Kampong Glam

October 12, 2024

Here’s a quiz:

Kampong Glam is:

A) a popular Malaysian chicken dish 

B) a popular Southeast Asian all-girl rock band 

C) the name of the tallest building in Singapore

D) the name of the merlion, Singapore’s mascot

E) the Muslim quarter of Singapore

F) the Buddhist quarter of Singapore

This little shop is very popular for “curry puffs”

Kampong Glam is Singapore’s Muslim quarter, but it also showcases Singapore’s Malay heritage.

We met up with our guide, Ping, near a cluster of buildings that looked like a housing project. It actually was a housing project. Ping called it an “HDB Block” (Housing Development Board). She said that 80% of Singaporeans live in some sort of subsidized housing - as owners, not renters. She showed us photos of a model unit. It looked quite nice, though it was very small by American standards.

There is a pole extending from each window for hanging laundry out to dry

At the ground level of one of the HDB Blocks, preparations were underway for a funeral, including these wreaths with light-upsigns

Inside the curry puff shop

Hajjah Fatima Mosque is one of the oldest mosques in Singapore and a rare example of a mosque named after a woman

From the side and back you can see how deep the narrow shophouses are

In earlier times, a popular structure in Singapore was a “shophouse.” They were typically 2- or 3-story buildings with a shop on the street level and living quarters for the shop owner’s family above.

A bounty of baked goods was available in some of the shops.

As we rambled along the streets of Kampong Glam it began to rain. The crowded streets cleared quickly. 

But the rain did not stop our group from enjoying the historical murals painted on some of the buildings. 

Colorful shophouses

Kampong Glam is also home to a noteworthy textile district.

Beaded tulle is paired with a pink silk or satin for a formal look

More Kampong Glam street scenes:

Finally, Ping showed us the stunning Atlas Bar, which boasts the largest gin collection in the world. I believe it.

I found the balance that I mentioned the other day. Ping talked about balance a lot. The one detail that really struck me was the use of feng shui in many of the buildings here - to achieve balance.

Today’s fabric strikes me as a very typical Singaporean or Malaysian style. I would describe it as “cutwork.”

 

City Tour

October 11, 2024

It was only 9:00 a.m. when we arrived at our hotel, the Conrad Centennial. Of course our room was not ready, so we waited in the lobby and then in the executive lounge. We were too wiped out to walk around, although there is a Japanese mall right across the alley. By “Japanese mall” I mean that most of the shops and restaurants there are Japanese. It even has a small 7-Eleven. But at the moment, I needed a nap more than Japanese cookies.

The view from our room on the 28th floor

Even though our room isn’t ready, I can already tell how good the service is here. They had unloaded our luggage before we even had time to alight from the taxi. We were surrounded by staff ready to help us, open the door for us, show us where to check in, and so on.

When our room was ready, two receptionists found us to let us know and present us with our room keys. I’m not even sure how they knew who we were. 

Our room is so nice - large, comfortable, quiet, a perfect place to relax.

Yes, it’s a rubber duckie!

I was able to nap for about an hour, and then it was time for our first tour. We decided to try the MRT (the subway) to get to our meeting point. It was easy! The station is about a 2-minute walk from our hotel. You can pass through the turnstile with the tap of a credit card. No need to buy a ticket. The signage and wayfinding is excellent. The trains come every 6 minutes. The stations and the trains are clean and modern. 

One thing: there are signs everywhere gently reminding passengers how to behave. Don’t use up a seat with your bags; do offer your seat to someone who has a small or child, or someone who has a mobility problem, or someone who is older; don’t eat or drink or talk loudly on your phone, etc. I really appreciate being on a train that is clean and quiet and safe, and where there is a seat for me. However, it does feel a bit regimented. More than I am used to. But I’m not sure it’s a bad choice to be this way.

Pamela, our guide from Monster Day Tours, met us at the meeting point. This was a “free” walking tour, meaning Pamela was working for tips. She was knowledgable, and she smiled a lot, and she earned a nice tip from us. 

Here are some of the sights we saw on this tour.

The 5-star Fullerton Hotel used to be a post office

Restaurants along the river

In the background, the truly iconic Marina Bay Sands Hotel

Theater and Concert Hall

  

The Cavenagh Bridge, opened in 1869

The Merlion - half lion, half fish

The Arts and Science Mseum, nicknamed “The Lotus”

“The Durian Building” is a performing arts center

The former Supreme Court building is now part of the national art gallery

The JW Marriott

A local-style ice cream sandwich from a street vendor: ice cream on colorful bread

So, we are in Singapore! Singapore is a city-state of slightly over 6 million people, occupying an island at the tip of the Malay Peninsula, one degree north of the equator. Singapore was controlled by Britain until 1959, when it gained self-governance. It 1965 it became an independent country. It has since become known as one of the “Four Asian Tigers” because of its powerhouse of an economy.

The population of Singapore is about 70% ethnic Chinese, 15% Malay, 10% Indian, and 5% other. The official languages of Singapore are English, Malay, Mandarin, and Tamil. English is very widely spoken, and it is therefore very easy for English-speaking tourists to get around.

Singapore is a democracy, with a Constitution and a unicameral Parliament. However, some political scientists consider Singapore an “illiberal democracy” or a “soft-authoritarian state.” The same political party has been in control since independence. 

Today’s fabric is batik. Batik is created through a dyeing process using wax resist. I have chosen a specific print designed for Singapore Airlines. It is an updated take on traditional batik and is inspired by ten native flowers.

The batik print is seen here in a style known as sarong kebaya. This is the uniform for flight attendants on Singapore Airlines.

In It for the Long Haul

October 10, 2024, more or less

A few minutes before midnight on the 9th we boarded our plane for a 17-hour flight (after 6 hours in the air yesterday). What were we thinking?

Spoiler Alert: It was awful. It was uncomfortable. It seemed like it would never end.

We flew business class, which meant we each had a little pod to sit in. Each pod was (theoretically) equipped with a seat that could turn into a lie-flat bed. I mean, 17 hours. You gotta do what you gotta do.

Ken gets ready to wipe down his pod with Clorox Wipes.

My pod, with my own headphones, my Kindle, and the airline’s pillow.

The food was great. The service was beyond great. The flight attendants worked hard!

A late dinner: vegetables, salmon, rice, and eggplant

Incredible cheesecake!

The seat was sooooo disappointing. It was never comfortable and it grew more uncomfortable with each passing hour. Each slowly passing hour, I should say. The “bed” was more like 3/4 of a bed with a 1-inch thick hard mattress. You could not extend your legs.

On the positive side, the other passengers were quiet, the bathrooms were good (for airplane bathrooms), and there was plenty of space to put all of one’s personal gear so that it was reachable from one’s seat/bed.

I finished one book (Book #3 in the Maisie Dobbs series) and got about 45% of the way through another one (The Revenge of The Tipping Point). The rest of the time I listened to some of my own playlists. I’m pretty good at entertaining myself. I’m not so good at finding a comfortable position or being able to sleep on a plane.

It was dark when we left and it was dark throughout the flight until the last hour. At some point during the flight we crossed the International Date Line and skipped ahead (some would say “lost”) one whole day without passing “Go.” However, we also gained a lot of hours because we crossed a lot of time zones, so it was almost like we got a lot of the lost day back. That’s why I am writing this up as October 10. 

I have a prescription I need to take twice a day, at the same time every day. You wouldn’t believe how hard it was to figure out when to take it so that I would end up being able to take it at the same time as we travel.

As we descended for our landing, I could see literally hundreds of ships. I’ve never seen anything like it.

Landing and arrival were easy, and we quickly found ourselves in a taxi. We had a friendly, talkative cab driver, and it wasn’t long before he wanted to know who we were going to vote for. (We have already voted.) Our answer was not what he wanted to hear, and he didn’t particularly want to hear our reasons. Maybe I should go back to saying I’m from Canada. It avoids a lot of awkwardness.

Today’s fabric is houndstooth. According to Glenmuir’s Golf Journal, the houndstooth pattern is a proud symbol of Scottish tradition and heritage. Since the pattern was largely woven and worn by Scottish shepherds, some believe that the pattern also symbolizes protection. 

Perhaps that is why the houndstooth pattern was chosen for the pillowcases on our plane.

Wool scarf by Acne Studios

Wait and Balance

October 9, 2024

It was nice to be able to sleep in just a little this morning. We woke up and had breakfast in our hotel, the Hampton Inn LAX/El Segundo, without having to rush to be somewhere. We took care of the arrival paperwork for our next stop, online, and did some other busywork. Then we headed to Target to buy some toiletries and sundries. We had a 50-pound-per-bag weight limit coming to LAX, but on our next flight we will have a 70-pound-per-bag limit. So we left some of the heavier items out until we got to LA.

It was either the misty marine layer or some kind of air pollution that reduced the visibility here today. I am content to let the day pass leisurely as we wait for our flight late tonight. It’s going to be challenging, so we might as well take it easy after we have removed all of the packaging from all of those toiletries and repacked our bags. 

The sky cleared up by late afternoon, so we ventured out to look for some California icons (and eat something).

A yucca plant

IN-N-OUT. We did not eat here, but we wanted to.

I am going to jump ahead to the evening and say that LAX is not my favorite airport. It’s just too big.

There was a huge traffic jam at what seemed like all of the terminals. We got dropped off at the International Terminal and it was a zoo. There was nobody to even ask where we should go or what we should do. We saw some kiosks so we stopped there and printed out our baggage tags. But then we didn’t know if there was a bag drop ir if we had to go to our airline. There were people everywhere, but nobody to ask. Eventually I found out that we would have to go over to a different section of the enormous terminal. Then there were several different lines for our airline and it was unclear which one we should be in since we already had our tags. We finally got that sorted and they pointed us to where we needed to go to pass through security, only it turned out to be the wrong place because we had TSA Pre-Check. We finally got there and got through TSA and then we had to ask where the Star Alliance Lounge was. By the time we got settled in the lounge, we were pretty frazzled.

My point in all of this is that LAX is chaotic, crowded, and confusing.

We had an hour to wait for boarding, after basically waiting all day. I’m not sure what the balance part is. I think it might be the inner peace that comes with getting to the airport early and having some time to sit quietly and chill.

Ken is chill now that we are in the lounge.

I promise this is going to get more interesting very soon, so stay with me!

Today’s fabric is corduroy - for all the lines we waited in. The distinctive raised “cords” or “wales” make corduroy instantly recognizable. Corduroy’s durability makes it a good choice for trousers and jackets. It has existed in Europe since at least the 18th century, but corduroy nmay have originated in Fustat, Egypt in 200 C.E.

Raise your hand if you are now thinking about this guy:

Weight and Balance

October 8, 2024

This is the trip that almost didn’t happen. 

About five and a half weeks ago, Ken fell off the roof. He was doing his annual inspection of roof, shingles, snow guards, gutters, chimney, etc. He suffered a concussion, eight broken ribs, and a shoulder injury. The first week or two after the fall were very difficult. It was very painful and we didn’t know what the trajectory of his recovery would look like. 

Fortunately, he has improved steadily. We are grateful for the wonderful physical therapist who has been working with him for the past few weeks. About a week ago we decided that we would be able to undertake this trip. So here we are in LA.

We got up before the crack of dawn this morning, and left home at 5:00 am. Our flight from Anchorage to Seattle was uneventful. It was your typical Anchorage flight - completely full, and with a lot of coughing happening.

I noticed a woman in the gate area leaning against a column and coughing something fierce. She coughed with her mouth wide open and didn’t try to cover her cough one bit. After we boarded I realized, with a sinking feeling, that she would be sitting directly in front of me. (Would it be rude to offer her some cough drops? I always carry some in my purse when I travel. She clearly didn’t have any of her own.) 

Ken and I had masks, and we knew how to use them. Three and a half hours later we arrived in Seattle and were able to unmask in the Alaska (Airlines) Lounge. We enjoyed watching the planes come and go.

Planes line up to wait their turn to take off

Alaska Airlines teamed up with Pixar for this whimsical plane. We also saw a Disney-themed plane.

The flight from Seattle to LA was “interesting.” For the first time in well over 10 years we flew on an Alaska Airlines flight that was not completely full. In fact, it was so incompletely full that the airline was concerned about “weight and balance” and we were told this would be a “weight and balance flight.” Hey, those are two of my biggest concerns, also!

So they moved a lot of passengers from the middle to the back of the plane and told us repeatedly that we must sit in our assigned seats because - weight and balance.

Note: I have experienced something like this in a Cessna, but never before in a 737.

Some questions: Did they actually LOOK at some of these passengers before deciding how to distribute our weight? Did anybody get moved from an aisle seat to a middle seat? How did that go?

The other interesting thing was that our boarding was delayed, on an overcast, 60-degree day in Seattle, due to the cabin being “too hot.” Their solution was 1) delay boarding, and 2) reverse the order of boarding so that those in the rear boarded first and first class boarded last.

We had to keep the window shades closed to keep the plane cool and then I forgot to open them and take pictures until later in the flight. I really enjoyed the clouds because they may be gray when you are on the ground, but they are white and fluffy from above. You feel like you are floating on cotton and you don’t have to think about your own weight or balance.

And there was beer - cheeky beer - from Chico, CA.

Upon arrival in LA, we walked forever to get to the ride share lot, but it was pretty well organized when we got there. There was a shuttle that we could have taken to get there, but it didn’t seem worth it to have to manhandle our giant suitcases onto the shuttle in order to avoid a walk - but I would probably take that shuttle next time.

We had a lovely dinner with friends Nancy and Bob zt a place called Charcoal, and that was the end of our rather long day doing basically nothing.

Please know that upcoming blogs are expected to have much more interesting content, so don’t give up. We are just getting started.

Today’s fabric is quilt batting. Batting is the layer of material between the quilt top and the backing that gives the quilt weight and warmth. I almost said “weight and balance” but that doesn’t even make sense. Most quilt batting is made from cotton, wool, polyester, bamboo, or some combination thereof.