Lions and Tigers and Bears...Oh My!

Today Jon and I went to the Singapore Zoo. So. Freakin. Awesome. We almost peed our collective pants. On Friday night, we decided that Saturday morning we would attend the Jungle Breakfast at the zoo which entails a buffet breakfast, and a wildlife show. This wildlife show mainly revolves around the Orang Utans, which come down during breakfast to visit and take pictures with the tourists. Kitsch, I know, but Jon and I do like our tourist activities. Not least of all when they involve Orang Utans. Unfortunatly, one member of the team set the alarm clock for 5:30pm instead of the desired am. This caused a great problem because we slept until almost an hour after we were supposed to leave the house. We considered booking it down to the zoo (which is approximately an hour and a half away from where we are) but decided to go back to bed instead and try again on Sunday - today.

We made it to the zoo at 8:10am this morning (a full 20 minutes before they had suggested we be there - but we certainly didn't want any repeats of Saturday's disasterous morning). The breakfast was five star, Orangu-tastic awesomosity. We were lucky enough to be there when they had a new baby Orang Utan addition to their family. This little guy made me realize what I want out of a child. A drunken toddler type thing with full body bed-head, and the softest, wispiest hair. Ever. (IT'S SO FUZZY!)




After the breakfast was over, we walked around the zoo for a few hours until it was White Rhino feeding time. I don't know how many of you know this, but Jon has been on the hunt for some Rhino since landing in Asia (downtown Singapore has thus far been a bust). But here at the zoo, we had the opportunity to get right up close and personal with these bad boys. Also known as the Squarelipped Rhino, for reasons you can see below, these guys liked their food and were willing to get down and dirty for it.

It was an excellent day, and we are completely pooped. It is time for bed, and we leave you to imagine the rest of the adventures we had with all the wild beasts at the zoo today.

Much love,
Kaela and Jon

Insects are not arachnids and vica versa.

We. Saw. The. Craziest. Bug. Ever. Today. It is actually still undertermined if it was a bug or a spider, all I know is it was so out of this world weird. We were walking in Bukit Timah Nature Reserve, and I looked down and saw... It. It looked like a piece of poplar fuzz blowing across the sidewalk. But no. It was alive.

If anyone has any idea what this bug could be, please tell us. I am going to email a picture of it to someone (no idea who yet) at the University tomorrow. It has blown my mind.

-Kaela

Chinatown V 2.0

Jon and I had visited Chinatown on one other occasion shortly after we arrived in Singapore, but were quickly (and ironically) scared off by the hoards of tourists lining the streets. This time, with some hide outs in mind and pre-planned snack breaks, we set out in a much more determined frame of mind. Goal one was to visit The Noodle Man...a locally (internationally?) famous man who makes the best noodles in all of Singapore. And with all the 'food worship' going on here, that is really saying something. We stepped off the bus and marched towards the very heart of it all - Smith Street. Sounds safe enough? Think again. The 'dining' section of Chinatown, it is full of grumpy, tired and hungry tourists all vying for the same thing. A chance to see Him...to taste His creations. A chance to visit The Noodle Man. We elbowed our way through, and managed to get the last seat in the house - or rather, out of the house on the front stoop.


Hot and sweaty we were ready for some magic to happen. And happen it did. You see, The Noodle Man makes his noodles fresh every day, and puts what I am sure is all his love into them. My Chicken Chop Noodle - a testament to this love - was fantastic, and Jon's Dumpling Noodle was absolutely phenomenal. A side of Hot and Sour Soup and Pan-Fried Dumpling completed the meal (along with a dish of pickle which they put down on our table at the beginning of the meal and then proceeded to charge us S$2 for) and we waddled away, very much contented.

After lunch, we walked though the hoards once more (again, for not more than a few minutes) and made our way to the Sri Mariamman Temple. Simply built in the early 1800's, and then all decked out in the 1860's, the temple is beautiful. The woodwork is intricate, and the colors magnificent. Unfortunately, a good portion of the temple was roped off for people actually going to pray (who would have thunk it?) but we took a couple of good shots to demonstrate the grandeur of the building.

Our last stop was made at the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple and Museum. Built very recently (they broke ground 2005 according to the plans they have on display) it is an amazing, ornate structure. Four floors, including a roof-top orchid garden, it really was a wonder. There are all sorts of statues and religious relics that you would, of course, expect in a religious museum, but the museum is set up in such a way that it is easy to see where in the story of the Buddha's life the carvings and statues come from.

We have been getting all sorts of requests to post more pictures, so here you have it! It was a great day, and hopefully you all can enjoy through us some more of the very neat sights Singapore has to offer.

As per usual, much love! Can't wait to hear more about your goings on in Calgary!

Malaysia for the Weekend

So we are just catching up...last weekend we went to Malaysia. After I forgot a form to go with my passport to get through customs on the Singapore side of the border we were hung up for almost an hour while the problem was sorted out. As a result, we missed our bus to Kuantan (our initial destination) so we improvised and bought bus tickets to Mersing. Since the next bus was going to be leaving Johor Bahru at 7:30pm, we would have arrived in Kuantan after midnight which was just not going to work for us. At only 2.5 hours from JB, Mersing was a much better option. We stayed the night in Mersing and caught the first ferry over to Tekek, Tioman Island the next morning.







The island mostly lush jungle circled by beaches and dotted with little villages. Our hotel was right on the beach which was perfect because that's where we spent our entire weekend.

Right off the beach was some nice snorkeling where I tested out our new waterproof video camera around a reef. It works great.

One night, we were walking home from dinner in the dark and noticed what we at first thought were birds, were actually tons and tons of bats, swooping around and catching bugs. Then, in the morning, we found them all sleeping in trees right off the road. There was so many, the branches were completely filled.




I bought a Rubik's cube for the bus home. I can almost finish without any help, except for the very last move.

Speaking of the bus ride home, there was a handful of times where our insane bus drive put our lives in the hands of the drivers of the oncoming cars. Which is to say that his driving skills were on par with the rest of the Malay drivers. There was many times where, after tailgating to within inches of the little car in front of us, he would start to pass (obviously without enough time to do so) and then honk at the little car to get out of the way because the oncoming cars would be swerving into their shoulder to go around us. See the second video below for one I caught on tape.

All in all, a successful first trip away from Singapore. Although we probably wouldn't try to go to the island for only two days again, because it ended up that we were only there for 24 hrs. Next time will be main land Malaysia.

A couple interesting dishes

Yesterday (August 18th), we were kicking around one of the many huge malls here while waiting for our movie to start (Inception, it was awesome) and we decided to try a couple local dessert treats.

First a billboard caught my eye for a drink called chendol, it looked very brightly colored and tasty. The layers of the drink are as follows: shaved ice with molasses, lots of coconut milk, kidney beans, cooked black beans, weird lime green jelly things, followed by lots more shaved ice and more molasses. Needless to say, we were thrown off a bit by the beans being added. Once we tried it though, it turned out to be some what tasty, in a sweet and coconutty sort of way, but mostly just weird. I would probably not get it again.

While I was finishing the chendol, Kaela had had enough and went to try something different. She picked out a fruit sago. This turned out to be a much better choice. It also is based on shaved ice with coconut milk, but had delicious fruit on top instead of kidney beans. We both agree that we would order sago again and possibly try some of the other flavours as well.

Hogs and Orangutans.

Tonight, Dale took me for a quick(ish) jaunt around the Singapore island on his Harley. The really neat thing was, by the end of the trip my butt was really feeling like we had ridden to another country, and in fact we almost had! We were only a few Km from Malaysia once we had gone through downtown. Not many countries you can circumnavigate in an hour and a half! It was very exhilarating, and Singapore certainly is beautiful at night! (See below for a view coming into downtown across what I believe is Marina Promenade)

And in other news, Jon and I bought tickets today to go to Borneo over my Spring break - from September 18-25. Retun flight was $85.00 each! How could we resist? We are going to visit the Orangutan rehabilitation centre (one of them), a turtle rehabilitation centre, do some snorkeling, hopefully get to see the Corpse Flower (Raffleisa tuanmudae) and visit the proboscis monkeys in Bako National Park.

Much love from the most amazing place on earth!

Kaela

My new favorite thing!

While that is not the cup of corn I ate, it is a fairly accurate picture of my new favorite thing. First they cook up some corn kernels, fresh off the cob. Then, they scoop it into my cup with a little bit of butter and salt. So simple, yet so tasty. And at just S$1-2, it makes a great snack for hungry travellers. Mmmm, I could for a cup right now!

Explorations

Hello again to you all back home!

We have been so busy the past couple days, we have not had a moment to sit down and update you as to everything we have been up to! The first thing you need to know is that although Singapore has managed to fit 6 million people into 710 sq. km, they have managed to build up and conserve a fair amount of green space in the tropical city-state. 白沙公园 (Pasir Ris) is only one of them, and the first one we have had the opportunity to visit. The park itself is huge, covering just over 70 hectares off the north-east coast with a beach, walking areas and a huge mangrove. We saw some incredible wildlife in the mangroves, including a lizard with the longest tail I have ever seen! We also saw some beautiful butterflies, and the holes left behind from the - very shy- Mud Lobsters and heard the song of the Cicadas (which, according to Jon, sounded like a very piercing alarm we just couldn't get away from).

The beach was alright, but dirty. The park is actually directly across from Malaysia, so a lot of the garbage from next door floats across the water to find a home on Pasir Ris beach. It was a little bit disappointing for us, who had wild dreams of a tropical beach-like paradise and were somewhat deflated to find a small, messy patch of sand. It was neat, though, to see the fish farms off in the distance. So, our search for the perfect Singaporean beach continues.

Dee and Dale, the couple we are staying with while we are living here in Singapore, have been absolutely wonderful. Dee took a couple of days to play tour guide for us, so that we could ease into using the extensive MRT and bus system here. They are also part of a Harley Davidson group (which is very big in Singapore) and through it have all sorts of great opportunities, which have already benefited us from time to time. For example the Harley group - being a bunch of huge, white, tattooed bikers - work security for various events around town (and all the money they make doing these gigs is donated to various charities). Last evening Slash came to town with Coheed and Cambria (one of Jon's favorites) and Dale was working security. One of the benefits of doing this job was that he got two free tickets to the show. And guess who the lucky recipients were?

(It was us). And the show was, how shall we put it? Legen...wait for it...dary! The first band, Twenty Two Hundred was decent. They were fairly stadium rock-esque, but did their job and got the crowd on its feet. Coheed and Cambria was AMAZING. The energy that these guys had on stage was just flooring, and it really got everyone riled up and ready to go. I would 100% recommend if you ever have a chance to go see them, do. By the time Slash finally took the stage, the crowd was in a complete frenzy. He has recently released a new solo album, and is currently touring with Myles Kennedy, who did some work on the album with him. It was a great time with new songs, and old favorites (I am sure that Slash probably hates Paradise City and Sweet Child O' Mine after playing them for 20 some odd years). I will freely admit I don't know anything about guitaring (Jon says this proves my point) but I do know this - the man has incredible dexterity. They had huge video screens set up for those situated at the back of the seating area, and there were points that his hands were moving so quickly across the frets it was blurring on the screens. And these were some high quality video screens and cameras. I was prepared to be amazed, and amazed I was.

On that note, I hope all is well in our own little Paradise City (I am so punny!) and I am really enjoying all the little notes and comments we have been receiving from back home. It is really helping to fight the home sickness!

Much love,
Kaela and Jon