Chinatown Singapore

I am starting my first day in Singapore and I do what I am supposed to do, force myself to stay awake to get on the current time zone. Luckily I have a food tour booked so I have a reason to force myself out of the room.

I love taking food tours and cooking classes when I travel. I love food and I love discovering new food loves. Singapore is very big on Hawker culture (there are so many Hawker complexes). I know me though and I get nervous and intimidated initially in ordering foods in some foreign countries. This tour, that concentrates on popular and Michelin rated/documented hawkers, is the perfect introduction to the hawker culture.

I’ve done some reading ahead so I know a couple things: like using a tissue pack to save a seat/table (called chope) and I have a list of foods I really want to try. But my guide fills in all the gaps. He tells us great stalls to try, history of things, and even great parts of town to visit. I also meet three lovely ladies on my tour, two of which I hang out with the next day for Chinese New Year. I love when my shy anxious self finds an easy way to meet new people!

We start the tour immediately visting the hawker building Hong Lim. Our guide tells us how hawker culture began. There used to be street carts like you would see in other parts of South East Asia, serving food and whatnot. At some point the city decided to take these into covered areas to make the foods safer, provide facilities for cooking with running water with tables for people to use to eat. Now you have what are present day hawker centers. There are numerous in the city and while a large number of them are Chinese, you can also find various other food types: Malay, Indonesia, Thai, Indian or those with a flair of many different cultures in one.

We start at Jiji Noodles House and he brings us a bowl of Signature char siew wanton noodle (pork). It comes with a side of a soup with goji berries that you can eat alone or dump into your noodles if they are not wet enough. This meal is fantastic. I craved it later. I wanted it the next morning but I assumed it would be closed (note: a girl on the tour told me the next morning that it was in fact open the next morning. I missed out on a second serving.). This is one of the places in the Michelin guide because it is so good.

Next I try a tea that is quite good – Ice Lemon Tea that I will try once more another day.

Then we head to try a curry puff. The guide calls it curry in a hurry. But you cannot eat it too fast because it is served piping hot.

We walk through a market where we look at the fruits. Of course durian is brought up. Durian is quite popular but it has an interesting taste and texture. You either like it or you don’t. I am still in the don’t like it category. I’ve tried it twice: once in a fresh fruit format and once as a cracker (accidentally). Both times it took me quite a while to get that distinct taste out of my mouth, in fact when I smell it, it comes back to me. Most hotels ban you bringing it in because it will “stink” up the place and its hard to remove.

We next stop to get a pandan cake but due to the Lunar new year they seem to be sold out so we try an orange chiffon cake instead and it is quite good. I’ve had pandan before a few times and I love it so I vow to come back to this store another time to try the cake.

Next we try the Chinese version of the Portuguese egg tart. It is not as sweet as the Portuguese version.

We then go to the Maxwell complex to visit the famous Tian Tian Hainanese Chicken Rice. If you have watched any show on Singapore hawker culture this dish is featured; Anthony Bordain loved it. The chicken, served room temperature is good, but the special is the rice. It is very good. Some eat it as breakfast. It is considered a national dish.

Time to try some juice. We order soursop, a not so sweet fruit drink. I like how this vendor does no added sugar. It is quite refreshing.

We stop and visit the Buddha’s tooth relic temple. Yes you saw that correctly. There is supposed to be an actual Buddha’s tooth upstairs but we didn’t go up to see it. But the temple is quite beautiful and iconic in Chinatown.

We visit one last complex called Chinatown complex. We are very full already so we split a spring roll and enjoy Singapore Iced Coffee. The coffee is good and strong but being sweetened it would be an occasional treat for me.

I love the knowledge we received from our tour guide. I need to remember to do at least one tour such as this in each major city. It really cuts through the anxiety I have with being somewhere vastly unfamiliar.

Since I thoroughly enjoyed time with those in my tour and we are all mostly solo travelers we make plans to meet up tomorrow to see some of the Lunar New Year celebration. I am pleased to have met people so easily.

My first thoughts on Singapore is that it is a clean, safe and friendly country. While it is generally more expensive than most of South East Asia, it is a fantastic starter city for the region. Most people speak English here and things are more accessible to foreigners because you can stay in a hotel in a format that people are accustomed to with all the comforts of home. And the food, well Singapore is a full of many different cultures so the food choices are endless.

After my tour I wander around a bit. I do go back to my hotel to rest but I force myself to go back out with the lure of the visiting the birthplace of the original Singapore Sling at the Long Bar at Raffles hotel. It is a popular spot on the tourist trail so there is usually a wait but luckily I don’t have to wait long. They have a machine that shakes the cocktails. They mostly shake them by hand these days but I do get to see the machine in action briefly. This is also the only place in Singapore where it is lawful to litter: you can throw your peanut shells on the ground.

After I decide to walk the water to get a view of Marina Bay Sands and other things in the area. I return in a couple days to see more. Being exhausted i find a place for a quick but not great dinner and then head to bed early.

First day = success.

Seattle, continued

Because I went to bed at 7 PM I wake up before 5 AM the next morning. I am an early riser in every time zone so it doesn’t surprise me. I still get a decent amount of sleep last night. The early start gives me an opportunity to do my list of exercises and stretches that can make me feel like a normal human, a list that I have saved in a google doc. Let’s hope I can keep this up with some sort of consistency.

I have a to do list of things I could do right now but the only problem it is a holiday today for many in the USA so not a great day to take care of business.. I’ll have to make all my phone calls tomorrow. I could do some travel bookings for future travel but it is 6 am and I’m hungry so I am heading downstairs for a coffee and continental breakfast.

I can get an early start today but the sun rises late in this part of the country; did I know that? I finally plan out my day. I decide to first travel over to Kerry Park for a spectacular view of the city. I map out the route on Google maps. It seems easy enough. Short walk, public transit, then short walk – probably uphill. However when I see a number 1 listed on the transport I realize later it is the number 1 bus I need and not the number 1 line light rail, a thing I realize when I am going in the total wrong direction but not at first. I get off the light rail first in Capital Hill and then reverse the route only to realize I am supposed to be on a bus. I exit at Chinatown and find a good bus from there that will take be where I want to go.

The bus drops me off at the bottom of a hill. I climb a few blocks then hit a set of stairs to the park.

I realize at once that sunset is probably the best time to visit this park. The view is still pretty but you are looking at the sun. Today is looking like it is going to a cool beautiful sunny day.

I head back down the hill to catch the bus to The Museum of Pop Culture. In retrospect I could have walked there. It isn’t too far from where I catch the bus.

I walk though the Seattle center area. There are a couple museums and some people are heading to what I believe is an ice hockey game. The famous space needle is here but I am not going up top today. I took the trip to the top in the late 90’s when I visited my high school BFF that was living in Washington at the time.

Look at those young things. We were both in our twenties but we look like teenagers. Circa 1998 or 1999.

I’m not really visiting museums this stop in Seattle but I do want to check out the museum of pop culture. I spend a couple hours here seeing movie and music props, topped with a little nostalgia. Seattle grunge was all the rage when I was coming of age so of course the music exhibits have a profound affect on me.

Middle flyer is from the Lollapalooza tour when I saw Pearl Jam for the first time.

I am hungry so I take the monorail to get some soup dumplings at Din Tai Fung.

The food is served family style but I am solo. I only order two dishes and that is more than enough. I try the signature bao dumplings and the recommended green beans along with a lychee cocktail. It is all very good. This is the first time I’ve ate at a soup dumpling place that came with an infographic on how to eat.

I take the bus to Capital Hill to wander the neighborhood and to view the apartment building that appears in the movie Singles. Singles was an important movie at a time where I was at an age to “get it”. The movie, the music, everything about it screams nostalgia to me. This visit was a great sightseeing stop for me.

The rest of the neighborhood is pretty cool. Nice old houses and architecture of apartment buildings. The architectures in the neighborhood are pretty divergent but they all seem to fit somehow. There is a strong lgbtq+ and ethnic restaurant presence. Basically I can see myself living in this diverse area. Until I get spooked a little…..

I need some more emergency cash for the international portion of my travels so I decide to stop by an ATM while wandering around capital hill. The ATM is noticeably slower than normal but I go through step by step. I get to the point where I am selecting the amount I want to take out and all of a sudden a man comes up behind me and hangs over me to push my buttons. I freak out thinking I am getting robbed. I scream “get away” and back my body toward him to push him away from the keys. He comes back at the keys. I scream “help, help” and push him away once again with my backside. He is mumbling something indecipherable. He finally touches the side of the ATM and walks away. I look around and there are two women nearby with campaign signs. They have noticed the situation and ask if I’m ok to which I reply “yes”. I finish my transaction and walk over to the women and we observe the man. It appears he has extreme OCD where he must press all the buttons he walks by. I slowly calm and start to feel embarrassed at my reaction to the situation. It is now clear what had happened – he “needed” to press my buttons and I was at the wrong place at the wrong time. You never know how you will react in a seemingly dangerous situation; now I do.

I’ve done my fair share of yelling today

All the places I eye to eat aren’t open yet in capital hill so I take the train back near the hotel but first I go in the wrong direction once again. I think this is the third time today I’ve made a travel blunder.

I find a place that has a pizza happy hour. It is just what I need for an early bird dinner. I call it another early night.

I am up early the next morning and decided to try the highly recommended biscuit bitch. It reminds me of a restaurant back home.

This morning I take a bus to Freemont to sell the troll art installation there. It is a cute town area that is home to some major employers. I enjoy my time wandering around, seeing the houses on the water and boats passing under a drawbridge.

I have a tour of the underground city scheduled so I take the bus to pioneer square. My tour guide is fun. We are a small group because I guess post holiday weekend and post covid. He tells lots of poop jokes, right up my alley. We learn the history on how the underground came to be. Along with stories of corruption, prostitution, taxes and of course poop.

I finish off the afternoon with a reservation at the Pink Door. I am unable to get a reservation at a time where there is entertainment which is a shame. I’ll have to come back and plan better next time. I did enjoy a nice meal before heading back to the hotel to take care of packing and last minutes things. Going to bed at decent hour but not as quite as early as last two days.

Seattle

I wake up at 3 am to leave at 4:30 AM for my 7:00 AM flight. I am exhausted and of course did not get enough rest. At some point in my sleep deprived state I must have removed more items from my backpack because the next day I can’t find the pants I want to wear for sightseeing. How is my backpack so full even though I keep removing items and it is at least 10 liters larger than my previous one, that I loved and had seen better days.

I digress. The kiosk at Alaska airlines will not give me the luggage tag and errors out, a problem I seem to keep having with these kiosks. I have to get in the long line for the desk. Things are already not going as planned. When I get to security the lines are very long for 5:00 AM at the airport. I am thankful that I took the time for TSA pre check. While still a wait, at least I don’t have to wait as long.

I grab another coffee while I wait for my flight because I think it will help. It doesn’t really seem to make much difference. I am still tired and cranky and afraid the extra coffee will upset my stomach for the travels, I end up throwing away half of it.

I finally get to my premium economy seat next to a nice lady – a luxury I award myself because the base cost of the flight was free due to credits gained from a cancellation to Portland last year. I forget the aisle seat has reduced area under the seat so I end up putting my backpack in the overhead anyway. I fail to take advantage of the free alcoholic beverages that the premium class provides because it is 7:00 AM and I have seemed to lose my ability to consume alcohol easily anymore. I do pre-order a cheese plate for the fight and brought my own Brie to join the mix.

I arrive at Seattle after a pretty much event-less flight. I did even catch a nap of at least 30 minutes. After I claim my bags I take the walk over to the light rail station. While the light rail is a long ride of about 40 minutes, it is much cheaper than a cab or Uber and there is a stop a 5 minute walk from the hotel.

As I suspect I am way too early for check in. I drop my bags and wander. My plan is to go to the Freemont Sunday market today but it is cold and rainy and quite frankly I am not in the mood for it. I decide to visit the Pike Place Market which is right by my hotel & covered from the rain. At the market I watch the fish mongers throw fish (sorry no photos, they are too fast for me). I also witness food tours. It is busy. The market definitely caters to tourists and has kitschy stores but that is ok. I am a tourist. I need to return later to try some foods but now I have a one track mind.

The sight of all the crabs makes me crave crabs. I feel like I haven’t eaten for days so the hanger slowly starts in. I reject all of the wonderful suggestions of great places to dine given by my friends and head to a tourist crab place along the water.

On the way to getting some crab I pass the disgusting gum wall.

I finally get to a seafood place on the water that has crab on the menu. Luckily there is no wait and I get a reprieve from the cold and rain. I order the Snow and Dungeness crab combo. The Snow crab is good but the Dungeness is just ok. I am not sure if I am just not familiar with that type of crab or it was a lackluster day for Dungeness crabs. It doesn’t matter. I shoved as much crab in my mouth as possible. I definitely regret eating my weight in crab as well as the sourdough table bread when I am uncomfortably full the rest of the evening.

After I eat I wander around by the water. It seems to be the area that you take kids. There are carnival things to do and a curiosity place that seemed to be more of a store with weird things to purchase.

Still not time to check in, stop at a bar for a drink. Someone working here must really like Dua Lipa because her songs are on repeat for like an hour.

I head back and finally check into my room. It is nice , clean and simple. And I have an amazing view of a … ac unit. I can sort of see pike’s public market and the water but the pretty view is sort of obstructed. Later I go to the roof terrace and get a nicer view. It’s cold and rainy though so I don’t stay long.

I love the wallpaper in the lobby and hallways. It is designed by a local artist inspired by the city.

I pass out at 7 PM and go to sleep. I know I am supposed to force myself to stay awake for jet lag or something. I don’t care, it is going to be a long time before I am on a normal sleep schedule again. Before sleep I realize there is still a couple days before I can register with the Singapore government about my vaccination status – It’s been on my mind I may be denied entry due to the incorrect form of documentation. I guess I get to deal with it later.

Arrived in Barcelona, land of dance

I’ve been to Barcelona once before: the trip started off well but my then husband and I soon developed some kind of gastrointestinal illness and were hotel bound the rest of our visit. I always vowed to someday return and explore all that I had missed. Therefore this visit is a little bit of a make-up trip. My immune system feels good so far so looking forward to the next couple days in Barcelona.

I arrive in town late enough to check into my hotel to freshen up. I really have nothing on the agenda today except go watch the Sardana dance and maybe try to visit la boqueria, one of my favorite places.

I am staying once more in a nicer hotel. I like this chain, Room Mate Pau.

I wander around my hotel.

During my last visit to Barcelona I fondly remember catching the Sardana, the traditional Catalan dance. My current visit is timed just right for me to catch the dance again.

Now I head to La Boqueria via some of the Gothic Quarter.

First I stop for a pizza and a beer. I cannot resist the pizza with mortadella on it, a topping rarely seen on pizza.

Stopped by La Boqueria but most of the stalls are closed but nearby is a street party called Bulla ‘N ‘Barna put on by four local dance schools. They are doing the traditional dance of Ball de Bot. I stay here for a while to watch and buy my first vermouth in Barcelona. It is so much fun to watch all the dances.

I end the afternoon with a stroll down Las Ramblas. It is nice to just stroll with no destination in mind. Tomorrow I finally get to see the famous Park Güell.

Wandering the caves of Sacromonte

This morning I walk the streets of Albaicín (Granada) on my way to wander around Sacromonte. I was introduced to the neighborhood last night when I attended a zambra flamenco show. Today I am heading up to a cave museum (Museo Cuevas del Sacromonte) for a lesson on the history of this intriguing neighborhood.

I first read about these cave homes through a fictional book series. In each of the books the protagonist has an adventure in different cities throughout the world. In one book a woman visits the hillside cave town of Sacromonte in Granada. From then on I decided I needed to see these caves in person. A summarized version of the history is that they were inhabited by Gitanos, or what some people refer to as Roma gypsies- but the word gypsy is not really a good way to describe the group of people of this heritage because of all the negative meaning associated by its use. We know now that Romani or Roma people is probably a better way to describe this ethnic group that settled in this area in the 15th century. They brought with them their distinct culture that is reflected in this part of the city.

To get to the cave museum I turn down the street I visited last night for my zambra flamenco show – another distinct Sacromonte thing. The mostly white washed buildings are built into the hill. I climb up a couple of groups of stairs to eventually get to the museum at the top.

A few feet from the entrance there are some poems on the wall.

Granada is hot but the inside of the caves is a comfortable temperature. You see why they were used.

Some of the caves are decorated as they would have been used for living. Individual caves are also used as mini-museums of their own, for instance there is one where they talk about the history of flamenco and another where you learn about the plight of the Romani people in Spain; It is very hard to read how they were mistreated as a group over time. There are also caves that show different skills like weaving and pottery.

Outside of each cave there are plants with diagrams explaining their medicinal use.

I walk along the side of the hill of the museum and get a spectacular view of Granada. Along the hill sides you can see it is almost desert like with plants you typically see in dry and hot climates.

For only 5 euro I definitely felt like I got my money’s worth. I am glad to have marked this off my to-do list.

I walk back down into another part of Granada in search of an authentic tapas place. Again the streets are quiet. It is the warmest part of the day. Most people probably are indoors at this time.

When I get to the major business district of Granada I admire the shades installed along the shopping street – they are very much needed in hot Granada. I need to send a photo of these to urban planners in Florida (hint hint….might be a good idea).

I finally find an authentic tapas restaurant, La Sitarilla, and it serves free portions with each drink you order. I probably could have sat there for hours trying a good number of dishes; but I only try two today because the servings were a good size.

There are still more things I can do in town but I have already visited everything on my must see list. I head back to my hotel to chill there for the rest of the evening.

I finish my evening with the dessert I have been eyeing (Casa Ysla Pastelería) and finishing off the bottle of wine I bought a couple days ago. Tomorrow I fly north to begin another adventure there.