Sojourn a journey through life

Mom and Dad Visiting Singapore

This morning Carly and I dropped mom and dad off to the airport (courtesy of your friendly neighborhood Maxi-Cab). We had a really great 2 1/2 weeks or so with them. The theme of our time seemed to be eat and relax, which is not surprising, as most of our vacation times seem to center around these things.

Mom and dad settled in quite nice, chilling out in the living room together.

We had an unusual amount of rain while they were here. In a way it was nice because it kept the temperature nice and cool (and by cool we mean 25-27 degrees Celsius, not including the humidex). Unfortunately the day after the parents arrived, Dad came extremely ill (food poisoning the suspected culprit – from the plane ride over) – and was down and out for about 2 days. He managed to spring back into shape – and the 2 days of not eating were more than made up for.

We had a nice walk up Bukit Timah Hill – the highest peak in Singapore, a massive 163 meters.

It took a bit of convincing the troops, but I also managed to reel them in for a game of Settlers of Catan. I seem to enjoy trading wheat and ore a whole lot more than my family counterparts. I think they pretended to enjoy it for my sake. Carly destroyed all of us in this game, with a decisive victory. Unfortunately, it didn’t increase her love for the game.

On New Years Eve we made it out to Chijmes for dinner, specifically to Capella restaurant.

Carly had some cod for dinner, which seemed to start a horrific bout of food poisoning (we suppose it also could have been some sort of virus or stomach flu – but at the time she was sure that she’d never touch cod again). We certainly didn’t seem to be having any luck on the “staying healthy” front.

After Carly being down and out for a couple days – it was really time to start recovering our missed eating time, posthaste. We started this evening off right with a trip to the Long Bar and Raffles Hotel for our token Singapore Sling. Carly and I had never been before, so this was a great “first experience” to share with the parents.

At first we weren’t sure if we were dressed “classy” enough for Raffles – but then we noticed that this was a “throw your peanut shells on the floor” kind of joint – so we were all good.

Cost of a Singapore Sling at Raffles Hotel: S$18.00+++, lucky for us the peanuts were free.

A visit to Singapore isn’t complete without at least one visit to Clarke Quay. We were down there at least two or three times, enjoying food at Cafe Iguana followed by Brewerkz a couple days later. The food at both of these places is fantastic, not to mention the pitchers of lime margarita and fresh beer.

After a nice meal at Brewerkz, we needed to kill some time before sunset, so we decided to stop at the Fullerton Hotel for some dessert as we were walking toward Merlion Park. Dad and I both had some awesome Creme Brulee, Mom had the best NY Cheesecake I’ve ever tasted, and Carly found herself a rather excellent Tiramisu.

Mom and dad outside the Fullerton after dessert, starting to get dark by this time, which is great for a trip over to see Mr. Merlion.

Mr. Merlion with the Fullerton Hotel in the background.

At some point during the trip – it’s all a wonderful food-filled blur at this point, Carly took mom to Holland Village for a pedicure. They had a great time together, and the end result of their ‘labor’ is as follows:

Thankfully, pretty toes aren’t the only thing that came out of this trip to Holland Village. Dad and I met the girls down there for pizza and, um, beer. Wala Wala in Holland Village has what is probably the best Hawaiian Pizza any of us have ever eaten. Carly and I find ourselves back here on a regular basis.

Mom and Dad enjoyed some good old times wandering through the city on their own as well. Mom managed to find herself a huge pile of smelly durian.

We spent as much time at the pool as we possibly could, a few nice breakfasts and we also managed a BBQ.

We took a trip to the Japanese Gardens, Chinese Gardens and Bonsai Gardens as well.

Carly had a couple of mini-kimono-type-house-coat things made while we were in Hoi An in Vietnam, one was a gift for mom. Here they are modeling them for us.

Last Sunday, after church, just in case you thought we hadn’t eaten enough yet, we made some reservations at the Rose Veranda in the Shagri-La for high tea. This is probably Carly and I’s favorite place for high tea in Singapore. A great buffet of international food, awesome fruits and desserts, along with a menu of 101 different tea’s from around the world. Eat and drink your fill.

I’m not really sure when this was, either, but at some point we made it to Corduroy and Finch for some great dessert as well. Handsome strawberries, hand-made chocolate truffles and more creme brulee for dad.

At some point one of our neighbors down by the pool was telling us of a German restaurant on Bukit Timah road. I haven’t had myself a good German meal in a long while, and this is food that all of us enjoy, so we hunted the place down. Stammtisch Restaurant (a Swiss/German place) is famous for their Crispy Pork Knuckle. I had never actually had pork knuckle before, so I was game. Carly’s mom ordered the same, and we had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. There was a TON of meat on this thing, and it was some of the most tender, delicious pork I had ever eaten. The Paulaner Hefe Weissen went down pretty nice, too.

This is mom devouring her yummy pork knuckle. Complete with delicious sauerkraut and potatoes. YUM!!!

Carly chilling out after a “rough day at the office”.

On Friday night, for our last dinner out, we had a heck of a time trying to decide where to go. I tried to make reservations at Ember, a restaurant that is quickly gaining popularity here in Singapore, but the place was fully booked, and we were fourth on the waiting list. I made some reservations at Morton’s instead (yah, there really is a Morton’s of Chicago in Singapore). Friday morning though, we got a call from Ember and they had found us a table, so we were stoked.

Prior to Friday, my only “favorite restaurant” in Singapore was Jaggi’s (a North Indian place on Race Course Road). After dining at Ember I’ve decided to add a second.

Carly and Mom at Ember.

The food was great. Everything from Bread, Scallops, Pork Knuckle Terrine, Citrus Salad and Crab Cake for appetizers to Lobster Pasta, Lamb, Steak, and Braised Beef Cheek for mains was outstanding. Dessert was 2 Chocolate Cakes for Dad and I and 2 Home Made Apple Tart things for the girls. The desserts were also absolutely outstanding. We’ll definitely be heading back here sometime.

On Saturday (yesterday – day before mom and dad left), Carly and I took them to a movie at the GV theater at Vivo City. We’d never been to the Gold Class (which from now until forever shall be known as COLD Class). You have got to check this action out:

Those are HUGE puffy individual recliners, complete with automatic up-down buttons to adjust your reclining angle to perfection. Along with a call button so at any time during the flick you can order pizza, wine, popcorn, hot dogs or any other fare you might desire. The only slight problem was that no one told us that they kept these Gold Class theaters at sub-zero temperatures (I think they might have meat hanging back behind the screen somewhere). Any of you who read this who know me know that I, generally speaking, do NOT get cold. I’m the “T-Shirt in Snow” type guy. I was freezing. I had a blanket wrapped around my entire body, and did not want to take my hands out to get a bite of popcorn. Carly had pants, a shawl and two blankets and she was freezing, too. Next time, we’ll follow the boy scout motto: Be Prepared (to Freeze).

This was a shot at breakfast yesterday morning. A nice little breakfast with home made muffins to start the day off right.

Mom and Dad are probably just leaving Narita now and starting the last leg of their flight back to Vancouver, and Carly and I are doing laundry, blogging, baking, listening to tunes, and getting ready to watch episode one of the fourth season of 24 on DVD. Go Jack Bauer!

Vietnam – Ho Chi Minh (AKA Saigon)

Carly and I touched down in Saigon on Christmas Eve for our last night in Vietnam. We wanted to stay somewhere nice, since the following day was Christmas, so I booked us into the Kimdo Hotel, which was absolutely fantastic. The staff and the rooms were great, as was the location, smack dab in the middle of all the chaos that one might not expect on Christmas Eve in a communist country.

Carly and I sat down in the lobby bar for a pre-dinner drink.

Outside, the streets were packed. Traffic was EVERYWHERE, and all the kids were decked out in Santa outfits. People were in their Santa hats, and everyone was having a mad Christmas celebration. It was amazing.

Carly and I wandered through all the madness to get to Le Caprice, a French restaurant where we had dinner reservations, and enjoyed an amazing three hour dinner overlooking the river with a fine bottle of Argentinian Malbec.

I shot a couple short videos with our camera to try to capture the crowds, but I can’t be bothered to get them onto YouTube right now and put them up. So you’ll have to wait until some other time.

All in all – time in Vietnam was great. We flew back to Singapore on Christmas day, and it was good to be ‘home’.

Vietnam – Hoi An

Like we mentioned in the previous post – our trip from Hanoi to Hoi An involved an overnight train from Hanoi to Da Nang – which departed at about 7pm, and arrived at about 11:30am the next morning. We bought the most expensive tickets we could, which put us in a 4-person soft sleeper depicted below.

Now, Carly and I have discovered that we may be on the “uppity” side of the “backpacker” clan. The soft-sleeper was not exactly what we considered enjoyable, but it only ended up costing us about S$45 each to get 1/2 way down the country. That being said, once we arrived in Hoi An, we changed our plans, cancelled our train from Da Nang to Ho Chi Minh (aka Saigon) – and booked plane tickets instead. It was a pretty easy choice. Either $US50 each for the plane ride (55 minutes) – or about US$38 for a 22 hour train ride.

But the noodles were alright.

This is a shot out of the train somewhere between Hue and Da Nang – likely around 10am.
Carly and I were both surprised at the amount of Christmas stuff. Christmas was EVERYWHERE. We thought, being a communist country and all – that the government would be keeping all this under control a bit – but no – there was Christmas to be had everywhere we went (just wait for the entry on Saigon).

Hoi An was probably our favorite place in Vietnam. A really quaint town, easy to walk everywhere, amazing food, and super-relaxing vibe.
It was also packed with tailors. Shops everywhere. Shoes, suits, pants, jeans, shorts, whatever you wanted, they’d measure you and make it by tomorrow. For cheap. Carly and I took advantage of the situation. I got a suit made, Carly got a 3-piece suit, 2-piece suit, a jacket and 3 pairs of shoes made. Not too shabby for about US$200.

As you can see – they’re short in Vietnam – this lady had to stand on a chair to measure Carly. Believe me, traveling around Asia with a beautiful girl standing 185 centimeters tall is a REALLY funny time.

We stayed at this place – Green Field Hotel – which was about a 10 minute walk outside the town center, which was good, we needed the walking time after all our eating

This is a shot that we took outside our hotel balcony.

Vietnam is officially the home of the best French Baguettes I have ever had the pleasure of eating in my entire life. We loved them.

And did I forget to mention the coffee. The Vietnamese know how to do coffee right. A good dollop of sweetened condensed milk with a nice drip of extremely, extremely strong coffee on top. Stir that bad boy up – and you’re in coffee-heaven.

One of the days we were in Hoi An, we took a cooking class. Carly and I love cooking, so we always look for a cooking class when we’re hitting up another country. Prior to the class we got a walk through with a guide at the Hoi An market.

Before entering the market, we received some friendly advice for our guide to not use the word “Yum” while walking through the market, even if things happened to look particularly yummy. Apparently in Vietnamese, “Yum” means “horny”.

Carly got a shot of these conical-hatted-ladies while we were on a boat heading down the river to the restaurant where our cooking course was being held.

The day before we had to leave Hoi An, we rented some bicycles and took a ride to the beach (about 2.5 KM from our hotel) – we went for a nice walk, and then proceeded to ride around town to pick up all of our clothing.

I think when we get back to Canada, I might have to pick myself up a sweet bike like this with a nice big basket.

The French influence (at least with pastries) is alive and strong in Vietnam. Carly and I visited a particular restaurant (The Cargo Club) a number of times – one of the reasons being the chocolate and almond-pear tarts you see below.

One of the main attractions in Hoi An architecturally is the Japanese Covered Bridge, which I believe was built some time in the 1500s, pictured below.

We had an awesome time in Hoi An – and if I’m ever back in Vietnam, we would definitely be stopping here again.

Back to ‘nam – Ha Long Bay

We’ll apologize ahead of time for the delays in getting out these next “Vietnam Series” posts. Carly’s parents are here, so we’ve been touring the city, sitting by the pool, and eating pretty much non-stop for the past week or more. The New Year started with 2 bouts of food poisoning, and a canceled trip to Bintan. So we’re more than making up for the missing food during that period. Anyways – after our brief stint in Hanoi, Carly and I booked a trip to Ha Long bay through Handspan Travel on the boat called the Dragons Pearl (hello, captain Jack Sparrow anybody – ok ok – I know it’s not the Black Pearl – but close enough). The drive from Hanoi to Ha Long is about 3 hours, which we took on a coach bus with a number of others. Great tour guide and good people to chat with. The boat was awesome, and this was truly a relaxing time. We were very happy to know, once we got into our room, that the toilet had been “Cleaned & Desiphected”

Carly and I chilling out on the upper deck in the breeze. This is the first time I’d enjoyed sub-20-degree-celsius weather in a while – so I was loving every second of the 15 degrees.

This is a floating fishing village out in the bay – very interesting to see this.

A shot of our boat from a hilltop at one of the islands we stopped at.

Closer shot of our boat.

There were a number of these ladies that would row around the ocean / bay stopping at islands and fishing villages selling goods to whoever would buy them.

One more shot of our boat – a nice profile view.

After our night in Ha Long Bay – we jumped back on the bus and headed into Hanoi again. We had dinner at the Tamarind Cafe, and then took a Taxi to the train station for our overnight train ride to Da Nang, which is about a 30 minute drive from our next destination – Hoi An.

More on that shortly!

Dad and Mom Visit S’pore

For now we take a short Vietnam break. Dad and Mom Burrus arrived in Singapore early morning on 28 Dec. We’ve had one heck of a beginning to our visit with 3 different food poisoning cases from take off to New Years, however, we are enjoying our health together now!

On their way…

Santa arrived. Our Christmas morning together.

A visit to the Chinese Gardens
The Bonsai Gardens

New Years Celebrations at Chijmes