a night out in singapore (continued), among other things
hello again!
my apologies for the abrupt departure on the previous post. let's see... where did we leave off...
ahh yes: the forbidden city.
so at this trendy club of ours, mumtaz (shehz's aunt) now departs as it is getting pretty late. would shehz and i leave though? no way! time for some singapore clubbing!
we hop outside again and join the short line to attend "attica" -- apparently one of the hotter singaporean clubs. they had a brit dj there for anybody who cares: pete gooding? i have no idea who he is. cover was S$28, but it came with two drinks. after heading inside, we noticed that like every OTHER venue in singapore, the decorations were incredible. very nice atmosphere, with a smallish dancefloor on a little plateau. after the initial entrance, we headed towards the back for a very "night at the roxbury"-esque the-outside-is-on-the-inside-and-the-inside-is-on-the-outside area. they had little couches and bars arranged in a street-corner arrangement. from this point, we had access to the members only area of the club called "attica too" (obviously NOT members only), but we had about fifteen minutes to kill before it opened up. here's the breakdown of the drink lineup:
yoosuf - gin and tonic
shehz - rum and coke
ian - vodka redbull (thanks, jason)
we had a quick wait, and then up we headed to "attica too". they had these nifty... neuron-looking things hanging from the ceiling. little reddish balls connected by blueish... connectors. you may be able to tell i'm at a loss for words when it comes to describing the decoration. regardless, shehz and i immediately got our groove on. it's strange to hear american-only music being played so far away from home. but alas, these kids listen to fitty just like everybody else. we made sure to use our second drink ticket and then the madness started.
yoosuf decided to work the "hang out by the bar" approach, while shehz and myself focused directly on the dancing aspect. keep in mind we'd been drinking since 2pm at this point (but don't worry mom, everything in moderation!). shehz and i decided it would be a good idea to see how long each of us could dance solo on the raised platforms before being kindly removed by bouncers. the grand totals are as follows:
ian - 10 seconds
shehzad - 15 seconds (but he brought a partner up, so really he cheated)
we hung out there for another hour or so before blowing that popsicle stand. now it was time to hit the "mel's favourite" of singapore: roti paratha. we took a quick hop over a few streets to eat this singaporean delicacy: it's roti bread that you dip in fish/lamb curry. not bad at all!
so that was that.
onto the day before yesterday now (it'll be quick).
myself and the moizs headed into town to arrange a bus trip to kuala lumpur for me. i'll be heading out there tomorrow morning for the 6 hour bus ride. more on that when it happens! anyways, we hit the travel agencies and got me a little deal. after that, we had some time to kill before the evening. we all went out for lunch which consisted of chicken rice (amazing!), bee hoon noodles, chinese rojak, and lime juice to drink.
a word about both lime juice: it's yellow and tastes like lemons. not sure why that is.
a word about chinese rojak: ... i don't know where to start. we had approached food stands before, and i was always aware of a strange smell emanating from them. i chalked it up to the garbage. turns out it's the chinese rojak! you may be able to tell i'm not the biggest fan. enough about that.
the moizs then dropped off the kids + shehz and i at the singapore island country club. what a place! memberships run about S$250,000 for new members (but the moizs own this town, so it's cool). as you can imagine it's a pretty swanky joint. i took a few pictures that you can see below, but it's really a nice place. we partook in some bowling here. i managed to pull off a clean win in the first game with a 138 -- beginner's luck! shehz put everybody in their places come game two; what an underdog! the good news is that i finished off the 10th frame of game 2 with a strike, regardless of my loss. i'm a happy boy.
we cabbed it back from the country club and headed out to the east coast for dinner! we hit up a place called "jumbo seafood", which is pretty famous around here. of course, we had to eat all of the following:
- pepper crab (i loved this stuff)
- chili crab (not as nice as the pepper crab, but tasty nonetheless)
- mee gorang (pretty tasty! shrimp, noodles)
- deep-fried scallops (big fan)
- deep-fried calamari (not a big fan)
the three boys (myself, shehz, yoosuf) also went through a jug of tiger beer -- it's nice stuff! i rounded things off with some green tea, which i'm really starting to enjoy!
we passed a malay wedding on the way back. it was a pretty huge affair! they had a malay singer there who apparently was pretty famous giving an open-air concert. we watched for about 10 minutes before realizing it was a big waste of time. went to bed.
yesterday!
we spent our early-morning arranging flights to both jakarta for shehzad, and thailand for the both of us. here's the funny part:
shehz and i had been doing some research about cheap return flights to bangkok. they had some neat 5-day deals and stuff that you could buy that included accomodation and things. we were fairly interested in a few of them, so we headed to the mall to check them out. it was pretty crazy -- they had about 6 travel agencies within a stone's throw of each other. regardless, we went into the first one to inquire about a deal. after giving her the dates we required, she said the itinerary was impossible because i required a later return date and the maximum time on a ticket is 14 days. so shehz and i walked next door to the NEXT travel agency to see what we could find. same story: 14 day maximum on return tickets. as we started asking questions, the girl seemed to be finding it very strange that we wanted to know so much about the tours:
travel agent: "yes, and of course the tours will be in mandarin."
us: *confused looks*, "are you serious?"
t: "yes, of course! it will be the same with all of the travel agents here. the tours are all done in mandarin."
us: "oook! guess we'll have to find something else then!"
we spent the next few hours discussing the hilarity of a situation in which shehz and i were engaged in a 5-day tour of thailand, hanging out with 60 chinese people, and trying our best to learn mandarin.
"we can't hear you at the back! can you repeat that?"
also, we imagined the group photos involving a sea of asian people, then the brown guy and the white guy stuck on the end, giving double peace-signs. "we love thailand!"
then off shehz and i went to the zoo! the singapore zoo, to be exact. we paid for both a zoo tour and the night safari, which i'll describe.
the zoo was phenomenal. the enclosures are all VERY open, which is a bit unnerving at first. it's strange standing in front of a set of 4 lions making scary anger-noises and noticing that there are no bars separating the two of you. however, it makes for some really great pictures! shehz and i spent the majority of our time hanging out with the chimps which were being fed. i couldn't get over how human they all seemed! when they wanted food, they'd look at the guide and start clapping. they'd stand up on their hind legs and start these huge full-arm claps. so entertaining! i couldn't stop taking photos of the little guys!
we were only at the zoo for about an hour and a half when the rain started to fall like crazy. we found some shelter and waited for about 20 minutes before things calmed down. then off we headed to the night safari!
we still had some time to kill, so we indulged in the buffet. it was a bit pricey (S$21), but it was all-you-can-eat, so we had some fun with that. shehz tallied up a good 50 satay sticks, and i ate various ice cream concoctions, from ice cream waffles to banana splits. ask shehz about the waitress who kept trying to steal his plates.
the night safari was pretty incredible too. it consisted of a big tram ride through various exhibits in the dark of night. they light up certain areas with floodlights so you can actually see what's really going on, but theoretically all of the noctural animals should be more active in the evening. we got to see some rhinos, elephants, jaguars, leopards, etc. the highlight for me was the mangrove walk. you walked through these huge trees where all of these crazy fruit bats were hanging!
now i hope none of you are scared of bats -- i'm gonna post a picture of what these guys looked like. it was nuts though, because they were just hanging there right in front of you! i had my face up about 1 inch from the beady little eyes of one of these fruit bats, and they just sat and stared. it was so cool! their wingspan was probably a good three feet or more too, so it was a bit startling when they flew overhead.
we ended off the night with the "creatures of the night" show. it's a big display they do a few times a night showcasing some animals. we'd heard a fair bit about a huge snake surprise, which shehz was not a big fan of. we'd also been told, however, to sit in the third or fourth row. so we did.
long story short, the 10 foot reticulated python was being stored in a compartment DIRECTLY below shehz's feet. when the host started hinting at the fact that the reticulated python was located somewhere in the audience, i started hearing murmurs of "oh god no. please no. oh god." from shehz. hopefully it helped him with his phobia a BIT to know that it was sitting there the whole time and he didn't die. entertaining, all around! they had a bunch of otters that were sorting garbage at the end of the night to show the audience how easy it is to recycle. pretty cute little gimmick.
the plan today is pretty open: i may be off by myself trying to keep entertained. i'll let you know how i fare.
my apologies for the abrupt departure on the previous post. let's see... where did we leave off...
ahh yes: the forbidden city.
so at this trendy club of ours, mumtaz (shehz's aunt) now departs as it is getting pretty late. would shehz and i leave though? no way! time for some singapore clubbing!
we hop outside again and join the short line to attend "attica" -- apparently one of the hotter singaporean clubs. they had a brit dj there for anybody who cares: pete gooding? i have no idea who he is. cover was S$28, but it came with two drinks. after heading inside, we noticed that like every OTHER venue in singapore, the decorations were incredible. very nice atmosphere, with a smallish dancefloor on a little plateau. after the initial entrance, we headed towards the back for a very "night at the roxbury"-esque the-outside-is-on-the-inside-and-the-inside-is-on-the-outside area. they had little couches and bars arranged in a street-corner arrangement. from this point, we had access to the members only area of the club called "attica too" (obviously NOT members only), but we had about fifteen minutes to kill before it opened up. here's the breakdown of the drink lineup:
yoosuf - gin and tonic
shehz - rum and coke
ian - vodka redbull (thanks, jason)
we had a quick wait, and then up we headed to "attica too". they had these nifty... neuron-looking things hanging from the ceiling. little reddish balls connected by blueish... connectors. you may be able to tell i'm at a loss for words when it comes to describing the decoration. regardless, shehz and i immediately got our groove on. it's strange to hear american-only music being played so far away from home. but alas, these kids listen to fitty just like everybody else. we made sure to use our second drink ticket and then the madness started.
yoosuf decided to work the "hang out by the bar" approach, while shehz and myself focused directly on the dancing aspect. keep in mind we'd been drinking since 2pm at this point (but don't worry mom, everything in moderation!). shehz and i decided it would be a good idea to see how long each of us could dance solo on the raised platforms before being kindly removed by bouncers. the grand totals are as follows:
ian - 10 seconds
shehzad - 15 seconds (but he brought a partner up, so really he cheated)
we hung out there for another hour or so before blowing that popsicle stand. now it was time to hit the "mel's favourite" of singapore: roti paratha. we took a quick hop over a few streets to eat this singaporean delicacy: it's roti bread that you dip in fish/lamb curry. not bad at all!
so that was that.
onto the day before yesterday now (it'll be quick).
myself and the moizs headed into town to arrange a bus trip to kuala lumpur for me. i'll be heading out there tomorrow morning for the 6 hour bus ride. more on that when it happens! anyways, we hit the travel agencies and got me a little deal. after that, we had some time to kill before the evening. we all went out for lunch which consisted of chicken rice (amazing!), bee hoon noodles, chinese rojak, and lime juice to drink.
a word about both lime juice: it's yellow and tastes like lemons. not sure why that is.
a word about chinese rojak: ... i don't know where to start. we had approached food stands before, and i was always aware of a strange smell emanating from them. i chalked it up to the garbage. turns out it's the chinese rojak! you may be able to tell i'm not the biggest fan. enough about that.
the moizs then dropped off the kids + shehz and i at the singapore island country club. what a place! memberships run about S$250,000 for new members (but the moizs own this town, so it's cool). as you can imagine it's a pretty swanky joint. i took a few pictures that you can see below, but it's really a nice place. we partook in some bowling here. i managed to pull off a clean win in the first game with a 138 -- beginner's luck! shehz put everybody in their places come game two; what an underdog! the good news is that i finished off the 10th frame of game 2 with a strike, regardless of my loss. i'm a happy boy.
we cabbed it back from the country club and headed out to the east coast for dinner! we hit up a place called "jumbo seafood", which is pretty famous around here. of course, we had to eat all of the following:
- pepper crab (i loved this stuff)
- chili crab (not as nice as the pepper crab, but tasty nonetheless)
- mee gorang (pretty tasty! shrimp, noodles)
- deep-fried scallops (big fan)
- deep-fried calamari (not a big fan)
the three boys (myself, shehz, yoosuf) also went through a jug of tiger beer -- it's nice stuff! i rounded things off with some green tea, which i'm really starting to enjoy!
we passed a malay wedding on the way back. it was a pretty huge affair! they had a malay singer there who apparently was pretty famous giving an open-air concert. we watched for about 10 minutes before realizing it was a big waste of time. went to bed.
yesterday!
we spent our early-morning arranging flights to both jakarta for shehzad, and thailand for the both of us. here's the funny part:
shehz and i had been doing some research about cheap return flights to bangkok. they had some neat 5-day deals and stuff that you could buy that included accomodation and things. we were fairly interested in a few of them, so we headed to the mall to check them out. it was pretty crazy -- they had about 6 travel agencies within a stone's throw of each other. regardless, we went into the first one to inquire about a deal. after giving her the dates we required, she said the itinerary was impossible because i required a later return date and the maximum time on a ticket is 14 days. so shehz and i walked next door to the NEXT travel agency to see what we could find. same story: 14 day maximum on return tickets. as we started asking questions, the girl seemed to be finding it very strange that we wanted to know so much about the tours:
travel agent: "yes, and of course the tours will be in mandarin."
us: *confused looks*, "are you serious?"
t: "yes, of course! it will be the same with all of the travel agents here. the tours are all done in mandarin."
us: "oook! guess we'll have to find something else then!"
we spent the next few hours discussing the hilarity of a situation in which shehz and i were engaged in a 5-day tour of thailand, hanging out with 60 chinese people, and trying our best to learn mandarin.
"we can't hear you at the back! can you repeat that?"
also, we imagined the group photos involving a sea of asian people, then the brown guy and the white guy stuck on the end, giving double peace-signs. "we love thailand!"
then off shehz and i went to the zoo! the singapore zoo, to be exact. we paid for both a zoo tour and the night safari, which i'll describe.
the zoo was phenomenal. the enclosures are all VERY open, which is a bit unnerving at first. it's strange standing in front of a set of 4 lions making scary anger-noises and noticing that there are no bars separating the two of you. however, it makes for some really great pictures! shehz and i spent the majority of our time hanging out with the chimps which were being fed. i couldn't get over how human they all seemed! when they wanted food, they'd look at the guide and start clapping. they'd stand up on their hind legs and start these huge full-arm claps. so entertaining! i couldn't stop taking photos of the little guys!
we were only at the zoo for about an hour and a half when the rain started to fall like crazy. we found some shelter and waited for about 20 minutes before things calmed down. then off we headed to the night safari!
we still had some time to kill, so we indulged in the buffet. it was a bit pricey (S$21), but it was all-you-can-eat, so we had some fun with that. shehz tallied up a good 50 satay sticks, and i ate various ice cream concoctions, from ice cream waffles to banana splits. ask shehz about the waitress who kept trying to steal his plates.
the night safari was pretty incredible too. it consisted of a big tram ride through various exhibits in the dark of night. they light up certain areas with floodlights so you can actually see what's really going on, but theoretically all of the noctural animals should be more active in the evening. we got to see some rhinos, elephants, jaguars, leopards, etc. the highlight for me was the mangrove walk. you walked through these huge trees where all of these crazy fruit bats were hanging!
now i hope none of you are scared of bats -- i'm gonna post a picture of what these guys looked like. it was nuts though, because they were just hanging there right in front of you! i had my face up about 1 inch from the beady little eyes of one of these fruit bats, and they just sat and stared. it was so cool! their wingspan was probably a good three feet or more too, so it was a bit startling when they flew overhead.
we ended off the night with the "creatures of the night" show. it's a big display they do a few times a night showcasing some animals. we'd heard a fair bit about a huge snake surprise, which shehz was not a big fan of. we'd also been told, however, to sit in the third or fourth row. so we did.
long story short, the 10 foot reticulated python was being stored in a compartment DIRECTLY below shehz's feet. when the host started hinting at the fact that the reticulated python was located somewhere in the audience, i started hearing murmurs of "oh god no. please no. oh god." from shehz. hopefully it helped him with his phobia a BIT to know that it was sitting there the whole time and he didn't die. entertaining, all around! they had a bunch of otters that were sorting garbage at the end of the night to show the audience how easy it is to recycle. pretty cute little gimmick.
the plan today is pretty open: i may be off by myself trying to keep entertained. i'll let you know how i fare.
posted by ian at 10:17 PM
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