Post Hawaii – a slippery downward slope?

I think it’s quite clear that with the cool, sunny weather, beautiful scenery and friendly people, Hawaii is one of my favourite places in the world.  So, the problem with starting my US trip in there is that every city after that seemed ‘ugly’, even though it was not.

SF's Sunset Beach

versus Hawaii's Kailua Beach

I flew to San Francisco after leaving Hawaii.  I’d only visited SF once, when I was 10.  I vaguely remember Fisherman’s Wharf, Alcatraz and the crooked (Lombard) street.  This time I only had 3 days, mainly catching up with friends who kindly drove up from LA to see me.  So, I had 1 day to sightsee and I did it on foot – and boy did I walk.  The difficult part was the hills (and SF has some major steep slopes!).  But it was a great way to see the central part of the city.  I was blessed with bright sunshine and clear skies so I was able to see the Golden Gate Bridge, which is apparently usually cloaked in fog.

The World's Crooked-est Street

The Golden Gate Bridge

SF Fine Arts Museum - featured in the movie, The Rock

Indian food with a Mexican twist

New York City came after that – two and a half weeks of non-stop activity, the complete opposite to my days of blissful idling in Hawaii.  My main objective of visiting NYC was to meet up with family, old friends and ex-colleagues.   To be honest, I didn’t plan on enjoying New York.  I’d been there many times in the past and it always overwhelmed me – the ‘’fierce’’ city people, the ‘’weird’’ people on the subways, the bright lights of Times Square, the noise of the traffic etc.  This time it gave me the adrenalin to be on the move all the time.  At the end of the day, I still looked forward to getting out of the hustle & bustle of Midtown and Downtown, retreating Uptown (where my aunt lived).

The bright lights of Times Square

I loved the accessibility to museums and theatre.  I went to the Museum of Art & Design, the Met, MoMA, watched 3 plays, a ballet (Giselle by the American Ballet Theatre) and 2 movies (The Avengers and Dark Shadows).

Sand painting at the Museum of Art & Design

The artist took 2 days to complete this, no design in mind, made it up as he went

The artist used candle smoke to cover the inside of the bottle after which he etched out the design by removing the soot

These bottles was part of a collection based on creating art out of pollution

There's a real embalmed deer inside the glass!

I also walked many many blocks on a daily basis and it was lovely to see the city's beautiful architecture.

The Chrysler building

Empire State building

Flatiron building

Freedom tower - almost completed

Can't remember the name of this building but it was designated as a historical building so architectures kept the shell and built a modern building from within

Central Park

Hudson river view from under the George Washington bridge

The little red lighthouse beneath the bridge

I discovered that even though New Yorkers have an aggressive air about them and always seem to be in a rush (which is more prevalent in busy cities), they will stop to help ladies carry strollers or suitcases up Subway stairs, give up their seats to people who need it more etc.  I wish I could see more of that in Singapore.

One highlight of my trip was my 1^st (the start of many) trip to Trader Joe’s.  I’d heard a lot about it … great place to get dried fruit, nuts, snacks etc at very affordable prices.  So, for me (a Chinese Singaporean) of course the ‘Cheap & Good’ aspect appealed to me!)  I loved the variety of Hummus (Edamame, Chipotle Pepper were my favourite), Organic Freetrade dark (70%) chocolate at half what other brands cost, Multi-grain sesame seed Pita chips, Pecan nuts … YUMMY!  They had a really nice tingly Tea Tree shampoo but the bottle was too big to lug around.

The entire Trader Joe's Tea Tree Tingle line

Infamous New York pizza

 

One ‘lowlight’ of my trip (because I was terrified) was a trip to a shooting range in Pennsylvania.  I had to fire 3 hand guns (I refused to fire a rifle) and was pretty rubbish at it.  The guns were really heavy (I could hardly cock the gun), not the easiest to fire and the recoil after each shot was shocking.  Thank you PAP for not making women do National Service.

3 shots out of 15 hit the target

at least it makes for an interesting photo ...

My uncle's house in Pennsylvania - there's a toilet in the kitchen .. or a kitchen sink in the bathroom?

 

My New York stay was awesome ... I think I should get a 'I love NY' tshirt

Hawaii Part 2 - in photos

I had to cover a yoga class for handicapped students ... haha!  Actually it's during the First Aid course I took.

  

My friend bought Leis for her daughter who had won a special award in school

I baked granola ... decided to give myself an award for it!

Ocean view from my favourite hike up to 2 WWII bunkers

View of the same 2 islands from the beach below

Mountain view from the bunkers

View from the same beach but looking up at the WWII bunkers

Hike up old railroad tracks .. starts gentle and then ends up really steep

View of Waikiki beach area from the top

Railroad track hike starts from the left of the picture

Cushion cover donated for a silent auction for a school fundraiser.  It was purposely hidden so as not to aggravate the Republicans but the Democrat supporters must have found it because it was sold!

 

Front view of my friend's house.  Houses in Hawaii are almost all wooden, compared to Singapore's concrete jungle

Truck that I drove  (wrong side of the car, wrong side of the road).  I actually had to slide out of it getting out - my feet couldn't touch the ground

Turtle on the North Shore

One Turtle, Many Tourists

The garden in the Contemporary Art Museum

Sculpture in the garden

Another sculpture

An amazing view coming off the H3 highway - one of my favourites!

A-W-E-S-O-M-E!!

In the last 6 months, every American I have met has used this word at least once.  Looks like ‘Awesome’ has replaced ‘Cool’ as the all-encompassing word to describe all things/people great.  I started hearing it in Mysore last year - everything and everyone good was ‘Awesome’.  When my New York cousins visited Singapore … they used it too.  One day, I heard my little nephew use it – he said, “Uncle Matt (my NY cousin) says this”.

This trend of course continued when I arrived in Hawaii.  Upon reflection, it is actually the perfect word to describe Hawaii … which is so totally Awesome!

I remember telling myself in the late 1990s that I wasn’t going to the USA for vacation anymore.  I had been fortunate to have travelled there a few times, mainly to the big cities.  The USA is a big country in many ways.  It is physically big (takes hours to travel from coast to coast, has multiple time-zones etc), there are big cars, big stores, big servings of food, big people etc.  I once saw a teenage whose arm was larger than my thigh.  Even though each city was unique, it was basically the same – American culture is distinct from the rest of the world. 

 

Hawaii is part of the USA, but it is different.  I am still amazed by the extent of the Asian influences (Japanese, Chinese, Filipino) due to the large number of Asians who came here to work on the plantations.  To me, it seems that Hawaii has the most number of Japanese people, outside of Japan.  There are big Japanese supermarkets and Japanese dishes are part of general everyday life – you can find musubi (glutinous rice balls wrapped in seaweed) in 7-11.  Singaporeans would definitely love them because they are usually topped with spam (ie our much-loved luncheon meat).

They also celebrate Girls and Boys day, as they would in Japan.  I was there just before Boys day.  Families raise carp-shaped flags – one for each boy in the family.  Carp because of the Chinese legend that a carp that swims upstream becomes a dragon, and the way the flags blow in the wind looks like they are swimming).

Small fish

Big fish

One thing that reminded me that I was in the US was prevalence of Starbucks outlets.  In that respect, Hawaii is no different from the rest of the United States.  In comparison to Australia, Americans drink their coffee with half&half or with low fat or fat-free milk.  In Australia, it’s mostly whole milk although you can get the ‘skinny’ option.

Here's a photo I took of 3 mugs of coffee, ranging from my very latte-ish milk-coffee to my friend's mum's.  I drank her coffee once (diluted with water), early in the morning.  I couldn't sleep that night! Never again, especially since her coffee has been referred to as ''hair of dog'' - meaning it'll put super-hairy hair on your chest! 

Singapore is very multi-racial but I find that there are more mixes (rojak) in Hawaii.  There’s ‘Houle’ (White / Ang Moh), Happa (what we would call Eurasian), the Asians, the Polynesians and the local Hawaiians.  In Singapore it’s common to see Asian women with Caucasian men, but Asian men with Caucasian women is a much rarer occurence.  Plus, mixes across the other races is not as common. One of my favourite past-times here is looking at extended families – because they are such an interesting mix (definitely ‘rojak’).  I have seen kids who look Ang Moh (blonde hair, blue eyes which are recessive genes) but with both parents who have dark hair and eyes.  You would never think they were related.  My good friends in Hawaii are an excellent example.  Here is a picture of what their daughter had pinned up on her bedroom wall, describing her ethnic make-up

The 3 kids look quite different, illustrating the contrasting make-up of their DNA.  I took close-up photos of their eyes.  Ideally I’d post photos of the kids too … but their dad is a bit protective.  I don’t want to incur his wrath since I want to go back and stay with them ;o)

People here are very relaxed.  Everyone wears flip-flops, shorts or beachwear  … everywhere.  Jeans are considered dressy.  When I go for a walk on the beach or around the neighbourhood, people always smile and say Hello.  Cars give way like crazy – I was taking a stroll the other day and a car waited for me to pass (even though I was miles away) before he turned into his driveway.

Hawaii has very beautiful scenary – mountains, gorgeous beaches and brilliantly clear waters.  This deserves a post on its own but here's a sample photo ... more awesome ones will follow soon.

You can see a kite-surfer in the distance .. this has become very popular especially on Kailua beach which is very windy

PS. I finally found a good muffin … the raisin bran muffin from Cosco (a hypermart which brought out my Chinese in me in terms of appreciation for free samples!)

Melbourne - Cafes, Coffee and Coffee

I’ve been to Melbourne twice, both in the summer.  The first time it was cold and gloomy.  The second, in 2008 for the Australian Open, was hot and sunny.  In Sydney, a Melbournite told me, “If you don’t like the weather in Melbourne, wait 5 minutes”.  He was of course referring to the unpredictable, variable weather.  This time, I was blessed with mostly beautiful weather, even though the week before I arrived was very cold.

Transport:

I was very fortunate to have a lovely place to stay, with the most gracious of hosts - who kept trying to feed me :o).  Yes, he's Singaporean.  Melbourne is transitioning to a tap on – tap off ticketing system (like our ez-link cards) covering trains, buses and trams.  One feature which I liked was a maximum daily charge (so you never paid more than $x/day).  There are also weekly or monthly travel packages.  Something the Singapore government should look into if they want to encourage people to take more public transport.

Melbourne is serviced by trams, which sometimes stop in the middle of the road.  This means that when you get off, you have to cross a lane of traffic in order to get to the side of the road.  

Melbourne tram - note the lane between the tram and side of the road

Cars are supposed to stop behind the tram and give way to passengers alighting from the tram.  I laughed to myself thinking of how this would NOT work in Singapore, where cars ignore  zebra crossings - actually some accelerate when they see one, I swear.  Passengers would probably be stuck on the tram in Singapore, trying not get hit by the cars!

Yoga:

One highlight was the warm, welcoming yoga community.  My good friend teaches morning Ashtanga classes and I had the pleasure of meeting 2 of her students in Mysore.  They became my ‘’kaki’’ for coffee after class, lunch, cheese&wine in the country, the international comedy festival, watching the pilot episode of Game of Thrones season 2 etc.   The Ashtanga yoga practitioners I get along with have a common love for ashtanga yoga, coffee/chai, food, chocolate and having a good laugh.  The Melbourne yoga crew were all that.  They didn’t take their yoga too seriously and could laugh about their practice and themselves - just my kind of people.  I had a great time with them, felt very at home and was sad to leave.

I was also fortunate to be given the opportunity to cover 4 morning Mysore classes because my friend was going out of town.  These were the first Mysore classes I’d taught in almost 6 months.  I was dubious about teaching because of my injured shoulder but the teaching assistants were brilliant and with such chill students, it was a pleasure to cover the classes.

Practice-wise, I could only do a baby practice.  As with any injury, one is faced with the dilemma of continuing to practice & working with the discomfort or resting completely.  Many concerned people (especially with medical connections) were uncomfortable with the fact that I continue to practice.  That planted some doubt in my mind, but having worked with this body in this way for more than 10 years, I am inclined to go with my instincts.  My practice actually became better in that even though physically I am not doing as much, mentally I’m more present and focused.  You have to in order to know how far to go and when to pull back.  I did continue to take it easy though, if anything felt too sore, I’d back off the next day.  It definitely helped to stretch and it was nice to continue my ‘yoga holiday’.

Sightseeing:
On the touristy side, Melbourne took me down the Art Gallery route.  I have a one-hour attention span with museums / galleries.  After that, my brain shuts down. After consultation with the Lonely Planet, I visited the 2 National Galleries of Victoria (NGV) - one dedicated to Australian art and the other, to International art.

NGV Australia

NGV International - the blurry background is actually recycled water running down the glass

10,000 pieces of individually cut glass make up this beautiful roof

I joined the free tours so I actually learned something instead of aimlessly wandering around. My favourite was the Indigenous art collection which surprised me with the bright, vibrant colours.

I also visited a beautiful garden which used to be the residence of 2 pioneer supporters of contemporary art in Melbourne.  The 2 houses (one old, one modern) were converted into art galleries and there are sculptures scattered throughout the spacious grounds.

Lifting my arms was actually painful - but have to 'ren' and smile instead of grimace

I happened to be in Melbourne during the International Comedy Festival.  The free acts by street performers were good fun.  I love comedy, especially stand-up so I also got tickets to see a local comedian.  Sadly, he wasn’t as great as the reviews found him. My ‘kaki’ who usually draw attention by laughing raucously in public were completely silent throughout the act.

I went on 2 outings to wine and cheese country.  I have a pretty rubbish wine palate and I am not a big fan of cheese (I like ordinary cheddar!) but it was really fun to get out of the city.  I guess the only reason I was invited was as a back-up driver?

Views from the Chandon vineyard in the Yarra Valley

My friend was supposed to be in the foreground - but he couldn't stand straight after the wine-tasting ;o)

Another tourist memory was visiting St Kilda’s beach (cold and windy like Brighton) at dusk to wait for the penguins to come home.  They’re a small species, even full-grown … very cute.  Lots of tourists come to watch the penguins swim in one by one, hop up onto the sand and disappear into their nests in the rocks.  My friend volunteers with a group that helps manage the tourists so that they don’t use white light flash or disturb the penguins.  Sadly, it’s my fellowmen, the Chinese tourists who ‘Bu Ting Hua’ ie don’t listen.

Full-grown penguin lit up by a torch covered with red cellophane paper

Food:

The search for the elusive ‘healthy’ bran/wholemeal muffin continued … and sadly didn’t end in Melbourne.  The coffee was SO GOOD though.

I’m not sure if it’s the quality of the coffee, milk, foam, the way they’re combined or all the above.   I drank one or two a day – so nice to sit in the ever-present sidewalk cafe.  Chai – what’s that? :o)  I had to wait for my latte once while they made another.  Apparently, the one they were going to give me didn’t pass the test.  It was too flat.  How’s that for quality control.

Good-bye Australia, I had a blast.  Time for some tropical weather with gorgeous views and lovely breezes.  Fun in the sun, while I watch from the shade … Hawaii, here I come!