Saturday, February 24, 2007

Singapore: Day 2...

Day 2 began with a trip to the market with mary :)... She had to go see the fish monger and pick up some prawns... or something :p We all headed off to Farrer Market. I always liked the markets in Asia, there's so much going on there... and the Asian markets have a different air about them, it's not the same as going to the market when you're in Canada.

We don't have people screaming at you to buy things... we don't have people wearing headsets broadcasting what they're selling over loud speakers, crazy stuff... our markets don't feel like real markets. They don't even smell the same as the markets elsewhere... they're too clean.

Another reason for us to go to the market was for me to taste some more of the local food :) In Vancouver it's hard to get a decent plate of Char Kway Teow, and when you can find one it costs you your arm and possibly a leg as well. In Singapore... it costs $2 in most places and they're all better than the ones that we get in Vancouver.


Mary ordered us a Pancake thingy (forgot the name) and 2 Roti Prata...

Jacq ordered the Lor Mee. She's a noodle person and I'm more of a rice person :) and She can eat stuff that's damn spicy. I'm not just talking as a Canadian... per se, cuz I can take things that are pretty spicy, the stuff that she can take is insane! I stopped doing that to my body looooong ago ;) After we ate Mary brought us over to her fish monger... while we were there we ran into... none other than...


Jackie Chan!!! He was doing a shoot in the market, posing as a fish monger O.o... wait... ok, fine. It wasn't Jackie Chan, but the resemblance is pretty good :) He REALLY looks like Jackie from other angles, I was laughing when I saw him... btw, Chris still thinks that it's him ;) Mary has run into Jackie twice before and gotten his autograph :), not the fish monger, the REAL Jackie Chan.

When we were done at the market M dropped us off @ Holland Village. I wanted to have a look at the cameras and M recommended one of the shops there. Unfortunately, I didn't have enough information from my dad (he wanted me to pick up a camera) so I was not able to compare the price and make a purchase.

Holland Village is a pretty nice area... there are a variety of little cafes, hawker stalls and more contemporary watering holes tucked away in that area... one of the more interesting ones is Eski Bar.

When I was in Singapore last year, my good friend Leon brought me there... crazy stuff. There's a sub-zero degree bar where you can go and have a drink while you freeze your balls off... coming from a colder climate like Canada, it's still fekkin cold... like stepping into a meat freezer. Apparently people go in there wearing their everyday clothes... a round is ordered and the first one that can't take the cold and has to leave has to foot the bill :D funny :P.

** k... I'm getting really hungry so I'm going to continue this post later... **
btw.. I'm in Tokyo on my 12hr layover as I'm typing this up... :'(

Ok ok... On with the tour :) While we were sauntering around Holland V I noticed some weird little signs on top of the tables... It appears that Singapore has put in place a no-smoking ban... even in outdoor areas...


Interesting. Kinda stupid if you ask me. We have a no-smoking ban in Vancouver as well, but it's restricted to indoor areas and within a 10 foot radius of entrance ways (or something). What's the point of banning smoking outdoors? The smoke is going to travel anyways. Blah.


A map of the path we took around the Esplanade area :)


After Holland Village, we headed down by the Fullerton Hotel, by the Boat Quay/Esplanade Park area. It's interesting to see the mix of modern vs. colonial structures all over the place. One thing that struck me is all the colonial buildings look VERY well maintained. The structures are beautiful and spotless :) Just across from the Fullerton Hotel was the Cavenagh Bridge with an interesting sign posted... I can't imagine many Cattle and Horses in the city :p


Just down the way from the bridge there are a couple of sculptures set up to remember a Scotsman trader, talking with a Chinese Trader and a Malay chief... I HAD to take a picture of the plaque because it contains a "contemporary racial slur for people of Asian descent, including people from India, Central Asia, etc".



Granted, it's also an historical term used to describe Asian laborers, but I'm sure that when Americans or Canadians stumble upon this they're trying to figure out what the government was thinking when they posted the description. I was surprised, because Singapore seems to pride itself in its ability to keep up-to-date with Western trends and be politically correct with everything (catering to everyone... al la 4 national languages, etc...) yet they still chose to use those particular words.


If you look further down the water you can see the Boat Quay. Apparently there are boat rides that you can enjoy while you're there. They will ferry you around the Singapore river and drop you off where you desire (or something ;)). It would have been nice to go on a ride, but I was having such a great time just being with Jacq ;)


Contrast between new and old... and a reminder of the days when children used to play in the Singapore river.

After taking a couple more random shots, we headed over the smaller bridge, I'll just call it Fullerton Bridge because I don't remember what it's called :P On the other side there was an old man with a cart. I was wondering what he was selling and Jacq suddenly got excited :) He was selling some funky Ice Cream Sandwiches. I hadn't seen anything like that over here but I definitely wish we had them too :).

Moving on, we reached the Singapore National Museum, another colonial structure...


Right next to it is the Victoria Memorial Building, on the left-side is the Victoria Theatre and on the right-side is the Victoria Memorial...





We sauntered around for a bit and read about some of the history behind the buildings... and then we walked towards Fullerton Road. There were lanterns strung all above the roads, you could tell that they were preparing for a CNY celebration.


We walked North on Connaught Drive, along side Esplanade park... It was amazing how elaborate the setup was... It looked like the Esplanade park celebration was going to be a big one.


I was wondering if it was gov't sponsored but then I noticed that each display had a banner associated with it... (or I associated the banners with each display :P). Still, somehow I can see the gov't dumping quite a large sum of money into decorating the city for the holiday :)


We continued down Connaught Drive along the park eventually we cut through to get to the underpass that led to the Esplanade... The Esplanade houses Theatres on the Bay (official site).

On the way towards the building we were approached by a Filipino student selling trinkets to raise money for her schooling... she wasn't so bad, we said, "no" and she left. What pissed me off was that she told one of her other 'partners' to talk to us, EVEN after we made it clear that we didn't want anything, WTF. If you don't have enough money to school in another country, don't go.

Below is footage of the front of the Esplanade buildings... some say they look like Dolly Parton's boobs :P others say they look like 2 Durians...


Here's a map of the site...


Inside the building was a nice little lounge area, the air-con welcomed us as we cooled our heels. There was a library, various restaurants & other establishments, some shops... then we went out by the water to sit under some trees and take in the scenery...


After awhile we began to make our way back across Esplanade Drive over towards the Fullerton Hotel again :) as we walked under the bridge I saw some people loitering under it... people trying to get out of the sun.. but loitering nonetheless. I also noticed that it was mostly Indonesian or Bengali workers who liked to do this... Not once did I catch a Chinese person doing something like this... I pretended to pose as Jacq took the photos of them in the background :P


Back across the way we walked to the Cavenagh Bridge to cross it :) and backtrack to the edge of Esplanade Park again... that's where I saw the little Zodiac Animal display that we had missed the first time we were there... yes, I know there are 12 animals in the Zodiac... I got 10, not sure what happened there :p can you spot the missing animals? ;)


We cut across the large field to St. Andrews Rd and I snapped a picture of this building... I think it's a courthouse, I also think that there's a good chance that I am wrong, hehe. So don't take my word on it. I'm going to leave it at that, because this post is already taking waaaaay too long so I'm not going to look it up at this time :P


Jacq and I walked to the Citylink where we saw more people loitering... this time it was more disturbing because the people were just sleeping there on the floor... and it wasn't outdoors. The underground link is actually quite a nice place. It's spotless and the floors are nice and shiny... this is something that we don't get in Vancouver, we get them outdoors, but not indoors...


Jacq brought me inside the Citylink mall to do somemore shopping, but by that time we were both spent... all we wanted was food. There was a nifty little place called New York, New York. I was hankering for some 'American' food. On the way through the restaurant I was doing a little window shopping and just looking around when I saw this bizarre display :P




New York New York is a restaurant made to capture the American spirit... The walls are graffittied with American sights and articles and their menu contains 'American' foods... unfortunately, they don't give 'American Quality of service' :P We had a look at the menu and I HAD to order the Crazy Dog :P a 12" hotdog on a 4" bun :D I wanted to see if it looked (in real-life) as it did in the photo. Jacq ordered the Spaghetti Bolognaise and told me a story as we were waiting for the food :) Oh yea, I also ordered a Root Beer Float to drink :)



We were stuffed by the end of the meal and decided to call it a day... we waited for the bill while all the waiters ignored us. And when they finally brought us the bill and I left money, they took their sweet time to bring our change back. So long, in fact, that I got up to get it myself :P Ah, well... enough for now... this was only day 2!!!

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Singapore: Day 1...

It's nice to be back in Asia again... Everything is sooo different than in the west. Small things like the way the air smells bring back a nostalgic feeling for me. Tho I left M'sia when I was very young, the smells and sounds never left me. Each time I come back I look around and see sights that fascinate me, for instance... the Hong Kong style housing flat in the picture to the left. You won't see a sight like that in Vancouver, I'm pretty confident that you won't find that anywhere else in Canada either (if you know where, let me know ;)).

First day here Mary (family friend) came to pick us up and drop take us to Takashimaya. The malls in Asia are crazy big... it's something I don't think I'll ever get used to. Takashimaya has just about every clothing store you can imagine most of the stores are ones that I haven't heard of but apparently are huge brands here... Mango for one. I just did some research and it seems that Mango is available in Canada... just not in Vancouver, how ignorant of me... Among my favorite brands here is U2 :) It's my MEXX equivalent (though they do have MEXX here but mostly for women)... enough about that.


There's definitely an air of Chinese New Year about Singapore... Everywhere I go, all I here is DUK DUK CHANG :@ it's getting rather annoying, but then I should have expected it. It's like XMAS in Vancouver... but with more DUK DUK CHANG :P

Mary went to park the car and we headed into the mall to look for the food court :) we couldn't find it :$ Mary found us and then we ordered our food. Today was my first taste of some local (tho mall) food in a year! I ordered the Chicken Curry set w/ salad roll at a Vietnamese stall, while Jacq ordered the Beef Noodle set. Each set came with a Papaya salad, another first for me :) and not too shabby if I say so myself. Oh yeah, the drink sizes are frickin' small... My regular was the same size as a Kid's size in Canada... wth.

After our meal we walked around and had a look at what all the stores had to offer... wow... By the end of the day my feet were killing me... and I wanted to tear my ears off from all the CNY music. I left the mall with a pair of shorts and 2 short-sleeved collared shirts :) Jacq bought a skirt ;)

A couple of hours later Mary was done her shopping and so were we... on to Mary's house :) our 6 star hotel :P she lives in the Cornwall Gardens area where all the big houses are. Las time we were here I was supposed to stay there with my parents, but I was with Jacqueline... this time I got to see what I missed :P Mary wasn't kidding when she said that her place was going to be like 6 star accommodations! Like my father, she was also in the hospitality/tourism industry, and it still shows... her attention to detail is impeccable!


Her house is crazy! :) Like her dog Xaviah... I called him Stinky :D

That day I also met her son Chris :) nice guy... loves to eat and enjoy life ;) I have yet to play a rack of pool with him. We rounded off the evening by going to Da Paolo Bistro Bar... a fairly new establishment in the Rochester Park area.

Sometime during our stay Mary and I got into the discussion of Service in Singapore... in a country where there are so many rules and regulations in place, and where they are so keen on picking up western trends and copying western TV shows you'd think that they would want to pick up on Western standards of service too... no apparently not. Ah.. I remember now. I was in Giordano with Jacq and standing in front of a display/rack... one of the employees stepped right in front of me and proceeded to continue helping another customer... he just stood there RIGHT IN FRONT of me and stayed there right in front of me as if I didn't exist... asshole. I was pissed... that isn't even the tip of the iceberg, but I won't get into it quite yet... Mary was saying that she doesn't enjoy shopping here... the standards of service are not quite there yet...

Dinner was not too bad :) We even had some entertainment in the parking lot before we got to the restaurant itself :P someone forgot to engage the parking brake after parking their car and it rolled back into the car behind it :D hehe... there was no one in either car... I'm still wondering how they settled it ;). The atmosphere in the restaurant was nice. There was a huge patio and a few different sections each with their own motif. During dinner I got to make some small talk with Chris... from our conversation it seems like he does love his food ;)

To touch on the standards thing again, our waiter didn't look a lick over 17 and didn't know wtf he was doing... even simple requests like finding out if substituting pastas for other pastas seemed to be a confusing task for him... M and I both ordered a seafood pasta with tomato sauce while Jacq ordered a pasta with a cream sauce... I don't quite remember what it was exactly... all I remember is that it was REALLY rich...



... a glimpse of their Antipasti Bar upstairs...


We rounded off the night with some drinks and turned in for the night... I was pretty jetlagged by that time... mmm... Bombay Sapphire Gin :P