Category: 2006-08: NRT, KL & SIN

The Majestic and the Yue Hwa Building, Eu Tong Sen Street, Singapore. Shot with a Ricoh GR Digital

After five interesting days without broadband access for my trusty MacBook, I’m back in the US.
It’s a bit far to travel for broadband, I know, but a flashpacker’s gotta do what a flashpacker’s gotta do! Ha ha.
I flew back to LAX via TPE on SQ. All I gotta say is that a 16 hour flight never went so quickly. Of course being able to watch Training Day, The Godfather Part 2, Jasmine Woman and bits of other flicks on the flight back made the time go faster. Along with being fed to death. SQ is the only airline I know of so far where you can gain weight on the flight if you finish all the meals that they give you.
Of course 6 or 7 Singapore Slings help that along too (!).
Because of my extended absence from the net, blog updates will be an exercise in time travel. I’ll be posting pre-dated entries. Look on the “Recent Updates” column on the left for new stuff.
Now back to the grind. Sigh.

My flight back to LAX wasn’t the kick-ass “Premium Economy” non-stop. Instead, it was a connecting flight through Chiang Kai-Shek Airport, Taipei. Four hours to CKS, then another 11 or so to LAX.
Since the Taipei leg of my journey left SIN at 1700, once we were airborne, it was time for dinner!

This was the Asian course…
And don’t forget the “SQ ice cream cup” after each meal!

Apparently, the selection of ice cream cup varies depending on destination
When we landed at CKS, we had to do the security hokey-pokey because a bunch of us were continuing on to the US. This consisted of:
Get off the plane.
Go through security.
Walk upstairs to Depature Wing
Go through security. Dispose of gels and liquids
Get back on plane.
If nothing else, I was able to fart around the airport for a little while under the guise of “stretching my legs”. The people I met on the way were generally pleasant and this part (Second Wing) of CKS reminded me of Tokyo Narita.

Could it be because of the vending machines?
The duty free shops were well stocked and well manned. They had a lot of native Taiwan items like tea and tea liquour. I sampled the latter. Potent!

Well, they did have this kind of conventional refreshment too! How many of these bottles do YOU have?
Johnnie Walker is doing a promotion with the McLaren F1 team. So CKS gets a car for promotion!

This would definitely be “oversized baggage”.
On the way to the gate was a really long hallway because, naturally, my plane was at the very end. I passed this on the way. I like!

you could smell this down the entire wing of CKS!

Wednesday evening, I get on that “steel tube with wings” for the slog to LAX via CKS.

Yes, this is steel tube with wings…
I’ve never connected through Taipei; wonder what kind of facilities (food) they got? Of course, since I AM flying Singapore Airlines, I’ll probably be all full and won’t even need to partake of the fine airport fare that CKS has to offer. But I digress…
Last night (the night before tonight), I met up with Xuan for a nightcap. This being Singapore, it rained, so our initial plans of visiting Loof went “poof”. Instead, we ducked into a hotel bar for sapphire-tonics and sharing stories about life, travel and Texas and South Dakota in the winter. Charming!

I….think I need to lose some weight there….
And speaking of rain, about 0400, the mother of all thunderstorms blew through. Woke up everyone in the dorm as it was a light and sound show of magnificent proportions. It was neat except for the mess in the bathroom afterwards because someone left the window open (not me!!). Best of all, I fell asleep (I usually have problems sleeping shortly before a long flight) to the sound of rain. Nice.

Ever since I heard that there was a Din Tai Fung in the US, it’s become a minor obsession with me to try the place out. Din Tai Fung is a Taiwanese chain that is known for the quality of their dumplings, especially with their xiaolongbao, which I really REALLY like! The problem is that there’s only one location in the entire US (Arcadia, CA) and the queues each day/night approach ridiculous. That means a really long wait. I’ve been told that none of the other locations match up to the original Taipei location, which means I’ve gotta try it when I’m out there…
But wait a minute! I’m in Singapore! There are FOUR locations here. That means that the chances are four times greater I’ll actually get to try this place out! Waaaaah! So I dragged out a fellow backpacker from Inn Crowd (the hostel of choice in Singapore) to Paragon to eat lunch.

The chefs at work, making sure each dumpling has the proper amount of folds in them
Din Tai Fung is in the basement food court area (along with HSBC and Citibank ATMs). The wait was, like, three minutes. Seated and ordered in ten. We got here around 1300 so we just missed the lunch crunch. You gotta begin with an order of xiaolongbao. In fellow backpacker’s words, “if they can’t get the basics right, forget about the rest of the menu!” Couldn’t have said it better myself. Did they get it right?

Quick, count the folds!
Yup, they got it right. The skins were just the right thickness and the soup inside was at just the right temperature. There were even instructions on how to eat these with vinegar and bamboo shoots ginger provided. How thoughtful!

Fellow backpacker had some kind of noodle soup with a light broth and tofu. Good!

I had the braised beef noodle soup. That’s fellow backpacker’s spoon
The braised beef noodle soup was more of a cold weather dish. It felt kind of heavy in the Singapore heat. Both soup dishes were very good. The noodles were firm, not soggy and cooked just right. The beef was more on the lean side than the fatty but the broth made up for that. It was good! Will go back again!

fellow backpacker taking pix of her food for her blog
Din Tai Fung
290 Orchard Road, B1-03/06
Paragon Shopping Centre
Singapore 238859
6836 8336

Some of the complaints that I hear about Singapore such as:
“there’s nothing to do”
“it’s boring”
“it’s too strict”
more often than not come from expats than natives. Of course, there could be a little bit of the “grass is greener” syndrome happening since I’ve heard the same complaints about Hong Kong and Beijing too.
The timing of this trip has been very good. Shortly before I started my journey, I switched around my destinations, going to Japan first and then to Singapore/Malaysia instead of the other way around, which was my original plan.
Because of this switcharoo, I was able to attend the Koenji Awaodori, my friend’s birthday brunch, the Comex show at the Singapore Expo Hall and the RSAF Open House at Paya Labar Air Base. The latter three were all on the same weekend.

On the path to total geekdom…
The Expo Hall is off the East West Line, close to Changi Airport. It involves a transfer of trains. But no matter if you didn’t know that. All you had to do was follow the big big crowd from the MRT all the way here. Easy!

This is just one part of the hall. Practically the entire Expo Hall was like this
The Comex Show is (from what I’ve been told) is Singapore’s biggest IT/computer event of the year. Lots of vendors and lots of deals. Lots of booth babes too! I wound up picking up a new hp to replace my HTC Blue Angel, AKA “the slab”. But that’s the extent of the geekyness that you’ll find out about me on this blog!
Also this weekend, the RSAF had an open house where you could check out planes and helicopters, pose for pictures, enter a lucky draw for a chance for one of three ride-alongs (wah!) and learn about all the computer and high tech stuff that makes up a big part of a modern airforce.
But at these shows, it’s the hardware that’s the big draw!

An F-16D with extra fuel tanks on the sides of the fuselage

Watch where you’re pointing that finger, you’ll rupture the fuel tank!

RSAF Chinook. They had the rear deck open and an orderly queue so people could walk through it and come out the front.
Besides these representative aircraft, the RSAF also has Apache attack helicopters and Boeing Stratotankers for mid air refueling. They also had some of their former first line aircraft, now regulated to training duty here.

Anyone remember the F5E Tiger II?

“Now don’t press that button, son. That’s the ejector seat..”
So there’s stuff to do on the weekends in Singapore. For the guys, it’s the Comex show with booth babes and new toys computer equipment. And for the families, guys and girls, it’s the Air Show. The guys get to check out the hardware and the girls get to check out the pilots.

Here’s one of my friends having a Sean Penn moment as she explains how to eat a Ya Kun softboiled egg at Far East Plaza, Scotts Road, Singapore.

After your prep the egg, you shoot it like an oyster. She wouldn’t let me film that. Bleah.

Usually it involves a newspaper, a map, a comfortable chair and a hp. And aircon, don’t’ forget the aircon!

Mmmmm. Planning! What to do this weekend?
Oh yeah, lots of beer and some kick ass fish and chips helps too. And lounge music. And great scenery!

the top floor which is lounge-y. First floor is bar and dance floor and 2nd floor which is a hangout mezzanine with big aircon unit to stand in front of…

barbaablackchic
10 Perak Road
Little India, Singapore
6297-9397

Got back to SIN from a whirlwind tour of KL and Malacca VERY late last night. At 0200, I stumbled into my usual guesthouse/hostel. Only to find out this AM that…
THERE’S NO WI FI!!!!! GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!! Used to allow can??? *wails* Broken routers suck.
Have not been online in four days (cuz no wi-fi access in KL) so am rejoining the world now. I’m at a McD’s where there’s free (but pokey) wi-fi access and where my MacBook will wind up smelling like french fries.
MUST CALL AHEAD in future!!

Melaka is a historic town roughly halfway between Singapore and KL. If KL is Malaysia’s Tokyo, Melaka could be seen as Malaysia’s Kyoto, a city that was great in the past and now is seen as a historic town.
One of the draws of Melaka is the famous Christ Church, built by the Dutch in 1753 and is still in use today as a church.

Christ Church at night

There’s a fountain and a companion building next door too

Christ Church is near a river that cuts through the city

It looks like a work in progress…
We met up with Yi-Lin’s cousin who is an architect here. She took us to the best siew yuk hawker stall in the universe.

That’s some siew yuk mein, wontons and some sour plum drink that was pretty good

Here’s a close up. It really was THAT good!
We also learned a lesson in etiquette when YL tried to place our order, she went up to the front of the hawker cart instead of going round to the back. It placed us as outsiders and everyone got a good laugh. We got the last laugh at the end because we got our orders first!! Wahahahahah!
After we visited Christ Church and toured the historic quarter, we were back on the Federal Highway to Singapore. 2 more hours to go…