Just another weekend in paradise . . .

Mick is back in the States so as much as I want to just hibernate, not that the weather here would ever induce you into hibernation, just the opposite; I’ve had a busy week, and weekend out and about.

Friday night –

I was invited to join Jeemes and Evan to take a ride on the Flyer at twilight to see Singapore segue into a city of neon and lights. The Flyer is already dressed in color against the darkening sky. It was cloudy and I had my fingers crossed on my way over to the Flyer that we weren’t going to get one of our evening showers.

The Flyer is always in motion and so does the changing of colors. You hardly notice because you’re so mesmerized by the lights of the city and the streams of cars on the highway below; but I was able to capture the changes as we moved around.

The cabins, when they take on the purple-y hue, has an eerie space-ship like glow. This was like riding in a rainbow.

My ulterior motive for joining the guys was dinner. We walked over to Gluttons Bay. Yes, Gluttons Bay. There’s no pretense. What a great name for a hawker food court! No holds bar, no political correctness – just calling it straight forward. Satay was the target of our gluttony.

Find a table where you can, table sharing is always acceptable.

. . . if the all the chairs are taken, just pull up a stool. There’s no shortage of seating, albeit there may not always be a table to pull it up to. The glutton god was watching over us because we walked right up to an empty table. I guarded our territory while the guys went off to forage for food – you know, the hunter/gatherer instincts.

A Tiger beer, and many, many skewers of chicken satay. Sam, the owner of Alhambra Padang Satay was recently in New York for New York’s Singapore Food Festival. Sorry, no pictures of the satay because I couldn’t maneuver the camera and eat at the same time! We sampled some other fare but we came for the satay.

Saturday night –

It was Rachel who found this event. We gathered up a group of friends, and ran into others, to head over to Sentosa Island. It had just started to rain when Rachel, Lotus and I left the apartment and we prayed that it would not be one of those ridiculously big downpours we get, or maybe it wasn’t even raining over on the Island. The storm stayed over the city and never materialized on Sentosa.

The sky looked pretty as evening was coming in. It was almost pleasant while we waited for the tram to take us down to Siloso Beach.

The stage was set up to the right of the Cool Deck bar on the grassy area. The beach was right behind the stage; a more perfect setting, I don’t know where you’d find it. We were seated in the “bleacher” area opposite the stage. Next time it’s at a table with chairs, even plastic chairs would be more comfortable than the wooden bleacher.

As we were waiting for the show to start a peacock hen flew up on the roof of the bar. I just liked the palm trees set against the sky 🙂  The jazz concert was very nice, we only stayed through the first set. Everyone was in agreement that we enjoyed the first entertainer – she had a much more jazzy style, think on the lines of Norah Jones; while the second gal was more jazz/rock.

Sunday –

I headed down to Little India to meet Evan, Lotus and Cody for lunch. I forgot it was Deepavali – Festival of Lights; when I emerged from the subway the streets were thronged with locals and tourist. Once a year they close off Campbell Street for a month, tent it from the elements, and fill it with color and people. You really can’t see very far into the street! Surely there was just enough room for me to get in there.

Evan is still working down his check-off list of must try Singaporen foods. On the food list today was fish head curry. Banana Leaf Apolo is noted for its fish head curry. I did try to get the most dramatic shot of the fish. I know, it’s pretty ugly and it looks back at you, but it is very tasty and they did not make it enamel melting hot.

I love the idea of eating off the banana leaf. You can use your fingers but I haven’t mastered doing that yet and most of my food fall off before I can get into my mouth so I resort to the spoon and fork. Cody told me to watch a kid at another table for instructions! ha! Along with the fish was butter chicken, chicken 65, rogan josh (lamb), and spinach with paneer. Lots of naan and rice; and drinks to tone down the fire of the chilis.

During lunch Lotus noticed that it was raining, not raining actually, pouring down in buckets on and off. We lingered over lunch picking up the last tasty morsels hoping the rain would stop. So what do you do if it’s still raining after the tab has been settled? SHOPPING! After all they went to all the trouble to tent over the entire street for you. It would just be rude not to take advantage of their hospitality. Besides, it’s a festival and you know the prices are going to be low. And there’s always bartering.

It was fun, we were dry (well that’s all relative: dry from the rain, not from sweating in the heat of all those bodies with no air moving) – great energy all through the market. Lotus and I picked up a couple of these hanging trinkets. We were, though, getting a headache from craning our necks to look up at the dizzying array. This is likely my last Deepavali celebration and I don’t want to go home without some treasures to remember it.

Poking along, Evan stopped at one of the stands to pick up gifts to bring home. We got Lotus to model and give us a little belly dancing demonstration. You can’t tell but she is shimmying. She was a good sport but didn’t buy this outfit.

It stopped raining long enough for us to leave the market and regroup. We had different agendas for the rest of the afternoon, so we went our separate ways. I grabbed the bus that comes straight up the main road and leaves me off a couple of blocks from home. The rain had stopped but it was starting to rumble again. I made it inside before another storm rolled in. It’s pouring out!