Hippo Tour, Solo Style!

We are over the moon excited right now b/c we're less than a month away from the arrival of our very close friends, Keith and Sophie...we can't wait until their visit!! We want to make the very best of their time in Singapore and give them as many options as possible for things they might want to do. So, that being said, the open top bus tour in Hong Kong got me thinking that I should check out the same type of tour here in Singapore to see if it's worth bringing K & S on. Unfortunately (for me anyway) I had to go at this tour alone. I grabbed my backpack (always good to have in Singapore for unforeseen purchases) and threw my camera around my neck...I totally blended in with the rest of the tourists on the bus :) The tour was pretty good. I will admit that I didn't see anything that I hadn't already seen before, but that was to be expected...Singapore is small. Overall, I enjoyed it and think it will be a great way for K & S to get a feel for the city before we set out to do the "real" exploring. Here are a few pictures from the tour, though most have been seen on the blog in previous posts...

Oh, but first...I got a kick out of this. As I was standing in line to buy my tour ticket, I realized I was starving and had to eat before getting on the bus. I wandered the mall checking out my options and randomly settled on eating a bowl of Pho...Vietnamese noodle soup. I think most everyone that reads this knows that I'm half Vietnamese. I've grown up eating Pho, in fact, I probably had my first taste of it long before I can even remember. Anyway, I don't know if it was the fact that I was dining alone, had a camera with me, or my obvious American accent, but the owner of the shop obviously thought the concept of eating pho was totally new to me! First thing he served me was eggrolls, but not before he explained what they were. I had to keep the laughter in because I can make them myself and have done so recently. Then, he brought out a plate of bean sprouts, onions and mint leaves and explained to me that that was strictly garnish for the soup. I knew that of course! Personally, I don't like mint leaves so I didn't add them to my soup...I think that upset him a little bit, ha! I just never had the heart to tell him that I knew all about pho....and I certainly didn't have the heart to tell him that his pho wasn't all that good :)

My semi-good lunch

On the bus ready to sitesee by myself!

This building is owned by bunch of wealthy folks in Singapore. That's all I know.

Entering Little India

HDB flats...a large percentage of locals live in these type of flats. I think they get something like a 90 year lease on them.

I M Pei building mentioned in previous blog posts.

8 sided building, built off the concept of Feng Shui, the Chinese believe the 8 sides will bring good fortune.

Lot of construction going on for the Marina Bay Sands Casino

The awesome bus I was on :)

Fake it 'til you make it!

OK, so I haven't "made it" yet nor am I really trying to...but this is a funny story nonetheless. Back in September I got a new camera for my birthday. Taking pictures has become sort of a new hobby for me, though I will readily admit that I don't feel like I have a natural or good eye for photography. Most of the pictures I've taken over the past few months have been city shots from the different places we've traveled to...so I literally have next to no experience photographing people. That being said, one morning as we were leaving church, the pastor's wife approached me and asked if I would consider taking pictures for the mom's group during one of their morning meet ups at the Botanic Gardens. My initial thought was "do you think she'll be able to tell if I lie and say I have plans that day?" but before I could come up with a good white lie Matt piped in and said "Oh you should do it! You'd be really good!" I should have known Matt wouldn't support a white lie...he never does ;)  As it turns out, another friend of mine who has seen some of my pictures told the pastor's wife that she should ask me to do it. My friend was sweet to think of me, but seriously, I went straight into panic mode after I agreed to do it. I decided to stay calm and not allow myself to stress out over it. After all, I'm not a photographer nor have I ever claimed to be good at taking pictures. I simply agreed to do something I was asked to do :)

Well, as it turns out, I truly had no reason to panic. The women were all fantasticly sweet and wonderful and no one put any pressure on me at all! I will say that photographing 9 children under the age of 3 was no small task! It was completely impossible for me to get all of them to look at the camera at the same time. Perhaps that's a skill left to actual photographers :) My only complaint for the day was that it was ridicuously hot and humid, but we made the best of it! I took a lot of pictures, but here are some of my favorites from the day. Enjoy!

My best attempt at getting everyone to look at the camera :)

I loved these sweet little shoes and tiny feet!

Totally loved his mohawk!

Only a few weeks old and already out to play...sort of ;)

This is one of my favorites from the entire morning. She kept giving me this look!

I don't think these babies knew what to make of me with a camera in their face...

New Year's Eve

I guess since we're halfway through January I better post about New Year's Eve before it's too late! New Year's Eve was all about a low key night for us. After our trip to Hong Kong, the last thing we wanted was to be out among a crowd of people. We actually considered staying in, just the two of us...but as the night approched, we realized we'd have more fun if we were with just a few friends. Fortunately, our friends Jason and Amanda opened up their home for friends and food for the night and we gladly accepted! Jason works with Matt and since moving over here, we've become good friends with them and their two sweet children, Seth and Maddie. We're glad they're from Houston so that we can continue hanging out when we all move back to the states...someday! Anyway, they also invited their friends Tom and Nicole and their two daughters and we invited our friends Elissa and Henning. We all rung in the new year together with snacks, champagne and fireworks. It was exactly the evening we wanted! 2009 was full of blessings for us, more than we can count, and we are so thankful for all of them. We're excited to see what 2010 has in store for us (hopefully a move back to the states by the end of the year...ha!).  Happy New Year!

With a lot of time on my hands these days, I've gotten really into decorating sugar cookies...so these are what I made for New Years Eve :)

This is the view from Jason and Amanda's balcony. They are on the 34th floor...and yes, I'm jealous ;)

Amanda and Nicole took the kids outside to light sparklers. Seth was a little nervous, but he loved them once he was safe inside his mom's arms :)

Maddie having fun with her sparkler

Seth challenged Matt to a game of air hockey. Matt showed no mercy even though Seth is only 3!

Matt trying to stay ahead in the game...

...but I'm pretty sure Seth still won :)

The big firework show was great! I heard there were thousands of people out by the marina watching them, so I'm really thrilled that all we had to do was walk to the building next door and enjoy them from the balcony!

A not so successful try for a picture with fireworks in the background ;)

Amanda, Nicole, Kim and Elissa

When the night was over we went back to our condo and Matt drifted off to sleep under the safety of his new University of Texas Snuggie, courtesy of our very close friends, Keith and Sophie - thanks guys!

Then I woke up in the morning and called my mom so we could ring in the American New Year together over Skype. Toby and Houston came out to celebrate too :) I took this picture just after midnight VA time.

Christmas in Hong Kong - Day 4

Have you ever taken a trip and done something on your last day and thought "we really should have done that on the first day?" That happened to us last year in Mexico and it happened to us again in Hong Kong. For our fourth and final day we decided to do the most touristy thing ever and take an open top bus tour and it was great!  We saw absolutely everything we wanted to see without having to battle crowds...which was a huge relief after our previous days in HK. As I mentioned above, we did find ourselves wishing we'd taken the bus tour on day 1 because then we would have had a better idea of where things were located and which things we wanted to see again. Oh well! Of course, an open top bus tour is WAY more fun with friends so we convinced Jason and TJ to be dorky tourists with us :)

Ready for our big bus tour of Hong Kong!

In our seats and ready for some serious siteseeing

Open top bus tours are only for super cool people

Our first fun site! Have you seen the most recent Batman movie (the Dark Knight)? This is the building that Batman slides down in it.

This picture cracks me up! Jason took one of Matt doing the exact same thing :)

The monument represents the spot where HK was handed back over to China in 1997 after 99 years of British rule.

Once again, the necessary peace sign

I guess it wouldn't be Hong Kong if there weren't 100 people on every streety corner. I was just glad to be on a bus and not walking among those people!

Jason and TJ obviously loving the bus tour ;)

Don't remember what this building is, but we thought it was really cool looking so we took a few pics of it.

Once the bus tour was over we decided to head to lunch....yum!

A market en route to lunch

We ate here...a favorite of Jason and TJ...but as you can tell from the sign, I don't know what this place is called!

Lunch was FABULOUS! Yum, yum, YUM!

Trying egg tarts for the first time...which I have now noticed are also all over Singapore. Good to know because they are delicious!

After lunch, it was time to say our final goodbye to Jason and TJ :(  We has SUCH a fun time with them in HK and we're so thankful for all of the great memories we now have with them!

Since Matt and I had a few hours to kill before heading to the airport we went back to the Kowloon side and walked around Victoria Harbor again and boy am I glad we did! After 3 full days of dense fog, finally on the 4th day, just an hour before we left the city, the fog slowly started lifting!! Although it was still cloudy, we were able to see across the harbor for first time since we arrived! We were thrilled!

Fog lifting...we can actually see buildings on the other side!

In spite of the clouds, we were still loving the view!

Amazed that we could see really far down the way!

It's a Bruce Lee statue! Again, we thought of my brother who has always liked Bruce Lee (and still does). In fact, Matt remembers watching Bruce Lee movies with Jason when they were kids. By the way, Bruce Lee is from Hong Kong :)

After 4 full days, the trip finally came to a close. We were exhausted and ready to be back in Singapore, but blessed to be going back with such fun/crazy memories from our Christmas in Hong Kong! :)