LITTLE INDIA FRIDAY

Today we ventured off to a place called Little India. Its not too far and we find it with just a couple of tube journeys. It really is like stepping back in time and looks like a street out of Mumbai itself. We wander round, go to a temple, look at the shops and then go for something to eat. Well its fair to say that John ate and I watched. How he does it I don't know. So far he has ate stomach, balls (belonging to goodness knows what) ,Sharks finn bits, fish bits and all sorts of meats. Nothing seems to faze him although he has had a couple of near misses  lol !!!!!


The heavens open at lunch time and the shop keepers go onto overdrive with brooms, mops and buckets as they bail their shops out with the rain water. An umbrella serves no purpose as its just raining to heavy and everyone is either in a shop or out there getting drowned. John and decide to the a leap of faith and head back down the town. WE have to jump and climb over puddles big enough to have a wash in. God help us if we slip up, cuz boy we will be flipping soaked!!!


I decide I am gonna buy a pair of sandals as they are so pretty here. ~So we venture into the first shoe shop we come to. There are literally thousands of hoes on racks, no boxes, just shoes all paired up on shelves. Mens, wombs and kids everywhere shoes. I ask the assistant for a pair my size, she replies ''oh no, no,no'' I take it thy don't do my size. ( good job I don't live here !!!) I end up buying a pair of mens flip flops. Actually they are nice and very comfy. So we won't say anymore  about them being mens !!!! ( you have been warned).


The buildings here are very pre 1940's. Many are painted brightly and really ornate. you could really imagine you are in India, The spice shops are everywhere and you can smell the aroma strongly. Many of the people themselves do not look out of place for the time era as they walk about shopping for fresh veg, spice and fish.


We decide to start making our way back and have to run the gauntlet of being invited into 101 restaurants. We tell them we have eaten, but still, they would like us to snack. We decline and carry on walking towards the station. We find our way back easy and are soon back in the area of our hotel which is as chinese as Little India is indian.......


The Sri Srinivasa Prumal temple, dedicated to Lord Vishna

Just before the rains come, in Little India.

The rains come, Run !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

and keep coming !!!!!!!!!!aghhhhhhhhhhhhh

Happy chinese new year

Hi all
 well Lin said I can have a go at this bloggy thing, so if theres any blacked out spaces, I've been redacted
So, its the eve of the Chinese new year and after another sleepless night and another late morning, its on to the subway (we're masters of the thing now) and off to China town
As you can Imagain, the place is full of colour. Reds, golds and greens hang from everywere. The place is packed with shops and stalls all packed into narrow streets, running in every direction. Sometimes it seems the whole of Singapore is in this place. Lin keeps asking me if me wallet is safe. Listen, if she can't get her hand in me wallet, no one else can. see, there is safety in numbers. we had a nice couple of hours, checking out the many, many hand bags and key rings and decided to once again sample the local fare, this time in one of the larger outdoor establishments. So its chilli crab for me (a local delicacy) and a plate of noodles (well it makes a change from a Wendys salad) for Lin. Shortly, the grub turns up. Looks like the noodles has got chicken in it, never seem to get quite what you expect here, but hay ho, ever the trooper. Lin tucks in and it shortly disappears. (ha, eat yer heart out Wendy). Me, I've got a crab, on a plate, Quietly bathing in half inch of chilli stuff. ok, Im up for it, and with a set of nut crackers, down it go's and its not long before Im sweating. Hot stuff that chilli and soon me lips are burning, me chins burning, me cheeks are burning, even me fingers and the tip of me nose is burning. (Now I know what go's in must come out, so I now have a packet of wet wipes and an ice pack on stand by) I recon I might give the local delicacies a miss next time. Well, by now its 6.00pm so its back to the hotel for a short rest (And underpants check) only to be back at 11.30 for the main event. We find a good spot and wait. 12.00 finally arrives and the fireworks are unleashed.......... all six of them. honestly, I've seen more sparks coming from a fat mans thighs. Oh well, they do things a bit differently out here and Lin tells me the atmosphere was "nice".
So thats the end of another good day.
Happy NewYear All.



The fireworks go BANG !!!

China town, New years eve.  Yes that is Lin shopping (again!!!!!!).

2012 is the chinese lunar new year of the dragon. It said to be the very best yea to be born.

Lin & John

Saturday 21st Jan 2012 THE SINGAPORE ZOO

THE Hog in the bush !!!!

John finds a new a friend, but it flew away. It loved his orange tee shirt.

John and his orange tee shirt gang lol !!!!!!

This leopard had great fun in the water and loved the fast flow it had going round it.


















Today we ventured off to the Singapore Zoo, having got up quite late (11AM) which is very unusual for us) we left just after midday. It was quite a way round the tube plan and then we needed to catch a bus to finish the journey. So we got the tubes, found the bus and all was well. All we needed now was to know when to get off the bus!! Well we sorted that out, with the help of a young local lad, who 'said no worry, the bus driver will take you' helpful, but we did not understand  hahaha, little did we know how very true the lads statement was!!


And, true to word, the bus driver took us right to Zoo entrance. We got our tickets and was advised to do the boat trips first as they finish at 4.45pm. So we found the landing , got in the queue and along came the boat. We pottered up the river, it was lovely, with turtles and fish all around the boat. After about 10-15 mins the boat pulled and we got off. We saw the chimps, the birds, the bats, rats, the lions,  the leopards and the tigers. When we got to the lions it began to rain, well actually it flipping fell from the heavens.  Good job theres also an actual viewing lion house which is under cover. So there we sat with about 40 or so others waiting for the rains and thunder to ease, and we waited and we waited and we waiiiiited !!!!!. The lions came out on occasion to check we were all there and then went back under their trees and bushes. Then appeared a really beautiful giraffe, clearly having fun with its keeper, who was trying to move it on, out of the storm, but he/she was having none of it. We took some photos, not sure if you can see the giraffe unless you look really well as it seemed to know we were taking piccies and it clearly wanted none of it. It also camouflaged well into the surrounding trees, so unless you look it can barely be seen.  


Despite having seen only about 25% of the zoo (its massive and needs a full day)at about 5pm,( the zoo shuts at 6pm) we decided to make a move back.  We managed to get on a safari tram that took us back to the entrance, it was still absolutely falling down!. We then got into the longest bus queue, which went down really quickly. They really have got the public transport sorted here, its brilliant. We got on the second bus that came, asked for the nearest station, which was a bit of a laugh as we weren't understood but we decided to take a leap of faith and just get on. 20 minutes later we had been dropped off at a station, where we picked up a tube and made our way back to the hotel. Brilliant. 


We arrived back, got a take away and headed up to our room, managed to get Kouy, Kate and Row on Skype, and there ended another fab and lovely day in Singapore.


If you are ever lucky enough to come to Singapore , make sure you do the Zoo, its lovely. The animals and conditions are so good, They wander freely in their own lands and are really well cared for. Its very natural and very well done. Its us humans that our contained to certain areas!!! ( as it should be).haha


Singapore is very clean, chewing gum is a NO NO!!!! and smoking is for the feint hearted few and the local people for the main are very helpful and polite. The fine to be caught smoking where its not allowed (which is most places) is a $1000 fine. You can smoke on the street, but only in certain places and best to check to see if you can see a local smoking first. John got sort of told off by the hotel manager cuz he was to near the hotel boundaries smoking. You can't smoke within 5 metres of any bus or rail station or stop, so you do have to, be careful. Well , enough about that.


I have even been offered a seat on a couple of tubes by people( I think a good diet really calls as I don't think its due to my age, but more my 'rounded tum' ( I say no more and for your own safety neither should you !!!! lol) who seem to think I need to sit more than they do. 


Well another blog added and another day over. 


To our children Steven, Kouy, Roxanne and Billee-Jean, we love you all, always have done and always will. WE are proud parents who could not have done this trip without your complete faith in us and yourselves, so we thank you.  xxxxxx  

Thursday 19/1/2012. THE STORY SO FAR

Well,its going so fast. Its already day 5, so lets bring you all up to date.


We went to Chinatown Wednesday night, where the menu's offer large bull frogs cooked whole and plonked in the middle  of your soup!!!  (nope did't go for that one), thought it might be a good time to start the diet lol !!!!! Never seen so many people eating, shopping and chatting in one place, it was manic, colourful and definatley different,.
  

We've also definitely,  cracked the underground here, its called the MRT (Mass rail transit), its easy, cheap, and very clean and very reliable. The tickets cover you for buses too and guess what? thats called the RMT  (Road mass transit)


We went to Singapore city (Orchard Road) yesterday for the day. It was massive and a bit like New York with designer shops, malls and restaurants everywhere. Had a lovely day and even found a Starbucks where you cud sit outside and have a fag and a coffee, fab !!!!!! Smoking is def not the norm out here and costs as much as it does at home ( knew we should of got duty free lol). Don't know how any of the locals afford it. (especially when you think that our first meal cost £2.50 for the both of us ). We had a lovely lunch at a Persian street restaurant and chilled and just people watched.


Went down to Raffles landing and quay last night in an area called 'City hall', the parliament buildings are also there. Sad to say we did not think much of Raffles hotel. I had such great expectations but its looking a bit tired inside, although the clientele clearly are 'very made' and you clearly have to have pots of money to stay here. We walked back along the waterfront and found ( well they found us actually) a restaurant called 'Red Dot' ( bit of an omen I think, what with me auntie dot !!! hahaha). Food was lovely, atmosphere great, and would recommend. Decided the meal sat on the waterfront was as good as going on a river trip ( thank god,!!!).


City hall was a bit like Canary wharf, tall, modern, clean, very young looking with some lovely statues, one by Salavore Daly that depicted 'relativity' ( the falling of the apple to the floor etc). It showed a man with one of his balls dropping!!!!! yep you read it right.


It's the Indian festival of Thaipusam today , so we are off to Little India, which is an area that looks just like the real Mumbai, so that should be good.


Kids seem to be handling things really well, we are so proud of all of them and looking forward to their trips out to see us. xxx 


People are really polite here and very helpful, everyone seems to speak english and all the signage is done in english and chinese. The announcements on the train are all in english and they drive on the same side of the road as us. So all in all  its a good place to come. 


Signing off now but will catch up later and load the pictures once we learn how to lol !!!!  


Singapore Quay at night, its beautiful.

The happy couple.

The skyscrapers are all around.

THE EAGLES (THE SMITHS) HAVE LANDED HAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!

17th Jan 2012


Hello peeps, the adventure has begun and we have arrived. So just to bring you up to date.


The flight was ok, although took off an hour late due to ice on the wings, yep!!!!! ice on the wings. 


John survived the 16 or so hours without a fag with the help of the biggest nicotine patch we could find at Heathrow. That was a laugh cuz we could not get the bloody packet open, so we had to reign in the help of the concierge and the 'sushi lady' what can I say???  but once on, its fair to say the 'growler' stop growling.


Seating on the plane was tight, the plane was full, as three different companies under the airports new 'one world' charter had lumped together to fly one plane 'joy' !!!! Johns tv screen did not work, his seat had collapsed and the leg room was, well, shall we say ? ' a tad compact.' But the service and the food was quite good actually and he got by with 12 hours of talking books and the radio. I was on my iPod playing games, cud only really get my head round Bejewled, but I can say I did alright. I also watched the first series of Downton Abbey excellent series  and really helped the time fly.


Time frames all over the place, we left on Monday, went to bed, got up and it was Wednesday, then had to convince ourselves that we had not slept through a whole day !!!! hahahahaha.  (we had't by the way).


Clearing through airport easy and quite fast, taxi driver nice, hotel good. Room on 15th floor, views spectacular at night although a tad 'tired' in the daylight. 


Food here is 'individual' shall we say!!. Cuz when they offer you 'bull frog' in a bowl of soup and the flipping frog is whole, it makes you think, that this is a good time to 'fast'. lol. John doing well with food, likes to try it all. We ate out on the first nite and both ate for about £2.50, it was actually nice, local and tasty.


The locals are getting ready for the chinese new year, which is on Sunday. Its the year of the dragon, so I should be ok !!!!!  hahaha  (thought I would get that in before you lot did).


We are going to try and post some pics, so bare with us. Bye for now. 


And remember we are 8 hours a head of you. Its already Thursday morning here.


If you are looking at the chic pictures, this is us have a massage on the cheap. The chair grabbed your body parts and rubbed and massaged it with tennis ball things, and yep we laughed the whole way through, considering it only cost $2 dollars each, which is about a quid, it was money well spent.


Regards Linda 


John outside the money shop at Heathrow
  

Linda outside the bagel shop at Heathrow. No change there !!!

John in the massage chair, having fun. Not !!!!

Linda having a massage. Wat can I say !!!!