Sun day

After brunch, Mike and I headed over to the Singapore zoo. We got there around 4pm and had about 2 hours to see the entire place, which was enough time. We saw all kinds of cool animals and even saw them feeding the monkeys. This one was my favorite because the little monkey is doing its own thing.


We also got to see the white tigers, which were great. One of them kept pacing back and forth with a scowl on this face.


On our way back to the entrance, we heard these loud crys from somewhere. We managed to get to the right area and the baboons were going crazy, literally. They were screeching and running around like they were mad. In some instances, one baboon would be attack or covered by the other baboons. It looked like they were fighting, but then looked they were trying to mate. I don't know, but it was interesting to watch.

After the zoo, it was time for the night safari, which conveniently was next door.


Before the gates opened, we sat down and had a drink. Little did we know that we were in the right place for the opening show. It was cool and they were doing all kinds of tricks with fire. Before it ended, we headed over early to the theatre to catch another show, which was ok, but not great.


Finally it was time to see the actual night safari, which is getting in a tram that drives around, allowing you to see the animals. You could also walk it, but that is up to you. We did get off and walk one area where we got to go into this bat area.
I know the picture isn't great, but that is a fruit bat eating the hanging fruit. The bats would zip past you and it was weird, but really cool to see actual bats.


We saw a bunch of animals, but it was hard to take pictures b/c we couldn't use flash and the tram was moving. We have mental images and if I could show you, I would. I also realize this trip was full of animal excursions, but whatever. We were quite pleased Singapore and glad we only did it for a weekend, because we pretty much saw everything there was to see. It was a good trip and great to see Angie Lee.

Sunday Brunch

Sunday, the day I was looking forward to the food part our trip. I had booked us a reservation at the St. Regis (loved their display outside) restaurant for their famous dim sum brunch with free flowing champagne.


Angie and us enjoyed a loving brunch complete with dim sum and some other interesting dishes. First, we started out with the shark fin soup. It was actually really good and fin part was bad at all. Of course, Mike didn't savor it as he was done before I was half way done.


Next we tried various dim sum options, like the traditional one, the bun with bbq meat inside, one with pork and spinach and shrimp. One of the more interesting dishes was the pork belly. The bread next to it was really good and tasting with the sauce. The pork belly was different texture wise, but tasted good. Another interesting dish was the pork knuckle, which I couldn't do, but Mike tried it.


Here's a picture of us before we stared eating and drinking. Such a good time.


Brunch was amazing. We didn't even have to ask them to refill our glasses with champagne because they would always come around and do it. Mike and agreed that we aren't dim sum people for brunch or lunch. We can see the appeal, but for us we felt like it was more of a dinner food. Either way it was all delicious. 4 hours, at least 6 glasses of champagne, and 10 dishes later, we were ready for our Sunday activities.

Saturday night

On Saturday night, we had dinner at this great dim sum restaurant that Angie and Christopher (he's another friend from Houston working in Singapore) recommended. Here it is.

The kitchen is open and you can see them making the dim sum, especially the stem once they open the lids. We had an excellent dinner and I must say, I like dim sum.

Next we headed back to the Marina Bay Sands to finally do some gambling. Mike and Christoper went to the black jack tables. There were only S$25 or S$50 tables to play on, which is ridiculous. Angie and I opted for the slot machines.
The overall casino experience was ok. Its a nice place and everyone is there, but you don't get free alcoholic drinks. You only get free water, coffee or tea. Not exactly what we were looking for.

After our stint here, we headed over to Fullerton to check it out and see the Merlion. Here it is and its spouting water. hehe


And here it's drenching me with water!


We were pretty tired from the evening and decided to make it an early evening. Early as in we got back to Angie's around 12:30.

Saturday Fun Day

After our long evening out, we slept in some before heading out for the day. We started with lunch at Nando's. Apparently Mike use to eat here all the time while in Doha, so we just had to go. As you can see, he was very excited to have the skewered chicken with the famous Peri Peri sauce.

I just had regular chicken with a milder sauce and it was good, but nothing to get all excited about.

After lunch we hopped on the "Hop on Hop off" bus and made it around town. Our first stop was Little India. Here is the big entrance, so you know you are in the right place.

We walked around and checked things out. I was trying to find a shop to buy spices, but alas, could not find one. Oh well.
Not to far from Little India is Arab Street, so we made our way over there. Again, just walked around to see what there was. I managed to find a great pashima store and bought one! It was pretty hot out and we needed a rest, so we headed back to the bus.

Our resting stop was the famous "Long Bar" for the famous "Singapore Sling." Both Mike and I each had one and it was very refreshing drink. The tables have free peanuts on them and you can throw the shells on the floor. The decor was also very old looking, so a fun place to be.

As oppposed to telling the story of the bar, you can read it here!


After our rest, we headed to our last stop, China town. Again here was the landmark telling you, you came to the right place. We walked around and found shopping streets as well as food streets.


We came upon this temple, which looked really cool and we would have gone inside to check it out, but you had to take off your shoes. I didn't want to do that, so we took a nice long look and kept going.


After this, we headed back to Angie's to shower again and wait to figure our dinner plans.

Friday Night Festivities

To start the evening, Mike and I had drinks while we waited to meet up with Angie Lee. Our friend from home, Susan, had called Angie and told her one of her friends from college, Bobby, was in Singapore. We went to meet him at his hotel, and it just happened to be the new Marina Bay Sands Hotel. His room was amazing and the view from the top was gorgeous. If you google it, their cascading pool is on the 57th floor and it looks like you are going to fall off the building. Here is a picture complete with the pool and Singapore backdrop.


After roaming around we went down to look at the bay and took some pictures. It was such a great evening and the lights of the Singapore buildings were so pretty. Here it is.




It was finally time for dinner and what better way to start tasting the Singapore cuisine than with their famous "chili crab." When we asked people who had been or lived in Singapore, they all mentioned Jumbo seafood, so that is where we headed. Here is the famous chili crab, which wasn't spicy at all and in a thick tomato broth. It was delicious and the bread that you use to soak it up, was fantab!

We also got pepper crab, which Mike loved and I didn't. Way to peppery for my taste.


After dinner, Angie and Bobby wanted a funny picture and I happened to catch one of th good ones on our camera. They were such great company and its a great picture.


Finally, to end the night, we headed over to

This area is suppose to be the "go to" area for bars and clubs. It was quite interesting and we stumbled upon the hosital or maybe ER bar, which the waitresses were dresses as nurses and the chairs were wheelchairs, blood drawings chairs, etc. It was quite funny. We checked out a few places and really liked the last bar we were at, though I can't remember the name. When we finally looked at the time, it was almost 2:30am. We were out late and decided it was time to go home.

Jurong Bird Park & Be a Falconer

Friday morning we left our hotel and checked into Angie Lee's place. Then we headed to the Jurong Bird Park for the day. We finally got there around 11:30am, had lunch and then checked out the park.

The park was actually smaller than the map made it out to be, but we walked through it completely. We saw some really cool looking birds and thankfully, they were in their cages. Not sure I could take it if they were flying around me. Here are some birds I liked




The last part of our day here, we spent learning how to be a Falconer. Oh boy, was I in for it now. This program is for people who want to learn how to handle large predatory birds, like eagles, hawks, falcons, vultures. We actually got to handle them, as in, allow them to be perched on our arms. Walking to the area to get started, Mike was carrying a vulture and I was carrying an owl. I liked him, even though he tried to fly away. During the program, we meet an eagle, hawk, vulture, and some kites. We were allowed to feed them, touch them, and send them off from our arm. Needless to say, I was freaked, which is very visible from the pictures. Mike, of course, is standing tall with a huge smile. Either way it was a great experience in which we came away with a certificate, some information, pictures, and a bird hood, the one that is one the vulture Mike was carrying.
If you have some time, please take a look at these pictures from the program, they are great. And last but not least, a fact from our excursion:
Vulture claws are not strong as they merely perch on a branch, but their mouths are super strong...The opposite is true for eagles and hawks, whose claws are super strong, but their beaks, no so much. ENJOY!

SING-SING-SINGAPORE

This past weekend, Mike and I, took a weekend trip to Singapore just to visit. Mike had a Japanese holiday, which allowed us to stay for the entire weekend. We left late Thursday evening and arrived in Singapore early Friday morning at 1am. We checked into a hotel to sleep and then woke up early Friday to start our day and the weekend.

There will be a serious of posts about our weekend adventures. We also got to see and stay with our friend Angie Lee. Thanks so much to her for allowing us to stay and showing us around!

Cooking school

So I have been taking cooking classes, but only picking the Japanese ones. I took one last month, but didn't write about it. Oh well.

Well yesterday I went to class and thought it was going to be good. We were going to make a Japanese meal which consisted of fish over some leafy greens on rice, miso soup, daikon salad, and gummy rice with a sauce for dessert. It sounds great. Little did I know that today's class would be interesting and of course, I forgot my camera.
So, like I said, we were having fish and it was time to prepare it. SO, I thought it would be ready already and we just had to cook it. NOPE. Out comes 3 long fish, similar to a mackerel, in which we were suppose to CUT, GUT, and DEBONE. Oh, I was not ready for that. The teacher explained how to do it and there we went. First is was the head, which I was able to cut, but then all the blood and some guts started to ooze out. YUCK. I was sick and was like "ugh" I couldn't proceed with the rest of it and my teacher had to do it for me. It grossed me out like no other. Funny thing, I've been in an ER with with people coming in from accidents with gashes and cuts and blood everywhere, but it didn't gross me out. However, that fish did.

Here is our completed meal and I couldn't even eat the fish. UGH. I realize its all in my head, but just couldn't. Anywho, thankfully I met a nice lady named Gladys, who was kind enough to send me this photo.