Day 1.
Welcome back to Tales from our Pocket!
We are traveling again!
It's 2022 and we are SO excited that more of the world is opening up and making it easier
for us to travel.
We have wanted to come to Asia for *years*, and, we are finally here!!
Our first stop is Singapore, and we are here for about a week, and we cannot wait to see
what this city has to offer.
We're staying not too far from Chinatown.
Since this is our first day, we expect a little bit of jet lag to hit us like a brick wall
this afternoon, so we thought, let's go explore Chinatown, not too far from our hotel, and
it has a lot to offer.
Let's get going.
For our first stop, we had to come and see one of the most iconic hotels and buildings
in all of Singapore.
And it looks just as unexpected in person as it does on our television screens.
It looks like it's a cruise ship on top of a building.
I don't know how they did that, and I can't decide whether I want to pay $20 for a drink
so I can experience the top of it.
It looks amazing - it's so cool.
It's raining out so we took a quick break in one of the hawker centers.
Lau Pa Sat is where we are and they have a great selection of international foods.
It's kind of early though, so we decided to just have some beverages.
I got this.
This is a coconut, yes, a coconut.
You can buy a whole coconut and really you just drink the water inside.
It's really refreshing.
My love for a certain Portuguese pastry is well documented.
Guess what we just found here in Singapore?!
It looks like the same thing!
Is it as good as my pastel da natas?
It's called an egg tart. Let's find out.
It's not the same.
It's egg and custard filled, and much gooey-er than the ones that we had in Portugal.
The outside is more of a shortbread than a crispy pastry.
How funny is it to find something that looks so similar to what we ate all over Portugal?
I love it.
It's an easy decision to visit Thian Hock Keng Temple because it's free!
Dating back to 1840, ocean-going immigrants would stop here to pray for, or say thanks
for, calm waters and a safe journey.
The temple is actually rare because multiple deities are worshipped at it - many are Taoist, but
there are also Buddhist, Confucious, and Ancestral Worship deities present here.
Today the unique temple is a peaceful escape from the busy streets of Singapore and is
still used for worship.
Alright, so we got some of the chicken rice.
We've been told that this is one of THE dishes you have to try when you come to a hawker
center, and this is from a place that Anthony Bourdain recommends, as well as the people
who gave us their table.
Let's dig in!
It looks delicious - it's kind of white, but it smells really good.
Hmmm.
That is super gingery.
They got so much flavor into it, and it's not dry at all.
It's delicious - it lives up to its reputation.
I am not sure that Bill's going to get any of this.
This is lime juice and passion fruit juice.
Lunch was great.
We are now going to learn about - hopefully learn about - a little bit of Singaporian
history.
We're going to the City Gallery.
They have a little bit of history about how Singapore came to be, and we're hoping to
learn a little more about the green space, which is everywhere.
We see greenery going down hotels, we see greenery going down apartment buildings, it's
beautiful.
Hopefully we'll find a little bit more about it.
Not only was the Singapore City Gallery free, but it had super strong air conditioning,
which frankly we needed on our first day of extreme Singapore heat!
The museum was modern with interactive displays that actually worked!
We learned so much about how Singapore became a city within a garden…in fact, Singapore
today has 80% of its population able to walk to a park, and their goal is to increase that
to 100% by the year 2030.
The City Gallery was really interesting.
We just finished there.
It was more about the city planning, which I thought was really interesting.
It was a little bit less about the history, but it really puts into perspective the challenges
that Singapore has as a nation which is a city with a somewhat limited land mass.
They've got to put all kinds of things in here that cities don't normally have to deal with.
It was a fascinating way to learn a lot more about the history of Singapore from a planning
perspective [we're staying right there!], and I'm really glad that we did it early on
in our visit to Singapore - but it did take us an hour and a half and we hardly finished,
and we really haven't seen that much of Chinatown during our "Chinatown" day yet, so off we go.
Let's go!
Look, eating my second pastel da nata of the day is not what I expected in Singapore, yet
here we are!
We ran out of steam, got some dinner at the hawker center right nearby in Chinatown, and
pretty much we called it quits.
Changing 11 time zones is really hard.
Have you done it before?
If so, you can appreciate what we're going through.
Hit the subscribe button below.
Day 2 Good morning, welcome to another day in Singapore!
Yesterday we went to a Chinese temple [not, not this one], or Chinatown, not this one,
a couple different ones, and today we are going to the Muslim Quarter and Little India.
At least that's the plan.
The skies are looking pretty dark so we think we might be in for some thunderstorms.
Let's go!
We better get going.
It's raining, so we're going to take a little break.
Just kidding!
We're in the Kampong Glam area, which is sort of known to be a Muslim district.
We wanted to stop here before we went to Little India and then we REALLY got stopped by the
rain.
But it's a great opportunity to do some people watching and have a coffee!
Well, we just finished lunch; we're trying to wait out the rain, and now it's rainy and
sunny all at the same time.
Pretty sprinkly, it's not raining heavily, so we're a bit stuck, but it's ok.
We have umbrellas, we have rain gear.
Wimpy rain gear, let's say.
We're going to keep exploring though - we have hardly hit the surface of what this area
has, because we just got totally rained out.
This is a different perspective on the mosque, just sort of across the street.
You can see that there's barriers behind me, too.
We happen to be here during Ramadan, so they're setting up for some festivities related to
that.
Just again, really glad we were able to come here.
It is a landmark of this particular area of Singapore, and now that we've been here, we're
able to see the distinctive gold dome in person, it's just easy to see why.
It's stunning.
Really refreshing.
Well, we made it to Little India, and it started raining again.
Seems to be the story of the day - I'm sensing a theme here.
We just wrapped up in Little India, and in the couple of markets we went into, there
was a ton of people.
Honestly, that's the most people we've seen in one place at one time since the start of
the pandemic, so - it looked really neat!
We'll just have to come back someday when we're more comfortable with being in those
levels of crowds.
Yep.
So until then, we're going to go back to the hotel and recharge a bit and then head somewhere fun for dinner!
We came back to a hawker center that looked pretty interesting, intending to eat from
some of the international stalls that we found there.
Instead we found this outdoor satay market that looked amazing, so we chose one of the
places and here's what we've done!
I need you to try this so I know if it's spicy.
Oh, this looks spicy.
It's spicy!
So spicy that you just laugh?
And cry.
It's really good.
It tastes like peanut and cumin and fire.
I don't do well with spicy food.
It's really good though.
So we're going to see how I do with the spicy food.
You saw Heather's reaction - pretty pathetic, honestly.
We've got water ready to go.
It's fighting words, but it's the truth.
So here's the beef - we're going to try this with the peanut sauce.
It's really flavorful, a fun mix of salty and sweet, and it's spicy - just a little
bit spicy, even though it knocked Heather's head off, very good.
So Heather says some of the sauces here are pretty spicy.
I've got a little bit of the beef satay left, and whatever this really dark red sauce is,
with all these peppers floating in it.
It's the hot one, she says.
Here goes.
It's pretty hot, but it's not - I'll survive.
I think I'll be alright.
I might not.
Pretty sure this one's chicken.
Oh, that's delicious.
Super tender.
The spice hits you at the end.
But it's delicious.
I can't even describe what the spices are, other than the spicy part, but it's really
good.
Super tender.
Just falls off the chopstick?
What is this?
Falls off the satay stick.
It's really good.
Now we're going to try the chicken with the green sauce.
I think Heather said this was somewhere in the middle on the spiciness scale.
This one hits you a little bit faster but it's still very good.
Also, I'll survive.
Well, that satay was the perfect way to end a day that was hampered by a little bit of rain.
I guess better luck next time?
We still made the most of what we were able to see today, and hopefully tomorrow will
be a little bit less rainy.
See you next time!
Don't forget to like and subscribe.