Stopping by to say, “Hello!”

Hello, how are you? It’s been a while since I’ve shared a slice of Singapore life. We’ve been busy but unfortunately not much in the way of photo journalism to post. For instance, we attended two of the Singapore Art Festival shows but of course there is “no recording or photography allowed, please enjoy the performance”. Ok, ok, I have to confess here, there were two outside festival events where I forgot my camera. A Sumatran drum troupe, and the Flamenco dance troupe from Belgium, yeah – Belgium. It’s not the country where you associate Flamenco dancing! So I apologize for missing those.

The Spiritual Sounds of Central Asia: Nomads, Mystics and Troubadours was quite interesting. The musicians were from Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan. They began each performance with a short documentary of their country. These countries were almost unheard of until the breakup of the Soviet Union and they emerged into the forefront. Beautiful native dress and unusual instruments.

Dance Theater ON from South Korea performed a dance titled “Ah Q” based on the Chinese story, “The True Story of Ah Q”. They didn’t follow the original story but elaborated on the theme of foolishness. It was “modern and artsy” to say the least. Although we enjoyed it, it was a bit longer than necessary, and it was only 70 minutes! The review in the paper panned it mercilessly.

We spent a Saturday museum hopping. Viet Nam exhibit at the Asian Civilization Museum. The exhibit was interesting and more so how much influence there was from China.

Since we were going to get into some of Vietnamese culture we thought we’d start with the food! Mick found this place on line. The Spring rolls were delicious, and the Pho was ok; but overall I would give it a 6 out of 10.

. . . and a Matisse exhibit at the Singapore Tyler Print Institute.

It took us quite a bit of running in circles to find the STPI. We knew we were in the right area, we didn’t have the exact address, but surely it couldn’t be that hard to locate. Finally we found someone to point us in the right direction. I found this little card at STPI – which I wish I had beforehand: cover on the left, back cover on right

The best was when I opened it — soooo clever — It’s a POP-UP! My inner child just loved it.

Our original plan was for Rachel and us to see the Matisse exhibit and then head over to our favorite Taiwanese restaurant for dinner in the same area. But we made it a whole day of museum-ing and included Lotus and Cody. (They bugged out after Matisse.) The Matisse exhibit was a collection of his line drawings, and drawings, works done from 1917-1953.

There was too much time in between the Matisse exhibit and dinner. Since it was pretty hot out, this called for a beer at Brussels Sprouts (a Belgian restaurant).

Summer is here for you and I hope you have wonderful outdoor plans to enjoy the sunshine. Bar-b-que time is here, meat searing over the coals has to be one of the top ten best aromas in the world. Beach time too, don’t forget the sunscreen.

Dinner was a 9 out of 10 at the Taiwanese restaurant. Too full for dessert there but came home and finished off the rest of the chocolate mousse

Happy Summer . . .

Dumpling (Zong Zi) Festival

Dumpling Festival is also known as Dragon Boat Festival. Legend has it Minister and poet Qu Yuan, despondent over the state of his country, threw himself into the river as a sacrifice for his country.

“Some suggest that fishermen at hand attempted to save their Minister. Having failed, they sought to appease his spirit by throwing out rice stuffed in bamboo stems into the river to prevent the fish from eating the body of their beloved Minister. Others say that the rice offerings had been snatched by a river dragon and the rice needed to be bundled in chinaberry leaves instead and tied with five different coloured silk threads in order to be effective. The triangular rice dumplings or zong zi thus became entwined with the festivities. Another version has the farmers rowing out in dragon boats in their attempt to save Qu Yuan. Thus the practise of the dragon boat races.“

Rachel, Mick and I planned to go to Chinatown for the festivities in the afternoon but a downpour of a rainstorm blew in and washed out our plans. There isn’t an umbrella made that would have kept you dry in that deluge. We hunkered down at home and waited out the storm. Late in the afternoon, but in time for the evening activities, the rain stopped. We invited Rachel to come by for dinner and then we would head down to Chinatown.

Chinatown was hosting a dumpling wrapping event, a fund raiser for charity. A donation of $.05 for each wrapped dumpling, and everyone was invited to participate. These dumplings consisted only of rice, most commonly glutinous rice, and probably not for consumption. At least, I hope no one was going to have to eat these, more specifically, mine! Growing up I watched my Mom make these but I never learned the art of folding the bamboo leaves and encasing the ingredients. The bamboo leaves are first soaked in hot water, and then kept moist so they remain pliable.

The ones I’m familiar with are actually wrapped differently, these are triangular, whereas my Mom’s were more of a “twisted” rectangle. Also, the fillings, which consists of more than just raw glutinous rice, can be savory or sweet; and are as varied as the families and provinces of China.

These are all wrapped in the same manner but the fillings are reflective of different regions of Asia; Canton-China, Korea, and Singapore. Some of the filling ingredients consists of any combination of: salted egg yolk, tiny salted shrimp, chestnuts, peanuts, pork or chicken, fat back, slivers of shitaki mushrooms. The sweet ones are usually filled with a sweeten bean paste.

Rachel and I tried our hands at making dumplings. Experienced dumpling makers were on hand to teach you the art. Rachel is to my right. It probably doesn’t take as deep a concentration as Rachel and I present here, but you do need some dexterity! I felt like I was all thumbs and two left hands. I can see why my Mom made hers only during this festival time.

We got our dumplings made, and added to the count. On a tally board I saw the number was over 4,000. Many brave souls must have weathered through the rain earlier in the day. I haven’t seen the final count as of this writing. There was also a contest to see how many dumplings one can make in 30 minutes. That was an event on the next day; I don’t have those results either. The dumplings are available year round, it’s not just a food for this festival.

Along with the dumpling making tent there were two stages for entertainment. We were interested in the Chinese drums. While waiting, we caught the magician’s act that preceded the drum act. Here, a participant from the audience helped levitate a small cloth covered table with a candle; in the next act purpled-haired magician had a snack of fire.

. . . then it was the string and razor blade act. He put a length of string in his mouth, five double-edged razor blades and pulled them from his mouth all strung along the string.

The masked drum trio performed only one number that lasted about 10 minutes. It wasn’t a long performance but they performed with a full burst of energy.

Off we went in search of dumplings to purchase, and maybe something for dessert since there was not time after dinner at home.

Batam, Indonesia

Batam is just a 45 minute ferry ride from Singapore’s south coast. It’s a popular destination for golfing and Batam has taken advantage of its proximity to Singapore by providing several golf resorts; six of them to be exact. We took advantage of the Memorial Day weekend and joined a group for an overnight golf package.

Mick and Cody are checking us in, while Lotus stands guard over our luggage; and a look back at the ferry station and pier.

It was a hazy day but you can make out the S’pore skyline through the container ships.

The stack of golf clubs on our way over; on our return journey, there were two stacks both much larger than these.

We’re getting closer and we see the island of Batam and one of the many resorts.

We played our first day at the Palm Springs Golf & Country Club — Lotus and I played the first day but opted out on the second day to go shopping and mini-tour of the island Here are Lotus and Cody ready in their golf buggy. This is Lotus’ first golf outing and it was beastly hot!

. . . we spent the night at the Batam View Hotel and Resort.

These would be nice little rental bungalows to stay in by the beach; especially the one at the end of the pier. Low tide at the beach-front in the swim lagoon.

A nice view from these sand lounge chairs if and when the water comes back in. Ooops, need a tow?

Active or passive, there is something for everyone.

Lotus and I hired a driver from the hotel and we started our shopping at an Indonesian handicraft center (I use the term loosely) an hour’s drive outside of Batam city, the rural areas are still very undeveloped and poor. Our driver spoke very good English and was a great guide. Though Batam is an Indonesian island, few are actual native Batams; the Chinese make up 30% of the population, and own about 100% of the local businesses. Today, there are over 700 foreign companies that have a manufacturing or logistics operations on the island

90% of Indonesians are Muslim; on our journey we passed this building and I asked the driver if this was a Mosque. It’s going to be a new shopping mall! Ahhh the power of the dollar in any language.

Meanwhile, the guys went to play at Tering Bay, the Greg Norman designed course. A tough course with Greg Norman’s penchant for surrounding the greens with sand traps, some so deep you feel like you’re down in a sand pit. Even with about a half hour delay due to a thunderstorm, the guys finished the round in good time.

We met them at the resort dining room for a quick lunch before catching the early, 2:30 ferry back. We had tickets for the 4:30 ferry but since everyone was done, we thought we’d try to get on the earlier ferry. Not to be. No tickets. So, we sat around leisurely drinking beer and chatting. It was a good, relaxing way to get to meet new friends at the embassy. We had a nice, quiet, lazy ferry ride back to Singapore.

Necessity being the Mother of Invention . . . if your only mode of transportation is the motor scooter and you have to get the groceries home, these work on all levels. As late as 1970, there were no cars or roads on Batam. Judging from the traffic jam we were caught in, they’ve made up for in past 30 years, including potholes!

I enjoy catching these slices of life as I discover the world around me and how resourceful people are in their everyday lives.

. . . cried wee wee wee all the way home.

Our last look at New Zealand as we get ready to head home. We’re flying via Australia and have a couple of hours in Sydney but not long enough to enjoy much more than the duty free shops and the airport lounge.

The captain announced that we would be flying over Uluru (Ayer’s Rock) but didn’t say when or which side of the plane would see it best. I cleaned my porthole, kept my window shade up and a constant eye on the Australian topography. Poor Mick tried to watch a movie but basically listened to the dialogue because I didn’t want to miss a chance to see Uluru from the air. The glare just wiped out the picture on his personal screen. I already missed an opportunity to see Uluru from the ground when I declined a business trip to Australia a couple of years ago. What was I thinking?

Our flight was diagonally across Australia from Sydney to the northwest corner. Australia is big, v-e-r-y big; and empty, v-e-r-y empty once we left Sydney. The terrain is very strange, with an almost alien planet sensation, but incredibly fascinating. We’ve been to Sydney but don’t remember crossing the continent.

Shortly outside of Sydney I spotted this “hole” in the ground. It looked like it stepped down. I have no idea what it is and have never heard anything about it; have you? Please let me know if you know what this is. Is it man-made or was it originally a natural pit?

I can’t truly identify if these are roads, or rivers, dry river beds, lakes, dried lakes, etc.; but I know one thing, I wouldn’t want to be lost out there. I never saw a town or a grouping of buildings. Granted I’m quite a ways up but usually you can make out a building or two.

It’s so barren and exposed. So red that it could be a picture from Mars.

After three hours we spotted Uluru. It was on our side of the plane and it was amazing. I knew it was big but this was BIG even from up here. See what I mean, I see little cars or buildings, objects! There was nothing after Sydney until we got here and then nothing afterwards.

Further along I saw Kata Tjuta, (Mount Olga) another sacred aboriginal ancestral site.

Uluru and Kata Tjuta aside from being most recognizable, was the tamest of the topography. After we left this area the terrain turned bizarre, see if you don’t feel the extraterrestrial-ness. What are these islands surrounded with; it didn’t look like water and those are not “waves” lapping the shoreline.

Is it water, salt, white soil? Mineral, vegetable, animal?

Small pools and a large pond.

This is it, the northwest edge of Australia and the Indian Ocean.

We’ve flown @5 hours across this continent and a couple of hours more to go before alighting at Changi Airport. Down came the window shade and a quick nap for the remainder of the flight. It was a great vacation. I hope you enjoyed it as much as we did; and I did in reliving it through the blog. Postings will be back on a more regular schedule as we continue to explore our temporary home; and until our next adventure!

The theory of relativity . . .

∞ A day at work feels like a week; a week on vacation feels like a day, it’s all relative ∞

It’s our last full day in New Zealand. We were constantly on the move and the days moved as quickly as we did. We checked out of the hotel as we were changing hotel for the night, and loaded up the trunk. Before having to return the rental car we wanted to make the most of the day.

First, we took a short drive out toward Lyttelton. Lyttelton Harbour is a beautiful scenic harbor located 12 kilometers from Christchurch.

An attraction at Lyttelton is the gondola ride to the observation tower where you can get a 360° view over the Christchurch area. There are two roads you can take to Lyttelton, first is road tunnel with, and I quote, “an impressive piece of engineering with gleaming tiles reminiscent of a huge, elongated public toilet”. How quaint. The other route is more scenic along the narrow Summit Road. We had enough of our share of narrow, scenic roads. So we drove straight to the parking lot for the gondola ride. We actually skipped going to Lyttelton and only saw it from the observation tower.

On the left, this was reminiscent of most of the roads we traveled since embarking on our journey from Auckland, including today. So, any narrow and scenic road we didn’t need! On the right, you can see under the rim of trees (like a cuff on a hat), the road to the toilet tunnel.

This is the scenic Summit Road route —

Mick braved his acrophobia and rode up in the gondola to the observatory tower. He thought the car was not too high off the ground and felt ok riding up. Can you find Waldo the Sheep grazing in the picture?

It was pretty rugged looking on our way up; yet there were quite a few sheep out there grazing.

Here are some views from the top

Some smooth and some rugged

There is a lot of hiking, biking and outdoor activities to do in this area, as with most all of New Zealand. I caught these two little munchkin hikers as we alighted from our gondolas.

Here is a biker coming down and later we spotted a tandem going up on Summit Road!

Mick really did do quite well up at the observation deck. Here he is with Christchurch in the background, and a view of the Christchurch skyline; by the way, Mick didn’t fall off (I held my ground when Shirley tried to pushed me )

Since on our previous visit to Pegasus Winery we didn’t get there in time to eat, we headed out there in time to get lunch. Unfortunately, they were already totally booked and wouldn’t have another seating til 3:30 pm. We found out the hard way that they really seem to rely on your making reservations and don’t allow for the drop in diner. So we drove down the road to the Mud House Winery just a few kilometers away.

It was a lovely, sunny, warm day and there was seating available outside so we took a table on the patio and looked out towards the vines and mountains. The food was very well prepared and nicely presented.

After lunch, we stopped at the tasting room. It was very busy with tasters and having had wine with lunch, we just stopped to pick up a bottle of their chardonnay. I also found some cold pressed extra virgin olive oil from this wine region. It will make a nice dipping oil and delicious souvenir.

On our way to Lyttelton we passed the signs for the town of “Shirley”; on our way back to Christchurch Mick took a detour so I could get a picture.

Then it was over to Apex Rentals to return the car and move over to the Crowne Plaza Hotel. Apex Rentals will provide transport for you to your next destination after returning the car. So we weren’t worried about needing to cart our luggage and find a way to the hotel. The interesting twist was when the manager told Mick that Mick would drive the rental car to the hotel; and the driver, who was in the process of moving another car, will bring the car back because . . . the driver is on a provisional driver’s license and cannot drive with passengers! He also quickly whispered that the kid really does have a driver’s license! I wasn’t sure this kid could see over the steering wheel, he truly looked all of about ten! He was cute, personable, and chatty and guided our way over to the hotel but did not look old enough to drive. (Mick: I told Shirley that at that point, the car was Apex’s responsibility and not ours. If the manager was comfortable with the kid driving, it was fine with me. BTW, Apex is a good car rental company to use in NZ)

On our walk to dinner at the Retour Restaurant, we saw a punting boat on the Avon River. How very Venetian!

We had a very nice dinner to cap off our fabulous vacation. The Retour Restaurant is located along the river and is a converted band stand! The chef/owners are Kiwis who returned after 12 years in Amsterdam, bought this band stand and converted into a restaurant, hence the name. (“Retour” means “Return” in French, according to the waitress) It’s tiny, as tiny as you can imagine; with just 12 tables, only a couple of tables seating more than 4. But it was cozy and elegant. And the food was very good.

Early to bed, early to rise yet again (This time at 3:45 a.m.!), for our flight home.