Life Sucks

Have not been to Bishan Park for quite some time and was eager to go down especially after hearing all the nice things about the park after the makeover. Now there are stylist signs at both park A "river" runs through the park. Previously this was a storm canal. Now it has been "landscaped" and is really beautiful winding through both parks. Even the small drains have been transformed! The culvert that is now camouflage The small drain is now a steam The old canal going underneath Marymount Road before it transorm back to the beautiful swan The theme for Bishan Park is water and there are water water everywhere. A close up of the main stream A reef pond A pond Another pond or is it the same one as above? Bridge over the pond Unlike most other park, the public are welcome to play in the stream and catch longkang fish A park user enjoying a snooze on one of the unique park bench ...

We went looking for a place to eat Malaysia style hokkien mee and found this place. It looks like we were in the wrong place though. Signs everywhere was promoting their deep sea giant grouper. Of course we didn't dare order that. Our pocket may not be that deep. But we cheapskeate, die die must try so we ordered the fried grouper skin. The skin comes deep fried like keropok. There is a whole lot of oats, I think, on top. Not too bad. The waitress recommended the black chicken soup. It was served in a claypot but the waitress served up the soup in individual portion. The chicken meat and the herbs were placed separately on a plate. I believe this is the first time the kids have black chicken soup. The black chicken meat didn't look too appetizing although they were actually quite tender but the soup was good. Not too herbal and yet strong enough. We opted for a white pepper frog leg since we had never had frog leg in this version before. We were disappointed...

Balinese are very erotic. Maybe it is their Indian blood - kama sutra and all that. But there are many sex symbol all over.And nobody blink an eye. Like these: Wooden carving in a batik shop Painting for sale The buttock of a statue Another nude couple! And all these phallic bottle opener! And these lot that looks like plant!

Balinese women are head strong, err I mean  strong with their head. They can carry practically anything on their head as these few photos show This street vendor has some t-shirts on her head This one has knife, scabbards and all sort of killing objects This lady is carrying canangsari  This one has 3! Fruits are commonly transported on top of the head Like this street vendor These ladies going to the temple Bananas! Look no hands!

Balinese are very religious. Everywhere, there are temples, shrines and unique little trays of flower offering. These cute little flower trays called canangsari (I hope I got that right) are placed as offering to the spirits and for blessing. Hence they can be found everywhere. Stack of canangsari for sale A vendor at the market in Ubud On car dashboard Another one on a vehicle but this one on the outside On a sidewalk On a hotel table A bigger version in a hotel lobby Another one in the hotel we stayed at

This one is not so much about good food but about seafood in Bali. Bali, being an island surrounded by the sea, should have plenty of seafood right? Well, yes there is Jimbaran Beach which has a whole cluster of seafood restaurants. Naturally when we said we wanted to eat seafood, our driver cum guide brought us there. The nice but so dark beach restaurant The atmosphere was fantastic. We sat on the beach on beautiful wooden chairs. There was a band of roving musicians moving from table to table. There was also traditional Balinese dancers. Great for a romantic night dinner until we saw the price of the seafood. It was super ex by our standard. Coming from a place where a lobster can cost close to a $100.00, when I said expensive I mean it is really expensive. After looking through the menu which was basically just a list of seafood items with prices on a per kg basis, we settled for the set menu for 2 which looks the most reasonably priced. This is a platter of seafood...