Singapore Chinatown
What do you get on the last day of Chinese New Year? About a billion Chinese people taking to the streets and another few hundred million people going to watch them. One thing I’ve learned from this trip to SE Asia is to appreciate the impact that Chinese New Year can have.
Dining On The River
This is dining on the Singapore River at Clarke Quay. It’s a trendy place to go for $20 hamburgers and $10 beers. I passed on both. Boys from Oklahoma who are used to eating beef that’s feed-lot grown on U.S. grains don’t go to Asia to eat bad beef in $20 hamburgers. Nor do I remember seeing a bottle of Belgian beer, let alone a Trappist Ale, anywhere in Singapore. Clark Quay may be trendy and the place to be in the evening, but I’ll just have to admire it from a distance due to my lack of financial prominence.
Laska for Lunch
It was laksa and it was for lunch. Ask me if I had ever used a pair of chopsticks before coming to SE Asia this trip. Ask me if I can use a pair now.
Coffee To Go – SE Asia
So, What is this? It’s coffee to go. You might also call it coffee take-away. Either way, it’s coffee. It’s also coffee that is portable, i.e., it’s designed to be moved around. You might be like me and wonder why it was placed in a plastic bag. The reason why is that, throughout Asia, at least in the poor prts of Asia where i hang out, virtually all to-go items are placed in plastic bags with that little piece of plastic ir a rubber band to seal them up. Since my coffee to go was one which I needed to drink, my coffee had a straw in it so that I could drink it. You might ask me how it was. It was totally tasty. Very strong with a hint of sugar, no milk or cream. very nice coffee. I’ll probably get another one from the bus station next time I go. The price for a large coffee to go? About 50 cents.
Malaysian Hi-Rise
Ever want to live in a high rise? Your big chance has arrived. Move to a very large city in SE Asia and you, too can live in one of the many high-rises scattered throughout the area. How great would that be? Plus you’ll probably pay a whole lot less for the privilege of living in one than you would if you lived in one in the States.
Rice Soup – Philippines
I was waiting at the airport near Manila and I had some time to wait. I couldn’t get into the terminal to get some real food until two hours before my flight left . There was a guy outside selling rice soup for twenty pesos, about fifty cents. I had seen people selling it all over SE Asia but I had never bought any. "What the heck?" I thought. I bought some. It was pretty good. I thought about having another bowl, but then I thought that I might be pushing my luck if I did.
Korean Booze
It’s called Soju and drinking it is supposedly the national pastime of Korea, at least south Korea. I’ve heard the same story from a dozen or so people. It seems that people in Korea consume-way-too-much of this stuff and it leaves them in some kind of a stupor where even very conservative Korean businessmen tend to make total fools of themselves. From what I gather, way too many Koreans consume it way too often. Someday, I intend to go to Korea and find out for myself. But, then again, it’s hard to believe that a dozen people, scattered at random places throughout my sojourn in SE Asia would all have identical stories about Koreans and Soju if there wasn‘t some truth to it.
Life on the Streets
This picture is of people who were, apparently, living on the street. I saw a lot of people in SE Asia who appeared to be living on the streets. They were there in every country and in every city. It was the fact that there were so many children that made it so bad.
Manila – Wendy’s
I ate here. Something came over me and I had to have a Single Combo. I don’t know why. It all happened so fast. Afterwards, I regretted that I had reverted to my western ways. But not much. Beef in SE Asia isn’t the same corn-fed, grain-lot beef that you see on the prairie. Even though the single combo wasn’t bad, it wasn’t that good. I’m just a little spoiled, living on the prairie where contented cows graze without a thought to their future. I think that I’ll go to Cattleman’s when I get back home and get me a good steak.
Manila – Zamboni
What has to be the best job in Manila? Driving the Zamboni at the Mall of Asia. Everyone stops for you. You get the whole ice rink to yourself. You are the center of attention for a large crowd. Your job takes no longer than 30 minutes. The temperature is nice and cool. One thing I can say about the ice rink at the Mall of Asia is that it’s a much needed attraction.
