Hello and welcome to my weekly report from Singapore... It's Sunday evening here and we are struggling with the decision whether to stay up and watch the World Cup Final game (which starts at 2.30 AM!) or rather be functioning and clear-headed tomorrow and for the rest of the working week... We have a very pleasant and relaxing weekend behind us so maybe we will give it a shot and act irresponsibly and at least TRY to stay up... We shall see ;).
Our week was so filled with work that it was not even funny so we really had no plans for the weekend except for the Grand Plan to get some alcohol in our systems as soon as possible on Friday night. We went out to dinner with Bryan's colleague from work, to our good, tested and always welcoming Vietnamese Orange Lantern (the Trainee Waitress there who does not speak a word of English is starting to recognize us - on Friday night she actually SMILED when she saw us and said: TWO ICE WATER? Well, there were three of us but it's a start of a well established relationship right?). After dinner, we got back to the apartment complex and worked on a bottle of Australian Chardonnay that we opened before dinner (me), a bottle of red (Bryan) and some vodka and cranberry juice cocktails (Erin and Jason - our now-regular hang-out-at-the-pool-and-drink-our-sad-expat-asses-away buddies) till well after midnight. So the plan for Friday night got accomplished. I slept very late on Saturday, Bryan went and got his haircut and then, well into the afternoon we decided that since we had no plans for Saturday we should just hang out at the pool. Which we really wanted to do and even attempted to do. We took all our swimming pool paraphernalia with us and got down there and spread our towels out and about fifteen minutes later it started to rain. So we got back to the room. Our alternative plan - in view of absence of any plan, we should just go out and have a nice meal. That's a great plan for a Saturday evening! Especially considering the fact that after we got scared off having NICE meals at NICE restaurants as a result of the very unfortunate PEKING DUCK mishap (which I am not sure if I described here but it was such memorable a rip-off that I don't even feel the need to write it down to remember it) we really have not gone to a restaurant with an intention of having a NICE meal. We just go out to experiment with food and of course satisfy our hunger but not to, you know, spend a pleasant hour or two at a nice restaurant and have food coming and enjoy the whole experience. So we booked a table for 7 pm at a Persian restaurant at Clark Quay that we heard nothing but good things about - SHIRAZ. The rest of the day was spent just waiting for 7 pm to arrive so that we could go and have our nice meal. It was a nice relaxing Saturday, to the extent that we are able to actually relax in this sad little imitation of an apartment. In the evening we headed down to Clark Quay and we had the most wonderful meal at Shiraz. The exciting aspect of the whole dinner thing was also that we hardly ever get to eat anything other than Asian food these days, so we deliberately chose something else for our Special meal. The food was absolutely delicious! We started off with some hummus and the thinnest tenderest crispiest pita bread I have ever tasted and another appetizer that I do not remember the name of but it was a mixture of eggplant lamb meat onions pistachio nuts and lots of other flavorful things grated, mixed together and baked and served warm. It was sooo good! After these two appetizers and an additional serving of the pita bread and some tasting starters that were brought to the table (like cubes of REAL feta cheese that tasted like feta cheese is SUPPOSED to taste, which I ALMOST forgot about in the five years in the US) we were, naturally, full, considering that our stomachs have shrunk significantly since we left the US. But still before us was the main course - a mixed platter of grilled kebabs - chicken, filet mignon, lamb and fish, served with Basmati rice and grilled vegetables. The meats just MELTED in your mouth. This was the best meat that we've had since we left Austin and Bryan had tears in his eyes (well, not really, but almost) when he took the first bite of the beef and sighed from the bottom of his heart "man, I miss steak...". We tumbled out of there after a very satisfactory hour and a half of devouring all that delicious food and, to complete our absolute bliss, we rolled towards Haagen Dazs, where we treated ourselves to the flavor of the month (chocolate caramel brownie) in a cone. Sheer happiness. We strolled around Clark Quay and my beloved hubby even got me a pair of earrings from a jewelry stand where a nice Chinese lady seemed to be picking prices from behind her ear (the price went up about 2 S$ with every pair of earrings I tried), but since they were all acceptable and affordable, I got a pair of beautiful long new earrings. We got on the MRT close to 11 pm and headed back home.
Today, since the No Plans Weekend was still continuing, we decided to explore. The day seemed perfect - sunny, with clear blue sky, for some exploring of the city. We decided we would start off by going to Istana Park, which was supposed to be nearby, and see how far it is to walk to the Dhoby Ghaut MRT station. We have wanted to check that distance for some time now, since Dhoby Ghaut is the interchange station of the MRT where we ALWAYS have to change trains to get WHEREVER we want to get to. Which I personally feel a VERY STRONG dislike towards, as the station is just huuuuge and sooo crowded that when we get off the train to get on another one I just want to close my eyes and get through the station as fast as possible. So I do just that, with my eyes wide open, I march as fast as I can past all the coughing slowly moving MASS of people, willing to just get through to the other side. And it's a long distance to walk. And a few escalators to get on. Just to get, in the end, on another crowded train... Anyway, that's where we wanted to walk to today to see if it's a walkable distance so maybe we don't have to change trains in the future, we can just WALK to Dhoby Ghaut and take a train from there. But first things first - we had brunch/lunch at a tiny but nice place at Orchard Central that serves kaya toast sets. Kaya toasts are grilled slices of bread that are served french toast-style with kaya, which is kind of Asian spread, like a very sweet jam. The set comes with two SOFT BOILED eggs that are to be eaten with soy sauce... It's an interesting combination and the first time we got these at a Toast Box place I had to watch people around me to determine what to do with these soft boiled eggs? So I learned then that they skillfully crack them open by hitting them with a small spoon and breaking them in half, spill them out onto a small bowl, pour some SOY sauce on them and eat them. I did the same. Bryan said he would not touch such eggs to save his life and I, at this point in time, would eat a raw egg if it was presented to me, because we don't get to eat eggs very often these days. So now it goes as follows - Bryan eats the toast and I eat the eggs. Our brunch cost about 4 USD ;) - which counterbalanced nicely the quite expensive dinner we had last night. After a short stop for the brunch kaya toast set we headed out and towards Istana Park. It turned out to be a tiny strip of green surrounded by skyscrapers, nothing like what we imagined. The only nice thing about it was a reflection pool and a tiny little pond where we found a friendly turtle sunning on a stone, completely oblivious to humans moving around, staring at it and taking pictures. Having checked Istana Park off our list of places to see, we also determined that Dhoby Ghaut station was just a stone throw away from there. So mission was accomplished - we knew then that we could walk the distance from our apartment building to the interchange station any time. But since the walking actually felt good, we continued to walk. Down to Fort Canning Park - a much bigger park, actually the biggest inner city park in Singapore, where they have concerts and such, just like Zilker Park in Austin, or the Cytadela Park in Poznań (which the Fort Canning Park reminded me of very vividly, as they both have very steep and high stairs that you need to climb in order to get to the park). We walked around the park for a long long time . There are a lot of interesting things to see in the Fort Canning Park. There is a sculpture garden with quite a few metal, concrete and wooden structures. There are heritage trees, some of them really impressive - one that looked like the tree of life or whatever it was called in Avatar... On little information boards along the walking path you can read a chronological account of Singapore's history. The most interesting and definitely entertaining piece of information was a description of how Singapore became a British territory. Once the British ascertained their ruling over a section of the island over the Dutch, they - as the board informs - CONVINCED the sultan to give them the remaining part of the island. Which he happily AGREED TO. It actually made me laugh out loud. I imagined the British going over to the sultan, knocking on his door and asking him - could you please give us the rest of the island, because the Dutch have already conceded their part? And the sultan was like - sure, no problem, since you are asking nicely... Another interesting thing we saw at the Park was the Time Ball. The story is that in the times before watches and clocks were common, in order to synchronize time and to introduce some order in the city life, once a day the British lifted the time ball at exactly 12:55 and let it drop at exactly 1:00 pm from a mast at the highest point of the park, where the entire city could see it. The time ball is not in use any more, but the structure still looks cool and impressive. After a good bit of walking around, we found our way to the other side of the park, which turned out to be a bridge away from Clark Quay. That was quite a walk, close to 2 hours on our feet, so we decided to reward ourselves with some ice cold beer at Brewerkz. Which was just what we needed after a good few hours spent walking around in the heat. Let me say at this point that I will never let anyone tell me that it's HOT in Singapore. Trust me, it is NOT really hot here, compared to Austin. It's hot but it's bearable. It's really not too bad. It rains very often and that keeps the temperature down. The only problem is that on the days when it's not too hot and it's overcast and pleasant to be outside and walk around, there is always a chance of getting SOAKED with rain. Because when it rains here it does not joke around - it RAINS HARD, it pours down. So taking a chance on the non-sunny day to get out and go walking in a park or explore the city - a brave thing to do, because it WILL, inevitably, RAIN. On the other hand, when the day is nice and sunny, like today, it is HOT. I remember just a few days of such heat here, one was when we walked around Chinatown a few weekends ago, one was today and there were a few other. When it's HOT it's HOT. But I always keep telling myself that in mid-July I would not be enjoying walking around in Austin because it's scorching hot in Austin. So here we just suck it up and walk around, telling ourselves - it would be WORSE in Austin. And the prospect of sitting down and enjoying a beer really helps ;). We hanged out at Brewerkz for some time, then we got some dinner and then, crazy as it seems, we decided to WALK back to the hotel. As if walking TO Clark Quay was not enough. It was a good two mile walk back and my battery almost died just a few blocks away from the apartment building. Even the Energizer Bunny battery dies at some point ;)... But somehow we managed to walk back all the way to the apartment, where we crawled up the stairs, changed into swimsuits and went back out to finish the day in the swimming pool. That felt so good! Bryan was ambitious enough to do laps, I was just enjoying the jacuzzi and the general bliss of being in the water after a day on my feet. Overall, our No-Plan weekend turned into a wonderful relaxing weekend spent outside discovering yet another aspect of this new temporary home of ours - that Singapore, or at least the section of it that is of any interest to us - can be explored without a car or even MRT - you can get everywhere just by walking. Yet another thing I will miss in Austin, when we get back. We are officially half way through our planned stay here, with as many weeks behind us as we have still to go. This coming Friday we are off to Bintan! I really hope this four-day work week will go by in a blink and we will soon be on a beach again! Wishful thinking, but sometimes the right attitude helps just a little bit to get through the week... I hope it's going to work this time :).
Our week was so filled with work that it was not even funny so we really had no plans for the weekend except for the Grand Plan to get some alcohol in our systems as soon as possible on Friday night. We went out to dinner with Bryan's colleague from work, to our good, tested and always welcoming Vietnamese Orange Lantern (the Trainee Waitress there who does not speak a word of English is starting to recognize us - on Friday night she actually SMILED when she saw us and said: TWO ICE WATER? Well, there were three of us but it's a start of a well established relationship right?). After dinner, we got back to the apartment complex and worked on a bottle of Australian Chardonnay that we opened before dinner (me), a bottle of red (Bryan) and some vodka and cranberry juice cocktails (Erin and Jason - our now-regular hang-out-at-the-pool-and-drink-our-sad-expat-asses-away buddies) till well after midnight. So the plan for Friday night got accomplished. I slept very late on Saturday, Bryan went and got his haircut and then, well into the afternoon we decided that since we had no plans for Saturday we should just hang out at the pool. Which we really wanted to do and even attempted to do. We took all our swimming pool paraphernalia with us and got down there and spread our towels out and about fifteen minutes later it started to rain. So we got back to the room. Our alternative plan - in view of absence of any plan, we should just go out and have a nice meal. That's a great plan for a Saturday evening! Especially considering the fact that after we got scared off having NICE meals at NICE restaurants as a result of the very unfortunate PEKING DUCK mishap (which I am not sure if I described here but it was such memorable a rip-off that I don't even feel the need to write it down to remember it) we really have not gone to a restaurant with an intention of having a NICE meal. We just go out to experiment with food and of course satisfy our hunger but not to, you know, spend a pleasant hour or two at a nice restaurant and have food coming and enjoy the whole experience. So we booked a table for 7 pm at a Persian restaurant at Clark Quay that we heard nothing but good things about - SHIRAZ. The rest of the day was spent just waiting for 7 pm to arrive so that we could go and have our nice meal. It was a nice relaxing Saturday, to the extent that we are able to actually relax in this sad little imitation of an apartment. In the evening we headed down to Clark Quay and we had the most wonderful meal at Shiraz. The exciting aspect of the whole dinner thing was also that we hardly ever get to eat anything other than Asian food these days, so we deliberately chose something else for our Special meal. The food was absolutely delicious! We started off with some hummus and the thinnest tenderest crispiest pita bread I have ever tasted and another appetizer that I do not remember the name of but it was a mixture of eggplant lamb meat onions pistachio nuts and lots of other flavorful things grated, mixed together and baked and served warm. It was sooo good! After these two appetizers and an additional serving of the pita bread and some tasting starters that were brought to the table (like cubes of REAL feta cheese that tasted like feta cheese is SUPPOSED to taste, which I ALMOST forgot about in the five years in the US) we were, naturally, full, considering that our stomachs have shrunk significantly since we left the US. But still before us was the main course - a mixed platter of grilled kebabs - chicken, filet mignon, lamb and fish, served with Basmati rice and grilled vegetables. The meats just MELTED in your mouth. This was the best meat that we've had since we left Austin and Bryan had tears in his eyes (well, not really, but almost) when he took the first bite of the beef and sighed from the bottom of his heart "man, I miss steak...". We tumbled out of there after a very satisfactory hour and a half of devouring all that delicious food and, to complete our absolute bliss, we rolled towards Haagen Dazs, where we treated ourselves to the flavor of the month (chocolate caramel brownie) in a cone. Sheer happiness. We strolled around Clark Quay and my beloved hubby even got me a pair of earrings from a jewelry stand where a nice Chinese lady seemed to be picking prices from behind her ear (the price went up about 2 S$ with every pair of earrings I tried), but since they were all acceptable and affordable, I got a pair of beautiful long new earrings. We got on the MRT close to 11 pm and headed back home.
Today, since the No Plans Weekend was still continuing, we decided to explore. The day seemed perfect - sunny, with clear blue sky, for some exploring of the city. We decided we would start off by going to Istana Park, which was supposed to be nearby, and see how far it is to walk to the Dhoby Ghaut MRT station. We have wanted to check that distance for some time now, since Dhoby Ghaut is the interchange station of the MRT where we ALWAYS have to change trains to get WHEREVER we want to get to. Which I personally feel a VERY STRONG dislike towards, as the station is just huuuuge and sooo crowded that when we get off the train to get on another one I just want to close my eyes and get through the station as fast as possible. So I do just that, with my eyes wide open, I march as fast as I can past all the coughing slowly moving MASS of people, willing to just get through to the other side. And it's a long distance to walk. And a few escalators to get on. Just to get, in the end, on another crowded train... Anyway, that's where we wanted to walk to today to see if it's a walkable distance so maybe we don't have to change trains in the future, we can just WALK to Dhoby Ghaut and take a train from there. But first things first - we had brunch/lunch at a tiny but nice place at Orchard Central that serves kaya toast sets. Kaya toasts are grilled slices of bread that are served french toast-style with kaya, which is kind of Asian spread, like a very sweet jam. The set comes with two SOFT BOILED eggs that are to be eaten with soy sauce... It's an interesting combination and the first time we got these at a Toast Box place I had to watch people around me to determine what to do with these soft boiled eggs? So I learned then that they skillfully crack them open by hitting them with a small spoon and breaking them in half, spill them out onto a small bowl, pour some SOY sauce on them and eat them. I did the same. Bryan said he would not touch such eggs to save his life and I, at this point in time, would eat a raw egg if it was presented to me, because we don't get to eat eggs very often these days. So now it goes as follows - Bryan eats the toast and I eat the eggs. Our brunch cost about 4 USD ;) - which counterbalanced nicely the quite expensive dinner we had last night. After a short stop for the brunch kaya toast set we headed out and towards Istana Park. It turned out to be a tiny strip of green surrounded by skyscrapers, nothing like what we imagined. The only nice thing about it was a reflection pool and a tiny little pond where we found a friendly turtle sunning on a stone, completely oblivious to humans moving around, staring at it and taking pictures. Having checked Istana Park off our list of places to see, we also determined that Dhoby Ghaut station was just a stone throw away from there. So mission was accomplished - we knew then that we could walk the distance from our apartment building to the interchange station any time. But since the walking actually felt good, we continued to walk. Down to Fort Canning Park - a much bigger park, actually the biggest inner city park in Singapore, where they have concerts and such, just like Zilker Park in Austin, or the Cytadela Park in Poznań (which the Fort Canning Park reminded me of very vividly, as they both have very steep and high stairs that you need to climb in order to get to the park). We walked around the park for a long long time . There are a lot of interesting things to see in the Fort Canning Park. There is a sculpture garden with quite a few metal, concrete and wooden structures. There are heritage trees, some of them really impressive - one that looked like the tree of life or whatever it was called in Avatar... On little information boards along the walking path you can read a chronological account of Singapore's history. The most interesting and definitely entertaining piece of information was a description of how Singapore became a British territory. Once the British ascertained their ruling over a section of the island over the Dutch, they - as the board informs - CONVINCED the sultan to give them the remaining part of the island. Which he happily AGREED TO. It actually made me laugh out loud. I imagined the British going over to the sultan, knocking on his door and asking him - could you please give us the rest of the island, because the Dutch have already conceded their part? And the sultan was like - sure, no problem, since you are asking nicely... Another interesting thing we saw at the Park was the Time Ball. The story is that in the times before watches and clocks were common, in order to synchronize time and to introduce some order in the city life, once a day the British lifted the time ball at exactly 12:55 and let it drop at exactly 1:00 pm from a mast at the highest point of the park, where the entire city could see it. The time ball is not in use any more, but the structure still looks cool and impressive. After a good bit of walking around, we found our way to the other side of the park, which turned out to be a bridge away from Clark Quay. That was quite a walk, close to 2 hours on our feet, so we decided to reward ourselves with some ice cold beer at Brewerkz. Which was just what we needed after a good few hours spent walking around in the heat. Let me say at this point that I will never let anyone tell me that it's HOT in Singapore. Trust me, it is NOT really hot here, compared to Austin. It's hot but it's bearable. It's really not too bad. It rains very often and that keeps the temperature down. The only problem is that on the days when it's not too hot and it's overcast and pleasant to be outside and walk around, there is always a chance of getting SOAKED with rain. Because when it rains here it does not joke around - it RAINS HARD, it pours down. So taking a chance on the non-sunny day to get out and go walking in a park or explore the city - a brave thing to do, because it WILL, inevitably, RAIN. On the other hand, when the day is nice and sunny, like today, it is HOT. I remember just a few days of such heat here, one was when we walked around Chinatown a few weekends ago, one was today and there were a few other. When it's HOT it's HOT. But I always keep telling myself that in mid-July I would not be enjoying walking around in Austin because it's scorching hot in Austin. So here we just suck it up and walk around, telling ourselves - it would be WORSE in Austin. And the prospect of sitting down and enjoying a beer really helps ;). We hanged out at Brewerkz for some time, then we got some dinner and then, crazy as it seems, we decided to WALK back to the hotel. As if walking TO Clark Quay was not enough. It was a good two mile walk back and my battery almost died just a few blocks away from the apartment building. Even the Energizer Bunny battery dies at some point ;)... But somehow we managed to walk back all the way to the apartment, where we crawled up the stairs, changed into swimsuits and went back out to finish the day in the swimming pool. That felt so good! Bryan was ambitious enough to do laps, I was just enjoying the jacuzzi and the general bliss of being in the water after a day on my feet. Overall, our No-Plan weekend turned into a wonderful relaxing weekend spent outside discovering yet another aspect of this new temporary home of ours - that Singapore, or at least the section of it that is of any interest to us - can be explored without a car or even MRT - you can get everywhere just by walking. Yet another thing I will miss in Austin, when we get back. We are officially half way through our planned stay here, with as many weeks behind us as we have still to go. This coming Friday we are off to Bintan! I really hope this four-day work week will go by in a blink and we will soon be on a beach again! Wishful thinking, but sometimes the right attitude helps just a little bit to get through the week... I hope it's going to work this time :).
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