Made it to Tokyo

Hi All,

This will be my last post! I am writing from the American Airlines Admirals Club during my 5 hour layover at the Narita Airport in Tokyo. The flight from Singapore to Narita wasn't too bad. I had a bit of a sleeping pill hang-over when I landed, but I just had a cappuccino and feel a bit better. oh and good news! I got the Admirals club to look into my upgrade status and they were able to find a seat in b-class and confirm the upgrade. wooooo hooooo. That means I will be able to sleep! And the food is WAY better in b-class. Thanks for all the prayers - it worked!

Ok now to some photos...

This is an awesome German Beer Bar (and restaurant) that we frequented while in Singapore.

They had a big garden salad (I began to crave vegetables while I was in Singa due to the fact that I rarely got them) and they had Jager shots for only $9 Sing$ so it was a natural first stop on the way over to chijmes across the street. It was also cool because it was open-air and right on the corner of a busy intersection. Read: prime people-watching spot. As I may have mentioned earlier (?) there's quite a large prostitution industry in Singapore (though not so many lady boys like thailand - Singapore is more discreet), and on this particular intersection we'd often "see a deal" beginning. ew. It shocks me that you can get hung for having drugs, shot for gun possession, caned for littering, fined for spitting or chewing gum, but hookers on the streets are a-ok. hmm.. Anyway, sorry for the tangent, here's Chijmes, a large area where they have tons of cool bars, restaurants, and live bands playing at all hours of the night:

Holland Village is a neat little area about 15 minutes by cab from the center of Singapore. There are lots of little stalls with jewelry/clothes, in addition to a bunch of cute restaurants and bars. Neat place to go for dinner (and take a date). I was flying solo though. haha.


This is the area we went to on Thursday night for dinner... just so happened that there was also a live band playing near the water. cool cool.


Dinner - group shot.

Last day of work - me w/ some local resources


I hope everyone has enjoyed following my travels. I would definitely recommend Singapore as a great place to visit, especially if you are going to Asia for the first time. I feel like I'm ready now for "real" Asia (i.e. less clean, less safe, less English spoken, poverty... like most of Asia) such as Bombay, Tokyo, Hong Kong, etc. I would love to go back to Thailand and spend more time there actually. Anyway, hopefully the blog has kept me from completely falling off the earth although I do feel very behind on everything that is going on in the U.S. I look forward to catching up with you all!

Until next time.........

xo Laura

and I'm spent.

Going home tonight.

Singapore has been great!
But I’m ready to come home now.
I’m sick of the clothes I brought.
I beyond need a hair cut.
I am out of orbit gum (and they don’t sell gum here because it’s illegal to chew it in public).
I crave Eatzis.
I am sick of the music on my ipod.
I miss my super comfortable mattress (even the beds at the Ritz are hard).
I miss talking on the phone for under $2/minute.
Miss my frieeeeeends!

Don’t get me wrong.
It has been a great trip.
Wonderful actually.

I completed my Singapore bucket list this week.
I will do a final post either tonight or tomorrow in Tokyo with a few more pictures.
The quick overview is:
1. Celebrated St. Patty's Day at Dirty Nelly's Irish Pub, down the street from the Ritz
2. Checked out Holland Village and enjoyed a mojito at Wala Wala
3. Enjoyed dinner at a German Beer Bar
4. Had the team gala farewell at the Esplanade last night

Checked out of the Ritz this morning and I must say, the service there is impeccable. They practically make you feel like a celebrity. I'm not sure how my client negotiatied the rate that I got, but it was an awesome deal complete with complementary breakfast buffet every day (I will miss my egg-white omlette man).

Dreading the flight tonight.
Still on wait-list for b-class.
hopefully I have enough drugs to get me through.
one of my (new) client friends that flew home last Monday took 6 valium on his fight back. lol.
Here's my itinerary:
leave Singapore at 11:20pm enroute to Narita
Arrive in Tokyo around 7am... layover for 5 hours
Noon Saturday - flight from Tokyo to Dallas
arrive Dallas around 9:30am Saturday (gain 14 hrs)
blah.
blah.
Luckily I just downloaded the whole first season of Lipstick Jungle, the latest GG episode, and 2 episodes from a UK drama series
Need prayers that I get upgraded!


stay tuned for pictures lata!

More Thailand

(More) Thailand through pictures.

Beauty.

We saw wild monkeys from the boat.

We love you love time.

Beach bars.

"Broken English Spoken Here Perfect" lol.

Breakfast at the Indigo Pearl. Best. Breakfast. EVER. Bar none. I'm talking lots of homemade jams (have you ever had Banana jam on your toast?), fresh exotic fruits, fresh fruit juice (yeah, they had fresh watermelon juice and carrot juice to name a few). So delish.

Out in Patong... we stopped for a happy meal (and I stopped for a coffee - I was getting tired at this point!). Here's me completely clueless that one of my clients was making funny faces behind me. We're super mature ouside the office.

My $5 Pedi. Why can't it be this cheap in the states?

Mom- found you a necklace!!! 7 little strands of freshwater pearls. There was this little store near the Indigo Pearl hotel that hand-made tons of jewelry and I literally wanted to buy the whole store. I walk in and they are stringing pearls and stones in the back and meticulously hand-making all this jewelry. I bought some things the first day and then I went back the next day and bought more. Anyway, hope you like it :) If it's not what you had in mind, I'm sure I'll be able to find a good home for it :)

In Love

... with Thailand! If you don’t have it on your travel list, ADD IT NOW. Such an amazing, beautiful place. Despite the fact that it's half-way across the world from the U.S., it makes for a perfect vacation spot to rest, relax, and recharge the ol' batteries. A weekend was far too short - I think all of us that went would have loved to stay the whole week, at minimum. It didn't help that our hotel was absolutely incredible. I'm talking paradise. The pictures will not do it justice – not even close. I'll post some below though. It's called the Indigo Pearl. You can view the website here. It was a huge resort off Nai Yang beach which is on the North Western side of Phuket, Thailand. Every part of the hotel was pristinely decorated with careful attention to detail. Also - Thailand is super cheap. Hotel was only $150 per night... Did I mention that I had my own VILLA? And where else can you get massages for 300 baht an hour all over the place ($10 USD)? What's more, all the people are sooo nice. They do this bow thing everytime you pay for something or if you leave or even if you're walking by. Anyway, I can't begin to explain it all so here are some pics:
Pool #1:

Pool #2 w/ Swim-up bar:

Pool #3:

Landscaping:

View outside my Villa

Beach:

Brief overview of what we did -
oh so first off, 5 of us ended up going from the project, both client and Deloitte side. We got in on Friday around 8pm Thailand time, checked into the hotel, and grabbed drinks on the beach at one of the cute little huts. Saturday, the 5 of us relaxed by the pool, then got a boat and a guide to take us out on the water and snorkeling on the Adamaran Sea, then got a massage late afternoon, then went to Patong Beach for dinner and an evening out. Sunday, got a pedicure (for $5 USD... yeah.), did some shopping, relaxed at the beach, left the resort at 6pm for flight. We didn't get to the Phi Phi Islands which I would have liked to do, but it required a full day commitment and waking up at 7am, and with only 2 days, it just wasn't feasible.
More pictures...
Strip of shops along the beach:

Boat trip on Saturday - snorkeling on Adamaran Sea:



Patong (Saturday night) - this was an eye opening experience for me. I have NEVER seen anything like it. So wild and crazy; I think I was bug-eyed with my mouth hanging wide open in awe the entire evening. Lady Boys every which way I looked. (Lady Boys = trannys) The 5 of us had so much fun, but it was a dirty dirty town (read: morally shocking). I'm so glad we decided to stay up the island (45 min away) where the beaches and town are nicer/cleaner. The food in Thailand - amazing. We ate authentic Thai - so delish. I could eat chicken satay for every meal. Group pic of dinner in Patong:

Patong...

Need to go to bed now - will post more pictures/details/stories tomorrow! xoxo

Rockin - Part 2

Thursday.

Started off the evening with a huge group dinner since some people are heading back to the states today. It was a huge (really nice) buffet which is fun because it gives me an opportunity to try things I would never normally try. Case-in-point: The black-peppered crab. As the Singapore Sling is Singapore's singnature drink, the black-peppered crab is (one of) Singapore's signature dishes. The other signature dish here is the Fish Head Curry, which I haven't quite psyched myself up enough yet to try it. So one side note, I really hate high-maintenance food - I don't like fish with bones (or heads), I don't like meat with bones (even if it's chicken), and I'm not a fan of shell-fish. Too messy and too much work. But carpe diem right? So I got my hands messy and went at it: ...and it was actually quite good!

Group photo:
After dinner, some of us went home, and some of us went out. The going-out crew ended up at Le Baroque again for live music - Shaggy was playing again. gosh they are so good. I had to take another video.
Shout out to Jonathan - you would really enjoy this band (and all the live music everywhere in Singapore). Ok I can't get the video to upload... stay tuned.

So we were drinking away listening to the music and all of a sudden they call up my colleague from the other night to come on stage and join them as bass guitarist. He was like "uhhh.. (kind of intoxicated, but don't want to turn down the opportunity) SURE!" haha


Checked out of my hotel this morning. I leave for Phuket tonight and when I get back, I'll be at the Ritz Carlton Millenia for the remainder of my stay. A few of us decided we needed a change from the Swissotel so we're moving down the street. I'm hoping the beds are a little softer, the elevators a little faster, the shower doesn't drip, and the sink doesn't clog. The Swissotel was REALLY nice, but when you stay for a long period of time, you start getting picky and noticing little annoyances. With that said though, I would highly recommend the Swissotel Stamford :)

Have a good weekend everyone!

xoLaura

Rockin

There’s a band called Shaggy that plays at a bar near the hotel. They. Are. Awesome. They can play a huge genre of songs... top 40 to 80’s & 90’s, even an incredible rendition of Bohemian Rhapsody. It was my first time going to watch them play on Tuesday night and it just so happened that one of our very own from the client side was doing a guest performance on stage with them too (he’s in a band back in San Francisco)! As background, this has been a really really really long project. I was in Amsterdam for 2 of the cycles and now I’m in Singapore for the last cycle, but some people have been in Singapore for all 3 cycles, so I guess the guy from my project and the band got to talking at some point over the past 6 months and they invited him to join them for a few songs. I took a video of the band (a pretty terrible video, but good sound quality nonetheless - before the guest performance)
I’m also posting a few pictures showing my colleague on stage – he’s the base guitarist on the far right.



In other news….. I finally got status and made it into the Club Swiss Gold Rewards club at the Swissotel. Woohoo. I think that entitles me to free upgrades and the executive lounge, but it doesn’t really matter because I’m checking out tomorrow. No I’m not flying back to the states... per my previous update, I won’t be flying back for another week (landing in Dallas the morning of March 21st). We don’t have a work this weekend though so some of us have decided to go to (drum roll)

THAILAND!

I booked my flight yesterday and reserved my hotel room today – how’s that for spontaneity??? We fly out Friday around 6:30 (a little under a 2 hour flight), and then fly back to Singapore Sunday night. We’re going to Phuket rather than Bangkok because Phuket has nicer beaches and according to some of the people at the office, Bangkok is "just a bunch of hookers." lovely. lol. Here's a map of where Phuket is located in proximity to Bangkok and Singapore...

I haven't thought too much about an agenda for the weekend besides maybe a massage, snorkeling, riding an elephant, and enjoying the serenity :) I think we might take an excursion over to the Phi Phi Islands (also known as James Bond Island). My research says that "Phi Phi is Thailand's island-superstar. It's been in the movies, and it's the topic of conversation for travelers all over Thailand. Phi Phi's beauty is a large chunk of the allure. The islands, when approached by boat, rise from the sea like a fortress. Sheer cliffs tower overhead, then give way to beach-fronted jungle. Secondly, it's the attitude: few places on the planet are this laid-back. Of the two islands, one is completely free of human inhabitants (Phi Phi Lei), and the other is without roads (Phi Phi Don). There's no schedule, no hustle-and-bustle, no reason to be in a hurry."

Yes, I will make sure to wear lots of sunscreen :)

as promised

the FULL weekend update...

It was another fun (yet exhausting) weekend.

Friday Night.

Pretty much the whole team went out including local resources from the client side. I skipped the group dinner since I wanted to get a workout in and instead ended up going to a Japanese Hibachi place called Gyu-Kaku with a colleague, located down the road from our hotel in the Chijmes complex. It’s one of those restaurants where you grill your own food right at your table. You pick your meat, veggies, and whatever else you want to grill and set it on the hot coals. Very cool restaurant; unfortunatly, I didn't get any pictures of the neat decorations, but I did get one of the food:

Post-dinner plans –
Met up with everyone else for drinks in Boat Quay at a Bollywood bar. This was a really cool experience because I got to see all the Indian guys and girls on the team in their element, per se. For those that don’t know, Bollywood refers to the Indian film industry (or a part of it), and I believe the name stems from Bombay + Hollywood and there's usually this type of dancing in the films... so you know how at the end of Slumdog Millionaire, everyone breaks out in dance? That’s quite common for Bollywood films and is a very popular form of dance that most all Indian people are accustomed to. Don't quote me on the exact details of the above and the origin, but it's a little background. The people on the team from India were loving it... their music, their dance moves, their culture... and I must say, it was quite entertaining to watch. Here's a group pic:

We stayed for awhile and then a few of us left the big group for a different scene. Next stop was Zouk, a large multi-level club, and after that, Loof for one of their delicious Pear martinis, and finally, we went to Chijmes for some late-night live music. Since I do want my blog to be an honest depiction of my travels, I'll include one picture displaying the level of fun we were having by the end of the night - yeah, probably an 11 on a scale of 1 to 10:

What can I say... we work hard. we play hard.

Saturday.

Work day – 10ish to 4ish. I know I haven't talked a lot about the actual work part, but for the record, we are working. We are having trouble meeting our very aggressive targets, hence the working on Saturdays and the extension of the cycle by another week. None of us were too thrilled about working, but we made it through the day... with the help of a Venti Cappuccino from Starbucks :)

Saturday evening -
I headed to the Singapore Zoo with a colleague for the Night Safari! The Safari takes you on a tour through eight geographical zones including Southeast Asian rainforests, African savanna, Nepalese river valley, South America, etc., and allows you to see tons of nocturnal animals (this is why it's only offered at night). The zoo uses special lights that simulate moon-light which allows everyone to see the animals, but you still need to look closely and carefully for moving objects in the distance. Many of the zones have walking tracks, but we decided to stay on the tram – didn’t want to get eaten by the striped hyenas! We saw elephants, giraffes, tigers, lions, rhinos, buffalo, and many animals I had never heard of. We couldn’t take pictures on tour tram since the flash would frighten the animals, but I got a few pics outside of the safari, including some at the pre-safari show:

Also at the zoo - fish reflexology. Remember how I experienced foot reflexology in Chinatown two weeks back? Well there’s another (common) type of reflexology where you stick your feet in water with a bunch of little fish who suck on your toes and apparently suck away your dead skin. It sounds rather gross, but someone on the team did it and said it was cool. I took a pic of this in action for all to see (no I did not partake in this):

After the Safari, we headed over to an area called Dempsey Hill which is a little square that reminds me a lot of something you'd see in the U.S. We were craving some non-asian food and there's a good Italian spot there. Yes, we actually went out for Italian food in Asia. Haha. The bruschetta was delish! My Salmon was just Ok; it had bones in it which makes it harder to eat. We went for mojitos after dinner and then called it a night since I was a bit tired.

Sunday.

Phone date w/ the P's in the morning. Got all caught up w/ Mom and Dad, and then headed to Chinatown. As stated in the previous post, it was so hot! I tried to shop around for some good finds, but ended up just buying a slice of watermelon from a street vendor and that was it. I decided that the shopping at Raffles is more my style - its kind of a mix of the shopping in London (and some in America)... Top Shop, Miss Selfridge, Dorothy Perkins, Coach, Guess, etc.

Sunday late afternoon I finally got to Sentosa!! Here's what the website has to say about Sentosa Island:

The 500-hectare Sentosa Island is a unique blend of leisure and recreational experiences including family attractions, sandy beaches, water sports, golf courses and hotel resorts. By 2010, the Sentosa-HarbourFront masterplan will house a 10,000 strong residential community, along with the much talked-about integrated family resort. Coupled with the multi-concept entertainment hub of St James Power Station and Singapore's largest retail and lifestyle mall in VivoCity, Sentosa-HarbourFront is poised to become Asia's premier leisure and entertainment destination.

It's basically a very touristy area full of fun for all ages... several bars and restaurants, beaches, a butterfly park, dolphin lagoon, laser shows at night, flying trapeze, underwater world... (also fish reflexology). Anyway, we took the cable car from Mount Faber. It was a 1.6 km very beautiful scenic ride over. We didn't have a ton of time on the island, but I was able to get some good pics of the massive Merlion as well as drink several mojitos at the Cafe Del Mar pool party. We forgot to wear our swimsuits, but the people watching was fun in of itself. Pics below!

case of the mondays

Hi Everyone!

So tired today... I'm going to save the bulk of the update for tomorrow, but let me give you a quick high-level summary of the highlights and a few photos:

Saturday we had to work. booo. Got in around 10-ish, worked until 4-ish. Lots of rain mid-afternoon, but it cleared up with plenty of time for me and a colleague to head to the Singapore Zoo for the Night Safari! Luckily, I did not get eaten by any hyenas.

Sunday I went to Chinatown in the early afternoon. Took the MRT (subway) which is really easy to do. Got to Chinatown, but it was a bit too hot, the crowds were thick, and all the commotion was making me tired so I ended up heading back and getting a venti iced latte at Starbucks to cool down. I did however happen to get a pic of the chickens on display for all to see...

Sunday evening, I headed to Sentosa. We took the cable car from Mount Faber across the water and to the island. Very touristy, but lots of fun. I wish we had had more time, but we stayed into the evening and enjoyed the pool/beach/Cafe Del Mar.



More tomorrow!

xoxo Laura

Change of Plans

Yes, this happens every trip so am I fazed? Nope not at all. The cycle has been extended by 1 week so we were all asked to change our flights accordingly. I have moved my flight so that I now fly out Friday night, March 20th and land in Dallas Saturday morning, March 21st (I gain 14 hours on the way back... yay). Say a prayer that I will be upgraded... right now I am just on the wait-list.

Tuesday Night.

Went to a cool roof top bar called Loof! I finally got to try a Singapore Sling:

The Singapore Sling is a famous cocktail that Singapore’s well-known for. It was originally invented for the Long Bar in Raffles Hotel, but you can get them all over the island now. The Singapore Sling is even available on all Singapore Airlines flights, and the drink is free on all classes of travel. Although the recipe has changed a bit over the years, it’s still basically a combination of gin, cherry brandy, and Benedictine (most often in equal parts), shaken and strained into a glass, and then filled to individual taste with club soda or other juices. It was delish. Loof was an awesome lounge/bar too!!

Wednesday Happenings.

After lunch, a bunch of us decided to walk down the street to get coconuts. Fresh coconuts. To drink! I have never had a fresh coconut before. The lady cracked it open, stuck a straw in, and bam, you have yourself a refreshing afternoon beverage. Here are some pictures:



Wednesday Night. Ladies Night.
Wednesday night in Singapore is ladies night and is a HUGE going out night. It was tempting to stay in and catch up on sleep, but that plan got nixed pretty quickly. A few of us grabbed dinner at a Cuban restaurant in Clark Quay with a live Cuban Band and half-price martinis & mojitos for the ladies. I actually had some REAL food – salmon, followed by 3 martinis – then went bar hopping throughout the area – there were live bands everywhere – awesome music – did my fair share of breaking it down on the dance floor – good times. Here was one of the bands - I think this was during their rendition of Pour some sugar on me Yeah, they rocked it.

It really feels like I’m on one big Spring Break trip or something... probably because of the heat, the tropical surroundings, and probably because Singapore’s a tourist destination so a lot of the people we meet here are on holiday. Including this guy:

Yeah, he was passed out on the pavement. Hilarious! At least he still smiled for the picture. LOL