January 30th Wednesday Chinatown Walking Tour

We have rested enough.  Updated the blog, had breakfast and got ready to do the China Walking Tour.  Our first stop was the Thian Hock Keng Temple.  Singapore's oldest Chinese Temple.  Sailors prayed here to the goddess Ma Po Cho.  This was built without one nail and at the time it was built it was at the shoreline.  Now the shoreline is over a mile away and continues to be increased for more land projects.

 One of the things that was interesting with this temple, is the entrance has been built so you step over a large curb of stone, because it prevented the sea water from coming in at high tide.

The next stop on the tour was the Al-Abrar Mosque.  We did not go in. Need to take off shoes and cover your body, women that is. 

It is an Indian-Islamic temple

They have no parking meters, you buy tickets and punch out the time you arrive and the amount you will be paying for the time you are going to stay, and if you go over there is a parking maid to give you a ticket.  It is very common to see every car with many tickets on the dash.

With more than 50 hands-on interactives and unique architectural models of the city scape,

the 3-story Singapore City Gallery tells the story of the nation's remarkable physical transformation

- past, present and future.

This was on of the best places to visit to learn about Singapore, we loved it.

There are pictures inside that show the before of the river area and then after the transformation

This is the city today absolutely breathtaking

There are three different models inside, small medium and large ones, of the city and what is expected for the future in buildings, parks and the environment.  So well planned.

Buddha Tooth Relic Temple and Museum.
The temple is based on the Tang dynasty architectural style
 and built to house the tooth relic of the historical Buddha.

Inside of Temple, again we did not go in dress attire required, no sleeveless or shorts.  

Sago Street 
On Sago Lane old chinese were waiting for their death and could watch their coffin being carved. A paper house is being burned to live in in the hereafter. Funeral in monsoon time. Now the one way street is restaurants and shops selling wares.


Tong Heng Confectionery

Tong Heng Confectionery, around since 1920, is known for their traditional Chinese pastries and egg tarts.
We had a coconut egg tart and the tour book said you can only it one, we split one.

Coconut Egg Tart

The rest of the tour has a wet market, where you can experience the sights and smells of typical fresh Chinese ingredients, from dried fish to just caught seafood on ice and a dizzying arra of green vegetables

There are also Hawker food stalls for your dining pleasures, carrot cake, made from turnips, char slew, barbecued pork, clay pot, chicken rice and many many other dishes.

Chinatown Complex                                                                Chinatown Food Street

                                                           

Chinatown Street Market

The last of our tour was a shop called Lim Chee Guan.  It is a bag of sweet barbecued port strips called bak kwa, they make a great snack all day long.  At Chinese New Year, locals queue up for hours to get their fill of this traditional Singaporean-Chinese favorite.  When we were walking by there must have been 50 people in line waiting to by this snack.

                             

No we didn't have any the line was so long and it was early afternoon and very hot out.  We went home and had lunch with Ashley.  Very nice walking tour but glad to be back in the cool apartment.  I made nachos for lunch and Ashley did another load of wash, we figured out what was wrong with the automatic curtain, we thought was broke, only to find out the switch had been turned off.  We didn't think to try that, we just thought remote was broken. Dah. Ashley off to work, Claude and I off to take a nap.  The afternoons are the best time to stay in because of the heat.  Ashley came home from work and we decided to go to the Marina area and have pizza.  You cannot believe this area.  Has been built in the last two years and they left nothing out.  Absolutely outstanding in every direction.  From the waterfront view, the skyscrapers and the mall, you are just in awe of what you see.  Pictures cannot describe it all, you have to see it for yourself.  When you are looking you think this was once the water and it has been built into an outstanding area that people can enjoy doing many things, walking, jogging, boating, flying kites, shopping, eating, going to theater, a casino, by the way the locals are charged $100 dollars to enter but foreigners are charged nothing, they want to discourage gambling of    locals.  There are shops of every major designer inside and money is no object to these shoppers.  Also at the top of the Marina Bay Hotel and Casino is the most spectacular view of the city and bay.  

                             MARINA BAY HOTEL AND CASINO.  AT THE TOP, WHICH LOOKS LIKE A LARGE SHIP, IS A SWIMMING POOL, LOUNGES, VIEWS OF THE CITY AND WATERFRONT. THE THREE TOWERS ARE HOTEL, BOTTOM IS 3 FLOORS OF SHOPS, RESTAURANTS, INDOOR OR SET UP ON THE MALL FLOORS, LARGE FOUNTAIN AND A LITTLE RIVER YOU CAN TAKE YOURSELF ON A GONDOLA RIDE.  

As you can see the top is shaped like a ship, has pool, gardens and beautiful views

To infinity... and beyond! The pool stretches 150 metres, three times the length of an Olympic swimming pool.

Inside one small section of the mall

One of the lounges in the mall

This is the area of the Gondola Ride.  It is awesome

                                      
This is the restaurant we went to called Mozza.  The food was so delicious.  We had two kinds of pizza, one a meat lovers and the other ham and pineapple, a salad that was sort like Caesar salad but they used variety of lettuces and something tart in the dressing, we think it was lime.  Grampy and Ashley had chicken wings for appetizer.  We are still trying to get use to the cost of things here,
that meal with one free beer, they don't charge Ashley for her beer because she comes there a lot, 2 cokes was $127.00.  Not like Papa C's.  The place was packed..........

The Fountain show which only operates about 5 or 6 times a day

We walked part way home and then hailed a cab.  We were exhausted, walk Chinatown all morning and early afternoon, rested, and then walked to Marina Bay and all around the area.  A full day but just perfect in every way.  Wish you all were here to see the beauty.  Love to all, Goodnight From Singapore.

January 29th Tuesday Relaxing

Well I am catching up on the blogs now that we are spending a little time at home.  Enjoying our books, doing words with friends and communicating with family.  Mom went to the Rehab center in Framingham for her therapy.  Miss her so much but know my sisters and family are taking good care of her.  I have never gone this long without talking to her.  Claude & I walked around this morning and went to the food storage, which is the grocery store.  Some things they have we can buy at home, but so much more of different things.  Tried the small bananas and they are so tasty, much better than the big ones.  The vegetables are very good and I will look to see if Meijers has them when I get home.  Do miss our grocery store. Bought a few things, not much, because what you buy you carry unless you flag down a cab.  Met Ashley again for lunch at a cute all day breakfast place, Group Therapy. 
                                                 
                                                   

 Funny name for a restaurant.  Had a homemade waffle that was the best I have ever had.  Claude had the waffle, but also the ham, which was delicious.  Ashley had eggs and ham, looked hummy.  Ashley back to work, us back to apt.  Very hot today, but we decided that tomorrow we would try more sightseeing.  When Ashley came home from work, she did some laundry, cleaned out Billy's cage and put her in a ball that rolls all around the floor.  She went everywhere.   Will try and download a video, so funny. Sorry no video couldn't get it to download, will ask computer wizard Ashley.
 Then PX came over and guess what, we went out to eat at another Hawker center, had noodle soup, skewers with beef and chicken.  Very good and cheap.  These places are all over the city. 

 Grampy loved the noodle soup but struggling with the chopsticks

 I was trying hard to eat mine too.  Very good soup with noodles and pork balls. We also had skewers of chicken and beef, and some carrot cake, which is not like home, it is a Chinese vegetable diced in a sweet sauce. Mild but tasty.

 Went home and PX hooked us up with a cable box so now Claude has thousands of channels to surf.  We made it through another day and starting to feel refreshed.  Good night and love to all.

January 28th Monday Back in Singapore

Well as you probably could tell today is going to be a very lazy day for the old people in the group.  Ashley, Keith and PX all had to go to work, so we had the day to ourselves.  Washed clothes met Ashley for lunch at a new French Pastry shop, opening day and it was busy, and had egg salad sandwiches on freshly made bread.  Yummy.  

Ashley went back to work and Grampy and I went back to the apartment and read, took a nap and finished the laundry.  The washing system is very different around here, it is all one unit to do both.  If you don't read the instructions your clothes get steamed to 10 sizes smaller than when you put then in it, and seems to run forever.  Ashley had a very busy day at work being off for the extra days in Manila, so she worked late.  Came home around 7p.m., did some cleaning of apartment

 and then we went out to dinner, reservations at 8:30 and the place was packed, at a Korean Restaurant that was very neat.  The grill is right at your table and you do most of the cooking.  You order the types of meat you want and they bring all the side vegetables and sauces for you to eat with the meats. We had marinated beef, marinated beef and chicken.  Very good.

Ashley & Grampy

Cooking right at the table

The inside of the restaurant is very narrow with cook top and tables on each side of one isle. 

By the time we finished eating it was after 10 p.m., yes me up after 10, We went back to Ashley's apartment to call it a day and Ashley and PX went out for a bike ride.  No wonder they are tired in the morning they go all night long.  Ashley is like the energizer bunny, she goes goes goes.  

I think we will need another day of just catching up tomorrow Good night folks

January 27th Sunday  Returning to Manila and Off Again to Singapore

We got up and ate breakfast at the Dive Resort and met our driver at 9:00 a.m. Heading north to Manila but had a few stops along the way.  
Stopped at a local roadside bake shop to try and find coconut tarts for Keith to buy for one of his friends.  Wanted to see what they taste like but they didn't have any.

Along the way we came across and theme park called Fantasy Island.  Looked really pretty, but didn't have time to stop because we were on our way to Taal to see the Volcano. When we stopped to look we were overcome with local street people selling their stuff and we bought a snack which was called Daniel's God's Love Delight.  Contains: Peanuts, buko and brittlenut. Very good but we were not very nice, Ashley was starving and she can't eat nuts. She was not a happy camper.  

Our next stop was Josephine's which is a restaurant that sits on top of this mountain overlooking a lake an a volcano.  Each one of us wanted our pictures taken with the volcano off to the side.  Very popular place to eat and view the area.  After we all posed for our picture, we found out that this was not the volcano after all.  We all laughed.

We ate lunch everyone had oriental dishes and I had a BL Sandwich.  Can't remember all the dishes, but each one had rice of some kind.  We tried 3 of the desserts that were made with ice chips.  I will get names from Ashley.

After lunch we started driving to the resort where you catch a fishing boat to cross over to the volcano.  Nice boat ride, a beautiful day to cross.  About 15 minute ride to the other side of the lake.

Heading over to Volcano Grampy & Grammy

Ashley & PX

Approaching our next destination and ride

YEP HE FINALLY DID IT, ON A HORSE MR CLAUDE

UP THE MOUNTAIN WE GO

Keith's horse was a frisky little guy and had a mind of his own

The terrain was very rocky and steep. This area was steaming from the volcanic rock

Grampy and Ashley made it to the top

We all did, no fatalities yet

Grammy, Grampy, Ashley and Keith

Didn't get a picture  I was the camera person, so we bought one.  Had to have it.  Wish we got Ashley's too.

Ashley and PX at the top of the Mt.  They had no trouble at all getting up there.  Never even got a picture of them on their horses.  I went last and they went fast....so sorry....no pictures

 The view from the top overlooking the volcanic lake.  Smelled like sulfur, but was so beautiful

Grampy was so excited about riding he was ready to go down the mountain.  Wonder if he will do this again???????.

Keith's horse was ready to go but not with him on it.  His guide was mean to the horse and halfway down Keith got off and walked the rest of the way.  The horse would not even let his guide on.  He was bucking and mad all the way down.

Well we all made it down the mountain, so by horse,some by foot, but all in all had a great adventure.  A little sore in spots, but had fun.  Made boat trip across the lake and  our driver was waiting for us.  Headed back to Manila and all of us showered before going to the plane.  A very busy day.

Yeah you guessed it.  Got on the plane to head back to Singapore and didn't need to be rocked to sleep.

Leaving on a jet plane back to Singapore

Ashley was wide awake, I don't know how she does it. Youth is great

Arrived in Singapore three hours later and took taxi back to Ashley's Apartment.  Had an awesome  4 days in Manila.  Sweet Dreams