Archive for the ‘travel adventures’ Category

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Singapore: Days Seven & Eight

July 1, 2012

Posted by Kanga.

We moved to a different hotel and took it easy for a couple of days.

hotel

The Best Western: Jayleen 1918

rice, greens, fish soup, pork soup

We found the best, THE BEST, food, yet. I have to admit that I wimped out and didn’t order the pork stomach, pork intestines, pork kidney, pork liver, or pork trotters, but I now believe that they could make any of these taste amazing. Above is sliced fish soup, pork tenderloin soup, kai lan, cai xin, and rice. Fabulous!

escalators going multiple directions

The mall next door has an unusual arrangement and escalators going every which way, like an M.C. Eischer picture.

tree with ferns growing up the trunk

Beautiful trees.

firehouse

The firehouse nearby.

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Singapore: Day Six

June 29, 2012

Posted by Kanga.

colorfully painted buildings

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.

gold necklaces and elephant statues

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.

large ferris wheel

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

Kallang River as seen from the ferris wheel

Kallang River

freighter ships in the distance

Straights of Singapore

city as viewed from the ferris wheel

Singapore

emerald green beer

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.”

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Singapore: Day Five

June 28, 2012

Posted by Kanga.

chicken tikka, malai kofta, onion pakora, naan

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)

old growth trees on a busy urban street

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.

bus stop covered with red octopi figures

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

entrance to the bookstore

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.

sections of the bookstore separating fantasy from science fiction

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

old growth tree with ferns growing on it's bark

Have I mentioned that I love the trees here?

food road in Singapore Chinatown lined with restaurants and food booths

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).

pork bun with bite taken out of it showing the filling

Buddhist temple entrance

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

Buddhist Temple

trees

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

food hawkers hall, food booths, tables

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).

chicken rice food booth, long line of customers

There was a long line, a good sign.

two plates of rice, chicken breast, two bowls of soup, two glasses of lime juice

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.

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Singapore: Day Four

June 27, 2012

Posted by Kanga.

deep purple orchids

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.

Yeo's Kim Leng Eating House

We stopped at this eating establishment and had:

parfait glass of yellow juice

Lime juice

two servings each of rice, sliced chicken breast, soup, hot sauce

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

clear broth with green onions, peanuts, lotus root

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.

metro train station

We noticed a good piece of advice on the floor.

flooring that states "read"

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.

riverside lined with restaurants

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

riverside

bridge over the river

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

large building

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

two beers

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

plate of deep fried tiny fish

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.

soybeans

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.

large hamburger and onion rings

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

large burger and fries

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.

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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.

three pancakes, pitcher of syrup and butter

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.

toast and scrambled paneer

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.

nearly empty hallway

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

map of the metro train system

sign showing how short a child must be to ride without a ticket

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

tourist pass ticket

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.

street in Singapore's Chinatown

We took the train to Chinatown.

German sausage stand

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!

another street in Chinatown

mug of lime juice, can of Kickapoo Joy Juice, and a mug of barley water

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

pigeons in a park

We stopped to enjoy the pigeons in the park.

large painted fans

There were many things for sale.

two plates filled with sliced roast pork and duck

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

saute greens

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

Chinese pork dumplings

Pork dumplings.

bottle of Jungle Beer brand porter beer

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).

bottle of Stone Brewing Arrogant Bastard Ale

Both from the Good Beer Company.

The Good Beer Company shop

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

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Singapore: Day One

June 24, 2012

Posted by Kanga.

busy pedestrianized alley with lots of shops and restaurants

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

Mexican bar

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

bar covered in mosaic tile work with a large bird sculpture

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

small lizard clinging to the wall

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.

open air, alleyway restaurant

Where we had

prawns covered in salted egg and deep fried

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

deep fried fish skin

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.

vegetables with mushrooms in a creamy sauce

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.)

mug of beer with ice in it

And beer with ice cubes.

cat curled up and sleeping under a motorcycle parked at the side of the street

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.)

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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.

night time, parking lot and kiosk

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

inside the bus, facing the front

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).

two plates of steak, mashed/baked potatoes, broccoli

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.

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Saint Sunday Chapel

January 6, 2012

Posted by Kanga.

small stone chapel

This lovely little chapel is in the Central Market area. We visited it twice. Once on our own and again with our food tour guide.

inside of the chapel

It is quite lovely inside with paintings of the saints.

ceiling with golden halos of the saints

The soot from the candles burnt over the years has obscured the paintings on the ceiling so that only the golden halos show clearly now.

box of sand with small taper candles stuck in it

Nearby, was a shop with religious supplies that the average Eastern Orthodox Christian might need. (I did not take a picture, sorry about that.) The wares consisted mainly of candles of various sizes, including some that can be purchased by the foot, as well as pictures of the saints. What was really interesting was the bins of seeds and grains. It is traditional to cook up a special mix of seeds and grains to be eaten after a funeral. So, there were bins of these and cloth bags that one could put them in.

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Athens, Greece: Day Four

December 20, 2011

Posted by Kanga.

two gyro sandwiches with two Coca Colas

We began our day by stopping in at a little grill restaurant (psistaria) next door. They didn’t speak English, but we managed to order the above. Quite fantastic, I must say. (7.60 Euros/$9.97 – the Cokes were 3 Euros – ouch!) The sandwiches are flat bread with pork, tomatoes, potatoes, and yogurt/cucumber sauce.

seven pigeons in a bare deciduous tree

We went to a shoe store so that I could buy a pair of shoes. The ones I wore yesterday will need days to fully dry out and my sandals won’t be sufficient on the next rainy day. I sat in the park for a few minutes enjoying the pigeons.

street lined with tables full of vegetables for sale

Then we walked to the nearest farmers market. It was very crowded and stretched over many blocks of the street. (DaddyBird estimates 1/2 kilometre.)

table full of eggs, both white and brown

The wares were amazing. Beautiful eggs, tomatoes, potatoes, huge cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, peppers, onions, garlic, olives, olive oil, and more.

purple broccoli

We bought more than we could carry, so DaddyBird had to go in search of shopping carts and bought two.

two shopping carts

Here are our purchases: eggs, cauliflower, olive oil, mushrooms, garlic, cucumbers, celery, dried figs, purple broccoli, tomatoes, carrots, onions, potatoes, cherry tomatoes, and leeks. We did not keep a count of all the prices, but the big tomatoes were 1.50 Euro and 2 cucumbers were 1 Euro. All the prices were very reasonable. The eggs were 0.15 each = 4.50 Euro/$5.90, although DaddyBird thinks he got more change back, so there may have been a discount for taking the whole flat.

table full of vegetables

Just so you can see how big the cauliflower is…

me holding the cauliflower next to my head, it is twice as large

This cauliflower weighed in at 4 kilo (8.82 pounds) and cost 2 Euros/$2.62.

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Athens, Greece: Day Three

December 19, 2011

Posted by Kanga.

metro train station sign for Victoria station

Our outing began at the Victoria metro train station.

the Acropolis hill from below

We were headed to the Temple of Hephaestus, but this turned out to be our real destination – the Acropolis and Parthenon.

hillside ancient ruins, churches in background

On our way up the hill, we passed the Sanctuary of Zeus, thought to be the oldest site of Zeus worship. One of those buildings is the Chapel of St. Marina.

stone walkway uphill with Parthenon in the distance

We were getting closer. It is quite a climb and we were going up the easy way (we came down the hard way). Any devout ancient Greek that made it up this hill to worship has my respect for their athleticism.

ancient wall with arched doorways

We came to the Odeum of Herodes Atticus, an amphitheater.

amphitheater seating

One bad aspect of being an off-season tourist is that some things are locked up tight.

the amphitheater from above

This is the view looking back down at the other side of the Odeum.

sign stating do not touch the marble

This sign makes you want to reach out and touch the marble, doesn’t it?

the Parthenon - colonnaded ruined building

Victory! We made it with only a little groaning, grunting and cussing from me. It was raining lightly which makes marble steps slick and dangerous. Not the best day to do this hike.

my face with the Erechtheion building in the background

Proof that I was there. The building in the background is the Erechtheion – a temple to Athena and Poseidon/Erechtheus.

my husband standing in front of the Parthenon

Proof that DaddyBird was there, too. The Erechtheion is to the right and the Parthenon in the background.

small cup, small pitcher of coffee

The Acropolis closed at 2:30 pm and it went from raining lightly to raining in earnest and we took a different route down off the hill. It was less than fun – steep, wet, slick – but we managed. Soaking wet, we stopped at a coffee shop for a snack and coffee. DaddyBird had Greek coffee (pictured above)

For the rest of the pictures of Day 3, click here.