Cruising Right Along

Well, we are now both working on our fifth decade of life, yes, Scott and Randi turned 40 this month. 

We would have never guessed we would be living in Singapore and experiencing life in Asia for our birthdays but here we are.

 We decided to take a cruise to celebrate our birthdays, our first cruise and probably not our last as we really enjoyed it more than we thought we would.

We left from Singapore

which meant we did not have to fly anywhere to catch the ship and we got home quickly afterwards.

Since this was our first cruise we had no idea what to expect so we got a suite in order to have enough room for our family to live for the week.  I am glad we did as the room fit our family and our personalities and the deep need to escape "people" for the week.

The couch folded out into a bed for the boys with their own TV, although we really did not watch much TV, how could you when there are so many things to do on the ship and you have many books to read.

The deck off of our room allowed us to sit out and enjoy the water without being in the sun or in the crowds.

It really is peaceful to see the sea surrounding you, and fall asleep to the movement of the ship and the sound of the waves, we were on the 8th deck so the waves were not too loud, but sound travels up so we did hear them.

Our room was right next to the bridge we were able to talk to the captain and the officers from our deck.

There is plenty of room to walk on the sports deck

and there was of course shuffle board, we had a family tournament, parents against boys, and the winner was.......the aged.

We understand how one can gain weight on a cruise, there is food everywhere, and dinner is always like going out to a nice restaurant. 

We connected with our waiter Weifeng right away, he was thrilled that we spoke a little Mandarin and tried to teach us new phrases at each meal.

Caleb, my brave eater is always looking for a new adventure, he was thrilled to eat escargot, baked snails in a creamy sauce.

We met the Captain on a more formal basis at a reception

and he invited us to take a private tour of the bridge, which we of course did.

The control panels are really amazing

it was comforting to see that the ship does not run on GPS alone, they do chart the course and check the location every 15 to 30 minutes on a paper map.

After a week of much needed play and relaxation

we are ready to "hit the road running" Well.... sort of.

Look for upcoming blogs on Bangkok and snorkeling in Ko Samui Thailand.

Lessons Applied / Lessons Learned

Our lives here in Singapore are?  Well, they are different than our lives in rural Wisconsin.  Every time we leave our condo an adventure awaits, sometimes it is fun, exciting, new and fresh.  Other times our experiences are frustrating.  We try hard to learn from those frustrating days so that the next time we venture out we will not experience the same frustrations.

We have learned to stay clear of the malls on public holidays as they are packed with people.  One theory we have been told is that the malls are air conditioned and so people go to them to stay cool, and have something to do that is free.  It is interesting because we rarely see anyone carrying a bag with bought items.

Today we ventured out.  It is NOT a public holiday, just a very sunny and pleasant Sunday afternoon.

  There is a mall called Sim Lim Square.  Let me just start by saying this is Caleb's favorite place in all of Singapore it is six, yes, six levels of nothing but electronic stores.   Here is a picture I took looking down from the sixth level.

  It is expected that you will barter down the price at Sim Lim Square adding to the fun of buying.  I would advise you do your research before going, know what  you want, and how much you can get it for from amazon.com or some other place so you have a reference.  Today we were after a camera so up the escalators we went.  Escalator riding is part of everyday life in this city we have ridden on more escalators in just one month here than we had ridden in our entire lives in WI.

It is advisable to start at the top and work your way down as the rent for the upper stores is cheaper and most people walk in and go to the first store they see on the first floor, therefore the prices higher up in the mall are better.

We found our camera in a couple of different stores, the first guy would not bargain with us as much as we would like so we went on, however, the first man gave us a price that gave us bargaining power with the second shop owner.  It is funny how high they start in their price, then you offer a much lower price and so it goes. 

Now for a lesson we have learned and applied today:  It is really special to a Chinese person if you try to speak some Mandarin to them, a big smile comes across their face and they are much more willing to give you a good price if you are trying to talk money in their language.  After the shop owner gave us his "final" price I simply repeated it back to him in proper Mandarin.  This led to a good price on our camera, a decent deal on a better battery, a free case for the camera and a free 8GB SD card.  The best part about speaking Mandarin to these shop owners is it really does bring some joy into their day.

We also had to buy some pants for one of the boys, it is amazing how fast they are growing, and we needed some groceries.  We headed to a mall nearby that has some good prices to accomplish these tasks.

 OK now for a lesson learned today.... it is crazy busy at this mall on Sundays!  Parking was near impossible, we ended up doing what we saw other drivers doing that is simply stopping in the middle of the aisle and waiting for someone to come out of the mall and leave.  It took about 20 minutes but we did end up with a parking spot.

Lesson from the past applied:  it is important to not to try to shop if you are hungry, tired, or thirsty.  We were smart today and got everyone a bun for a snack before looking for pants or groceries.  Yay for us, everyone is in a much better mood and able to handle the crowd with some food in their stomach.  As you can see it is aisle after aisle after aisle of madness in the store today.

There are so many people in there that it affects your ability to think, you can not move the cart, the fish was smelling bad....

Lesson learned from past shopping trips:  know when you have had it and call it quits BEFORE you go over the edge.  So that is what we did, it was too crazy, we had stuff in the cart for spaghetti tonight and the rest will just simply have to wait, no way were we going to be able to fight the crazy crowd and remain civil.

Lesson learned today:
1.   Always, always, always have a grocery list with you, your brain will leave as soon as you enter the crowd as culture shock will take over.
2.  Do not go to a mall on Sunday afternoon.
3.  Malls with free parking are crazy busy on Sunday afternoon
4.  The IMM Mall in Jurong has free parking on Sundays, good luck finding a spot.

Lessons Applied:
1. Make sure you are well fed and watered before trying to shop.
2.  Do something to make someone else smile in the midst of the chaos, it will make you feel better!

"High Tea" at Raffles Hotel

Raffles Hotel, a true Singapore icon.  Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles (b. 6 July 1781, off Port Mo rant, Jamaica - d. 5 July 1826, Middlesex, England) is famously known as the founder of modern Singapore. Besides signing the treaty with Sultan Hussein on 6 February 1819 and thus placing Singapore as a British settlement, Raffles made several contributions that helped establish Singapore as a thriving settlement.

Raffles conceived a town plan to remodel Singapore into a modern city. The plan consisted of separate areas for different ethnic groups and provision of other facilities such as roads, schools and lands for government buildings

You will see many things named "Raffles" in Singapore but the Raffles Hotel was his dwelling place established in 1887.  We have been wanting to go and tour Raffles and today was our day as they serve a High Tea.  Having High Tea in Singapore was on our list of things we want to do while here so we combined both desires and had High Tea at the Raffles Hotel today.

What is High Tea?  Sounds fancy doesn't it?  Well High Tea actually means an afternoon tea that includes meat, it is more of a meal, dinner really.  In Singapore most people eat six meals a day, breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, high tea, and supper.  High tea is from 3-6 pm supper is eaten between 7 and 11 pm. This means that when our family goes out to dinner between 5 and 7 pm we are frequently the only ones in the restraunt.

High Tea at Raffles Hotel is served in the Tiffin Room

It is a grand room with white linen table clothes, harp music and makes for a great date with your husband.

What cute little sandwiches, scones and oh how good was the clotted cream and jam!

 The Raffles Hotel serves a true High Tea so we sat at our table at 4 pm and there was plenty of food to choose from including meat.

I think I want one of these tea servers so I can have a true High Tea for the ladies when I get home.

Our tea choice was a smooth Earl Grey and we went through 4 little pots of tea that was accompanied by great conversation and much needed relaxation.

After the tea time we explored the hotel, it is huge! With a grand entrance and stair case.

 Here is a mini model of the grounds that was in the museum.

The gardens are incredible, they occupy over a quarter of the estate and contain 55,000 species of plants. 

There is a concert on the lawn area with these cute little English chairs

just waiting to be sat in.

There are many different dining areas at Raffles Hotel both indoor and out door with wide open spaces, you can almost forget that you are in the middle of a densely populated city.

Long corridors will greet you and invite you to explore the hotel grounds.

Long Bar is famous for being THE place the Singapore Sling was invented, the bar was closed but here is a picture to show that we were there.

If you ever venture into Singapore we think that an afternoon spent having High Tea and exploring the grounds of Raffles Hotel is an afternoon well spent.

GINseng Tonic

You know what they say: "when in Rome" or in our case when in Singapore.

Singapore is a host of many different cultures, this makes for a unique and exciting adventure virtually everyday.

 Recently I have been feeling a cold/ allergies coming on, itchy eyes, sneezing, runny nose, you know the symptoms.  Scott has been feeling a bit run down, lack of energy, bone tired by bed time.

Chinese culture is probably the biggest percentage of represented people groups in Singapore.  Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is prevelent throughout the island.  Some of our security guards at our condo freely give us TCM advice. 

Scott and I headed out this week for some quick groceries at our local Holland Village Cold Storage.  There are many different items in the isles of the grocery stores here, things we have no idea about.  I decided to stop and take at look at the Chinese tonic section of the store to see if there was anything to help us feel a bit better in our energy levels and to take away my cold symptoms before it became a full blow cold.   

I found this: Ginseng Tonic Soup package

It looks a bit scary, I don't know what most of the ingredients are but low and behold there is a little old Chinese lady in the isle next to me who was thrilled to answer my questions.  She told me that this would make us full of energy and take away the cold symptoms but I MUST add some chicken to the pot, with bone and skin.

The package states to add 500 grams of meat, about one pound. Here are the roots and herbs that were contained in the package.

Then we added a pound of chicken thighs and this is what we have

Ginseng Root:

ginseng root is used to reduce stress, increase performance and energy levels, improve memory and boost the immune system. The Chinese use it as a prevention and as a cure.

Yam Rhizome:

Yam Rhizome is used for lingering cough and asthma of deficiency type caused by deficiency of the lung or by deficiency of both lung and kidney  Chinese yam comprises of significant amounts of mucilage, which soothe mucus membranes and can serve to ease cough. It is also taken to treat diarrhea, fatigue, poor digestion, wheezing, weakness, frequent urination, and decreased appetite.

Wolfberry Fruit:

Wolf berry is also known  as goji or Chinese wolf berries The Chinese believe that the wolf berry fruit, which is high in antioxidants, calcium, iron, zinc and vitamins, can help fight diseases, reduce the risk of kidney and liver conditions

Fragrant Solomon Seal Rhizome:

Fragrant Solomon seal Rhizome is used to treat impairment of the lung due to dry heat with symptoms of dry cough with little sputum.

Red Dates:

• calms the central nervous system.
• inhibits histamine, IgE and 5-HT (serotonin).
• protects liver.
• improves strength of muscles.
• inhibits cell mutation and inhibits cancer cells.

Sounds like we should try it so we bought it, put everything into a pot with 1500 ml of water

and let it simmer for two hours.  As it simmers the broth gets a golden color and a "earthy sweet" smell to it.

After two hours of simmering, let it cool and strain out the roots, berries, chicken etc... The little Chinese lady  from the grocery store said we should just eat all of the stuff in the broth, but... we are not that brave!  We strained the broth and this is what the tonic looks like after straining.

I have been taking a ladle full of this tonic every day for four days now, it is an "earthy sweet" tasting broth that is soothing.  My cold symptoms have gone away, I have energy and I feel great. 

Since it has been four days and nothing "weird" has happened to me, Scott decided today to take a cup of the tonic.  Hopefully it will help with his low energy levels.  Time will tell.

I think it is important for us to take advantage of the opportunities to lean new things while we are in Singapore.  We are finding it fun and challenging to understand new cultures.