was still cool to see and experience. Our boat had a motor, which was nice for speed purposes, but but took the ride pretty slow for pictures. Our driver was probably only 15, and spoke little English, but he would always slow down if he saw us taking pictures of something.

Floating Market

After seeing the floating market, we went to Ayutthaya (pronounced Ayu-dai-ya), the ancient capital of Bangkok, to see the temple ruins and remnants of the old city. The light was not that good for taking pictures, but the ruins that remained were pretty impressive. It was built around 1370 AD, and is still in pretty good shape for being sacked by the Burmese and having minimal restoration done. The one thing the Burmese did consistently in their ransack was to behead all of the Buddha statues throughout the city. There were just rows and rows of statues everywhere that only remained from the neck down, which made for an interesting sight.

Ruins of Ayutthaya - old capital of Thailand

Buddha statue head in a tree trunk

One thing we noticed here and in other places in Thailand was free roaming dogs. I am not sure if they are considered sacred or not, but many of them did not have collars even though they probably had owners, but they had free reign of the streets and people for the most part passed by them as if they were invisible. I think they must get food on their own and people are just used to seeing them on the streets, but it was hard to walk past them and not pet them! We treat our pets much differently in the States. It was ironic also to see that dogs whose owners did not care where they went, typically stayed close to their owners and were uninterested in random people walking by. In the States, we pay people to train our dogs not to be interested in passer-bys! Weird.

The second day, we explored around the typical Bangkok tourist attractions (inside the city). We took the train to a boat and went to an antique market, took a "tuk-tuk" (or glorified golf cart/covered motorcycle) to see the Golden Buddha (solid gold statue), then to Chinatown (where they don't bargain as much as in China!), then went to Sampheng market, then stopped at Khao San road for lunch & shopping, went to the Great Palace (where the President usually stays), saw the Reclining Buddha (largest statue in the world), and went back to Khao San road to finish shopping. We went back to the boat station and ate dinner on the dock, took a boat back to our stop, and explored the night street. This was a very tame night life area, but we saw what Bangkok is known for in the advertisements and offerings for shows we got as we walked down the street. After that, we went to the Night Bazaar, an organized area full of shops right down the street from our hotel. Throughout the day, we got some great souvenirs and gifts as well as our typical earrings and Christmas ornament (that we collect from everywhere we travel). What did we buy for our Christmas ornament? ...a toy tuk-tuk made from a Pepsi can written in Thai.

Tuk-tuk (pronounced "tdook-tdook")

On our last day, we went to the famous "weekend market" where about 30,000 vendors set up shop every weekend to sell their goods. It was quite an experience as we arrived early and saw vendors setting up their shops, and accidentally wandered into the "pet" area of the market that sold dogs, cats, rabbits, birds, and baby squirrels. We also saw some live pet monkeys at one of the booths at the Night Bazzar the night before, and the local people were amazed at why we stopped and pointed. Squirrels take the cake though.

We actually left the country just in time because it was the day before a protest started in Bangkok. The United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) group has organized this rally because the people are unhappy about the ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. He has been sent to Dubai and faces a 2 year prison sentence for abuse of power, but many of the rural Thai want him to return to Thailand because of the cheap medical care, low interest loans and other measures his government enacted to alleviate poverty. This link has the full story: http://www.thehimalayantimes.com/fullNews.php?headline=Protesters+surge+into+Bangkok+wanting+new+election&NewsID=232951

Apparently, the last time there was a large protest in Bangkok, the airport shut down for 5 days. Our taxi driver on our first day in Bangkok told us about the protest and that we would make it out in time.

No one told us the color the protesters were rallying around was the color of one of the few shirts both Kevin and I brought on our trip...
red.

Ooops. =)

Rice, rice, and...do you like rice?

We have been very adventurous with the foods here! However, one commonality to almost every meal we have tried here has been rice! I am keeping a tally of how many meals I have eaten here that come with rice, but I do have to say the fried rice here is 10x better than what we call fried rice in the states! The rice is sweeter, stickier, and always has egg in it (which makes me feel like it is healthier!) and is my saving grace for meals where I have been a bit too adventurous when I ordered. Two famous Singaporean dishes we have tried are "chicken rice" (which is a good place to start) and "laksa" which is a noodles dish with coconut milk and various toppings (I like cooked prawns on top).

Sugarcane juice - not as sweet as I expected it to be - but refreshing!

Green tea Kit Kats! My new favorite!!!

Strawberry Milk Ice - Shaved ice, condensed milk, strawberry gel, and cut strawberries on top. Surprisingly good!

You can buy food at different types of restaurants. There are typical sit-down meals, fast-food places (they have Micky D's if you want it!) and hawker stands. These are true local food centers where each vendor has their own stall and specialty. You might have to buy your meal in parts from different vendors, depending on which food you want. A good hawker stand is in Holland Village (where we had chicken rice) and in Little India (where we had amazing chicken satay). The cost of food in the hawker centers is very cheap, but I need to prepare myself to eat there. I can't just say "It's time for lunch. What do they have?" I have to say, "I am going to a hawker stand. What do I want?" It is an adventure every time, and sometimes the food is amazing, sometimes the food is worth trying somewhere else.

Kevin excited to find soft serve Mickey D's with Green Apple syrup on top!

The most interesting thing about food in Singapore is that it tastes different than it looks. I look at a dish and expect it to taste a certain way, based on past experiences with food that looked similar, and I am surprised 9 out of 10 times. Most of the time, it is food that looks like it would taste salty and tastes sweet. The meals are generally more sweet than I am used to, but the desserts are less sweet than in the States. Sometimes, the meal is more sweet than the dessert!

The one food I miss the most is a good salad. There are only a few places I've been told have good salads in restaurants, but the best idea is to make one yourself. The nice thing is the water in Singapore is safe to drink, which means the fruits and vegetables are all safe to eat as well. It is like America in that regard - you can try any food you want without worrying about if it is contaminated or not. You might have to worry about neck and skin on your chicken, but it is clean!

My next adventure...Peanut & Sweet corn ice! :)

Clearly, you've never been to Singapore...

We arrived safely in Singapore last Thursday night around midnight our time. I had already forced my body to stay awak for most of the flights, so my body must have thought it was in pure "survival" mode when I finally allowed myself to rest. The next morning, we rode around with our guide to get SIM cards for our cell phones, bank accounts, bus passes and just to see the sights. It is a beautiful city - lots of friendly people, appetizing restaurants, and shopping that is fit for Rodeo Drive. While I am not interested in this type of shopping, (I like bargaining prices) it is still comforting to see brands of stores I know.

Notice how muggy it is at 12am!

All of the street signs are in English, the buses and MRT (subway) are pretty easy to use, and taxis are everywhere you look. I do miss my car - I hate paying to go to work and back, or go to run errands, but I do walk as much as I possibly can. It is very humid...and I am trying to be more Singaporean in my walking style. Us Americans power walk - and I am the queen of power walking - but when you powerwalk, you perspire very rapidly in this humidity. I actually talked to someone who lived in Houston and said that it was worse than here (most Texans know what I mean!), but all I know is now an expectation of mine to sweat whenever I go outside.

Busy street in Singapore - I love the tropical jungle beside the road!

The air conditioning in stores and in public transportation is very good, but it makes it hard to dress for the "weather" when there are only two seasons - inside (cold) and outside (hot)! I have to bring a sweater with me to work, but I get a good workout just walking 8 minutes to the bus each morning.

I have also successfully worn blisters into my feet in all of the necessary places in the first 3 days! I didn't realize that closed toe shoes are near impractical when it comes to walking ouside all day. I knew my feet would expand, but in the States, I spend enough time in the air conditioning and in cooler weather that my feet shrink back down. I didn't realize how pampered my feet were in tennis shoes until I started trying to look more like the locals (no one wears tennis shoes) and then found out the hard way that I had lost my old calouses. My feet have now successfully healed, but that was definitely a lesson learned the hard way!

Overall, Singapore is a vibrant city with lots of great dining and shopping options and lots of beautiful outdoor nature areas to explore. I am enjoying my time here so far and look forward to the next 6 months! I will put pictures up later to show the place where I live and the cool sights around the city!

My apartment kitchen & living room

To see more pictures on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2380195&id=11832762&l=adfd265daf