Singapore's small, and when your island fever gets too intense, you gotta skip town! The easiest solution is to get on a boat to the island of Bintan, aka Fauxnesia. Fauxnesia, like Disneyworld, Vegas or Iqaluit, is for people who want to convince themselves they're somewhere they're not. In this case, we're pretending we're in Indonesiapore.
Bintan's resort area is separated from the rest of the Indonesian island by a barbed wire fence, and its currency is the Singapore dollar. Shown below are fauxsatay, bigger than actual satay but less tasty.
Bintan is not without its dangers:
However, if you need a getaway and a 90 minute massage, Fauxnesia is easy and relaxing.
But be careful not to hyper-extend that relaxed neck.
We recently visited Singapore's Jurong Bird park. The birds were a big fan of Barry and Erin. I, however, was a little more hesitant.
These birds are ibis, though I'm more familiar with them in their hotel form.
Some of the birds seemed to be having a good time.
But others not as much (unless it's normal for ostriches to bald).
Good times,
How do you take your coffee? No, this is not a mass coffee spill: Singapore's had a few floods lately, after which our local paper published the following picture:
These clever people seek higher ground. They will later likely seek anti-fungal cream.
We have recently discovered that Singapore has its own Sasquatch, called the 
Here's me running away in fear - not of monkey man, but from a huge spider's web I had just run into.
Well, instead of finding cryptids, we found alternative creatures, such as soccer cows.
A monster snail slowly attacking my umbrella:
We found the lesser known, flower peppercorn, probably used by monkey monster as seasoning.
You're enraptured by my photographic representation of the puffball, yes?
Outside of the forest, I call this art of art imitating life...
And this: the End of Puff.
And finally: Lotus-like flower hides under the Wall. (As opposed to 
This week, Dave's going back north, and Erin left earlier this year for Indonesia.
To mark this sad occasion, we had proper goodbye meals. This one included Singapore's most delicious dish: chili crab. Chili crab is served with Barry's favourite buns for sauce dipping. He says they are just like babies.
The best side dish for chili crab is black pepper crab, which also deliciously laughs in the face of western seafood sauce convention.
This weekend, Barry learned about communism.
The reason for this is that once we got tired of wondering about the giant balloon across the street from us, we went on a walk in our neighbourhood.
The weather was so bright, even golden Buddha had to wear shades.
And cemented-over former garbage chutes provided intrigue.
Similarly, this door reveals the secret codes.
This man was stirring vast vats of curry with what looked like a rake.
