travelswithalice

June 28, 2014

Victoria Harbour

My second favourite harbour.

Please please please don't ruin it!

Labels: Hong Kong, reclamation works, Victoria Harbour

posted by Alice Dimalanta Jones # June 28, 2014

June 19, 2014

Late posts from holiday

I feel there hasn't been enough reportage on our holiday; even though I tried to do real time reporting when I could. It wasn't always possible of course, or even desirable. Here then are some late postings from that holiday.

In London with Lorna

I met up with Lorna, who with husband Tom, seems to be on the same travel circuit as Stuart and me. So we've been able to meet up in Singapore, Manila, New York, and now London.

I had read somewhere that Dinings is Monocle editor Tyler Brulé's favorite restaurant in London, so I just had to try it. Lorna and I are perfectly matched for this Japanese tapas experience. We're both not keen on meat or rice but both keen to try everything else on offer.

We looked at what everybody else was having. Easy to do in the tiny restaurant where tables are packed close in a poky basement room with little decoration and just the one window.

"What is that?" Lorna asked our server, pointing to a dish at the next table. So we had whatever it was with the pretty pink block of Himalayan salt as well.

That, on top of everything else we had already polished off, savoring every delicious, beautiful, stylish morsel.

Afterwards, we tried to walk off the meal, ambling aimlessly around the newly gentrified and trendified Marylebone district, trying on dresses, wandering in and out of shoe shops (one sold only shoes for people with very small feet ; another sold only outsize shoes, big as boats) and trying to find the perfect coffee shop with the perfect pastries. Then we got lost walking in Hyde Park, and finally ended up at the Hilton, too late for coffee and scones but right on time for cocktails.

Clerkenwell Design Week, St. John Street

Photogenic London

San Sebastián

This must be the place! The landscape, the parks, the sea, the beach, the air, and oh the food!

This feels like such a gentle place. People are so nice, quick to smile. They strike up conversations with ease. Stuart and I make friends everywhere. Children are happy and well-behaved. Maybe that's because people here take their kids with them everywhere, at all hours it seems. I've just seen an infant, not even a month old, in a bar.

There is the wine too, of course. My current favorite is Txakoli, the local white wine. It's very dry, acidic, lightly sparkling, and cheerfully poured from a height into a tall glass.

At the hotel bar

Hotel bars are not usually our scene but something about Martinis Bar at the Maria Cristina seemed almost irresistibly retro. In movies, the hotel bar is where people meet interesting characters. We did here too.

The couple from Vancouver who drove across from France, got lost somewhere in Bordeaux, and finally got to the Maria Cristina at midnight. By the time the bar closed at way past bedtime for Stuart and me, we knew all about the first and second marriages for each of them, their respective children, his and hers, his business, their homes, her London hairdresser (she has to find all kinds of excuses to travel to London so she can have her hair done), and how he had thrown his GPS out the car window earlier that night after they got lost and almost checked into the wrong hotel in the wrong country.

There's the portly gentleman from Lebanon, more recently residing in London, who sailed in mightily, like a warship, at a few minutes to closing time. We compared hotel preferences for holidays and for business. Most of his choices were not in the same league as ours. In London, he prefers, and resides in, Claridges. He was to drive- actually to be driven in a long black limo- in the morning to Bilbao just to see the Guggenheim. I really shouldn't have told him, poor man, but he really shouldn't have asked me, what I thought of it. I saw him again in the lobby the next day as we were checking out and he was setting off for Bilbao. We hoped to see each other again some time. Maybe in London, we said.

Labels: Clerkenwell, Dinings, Holiday, late posts, London, San Sebastian

posted by Alice Dimalanta Jones # June 19, 2014

Singapore

In Singapore for two weeks.

It feels good to be back. Back in the city where Stuart and I have so far spent most of our married life. Back where I began and ended my working life as an ex-banker, after Citibank, after Rothschild. Back to hotel living and all-day breakfasts, lounging in the lounge and beautiful chocolate truffles, the BBC Entertainment channel and super fast wifi.

Most fun of all, back to sharing life stories and endless foodie adventures with Singapore friends.

I loved being back at the Tanglin Club for my all-time favorite Mulligatawny soup and grilled Ikan Kurau at the Tavern. Being there with old friends made it a celebration despite the sobering discussion of a recent death in our ranks. There were drinks and more stories after lunch as we killed time before various errands and responsibilities claimed the more responsible members of the group.

At various times, various friends join me for get togethers at the Grand Club, usually while I wait for Stuart in the evenings. Some of my girlfriends come and we all wait for our husbands to come back from work. There are new restaurants to try, cafes, shops.

Life in Singapore has not changed much. Or has it?

In the midst of this blissful, joyful coming home, a stink bomb: a hate blog! And then I'm suddenly made aware of all this talk about the unwelcome, unwanted, hated Filipinos in Singapore. There are reportedly several sites and blogs devoted to this. Makes one think….

I just realized that although I have lots of friends in Singapore, I don't really have Singaporean friends. I have met, worked with, and socialized with Singaporeans, but none of them have become friends. Yeah, makes one think…

Having friends is essential when one is living and working in a country other than one's own. One doesn't expect to be friends with everybody, surely. However, one doesn't expect to be hated by those who are not one's friends, does one?

I don't. This creeps me out. Big time. :(

Labels: Singapore