August 22, 2007
(Singapore Sessions, Episode 6 )
Current mood: nostalgic
So, I am writing my last blog from Seattle. I have actually been home for a week, but brought back one hell of a flu bug. Flew out on Saturday, August 11th and spend Sunday in Seoul for the day and visited my friend Hoseok in Seoul. Had a great day walking around, trying to stay awake and take advantage of 12 hours in Seoul before flying to Seattle. Got home and spent a week in bed with a fever and cold. Now I’m back to normal, well 85% and trying to finish my papers before jumping back in to school on the 10th of Sept.
Anyway, an update of my last few days. One of the highlights was going to this small island, Pulau Ubin, just North of Singapore. It was beautiful. I went with 5 of my classmates and we took a bumboat over to the island ($2) and rented bikes ($6) for the day and rode all around the island. We read that there were wild boars on the island so I saved an extra fish ball, in case one of us stormed us and I could bean the pig in the snout. Anyway, no pigs bu t saw a wild lizard which was very cool. I went swimming in the Strait of Johor which is the water between Singapore and Malaysia. It was awesome after riding bikes all day. We all rode back to the village and had an amazing lunch and drank coconut milk and then headed back to Singapore. I think we were all asleep on the train, exhausted but a lot of fun.
As I titled this entry, the last night out, my friend Rachel promised me really hot HotPot. Well 
she delivered. I call it Hot, Hot, Hot Pot. It was 1) just hot that day 2) the steam from the hot pot was just making it hotter and then the hot pot was really hot, so we were just sweating. I bow down to Sunny, who is now crowned the Queen of Hot Pot. She was amazing. That food was soo hot, but she was a trouper. I actually had to rinse off the meat in the mild side to cool off the food enough so I could eat it. It was really amazing though. Fresh Shrimp, meat, and other stuff I don’t want to know what I ate, but it was soo hot, it could have been anything. All I tasted was fire.
On the Beth that you know and love side, I also found out that prostitution was legal in Singapore, so in the search of education, of course I had to go down to the redlight district. My Singaporean husband, Alex Chan, (classmate) offered to take Rachel, Sunny and me down. It was hysterical, we didn’t know exactly where to go, but we did spot a few prostitutes on the street, but apparentley they aren’t supposed to be on the street, that is illegal. Honestly, you couldn’t tell the prostitutes from any other people. So I either have a grainy photo of a young Singaporean or a prostitiute, who knows. Anyway, we laughed and got some more Durian and then headed home on the Subway (illegally transporting Durian.)
Have I written about Durian? Oh yeah, I did, but in case you didn’t read it, it is the King of the Fruits. It smells like gasoline, but tastes like creamy flan that kind of tastes like butterscotch, caramel and gasoline. mmmm. Anyway, it is illegal to bring it on the subways, but we did!!! When we got off the subway, we got a cab back to our room because it was too late to catch a bus, and the cab driver immediatly asked us to role the window down, yelling “Durian, roll down the window!!”
The next day, I met Carol, one of my classmates, and her kids for ice cream. We were in search of Wasabi ice cream. We were going to eat it after our HotPot, but there was no way I could have anything hot after that HotPot, so we went to this ice cream store to get it AND THEY WERE OUT. So we had green tea ice cream instead and went running through the water fountain in Bugis Market. Had a blast and Carol’s kids are so cute. (See photos). After that, I headed home and finished packing to head out. Very sad, I can’t believe my month has gone by so quickly. Anyway, loaded up my stuff, had to leave some stuff behind to bring back gifts, so I bequeathed my “hello kitty” sheets to Sunny and left towels and other stuff for Sunny and Stephanie to make room. Lugged my stuff on the bus and then the subway and got to the airport. I was going to have dinner with Rachel since she was working out by the airport, but I got a call and Rachel and her family were at the airport and also Alex (my Singaporean Husband) and Rachel. So that was such a nice suprise and I got to say goodbye to everyone and grabbed some sushi with Alex and Rachel and then headed home.
So fyi, Alex is not my husband, but I heard that a couple of my friends told a few of my other friends that didn’t know I was going to Singapore, that I was going to bring home a rich Chinese husband, so Alex volunteered. (Thanks for the gag Alex). Anyway, back home, but missing Singaporean food, and I can actually say, I grew to like my Nescafe, Milo concoction that I created, my Singaporean “mucka”. Made some great new friends, and fell in love with a beautiful new country.
Updated Photos at:http://picasaweb.google.com/beth.tallman/SingaporeHighlights?authkey=2LzIwTgCHw0
Beth
(Organized by Cortilia)
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