Bonjour and Au Revoir...

 

Click here for photos of Phnom Penh

 We were on a tight schedule and after a few days waved goodbye to Siem Reap to fly back to Phnom Penh. Inconveniently, we were dropped off at the wrong terminal and were forced to walk at least 100 yds through a car park to the other terminal where we waited with 4 other people to be checked in by at least 8 staff!

On reaching the capital we met up with Keith and Sara to partake of many French pastries (Cambodia was once a French colony) and to watch the Water Festival happening on the Tonle Sap river. As well as commemorating a great victory in battle it also marks the end of the rainy season and the change in direction of the river itself. Hundreds of boats race up and down the river carrying up to 80 rowers, a cox, several people to bail water out and a man with a megaphone to shout encouragements! Up to a million extra people can converge on the city for this 3 day festival and we felt really lucky to happen to be in the right place at the right time! It also gave us the opportunity to observe the Cambodians at their most 'aggressively omnivorous'... Deep fried cockroach or chicken foetus anyone?

Back to Singapore to complete our adventure and time to say goodbye to Juliette. Bye bye matey - thanks so much for coming all this way to see me and see you soon!

Bonjour Cambodia!

Click here for photos of Siem Reap

To ensure that Juliette kept up with her airmiles collection we all headed off to Cambodia for a few days. We saw and experienced so much that it's hard to know where to begin to describe it! We landed in Phnom Penh (yes, that is how you spell it!) and took a rather exhilarating, 5 hour taxi ride to Siem Reap. Exhilarating due to the death-defying overtaking manouevres being undertaken all around us as well as the extreme sport of avoiding wandering livestock crossing the roads. We did arrive in one piece at our hotel with only mild whiplash to show for the journey and set out to wander around the town. We dropped into Wat Po - a buddhist temple with resident monk who kindly took time out to explain a few things about his temple. He spoke fluent English and was also starting to learn French - all to a considerably higher level than our Khmer! The next day we hired a tuk tuk (a motorbike with a small shed on the back as a form of transport) to take us around Angkor Wat - the largest temple in the world and a truly awe-inspiring place. I shall let the photos speak for this one... A word to those planning to visit - don't try to see too much in one day or you may be struck down with 'Temple Fatigue'! And you'll need some energy left to dodge the beautiful Cambodian children trying to sell you MORE postcards!

Happy Birthday mum!

Click here for pictures of Equinox

Forgot to buy your mum a birthday present? Can I recommend that you take her for an "Eat and Drink All You Can Brunch" on the 70th floor of the SwissOtel with free-flow Moet and Chandon, 10 courses of food and a 180 degree view of Singapore? That'll make her forget you hadn't got her a card ;)

Monkey Do...

Click here for photos of MacRitchie

Getting away from the city and into the rainforest is pretty easy to do in Singapore. After applying copious amounts of sun cream and mosquito repellant we headed up to the MacRitchie reservoir. This is in a large area in the middle of the island called the 'Central Catchment Area' and is a really good way to forget you're in the middle of an island that's also a city. My yearning to see monkeys up close and personal was answered and we almost became TOO acquainted when they discovered we had crisps in our bag! The camera squad (Matt and Juliette) were in full force and the sound of snapping shutters resounded through the canopy.

After a serious amount of sweating through the day, what better food to eat than Chinese Steamboat in the evening? Take one vat of boiling soup, a waitress called Irene to ladle out the chilli and your own weight in food to be cooked right under your noses to really bring on the heat!

Monkey See...

Click here for The Clinic

My good mate Juliette swings into town which means it's time to explore different parts of Singapore! Dim Sum in Chinatown, being encouraged to take photos of a Hindu festival next to a sign saying 'No Photography' and finishing up in a hospital-themed bar called The Clinic was only the start. It is disturbing to see photos of your old mum in a wheelchair before her time though...

Singapore Museum

Click here for photos of Singapore Museum

Whilst in Singapore it's only right that one should visit the National Museum! After introducing mum to more strange Singaporean foodstuffs we headed on over to discover that I had to pay an entry fee and she didn't! Outrageous. Roll on retirement... Having spent around an hour poking around the seemingly few exhibits we were beginning to wonder if that was it and whether I should go and ask for my $10 back. It was only at that point that we noticed the rest of the museum and were treated to more information on Singapore than you could shake a stick at! Ask me anything, test me, test me!

Tourist Time II

Click here for photos of the Botanical Gardens

Day 2 of acting like tourists started with a dip in the pool of our condo. We are really lucky to overlook the swimming pools in our complex giving our flat a 'holiday home' atmosphere. My mum is already a regular on the sun loungers :) We then visited the Singapore Botanical Gardens which also boasts the National Orchid Garden (the debate as to whether you warrant the name 'National' if you are the 'only' continues...). The relative humidity feels much higher when you are in a leafy area and we spent perhaps longer than we needed in the Cool House! A free, outdoor concert was happening as we walked past with the National Chinese Singapore Orchestra performing Chinese and Western music on traditional Chinese instruments. It was very pleasant to sit there on the grass and listen to classical music. For a mixing of cultures try listening to music from a Spanish opera (Carmen) written by a Frenchman (Bizet) being performed by Chinese musicians in Singapore...

Tourist Time

Click here for photos of the city

My mum has arrived and as well as it being lovely to see her it also gives us a good excuse to act like tourists! After purchasing an open top bus tour for the Hippo Bus we were whizzed around the city at high speed taking in all th sights. Our bus driver was obviously an F1 fan, as he was completing the bus circuit at such speed that the recorded lady had to skip bits of her talk just to keep up! It also included a tour of the Singapore river on the Duck Boat which took us down to see the Merlion, which is the national symbol of Singapore. Having had enough of animal themed forms of transport, we then headed down to Club Street near Chinatown to watch the sunset from a rooftop bar. After that it was Little India where the festival of Deepavali was in full swing. Coloured lights were strung all down the roads and the place was heaving! A banana leaf curry finished off the night and a taxi took us back home to a well deserved night's sleep!

Formula 1 - Singapore style

This year is only the second time that Singapore has hosted the F1, which is made more unusual as it's held at night (or so I'm reliably informed!). We managed to get walkabout tickets which allowed you to be deafened at the trackside whilst also wandering around all the other entertainment that was on offer. Lewis Hamilton won, much to the dismay of the German spectators standing near Matt but the highlight for me was perhaps the live performance of the BackStreet Boys on Sunday night :) No photos for this one as they are mostly blurs...

Happy Hari Raya to you too!

Click here for photos of Melaka

Sunday 20th September marks the end of Ramadan and is called 'Hari Raya'. It also happens to be a long weekend so what better way to spend your time than to take a bus to the Malaysian city of Melaka? However, if you haven't checked your facts properly then you will be totally unaware that this is the weekend that all Malaysians try to get back to Malaysia! After a slightly stressful hunt for transport we finally made it and spent 3 days in the UNESCO heritage city - their first job is to presumably get people to agree on how to spell the name of the place? Currently you can choose from Melaka or Malacca. I'm not entirely sure what criteria a place has to fulfill to be awarded UNESCO status...and I'm not sure we're much the wiser now! I'm sure the 'Museum of Enduring Beauty' and the bicycle rickshaws (trishaws) blaring out rave music helped in the selection. Check out our pictures on Flickr to see more!

Hungry Ghost Month

The seventh month in the Chinese calendar celebrates the 'Hungry Ghost Month' where (apparently!) the doors to the afterlife are opened and people's ancestors come back to visit. To appease the ghosts, relatives burn offerings of things they might need when they go back such as food and paper represenations of money and cars...after all, everyone needs to drive in Heaven right?! It also seems to involve live shows of karaoke - but so do most things in Singapore! A sign in our condo sternly reminds people to not set fire to things in the corridors, showing that management have seriously more clout than the ghosts!

Raining? Just a bit!

We've just experienced our first Singapore thunderstorm. It was pretty loud even through the double-glazing here at work but when I got a phone call from Matt who was hiding under the bed at home because our condo was being hit by lightning I knew it must be really bad! Doesn't look promising for the 'Drinks round the pool' do at Matt's school tonight!

We've arrived!

Hello to all and thankyou for all the 'Welcome to your new home' cards! Our move went very smoothly and was helped by the fact that we don't actually have any stuff - it's all on a ship somewhere else in the world! It does however mean less tidying up and housework in general...

Matt bravely set off to get us an internet connection for our flat yesterday to be told that only one provider was available due to our condo being 'too old'. As it's only about 10 years old, it really shows how quickly development moves in Singapore! Consequently we won't be online until the 5th Septemeber, so Skype you all then!

Testing testing

Hi to anyone who may end up reading this! This is a test entry for Matt and Rosa's Singa Fling that begins on the 9th August.

More to follow....

MnR