June | 2012 | Living the Travel Channel

Archive for June, 2012

Singapore: QR Codes

June 30, 2012

Posted by Kanga.

One thing that has been noticeable all around Singapore is QR codes. (For those who don’t know, QR codes are square matrix barcodes that can communicate more information than a standard barcode. More explanation – click here.) They were invented almost 20 years ago, but are only now coming into the public sphere because smart phones can scan them (with the right app).

Real Estate Ad

Singapore Flyer

Computer Ad

Cold medicine Ad

Job Ads Website

Pepsi

qr codes on two side by side advertisements

Just about every advertisement in the metro stations

qr code in the corner of a restaurant menu

Restaurant Menu (sorry it’s blurry)

qr code in a college advertisement in the train car

College advertisement (in the metro train car)

We have not, however, seen anyone stopping to scan these codes with their smart phone. Just me stopping to photograph them for this blog post. This may be the wave of the future, though.

Posted in signs, Singapore | Tagged QR codes, signs, Singapore | 1 Comment »

Singapore: Day Six

June 29, 2012

Posted by Kanga.

Day Six began with a stroll through Little India looking for a place to eat. We ended up having the most overpriced meal, yet, not worth posting here. It was a pleasant walk, although hot and humid.

Then we took a metro ride. A few interesting things happened during this transit. While I was standing in the ticket booth area waiting for DaddyBird, an older man got into a confrontation with security personnel. I’m not sure how it began, but I think that he entered through a door he was not supposed to enter through. He began to raise his voice and argue with them. Everyone else in the room stood stock still and stared as if mesmerized by the exchange. It was like a scene from a science fiction movie where time stands still. Anyone entering the room and seeing that there was a ruckus, immediately stood still and stared, too. Very strange.

Later, while we were on the train, a young woman near us got a look at DaddyBird’s beard and grinned big. Her eyes then darted to me and her smile immediately disappeared as soon as she realized he was with me. That’s right, girl. He’s taken! And, before we reached our destination, a family with two children came on. The little girl, who was about 4 years old, pointed at DaddyBird and made a wordless exclamation. She continued to stare at him until we reached our stop.

Our destination was the Singapore Flyer, a large ferris wheel, like the London Eye. It cost $30 each to ride.

Kallang River

Straights of Singapore

Singapore

And the day ended with green beer. Useful information: if you are in a taxi and asking to go to “boat quay” it is pronounced “boh key.”

Posted in beard, Singapore, travel adventures | Tagged beard, ferris wheel, green beer, Little India, Singapore, Singapore Flyer | 1 Comment »

Singapore: Day Five

June 28, 2012

Posted by Kanga.

Yes, we are eating again. Every day, it seems. This is Indian food from a restaurant next door to our hotel. Chicken tikka, malai kofta, onion pakora, garlic naan, and butter naan. (Around $20.00 / $16 US)

We ventured out by way of metro train and our feet. I love the trees here. Lovely, old growth trees with ferns growing in their joints.

This bus stop was covered in red octopi. Apparently, Octo is the mascot for a bank.

Then we reached the motherlode – Kinokuniya Bookstore. I brought three books with me (actually four because one is two books bound together). They won’t last me the entire trip. I have already finished two. So, this necessitated the acquisition of MORE.

The fact that they separate Science Fiction from Fantasy makes me love this bookstore even more. Lumping these two genres together is just dumb.

Have I mentioned that I love the trees here?

Then, to Food Road Chinatown. Yes, I really did see a sign that said “Food Road Chinatown.” It is lined with restaurants and food booths. We had pork buns ($1.00 each).

Then we walked past this Buddhist temple, which, according to the map, is Buddha’s Tooth Relic Temple.

Have I mentioned the TREES? Behind these trees is the Maxwell Food Centre.

Food centers (or hawker centers) are roofed areas with many small food booths and most anything to eat or drink. This is where the best chicken and rice is, according to Adrianna and Anthony Bourdain (TV travel/food show host).

There was a long line, a good sign.

Here it is. It was cheaper than the chicken rice we had previously ($7.00 / $5.50 US for both servings). The soup, however, did not have peanuts and lotus root in it, just broth. It was not served with as many cucumbers, either. Tasted very good, but I did not see a significant difference from the previous meal.

We headed back to the hotel with our books for an early evening.

Posted in food, Singapore, travel adventures | Tagged Buddhist temple, food, octopi, Singapore, travel, trees | 2 Comments »

Singapore: Day Four

June 27, 2012

Posted by Kanga.

I almost ended the last post by telling you what we planned to do today. I am glad I didn’t, because we had to scrap our A Plan for the day and then we had to scrap our B Plan for the day. So, here is what came to fruition.

First, DaddyBird woke up with an abdominal pain. So, we got a slow move and late start to the day. Too late for Plan A.

We stopped at this eating establishment and had:

Lime juice

Chicken rice – which is supposed to be the quintessential Singaporean dish – boiled chicken and rice. It is not as bland as it sounds.

The soup had peanuts and lotus root.

We walked on to a shopping mall to follow the instructions of a friend (Shelina) who insisted we needed to try “food on a stick.” We did finally find the “food on a stick” and dutifully tried some.

DaddyBird was still not feeling too good, so we decided that Plan B would be to ride on the metro and just see where it went. We could do this air conditioned and sitting down. However, it became fairly clear that DaddyBird was probably passing a kidney stone, so Plan B was also scrapped and we headed back to the hotel. After some rest, he felt better, so at dinner time it was out again to the metro station.

We noticed a good piece of advice on the floor.

But it turned out to be a map of the river and Read is just one of the bridges. Still a good piece of advice, though.

We ended up at Clarke Quay, a river lined with restaurants.

This was our destination – Brewerkz, a rather large brew pub.

These were our brews – Black Pig and Fruitbrewz (raspberry beer that does not compare to a McMenemins Ruby).

DaddyBird opted for the spicy whitebait (small fish) as an appetizer (which were not spicy after all).

I ordered the edamame, not having read the menu description which indicated it was spicy. It was indeed spicy (who would do that to edamame?) so I spent time wiping the spicy bits off before eating it.

Then came the burgers. DaddyBird had the King Brew burger which had bacon, chili, onions, mushrooms and cheese. There was also a hamburger patty in there somewhere. He says it is the second best burger he has ever had, second only to the legendary Carolina Ale House burger of 2011.

My burger, the Wallaby, was also hidden under an egg, beet slices, pineapple, bacon and cheese.

We did not get away cheaply on this meal – $163.70 ($128.10 US). It was a pleasant splurge, however. Even the music playing was good – classic rock, alternative rock and decent pop. DaddyBird also reported that there was bluegrass playing in the restroom.

Posted in food, Singapore, travel adventures | Tagged beer, burger, food, Singapore | 1 Comment »

Singapore: Day Three

June 26, 2012

Posted by Kanga.

Well, we finally managed to get out and enjoy the day while the sun was up instead of jet lagged napping.

It began with breakfast at a restaurant just down the street from our hotel. “All day breakfast” is a good thing. The pancakes you may recognize. DaddyBird’s entree is scrambled paneer and toast.

This plus hot chocolate and masala tea set us back $19.40 ($15.18 US). Then we walked to the nearest metro train station and travelled by train.

As you can see, mid-weekday traffic is light.

We were tall enough that we had to buy tickets in order to ride.

They have tourist passes. We bought a three day pass for $30.00 ($10.00 of which is refundable upon return of the pass card). With this we can ride unlimitedly on bus or train. Very handy.

We took the train to Chinatown.

In the middle of Chinatown, we found an Austrian running a German sausage stand, of course. On our way back to the hotel we stopped and got some sausages to go. Yummy!

We stopped for some refreshing drinks – lime juice, Kickapoo Joy Juice, and barley water.

We stopped to enjoy the pigeons in the park.

There were many things for sale.

We stopped for a late afternoon meal of char shiew, roast pork, and roast duck. ($4 worth of duck, $10 worth of pork)

Kang kong (greens) – too spicy for me. DaddyBird had to eat these all himself.

Pork dumplings.

To wash it all down, a Jungle Beer Porter (brewed in Singapore) and a Stone Brewing Arrogant Bastard Ale (brewed in CA, DaddyBird’s home state).

Both from the Good Beer Company.

Then it was back through Chinatown to the metro, then through Little India to our hotel and sleep, sleep, sleep.

Posted in food, Singapore, travel adventures | Tagged beer, Chinatown, dumplings, food, pork, Singapore, travel | 3 Comments »

Singapore: Day Two

June 25, 2012

Posted by Kanga.

We slept late and went to a little restaurant next door to our hotel for “breakfast” around 2pm. For those not familiar with Indian food, the white thing in the middle is called idly. It is a plain bread that has a little zip in the taste similar to sourdough. The four puddles at the top are sauces to be eaten with the idly. They are all too spicy for me. The bowl at the left is a soup called sambal. It was a little spicy, but mild enough that I could manage it. The bowl at the right is curd rice (like rice and cottage cheese together) and as long as I pick out the pieces of chili pepper, I can eat this.

We also had coffee. The whole lunch was more expensive than we expected. We are spoiled with our Fujairah prices. Each piece of idly was $1.65 (Singaporean dollars, $1.29 US). The total for the lunch of 4 idly, 2 curd rice, and 2 coffees was $19.35 ($15.14 US).

This was followed by a shopping trip into the Mustafa Centre which is a humongous shopping centre across the street from our hotel. It is, in fact, multiple buildings connected by under the street passages. You can buy most anything there if you are hardy enough to find what you are looking for. Surprisingly, it was easier to find a book light than a hair brush.

The shopping trip was so exhausting that it was followed by napping.

Next on our agenda was a walk back to the Arab Street area and dinner at Kampong Glam Cafe (Malaysian food).

Lime Soda

Gado Gado – peanut sauce, hard boiled eggs, tofu, and miscellaneous other ingredients.

My non-spicy noodles (name of dish unknown) – noodles, chicken, garlic, and onions.

DaddyBird’s nasi goreng (rice) with spicy chicken.

This was followed by a taxi ride back to the hotel and much more sleeping. We will try to do something touristy, eventually.

Posted in food, Singapore | Tagged food, idly, Malaysian food, nasi goreng, Singapore, travel | 1 Comment »

Singapore: Day One

June 24, 2012

Posted by Kanga.

After checking into our hotel, we were off again to meet up with our friend, Adrianna, in Arab Street.

We had some lovely nachos at this Mexican bar, Piedra Negra.

There is a lovely bar covered in mosaic tile work and a large bird (condor? quetzal? Quetzalcoatl?)

And a nice little lizard clinging to the outside wall.

Then we were off to a Chinese restaurant for dinner, A.B. Ah Meng Kitchen.

Where we had

Salted egg prawn ball – prawn (shrimp) with corn coated in salted egg batter and deep fried. Very tasty!

Deep fried fish skin – just what it sounds like, fish skin lightly battered and fried until crisp. Tasty, but one of those things you know isn’t good for you in the long run. DaddyBird wants to go back for more.

Vegetable with Golden Mushrooms – which is not what I would have guessed by the looks of it. This was tasty also. (Tasty, my overused word of the day.)

And beer with ice cubes.

Here is the first of what will be many cat pictures.

Then we toddled off to our hotel and slept and slept and slept some more.

(Apologies for blurry pictures. My camera was on the wrong setting which has been rectified and the pictures will improve.)

Posted in cats, food, restaurant, Singapore, travel adventures | Tagged food, Singapore, travel | 1 Comment »

Road to Singapore

June 24, 2012

Posted by Kanga.

We are safely in Singapore on vacation. It took a while to get our internet connection worked out, so I am already behind by 3 or 4 blog posts. So, let us begin. Here is how we got here.

It began with how to get from Fujairah to the Dubai airport. We could impose on friends to drive us. We could taxi all the way. Or, we could take the bus. The taxi ride from our apartment to the bus station = 5 AED ($1.36 US). The bus costs a whopping 25 AED ($6.80 US) per person. Our flight was at 9:30 am the next morning, so we had opted to stay overnight to make it less stressful and to avoid having to get up early.

Above is the bus station. Below, inside the bus.

We left at 9:15 pm and arrived at Union Station (just blocks from where we used to live) by 10:55 pm. We then took a taxi to our hotel near the airport. (Taxi from Union Station to the hotel = 20.50 AED / $5.58 US.) The bus ride was quite nice. The seats were wide enough to be comfortable. The Dubai taxi driver struck up a conversation beginning with “you have a nice beard” and including where are you from, do you have children, what work do you do, and how long have you been here – all the standard questions. Paul asked questions as well. The taxi driver was from Pakistan/Afghanistan and has been in Dubai for 10 years. His family is in Pakistan. They also discussed Fujairah – weather, housing costs, etc.

Once at the hotel, we splurged on dinner, both having steak. Very tasty, but not cheap (290 AED/$79 US).

If you are concerned about our cats (I know you are), a friend is checking on them daily and we have a web cam set up above their primary napping place so that we can check on them occasionally ourselves. That should alleviate our anxiety and guilt somewhat.

Posted in Dubai, food, Fujairah, travel adventures | Tagged bus travel, Dubai, Fujariah, steak, taxi | 1 Comment »