Our beach front hut at the Sea Gypsy Resort
View of the bayWe loved it so much, we got engaged. Next stop, diamond hunting!
Sunday, 15 February 2009
Asian Adventure 1 :: 13-15 Feb '09 :: Pulau Sibu, Malaysia
- A three hour car journey and a twenty minute exhilarating speed boat ride out to Pulau Sibu, where we spent our first weekend out of Singapore.
Our beach front hut at the Sea Gypsy Resort
View of the bay
We loved it so much, we got engaged. Next stop, diamond hunting!
Our beach front hut at the Sea Gypsy ResortView of the bayWe loved it so much, we got engaged. Next stop, diamond hunting!
First month, lah
This month we have mostly been enjoying...
- The Tan family clan's eight course feast at the Ritz-Carlton, where we enjoyed our first 'yu sheng' salad, a symbol of prosperity and good health amongst the Chinese.
- The ten-feet long fire crackers set off at Lunar New Year in Chinatown. Sadly, the credit crunch put paid to the rest of the fireworks display, which lasted all of 1.5 minutes.
- Hiking to the top of Bukit Timah Nature Reserve. Good combination of sweat, monkeys and inch-long ants. Shame about the 'view' from the top - there isn't one. There are, however, two large electricity pylons. The stuffed tigers in the cabinet on the way out are an interesting reminder of how Singapore was before condominiums and cranes.
- Our first (and last) ride on a tandem in East Coast Park. There is no 'I' in 'team' and certainly not one in 'tandem', either. We consoled ourselves with a seafood feast at 'JUMBO'.
- An impromptu lion dance in the Funan DigtaLife Mall, whilst shopping for electronics. Being treated to a lion 'triplets' (each comprising two people) balancing on a large red ball on a make-shift see-saw was rather good value given that it was free.
- Our resident cockerel, who belts out a proper 'cock-a-doodle-do' every Sunday morning. Life's great down on Tiong Bahru Farm.
- A Geylang gander at the seedy side of Singapore. Sadly it was not quite dark enough to hide the scars on the faces of girls whose lives have been dedicated to the 'entertainment of men'.
- Seeing The Prodigy in concert at Fort Canning Park. Despite being (at one point) too close for comfort to a bunch of British lads who were moshing small Singaporeans into the ground and being victim of a golden shower, which splashed onto my ankle, as yet another ridiculous British man decided that relieving himself in a small plastic cup was a good idea, it was still cool to hear classics such as 'Voodoo People' and 'Out of Space'.
- Counting the calories of local food, now that we have joined 'Globo Gym' in an effort to get fit and lose some of our London weight. The spinning class we tried was not only one of the most difficult things we had done, but it was also hard to stifle giggles at the small instructor shouting in her best Singlish, "Dun gif up, lah!"
- Our first Asian Adventure!
Next month, further explorations into the dining, nightlife and entertainment scenes as we find our feet on this fair isle...
- The Tan family clan's eight course feast at the Ritz-Carlton, where we enjoyed our first 'yu sheng' salad, a symbol of prosperity and good health amongst the Chinese.
- The ten-feet long fire crackers set off at Lunar New Year in Chinatown. Sadly, the credit crunch put paid to the rest of the fireworks display, which lasted all of 1.5 minutes.
- Hiking to the top of Bukit Timah Nature Reserve. Good combination of sweat, monkeys and inch-long ants. Shame about the 'view' from the top - there isn't one. There are, however, two large electricity pylons. The stuffed tigers in the cabinet on the way out are an interesting reminder of how Singapore was before condominiums and cranes.
- Our first (and last) ride on a tandem in East Coast Park. There is no 'I' in 'team' and certainly not one in 'tandem', either. We consoled ourselves with a seafood feast at 'JUMBO'.
- An impromptu lion dance in the Funan DigtaLife Mall, whilst shopping for electronics. Being treated to a lion 'triplets' (each comprising two people) balancing on a large red ball on a make-shift see-saw was rather good value given that it was free.
- Our resident cockerel, who belts out a proper 'cock-a-doodle-do' every Sunday morning. Life's great down on Tiong Bahru Farm.
- A Geylang gander at the seedy side of Singapore. Sadly it was not quite dark enough to hide the scars on the faces of girls whose lives have been dedicated to the 'entertainment of men'.
- Seeing The Prodigy in concert at Fort Canning Park. Despite being (at one point) too close for comfort to a bunch of British lads who were moshing small Singaporeans into the ground and being victim of a golden shower, which splashed onto my ankle, as yet another ridiculous British man decided that relieving himself in a small plastic cup was a good idea, it was still cool to hear classics such as 'Voodoo People' and 'Out of Space'.
- Counting the calories of local food, now that we have joined 'Globo Gym' in an effort to get fit and lose some of our London weight. The spinning class we tried was not only one of the most difficult things we had done, but it was also hard to stifle giggles at the small instructor shouting in her best Singlish, "Dun gif up, lah!"
- Our first Asian Adventure!
Next month, further explorations into the dining, nightlife and entertainment scenes as we find our feet on this fair isle...
Thursday, 22 January 2009
Sin City Settlers
Seven days and seven points to note:
- The local shopping mall (Tiong Bahru Plaza) boasts the fashion houses of 'Wanko' and 'Dressy Closet'. I was shocked to discover that Wanko has more than one outlet and are clearly about to take the fashion world by storm. I'd like to hear the advice the British Council would give to Wanko on 'breaking into the UK market'.
- The local supermarket (NTUC Fairprice) sells live crabs (if you dare to approach the tank with your bare hands wielding a pair of plastic tongs) and eggs by 'Eggy the Eggs-Pert'. Until now, I had no idea that 'Eggy' stands for:
E xceptional Value-for-money
G reat Quality
G uaranteed Freshness
Y ou - It's all about serving YOU better
- Stanley, one of the local market stallholders offers the enticing 'Real Tasty Kampong Chicken' (recommended by my Auntie Dora, and essentially, free range) with the strapline, "It's Really A Taste of Different".
- Given the proximity of the Lunar New Year, the usual fast food suspects are each offering the 'Prosperity Burger', the 'Prosperity Pizza' (complete with a stuffed crust shaped into gold ingots) and a 'Fortune (Kan't Find the Chicken) Feast'.
- I have left my garlic in an open bowl and am about to hang a small bag of salt in my hallway to 'ward away the spirits of times gone by' on the advice of my Auntie Dora. (You just never know when those spirits might come knocking and you want to be prepared when and if they do.)
- The weather has been sunny all this week and it has rained once. The temperatures have been above 29 degrees Celsius and we have been indulging in two showers a day out of necessity. Thankfully, our flat has a designer shower, so it's a lush experience. Yar yar.
- We went to our first 'international party' last Saturday and it ended in a debauched dance lesson including the Filipino 'Papaya' Dance and five basic Bollywood moves. The video below gives you an idea... Just add lots of beer, cocktails and awkward 'ang mo's':
For the Lunar New Year, we will be enjoying our 'Reunion Dinner' at the swish Ritz-Carlton hotel buffet. Get in line! We then aim to become intrepid explorers of Singapore's national parks and nature reserves thereafter, as both Monday and Tuesday are Public Holidays. Rocking!
It's the Year of the Ox, in case you're wondering... so the year for all those who you know who are celebrating their 60th, 48th, 36th, 24th and 12th birthdays this year. Gong Xi Fa Cai (literally, "wishing you enlarge your wealth") and see you on the other side!
- The local shopping mall (Tiong Bahru Plaza) boasts the fashion houses of 'Wanko' and 'Dressy Closet'. I was shocked to discover that Wanko has more than one outlet and are clearly about to take the fashion world by storm. I'd like to hear the advice the British Council would give to Wanko on 'breaking into the UK market'.
- The local supermarket (NTUC Fairprice) sells live crabs (if you dare to approach the tank with your bare hands wielding a pair of plastic tongs) and eggs by 'Eggy the Eggs-Pert'. Until now, I had no idea that 'Eggy' stands for:
E xceptional Value-for-money
G reat Quality
G uaranteed Freshness
Y ou - It's all about serving YOU better
- Stanley, one of the local market stallholders offers the enticing 'Real Tasty Kampong Chicken' (recommended by my Auntie Dora, and essentially, free range) with the strapline, "It's Really A Taste of Different".
- Given the proximity of the Lunar New Year, the usual fast food suspects are each offering the 'Prosperity Burger', the 'Prosperity Pizza' (complete with a stuffed crust shaped into gold ingots) and a 'Fortune (Kan't Find the Chicken) Feast'.
- I have left my garlic in an open bowl and am about to hang a small bag of salt in my hallway to 'ward away the spirits of times gone by' on the advice of my Auntie Dora. (You just never know when those spirits might come knocking and you want to be prepared when and if they do.)
- The weather has been sunny all this week and it has rained once. The temperatures have been above 29 degrees Celsius and we have been indulging in two showers a day out of necessity. Thankfully, our flat has a designer shower, so it's a lush experience. Yar yar.
- We went to our first 'international party' last Saturday and it ended in a debauched dance lesson including the Filipino 'Papaya' Dance and five basic Bollywood moves. The video below gives you an idea... Just add lots of beer, cocktails and awkward 'ang mo's':
For the Lunar New Year, we will be enjoying our 'Reunion Dinner' at the swish Ritz-Carlton hotel buffet. Get in line! We then aim to become intrepid explorers of Singapore's national parks and nature reserves thereafter, as both Monday and Tuesday are Public Holidays. Rocking!
It's the Year of the Ox, in case you're wondering... so the year for all those who you know who are celebrating their 60th, 48th, 36th, 24th and 12th birthdays this year. Gong Xi Fa Cai (literally, "wishing you enlarge your wealth") and see you on the other side!
Sunday, 4 January 2009
10 days and counting...
So, finally the end is in sight. It has been a wonderful few weeks, organising the big move, meeting up with business contacts to let them know the news, attending my last Aviation Club lunch at which I heard the CEO of Iberia speak, not one but two weddings, finding out that I was chosen as one of the 'Future 500' for 2009, hosting my leaving party at a warehouse in Whitechapel and finally enjoying a last Christmas and New Year with my nearest and dearest.
It has been a whirlwind ride, seeing and doing as many 'London Tings' as possible interspersed with whiling away the last days and hours at my (now) old job. Today, my parents left after spending the weekend packing up my dad's van to bursting point with items and memories collected in London over the last four years. It wasn't until they left that the reality sunk in that I'm leaving in ten days. The flat is really bare now and we are noticing our voices echoing from the lack of substance. I am sure that the emptiness is pervading my mind and inducing fear where there should not be any. Singapore is a land that I know and where I have family. However, I suppose everyone always experiences a little fear when change is afoot.
The last things to do on our list are to rent out our flat, sell the car, cancel all the utilities and ship our carefully selected items to arrive in time for the day after touchdown. Seeing our new flat is something I am very excited about. For sure, there will be things that we have conjured in our minds that we have remembered differently, having only visited it for a total of fifteen minutes. For example, my partner was confused the other day when I resolutely asserted that there is a glass door separating the living room from the kitchen. (I am now desperately hoping to avoid an 'egg on face' situation - heh heh).
And so, here's to the final stretch. May it be filled with lots of French wine, good Western food and wonderful friends. It will not be long before our time is filled with Tiger Beer, exquisite Asian gastronomy and unfamiliar faces - many of whom, I hope, will become our new friends.
It has been a whirlwind ride, seeing and doing as many 'London Tings' as possible interspersed with whiling away the last days and hours at my (now) old job. Today, my parents left after spending the weekend packing up my dad's van to bursting point with items and memories collected in London over the last four years. It wasn't until they left that the reality sunk in that I'm leaving in ten days. The flat is really bare now and we are noticing our voices echoing from the lack of substance. I am sure that the emptiness is pervading my mind and inducing fear where there should not be any. Singapore is a land that I know and where I have family. However, I suppose everyone always experiences a little fear when change is afoot.
The last things to do on our list are to rent out our flat, sell the car, cancel all the utilities and ship our carefully selected items to arrive in time for the day after touchdown. Seeing our new flat is something I am very excited about. For sure, there will be things that we have conjured in our minds that we have remembered differently, having only visited it for a total of fifteen minutes. For example, my partner was confused the other day when I resolutely asserted that there is a glass door separating the living room from the kitchen. (I am now desperately hoping to avoid an 'egg on face' situation - heh heh).
And so, here's to the final stretch. May it be filled with lots of French wine, good Western food and wonderful friends. It will not be long before our time is filled with Tiger Beer, exquisite Asian gastronomy and unfamiliar faces - many of whom, I hope, will become our new friends.
Tuesday, 4 November 2008
10 weeks and counting...
Sitting in my office near Tower Hill, London, bathed in flourescent light which illuminates my image on the window against a sky that has been black since 4:30 p.m., I cannot help but lose myself in daydreams of my soon-to-be-home in Tiong Bahru, Singapore.
Having just returned to my job as an Aviation Finance lawyer for the final stretch before departing for far eastern shores, both my partner and I have been firing emails back and forth laden with findings of the past, present and future of Tiong Bahru, the oldest housing estate remaining in Singapore.
We shall be living on Guan Chuan Street - so named after the Chinese pioneer, So Guan Chuan - one of the thirty-six local born and locally settled Chinese merchants who went on to set up the Keng Tak Whay in 1831, a sworn brotherhood that owned eight shop houses and that was sited in a pagoda on the premises of the Thian Hock Keng Temple.
Map from Singapore Land Authority.
Fast forward to today and Tiong Bahru is fast attracting young, upwardly mobile professionals eager to move into the newly decorated and often highly stylised low-rise art-deco apartments for which it has long been famous. Even the November edition of Wallpaper* Magazine has this to say:
By Singaporean standards, the Tiong Bahru estate is an odd duck. On the surface, the quarter is a charming mix of well-preserved mid-1930s, three-storey buildings and a string of early 1950s art deco-styled flats. A fading Buddhist temple hugs a street corner, while across the road, raucous hawker stalls dish out succulent roast duck rice and flourescent-lit convenience stalls sell bicycle parts. Squint a little and this could easily be Singapore 30 years ago, even though the skyscrapers of Raffles Place are just minutes away.
But over the past few years, the quarter's ageing residents and nuclear families have seen an influx of 30-somethings - among them a sizeable gay community. Attracted by the relatively low property prices and period architecture, architect Ken Wong and his journalist boyfried moved into the estate two years ago. "This is the only area where heritage apartments don't have purchase restrictions," says Wong, referring to government regulations that usually limit purchases of property to married couples or singletons over 35.
Savvy businesses are responding to this new demographic. Organic store Yes Natural (#01-27, 58 Seng Poh Road, tel:+65 6227 3280) offers organic treats; while Rice Fields (#01-06, 66 Eng Watt Street, tel:+65 6227 3456) stocks imported European stone, and swanky bathroom sinks and tiles. At night, Wine Wise (#01-86, 57 Eng Hoon Street, tel:+65 6227 2118) pulls in oenophiles, while Persimmon (#01-07, 50 Tiong Bahru Road, tel: +65 6227 2271) does a mean East-meets-West menu.
"This area is a modern urban village," says local health-care worker Tristan Lim. "There's a party at someone's place every other weekend." Welcome to the new Singapore.
Other exciting and intriguing new businesses catering for the new demographic's tastes are French delicatessen, Le Bon Marche (01-41, 78 Guan Chuan Street, tel:+65 6226 3269) and rather posh patisserie, Centre PS (pronounced Centrepiece) (#01-43, 78 Guan Chuan Street, tel:+65 6220 1285).
We cannot wait to sample all of the new delights in this area. I am particularly excited about being so close to my Grandad, to whom I uttered my first words in Mandarin just a few weeks ago. Sadly, after my groundbreaking introduction of my "nán péng you" (boyfriend) and my carefully constructed "wǒ huì shuō yī diǎn pǔ tōng huà" (I can speak a little Mandarin), I failed at the first hurdle when we parted ways at Clarke Quay and I mistook his assertion that he was going home with an offer to accompany him to drink tea. (What?! "huí jiā" sounds uncannily like "hē chá"). The road is long.
So, with ten weeks and counting, we have to embark on a whirlwind tour of seeing friends, family and favourite places interspersed with organisational activities such as renting out our London flat, shipping, and packing, all whilst still having full-time jobs. Punchy.
In a bit...
Having just returned to my job as an Aviation Finance lawyer for the final stretch before departing for far eastern shores, both my partner and I have been firing emails back and forth laden with findings of the past, present and future of Tiong Bahru, the oldest housing estate remaining in Singapore.
We shall be living on Guan Chuan Street - so named after the Chinese pioneer, So Guan Chuan - one of the thirty-six local born and locally settled Chinese merchants who went on to set up the Keng Tak Whay in 1831, a sworn brotherhood that owned eight shop houses and that was sited in a pagoda on the premises of the Thian Hock Keng Temple.
Map from Singapore Land Authority.Fast forward to today and Tiong Bahru is fast attracting young, upwardly mobile professionals eager to move into the newly decorated and often highly stylised low-rise art-deco apartments for which it has long been famous. Even the November edition of Wallpaper* Magazine has this to say:
By Singaporean standards, the Tiong Bahru estate is an odd duck. On the surface, the quarter is a charming mix of well-preserved mid-1930s, three-storey buildings and a string of early 1950s art deco-styled flats. A fading Buddhist temple hugs a street corner, while across the road, raucous hawker stalls dish out succulent roast duck rice and flourescent-lit convenience stalls sell bicycle parts. Squint a little and this could easily be Singapore 30 years ago, even though the skyscrapers of Raffles Place are just minutes away.
But over the past few years, the quarter's ageing residents and nuclear families have seen an influx of 30-somethings - among them a sizeable gay community. Attracted by the relatively low property prices and period architecture, architect Ken Wong and his journalist boyfried moved into the estate two years ago. "This is the only area where heritage apartments don't have purchase restrictions," says Wong, referring to government regulations that usually limit purchases of property to married couples or singletons over 35.
Savvy businesses are responding to this new demographic. Organic store Yes Natural (#01-27, 58 Seng Poh Road, tel:+65 6227 3280) offers organic treats; while Rice Fields (#01-06, 66 Eng Watt Street, tel:+65 6227 3456) stocks imported European stone, and swanky bathroom sinks and tiles. At night, Wine Wise (#01-86, 57 Eng Hoon Street, tel:+65 6227 2118) pulls in oenophiles, while Persimmon (#01-07, 50 Tiong Bahru Road, tel: +65 6227 2271) does a mean East-meets-West menu.
"This area is a modern urban village," says local health-care worker Tristan Lim. "There's a party at someone's place every other weekend." Welcome to the new Singapore.
Other exciting and intriguing new businesses catering for the new demographic's tastes are French delicatessen, Le Bon Marche (01-41, 78 Guan Chuan Street, tel:+65 6226 3269) and rather posh patisserie, Centre PS (pronounced Centrepiece) (#01-43, 78 Guan Chuan Street, tel:+65 6220 1285).
We cannot wait to sample all of the new delights in this area. I am particularly excited about being so close to my Grandad, to whom I uttered my first words in Mandarin just a few weeks ago. Sadly, after my groundbreaking introduction of my "nán péng you" (boyfriend) and my carefully constructed "wǒ huì shuō yī diǎn pǔ tōng huà" (I can speak a little Mandarin), I failed at the first hurdle when we parted ways at Clarke Quay and I mistook his assertion that he was going home with an offer to accompany him to drink tea. (What?! "huí jiā" sounds uncannily like "hē chá"). The road is long.
So, with ten weeks and counting, we have to embark on a whirlwind tour of seeing friends, family and favourite places interspersed with organisational activities such as renting out our London flat, shipping, and packing, all whilst still having full-time jobs. Punchy.
In a bit...
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