52nd Anniversary

Celebrating 52 years of wedded bliss at Crystal Jade for Dim Sum.

Feeling especially blessed. Life is good. 

The "perfect dumpling." Aeri loves them. . .I love 'em.

And I don't take a minute for granted. Love you, Will. You are the "best ever." ( That is a direct quote from Aeri, btw)

Random images

Pretty iconic picture of Singspore with its tree lined boulevards, modernist architecture,  multiple motorways and "flyovers."

Will keeps on biking.

A ride down an escalator into a cavernous subway station. Not many people this time. Sometimes it's a crush of people.

This is a bakery/desert cafe. Sometimes names of things don't always mean the same across cultures. I certainly took a second look!

Aeri never tries of swimming at the pool.

A few more pictures of the Botonical Garden. We take frequent morning walks there.

One of the many "heritage trees" in the Garden.

Dempsey Hill is another location to explore. It is on a hill, once was a military base during WWII and up until the 1980's. Before that it was a Nutmeg plantation. Now the old barracks and buildings are shops and restaurants and offices.

Little India

About 10 percent of Singapore traces thier heritage back to India. Tamil is one of the 4 official languages here and Indian national holidays are celebrated.  One main concentration is an area affectionately called Little India.  Will and I spent a day "dinging around".

Shops, wet markets, Hindu temples, restaurants,  all manner of tourist gift shops for all things India.

"Depavali" is an Indian religious/national holiday coming end of October so decorations are up! More fun to see at night when everything lit up.

We stopped at the very worthwhile Indian Cultural Center that tells the story of the Indians in Singapore.

A shot of rooftops of Little India "shop houses" from 4th floor of cultural center.

Gold Wedding necklaces in a jewelry store window.

Unfortunately it rained--really hard for a while. We waited it out in a restaurant trying our hand at ordering local dishes. 

Out and About

We run into these "Heritage Murals" occassionally about town. They are pretty cool. Usually in public places in older neighborhoods or changing neighborhoods to commemorate a time gone by.

Egg tarts! They really are a Hong Kong thing but a lot of bakeries and coffee shops sell them. Egg custard in a crust, some with flavors--we like them plain.

We were at a shopping mall and ran into some sales promotion that had an amazing balloon artist. He made Arie a Pepa Pig. He was something to watch.

Met for icecream after dinner with Lia's old friends/Aeri's new friends.

This past weekend was the Singapore Grand Prix, Formula One race through the streets. Big deal here, festivities for 3 days. Will went last year, this year we just avoided the whole thing and stayed away from that part of town.

Pulau Ubin

Singapore is an island, of course, but it is actually made up of 63 islands. Will and I ventured over to one of the more interesting ones this morning.  Made our way to the Changi ferry terminal where we caught a "bum-boat" for the 20 minute slow ride to Pulau (which translates  island) Ubin. There is no schedule for these boats. When they get a total of 12 people, they will leave. Since it is a weekend, we didn't have long to wait to fill the boat. 

First order on island is to rent a bike from the dozen or so bike rental shops.  Not fancy bikes, but they worked.

Tide was out at the Mangrove forest.

Past an old quarry, now a Lake and park.

A Malay style home. There is a small community that live out here year around. 

And we saw a Hornbill!  They are present all over Malaysia and Singapore but this is first time we have actually spotted one. All I could get was a cell phone picture as my zoom camera died, but we got great binocular looks at him. He's an Oriental Pied Hornbill.

We came upon these two baby boars along the boardwalk in wetland. They didnt seem to mind us but I got a little nervous wondering where Mom might be. Took the picture and moved on rather deliberately. 

A few hours biking and hiking around and time to stop at open air restaurant for some seafood. One dish was breaded prawns. 

Mud lobsters dig up soil in mangroves, fiddler crabs running all over the tide pools, barges out in the ocean, something to look at around every corner.

Art and Science Museum

This is the best. Its Laksa, a rich, spicy, coconut milk base broth loaded with noodles, fish cake, usually an egg, maybe prawns,  tofu. . .other good stuff...see the chili oil floating on top to give it an extra kick. 

Will and I visited the Arts and Science Museum especially to see an exhibition called "Floating Utopias."  All about inflatables of all types, from balloons, to architectural blow ups, to art installations and more. 

That's a blow-up of the moon that is geographically accurate. Pretty incredible to get up close to it.

Big blow up toys, crammed into too small a space which makes a fun toy rather disturbing.

Another part of museum in a lights and mirror installation called Crystal Palace.  

Another "Team Lab" work. This Japanese digital design art collective does the most amazing things especially with interactive installations.  . 

I am not sure what else to call them. Just Google "teamLab" to see some of thier mind blowing stuff.

"Under" the Art and Science Museum. 

Just a memory now.

Can't believe we left this. . 

For this!!

The cleanest waters and clearest skies for record air pollution in Singapore.  Luckily we missed some really bad days while we were gone but it's not a whole lot better yet and will remain "iffy" for a while. Either until prevailing winds change or fires dissipate.  Hate this, just too much like China.  Aeri's school has not closed but kids not allowed to play outside and kept in air conditioned classrooms. So no swimming here for all of us in our complex, either.

                   This coming weekend is "Formula One" car races on the streets in Singapore. Already roads blocked off, traffic rerouted to set up for huge weekend of activities so wonder how the bad air is going to affect the festivities.  Doug and Will went last year and do not have plans to go again. We will watch on TV at home.

On boat ride from resort back to capitol city of  Mali and airport.