6/28/2013 - Toes in the water, toes in the sand

Let me start this off with a statement of fact - 'I Love Thailand.'  Maybe its because we came here on our honeymoon.  Maybe its because I think spring rolls should be considered their own food group.  It could be the green curry, the coconuts, the mangoes, the beaches, Singha beer.... its a long list.  Regardless, I Love Thailand, capital I,L,T.  So its fitting that while one birthday tradition had to take a hiatus this year, a new one jumped in to take its place at least for a year or two.

You see, every year for quite some time now, the gang has gathered on the balmy shores of Green Lake in Spicer, Minnesota to officially kick summer into gear.  The fact that it happens to be near my birthday is just an excuse for my parents, who are way to welcoming and nice, to let my friends invade their house for a weekend.  Since we couldn't do that this year (although
its certainly possible everyone is gathering at the lake without my knowledge) we made a quick weekend getaway to Phuket.  I had considerable unused vacation for the year, so I took a half day to get a little reflection and relaxation me time in and am currently waiting for Sarah's plane to land.  Seemed like a good time to do a quick break-down of what a Green Lake vs. Andaman Sea birthday has been like - prior to tomorrow evening which should be an adventure in and of its

self.

1. The food.  Upon arrival, I had a mid-afternoon snack of chicken satay and the aforementioned spring rolls accompanied by the ever present Singha beer.  This will likely be the first of numerous spring rolls devoured over the next 48 hours.  At Green Lake, the menu is always subject to change, but you can usually count on turkey tenderloin, egg and potato breakfast hotdish and plenty of chips and salsa.  Although I get quite upset when I end up at a Thai restaurant and there are not spring rolls on the menu, I'm getting close to the point where I would rob an old lady Seinfeld style for a traditional lake BBQ menu. One point for traditional birthday.

2. Stereotypes.  Traveling is great because it expands your horizons and helps you understand and feel more comfortable in other cultures.  Today for example I got off the plane, politely ignored all the people trying to sell me gifts, 'transportation' and other assorted junk, found the taxi stand and conveniently and cost effectively got to the hotel.  There is a dark side to all of this though - you start to learn where the root of some stereotypes come from and get to see them in action.  While reading my book on the beach this afternoon, the 4 chairs to the left of me were occupied by two pudgy European men and two Thai women.  I had numerous chuckles over this one.  Then of course I thought about the kid from Wisconsin reading a book and drinking a Singha in a beer coozy by himself and realized there were two fairly solid stereotypes in the vicinity.  Oh well - the local stereotype was funnier and I'm sticking with it.  Point for Thai birthday.

3. Freedom.  I got to the beach today and the red flags were up.  This makes sense based on the current monsoon and the height of the waves.  There were signs everywhere saying 'Do Not Swim' or 'Here's how to get out of a rip current.'  You think anyone actually paid attention?  Of course not, its Thailand, you can do whatever you want.  Everyone was jumping in the surf to cool off and having a good time.  This compared to Zorbas on Green Lake last year who wouldn't let the 31 year old on his birthday get a drink because he did not have his drivers license.  Just an FYI - I didn't get carded buying a beer on the beach today.  Granted, the 6 year old next to me probably could have bought the beer for me, but that's beside the point.  Point for Thai birthday.

4. Outdoor activities.  Considering I spent the afternoon reading, jumping in the waves and having a few drinks, this is currently an unfair comparison.  On a normal birthday we would be jet skiing, water skiing and playing bean bags and whatever name we came up with for trying to throw a frisbee through 2 poles and/or knocking two cups off the poles and catching them.  The only jet ski I saw here looked like it was used for rescuing people getting dragged away by rip currents, which makes sense given everyone was ignoring the signs.  They did have surfboards and body boards though and I think I'm going to try and snag one tomorrow.... likely the body board.  Still, the lake water activities and the sheer entertainment of watching people try and catch cups rocketing off poles at Mach 1 due to a frisbee hitting them wins out.  Point for traditional birthday.

Good thing we have another day to break the 'thai.'  Rumor has it we're going to a Bon Jovi bar tomorrow.  Honestly, that's like a combination of an old tradition/new tradition birthday.  The only thing that would be better is if the Green Lake Monster makes an appearance.  More to come......

6/23/13 - Hazy days are here again

It seems like when you think you may have experienced everything your new home has to offer you get served up another surprise.  Every year around this time some of the palm oil plantations in Indonesia start burning their land to get ready for the upcoming year's crops.  They aren't supposed to, but inevitably some of them do.  Usually it isn't an issue, but with how dry its been and the way the prevailing winds are blowing its turned this little island/city/country into the second coming of Beijing.  Just a few of our 'learnings' for lack of a better word from this past week:

1. If you smell a smoky smell that reminds you of a campfire, its probably not a good thing.  Last week Sunday evening, right before going to bed, it had rained for awhile and when we were closing the sliding patio doors we smelled something burning.  Naively, the first thought that came into our head was that lightning had started a fire somewhere.  Turns out there were a bunch of fires a few hundred miles away.

2. We are now PSI experts.  No, not PSY experts, even though yet again a little kid with a British accent serenaded us at the pool the other weekend, horsey dance and all.  PSI is the pollution standards index regarding air quality and the government issues an hourly reading.  The previous high had been in the low 200s - this week we broke through 400.  The best way to think about this is, if its over 400 you essentially can't even see the building next to you.  Oh, and its not exactly comfortable to breathe outside.  You also bring that campfire smell with you everywhere.  It isn't as endearing when you aren't roasting s'mores.

3. I keep expecting to see Tiny Tim and Bob Cratchett coming around the next corner.  You also expect the temperature to be about 40 degrees cooler, but of course its still quite warm.  I guess this is why people in Dicken's London didn't really make it past their 50's.  I can also see why people didn't want to run the marathon in the 2008 Olympics, but hey, at least this is wood smoke vs. coal, that has to count for something  right?

4. Much like snow or rain, poor air quality can ruin your weekend plans.  We were going to go to satay street, sit outside and have some grilled chicken and beef on a stick.  Part of the fun is the fresh grill smoke that envelopes the street.  Not as much fun when the whole street is already covered in smoke.

The good news - the winds seemed to have changed yesterday afternoon, the air cleared enough to go swimming and hopefully there is rain coming soon.  At least Starhub made every TV channel free for the weekend to keep us entertained with endless movies.

6/16/2013 - Chili Crab & Late Night Adventures

Its funny.  You never see these nights coming.  In fact, they always seem to happen when you least expect them.  In our case, we were going to use Sunday to get ahead on some work and school projects and on our way out the door at 7:30 PM Saturday said 'lets try and be home and in bed before midnight.'  Little did we know 11 hours later would find us back at that very same door, trying to beat daylight.  I'm getting ahead of myself though, so lets begin what can only be described as a very authentic Singapore experience.

Periodically throughout the school year, the various ethnic groups have been coordinating cultural dining events.  I've already written about our Chinese New Years experience as well as the Indian dining adventure.    Both were excellent.  This weekend the Singaporeans stepped up to the plate and we were on our way to the East Coast Seafood Park to eat chili crab at Jumbo.  We had been here once before during our initial visit to Singapore and it truly is a local experience.  Jugs of Tiger Beer and big, messy crabs in a sweet chili sauce.  The best part of the whole meal is actually ordering these little tiny fried Chinese buns to soak up the sauce.  When we sat down at the table I think we said 'order more buns' at least 5 times.... people were skeptical at first, but in the end I think they all had wished we even ordered more.

After making a complete mess of ourselves and Sarah somehow sending a crab leg via her claw cracker at one of her classmates at the speed of a cruise missile (thank goodness for bibs) half of the crew adjourned to a table outside by the water for a few more beers.  At this point it was 10:30 and we were still feeling good about our midnight deadline.  A few more beers, taxi home, no problem.  We should have known that you start talking, hearing stories about Indian weddings, growing up in Germany, places people have traveled in Asia.... well time gets away from you.

At midnight, Jumbo closes, so we assumed we were on our way home.... wrong.  The suggestion was made to stop for a drink on the way home.  This seemed logical, we were on the wrong side of the island, so might as well break up the taxi ride.  The only problem that occurred to our merry band of 7 (the group had been cut in half again) was the recommended establishment (by our Singaporean colleague no less) was closed.  Lucky for us, the 'Honky Tonk Lounge' next door was open and was willing to serve us some Tiger.

After settling into lounge chairs that may or may not have been used on the set of Anchorman and letting our eyes adjust to darkness, we started to take in our surroundings a little better.  Not that many people in the bar, stale smoke smell in the air even though you aren't supposed to smoke inside, Korean cover band on TV singing Wilson Phillips songs.... something seemed a bit off.  The owner in the corner, casting sideways glances at us, trying to figure out what motley international crew of guys and girls had just walked into his place.  Maybe it was just the equivalent of a 'townie bar' back home?  Regardless, drinks paid for and out the door after one beer, time to find a taxi home, right?  Negative.

Now if you're ever in Singapore the bars in Clarke Quay are open until at least 4 AM.  None of us had the energy or the fortitude after our previous stop to head down there.  However, the bright idea out of left field from our Finnish friend - lets go sit on my porch and have a glass of champagne! I can't really blame Peter for this, in Finland this time of year it doesn't really get dark out so he'd be fighting instinct in wanting to go to bed. Well Sarah has never turned down a glass of champagne in her life and I was surprisingly awake so off we went.

By the time we arrived, we were down to just 4 of us... each location had progressively chopped our group in half.  A glass of champagne, a beer, a Finnish cocktail as a nightcap (good morning drink?) and we finally decided it was time to head home.  When we looked at my watch, 5:30 AM, I honestly thought it had stopped.  There was no way it could be that late.  As Sarah and I meandered through another random neighborhood in Singapore towards the MRT (which closes from about midnight to 6, but we seemed to have solved that problem) we had a good chuckle.  It was even funnier standing outside our door a few minutes later and joking that the sun was coming up.  Not so funny when it really did come up and we were trying to catch some shut-eye.

The good news - all's well that end's well.  We were both further along in our work than we had realized and shockingly did not have a problem sleeping Sunday as well.  Plus, we had one for the ages traversing the island.

Editors addendum:  This happened a week ago and it took me that long to recover to write about it.  I'm getting to old for this s***.

6/2/13 - High Alert, Monkey at Gallop Gables

We've been joking ever since we moved into Gallop Gables that eventually a monkey was going to drop out of the jungle behind our condo and come looking for food on our porch.  That being said, the last email I expected to receive on Friday afternoon was from the association saying one had been spotted in the buildings by the pool.  Even crazier, it had actually gotten into a few of the units.  Of course by the time we got home from work it was nowhere in sight, so no, this was not the little guy strolling around the grounds.  Its probably better because I think we were the only two people in the complex that actually were excited about the situation.  The reason I say this is the email notice management sent out was priceless:

"Wild monkey has been spotted" - Hmmm, good to know it was a wild monkey and not an escaped one from the zoo or circus. Now we know if we see one wearing a costume and playing an organ grinder it is not the monkey that was spotted two days ago.  More troubling, does this mean that some people in this complex have monkeys for pets?  You wouldn't want to call in animal control to take away curious George from your neighbor, that could make things awkward the next time you run into them at the pool.

 A few of the tips we were given if the monkey gets into our place:

"Shoot a stream of water at them" - Unfortunately I left my super-soaker squirt gun back in the States, looks like we might need to move onto plan B.
"Tap the floor with an umbrella to scare them" - If a monkey gets in our place, I'm probably grabbing the camera and hoping it doesn't run away too quickly.  Plus, who do I look like, Mary Poppins?
"If you have a child with you, put them on your shoulders to act bigger and scare the creature away" - Sarah and I are going to practice this maneuver for the next time one comes around.  Plus, it will give her a better angle to take some photographs.

As you can tell, we spent most of Friday having a little fun with this, and by a little, I mean A LOT.  Saturday morning I shot over to the market to pick up some fruit to entice the wildlife ...... try something different for breakfast.  Apparently lychees and rambutans are in season now, which is outstanding.  Lychees kind of look like a green walnut until you peel everything back and there is a sweet, juicy white fruit inside.  Rambutans look and feel like a small koosh ball.  You pick one up and you just want to throw it around the house, which is probably what the monkey would
have done if it actually did get into our place.  Like the mangosteens, they are all a little bit of work to get at what's inside, but worth the effort.  Having failed to lure anything interesting into view beyond the usual birds, squirrels and butterflies we tried one final trick Sunday morning - McDonalds breakfast.  I mean, 3 times in 10 months living here.... I think that's an acceptable ratio.  An Egg McMuffin worked as well as tropical fruit though, so no dice, just a bee stuck in our curtain and I'm not going anywhere near that.  For noow, back to peeling some fruit for a trap.... I mean snack.