*1231 - lands end

Whenever anyone visits San Francisco, there are just some places a tourist must strike off the list.  The Golden Gate Bridge, Fisherman's Wharf, Ferry Building, Lombard Street, Alcatraz, Union Square, cable cars, ...

And if you have time, Coit Tower, Twin Peaks, Castro, Golden Gate Park's gardens, oldest/largest Chinatown in the US, ... etc. etc. etc.

But why did noone ever mention Lands End to us??  

Now that is really a gem.  A beautiful trail with intense views and peppered with little bits of history: ruins of baths, shipwrecks, old rail tracks.  Quaint little trails that branched off the main path, some with rudimentarily cut out steps winding into a secret-garden-esque landscape, some leading to treacherous-looking spurs overlooking the bay, some leading to quiet little beaches.  Windswept and misty and lush and fairytale-like. 

Even if you're not a hiker, this is worth a visit, no question about it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

*1230 - laptops!

The mark of a good boyfriend: after sweatily, crampily pulling a tipsy and screeching EV up the treacherous slopes of Potrero Hill, arriving home and realizing both our laptops were still sitting in the restaurant we just came from, and turning right around without a word or complaint to retrieve them. THANKYOOO.

*1229 - interview

EV (Hypothetical interview question): So, tell me more about your strengths.
D: My perfect vision and immune system.

*1228 - cartoon kitty

Poka with cartoon eyes:

*1227 - local eats

Singapore = the proudest city when it comes to local food.  Seriously.

A few things that touched D's tongue for the first time.  It was one amazing and huge meal after another.  At no one moment were we ever actually hungry; just existed in different levels of fullness.

Tiger Beer from Singapore--the imported variety is a little different.


My favorite veggie: garlicky baby kailan.


Chilli crab and all the fun stuff that comes with it everytime we have it, like fried mantou and har cheong kai.


Simple but delicious hawker food with Iris on a rainy day which foiled our other plans--hence, off to the hawker centre slipping and sliding in heels.  White carrot cake, oyster omelet, satay, rojak, chwee kueh.


We had loads of kopi while we were there.  Coffee with condensed milk; so brilliant.


Frog leg porridge.  Mmmm.


If frogs were more readily available and didn't look so blinkingly creepy when alive, I would pretty cheerfully replace chicken in my diet with frog.


Crab bee hoon--my first time too!  Slurp.


More hawker food including black carrot cake and ice kachang.


Ramen--not bad but still nothing comes close to NYC's Ippudo (not even the Singapore Ippudo unfortunately).


:)


Ya kun kaya toast with soft boiled eggs :) Look at that butter mm.

Indian food with the fam, D nods eagerly to a waterfall of curry on his rice and suffers the consequences later.  Spicy stuff.




You have to eat with your hands when eating Indian food in Little India.  'Twas fun.  The real skill lies in eating curry and only have the tippy tips of your fingers getting messy.


Here we are squatting on our patio watching D eat durian.  I personally enjoy it but really hate the durian burps that last for the rest of the day :S


Prata!  Quintessential.


Which goes well with bandung.


When was the last time I had the pleasure of trying 200 new foods all in a row??  Not sure what new taste would surprise me at this point, which is a fairly disappointing realization ...

*1226 - sentosa

On a cable car, looking over Universal Studios Singapore.  I interned at RWS but haven't even been to USS myself.  Not a top priority for this short trip; maybe next time!  But visiting Sentosa is one of those quintessential Singaporean must do's, so off we went to soak up the sweltering heat at the beach.

 

 

 

Always look like I'm dancing even when that was not my intention ...

So idyllic :)

Brolly in hair #1.

 

And brolly in hair #2.  Irresistible.

The beautiful sunset and city-scape that welcomed us as we cable car-red our way back from the island.

*1225 - singapore's gardens by the bay

Singapore's Gardens by the Bay.  A very strategic ecotourism move and one that I'm actually really proud of.  An architectural wonder, very thoughtfully sustainable which I appreciate a lot, horticultural feat that will amaze even those who aren't plantscaping nerds, a lovely and almost alien-like addition to the already beautiful Singapore skyline.  I'm a fan.  Definitely worth a visit, whether you're Singaporean or not.

Supertrees that mimic the life cycles of real trees.  I saw photos of these supertrees when the park opened half a year ago, really beautiful glowing photos, and was really puzzled at how Singapore had suddenly transformed into a magical piece of landscape from Avatar.  

 

It started storming, and I mean really, seriously, frighteningly, poundingly, thunderstorming.  So we ducked into the cooled conservatories to gawk at the enormous array of plants imported from literally all around the world.  I love these frosty wintry ferns; I see them around here a lot.  

 

 

 

Taking a picture of Daddy taking a picture.

 

 

 

Inside the "Flower Dome".

 

Cacti!

 

And this was the "Cloud Forest" with Singapore's tallest waterfall heh.

 

Supertrees by night.