Live infomercials

You cannot walk through a home store here without passing numerous live demonstrations of the products for sale. A woman cooking stir-fry in the latest wok, a man showing you how his knives are the best because they can cut through anything, a woman making animal shaped pancakes on a griddle. I find these live demos incredibly entertaining and, much to Kingsley's dismay, will often sit through the entire demo several times. Like a kid in the candy shop, Kingsley often has to drag me away before I buy another "amazing" thing that I will never use.
We came across one of these demos during our first week in Singapore and although we were still living in a hotel room Kingsley and I both agreed that we needed this item. A month and a half later I can say it is a very useful kitchen tool and have used it almost everyday. I saw the demo again today and thought I would try to capture a bit on video.
Warning: if you watch this clip you may find yourself wanting it as well.


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Extreme hula hooping

K and I spent the day downtown shopping for our new place, it's amazing how many random little things you find you need when you move to a new spot. Anyway, as we left the shopping center, arms full of bags, we came across this amazing old man who was hula hooping with the largest string of coconuts I have ever seen! I had to stop and video the performance. (Amy Wood - I think you may have finally met your match!)

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Frog legs and Durian fruit

Tonight I grew one step closer to becoming "semi-Singaporean". I was invited to dinner by my new Singaporean friend Jazz. On our way to dinner Jazz was asking me what kind of food I had tried so far and I was quite proud to tell her of my adventures in the Singaporean hawker centers (outdoor food stalls). I am afraid this might have given her the impression that I was ready for a whole new level of food experiences. The restaurant she choose for us was called Frog Palace (no joke). "They have the freshest frog legs, it tastes just like chicken" was the assurance I was given as she prodded me toward a table and started ordering our meal in Chinese.

The first dish arrived before I even had a chance to explain to her that maybe I had given the wrong impression about my adventurous nature. It was stir fried frog legs with ginger and green onion.
So, I ate it... I ate frog legs. I cant say I would ever do it again, but it did kinda taste like chicken.

Thankfully I saw this on the way out not the way in. This is the aquarium that the frogs are kept in so they are "very fresh". I still cant believe I actually ate a frog!

Next stop was to a fruit stand the sells the very stinky durian fruit. Why not, I thought, I already ate frog legs tonight. Might as well top it off with a little durian fruit. The fruit stall owner was very nice and gave me a small bit of durian to try.


You can smell this fruit from down the road. It smells like dirty gym socks and I have to say it tastes about the same. The only nice part is at the very end there is a sweet(ish) aftertaste. However, this is also something I hope to never try again!

I could barely eat this small amount. There was a table of two guys next to us who ordered 8 whole durians to be cut up and served. And they ate all 8 durians before I had finished my small section.
Tonight was an eye opening experience, I now realize there is a limit to how "authentic" I can handle. Nothing too spicy, too smelly and nothing at a place called frog palace!

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Home Sweet Home

We now have the keys to our new place and I am very excited to move in this friday. However there is some concern about all of our stuff actually fitting into the place. Here are some photos of our new home.
Kitchen

Living Room

Laundry room, maids quarters and third bathroom

Master bedroom

View from mater bedroom

Master bath (yes the "walls" are windows!)

Dinning Room

Guest Bathroom

Study

Guest Bedroom

Study and guest bedroom both overlook the Koi pond

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Kingsley's first Singapore haircut

For the last 6 years I have only known Kingsley to get his haircut at very traditional barber shops. This is somewhat hard to find in Singapore so out of desperation Kingsley agreed to go to a very nice salon (of my choosing) on Orchard road. With the condition that I would sit next to him during his haircut, I think to make sure he survived the process!
The haircut started off a little strange the woman who cut his hair dumped a bunch of water on his head with some shampoo and proceeded to wash his hair while he was sitting in the chair. Here is the look I was given as she went off in search of another towel:


Also strange (at least for Kingsley) that she never once used an electric razor on his head (which is what his old barber used for 99% of the cut). However, I am happy to report that the end result was THE BEST haircut Kingsley has had in a very long time.

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New friends and flesh eating fish

This last week great. I am finally meeting some friends, we had a girls night out two nights ago which was a mixture of 20 expat and Singaporean girls all drinking a little wine, chatting and having a great time.

Here is (new friend) Carrie and I in a taxi on our way to girls night out.

Last night we went out to dinner with a great couple from Uganda- Diana and Eustice. We met them for dinner at Clarke Quay (an area known for very nice restaurants right on the river) at 8pm and ate and talked until after 1am. They lived in Qatar for the last few years and moved to Singapore a few weeks before us.

Today while out exploring I came across a fish spa. It works like this, you put your feet in the water and these little fish eat all of the dead skin. It was too tempting to pass up so I gave it a try!


It was one of the strangest things I have ever done. The fish go crazy when you first put your feet in the water. Oddly enough the fish were obessesed with my feet.

On the right is my foot, on the left was some unlucky guy who was sitting next to me. The fish wanted nothing to do with his feet after I sat down.

After 30 minutes of intense fish feeding, I pulled my feet out of the water and they have never felt so smooth. Over all a very strange experience, I cant wait for Kingsley to try it!

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Lau Pasat Hawker Center


Kingsley and I are loving the food in Singapore. One of our favorite places to go for dinner is a Hawker center (authentic food court) called Lau Pasat which is about a block away from our hotel.
With prices for a meal ranging from 1-5 dollars it is fun to try a few things you know you will like as well as a few things that are new. Through this process we have found several new favorite foods as well as a few not so favorite foods...


This stall serves something called a Rou Jia Mo or Chinese Burger. It took me several trips to figure out how to say it in Chinese which sounds something like "Yo Jau Mo". This S$2.50 burger is made up of finely chopped chicken (or pork) that is pounded into a pulp with 20 different spices added to it along with fresh peppers. One of the best parts is the bun which is a slightly sweet and very moist flat bread. When ordering this item, it is important to ask for it to be "not so spicy" otherwise it will make you cry! I went there for dinner tonight and wasn't sure if it was a good or bad sign that the lady recognized me and as I walked up and greeted me with an enthusiastic "not so spicy" and a big smile.

Satay in Singapore is amazing, you chose the meat chicken/lamb/beef- .40 cents per stick. It comes with a fresh cucumber salad and a peanut dipping sauce. There are about 10-15 satay stands in this area of the hawker center and there is fierce competition for buisness so it is important to know exactly what you want before you show up. Also important to be very careful not to nod your head or say yes to anyone trying to show you their menu or you may end up with a double order (not the worst thing in the world!)



















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On top of the world in Singapore

Today Kingsley and I went to check out the new Pinnacle@Duxton skybridge which is the 50th floor of a new apatment building in the heart of Singapore. It is a series of 5 buildings attached at the top by a massive skybridge which is arguably the longest continuous skybridge in the world, offering panoramic views of the city skyline.




We went at 3 in the afternoon so it was VERY hot at the top but also very nice since there was no one else around.




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Day Trip to Pulau Ubin Island in Singapore

Pulau Ubin is an island located 10 minutes north of Singapore via ferry (bumboat).
The name Pulau Ubin literally means "Granite Island" in Malay, which explains the many abandoned granite quarries on the island.
It is known as the "last village" in Singapore as the island is very rustic. There are only about 100 villagers that live on the island, most of them are fisherman. They use generators for electricity and wells for water. They have lived this way for many years and prefer things stay as they are.
Kingsley and I decided it would be fun to spend the day riding bikes around the island to check it out.



The bumboat we took from Singapore mainland to Pulau Ubin island. It took 10 min and cost S$2.50.



On the ferry heading to the island

After arrving on the island and much pleading I finally convinced Kingsley we should rent a tandem bike for the day, I have NO idea why he would be worried about sharing a bike with me!

$2.00 a day for a bike rental seemed too good
to be true and now we know why...
The bike we rented was probably older than I am, the front gears did not work and the left brake was a little twitchy but despite it all we had a great time!

We spent the day pedaling along rustic roads under swaying coconut trees, exploring gravel trails in overgrown rubber plantations, and checking out a mangrove forest.





Infront of an old granite quarry with our bike "big blue". Near this quarray they have a huge mountain biking area with lots of amazing trails. Although tempted to check it out, I just wasnt sure our bike would make it through the rough terrain. We will have to come back and explore the area further when our mountain bikes arrive from Seattle.


We also saw monkeys (long tailed macaques) on the island. I heard there were monkeys on the island but that it was not very common to see them so I was very excited when we randomly came across them.


Mangrove forest.
Mangroves are trees and shrubs that grow saline coastal habitats in the tropics and subtropics



Hornbill bird













The home of a fisherman in Pulau Ubin

We ended the day with an amazing seafood dinner on the beach then took the ferry back to the main island. It is hard to imagine that such a quiet and scenic island is located just 10 minutes away from a big city like Singapore.

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Ascott Hotel- Pool Party

Here is video of Kingsley showing everyone his amazing swimming skills at the Ascott hotel infinity pool on the 19th floor in the middle of Singapores buisness district. It reminds me of being at Seaworld a little bit...

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