Travelling with a Guide and Driver

Dec 2022

Travelling or touring Hokkaido is quite different from touring the other parts of Japan.

Hokkaido was only developed quite late - within the last 200 years. At which point, western advisers (consultants?) helped to plan the towns. Which is why if you go to cities like Sapporo and Asahikawa, you will find that the streets and avenues are laid out in a grid pattern, and the cities have a "North American" flavour to them. And the roads are quite well planned.

Whereas the roads in, say, Tokyo, or Kyoto are often very "organic" - roads were built over customary paths and trails created by people and carts taking the most convenient routes, buildings sprout where they will, and roads intersect to create junctions and mega-junctions.

Narrow Tokyo street.

Sensoryscape at Sentosa

 Sensoryscape opens 14 March 2024.

2023 Bib Gourmand list

 Introductory Video:

Every Country's Top Tourist Attraction.

According to Trip Advisor.

Link to the map.

Things "Americano"... and Singaporeana?

Buzzfeed ran an article about things Americans (US Citizens) miss when they go abroad. Or didn't realise was "American" until they couldn't get it. (Throughout this article, I'll use "American" to mean "US Citizen" cos that's what the article did. Apologies to Mexicans, Venezuelans, Peruvians, Brazilians, Ecuadorians, and other "Americans".)

Enormous Supermarket in US.

1 Free Ketchup. For Singaporeans, it would be chilli sauce.

2 Ranch as default dressing. Singaporeans - Soy Sauce?

3 Ubiquity of red Solo cups. No Singapore equivalent. Sorry.

4 Strong water pressure. Same.

5 Giant gaps in public restrooms. You're on your own here, America.

Daughter takes over famed Mr & Mrs Mohgan's Crispy Prata stall to fulfil father's last wish

The SMU accountancy graduate says she is “proud” of her father for putting her and her sister through university as a prata hawker, and has now taken over the business because she made a promise to her father.

 

(Photos: 8Days)

Yip Jieying

07 Jun 2023 

Mr & Mrs Mohgan's Crispy Prata is a famous name in Joo Chiat. Customers from all over Singapore flock to this hawker stall, willingly waiting for up to 90 minutes to get their fix for the couple’s exceptionally crispy flatbreads.

In March last year, Somasundram Mohgan died after suffering a heart attack. He was 56. After taking a break for six days, Saroja Mohgan, 56, returned to work helming the stall without her husband.

Tips for Visitors to Singapore

So you're coming to Singapore?

Not put off by descriptions of Singapore as "Disneyland with the Death Penalty"?

Not fazed by our "totalitarian dictatorship" country?

Willing to quit chewing gum cold turkey?

Tourists!

Can't live without them. 

How to turn a Hole in the Roof into a Tourist Attraction

 

JICA 1998 - the trip that started my love for Japan

 [In 1998, while I was with the Ministry, five of us were sent on a Friendship programme with the Japan International Cooperation Association - JICA. JICA has several programmes for the region, where citizens of the region (ASEAN members) are invited to visit Japan and learn from Japan. So participants from Social Welfare sector (like my organisation) would be invited to learn about Social Welfare in Japan. These trips were highly sought after, as it was all-expenses paid, and we even got some spending money! We were young, but even then we were (or at least I was) cynical bastards, and we suspected that this was also Japan trying to win friends and bribe South-East Asians into forgetting or forgiving them for the atrocities of WW II. 

Anyway, when we got back, I was asked to write an article for our in-house magazine or newsletter (I forgot which). This (below) was what I submitted.]

Here's how #ChatGPT describes Singapore with a sense of humour

"Singapore is like that neat-freak friend you have who vacuums their house every day and alphabetizes their spice rack. Everything is clean, organized, and efficient to the point where you might wonder if there's a secret government agency dedicated solely to keeping the streets spotless.

Citibank Global Wallet in Japan

 If you have a Citibank Global Wallet and you need an ATM in Japan to access your cash, go to a Seven-11 (or a 7-i) in Japan. And use theirATM. 

There is options for the instructions in English, and the option to skip info that you do not know.

And you can get your cash.

Urban Hawker in New York: Anthony Bourdain had the idea. How did this Singapore street-food market in New York turn out?

[Singapore Hawker Culture transplanted to New York]

Poached chicken rice from Hainan Jones at Urban Hawker in New York, on Jan 9, 2023.
Rachel Vanni/The New York Times

January 23, 2023


NEW YORK — Some people get excited each time New York City puts in a bid to host the Olympics. Not me. I think, “Who needs it?” The attention the Games bring may be helpful for Beijing, Tokyo, Paris, Los Angeles and other small, easily overlooked cities. But all I can think about is the traffic.

One plan I did support was the idea of building a sort of Olympic Village in Manhattan where top competitors from around the world could show off their speed and grace before cheering spectators. I refer, of course, to Bourdain Market, a gargantuan food hall that would have been modelled on the hawker centres of Singapore.

A Better Penguin Parade

We had previously, in 2018, had a tour to Phillip Island to catch the nightly Penguin Parade.

It was a "once in a lifetime experience"! That's what I say whenever I have an experience, and then say, "never again! Once in this lifetime is enough!"

The Penguin Parade of Phillip Island is a once in a lifetime event. 

If you're lucky or smart, you might even manage to skip it in this lifetime.

If the point is to get a really good view of penguins, the Penguin Parade at Asahiyama Zoo would be more satisfying!

The Great Waterfall Road: Hiking Japan's Oirase Gorge as seasons change

[Note: This is a news article, not my personal experience. This is now on my list to visit. And then Covid... Now it's on my wish list. But I am not much of a hiker. Certainly not for 5 hours!]

28 September, 2019

Our Man Hosono

Hosono-san making a HUGE snowball.

On the 22 Dec 2022, after 3 years stuck in Singapore because of the Pandemic (COVID 19), we finally left Singapore, winging our way to Japan (with a stopover at Taipei).

We flew on Scoot, a low cost carrier (a.k.a. budget airline), and we filled in the information requested by Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs for incoming travellers to declare their vaccination status.

I have rants about both Scoot and Japan's process (as well as Taiwan's process for transiting passengers), but I will save that for another post. 

Maybe.

This is about Hosono-san.

Why can't other airports be more like Changi?

 

As a Singaporean, trapped in Singapore for the last 3 years, I finally got to fly to Japan in Dec 2022.

With a stopover in Taipei.

The custom and immigration clearance for Taipei (even for transit passengers) and Japan (with its Covid screening measures) was hellish.

Billie Eilish performs at Cloud Forest (Gardens by the Bay), Singapore

 Sept 2022

Billie Eilish performs/records two songs at the Cloud Forest dome, Gardens by the Bay (GBTB), Singapore.

Seven Wonders of Singapore II - Food

Singapore's Hawker Culture is a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage. What this means is that you can come to Singapore, stay in the Marina Bay Sands hotel, take pictures of the Rain Vortex at Changi Jewel (at Changi Airport), see the Merlion, wander through Gardens By the Bay, and tick all the boxes of iconic sights of Singapore, but if you have not ate at a hawker centre, you have not really experienced the quintessential Singapore.

If you ask for a recommendation for a hawker centre, invariably, tourists are guided to Maxwell Road Hawker Centre (famous for Tian Tian Hainanese Chicken Rice), Lau Pa Sat (for their Satay and Barbequed Seafood), Newton Hawker Centre, and maybe Old Airport Road Hawker Centre (Char Kway Teow, and other food). 

Of the 4 hawker centres mentioned above, Lau Pa Sat and Newton cater to the tourist trade. You may read that to mean that they are "tourist traps", but this is Singapore. Even our so-called tourist traps have soft teeth. Lau Pa Sat has nice architecture and could offer some nice opportunities for photos/instagram.

Lau Pa Sat (outside view)

Seven Wonders of Singapore I - Seven Tourist Icons

Ask any Singaporean what is there to do or see in Singapore, and you are likely to get the jaded reply that Singapore is a boring place, with nothing to do or see.

And... in a sense they are right. For them.

But what would a tourist seeing Singapore for the first time be intrigued, if not impressed by?

Here are Singapore's, Seven Tourist Icons (Instagrammable!)

(my opinion).

Using SUICA (travel and convenience card) in Japan

If you have been to Japan, you might have seen signs for SUICA at train stations, or you might have seen other travellers (probably Japanese/locals), using a card for transit travel.  

The video above shows how to get such a card, charge it, and use it for train travel, buying from vending machines, and convenience stores.