Three months in Singapore, Australia and Cambodia - the good, the bad and the ugly

Time flies when you’re having fun!

Boy, how fast did the past three months fly by!

As usual, I’m far behind in writing posts about what I did and saw.

There are at least 10 more articles coming up about Sydney, Australia, where I had three wonderful weeks.

I have not even begun to blog about my trip to Siem Reap, Cambodia. We stayed there for five days and visited Angkor Wat and other temples. It was impressive, but hot. So excruciatingly hot.

My last Singapore reports date back from around Chinese New Year and Chingay in february/march.

And I have not written anything yet about my lovely trip to Groningen, the Netherlands, last winter.

All in due time, folks, all in due time…

So what happened in the past three months?

I titled this post ‘the good, the bad and the ugly’. Let’s begin with some of ‘the good’.

I’m always happy to come back home in Singapore, enjoy my coffees in the mornings while overlooking palm trees and hearing the orioles sing, watch TV- series on DVD at night, together with Frits, have dinner at home (or out), and meet friends.

The series we binge-watched the last three months were A-MA-ZING!

1. House of Cards, season 1 and 2
2. Masters of Sex
3. The Sandhamm Murders
4. The Legacy
5. Fargo, the series

Going back to Singapore means going back to Frits. We loved our three months together, as usual.
(Going back to Holland always means leaving Frits behind, which is never a happy prospect. That’s one of the ‘bad’ points.)

1. Taking a welfie in the elevator of the Beaumont where we live in Singapore. 2. In our tuk-tuk in Siem Reap, Cambodia. 3. No idea what Frits hand is doing there. When I asked him he had no clue either. Anyho, don’t think he’s about to strangle me or anything like that. It was very windy that day as you can see from our wet-look sleek hairdo’s;-) 4. Frits coming down from a temple. That moment I was so p*ssed that I COULD have strangled him. A story for another blogpost.

About #OOTD’s, my bestie and yummie food

What else happened?

Well, since I hardly ever go see a hairdresser, my hair kept growing (duh), allowing me all sorts of hair do’s.

And as usual I have been wearing lots of bold colors and doing some serious pattern mixing in my #OOTD’s.

About twice a week I did my nails, as I always do. I just looooove playing with colors and patterns, like polkadots. I have at least 25 colors of nail polish, if not more.

Very rarely I go for a manicure. Actually only if my BFF in Singapore asks me to accompany her.

Superficial, frivolous stuff, I know. It’s part of who and how I am. It makes me happy and I know it makes (at least some of the) people around me happy too.

The past months/year I lived more or less in denial in regards to my diabetes.

From a strict diet I went back to eating and drinking everything. Croissants, mangos, cocktails and fries, lots of fries. Bring it on!

All the bad stuff that tastes sooooo yummie!

1. Yummie fruit pancake in Siem Reap 2. Great coffee in Newtown, Sydney 3. Frits enjoying a Belgian! beer in Siem Reap 4. Khmer cuisine in restaurant Embassy, Siem Reap 5. Frits about to grill frog legs (brrrr…) on this table stove 6. Birthday song and dessert for one of Frits’ colleagues in Sydney 7. Fruity welcome drink in our hotel Navutu Dreams, Siem Reap 8. Waiting for our meal in the colonial FCC restaurant in Siem Reap 9. En joying a home-made Aperol Spritz in Singapore.

And I enjoyed each and every carb and calorie!

The weight gain that followed, was less enjoyable. And when the doc told me my bloodsugar levels were too high -again- I went off carbs cold turkey. Boohoo….all that yummie stuff…no more for me.

So food and alcohol shifted from being something ‘good’ to something on ‘the bad side’.

Trip to Cambodia

We saw lots of temples in Cambodia, since Siem Reap is all about temples.

Left: Angkor Wat. Right Tah Promhn, the Jungle Temple.

We were fascinated by the endless rows of beautiful statues around those temples.

Visiting the temples we sometimes came across strange and/or annoying phenomena. Pictures 2 and 3 behold some of ‘the ugly’ of the past months. Hahaha….

1. Children playing in the water near Angkor Wat, while a group op monks in the background takes selfies with a smartphone and with a tablet. Monks ARE allowed to accept gifts, so the phones and other gadgets are usually given to them by devotees. 2. Besides the heat and the lack of shade at the temple sites, part two of the hell there is the mass tourism, especially in the form of (chinese) tour groups. This family was not a group, but very annoying as well. All dressed alike in hideous orange-parents completely similar, from Crocs to straw hats- they asked their private guide to take pictures in front of everything. Now take one more. An another one. And …etc… Grrr… 3. Around Bayon Temple, dozens of monkeys roam around. As long as they keep their distance it’s ok, but no close encounters for me please. Nasty buggers they can be, with seriously scary teeth. 4. Strange tree species. Apparently it grows work-helmets…hahaha

Flowers, fashion, weird shoes and quirky things

I’m always on the look out for flowers, since they are so pretty and can smell lovely! Like the frangipani in Cambodia; that scent is divine!

Left: Sylvia and me in front of a wall with real flowers. Don’t we look weird pretty-in-pink?! Middle: a virtual kiss with virtual flowers for my mum at Mothers Day. Right: a girl at our hotel sat here every morning to fold lotus flowers in intricate patterns. She taught me how to fold a simple form. Pretty!

Another thing that always catches my eye are ‘strange shoes‘.

1. Three fashionistas at a fashion show. The one on the left and one the right have big platforms under their shoes. Especially the shoes of the left lady are special. 2. Shoes with deer-heels from Irregular Choice. Super funky! 3. Sylvia’s ‘extreme heels’. 4. Philippino maids in super high plateaus. 5. Lady wearing strange-shaped heels.

As a matter of fact, anything strange will catch my eye. I happen to have a fascination for all things quirky, weird, outsider, different and colorful.

1. Street art in Newtown, Sydney 2. Crazy quirky taxidermy art in The Bearded Tit, Sydney 3. Superheros and manga characters in Singapore 4. “The Happiness Family”. A display in the Cambodian Heritage Village. This ‘dream family’ made me laugh.

More peculiar sh*t (while in Cambodia):

Thanks to my fashion blogger friend Sylvia there were fashion shows to catch in Singapore…

On the left: my friend Sylvia during one of the fashion shows. She sat in the audience, while I was taking pictures from inside the photographers booth. On the right, up: a gorgeous model. But many of the models in that show were almost skeletal. One of them had breasts, while the rest was practically flat, like the girl in the picture. I thought the model world had already come back from using way too skinny models, but not here. Right, bottom: the models in this show were all asian and looked pretty normal for a model. I liked the collection of this designer.

….. celebrities to meet…..

On the left: Lady Gaga and me. Okay, she is not real. It is a wax statue, standing in front of Singapore’s new wax museum. If this scale is correct, than Lady Gaga is tiny! On the right: on top we see Diane Von Furstenberg, who was very entertaining in her interview. On the bottom right: Cate Blanchett, SKII ambassador, being interviewed.

… and fashionistas to be amazed by.

On the left: it’s not a clear picture, but the huge tattoo on the back of this lady intrigued me. It’s a couple about to kiss. Can you see it? On the right: these three ladies intrigued me too. Especially the lady on the left. Her whole look is wow. From her blue/purple hair to her studded plateaus. No idea who she is. Do you think that it is her real hair? Or is she wearing a wig?

Tour guiding visitors from overseas

Several Dutchies came to Singapore.

Old friends as well as new friends.

First there were my friend Marieke from Haarlem with a friend of hers, Kasper, a pilot.

1. Marieke and Kasper picking the nose of this mega-huge mask at Haw Par Villa 2. “Auch, it bites!” Marieke acting with a tiger in Haw Par Villa 3. Frits, Kasper and Marieke on 1-Altitude, the rooftop bar with the amazing views 4. Marieke and me, kissing (fake) Kasper, at rooftop bar Indochine with Marina Bay Sands in the background 5. Marieke and I at Blu Jazz Cafe in Singapore

Then Axel came over, a long-time friend of Frits.

Left: Axel and Frits walking the Southern Ridges (and yes, it was a hot day!) Right: four super heroes;-)

We loved those visits from our dear friends!!!

Then there were new acquaintances:

Jon (picture below, left, on the left) is the spouse of Celeste, my bestie. Steve (not in the pics) is one of HIS besties. While traveling, Steve (British) met a Dutch lady, in Portugal, and they are now an item. She is the woman sitting next to Jon. She turned out to be a fun and cool lady.

In the middle picture you see an Italian lady named Beatrice. And no, my nose IS not bla-hack; it’s just a shadow.

In the picture on the right you see only me, but this was a wild night, believe me! That’s a story for another time though.

Visitors from abroad need to be shown around. I enjoy being a ‘tour guide’, so there were lots of long walks and explorations of Singapore.

It did not bother me one bit, that -as a part of my tour guiding- I visited Haw Par Villa three times in a couple of weeks time. After all it IS my favorite place in Singapore.

Left: the colors of the faux-rocks at Haw Par Villa are so super cool! Right: to my delight, we ran into the man who -since more than 60 years- paints and repaints everything in Haw Par Villa. He happened to speak the same Chinese dialect as my bestie Celeste speaks, so thanks to that we were able to communicate. Wow!

Skies, snail mail, sketching and some belly shaking

I was able to watch a lot of spectacular skies, clouds and sunsets, while having all sorts of weather. From slightly chilly (a couple of days in Sydney) to bloody hot (Cambodia) and a lot of rain lately (Singapore).

As usual I sent tons of snail mail to family and friends. Being thrilled every time I received one.

I made illustrations for friends (upon request) and for my own blog. Always using the sublime app Paper53, which keeps getting better and better all the time. Highly recommended!

Sketch for a cookbook for friends.

We enjoyed this belly dance show during a Persian dinner in Singapore.

The lady was charming and pretty, but her belly dancing was -let’s say- a Singaporean version of what I consider to be real belly dancing. The belly dancing I know and like has more belly shivering and shaking and also simply ‘more belly’;-). Not that it bothered me; it was entertaining anyway.

The not so good: health issues

Unfortunately I had more than my fair share of health issues, the past months, with more meds and antibiotics than I care for. The return of my diabetes is not a good thing either.

But apart from my health, these were good months. Often great months even.

Let’s see what the upcoming summer in Holland beholds for me. Is it going to be any good? I’ll keep you posted!

What surprised/intrigued/spoke to you most in the overview and pictures you just read/looked at? How were your past three months? Good, bad or ugly?