Back From Beijing: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

Hi all. It's Brian here, guest blogging for Katie. We're back from Beijing with many stories to tell! First, I'll start with the good. We picked the perfect time to visit. China is preparing for National Day on October 1st and the preparations were visible on nearly every corner. Armed officers were everywhere, especially near Tienanmen Square. Our visit there was my favorite part of the trip. The square is enormous and very intimidating. More so than any other place we visited, I got the greatest sense there that I was in a Communist Nation. You should have seen the frantic rush to pass through metal detectors to enter the square. There's no such thing as an orderly, single-file line in Beijing. It was every man for himself as people pushed to get through security. If you like your personal space - don't visit.

Another highlight of course was our visit to the Great Wall. Another awe-inspiring sight. This was Katie's favorite. We had a fantastic tour guide. The only bad part - the weather was crummy. It cleared up toward the end of our visit so we were able to get some decent shots. When you consider the rugged terrain and the amount of man-made work that went into the Great Wall, you just can't believe it stretches over 5,000 miles. Think about that? That's well over the distance from San Francisco to New York. Amazing.

Other things we really enjoyed were the Summer Palace, The Temple of Heaven, and The Forbidden City. And despite a lot of stares and requests to take photos with us, the people were very friendly.

In Tienanmen Square

At the Forbidden City

At the Summer Palace

At the Summer Palace

Now for the bad. Our first night there we decided to try out the Wangfujing Avenue "Night Market". It's a block-long row of food vendors yelling at you to try there food. Sure, there were noodles, beef, and other Chinese foods you'd expect. Some of it though, was tough to stomach. Bugs on a stick. Gross. Sheep's Penis. No Thanks. Dog on a stick. Just wrong.

Despite that experience and one night of questionable chicken, we ate yummy food at some good restaurants, including Peking Duck (below).

If you think New York City traffic is bad, you haven't seen anything. Try driving on Beijing streets. Everyone beeps their horns. Nobody follows the rules of the road, if there are any. And everywhere you turn, there's somebody on a bike blocking traffic. I don't know how the taxi cab drivers do it.

I should also mention the smog is really bad. Our eyes were burning the first night and our noses were stuffy most of the time.

Finally, the ugly. Our trip to the Silk Market. 5 floors of pure madness. Multiple vendors trying to sell you fake designer clothes, watches, handbags, you name it. The vendors are extremely aggressive. I made the big mistake of wearing my glasses through the eye glass section. One lady stepped in front of me, told me I needed a new prescription, and tried to rip the glasses of my head. We even saw a fight break out on one of the floors.

Overall, we really enjoyed our visit to Beijing. It was a total culture shock but that was good for us. Now, it's off to Bangkok. Stay tuned...

And we're off!

Sorry no posts since Brian got here, we've been pretty busy. Last night I showed him the over-the-top Orchard Road among other things. We leave for Beijing this morning and return Tuesday night. I'll probably have time to post a few pics on Wednesday before we leave for Bangkok.

Ciao!

Obama on F1

Brian's flight lands in just 2.5 hours and I'm trying to distract myself to keep from thinking about it non-stop.

But instead of packing for China, I just had to share the flyer I think it needs no other introduction than to say that you can see how nuts everyone here is about F1!

Din Tai Fung

Last night Whitney, Amma and I met for dinner at Din Tai Fung, an award-winning Taiwanese restaurant with locations all over Southeast Asia. In 1993, the New York Times ranked DTF one of the world's 10 best restaurants. DTF is well-known for its xiaolongbao or soup dumplings. They're really delicious but you have to be careful when using chop sticks not to punch a hole in them, or else the broth will spill out everywhere.


Here's Whitney assembling our homemade chicken noodle soup. You can see the soup dumplings in their steam tray in the lower left-hand corner.


Here are the dumpling chefs hard at work. I love to watch them make homemade noodles, it's such an art.

DTF is located in one of the shopping centers on Orchard Road. Before dinner, I tooled around another for an hour or so - all 6 floors of it - and discovered a moon cake festival in the lowest level. I had a better moon cake experience here. Apparently there are two types: the traditional kind like I had in the office and another variety known as snowskin. They look something like this, and are much lighter.


My favorite flavor? Cranberry! My least favorite? Durian! It was my first time trying anything durian and I was not a fan. The worst part was I thought from the color that it would be mango. It's like the equivalent of thinking something is strawberry when in reality it's sweat sock.

Luckily I had no such disappointments at dinner! Tonight I'm headed to Ilana's for Mexican, which I've been craving for a while. Gotta mix in some Western food here and there, especially before our big trip. By this time next week, we'll already be on a plane back from Beijing!

F1 Fever

I started this relaxing Monday with a long walk along my favorite route, which has become increasingly more difficult to navigate due to F1 preparations. This coming weekend is the Singapore Grand Prix, a Formula One (F1) race with festivities spanning Friday, Saturday and Sunday.



Since Brian and I leave for Beijing Saturday morning, we'll only get to see the excitement from afar. (In fact, I'm trying to figure out where we should dine away from the madness.) As you can imagine, preparations such as building grandstands, blocking off roadways and fencing in some of Singapore's most scenic views with protective barriers have been underway for quite some time now.


A lot of hotels you can see in the background will offer attractive views of the race, and will benefit from profitable food and beverage options for fans. The Fairmont Hotel is offering a 61-course meal (commemorating the 61 laps in the Grand Prix) for 4 at SGD$5000. That's USD $880.50 a person. How could one eat 61 courses anyway?

The race itself takes place at night, so it should be a real sight. Plus, the Black Eyed Peas, Gwen Stefani, the Backstreet Boys and Beyonce are scheduled to perform. All signs point to a crazy event. Crazy under control, of course, because it's Singapore.

As for the rest of this three-day weekend, I've been reading up on our travel destinations, plan to hit up Orchard Road a little later today, and will meet Whitney and Amma for dinner tonight. Then it's back to work for just four more days before "the trip of a lifetime," as Brian has been calling it, begins. I can't wait to see him.

Baba Bling!

Today I met Whitney and her mother-in-law whom she calls Amma (ah-MAH) for a day of window shopping and museum exhibits. After tooling around Orchard Road for a bit, we went to the Peranakan Museum to check out the Baba Bling exhibit (love the name) featuring Peranakan jewelry (spelled jewellry here).

Who are the Peranakans? In the Malay-speaking parts of Southeast Asia, Peranakan means "child of" and is used to refer to people of mixed ethnicities. Most Peranakans are of Chinese origins, though there are others such as the Chitty Melaka (Indian) group.

The nyonyas (women) wore beautiful and colorful kebayas similar to these but of course much more traditional and much heavier. They used often elaborate pieces of jewelry to pin them together and complete their looks.

I thought it was ok to take pictures as long as there was no flash. I only got in one or two before I was corrected. Oops! Doesn't the wallpaper look like Asian Lilly Pulitzer?

Here I am with Amma outside the museum. She lives in Dubai and is visiting Whitney and Josh for a couple of weeks. Really nice lady. Made me miss my mom today.

After the museum we walked down to Robertson Key and relaxed by the river. Then we walked over to Chinatown to check out the Mid-Autumn Festival decorations. Tonight I'm just relaxing, watching The Nanny Diaries on TV and reading travel books in preparation for our big trip that begins this weekend. Yay!

Another three-day weekend

I've really lucked out on holidays. During my stay abroad, there was only one in the U.S. (Labor Day) while I'm getting to take advantage of three in Singapore. Monday is Hari Raya Puasa, the Malay term for the Muslim festival of Eid ul-Fitr, which marks the end of Ramadan. During the month of Ramadan, Muslims fast from eating, drinking and smoking from dawn until dusk.

A lot of non-Muslims take advantage of the holiday by traveling, but I decided to stay here since Brian arrives in just 5 days! I really wanted to have a chill weekend before we kick of what he's been calling "the trip of a lifetime."

Several my friends in Singapore are Jewish and were celebrating Rosh Hashanah last night, so I decided to it was a good time to see a movie: The Time Traveler's Wife. I really liked the film as well as my popcorn dinner. Movie theater popcorn is universally delicious!

Today I visited Whitney's hairdresser, Cedric, for a much-needed trim and highlight. His salon is at the base of the Gotham Building I posted a photo of a week or two ago. It's also really close to Arab Street and since the crazy-hard rain that soaked me on my way into the salon had let up, I decided to walk over and explore the area a bit more.

Arab Street and the surrounding shop houses are lined with one fabric store after another. There are also many carpet stores.

I didn't buy any silks or fabrics, but I did buy a couple of colorful across-the-shoulder bags as a safety measure for our travels (vs. the omnipresent Dooney & Bourke bag I've been toting). Unfortunately, few places are as safe as Singapore.

Proximity to the salon aside, I also knew that the Arab Street area boasted authentic Mediterranean food. I had a yummy vegetable salad and some fresh hummus and pita. It was much lighter than many other types of Asian food, which was a welcome change. I wrote out a couple of postcards while I was there - my first even though I've been in Singapore for two months!

The last time I was in the area, I posted a photo of the Masjid Sultan (Malay for Sultan Mosque) above. Given the holiday celebration, I decided to go inside today.

Non-Muslims can only go into the entrance and not the main prayer area (designated by the carpet) and if you're not sufficiently covered you have to wear this cloak. But isn't it beautiful inside? There were a lot of visitors and worshippers alike.

I received some sad news today. Poppy's older brother, Uncle George, died at home Friday night. I think he was 88 and had been ill recently, but he would often come to holidays at my parents' house. I wish I could be there with Granny K. and Poppy.

On a MUCH lighter note, today is Ilana's birthday, so I think we bunch of us are meeting up later tonight to celebrate.

Ali's Bachelorette Party

In lieu of Winesday, last night was Ali's bachelorette party. Why have a bach party on a Wednesday night? Well, since so many of our friends in Singapore travel on the weekends, it was hard to find a time when all the girls could come and she leaves for the U.S. on Sunday. So we didn't let a school night (literally, many of these girls are teachers) stop us from having a blast...or dressing up the bride-to-be!

Everyone contributed something to her outfit. She loved the purple wig, and so did we! The butterfly wings and wand were some of my gifts. She looked adorable.

Like any good bachelorette party, there some good-natured dares involved. Zach should rest assured that they were all PG-13 at worst. Here she is being carried to our next location like a queen, and she was an excellent sport.

This bag isn't just for looks, it's for sound too. Jamie, party planner extraordinaire, pumped the jams all around Clarke Quay.

Remember how I was telling you Singapore has great ladies' nights? Here's the whole crew with some of our complimentary drinks.

No, there's nothing wrong with my camera. The club was kind of foggy/misty inside. Still, I think this is a great photo of Whitney, Joy and me.

Here's Crystal, Mindy, Jamie, me, Ali, Whitney and Joy. Sorry I don't have any of the photos of Ali and me singing "Like a Virgin" on stage with the cover band at the Pump Room. Maybe next time. The entire evening was a awesome. Congratulations, Ali!

My first moon cake

The Mid-Autumn Festival is a traditional harvest festival in the Chinese culture and it's in full swing. It seems like everywhere you look, there are decorations, celebrations and religious ceremonies. As one of the two most important Chinese holidays (the other being Chinese New Year), Mid-Autumn Festival is also known as the Moon Festival and moon cakes are an annual treat. I've been wanting to try one and today I had the chance.


Wasn't I lucky when one of our clients sent our office a basket of moon cakes?

Here's what one looks like up-close.

Sam at work said people usually cut them into slices/wedges and just eat a little piece because they're quite rich and sweet, especially by local standards. This flavor was lotus and frankly I didn't think it was that sweet. (Probably an indication of how much sugar Americans consume daily.) The taste was fine, nothing remarkable, but pleasant enough. I can see how some people wouldn't like the texture though. It's hard to describe, not quite like marzipan, but a little pasty.

This one has a salted duck egg yolk in the middle. The Singaporeans think it's really salty, and I suppose it's slightly salty, but not too much so. However, I preferred the first flavor.

Adrienne said she's had them before and she thought they tasted like sawdust. Rest assured, I did not feel that way. I'd eat another but I probably wouldn't buy one. Good to try though!

Nailing it in Singapore

Here's a quirky tidbit about life in Singapore. My nails are doing great. Now I know as soon as I write this, I'll probably break one but they are so strong - I haven't snagged one since my arrival. I've discussed this with a few of my friends here and they're having the same luck. So it leads me to wonder what it is in my diet that's responsible for the growth and strength, but I think it must be the protein. It find it hard to believe it's the noodles or the rice, and it's certainly not from the paltry amount of vegetables I'm consuming.

I know they don't look that long to some people but they were starting to click on the keyboard, and that's too long for me!

Won't you take me to Monkeytown?

Cheesy, I know, but so appropriate...

Today Whitney and I decided to explore an area called Bukit Timah. First we had lunch at this great cafe where I had an omelet with chorizo and capsicum (aka bell peppers). I had a hard time deciding between the omelet and New Zealand pike cakes (which are apparently similar to pancakes), until the server - upon my request for a recommendation between the two - basically said avoid the pike cakes if you're on any kind of diet. I'm not, actually, thank you very much (and to be fair she didn't mean anything by it) but I took that to mean they are really quite bad for you if they're worse than chorizo and eggs. Anyway...delicious.

After brunch we checked out this place called Beauty World Center, which supposedly harkens back to shopping in Singapore about 40-50 years ago. If it doesn't look that exciting in this photo, that's because it wasn't. However, I did buy a really cute ceramic pot for just SGD$5.

I don't think our expectations for Beauty World Center were high, but even so they were not met, so we continued over to Bukit Timah Reserve. Before we had even reached the parking lot, Whitney saw the first monkey. Then we saw another, and another. They were everywhere, see?

After I took loads of photos of monkeys, we decided to take this little trail towards a quarry and reservoir. We were both in casual cotton dresses and sandals so we thought we'd take it easy. Well, the map had no scale on it and the location looked far away, but in reality it took us 5-10 minutes to get there and that's all. So we decided to take the path up to Singapore's highest peak, Bukit Timah, which is a mere 156 meters (532 feet). Doesn't sound like much but the first part of the hike up there was a 45-degree hill that rivals Pacific Heights, followed by a shortcut of stairs that would make Rocky proud. Sorry no photos of us together. We were ridiculously hot by the time we reached the top. Whitney said we looked like we'd just taken a bikram class and neither of us was in the mood to be photographed!

Though we were literally at the top of the island, we were disappointed in the sheltered view (above). According to both of our tour books, "the number of plant species in the reserve exceeds the number on the whole of North America." That seems awfully hard to believe, doesn't it?!

Not to be outdone by the monkeys, we also saw a few lizards. In reality this one was probably about 2-feet in length. The funny thing about the Bukit Timah Reserve is that Whitney and I had set out to explore some "off the beaten path" places in Singapore, but we were on a paved path the entire time!

Just as we were leaving, all these monkeys rushed the road. There were at least 15-20 of them, and neither of us had seen anything like it. It was as if someone dumped a bag of candy out on the road and they were all rushing to get to it, but we never figured out what really motivated them.

After Bukit Timah Reserve, we walked around the area a bit more. There are some really nice homes in the area, so there were a few high-end shops to match. After some window shopping, we met Josh for a glass of wine near their place to wrap up yet another great day.

Sentosa Sequel and Chunkfest

The weekend has gotten off to a great start. Last night I met Ali and Zach, Whitney and Josh for dinner at this little wine bar/French bistro. Perfect way to wind down after the work week, very chill.

This morning I walked along the marina area before taking my second trip to Sentosa with Ali, Joy and Crystal. This time, no food poisoning - yay!

Here I am, out in the Indian Ocean.


I actually took this photo so you could see the Speedo king in the background. Lots of Euros and Asians alike in their Speedos. Luckily - unlike in the U.S. - most of them had the bodies to be able to pull it off as much as one can. Still, they're Speedos...

After a day at the beach, we went over to this place called Marina Barrage for the Chunkfest, an outside festival sponsored by Ben & Jerry's. We had heard the ice cream was free (untrue) and had to take two cabs to get there (the first guy had no idea!) but in the end it was worth it and pretty fun. We didn't stay that long, but there were lots of families enjoying the live music, games and ice cream. Locals mostly. I had two flavors: Goodbye Yellow Brickle Road and Peanut Butter Cookie Dough - yum!

The funny part was when we were trying to decide whether to go or not, Ali called Zach and all I heard her say was, "Ok, so you're going to the gym? I think I'll go to Chunkfest then." LOL.

By the time we got home it was after 7, so I decided to just to hang out and chill. Tomorrow morning I'm meeting Whitney for brunch, then we're exploring some of the "off the beaten path" places in Singapore. Not sure what that means, but I'll let you know.

P.S. Feel free to leave some comments - I miss hearing from you all!