Little India!

What a wonderful addition Little India makes on Singapore's landscape... The Malay name of the area around the MRT station is Kandang Kerbau, meaning "Buffalo Stables", and even before exiting the station, the visitor feels that they are about to step up to a 'different' Singapore...

Artwork inside the MRT station, by S. Chandrasekaran

Interestingly enough, there is now a Kerbau (remember! it means buffalo), as well as a Buffalo Rd here now... hopefully it is not too confusing for Malay speakers....

Right between the two streets, a chinese villa of a -back then- prospering businessman, built around 1900, still survives. It is the villa of Tan Teng Niah -try to imagine him walking inside the villa, which must have been standing among the cattle 110 years ago. Tan was a sweet man - owner of a confectionary business, he had also named the villa 'Siew Song', meaning Elegant Pine, for the sake of his wife!

So many shops line up Little India's streets... and right above, beautifully restored windows. From gold and fruit to textiles and cheap electronics, you cannot go wrong here! We buy all our spices in Little India, it is much cheaper than the supermarket, and smells so intense.

Pictures of Hindu Gods are found next to the cheesy baby posters that usually adorn teenage girls' rooms:

So many are the details that make up Little India's special character, like these offerings to the Gods,

the men drinking coffee and chatting loudly, or the families having their Sunday lunch on large banana leaves. Walk around, and let me know what else you discover!

Two of Singy's Landmarks... by night

On christmas evening, we went to the Esplanade... from there we had a lovely view of Singapore's skyline by night, and we walked by the promenade to digest the enormous amount of seafood we had consumed. Let me share some pictures!

A casino, hotel, luxurious mall, convention center... this is Marina Bay Sands:

And I do not know how I have lived with myself all this time, without presenting you a picture of the Merlion! Mer- for the sea, no explanation needed. Lion- for Singapore, means, after all the lion city:

Christmas Day @ Orchard Rd

When I first came to Singy, shopping seemed a nightmare. All these malls made me dizzy. Well, they still do, although now I've got it more or less figured it out. Food courts on the lowest of the basement floors, where there are also bazaar style booths selling whatever! Ask the concierge for special offers; in the luxurious ones, affordable labels are on the basement floors. Detailed posts on all the big malls, coming soon. For now, let's see (some of) the christmas decorations!

We begin at the eastern side of Orchard Rd, close to Dhoby Ghaut MRT station. Plaza Singapura is one of the (time is relative!) older malls in Singapore.

Highlight of the mall would probably be the multiplex cinema on the last floor, there are also toy shops, a carrefour supermarket, stationary and of course clothes... clothes... clothes.

Catch a glimpse of Orchard Central. This mall is SO tall. And it also has an escalator on the outside!

I get a craving for chocolate when confronting this huge Ferrere Rocher tree! Wow...

We are dizzy already when we reach the Paragon... most probably the most exclusive mall... all the luxurious brands are here.

It is getting dark already, the street is closed, and there's a concert. In the middle of the street, many more decorations, reminding us the meaning of Christmas (no, it is not shopping til death).

All this walking around... time for my Christmas coffee (TCC)

We were planning to stay in Orchard Rd for the celebrations. Rain changed our plans, but did not deter Singaporeans from dancing on the closed road... we headed for the MRT, where the staff wished us :

Hope everyone had a great Christmas! Looking forward to New Year's...

Very Merry Christmas from Orchard Rd!

....kala xristougenna :)

A three-day break in SW Thai islands

We started our trip at Phuket, choosing Karon beach as a relatively quiet one, still not that far away from the city-and thus the pier. The place must have been devastated after the Tsunami, but seems to have been completely reconstructed. Spent some time in the beach,

This is HIF in Karon Beach!

got bitten by mosquitos during sunset,

This photo was shot by The Man himself.

played cards on the beach, and lit a sky lantern. Cause it was the fun and grafic thing to do! Now, for this I will have to show you the process:



the dangerous act was undertaken by who else, but The Man! Finally lit, we let the lantern free.:

it made its way flying too close to some people swimming, but in the end, it went up and far away:

We then walked around a bit, there were more than enough prostitutes, did not bother us, but the vibe of the place was pretty sad. Booths selling strange fruit were lined up across the streets:

Photo by HIF.

Ah, and here is an interesting effort by the authorities to prevent accidents:

Photo by HIF (@ my request!)

Other than that, had a lovely dinner at the Bamboo House restaurant, had some drinks listening to two Philippine girls singing songs in multiple european languages at a bar nearby, and spent the night at an overpriced, noisy, dirty hotel. Conclusion : I would not really go back to Karon beach, but not sure if you can do better around the area.

Next morning, we get in the boat very early to get to Ko Phi Phi Don, an island which had also sadly fallen victim of the 2004 tsunami. A magnificent place, crowded with tourists, but in a much more joyful and lively way than Karon.

I have to admit, was too excited to take too many pictures on this trip... so this post is just a summary, there are so many places to see and hang out here, esp. if you take into account the size of the island!

We took a fishing trip on one of these boats:

(Please, do notice the graficity of the act-we should be getting extra points for this!) the boatman was a bit surprised that we asked this, but nevertheless he got us the baits and all, and probably enjoyed the fishing part more than we did- he did catch fish, that is. The weather was a bit storm-ish, so despite my grandfather having been a fisherman, man of the sea and all, I was super scared! After the wind and rain settled down, we got into this small bay, just next to the island's main port, where we did some snorkeling:

and this is what the Man caught with his bare hands!

Photo by HIF (@ my request!)

Supposedly a delicacy for sushi, as it contains some deadly venom, so the cook (can you say cook for sushi? there is no cooking involved! let's say the chef, then) really needs to know what she's doing! After we threw it back in, poor fish took some time to deflate before returning home... it is alive, though, as far as I know (disclaimer: no fish were hurt-perhaps only emotionally- for the taking of this picture. Lots of fish were hurt during our dinners, though).

We climbed all the way up to the island's viewpoint, observe how thin the strip that connects the two parts is- maybe it's safer to say that it is actually two islands. The strip, as expected, was completely devastated during the tsunami. It was kind of raining when we got there. We even met some greek people at the viewpoint!

Ko Phi Phi Don is actually the only inhabited island among the group, but we did take the boat to go to nearby islands

(better to say rocks in the middle of the sea)

Once again, not too many pictures, were too excited swimming next to the sea turtles, and there was some serious diving involved (not by myself though). Ko Phi Phi Leh is actually THE beach.

Closing this post, there is one thing that made a very strong impression on me: the cable mess!

Photo by HIF (@ my request!)

I suppose all these cables are phone lines.

Sentosa island

.... Singapore's artificial paradise. Once there, looks too good to be artificial. Maybe if it weren't for the view of the harbour , you'd hardly remember you're in Singy.

We went to the beach there about a month ago, and had a lovely time. Here is the result of a collective effort by too many of our gang (gang being the Man's fellow students at xxxxxx and obviously their highly skilled & hard-working partners):

[photo courtesy of HIF]

Chinatown

e

Nowhere else did I feel the antithesis between different facets of life in Singapore so vividly, as I did the first time I visited Chinatown. It is a bit tricky to locate the border between Chinatown and the Financial Center-Singapore's very own 'city'. Maybe I would need an aerial picture for that.

Temple street, the street of many names - and functions :

Initially called 'Almeida street', after the Portuguese consular, medical doctor and witty merchant who once owned the land. The street was notorious for the many brothels that existed here, and was known as 'the street behind the theater' among the Hokkien population. The theater being the chinese opera on Smith street. Years later, another doctor, Dr Chen Su Lan, initiated efforts to stop prostitution, and the opium smoking that came with it. Below is a glimpse of Temple street as it is today, with the People's Complex (the characteristic yellow building!) in the background. The People's Complex is a huge mall, featuring many spas - doctor fish spas as well! A pedestrian bridge connects it with the 'core' Chinatown

Oh my, I failed to mention how the present name came up. If you walk around Temple St, it will be kinda obvious though! Sri Mariamman ("Mother Goddess") Temple, the oldest Hindu temple in Singapore (1827), is just around the corner:

What is interesting is that the street on the other side of the temple, also got its name because of Sri Mariamman. The reason it is interesting, is that it is called mistakenly Pagoda St., although the grandiose entrance to the hindu temple is not really called a pagoda, but a gopuram, as I find out by the informative label placed nearby! What else do I learn there? That Pagoda street used to be filled with street hawkers, opium dealers and slave traders,. Nothing but the label will remind you of this past now, Pagoda st. housing the entrance to the MRT, spas, and many -mainly tourist-oriented- shops: