Taxi take two

I usually try to travel by bus or walk if possible.  However, I always take taxis to the airport and also when I have an early morning meeting at the office.  Last Thursday I took a taxi from home to the airport for my trip to Perth.  One week later, I had to take a taxi to the office yesterday morning so I could arrive in plenty of time for a client meeting. 
Much to my surprise, when I climbed in the taxi yesterday morning the taxi driver remembered me...
Mr Taxi Driver ~ good morning
me ~ morning, Science Park 1 please
Mr Taxi Driver ~ I remember you
me ~ really??? (said with total skepticism)
Mr Taxi Driver ~ I took you to the airport 
me ~ oh really??? (said with total skepticism)
Mr Taxi Driver ~ how was Perth?
me ~ holy cow, you really did take me to the airport...Perth was great!
There are some 25,000 taxis in Singapore so the odds of being in the same taxi twice are pretty rare.  To be in the same taxi twice within one week is crazy.

Read more...

Cottesloe

As you saw from my last post, I spent the long Easter weekend in Australia.  To be specific, we stayed in Cottesloe, Western Australia which is a western suburb of Perth.  We were in a large rental house within view and walking distance from the beach.

I arrived late Thursday afternoon and after making introductions of everyone in the house we grabbed a quick beer and walked to the beach to watch the sunset...

The sun actually sets at about 5:30 - 6:00 pm which seems really early to me.  And it is actually pretty stunning to watch it set over the water.

Friday morning we got up and went for a long walk along the beach in Cottesloe...

The water and the sky were just amazing shades of blue.

The beach there has a nice walking/cycling path in addition to the beachfront.  Friday was a public holiday in Australia so there were a bunch of people out and about. Along with the beauty of the ocean there are also some fun pieces of art placed along the walkway...

There was even a giant sundial...

As I mentioned in my last post, this place really had the feel of Southern California.  It was even complete with the surfers and great cars you'd expect to see along the beach...

And now that I'm looking back over all of these pictures I feel as though I should have retitled the 'blue' given the amazing shades of blue. 

It was a fun weekend and I really enjoyed the cooler temperatures, the blue skies, the ocean breeze, the laughter, and beer, and wine, and good food.

Read more...

2/52

Week 2 of 52
Little Creatures Brewery
40 Mews Road
Freemantle, Western Australia

I'm currently in Perth for a long weekend with a friend.  Yesterday was a public holiday in Australia so there wasn't tons going on but we did manage to find a great brewery for some delicious cider and good eats in nearby Freemantle. 

It was an absolutely beautiful day yesterday.  The temperatues were in the mid-80s with bright blue skies and poofy white clouds and a nice breeze coming in off of the Indian Ocean.  This area reminds me of Southern California.  It is very similar in feel to La Jolla in both the feel and the setting.  I only snapped a few shots on our walk back from the restaraunt to the car...

Read more...

1/52

Before I begin, I haven't yet decided what my actual theme will be for my '52 weeks' project.  I got some great suggestions and am going to try a few of them out first before I decide on my theme.  It will have something to do with Singapore or travel or landmarks or food...not yet sure...

Week 1 of 52
MICA Building
Corner of River Valley Road and Hill Street

This is the Ministry of Information, Communication, and the Arts (MICA) building.  It used to be Hill Street Police Station building.  I personally like to call it the Singapore rainbow building. 

I walk by it pretty regularly because it is near my place in Singers.  I have wanted to take a picture of it for quite some time but wanted to be sure there was sunshine and blue sky to really show off the colors of the shutters.

On my first trip to Singapore I took a tour of the city and the tour guide told us that there was some poor guy who had the job to open all of the shutters everyday.  According to the story, once he got all of the shutters open he would have to begin closing them for the day.  I'm not sure how true that is but I do think about it every time I walk past this building.  I guess there could be worse jobs than opening all of those colorful shutters.  I would pick a different color for every day of the week and begin opening with that color first...
Green ~ Monday
Yellow ~ Tuesday
Red ~ Wednesday
Blue ~ Thursday
Friday ~ Purple

Read more...

Suggestion box

I need your help...

I have been doing the weekly photo challenge with a group of friends and I have been enjoying it.  It really pushes me to think about things and gives me an idea each week to find something to photograph. 

I'm interested in starting another project but linking in photography and my blog and living in Singapore.  I'm thinking of starting a '52 weeks' project whereby each week I'll have at least one blog post dedicated to the theme.  I'm hoping to be able to link in photography so that I'll have pictures to share as well. 

I need your help in determining a theme.  I know myself too well and if I don't have the focus of a theme this will quickly become the '2 weeks' project and I'll lose interest.  A few possible themes:

• Landmarks in Singapore or Asia when I'm traveling ~ each week I'd find a landmark or attraction and photograph it and blog about it.
• Food ~ each week I would have to try a new dish and could blog about my reaction, the history behind the dish, etc.
• Streets in Singers ~ each week I'd randomly pick a street in Singapore and walk it or travel on it and blog about the area.
• Likes/Dislikes ~ each week I'd choose something that I really like about Singers and will miss when I return to the US or something that I dislike about Singers and will not miss at all.

So...the suggestion box is officially open.  What do you think I should do?  Does one of those seem like a great idea or do you have another idea?  Why are you still reading this and not telling me what you think?

p.s. the suggestion box is also known as the comments section...

Read more...

Sunday @ East Coast Park

Most Sunday mornings you can find me at East Coast Park taking a long walk.  East Coast Park is about a 8 km path right along the...wait for it...Eastern coast of Singapore.  There is beach along most of the path and some nice wide trails to allow for runners, walkers, roller-blading, and biking.  It is typically just locals who go to get away from the craziness of the city and to enjoy a teeny tiny bit of a beach-type setting.

I enjoy it because on a Sunday morning there are very few tourists there.  And to be honest, most of the people who are out there are exercising so there is the courtesy that comes along with being around a bunch of other people focused on their workout.  There also tend to be quite a few families and I love seeing families out and about and especially children who are outside...

I'll digress a bit here but when I was a kid we were outside from the morning until night.  We would have stayed out even later but the rule in our neighborhood was that if the street lights came on you were supposed to be home.  We played random sports, made up our own games, rode bikes, ran around, dug in the dirt, and who the heck knows what else.  I'm not sure I would have survived as a kid these days because I just loved being outside.  I still do.  I'll take a walk outside over sitting in front of the computer or television any day of the week.

The other fun thing that you see off of East Coast Park are all of the giant shipping vessels...

Singapore used to be the largest shipping port in Asia but has recently been surpassed by Shanghai.  Regardless, at any given time you will find hundreds of ships off the coast of Singers.  There are so many that when you fly in to Singapore at night the ships actually look like the lights of a city so it is hard to tell when you are over the water versus being over land.

Yesterday was a good walk because it was a bit breezy and there wasn't too much sun...as you can see from the clouds.  The rain stayed offshore so we stayed dry which was nice.

So...were you an outside kid?  If so, what was your favorite thing to do?  In the past week I have been reminded of the 'green machine' and ice cream trucks...bring back any memories?

Read more...

Peking Duck

Last night I went to Dadong in Beijing for dinner.  It is a pretty famous restaurant in Beijing that typically has a 1-2 hour wait (yes, you read that correctly...1-2 hours) for those who do not have a reservation.  I am not a fan of waiting that long so lucked out when some business colleagues had a reservation and invited me along for dinner.

The restaurant itself is quite stunning...very modern and wide open.  I only took a few pictures of the place since I was with business peeps...

We ordered a set menu so they seemed to just keep bringing us food.  We had pork and bamboo shoots and veal and lobster and noodles and vegetables and honestly so much food that I can't remember everything that we had.  It was one of those meals where everything we tasted was better than the last.  There was also a lot of great conversation and laughter and we had great waiters so the entire experience was excellent.

The best part was by far the Peking duck.  I am not typically a fan of duck because it tends to be a bit greasy.  I'll eat it but it never is anything I want to order specially when I see it on the menu.  Peking duck is a completely different story...oh my goodness is it tasty.  They roast the duck in what they call a hung oven.  It is essentially an open oven with a wood fire where they hang the duck to roast.

If you double-click the photo to enlarge it you'll see the ducks hanging in the background ready to be cooked.  There are four ovens like the one you see and these guys roast the ducks as they are ordered...which means they keep pretty busy all night long.

Once the duck is cooked they bring it to your table and actually carve it in front of you...

Once it is carved the waiters actually show you how to eat it properly.  The first step is to take the skin and dip it in sugar and eat it.  I'm not a fan of skin and it seemed a bit odd to dip it in sugar buy holy cow was this tasty.  The skin is super crispy and flavorful and the sugar just makes it all sorts of yummy goodness.  The next step is to put the meat on a thin pancake with sweet bean sauce (tastes like plum sauce) and scallions.  (If you've ever eaten Mu Shu chicken/pork/beef at a Chinese restaurant in the US this is similar.)  The last step is to take the duck and put it inside these hollowed out sesame rolls that are crispy along with julienned radish, cucumber, horseradish and some other things I can't recall.  Our waiter called it the Beijing burger which was pretty funny.

All of the versions tasted so good as did all of the other food.  I'm not sure it is something I would eat often but it was quite an experience and would recommend it to anybody visiting Beijing.

Read more...

Southern Ridges

Today I explored a new area of Singapore that I wasn't aware of before...The Southern Ridges.  It is a 9 km (just over 5.5 miles for those of us not keen on the metric system) walk that links a variety of different parks on the southern part of the island.

I started out at the top of Mount Faber.  I wouldn't necessarily call it a mountain...more of a big hill.  I was able to walk up from sea level via a set of steps.  They say it is the equivalent to climbing a 24-story building but it wasn't too bad.  At the top is Mount Faber Park.  There are lots of scenic outlooks and a cable car system and restaurants and even a Merlion...which I completely forgot to go and look at...next time.  Here are a couple of the views from the top...

Once you are done walking around the top of Mount Faber you can take Faber Walk which is another trail.  And I use the term trail loosely as it is paved the entire way...

Along the walk was the Danish Seaman's Church.

Since it was Sunday morning I could hear the organ playing in the church when I walked by.  It was a nice contrast to the cicadas and sound of the leaves blowing.

At the end of Faber Walk you come to Henderson Waves trail...

It is the tallest pedestrian bridge in Singers.  At the tallest point it is 120 feet above the road below.  It looks like a fun bridge to walk across because of the waves but in reality it is just a flat bridge...

However, those wood slats are not flush against each other.  There are areas where when you look down you can see through to the road below...not so fun...

On the other side of the bridge is a portion of the trail called Hilltop Walk.  I didn't take any pictures because it was just a hill and there wasn't really anything specific to look at. 

The next section of the trail is the Forest Walk and struck me as a little odd because the entire thing is a metal walkway...

It is neat to walk through at the same level as the tree canopy but I must admit it was a little odd to hear the metal clanking every time I took a step.

At the end of the Forest Walk is Alexandra Arch...

It is really just a bridge over Alexandra Road but it is neat that it isn't a plain bridge.

On the other side of the road you end up in Hort Park which is a horticultural park...very creative with the name, eh?  It is a pretty big area and they have some really interesting gardens that aren't all just flowers.

 

On the other side of Hort Park is Canopy Walk.  It is a wooden raised walkway that again takes you along the tree canopy.  It is a nice walk and is good to be up so high and take in some of breeze on such hot and sunny Singapore days.  On the other side of Canopy Walk is Kent Ridge Park which is actually right next to my office.  I have gone to work there for over two years now and had no idea that I could just up and leave one afternoon and have such a beautiful walk just outside my office door...hmm...there is an idea...

Read more...

Something old...

amongst everything shiny and new.

My photo challenge topic this week was 'abandoned'.  If I were back home I feel like this would be relatively easy.  Here in Singers...not so much...  If you haven't been to Singapore this won't make much sense...if you have...you'll know exactly what I mean.  They literally sweep the sidewalks every single day here.  There is no trash and nothing sitting around that could be considered abandoned.  Even the buildings aren't left empty for very long...instead they demolish them and build newer and bigger and shinier ones...which is a shame. 

As a result of all of these things I had to really think about what to photograph for my challenge.  I even googled 'abandoned Singapore' to see what I could find.  Sadly, not a whole lot.  So, in the spirit of the challenge I grabbed my camera and set out for a little exploring.

My first stop was to an old fountain that isn't too far from my house.  It hasn't been functional since I moved here so I thought I'd take some photos of it...

My next stop was to the an old cemetery near the largest mosque in Singapore.  It is a Muslim cemetery and I've walked by it many times but never taken any photos.

I couldn't get any pictures I really liked from the main road so walked along a side street to see if I could find a better angle.  I'm glad I did because I actually found another cemetery across the street that wasn't fenced so I didn't feel so bad about wandering through.

When I came home I read up on it and found out that this is the oldest Malay cemetery in Singapore.  Apparently it dates back to the 1820s but as you can see by the photos above it has been abandoned for what appears to be quite some time.

I would have liked to have wandered through a bit more but it was right behind a mosque and I was in shorts and a tank top so didn't feel really appropriate since most Muslim women are fully covered.  I also was becoming lunch for quite a few mosquitoes so wanted to get out before I ended up with dengue fever.

If you are curious what picture I decided on for my 'challenge' photo take a stroll over to my Flickr page...over there...in the upper right hand corner.

Read more...