Shangri-La -- Aimee and I are two nights in Shangri-La, a quite posh hotel in Singapore.
This evening we had our AHI Orientation and Reception with our Malaysian-tour group. Our First guide is Andrew. Joining Aimee and me are three others -- two, a couple, are from Raleigh, N.C. and one tall, bearded single Califronian. We may be a quite intimate clatch of folks by tour's end.
Two pieces of art I favored (in fabric and being showcased by the restaurant in Shangri-La's recepton) are below.
The artist is Benny Ong.
10/1/19
A picture of the lobby/reception area is next.
It is quite fancy. Today on our official Singapore tour with Antony as our guide, we visited the following: Old China town, the fromer British government buildings; part of the upcoming formula one race track and infield; Arabic town; little India; and a Hindu temple within new China town and new China town proper. We had lunch in the Raffles center, a ginormus shopping center and hotel. Antony, a third generation Chinese, is a former floor trader for various financial markets. He did that job for 21 years before computers and super job stresses made him become a tour guide. Chinese are up to 75% of the Singapore population, but Chinese is but one of the four official languages used in Singapore. The languages are Malay, English, Mandarin, and Tamil.The membershiip ranking of the major religions is Mahayana Buddhism; Islam; Christianity; & Hinduism.
A very important Buddhist temple is here. It allegedly contains one of the Buddha's teeth. It is apprpriately called Buddha Tooth Relic temple.
10/2/19
After visiting Taiwan and now Singapore, I feel like, irrespective of my affinity and deep respect for much of Buddhaism, it is not by any stretch, a smooth fit for me. "Buddha's tooth" was surrounded by gold and jewels in a hermetically sealed, very limited access room. The devout including guide Andrew in hushed tones called this shrine "Nervana."
If I harbored any conciet of becoming a bone fide devotee, I could never have thought the tooth to be clearly not of human origin. To my jaundiced eyes it looked like it might have belonged to a small ass. An over active scepticism and skewed sense of attribution seems (as always) to be the stories binding me against complete committment.
Today we are doing the Paranakan Heritage areas, lunch on our own, then to the Eastern Oriental Expresrs train heaking North. Next is a picture of Aimee and I in Peranakanian wedding attire.
10/5/19
Three days and two nights we rode the Eastern Oriental Express from Singapore to Bangkok. Sleeping was somewhat challenging because the ride was bumpy. This is a picture of Aimee and I in the last car called the observation car.
Our Guide for the train and Bangkok part of the tour was Victor. He is super. Trained as an Immunologist, he couldn't continue in academics because he became allergic not only to many yeasts and organisms but also the media components. He also spent two years in adulthood as a cloistered Buddhist monk
On the first excusion as our train made a refilling, restocking, and refueling stop we chose to attend a cooking class on making Thai food. The class venue was a raft on the river Khwae-noi -- made famous by the movie "Bridge on the River Kwai" starring Alec Guinness and Wm Holden. Then Aimee cooked "Tom Kha Gai", a chicken stew with fresh garden herbs and coconut cream. Next is a pic of our naval culinary adventure.
It turned out quite tasty even though she had to leave out the chili flakes, chili oil, and dried chili garnish so I could enjoy it too.
So far I have not had an incident of an allergic reaction. Even though Thais love their chilis, they have managed to graciously accomodate my need to avoid them.
At our second technical stop, we climbed a hill overlooking Durian fruit and palm oil plantations. At the base of the hill was a small rubber grove. Aimee tried her hand at tapping a rubber tree. The surprising thing to me was how instantly the latex-filled white sap transformed into latex rubber. Next is a link to a picture of the tree Aimee operated on.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1KK-2l87qakjKHvASPno2PYsVofYDoruJ
On the next day we arrived in Bangkok.
10/2/19
After visiting Taiwan and now Singapore, I feel like, irrespective of my affinity and deep respect for much of Buddhaism, it is not by any stretch, a smooth fit for me. "Buddha's tooth" was surrounded by gold and jewels in a hermetically sealed, very limited access room. The devout including guide Andrew in hushed tones called this shrine "Nervana."
If I harbored any conciet of becoming a bone fide devotee, I could never have thought the tooth to be clearly not of human origin. To my jaundiced eyes it looked like it might have belonged to a small ass. An over active scepticism and skewed sense of attribution seems (as always) to be the stories binding me against complete committment.
Today we are doing the Paranakan Heritage areas, lunch on our own, then to the Eastern Oriental Expresrs train heaking North. Next is a picture of Aimee and I in Peranakanian wedding attire.
10/5/19
Three days and two nights we rode the Eastern Oriental Express from Singapore to Bangkok. Sleeping was somewhat challenging because the ride was bumpy. This is a picture of Aimee and I in the last car called the observation car.
Our Guide for the train and Bangkok part of the tour was Victor. He is super. Trained as an Immunologist, he couldn't continue in academics because he became allergic not only to many yeasts and organisms but also the media components. He also spent two years in adulthood as a cloistered Buddhist monk
On the first excusion as our train made a refilling, restocking, and refueling stop we chose to attend a cooking class on making Thai food. The class venue was a raft on the river Khwae-noi -- made famous by the movie "Bridge on the River Kwai" starring Alec Guinness and Wm Holden. Then Aimee cooked "Tom Kha Gai", a chicken stew with fresh garden herbs and coconut cream. Next is a pic of our naval culinary adventure.
It turned out quite tasty even though she had to leave out the chili flakes, chili oil, and dried chili garnish so I could enjoy it too.
So far I have not had an incident of an allergic reaction. Even though Thais love their chilis, they have managed to graciously accomodate my need to avoid them.
At our second technical stop, we climbed a hill overlooking Durian fruit and palm oil plantations. At the base of the hill was a small rubber grove. Aimee tried her hand at tapping a rubber tree. The surprising thing to me was how instantly the latex-filled white sap transformed into latex rubber. Next is a link to a picture of the tree Aimee operated on.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1KK-2l87qakjKHvASPno2PYsVofYDoruJ
On the next day we arrived in Bangkok.
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