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Published: September 7th 2006
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Singapore
fish soup! While sitting on the bus after crossing into Singapore Megan & I were trying to bend our minds around the conversion rate for our money. It is approximately 70 cents of the Singapore dollar to 1 CAD. It always seems to be the patern that once we are on our way to our next location we finally pull out our maps, guide papers. The road that we entered Singapore on actually goes through a part of the Bukit Panjang nature reserve so while I was expecting to be inundated with an intence concintration of population, we found ourselves in what appeared to be a very hospitable area. We arrived on the east side of the city at the Lavender Station & sat down in expectation of a local woman to come & pick us up. Now this is a rather interesting fact: I went to S'pore to visit my friend's, friend's friend: Choon. Neither Megan nor I had ever seen her but we knew that we would not be too hard for her to spot because we are obviously foreigners. Sure enough, she found us & imediately made us feel right at home. She took us to her new appartment
Singapore
street performance & told us to make ourselves comfortable. We went into our room & tested out our wonderful soft beds & pillows, she had to come & wake us up an hour later to go get some super. She took us all the way to the other side of the city for "the best" fish soup. It was truely fabulous: creamy milky broth & crispy fish pieces. I soon discovered that it was Choon's mission to feed us as much as possible during our stay. She told us "if you spent your entire visit here eating, you still wouldn't have enough time to try all the good things." Having just woken up I was quite a wreck & really really tired, but I tried to pay attention as she instructed us on how to get around the city on the MRT. It is truely a very impressive & efficient method of transportation. Maybe I especially was impressed by it being a country girl with no experience with even having ridden a bus in my own country let alone a subway. That's the amazing thing, that even a person as inexperienced & clued out me can get around the world some how..."simply
Singapore
street performance remarkable" if I don't say so myself. We saw a street preformance which included a lion dance. Choon told us that it was very poorly exicuted but the lion dance is a very traditional dance. The symbol of S'pore is the lion. The drum beat is a particular one & is very very loud. The lion costume is draped over 3 people & once the lion is woken up he does the dance. The people believe that during the month of Aug the spirits come back to earth so the people must entertain the spirits & keep them happy & content. We saw many people burning pretend money & other offerings to the spirits. There are also puppet shows & operas that are ongoing so that they spirits are entertained during their stay.
During our time in Singapore we went to Boogis Street which is a really hip collection of clothing stalls all under one roof. They had real punk clothes there, not just T-shirts that say "punk" on them but the striped leggings with lace on the bottom, tall boots that leave the toes bare like sandals, etc... I bought a shirt there that that is very asian.
S'pore
Choon's friend in her jade store Oh yes, & sunglasses. We went to see Raffles Hotel which is one of the world's last great 19th century hotels. Walked along the lovely Singapore river. Saw the buiness area of the city, including a panormamic view from the bank that Choon works in. Stepped into the Victoria Theater & listened to a dress rehearsal for a girls choir: what talant! Saw old government buildings. Just barely started to walk down Orchard Road (a person could shop there for a life time). Spent an afternoon walking around Little India. Spent a great deal of time shopping. Also of course we ate a lot of good food during our stay! Choon took us out to have some chicken feet for the first time. I ate 2 toes, that was enough for me. They were cooked really soft & so the bones just feel appart in my mouth & the texture was very jelly like. I was like "oh my goodness, I'll be lucky if I can handle the feeling of this goo". But I did handle it, so that means I can add chicken feet to my list of wild & wacky things that I have eaten...along with the pig
S'pore
offerings brains, fish stomach etc...(ahaha, couldn't resist) We ate something called popiah. It is a mixture of bean sprouts & some other things that I don't know made into a paste, that is rolled up in a thin rice paper spread with a sweet sauce. It was really nice to have Choon there to show us what to try (& how to eat it!) because I had been existing on an almost complete chicken & rice diet for a good deal of our trip. I know the words "chicken" & "rice" in Bahasa Malay, it is very common, I always know that it will be good & I know that there will be no fresh vegitables that I need to pick out so all in all it was a very good choice. I am not a big noodle fan & there tends to be a lot of monotony - mee (noodles) or nasi (rice) on the menu (if there is one). It's like, hello, there are other foods out there if you can figure out how to order them.
I was really impressed by the city of Singapore. I figured that I would like to live there, well, except for
S'pore
offerings the cost of living anyways. It is an extreemly clean place. Importing gum is illigal. If you eat or drink in the MRT or MRT station there is a S$500 fine. If you smoke in there - S$1,000. Everybody, except for some older people, speaks English. The food is very unusual, there are lots of cultural things to see, & still it is a very comfortable place for us western people. Choon told me that I have a home in Singapore anytime that I am on that side of the world again. "Make my appartment your spring board & take advantage of cheap flights from Singapore to almost anywhere, then come crash at my place afterwards." I think I was particularly impressed because we could go anywhere we wanted, & know that we could get home any time we wanted, ask for help & everything just happened without a headache for once. I am quite delighted that I can now claim I have a home in Singapore.
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mom
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hey! no pic of the sunglasses, do you remember what you told me about the latest in sunglasses fashion?????? tata mom