Singapore Day 2

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February 3rd, Singapore     

Ok no matter how much experience you have traveling overseas you should remember to turn your phone off as there is nothing more maddening to have your sound sleep bothered by a cold call on your US number.  It is midnight so why are you calling to sell me a trip to Disney?  Don’t you know what time it is? (Ah now awake you realize that for them it is middle of the days).  NO I don’t want a trip.  Goodbye.  Sometimes I am not the friendliest of beings.

But we did sleep in a bit today and started breakfast about 10.  The Stamford serves a pretty nice buffet with India, Japan, China, and Western styles all available.  A great start to our last day of travel.  I guess I should admit that I treated Terrie to one of my top five best hotel rooms ever with this stop.  I got the corner suite, which has two balconies.  One facing north toward little India, and one facing west to the Singapore flyer, old harbor and the new Marina Bay Complex.  In the distance both directions you can see hundreds of ships parked waiting cargo operations.  Especially if your knees can hold you up as you stand 41 floors above the ground on a glass balcony.  (The marble bath isn’t half bad either)  It makes it easy to get a slow enjoyable start on the day.

Today we chose to jump on the Big Red Hop On Hop Off bus.  It was my way of learning more about the new parts of the city.  Little India, Orchard Road, the Quay’s and Chinatown are all things I had done before but the new stuff in the Marina Bay Complex I hadn’t experienced.  So hop we did and what a ride.

The weather was less threatening today so no rain but cloudy and a bit windy.  My Singaporean friend called it cold but that meant high 70s.  Terrie and her camera went to work capturing new and old alike.  We noticed the traffic as we entered Little Indian and Terrie said there must be festival today.  (She was right of course, as always) so we had a perfect seat above the crowds to view the Festival of Thaipusam.  A twelve-hour event starting in Little India and moving to the Orchard road area.  A pilgrimage from one Temple to another by worshipers highlighted by men each carrying an enormous 80-kilo decorated frame stabilized by wires stuck through their bodies.  About 200 wires for each man carrying a decoration.  Arms, chest, backs, legs, and head all poked through and through by these wires hold up 176 pounds of metal, feathers, beads, bells and bobs.  Not just one but 5 or 6 of them doing what they called “Praying the Pain Away”.  The men in decoration stood 10 to twelve feet high and 8 to 10 feet wide and on this windy day they must have felt it the entire way.  All along the way the Indian community was there to support and cheer them on.  Me I just wanted the band aide concession.

After Little Indian we headed on the bus to Chinatown where we had decided we would jump off.  The New Year being close the place as decorated in reds and golds.

A great area to shop in but we had decided we had enough for the kids and we done with that so after a stop at the ATM for more money we continued to help the local economy.  Crowds and crowds and crowds but by now this had become the norm and we pushed our way through with the best of them.  Thought about eating but you have to draw the line somewhere.

Now that eating had come up we decide we were just a brief walk back to Boat Quay as Terrie wanted a challenge.  Singapore’s signature dish Chili Crab.  Think of it this way.  A thick red sauce of chili’s poured over a Sri Lankan Crab the size of a normal dinner plate.    The shell and claws were separated but all the meat was still intact and covered in wheel grease consistency chili paste.  For her it was Terrible T against the Claw with the help of a Tiger or two.

Proudly she will display the Claw laid to waste and a smile of a job well done.  Rocky music played in the background as she waved her now red fingers in the air.  Wait…that isn’t Rocky music it is Cajun as we have returned to the place where yesterday we heard Cajun music.  Since this match of the Claw versus the Terrible T and her Tiger took longer that a few songs we even had Country and Western time come and go with Willie doing his part too.  Nice when you can conquer the world one crab at a time.

Full and victorious Terrie discovers that her steps are down so we head back to make a drop and stop at the hotel.  Last minute items begin to pop into our heads.  We haven’t found cooking chopsticks yet.  We haven’t found a toy we were looking for and we just haven’t found enough yet.  So off to the grocery story to discover whether they have extra long chop sticks.  Sorry not here but wait we did see an ice cream that sounds interesting.  Triple chocolate.  Ok last day we can do it but boy what a surprise.

We go up and order two triple chocolates.  “Here or to go?” came the question.  “To Go” please, waiting for the cup or cone question which never came.  She reached down and retrieved a small croissant sliced open on the side.  Into the slice she began to put two small scoops of dark rich chocolate with chips mixed in.  Wait!  Maybe we need to rethink the idea of going back to our room with this.  So we changed to “here” and sat to experience our first ever croissant ice cream combination.  From the look on Terrie’s face it was almost a Sally Met Harry moment.

Not much time now as I had made arrangements months ago to have dinner one night with a Singaporean friend that I had kept in contact with.  So we checked the watch, the map, the shoelaces and the fitbit.  All good to go for a last run to find the missing toy but alas we failed to find the toy but upped the steps and made my “hammies” sing.  (I save the explanation of that for later)

We used ever minute and had to resort to a taxi on the return but a quick change to freshen up and we were off again but this time not to a fancy place but a local street hawker.  Blonde chicken from beak to feet hanging in a row.  Oh we will take one.  Pork with sweet sauce and sesame seeds.  Yes.  Water weeds with chili peppers.  OK.

Clear chicken soups.  Rice, of course.  And two tall Tigers.  I am good to go.

It has always been an honor for me to have met and worked with a handful of very dedicated people.  Henry is certainly in that class.  A true Singaporean.  A gentlemen and a wonderfully hard worker.   Willing to tackle things that are new when asked.  To work way too many hours at a time but always willing to stay with me to see that things went well.  So it was a good evening to catch up on the latest news about Singapore and the work.  These are difficult times with many worries especially about who is playing the world with oil pricing.  Is it the US or is it the Arabs?  All we could come up with was to just hang on.

The meal was just what Terrie had hoped for, street food of the common variety even though we were never able to name that green.  Good yes but certainly unknown.  But who cares we are still kicking.

After dinner we headed back to the hotel and said our goodnights and again went to work packing.  Lights couldn’t go out until the packing was done since we had a 330am wake up call.