Laura in Vietnam

From the chaos of Hanoi, we travelled to Halong bay, where we spent the night on a Junk boat.Then, we travelled via bus, boat and cable car to the Perfume Pagoda. The pictures here are set two of three for Vietnam, stay tuned.

Engrish in Vietnam

I'm currently overwhelmed with various things, including the number of pictures I took last weekend in Vietnam. So, for today you get part one of three: Engrish in Vietnam.

Happy Durga Puja!

This week my friend took us to the Bengali festival of Durga Puja. This is to pray for Durga, shown below. Much like the modern woman, Durga is a beautiful and powerful multi-handed goddess who fights evil, makes hand gestures, and cares for her five children.

Laura in Singapore Rated

This blog is rated R. Children under 17 require an accompanying adult due to use of the words pain (8x), sex (5x), hurt (4x), drugs (3x) and ass (2x) and steal (2x). While I enjoy this rating, I'm concerned about the ratio of pain words to more fun ones. Aiming to please, I will work on this in future posts.

Selamat Hari Raya!

This Friday, we went to Arab Street and Malay Village to witness the end-of-Ramadan festivities, known as Eid, or Hari Raya. The festival chaos was enchanting, and there was much to be seen. Several pictures for you.

Happy Thanksgiving!

This Saturday, twelve Canadians in Singapore got together for thanksgiving. Here are the challenges that were skillfully overcome:
Cranberries. These are North American and are generally only available as craisins. Cans were found in a crevasse at the bottom shelf of grocery store.
Turkey. This is not available unless the butcher happens to overhear you talking in Canadian French, in which case you can special order.

Pumpkin. Available here is some kind of Australian squash-like vegetable, as well as Monsieur le Canuck:Pumpkin pie. Special supply for Canadian expats shows up in local grocery store. I bought 1/2 of these. Oven. Very rare: only 1 Canadian apartment of 10 had one. I baked pies at a friend's friend's house. Luckily she welcomes strangers in to use her oven.

Culture. French Canadians, who are the majority here, don't tend to celebrate thanksgiving, but led this event in the name of patriotism.

We had a fabulous time, spoke Franglais, and according to tradition, ate way too much:

More Tourism shots

Clarke Quay is a covered restaurant area on the river. We went there in a semi-successful attempt to address our huge lingering shawarma craving. Here are some more high-saturation night shots called "Tourist walking to Shawarma".

Korean Day

I was going to do this post in Korean and make you translate, but Blogger is xenophobic. So here's what I said. And here's the translation from babelfish:
We Korean day were in the last week school. My Korean name is the [as shown]. My friends and I eat the Korean food absurdly and there was a fun. You who drink the bomb mixed the soju at pulse [beer] week and assuming me you learned. That time it throws the napkin which gets wet in the ceiling which it spreads out (or at your friend). Me it wears the traditional Korean dress with a rice shock [pounding] man from Belgium. The helpful and brilliant Koreans gave us tea. We promptly followed these instructions: