Jan
2014
East, Far
Finally got around to sorting through some of our vacation pictures… Life is semi-back to normal. What is normal anyway with a baby/almost-toddler?
First stop: SF! We decided to break up the trip as it was Elias’ first flight and first foray away from home. A bit ambitious were we! Here we are at SFO and then at Japantown, where we stayed overnight. Little did we know what we were in for the next day on the 14 hour flight. Who woulda guessed that sleep training your baby would hurt us as he had NO IDEA how to sleep in our lap or arms?
But we survived… and made it to destination #1: Taiwan! With jet lag, adjusting and the new environment, we’d have to say we’re proud of our little boy who remained in good spirits. Caught some quick family photos at the Flower Expo in Taipei.
Lunched at the beautiful Monarch Hotel and then Daddy tried to feed son Mister Donut, right before we got drenched in a torrent of rain and wind (30-40mph+++) at Danshui. It was like a mini-typhoon. No pics since we could barely hang on to our umbrellas but we had to cross this one bridge where we had to hang on for dear life and Elias SLEPT THROUGH THE WHOLE THING in Uncle Jong’s arms. :) Sleep un-training?
More hanging with the bros… MRT in the city and eating, eating, eating!
This is one of G’s old (bestie) friends from high school, “O”. She spent a year in the U.S. as a foreign exchange student from Thailand. Had no idea that when we parted ways back then that she’d end up marrying a Taiwanese guy and we’d keep in touch all these years and get to see each other. :) We met in Taiwan one other time but quite awhile ago. It was like old times again.
And this is G’s happy place, “Taro King” (translated). She had been going on and on and on about this place so when Y experienced it for the first time, he was like “THIS IS TARO KING”? So it’s like a crappy (questionably sanitary) little corner “stand” but ohhh, the taro. Fresh taro with all the toppings your heart may desire. ;) You are missed beyond belief.
Apparently this ice cream place in Taichung has 2 hours+ lines on the weekends so when G’s bros saw that the line was “only” like 45 mins on a weekday, we decided to give it a try. Lots of fun and different flavors… There were like 20 different kinds of chocolate alone with varying levels of darkness and from all over the world. All-you-can-add toppings… Worth the wait? Not sure. We also had high tea on the top of 101.
What the, these folks are willing to wait in line for 3 hours in the rain and cold for Krispy Kreme??? They had just recently opened a store in Taipei. The photo doesn’t show it so well but the line snaked around the block. Silly Asian peeps!
And coming at an extremely close second (by just a hair!), G’s other favorite dish in Taiwan: the most amazingly seasoned and baked Kabocha squash at this Yilan restaurant.
We came upon rainy season while in Taiwan but on one of the clearer days we did a nice long-ish bike ride by the river to Xindian. We could’ve gone further but night fell. The lighted bridges were kinda cool.
So yea, more on the rain… A bit of a bummer but we also got rained out on Yangmingshan and some other planned hikes/outings as well as the Taipei Fubon Marathon (did the half) that G ran with one of the bros so the camera stayed stashed away… Probably the two hardest hikes and races of our lives. But what doesn’t kill us makes us stronger, right? And then it was off to hot & humid Singapore!
As Yuee’s dad always says, Singaporeans live to eat so of course we’ll get to the food first. Y chomps away like there’s no tomorrow whenever he’s back home. ;-P Some highlights: tea time delights of otak, various kuehs, curry puffs and other cakes; hawker centre goodies — kuey teow, innards, kidney soup, intestines, laksa, popiah, chi hiam (“bloody” clams); fresh dragon fruit juice (and just about any other exotic fruit you can think of!); local desserts: mango pudding, durian shaved ice, mung bean soup with “you tou” (fried dough fritters), egg tarts; the famous boba chacha; and Y’s absolute favorite must-have: chili crab (w/ “mantous” to dip in leftover sauce)… A mess of deliciousness. And this is just a glimpse of the weird and wide variety of eats in S’pore!
We did quite a bit of walking and exploring… Marina Bay Sands, Gardens by the Bay, downtown, Orchard Road, Esplanade. Y likes poking fun at LV so had to pose in front of the HUGE store. Think it was bigger than the one in Paris? Factoid: the country’s first casino opened in Marina Bay Sands and Singaporeans have to pay a levy to get in while foreigners do not. G and bros went in and took a look while Y and his people stayed outside. Haha.
On Christmas Day we went downtown and the Orchard Road area via MRT. There were throngs of people, lots of festivities and absolutely nothing was closed. We also saw some crazy street performances like this old man swinging large beads all over his body.
We came upon the Sri Mariamman Temple, the oldest Hindu one in S’pore, walking through Chinatown.
Sitting in the middle of a park, this impressive “floating baby” was almost overlooked until one of Y’s friends actually took us to go see it. After reading the display and doing some research, it was interesting to read the British sculptor Mark Quinn’s statement on this piece of his baby son.
Then we took a small side trip to Sentosa, an island resort in S’pore. Y was excited about getting to the Southern most point of Continental Asia. Special thanks to Y’s bro for allowing us to stay in one of the villas which opened to a semi-private wading pool. E “swam” quite a bit with this neck floatie, borrowed from cousin Xander.
We also went to the zoo, oceanarium, river safari and night safari. The pandas (both red and black/white) were our favorite exhibit followed by this GIANT polar bear swimming in water. He was brown — Y’s bro said he got tan in the tropics. :) It was raining so we didn’t get to snap a photo of the bear. Love how E is “looking” at the panda. :) The monkeys were actually pretty scary as they jumped back and forth between us as if they were about to attack us.
Another side trip was to Malacca, Malaysia. Since we were actually going in and out of the country, we had to clear customs and pass border patrol… reminded us of crossing the border to Mexico in our youth mission trip days. It was sort of a pain since on the Singapore side we had to take everything down. The state itself is quite historic… definitely stepping into a different world than the modernity and metropolitan-ness of S’pore. Malacca was once a Portuguese colony so we visited this old fort that was preserved from the 15th century. We also drove through the Portuguese settlement where a pocket of them still live. “Eurasian”-looking was what Y’s mother described them. The city centre was crazy crowded! It’s also named a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We had a tour guide so it was nice to hear about all the history along the way. We ate at a traditional Peranakan restaurant where E sat on an old-school rattan high chair (Y said his was similar — that’s how old he is!) and G’s bro got a humongous bowl of cendol, one of the traditional desserts. We really shared it but we just teased him because he had been eating at least one a day so now he had like a week’s worth. One of the other restaurant’s patrons asked to take a pic of the mega-bowl, too. ;)
And last, but certainly not least, we just enjoyed lots of family time. :)) Missing them and wishing they weren’t halfway around the world…
