Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Monday, September 27, 2010
Chopsticks
Chinese people (in Asia) are often surprised and impressed that I know how to use chopsticks so well. There is nothing impressive about this. I've been dating a Chinese girl for nearly three years. What would be surprising is if I didn't know how to use chopsticks. But I did know how to use chopsticks before I ever met Janet..
I first used chopsticks when my father took me to eat pho (Vietnamese noodle soup; Americans - it's pronounced "fuh") when I was very young. He forced me to use them. I was very reluctant. Whining, I asked why I couldn't just use a fork. His answer: "One day, you might go on a date with an Asian girl, and you don't want to embarrass yourself!"
I first used chopsticks when my father took me to eat pho (Vietnamese noodle soup; Americans - it's pronounced "fuh") when I was very young. He forced me to use them. I was very reluctant. Whining, I asked why I couldn't just use a fork. His answer: "One day, you might go on a date with an Asian girl, and you don't want to embarrass yourself!"
Wedding
The wedding was Saturday, and was my first Chinese wedding. Congrats to Cadence and Jacky! We're going to another wedding on Wednesday - I'm told it will be much more "local," so that should be interesting.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgE6MX_LLOmP2yRWzgW6dIEJjiP0T2cUblkBNOuQ37PWh5Rnk4Mwh-zo-zOjbazdjhOevr2ujZe4uT8_0YOkpjSCJ-A6EHYCHM7XMPEwIRz2CeYCwS60iPNB1puWDFvw8FGkfF2vFk2he4/s320/wedding_pic.jpg)
A couple of cultural differences..
Cadence changed dresses (and hair styles) five times during the reception, which I would have never noticed except that Janet pointed it out to me.
There was no entree at the reception, but instead about 10 small-portion dishes. I was getting full on "appetizers" and starting to think I'd never be able to eat the entree when I realized that there was no entree!
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgE6MX_LLOmP2yRWzgW6dIEJjiP0T2cUblkBNOuQ37PWh5Rnk4Mwh-zo-zOjbazdjhOevr2ujZe4uT8_0YOkpjSCJ-A6EHYCHM7XMPEwIRz2CeYCwS60iPNB1puWDFvw8FGkfF2vFk2he4/s320/wedding_pic.jpg)
A couple of cultural differences..
Cadence changed dresses (and hair styles) five times during the reception, which I would have never noticed except that Janet pointed it out to me.
There was no entree at the reception, but instead about 10 small-portion dishes. I was getting full on "appetizers" and starting to think I'd never be able to eat the entree when I realized that there was no entree!
beee-e-a utiful wedding
congratulations cadence and jacky! can't wait to bai leen and get lai see (red envelopes) from you guys this CNY! haha
Friday, September 24, 2010
BIRTHDAY BOY
HAPPY BIRTHDAY ARI!
zhu ni shen ri kuai le
(happy birthday to you)
zhu ni shen ri kuai le
(happy birthday to you)
zhu ni shen ri kuai le
(happy birthday tooo youuuuuu)*
zhu ni shen ri kuai le!
*The happy birthday song in chinese doesn't have the line "happy birthday dear (fill in blank)" but is still sung in the same tune
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Defeated
I like to think of myself as someone who appreciates food. I embrace the food of other cultures with open arms, even the items that most other Westerners turn their noses up at. Pigs feet, fish stomach, pig stomach, pig tongue, ox tongue, tripe, Durian, chicken liver, beef tendon, pigeon, fish eyes - I've eaten it all, and truly enjoy most of it. I saw a show on National Geographic about how Cambodians snack on fried spiders and crickets. I can't wait to get to Cambodia! So far I haven't come across any food that I couldn't at least get down.. until today.
During lunch with Janet's parents and their friends, stinky tofu was ordered. I can't speak Chinese, so I had no idea. When the waiter brought the plate over I thought he had a serious body odor problem. The smell is strong and overwhelming. I don't want to offend our Chinese audience, but the candid truth is that I thought it smelled like garbage. But I thought to myself: how bad can it be? After all, everyone else is eating it. After smothering it in hot sauce and some other type of sauce, I took a bite. I finished the bite, but couldn't finish the rest of it. It tasted similar to how it smelled: rotten. Demoralized, I admitted defeat.
The host of the TV show Bizarre Foods won't admit to disliking a certain food until he's tried it three times. I'll adopt the same philosophy. After all, if so many Hong Kongers enjoy it (including Janet), there's got to be something good about it.. right?
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
In Hong Kong, taking a break..
Apologies.. Our postings have slowed. We're currently in Hong Kong for two weeks on account of Janet's friend Cadence getting married. We're staying with Janet's parents, who live here. A short break from travel.
Janet has been busy with wedding preparations, getting her bridesmaid dress tailored, helping with various things. One of our main tasks for this week (aside for wedding stuff) is to get our Indonesia visas. We're planning to volunteer for an organization called ProFauna in their rural community development volunteer program for most of October. We'll use November to travel around Indonesia. In order to legally perform unpaid work and avoid unnecessary problems, we're trying to get the proper visa.
No crazy travel stories this week. Just living comfortably. Yesterday was Mid-Autumn Festival (a Chinese holiday), and Janet's parents had dinner here with a few guests. Janet and I have been hanging out with Janet's friend Katie who just returned to Hong Kong after several years abroad and is currently unemployed, and with our friend Jo Ann, who's husband James is here for several months for work, and is working crazy hours.
Monday, September 20, 2010
hong kong haikus
preemptive haikus for the upcoming formal nuptials we will be attending:
humid, scorching heat
sweating like a shower on,
full suit will be fun.
and
heavy rain and tiles
high heels not made for walking,
tight dress, difficult!
hopefully ari's suit pockets can fit some extra deodorant and maybe some flip flops....
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
In Brunei, couch surfing
So we're in Brunei, couch surfing...
Brunei Darussalam is a small Islamic country best known for money and oil. The guidebook calls Brunei "highly Islamic," and we flew here on 9/11, the day that some crackpot church and their idiotic minister from Florida planned on burning Korans. Add to this the fact that technically to get a visa on arrival we are supposed to have onward tickets, which we didn't have. Luckily my American passport didn't cause any problems and we easily passed through immigration.
We took a water taxi to Kampong Ayer, the world's largest water village. About 30,000 residents live in this centuries-old community.
Many of you have probably already heard of couch surfing. The basic idea is that its a network of like-minded people, building a global community. There is a host, someone with a spare room or couch available, and there are surfers, travelers looking for a place to sleep (for free) in a foreign land. But it's more than just a free bed - couch surfing is an in to the society and community that you're visiting. The experience is so much different than just walking around as a tourist.
Since Brunei is much more expensive than other countries in the region and we're on a strict budget, we decided that it was a perfect place to do our first surf. From the airport, we grabbed a taxi and headed to a residential address in Bandar Seri Begawan (the capital). The taxi drivers at the airport seemed a bit confused. It's not every day that a couple of Westerners with backpacks take a cab to a residential neighborhood in Bandar.
We lucked out. Rudy (our host), his girlfriend Amelleia, and his entire family are so welcoming and have made us feel right at home. It's almost as if we are temporary members of the family, or as if Rudy is an old friend that we're visiting.
After consulting our guide book and other travelers, we decided that we could "do" Brunei in just one or two days. Perhaps if we were staying at a hotel and were on our own for touring, we might have been right. But we were totally wrong. In fact, we're enjoying our stay here so much and Rudy and his family have been so kind in inviting us to stay longer, that we decided to stay until Thursday (6 days total).
Jame’ Asr Hassanil Bolkiah Mosque
Rudy has a passion for sharing everything about Brunei; culture, history, cuisine, politics, the good, the bad, and the ugly. He's taken us to some his favorite places to eat, and taken or directed us to all of the important sights and museums. We've hung out with some of his friends, had home cooked meals with his family, and harvested coconuts from his yard. The sale of alcohol is illegal in Brunei, but its legal for non-Muslims to take small amounts over the border (Rudy is Catholic), so we've even gotten to drink a bit.
Janet plucking coconuts
Our timing was perfect. September 10th was the first day of the Muslim holiday of Hari Raya, when the fasting ends and feasting begins. This is significant for us non-Muslim travelers for two reasons: open houses, and meeting the Sultan.
Queued up at the palace
For the first three days of Hari Raya, Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah (once the richest man in the world) opens the palace up to the public (including foreigners) for a free lunch and a chance to shake hands with the Sultan and royal family (if you're male) or the Sultan's wife and female royalty (if you're female). We decided that the novelty of it was worth waiting in line, so we went to the palace, ate lunch with thousands of Bruneins, Malaysians, and migrant workers (Bruneins don't do other people's dishes), and queued up. I waited in an orderly queue for an hour and a half and anticlimactically shook his hand (its only a handshake, after all). Janet was not so lucky - she struggled through a disorderly line of women, all pushing and shoving, screaming children, and cramped quarters for four hours. I was pretty concerned that she had disappeared, since she entered the palace and never exited, and ran all around looking for her. Finally she emerged, exhausted.
Janet mentioned in a previous post that during Hari Raya people will open their houses to friends, family, and neighbors to come socialize and eat. We went to one open house in KL, and we've been to three here in Brunei. People dress in traditional (Malay Islamic) attire at these events, which is very colorful. We've had an amazing cultural experience.
At one open house, two older guests told me about a friend of theirs who, dressed in traditional attire, was detained at an American airport for 11 hours with no food or water, and then deported solely due to his clothing. The two men were clearly upset about the issue, and let me know it as if I were complicit in their friend's mistreatment. I completely agree that the way their friend was treated is wrong, and told them this. American immigration officers tend to be rude, even to Americans. And I don't doubt that a couple of ignorant a-holes would [illegally] mistreat someone in that manner. It's a shame that their actions follow me around. People like those immigration officers and the Koran burning idiots have probably never left the country and have no desire to, but their actions affect those of us who do.
On our last night, we prepared a meal for our hosts to show our appreciation
What do you all think of our couch surfing experience? Are you more inclined to do it now? Do you think we're nuts?
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
KL - round 2
thinking we had a pretty good idea of KL from our first few days at the beginning of our trip, we arrived from Melaka into KL at a bus station we had only heard of in passing, in a part of town we'd never been to and pretty much clueless as to how to get to where we were staying. We dug out our map that had been securely and snuggly packed into Ari's backpack.
If you're wondering, I won't keep you in suspense - we made it! (even after navigating the first train during rush hour and then after weighing the pros and cons, decided the comfort of not having to cram into the next train with all our gear (infinitely) outweighed the cost of a taxi)
as you may have read, we have the Liew's and Chien's to thank for a great local experience! The night we arrived we had an incredible dinner (Ari and I had only had breakfast at this point - granted it was half a steamed chicken with chicken rice balls, we were still pretty hungry)!
The next day, acting as our personal guides, they took us hiking through the regenerated forests of KL where unfortunately, the 200m high canopy walk was closed for Hari Raya. (if you zoom in, it's not raining - i am sweating. awesome, i know)
to several (incredible) local food stalls. We indulged in roti canai (indian fried bread that comes with an assortment of curries),
nasi lemak ("fatty rice" that is rice soaked in coconut milk, with a fried egg, peanuts and a spicy sauce and all steamed in a banana leaf)
and tea tarik (tea with condensed milk and poured or literally translated as "pulled" in a way to add frothy bubbles), Bak Kut teh (a hokkien-malay dish of pork ribs marinated and cooked until the meat is falling off the bone)
And our first Hari Raya Aidilfitri open house celebration at Hilda's friend's home. The festival marks the end of Ramadhan (month of fasting) and from our experience so far, is filled with family, friends and (lots of) food! Families have open houses and serve a ridiculous amount of food for their guests. We had local dishes particularly roasted lamb and beef rendang (please see wikipedia for mouth-watering description http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rendang)
but let me take a break from food...
the people of Malaysia are incredible. Everyone is a polyglot - our taxi driver spoke four languages and all his children spoke five. While the minimum here seems to be three. They live in a society that has individual customs and separate values and yet appears seamlessly integrated.
We can't thank everyone we've met enough! Everyone has been overwhelmingly generous and welcoming. All the people we've met from guesthouses to local food stalls to the random family that picked us up on the side of the road in Cherating (thank you whoever you are!) have been genuinely friendly and without hesitation, have shared their food, experiences, culture and lives with us.
Malaysia was definitely a soft-king-sized-tempur-pedic-mattress perched on top of a water bed- cushioned landing for our trip. Brunei next!
***
We're in Brunei. Today is day 34 of our trip and we've discovered one month was barely enough to cover peninsular Malaysia! We're almost on our way to Hong Kong and due to last minute itinerary changes we're skipping Borneo Malaysia and (after hearing from a persistent source - Rudy), we are discussing the logistics of making a quick trip to Penang. Who knows what else we missed?!
For you Dunkin lovers out there - apparently Malaysia runs on Dunkin too - I mean "cafe dunkin" (i believe it's pronounced dun'kinnn)
Monday, September 13, 2010
comments
j rossheim:
Funny that you should mention the "seafood" addition in our "beef". If you were saying that based on the photograph...the white chunks (that could possibly pass as cheese in a photo) were actually tofu! haha We were trying to bulk up the pasta sauce and tofu was a super inexpensive option! So if there was seafood (really of any sort) we would consider ourselves lucky and that we got more bang for our buck! haha
today we were at an outdoor shop and saw this "pace emergency bag". You don't happen to do some modeling on the side, do you?!
hopefully the quality of the photo is good enough, but let me know if you'd like the original file (in case we've found your doppler gang in Brunei or if someone is using this photo of you without your consent!)
shayna:
looked into your LP idea - apparently they will post at the end of september if they are looking for traveler/scouts/bloggers (as a little extra money never hurt!)!
meghan H:
you should come out and visit! I would definitely say learning the art of traveling in asia is a work in progress. We're still a little shy about haggling (and have probably been ripped off more times than we actually know) and have learned the hard way that mmmaaaybeee we should have packed a little lighter (esp when our backs are completely drenched in sweat from carrying the packs to the bus stop/hostel etc). Let me know how you're doing and tell Jason and your parents I said hi!
karen lee and ashley c and shank:
luckily i have a few days to recover from the sunburn. maybe i'll wear a t-shirt over the bridesmaid dress haha.
karen how's work?? you need to start planning for april! and we are probably going to be home for christmas but I'll should have a better idea by the end of the month.
ashley c i need to respond to the email but of the shorter one-liner you sent - yes, i understand.
shank - sorry not sure who you are but hopefully a spray tan won't be necessary! but if it comes to that, fingers crossed i won't turn into a giant oompa loompa.
martha:
we've been spending the last week with locals (in both Kuala Lumpur and Brunei) so you've preempted our next few posts with your questions! Once we have a free second we will try to write about the incredible people we've met and the amazing experiences we're having! Sneak peak: Hari Raya Aidilfitri Celebrations - I waited in this line for 4 hours to shake hands with the Sultan of Brunei's wife (according to wikipedia she is sometimes known as the "sultana") and the women of the royal family.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipOMSPoKfkLhUS02hoIw_3c-fjibW2y-GzymaNRVmEcOiKW16Itca-iEdWuUmvHvwogWLnRP4VoeS6D0H1IhQsIsz2sPR7hA7MW99YtuPk5Z3xkDRY2M1VFzeiX2Uf_C5PjbSNbEiukTM/s320/line.JPG)
Durian is called the "king of fruits". It's difficult to explain but it has a very distinct smell and a creamy-like texture. And I think it's an acquired taste (one that I'm still lacking) This is the wikipedia link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Durian . Ari thinks you would really like it too! So we will definitely have to find some in Thailand!
JOSHIIIEEEEE:
...this could be you in april. FTWhim!
more photos to come of Ari gorging on Nasi Lemak (which we found out literally means "fatty rice" - no wonder it tastes so good haha)
oriana:
we've definitely found you don't really need a plan! so stop planning and get visiting!
ari adds: "You failed the class. It's Melaka not Melanka"
anonymous
mom...dad (janet's)? which one of you forgot to put your name?!
Funny that you should mention the "seafood" addition in our "beef". If you were saying that based on the photograph...the white chunks (that could possibly pass as cheese in a photo) were actually tofu! haha We were trying to bulk up the pasta sauce and tofu was a super inexpensive option! So if there was seafood (really of any sort) we would consider ourselves lucky and that we got more bang for our buck! haha
today we were at an outdoor shop and saw this "pace emergency bag". You don't happen to do some modeling on the side, do you?!
shayna:
looked into your LP idea - apparently they will post at the end of september if they are looking for traveler/scouts/bloggers (as a little extra money never hurt!)!
meghan H:
you should come out and visit! I would definitely say learning the art of traveling in asia is a work in progress. We're still a little shy about haggling (and have probably been ripped off more times than we actually know) and have learned the hard way that mmmaaaybeee we should have packed a little lighter (esp when our backs are completely drenched in sweat from carrying the packs to the bus stop/hostel etc). Let me know how you're doing and tell Jason and your parents I said hi!
karen lee and ashley c and shank:
luckily i have a few days to recover from the sunburn. maybe i'll wear a t-shirt over the bridesmaid dress haha.
karen how's work?? you need to start planning for april! and we are probably going to be home for christmas but I'll should have a better idea by the end of the month.
ashley c i need to respond to the email but of the shorter one-liner you sent - yes, i understand.
shank - sorry not sure who you are but hopefully a spray tan won't be necessary! but if it comes to that, fingers crossed i won't turn into a giant oompa loompa.
martha:
we've been spending the last week with locals (in both Kuala Lumpur and Brunei) so you've preempted our next few posts with your questions! Once we have a free second we will try to write about the incredible people we've met and the amazing experiences we're having! Sneak peak: Hari Raya Aidilfitri Celebrations - I waited in this line for 4 hours to shake hands with the Sultan of Brunei's wife (according to wikipedia she is sometimes known as the "sultana") and the women of the royal family.
Durian is called the "king of fruits". It's difficult to explain but it has a very distinct smell and a creamy-like texture. And I think it's an acquired taste (one that I'm still lacking) This is the wikipedia link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Durian . Ari thinks you would really like it too! So we will definitely have to find some in Thailand!
JOSHIIIEEEEE:
...this could be you in april. FTWhim!
more photos to come of Ari gorging on Nasi Lemak (which we found out literally means "fatty rice" - no wonder it tastes so good haha)
oriana:
we've definitely found you don't really need a plan! so stop planning and get visiting!
ari adds: "You failed the class. It's Melaka not Melanka"
anonymous
mom...dad (janet's)? which one of you forgot to put your name?!
Sunday, September 12, 2010
THANK YOU!
First of all, thank you to Auntie Eva for getting me and Hilda in touch!
Thank you so much to Auntie and Uncle for having us stay with you!
And last but not least A BIG THANK YOU to Hilda, Dennis, Stephanie and Zachary for being our incredible guides to the ins and outs of local Kuala Lumpur!
Group photo at Auntie and Uncle's home in KL
Zachary in the car
Me and Stephanie at breakfast
Stephanie giving Ari a few tips on computers and probably technology in general.
We had such an amazing time! Great food, great company!
Thank you!!
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
History of Melaka 101 (3 credits)
"It's hard not to like this town." That's the first sentence in the Lonely Planet Melaka section. I'd have to agree.
These streets are full of life during daylight hours.
We spent our first day here walking around and seeing all of the historical ruins, excavated parts of the old Portuguese fort, Dutch-built buildings, an old church that was used for worship by the Portuguese and the Dutch, and used as an ammunition store by the Brits. The town is rich in history, but that's not the attraction of Melaka. The town has character. It looks cool. It feels cool. The roads are narrow and busy. Sidewalks are rare. There are shops everywhere. Parts are tourist-central, but it doesn't feel like it. You feel like a local (aside for the 6' white guy part).
As you can see from Janet's previous post, we finally found what we've been looking for all along: a huge variety of abundant, cheap, delicious local food! And fruit. We could spend weeks here eating on the cheap. One vendor made the noodles right in front of us! But alas, we're leaving in just a few more hours after just one more meal.
Canal at night from the back of our guest house
So if anyone is using this blog for travel ideas, there you go. If you come to Malaysia, don't skip Melaka.
Remains of the Portuguese fort, showing the emblem of the Dutch East India Company, which was the first corporation to issue stock and allow the common middle-class rich-world man to profit from foreign exploitation.
Melaka is perhaps the town with the richest history in Malaysia. Note - skip this paragraph if you don't care about history. Note 2 - I got all of my information from plaques near the historical sites (but verified dates online). If you look at a map, you'll notice that the most direct shipping route between India and China is south of the Malay peninsula and north of the island of Sumatra (known as the Straights of Malacca). The Hindu prince Parameswara (also a former pirate) founded the city. Due to its convenient location, Melaka drew the interest of the Chinese and became a trading partner and client kingdom of China in the 1400s. In the 1500s, when Melaka adopted Islam and converted to a sultanate, the port city also attracted Middle Eastern traders in addition to all of the Asian traders it was already getting. The sultanate took a laissez-faire (hands off) approach to trade and the city thrived. The wealth drew the attention of Europe, which spelled the beginning of the end for Melaka as an important trading hub. The Portuguese conquered the city in the 1500s, built a fortress, and taxed trade. In the 1600s, the Dutch took the city from the Portuguese. In the late 1700s, Holland was conquered by France and Holland's colonies were given to its ally, Britain, for administration. The British destroyed most of the fortifications and moved most of the city's population to its own regional trading colonies, Singapore and Penang. Aside from briefly being controlled by the Japanese in WW2, Melaka was in British hands until Malaysian independence in 1957.
We're heading back to KL today and staying with a friend of Janet's mother. Maybe this time around we'll actually make it up to the Petronas Towers sky bridge.
omnivore's dilemma
So much food, so little time! What to eat?!
Melaka besides having a lot of history, has also been an incredible eating experience. The local food is delicious and incredibly inexpensive. In no particular order, below are some of the local delicacies we've sampled!
"Cheung Fun"
Rice sheets filled with shrimp and bbq pork, all steamed and covered in soy sauce and sesame seeds. Rice sheet and filling all made fresh! While looking for the Portuguese settlement/seafood restaurants last night we stumbled upon this outdoor night food court, that had probably 25 - 30 stalls (think hot dog vendor-type stalls) with awesome local food! we were there while one guy was setting up his makeshift stall - fold out table, huge wok filled with a few liters of oil and a kerosene tank. haha
Rice balls
The middle dish is actually the one of interest. This is apparently local fare. We couldn't figure out exactly how they're made...but the rice is cooked in chicken stock...probably chicken fat and then rolled into balls. Above we ate them with some vegetables and duck. (sorry michelle - mrs.blunder - i know your take on duck...just pretend it's chicken!)
Rojak and Homemade soup noodles
Rojak, which we bought in Little India is described in some books as a salad...the one above was a mix of fried tofu, fried bread, cucumbers, a hard boiled egg and other vegetarian things...possibly seitan? and covered in a sweet sort of soy sauce based mixture. Ari also had this in the cameron highlands where it had more of a spicy kick.
The soup noodles were freshly made in front of us. Noodles rolled out and put directly in the chicken broth to cook. Then they add vegetables and fish balls (rolled up fish not the anatomy) and top it off with dried fried fish and garlic.
Crab...shells
So unfortunately, this dinner didn't last long enough for a photo. We walked about an hour and a half to find this elusive area called "Kampong Portugis" (portuguese settlement, where the area is largely inhabited by portuguese descendants) where they have seafood stalls. We finally made it there and had two black pepper crabs (very different to what we had in singapore - crab was cooked with black pepper not covered in black pepper sauce) and a side of fried seafood noodles.
"Cendol"
Last but not least dessert. This is similar to "sam sik bing" (three coloured ice) and is basically shaved ice with red beans and green jelly pieces, in coconut milk doused with the local sugar (that has a sort of coffee flavour) .
We also had some traditional Nonya food but again it didn't last long enough for a photo...
Melaka's portuguese-dutch-british-chinese-malay history has definitely made for some good eats!
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Sunday, September 5, 2010
contrary to what ari said...
i think we actually did a lot in singapore. ok, so we couldn't get into any casinos (on two separate occasions at two different casinos we were turned away) because ari was "inappropriately" dressed (apparently sandals and/or shorts = discomfort for other patrons and/or means no money to gamble - the latter being far more likely) but my parents (true to form) woke us up early and coerced us...maybe more me from neighborhood to neighborhood (sad but true, i definitely miss watching tv - which was the alternative to walking around)
We covered (neighborhoods according to the lonely planet) CBD (central business district - GCSE geography!!!!!!) and the quays, chinatown, orchard road, the east coast and sentosa island. For three days, that's a lot of time spent not watching tv. (definitely joking...but the HD tv was pretty awesome)
Parents also made sure we were well fed! Ari and I are still dreaming of the Sri Lankan black pepper crab....satay...all you can eat sashimi breakfast....hashbrown,bacon and cheese sandwiches (all it needed was two pcs of fried chicken in lieu of bread - i'm going to try to market that to kfc as their new breakfast sandwich) and even the abundance of fruit (you'd be surprised at how hard it has been for us to find fruit!)
Thanks mom and dad!
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9pznQJ-wzz22X-BA43CVWI4mgeGODUnZeYWLNZ4XdclNKyJ0h95TA3OV5TOEDbYImpewhfFy0Dj1naNFBUEYorJ6HRn4s3xHB8CLHtbA7d_phf1FnNzrSIK4e0wshQnOf9aFjbG724tQ/s320/mom.png)
(dad - you probably fell asleep in starbucks because the bed at the hotel was too soft)
but on that drooling note...back to reality and back to our budget...
tonight, we learned that grocery shopping and cooking at home regardless of country is far cheaper than eating out. so, to satisfy our home-cooking-western-food cravings we cooked
*drum roll*
spaghetti!
The grocery store didn't exactly sell meat...but we stumbled upon this frozen log of minced beef...i don't have a photo of it...but think pillsbury cookie dough tube (in shape and wrapping) filled with raw minced beef...mmmm.
not sure if this would make a difference, but we did check the expiration date.
hope everyone is doing well! would love to hear how you're doing!
and not that i'm a fan or anything...but glee starts on Sept 21st!
Off to Melaka tomorrow...
Saturday, September 4, 2010
Singapore in luxury
We're back in Johor Bahru after a quick three-day trip to Singapore. We stayed at a five-star hotel, thanks to Janet's parents, who are our first visitors (Thanks again!!)!
Lee family in Singapore
Although I slept on the floor (on a thick layer of blankets), it was far more comfortable than some of the places we've stayed. Sorry Maria, we didn't do a great job scouting out Singapore for you. With a luxurious air-conditioned room, waterfall shower, and rooftop pool and gym, we spent a lot of time enjoying the hotel, and the rest of our time eating awesome food. Mmmm, crab. Thanks again to the Duans for taking us out to dinner. The food was amazing! Perhaps eating and lounging is how Singapore is meant to be enjoyed.
Rooftop pool
Some interesting facts and observations about Singpore include death for drug posession, $150 fine for forgetting to flush the toilet, "Singapore is a FINE city" tourist t-shirts that list many of the popular fines, taxi drivers that won't pick you up unless you go to a cab stand, air conditioning so powerful you feel it every time you walk by an open door, anywhere, trash collecting boats that seem to be collecting nothing (not much trash around), a thriving commercial district ala Nathan Road in HK but more built up, friendly locals, great eats, and delicious durian!
Three buildings with a boat on them - a new casino.
I ate durian for the first time with Janet's parents (Janet abstained). I don't know what everyone is so afraid of.. It's rich and creamy and delicious. Michele S was right - YUM.
Can you smell it over the internet?
Stalls line Geylang street where locals come to gorge on durian.
Yum!
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