Talking about the past... part 2

From Xiamen we went down to Singapore for two quick nights, where we were supposed to meet up with The Mexican but just a few weeks prior he was transferred back to the States. We have been to Singapore before and seen most of the sights, so we used this unexpected break as a great bit of down time between to sections of our trip, oh and we went to the Singapore zoo.

The latter part of the day rained so we relaxed in our hotel room enjoying a bottle of wine and playing Scrabble. The next morning we were up bright and early to the train station for a 10 hour ride up to Ipoh, Malaysia to see our family.

Station in Singapore - closing early next year

Station in Ipoh

In Ipoh we only had a quick two nights, but we needed to get there to see family again, and as usual they pull out all the stops to make sure that we have an excellent time. One thing that we learnt after arriving is that Ipoh has an airport that has direct flights to/from Singapore and that only take about an hour... But the train ride was nice, and we got to see the countryside and a great downpour as we rolled through Kuala Lumpur.

Alex with the champagne we brought for them

FamilyMore FamilyA very pregnant Siew Yih

The second night we were there they went out and treated us to an amazing feast, probably some of the best food that we've ever eaten. It was great to see everyone and have the time to catch up with them even though it was such a short time, the next day we were back at the train station to head down to Kuala Lumpur to catch an overnight flight to Tokyo.

The good news from the trip is that Alex and Dr. Lim are coming over to the States this spring and hopefully we will get a chance to catch up with them then...

... and we ended the night at the clinic.

Who would have thought that we would end up in a clinic in Singapore with an I.V bag keeping us hydrated.

Let's start at the beginning shall we? We decided that today we would go to Santosa Island to get away from the wall to wall shopping that surrounds us. It is definitely a shoppers paradise here in Singapore, and we're talking high end stores, Gucci, Ferragamo, Hermes, sprinkled with the usual Banana Republic, and Nine West.

Santosa Island is similar to a theme park at Walt Disney World, where you can go to see a Dolphin show, there's an aquarium, a skyride, a luge ride, and assortment of other things to occupy yourself. Part of the tour we booked included the cable car ride to the island and the luge ride and the underwater show. The crowds were just as annoying as the shoppers back on the mainland and we didn't go to the Aquarium due to lack of time, and we didn't want to deal with the people. We opted to go for a beer instead. I know, a shock to most of you. At this point you would think Mark is writing this blog. Don't get me wrong, I like to shop as much as the next gal, it's just that it is a little on the overkill side here. Barb you were right, a weekend here is enough.

Digressing, sorry....okay, so we decide we are going to have steak for our last meal here in Singapore since it's been about a month since we had it. We ended up going to the Clarke Quay where there are a bars and restaurants to meet anyone's needs, including Hooters. No, we didn't eat or drink at Hooters, even though the picture Mark took may have appeared that way. There was a jug of Sangria waiting for us a tapas restaurant. We had a great steak and lamb, with a nice bottle of Rioja that wasn't chilled nor standing in 80 degree heat. It was so nice to have a decent bottle of wine.

Afterwards, we headed to the Clinic, which to my earlier reference is actually a bar. Very unique in its concept. The chairs are wheelchairs, and the couches are the beds you would see at a clinic. They have a few drinks that you get either as a needle or you can opt for a drink, that drips like an I.V. bag. We chose the latter. They give you this bag, and give you instructions on how to drip the alcohol through the tubes. The drink itself was okay, a little on the sweet side, but the concept is one we couldn't refuse. We enjoyed the laughs that we received from all the people passing us by including ourselves. People would ask to if they could take pictures or just stand far enough away not to look obvious. The memory of us drinking from this I.V. drip, will last in many a tourist mind and pictures throughout Asia.

* - Now safley back in Xiamen, we've added the picture of me being trained to drink, and the picture of one of the many tourists taking a picture of us with the IV drip....

Overly sterile?

Drinks at a typical Singapore outdoor bar.

Singapore is, as we mentioned, incredibly clean and sterile yet full of everything western that one could need. The food and the ability for shopping is a welcome break from the struggles that we go through trying to get our point across in Xiamen, but somehow it is just missing something. We think it may just be the people, as there isn't that overbearing friendliness that we've gotten used to. We went to a seafood restaurant that had been recommended from a friend in Xiamen only to find that it was a Chinese restaurant. Ah, we felt, this is nice, and then we proceeded to do our now standard practice of butchering their language and learning new words. Last night we learned how to say crab, "pang xie". And the black pepper crab that we had was outstanding...

Happy Irish pub, but a Guinness is more than an Absolute & tonic.

But, we are enjoying the wealth of pubs and outdoor bars that can be found in this city. Between the bars, the clean restrooms, and the food selection it is a good break from the grittiness and chaos that we've been living in, but we are also really looking forward to getting back to Xiamen.

Asia lite...

Wow, the difference that is Singapore. I've been meaning to write how I see China as a sort of communism-lite, in that what I've always thought of as communism is somewhat missing. Sure, it seems that everyone has a job and the government censors a lot of the media, but it's not that cold communism that we think of with lines for soup or tomatoes. Some of the older Chinese will talk about those days and how they think capitalism is leading to the downfall of their youth. In a way I can understand what they mean, as they don't need to get into that total consumable world that we and the rest of the western world is accustomed to.

Ok, back to Singapore, and our first weekend out of China. It's nice in that it's clean and everything is in English, almost non-Asian as odd as that sounds. I'd hazard a guess that it's 40% Westerners, 40% Indian, and 20% Asian, very different from Xiamen where we are in a 5% minority. Don't quote me on those numbers as they are rough guesses based on my personal observations. The whole place is impeccably clean, everyone is conscious of the crossings and every law, very sterile in a too perfect way, think stepford wives.... It's a total 180 of Xiamen, but in Xiamen the people are much friendlier and I'm thinking I'd rather spend time there...

Seriously, they clean their river like it's a swimming pool.

So, last night Indian food, which we never realized we missed as much as we did, and today a nice break at a tapas bar where we enjoyed some nice sangria. We also enjoyed a nice jazz bar last night. Singapore is odd, the whole place is either a western restaurant, hotel, or a mall. A lot of shopping, but everything here is expensive...

And the Hooters, who knew? I had to go in just to see the Asians in the tight tops, all stereotypes be damned. Nice huh, to catch them in a photo shoot... But they did chase after us for this following shot, I actually had to delete a shot to get them to leave us alone. They would have ripped the film from my camera had I had a old type film camera...