Woofy Nanny

Hey, Folks!  Lucy, here!  Just wanted you guys to know that whilst Chris and Ricky are galavanting all over SE Asia, I'm actually having fun, too!  They finally heard of a nice human who loves dogs, and runs a great doggy hang out place out of her home.  It's a small operation, hosted by my buddy, Frodo (that's the guy in the middle of the pack there with the big smile), so the number of dogs are minimal and I get lots of attention!  And if I visit on a Monday, we go swimming!  So, if Ralph's humans are out of town when I need a place to stay, it's OK; I'll come here and play!

Rainy Season

Can you see the rain in this picture?!!!?  I think I need to up the ISO or the speed to capture the volume of water that is currently descending on this part of Singapore.  Holy cow - we have a rainy season with a vengeance this year!  More frequently than not, the rain arrives horizontally, in sheets, so any kind of "brelly" or waterproofs are useless.  Glad I ran Lucy out before it started - still caught a bit of it, whereupon, she tried to do her usual drying off by going back and forth between my legs.  She gets dry; I look like I peed myself....

Nikoi

Nikoi is a lovely 15-hectare private Indonesian island - between Singapore and Sumatra.  We booked two nights there earlier this week, and I could have stayed a third....  One gets there by an hour-long ferry from Singapore to Bintan (another, bigger, island), an hour and a half car-ride across Bintan, followed by a private launch from Bintan to Nikoi.  It's worth it, and it's still better than getting on a plane.  There isn't much to do there, hence the allure.  Accommodations are all sea-front bungalows, open to the outside - breezes are such that A/C is not missed - with a lovely deck for reading, sipping a glass of wine, or just gazing out to the horizon.  It's a bit pricey, but I think one pays for the low density.  40 is the maximum number of guests, and since we were there off-season, there couldn't have been more than 20 on the island - indeed, we seemed to be outnumbered by staff!  The style was "elegant casual", if that makes any sense.  For example, the dining area, also open on the sides to the elements, included linen napkins on the tables, yet no floor, so one could dine and sink toes in sand for the duration.  Lovely.

Saigon and the Mekong Delta

Chris scheduled a business trip to Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) last week, so I decided to tag along.  We had been there in 2007 with our dear friend, Joni, but we hadn't made it to the Mekong Delta area just southeast of the city, and it was on my list.  So, I contacted a tour company with a fleet of sampans and scheduled a day in the Delta while Chris had meetings. But I'm getting ahead of myself.  We arrived on a Sunday morning, and since Chris was free until Monday morning, we wandered around the Dong Khoi area of the city, a kind of tourist section with hotels, restaurants and shops.  We visited the cavernous indoor Ben Thanh Market and I tested a new zoom lens on the thousands of motorbikes whizzing past.  (I was told that there are 10 million people in Saigon, and 9 million motorbikes.)  Indeed, we had to keep our wits about us crossing the street!

Monday morning I was picked up at the hotel by a driver and guide, and then we drove a couple of hours to the Ben Tre area of the Mekong Delta.  Ben Tre is a sizable town, but we stuck to the river, bike paths and villages.  I could hear the sound-track to "Apocalypse Now" as we motored down the small tributaries with the palm fronds nearly touching from either side.  Occasionally, we'd spot a sampan carrying fish traps or bags of rice going to market.  My guide, Tho, and I disembarked and mounted a couple of 3-speed bicycles that took us to a few family-run businesses all using rice, which is abundant in the area, or clay from the river banks.  To picture our route, just imagine a partially-paved bike path snaking through verdant jungle with small houses peaking out from behind palm trees - it was magical.  We observed rice noodles being made, using a machine that looked like a primitive shredder; we watched a woman making rice won ton - style wrappers on a clay steamer; and toured a small brick factory with ovens fueled from rice and coconut husks. Later, we enjoyed an incredible 5-course lunch at a river-front house used by the tour company as a home-stay.  (Will chalk that up for future reference....).  It was quite a day - just wish Chris was there to enjoy it as well.

Inside a brick oven

A denizen of the Delta

At the War Remnants Museum

A side trip:  I flew home to Singapore on a Tuesday evening, so that morning, I decided to seek out the War Remnants Museum which was founded shortly after the "American War of Aggression".  It was sobering to see the exhibit of photographs, guns, airplane fragments, tanks, choppers and claymore mines from the Viet Cong point of view.

Banyan Tree at Bintan

Figured it was about time that I create a new post with something more interesting than the cab drivers of Singapore.  The picture to the left was the view from my "villa" the last couple of nights - the water in the distance is the South China Sea.  This was at the Banyan Tree resort in Bintan, which is an Indonesian island an hour ferry ride from Singapore.  I can't believe Chris and I hadn't been there yet, having been in Singapore for a year and a half.  It is probably because we hadn't heard of any resort there that was particularly awesome, and didn't want to take a chance on an unknown.  Then some new friends spent a weekend at this resort recently and raved about it.  So, I decided to check it out on my own, as Chris is in the US, and I needed to get the heck out of Singapore.  This was a departure (no pun intended) for me - it's been years since I have traveled solo, but I decided to use this as sort of a retreat.

I arrived on Sunday afternoon and left the following Tuesday, just enough time to absorb a different environment, escape reality for a while and come back rejuvenated.  I read, meditated, had a spa treatment and soaked up the sun (in the shade, that is).  I went on a guided walk through a Greg Norman golf course (this was a resort, after all), to undeveloped jungle, then a small fishing village, ending at a beautiful almost-deserted beach.  We saw rattan growing in the wild, formosa plants that wilt when you touch them, a kingfisher swallowing a fish bigger than it's head and a tribe of long-tail macaques - my first monkeys since moving here.  

Conclusion:  traveling alone is what you make of it.  I have a tendency to isolate while alone, and when I found myself going in that direction, I reversed.  Had a great time, and will look forward to showing the island to Chris.  One more thing - traveling by ferry sure beats the heck out of getting on a plane!

Singapore Cab Drivers

I got into a cab last Wednesday morning to go across town (it would have taken over an hour on a bus).    By the time I got to my destination, I was ready to hurl.... and that wasn't the first time...  and I'm sure it won't be the last.  What is it with cab drivers here?!?!  Particularly those who are older than ....  50?  Rather than applying the right foot to the gas pedal with a consistent amount of pressure, they do a kind of press... release... press... release... perhaps one iteration per second - and of course this is whilst careening around corners and dodging in front of cars at a frightening speed.  The result is that during this harrowing journey, my body is rhythmically moving forward, then back, forward, then back, as my stomach, of course, continues to move forward.  I think of opening a window for some air, but then realize I'll get a mouthful of humidity and fumes.  What are they doing?!  Is it a combination of bravado and fear?  They wanna go fast, then, no, they don't want to run into the guy in front, then they want to get around the guy on the right, uh, but better slow down - WHAT???!!!  At first I thought it was just the guys driving the "beaters", you know, the ones that look like 1979 Datsuns, boxy, noisy, jerky - but no!  They do it in the new Hyundai Sonatas as well!...................  next time, I'll take the bus.

A Lesson from a Tea Master

Yesterday, Chris and I spent a delightful hour learning all about tea, from Vincent Low, a respected tea master who has a tea house and shop in Chinatown.  We had heard of Vincent when we first moved here and had tried to visit with him several times by just dropping by his tea house.  Eventually we realized that an appointment was necessary, as Vincent maintains a busy schedule of workshops and lectures at his shop and in schools and universities throughout Singapore.

His business has two sides, one that houses display shelves lined with teapots and cups and colorful boxes, tins and bricks of tea, and the other which is the teahouse, serving tea and tim sum.  (I think tim sum is the same as dim sum.)  We were seated at a round table in the back of the shop, where an assistant placed a large, round tray/bowl (see picture) with a couple of small teapots, a large teapot with water on top of a brazier and four small bowls containing four different kinds of tea.  Vincent sat opposite us, and started off by saying that there are only four kinds of tea, all originating from the same plant, camellia sinensis - black, oolong, green and white (shown in that order in the picture).  We soon learned that white tea is best, due to the part of the plant that is used, and how it is harvested (by hand) and processed - basically dried in the sun and that's it.  Lovely, delicate flavor and lowest in caffeine - and, as with green tea, high in anti-oxidants for fighting disease and cholesterol.  So, of course, we left with a beautiful green tin of it.  To my friends in Singapore, you gotta check this out - it's a real treat!

http://www.yixingxuan-teahouse.com/