Mountains of Abundance

After a flat time, we sought some mountains. This is Montserrat, Spain.There was a huge wait to go to the monastery at the top, but the better view was from behind.

We went to Andorra, where there are hill cows grazing in the mountains. I'm not sure if they make Andorran meat or cheese.

There were huge supermarkets. Here is the cheese section; I may have overreacted.

This is how many kinds of roquefort there are. I didn't know there were kinds!

Speaking of cheese, we went to the goat cheese farm (ok, this was in France, but technicality).

Barry and #01168 may have fallen in love. Also, look at all those udders!

The crosshatch pattern makes for a pleasing way to display your sausages, I think.

So many hams.

Andorra has some curious goods for sale, including concerning light weaponry.

My favourite selection was the traditional Andorran bottle opener.

It all makes for a lovely Andorran picnic!

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A Walk with Snaky Dragon and Snaky Turtle

We have moved, so we went on an exploration of our new neighbourhood. There are curious murals. We last saw these creatures in Bangkok. It turns out they're by Alex Face, a Thai street artist.

This is our local community cat, a 16-year-old calico named Roberta who likes Barry best.

She is also portrayed in street art!

The neighbourhood gurdwara is not easy to photograph.

The local Thai Buddhist temple is more flashy.

It has the only Thai snaky-dragons I've seen in Singapore.

I tried to learn Buddhism in this 1 page. I can't say I got very far after matri/patricide, and all those parts about the world being destroyed.

Anyway, when he doesn't shave, Barry resembles this god.

One of the local establishments is Good Chance Popiah, where there is a good chance you can get your face on a plate with lettuce! The popiah are great, too.

One of the local spas is called YangkWaang, which is unfortunate.

And our neighbourhood even has a little ruined gate, eaten by a tree.

Behind the Banana tree we found the real treasure!

The Simpons, Charlie Brown, and Turbo the Snail have had some kind of incident!

It ended badly for Bart and Charlie.

Here, you can see 3 generations of Singapore buildings: Traditional kampong building, early, mid-rise public housing, and a new condo being built!

We followed the path of the pet turtle.

And returned to Buddhism, this time with a more local flavour.

It was a snaky-turtle good time.

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Beachliness Review 5: Bintan, Indonesia (Fauxnesia)

I'm surprised and conflicted by the results of the infallible LiS Beachliness Review 5 of Bintan, Indonesia: a ferry-ride away from Singapore, and normally good for weekend getaways or bike crashes.

I call Bintan Fauxnesia. I have not been a huge fan, given the lack of exoticness, and with the extensive visitors.

However, since our kitchen has burst into a puff of toxic renovation dust and noise, it seemed like a good place to work for the week. 

So, let's measure the Beachliness! First, sandiness. Really quite excellent. Now that I notice such things, I was surprised.

Second is boatiness. Boatiness in Bintan is low, although the small fisher boats are picturesque. Half points.

Third: prettiness. There are nicer and less nice spots, but here it was really quite pretty, so I give full points, again to my surprise.

We even saw one of those big blood moon things for the first time, although we didn't have the neck-breaking machinery to capture it, so here's a boring moon.

Fourth is desertedness. During the week and with many countries not fully travelling still, we had amazing desertedness. I will give full points, noting that in regular times, this would not apply.

Speaking of which, this whole resort was deserted. And creepy.

Fifth: wildlife. I knew there would be half points for the intertidal creatures, but we had surprises. First, froggy friend: a pink tree frog couple, who I failed to species-dentify, hopped around our balcony, impressing me with their acrobatics and cute toes.

Man, I love frogs!

Then, we saw a civet cat at twilight! So, full points!

6 is availability of activities. Bintan's activities are ok, but fairly standard touristy. and normally crowded, so I think half points are due.

Since we were working, the only activity I did was taking pictures of the sunrise.

Here's what the other end of that looked like.

Finally, availability of cocktails. While you can get them, the quality is definitely not as good as the food. So half points, and a picture of some of the delicious sambals that I ate all week.

In the end, this score is much higher than I expected, which demonstrates the LiS Beachliness system's ability to withstand bias.

Bintan Indonesia Beachliness Review

Sandiness: 1

Boatiness: 0.5

Prettiness: 1

Desertedness: 1 (weekday)

Wildlife: 1 (partly luck)

Availability of activities: 0.5

Availability of cocktails: 0.5

Total: 5.5/7