New Year Preparations

Chinese New Year that is...This will be my first time experiencing the craziness of Chinese New Year season in asia.  At my local town center area, they've set up pasar malam - which is a night market (except it's open all day long)...Lots of vendors have set up shop selling all sorts of stuff....cheap clothing, bags, cds, decorations...you name it, they got it.  I even picked up some sewing supplies at dirt cheap prices at this one shop that sold everything from door stoppers to ear cleaning tools.  It's fantastic!

This is one of the many stalls selling New Years decorations.  

I also happened to catch the God of Fortune wandering around the market....actually, there were about 10 of them walking in a line, but by the time I whipped out my camera, there was only one left.

Since we are living in Asia and I am Asian, I felt the need to get a decoration for my house too...(note, I said a decoration - that's right - only one).  We picked this funny little sign to put on our front door.  Andy liked this one because of the happy fat kids.

Then there's the food.  They've got all sorts of things-on-a-stick.....like seaweed chicken on a stick, fishballs on a stick, siew mai on a stick, even chicken wings on a stick.

For Chinese New Year, we're heading out of town to Taiwan.  I'm really looking forward to celebrating with my grandma, aunts, and uncles, since that's what New Year is all about.  We're gonna have hot pot - yum!  Can't wait to eat it up in Taiwan!

Of course, since this is the first time I've seen some of my Taiwan family in 6 years, I must arrive bearing some gifts.  So, I've decided to do handmade gifts.  I based my bag off this tutorial and made my own pattern incorporating some changes and added some extras like pockets, zippers, and buttons. Here's a sneak peak at my works in progress:

I still have to sew the buttons on, so when I finish them all up, I'll be sure to show you all.  Hope my aunts like them!

Adventure!

Life here is really an adventure.  Even the most mundane thing like getting home from the movie theater turns into an adventure when you decide to take a different route which you thought would take half an hour and takes 1.5 hours instead....or when you get ripped off on sewing supplies because you don't know the best places to buy.  I'm always learning new things...

Now, for our first adventure of 2011.  A couple of weekends ago, we decided to head out to Pulau Ubin, which is an island off the shore of Singapore.  It's only a 10 minute boat ride from the east shore of Singapore and is a semi-inhabited island with lots of nature trails and some old Malay village style houses - Kampong houses.

So, after a 2 hour trek, we finally got onto the island and decided to rent a tandem bicycle to explore the island.  We tried the bike out first, Andy was not too thrilled with the idea as it's kind of hard to steer a tandem bike.  But, I have always wanted to ride one so I got Andy to go along with it.

Bad idea.

Reason #1 - tandem bikes may be great for flat, smooth boardwalks, but not so great for gravel roads with lots of hills.
Reason #2 - when you ride a tandem, the person in front gets the brunt of the work...so even though Andy is in pretty good shape, he was hurting by the end....especially due to all the hills.
Reason #3 - of course I picked an older bike because it was less than half the price of the new ones....there's a reason it's cheaper, the seats are miniscule and rock hard.

After a two hour ride, we were two really grumpy people with two bruised and sore bottoms.  I think it took me 3 days to recover!

In between, we did get to enjoy the island a bit and checked out the Chek Jawa wetlands.  (This portion was foot traffic only).

Andy and the giant palm fronds

 Me standing at the top of the viewing tower

Walking around in the mangrove swamp

Here we are posing on our bike - do not be deceived, the only reason we are smiling is because this is at the end of the ride and we are both overjoyed to be getting rid of the bike.

Needless to say, I have been cured of my desire to ever ride a tandem bicycle again.

Rewind

We're already two weeks into the new year and I realize I haven't written wished everyone a happy new year!  I've just been lazy lately, busy doing I don't even know what.

So, rewind - Happy New Year! We made an attempt this year to not be lame and stay up till midnight.  So, we went out, had dinner near the Marina Bay area at a hawker center called Makansutra Gluttons Bay:

My first time trying Roti John (bread with egg, and chicken) and Mee Goreng (Indian version of lo mein).  It's funny, mee goreng is an Indian dish with an Indonesian name, using Chinese ingredients. 

Then, we walked around Marina Bay just to see the sights.  

 This is the CBD area lit up at desk.  I think the balls in the water have New Year wishes written on them...

The Marina Bay Sands on New Years Eve.

After awhile, we decided we didn't want to stand around for another 4 hours to wait for the countdown and headed home to ring in the new year by ourselves.  We were actually able to see the tips of the fireworks from the front side of our apartment.  On the other side, we saw this:

If you can't tell, we have a view of the port/sea from this side of the apartment.  I guess some of the men on the ships decided to make their own fireworks and set off some ghetto fireworks (a.k.a. flares).

So, that was our New Years! Can't believe another year is over and I can't believe what a year of changes it has been.  If you asked me a year ago, I never would have predicted we'd be living in Singapore!  Life has definitely full of changes and sometimes, I just have to trust God and roll with it....otherwise, it would probably drive me crazy.  I'm really looking forward to this new year and can't wait to try some new things and see a few new places!

Thailand...the land of smiles...Part 2

And so, the trip continues...

Day Three: The Great Adventure!

This was the day of crazy random adventure in Phuket!

After skyping with family in the morning, we were picked up for our elephant trek.  First we got to meet the baby elephant.

Andy and the baby elephant - very cute, but also very hairy and smelly.

At the place, there was a sign saying that the mahout (elephant guide) was not allowed to get off the elephant for our safety but once we were out of sight and in the forest, our mahout climbed off the elephant and told me to give him my camera so he could take pics of us.  He also told us not to tell the boss that he was doing this and suggested we could give him a tip afterwards.  It would be our little secret.  We were a little nervous, but it sure did make the trek more exciting.  Then a few more minutes (and many pictures) later, he told me to untie the seatbelt and go ahead and climb onto the elephant's neck.  Well, I thought, why not? It's not like this little seatbelt is doing much...

So, I got to ride around on the elephants neck while the mahout played photographer.  Andy got his turn as well, and when we got close to the end of the trail, the mahout climbed back on and and we all pretended like this was the way it had always been.  Quite exciting to ride on an elephant without any kind of harness!

Then it was back to the hotel, where we did a little research and decided to catch a local bus to Phuket Town for lunch.

The Local Bus

First of all, I thought the bus would take half an hour....but it ended up taking 1.5 hours!  By then we were starving and we quickly found a place and sat down to eat....and were served lunch by a lady boy.  By now, my mind has been trained to question whether every woman I see is actually a woman or a lady boy.

 Steamed crab with curry in an interesting clay plate...little pods of goodness.

Steamed crab, squid, and more pad thai - oh and can't forget the awesome pineapple juice!

After a little shopping (and bargaining), we decided to catch another bus to Chalong Bay where we heard there was good, cheap seafood.  Keep in mind that we have no idea where the restaurant is or what stop we had to get off at.   The way the local bus works, you ring the driver when you want to get off, he'll stop anywhere on the route.  This time, the local bus was basically a pick up with a roof and the bus driver was nice enough to told us where to get off.  After walking along the beach, we found the restaurant we were looking for at the end of the beach....but we couldn't get there because there was a river in front of us...  We were standing there, puzzled when a group of locals partying in their little shack/hut motioned for us to cut through their shack to get to the road that would take us to the restaurant.  I hesitatingly walked through with Andy behind me...(looking back, it was probably not the best thing to do).  Luckily we got through without any harm...although Andy's price of passage was a love tap on the bum by some random lady (Andy later said he was too scared to acknowledge it).  Before we could safely get to the restaurant, we had one more obstacle

I call this the Indiana Jones bridge since we've been playing alot of Lego Indian Jones on the Wii lately.  I swear I thought one of these planks was going to fall out once we stepped on it (like in the game).  But, we made it across safely. Note, I took the pic after I had made it across so you can see the locals' hut in the background.  Definitely a bit shady...

So we get to the restaurant, but it's only 5 pm and we just had lunch at 2.  We asked a waitress for a massage parlor recommendation nearby, but she says there aren't any good ones close by.  So she calls her friend who is a taxi driver and arranges for him to take us to the massage place and back for dinner, then take us home to our hotel.  So we basically agreed to and climb into a taxi with a stranger.  We end up having great massages for $15 per person - we got a private room with wonderful scents, soft music, and these Thai massueses stretching and pulling us this way and that.  It was awesome.  Afterwards, it was back to Kan Eang for dinner where we had crab and steamed fish.  So delicious!

More Tom Yam soup....with fried shrimp and seaweed in the background.  Sorry, I ate half the soup before I remembered to take a picture...

Steamed fish in coconut milk.

My personal favorite - Black pepper crab - I love black pepper!

Finally, after a big meal, we headed home and zonked out...amazingly safe after a day of crazy adventure.

Day Four

Once again we got up early (sleeping in was not an option on this vacation) and set out for a trip to Phi Phi Island.  Once again, we got on a speedboat with our Thai tour guide, Bob.  First we went to Monkey Beach, did a little snorkeling and then went to shore to check out the monkeys.

 Monkey trying to drink some pepsi.

Then, we headed to Maya Bay, where the movie The Beach with Leo Dicaprio was shot.  Very beautiful, but too many people for me.

Some rocks on our way out - look how clear the water is!

After lunch, we head out to Khai island where we did more snorkeling.  This was our first time snorkeling (technically my second, but my first time all I saw was sand).  It's amazing!  Even half blind (since I don't have contacts)  it was amazing to be swimming amongst the tropical fish.  We even got nibbled on by a few daring fish.  I think we're hooked on snorkeling now....It's just a truly magical feeling to be underwater staring at brightly colored fish within your hand's grasp.  I was reminded of the wonder and beauty of God's creation.  

After a fun day, we headed home, and ate one more dinner on the beach before hitting the sack and catching a flight back home the next morning.

So many times in Thailand, while gazing at the beautiful beaches, sunset, lifeforms, I was filled with a sense of awe and wonder.   It's just so beautiful out here, and even more so, I can't believe I am out here!  I never imagined I would be living in Southeast Asia and exploring all these places.  God has definitely blessed us alot!