singapore

jason and i sit here pondering the computer screen wondering what to say about singapore. it was ok i guess but when you've seen amazing, when you've experience fantastic, when you've tasted exquisite it's hard to be inspired to write about ok. what makes it extra difficult is that we are sitting in an internet cafe in bangkok and bangkok is definitely more interesting, way crazier and more inspired than singapore.

here's what we liked about singapore...

christmas was evident here. even if the weather wasn't what we would expect at christmas time there was something in the air... christmas decorations were everywhere, christmas musak was piped through the malls and people were doing the mad shopping dash wherever you looked. these of course aren't our favourite things about this time of year but brought a sense of home to our nomadic lives.

orchard road is lined with malls and more malls included not one

but two louis vitton mega-shops within 2 blocks of each other.

chinatown offered the other extreme

the food was good and the food was cheap if you knew where to look. we ate mostly at the hawker food stalls in outdoor food courts. when we say cheap...our dinner would rarely cost us more than $10 cdn. there was a food court near our hostel that served up a yummy pineapple curry and delicious tofu/choy sum stew which we ate several times.

hawker take away food, star fruit and grass jelly for dessert

the local weird food was called a durian. durian is a fruit but you could have fooled us. it stunk so bad that our hostel wouldn't let anyone eat it inside. on our last night in singapore we hung out with another couple, mark and viv, on the terrace. mark bought some durian and we were all forced to try some. jay didn't take much forcing...you can guess that corina did. the taste was likened to mushy onion and the smell to stinky feet/b.o. for some inexplicable reason jay and mark didn't stop eating it until it was done. the girls wisely stopped after one bite. it's really too bad that no one thought to bring out a camera and record the momentous occasion.

the victoria theatre and concert hall in the background looks like a durian with its oval shape and spikey shell which is how it got it's nickname 'the big durian'.

when we were in greece we saw a documentary about sandwiches. did you know that greeks have a fetish for documentaries? jay watched several. anyway, icecream sandwiches were highlighted in the film and we laughed at the idea of actual bread being paired with icecream. our notion of icecream sandwiches so ingrained in our minds to be that of a chocolate wafer and white icecream. when we happened across an icecream guy on orchard road we HAD to try one. the sweet pink and green bread wrapped around a raspberry swirl icecream rectangle did not disappoint.

how cold is it jay?

i think that if we had gone to singapore on a short vacation type of trip we may have enjoyed it a bit more. as a stopover on a year long journey we found it above our budget and too consumer oriented.

varEn, jumpa lagi, see you later, bai bai,

corina & jason