More Than Skin Deep

Last week was my "layover" week here in Singapore, so I thought I would talk about that today. I've successfully made the rounds of Dell folks living here - special thanks to Jae, Steve and Janet, and Lisa for hosting me in their lovely places! These guys all have very good lives here in Singapore.

I've really been looking ratty the last few weeks. I almost never use a hair dryer, and some days I put on makeup, but it gets so hot it melts off. Last Friday, some friends of Lisa's invited us to a dress-up party at the Ritz Carlton hosted by the Italian chamber of commerce. The theme was Ferrari and you were supposed to wear red. Naturally, this entailed my shopping for a red dress. I decided to go all out and get my hair and nails done.

Regarding the dress shopping, it was an experience. I have no idea if I will ever wear the dress again, but it was not too pricey so it's all good. At home, I wear a size 4-6 but in Singapore I am a 10-12! Ay chihuaha!

I chose a salon in Chinatown, the Corner Salon, which uses Kerastase (I admit to being a brand snob). I wanted a manicure too and they said they could do everything all at the same time! I was not sure how this was all going to work but quickly learned. My stylist (see pics below) came over with a bottle of shampoo and a bottle of water and started working on my hair while it was still dry. Before long he had it all lathered up and proceeded to give me a relaxing scalp massage which went on for a good 20 minutes. He was making some very interesting hand sounds and I have no idea how, but that's for another time. Meanwhile, the manicurist is working away at my nails. Finally, I had to get up and go to get the shampoo rinsed out at the sink, which caused a pause in the manicure thankfully. Once that was done, everyone resumed.

I realized that the salon was not too busy because everyone there seemed to be an employee, or maybe they just wanted to help. The woman in getting her hair done below helped the manicurist dry my nails, for which they used 2 hair dryers on cool setting for about 20 minutes. They really did not want me to mess them up! The total bill came to $29 Singapore dollars, or about $20US. Not bad considering the great service.

The cleanup was a definite and needed improvement. Here we are at the party with a Ferrari!

At the party, I met another blogger - Filippo Olivi, Director of the Italian Chamber here in Singapore. Filippo had fun a the dinner, but wished the speeches could have been longer. I promised I'd link to his blog, http://mangoditreviso.blogspot.com/.

The Adventures of Yard Elf

A lot of people thought when Carolyn was over here a week ago, there were 2 of us on the trip. In fact...there were 3! Meet our friend, Yard Elf. He's the one who guards my mom's yard and keeps away evil spirits, or some western equivalent. And he got to go on the trip of a lifetime!

He flew to Hong Kong on Cathay Pacific Airways, in coach.

He shopped in Stanley Market, met some schoolkids in Hong Kong and rode the Star Ferry.

In Singapore, he visited the Botanical Garden, swam in the pool at Jae's place, hung out with Sammy and Janet, and visited some likely condemned bullfrogs in the Wet Market.

In Chiang Mai, Thailand, he enjoyed good luck charms, courtesy of the staff at the Puripunn Hotel. He rode in a tuk tuk and on an elephant! And, he attended Thai cooking school (he is next to my cutting board in the photo below. No accidents to report).

It was a really hot day in Bangkok but he did get to see some temples.

Then it was time for him to go back to Austin and resume his duties. I miss him a lot and hope he will post to the blog soon.

Orchids and Elephants

Some folks have commented that last week’s post was a little gory and maybe poked a bit at Asian medicine, or at least at people who are not really trained to be Asian medics but play them in their daily routine. To end the story, my back is doing much better and no longer has road rash. Mom and I are in Chiang Mai, Thailand on the third stop of the trip. So this week I will address two topics that everyone loves – orchids and elephants.

There is a lot of misconception floating around about orchids. Maybe it is all my misconception but it seems to also afflict some people who run Starbuck’s in Singapore. First, many people don’t know the orchid is the official flower of Singapore. Furthermore, Singapore has a great botanical garden where you can see lots of orchids (for a small fee) and even go running (for free). It’s located right by my friend Jae’s house so I did both while we were staying with her. By the way, she is a great hostess and we had an excellent time!! Anyway, Starbucks is featuring banana drinks as their drink of the month for May, and they had some trivia on their chalkboard stating that orchids and bananas are from the same family. If that’s true, I can’t scare up any information on it. I did learn that the banana is related to the bird of paradise, the city flower of Los Angeles, CA - so maybe someone just got confused (http://www.huntington.org/BotanicalDiv/Posters/Civilization.htm). Perhaps one of you blog enthusiasts with some time on your hands can clear the matter up.

I always thought the orchid was the national flower of Thailand, because like everywhere you go here they give you orchids, and there are a gazillion orchid farms. In fact, the national flower is the ratchaphruek, a yellow cluster-shaped flower which grows by the side of the road. According to the ASEAN organization on National Flowers (http://www.aseansec.org/18203.htm#Thailand), the Thai people regard its yellow hue as the color of Buddhism and the color of glory. We have not seen any because the ratchaphruek is at the tail end of the season, which starts in February. But we will keep looking. We visited an orchid farm in Chiang Mai and saw these amazing orchids pictured here.

Regarding elephants, they are also found here in Chiang Mai as well as a number of other places. This was my second visit to the Chiang Dao Elephant Camp, and I was dismayed to learn that the elephant population here is not doing so well. Most Thai elephants are in captivity and their population has declined to one quarter of its former size in

the last 11 years. In 2007 there is a quite a baby boom going on, which bodes well. We met a 13 month old elephant named Sticky Rice at Chiang Dao, so this must be true. Most babies are at the Royal Elephant Center in Ayutthaya and Lampang's Thai Elephant Conservation Centre. Lampang was the birthplace of the first test tube elephant on March 7. 2007!!

http://www.chiangmai-chiangrai.com/test-tube-jumbo.htmljumbo.html

Wikipedia has a lot to say about elephants. Of course they are mammals, and they are the largest land animals alive today. The elephant's gestation period is 22 months, the longest of any land animal. At birth it is common for an elephant calf to weigh 265 lbs! An elephant may live as long as 70 years, sometimes longer. Elephants are symbols of wisdom in Asian cultures, and are famed for their exceptional memory and high intelligence. We agreed, after seeing the elephant show, where the elephants even paint a picture! We also got to ride up and down a big hill on one, which Mom says was not very comfortable. But she did enjoy feeding her elephant a banana.

Halfway Around the World

A while back, I decided that a good way to decompress as I start my year off would be to leave the country and go halfway around the world for two months. As I've spoken to many friends and family members in the last couple of weeks, a lot of the questions overlap. Therefore, today's post will take the form of a PR Q&A.

Q. Why did you decide to go to southeast Asia, and why are you going at one of the hottest times of the year?
A. The large number of Dell expats currently inhabiting Singapore makes it a great base for Asian travel. Hopefully no one will get sick of me. Regarding the weather, it's summer in Texas so it's not like I'm missing anything.

Q. Are you going by yourself?
A. I will only really be by myself for about 2 days when I travel into Vietnam. My mom, Carolyn, is traveling over with me and will be there for two weeks. Then I'll meet Lisa Howe in Cambodia and Sharon Francia will meet us in Bangkok, Thailand. Sharon and I will spend about a week checking out some spas for quality control. Then it's back to Singapore where I have a couple of weeks of down time. The last frontier is a two week bike trip through Vietnam.

Q. Where are you taking your mom?
A. We will be visiting Hong Kong, Singapore and Thailand. Here is a sample of some of the places we are staying (wicked!):
http://www.lhotelcausewaybayhv.com/intro.php
http://www.puripunn.com/
http://www.lebua.com/
In Singapore, Jae Borgard was nice enough to invite us to stay with her, which will be loads of fun!

Q. That sounds cool. What's next?
A. Lisa and I are going to visit Angkor Wat in Siem Reap, Cambodia. I'm sure there is going to be some eating and drinking too. This place was recommended by Steve and Janet Gluskoter:
http://www.hoteldelapaixangkor.com/
We'll fly back to Bangkok and meet Sharon at the Four Seasons for a couple of days of much needed R&R. We will hear the best four words in the English language, "Welcome to Four Seasons!" Thanks to Randy Huey for suggesting this spot.
http://www.fourseasons.com/bangkok/

Q. We really want to hear about the spas. Where are you going with Sharon, and are there metrics to evaluate the quality of each?
A. We have decided to focus on the Phuket, Thailand and Bali, Indonesia areas because of their status as Spa Capitals of the Universe. We have not developed our metrics yet, but you can be sure we are all over that action item and the results will be the topic of a future post.

http://www.starwoodhotels.com/lemeridien/property/overview/index.html?propertyID=1847
http://www.starwoodhotels.com/luxury/property/overview/index.html?propertyID=277&back=-1

Q. Then you go back to Singapore. What are you going to do for almost two weeks?
A. Luckily, Singapore's national pastimes are shopping and eating, which are two of my favorite things to do. I will catch up with friends and generally do what I do here in Austin - be very busy doing almost nothing.

Q. What about this bike trip? Who's running it and where does it go?
A. The trip is run by World Expeditions, an Aussie outfit. Apparently if you are Australian, you can run a bike trip for about a third as much as if you are an American company. Wicked. I've always wanted to see Vietnam and traveling the country by bike gets rave reviews. We meet in Hanoi (I'll be there for a whole day on my own first, ooooh) and end up on Ho Chi Minh City. To see the detail you can go to http://www.worldexpeditions.com/index.php?section=trips&id=68.

Q. Have you been reading anything in preparation for your visit to Vietnam?
A. I reread Up Country by Nelson DeMille. Great read and well worth all 700 pages, it has some good maps too.

Q. Are you flying business class?
A. Are you crazy? I am not getting a paycheck anymore. This trip is all about coach and budget carriers, which lucky for me are plentiful in southeast Asia.

Q. When do you leave and when will you be back?
A. Wheels up is Monday morning, May 14 and wheels down is late late on July 7.

Adios friends! Please visit the blog often!