Last week I was picking up tickets for our Kuala Lumpur trip in Chinatown, which was highly interesting. Since I can imagine there being a lot of people more or less everywhere preparing for Chinese New Year, I thought I'd go on a week day just after lunch to avoid any rush. This was good, since it was still highly crowded whenI got there and becoming almost impossible getting around when I left. Compared to Tokyo it's not that it's crowded here (roughly 6 million people compared to Japan's 130), but in Japan the movement pattern is on average very organized. Everything seem to be quite logically placed and you basically just follow the stream. It might sound ridiculous, but if people don't stand to the left and walk to the right in the escalators, or complete stop once they get off, or try to get on the MRT/bus while people are getting off, it becomes difficult. Also, in Japan you would never push people. You can in Sweden, but you might get your ass kicked. In Chinatown in Singapore, a lot of the older people push, or even hit younger citizens. This is quite unfair, since you can't exactly start screaming at an old woman with a cane.
Enter the Dragon at People's Park in Chinatown.
An OK amount of people at the moment, but it kept filling up. The man in white has never seen a Caucasian before.
A Chinese viking, holding a bowling price, while demanding a new set of records and DJ table, so he can continue scratching.
Started climbing my way up towards the travel agency via the endless escalators; it doesn't really feel fantastic if you have a slight fear of heights, considering the sides of the escalators here reach a tall woman in heels somewhere above the knee. Feng Shui of the day: don't be taller than necessary.
I finally reach floor 4 and then the stair climbing to just below the roof begins..
..through and obscure door..
..leading out to the roof top parking garage where it's literarily hotter than hell..
..around the corner, towards the direction of the traffic..
..into an ice cold, huge hallway which was almost customer empty and completely quiet. At least I got our tickets so Malaysia here we come!
When I finally reached solid ground again, I ended up in a market place in between the buildings where the Chinese New Year madness was just kicking in. The Irish rugby player to the left told me in confidence that he 'knows he's put his muscles somewhere around here, but just cannot find them'.
The woman in the picture promised to stop smoking as her New Year resolution, but ran out of Nicotinell gums at 03.00 am. She was very lucky to have both banana leaves and string in the house; God knows what would've happened otherwise.
I was contemplating Chicken Rice for lunch, but they only has Road Kill Duck.
Getting back to our condo, I was really proud to see that all the necessary small oranges were planted in huge pots all over.
Also the garlands of fire-crackers were placed at a safe-working-environment-distance from the guards at the main gate.
My husband became slightly confused when I asked him to take the call, since a phone was ringing. We were very glad though that the considerate staff had put up golden Swedish 'can-phones', so that we wouldn't feel completely out of place.
I did however object slightly to the harem lamps..
..all over the place; we have people coming over on Saturday and I don't want them to get the wrong impression.
In the evening, we decided to go very Swedish and clear all the Christmas decorations according to the tradition surrounding Tjugonde Dag Knut (20th Day Knut). It's basically 20 days after Christmas Eve, on St Knut's Day (in Sweden each day of the year has a name associated with it). Further, 'Knut' is pronounced in one go as it sounds; it is not a Swedish or Norwegian rapper called 'K-Nut', just to be perfectly clear.
This is a FAN and a CHRISTMAS TREE. I just wanted to write it in the same sentence.
The last Christmas porridge.
Putting away our beautiful Christmas star.
Sideshow Bob swung by and showed off his new, blond hairdo.
Parts of the tree.
On the Saturday we had dinner at Jumbo Seafood in Marine Parade and the food was really amazing. The surroundings are also so much better than the ones by Clarke Quay and it's really nice to see the ocean for a change.
Jumbo Seafood in the sunset.
We also found this East Coast Lagoon Food Village which was more or less like Chomp Chomp but by the water front. Will definitely go back here shortly!
In addition, this will be my last weekly blog as a house wife, since I'm starting work on Wednesday!
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