the dog days are over

Well that’s it for Singapore.  After two weeks we experienced the night life and the culinary experience which is rated the best in Southeast Asia.

I just wanted to take some time to update you with some photos from the Gili Islands and Kuta Beach.  Well really only Gili Trawangan since we didn’t make it to the other islands.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Karma Kayak – the best place to watch the sunset while sippin’ on Sangria and nibbling on Spanish Tapas.

The Gilis is where I did my Open water certification for Scuba Diving.  This was at Blue Marlin, where they are so awesome and great with instruction.  Some of our highlights was watching the sunset at Spanish Tapas restaurant Karma Kayak, and smoking Shisha at the Egotiste bar.  One of the photos taken there was really funny, as soon as Seb excused himself to go to the washroom, the waiters all came over and took photos with me, wearing my mint green Rayban glasses and everything!  We took a horse and carriage ride around the island, and ate at our Scallyways, introduced to us by Aleesa, my long time college friend and her boyfriend.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s so great meeting up with friends on the road.  It’s totally surreal experience and I am so thankful to make create more memories with familiar faces.  Aleesa and Rob were great fun to be around, they introduced us to the Butterfish which like the name implies tastes just like butta!  We had such a blast with them, and the days just flew by.

 

We ended our stay in Bali on Kuta beach, where Seb and I took surfing lessons from Prosurf school.  We had an absolute blast there, we were both standing in no time.  One day wasn’t enough though, we both wanted to surf more!

 

              

Killer Pina Colada!

Can’t wait to update you with more beach photos from the beaches of Thailand!

Angry Australian Angst

It is official.  I am on a spiritual hiatus.  An angry, raging one at that.  I have been trying to stay Zen but apart from my morning meditation and sporadic drop in yoga classes I haven’t been doing much since I finished my Osho book and it’s all the Australian Governments fault.

Right now I am angrily typing while drinking Singha beer, eating Ruffles Cheddar Cheese & sour cream flavoured chips, and listening to the moodiest music I can find in my ITunes library: Archive. Yes, I’ve fallen off the wagon.

For the past month I have been convinced that I am supposed to go to this magical place called Byron Bay in Australia.  We met these couch surfers who just came from there and they raved about this hippie town, where there’s tonnes of yoga, 5 rhythms dance classes, surfing and chill vibes.  They recommended I join the Osho Yahoo group which is where they hooked up everything they needed.  You name it: rent, yoga, community!  They even offered to rent us their car because its sitting there doing nothing.

There were so many coincidences too.  (I had friends mention in passing things here and there about OSHO .  He’s the controversial guru, who believes in free love.  He doesn’t believe in marriage which is atypical for India.)

My six degrees of OSHO.  

1.   I just finished reading The Search: Osho talks on the ten bulls of Zen which I found at the Free Market in Had Thien.  The free market happened every Sunday at 2 PM on the beach, and everyone basically gifts the things they don’t want.  There was a stack of good books laying there, but for some reason I picked up this mysteriously beat up black hard cover.  I like to say the book “chose” me.

2. Two days after the free market, I met Sarah, a girl from London just laying next to me on the beach.  Sarah had just come from India and had stayed at the OSHO ashram, and was telling me about how it was mandatory to take an HIV test just to get in.

3.  I talk to Lily, the instructor of my yoga teacher training.  And yes, she too had stayed at the Osho ashram in India except she stayed there for three months.

4.  Needless to say, I have been intrigued by the Osho ashram.  And then these girls from Texas tell me they are part of an Osho email group that has led them to all these opportunities in Byron Bay?  It just seemed like life was pointing me in that direction.

5. A friend of mine wrote Byron Bay as the place I should go to in Australia when I was asking for recommendations of where to go on my facebook wall.

6. My best friend from Canada has a Byron Bay t-shirt given to her years ago that she still wears to sleep every night.

Anyways, we have now been in Singapore for over a week and it has been one month since I first applied for the work holiday visa.  It cost over $200 for the application fee, and then another $70 for the chest X-Ray I had to get in Bali.  It’s just really frustrating to see the funds in my bank account go down, when in my mind I was supposed to be working by now.

So I thought I would hit the ground running when I got to Oz, but after several phone calls and emails I am still not getting anywhere.  And now our back up plan is to go to Hong Kong and skip out on Oz completely but I just finished a few hours of research into my HK I.D. which will take 6-8 weeks to process which means more time of not working.

Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE Singapore but I am starting to feel that I need to get a move on.  This is a pattern with me, I think that when I need to move, nothing happens fast enough for me.  Every morning the first thing I do is check online with the Australian embassy, and as per usual it says health documents pending.  And those x-rays were submitted over a week ago which sends me flying into frustration.

Okay, that’s the end of the poor me.  The most ridiculous thing is that for the past few months I have been feeling very Zen, and had been honestly been believing that I had reached some kind of emotional enlightenment in being able to deal with things without getting upset.

Now I realize, that I didn’t really have any worries during that time, and that was before the boyfriend was travelling with me in the equation, and that was really my ego talking.  I am totally a work in progress.  A good friend of mine used  to say to me that I am “embarrassingly human”.

Over the weekend, we had another friend from Vancouver come and visit.  Steve G. from Intimate Productions.  Steve is one of my favorite people to party with, and last weekend was no exception.  He ended up getting us into Zouk to see Tocadisco on the guest list. Our couch surfing hosts loved him, and we did what we do best in Singapore – Eat! .It is truly a culinary experience living here, and even for Sebastien who has never really liked Chinese food in the past has grown to love it here. Oh yes, drinkers and non drinkers alike, everyone has been slaughtered by my travelling drinking game Slapjack.

We had such a blast with Steve – Steve is an awesome friend!  He’s the kind of guy that wakes up, feeds you vitamins and without asking brings everyone coffee first thing in the morning, well a Chai Tea Latte for me which earns you double the points in a place like Singapore!

Tocadisco consistently pumped out the club anthems he is so famous for the entire night and the crowd loved it.  However, there was not much he played that we didn’t recognize and he even pulled out some really old tracks like “Day n’ Nite.” which is so tired and overplayed it’s not even funny.  Overall, if I was just attending any club night in Singapore, I would have been pretty happy but because it’s Toca our expectations were high and we expected more creativity.

The funny thing about partying in Singapore, is that no one was wasted.  Everyone was just having a really good time.  Well I guess that’s no surprise when drinks are like $20 a pop.  The place was packed but everyone stood a respectful distance from each other.  I liked that they sprayed out dry ice from under you on the dance floor which helped cool everyone down.  The club was beautiful, and when we spoke to the resident D.J. after, he said the owner had purposefully modelled it after Pacha, a club in Ibiza.

Highlights included:

- Meeting a crew of Taiwanese firefighters and enticing them to play Chinese drinking games with us

-Order Jagerbombs and having locals come up to us and asking us what the hell are those drinks?

-Meeting Asian girls from West Vancouver

-Meeting Tocadisco and taking pictures of him and his hot wife

-Overall shenanigans

Here’s us at the Sri Lankan Crab place. Hands down the best place we’ve eaten at so far! Everyone do their cute Chinese pose! 

     And keeping with the newcomer tradition, everyone new always has to try the infamous Durian!

Indian food on Arab Street for breakfast!  The next day we went to Sentosa beach and hung out at Cafe del Mar.  This is where we met Penny, another local Singaporean.  We bonded over Chanel!  Well the book and the movie am way too much of a broke ass to be sporting anything expensive these days.  Penny came out with us for dinner, and this weekend we have plans to go shopping and hit up Clark Quays. Yay! I love meeting locals.

   

 

Ahhhh!  I feel better already.  Thanks for listening.

Singapore: the city where I discovered: Couch surfing,Durians and Tocadisco!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sunny Singapore is a sharp contrast to the Gili T’s which flew by like a dream.  Imagine this, one moment you are living on a Balinese island where you are surrounded by white sand beach and the fastest mode of transport is horse and carriage.  There’s no cars, motorbikes or public transport.  You can walk the entire island in an hour and a half.

Then you get into Singapore, a bustling Metropolitan centre where there are rules and technology for everything.  Old meets new.  They call it a fine city because there are fines for everything which is why it will probably also be the cleanest city you will ever go to.

 

 Against the Law:

-Drug trafficking is punishable by capital punishment (Carrying over 5G)

-Soliciting – you never get hassled shopping at the markets here.

-Counterfeit goods

-When you enter Singapore, you are allowed to bring in only 1 pack of opened smokes

-UV drips used to whiten skin (Used in other parts of Asia)

 

And my favourite … no durians allowed in the MRT station. 

What are durian’s you ask?  Let me explain.

Durian is known as “The King of Fruits” in SE Asia.  It is considered a delicacy in Asia but like most delicacies you need to try it a few times before you can fully appreciate it.  An acquired taste if you will.  Some would say eating Durian is worth the trip to the East to experience it.

This fruit is easily recognized by it’s distinct smell.  A smell that some find so strong, nauseating and offensive that it is banned in some mass rapid transit (MRT) stations, some  hotels and even airports.

“... its odour is best described as pig-shit, turpentine and onions, garnished with a gym sock….” Wikipedia

 

We decided to give it a try, and well, what was that saying about a picture being worth a thousand words?  Out of seven people, one person LOVED it, 3 hated it, and 2 were neutral.  I would definitely give it a couple more chances but it’s not the first fruit I would reach for.

 

We LOVE Couch surfing!   Couch surfing is an international non profit network that promotes a cultural exchange between locals and travellers.  We were intrigued by couch surfer when we met a few people who worked for couch surfers in Ubud. 

We knew Singapore is a relatively expensive place to stay so we decided this would be a place to give it a shot. 

We were so fortunate to meet Ryan and Summer, this amazing Singaporean couple who took us in even though they already had three guests from Austin, Texas already staying at their place.  We have been floored by their hospitality.  They came and picked us up from the airport, and have been taking us out for lunches and dinners at all the best local spots, they did our laundry and took us shopping, and had been a wealth of information for travel advice.

Summer won my heart when she took me make-up shopping.  I have gotten so dark, that it was actually difficult for me to find a powder to match my skin!  Everyone is into light skin here which is so opposite of back home.  The makeup choices are great though – I love the Japanese products especially the fibre mascara which makes your eyelashes look really thick and beautiful.

The past few days, we have been 2 guys, and 5 girls living in a2 bedroom apartment with four guinea pigs and one cocker spaniel.  And you know what?  It has been soooo FUN! 

 

    

This was the first day when we arrived, Ryan and Summer took us to Tin Tin where we sampled the most famous Hainanese Chicken with Rice – a local specialty.  Afterwards, we went to Chinatown, and Little India to do some shopping and touring.  At night, we decided we would cook them some Mexican food partnered with cake, local fruits and cocktails.  It made for a great day!

    

Yesterday Seb and I started craving a bit of one on one time so we went on a date and toured the city on our own.

 

 

Our intention was to go to the Singapore Flyer for sunset, which is a Ferris wheel that gives you a great view of the city.  But when we got there, we realized that tickets were $30 each which we found expensive for a Ferris wheel.  So we took photos from the bottom and walked through city centre. 

 

 

We did the same thing when we went to the Eiffel tower in Paris with no regrets.  We can ride it when we’re old and don’t have energy to walk!

       

Afterwards, we went to Clarke Quay which is the happening place to go for drinks.  One thing I forgot to mention is Singaporean people are so great.  The other day, we were walking around with the Texan girls looking for a place to eat and we were approached by this local couple.  They took one look at us and said you guys should come with us, we know a place with lots of food, air conditioning and wifi.  They were this elderly Asian couple who just came from church so we trusted them.  And sure enough they rescued us from the heat and brought us to some good eats.

This particular night we had kind of a repeat.  We found ourselves a little lost looking for the MRT station and this girl tells us to follow her since she’s going the same way.  We got talking and she recommended Clarke Quay for drinks, and we were not disappointed.  There were tonnes of cute restaurants and trendy cafes overlooking the water. 

They had all these concept bars and I was particularly floored by this place called the clinic.  It is fashioned to look like a hospital complete with wheel chairs and stainless steel tables.  They even had frozen cocktails attached to IV drips that were poured into glasses I’m sure.  It was brilliant!

This Saturday we are looking forward to the

Singapore Beerfest 2010.  The whole couch surfer community is going on Friday and with over 250 different types of beer, live performances and 25,000 expected attendees you can’t really go wrong! 

Afterwards, we’re going to Tocadisco - award winning DJ and producer from West Germany.  He’s created over 60 remixes with other well known D.J.’s like Axwell, Mylo, Tiga, Steve Angello and David Guetta.

 

The added bonus is he’s playing  at Zouk which is rated number 10 on the list of 100 best night clubs in the world.  It comes in just under the Ibiza super clubs Pacha and Space.  It’s credited as the club that created the club scene here in Singapore.

We’re pretty stoked to be here to catch the show.  Well especially Sebastien who is a big fan.  Will keep you posted!