Travel | Liz Ledden

Singapore Fling: Little India

Liz / October 29, 2008 / No Comments

Visiting Singapore’s Little India was like stepping into a scene straight from the sub-continent, with abundant colour, noise, crowds, chaos, lights, flowers, spices…the area was full of life and reminiscent of our explorations of India a few years back. It actually made me want to go back, despite my love/hate experience at the time.

Being a Sunday, the area was teeming with predominantly Indian (and Bangladeshi and Pakistani) men – supposedly the itinerant workers from the sub-continent head there on their one day off for a taste of home. The atmosphere was festive as it was Deepavali (or Diwali), the Indian festival of lights, so there were colourful banners and neon lights adorning the main streets.

We randomly picked a restaurant for one our all-time favourite dishes – dosais. The restaurant was called Sakunthala’s and was totally packed. It had a frenetic energy as staff buzzed around delivering plate-loads of tasty Indian fare served atop bright green banana leaves. Our masala dosais were suitably massive and very authentic, though a paper dosai (a crispy pancake minus the potato filling) may have been all that was needed to soak up the tasty chutney and sambal accompaniments.

Singapore Fling: Chinatown

Liz / October 26, 2008 / No Comments

During our Singapore long weekend we not only stayed in Chinatown but spent a bit of time exploring its colourful streets, checking out the shops, and of course, sampling the food. The area seemed to consist of several parts – the touristy part hawking souvenirs seen all over Asia (and every Chinatown around the world), the local area with great kitchenware shops and bustling restaurants, and the boutiquey area around and including Ann Siang Road.

Ann Siang Road was loaded with character – from Chinese clan houses to ornate tiles on the exterior of the buildings, to its mix of fashion boutiques and quirkier shops.

One of my favourite shops on Ann Siang Road was Asylum (at no. 22), selling magazines, travel books, lomo cameras and unique homewares. The other was a fantastic bookshop called Books Actually (at no. 5). Along with a great selection of books, the shop housed retro accessories, some cool photography (more lomo action) and there was even a little ‘cat viewing gallery’ – glass windows looking out to a teeny courtyard home to one very pampered looking cat.

We ate dinner at a nearby food centre (like a hawker centre – but a small version) called Tion Shian Eating House. The seafood with crispy noodles we tried was delicious yet the sauce quickly turned the noodles from crispy to soupy. The highlight was a plate of chicken wings accompanied by a red hot chilli dipping sauce and a small lime to suck afterwards if the heat got too much (according to the vendor). The wings were some of the best I’d ever tasted – crispy on the outside with tender meat – and all for the sum of a few dollars.

Singapore Fling

Liz / October 23, 2008 / 2 Comments

We ate, we shopped, we saw…Singapore! So after asking in a post ‘Is Singapore really boring?’ I’ve decided it’s not – well at least not for a long weekend, it could be a different story if you live there and have seen and done the cool areas to death.

For our four day Singapore fling we stayed in Chinatown at Hotel 1929. A series of old shophouses restored and converted into a boutique hotel, it was definitely cute but was not without its flaws – the rooms are TINY (though we came prepared for that) and the building is in need of some serious soundproofing – all night we heard the roar of cars hooning past and people yelling, screaming and partying literally til the sun came up!

That aside, the decor was retro modern, with a great chair collection in the lobby. The location was also fantastic – the street was lined with brightly painted shophouses and we could walk to other parts of Chinatown, including Ann Siang Road (perhaps my favourite spot of the trip)…

A Girl in Asia on About.com

Liz / October 9, 2008 / 2 Comments

I recently discovered that comprehensive website About.com has a Southeast Asia section containing travel advice, forums and a blog spanning a wide variety of topics regarding travel in the region. Some Phnom Penh advice from yours truly appears in the latest post by blogger and writer Mike Aquino – here. Of course, it’s shopping and restaurant oriented – just doing my bit to spread the Phnom Penh word! Speaking of which – I still can’t believe I’ve left Cambodia. Living out of a suitcase (or 10, actually maybe more) in a hotel room in Saigon is only fun for so many days. I’m really looking forward to finding a real place to live, and soon!

Though we’ve just moved to Vietnam we’re still off to Singapore in a week’s time, a trip we booked ages ago. I found a few ideas about places to check out on the About.com Singapore page, and now I need to find some cool Singapore blogs for more. It’s interesting that a few short years ago mainstream guidebooks were the main go-to source of travel information. These days a combination of in the know guidebooks (like LUXE city guides), blogs and picking up expat magazines or street press on arrival are how I (and presumably many others) prefer to get my travel tips.

And speaking of which – my priority (besides house-hunting, Singapore trip planning and a million other things) is to get my head around everything Saigon has to offer – after knowing where to go and what to do in Phnom Penh inside out, this will be a much more challenging task!

Pchum Ben – Festival of the dead

Liz / September 22, 2008 / 2 Comments

Offering food and money to the monks

On the weekend Steve’s staff let us tag along with them to a pagoda to make offerings as part of the lead up to Pchum Ben. Pchum Ben is a religious holiday where Cambodians remember their deceased loved ones, and in the two weeks prior to the holiday Cambodia’s temples and pagodas are packed with people bringing food, money and offerings to the monks. Read more about it here.

Our friends decided to go to a poorer pagoda a little outside Phnom Penh, since they figured that those in the city will receive alot of visitors hence alot of money and food – good thinking! We headed across the Japanese bridge then out of town for a while to reach the temple. We certainly attracted a bit of attention (in a good way) and as usual our baby was a hit! There were people videotaping us and cute little toothless old people taking our photo.

Here are some more photos from the morning (by the way, I didn’t realise females are supposed to wear white so I’m wearing a hot pink t-shirt! Being a clueless barang I think I was forgiven).

An ultimate day in Phnom Penh

Liz / September 17, 2008 / 6 Comments

One of my favourite kinds of articles to read in travel magazines is of the ‘my perfect day in [fabulous city]’ variety, providing inspiration on the best places to see, shop, eat and drink in a certain place, so I thought I’d share some Phnom Penh ideas before I leave for sunny Saigon.

Here’s what you could do for the ultimate Phnom Penh day (albeit a very girly one). Let’s also pretend that just for one day there’s no rubbish or beggars on the streets, lecherous sexpats lurking around or aggressive Lexus drivers careening down the wrong side of Norodom Boulevard at 100 kilometres an hour – this is make believe remember!