LAST WEEK IN SINGAPORE

So after moving out of the Pan Pacific, I headed 5 minutes up Killiney Road to Minnie and Josh's. Their friends from San Francisco, Ruby and Erwin, were visiting for the weekend as well before heading off to a cruise in SE Asia! Ruby is 4 months pregnant so she must have been dying in the Singapore heat.

We went to the top of the Marina Bay Sands hotel (I had never been!) and watched a beautiful sunset/people watched from the 57th floor (lots of unattractive speedos) at the infinity pool--it looks like it just drops off!).

Afterward, we had a lovely dinner at Indochine (although the service was poor), and went to a bar called Timbre after we were lured by a live band performance of Katy Perry's "Fireworks."

On Sunday, I had brunch with May, a girl I met at Kristin/Brian's wedding in Florence. For some reason, I thought that everyone else at the wedding also moved to South Africa with Kristin/Brian, but duh--they were still in Singapore! We had a lovely brunch at P.S. Cafe at Dempsey and I had the most amazing quiche and salad with figs! Hadn't eaten a fig in years...

May is such a jetsetter and is heading off to San Francisco and then Mexico City starting this spring.

Afterward, I headed to Sentosa Resorts World to catch the last day of the Valentino exhibit. His dresses were absolutely gorgeous and I was happily surprised by the extent of the collection!

For most of my week, during the day, I had a free trial pass to True Yoga (right down the street off of Orchard) and would do hot yoga, bollywood dance, or some other yoga class. I decided to run (in the 90 degree heat) to hot yoga class one day--bad idea...I was sweating SO much even at the beginning of class when we were doing the easy stretches. The teacher probably thought I couldn't even handle a simple arm stretch! Bollywood was SO much fun--all of these "aunties" would wear belly shirts and get REALLY dressed up for class (note--this is just like a group class at the gym) with fancy skirts, bangles, etc. They were definitely regulars! And the teacher was REALLY serious, but about fun moves because it's Bollywood! So that made class kind of awkward. Then in the afternoon I went to volunteer at the Institute of Mental Health or Evergreen Bees tutoring program. The student makes such a difference--one day I had to tutor the most unmotivated, A.D.D. problem-child and it was seriously like pulling teeth and the next day I got paired with an excellent girl who would lead our tutoring sessions!

On Valentine's Day, Josh and Minnie were so nice to insist I stay for dinner, and Josh made us a delicious meal of shaken beef, ma pao tofu, and the spoon veggie! I bought some chocolate cake from Bakerzin for dessert--it was so yummy! It last only a day more.

My last night, I wanted to cook dinner for my lovely hosts and decided to cook Asian cuisine (though I rarely make anything other than pasta), and used what I remember from my mom's cooking and it turned out pretty good (I think...). I made some soy-glazed salmon with sesame, edamame, stir-fry tofu, and then Radha brought some delicious sweet plum fries from my favorite place in the 313 Somerset Mall! For dessert, we hit up my favorite Honeymoon Dessert at 313 :)

My last day was spent gymming it up at Fitness First with Minnie and Josh, followed by binge eating at Mos Burger and then eating more and more around the food courts of Ion and Takashimaya. I even went back to Mos Burger to get one for the plane--3 in a day!

I was so sad to leave Singapore, but I can definitely see myself back here again someday, so it's just goodbye for now :) Byebye 313 Food Republic!!

2 WEEKS LEFT IN SINGAPORE

FEBRUARY 2011

So I'm almost caught up to real time writing this blog now. I have two weeks left in Singapore before I head off to meet my college buds in the Philippines! Allison decided to go home early because of China visa issues and left on Saturday, leaving me homeless for a week but I'm so lucky-- Minnie and Josh (the couple we met in Phuket) are letting me stay with them for a week! I was considering staying at the airport (which has showers/gym/pool/food...it would be like The Terminal with Tom Hanks) or flying to Malaysia because it's a lot cheaper there (but also more dangerous). But luckily Minnie and Josh took me in to their lovely home!

VOLUNTEERING WITH SG CARES

This past week, I started volunteer with an organization called SG Cares, where you just sign up for events and they have a huge variety--from tutoring to cleaning Singapore's bathrooms. I had applied for a few with the Children's Cancer Hospital but got rejected (!) since you have to have a long term commitment of at least 6 months and a bunch of health checks (which makes sense since you would be working with patients). So I signed up with SG Cares and went to this tutoring program called Evergreen Bees, for kids 10-12 years old. It's an after school program where they get to play and also get extra tutoring. So far, it's been pretty fun...some of the kids are SO hyper, and there's a mix of Malay, Indian, and Chinese students. We tutor them in math and English and some of the math I needed a little refresher on! It's been a while since I've done Algebra...The school system here is SO strict and competitive and therefore a lot of Singaporeans have a hard time "thinking out of the box." I was tutoring this really smart Chinese girl and looked at her report card from school. She is evaluated on categories like:

- Patriotism

- Resilience

- Responsibility

- Compassion

- BMI--from severely overweight to severely underweight

SUPERBOWL SUNDAY (OR MONDAY MORNING)

On Superbowl Sunday, we got up at 6am (Allie had just gotten in from Taiwan at 2am) to watch the Superbowl at this place called Smokey's BBQ which was in the suburbs of Singapore (so random!). We ended up watching the game with an Auburn graduate who she had met at a bar the weekend before (also random!). We were really bummed that our dear Steelers lost but we forgot quickly since no one here watches football (it was on the 10th page of the Straits Times , the local newspaper, the next day in a really small article).

HIP HOP CLASS FAIL

Allie and I went to this hip hop class at O-School one night and everyone was SO good, it was embarrassing (for us). Some looked really shy and quiet but once the music was on, I've never seen such a talented group of people hit so hard! Here's a video of the routine they learned in just one class (less than 45 min)--Allie and I didn't go, since we couldn't even get the steps!

PAN PACIFIC GOING AWAY PARTY

Last Friday was Allie's last night, and the Pan Pacific was having a Chinese New Year Party! We are going to miss the staff of the Pan Pacific dearly...we were so spoiled by their amazing service (they had our names memorized by day 2). Most of the service here is unbeatable--there's even a reality show called "Can You Serve?" looking for the best people in hospitality! How crazy is that? I feel like it would be hard to find any eligible applicants in the US.

Some pictures of/with the Pan Pacific staff (and the amazing free breakfast every day):

The person I will miss the most at the Pan Pacific is Serene, our housekeeper, who would come almost every day (she would yell at us for putting up the no service sign) and change our towels every day too! I had to negotiate with her to help the environment and only change them 2 times a week, 3 max if she felt it was absolutely necessary. Serene would give me the dish on all the guests at the Pan Pacific and we used to chat almost every day! I got her a small gift on my last day, and she was so sweet she even got me a present too!

ALLIE's GOING AWAY PARTY

So after we hung out at the pool deck and I had a Tiger Beer (hence was feeling a little tipsy), a bunch of Allie's friends came over and then we headed to Long Beach for a late dinner. We had SO much food and delicious Chili crab, and then the girls headed out to Holland Village for a live band.

VALENTINE's DAY SURPRISE

Since Valentine's Day was coming up, I was a little bummed that Art and I wouldn't be able to spend it together, so he sent me some lovely flowers to the Pan Pacific. When the front desk rang our doorbell, I wasn't expecting them and thought that we were going to get kicked out a day early! Luckily, I got these nice roses instead :)

ART COMES TO VISIT- BALI!

February 2011

Bali is one of my new favorite places in the world--the food is amazing, the people are SO friendly, the sights are gorgeous, and the Balinese culture is still very well preserved despite all the tourism. Filled with rice paddies, temples galore, nature, beaches, there is a reason why people call this place paradise!

We booked our flight through the Holland airline KLM, but they overbooked the plane and put us on a Singapore Airlines flight instead (and gave us 50 EURO credit!). Singapore Air was the best airline I've ever flown on...we had our own TV's and even got tiramisu ice cream in coach class! Unfortunately, the flight was very short and I couldn't finish "The Town" :( I wanted to stay on the plane longer!

DAY 1

We stayed at this beautiful little hotel called the Taman Harum Cottages just a little outside of Ubud. It was surrounded by beautiful gardens, wood carvers, artists, and a beautiful pool overlooking some rice paddies!

Some fried noodles with prawn crackers for breakfast every day!

Hotel Pool

Outside our room...

View from the open-air bathroom!

Sleeping inside a mosquito net is like sleeping in a fort!

So relaxing...we had breakfast at the hotel and then our driver came to pick us up! His name was Ketut (like the guy from Eat, Pray, Love), but we soon found out that everyone's name in Bali was either Ketut, Kadek, Wayan, or Nyoman based on the order of your birth. So there are a lot of Ketuts (4th son) in Bali!

Our first stop was the Go a Gaja Elephant Cave, where we got duped by this man who I thought was an official tour guide, spoke no English and just pointed to things and said "temple"..."Elephant Cave"...we tipped him a little at the end but we learned quickly not to just let people guide you aimlessly!

Then off to Tirta Empul and Pura Gunung Kawi (my FAVORITE). These temples were surprisingly filled with locals and not tourists, which I really liked :)

Art with Ketut, our driver

Beautiful rice paddies at Pura Gunung Kawi

We also stopped for some Kopi Luwak, the most expensive coffee in the world since it's made from the poop of the Luwak animal who eats coffee plants and poops out the bean.

Some delicious Nasi Campur for lunch overlooking more rice paddies!

Ketut was an awesome photographer and was super friendly, although his English we had a little trouble understanding sometimes. We then headed to Uluwatu to see the temple on the cliff and watch the Kecak (monkey) dance. It was really spectacular even though it was overcrowded with tourists.

At Uluwatu

The Kecak (monkey) Dance

Then we to Jimbarayan for a seafood dinner at Melasti (I thought this was a place recommended by Allie but our driver got it confused). We had some delicious fresh grilled fish, shrimp in butter sauce (YUM), and some mussels.

DAY 2

We didn't have anything planned this day and after a lot of deliberation, we decided on white water rafting since it's something I've always wanted to do (and its about 4x cheaper to do it here than in the states). I was quite annoyed because the tour driver was about 1.5 hours late, and then we had to walk down about 500 steps (of rock/nature/trees) to get to the river. But the rafting guides were really awesome and fun, and ours kept making us stand up so we'd fall once we hit a bump! One of the other rafts got filled with water and everyone had to evacuate, but we were with the head guide so he took good care of us...he also told me that he eats monkeys after I told him I wanted to go the Monkey Sanctuary. Pics from that are on the underwater camera...to come later...

On our drive back, our driver delegated his nephew to take us, who ended up being the best English speaking guide we had the whole trip! Unfortunately Wayan was already booked for the week, but for our next trip we're definitely booking him! www.balifriend.com

That night, we went to bed early because we needed to get up at 3:30am to watch the dolphins at Lovina! So we stayed in, got some delicious fried banana dessert for room service, and picked a classic from the DVD library at the hotel, "Hot Tub Time Machine"--I actually really enjoyed it...

DAY 3

We woke up at 3:30am only to find that Ketut never showed up! After waiting an hour, I called Agus, his boss who I booked with, and he was very apologetic and offered us a free driver for the day. I was a little annoyed, considering we gave Ketut a really big tip the first day, but later found out he had fallen ill :( So we went back to sleep and ate a delicious breakfast of fried noodles and prawn crackers at the hotel until our new driver, Kedek came to pick us up! He looked exactly like the Indonesian Tiger Woods. SEE BELOW!

Dopplegangers?

First, we went to Nusa Dua (a very overcrowded beach) where I wanted to go parasailing but they said the conditions were not good :( So we went to Turtle Island, where we got to hold real sea turtles and even ones that weighed up to 50kg! Art and I had some trouble with this...I mean, I kept up my end...

There were also other random animals around...

At one point, I turned around only to find Art surrounded by a group of Balinese girls asking to take a picture WITH him! I highly enjoyed this. Art felt like a celebrity.

We then hit up Tanah Lot, close to where Allie and Ben stayed, which was very beautiful but overcrowded with PRC tourists! boo...they would hog all the good photo spots for like 20 minutes! Anyway, I got some holy water and rice blessed on my forehead and we left since it started raining (it rained almost every night we were in Bali because it's monsoon season!)

Kedek then took us to eat some local "suckling pig," which I thought I would enjoy, but ended up being a little freaked out by it...they roast an entire pig and then pretty much eat every single part of it. I was really proud of Art though--he ate the whole thing! I went to the night market and got some chicken satay ;)

We ended the day with Kedek with him taking us to his local village to watch a beautiful religious ceremony. Each town in Bali has its own traditions and they have a ceremonies ALL the time. This particular one happens every 6 months. This was one of my favorite experiences in Bali...Kedek knew everyone in town and we even got to meet his wife and son! The women in the procession carried these giant "offerings" on their head--Balinese women are SO amazing and can carry pretty much anything on their heads. The men marched in the back beating drums...they were all so friendly toward Art and me, obviously not from their hood, and encouraged us to take pictures!

So even though this day started out with a no-show driver at 3:30am, it ended up being a great one after all :)

DAY 4

We spent our last day in Ubud, since it was so close to our hotel and we hadn't even gone yet! The hotel had a free shuttle into the town, and we ended up riding with this French guest who was in search for some Balinese furniture for his friend's hotel back in the south of France. However, our first stop was the monkey sanctuary! Allie had RAVED about this place, and since we both really love wild monkeys, I took her word for it. I was not disappointed. The monkeys were SO cute and not shy at all! We learned that the ones at Uluwatu are not fed on a regular basis so they are a little more vicious/scary and will always take your stuff in exchange for food. These monkeys are well fed, so they are more cute and playful than anything. We bought bananas, and hid them so that they would not come all at once! The baby monkeys were absolutely adorable... I wanted to take one home! One of them I thought wanted just to climb on my shoulder but he ended up ripping off my earring! Luckily I found it quickly in the fountain...sneaky little guys! After 2 hours and a 200+ picture photo shoot, we finally left and went to eat at Dirty Ducks, home of the original Balinese "crispy duck." It was pretty good, but it was all tourists, and the service was really poor.

Probably wasn't smart of me to bring my banana colored purse to the monkey forest...

Do it like they do on the Discovery Channel...

We spent our last few hours getting Balinese Massages (about $7 for an hour), and the lady made me go topless! I was really embarrassed, especially when I had to lay on my back...I started giggling and she sensed my nervousness and put a towel over my chest.

We walked around Ubud with all the art galleries and shops, and I fell in love with yet another part of Bali! Here is a local wood carver at our hotel.

Kedek ended up driving us back to the airport (since he was a lot cheaper than our hotel transfer), and we had just enough Indonesian rupiahs to spend on a few souvenirs. I spent a little too much time deciding on what to buy, and by the time we got to the border patrol, we had about 40 minutes left before we realized that you also need to PAY 150.000 rupiah to LEAVE! As we had NO more money left, Art ran off in search of an ATM which ended up being very very far away, and after you paid you have to go through ANOTHER line to get your passport stamped! We begged the officials to let us through and we finally made our flight (last ones on--they were calling our name on the intercom) with 5 minutes before takeoff! Art was really stressed out but I knew we would make it :)

We went from millionaires to nothing...

Since we were only there such a short time, I didn't get to see everything I wanted to--Lovina (to see dolphins), Ulun Danu Temple, Tamanayan Temple, and more, so I am already planning my next trip to Bali!!! I <3>