Singapore

Drinking a Singapore Sling in Singapore!

When you live in a city, vacationing in another city isn't quite as appealing as heading to a beach. But as my husband says, it can't all be sun and sand, and so on this trip we have tried to have a little bit of everything.

Still, I wasn't that excited about going to Singapore. While there were things I liked about Hong Kong, it had been my least favorite destination. Some of that may have been due to jet lag and adjusting to a drastically different time zone. But the noise, people and traffic got to me after a few days.

And so I was pleasantly surprised when I not only didn't dislike Singapore, I actually loved it! The first thing I noticed about Singapore was that it had a sort of surreal feeling to it, like Pleasantville or Willoughby, an ideal town from an old Twilight Zone episode. I couldn't quite put my finger on why, but eventually I realized that some of the surrealism is due to the fact that not only is the town eerily clean, but there aren't many cars on the road compared to most cities, and the cars they have are almost all fairly new.

I soon learned that this is because it costs a lot of money to have a car in Singapore - $50,000 for a permit which is good for 10 years, and charges for driving which get higher after 10:30 at night.

Of course it is a well-known fact that Singapore has very strict laws in regards to littering and graffiti. So that explains a lot of the cleanliness. And while I am not a fan of big government, there is something to be said for strict cleanliness laws. How hard is it to throw something in a trash can or not spray paint a wall? (Interestingly enough, they have an excellent street art exhibit at the Science and Art Museum which we toured one day.)

But it isn't just the cleanliness and lack of traffic that make Singapore a truly pleasant place to visit, it's the architecture. In Marina Bay, the area we stayed in, quaint old buildings sit amidst towering, beautifully designed skyscrapers.

Perhaps the most famous building is the Marina Bay Sands Hotel, which is actually three buildings connected by a boat-like structure at the top that contains the world's largest rooftop swimming pool. Lenny and I took the elevator to the roof where we enjoyed gorgeous views of the city.

The domes you see are the Cloud Forest and the Flower Dome, both of which we visited in our 6 days in Singapore.

We also took the hop on hop off bus, took a boat ride around the bay, enjoyed a fabulous complimentary tea (check out the photos on the photos page) at our hotel, ate at many fabulous restaurants and walked around the spectacular Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands. This computerized screen that changes as children (and some adults) run and jump on it is one of several interesting features at the mall.

Once again, we stayed at two different hotels in the city, the Mandarin Oriental and the Fullerton Bay Hotel. Both were lovely. We started this several years ago when we were going to Paris. We couldn't decide which hotel to stay in and so we spent 3 nights in one hotel and 3 in another. It's a great way to experience different parts of a city, and allows us to make one less decision!

On our last night in Singapore we ate at Lau Pa Sat which is a hawker center. Hawker centers are essentially open air food courts with numerous stalls selling inexpensive cooked food. This one happened to be excellent. Our only regret was that we didn't discover it until our last night in Singapore! It truly was one of the few bargains in the city. After dinner we witnessed a spectacular (free!) music, light and water show called Spectra outside the  Marina Bay Sands Hotel. Watch the videos on the photos page to get a better feel for how wonderful it was! 

Our last two days in Singapore ended up to be a little challenging as we scrambled to get visas to go to Vietnam, our next destination. But it worked out fine, thanks to a helpful concierge named Anh who you'll read about in my next posting about Vietnam!

To see more photos and videos of our trip to Singapore click here.

Langkawi, Malaysia

It is said that if you consistently feed a wild animal, eventually it will lose the ability to hunt. After more than two months "on the road," I told Lenny I believed I had now lost the ability to cook. And clean. And grocery shop. For some reason he didn't seem too concerned!

On January 21st, we made the four-hour journey from Koh Lanta to Satun, a town at the southern tip of Thailand. Once again we rode in a beautiful, spacious van, and once again we boarded a ferry. But this ferry was drastically different from the one we had taken in China. No seat-belts this time, no helpful attendants (we lugged our bags up and down the stairs as they stood by smoking cigarettes), and if there were life vests, we didn't see them. No "in case of an emergency" announcements were made as we ventured out into the ocean under a dark and foreboding sky.

But the trip was fine, and an hour and 15 minutes later we arrived in Langkawi where a car picked us up and took us to the Four Seasons. As some you of you know, we love the Four Seasons, but unless we can get a great deal, often we stay in an entry level, garden view room (I know, poor me) and such was the case this time. But the room was nice and it was a short walk to the beach. Plus they gave us bikes!

After unpacking a few things, we headed to the beach where we immediately noticed two things - a purple flag indicating "sea pests" i.e., jellyfish in the water, and a massive "sandcastle" surrounded by a group of people who appeared to be making a movie.

We soon learned that a Chinese film crew had taken over part of the Four Seasons beach and were making a movie called "I Love You, Miss Money." This has since become another one of our cute (or some might say, nauseating) catch phrases. 

Lenny to me: I love you, Miss Money. 
Me to Lenny: I love you, Mr. Money.

Langkawi was beautiful, but it definitely was different from any place we had been in, and somehow it felt very far away. The people were friendly, but because it is a Muslim country, there were some things I needed to get used to. On one of our first ventures out, Lenny went into a barbershop to get his beard trimmed. The men there were nice but they asked me to leave, as women aren't allowed in barbershops. I also found it somewhat challenging to watch the Muslim men running around in their shorts and t-shirts while their wives were covered from head to toe in heavy black clothing (in 90 degree weather) with only their eyes showing (most women in Langkawi wear head scarves but not the whole burqa). But as Lenny reminded me, this is their culture and we need to respect it.

The following day we drove up to the highest peak on Langkawi. It was cloudy but the views were still spectacular. 

We had planned on climbing up a tower where we had read we could get the best views. But there was no mistaking the fact that the tower was closed. These signs deterred us from going any further. 

The next day we took a boat tour through the mangroves where we saw walking fish (who can actually climb trees), monkeys and various birds. I had been concerned about mosquitoes but our guide explained that the mangroves in Langkawi produce a resin to combat beetles. The resin seeps from the trees into the water where it forms a coating. This coating prevents the mosquitoes from laying eggs, so there are no mosquitoes!

The following day they were forecasting rain, but since in our experience, rain can be short-lived, we decided to take a sunset sailboat ride. The woman who owned the sailboat assured us we were going to have great weather, but at the time we were supposed to meet her at a restaurant in the harbor, the rain began pouring, not just a little but a lot! 

"Don't worry," she said, as she bought us wine and French fries, "this will pass quickly." An hour later, however, we decided to call it a day.

It was almost dinnertime, so we decided to head to a restaurant someone had told us about called Pia the Padi. The rain was still coming down hard as we got to the restaurant, which was in the middle of a rice paddy.

Lenny and I have had many wonderful experiences when we've traveled, but sometimes we have some that are truly magical. Such was the case this time. Lovely piano music played as the rain fell onto the rice paddy, just as the sun was setting. Jimmy, the owner, waited on us like we were the only ones there, which wasn't hard to do since we were the only ones there! We had a wonderful conversation with him and the food was spectacular! 

In the next few days, we took a nature walk with the Four Seasons naturalist, road our bikes around the property, and explored the island. Everything was great until four days in when Lenny went to take a shower and water barely dribbled out of the shower head. 

Langkawi is MUGGY, so not being able to take a decent shower is a big deal. The management assured us it would be fixed in the morning, but the next morning nothing had changed. They were working on it, they said, and to compensate us for our trouble they would buy us dinner, drinks and dessert at any of their restaurants. We generally don't eat at the Four Seasons, as the food is ridiculously expensive and there are always good, inexpensive places nearby. So this was a treat! We had a nice dinner and went to sleep confident that the next day we could take a shower.

But alas, this was not to be. Once again, we were told it would be fixed the following morning, and once again we were offered another dinner, dessert and drinks! Our diets would have to wait! But when the third day rolled around and we still had no shower (we did have a nice bathtub, so it actually wasn't terrible) we insisted they put us in another room. No other rooms were available, they said, but they did have a villa. 

A few hours later, they moved us to a gorgeous, 2400 square foot, $2200 a night, ocean front villa at no additional charge! And there we stayed for the remainder of our trip. And there we could have stayed for the rest of our lives, or at least a few more weeks if they had let us! I didn't take many pictures but there is a video of the villa on the photos page.

In the next few days we relaxed at the pool (one of the nicest of any hotel we've stayed at), golfed (Lenny golfed while I swam and got a massage), and took the steepest cable car in the world up to the longest free span and curved suspension bridge in the world. 

On our last day in Langkawi we decided to just hang out at the pool and beach. We finally got to swim in the ocean, as most of the week the purple flag was up - other than one day when the red flag was raised (meaning strong current!). Unfortunately, Lenny got a bit of a sunburn, and perhaps I have to accept some responsibility. I didn't take him too seriously when he mumbled something along the lines of "wake me when I'm O.J. Simpson but before I get to Nipsey Russell" as he drifted off to sleep. But the sunburn wasn't too bad and he recovered quickly.

Next stop: Singapore!

To see more photos and videos of our trip to Langkawi click here.