Christmas in Singapore

Even though the weather is a constant 89º and there isn't a snowflake within 1,000 miles, the Christmas spirit is going strong in Singapore.  Along Orchard Road, the main street for shopping and tourists, there are a "bajillion" twinkling lights and Christmas trees.

The airport sends travellers off with a holiday twinkle in their eyes.

This is a three-dimensional "ornament" that visitors can walk through.

These round ornaments are two feet tall, so you can imagine how big the trees are that are holding them!

Is this a tree with lights or lights with a tree?

This is the lobby where I take my drum lessons.  It's not air conditioned, so imagine sitting in a hot garage in the summer with a Christmas tree.

Lovely Laos

During our October break we went to Laos, the lush,

mountainous, landlocked country surrounded by

Myanmar, Thailand, China, Vietnam, and Cambodia.

We made three stops: Vientiane (capital),

Xieng Khuang, and Luang Prabang.

The Golden Stupa, Vientiane.  Even at sunset it shimmers.

There are hundreds of monks in Laos.

The Patuxai (a.k.a. Arc du Triumph of Vientiane) was finished in 1968 to symbolize independence from France.

We climbed up 400 steps to the top of the ginormous, concrete monument and had a great view of the city.

After exploring the night market in Vientiane, we flew to Xieng Khuang the next morning.  We opted for the 40-minute flight because driving would have taken over 10 hours!

"Why go to Xieng Kuang?" you ask?
Well, this is where you can find the Plain of Jars.
There are hundreds of 2,000-year-old stone jars and millions of unexploded ordinance from bombings in the 1970s.  I felt a strange mix of awe and sadness while doing a quick watercolor sketch...and yes, I'm sitting on a broken jar.

It's not often that you get to launch rocks with a borrowed sling shot on a mysterious archeological site.

Despite all the bombing and looting, some ancient relics remain, like this 17th century seated Buddha in Muang Khoun.

These children are taking straw to the fields to feed the water buffalo.

This stupa, called That Chomsi, was built in 1576 and is nearly 100 feet tall.
Ten minutes before this picture was taken, it was stormy and gray.

When you ask people in Laos if the food they are serving is spicy, they will say "No." However, what they probably should say is, "I grew up eating these red hot chili peppers my whole life and they are not spicy to me, but to Westerners like you, it might be an excruciating culinary experience."  But I guess it's just easier to say no.

There's nothing like sampling a red hot chili pepper that is drying on the roof of a thatched-roof house in the Laotian mountains.

During the 8-hour drive from Xieng Khuang to Luang Prabang, we stopped for a brief rest at this mountainside cafe.   Imagine the sound of chickens and their chicks, wind rustling through the trees, and birds chirping a sweet song.

This modern temple fresco in Luang Prabang represents the hundreds of Buddhist monks whose only means of eating is to collect alms from villagers and tourists.

You won't see sports jerseys, Levi's jeans, or polo shirts hanging on laundry lines around here!

You wouldn't know that Laos suffered through several decades of strife, war, and brutality because there is such a sense of tranquility both in the statues and people.

Kuang Si Falls features several cascading waterfalls.  We were told that this is the "dry" season and that the falls we are standing under are small.  Imagine getting sprayed by a thousand spray bottles every 5 seconds!  There is also an Asiatic Black Bear sanctuary on this site.

I really admired the multi-tiered roof architecture of Laotian temples.

When in Laos, one must travel along the Mekong River.  We traveled north for two hours to see some Buddhist caves.

Stunning.

The Buddha images range from new plastic models, to bronze statues, to this termite-ridden wooden figure.  Although damaged, it still has a beautiful, natural quality to it.  (They probably should have called Terminex ages ago.)

Deep inside one of the caves, the only available light was from this shrine candle.

We decided to have lunch...prepared by us!  So we joined a cooking class and visited the local market.

I didn't know there were so many varieties of rice.

There is no styrofoam or plastic packaging used in this market.

Ahhhhh.  Barbecuing a green chili while rice steams in a palm-woven basket.

You won't find cans of Del Monte veggies here!

This sweet concoction of sugar and coconut milk will go perfectly with my mangosteen and bananas.

Fried lemon grass chicken.  The bottom of the lemon grass is thinly sliced to create a basket to hold minced chicken.  Try ordering that at KFC.

Minced water buffalo, steamed fish mok, chicken satay, sticky rice, and Laotian salsa.

Remember the temple fresco earlier?  Here's the live version at dawn.

The night market, temple tours, mountain views, fresh food, Plain of Jars, and Mekong River were just a few of the highlights of this trip.  I added another country to my haircutting checklist, finished my watercolor sketchbook, took many pictures, and saw several more incredible sunsets.  Another fantastic October break!

Snow in Singapore!

Believe it or not, I met an ice sculptor in Singapore who is making a dinosaur exhibit for an indoor amusement park called Snow City.  He agreed to let me assist him in my free time.

Here I am working on a velociraptor in a giant, -10º C freezer.  When cutting with the chain saw, the snow flies all over the place and your fingers start to get numb from the cold...but it sure is fun! 

 I was curious if the local media would cover this event, since the temperature never dips below 25º C, and sure enough they did: Click here!  The exhibit opens November 1, 2012.

Weekend in Hong Kong

We went to an International Baccalaureate training in Hong Kong for three days and had a great time.  We learned a lot about the IB program, had some delicious food, and enjoyed a bit of sightseeing with our colleagues.

We had been to Hong Kong once before, but it was nice to visit again.

We took a short ferry ride to visit Kowloon (the part of Hong Kong connected to mainland China) and enjoyed some authentic Chinese food.

Hong Kong really likes to decorate their skyscrapers with lights.  These are pretty subdued.  Usually, the motto is : The more bright and colorful, the better!

Yes, we splurged and had some very expensive gelato.  (Even with the exchange rate of 6 to 1, it was some of the most expensive (but yummy) gelato we had ever eaten!

Happy Birthday, Merlion!

The symbol of Singapore is the Merlion (half mermaid, half lion), which is displayed on everything from national banners to cookie boxes.  As we were walking down Orchard Road one weekend, we noticed a statue celebrating the creation of the Merlion.  (No, the man is not real.)

Then we walked a bit further and realized that it was the Merlion's 40th birthday!

We're not the only ones getting older these days.

Fighting Fire in Singapore

We decided to be tourists today and visit the Civil Defence (British spelling) Heritage Gallery, which is a great hands-on museum with displays and information about the history of fire fighters in Singapore.  We had so much fun answering a simulated emergency phone call, climbing on an old fire truck, and putting out the flames of a virtual fire that we forgot to take some pictures. The only evidence we have of the day is this photo:

This is the closest Tim will ever get to becoming a real fire fighter.

Lost in Translation?

There is a video store near our condo and one day as we walked by it, we noticed an advertisement for a newly released movie:

After doing a little research, we learned that the "tt"s are really "ff"s.

The Istana (President's Palace)

The President of Singapore has a residence/palace very close to our school and on special occasions it is open to the public.  However, the closest we ever got to the actual residence was just in front of the palace gates.

Then, a week after National Day (similar to Fourth of July in America), the palace was open to visitors again, and this time we got in!

We were very pleased to pay the $1 entry fee.

The grounds were huge and the palace was impressive.

As we were walking around, we noticed a crowd of people gathering.  We went over to get a closer look and as we peeked through the crowd, we saw him: The President of Singapore, Mr. Tony Tan.

The President and his wife were enjoying the festivities of the day along with us common folk!

They even had their own nifty little golf cart to get them around the expansive palace grounds.

It was a great day at the Istana, and I even made a new friend as I exited the palace gates!