Come Ride With Us...on the Bus!

Choices, choices, choices....
The 65 is the one for me!
Nice view, TV and a place to sit.
No Fast Food! No Durians! No hands with little papers in them!
Ah - Harbour Front, Adieu number 65!

What a pleasure it is not to have a car! Although I must admit that I miss driving I have to say that I don't miss the traffic and parking woes.

Here in Singapore where a drive around the entire country takes about an hour there is need for a set of wheels. That is also coupled with the fact that even the cheapest, tiniest car here goes for over S$30,000.00 (about $20,000 US) and it is a Chinese made Chery QQ (basically a cute tin can with a go cart engine). http://www.cheryglobal.com/qq.htm. Most normal cars are closer to $100,000 or more. So we mostly take taxis http://www.comfort-transportation.com.sg/main.asp, the MRT (subway) http://www.smrt.com.sg/trains/routemap/routemap.pdf and the bus.

I alternate between the MRT and the bus on the way in to work. The MRT is faster and the crowd is a bit hipper and better dressed. The station is only about a block and a half from home and the station closest to the office is about a block. Problem is you usually have to stand up and you have to change trains. I don't mind this as it gets me a little exercise and the change is in a nice cool (temperature cool) station but I need variety. The bus is a straight shot from close to the house to close to the office and as it is a double decker it affords a nice overhead view of the route. The bus also carries a more of the real people - construction workers, students, office workers and old Uncles and Aunties. I am usually one of the few, if any, Western faces on the bus.

Anyway the 65 is a great bus. It goes from my neighborhood to my office (also home to the newest biggest mall - Vivo City) and in the other direction it goes to Little India, home of Tekka Market and all things Indian. I grab my seat in the upper deck and catch up on the news, email and also get a view of the route to the office. I have to make sure to follow the rules - no eating, smoking, bare feet, fighting or carrying durian! The durian is the extremely stinky national fruit of Singapore. It makes the smelliest body odor smell mild. It's a nice ride.

When I scan my pass upon alighting (the word they use here) the bus I am charged a whole .87 (about 50 cents US). Its such a deal. I then stop at Wang's Cafe for my morning Koppi, but that's a different story....

Thian Hock Keng Temple

Dragons adorn the rooftops
The entry arch
The stonework is almost as cool as the painted carved woodwork
And the doors are nothing to sneeze at.
A Buddhist deity who would gladly give you a hand.

Singapore has many interesting places or worship from Mosques to Synagogues, to churches, to Hindu temples to Buddhist temples. They are all open for viewing. A few weeks ago Sophia and wandered into the Thian Hock Keng Temple.

Thian Hock Keng is the oldest and most important Hokkien temple in Singapore. Singapore has a very large Hokkien population as the Hokkien province of China is not too far away. Known as the temple of the goddess of the sea and protector of all seamen, the temple contains relics brought from China which are said to be many hundreds of years old. The building is supported only on wood poles. Of the two pagodas at either sides of the temple, one is used to contain ancestral tablets. The building was built without using nails.

One of the first duties of a newly-arrived immigrant was to go to a "joss house" to give thanks from a perilous journey across the China Sea. In 1821,the Hokkiens had established such a "joss house" on the side of the present temple. The grateful immigrants who later became successful businessmen enabled the Hokkien leaders to plan a more ambitious building made of materials imported from China,which combined the functions of both a temple and community centre.

The temple was very nice without being over the top as some tend to be, There were various shrines, statues and carvings as well as memorials. The smell of incense pervades as worshipers light "joss sticks" as part of their rituals.

We checked out the peaceful place of worship and stopped next door at a religious artifact shop. The shop was full of statues of deities of all shapes and sizes. Many Chinese Singaporeans have shrines in their homes. Some are small while others are very large and intricate.

I will try to show you other religious sites soon.

Peace!

Fear Factor - Me

Welcome to adventures in Filipino street food....
Watching my teacher show me how its done.
Still smiling but a little nervous
Oh yeah - - - that was NASTY!

This story is based on my experience from last year but it is still worth recounting for your edification.

On my first trip to Manila I found myself at dinner with my new associate Ray and several people from our Manila office. there were a few expats around the table as well. While we enjoyed some nice tapas at an upscale mall the talk turned to local Filipino delights. The Philippines, with its strong Spanish influence (everyone is Catholic and has a Spanish last name), is the one place in Asia where the food is most like Spanish or Latin American food. They love pork and enjoy such nice dishes as Crispy Pata, sisig and adobong. All three of these dishes (sorry Grandpa Harold) are now favorites of mine. The pata reminds me of lechon in Puerto Rico, the sisig is so good with a cold San Miguel and adobong is good anytime. There are also some other great dishes like sinigang (a soup), inihaw na bangus (grilled milkfish) and of course super sweet and tasty fresh mangos.

Here are links to pictures and recipes of all of these dishes-

http://kaukautime.blogspot.com/2006/06/crispy-pata-deep-fried-pork-hocks.html

http://www.marketmanila.com/archives/sizzling-sisig-hog-cheeks-nose-and-ears

http://www.chow.com/recipes/10099

http://asiarecipe.com/phimain.html#sini1

http://www.da.gov.ph/agribiz/mango1.html

http://asiarecipe.com/phimain.html#Bangus

The talk at the table moved on to balut. Balut is a popular Filipino street snack and is essentially a duck egg with a fetus inside, typically between seventeen to twenty days in gestation. In the Philippines balut is so popular that it is equivalent to what the hot dog is in the U.S. I was intrigued yet also grossed out by the prospect of seeing what this would actually look like. The explanation was not comforting - "yes you can see the little duck fetus forming", "sometimes it can be crunchy" and "its good with salt and vinegar on it".

While the expats at the table were interested and intrigued by the snack, none had actually tried one and no one stepped up to the plate to volunteer. I was the new guy and in order to get some instant "street cred" I said I would be happy to try one. I also thought I was smart enough to get around the grossness by using the oyster technique of downing the whole thing without chewing it, but I kept that thought to myself. As soon as I said this the wheels were in motion to get me to stand by my word.

The next day I was in the office hoping that no one had remembered about my promise when Ray's assistant called me and said that one of the women had purchased a half dozen balut that morning and they would like me to try it in the canteen whenever I was ready. I agreed to try one at 3PM. Lucky for me I had not done any research. I was unaware that the snack had been featured on Fear Factor.

At the appointed hour I ventured over to the canteen. There three women from the office were waiting. Two of them had already had one or two that day and the third said she had and would never try one. There were 3 eggs left. I got a 7Up so I would be ready to wash it down if I gagged or choked and one of the eggs was cracked open. The most experienced balut eater looked at it and said it was a little too well developed for a newbie so she shook a little salt onto the egg and poured on some vinegar and showed my how it is done. I tried not to watch too closely but I did see the little duck head popping out of the open shell. She ate it happily and smiled while opening the next one. "This one will be good for you...", she said. The time had come. I tried to avert my eyes but had to look a little as I poured on the salt and vinegar. I winced and popped it from the shell into my mouth. The yolk was hard like a hard boiled egg and the little duck was indeed a little duck, maybe an inch and a half long. It all went into my mouth and I was ready to swallow it. I realized that it was too big to swallow without chewing so I took a few bites, swallowed and chugged a big chug of 7Up.

It was gross, it was sickening and it had a little bit of crunch - on the other hand, if I had never seen it I would say it didn't taste too bad. But I had seen it so even the taste was nasty. The good new was I had done it! I had earned the respect of my new friends. The bad news was that the rest of that day and into the evening I felt like there was a little live duck running around in my stomach.

I ate the balut for the first time and can say with confidence that it was also the last time. I have since eaten the other great Filipino dishes with great gusto but the duck stopped there for me!

ミッキーマウス (Mickey Mouse) 東京で (in Tokyo)

Tokyo from the hotel window
"Blue Man Group Crossing"
Welcome to the Magic Kingdom - - - East
The Princess and the Dragon get ready to make out
The crowd heads to the volcano

I had my first trip to Japan this week (unless you count a few transfers at Narita airport over the years http://www.narita-airport.jp/en/). While I was only there for about 48 hours I managed to get a feel for the place. Its big, its crowded and its very Japanese.

As my overnight flight from Singapore was about to touch down I noticed frost on the roofs of the buildings. Lucky I remembered to bring a jacket. It was chilly and rainy. Upon arrival I was met by my driver. A nice chap who spoke no English. I was whisked away on the 45 mile trip from the airport to the city. Traffic was heavy as we crawled out way into town, I guess as a stupid American I really didn't think of Tokyo as a waterfront city but it is. There were plenty of bridges, ships, tunnels and lots of interesting vistas as we approached downtown. Also lots and lots of buildings.

We crossed the large and impressive Rainbow Bridge http://www.answers.com/topic/rainbow-bridge-tokyo) and hit a dead stop. Lucky I was staying at the Westin which appears to be relatively close to the crossing. The side streets were full of apartments, shops, little restaurants and there were an amazing amount of outdoor vending machines selling cigarettes, tea and coffee drinks and soft drinks. There are some signs in English but not too many. On the streets foreigners were few and far between.

I got there in time to check in, shower, shave and head to my meeting. The toilet in my hotel room had all sorts of bells and whistles and reminded me of the one Homer Simpson had in the room on his visit to Japan. His said "Welcome Homer Simpson, I am pleased to accept your waste".

The rest of the day was spent in a nice windowless room learning about cheese in Asia (they don't like it). The afternoon we loaded onto a bus and went to do a few retail visits. Japan has some very large grocery stores and the variety of products is astounding. The cheese aisle was full of interesting stuff (including Kraft products). There was My Little Kitty cheese, strawberry cheese ball snacks, tiny pieces of cheese fortified with 3 glasses of milk worth of calcium and many more interesting things. I wandered off to the snack section as I know Japan as some bizarre snacks. Chips and rice snacks come in all kinds of funky flavors. I saw the usual salt, prawn, cheese and normal type stuff but then found the payoff - cool stuff like curry, beef stew, octopus and even sea urchin flavored snacks. Bought a selection for the road. I also bought some very cool animal shaped dried seaweed slices - good for mom to put in little Tomo san's lunch box. The candy row was cool too - about 100 different types of boxes with little toys and candy in them. Animated characters known and unknown to me. One of the stores had a huge section of prepared foods - sushi rolls (the whole long roll you cut yourself), a tempura bar, many unusual and unknown to me things wrapped in dough and on sticks. Kind of a Japanese Whole Foods. There were tons of shoppers - many people were wearing face masks (not sure if it was to keep from getting germs or to keep germs from spreading). It was like a hospital ward.

I learned I wasn't in Kansas anymore when I tried to use an ATM. I t seems that most of the local ATMs are in Japanese only (shocking!). After figuring out where to put my card I was presented with 4 options all in Japanese. I pushed random options hoping to get some yen, but to no avail. I would hit dead ends and a few weird alarms would go off and my card was spit out at me. I am hopeful that nothing happened. Quite possibly some unsuspecting Japanese family has just received a huge windfall of American and Singapore dollars. I was really lost in translation. Lucky we had a few people from our Japanese business or I might still be wandering around yenless.

Next we headed to Disneyland Japan! It's about 40 minutes out of the city and has Disneyland (the first one outside the US) and a newer park called Disney Sea. We had dinner at a private room in the restaurant at a hotel at the Sea.(www.http://www.tokyodisneyresort.co.jp/tds/index_e.html )
Our room overlooked the park and a large body of water surrounded by all the attractions. At 8:30 there was a show - it was Disney meets Vegas, meets soft core porn - first Mickey came out in a big boat. Talented mouse because he spoke fluent Japanese. No clue what he said. Then there were dancing waters, lovely lights, pyrotechnics and a hot looking white water Princess appeared. Her happy time was short lived as a mechanical fire spewing dragon emerged from the sea as well. Ultimately I believe the Princess and the Dragon fell in love and had her white water drowned his flames but not before the volcano in the distance erupted. Weird but lovely but weird.....

There was time for a few of us to head into the park for a few rides. We hit the volcano coaster and the weather buster virtual ride and also rode the train. As the park was closing at about 10PM there was a huge buying frenzy in the gift shops. I have never seen such a rush to buy and spend. The shelves were looking pretty bare as I wrestled a lady for a Tokyo Disney phone charm but I got out alive.

The next day more meetings and off to the airport to head home. Nice sake in the business class lounge as we waited for our delayed flight. I landed in Singapore at 2:30 AM and was home about 3:15. A long and short trip.

Now off for a nice three day weekend!

Teka Market (Part 2)

The llama himself...... which is nice.
Big jack fruit.
Nottin' but raw mutton!
Yes - every chicken breast you eat was once part of a real chicken.
Red fish, blue fish, mackerel, perch......

Sunday Morning at Teka Market (part 1)

Teka Market is in the heart of Little India - one of Singapore's most colorful areas
On Sunday by 10AM things are already getting going
Our favorite roti prata/ murtabak stand in action - note the pots of fresh cooking curry and all the eggs
One guy makes the roti - dough, eggs and lots of ghee (clarified butter)
My absolute fave mutton murtabak and a fresh mango lassi - with nice curry to soak it in!



Teka is the place to go for produce, meat and fish. It's also full of food stands. While we usually head to the Muslim stands there are also plenty of Chinese stalls as well. Our custom (ok we haven't really been here long enough for it to be a custom) is to get our breakfast - roti prata (http://www.answers.com/topic/roti-prata), murtabak (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murtabak) and drinks - mango lassis (http://www.food-nepal.com/recipe/R035.htm) , teh tarik or halias (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teh_tarik).
The taste is great and the experience is second to none.

After that nice bite we do a little shopping. The assortment of produce, fruit, spices, seafood and meat is really astounding - from durian, mangosteen, rambutan and jack fruit to ladyfinger, banana flower, lotus to tiger prawns, cockles, giant squid, mutton, black chicken, dried salted fish, curry powder to kim chee - its all there and more.....

Ohm.........

Meditation is good!

Mind control will be mine!



It's been a while since my last post. That doesn't mean that nothing is going on or that I've abandoned the blog. Quite the contrary its been very busy here. Work is a bit crazy with VIP visitors coming from the US, another Philippines meeting and upcoming trips to Melbourne and Tokyo. Its now a nice hot (like every day) Sunday and we have no big plans until tonight so I can do an update!

Since returning from the states after my visit to Milwaukee and my meeting in Miami, but for a quick overnight trip to my home away from home away from home, Manila, I've been here in Singapore. Working on some projects at the office and being social after hours and on weekend.

Last weekend we went to a party/fundraiser at the home of a guy I met through Rich Marcus in DC. The charity they are supporting is called Village Focus International (http://www.villagefocus.org/). They do some great work in Cambodia and Laos. Well worth looking into and helping out if you can. After that party we rushed over to help our new friend Ruchira celebrate her birthday. They were dining at the Breeze restaurant at the Scarlett Hotel. We'd never been there and found it to be a very cool, hip W-like place near Chinatown (http://www.thescarlethotel.com/). Breeze is a rooftop restaurant with a nice view of part of the city. We were in time for some champagne and desert and then a few more drinks in the hotel bar off the lobby. We stayed out way past our bedtime.

We hosted a small dinner party on Friday night with 6 of us dining. Myrna did a great job with the food - great fried Chinese appetizers, whole Philippine Style Red Snapper, lamb Masala and Chicken with Curry Leaves for mains and superb fresh banana/ mango "egg rolls" with chocolate sauce for desert. That plus some nice wine made for another nice (and late) night.

Sophia mentioned that our social life is starting to seem as if we were in "the season" in a Victorian novel.

Last night Sophia and I started private lessons in meditation with Vikas Malkani. We are meeting at the place where Sophia goes for yoga. (http://www.gaiayoga.com.sg/made_simple.html)(http://www.vikasmalkani.com/vikas.htm). In 4 sessions Vikas is teaching us to control our minds. I made need a few extra sessions as my mind is hard to control. But with a guarantee of happiness no stress free living how can we go wrong? Actually I was very happy with the first session. The simple take away so far is that stress, happiness, love, fear, anxiety and all of the emotions are created in one's mind. The external environment may be a trigger but it isn't the cause. Each person has the ability to control the mind and train it in a way that stress, fear and other bad emotions can be eliminated or at least minimized. We learned a few simple things in the first session and I have to say it looks promising. We will see how it goes. In a few weeks I may have total mind control. Maybe even as much as the guy with the show Mindfreak who can have someone write their initials on a quarter and then pull that same quarter out through the skin of his own arm!

So this coming week I'm off to Melbourne. I will try to take some pictures and report on my trip next weekend. This will be my 4th trip there and I always enjoy it. Very much like Chicago meets Toronto with populated by people living in the 1950 - but more on that then.

Be happy

Star Studded Street

The bar scene - cleaned and washed after a wild night

A warmup for the more risque shots they will take later.....

Breaking news - "Tourist caned for dropping candy wrapper"

Famous star, as far as you know.....

Singapore is a nice modern city. Very little old stuff survives for too long. An historical site today is a shopping mall tomorrow. A 10 year old office building is torn down or totally remodeled. One of the few old areas that survives is Emerald Hill, our street. (http://www.landseer.com.sg/conservation/images.html)

Consequently its a hot spot for locals, tourists, expats and photo shoots. Locals like to walk the street and some of the old timers talk about how Emerald Hill used to be. The shop houses were homes to either wealthy families or more commonly several families all living in one place. Our place was said to have housed over 30 people at one point. Hard for me to believe as it is hard enough now with 3 people and only 2 bathrooms and I am sure then there was only one bathroom then. We get wedding couples, model shoots, celebrity (it's all relative) shoots and many painters and photographers. There is always something happening on Emerald Hill Road .

http://www.can.com.sg/neocan/en/streetwise/spotlight/emerald_hill__concrete.html

An Old Story - a New Post

A lonely pushcart
Jakarta - modern buildings, mosques and shantys
Nice veggies !
Myrna bargains for prawns
"What else should we get?"

Singapore - 1/04/2007 - Back from a nice holiday visit to the US. I hope you all had a good break as well. We were happy to see some of you and hope to see the others either next trip or here in Singapore. Sophia is still in LA and is coming back next Saturday.

It was really nice to be in a cool place with great Mexican food, real pizza and burgers that taste like burgers. I think we both put on a few pounds filling up on those things we can't get here in Asia. It was also fun to drive a car for the first time in 8 months. It took a little while to get comfortable behind the wheel after the layoff but soon I was cutting people off, honking my horn and running red lights like a normal American. It took me a little while to start looking left instead of right when crossing the street and of course the first day back here I looked the wrong way and almost got hit by a bus.

We missed a lot of the rainy season here in Singapore. They apparently had an 8 inch deluge one 24 hour period while we were gone. The only consolation of the rainy season is that it isn't quite as hot as it is in the sunny season. It tops off at about 88 with 90% humidity instead of 91 and 85% humidity. A crisis occurred at our house while we were gone as there was a leak in the roof causing water to drip on the third floor. Our always frugal and short-sighted landlord was on the case. Her contractor showed up a few days later and painted over where the water leaked in. I'm sure that fix will really keep the water out next time it really pours.

I made my first trip to Indonesia last week. Jakarta is only about an hour and a half flight from here but I hadn't made the trip so far. We had a little work issue there so I figured it was time to head over and get the lay of the land. The city of 13 million people was different then I expected. I figured it would be primitive, dirty and poverty stricken. While there is plenty of poverty and a good amount of dirt it really was much nicer and more modern then I expected. It was also relatively clean for such a huge city. It is really sprawling and the traffic is a nightmare but there are plenty of brand new nice buildings both commercial and residential and even the slum like shanty towns there seem nice compared to places like India and the Philippines. It might be because even the poor areas have these nice red tile roofs, which from the outside look ok - of course they probably have no plumbing or cooling and have dirt floors so I am not ready to move in in the near future. The airport is nice and reminds me of the one in Maui. Far better then LAX which has gives Mumbai a run for its money in grime and thridworldliness. Lots of palm trees and mangroves lining the highways.

Tonight I am actually going to go out on the town with some guys from the office. Sophia and I have seen a great deal of life in Singapore but very little of it after about 10PM. At our house we often times get the joy of hearing revellers heading up our street at 2 or 3 AM after a night drinking at the bars down the street beeping their car alarms and having a good time. Tonight I will take my revenge although come to think of it if I do I will only annoy my own neighbours and they probably have the same problem we do. If only I had the addresses of those over zealous, light weight drunken merrymakers!

I went to the wet market with Myrna to get a few things for snacks for the guys before we hit the streets. Had my favourite mutton murtabak and butter prata breakfast washed down with a mango lassi. Can't get that in LA! I also took a few shots of the market. Its fun to browse the stinky meat and fish stalls and look at the huge variety of fruits and vegetables available here. Myrna is a great shopper sliding into Singlish as she negotiates with the stall owners "Last week prawns 21 per kg Auntie! Cannot pay 22 lah!" "Uncle, if those mangos not sweetest I bring back to you! My boss he like sweet ones!"

A Cold Trip Home

All the Gimbel Boys in one place!

People in Singapore pay big money to see snow

The Great Gus in action

A better butter burger then Solly's cannot be found


The boys and their Mom looking fine!

It was a balmy 86 degrees when Singapore Airlines flight 23 left for Newark on the 1st of March. I was wearing a long sleave shirt for the first time in 10 months on a non working day. I even had a sweatshirt that I had dug out from deep in my Singapore closet. The service in the air was great - nice, attentive flight crew members, hot towels and a flat sleeper seat. 19 hours, two movies (Babel and Flushed Away), many hours of iPod listening, a few video games, two big meals and a few hours of sleep later we arrived on US soil.

I had gotten a second shot at Thursday as it was still the 1st. By the time I got my bags, re-checked them to Chicago and made my way to the United Airlines gate I suddenly remembered what a different world air travel was in the US. It was about 6:30PM and the 4:30PM United flight had not yet left. The 6:30 had not arrived and the 8PM (which I was scheduled on) was on no radar screen anywhere. I put myself on the wait list for the earlier flights. The 4:30 finally left at 7:30 without me on it. I checked with the lady at the gate for the 6:30 and asked her my chances. "Not so good", she said. I asked if my Star Alliance Gold or Singapore Airlines PPS Club would move me up the list. She entered the information and 15 minutes later called my name. The 6:30 left at 8:30, took off at 9:30 and landed in Chicago at 11:00PM. It was like a sardine can and the service was like one would expect - non existent. I got to the hotel at midnight and rested. It was cold, snowy and windy but I didn't mind.

The next morning I took the train to Milwaukee. It was nice to see the snowy corn fields and the dirty salty cars on the roads. I had almost forgotten that it was still winter.

The weekend was terrific as all the family was there. Dad an Anne were great hosts at their new place on the river. It's really nice and roomy. Noah came in from Georgetown with wild hair and a shabby beard but he still looked good. The college boy popping in on his way to Spring Break in Jamaica. Elijah and Lena each grew about a foot taller since I last saw them. Josh and Julia were looking very nice and even Mom was there for a timely visit.

A visit to GRGB (http://www.grgblaw.com/)reminded me of how much I don't miss practicing law but it was great to see everyone still schlaggering out the work. Most of the crew was there so it was a real treat for me. I was sad to learn that my good friend Kim is going to have surgery soon but I think her great attitude is going to get her through and she will be added to the list, with my Dad, of cancer survivors. (http://www.nationalbreastcancer.org/). Next was a quick workout and steam at the MAC
(http://www.macwi.org/), a few pops and then a family dinner at a new pizza place in the 3rd Ward. The pizza was far better then the pizza in Singapore.... shocking!

Saturday was a trip back to the GRGB offices where Gus the Great stopped in for haircuts. It was my first Gus cut in about 10 years and as expected he "brought me back" with a nice "tune up". Josh had a "consultation" and Noah also had a few pounds of hair removed. Gus looks about the same as he did when I started getting haircuts from him over 28 years ago.

After the haircuts Dad and Noah and I went to Solly's for burgers
(http://www.roadfood.com/Reviews/Overview.aspx?RefID=615). There are three food groups that will never be as good in Asia as they are in the US - the pizza group, the burger group and the Latin food group. After the pizza, Solly helped me get the second one taken care of. I managed to get the third in Miami with a Versailles Cuban sandwich. Saturday night we went to the Vince Lombardi Foundation black tie dinner. The Gimbel table also featured the lovely Nancy Chandler and Cathy Reilly along with their not quite as lovely husbands Tim and Stevie.

On Sunday it was off to the airport. I was lucky to get a bonus visit with Rachel and Benjie as their flight from Las Vegas got in about an hour before my flight to Miami left. It was sad to leave Milwaukee but great to see everyone in the family after such a long time!