Travelog for: Frida

After some hours of shopping, the rain is getting a bit smaller, so we made our way to the Chinese Garden. There's a Japanese Garden right beside but it's under renovation.



Mmm, did I hear a roar coming out from this marble lion?


Woo, Chinese gates ahead!


Close up of the gates!


Pagodas on the waters!


A sculpture of Confucius.


A boat? nah, it's a house.


A beautiful courtyard Koi pond!


It's starting to rain rather heavily... so we quickly make our way back to the car.

Look, the rain is so heavy we can hardly see the motorist in front!

We have good weather today! YEAH!!!
Relie is bringing me to the East Coast beach for some roller blading! 

We walked pass some housing estates. This is a HDB flat and about 70% of Singaporeans live in these kind of houses.


The beach! The Beach! arrr, it's nice to be at the beach after so many days of rain. 
 


There's a roller blading training ground for kids! How nice!


Along the beach, there's a walking path for pedestrians and another path for bicycles / roller blading / skate boarding.


Roller blading, off we go~!


We travelled to the end of the beach for some training. You can't see the beach anymore but forest!

It's New Year Eve today and it's also Hari Raya Haji (a Muslim festival)! The Malays in Singapore celebrate Hari Raya Haji by visiting friends and relatives. It's a much toned down festival compared to Hari Raya Puasa (Celebration after the fasting month).

Relie and I went shopping along Orchard road when she suddenly scream out loud, ISTANA OPEN HOUSE! Fwah, I was pretty shaken by her scream lol.

Apparently, The Istana (The Palace) is only open to public only 5 times a year at major public holidays. (The open house was originally scheduled to celebrate Deepavali and Hari Raya Puasa on October 24, but was postponed due to hazy conditions at that time.)

Yeah, how lucky is Frida!!! 

The Istana is the official residence of the President of Singapore, Mr S R Nathan. President Nathan is the sixth President of the Republic of Singapore.

Gold plated Singapore Crest at the Istana Gates.


The Guard of Honour at the gates! He can't move at all! We asked him nicely and took a pic! keke.


There's a huge garden inside the Istana. We are at the swan pond!


Beautiful orchids blooming in December! wah!


Behold the Istana!


A canon inside the Istana.


We didn't stayed very long as there were too many people and we are carrying too many shopping bags! lol.

Mmm.... Erm, too bad we didn't get to meet President S R Nathan... But I felt very happy to have been into the Istana!

We went back home to unload all the shopping bags and off we go to Marina Bay to reserve a good place at Marina Bay to catch the fireworks tonight. There's gonna be lots of people there!

By the time we meet Relie's friend in the evening, it's getting a bit cloudy... oh no... please no rain! I wanna see the fireworks!

Look, the wishing balls are lighted up! (Remember I wrote my wishes on a white ball?) But they are so far away, I don't think I can spot mine.


We had a picnic dinner and there were some small showers of rain... but we persisted and I dunno how we pass the time, it's 10pm and there's a small sneak preview of the fireworks on a building. There were 2 other sneaks at 11pm and 11.30pm.


It's 12 midnight and the first burst of fireworks goes up!

YEAH! HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!!
















The Finale!

First day of the New Year! YEAH!

Relie brought me to watch a Chinese period movie "Curse of the Golden Flower"! It features Chow Yun Fat, Gong Li and Jay Chou!!

I'm going to meet my 2nd host in Singapore! I hope she'll bring me to more nice places! Yay! I can't wait!

Hello all, I arrived at Smackmytoothbrush's house in today, 5th January She was pleased that I had arrived (because she was really eager to get me!) and even more so because she has not gotten mail in like, forever Also she wants me to let you all know that she would prefer to be called Eudora in this travellog (her real name) because it's shorter & more unique than smackmytoothbrush (she says it's so unique it's not even found in the baby name books! )

On with the pics and how I spent my day

--



I arrived today at Eudora's house This is me, lying on her bed I think her bedsheets are nice (she likes them too)!



Then I went into the kitchen, and I saw her parrot She tells me that he's an African Grey, and has been with her since 2002. Also she tells me that he's very greedy with food and waits patiently at the side of his cage if he sees you cutting fruit and decides he wants some too Oh and he can also talk (in fact he talks alot), he can say good night (even though I didn't hear him say it, Eudora tells me he doesn't greet people good night so often anymore) and imitate the phone ringing (accompanied by "hello?" after that) and call Eudora (well... just "Dora"), amongst other things. Hm, that's so coool! But haha, I bet I'm better off than him because I get to travel and he doesn't - when the family goes away, hte neighbours take care of him



I saw this pot cooking on the stove... looks yummy! Eudora tells me it is a pineapple dessert drink which is yummy & she likes it very much, especially if made into an ice lolly & eaten when the weather gets hot (but now isn't exactly the hot season, but she still likes it anyway!) I tried some and liked it too, even though there's no cinnamon (and Eudora tells me we have the same tastes, she prefers the cinnamon too!)



And then awww I saw this really cute pic on Eudora's bedside table, and on closer look I realised it was her when she was young (it doesn't look like her now, but there's still a slight resemblance) She tells me this is her kindergarten graduation picture (oh cool!)



This is her bedside flower, it's pink (but sort of dirty already). Her bed looks really empty! I didn't see many toys, as compared to when I was at relie's. Haha, Eudora tells me that all her toys were put into her cupboard under the window because she didn't want to re-arrange them (too lazy, haha) when she sleeps (she doesn't sleep with toys) But this flower is an exception because it's long enough to be stuck through the frames of the bed, so she left it there It's a Christmas present from a few years back, she says.

She tells me that she will bring me to school for her CCA fair tomorrow, but warns that there may be a possibility that there will be not many pictures, if any at all - because she doubts that she will be allowed to turn on her handphone But oh well, we'll see! By the way, she also wants me to tell you on her behalf that she might not be able to take me out every day (which I don't mind, if her house is interesting enough ) and hopes you all don't mind too!

Anyway I'm excited to see where I get to go next or what I am going to do next, woohoo! I wonder if I pick up Singlish as a result of staying with 3 S'porean hosts, hmmm 

And finally, I have arrived at Eloriel's house!

Eloriel took me to meet more friends such as Marjol's Forever Friends bear, Christa's world cup lions and the Singapore Bear! (: I was so happy to have met them! And i liked Eloriel's hello kitty bedsheet too.



Eloriel also lives in an apartment block built by the HDB [housing development block] (: This is the view form the window on the  6th floor! Thank goodness she didn't drop me!



And here I am with Eloriel's Marimekko napkin and postcard collection! <3 She says she stores her postcards in special albums. I think her postcards are beautiful! ^_^



On the tour of her house, she brought me to her mother's fridge magnet collection! It was amazing! I could count many different countries that the magnets were from! :P




Then i got to see Eloriel's fish! She told me that she has been breeding guppies for 3 generations now. They are so cute! I miss being in the water.


Now Eloriel says she will bring me to school tomorrow! I might get to sit in with practices with her band, and perhaps to some meetings! [She's in the student council!] tata for now!

Sorry my travels haven't been documented for so long! Eloriel has been really busy with her Student Council Investiture in her school [she's the IC!] so we can only post some pictures now ^_______^

This is Eloriel's school!

The shoe rack in her class! [we don't wear shoes in class! our class pioneered this, normally singaporean students do ]


The courtyard where we have morning assembly. Its huge!


The desks in her classroom. I'm sitting on hers! You can see her pencilbox (:


The view of the basketball court, and the school beside us - a college.


Better view of the college!


On the first day of chinese new year! off to visiting!




But we have to go to the temple first to pray to our ancestors.



This is the stone lion outside the temple. They come in pairs! This is the female one because she's holding a cub in her paw. Can you spot it?


Me eating a golden coin! Common candies during the new year (:


Backtracking to new year's eve...we had our reunion dinner!




Look! Abalone! Eloriel's favourite ^______^


The assortment of reunion dinner stuff to put in the steamboat! Fishballs, fish, chicken, liver, and prawns (:


And the traditional activity...gambling! Eloriel loves to play mahjong! [The game which is played with the tiles you see here.]


Eloriel's house is all decorated for the new year!


More visiting! The owners of the house lay out goodies for everyone to eat. You can see lots of traditional stuff here! I ate the pineapple - it was actually individual packages of pudding!



Outside Eloriel's relative's house (:


And we are on our way to our next destination for more visiting!


Our third stop!


Our fourth and final stop for the day!


What else? More gambling!


WHEW! It has been a tired day! But first...


Count ang paos!

Not a bad haul this year (:

Another day with Eloriel!

We went jamming with her band near clarke quay! But Eloriel is absentminded and forgot to take pictures of us jamming

But she did remember to take some on the train back!


This is Singapore's new north east line [in existence for 3 years+]. Its really nice and clean! [Singapore is very clean too - you hardly see litter around!]


This is me on the handhold - i must really stop climbing to high places that i can't get down from! ^______^


We went to eat lunch with her bandmates after that. This is at a shopping mall called plaza singapura! Singapura is the malay name for singapore. We had a great lunch at burger king!


Eloriel will be going to orchard road tomorrow, she says she'll try to bring me!

Frida arrived today in Taiwan. She had a nice, but long journey and she's enjoying some fresh air now. I'll post some pictures of her stay here, soon .

The weather wasn't really great last week, so we didn't have a change to go outside yet.

Andrea (icitaiwan) told me yesterday that I could call my mommy, and I gladly acepted her offer. Here you can see me making the phonecall.


Then I met two other animals in the house. I was very scared when I met them for the first time, and I tried to hide myself, but that didn't out work well .


This is Timer:


And this is Obi-Wan Ken (Obi):


Don't worry mommy, we are good friends now, and they didn't eat me. They prefer real catsfood  .

Hi everybody. It was quiet for some time, because I've been very busy sight-seeing .

I'm very excited, because I'm gonna see the "Taipei 101" in real today...yeah!!! My host Andrea will update my blog soon, but here is already a picture to show you all that I'm fine, and eating well  .

I was so excited today, because I've been to Taipei. My host lives in a city close to Taipei, so I didn't have a change before to go see the "big city".

We left home by car and parked the car under the house of andrea's parents-in-law in "Chung-Hsiao East Road". This is one of the mainroads in Taipei City, and it's usually very crowded there.

The little girl is Amber, Andrea's daughter. She didn't want to give me back to her mother, so she took care of me all day long. I even took a nap with her  .


We walked a while and took the MRT from "Chung-Hsiao Fuxing" to the "Taipei City Hall". Can you find these stops on the MRT map?





We left the MRT station and I saw a very large tower. Andrea told me that it's the "Taipei 101". It's the highest skyscraper in the world with its 509 meter.



Here is some more information about the "Taipei 101":

-Taipei 101 has 101 stories above ground (hence the name) and five underground.
-The building holds the records for:
*Ground to structural top: 509 m (1,671 ft), a record formerly  held by the Petronas Twin Towers at 452 m (1,483 ft)
*Ground to roof: 449 m (1,474 ft). Formerly held by the Sears Tower 442 m (1,451 ft)
*Ground to highest occupied floor: 439 m (1,441 ft). Formerly held by the Sears Tower
*Fastest Ascending Elevator speed: 16.83 m/s (37.5 miles/hour or 60.4 km/h)
*Largest Count-Down Clock on New Year's Eve.
*It does not hold the record for the longest distance from ground to pinnacle, which is still held by the Sears Tower 527 m (1,729 ft).
-Taipei 101's roof was completed on July 1, 2003.
-Taipei 101 is the first and currently only building in the world to break the half-kilometer mark in height.[2] The Burj Dubai tower in Dubai is expected to take over as the the world's tallest building sometime in 2009.

This is the lower part of the "Taipei 101". There is  a nice shoppingmall at the first 5 floors.


The entrance door


They've made a circle on the floor, and a lot of city names are mention on the tiles


Yes...it's me in Taipei.


This picture shows the 4th floor


You can take the elevator to go to the observatory deck on the 89th floor. The weather wasn't very good today, so my host decided to save the money for the admission fee for a frappuchino at the Starbucks  .
Theses pictures show the area around the Taipei 101. They aren't very clear, sorry for that.



We walked around in the area, also called the "new city heart" with all the shopping malls, government buildings, and of course the "101".

The Taipei World Trade Center


The weather got worse, and the "101" disappeared in the clouds. We were just on time to make the pictures.


The Taipei City Hall I


The Taipei City Hall II


Taipei City Council office


We walked from here to the "Sun Yat-Sen" Memorial Hall. This is a memorial to the Taiwanese father of the nation, Sun Yat-Sen. It was built in 1972.


We kept on walking and passed a mailbox. Most of the Taiwanese mail disappears in these kind of mailboxes.


We also passed this shopping mall. Sogo is very famous in Taiwan


After that we went back home. It was a great, but tiring day .

I've been to Taipei again . We left this afternoon to visit the "CKS Memorial Hall", another landmark in Taipei.

First we passed the presidential house


The CKS square is flanked on both sides by the National Concert Hall and the National Theater. We were lucky today, because there was a performance on the square, showing some aborigional dances


This is my with Andrea and Amber


The CKS Memorial Hall was built in 1980 to honour the first president of Taiwan, Chiang Kai-sek. The building is 70 meters high and the white and blue colors of the building, and the red color of the surrounding flowers represent the colors of the Taiwanese flag.




At the top of the stairs is a large vault containing a bronze statue of Chiang Kai-sek. The vault is under guard during daytime.


This picture shows the view from the top of the CKS Memorial Hall over the square, showings the entrance, and the two theaters.


This picture shows the (now) second largest building in Taipei.


We drank "bubble tea" on our way back, This is a local drink that becomes popular in more and more countries. It's milk tea with little sticky, black, gummy tapioca balls....yummy!!!


I'll show you a bit of Nankan tomorrow .