Beat Rising Food Prices: Live in Singapore

This article explains all. Note that at the time of writing the $Sing 2.50 is about $CDN 1.62, accounting for tax differences.

Taste Test

In our continued quest to adapt to the taste of the mythical Durian, Barry and I tried chocolates with durian filling. Here are the shots of our initial tasting:And here is our reactions after the burning onion taste penetrated fully and the durians beat us into shape

Got Pests?

Don't worry, just get a pest valve, and they'll get sucked right down! A lesser-known Apple product.

High Tech photography

My new camera, rather than having a night setting, has a "Happy Faces" smile enhancing feature. Here are some examples of how it works:Above is Luis before and after the plastic surgery.
Barry before and after the bike ride.
David, after the bee stung his lips.
And Barry relaxing in bed.

Japanese Marketing

As the gift bag above demonstrates, the Japanese take marketing to a whole new level, laughing in the face of linguistic tradition and grammatical correctness. Here are some examples found in Singapore, starting with some dubious snacks:Followed by a gift card, and everyone's favourite, instructions:

Marketing in Singapore

Though Singapore is an English-speaking country, the Singaporean use of English is slightly different than ours. This can lead to some expressions that we might find funny. Here are some examples. We start with a sign for a walking club, which states that "A walk a day keeps the fats away."The second is a store advertising the brighter deals in town. Not the brightest, but brighter. Finally, two signs outside a construction site, which I think are advertising the future mall there.

Part Fruit, Part Reptile

The fruit of the week, as seen through the cellphone camera, is the salak from Indonesia/Malaysia, also known as the snake fruit. Like dressing in goth, it serves little purpose other than to look freaky, the taste is no mangosteen.

Rage Against the Machine

Laura in Singapore is temporarily disabled due to the loss of my camera through a hole in a bag onto a beach on an Indonesian island. My camera was over 2 years old, so I expected to be able to upgrade without much difficulty. Here are some examples of what I found, instead:

1) This model is an upgrade of my lost camera, but with more zoom. Sadly, said zoom is only usable when you curl your pinky inward, and rotate it up and down, which cannot be done at the same time as composing a picture. Furthermore, the lack of old school viewfinder makes this camera unusable in sunny days. These are common here on the equator.
2) I looked at this expensive model, but learned that it was designed for infants. I can only press these 3mm-wide buttons if I sharpen my nails into points. Also, a mini Swiss army knife is required to turn the upper dial, which is an issue with airport security.3) This premium model has been designed with a smooth tapered edge, to assist it in slipping out of your hands during use. The 5 buttons and 2 dials (note the handy "print" button), do nearly nothing, and most of the counter-intuitive user interface is displayed on the screen, again providing uselessness in the sunshine, and rage everywhere.4) Finally, here is my favourite. This fancy-ass camera has a large screen and no viewfinder. But don't worry, this expensive camera has many exciting smile-detection/blink removing/anti shake/face detection features to compensate for the fact that it works indoors only.Since camera designers have clearly been on strike, and "point and shoot" is out of style, I am now in the market for a used camera.

Laura and Barry in Little India

We are very excited to have signed a lease for a lovely condo in Little India. It is central and surrounded by fabulous food. We will be living in a two bedroom the 18th floor apartment overlooking not one but two Hindu temples. The pool is olympic sized - do you think that will help Barry's thriathlon time?

Sea Monster of the week

The lesser wonders of Bako's national park include the mysterious walking, jumping, tree-climbing fish called the mud-skipper. These minnow-sized creatures awed me as they walked along the rocks and jumped over the water, which led me to yell "Evolution, evolution!".

Laura in Borneo

We spent last weekend in Borneo, land of the awesome proboscis monkey, shown above. Why is this exciting, you might ask? Well, until you've been in the jungle with an 80lb fat-bellied big-nosed monkeys swinging over your head, it's hard to describe. But please check out those noses and bellies.

Sarawak, Borneo, is also home to Muslims, Chinese, and tribal people who live in longhouses, all represented below. More pictures here.

Pink, Grapy and Delicious

The fruit of the week is mangosteen. Though it's in season at the same time, and sold with the Durian, this fruit is different in that it is delicious! Now tied with passion fruit as my favourite, the mangosteen tastes like an enhanced grape, bursting with flavour and peachy undertones. (Ya, ok, so I haven't gotten out much lately, but don't worry, I'm escaping interview island to Borneo this weekend).

East Coast Park

As a distraction from my daily job applications, interviews and rejections, we spent an afternoon at East Coast Park. You would think that living on a tropical island would mean more beach time, but this was my first time to this 15km beach facing the harbour's parking lot of waiting ships. The park is a good place for walking, sports, and eating chili crab. The picture below shows the view of downtown, taken from the pier.

Durian Season

The national fruit of Singapore is here, and sold all over town! If you walk into your local Singaporean grocery store and are accosted with an alarmingly unpleasant odour, this is the durian. For this reason, they are forbidden on public transportation - you have to walk your durians home or eat them on the spot!

So, what does it taste like? You know the smell of sulfur that indicates a gas leak? Well, combine that with rotten onions, and that was my experience. Sadly, the durian is either loved or hated, and unlike with my other Singaporean culinary experiences, I haven't yet acquired the taste.

The Chinese Paradox

China is the land of opportunity, where 1.3B people are rapidly becoming richer. And yet, China is one of the hardest places in the world to do business, due to language, culture and government.

China is developing quickly, prosperity is evident amidst poverty (see two pictures of Shanghai, above). And yet, the model of this Suzhou business park does not include the pollution evident from the rooftop.

China has amazing food, often presented in banquet form. Yet here is a picture of me eating snake.

I learned these things and more during my course in Beijing and Shanghai. And yet, I had no time to enjoy the experience more thoroughly by exploring the sites.