Happy Halloween

I think I'll go as a triathlete. Scary!

Laura goes to Pulau Ubin

This weekend, Barry and I went to a lesser known Singaporean Island, Pulau Ubin, located in the Johor Strait. Here are some of the challenges we faced:

Getting stuck in the past.Being careful of the rather large jackfruits. Then, a vicious dog ate our map:

There wasn't enough parking:And there was clearly a risk of falling coconuts, or sinking into the coconut bog.Please see more pictures of our adventure here.

Balcony Sunsets

Gravy Train?

This is what happens when the subway comes after 6, rather than 4 minutes during rush hour. (We failed to board.)

Syndication

Recently, there have been events that happened much like last year. On October 6, we celebrated Durga Puja, though this year I did not wear a Sari. After facing the challenges of obtaining obscure western food such as turkey and pumpkin, we hosted a lovely Thanksgiving for 9.

Gritty Singapore

Lest the media, including this site, convince you that Singapore is immaculate and sterile, here is some evidence to the contrary. Singapore is an eclectic mix of old and new, rich and poor, clean and dirty. I hope these pictures, taken mostly in my neighbourhood, demonstrate some of this depth of character (cigarette butt shown for size).

McDosa

Here is the lesser known fast food icon, the Dosa Man of Komala's Southern Indian Vegetarian fast food. Known for its yummy fried goodness, sometimes surprising fillings, and flavourful accompaniments, dosa (Thosai) is surprisingly not that much like a Big Mac, though the statue is just as freakishly cheerful.

Deepavali Market

Deepavali continues to provide us, and the rest of Little India, with colour, chaos and excitement. These pictures are from the Deepavali craft market, where decorations, clothes, jewelry, A1 cookies, and Engrish shirts are sold. I have not bought anything yet, as I am waiting for the Day after Deepavali discount sale. Does anyone want a peacock decoration for Christmas? Bangles? Henna?

Fruit of the week

The mighty Pomelo is back as fruit of the week again. I'm just saying check out the 61cm circumference of this bad boy, don't you think he desereves it?

Camouflage of the week

Try to locate the lizard in the above picture. Today we went to the MacRitchie Reservoir, a source of Singaporean drinking water, and apparently also monkey proctology examinations,long, lean monitor lizards,and aforementioned water.

Dazzled by the Lights

Deepavali (Diwali), the festival of lights, brings us the above street bling. From our balcony, we watched these lights being painstakingly hung for about a month, and now we get to watch them in colour for another month! Sadly, these pictures only begins to demonstrate the fabulous spectacale that is our street.

Sunburn of the Week

Can you tell what number Barry was in his most recent half-Ironman race? Bonus points for figuring out who the sponsor was.

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival

This weekend Singapore celebrated the Mid-Autumn festival, which is also known here as the Lantern festival or the mooncake festival, describing the traditions involved. Essentially a harvest festival, the mid-autumn festival involves parades with dragons,

children carrying lanterns,

worshipping the moon goddess, and eating mooncakes. These are very pretty and sometimes tasty pastries with egg-yolks and other sweet and savoury fillings.

Fruit Eater of the Week

Barry has accomplished the nearly impossible, an even greater feat than the Ironman. Barry has eaten a durian and liked it. He described the taste as follows: like texture of avocado, but tastes like custardy Camembert cheese that has been sitting around in the sun for a few days, fried with onions in oil and covered in honey.

The other fruits of the week are the tasty but tricky to eat Pu Toh San and the Lu Gu. As they don't speak much English, they did not disclose their English names to me.

Searching for the Distant Pagoda

Last Sunday, Barry and I decided to find the one last alluring, temple-like building that we see from our 18th storey balcony. We knew neither the name nor the location of the mysterious pagoda, but were guided by estimates and our sense of adventure. Sadly, these were not accurate, and we ended up walking from one incorrect landmark to another for three damp hours. Here are some of the things we saw.

First, this is the Sim Clan building beside our apartment building. Though I'm not clear on the details, they are some sort of association of the extended Sim family. Apparently similar to a Rotary club, they are involved in activities like drum banging and parades for festivals, funerals and events in between, using the floats shown below.

After visiting the Sims, we stopped in for a little acupuncture and cauterization so as to prepare us for our journey.The first temple we found made up for its lack of pagodas via its collection of confusing Buddhist/Taoist puppets.

This mosque also did not incorporate any pagoda styling into its lovely architecture.After a washroom break at a sketchy mall that included its own, um, "sauna", we found ourselves at the Crocodile farm. You know, for skinning them and making purses. In urban Singapore. You never know when to expect a crocodile farm!

The crocodile farm made our brains explode a little bit, but luckily help was just down the street.

Next temple: Thai, and completely pagodaless.By the time we reached this green temple, we were jaded and grumpy.And, to our surprise and wonder, we see a tall green roof through the treetops! It turns out that our mysterious building was filled with dead people! That is, the Pagoda is the central building in the Mount Vernon crematorium, and offers eight stories of ashes, faux flowers, fabulous views and a fabulous sense of accomplishment!