Singapore - just before Christmas 2008

The third term school holidays in Malaysia last about 7 weeks starting in early November and ending the first Sunday of January the next year. This year, I had not planned ahead for the holidays as there was a load of performance reviews and project reviews happening in November. So I kind of played it by ear to see when the family could get a holiday. I wanted to go Hong Kong and HK Disney land, but left it too late - full flights and hotels are not my cup of tea.

Marriot Vacation Club in Singapore offered an offer of S$289 (or was it S$298 - don't matter) for a 2 nights 3 days stay at the Singapore Marriot located at the corner of Orchard and Scotts road. There was a caveat - my wife and I had to sit through 90 minutes of hard sell on the vacation club. My family took the bus - Aeroline - from KL to Singapore. Quite comfortable. I believed that the hard sell from Marriot Vacation Club won't work on us, so we went ahead to book the Marriot for a Friday checkin and a Sunday checkout. We wore out the sales person in 50 minutes and were allowed to go on our way. Whoopee!!

Since Nov 1, Christmas decor was already being placed along Orchard Road and other tourist traps. So by the time we arrives, the decor was in full swing. Orchard Road was the centerpiece with the theme - the Sweets family - a family of candies and sweets. The Tourism Board of Singapore even provided free bus tours to see the Xmas lights of Orchard road- running every 15 minutes from just before Centerpoint Mall.

The shopping complexes had very innovative Xmas trees setup all over the place. They ranged from the traditional bling blings to recycled materials and even one which was composed solely of one product - Coke! They even had cute animal shaped bushes all over the place. The ones I really liked were the ones found just outside the Tang's.

We spent the first day just walking the whole stretch of Orchard from Marriot Hotel to Centerpoint and back. Alex was pooped by the time we got back. Still, we managed to take the tour of the Christmas lights before calling it a day.

Next day, we moved over to Suntec City, got ourselves the tickets for the Wacky Duck ride, the Singapore Flyer (looking very much like the London Eye) and that gave us free access to the hop on hop off Hippo bus tours and Hippo river cruise. The Wacky Duck ride goes from Suntec to the Singapore river a short distance away and then sails to where the Merlion is. They say Singapore is a fine city and certainly the view along the way was great. You see the Singapore Flyer from a different perspective, the Floating platform (with the colored seats) where the end of the year event is being planned. There were also various sized white balls, balloons which we were told were wishing balls. Write a wish on the ball and come New Year, your dreams will hopefully come true.

Singapore is also known as a fine city because you will be fined for a variety of offences like littering, spitting, smoking, etc. Wonder how much fine the Merlion has accumulated for spitting??

After the Wacky Duck, it was a quick hop onto one of the Hippo buses and next stop was the Singapore Flyer. About 30 minutes of slowly rotating up to the 165m height and back down again. You could see parts of the Singapore F1 night race tracks from way up there. Afterall, the VIP stands were just next to the Flyer. You could also see the Marina Barrage that dammed up the Singapore river and hopefully in a few years time, the water in the man made lake will become crystal clear along. The Marina Barrage is suppose to provide drinking water to Singapore in years to come. They had New Water and now Newer Water. That would be quite a sight for when the Integrated Resorts is ready (next year). The one build by the Sands of Vegas is littered with towering cranes now.

After the Flyer, next stop - Hippo Cruise down the Singapore river. This trip starts off at Clark Quay and reaches the Merlion before turning back to Clark Quay. You get a history lessons of the various bridges that spans the river along the way. You will also hear brave souls who regret going on the reverse bungee at Clark Quay - screaming their lungs out as they get bungee up and down. And of course you also see buildings that seems to be built just on top of the water.

And of course, the young man came closed to total poop out.

Last day was raining since early morning. So we spent time in Takashimaya and Wisma Atria (mainly inside Kinokuniya the bookshop). And then we checked out, moved over to Vivo City for more window shopping and finally back to home sweet home!!

ZZZzzzzzz.

Daidomon @ Great Eastern Mall

Vincent H and Madeline invited us to dinner at Daidomon on the 3rd floor of the Great Eastern mall, Jalan Ampang. They have a Japanese BBQ for dinner - all you can eat buffet (I think becoz it was Vincent's treat - I forgot about the price!!!).

My family arrived just about 10 minutes before the appointed time. A quick check with Vincent and we were told to go ahead and start cooking as they were stuck in a massive jam from KLCC. We first ordered from the menu card and then went to look at the starters spread in the center of the restaurant. A good selection of starters - though I wonder why Korean Kimchi was included. There was also a few different sushis available. My wife enjoyed the baby octopus (first time she was having such food). Alex stayed clear and kept asking where were it's eyes! I started off with Soba.

The BBQ pit was nice and shiny with smokeless coals burning just under the hot plate.

Alex who is a beef enthusiast asked me to order anything that says beef and I asked for the Belly ribs beef. Thinly sliced (and I mean thin!!) - they were perfect for BBQ and well marinated. Lamb was also available and were really nice as they were prepared in bite sized portions.We also had large onion (I love those as they provide a spicy twang!), cabbage, mushrooms (I didn't know mushrooms could be BBQed), prawns, stingray fish, cuttlefish and chicken wings. All these before V and M came in (40 minutes late).

You can also order fried rice, cawan-mushi and tempura for the buffet. Delicious. Halfway through, the waitress who was waiting on us (very diligently, even cooking for us sometimes) recommended cow tongue. Why would I want to eat cow's tongue?? Will it make me moo?? So we asked for half a portion (4 slices). It was actually not too bad. That's the 4 round slices you see above. If nobody told me it's cow's tongue, I would have assumed just another regular part of the cow.

And after stuffing ourselves, a round of ice cream to cool down the mouth. Both my wife and Alex had 3 scoops each!!. You can see the guilty looks.

All I want to say after the meal was YUM YUM! Japanese BBQ was definitely much better than Korean (or maybe I have yet to find the right Korean BBQ).

Vincent Wong n Siew Fong (1)

I'm going ahead to writeup about Vincent Wong and Siew Fong's wedding day with the photos that I have. I am still waiting for Vincent's photos which would have me in it as well.

Vincent is Elaine's elder and only brother. And when he finally decided to tie the knot, I knew I would somehow get roped in to help. Even before the day itself, I was already helping them out by printing part of the invitation card. The images Vincent gave me were not great to start with and I have to massage the photo to get the quality that he wanted.

For the wedding day itself, I was first asked to be the cameraman. Luckily, he found 2 other professional photographers to take care of that detail as my Lumix was in the Panasonic workshop for a faulty display cable. Then he found out that I had a Sony Handycam - the one with 60G of HD. So I was opted as the videoman. I had another Lumix, so I co-opted Alex to be backup cameraman - and that's how I got a whole load of photos for this blog. And a few days before the event his mum called - can you be the MC too?? Choke!! Choke!!! MC? Haiz - isn't there anyone else? Nolah - if any of his Heng Dai get too drunk, he don't want them mouthing nonsense on stage.

So on the morning of Vincent's big day, I woke up at 6am, got Alex to do the same and we had a McDonald's breakfast. By 7am, we were at Vincent's house in Lagenda Mas. Waited for the Heng Dais to arrive as well as the bridal car and we were off to Tanjong Malim by 8am.

When we arrived at Siew Fong's house (actually it's a shoplot), we had to wait as her brother and some other relatives went off to buy breakfast for the starving Heng Dais. And after what seemed like a long wait, the new brother came over, haggled with Vincent on the right amount of Hong Bao (red packet) he should get before he would open the door for his new brother in law.The haggling didn't take too long and a happy Vincent finally got to step out of his bridal prison.

Upstairs - more wait was in store as the bride was putting on finishing touches. So the whole entourage was feted to roast pig, nasi lemak and drinks. Vincent got a separate dish of roast pork - supposedly not offered in prayers to the Taoist Gods. I cannot imagine the pig going to the altar with part of it's body carved out so that that part is not offered!! One of the Heng Dais saw a trio of parangs on one side and remarked that if Vincent don't make an offer that Siew Fong's family cannot resist, we may not get out of there alive!!

Okay - breakfast over and the show starts!! In Chinese cultural weddings, it is not an easy road for the groom to get his bride. In addition to bribing his future brother in law, he has to bribe and satisfy the Ji Muis on the bride's side. If not, he does not get to go into the room where the bride is waiting. The Ji Muis had prepared a series of herculean tasks for the groom and his entourage to complete before they are allowed to see the bride. The whole show dragged on for almost 30 minutes before the door was finally opened! And I am sure, to Vincent, the drama was worth it!!

Next act was the tea ceremony and then the customary family photos.

Vincent - if you have not already done so - look closely and recognize all these people. They are part of your family now.

Ijok New Beggar Chicken

Ha!! finally got the photos from Vincent. Looks like he was in a hurry to whack the food, so the photos turned out a little shaky. Never mind - the food was good and every reason not to spend too much time on photography.

When I booked a table for 10, the restaurant assumed that I was going for the dinner set. And I was wondering why he never asked me what I wanted for that night. Lesson learned - there are a lot of other food in the restaurant and there were some selections that I would have preferred to make. Still.... the dinner set was good. Alan, Alexandra's friend gave this place a 4 out of 5 - and only because there were a couple of stray dogs wandering around the tables.

I invited Siew Mei and family (but her husband had a kenduri to attend the same nite. So Ahsley followed the mum and Amelie followed her dad). There was Stephan and Janet, Vincent and Madeline. I finally managed to get one of my unmet e-pal to join us for the dinner. That's a friend I made on the internet whom I have not met face to face before. Luckily, I only have one handful of such friends. Alexandra came with her boyfriend Alan.

We had beggar chicken, beggar duck, beggar rice, beggar pig trotters, a pot of pig stomach soup, green vegetables, fried prawns, crabs, steamed fish. With about half the food served, almost everyone abandoned any thoughts of taking more photos. Everyone was attacking the food with gusto. Ashley epitomized our enjoyment of the food for the night!!

Yum Yum

Xmas will soon be upon us (2)

Actually, I have a couple of other topics to write about. One - I am waiting for the photos from Vincent (forgot to take any during the dinner at Ijok). The other, I am also waiting for Vincent (the other one) for his photos from his official photographers. I was only his videoman, MC, money counter and part time amateur cameraman for his wedding. I am sure his professional cameramen had much better shots than me.

So.... for this writeup - here's a round of around the shopping complexes in KL and PJ and how they spruced up for Xmas.

1 Utama finally got their decor up, but I don't think it was that impressive. The theme seems to be Alice in Wonderland, but I find the decor too flat. If you move over to the old wing, one of their tenants had a slightly more lively decor. But not by much since it is on a smaller scale

Nearby, in the IKEA/Ikano/Curve/TESCO complexes, I found the decor more well thought out and impressive.

The Curve has my vote so far for a really well thought out setup. They had a kind of a garden layout, with 4 entrances, animal shaped genuine fake bushes and elves a plenty. They even had at least 2 of the Christmas trees rotating on one side! The walkway leading from Cineleisure to the centre court had beautiful arches . Some of the tenants in the Curve also did up their premises - like Marche and TGIF.

The media raved about the decor in Ikano, but frankly I found it to be not as good as the Curve's. But it was definitely better than 1 Utama's. Ikano had a white Christmasy setting, with genuine fake snow all over the floor.

I have yet to visit Sunway Pyramid, The Mines and Bangsar Village to see their decor.

Akan datang (coming soon in Malay)