Top Lists of my stay in Singapore

As I’m wrapping up my time here in Singapore next week (makes it sound like it was a jail sentence, huh?), I thought I’d take some time to reflect on the memories that I will take away with me from my stay here. I didn’t want to make it too lengthy so I thought I’d come up with 2 short lists:

Top 5 Things I am not going to miss about Singapore:

1. Feeling like the fattest girl on the island.
2. The ‘choping’ of seats.
3. The lack of places that accept credit cards.
4. Guys carrying their girls’ purses.
5. Durians.

Top 5…err, 6 Things I am going to miss about Singapore:

1. The amazing people that I have met while here. They have been so hospitable, welcoming, and are just a great bunch of people who have been so kind.
2. The atmosphere of being in Asia:
   - The Chinese Language: After growing up in a household where Chinese was spoken everyday, it has been great hearing it spoken everywhere regularly again.
   - The History: I’m glad I got to visit some of the museums, temples, various festivals, and be here to see the celebrations of some of the various cultures’ traditions.
3. The Food! After a weary start to all the rice and noodles, I’ve settled into a good mix of East meets West food. It’s been a lot of fun getting to try new foods and rekindling my taste buds with foods that I grew up eating.
4. The shopping! Besides the mall being a great escape from the heat or the rain, it makes for a great break as well. Some highlights:
   - Shoes are plentiful and cheap (although the latter makes it easy on the wallet, it doesn’t necessarily make it easy on the feet.)
   - Orchard Road. My haven the first few months I was here! Home to shopping from the Forever 21’s to all the name brand high fashion houses…and they are always crowded. I’m still baffled how people spend as much as they do at LV.
5. No Tipping! It’s great not having to deal with tipping taxi drivers, bellmen, or anyone! If you go to a restaurant or get a service (massage, nails, etc…), it’s already included in the total price for you and it’s still much less than the standard 18% in the US!
6. And an extra one for good measure. The Singlish:
   - “Can” as in “Can I get it back by Tuesday?”…”Can, can!”
   - “La” as in “I don’t have lah” or “Okay lah”

Thaipusam in Singapore

This week I got to witness the Thaipusam celebration in Singapore. To be honest, I have been looking forward to this event since I first heard about it not long after I arrived and it lived up to and far exceeded any expectations that I had. I consider myself truly lucky to have been able to witness this and know it is something that I will not forget.

I went to the Sri Srinivasa Perumal Temple the night before and found out that the celebrations started at midnight. Devotees carrying milk pots were set to take off from the temple at 2am and the kavadis would leave starting around 6am. I was mostly interested in seeing the kavadis, so I planned to come back the next morning for a few hours before work.

Early the next morning as I reached Serrangoon Road, I started seeing devotees on their walk to Sri Thendayuthapani Temple. I felt a little apprehensive about photographing anyone as I was the only person walking around with a camera and I didn’t know if it would offend anyone. Plus it was still dark out and I couldn’t exactly take any discreet shots without the flash on my camera blinding everyone as they walked. (If I had a spear in my cheeks, another in my tongue, and hooks all over me, I’m not sure I’d enjoy being blinded too while I walked 4 kilometers.)

By the time I made it to the entrance of the temple, there was a designated area for official photographers so I decided to stay around there to take pictures as everyone was leaving to start their walk. It was getting lighter by then and more tourists were showing up with their cameras. All bets were off then. It was a picture taking free-for-all. And I happily joined in.

After spending some time watching from the entrance of the temple, I then went to a side entrance where I took off my shoes and walked behind to the tented area where the devotees were getting ready. It was a completely amazing atmosphere with hundreds of people around and there was just this infectious energy everywhere. There are devotees with their families and friends, tourists, photographers, and just passerbys all around. Everywhere you turned, there was music, dancing, incense, and more people. It was spiritual and primal and awe-inspiring and just a remarkable feast for your senses. I didn’t know where to look next.

In this back area, I saw a man being helped into his elaborate kavadi, someone else getting his cheeks and tongue pierced while others chanted loudly around him, and another man getting a cart strapped to him so he could pull it with nothing else but the numerous hooks piercing his back.

I wish I could have stayed longer to soak in more, but I departed knowing that I witnessed something incredible and went on my way feeling very fortunate that I was able to experience it.

I’ve posted a few of the pictures here, but if you care to see more (just a warning though, there are needles and hooks involved) then check out the rest of them on my flickr account at http://www.flickr.com/photos/jenniferwang/





As a side note, I’ve decided on using flickr to store all my pics so if you too have a flickr account, add me as a contact and we can be flickr friends!!!

It's happened AGAIN

It seems as if my reign of "worst immune system of 2007" is continuing into 2008. Friday afternoon I started to get a bit of a sore throat. I blame it on the fact that the traders insist on keeping the dealing room at a ridiculous (in my opinion) 19-20 degrees Celsius! That's about 66 for us Fahrenheit users.

I spent Friday night in bed and sadly decided scrap my plans to hit the beach on Saturday and instead, I slept in for most of the day hoping to kick this cold. I did make it out to meet up with a friend for dinner at this great hole in the wall place. (Qun Zhong Eating House/Jing Hua Xiao Ci 21 Neil Rd.)

There were only roughly 12 things on the menu and we had about a 30
minute wait to get seats. We got some hot and sour soup, an order of
xiao long bao, and "chinese pizza" (pictured on the right) which was this crispy fried dough that was filled with the same filling for the dumplings. There is this older gentleman that runs the show there. Outside the front door, people just gather outside waiting for a seat. There isn't really a "line", just people everywhere. Somehow, him and his help keep track of who came first and the number in each party without any issues. Apparently, he is known for being a bit "nasty" and having an attitude of "If you dont want to wait or have a problem, then leave because there are 10 people lined up outside who won't complain."

And here I am on Sunday night, having spent most of my day in bed (except for a quick shopping stint where I picked up my first pair of Crocs!) and I'm still sick. Hopefully I'm feeling better next weekend as its my last one here in Singapore! Well I'm off to watch some more tv, use up some more tissues, and sleep some more!

The eating continues...

On my way home from work tonight, I walked by "Chewy Juniors" where I had gotten a sample of their take on custard puffs the other day. They're basically flattened custard puffs made with a chewy textured pastry and then topped with various toppings.

I couldn't help myself and got 3 of their flavors. Much better than at the donut shop whe Ryan and I ended up getting almost one of each of their flavors there...including one of my favorites, the spicy nacho cheese flavor donut! But thats a different story. Back to the chewy custard filled puffs!

So pretty. There is a Oreo one, a Crunchy Lemon one, and an Apple one.


Not too bad. I figured if I didn't eat all 3 of them entirely and just had some of each then I was doing ok.


I thought the lemon would be better, but it was the same old lemon filling that you get in any lemon custard thingee. The apple was surprisingly better tasting that I was expecting! Crunchy apple pieces that went great with the vanilla custard. And the Oreo, which I was expecting to be the top performer of the group, was good with the surprise chocolate filling, but probably would have been better if I had some milk.

Apartment Pics

I realized that I've been living at my "new" place since mid-November and I haven't posted any pictures of the place yet. So here are some snapshots of the digs.

Right before Thanksgiving, I said goodbye to my place at the Goodwood Park Hotel, on the list of Singapore's 100 Historic Places by the Heritage Board, filled with history, charm, and afternoon tea (below)...


And said hello to my new place at 101 Beach Road, newly renovated apartments above many hot pot restaurants (below)...


What a difference, huh?!? :-)

Here are some pictures of the inside:




Here is the kitchen that is directly on the left when you walk in.






In the same room as the kitchen, here is the dining room.









Leaving the kitchen area, there is a hallway with a closet on the left and the bathroom on the right that leads into the bedroom.








Here is a view of the bathroom from the bedroom. Note that it's completely see through! My landlord, Mr Tan, says it's "romantic". Carrie said "Whats so romantic about seeing someone poop?"









This is the bedroom view from inside the bathroom.







And the best part of the apartment...FULL CABLE! My previous place had a total of 8 channels...only 4 of which were in english.

Now I can even watch crazy Chinese game shows and soap operas.

Missing Home

Eating all alone in a Burger King

Sitting there munching on an onion ring

I realize that I really miss home.

So whats a girl supposed to do

When feeling a little down and kinda blue.

Go shopping and buy a bag to carry wherever I roam!

Christmas and New Year's Festivities

This year, we celebrated Christmas and both of my parents’ birthdays together at Goo Ma’s house. As always, there was too much great food, festive decorations, and presents! “Singapore Santa” may have gone a little overboard, but that’s ok!

We ate and ate, opened presents, played mahjong, and I slept (I was sick…and thanks for the bed, Katie!) My dad was the big mahjong winner so after a few stops to find a gas station that sold lotto tickets, he picked up some tickets hoping to keep his lucky streak alive. Unfortunately, his good fortune didn’t translate to lotto number picking. Guess we’ll just have to keep playing mahjong then!




After spending some time in West Palm, we took the family holiday show on the road. Next stop: Hilton Head, South Carolina. My parents and I drove up to Orlando Friday night to Dave’s and spent the night there. On Saturday, we drove to Hilton Head to meet up with the rest of the family who left from West Palm that morning. After some Daytona Beach bbq for lunch, lots of traffic jams, and many hours of driving later, we ended up at our home away from home for the next few days!

When we weren’t just relaxing at home (and watching the SVU or Project Runway marathons), we spent the days taking in the sights, playing some DDR, going on a bike ride, playing mahjong, and of course eating! Thanks, Rachel Ray for the dinner tip…even if you only had enough left in your day for an $8.99 appetizer for dinner on your $40 a day budget!






Only an hour away, we took hit the road again for a day trip down to Savannah, Georgia for New Years Eve day. While there we took a trolley tour of the city, bought taffy, candy and brittle at a candy factory, strolled the streets, and ended out trip with dinner at Paula Deen’s restaurant where we tried to feast on good old southern cooking…even though most everyone was still full from lunch (Good find, Katie!) Not me though, I purposely laid low on the earlier meals in the day in anticipation for the fried chicken and mac and cheese!

After visiting Savannah, it was back to Hilton Head to ring in 2008! We were such a lively bunch…We spent the night watching tv waiting for midnight to come along. After much channel surfing, we ended up switching between some disturbing “most bizarre moments caught on tape” or something like that and some other shows on TLC and Animal Planet before watching the ball drop and some underwhelming record breaking motorcycle jump.



Happy New Year! Here’s to a wonderful 2008!

Lunch with a few of the girls

While home for Christmas, Carrie and I planned to grab lunch and it worked out where Andrea and Sienna joined us. We met up in between Carrie’s errand running (without her wallet!) at Duffy’s to catch up and play with Sienna when she wasn’t napping. I don’t have any pictures to prove it, but I held her and she was such a great baby…minus the drooling on my sleeve :)

Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Weekend Fun

After sadly not being able to make it to Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party last year...the family was determined to make it this year...and WE DID! :) Everyone met up in Orlando on Friday, December 21st to spend the evening with Mickey and friends! (Thanks for the tickets, Dah Jeh Jeh!)







Out of everything that was open and with the limited time we had at the park, we were still able to visit: Tomorrow Land (the line for the Indycars, Cosmic Rays chicken fingers and fries), Fantasy Land (Peter Pan's Flight, It's a Small World, Waiting and picture taking with Tigger and Piglet, Hot Cocoa, Fireworks), Main Street USA (Sight seeing, Parade watching, and even some snowing!), and Liberty Square (the Haunted Mansion).


The rest of the weekend in Orlando was spent lounging around, visiting IKEA (a first for a few family members!), and having dinner at Roy's. I got a half and half dish...one was better than the other and this time, Katie thought she ordered the worst dish of the night - an honor that most always goes to me!



After dinner, Dave, Katie, my mom and I ventured to downtown Celebration (with the help of Dave's internal GPS system) where there was a holiday street festival going on with snow flurries, carolers, carriage/'train' rides, and even Santa.

Layover in Japan

On my way back home to Florida for the holidays, I had almost 7 hours in Japan's Narita airport before my connecting flight to the US. I didn't have enough time to make it to downtown Tokyo, but the town of Narita was only 1 train station away and had to be more interesting than hanging out in the airport, so I went to check it out.

While in line for immigration, I met a guy named Chris (from the US, currently working in Kuala Lumpur) who was in a similar situation of having time to kill so after clearing customs, we headed off to the train station to go to Narita.

Narita is a pretty small town, but it is known for the Narita-san Shinsho-ji Temple which attracts over 10 million visitors annually. The morning I went though...there were only about 10 people total. Overall, I think Narita is a city of later starts. Most streets were pretty empty and a lot of the shops I came across didnt open until 10am. On my walk back to the train station, I saw some poor eels getting pulled out of their ice bath and then...cut up...alive...Iron Chef style.

All in all, it was a great way to spend a few hours outside of the airport!