29 November 2017. Bit of a day off

Ever since I got her, I seem to have been surrounded by people coughing and sneezing. Today, I felt I succumbed and spent an easy day sorting out ideas for where I'd go. It was also a roasting 35 degrees which took away any motivation to wander the streets. In the evening it cooled off and I took a shuttle down the river.


and found a nice street restaurant which had a reassuring predominance of locals.
#

It's hard and eccentric not eating meat in Asia but I think it was fish I ended up with - they reassured me when I expressed doubts and hopefully they're not completely brazen!.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

27 November 2017, Day at the National Gallery Singapore

Image
The National Gallery of Singapore was on the verge of opening last time I was here two years ago. It is an amazing triumph, fusing the old Supreme Court sand City Hall. The Supreme Court has three floors of galleries devoted to South East Asian Art. The City Hall houses temporary exhibitions as well as the Galleries of Singapore Art. Frankly is was more than a day's worth of viewing. Quite apart from the art in the galleries, there is the architecture of the building(s) and the views from the decks at the top. I started with the South East Asia galleries. This is a chronological exhibition, starting from the early nineteenth century. So everything was in the context of a Western intrusion in some shape or form. The first galleries showed early art by Asian artists or Western artists on Asia with the former keen to produce the sort or art wanted by westerners, For example, The story then moved to art that was more in protest against colonialism such
Read more

24 December 2017. Trip to the New Territories - Sai Kung and Wong Shek

Image
I'd never been to the New Territories in my previous vists and decided on a journey that was described as scenic. I'm so glad I did so. It was a beautiful day with a clear blue sky and I headed for Admiralty to do the first leg of my journey. On the way to the station I came across a Democracy Demonstration that seemed well humoured on the part of the demonstrators and the police. The MTR took me to Diamond Hill. From there, I took the 92 to Sai Kung. This was itself a very pleasant 30 minute ride past a large marina, as well as a prison run by the Correctional Service. At Sai Kung, I switched to the 94 to Wong Shek. I seemed to be about the only person on the bus without an enormous backpack and hiking sticks. Before setting off on a walk, I had  look around the area around the pier. It had lovely views out to sea  as well as a well-used picnic area. There was also a facility for dinghy sailing and windsurfing A map showed all the walks an
Read more

25 November 2017. Fort Canning Park

Image
I had missed out on Fort Canning last time and decided to make amends. On the way, I passed the old Fire Station that is now a museum.  It was striking for the emphasis that Singapore places on civil defence - partly because of the risk of tornadoes. Fort Canning is on a hill that had been the site of rulers of the Singapore region over the centuries. For a long time, under Malay rulers, it was forbidden to the citizens. Then, under the British, Raffles had a bungalow built for himself.  It gives commanding views of the city and harbour and for that reason, was the site of a lighthouse, signal mast and time ball. There is a variety of trees, all carefully labelled and described in what is now a very pleasant park. The hill was the site of the British military 'Battlebox' in the war. To see inside, it is necessary to join a tour but this was very informative and not the typical useless information sort of tour. The guide took us through the decisio
Read more