Laura in Singapore: November 2023

Friday, November 17, 2023

Joel in Singapore

My friend Joel came to Singapore to see the Gardens by the Bay, since his son built them with Lego. (I got the same set, but did not assemble it quite as correctly.)

The gods were smiling on him, and gave us photogenic skies.

After all, Joel is an avatar.

Given this, we've modified our "weekend in Singapore" itinerary to include a walk by the Avatar trees.

The trees and the monstera plants made us look tiny.

But the merlion made Joel look huge, because only the regular merlion was under merliononic rehabilitation.

Joel did not hate durian, so this is the best/worst face that we got.

Fun fact: teeth subject to strong dental hygiene will glow under UV light. Barry...

We took normal pictures too.

Here we are eating delicious chili crab like normal tourists.

We got to the flower dome in time for the misting.

But Joel's avatar was not in exactly the right place, so this was our best shot.

Here are my favourite orchids of the month: Green snakies,

And the Peranakan slipper flower (that reference will only work for 2 of my 4 readers).

Shamefully, the quintessential boat quay picture was cropped.

But we made a stellar recovery at one of our favourite subtle yet fabulous bars.

And, let's close with a Year of the Bunny shot.

Sunday, November 5, 2023

Beachliness Review 7: Nikoi Island

In the seventh LIS Beachliness Review, we are in Nikoi Island, Indonesia, which is close to Singapore as the crow flies. But we are not crows, so it takes a bit longer.

Sandliness: full points. Nice sand, no junk. In fact, sand across the whole island. Boatiness: well, there is an occasional fishing boat, and here are Laura and Barry kayaking elegantly. I thought I might be rusty at kayaking, but I forgot that I'm Canadian, so we're always good at canoes and at least one winter sport (mine's skating). Anyway, I think that's full boatiness points.

Prettiness: Nikoi is very pretty. It was a bit cloudy when I was unlazed enough to take pictures, but all the pretties were there.

Desertedness. Well, it's a resort, so there are people, but it's pretty big, so I think still full points. You could avoid almost all humans if you wanted to. Oh my gosh, will we get a perfect score?

Wildlife: yup! Below, you can see the surprisingly elegant tracks of a monitor lizard. In the sea, we saw many things, including a big cuttlefish and a moray eel.

We also saw these creatures! You just never know when you will see the Irish.

This is Barry's "The boat is late and I'm worried I'll miss tomorrow's flight" face.

Availability of cocktails: stellar. This is the frozen nutmeg daquiri, which was creative and refreshing. It was so good I'd consider bonus points, but I was generous on the boatiness already.