A Sunday at Botanical Gardens

Today Bryan had to work till almost 3 pm - he was on the phone talking incomprehensible things, so I decided to use my Sunday wisely and went and got a pedicure. This was quite an experience, I have to say, as when I arrived at the Snails spa in the Mandarin Gallery, they put me in a chair and offered me a MENU of services, which included, among others, a hot SAKE bath for feet or a CAVIAR feet rub... I settled for a more modest lemongrass and honey relaxing pedicure, and still had to cough out close to the US price for a deluxe pedicure... Well, but they did a very good job and I did not have to sit around in the apartment, on my computer char - as Bryan is occupying the couch with a telephone at his ear and a computer on his lap - and listen to him utter clusters of sounds in a language that I could only refer to as the language of Routing... After he got done with his calls we decided to go to the Botanical Gardens. Another must-do in Singapore, according to my guidebooks. I am really trying to be diligent here, and enthusiastic, regardless of our sad excursion to another must-see - the sad Chinatown as of yesterday.
The Botanical Gardens of Singapore turned out to be all one could imagine and MORE. It's a beautiful, enormous park... There are walking trails everywhere and huge tembusu and kapok trees that go up as high as 30 metres and have giant roots that spread out above the ground. We did not manage to see all of the Gardens today, naturally. But we will be happily going back there. Today we spent most of our time in the National Orchid Garden. It's breathtakingly beautiful and hosts over 3,000 orchid species and hybrids in gorgeous surroundings of the most luscious greenery I have ever seen. We walked around for hours, taking pictures and admiring the nature. We still have to go back to visit the Ginger Garden and many more things. It was a true escape from the hectic busy big-city Singapore and a well-deserved relaxing day for both of us. Afterward we had dinner at our favorite Vietnamese restaurant - the Orange Lantern, and now we are watching Germany vs. England. Would I prefer to be in Bali? Sure, but it's been a weekend I cannot complain about. Even more so because Bryan has just booked our next long-weekend trip: to Angsana Resort on Bitan. Yay :).
As for other note-worthy things that happened last weekend: first of all, on Friday we went to have sushi at a Japanese restaurant at ION Orchard (Itacho sushi restaurant). The sushi was really yummy, although the overpriced and allegedly out-of-this-world Blue Fin Tuna did not really stand up to our expectations. Otherwise - delicious food and not overpriced. We will definitely go back there. And as for the learning experience - we were told there (there was an instructional video shown on a screen and information printed on your plate mats!) that traditionally sushi is eaten by hand and if you want to use soy sauce you should only dip the fish in the soy sauce, never the rice side (if eating nigiri sushi) and then you put it in your mouth - i have to say it - upside down, i.e. fish facing downwards. Try doing that using chopsticks. Dip the fish in the soy sauce and NOT the rice and try putting it into your mouth like that. Bryan tried, of course, I did not even bother. As long as the rice does not fall apart on me I am going to keep dipping it in the sauce and be happy. I have survived all these years apparently eating sushi the wrong way... but I think I don't really care. It was, however, an educational visit to a sushi place :).
And as for the weirdest thing that happened to us this weekend - we were stopped in the middle of the street by three young girls wrapped in fabric from head to toe, in a very traditional Muslim way, and asked if they could take a photo with us. Not if we could take a photo of them, if they could take a photo WITH us. We sheepishly agreed, caught by surprise, so they took turns taking pictures with us. That was REALLY weird. I do realize that we are blond, bigger and taller than them and not wrapped in fabric, but seriously - why would you like to stop strangers in the middle of nowhere, with nothing but a busy road behind you and take pictures WITH them? That immediately got to the top of my list of weird things people do here.
The coughing is still at the top of the Things I Hate the Most About People in Singapore list. People here cough. Wherever you are, be it an escalator, an elevator, a train, a store, a pedestrian crossing - there is ALWAYS someone passing by, walking behind you and COUGHING right on you. I think since they are forbidden, by law, to spit, they take revenge by coughing. I am soon going to develop a phobia. Every time someone coughs on me, I think Bird Flu. I think SARS. I think EBOLA virus and all other epidemic diseases that I live in serious fear of contracting... No wonder that diseases spread so quickly in Asia, since people constantly COUGH at each other here... I think that it is certainly related to their love of AC and them blasting the AC at the lowest temperatures acceptable to a human body without the risk of freezing right there and then... Then they get congested infected and they COUGH. I just wish they would not cough on me.
That was a random stream of thought but sometimes these need to be written down, too. Just in case I do get seriously sick, at least someone can read here that I actually predicted that I may be exposed to some serious health hazard every time I am in a crowded place here. Surprisingly, no one coughed on me at the Botanical Gardens. There, the air is clean, full of oxygen and not cooled to the limits. The Gardens will see a lot of me in the coming months of our stay here. BTW, more pictures from the Gardens (and Chinatown) at: http://gallery.me.com/anna.boyet#100037

Chinatown

On the weekends our little apartment becomes unbearable. Since the sofa is too small for both of us to sit comfortably on it and the only other sitting option is my computer chair or the kitchen / dining table chairs, we try to go out and stay OUT as much as we can. Last weekend we went to Bali. I wish we could go to Bali every weekend... But we ALL know it's not possible, and yes, I still keep asking myself "but why"... So in view of the unfavourable development of NOT being able to go to Bali (or a similar nice destination) every weekend, we try to organize entertainment for ourselves locally. Intent on discovering as much of Singapore as it's possible before we leave, I've read through all three guide books we have on Singapore (two little ones, one courtesy of Elif and Alfonso, the other one our own and a big thick book on South East Asia on a Shoestring - somehow they included Singapore in the book on Asia on a SHOESTRING - which I find hard to believe...) and I have decided that THE place to go is Chinatown. All excited, I wanted to explore. You know, culture, origins, 80% of inhabitants of Singapore being Chinese and all that kind of stuff made me think that Chinatown is the place to go. The guidebooks list it as one of the places on the to-do list in Singapore. Well, it was a disappointment... The ONLY thing worth seeing in Chinatown was the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple and Museum. It has the largest stupa in Asia, made of more than 400 kg of pure gold, adorned with hundreds rubies and other precious stones... Inside rests a TOOTH of Buddha. The ground floor of the temple hosts an ABUNDANCE of Buddhas. There are hundreds of ornamental boxes lining up the walls that are at least 8 meters high and in each box there is a Buddha, a different statute of Buddha, surrounded by little statues of Buddhas... The number of Buddhas gives you an involuntary nystagmus, there is just sooo many of them. Everything around is red and golden. We discover that different images of Buddhas are meant to protect people born in different years of the Chinese calendar, e.g. Bryan who was born in the year of a sheep (which, incidentally, is also the year of the MONKEY - how hilarious is that?) is protected by a Buddha called VATROCANA and me, born in the year of the Tiger - I am protected by a Buddha with a very complex name of AVASAGARBHA. We go up to the fourth floor of the temple to admire the TOOTH. The inner chamber housing the tooth is closed but you can see it through a glass wall and you can also admire THE TOOTH on a video streaming from inside the chamber, showing the TOOTH. We respectfully walk around, admire the gold and the germs and the intricate ornaments and even buy a gold-plated coin, put our names on it and deposit it in a special box - soon it will line up the wall or the floor of the chamber we are not sure what but it's for good luck and we could never have too much of that. On the rooftop of the temple is a nice tropical garden and a huge prayer wheel that you walk around as it turns and every time you make it around there is a chime to indicate it. So I walk around the prayer wheel - again, no such thing as too much luck... From there we descend down the staircase, hitting the Buddhism history museum on the way, where we look at even more statues of Buddha and we leave the building. A very nice experience in general. A very impressive temple. But the rest of the Chinatown - not so much. We walk around but other than an ornamental top of the Sri Mariamman temple - the oldest Indian temple in Singapore - there is nothing to see. We walk into the Maxwell Food Centre - one of the most famous hawker stand centres in Singapore. I had alrealy sworn off hawker centre food and had Bryan promise we would never eat hawker centre food again but he gets a banana fritter (claiming that it's a perfect snack - well, it IS fried and it IS a banana and he IS from Louisiana so most probably he is being honest) so I get a cup of iced lychee. We are tired, hot and sweaty - it's a surprisingly clear, sunny day and we have been walking for some hours now. So we decide to get back on the train (underground, called MTR here, is a very clean and effective way of getting around) and head out to get some dinner somewhere else. On the way to the station we are lured into a restaurant by a waitress promising us cheap BIG bottles of beer. And this goes into the Chinatown plus column - the bottles WERE big (620 ml) and the beer was cheap - the cheapest we've had in Singapore so far - 6.20 S$ per BIG bottle. Nice, chilled Becks hits the right spot. We snack on some chicken satay sticks and our day in Chinatown ends on a high note.

Bali Adventures - Part III, Sunday and Monday

I think I mentioned that the only thing we were disappointed with in the Bali Conrad resort was the beach. Our driver on Saturday told us that the beach to go to from the hotel is Kuta Beach. Thirty minutes away, 6 USD cab ride. We decide to be adventurous (AGAIN!) on Sunday and go and see what Kuta Beach is all about...
We get there around 11 am and realize that it's a typical beach town, full of tourists and locals tending to tourists... Our cab drops us off on a sort of a promenade, made of a narrow pavement and two rows of palm trees separating the pavement from the beach. Wanting to walk in the shade, we enter the palm tree strip only to find out that that is exactly where all shade lovers seek refuge. We want to rent beach chairs and an umbrella so we head towards the said umbrellas that are a distant, mirage-like image somewhere far away ahead of us. And that's where we are forced to understand that in a resort environment you are protected. On a public beach - you are not. Walking in the general direction of the umbrellas we are approached a thousand times by a thousand different locals, all of them offering something. Politely refusing all the things that they offer, we plow forward. Finally, after a good 15 minute walk we get to the umbrellas which, following some haggling, are offered to us at 8 bucks per set - two beach beds and an ancient coca-cola umbrella that probably remembers early sixties... But it gives shade so we are happy. What it does not give is protection from yet another wave of locals who attack with a strength of a waterfall as soon as we sit our tushies down. The range of things offered is wiiiide: from manicures / pedicures through foot massages and shoulder massages, food, drinks, dresses and sarongs, to wooden bows and arrows (????) and knock-off Rolexes... Hello... How are you? Where are you from, Australia? You don't want foot massage? I come later? Ok? You want later?...
You can't even get ANGRY with them because they are so nice. And friendly. And chatty. And really they do not insist. They just want to strike a conversation and make a little business off you. I have an impression that Bryan's presence gives me a bit of a relief because next to us on two beds under a coca-cola umbrella are spread out two Australian ladies SURROUNDED by four or five local women, who have been standing there for quite a while now. After some time the Aussies give in and each of them has two women working on her - one doing a pedicure, one a manicure, foot massage... all kinds of things. Soon we are approached by an ancient looking little lady, well into her seventies, with a huge bowl of fruit on her head. Pineapple? Mango? Since we did not have breakfast I decide to extend a helping hand to her and ask for a pineapple. She folds her legs under her on the sand, removes the basket from her head, picks up a huge knife and a pineapple and begins to peel it. I watch in wonder how she gets it ready for me in smooth efficient cuts of the knife. I am handed the pineapple with its husk wrapped in foil... money exchanged hands, she put the basket back on her old wrinkled head and walked away, I shook off the initial germophobia that overcame me and dig into the pineapple. That was a very very good brunch ;). Much better than a sad little piece of local omelette that Bryan got... From what it looked like to me it was omelette's sad long-forgotten third cousin but it did not kill him so all was good ;).
We took advantage of the beach. We swam, we suntanned (me - reasonably, putting sunscreen on every 30 minutes, Bryan - not so much, so in the evening he discovered with alert that he looked like a young shy lobster about to go out on its first date...) and enjoyed our real beach experience. It still was not the paradise beach that we were so looking forward to but that's still in our future. Bryan has spent the last four consecutive evenings browsing the net for the Ultimate Beach Experience so I am full of hope.
As for Bali, we parted with the island and with our Conrad resort with sadness. To cheer Bryan up we decided to break his Hamburger-free Diet and he ordered a burger for lunch on Monday at the hotel restaurant, our last meal on Bali. I tried the hamburger, it was good, but for him it must have tasted of heaven, judging from his facial expression, immortalized on a photograph. Poor Guy had not had a burger since Tuesday before we left Austin, when Stephen and Marshall mercifully took him to Mighty Fine... So it's been ALMOST A MONTH. Without a burger. Hard to believe, but it's true. We will see how long he goes without one now. Counting from June 21... Our last day on the beautiful island of Bali.

Bali Adventures - Part II, Saturday

On Saturday we set off on our journey at 8.30. How great that we rented a car! The Polish guy we met in Singapore on Thursday suggested we rent a jeep and explore the island ourselves. I even suggested it to Bryan. Lucky for us, he refused. The roads are narrow. And when I say narrow, I mean narrower than in Ireland. Narrow as in a local road between my little home town of Piechcin and one of its neighbouring villages. The traffic is unbelievable, there are three lanes of cars in two lanes of the road, no one seems to pay attention to anyone else and among all this craziness - hundreds of motorcycles. An old motorcycle seems to be the preferred mode of transportation among the islanders. They swarm you from each direction and I have to make a great effort to not cover my eyes in fear of hitting or being hit by one of them and killing an entire Balinese family - because yes, there are mothers, fathers and children mounted on each bike. A small child (two, three years old?) sits first, holding on to the gas tank for its dear life. Behind may be another child and then the actual rider. Or a child in the front, then the mom/dad riding the motorcycle and then one or two children behind them. I can't even watch that. You see a lot of young teenagers (I really really don't want to say they are kids) riding motorcycles by themselves. I ask our driver and the age limit for a motorbike license is 16 years. But who cares, right? If you grow up holding on to the gas tank it's like a baby cowboy or cowgirl who is never afraid of a horse - they grow up with it, just like the Balinese babies grow up with their motorcycles. No traffic rules seem to apply. But they all somehow manage to avoid crashing into us or into one another. At snail pace we move, in our air-conditioned car, with Wet Towels - of course, why not - being handed us by the driver once in a while.
Our first stop is a Balinese dance performance. Which turns out to be a bit of a tourist trap which we fall into by the suggestion of the hotel concierge - we dish out 16 USD to watch a performance. It's an interesting show, with full traditional costumes and everything, I am just not very fond of the humorous elements that they incorporate into their acting every now and then just to entertain the audience. We watch it, we take pictures and get back to the car, where we get Wet Towels.
On the way to Ubud, our destination for the day, we visit a Hindu temple. Our driver is a wonderful guide, we get sarongs and go in to the temple grounds. He explains everything is detail. It turns out that the religion in Bali is a mixture of Hindu, Buddhism and ancestor worship. My knowledge of the Hindu religion could really do with some dusting up so I listen intently to everything he explains to us. We take some pictures and continue our trip. This is the only temple we will get to see on the island. We were hoping to visit the Mother Temple - Besakih Temple. When we were told it's three hours away from the hotel we thought it's a piece of cake - for us used to driving for hours to go see relatives in Louisiana, or pretty much everywhere from Texas. Three hours? That's nothing. Turns out - not on Bali. On Bali it means more like five hours of standing in traffic. So we give up and our driver consoles us, saying that the temple that we saw was really representative of all the temples open to tourists, including the Besakih Temple.
Our first stop in Ubud is the Monkey Sanctuary and Forest. It's a fascinating experience to walk around a place that is inhabited by monkeys living in the wild, the wild in question being a jungle-like forest. The number of tourists takes away from the experience, but since we are tourists too, I am not complaining. On my mind is the horror story of my friend Alicja having been bitten by a monkey in similar circumstances so I stay away from the monkeys, admiring them from afar. No bananas for monkeys, no reaching out to them and no trying to befriend them. But the monkeys try to befriend us. One in particular - jumps on Bryan's shoulder and tries to steal his shades, then the camera, then his bag, playfully hanging down from his arm, leg, waist, while he is trying to gently shake it off. Go away, monkey, no banana for monkey, what can monkey want. But the monkey just met his long-lost cousin and has no intention of abandoning him. The monkey wants to BOND. Bryan bonds for a while, while I ferociously take picture after picture. For the family album, of course :). We spend close to two hours wandering around the Monkey Forest, looking at monkeys and nature. And somehow I don't get eaten alive by mosquitoes...
From the Monkey Forest we go to a restaurant that is famous for its Balinese duck. We have the duck there, it's a very skinny but very tasty duck. I also try a duck salad and Bryan tries the duck melon soup. The duck theme continues when we leave the restaurant to go and look at the rice fields behind the restaurant buildings. There are a lot of ducks just hanging out there, in the rice terraces, completely oblivious to their imminent fate... I can't feel guilty though, the duck was yummy.
Our last stop in Ubud is the traditional Balinese market, which offers all kinds of local arts, crafts and even more tourist goods - the I heart Bali bags and t-shirts and the like. We walk around, buy a few things and then spend the afternoon just wandering around town, going into local stores and experiencing Ubud. Ubud consists of several smaller villages, we are in the central one, and on the way we passed by two or three other - each of them specializes in something different. One is a painting village, where they paint colourful butterflies and eggs (I wish I knew why they paint eggs in Bali...), another one is all about silver and gold smiths - a lot of nice jewelry is made here. There is also a village that is famous for stone carving. The sculptures and statues and religious figures everywhere are amazingly intricate and beautiful. We take a ton of pictures. We get back to the hotel well after dark - the sun sets around 6 pm on the island. And we are in for a treat - we want to use a jacuzzi in the hotel spa but instead we discover that there is a swimming pool attached to the spa that, as the spa staff tells us, not many guests know about. It's a gorgeous huge infinity pool on the level of the third floor of the hotel, surrounded by palm tree tips and the sky above it. Pure tranquility and happiness encompass us as we float in the water in silence, looking up to the strange, southern sky. It's moments like that make life worth living.

It's been two days since we got back from Bali and I am constantly thinking that I have to write it all down before it fades away and becomes nothing but a blurred memory. But reality presses all these tedious bits and pieces of chores and work-related obligations upon me and the urge to write is most of the time less strong than the urge to get away from the computer after having stared at it all day long. We left for our long weekend in Bali last Thursday, June 17. Our flight was to leave at 9.05 pm and since we were all packed and ready around 6 already, we decided to go and get some Xiao Long Bao across the street at Visma Atria's Din Tai Fung. Have I mentioned that it's one of my favourite things to eat here in Singapore? Wonderful, delicious pork-filled dumplings (the pork-filing aspect is not the most appealing to me, as pig is not my favourite meat) with pastry so thin and so intricately folded and some deliciously smooth broth locked inside every single one of them... Yummy goodness, I can have Xiao Long Bao for dinner every day. Or, every second day... And also - at your table they set up a lovely little hiding place for your handbag, a kind of a cot bed on a metal frame, where you put your handbag to rest, cover it with a little blanket and let it sleep while you devour your meal... How absolutely cute is that? So we go there (we usually go to another location, at the Paragon, as it's nicer and food seems a bit better there but this time time was an issue so we just settled for the Visma Atria one just 'cause it's closer... ), sit down and at the table next to ours I hear Polish spoken! I did not even distinguish any particular words being said, just a cluster of sounds reached me and it had this very familiar feel to it that will make you turn your head everywhere in the world - your native language is spoken. It's a lady with her son, she's lived in Singapore for seven years, he is currently studying in Toronto, of all places, about to leave to Poland for two months on holiday. She tells me there is a major Polish society in Singapore and the Polish embassy is right there, in Visma Atria. Why am I even surprised. We chat for a while, they leave, we eat our early dinner and then get in a cab from the hotel to go to the airport. The airport is huuge, looks much nicer in daylight than it looked at night when we first landed there. A line of taxis waiting to pick up passengers goes on for miles. I will only realize that it's not always the case when we get back and will have to wait in a line, not of taxis but of people, for half an hour to be driven back home. For now, the plane is over an hour late and we finally land on Bali around 1 am. The descent, which I am watching through the window, is literally into the ocean, the landing strip is a mere extension of the water and the lights of the ships docked in the ocean that are nicely and orderly aligned to give one an impression of a very long water landing strip. At the airport we go in the direction of visa booths and it turns out that you need to pay cash for the visas. A nice 25 US dollars per person, which comes up to 50 bucks for the two of us. Of course, we have all the credit cards that have been invented by men, but do not have 50 USD in cash. We don't carry fifty dollars in cash on us even in the US. But Bryan has a secret stash of money in his TRAVEL wallet (yes, he has a travel wallet :) so he puts up together some US money and some Singapore dollars and we are given visas. After immigration clearance we are headed out, the driver from the hotel is waiting for us, Mr Robert yes please welcome to Bali. We get into the car and then for the first time and definitely not the last we are offered Wet Towels. We were offered Wet Towels in the car, we were offered Wet Towels at the hotel reception while checking in, I was mildly disappointed that the bell boy taking our suitcases up to the room did not offer us Wet Towels upon entering the room. The room is really nice, the bathroom even nicer. I wish I could move the bed into the bathroom and just live there, I look around, there is space for my laptop on the counter next to the sink, maybe I will just move into this bathroom and not go back to the hated little apartment in Singapore. It's a bathroom that I would like to have at home. Big, double-winged doors that go all the way up to the ceiling and feature a double mirror on the inside - I can finally see myself from head to toes, not that what I see makes me happy but the very fact of being able to see a whole me is a joy in itself. The bed is to die for, the sheets soft and silky. We sleep like stones.
On Friday we wake up and are ready to conquer the resort. Dressed in beach attire, equipped with books and sunscreen we head to the beach. And this is the first, and really the only disappointment. The beach is definitely not what we expected. We wanted a tropical paradise beach, white sand and green-blue ocean. It's everything but. Turns out we are at the Water Sports Central. The swimming area bordered by buoys extends some 5 yards into the ocean, beyond that line there is literally traffic in the water. Banana boats, jet skis, mattresses flying behind boats, water skis, parachutes, you name it. They should have a policeman directing the traffic or traffic lights there, for fear of accidents. The beach is just a beach, not too white and not too wide either. So we settle for a beach bale, which is a beautiful tent set up in the grass with a view of the ocean, where you can rest and relax in privacy. We like our beach bale. We order sandwiches and drinks, we read we nap we are happy. We go to the swimming pool, we get back to the bale. It's a very lazy day. The resort is beautiful, lots of water lagoons, swimming pools, bridges, beautiful greenery, bars and restaurants, everybody waiting to be of any help. The staff is very polite, friendly and welcoming. You are greeted approximately 50 times a day, whenever you walk by or are being passed by a staff member. Top quality service, top quality resort. Just the beach, if only they had a decent beach... We decide that since we cannot have the ultimate beach experience, we will focus more on exploring rather than whaling at the swimming pool, because, after all, you can get a nice swimming pool with a nice beach bed and a cocktail with an umbrella everywhere. You can't get the Bali experience everywhere....
The day ends up with a nice dinner at one of the hotel's restaurants, where we adventurously order the local cuisine. Indonesian and Balinese tasting platters. Bryan is extremely happy, I am not so much - the food is very spicy. We are surprised by a performance of a Balinese dance to accompany our dinner. We are relaxed and happy and looking forward to tomorrow's adventure - we arranged a car to take us to places of interest around the island on Saturday, for 80 US dollars for the whole day. It's going to be fun!

It is raining again. It rains here pretty much everyday. Not that I am complaining - I was really nervous about the weather before we came here, everybody kept on telling me it's hot it's really hot. But it actually is NOT. Maybe it's hot for people who have not been traumatized by living in Texas? I guess. Having survived a few springs, summers and autumns in Austin, Texas it's difficult for me to judge the ambient temperature in an unbiased way. Would you say 32 degrees Celsius is hot? See, I wouldn't. For me it's pleasantly warm. Hot is when it hits 38, not to mention 42, and more... So Singapore weather is rather pleasant. It's jeans and t-shirt friendly, which cannot be said about Austin in the middle of June. It does get humid, when the sun comes out or immediately before it is going to start raining - but it's not drastic. So I can live with weather like that, I have no complaints. If I was here on holiday, I might have a problem, though, since getting some beach time between one spell of rain and another seems to be difficult. We went to Santosa Island last weekend - just to check it out and to participate in a family event for the employees of B.'s company and one of the restaurants on the beach there that offered beach chairs, food and drinks right there on the beach actually had a sign with a weather forecast that said at the bottom: That's the weather forecast! It's Singapore! Don't blame us ;). So I am not going to blame anybody. It has to be said that it rains for an hour or so (maybe a bit longer sometimes) and then it STOPS. And when it rains the temperature does not really drop - which is a strange sensation to me, having been born and raised in Poland, where when it rains it gets cold. Here - it just rains. As if the rain was just a part of the whole deal, it's like the sky was doing its daily watering of all the lusciously green trees and plants. We are going to Bali next weekend and I really hope that the plant watering is not so intense there - I would really like some quality beach time. I think we are going to go back to Santosa, more than once, because that's the closest one can get to being on the beach here, but without the swimming being on the beach is just somewhat fun. And the swimming is rather unattractive an option at Santosa, given all the ships that leisurely hang out literally everywhere in sight. Ruining not only the landscape, but also the quality of water. So I am looking forward to the Bali weekend. Keep your fingers crossed for no rain for us!
The photos are from Santosa Island, from last Saturday. We went across a little bridge to a wooden structure - a view point that claims to be the Southern Most Point of Continental Asia. It freaked me out a little to see how far I away from my comfort zone I am ;). But then, on the other hand, I am in Asia, one degree north of the equator and life goes on... just like everywhere else.

Pictures from Clark Quay

Since I am only learning how to use all these blog tools, here is a new entry just to add photos to the previous entry :). I hope the photo-adding will be successful this time...

My first visit to Clark Quay

It's been two weeks since we arrived on the Other Side of the Globe so I believe it's time to start recording what is happening during this little adventure, or else I will completely lose track of everything. I THINK I am beginning to like Singapore just a tiny bit more... Today we had an appointment scheduled at the Ministry of Manpower - doesn't it sound scary? Bryan worked from home (as the phrase says it, although home is not what I am inclined to call our little apartment as of yet) and we went to have our employment permits granted and cards issued around 3 pm. It all sounded rather scary - especially for me, the Dependant - as I am lovingly referred to here, but it was not too bad. Other than having our pictures taken YET AGAIN, and having been fingerprinted YET AGAIN the whole thing was not too much of an ordeal and we were done with it in less than 45 minutes. The MoM building is in the middle of an area called Clark Quay - which is a really pretty part of the town, I discovered to my surprise. I got quite upset with Bryan that he had not brought me there earlier - it's been two weeks of walking up and down Orchard Road in search of decent food places that are NOT inside a mall - and there it is - a rather big cluster of little restaurants and cafes on the river, where you can pick and choose the cuisine and the style of the place and the price you want to pay for your food... We walked around and since it was still early, we settled at one of the few places already open for dinner - Brewerkz. It actually serves a variety of Western foods (all the familiar and close to my heart cobb salads turkey sandwiches, burgers, pizzas... you name it) as well as a huge selection of beers brewed right there. Since we have not had anything non-Asian to eat for the last two weeks we decided to eat there, sharing a salad and a pizza. Their brew of the week was a Blackberry flavored beer and I loved it! Afterwards we walked around a loong time, checking out places and picking restaurants for our future visits - I foresee a lot of them. There is a park nearby (I can't recall its name but it's rather large and famous so - to be visited soon) and lots of other nice things to walk to - like the Esplanade. But we had enough for today and got on the train to go back to the hotel around 7.30. On the way we decided to stop at the Sigapore Plaza and check out the Carrefour there - I was hoping that it would carry more European brands. I was not disappointed with the place and there, at Carrefour, of all places, I also had my first encounter with the Terrible Smell. Something smells really bad, I said to Bryan as soon as we walked into the supermarket. I thought it weird that a food store would smell bad but he confirmed that I was right. Soon we realized what the smell was - they were cutting and selling DURIAN there. Durian - the infamous Singaporean fruit that smells like a rotting corpse but allegedly tastes good... The smell of that fruit is truly unreal. I don't know if I am going to ever master the courage to try it - with my nostrils closed tight, it would have to be. Not tonight though. The whole afternoon / evening adventure was a nice change from the everyday Orchard Road crowded sale-mall-craziness. So there is more to the city than just designer stores. Ah, the designer stores - this is a topic for a completely separate entry. One day.