Singapore Day #3

My Saturday morning started with some grocery shopping to pick up some stuff to take back to Shanghai. I started at Fair Price Extra (a hypermarket here in Singapore). I bought some generic Cheerios and some other items to take back for the family. We then went for a walk down the Orchard Road shopping street (right by our hotel).

My colleague and I then headed off to the Riverwalk in downtown Singapore. We walked through Boat Quay and then saw the Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles statue along with the Merlion that spits water all day long. It was a pretty nice walk and a nice area of town.

We then headed East to the East Coast Park. This is a stretch of beach that has restaurants, biking, kayaking, boating, walking paths, and almost anything else you can do around a beach. Before starting any activities, we were pretty hungry, as I mentioned on my last post I love Beef Rendang, and Burger King actually has a Rendang Burger. So we went into BK and tried the Rendang burger, it actually wasn't bad considering it was from BK. We then rented some bikes and rode around for a couple of hours. After biking, we sat at a bar on the beach and enjoyed some drinks to cool down. We then went into 7-11 to get a slurpee, oh man this slurpee was one of the best I have ever had. I enjoyed my slurpee while sitting at the beach and watching the waves hit the shore, all I can say is that Singapore has definitely been hard work so far.

We ended the night with getting together with some of my friends from Shanghai that moved back to Singapore. We went to another local hawker center and had some pork wonton noodles, some satay, some stingray, and the famous Chili Crab. They gave us the claws because we were guests, and there was so much meat in the claws, it was so so good...no check that, it was one of the best meals that I have ever had. The combination of the long day of going around and seeing things and being able to sit outside and enjoy this awesome food, it was almost perfect. After the long day we were beat so we went back to the hotel and fell asleep, but this was definitely the best day so far.

Singapore Day #2

During work on Friday we asked the client where to get good Indian food. Well he told us to go to some shopping center for good Indian food. When we headed over there we found out that there was no Indian food, rather there was some Indonesian food (quite different if you are not familiar). Anyway, we sat down as my colleague had never had Indonesian food, and being that my grandmother is from Indonesia, I consider myself to be a pretty seasoned veteran in the food. We ordered things like Gado Gado, and Beef Rendang (my absolute favorite in the world) along with some other dishes. Again, being well versed in Indonesian food, I was actually quite disappointed, so no more Indonesian while we are in Singapore.

We next headed to an area called Clarke Quay, this is pretty popular place with lots of shops and bars. When we arrived, the place was packed and most of the bars had lines coming out the doors. Anyway, we were finally able to settle in to one of the "wards" at a place called The Clinic. This bar was a pretty cool gimmicky bar, if you wanted to sit at tables with chairs, the chairs were all real wheelchairs. We sat on the typical hospital bed's for our table (as all the wheelchairs were taken). My colleague ordered one of the IV drinks where you are able to drink out of the tube from the IV bag. The place was really expensive, but definitely worth the experience. Night #2, definitely much more successful then night #1.

Singapore Day #1

Of course I am here in Singapore for work, but luckily we have some free time to roam around town in the evening. So for our first evening we stopped in one of the hawker centers in town and got some local grub. I got some chicken hor fun with mushrooms and it wasn't too bad. We then went back to the area around the hotel because one of our taxi drivers told us that the Orchard Towers was a pretty neat place. Well, basically we walked in the place and noticed some very tightly dressed women "working" in the place and we just turned around and left. We then headed to an Irish pub for the evening and enjoyed some nice Singapore Sling's (I know at an Irish Pub, but hey, everyone sells them around town). During our time at the pub, I told my colleague (who is Chinese American) that the "working women" will approach white men more often then the Asians just because there is the perception that not only are the white guys more wealthy, but they are most likely here on business and looking for some "company." He didn't believe me, so on our way from the pub I told him to walk ahead of me. Well on the walk home he was approached by zero women, while I was approached by two women at two separate incidents (both women were rejected by me if you were wondering). So my theory worked and he was all salty, not because he was looking for a "working woman," but just because I was right.

#100, Typhoons, and Slingn' it

Celebrate Good Times!! Yes, I have finally made it to 100 entries, and I know that the 3 readers that have been following this blog are so excited. Anyway, I want to thank my family, my friend Ttam Kergens, and the big man up stairs (no really, we live on the 20th floor apartment and there is like a 400lb guy on the 21st floor, he really inspired me to keep on writing). So yes, hopefully I can make it all the way to entry 101 without getting writers block.

In other Matt news, Tyhpoon Wipha came whipping through Shanghai, actually by the time it got through Shanghai it was only a tropical storm. This would otherwise be just another tropical storm with the exception that I had to fly to Singapore today. Last year I flew into a typhoon, now I am flying out of one. Well I got out of Shanghai without a problem, luckily the typhoon headed farther inland then originally expected and weakened, or else I might have spent a lot of time at the airport. By the way, I flew on Singapore Airlines, which is by far the best airline in the world, their planes, service, food, and entertainment trump any other competitors.

After calling Renee to tell her that I landed safely, I wasn't quite feeling sleepy so I headed down to the bar in the hotel, conveniently named, The Bar, they actually have live jazz music, and it is quite the classy place. Anyway, I went in, listened to some jazz music, and had myself a Singapore Sling (a drink famous here in Singapore, if that wasn't obvious). It was my first sling and it was pretty good (a little girly, but that's what I like).

As a final note, I took the subway from the airport into town and at one of the random stops I was looking out the window and noticed a neon sign that said BJ Massage, I mean can you be anymore obvious as to what goes on at that joint?

Learn to Appreciate Mediocrity

As I have mentioned my wife and I spent some time in Hong Kong last week. On Friday night we went on an adventure to find Ben and Jerry's ice cream (something that is not readily available here in Shanghai). We also went out to see the famed light show in Hong Kong that night. It starts each night at around 8pm and I was looking forward to see how they integrate 18 different buildings and shoot out lights and lasers. Well about 3 minutes into it Renee was not thoroughly impressed by the cool display and so we decided to leave and continue our adventure to find ice cream, yes we wanted to find ice cream over a really popular tourist attraction. My wife and I agreed that the light show did not blow us away, but now that I think about it, we should have stayed and watched the action. So all I have to say that is sometimes we need to sit back and enjoy mediocrity like the Hong Kong light show. I guess my wife and I just need to learn to appreciate mediocre tourist attractions (and probably also learn to not make plans around finding ice cream).

I am not rich

Renee came with me to Hong Kong last week when I was there for business. On the first day she had done some travelling and then came to the office to go out to lunch with me. Unfortunately, myself and a US partner went out for an early lunch so we missed each other. Right before she left she asked the receptionist where would be a good place to go shopping. Now, I must say that it is pretty widely assumed that white skinned westerners have a good deal of money to throw around, so of course, when she asked, they just responded with the fact that there was a lot of great shops in the same building of our office along with surrounding buildings. Just to clarify to you all, the shops that I pass on my way to the office in the Hong Kong building include Louis Vuitton, Tiffany, and Armani Exchange, so the assumption by our receptionist was that my wife would have enough money to throw around in these very high class shops. Now we are very blessed, but we certainly do not have the funds to go shopping at the same shops that millionaires shop at (I don't even think I can afford the cuff links at Louis Vuitton). Anyway, when my wife was asking abut the bargain street market, she got some weird looks, but eventually made it to a place where she spent about 1/1000 of what she would have otherwise spent. I guess that's the tough life of us richie riches.

I have a...I have a...

So the other day I was in my Hong Kong office and I was washing my hands in the really nice bathroom. Actually, it was one of the nicest lit bathrooms that I have been in. As I was washing my hands I looked in the mirror to peruse my face and noticed something that shocked me. You see, I am 26, and while I am not the most fashionable guy, I do pride myself on at least looking like I can put myself together in the morning. To my surprise and dismay, when I was looking in the mirror at myself, I noticed what looked like some hair follicles that connected my left eyebrow to my right eyebrow, this would otherwise be referred to as a UNIBROW. Yes, somehow I have missed the fact that I had developed a unibrow. What comes even more surprising is the fact that my wife has never told me about it or that one of my friends never pulled me over to tell me (or at least use it as a butt of a joke). I just can't believe it, I mean I have kept track of hair growing out of nose, ears and other crevices....as much as I can. When I mentioned it to my wife, all she could do is laugh in my face, which by the way, didn't make me feel any better about the situation. Oh well, get out the wax.

Go ahead, take a nap

As a side note to the previous entry, the game started live here in China at midnight. Now for most people who are my age, 26, they would most likely have been out with some buddies then gone to the bar to watch the game at midnight. Well for me, I went to bed at around 9pm and then woke up at a little after 11 to go to the game. I guess this is yet another sign that I am getting old, when something is one TV past 9pm, I will most likely have to take a nap just to stay up for the game.

Sore Winners???

As I have said in the past, I have gotten into Rugby ever since coming over here to China. This past weekend was the kick off of the Rugby World Cup. The first round is a pool round, similar to that of the Soccer World Cup, and USA played England in the first game of the "pool" round (n0te that the US is in the red in this picture). To give you some background, England won the world cup 4 years ago and is clearly seen as one of the top programs in the world. On the other hand, the US is not even close to a top tier team. Think of the game as being USA basketball (this would be England) playing Venezuela (this would be the US). The two prior games that were being played right before the England vs US game also featured top tier teams against teams that aren't considered to be that good. The first game was between Australia and Japan (Australia being the powerhouse) with the result of this match being 91-3. The second game featured New Zealand (the powerhouse) against Italy with the result being 76-14.

Now I attended the game with my British friend at a place that was full of England supporters. Needless to say they were looking for a result that rivalled that of the previous two games mentioned above. The Americans actually played really good and most of the people left the bar that we were at with some respect for the US, with the final result being 28-10 in favor of England. Now even though they won by 18, most of the people were thinking that they would win by at least 30, so this 18 point differential was, to say the least, a disappointment. The guy I went with was so ashamed of their performance that he bought the drinks for the night, after the game it was a feeling like even though England won, that they lost the match, it was kind of weird. Anyway, all I have to say is that, I actually think the US can make it out of the first round if they play this strong against Samoa and Tonga (note that they will most likely get blown out of the water by South Africa who is another top tier team).

I am unofficially dying

No I am not actually dying, just unofficially as I think my heart was ripped out of my chest when my niece from California sent me the following pictures:

Just for reference, I am born and raised in Baltimore, and while it has been pretty hard to cheer for the O's, I am still a fan (I still think they can go on a run and get close to .500). Anyway, more then anything, my kids can cheer for any other team in baseball other then the Red Sox and of course, the worst of the worst, the Yankees. As long as I live they will not be Yankees fans, I will not have such corruption in my household, but alas, my niece is working towards making them the worst thing that I can imagine....a Yankees fan. I mean I can live with my daughter having a boyfriend at 10, or my son getting a tattoo at 12, or my daughter getting pregnant at 15, but a Yankee's fan...that is hard to swallow (note that my sarcasm might not have come through on this thing, but I am joking about the whole getting pregnant thing). I guess I will have to work to rehab my kids into being real baseball fans and not being a frontrunning fan.

Whole Milk and....

Last night was by far the weirdest grocery shopping I have ever done. I wanted to get a couple of final things before my wife and family arrive today so I went shopping for whole milk and ham. Yes that's right, whole milk and ham, it is the kind of combination that would make nutritionists around the world cringe. Just to justify my purchases, the whole milk is for my two kids and the ham is just in case the family arrives and they are hungry so they can make sandwiches, but let's all face it, if someone was in line in front of you at the grocery store, you might give them some weird looks for their purchase of whole milk and ham (note that if I was getting green eggs in place of the whole milk, all would be right with the world). Anyway, I proudly stood in the checkout line flashing my milk and ham for all to see and even had someone clap for me (or were they just doing Tai Chi?).