Thanksgiving in Singapore

I am a bit delayed getting to this blog due to anxiety and stressful events going on around me here in Singapore.  More on that later...

On to happier things.

First the obvious:

Yes, Happy Anniversary to us!  November 26th marked our 14th anniversary of wedding bliss.  We celebrated in the usual fashion, meaning we promised to go out sometime.  I know some reading this may think we're pathetic, but this works for us.  Thanksgiving time is just too busy to try and work in anniversary events and we love being together with the kids, too.  Not romantic, I know.  Jim did bring me these beautiful flowers! 

Thanksgiving in Singapore is pretty much the same as home, except most people had someone else doing the work for them.  Mr.  Hoe provided cooked turkey to the vast majority of our friends in the neighborhood but we had already decided to try it for ourselves.  Singapore itself does not celebrate Thanksgiving, and it is not a public holiday over here.   Our kids were off school Thursday and Friday as expected from an American school, but the dads had to take a day off work in order to be at home.

We finally grew up this year and made the entire Thanksgiving meal* all by ourselves.  Our menu:  Turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, corn casserole, Waldorf salad, Granny's homemade noodles, rolls, and homemade pumpkin pie.

* I take that back.  I totally cheated and ordered stuffing from the Club.  We vowed next year to learn how to make our own stuffing, too.

I made the pie on the Tuesday night before the holiday.  The rest we did the day of Thanksgiving.  We were very happy with our results!  Here is Jim carving the turkey:

Here we are in front of the buffet: 

Here is Jim working off the turkey tryptophan:

Here's the pie!  Thanks to my sister for the crust recipe! :

Later that night, I put in  the classic  The Sound of Music and we all snuggled up to enjoy the show.  John fell asleep 3/4 of the way into the show, but he said the next day that he really liked "those kids".  I also found out, with the help of Wikipedia, that Georg and Maria share our wedding anniversary!  Isn't that funny?!  They also didn't hike over mountains to escape.  They took a train to Italy.  If they had hiked over the mountains from Salzburg, they would have ended up in Germany.

 Friday after Thanksgiving:  A twofer Blog...aren't you lucky!

Friday morning we packed up some waters and headed to MacRitchie Reservoir for a hike.  It's a vast area of protected jungle with a large lake in the middle.  There are two (or more) ways to hike into an area that has a suspension bridge.  We opted for the shorter path from Venus drive.

We walked through jungle and it was really rather pleasant in the shade.  After an hour we came upon the bridge:

It's a one way walking bridge, giving you an eyeful of canopy.  John was thrilled to make it and once we got here he decided the long, hot walk was all worth it.  Of course they wanted to spend time on the bridge, but that isn't possible when you have other people waiting to go across.  

As we walked across and were nearly to the other peak, John spotted our first monkey that wasn't related to us:

At least, we hope he's not related.  Luckily, he wasn't interested in us.  We scurried by him and circled back to the Venus drive.  All total, the walk was 4 miles and 2 hours.

We made it home, showered, and spent the rest of Friday decorating:

If you'll notice in the background, we put on the classic Santa Clause is Coming to Town.  John paid particular attention and asked many questions.  We are enjoying this year as it may be Santa's last.

Up next:  The Airport that is Singapore

China Day 7- Drum and Bell Towers

This morning we woke up to cool weather that was fairly clear.  We had breakfast and took a taxi to the Drum and Bell Towers.  These towers lie just north of Bei Hai Park and Hou Hai Lake area.  The first Tower we came to was the Drum Tower.

"The Drum Tower was first built in 1272 and marked the center of the old Mongol Capital.  Originally constructed of wood, the structure went up in flames and was rebuilt in 1420.  Stagger up the incredibly steep steps for wide-ranging views over Beijing's rooftops.  The drums were beaten to mark the hours of the day--in effect the Big Ben of Beijing."

Here we are "staggering" up the steep steps.  They weren't kidding! :

At the top of the steps is a large room filled with 25 drums.  These drums are replicas as the originals were destroyed by soldiers of the imperial army after the boxer rebellion.  Well, there are actually 2 or 3 of the originals still housed here and you can see them also.

We needed to wait at the top for about 20 minutes until some folks came out to do a 5 minute drum show.  

The show was neat, but short.  We descended the stairs and walked a very short distance to the Bell Tower.  This is a shot of the outside of the Bell Tower:

We were struck by something unusual at the Bell Tower.  They did a search and a metal detector wand over us before we could go up.  I remembered why on our climb up: the Olympian's father was killed here by some random attacker in August.  Remember?  It's funny that they only installed security measures here and not universally at the tourist sites.

Anyway,

The Bell Tower (Zhong Lou) is an edifice from 1745, which replaced and earlier tower that had burnt down.  Suspended within the tower is a 15 ft high and 42 ton bell that was cast in 1420.

The bell was pretty cool!  And huge!   There was an interesting story that went with the bell. The first attempt at casting this bell failed and the Emperor threatened that if the next one was not made perfectly all the bell makers would be executed.  They set out to forge another bell, but they couldn't get the fire hot enough to cast the bronze.  The daughter of the bell maker leapt into the molten bronze, leaving just her shoes behind and saving the day.  The bell set.

Here is Joe near the bell:

The bell was rung at 7 pm up until 1924 when Emperor Puyi, the last Emperor,  left the Forbidden City.  Now it is rung only on Chinese New Year.

And here are the boys in the Bell Tower looking back over the Drum Tower:

We climbed down the Bell tower and had a great day after that.  We just meandered through the Hou Hai Lake area.  There are Hutongs in this area that have been transformed into stores and restaurants.  It's a very charming area.

Here is Hou Hai Lake:

Here is the hutong area in front of a store that the boys enjoyed:

That night, we met up with the Cat family who had loaned us their driver off and on all week. We couldn't have had such a great week without their help!   They took us to a really great Chinese restaurant( the Red Capitol Club) that was located in an old courtyard house.  Sitting outside the house was Mao's wife's limosine and the inside of the restaurant was filled with all kinds of Chinese cultural items from Mao's day.  The boys also got to climb down into a bomb shelter in the center of the courtyard.  We really enjoyed our time with them, although it was short!  

That ended our last night in China!

The next morning, using tips from the night before, we returned to the Pearl Market and had a successful and rewarding trip.  :)  We also made one last stop at the Toy market before heading to the airport.

Impressions:

1.  I can see why the Drum and Bell Tower are skipped.  We were so happy to have the extra time to see everything and I do recommend a visit here if you have the time.  It doesn't require a full day,  just approx. 2 hours at most.

2.  Don't miss the Hou Hai Lake area!  We fell in love with this area and could have enjoyed another afternoon here.  It also looks like the spot for an evening out.

3.   Don't miss the Red Capitol Club!  Period.

4.  If you're going to the Pearl Market, head up to the 4th floor to Miss Cathy's (or something like that).  She is the reputable one who deals with folks from our company.  She'll take the time to teach you what you need to know and give you a good deal.

More photos from the Great Wall

China Day 6 -- Temple of Heaven

Today was not as exciting as the previous one.  We slept in a bit and had a 9:00 pick up time.  The weather was overcast and 60 degrees.  I think we were all tired so the weather fit our moods. 

We were dropped off the the Temple of Heaven which is within Beijing proper and fairly close to our hotel.  The Temple of Heaven itself is a misnomer.  This is actually a park area with a temple complex made up of a few buildings.  The largest building, Qinian Dian ( the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests),  has become over time incorrectly called the Temple of Heaven.   

Here is Qinian Dian where the Emperor would come once a year (on the winter solstice) and pray to heaven and his ancestors for good harvests:

These buildings are very beautiful and striking with the blue tiled roofs that you only see here.  The circular roofs represent the sky and the blue represents the color of heaven.  I like looking at the large carved marble slabs you see as you climb the marble platform to the temple.  the Dragon represents the Emperor:

We were allowed to look inside the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests but once again, you are not allowed to go inside.  We finished up here and made our way to the next one, the Imperial Vault of Heaven and the echo wall.  Our moods must have followed us because we don't have pictures of those.???  Just as well.  The Imperial vault of heaven was not nearly as impressive as Qinian Dian.

Now remember that these "temples" are all situated in a really lovely park area.  We enjoyed this much more than the buildings themselves, I think.  Along the way, Jim got a couple of good shots of the younger two to try and get a good one of them after having a good one of Jim on the wall:

And the rest and most of this day at the Temple of Heaven was spent playing and people watching:

Across the street from this park is the Pearl Market.  We ventured there first before going to the Temple of Heaven and quickly left because we suck at shopping together.  I was in no mood to shop with dead weight around and 3 bored kids to boot.  This turned out to be great for us in the long run.  We return on a later day.

Next to the Pearl Market was a toy store.  We also stopped there and bought 3 kites we had planned to fly in the park.  Unfortunately it wasn't windy enough to give them a try.

We ended up back at the Ascott after 2:00 with no lunch and everyone crabby.  We opted for a later dinner of Peking Duck which was fun.

Impressions:

1.  This was our least favorite day even though we especially enjoyed the park and the beautiful buildings.  The prior days of touring caught up with us and none of us were truly in the mood to tour.  My favorite line regarding this was a conversation I over heard between Jim and Joe the morning we were getting ready to go:  Joe says to Jim, "Do you want to fly kites or do you want to see more dead people stuff?"

2.  Enjoy the park time if you can.  It breaks up the day and the touring nicely.  Hopefully you'll get a windy day.

3.  It's not a good idea to rely on your spouse to get the lunch plans every day.  She just might decide not to do it one day and see if you notice, and guess what, you didn't.  She got tired of Subway and you couldn't find any edible (to us) food out and about. 

Up Next:  Last Day touring the Drum and Bell Towers.  A great unplanned day!