We are finally moving into our new apartment this weekend and I can't wait for several reasons. Although I love Scott dearly the studio apartment we are currently in is entirely too small! Our new place is much larger (anything with more than one room and solid door to the bathroom would seem larger). Scott and I are also ready to actually enjoy Singapore.
I do want to mention the apartments here since we looked at lots before deciding on our new place. It was a little bit of a culture shock to realize most places didn't have ovens or dryers. I hadn't even considered not having an oven, but its not really present in Asian cooking so the apartments didn't have them although most did have a microwave. The fridges are much smaller, as well, but thats fine since I don't have a car to do a big grocery shop anyways. Also, most places didn't have a dryer since they hang their clothes to dry, but they all had washers. Nothing is bad just learning process and adjusting.
Well we move in Saturday though we still have to do more shopping (I can tell you where anything is at IKEA now!) I'm really looking forward to having a weekend off and actually getting to explore Singapore.
Almost forgot... food! I am definitely leaning more and more towards being a vegetarian. The chicken here is all dark meat which I'm not used to and most of the time when we order something its a surprise. I'm trying to order more vegetarian dishes because they don't scare me as much. I finally ordered the red bean milk tea and it actually has beans in it. Its really good though and the beans have an almost chocolate flavor to them. I had an avocado snow which was a green milkshake... good though.
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Umbrellas
Well before we ever arrived, we had been warned it rains a lot in Singapore. The first week we had a couple showers but nothing that lasted more than a couple minutes so we became less concerned. Scott and I had decided to walk around and find a place for lunch and it looked like rain as we walked around town, mostly dead because its Sunday in the business district. We weren't too concerned since the little bit of rain we had seen didn't last long. So, as we were eating lunch it started to rain and then as soon as we were ready to leave it started to pour. It was awesome! We couldn't try to wait it out because Scott had a flight to catch, so we tried to stay undercover as much as possible navigating back to the apartment. It turned out to be pointless as we were both completely soaked walking back into our beautiful lobby with surprised stares. The first comment was "Forgot your umbrella?" I think we were the only people in the country without an umbrella, but I'm a quick learner and will have one next time. =)
As a side note about the food... I had crispy chicken with ramen noodles. It seems simple enough, but I added hot sauce of course and it was pretty good. Although, I am still not sure how to properly eat noodle soup with chopsticks. I managed but am sure I looked pretty ridiculous trying to decide whether to slurp the noodles or bite them off and let them plop back in the bowl. I also tried the water chestnut drink...again pretty good. It was very different from anything I had ever had and really have nothing to compare it to. Not sure if I would get the water chestnut drink again, but it was good enough.
As a side note about the food... I had crispy chicken with ramen noodles. It seems simple enough, but I added hot sauce of course and it was pretty good. Although, I am still not sure how to properly eat noodle soup with chopsticks. I managed but am sure I looked pretty ridiculous trying to decide whether to slurp the noodles or bite them off and let them plop back in the bowl. I also tried the water chestnut drink...again pretty good. It was very different from anything I had ever had and really have nothing to compare it to. Not sure if I would get the water chestnut drink again, but it was good enough.
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Tour of Singapore
I don't even know where to begin. I just went on a six hour tour of Singapore from one coast to the other! I had a wonderful tour guide and driver to take me on an orientation tour all around Singapore. We went to China Town, Little India, Arab Street, the East Coast, Orchard Road, the beach, the business district.... the list goes on. I am now even more excited about being in Singapore.
One of my favorite places was the wet market in China Town. It is an open air market with fresh local fruits, vegetables, poultry, seafood... even live fish and frogs! I got to try Longan for the first time which is a seasonal fruit that tastes very similar to the large grapes my grandfather grew in his backyard while I was growing up. It was great getting to ask her what a lot of the fruits and vegetables were and even getting some recipes. I really am obsessed with food, so I was happy to find out what some of the local produce was.... it looks a little strange to me.
I am going to try and remember everything she told me about the 7th month in the Chinese calendar so please forgive me if I mess something up. She said it is the month for ghosts and that the gates of Hell are opened at the beginning of the month letting the ghosts free to roam for the month. During this time you shouldn't swim or travel by yourself because of the ghosts it is easier to die. People also burn fake items for their loved ones to have in the afterlife. They had paper phones, alcohol, clothing, designer purses, money, credit cards, cars... even passports so that their loved ones may travel in the afterlife. There are areas set up for people to pray and often they will have operas or dinners in honor of the deceased with tables and seats left open for the ghosts. It was really cool hearing her talk about it.
We also went to Little India and to the 24 hr market that was 2 buildings and 4-5 floors in each... absolutely huge! It had 4 aisles devoted to chocolate! There is pretty much anything you can imagine in there with a lot focusing on the Indian customers. Little India had lots of street vendors, as well.
I only got to spend a little bit of time in each of the areas and I was trying to take notes, pictures, and comprehend as much as possible. It was a little overwhelming, but there are a lot of cool places here with lots of history and culture.
One of my favorite places was the wet market in China Town. It is an open air market with fresh local fruits, vegetables, poultry, seafood... even live fish and frogs! I got to try Longan for the first time which is a seasonal fruit that tastes very similar to the large grapes my grandfather grew in his backyard while I was growing up. It was great getting to ask her what a lot of the fruits and vegetables were and even getting some recipes. I really am obsessed with food, so I was happy to find out what some of the local produce was.... it looks a little strange to me.
I am going to try and remember everything she told me about the 7th month in the Chinese calendar so please forgive me if I mess something up. She said it is the month for ghosts and that the gates of Hell are opened at the beginning of the month letting the ghosts free to roam for the month. During this time you shouldn't swim or travel by yourself because of the ghosts it is easier to die. People also burn fake items for their loved ones to have in the afterlife. They had paper phones, alcohol, clothing, designer purses, money, credit cards, cars... even passports so that their loved ones may travel in the afterlife. There are areas set up for people to pray and often they will have operas or dinners in honor of the deceased with tables and seats left open for the ghosts. It was really cool hearing her talk about it.
We also went to Little India and to the 24 hr market that was 2 buildings and 4-5 floors in each... absolutely huge! It had 4 aisles devoted to chocolate! There is pretty much anything you can imagine in there with a lot focusing on the Indian customers. Little India had lots of street vendors, as well.
I only got to spend a little bit of time in each of the areas and I was trying to take notes, pictures, and comprehend as much as possible. It was a little overwhelming, but there are a lot of cool places here with lots of history and culture.
Sunday, August 3, 2008
Day Two
So I am starting to notice a few differences between the States and Singapore. First, I can't find napkins hardly anywhere and when I do they are either really thin or tiny. I am finding his difficult because anyone that has ever seen me eat knows I use a ton of napkins. It is definitely less wasteful this way, but not sure what to do when the food misses my mouth (which it does frequently!) Even the bathrooms have very thin toilet paper and no paper towels.
We finally went grocery shopping... its expensive! Granted I am not great at converting the money between US dollars and Singapore Dollars yet, so it may not be as bad as it appears. Some of the stuff is definitely more expensive though and I am sure its due to importing it. We can get Fruit Loops and Cocoa Crispys but for about 11.90 SGD or 8.69 USD. Needless to say, we will be trying more local foods! It just nice to know we can get foods we are used if I get the sudden craving for Beddar Cheddars (about $11.00 USD). Another strange thing about the grocery stores... they have milk on the regular shelves right next to the cereal. They also have some milk in the refridgerated sections, as well.
I also need to mention the cost of alcohol... its really, really expensive. They have extremely high taxes on alcohol and cigs. A six pack of Bud Light is about $18.26 USD!!! A pitcher of Tiger (local beer) at the bar was $22.64 USD..... its about the same price for drinks in the bar as it is in grocery store.
Finally, because its me... I want to mention the food for today. We went to the food court in the mall and had Indian food. We had pratas which are similar to crepes and stuff with various things. We had mushroom and cheese, egg and cheese, and plain pratas. Then they are served with a spicy, curry gravy. It was really good!
We finally went grocery shopping... its expensive! Granted I am not great at converting the money between US dollars and Singapore Dollars yet, so it may not be as bad as it appears. Some of the stuff is definitely more expensive though and I am sure its due to importing it. We can get Fruit Loops and Cocoa Crispys but for about 11.90 SGD or 8.69 USD. Needless to say, we will be trying more local foods! It just nice to know we can get foods we are used if I get the sudden craving for Beddar Cheddars (about $11.00 USD). Another strange thing about the grocery stores... they have milk on the regular shelves right next to the cereal. They also have some milk in the refridgerated sections, as well.
I also need to mention the cost of alcohol... its really, really expensive. They have extremely high taxes on alcohol and cigs. A six pack of Bud Light is about $18.26 USD!!! A pitcher of Tiger (local beer) at the bar was $22.64 USD..... its about the same price for drinks in the bar as it is in grocery store.
Finally, because its me... I want to mention the food for today. We went to the food court in the mall and had Indian food. We had pratas which are similar to crepes and stuff with various things. We had mushroom and cheese, egg and cheese, and plain pratas. Then they are served with a spicy, curry gravy. It was really good!
Saturday, August 2, 2008
First Impressions of Singapore
Due to jet lag and sheer confusion over the difference in timezones, Scott and I woke up at 4:30 am. We decided to go ahead and get an early start for the day trying to stay up later that night. We managed to find the MRT station which is the equivalent of DCs metro station. Its actually set up very similar so we didn't have too much trouble figure out how to navigate through it, but even so everyone has been very nice about helping us out since we definitely have that deer in the headlights look going on. Even the MRT station was spotless with lots of shopping which ended up being a good indicator for the parts of Singapore we would see today.
Evidently Singapore doesn't wake up very early which is fine by me. We, however, still had our schedules screwed up so we got to Orchard Road's shopping district around 10am. Most of the stores don't open until 11 and even then they weren't all open. We decided to get breakfast at Burger King since there are a ton of "American" restaurants here. You can find most US fast food chains here, but some of the menu items are a little different. For instance, Burger King has turkey ham, turkey bacon, and turkey sausage instead of pork.
Singapore really does love food and shopping (I really think I am going to like this place!) We walked around for hours and into numerous shopping arcades or plazas. The stores inside are much smaller than in the States and our favorite shopping center had exceptionally small stores. Many of the stores were the size of a walk in closet, but there were tons of them. Each store seems to specialize in a few items instead of the large department stores where you can buy everything at once. We loved the little stores though and I can't stress the size or quantity. There was one watch store that literally only fit the owner and me. It was fun though and everyone is really nice. They love to give out business cards and I still have the issue of smiling too much so I get approached frequently. I need to work on just walking away because they just keep talking and trying to sell their products.
Honestly, I am still a little intimated by all the hawker centers, but am trying to work up my courage to try some of the food. They have food courts with tons of these little shops selling food and they are everywhere. I am just not really sure what the food is yet. I tried a Japanese fast food place today that had sticks of chicken and unagi (eel) served with rice. It was pretty good. The funny thing is... Scott and I haven't seen any traditional sit down restaurants. I am sure they have to be somewhere, but mostly there are the hawker stands ranging from fruit, noodles, indian, korean, japanese, dessert, pasteries, chinese.... its not possible to name even half of them. Well, I could go on about food forever so I will just get back to this subject later =)
Evidently Singapore doesn't wake up very early which is fine by me. We, however, still had our schedules screwed up so we got to Orchard Road's shopping district around 10am. Most of the stores don't open until 11 and even then they weren't all open. We decided to get breakfast at Burger King since there are a ton of "American" restaurants here. You can find most US fast food chains here, but some of the menu items are a little different. For instance, Burger King has turkey ham, turkey bacon, and turkey sausage instead of pork.
Singapore really does love food and shopping (I really think I am going to like this place!) We walked around for hours and into numerous shopping arcades or plazas. The stores inside are much smaller than in the States and our favorite shopping center had exceptionally small stores. Many of the stores were the size of a walk in closet, but there were tons of them. Each store seems to specialize in a few items instead of the large department stores where you can buy everything at once. We loved the little stores though and I can't stress the size or quantity. There was one watch store that literally only fit the owner and me. It was fun though and everyone is really nice. They love to give out business cards and I still have the issue of smiling too much so I get approached frequently. I need to work on just walking away because they just keep talking and trying to sell their products.
Honestly, I am still a little intimated by all the hawker centers, but am trying to work up my courage to try some of the food. They have food courts with tons of these little shops selling food and they are everywhere. I am just not really sure what the food is yet. I tried a Japanese fast food place today that had sticks of chicken and unagi (eel) served with rice. It was pretty good. The funny thing is... Scott and I haven't seen any traditional sit down restaurants. I am sure they have to be somewhere, but mostly there are the hawker stands ranging from fruit, noodles, indian, korean, japanese, dessert, pasteries, chinese.... its not possible to name even half of them. Well, I could go on about food forever so I will just get back to this subject later =)
Friday, August 1, 2008
Traveling to Singapore
So... the time has finally come and we are now in Singapore! The trip over was an experience in itself since neither Scott nor I have been outside of North America before (at least not that we remember).
We flew on Qatar Airways and I was really impressed with the service of this airline. The first leg of our flight was 13 hrs to Doha, Qatar so it was a large plane. We had a blanket and pillow in our seats with a little swag bag, as well. It had head phones, eye mask, socks, toothbrush and toothpaste. Shortly after the flight began they came around with hot towels to wipe off with that I thought was a nice touch. We had our first meal that was edible for plane food. I wasn't really hungry, but since I am obsessed with food I had to try. Soon after that, Scott and I took benedryl to help sleep through the flight so it went by pretty fast.
We arrived in Doha, Qatar and were immediately hit by the heat and humidity as we took the bus to the terminal. Its a small airport, but it had a large duty free shopping area. Scott and I paid extra to use the Ornyx lounge in the airport that was completely worth it. It had drinks, food, and showers that we made use of while hanging out for 7 hours. More on the bathrooms... they have water spouts next to each toilet and I admit I am not sure what to do with it. Thankfully, there is toilet paper as well because I don't know what would happen if I tried to use that device.
Getting onto the second leg of the flight was the only trouble we had traveling. We checked into the flight and then had to wait in a very small and very crowded room for the bus back to the plane. This plane wasn't quite as nice because we didn't have the tv monitors for each seat, but we did take advantage of the free alcohol this time! We had a few glasses of wine to pass the time as I almost finished my 500 page book. Over all the trip to Singapore was good, long but good.
Getting off the plane in Singapore the first thing we noticed was how pristine everything was in the airport even. The entire city really is clean with plants, sculptures, or artwork everywhere. We easily navigated through the airport and grab a taxi to our temp housing.
Our apartment though somewhat small is absolutely gorgeous! The building itself is a renovated building from the 50s that at one point was the tallest in Singapore. Now, we can see the much taller buildings of the financial district from our bedroom window. The bathroom has to be my favorite part with lots of large windows. I thought this was going to be a privacy issue at first since even the toilet had a floor to ceiling glass door, but thankfully Scott found a blind to pull down on the main window. The apartment is small and meant for one person, but its efficient.
We flew on Qatar Airways and I was really impressed with the service of this airline. The first leg of our flight was 13 hrs to Doha, Qatar so it was a large plane. We had a blanket and pillow in our seats with a little swag bag, as well. It had head phones, eye mask, socks, toothbrush and toothpaste. Shortly after the flight began they came around with hot towels to wipe off with that I thought was a nice touch. We had our first meal that was edible for plane food. I wasn't really hungry, but since I am obsessed with food I had to try. Soon after that, Scott and I took benedryl to help sleep through the flight so it went by pretty fast.
We arrived in Doha, Qatar and were immediately hit by the heat and humidity as we took the bus to the terminal. Its a small airport, but it had a large duty free shopping area. Scott and I paid extra to use the Ornyx lounge in the airport that was completely worth it. It had drinks, food, and showers that we made use of while hanging out for 7 hours. More on the bathrooms... they have water spouts next to each toilet and I admit I am not sure what to do with it. Thankfully, there is toilet paper as well because I don't know what would happen if I tried to use that device.
Getting onto the second leg of the flight was the only trouble we had traveling. We checked into the flight and then had to wait in a very small and very crowded room for the bus back to the plane. This plane wasn't quite as nice because we didn't have the tv monitors for each seat, but we did take advantage of the free alcohol this time! We had a few glasses of wine to pass the time as I almost finished my 500 page book. Over all the trip to Singapore was good, long but good.
Getting off the plane in Singapore the first thing we noticed was how pristine everything was in the airport even. The entire city really is clean with plants, sculptures, or artwork everywhere. We easily navigated through the airport and grab a taxi to our temp housing.
Our apartment though somewhat small is absolutely gorgeous! The building itself is a renovated building from the 50s that at one point was the tallest in Singapore. Now, we can see the much taller buildings of the financial district from our bedroom window. The bathroom has to be my favorite part with lots of large windows. I thought this was going to be a privacy issue at first since even the toilet had a floor to ceiling glass door, but thankfully Scott found a blind to pull down on the main window. The apartment is small and meant for one person, but its efficient.
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