Halfway: Bangkok

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Another weekend away 🙂 this time, to Bangkok. Tickets 48-54 are represented here, which brings us past the halfway mark – and just in time, as we’re also just past the halfway mark of 2014.

We took several forms of transport – air, rail, road (taxi and tuk-tuk, for which there were no tickets), and water; did all the typical things like eat Thai food, get massages, go to the markets, and see the tourist sights; but also managed to see some great live jazz, enjoy a stunning view over city the at night, and relax by the hotel’s infinity pool. Basically, all the things that I love to do – the only thing missing was decent coffee!

47: National Museum of Singapore

 

A friend from home was visiting this weekend, so we met up and went to the National Museum – I had been meaning to go for ages, and very glad we did. It really helped me to understand Singapore’s history and it was interesting to see how the country views itself.

It was also pretty cool to walk into what was basically Cerebro (if it’s not clear, I have a very strong affinity for the X-Men) – an installation depicting the many, many, many faces of Singapore, all housed within a dome.

Business Time

I was (am) lucky with my job that I get to travel a bit. Tickets 44-46 were for business trips to Malaysia and Indonesia – bringing me back to Malaysia for the second time in a week (after Langkawi) and to Indonesia for the first time, ever.

Penang Fried Kway Teow! in Penang!

One of the more memorable parts of the Indonesia trip was eating fish (with “thunder chilli sauce”), whose teeth were clearly visible:

I sort of took apart its head after I finished eating to see what it looked like…

43: Langkawi

The first of (hopefully) many weekends away…to Langkawi 🙂

41: Asian Civilisations Museum

Rounding off the parents’ visit was a trip to the Asian Civilisations Museum. Entrance was free, and you get what you pay for – unless you have a particular interest in seeing a small collection of somewhat obscure (read: not that significant) ancient Asian artefacts, I wouldn’t recommend visiting.

Our original plan had been to spend the day with my cousin and his children and visit the museum together – in the end, they couldn’t make it, which was just as well, because it would be even more boring for kids.

It is in a nice building in a nice part of town, though.

Gardens By The Bay

Part 2 of Parents’ Visit 2: Gardens by the Bay. I’d been here before for the Laneway Festival but never to the ‘ticketed bit’.

We decided to get entry tickets for both the Flower Dome (which we went into first), and the Cloud Forest. Seeing them in that order was definitely the right decision – the Flower Dome was nice, in a “if-you-like-flowers” kind of way, and the concept of making a huge indoor garden/the architecture was definitely impressive. But the Cloud Forest made me think of the future, its design and architecture even more inspiring (for me), and the small exhibit at the end about climate change was a nice touch.

Inside the Flower Dome

View from the Cloud Forest towards the city

View from below the Cloud Forest

View from above the Cloud Forest

Aquarium

Parents in town again.  Last time they were here we had discussed going to the Aquarium, but didn’t have the time, so it was the first thing on our agenda this time around. I was a bit sceptical at first because I’ve been to so many aquariums before, and this one gets hyped up so much. But it was actually a really enjoyable day, a huge collection of beautiful and interesting sea life, and despite the crowds and queues (it is Singapore, after all), there was still a sense of serene peacefulness from being underwater.

At their big, main aquarium, they also play Saint-Saens’ Aquarium from Carnival of the Animals, which was a lovely (albeit cheesy) touch.

 

ArtScience Museum

This turned out to be a pretty ticket-heavy weekend.  After the excitement and heat of the Zoo and River Safari it was a relief to be in the air-conditioned comfort of the ArtScience Museum at Marina Bay Sands. Another friend, Anna, had told me that she was going to see the Annie Leibovitz exhibit and so I joined her there. The striking form of the museum building had always made me happy to be around it, so I was looking forward to seeing it from the inside as well. The photographs were great, as expected, but the curating was a little… it didn’t always flow that well. But that could also have been because, sadly, the beautiful form of the building and the natural light that its design should/could have let inside, were covered with flat blinds. It made the building seem much smaller and darker than its outside would have you believe.

Hypersensitivity to glow-in-the-dark life advice

While there we also took a peek at the Hypersense exhibition (which struck me as an Art-meets-Sport attempt at advertising for Nike). Lots of neon, synthetic fibres, and vaguely football-related pictures and objects.

On a side note, Victoria Beckham had been there that same weekend (but we missed her).

Singapore Zoo

Singapore Zoo

River Safari

River Safari Amazon River Quest

A friend of mine, Linda, had corporate passes for Singapore Zoo and for the newest related attraction, the River Safari. It was an incredibly hot day (but I guess pretty standard for Singapore) and the advice from the guy at the ticket counter to do the Zoo in the morning, and the Safari in the afternoon (as it’s mostly under covered walkways) was well taken. We both had two ice-creams that afternoon.

The main attraction of the River Safari is the pandas. Only one of the pair was feeling friendly / confident enough to be seen by the public.

the more sociable panda

We also took the River Safari “Amazon River Quest” boat ride, which I had thought was kind of how the whole River Safari would work. I was wrong. It was a just a track-guided boat through some very small areas that had animals found in the Amazon (mostly monkeys), although there was one part where we saw a jaguar, which was kind of cool.

Melbourne

Singapore to Melbourne

Myki. Grr

Melbourne to Singapore

Love Melbourne

A close friend of mine was celebrating her 30th, coinciding with a convenient public holiday in Singapore. So of course, I took the opportunity to go and visit home, see old friends, and also collect my stuff out of storage (where it had been for the last nearly 2 years). I love Melbourne; it was so good to be back and so hard to leave.

The only gripe – having to re-purchase a Myki card (I couldn’t find my old one). So annoying.

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