I made it to my last stop, Hong Kong, and got to the hotel early Tuesday afternoon and it was chilllll-y! And it was GREAT especially after sweating to death in Bangkok. As cold as it was though, I made a pit stop at Haagan Daaz to read up on some of the brochures I picked up at the tourist information center and decided on where to go for lunch. I also decided that the majority of my stay in Hong Kong would revolve around eating!
My trip was filled with numerous mishaps when it came to finding various restaurants, having to ask for English menus, and not really knowing what exactly what I was ordering. Mostly, I had soups which was a nice change to eat when it was cold out (instead of the 80 degree heat of Singapore.) I tried some dim sum (with only 1 winner out of 3 dishes!), roast duck (with a side of vegetables with dirt still in it!), and more meat on a stick (…not really sure what KIND of meat though!)
Some highlights: A nightly laser light show choreographed to music at the harbor, a ride up to the Peak to view Hong Kong from up high, a ride on the Star Ferry from Kowloon to Hong Kong Island, and visiting Victoria Park for the Chinese New Year Eve Flower Market. Talk about being in a crowded place. Hong Kong in general is packed, but I think being there for Chinese New Year's Eve just took the crowdedness to a new level! I am still amazed at the stuff that the Chinese come up with to sell! :)
I walked around the market until I couldn't take it anymore and ended up back in Kowloon and rang in the year of the rat at the McDonald's next to my hotel. I kind of find it fitting. McDonalds has been near and dear to my heart throughout my entire time in Asia and the 'Golden Crawfish Bisque' was calling to me. Haha!
HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR!!! WISHING EVERYONE A GREAT YEAR OF THE RAT!
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
One Last Hurrah in Singapore
Ok, so it wasn’t anything close to being anything worthy of being called a “last hurrah”. I had to come back to Singapore because of my ticket routing (and to pick up my luggage!) and ended up at the Marriott back on Orchard Road where I started my stay in Singapore. I spent my last night in Singapore relaxing at the Marriott Lounge, going back to Takishimaya to pick up a few more voodoo dolls, and getting to bed early since I had to leave for the airport at 4:30am.
With that, I officially said "goodbye" to Singapore.
With that, I officially said "goodbye" to Singapore.
Adventures in Siam
While I was in Singapore, everyone kept telling me that I needed to travel around Asia while I had the opportunity or else I would regret it once I got back. To be honest, I didn’t think I would but I took their advice to heart and decided to spend a week visiting a few places before making it back to the US for good.
Because of fare rules on my original ticket, it required me to come back to Singapore before leaving for Hong Kong and then the US. With that travel restriction in mind, I finally decided for a long weekend trip to Bangkok, Thailand.
Friday morning before leaving for Thailand, I went back into the office to grab breakfast and coffee with the traders that I had been working with while in Singapore. We settled on this Japanese coffeeshop in the lobby of a nearby office tower. It was nice getting to chat with them and a great way to say goodbye to Fortis Singapore.
After some last minute shopping and packing, I made my way to the airport hoping to be able to leave my luggage behind so I wouldn’t have to literally LUG them to Thailand with me since they were VERY heavy. Luckily there were no issues that 40 Singapore dollars couldn’t resolve. So with that taken care of, I was off to Thailand luggage free!
I arrived in Bangkok and made it to the hotel with relative ease. With Starwood’s “Cash and Points” deal, I made my home away from home in Thailand for 3 nights at the Westin Grande Sukhumvit for only $45 a night! The bed was truly heavenly, the concierge was ever so helpful, it was located next to a skytrain stop, and situated right next to a 24 hour McDonalds!
I spent Friday night wandering in and out of some of Bangkok’s famed shopping haunts and found dinner at one of the many mall’s food courts. I was pretty tired so I went back to the hotel and relaxed and prepared myself for the next day where I planned to visit many of the tourist hotspots.
Saturday morning, I ventured out to the river to catch a boat up to the ‘old city’ part of Bangkok where many of the temples (or wats) were located. The boat ride was great and less than $1 US. It dropped me off and I walked around until I found the Golden Palace and the Temple of the Emerald Buddha. There were tons of people around as it is one of Bangkok’s most famous sites. The King’s sister had recently passed away so it was also crowded because there were many Thai residents attending a service there as well.
After grabbing a snack by the river, I made my way over to Wat Pho and the Reclining Buddha, which was the largest Buddha statue I have ever seen (for sure to be outdone by the one on the outskirts of Hong Kong, but I sadly just didn’t have enough time to make it out there.) The funny thing is that while I was at Wat Pho, I remembered that it was the location for one of the challenges on The Amazing Race season 1! In the challenge they had to find a container with the correct number of coins to drop in each alms bowl along the wall behind the Buddha statue. Apparently you’re supposed to be given the correct amount so you have one coin for each bowl in real life, but of course…not when I tried it. I was about 15 coins short for what I counted to be 108 bowls.
Another great thing about Wat Pho is that there is a traditional Thai massage school there. I signed up for a 45 minute foot massage and a 30 minute Thai massage. I rolled up my pants, plopped into a chair, and 45 minutes later (with many ticklish and painful moments) my feet felt refreshed. Then...onto the massage. I've only ever had Swedish massages before and this was quite different. It was more like stretching with the lady pressing all her body weight on me to "massage" me. I have to say that I didn't really enjoy it, but at least it was cheap :)
After more random walking around, I decided to take a tuk-tuk ride back to the hotel. I fell victim to the tuk-tuk driver scheme where they will take you to a shop (my stop was a jewelry shop) where the shop owners have a deal with the drivers to bring customers in return for a voucher to pay for their gas. Of course, I wasn’t about to buy any jewelry. If it was cheap costume jewelry, I would have gotten something just to be nice but when pushy saleswomen try to sell me something for $500 and tell me to just put it on my credit card, I had to say no and leave much to the dislike of the saleswoman who suddenly went from friendly and complimentary to rude and nasty.
Saturday night, I contemplated going to check out a Muay Thai boxing match, but the $65 admission price wasn’t worth it to me so I settled on taking it easy after a long day of sightseeing with a Mexican dinner across the way and then resting my tired self with TV in bed from my room.
Sunday brought more sightseeing: Chatuchak Weekend Market, Vimanmek Mansion, and some more shopping malls. That night, I went to check out what I was told is the most famous transvestite/transexual Cabaret in Bangkok - Calypso Cabaret. I have to say, overall, I’m pretty jealous. Most of the “girls” look better in scantily clad clothes than I do!
Monday morning, I slept in a bit, packed up my stuff and then headed off to the airport. Back to Singapore for one more night!
Because of fare rules on my original ticket, it required me to come back to Singapore before leaving for Hong Kong and then the US. With that travel restriction in mind, I finally decided for a long weekend trip to Bangkok, Thailand.
Friday morning before leaving for Thailand, I went back into the office to grab breakfast and coffee with the traders that I had been working with while in Singapore. We settled on this Japanese coffeeshop in the lobby of a nearby office tower. It was nice getting to chat with them and a great way to say goodbye to Fortis Singapore.
After some last minute shopping and packing, I made my way to the airport hoping to be able to leave my luggage behind so I wouldn’t have to literally LUG them to Thailand with me since they were VERY heavy. Luckily there were no issues that 40 Singapore dollars couldn’t resolve. So with that taken care of, I was off to Thailand luggage free!
I arrived in Bangkok and made it to the hotel with relative ease. With Starwood’s “Cash and Points” deal, I made my home away from home in Thailand for 3 nights at the Westin Grande Sukhumvit for only $45 a night! The bed was truly heavenly, the concierge was ever so helpful, it was located next to a skytrain stop, and situated right next to a 24 hour McDonalds!
I spent Friday night wandering in and out of some of Bangkok’s famed shopping haunts and found dinner at one of the many mall’s food courts. I was pretty tired so I went back to the hotel and relaxed and prepared myself for the next day where I planned to visit many of the tourist hotspots.
Saturday morning, I ventured out to the river to catch a boat up to the ‘old city’ part of Bangkok where many of the temples (or wats) were located. The boat ride was great and less than $1 US. It dropped me off and I walked around until I found the Golden Palace and the Temple of the Emerald Buddha. There were tons of people around as it is one of Bangkok’s most famous sites. The King’s sister had recently passed away so it was also crowded because there were many Thai residents attending a service there as well.
After grabbing a snack by the river, I made my way over to Wat Pho and the Reclining Buddha, which was the largest Buddha statue I have ever seen (for sure to be outdone by the one on the outskirts of Hong Kong, but I sadly just didn’t have enough time to make it out there.) The funny thing is that while I was at Wat Pho, I remembered that it was the location for one of the challenges on The Amazing Race season 1! In the challenge they had to find a container with the correct number of coins to drop in each alms bowl along the wall behind the Buddha statue. Apparently you’re supposed to be given the correct amount so you have one coin for each bowl in real life, but of course…not when I tried it. I was about 15 coins short for what I counted to be 108 bowls.
Another great thing about Wat Pho is that there is a traditional Thai massage school there. I signed up for a 45 minute foot massage and a 30 minute Thai massage. I rolled up my pants, plopped into a chair, and 45 minutes later (with many ticklish and painful moments) my feet felt refreshed. Then...onto the massage. I've only ever had Swedish massages before and this was quite different. It was more like stretching with the lady pressing all her body weight on me to "massage" me. I have to say that I didn't really enjoy it, but at least it was cheap :)
After more random walking around, I decided to take a tuk-tuk ride back to the hotel. I fell victim to the tuk-tuk driver scheme where they will take you to a shop (my stop was a jewelry shop) where the shop owners have a deal with the drivers to bring customers in return for a voucher to pay for their gas. Of course, I wasn’t about to buy any jewelry. If it was cheap costume jewelry, I would have gotten something just to be nice but when pushy saleswomen try to sell me something for $500 and tell me to just put it on my credit card, I had to say no and leave much to the dislike of the saleswoman who suddenly went from friendly and complimentary to rude and nasty.
Saturday night, I contemplated going to check out a Muay Thai boxing match, but the $65 admission price wasn’t worth it to me so I settled on taking it easy after a long day of sightseeing with a Mexican dinner across the way and then resting my tired self with TV in bed from my room.
Sunday brought more sightseeing: Chatuchak Weekend Market, Vimanmek Mansion, and some more shopping malls. That night, I went to check out what I was told is the most famous transvestite/transexual Cabaret in Bangkok - Calypso Cabaret. I have to say, overall, I’m pretty jealous. Most of the “girls” look better in scantily clad clothes than I do!
Monday morning, I slept in a bit, packed up my stuff and then headed off to the airport. Back to Singapore for one more night!
Friday, February 1, 2008
Goodbye to Singapore
Today I said "goodbye" to Singapore...well, not really since I will be back for half a day next week, but I did pack up, move out of my hotel and said bye to my friends at Fortis Singapore.
Here is how to say "Goodbye" in each of Singapore's 4 official languages:
Here is how to say "Goodbye" in each of Singapore's 4 official languages:
- English: Goodbye
- Chinese, Mandarin: Zai Jian
- Malay: Selamat pergi
- Tamil: pOyittu varEn
P.S. "Sawatdi!" from Thailand!
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