February 2nd Saturday Getting ready for Malaysia

Lazy morning and we were not moving to fast.  Had to get things organized for our trip to Malaysia.  We went across the street for a breakfast/lunch of pancakes and eggs Benedict.  Yummy.  Tried looking for coffee in the local shops around Ashley's apartment but no go.  PX picked us up around 3 and we headed for Malaysia.  A stop for money exchange and off we go.  Going through customs and entering another country was different for us.  They are so close you think you should just be able to go back and forth.  On the super highway headed north.  The trip was about 2 1/2 hours and the terrain is very similar to driving up 131 in Michigan, trees, trees, trees.  

We arrived at our destination hotel and it was beautiful.  Nestled in a grove and very secluded.  

Philea Resort & Spa Malaysia

 Our room bottom right, Ashley and PX bottom left.  Unit is 4 separate rooms and very nice.

 Beautiful pool and waterfall

 My Honey at the resort

After unpacking and walking around the resort we headed for the Heritage Part of the City.

Christ Church, completed in 1753, is one of the oldest Protestant churches outside of Europe. No nails were used in its construction by the Dutch. It became an Anglican Church when the British took over. Unusually for a church it is topped with a weathercock which was considered inauspicious by some and blamed for the decline of the nearby Baba community.

                         

We ate at one of Ashley and PX's favorite restaurants on the main street of Chinatown and had Chicken & Rice, rice balls and sauteed Bok Choy.    Claude also had WonTon Soup.  Very moist chicken and delicious. One of these chicken's was ours, the dark one, the white one is different it boiled.

 Ashley and PX eating their chicken, they never serve knives you only use fork and spoon, but mostly chop sticks.

 The main street where the celebrations are going on, selling all types of stuff and food.

 Claude, Ashley and PX with all the lighting they put up for the Chinese New Year Celebration

These pedal bikes will take you around the area and they are all decorated differently

                                      
It was late for the old timers so we headed back to the hotel and a good night sleep.

February 1st Friday  What a life Someone has to do it????? Why not us.........

Read this quote on Facebook today and thought "How True"

Worry never robs tomorrow of its sorrow, it only saps 

today of its joy. ~ 

Easier said then done, would love not to worry about everything

Got up early, as usual, worked on my blog, emailed family and 

friends, played words with friends, and enjoyed my coffee.  Such a 

peaceful time of my day and so enjoy the early morning.  We had

 another surprise today, another one on one day with Ashley.  She

 was sick again???  We decided that we would do the Riverboat

 Cruise, but all had a few things to do before we left.  Wash, Ashley 

some work at home and Claude watching TV.  What a life. Not 

hard work by any means, just necessary.

We then left around 11 a.m. for the boat ride which left from 

Marina area by the statue of the Merlion, such a beautiful spot.  

Rode down the river, in a bumboat, and saw the beauty that had 

been created with shops, beautiful eating establishments on both 

sides of the river, even a Hooters, Roger, flowers and parks. 

                                       

An amusement area with a G-Max Reverse Bungy

Eating establishments along the entire route of River.

Riding in the Bumbat on the Singapore River, Gruesome twosome

Merlion from the bumboat. 

Ashley on the bumboat

Doesn't she look sick

We think these were some of the original cargo bumboats

The view you cannot capture by camera.  The architecture in this area is so magnificent.  No building is the same and you can see all the area no matter where you are looking. 

Buildings painted different colors

 So many bridges and they are all different in design

Sculptures along the river, children jumping into water

                                   Most of the buildings have gardens built into on the top of them.

 I believe this to be the Fullerton Hotel

 The skyline is so pretty 

 They keep it very clean, boats along the river scooping out trash

 Just another design building , with a restaurant along the water

Such a drastic change from what it used to be, a trash receptacle for 

everything until this renovation of Singapore was started. 



                                          

After our ride we walked over to the center where Ashley works 

and in one of the buildings is an awesome restaurant on the 33^rd 

floor, called by the way, Level 33.  It overlooks the entire Marina 

Bay area and the shipyard, which is the ocean.  Magnificent 

location. 

Finally a half decent photo of us.

Ashley and Grampy 

                                      

                                        
 Enjoyed a very nice buffet lunch, appetizers, salads, main course 

of hamburger for Claude & I, sliced beef for Ashley, and the 

dessert and fruit bar.

The hamburger was huge, must have been close to 3/4 pound. 

Leaving the beautiful view was hard, but we headed for home.  

The ocean view from the restaurant and all the cargo ships

Decided to go into the pool in Ashley’s complex to cool down some 

from our day excursion.  Yep you right, relaxed and then took a 

nap.  But I wasn’t the only one.  What a life, someone has to do it.

                               

Upstairs to apartment to finish our laundry.  Ashley worked on the 

computer and then went for a bike ride.  Her name definitely should 

be the "Energizer Bunny."

Later in the evening we just ate light, Ash cooked egg sandwich for 

them, I had a bowl of cereal. 

Also realized our american coffee can was gone.  We need to go searching for another.

Watched TV, ironed and Ashley was hunting down travel areas for her next adventure during Chinese New Year. 

The best part of the day was sharing another one with Ashley. 

 Goodnight until tom.  

January 31st Thursday-last day of the month.

Well this morning we have done a lot of nothing.  Just vegging out and regrouping.  Ashley was sick???? and stayed home.  We have  been doing very little and enjoyed talking about whatever. We have not had much alone time with Ashley without others around in the past years. Ashley did a little cleaning of the apartment.  Ashley and I went out and bought sandwiches at Sophie's Bakery, today turkey ham for Claude and we split a tuna sandwich.  Don't look for many pictures today unless our energy levels decide to move upward.  I did manage to get dressed but the other two are still enjoying PJ's.  It is now 2:00 and we are talking about naps.  Well we did nap and then decided we wanted to go out to dinner.  Claude wanted chicken wings.  Ashley said these were the best.  I thinks she has been to every eating establishment in Singapore.

Korean Fusion Specializing in Fried Chicken

Ashley & Claude

 Ashley having a bite

Fried Chicken, Rice, veggies and one dish of stuff that was so hot non of us could eat it.  A side dish they serve with the chicken.

Very good dinner, chicken fried and sweet.

Then on to the grocery store to buy a few things.  Hopefully some coffee. The market out front had fresh, flowers and veggies getting read to celebrate Chinese New Year.

This is called a pomelo and they were all over the place

 The inside looks like a grapefruit and similar in taste

 Then walked back home with our groceries and greeted Ms Billy

End of another great day Good Night World

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.