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.

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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.

Availability of activities was also extensive. Here, we are seen having a birthday dinner while sinking into the sea as the tide comes in.

The staff stood in mid-calf deep water while singing to Mark. Also, Richard claps like this I guess:

Yup, the band keeps playing as the sea levels rise and we sink.

So we have our first Beachliness Review perfect score!

Nikoi Island Beachliness Review

Sandiness: 1

Boatiness: 1

Prettiness: 1

Desertedness: 1

Wildlife: 1

Availability of activities: 1

Availability of cocktails: 1

Total: 7/7!

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Life in the Western Forest

West coast BC forests are mystical places full of moss, lichen, and old conifers. See if you can spot me in this picture.

We didn't count the years, but lotsa.

Strange formations seem to emerge from the ground.

People think that in Canada you see big mammals in the wild all the time, but they are wrong. This is as close as we got. As you can see, the last time a wolf was spotted was *32 NPR xvk 13. Both signs has the same cryptic message. Is there a heart in there?

So instead, we looked at the ground cover, which has these freaky nobuscules.

And miniature forests with teeny tiny leafies.

I picked some lichen lettuce.

But that isn't food, so I ate salmon berries, shown below, and many thimble berries, which are delicious and plentiful. But weren't photographed because eating.

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Northwestern Cultures

Northwestern Canada is a beautiful place with many distinct cultural contributions. Let's summarize via the totem pole. The totem pole represents the family heritage and story for people in the Haida and other First Nations people. (Shown here with bald eagle).

After coming to Canada and killing a large percentage of the local population with weapons and smallpox, the colonials then went into cultural wipe-out mode, leading to the burning of totem poles, deforestation, and of course abducting children.

But the strong Haida people are working on a renaissance, by relearning their traditional arts and reinvigorating the traditional culture. The first modern totem pole was raised in Port Masset, Haida Gwaii in the 70s, and now you can see then all around town.

As I learnt more, I became a particular fan of the Shame Totem Pole (here, see Types). So basically, you can commemorate forever the ways people have affronted you. And you can keep adding sections! This is amazing; Barry's Shame Poll is in progress.

The native people also revere nature and animals, so this Balance Rock is a cool and also spiritual place.

There are many native, foraged, picked foods, but it's hard to experience them in such rural places. We bought this bag of sea asparagus from a family of Filipinos selling it at a stall. Salty, crunchy, and high fiber - a great snack! (Does not taste like asparagus).

In Whitehorse, Yukon, there are many traces of the goldrush culture. I didn't realize that the wild wild North looked like this.

We went to Carcross, short for Caribou crossing, where the small goldrushy houses/huts still exist, many inhabited. The one below was built by a man who loved the beer parlour and his dream was to put wood on his fire from his bed. His dream was NOT to stand up in his hut, which is sized for an 8-year-old, shown here.

Prince Rupert, where we saw the aforeblogged bears, is a port and fishing town. Of course, they revere the mighty beaver.

We think these are dungeness crab traps. They were everywhere.

Prince Rupert has (sort of) converted their old salmon cannery into a museum. There, Chinese, Japanese, Native and White workers did different jobs, lived separately in highly different standards, and canned salmon. Fascinating, yet the anthropological commentary skirted some of the more difficult issues here.

Of course everywhere had a fishing culture, and everywhere had beaches of many kinds. Here is our fave. BC beaches are mostly covered in logs! Some is from logging boats being clumsy, some is regular driftwood, some is really old and historical, apparently.

This was a creepy inland log graveyard. I'm not sure how logs get into a marsh. I would guess a logged area that has flooded?

There will be no LIS Beachliness reviews, because the vast majority of Canada's beaches will have the same review as lake Erie. Beautiful, desolate, often cold, limited facilities.

But definitely very beautiful.

Final cultural picture. We accidentally rented a purple car onto which ladies may pose. Here is my best work. No, the bumper scratches were not ours.

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