Celebrating Singapore: Sindulgences

Did Anyone Say Sssssssshopping? (aka Sale/Spend/Spree)

One of the activities that I didn't plan for in the birthday programme was shopping for presents - for myself! At this time last year, shopping was pretty much a non-entity in our lives. Throughout our six months in South America, we only shopped on three occasions:

1. At the weekly animal market in Otavalo, Ecuador (thankfully, we only window shopped here);

2. At the daily handicraft market also in Otavalo (gosh, these people really like their markets); and

3. When we needed to get a replacement for Oly the camera in Bogota, Colombo (for those who didn't know him, Oly died a dreadful death by drowning while night kayaking in Puerto Rico.)

4. & 5. (Okay, actually we made two more major shopping trips while in the US where I ran amok at a couple of outlet malls. But this blog has no place for such unbecoming, embarrassing behaviour. Especially not that of a bag-crazy woman.)

Needless to say, there was absolutely no shopping to do on my birthday in San Pedro de Atacama. It was a very dry place indeed *sigh*

Well this year, I practically made up for that dry spell I suffered a year ago! :)

The evening's spoils

There we were, wandering around Vivocity while waiting for my parents to join us for dinner at Shin Kushiya, when I heard River Island whisper my name, inviting me to come in. It's true. I swear it did. And soon, Mango, Pull&Bear, Joop and a whole string of other stores joined in the merry chorus. You have just got to believe me! (I don't lie on my birthday....)

Hey, to my credit, I turned up for dinner with just ONE bag of shopping.... which contained a few smaller bags. Heh. I'm pretty happy with the selection of pretty tops, skirts and dresses that I got for myself. Now I just need to find more occasions to wear them. Shouldn't be a problem with the year-end festivities just around the corner.

Talking about bags, this was what Dan unceremoniously dumped onto my lap the moment I got into the car, when he picked me up from my office en route to Vivocity:

I think it's a bag made out of Kermit skin... :S

I had been dropping hints that I wanted a lovely lambskin bag in camel (as in the colour, not the animal itself) that I spotted in a store at Raffles City the night before.

Okay, fine: I blatantly described in great detail the exact model and colour that I wanted, right down to the location of the store within the mall. The only information that I could have missed out on was the price.... ahem. Ah well. But that's not important.

I even informed that my colleague Yanling, whom I was with when I saw the bag, would be in contact soon to drop further hints. Now this woman is the queen of organising office birthday parties and gifts for all occasions (farewells, housewarming, birthdays, anniversaries, etc.) so I knew my wants (no, my needs) would be well looked after *high-five Yanling and pat myself on back*

Imagined her stunned reaction when I snapped a photo of the green package and sent it to her:

Me: Er, is this the bag you asked Dan to get for me? :(

Yanling: Huh? HUH?!

Yanling: Nooooo!

Yanling: I have nothing to do with it! I swear!

Yanling: Wasn't me who told him to give you that!

Me: Er. Okay. Cos it's resembles a frog more than a lamb or camel...

Thankfully, it turned out that I was just being subjected to yet another round of Dan's trickery. Cos my real birthday bag gift turned out exactly as I had hoped for! :)

And if that wasn't enough, my sis got me another bag from the same store - in a lovely bright red. Yanling gave me one of those "bag within a bag" things to help me switch from one bag to the other without leaving behind my office pass or keys. And Zen gave me a pretty bag hook to keep my new babies off restaurant chairs and hawker centre stools. All very complementary gifts. Almost like receiving a bag gift set!

There were other gifts too: like a new 50mm lens from Dan (cos I stupidly cracked mine by packing it into the luggage on the flight to Koh Samui), a shiny diamante pendant from Yanling, Saucy Charades from Jem and Grace (yes, you read correctly - more on that in another post) and a pretty eye palette from Mandy (not seen in picture cos it was delivered in true Mandy style - late! :P But I love it, Mandy!)

My new arm accessories

Wearing my new shiny pendant at Nic and Mich's wedding last Sunday

Of Spaghetti & Other Sins

Okay, enough of shopping. I can hear the guys snoring over their keyboards already.

Birthday dinner with the family was at Garibaldi's along Purvis Street. I was very adamant on saving stomach space for good food and only allowed myself one small bowl of very yummy mee pok along Jalan Tua Kong, from the very famous stall at the Soy Eu Tua coffeeshop during lunch with Dan and Grace at Siglap (thanks for the treat, Grace!)

In preparation for the big dinner, my sister and I headed for Orchard Road to work up an appetite by walking around alot (which is sometimes more commonly known as "shopping".)

When the time came, we plonked ourselves expectantly in front of our plates, placed our orders and waited for dinner to be served by the attentive staff.

Yummy foccacia. My starving sister must have eaten half a loaf.

Paper-thin proscuitto and soft fried bread pillows

Pasta with mushrooms in truffle sauce

My sis and mum sit happy with their veal ravioli and crab linguine in vodka sauce

The hungry man goes for an entire salmon-trout (no idea exactly what fish it is, but it tasted good) that the waiter said was for sharing

Aaaaannnnndddd, as a birthday surprise, I got a little Tiramisu Turd of a cake served with a magic candle, courtesy of the restaurant :)

Ooooh, for me? Why, thank you!

A series of blur photos ensue, where my mum, sis and husband try to coordinate a birthday song amongst the three of them:

Cheeky fingers

He behaves for awhile...

Before delivering the final line of the song with much aplomb!

At this point, the mother-photographer got fed-up with the antics and in true motherly fashion, yelled at everyone to sit still for a minute so that she could get ONE decent photo that was in focus and not blurry. We tried...

... and obliged.

We'll say it again for the 1,938,473rd time - we do not look alike.

Just missing the dad (held up at school function) and the brother (dining on Danish delicacies in Copenhagen, like dry crusty rye bread and salmon in all forms....)

Dinner came up to a whopping $300+ for four of us. Ack. I've got mum to thank for the lovely birthday dinner.

We tried to tone down our palettes and give our stomachs a break from rich food later that weekend:

Simple fare at a Changi Village coffeeshop

Like I said, we tried to tone down...

It's rare that I bother to queue for food. So this International Nasi Lemak had better be good.

... but maybe didn't quite succeed.

Cheh. Super overrated *unimpressed*

The carrot cake beat the nasi lemak hands down! Cheaper, tastier and served right to my table.

Putting my new bag hook to use!

Wow. It was a true birthday sindulgence indeed *satisfied pat on tummy*

Back Where We Started

Since the sis is too swamped with work since coming back from Portland to do her long-overdue second post on the city, we're moving on without her first ... to sunny Palm Springs! (But check back for her post on how 3 squawking Asians held up a chairlift while snowboarding in Oregon. It could just have been us...)

We left Portland in the midst of a grey wet winter for good ol' southern California. We flew on Southwest - our favourite US domestic carrier after JetBlue - cos they let passengers check in two bags each for free. Which is, well, two more free bags than suckypucky American Airlines and United. Those wretched moneysuckers. Plus, Southwest is pretty affordable and at least you get fed a packet of nuts and a drink. While the snack selection can't beat JetBlue's free-for-all basket selection of blue corn chips, animal crackers and Doritos munchie-mix, Southwest's offerings did the job when it came to fighting the munchies during the short flight to Los Angeles.

Upon landing at the airport, we picked up our spiffy rented Chrysler Cruiser and headed for Palm Springs right away. No time to waste when it comes to chasing sunshine during winter! We loved what greeted us on the other end of the highway two hours later:

CLEAR BLUE SKIES!

PALM TREES!

GENTLE ROLLING MOUNTAINS!

AND A SNOWLINE THAT WAS WAAAAAAAY ABOVE OUR HEADS.

The weather was beautiful. We got tanned golden brown while walking around outdoors in air-con temperatures.

Winter in Palm Springs!

Life in this desert oasis is a bit atas or geared towards high-spending retirees. Beautiful resorts and golf courses abound, alongside posh restaurants, chic cafes and boutiques-that-I-didn't-even-consider-entering.

But travelers on a budget need not forgo a visit to Palm Springs. We got a room at Travelodge for about US$60 per night.

Travelodge - highly-rated on the ever-so-reliable TripAdvisor website

Travelodge held true to its promise of 'affordably hip rooms':

Easily the most modern and stylish of all the motel rooms that we've stayed at in the USA. And we have stayed in MANY rooms on this trip!

Crisp white bed linen! *salivate* I love love love the feeling of clean white sheets!

The room was perfect. We were really pleased to be treated to such a nice stay during our last days on the continent. It really helped that Pizza Hut down the road had an unbelievable promotion - US$10 for any pizza: any topping, any size! It was really hard not to go crazy and 'whack' an entire large Super Supreme just because it was the most value-for-money. Our inner Singaporean cringed when we forced ourselves to be sensible and stick to a modest 'medium'. Even then, I was stuffed, especially since the cheerful waitress kept bringing us Pepsi refills non-stop, on-the-house.

Fantastic weather and much-missed palm trees aside, our real reason for being in Palm Springs was for the Desert Hills outlet mall! It's one of the biggest Premium Outlets mall in the US and it took us two days to cover all the stores. Aside from scoring some good deals for ourselves (well I had to buy new work clothes, didn't I?) we helped friends pick up a few branded goodies from Coach, Kate Spade and Gucci. Ooh la laaaaa! But even with the factory prices, there was still stuff that I flat-out couldn't afford or see any good sense in splurging on - like Diane Von Furstenburg's dressy prints and golden Jimmy Choo slingbacks. As drool-worthy was they were, I just couldn't find it in me to be a guilt-free high-spender. (And I guess that's a good thing? The husband seems to agree.) While the shopping in Desert Hills was good, it just didn't have the added kick that tax-free shopping in Oregon did!

In between trawling the discount racks and chowing down on pizza, we embarked on a more serious mission in LA - paying tribute to Michael Jackson's star along Hollywood Boulevard.

Here's to you, King of Pop

The rest of LA didn't hold any interest for us since we had already played tourist in Hollywood and chilled out on the idyllic Santa Monica pier at the start of our trip. Except for one thing (or person, rather):

Meet TSUI LYN!

Why does my face look 3 times bigger than hers in this photo?!

Tsui Lyn and I were classmates in SCGS in Sec 3 & 4, and later in the same arts faculty in VJ for 2 years. Since then, she's been living in LA and working in the film industry doing post-production marketing initiatives. It was great catching up with each other 12 years later over coffee along 3rd Street Promenade in hip little Santa Monica.

Back in LA. Back where we started this amazing journey down the Americas 10 months before. We hadn't even made it home yet but it felt like our adventure of a lifetime had come full circle already.

Bargain Hunters

I should first let you know that both the wife and I abhor shopping. Loathe it. It puts us to sleep. That's why places like Bangkok and Hong Kong (which all other Singaporeans seem to love) hold no particular fascination for us. So when the wife deliberately organised our schedule to include a weekend in Otavalo simply because of the weekend market, I was a little curious to see what the fuss was all about. But when we arrived at Otavalo, various people told us that it was actually better to visit the market during the weekdays. The market is smaller (roads surrounding the marketplace are closed on weekends, and the market expands by another 50%), and the variety is not as great, but on weekdays, vendors are more eager for business, and you therefore get more attention and better bargains. Just don't expect to see Kate, Louis, Chanel, Dolce and Banana (Republic) here though.

Adorable suspenders for tiny tots. One color for every day of the week and a spare!

The only riots in Otavalo are caused by colors

The hammock with legs cost extra, because it will walk to you when you're tired

Pinnochio will like his hammock very much because he is such a liar

Hard at work

I need to get home and put this pic as a wallpaper on my PS3

Hammocks and comfortable pants. Perfect accessories for the home theatre system

Our primary mission was actually to take pictures at the market, because we have grown to be such shutterbugs. But to make the market visit even more bearable, we reasoned to ourselves that we do need new clothes. The yellow-reversible-to-blue jacket I have been wearing since the beginning of the trip has begun to shrink after repeated washing and drying. (No jokes about me expanding instead, please. Heh. I hereby forestall you! Consider yourself forestalled!) And given that we will soon be going on some very cold treks up some very cold trails around some very cold mountains, I need another jacket. And the wife (who is not giving up her La Fuma jacket) has also decided that she needed another sweater, and a poncho. because she apparently likes Chos...

The wife insisted on having alpacas on her sweater because alpacas are a symbol of warmth

Which looks nicer? Brown?

Or grey? Which do you think she bought?

As we walked on to the middle of the market place, my eye was caught by some really funky hats. I guess there were court jesters even in ancient Ecuador, and the court jesters had to wear something like this to please their king. Just like I had to wear them to please my queen! Since the lady who was selling them was so nice to let us "fool" around with the hats, we cooked up a some justification for ourselves to buy something from her. The cloth bag that we bought had the image of a blue-footed booby. I know what you're thinking! But seriously, the blue-footed booby is a bird!

I could store a couple of hot dogs for the trek in the extra space!

This hat had two tails. That means four hot dogs!

Okay... really going all out for hot dogs now...

Maybe the hats were a booby trap to make us buy stuff!

We arrived at another section of the market that focused less on textiles and more on accessories. Here, you get earrings, necklaces, aromatherapy joss stick holders, wicked-looking knives disguised as a troll figurine, stuff like that.

I got beady-eyed looking at these

There is supposed to be a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, but I was a little reluctant to open the blue containers

Damned cute keychains. Costs only a bark!

As we were making it through to the other side of the market, I was drawn to a wood carving of a blue-footed booby. Being a boobs man, I knew that I just had to have a pair of them! Taking a deep breath, and remembering the dirty looks Roy gave me in Shanghai due to my lack of bargaining skills, we set off to spend almost ten minutes haggling with the shopowner for a pair. He tried really hard to sell us a family (small, medium and large boobies), then when that failed, tried selling us a pair of medium sized ones. I kept insisting that I only wanted a small pair, and he kept saying that he only had one small piece, not a pair, and had to sell me one small and one medium piece instead. To cut a long story short, we bargained for a pair of medium sized boobies (yes, yes, about B-cup), bringing the price from USD 44 down to USD 32. I think we did a good job, because the shopowner still looked dazed as we snapped off a shot of our triumph!

I am happiest when holding on to a pair of boobies

The Otavalo market was definitely one of the nicest markets we have ever been to. The cool weather and the civilised bargaining was a distant cry from the markets we suffer when in Bangkok. Despite that, shopping and bargaining is still a great energy-sapper for us, so after a quick stop for pie and a sack of nuts for the wife, we headed back to our hostel. After all, we did get some inspiration on what to do next from one of the stallowners at the market!

ZZZZzzzzzzZZZzzZzzzZ

Finding a Replacement Camera

Welcome to Bogota, Colombia!


Colombia is our first stop in the South American leg of our journey, and despite being scammed by the taxi driver upon our arrival, it has turned out to be a pretty nice place.

One of our first missions in Bogota was to find a replacement camera for dear old Oly. Having done a bit of research online way back when Oly was starting to give me some trouble, I had decided on a few criteria. My new camera should:

1) Have at least 10x optical zoom. Because it has been immensely frustrating not to be able to take pictures of animals and naked women on Haulover Beach.

2) Be a small point-and-shoot (PNS). Because safety is paramount while we are traveling in this part of the world, and we have read stories of tourists who get robbed of their DSLRS.

3) Use lithium-ion batteries, because buying and lugging around AA batteries are a pain.

4) Ideally be weather-proof, because we will be trekking up mountains, going to waterfalls, etc.

5) Takes good videos, because DSLRs don't. No point duplicating abilities for our cameras, right?

So off we set into Bogota's city centre, swooping into every camera shop we could find. Unfortunately, most shops carry only cameras with puny 3-4x zoom, with the cheapest we could find at USD 400. Erks. Looks like I would be going without a camera for the rest of the trip!

Then I remembered reading something about a place called Unilago in Bogota. It's supposed to be like the Sim Lim Square of Colombia. So we took down addresses and directions and went off in search for this place.

Unilago is like Sim Lim Square in the sense that you see a huge number of shops offering computer parts and services. But while Sim Lim Square has moved with the times and has a better offering now with different levels of the mall catering to different needs, Unilago remains drearily uniform in its offering.

We were quite surprised that there was only one camera shop in the entire 2-storey complex, and that one shop sells only Canon PNS cameras. Even if we had wanted a DSLR, no one was selling it!

Thankfully, we found a friendly sales assistant by the name of Andres.

Andres speaks and understands only Spanish. Though the wife and I are multilingual Singaporeans (we speak English, Mandarin and swear words of all dialects), conversational Spanish was above our capabilities.

Andres was patient enough to figure out what we wanted, and finally offered a Canon SX200 IS.

Quick tech specs for those interested:
12.1 megapixels
12x Optical zoom
28mm wide angle
Shoots movies in HD 720p

After we purchased the camera at a seemingly measly USD 300, Andres asked us to write his name for him in Chinese.

The wife and I stared at each other blankly for awhile, then decided to call him:

平安
道德
快乐

Unfortunately, we forgot how to write 德, so this is what we gave him instead.


Oh man, our Chinese suck.

Then his colleague came over.

"Can do one for me? My name is Nancy."

Oh sh*t.

难洗??



P.S This blog entry was made possible by my best friend in my ex-office, whose favorite letters are still F, O and S.