1/26/13 - Little India

The monsoon is gone (at least in Singapore) and the weather was gorgeous all weekend.  So much so that we actually just opened up all the windows and let the breeze in.  It even got all our clothes completely dry, which seems to be a constant battle with the humidity and is compounded with my refusal to use the dryer unless absolutely necessary.  With the sun on our face and the wind at our back.... how to spend the day?  Off to Little India for some adventure we decided.  Ok, ok, we were lazy, had a breakfast of pineapple, mangosteens and oranges on the porch, dranks some coffee for awhile and read the newspaper, but then it was off to Little India for dinner!

I'm positive if you blindfolded me and lead me out of the various subway stations on the island I would have no idea where I was.  Not so at the Little India stop - the smells hit you immediately once you walk down the stairs onto the street.  Fragrant spices, fresh produce, incense burning, its all very refreshing in its own sort of way.  The city is so clean and orderly that its kind of nice to have a little disorder and chaos.  Half the time you have no idea what you are smelling or what you are looking at. In your head, you're thinking, is that a watermelon crossed with a beet?  Is that even possible?  What would one of those even taste like?  Then you realize the whole reason you came here was for dinner and you might be eating one shortly so you better keep walking and keep your mind open.

I get Indian food in Malaysia about once a week and it is quite good, but its just not the same.  The menu in Malaysia is quite large, the size of one of the large placemats on your dining room table.  The problem though is just because that's how big the menu "is" doesn't mean they actually serve everything on it.  In reality there are only about 6-10 dishes available from a menu with about 80 items on it.  I'm convinced it completely depends on whomever happens to be working that day and what they learned to make at home at some point in time.  Anyway, when we sat down at Khansama, our favorite restaurant in Little India, there were over 200 items on the menu and yes, they actually serve all of them.  Most importantly, palak paneer.  I hadn't had this spinach/cheese dish in months and it used to be an old standby back in the States.  If you want cheese in Asia, best way to find it is to track down an Indian restaurant.  On top of our spinach and cheese, we had a chickpea dish, curried vegetables, rice, two types of naan and some Tiger Beer.  Starving we were when w got there, not so much when we were done.  All for less than the triple digit mark (major win in Singapore) and we almost needed to call a taxi to get home we were so full.

The crazy part was, just as I was thinking we might taxi it home, a driver pulled up and parked about 8 inches away from us (we were sitting at a sidewalk table).  I mean, his wheels were millimeters from the curb, I could have reached out and shaken his hand with neither of us getting out of our seats.  I'm not really sure how he got out of the car as it was pretty low to the ground and he was a tall, older gentlemen with a long white beard.  It reminded me of how I have to unfold myself when getting out of the taxis in Malaysia, but he was much more graceful.  I turned back towards my food, but then 2 minutes later he was sitting 2 tables behind us sipping tea and his taxi had disappeared.  It was kind of like a creepy dream/movie sequence - almost like the spiritual guide in Wayne's World 2.  Which meant it was probably time to go.

On our way back tot he subway we passed by one of the Hindu temples in the area which had a fair amount of activity going on around it.  Today was the Tamil celebration of Thaipusam, where people carry offerings or pierce themselves and then walk for a few miles.  We had thought the procession started in the morning and were surprised to see the police officers closing down the streets.  There were a lot of men walking around barefoot in long yellow skirts (for lack of a better word), and thinking we actually might get to see the offerings, I pulled the trusty iPhone out to see how long we would be waiting.  When the answer came back as midnight..... we bailed, yes I know kind of lame on our part.  After that meal, and a 30 minute subway ride to get home, we didn't need to fall asleep on the train and wake up 8 stops from home in the wrong direction.  Maybe next year we'll plan the day out a little better to get the full experience.  Regardless, it was a successful mini trip out of the bubble and a reminder we need to visit that part of the city more often.

1/19/13 - High Tea @ The Fullerton

I was reading the Singapore Straits Times on Thursday and the headline to a small article in the corner of the page caught my eye "Rains Expected for the Weekend Due to Monsoon."  We've been here over 6 months and have never seen a weather forecast, so this surprised me.  Usually the best way to figure out what the weather is going to be like is to stick your head out the window.  Even then it doesn't really matter.... at some point during the day its going to be sunny, then cloudy, then rainy and then more likely than not, sunny again.  Friday came and went with minimal precipitation, but on our way home from dinner it started misting.  Considering the only rain we had seen so far in our time here had been drops the size of small marbles and was accompanied by thunder that could wake the dead, perhaps this was the arrival of the forecasted monsoon?


When I woke up on Saturday morning, something seemed a bit off.  I couldn't put quite put my finger on it, but was startled to see it was 9 AM.  This should be nothing unusual, that used to be the earliest we would wake up in the States on the weekend.  However, with the sun coming up around 7 and our resident two-legged alarm clocks outside, this was quite rare.  I stumbled out to the living room and was heading to the kitchen to make coffee when it hit me.  It was still fairly dark outside and a steady rain was falling.  By the looks of the water on the ground, it had been coming down for quite some time.  We had planned on doing some more exploring around the city today, but apparently Mother Nature had other plans.

The question now became, what should we do?  Drawing inspiration from another soggy city and the fact that Singapore is often known as the "London of the Tropics" we decided it was time to take part in that grande tradition of afternoon tea.  After the requisite "pip pip, cheerio" jokes ran through my head, I jumped online and found out the list of places to go was essentially endless.  Since this would be our first experience, we threw reason to the curb and decided to go all out..... to the Fullerton Hotel and a trip back to the turn of the century - the previous turn of the century.

The Fullerton is in the old Post Office for the city that was built in the early 1900's.  Every day they have an afternoon tea in their indoor courtyard.  Its a little on the spendier side ($43 per person) but that is sadly starting to seem reasonable after being here for awhile.  Plus, we had heard rumors that they will keep refilling your snack and dessert tray over and over again.  This rumor turned out to be true - I turned our waiter down multiple times, but he kept convincing me to take more.  To be totally honest, he didn't have to twist my arm that hard.  The cucumber sandwiches, duck and mango bites, creme brulee, macaroons and other desserts were outstanding.  We even tried some blue tea that was "lightly fermented" for our third pot.  The tea descriptions were great, equally as detailed as wine bottles, although none of the tea said "hints of pencil lead" which is probably a good thing.

It was still rainy and soggy when we strolled (rolled) out of the building back to the MRT and back into the 21st century.  Not a bad way to spend a Saturday afternoon.... I think we have a new rainy day tradition.  Now on to the next rainy day tradition - nap time.

1/12/13 - Asian Reaclimation

After another 3 leg, 26 hour flight we made it back safe and sound to the tropics.  We had exit row seats so we could at least stretch out, but my previous flight back to the US on Sing Air was in a regular seat and actually had more room than a domestic carrier, so not bad.  Still no business class though, can't wait for the next time I get to fly in a lazy boy again on Sing Air.  Photos will be posted for sure.

The taxi rides to and from the airports provided the best juxtapositions of what we were leaving and where we were going - cold, snow, bare trees vs. warm, rain and green trees.  The question now was, "How are we going to beat the jet lag that we are about face for the rest of the week and resettle into our Singapore lifestyle."  I had a full week of work and Sarah had a full blown class schedule, so this was a more important question than when I flew back to the US and sat around in my pajamas for 4 days.  In keeping with my tricks and tips, here is what worked for us this week:

Step 1 - Do Something!  We got back to our condo around 1 PM and knew we had to stay upright for at least another 7 hours, preferably 8 or 9.  First order of business, air out the condo and unpack.  2 weeks of no one living in there, no open windows and no air con reminded me of setting up a tent that had sat in the basement for the past 6 months.  At least it forced us to clean a little and miracle of miracles, the suitcases got unpacked pretty quickly.  Also helped that we had some duty free items (remember my previous tips!) that we had to unpack.

Step 2 - Get Outside.  Just moving around the house wasn't going to cut it so we headed out to run some errands that we had intentionally put off to force us to stay active.  I had to go get my haircut to be able to survive the heat and humidity.  I know I have mentioned that taxis and hawker food are cheap in Singapore, but that is about it.  Well guess what?  You can actually get a cheap haircut as well if you hit up the QB House at one of the malls.  Its a Japanese "hair salon" that used to charge $10 to cut your hair and then uses a vacuum cleaner to clean you up at the end, which to me is always entertaining. Surprisingly enough, 99% of their clients are male.  The surprise I did get was they had raised their rates to $12 while I was gone. Still pretty cheap, but a 20% increase?  What now, is Subway going to have the $6 footlong?

Step 3 - Take some melatonin at night.  Its supposed to help you reset your sleep cycle naturally.  Having 12 hours of daylight and darkness certainly helps too, but like I said, we needed to hit the ground running Monday.  We'd heard enough Ambien horror stories that neither of us would touch that with a 10 foot pole, but this seemed to work well.  We each had one night during the week where we only slept for a few hours, but overall, have adjusted quite well.

Step 4 - Get back on the food train.  We eased into it with some pasta at home at the beginning of the week, followed by some local pizza in the middle of the week.  Kept trying to get to our favorite dumpling ramen shop, but couldn't catch them.  We did add BBQ pork (char siew to be more accurate) and rice to our must try list of stands we like.  Saturday then brought a return to the routine.  Coffee from my Penang coffee mug while sitting on the porch with some banana prata and random fruit from the fruit guy.  This time it was mangosteen - mangosteen madness anyone?  Who would have thought that is what would be inside this bad boy?  Kind of like a more tropical tasting peach, but 1/4 the size.

Our New Year's resolution is to get out and explore the neighborhoods of Singapore a little more.  We haven't been to Little India in months and have only skirted Chinatown.  Tonight we're off to Arab Street for the first time to try some Egyptian food.  Just like all the new people in the gym, we're starting off on the right foot, hopefully we can continue.  Have to be able to get up early though - the NFL was nice enough to schedule the Packer game at a conducive time for  watching in Singapore.

1/4/13 - Expat Home Leave Tips

When I jumped off the plane last Sunday (blearily stumbled might be a more accurate description) I knew these 2 weeks would go by quickly, but I had no idea how fast.  We had heard that trips home could become exhausting if you let them and were determined to avoid that.  No need to need the proverbially 'vacation from your vacation.'  Ultimately, I think we were successful and this was the blue-print that got us there:

1. Get the family time in first.  Great way to get some good relaxing in the first few days.  If you can't walk around in your pajamas for 48 hours with your family, who can you?  In our case, as always, the familiar cooking and beer and wine helps with the unwinding process.  Also, you don't want to get to the end of the trip and all of a sudden be rushed in catching up with everyone.

2.  Track down a car.  We were lucky enough to borrow a spare one from the family.  We had seriously considered renting a car if there wasn't one to borrow and it would have been worth it.  We've gotten spoiled with the cheap MRT and taxis and had forgotten how truly helpless you are in the US without wheels.  If we would have had to rely on friends to come pick us up and cart us around it would have been a logistical nightmare.  Plus, we may not have had any friends left to visit with the next time we come back.

3.  Have a communal meeting place or two.  One of our friends was nice enough to have a football party on Sunday so we could catch up with multiple friends at once.  This worked so well I almost didn't even mind that the Packers lost in heartbreaking fashion to the Vikings.  Of course the Badgers losing in the Rose Bowl (again) was almost the last straw, but again, the fact that we got to watch the game with other friends we hadn't seen in months made it bearable.  Settling in at our old neighborhood tavern the last night we were in town was a great idea as well.  The creepy old guy checking ID's even seemed to recognize us.

4.  Get your sports and TV fix in.  This started with basketball when I had my layover in San Francisco, continued with multiple NFL games on Sunday and culminated with multiple college football bowl games and basketball games during the week.  I've been able catch the occasional live college football game on Sunday mornings in Singapore or watched a replay at a different time in the day.  However, there is just something that feels right about watching a football game on Sunday or seeing games on New Years Day.  Unfortunately, can't really replicate that.  We've gotten good at watching our favorite shows in Singapore and even picked up another computer chord that should make it even better.  Still nice to see reruns of How I Met Your Mother at night before bed vs. CNN International News.

5.  Spread your food out.  We have eaten, eaten and eaten some more.  On the plus side, its been delicious. On the plus side.... its resulted in a different type of addition.  Good thing we're heading back to normal sized portions in the near future.  Sure going to miss a Jucy Lucy like this stuffed with molten cheese (in this case cheese curds) and other goodies.  Good thing we at least saved this until the last night.  Especially since someone had the bright idea to get some deep fried SPAM bites as well.  I am wearing my Blue Door Pub Winner shirt on the flight home that we got for eating all 10 burgers in the past few years.

6.  Set up meetings at work.  Walking into the office was a surreal experience.  To you, the 6 months have flown by, but you know time hasn't stood still and the working world continues to revolve.  Sitting down with  various people in the office over a two day period was a good way to reconnect and see what was going on.

7.  Stop to soak it all in.  This might be the most important.  We were walking out of our friends place the other evening, saw the display at top of this page across the street and had to laugh.  Such a typically American experience in a typical American neighborhood after a typical American evening of football, pizza and beer.  Its nights like these that you can reflect back on if you ever get that twinge of homesickness on the far side of the world.

Now we're off to the airport and heading back to the tropics.  Feeling more confident than we did 6 months ago and really looking forward to some warmth after some below zero temps this week.  The burrito the size of my head should provide enough sustenance for the 26 hours of travel to come.  Let the adventure continue.