Sleepy Food Baby Time Change

Greetings from Singapore! I've been here two days so far and I feel like all I've done has been sleep and eat! The time zone difference (12 hours from East Coast) has hit me quite hard this trip around and I'm fighting the going to bed real early/waking up real early routine.

Singapore is one of my fave cities in Asia and is because the people are courteous, the place is orderly and clean and the food is spectacular - I think Zimmern or Bourdain said it best when they referred to Singapore like Asia 101 for people coming to this part of the world for the first time!

Here's a pic from me at dinner looking greasily happy and as if I was housing a stupendously large food baby (which I totally was after the meal):

The next day trying to look respectable but in an bleary-eyed coma:

      

And then a medley of poorly-taken photos. What I've realized thus far? I have already whined about needing a new camera - I've really got to finally get one when I get back home stat!

And so far my favorite view each day:



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I'm going to hold off on doing another reader feature this week due to my being out of whack with time (and not completely sure I'll be able to blog at all when I get to China!) - but please hold on to your best outfit pic outtakes because we'll do that again next! I'm got some fantabulously stupid ones!

Last Dinner with the Merlion

My trip's been a blast so far, but I am looking forward to going home finally. Sooooo exhausted from working all week and my eight hours of sleep in the last 48 hours (darn you sake ... and Asahi beer ... and Tiger Beer ... and lychee martinis ...mmm, lychee martinis ...) Plus I've got packages and BF waiting at home, people!

The small group of us leftovers went authentic for the day and stopped at a neighborgood hawker market for breakfast. Hawker markets are clusters of small food stands around a common seating area. It's a local version of a shopping mall food court.

For about $5 (total!) three of us stuffed ourselves silly prior to the start of our last workday in Singapore. Coffee, tea, fried noodles, rice, eggs, fried dough (like a chewier doughnut) and toast with coconut jam.

After a long day at the trade show, we went for a fairly quiet meal at Long Beach. It's a famous Singapore seafood restaurant that locals and tourists frequent. More Tiger Beer (of course!) and then the following:

The wall of fresh seafood at Long Beach. You literally could choose the exact fish you wanted to eat and watch the chef pull it out for you.

First course: Razor clams with garlic.

Second course: Drunken prawn - shrimp cooked in a whiskey broth - the broth is like nothing I've ever had before and we all cleared our bowls. Sorry, you delicious little guys.

Third course: The best sweet and sour chicken we've ever had. Ever. American Chinese restaurants don't stand a chance.

Fourth course: Grilled freshwater fish. Getting stuffed ... and didn't even bother taking pics of the veggies and best dang fried rice ever (yes, we're a bunch of tourists asking for some fried rice).

Dessert: Black rice pudding with vanilla ice cream. Difficult to describe. Delicious.

Farewell for now, land of the Merlion. Keep all that yummy food and awesome shopping malls on hold for me!

And now, we return to our regularly scheduled programming ...

I've Been Bad

Due to work and the move (and excuses, excuses), I only had about an hour to pack for Singapore, so when I got here and actually have to put together outfits - well it isn't working out so well. So "I've Been Bad, Part I" is my sucky OOTDs. Here's two so you can point and snicker. I'm acting a fool in these pics to liven up the clothes, ha.

Sample casual dinner outfit (I ended up keeping the cardigan over my shoulders and not actually worn during most of the evening - it's frickin' hot, what am I thinking?!)

Sample day time work outfit (please keep it mind it is HUMID here in a way where the water vapor slaps you in the face as soon as you step away from the lovely air conditioning, so there's no such thing as comfortable)

"I've Been Bad, Part II" revolves around my wee bit o' online shopping done prior to departing for my trip (scheduled so that I'd come home to some lovely packages awaiting). Here's a sampling:

Of Crabs and Durians

So aside from work-related things, I am learning that food is pretty much the key to happiness in Singapore. The past few nights have been a blur of too many dishes and too much Tiger Beer - and tonight was no exception. But we went to this little hole-in-the-wall restaurant in a neighborhood off the beaten track and had the best meal of the trip so far, and I remembered to whip my camera out to capture at least some of furious food action:

The standard of what you need to have when you're in Singapore - the famous Singapore chili crab - this dish was two huge crabs that were cut up and sauted in a wok with a sauce made of tomato paste, onions, chiles, eggs, etc. The sauce is the key - spicy and sweet and very addicting. And the only way to truly get at it is with both hands. Wet naps a plenty, please.

The remenants of round two-three(?) of dishes - prawns, spinach and seafood noodles. Plus Tiger Beer, of course. I think the bill for 10 people and like 8 huge family-style dishes with drinks ended up running about $250. 

For dessert - we braved the wall of durians. It's a fruit native to the Asia Pacific that you really can only love or hate. It was my first experience with the fruit.

The insides are like custard - soft and sweet. Or that's what I was told. My nibble smelled like rotten onions and it tasted a little like that too.

Between 10 curious people though, we showed the fruit who was boss. I was content to just shake my fist at it from afar though.

The Sling of It!

I spent the last 20 hours or so on some airplane or the other feeling stuffed up with really bad dry air hair and skin - all to avoid the bad weather that seems to be hitting the entire Eastern half of the country.

Well - not on purpose, but it worked out - because I am currently in Singapore!  What a weather difference! It is in the high 80s to 90s here and HUMID. I thought I packed for the weather, but I really didn't - I've got no shorts or sandals (which means I'll probably be a sweaty mess, but it also means I'll be less of a mosquito magnet and people don't need to see my too pale legs).

Here's the view from my hotel room:

Yay me, slick international globetrotter ... OK, not so much. I'm here on business. So yay to free trip to Singapore - boo to having to work for most of the time I'm here.

Yes, that is a mall right across the street ... and that short white building with the orange roof on the left - that's the Raffles Hotel, home to the original Singapore Sling. Guest what I'll be doing later ...?!

CUE TO LATER: Uh-huh.

The Man. Sir Thomas Stamford Bingley Raffles, founder of Singapore.

I was really focusing on this weirdly-cut palm, but caught a cute couple taking their wedding pics!