Tasting Singapore with Singapore Foodsters

We recently spent four nights in Singapore, at the conclusion of our Java tour, and signed up for a five-hour walking tour of several foodie neighbourhoods before we left Australia. (In hindsight, maybe this was a bit ambitious? We ate a LOT of food in Indonesia!) Anyway, the tour was run by Gerry from Singapore Foodsters, and it was the second time we'd done one of his tours. They're a great introduction to the many, varied cultures and cuisines of the city.

We were collected from our hotel and the group's first wander was around a fresh food market in Little India:

Followed by generous tastings at an Indian restaurant …

… and in a hawker centre in Chinatown:

We also enjoyed gelato and coffee (not pictured, forgot to take a photo) in Kampong Glam. Our tour (on foot, MRT trains and a double-decker bus) took us to various fascinating places and Gerry's informative commentary explained many aspects of Singapore's history.

Since our previous trip to Singapore in 2018, a bunch of huge murals had appeared!

An excellent way to explore Singapore with a local. Recommended.

Java was superb!

Despite having done introductory courses in Bahasa Indonesia (ahem) four times over the past 28 years, and having visited numerous other countries in the Asia-Pacific region, I'd never been to Indonesia. In many Australian minds, Indonesia means Bali … and Bali conjures notions of drunken Australians offending locals and being jailed. So Bali had never been on the wish list, and you hear far less about tourism to other parts of the vast archipelago.

So, when Andrew and I saw an ad for a rail and bus tour from one end of Java to the other, we jumped at the opportunity. The tour, run by Railway Adventures, was just over two weeks long and included both well known Javanese places and experiences (Borobudur Temple, volcanoes, Prambanan Temple, puppet workshops, coffee plantations, mosques) and less obvious activities (musical instrument workshops, railway museums, architecture, rural villages and markets). The transport spanned the gamut, from trains (fast, panoramic, standard and steam) to coaches, mini-buses, becaks (motorbike taxis), jeeps and golf carts, to a ferry.

It was a fabulous introduction to a country I'd long wanted to visit. We'd like to go back to explore some of its other islands one day.

South Island wanderings

In a leap of faith (as the Cook Strait ferries have been notoriously unreliable lately) Andrew and I departed New Zealand's North Island for its South Island one week ago. It's been a fun and varied week! Some highlights:

We booked premium tickets on the Interislander ferry Aratere and they plied us with food and drinks …

Dinner at Pepper Bridge Indian Restaurant in Christchurch

A journey from Christchurch to Greymouth, return, on the TranzAlpine train

Cheese and wine tasting at Whitestone Cheese, Oamaru

Dinner with old friends at Restaurant 1861, Oamaru

A delicious vegan Thai curry at Alice May Restaurant, Franz Josef …

… and glimpses of Franz Josef and Fox glaciers!

Around the world in many tea towels

As I've often ranted and raved here, I don't like accumulating stuff. I'm definitely in the Swedish death cleaning phase of my life and hope never to acquire anything I don't need or want again. That said, there are still some staples of daily life we do need and use. Like tea towels. Over the years I've bought tea towels from many places I've visited. It is fun to be reminded of past travels while doing mundane activities like drying dishes. I usually manage to squeeze many years of use out of them before they become thin and tattered; at that point they begin their next phase of use as bathroom cleaning cloths. Here are a few that put a smile on my face and remind me of past jaunts to exotic locales ...

New Zealand (Australians may recognise the bird New
Zealanders call 'Pukeko' as the 'Purple Swamphen')

Canberra!

Brisbane

Cape Otway, Victoria

Wellington, New Zealand

Grumpy cats from Japan

Canberra (again)

 Canada (oh, Canada)

France

Lady Elliot Island

Adelaide

Victoria

New Caledonia

Tea towels also make great (reusable) gift wrapping. Why wrap a bottle of wine in something tacky and disposable when you can hand it over in a cow-print tea towel?!