Champagne and Laksa?

Ms. Cupcake, Ms. Kumquat, Mr. Ibu Oka and I are all sitting in our adjoined suite at the St. Regis right now drinking champagne, eating strawberries and macarons.

How in God’s name did this happen?

We started this morning shedding tears as we left Bali. Looking out at the ocean as the sun rose this morning, it was dawning on all of us that our lovely days of vacation were coming to end. We had our last lak lak for breakfast, courtesy of the wonderful staff at the villa, and then departed for the airport.

We arrived in Singapore in the middle of the afternoon. Changi airport’s efficiency had us land and be in our hotel within 50 minutes. We enjoyed our free cocktails and canapés and head out to Singapore for our final food tour.

Laksa!

Another temple, of course.

We hit up the Katong for the majority of the evening. The red light district is a food emporium and we loved it. We went to Katong Laksa and savored the delicious spicy coconut broth. We went to Larong 9 and ate two heaping mounds of beef noodles, fried carrot cake (not what you think) and downed it all with Tiger beers. Finally, we ended with some satay and pork buns at La Pu Sat.

Beef Kway Teow, "wet"

Beef Kway Teow, "dry" (we liked this one better, which apparently is "typical" for westerners according to our cabbie)

Carrot cake. It is NOT sweet, but still tasty.

We were exhausted and dreaming of bed. Arriving back at the hotel, we went to say goodbye to our dear friend Andy. For the entire trip he has gone above and beyond to take extra special care of us and we felt really bad to be leaving him behind. In all of our travels, his service has certainly been amongst the best we have ever received.

Somebody get this restaurant some pig!

Our departure gift... bittersweet.

After saying our farewells, we clambered up to our rooms, depressed to be saying goodbye to vacation.

We arrived to two bottles of champagne, two dozen macarons, two plates of fresh berries and beautiful hand written notes from our Andy. Thanks a million, Andy. You have brought an incredible end to an incredible vacation. 

Champagne started this vacation, and apparently it is going to end it. 

Boo Ubud

The saddest art gallery ever.

I remember learning as a little kid that if you do not have a lot of nice things to say, it is best not to say them at all. Thus, today’s blog post will be short.

Ubud sucks.

I felt it obligatory that we go, even after having been forewarned about just how touristy it is, but it was actually worse than expected. We set off this morning to go to Sidemen road and do some early morning trekking in the rice terraces. Unfortunately, it was difficult to locate a guide and it was pouring down ride. We took a beautiful ride, but, in the end, had to leave the Sidemen area without doing any trekking.

The start of the trek was a paved path, which we complained about until it turned into a busy road!

As a plan B, I figured we could go to Ubud early and do one of the treks around there. Trek is, I suppose, a loosely used word. Is it trekking if it is done on a road!?!?! We did an 8km loop around what is supposed to be some of the more beautiful scenery around Ubud and, especially compared to yesterday, were very unimpressed.

Okay, so there were a few spots that looked lovely.

We stopped in some temples and went to some outlying villages, but it was not even that it was too touristy as much as it simple wasn’t as nice. We longed to get out of there. So, we booked it back down to Ubud, visited the palace (where we were still fairly unimpressed) and then started to make our way out of there.

Ibu Oka warung.

Pig, pig and more pig.

However, there was one final stuff. Back to our sheer love of food and of Anthony Bourdain, we had to stop at Ibu Oka Babi Guleng. Babi Guleng is whole spit-roasted pig stuffed with ginger and several other Balinese spices. We indulged ourselves in delicious crispy flesh, fried face, blood sausage and some fantastic roast meat. It actually redeemed the rest of Ubud.

On the way back to our section of East Bali we actually stopped for seconds of Babi Guleng at a warung in Gianyar famous for some of the best Babi Guleng in Bali. Making the comparison, Ibu Oka was better, but only marginally so.

Stuffed with enough pig fat for a life time, it was to the antique shop again to pick up our wares and then to the villa. Looking out at the ocean now in our tranquil spot, I wonder why we ever ventured out. 

Singapore food safari

Succulent. Juicy. Spicy. Messy.

Oh, how the chili crab has changed my life. As I plunged my moist fingers deeper into the carcass of the 1.2 and 1.3 kilo crabs, respectively, I smiled at the fact we were in Singapore once more. Tonight was the night of our food safari of Singapore. Unfortunately, due to a bit of a late departure (my fault) and the fact that the chili crab process took longer than expected, there were only two stops, but they were delicious ones.

We met our friends S and L tonight at the St. Regis. They flew in from LA the night before and will be accompanying us on the rest of our trip. We have looked forward to their arrival all along after many great experiences traveling with them in the past, though the only sad part is that their arrival indicates the last 25% of our trip. Sad.

We said a sad goodbye to Danum Valley this morning. We woke up bright and early to watch the animals awake along the river and were rewarded with yet more Red Leaf monkeys. After breakfast we said goodbye to the wonderful staff and headed out on the 2 hour journey to the airport through the jungle. Even leaving, we saw wildlife – the bearded pig (along with about half a dozen piglets), monitor lizards and some tropical birds all crossed our path.

We headed straight to get Ms. Cupcake’s sari refit after arrival. I was obviously bored while this was getting done, but the owner of the sari shop, sensing both my boredom and hunger (as I was preparing for the food safari), ran out to Ananda Bhavan Vegitarian, on Selegie Road, to get me some samosas. Ms. Cupcake, utterly shocked at this, decided that the store policy must be buy a sari, get a samosa (or two in my case). These were indeed unlike any other samosas I had ever had. They were large, about the size of a person’s hand, and chock full of potatoes and peas in a delicious curry. It was both moister and crispier than any prior samosa experience.

After thanking the gracious owner of Memsaab tailoring for both the samosas and the sari, we headed off to meet our friends and start the food safari. Andy, our absolute favorite St. Regis staff member, gave us some additional food tips before we set out.

First stop, Bok Chor Mee at Hill Street Pork Noodles. The four of us are all huge Anthony Bourdain fans, so this was a must stop. He went here on his last Singapore episode and Bok Chor Mee sounded like a great dish anyway. It was. Fishballs, pork, dumplings, noodles, cooked in a spicy sauce and broth – it was delicious, even in the 90 degree heat. From there, we moved on to East Coast Park Seafood Center’s famous Long Beach Seafood – the creators (so they say) of Black Pepper Crab. S and I went and chose the victims – two medium sized suckers from their tanks, and sent them away for preparation as chili crab and black pepper crab, respectively.

Delicious. Despite the relatively terrible service at the restaurant, the crab was so good that it overshadowed all else. Washed down with some Tiger Beer, the crab was heavenly. The chili sauce was then mopped up diligently with the accompanying fried buns.

We’re off again tomorrow to yet another new place, but it is funny that Singapore is really beginning to feel homey – a comfortable place with great food. 

Singapore - NOT boring!

(ed: We just got internet in Mt Hagan and it is very slow. We are putting up a few days worth of stuff, and then will catch up completely back in Singapore.)

I should start this by saying that I have no idea when this post may actually make it to the internet. We are now sitting on a flight en route to Port Moresby, PNG (via KL – yes, I am asking the same question).
Anyway, suffice it to say that today more than made up for the disaster that was yesterday.
Andy, our more than helpful check-in friend at the St. Regis, managed to work some miracles last night when we got in that not only got us a great suite but also secured us a much needed late check-out so we could have a full day and then be off to PNG.

We were up early on our last full day in Singapore. After gorging on hotel breakfast, we set off first for the colonial district in the heart of the city. It looked like a newer, cleaner, more thoughtfully planned version of London – which I suppose it should. We had confirmed again just how late of a starting city Singapore is – we roamed the streets virtually alone until almost 8:30 when the morning commute spontaneously began.
From there, Jen was dying to go to the zoo. Singapore is famous for its zoo and though I am not really the zoo type, I acquiesced in good marital fashion.

It was indeed quite the zoo. Instead of having animals in cages or behind glass walls, they actually set up wide moats (or have no barrier at all, like for kangaroos and lemurs) so that there is no synthetic barrier between you and the animals. As you can observe from the below photo – that includes Orang-utans!!! We scoped out the animals that we might see in PNG and Borneo later in the trip, spent some QT in the gift shop buying exotic stuffed animals and then headed back downtown. To be more precise, Chinatown – we were starving.

Over the next four hours, we slowly meandered through the beautiful restored streets of Singapore’s original (and current) Chinatown. The shop fronts were colorful and vibrant, the atmosphere fun and the streets, well, clean – exactly as you would expect from Singapore, not what you would expect from Chinatown. I loved Chinatown. We went from Hawker center to Hawker center (including, for those who might wander through here someday, La Pu Sat, Amoy Street and Chinatown Complex) sampling the local delights - soya sauce noodles and chicken, Singapore coffee, chicken rice and pork buns. All were delicious. We wiled away some time as well at Tea Chapter, a beautiful old tea house, where the staff taught us how to execute a full proper Chinese tea service. We had had some education in this before, but never to quite the degree we learned this afternoon.

All in all, we walked about 15 miles over the course of the day in about 95 degree heat, but couldn’t have been happier. Singapore rocks. Many times throughout the day we wondered aloud why everyone always says that Singapore is boring – it most definitely isn’t. There are tons of highly-recommended local and international museums we won’t have time to make it to, concert halls, opera houses, shows and more. It is a vibrant city with tons to see and do. It is clean, safe super efficient and has undoubtedly the best taxi drivers in the world. The Timeout Singapore cover says it all.

After a not as quick as desired stop for a second fitting at the tailor and a very quick indeed stop in Little India to get a tailor-made Sari for Jen, we booked it back to the St. Regis to GTL (more accurately, shave, shower and change) and get to the airport for our flight to PNG.

Two other interesting anecdotes from the day:

At the Chinatown Complex, we followed the adage of looking for the longest line. I confirmed with the on-line locals that it was worth it and waited patiently for my chicken and noodles. The lady in front of me was a negative Singaporean who worked for Credit Agricole. We chatted about travel and food in Singapore, but we also struck up the banking conversation that you would expect. She asked, quite abruptly: “How is the mood in the states? What are you guys doing? We just keep waiting for you to recover and nothing is moving.” We didn’t have much of a response – what do you say to someone who’s GDP grew by 20%+ annualized last quarter?

On the flip side, while Jen was getting fitted for the Sari I had to run to an ATM to get money to pay for it. To show me the closest one, the shop keeper sent me out with her brother. I joked that we loved Singapore so much we wanted to move there. He answered with an emphatic “no.” “This place is terrible,” he insisted; “I was born here and have lived here my whole life. The government is oppressive, things are too strict. It is not a place to live.” He continued on to explain the lack of some freedoms and that the economy and clean appearance come with a cost.

The sights, sounds and food are interesting. So are the economy and politics.

Air Niugini is now insisting I shut this off as we land in KL. Nothing like going northwest to go south east. Hopefully we’ll be able to post this and other notes soon, but as we have been told numerous times from our PNG guides “you never know what is going to happen in PNG.”

Champagne Sir? - Day 1, Singapore

Note: A will be guest blogging occasionally on our long trip. Here is his first post! 

From Singapore 7-31 “Champagne, sir?”

Well, if that isn’t an auspicious start to a vacation I don’t know what is. After nearly 3 months of daily attempts to use miles to get an upgrade on our tickets to Singapore, it finally worked…the day before we were leaving. No, scratch that – the day we left. See, the only way it was all going to work is actually if we left the prior evening; so, we did. Fortunately, I am an organizational freak (and that is putting it mildly), so we were essentially all packed, both of us had been working late every night that week to make sure that things were taken care of and in the end, it all paid off as I stretched my legs out for the long, but now business-class flight to Singapore. Finally, all of my travel for work really, really paid off in these free tickets!

After what was surely the best flight to Asia that Jen or I had ever had – full of sleep, great food, movies, etc., we arrived at 6:30am on the 31^st in Singapore rested and ready to rock and roll. We are, indeed, a bit intense and we do not, even had we been flying coach, ever sleep when we get in from these flights. It is very much our strategy to hit to the ground running. Singapore airport was every bit as efficient as you would expect it to be – from landing to sitting in a taxi, including immigration, customs, getting our bag and hitting an ATM, was only 30 minutes. The US could learn a lot from that.

I have come to a conclusion in my first Singaporean day – the taxi drivers here are the best in the world. They speak English, have meters and take tremendous pride in their honesty (big change from say Bangkok or KL), are still relatively cheap, are super-friendly and, despite all of the above, still drive like maniacs. I love it.

Once we arrived at the hotel – the new St. Regis just off Orchard Road, where, again, all that travel for work was paying off in a completely free stay, we were awed. The hotel really was brand new and it was gleaming. Service was excellent and they had our room ready despite our arrival at 7:30am. We settled in and were out by 9am.

We wandered around Orchard Road for a bit, learning the area but really looking for a Dim Sum place that had been recommended for breakfast. After a 15 minute walk or so, we arrived – and it was closed, opening at 11:30. Second conclusion of the day – Singapore is a late place. This was breakfast, after all, that we were looking for.

From Singapore 7-31

So, plan B – we were off to Little India. I didn’t expect much and was really pleasantly surprised. The shop houses were very colorful and there definitely wasn’t the sense that this was still the same old Singapore. It was beautiful and just a touch gritty, but all in a good way. After wandering by some temples and walking a bunch of the streets and alleys, we arrived at the Tekka Center Hawker Center. This is what we had been waiting for – the first foray into famed Singapore street food. Jen is not exactly the world’s biggest fan of Indian food so we had to keep things pretty moderate. Nonetheless, she was willing to give it a shot – hence the Chicken Biryani photo below. It was great – sweet and spicy, the perfect mid-morning snack.

From Singapore 7-31

From Singapore 7-31

We continued to wander Little India, stopping in at Singapore’s old spice mill on Cuff St. I had noted in my guidebook that they said you couldn’t miss the place because you could smell the curry for a block as you walked up. They were right. It was extremely strong – strong to the point that when I walked in the store to buy some curry for my mother-in-law I literally could not breathe. I waited 5 minutes to effect the transaction, but I was not a happy camper. I have no idea what that curry is going to do to our luggage.

We next meandered over to the Arab Quarter where we walked along its clean streets and looked into all the refurbished shop houses. It was even more colorful than Little India, but was far more sterile and thus missing some of the charm. We next walked through the Bugis Street market catching whiff after ever-so-powerful whiff of durian. Oh, it was awful. I think it best if I don’t even continue to talk about it as it is turning my stomach now just to think about it.

From Singapore 7-31

Oddly enough, since we didn’t really know anyone in Singapore, we were meeting one of my best friends from high school for drinks at Raffles and lunch. He was randomly passing through with his roommate back in Dublin on a trip around Malaysia and then on to Australia so it was a pretty awesome coincidence. While we waited for him, I knew that one of Singapore’s best tailors, Jack’s Custom Tailors, was located nearby and I desperately needed a few new suits and Jen wanted some dresses made. We stopped in there, got what we needed and then got measured up and went on to meet my friend. There really is nothing like a bespoke suit, so I am pretty excited for those when they’re done in a few weeks.

So now the big question – is a Singapore Sling really worth it? The answer is simple – No. They are terrible. First off, due to all of the ridiculous hullaballoo, purchasing the drink requires you to take out a second mortgage on your home. S$ 24 for one of those things! Secondly, there is no alcohol in them – it is like drinking bad fruit punch. We were really disappointed. Fortunately, we were with good company and were busy laughing it off and talking about all of their and our Asian adventures. The hotel was certainly beautiful and, I guess then, at a minimum, you can say it was a pretty fantastic setting.

From Singapore 7-31

We then headed off to the Albert Hawker Center for lunch. Some HK fried noodles and ginger fried pork and rice later, we were very, very happy. I got to tell you, these Hawker stalls are the only way to go. With all of the shopping, beautiful hotels and other such finery that Singapore has to offer, it can be a mighty expensive place. But, with these hawker stalls, you know that there is always that one opportunity to save some money and eat better food than you could anywhere else. The stuff is just awesome. We’d also go to Newton Circus Hawker Center for dinner later that night (for Beef and Chicken Satay and some seafood dried noodles), and, then, all of Jen and I’s meals all day cost less than $15 for both of us. Awesome!

From Singapore 7-31

From Singapore 7-31

My friend was then off for sunny Sydney, so we parted ways and headed back to our hotel. We were getting exhausted and it had been a long day. That said, though, we actually had another social engagement. One of Jen’s friend’s from high school was living here now and we were excited for her to show us around bit. At this point, as you can imagine in Singapore’s heat, Jen and I had walked about 15 miles since the morning and were a bit, shall we say, grungy. Imagine our surprise when Jen’s friend called and said – “hey, we’re going somewhere a bit fancy that may have a dress code – you should get dressed up a bit.” Well, please also bear in mind that we are spending the rest of the trip hiking around with tribes in the jungle, so we really didn’t have a lot to wear. We managed to get our only finery and we headed off to Asia Bar on the 70^th (no, that is not a typo) floor of the Swissotel. From there, sweeping views of the entire city surrounded you. It was really something. Better still, we arrived before sunset and were able to see the magical transformation of Singapore by day to Singapore by night. We were also, strangely enough, able to witness the Singaporean army practice for their National Day celebrations in a week (we were informed that they had already been practicing for over a month, complete with fireworks shows... and then the day of the show, you can't even watch it live! Everyone watches it on TV from their homes! Only in Asia). We’ll miss the actual festivities so it was interesting to watch the army parades and parachuters drops from the sky.

We were teetering on the edge of exhaustion and at about 7:30pm finally had to call the quits. We parted ways with Jen’s friend who will see on our way back through, headed over to Newton Circus for some quick dinner and then back to the hotel for bed sweet bed. I am writing this at 4:30am, so clearly not quite over the jet lag yet, though I presume that will pass soon enough.

It was an awesome first day. Singapore was certainly impressive and we can’t wait to come back in a few days. Now it is off to Manila in just a few hours.