Nie Hao

I had to begin this post with "Nie Hao," the Chinese phrase for hello, although we're now back in Maine. It's the phrase I'd been planning to use in my first blog post from China...until I discovered that Blogger is blocked by the Chinese Communist government.

Anyhoo...We flew to Chengdu, China, in the wee hours of Monday, May something-or-other. The ninth, I think. Chengdu is one of China's "moderately-sized" cities, because it has a population of "only" 11 million. The population of the entire state of Maine is around 1.3 million, so you can understand, I'm sure, why I was totally overwhelmed the first time I went to Chengdu with Ken is 2005. I remember wanting to hole up in our hotel room and sleep for the next month and hope this experience would soon be over. Luckily our friends Pam and Tan, especially Pam, took me under her wing and showed me how to get out and enjoy the city. Before long I was hailing a taxi like a pro and visiting various areas of the city. Better yet, I was making it back to our apartment, which we had moved into about four days after arriving, in one piece.

Our first day back in Chengdu, after not having seen it for four years, included a taxi ride to the center of the city. The first photo here shows a flower display on our way to Ito Yokado's department store. Notice the poinsettias in the display? Poinsettias are very much a summer flower in China.

Ito Yokado's interests us mainly because of its basement, which is the food area. Here you can find almost anything for dinner. These live turtles are an example. But do you prefer squid? Eel? No problem; Ito's has it.

I took my new pedometer along on the trip and was so glad I did. This first day in Chengdu, we walked and walked and I logged 12 miles and over 23,000 steps! It was such a pretty day, with rare blue sky and sunshine in what is usually a smoggy city, so we wanted to see it as up-close and personal as possible. Ken knows the city well, having spent much more time there than I did, about a full year in all. He traveled back and forth between Chengdu and Maine a total of ten times.

We noticed several new skyscrapers had popped up in the past four years, including one that totally blocks what used to be our view of the "A" bridge from the balcony of our former apartment.

As we were taking the taxi to city center earlier in the day, I thought to myself, "My, drivers in Chengdu are much more obedient of traffic signs and rules than they were in 2005-2006."

Wrong!

We must've gotten an unusually careful first driver, because any of our future cab rides were as wild and hairy and frightening as we'd remembered them to be. You see, in Chengdu, and probably in other Chinese cities, a stop sign is "merely a suggestion." It's a suggestion most drivers choose to ignore. As Tan put it with a laugh, "Green means go; red means go faster." I can't begin to tell you of the hundreds of near-misses we've witnessed while riding in Chengdu cabs. I quickly learned not to watch the traffic at all but to gaze off into space and think "pretty thoughts" during cab rides.

The Chinese dollar, the yuan, is equal to 15 cents, US. The typical cab ride costs about 12-14 yuan, or about $1.80-$2.10. Very reasonable, aside from the fact that you've had numerous near-death experiences by taking the taxi in the first place.

The people of Chengdu are very cordial and honest. In 2005, when a taxi driver misunderstood our instructions and started to take us in the wrong direction, he refused to accept any money for the ride once he'd delivered us to the correct destination. What's more, tipping is unheard of. If you try to tip a driver, he'll hand the tip back to you.

During our walk from city center back to Pam and Tan's apartment, this young man here passed us. He was carrying several cages of rabbits plus the odd gerbil or mouse or two. You just don't know what you'll see next in a Chinese city. I once saw a bicyclist go by with a huge open basket on wheels behind his bike. In the basket, full to overflowing and with heads hanging over the basket edge, were hundreds of just-plucked ducks. He must've been making a restaurant delivery.

In addition to the many new sky scrapers, another big change we noticed immediately was fewer pedal bikes and many more electric bikes. Pam said the electric bike owners can recharge their bikes for 2 yuan, or 30 cents. When we went to the neighborhood Carrefour (an international department/grocery store originating in France) one evening, Ken checked out the prices of the electric bikes. They start at around $350 US.

Here's a traffic tie-up for you, not an unusual sight in a city where every driver thinks he has the right-of-way at all times.

I've got lots more to tell you and enough photos to bore you to tears, but I'll end this first China post here. The laundry is done but now the basket of ironing has reached giddy heights; the weeds noted my absence and overtook my flower gardens while I was away; suitcase items are still scattered all over the house, and I'm feeling frantic. The jetlag is slowly leaving us, though. I got up at 4:00 yesterday morning but made it to 4:30 this morning. Tomorrow morning I'm aiming for 5:00 a.m.

Unpacking, laundry, putting away, etc.

I'm hoping to start writing some posts before long about our time in China. I've got so much to share with you. Right now, though, I'm dealing with the after-vacation stuff that we all hate. (Why do I always take more clothes than I need, which leads to more laundry than necessary when I get back?)

The header photo was taken at the Chengdu Giant Panda Breeding Research Base. These are two panda cubs enjoying their morning fix of bamboo.

Back in the USA!

We just blew into Boston. It's good to be almost home, but we had a good trip. Unfortunately Blogger and Facebook are blocked in China, which I should have realized due to the country's recent issues with Google, but I didn't.

I've got lots to share about Chengdu and Beijing. Will do that tomorrow or later....

(Seeing those beautiful blue orchids in Singapore, on my header, makes me want to turn around and go back there. Not tonight, though. We haven't slept since 6:00 p.m. yesterday (6:00 a.m. in Beijing), and it's now 28 hours later.)

Singapore, Day 3

Yesterday was our first day on our own in Singapore, and we survived it quite nicely.

Our plan originally was to take a boat cruise and a ride on the Singapore Flyer. a giant observation wheel very similar to the London Eye. We rode on the London Eye a few years ago and loved the experience, so we felt we'd enjoy the Flyer, too. When we had the hotel concierge check on the availability of tickets for this tour, we learned it was booked up, so we decided to postpone those plans until today, Sunday, and go with Plan B.

Plan B was another visit to the Botanic Gardens, particularly the National Orchid Garden. Only problem was, we didn't have Tan to drive us there. We would have to get there on our own. The concierge told us to take Bus 36, which would take us almost to the gardens, and we could walk the rest of the way.

We started to board Bus 36 just outside our hotel but realized at the last minute that it was going in the wrong direction. A dash to the other side of the roadway put us on the correct bus, but how would we know when to get off? The bus driver wasn't much interested in being helpful.

I turned to the lady next to me, finally, and asked her what we should do to get to the gardens. At first she told us to get off at one stop, change busses twice, and eventually get to the gardens. This was totally differenct from the concierge's directions, so I moved to the back of the bus, where Ken was sitting, and shared our dilemma. We continued riding on. Suddenly the lady had an epiphany of sorts, I guess, causing her to get our attention and tell us to get off at the next stop with her. We did just that, she walked us to the next intersection, and pointed to our walking route to the gardens. She'd nailed it this time, and we soon found ourselves at the Botanic Gardens.
We made a bee-line for the Orchid Garden again, and I proceeded to snap photos of most of the same orchids I'd already photographed, but I figured I'd get differenet results since we were there in the morning this time, with morning light to work with.

I liked this Lady Slipper, which is an orchid we find in the wild in Maine. This particular one is more exotic than Maine's version.

I have over 200 photos of orchids now, but room here for only a couple.

This day at the gardens seemed much hotter and more humid than it had been on Thursday. If you have a fear of sweating, do not come to Singapore! Ken and I were both soaked with perspiration by 10:00 a.m.

When we came to the Botanic Gardens on Thursday, I was all excited to see Andrea Bocelli would be giving a concert here on Saturday night (last night). I'd love to see Andrea Bocelli in concert, so Pam checked on tickets. The concert was all sold out, unfortunately, and probably had been for weeks. It was interesting to see the elaborate stage that had been erected for the conert, though, and I remarked to Ken yesterday that this was probably the closest I'd ever come to seeing Andrea Bocelli in a concert. I was just a few hours too early, that's all. Just knowing that Bocelli and I were in Singapore on the same day was comforting to me.

We managed to get back to our hotel without trauma.

At 6:00 p.m. Kehlye, his wife, and daughter Ching Ling picked us up to drive us to dinner on the northern shore of Singapore. If you look at the map at the top of this post (double-click it to enlarge it), you'll see that Singapore is a tiny island just off the coast of Malaysia. From the restaurant, the Bottle Tree Park Seafood Restaurant, we could easily see the shore of Malaysia.

At the restaurant we were met by Kehlye's other daughter, Ching Ping, her husband, and her three children. What a lovely family Kehlye has, and what a wonderful grandfather he is to his three grandchildren. We enjoyed the generous seafood dinner and chatting with everyone. Ching Ling is, as it turns out, an English teacher, so she and I found plenty to talk about.

It was hard to say goodbye to these folks, but we're hoping we can talk them into coming to Maine to visit us before long. We'd love to show them the Maine coast and mountains. And besides, we need to serve them some carrot cake!

Today is our last day in Singapore. Tonight we fly to Chengdu, China. Again, if you check out the map above, you'll see I've circled Chengdu. It's a four-hour flight from here, which sounds like a piece of cake after the long flight to Singapore.

But first we need to take the Singapore Flyer/boat cruise.

Singapore, Day 2

Saturday, May 8

Yesterday morning Ken's friend Kehlye picked us up at our hotel and gave us a wonderful experience by showing us more of Singapore.

First he drove us to a hawkers' market and wet market. The hawkers' market sells everything imaginable: clothing, hardware, "Wee-wee Drypers," jewelry....The wet market sells seafood.

I made the mistake of pointing out to Ken a sign over one of the stalls: Kampong Carrot Cake. If there's one thing Ken loves, maybe even better than lasagna, it's carrot cake, especially carrot cake with cream cheese frosting.

Kehlye heard us discussing the prospect of carrot cake, and he immediately urged us to try some. In fact, he dashed to the Kampong Carrot Cake stall and order one for us.

We should have been suspicious by the twinkle in Kehlye's eye that something was up.

Something, indeed, was up. When the "carrot cake" was served just minutes later, we found ourselves holding chopsticks and looking down into a plate of...something. I'm still not sure what it was, but we did see the carrot cake maker fry this concoction, and we saw him add an egg to it. Maybe it contained some carrot, but if it did, we never did find it. Actually the "carrot cake" wasn't all that bad, and the three of us ate a good portion of it. Carrot cake as we know it, though, this definitely wasn't.

Kehlye said that once when he was in the US, he saw a carrot cake sign and immediately bought some, thinking he was going to enjoy a dish so familiar to him in Singapore. What he got, instead, was a piece of American carrot cake, with cream cheese frosting. The three of us had a good laugh.
After visiting the markets, Kehlye drove us to a park. Here Kehlye insisted I use his wife's umbrella because the Singapore sun is very intense. Add to that the humidity, and you've got yourself an uncomfortable situation. Kehlye said he dislikes the humidity, too, but strangely he doesn't even notice it when he's out golfing. Tan had told Ken the same thing the day before. Singaporeans love their golf, regardless of the temperature and humidity index.

Next we visited the Haw Par Villa. This is a theme park of sorts, built in 1937 by the family in Singapore who developed Tiger Balm and made millions, probably billions, from its sales. They built the park as a thank you for their success. The park contains numerous highly detailed and colorful scenes telling stories of Chinese mythology. Many of the stories are quite gory. Kehlye said when he was a child his family had little in the way of luxuries, so coming to Haw Par Villa on the Chinese New Year was always a big treat for him. In the photo here you see a worker at the Villa touching up the paint on one of the scenes. I was intrigues by his bucket of paints, poured into what looked to be tomato soup cans. Working with only these basic colors, he's able to recreate all the colors in the scenes. In other words, his bucket of paints in tomato soup cans is his palette.

Next Kehlye said would would "stop for coffee or tea at Starbucks." I thought, that's neat. I don't particularly care for Starbucks and their price gouging, but it would be fun to visit a Starbucks in Singapore.

As it turned out, and we should have known this by now, Kehlye was actually taking us to a coffee/tea shop at another hawkers' market. Ken and I both ordered tea without milk; Kehlye ordered his tea with milk and tried to convince us we'd like it that way even better. Finally he got another cup, poured half of his tea into each, and insisted we try it. I loved it. It was much better than plain tea. I inquired about the coconuts piled into a corner of one market stall. Kehlye explained that the juice from a green coconut is delicious and before we knew it, we were drinking with straws from a coconut. Ken asked what was being extracted from "those shoots over there." Kehlye took Ken to that stall to watch the process of squeezing juice from sugar cane, and of course he returned to our table with a glass of sugar cane juice. My favorite was still the tea with milk, though.

At 1:00 Kehlye dropped us off at the Swissotel to meet Pam and Tan for our lunch date.

We zoomed to the 70th floor of this skyscraper to the Equinox Restaurant. Very pricey, but oh, my, the elegance, not to mention the amazing view of Singapore below us.

We had elegant appetizers, elegant main dishes (Tan and I had a fish fillet, Pam had lamb, and Ken had New Zealand steak), and...out-of-this-world desserts. If I die today, I'll die a happy woman after having experienced the creme brulée in particular. That was the very best creme brulée I've ever tasted.

From the Equinox Pam and Tan took us to a shopping mall across from our hotel. Soon we said our goodbyes, for Pam and Tan leave for Chengdu, China, tomorrow, where Tan works. However, we'll be joining them there on Sunday.

This evening Kehlye is picking us up to take us to dinner with his family. I'm eager to meet them. Kehlye is a very proud grandfather.

I think we'll take a boat cruise today. As you can see, our first two full days in Singapore were packed with about five days' worth of activities, so our pace might be slower today.

Oops. Just realized there's one final photo here. It's the view of the new casino at Singapore's waterfront, taken from the Equinox. This casino, the Marina Bay Sands, is an intriguing structure, with what looks to be a ship sitting on the top of the three towers.

Singapore, Day 1

(This first photo should be at the end of my post. If I try to move it, I'll probably delete it, so I'm leaving it where it is.)
Yesterday was our first full day in Singapore, and we saw so much, thanks to Tan and Pam.

They picked us up at our hotel at 9:00 to begin our tour of the city. We visited China Town, Little India, the waterfront, and then we went to the Botanic Gardens. These gardens are considered to be the best in the world, and I don't doubt that is true.

My absolute favorite area of the Gardens was the National Orchid Garden. I could spend a week there, I swear. I've never seen so many varieties of orchids, all in beautiful, full bloom. I took about 100 photos there alone!

In the early afternoon Pam left us to drive back to their condo, so Tan then took us on a walking tour of Orchard Street, a street lined with shopping malls and food stalls.

The great thing about having a native Singaporean as a tour guide is that he knows what we need to see and what we should eat.

Tan took us to the basement of one mall, where he headed for a fresh fruit stall. We enjoyed papaya, pineapple, and two other fruits which Ken and I had never had before. From there we went to a meat stall, where Tan insisted we must try the smoked ham. It was delicious. As we continued walking, Tan suddenly remembered something else we must try, "flosss." (Yes, three s's.) This was a very light, delicate bread with what looked to be spun sugar on top. Yummy.

We returned to our hotel in mid-afternoon and took a very brief nap. We could have slept for hours, but the best way to get over jetlag is to put yourself into the new time zone as fully as possible.

Tan came back to get us at 5:00 and drove us along the beautiful east shore. We took a long walk through a park, then went to Tan and Pam's condo to meet the rest of the family, especially Tan and Pam's first grandchild, who is six months old.

After a brief visit there, we loaded into three cars and drove to the East Coast Seafood Centre, where dinner reservations awaited us at one of the restaurants. We enjoyed this evening so much, not only for the food, but for the chance to get to know Tan and Pam's daughter and her husband, older son and his wife (They were married just last weekend.) and younger son. Everyone was eager to have us experience the seafood of South Asia: squid, giant shrimp, even "gianter" crab, fish, and more.

This morning another of Ken's friends from his days working in Chengdu, China, is picking us up to show us more of Singapore. Then at 1:00 we're meeting Pam and Tan for lunch at a luxurious restaurant on the 70th floor of a skyscraper. I can tell we're not in Maine anymore!

Long day's journey into night...into day...into night

Last evening we arrived in Singapore, tired but happy to have finally gotten here.

Our flight from Chicago on Tuesday, which was supposed to leave at 1:00 p.m., finally left four hours later. We were 14 hours from Chicago to Hong Kong, then 2 1/2 more hours on to Singapore. So we arrived here at about 1:30 a.m. on Thursday, which was 1:30 p.m. on Wednesday in Maine.

Ken said after we reached our hotel that it sure seemed nice to be able to sleep in a horizontal position. I agreed!

Today our friend Tan has sightseeing plans for us, so I'm sure I'll have photos to share this evening.