Feel Like Home

My darling friend Tim arrived on New Year's Day from Perth, beginning our 3-week-long adventure together. We have been planning this trip since October (if I'm correct,) about 2-3 months after we first got to know each other in University during a Pub Crawl.

It's been a fun 5 days since he arrived and I just hope I've been a good guide and have shown him what he really wanted to see; I let him get a taste of as much as we could cram into this short time. Here's a short log of what has happened during his time here in Singapore.

Tim arrives at Changi International Airport. Yup, that's him in the cowboy hat:


That night, after checking him into his room in The New 7-Storey Hotel, I brought him to Chinatown to have dinner and meet my family:


I'm happy and proud that he's willing to try everything AND to learn to use the chopsticks even though the waitstaff kept offering him a fork:


The dim sum spread my Mum and sister ordered for all of us. Notice my Dad's "Hard Cock Cafe" t-shirt:


Here's Tim proudly enjoying a rare opportunity even in Singapore; catching Chinese street performers doing their thing:


The famous Sri Mariamman Hindu temple. Bet you don't see those everyday in America:

I know for a fact that Tim liked Chinatown very much and he greatly regretted not bringing his video camera along that night. Oh well, at least he got to experience it first-hand.


The next day, I decided to show him the touristy stuff such as the Singapore River, the city skyline, the Merlion (our national symbol) and basically the whole Esplanade area where all the monuments, statues, etc. are.

Here he is (frowning and looking adorable) with the city skyline:


This is the Merlion with one of the Chinese boats on the river for the tourists to ride:


The Singapore Duck Tour a.k.a. the amphibious vehicle which drives from the city right into the Singapore River!


As we took a walk, we ended up at the Asian Civilisations Museum. There are 4 things I love visiting when I'm anywhere in the world, and they are (in order of preference): Art Galleries/ Museums, History Museums, Zoos and Aquariums. This time, I finally got to visit the ACM with a willing friend:


Tim learns to use the abacus, the Chinese wooden calculator:


Tim & I testing our knowledge of Arab culture:


Some parts of the museum project video onto the floor. I love that idea:


Another projection, this time simply to lead you in the right direction. Beautiful:


An erotic Indian fertility statue. The sculptor sure was graphic:

Leaving the museum, we walked toward the famous pub stretch, Boat Quay before we trotted back to get changed for that night's dinner with my girls.

Boat Quay and the constant camera in my face:


Here's the group at The Blue Ginger along Tanjong Pagar Road. It serves superb Peranakan/ Nonya food and I'm glad everyone liked it. From left to right; Grace, Delia, Sheeda, Pamela, Me,Tim, Sam, Iris, Ana:


Tim all smiley with his first Tiger Beer:


One of the more decent photos of us:


And as usual, we don't keep a straight face on for long:


After dinner, we headed off to Balaclava at Suntec City Mall for drinks. Two bottle of celebratory champagne, to be precise:

The place had a pretty talented duo singing on stage and of course, girls being girls, we sang along to songs such as ABBA's Dancing Queen. That song is still stuck in Tim's and my head till today! Grrr...

Tim being deliciously rude:


And yet another photo of us. Mind you, I bought him that shirt and I think he looks good in it. And no, I don't know what I was looking at:


Priceless shot of Tim and my sis. One of my favourites!


The newlyweds Delia & Sam. I love his t-shirt:


Just another one of our breast orgies:


My sister and I looking very normal in a photograph for a change:


The girls responsible for this little get-together; from left to right; Ana, Pamela, Delia, Sheeda, Grace & Myself:



So it's the 3rd day, and as promised (and much to my delight), I bring Tim to the zoo.
Sometimes I wonder what would have happened if I had followed my childhood dreams and trained to become a zookeeper instead of studying fashion & design...

Anyway, here's Tim eating brunch - a bowl of Chinese handmade noodles in broth, and taking time to show off his newly-acquired chopstick-handling skills:


The Singapore Zoo:


The sweet "Friends of the Zoo" card from my Dad's company which got us in for free:


The giant-arse leaf hopper commonly found in our rainforests. You wouldn't want that falling down your pants:


Tim and his new best friend:


The native mousedeer:


A golden pheasant:


The false gharial, a species of crocodile:


A friendly guy we found basking in the sun:




Tim insisted Singapore was too hot for this dude. If so, why is he happily snoozing in the sun while the cool water laps at his paws? There is such a thing, my friend, as temperature control:


I know Mohan the White Tiger isn't the only thing with blue eyes and a pink nose:


He's a beauty, isn't he?


We think this Prairie Dog needs someone to pimp his ride:


Reminds me of my Dad:


A very inquisitive chipmunk:


And this amazing shot that I can't believe I managed to capture:


Meet one of the playful but shy baboons that lurk overhead when u first enter or exit the zoo:

After we finished our trek through the zoo, we took a breather before walking over to the Night Safari next door.

Then, we had a choice: pay $18 each to enter a place we've both never been in before, or sit at the nearby cafe and deliberate. We chose to deliberate and pout about the entrance fee when Lady Luck paid us a visit. These two Aussies from Adelaide came to us and asked if we would like the two extra tickets they had with them. It seems they had won a contest and were about to redeem 4 adult tickets. Bless their hearts for noticing our sad, moping faces!


Ripper!


The two (runaway) Aussies:

We entered the Night Safari and did a short trek before heading to one of the animal shows. Unfortunately, because we weren't allowed to use the flash on our cameras, our attempts to document the animals were futile. Nonetheless, the show was very entertaining and we saw some pretty amazing creatures. After that, we took the train journey throughout the safari and it was one of the most unique experiences I've had in a while.

Here, the finale of the show; ferrets recycling:



Day 4. Phew, times passes quickly when you're blogging.
Tim gets a haircut.
A $10, ten-minute haircut, that is:


And we slacked off for most of the day because it was gonna be a long night. We meet my best friend Caroline and her fiance Marc in Geylang, the red-light district of Singapore. Marc lives in the area and therefore he knows it well (or at least that the reason he gives us), and gladly offered to be tour guide for the night. We started off pretty tame (for that dodgy area) with Szechuan Frog Porridge:

After that sumptuous meal (and I know Tim agrees because he ate so much!) Marc proceeded to walk us through the alleys where all the prostitutes umm, hawk their wares... Some of the girls tugged at Marc and Tim and offered themselves up, but the boys were determined to sit this one out. I thought some of the girls needed to be at home doing their homework and it was way past their bedtime. Soon enough, Tim was introduced to his first real-life transvestite. Perfect.

Next, Marc drove us to the nearby durian stall. Durian is a large, thorny fruit famous in Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore as the "King of Fruit". It supposedly smells terrible but tastes divine. I beg to differ. Here's one of the more popular roadside stalls in the area, right under a sex chat ad. Perfect x 2:




My hat goes off to Tim for tasting that thing:

I'm sure Tim was more than happy to learn that his culinary adventure was over for the day as we headed to Singapore's new Ministry of Sound club. It is supposedly the biggest Ministry of Sound in the world and boasts different arenas for the various types of music styles they play. MOS opened when I was in Perth and therefore, it was a first for me as well.

The Main Arena where they usually play dance music, except for certain days such as Thursday when they play R&B and Hip-hop:


Tim and I in Studio 54, the retro room:




Me getting a good squeeze of Tim's arse in Smoove, the caged R&B/ Hip-hop arena:


Caroline, Me and Tim after a night of dancing and sweating:



The last day in Singapore before we head off to Kuala Lumpur today. Unfortunately, the weather wasn't being very nice and had been raining since early in the morning. That's the problem with the tropics, either it's wet or dry. I had already planned to take Tim to Sentosa to have a look around and since he was game, we went anyway.

There's no better way to go to Sentosa than by cable car:



The main reason I brought Tim to Sentosa was so that we could go to the Underwater World, one of my favourite places. Again, I'm happy he appreciated this as much as I always do.

Live shark eggs. Yup, you can actually see the young wriggling about on the inside:


A view from the tunnel aquarium with the travellator that takes you through it:


A huge crab:


A pig-nosed turtle:


A shark hologram. Purely for the geeks:


And of course, fish!

We didn't stay in Sentosa long after visiting the aquarium as the clouds got meaner and our tiredness from the night before ate at us. Instead, we opted to chill out until dinner time, where we met my Mum and sister in Serangoon Road for a spot of Indian food.

The food was served on banana leaf, just the way it should be. They pile a shitload of rice onto the leaf and add a side of stewed marrow (a vegetable):


And a side of curried eggplant:


I don't know what Indian food does to me, but it certainly doesn't do this:


Mum & Sis enjoying Tim's antics:

That was delectable! Haven't had good Indian food in a long time!

We headed back to Tim's hotel to get him checked-out so that he could bunk in (albeit uncomfortably) with me, just so that our journey to catch the coach to KL today won't be so complicated.

The building his hotel is in is so old, it still retains one of those old skool manual lifts. How quaint!


All packed and ready to go:

Selected photos  Christiana Westlake
Photos hosted by: www.flickr.com

See you guys in Kuala Lumpur!