Francesca and Henk-Jan's Backpacking Trip!
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
A Night of Horrors...
Hi everyone!
Francesca here. I'm going to tell you about the way Henk and I spent our first Halloween together. Henk, being Dutch, has never really celebrated Halloween before -- especially not the way most Americans do it. You know how 'into' Halloween we get! The NYC Halloween Parade, Halloween Horror Nights in Orlando, Trick-or-Treating and Halloween parties... it's a preeetty big deal.
Anyways, I explained this to Henk as we watched some videos of the NYC Halloween Parade and discussed what our plans for Halloween should be this year. We had picked up a brochure when we got to Singapore on 'Halloween Horrors,' an October-only version of Singapore's famous 'Night Safari' that included creepy ghouls and props. Sounded cool enough! We also later found out that one of the museums we were interested in visiting, the Asian Civilizations Museum, was offering a free admissions night on Halloween -- complete with free ice-cream, candy, and special shows/events! Sweet!
Even though it would be difficult to squeeze in both events, we thought it was worth a shot to attend the Night Safari first (it started around 7:00 pm) and then head to the museum, which was supposed to stay open until 1:00 am. The morning of the 31st, Henk and I attempted to sleep in (we did have a long night ahead of us...) but we had to get up early because we thought we had to switch rooms. However, when we went downstairs to get breakfast, we were informed that switching rooms wasn't necessary yet... gahh! That meant we could have slept in! Oh well.
We still decided to relax that morning, watching an entire marathon of the latest season of 'Top Chef.' The only real break from 'taking a break' that we had was going out to the nearby mall to purchase some safety pins for our costumes. Henk and I had previously gone to a costume store a little ways from the hostel to search for some costumes to rent, thinking it would be both wiser and cheaper to rent costumes than buy them due to our 'traveling' situation. However, we quickly realized that renting any slightly decent (not gross looking and worn) outfit, would be really pricey. $70-$100 Singapore Dollars per outfit! ($50-$70 USD) Not very ideal...
Therefore, we instead picked up some really cool (and eerily freaky!) masks from a grocery store at one of the malls we were at (we had initially checked Toys-R-Us but they were completely sold out of costumes) and paired them with these thin black scarves we got (4 for $10) from Chinatown. Originally, we figured we would use some safety-pins to pin the scarves together to make a black cloak for each of us to wear along with our masks.
However, we realized once Henk pinned them that this left a few rather large holes in the cloak. Henk re-pinned a third scarf over the other two, covering up the big holes but leaving us with only material for one full cloak. Trying to improvise, Henk decided a thick, dark poncho we owned could work as a cloak, and I wrapped one of the scarves around the hood to make it look more 'freaky.' It worked! Plus rather than paying a couple hundred $ for costumes, we made ours for less than $30 total. Awesome!
Anyways, after we finished making our costumes, it was pretty much time to leave for our evening Halloween events. We were a bit worried about getting tickets for the Halloween Night Safari (we heard it might get sold out or have long lines) so we jumped in a cab to save time and zipped over there around 5:30 pm. We bought our tickets and started to explore, watching the sky the entire time. As we were leaving for the Night Safari, I had looked up at the dark clouds and worried aloud that I hoped it wouldn't rain. Despite my small prayer for the clouds to stay closed, we weren't as lucky as we hoped... as we were wandering around the park entrance, it started to downpour.
Henk had gotten a bit hungry, so we took shelter by joining another couple at their table while waiting for his burger to arrive. We learned that the couple was from Perth! Interesting coincidence, since we just came from Perth to Singapore! We chatted with them for a while, collectively sighing about the extreme rain which had made such a sudden appearance. Eventually, despite hearing over the loudspeaker that the 'Train of Terror' (the 'horror' version of the Night Safari tram which we had paid to go on) was delayed due to the rain, we made our way to the park to investigate what was going on.
Yes, the 'Train of Terror' was delayed (the 'creepy' characters are wearing make-up after all, so they couldn't really perform in the rain) but the regular Night Safari tram was still running, and we were allowed to go on it for free due to the delay. 'Alright,' we thought, 'at least we'll get to do something here.' So, we waited in the long line for the regular tram. While waiting, we decided to show off our new costumes, and put the masks on while in line. The looks we got were awesome! Even though our masks didn't have much detail, the lack of detail and 'blank' faces really seemed to creep people out! Henk really enjoyed our sudden 'new' ability to freak out the little kids (and some not so little kids!) in line. One girl even had to hide her face in her friend's shirt as I stared her down and slowly leered at her...
Once we made it onto the tram, we had an awesome ride! Despite not being on the 'Train of Terror,' the Night Safari tram itself consisted of us moving on an open tram through different 'areas' of animals. These animals were kept away from the tram (and each other! hyenas and deer were right next to each other in the open!) by nothing but some strategically placed trenches. Henk tried to explain how the animals couldn't jump that far, but I was having a hard time buying it... a lion couldn't jump or maneuver around such a short distance to get its paws on some juicy giraffe or buffalo? But I guess somehow it really does work, or there would be bloodshed for sure already, seeing how close those creatures were to one another.
Anyways, after the tram ride it was still raining, so we took a quick walk through the 'Bridge of No Return' which had lots of scary props and was supposed to have actors dressed in their creepy costumes jumping out to scare us. Since the rain hadn't let up yet, there were no actors, which left us feeling a bit let down. Couldn't they have had actors were scary masks rather than make-up, as a back-up plan in case of rain? As soon as we finished our walk, we came back to the start of the long tram lines and Henk was told some great news. The 'Train of Terror' was finally going to open! YAY! We jumped in line and donned our masks again, creeping out some more fellow park-goers.
When we got on the train, we were confused at first. There was a woman guiding the tram, but she was reading the EXACT same script we had heard on the regular tram just an hour before. But in a creepy voice! What was going on... it seemed to be pretty much the exact same tour -- no one in costumes, nothing too scary. We had almost written the experience off and were discussing leaving the park when at the end of what would have been the 'normal' tram ride, the tram took a turn. Ah! This is what we had been waiting for... finally we saw some great costumes and some creepy looking characters. It wasn't close to Halloween Horror Nights, but it was still pretty cool for what we paid.
After the second tram ride, we did the walk-through of the 'Bridge of No Return' again, and this time it did have actors. Good! We moved through quickly because there were some pretty annoying clusters of people stopping in the middle of the pretty narrow pathways to take pictures of the actors. At least move to the side, you know? Next we had a long wait in a taxi-line trying to get a cab back into the city. Henk and I had budgeted enough time to make it to the museum before the events ended, and we had even asked one of the girls at check-in for the Night Safari if it was going to be crowded, and if we should consider booking a cab for pick-up. 'No,' she had told us, 'there won't be a line.' Not true...
We got to the Asian Civilizations Museum a few minutes before the activities ended, and we did get to see the end of one of the magician shows the program had described. Sadly, they were out of free ice-cream and candy. :( No candy for us on Halloween... Henk promised we would get some candy the next day though, so it was all good. :) The museum's galleries were open (including the usually extra cost Philippines history exhibit) until 1:00 am. Since we arrived around 11:30 pm, we had plenty of time to see everything. But Henk wasn't ready to let his first experience of Halloween go yet! He put his mask and cape back on, and we set off to see the exhibits.
I have to say, it was extremely interesting to have a tall, masked, dark-cloaked figure following me in the exhibits. I would look towards the mirrored displays, and find myself slightly creeped out since I couldn't see it was Henk! Henk even managed to scare me as I was walking through a mini 'display' house by simply standing in the window and staring inside... grrr! It was almost comical to see the new-found level of 'celebrity' Henk had reached with his outfit on. People were stopping him to pose and take pictures with him, commenting on his look. Far more interesting to watch than the exhibits at the museum! We did manage to see everything at the museum, but having been to so many Singapore museums already; it was mostly repetition... so we just had some fun!
After the museum closed, we made a quick stop at Raffles Hotel on the way to the subway station. It was large and elaborate, but had typical upscale shops and decor so we didn't spend much time looking around. Oh! Henk also let me grab a chicken sandwich from McDonalds as a special Halloween treat before we went to Raffles... and we won a $10 voucher from JetStar Airlines through the Monopoly game. Woot!
We jumped in a cab back to the hostel since the subway had closed. I asked Henk what he thought of 'His First Halloween,' and despite our few inconveniences, he considered it a success! Yesss! But next year, we are for sure going to Halloween Horror Nights...
After Halloween, Henk and I still had a few days left in Singapore. We decided to mostly relax, taking it easy after our adventure. Especially after going through the short hassle of switching rooms early that morning, we wanted to rest! We stayed in bed all day, watching movies and series... Henk only left a few times to bring me back a kong bak pao (shredded pork, onions, and lettuce with a soy sauce mix inside a steamed open bun) and to get us some dinner of sweet and sour pork and some mystery dish for himself. We didn't manage to get a picture of the kong bak pao (I ate it too fast!) but here is one we found online as an example.
On November 2nd we planned to go to the 'Full Moon Party' we had heard about at the Lagnaa barefoot dining restaurant. There was supposed to be a Chilli eating contest and a 'thosai' making lesson. We worked on our blog and relaxed for another morning, because it started raining really hard again. We did don our ponchos and venture out to the City Square Mall to grab some lunch of curry for Henk and spaghetti with garlic bread for myself. (I had a craving...) Since we had eaten pretty late (it was about 3:00 pm when we got lunch) we decided to not eat dinner at Lagnaa, just checking out the events instead.
The party ran from 7:00 pm until 10:00 pm, but we didn't get there until around 9:00 pm, since we were so full. We spoke with the woman in charge and decided to just purchase some drinks and a $10 'thosai fillings' platter. Sadly, we didn't really get to see anyone 'doing' the chilli challenge, as it was pretty low-key, simply try to eat your meal at a very high spice level. That was alright though; we were fine just learning how to make the thosai. Her husband then proceeded to teach us how to make the thosai, helping us as we attempted to create our own.
Step One: Rub half an onion in cooking oil, and apply the oil in a medium sized circle on a hot plate.
Step Two: Use a spray bottle with water to cook down the plate, giving it a small spray.
Step Three: Grab out a ladle full of thosai batter (ours was pre-made for us) and drip it in the center of the oil circle.
Step Four: Start making circles with the ladle in the center of the batter drop. At least three circles in the center, then a couple more moving outwards should create a large, porous batter circle.
Step Five: Wait for the batter to cook completely, making sure all of the white spots go light brown.
Step Six: Drop any desired filling into the center of the batter circle. Our choices for condiments were an egg mixture, onions, cottage cheese, and a masala mixture. Depending on the type of thosai, you can choose to fold it in half or leave it flat.
Step Seven: EAT! I enjoyed the onions and cheese, while Henk tried the masala. We went through the process we were taught on our own three more times each, making sure to take a bunch of pictures of each step!
Completely stuffed, we made our way back to the hostel. November 3rd was a day for packing bags and paying one last visit to Chinatown (where we re-visited the large temple) and Bugis (where we tried to exchange the purse I had gotten but were denied!) where we sinned again on more McDonalds. I did win two free apple pies from our Monopoly tickets though! But I'm getting the feeling we probably shouldn't eat fast food for a while... we were doing so well! We said 'Goodbye' to Singapore that evening, getting ready for our flight to Jakarta the next morning!
Francesca
Francesca here. I'm going to tell you about the way Henk and I spent our first Halloween together. Henk, being Dutch, has never really celebrated Halloween before -- especially not the way most Americans do it. You know how 'into' Halloween we get! The NYC Halloween Parade, Halloween Horror Nights in Orlando, Trick-or-Treating and Halloween parties... it's a preeetty big deal.
Anyways, I explained this to Henk as we watched some videos of the NYC Halloween Parade and discussed what our plans for Halloween should be this year. We had picked up a brochure when we got to Singapore on 'Halloween Horrors,' an October-only version of Singapore's famous 'Night Safari' that included creepy ghouls and props. Sounded cool enough! We also later found out that one of the museums we were interested in visiting, the Asian Civilizations Museum, was offering a free admissions night on Halloween -- complete with free ice-cream, candy, and special shows/events! Sweet!
Even though it would be difficult to squeeze in both events, we thought it was worth a shot to attend the Night Safari first (it started around 7:00 pm) and then head to the museum, which was supposed to stay open until 1:00 am. The morning of the 31st, Henk and I attempted to sleep in (we did have a long night ahead of us...) but we had to get up early because we thought we had to switch rooms. However, when we went downstairs to get breakfast, we were informed that switching rooms wasn't necessary yet... gahh! That meant we could have slept in! Oh well.
We still decided to relax that morning, watching an entire marathon of the latest season of 'Top Chef.' The only real break from 'taking a break' that we had was going out to the nearby mall to purchase some safety pins for our costumes. Henk and I had previously gone to a costume store a little ways from the hostel to search for some costumes to rent, thinking it would be both wiser and cheaper to rent costumes than buy them due to our 'traveling' situation. However, we quickly realized that renting any slightly decent (not gross looking and worn) outfit, would be really pricey. $70-$100 Singapore Dollars per outfit! ($50-$70 USD) Not very ideal...
Therefore, we instead picked up some really cool (and eerily freaky!) masks from a grocery store at one of the malls we were at (we had initially checked Toys-R-Us but they were completely sold out of costumes) and paired them with these thin black scarves we got (4 for $10) from Chinatown. Originally, we figured we would use some safety-pins to pin the scarves together to make a black cloak for each of us to wear along with our masks.
However, we realized once Henk pinned them that this left a few rather large holes in the cloak. Henk re-pinned a third scarf over the other two, covering up the big holes but leaving us with only material for one full cloak. Trying to improvise, Henk decided a thick, dark poncho we owned could work as a cloak, and I wrapped one of the scarves around the hood to make it look more 'freaky.' It worked! Plus rather than paying a couple hundred $ for costumes, we made ours for less than $30 total. Awesome!
Anyways, after we finished making our costumes, it was pretty much time to leave for our evening Halloween events. We were a bit worried about getting tickets for the Halloween Night Safari (we heard it might get sold out or have long lines) so we jumped in a cab to save time and zipped over there around 5:30 pm. We bought our tickets and started to explore, watching the sky the entire time. As we were leaving for the Night Safari, I had looked up at the dark clouds and worried aloud that I hoped it wouldn't rain. Despite my small prayer for the clouds to stay closed, we weren't as lucky as we hoped... as we were wandering around the park entrance, it started to downpour.
Henk had gotten a bit hungry, so we took shelter by joining another couple at their table while waiting for his burger to arrive. We learned that the couple was from Perth! Interesting coincidence, since we just came from Perth to Singapore! We chatted with them for a while, collectively sighing about the extreme rain which had made such a sudden appearance. Eventually, despite hearing over the loudspeaker that the 'Train of Terror' (the 'horror' version of the Night Safari tram which we had paid to go on) was delayed due to the rain, we made our way to the park to investigate what was going on.
Yes, the 'Train of Terror' was delayed (the 'creepy' characters are wearing make-up after all, so they couldn't really perform in the rain) but the regular Night Safari tram was still running, and we were allowed to go on it for free due to the delay. 'Alright,' we thought, 'at least we'll get to do something here.' So, we waited in the long line for the regular tram. While waiting, we decided to show off our new costumes, and put the masks on while in line. The looks we got were awesome! Even though our masks didn't have much detail, the lack of detail and 'blank' faces really seemed to creep people out! Henk really enjoyed our sudden 'new' ability to freak out the little kids (and some not so little kids!) in line. One girl even had to hide her face in her friend's shirt as I stared her down and slowly leered at her...
Once we made it onto the tram, we had an awesome ride! Despite not being on the 'Train of Terror,' the Night Safari tram itself consisted of us moving on an open tram through different 'areas' of animals. These animals were kept away from the tram (and each other! hyenas and deer were right next to each other in the open!) by nothing but some strategically placed trenches. Henk tried to explain how the animals couldn't jump that far, but I was having a hard time buying it... a lion couldn't jump or maneuver around such a short distance to get its paws on some juicy giraffe or buffalo? But I guess somehow it really does work, or there would be bloodshed for sure already, seeing how close those creatures were to one another.
Anyways, after the tram ride it was still raining, so we took a quick walk through the 'Bridge of No Return' which had lots of scary props and was supposed to have actors dressed in their creepy costumes jumping out to scare us. Since the rain hadn't let up yet, there were no actors, which left us feeling a bit let down. Couldn't they have had actors were scary masks rather than make-up, as a back-up plan in case of rain? As soon as we finished our walk, we came back to the start of the long tram lines and Henk was told some great news. The 'Train of Terror' was finally going to open! YAY! We jumped in line and donned our masks again, creeping out some more fellow park-goers.
When we got on the train, we were confused at first. There was a woman guiding the tram, but she was reading the EXACT same script we had heard on the regular tram just an hour before. But in a creepy voice! What was going on... it seemed to be pretty much the exact same tour -- no one in costumes, nothing too scary. We had almost written the experience off and were discussing leaving the park when at the end of what would have been the 'normal' tram ride, the tram took a turn. Ah! This is what we had been waiting for... finally we saw some great costumes and some creepy looking characters. It wasn't close to Halloween Horror Nights, but it was still pretty cool for what we paid.
After the second tram ride, we did the walk-through of the 'Bridge of No Return' again, and this time it did have actors. Good! We moved through quickly because there were some pretty annoying clusters of people stopping in the middle of the pretty narrow pathways to take pictures of the actors. At least move to the side, you know? Next we had a long wait in a taxi-line trying to get a cab back into the city. Henk and I had budgeted enough time to make it to the museum before the events ended, and we had even asked one of the girls at check-in for the Night Safari if it was going to be crowded, and if we should consider booking a cab for pick-up. 'No,' she had told us, 'there won't be a line.' Not true...
We got to the Asian Civilizations Museum a few minutes before the activities ended, and we did get to see the end of one of the magician shows the program had described. Sadly, they were out of free ice-cream and candy. :( No candy for us on Halloween... Henk promised we would get some candy the next day though, so it was all good. :) The museum's galleries were open (including the usually extra cost Philippines history exhibit) until 1:00 am. Since we arrived around 11:30 pm, we had plenty of time to see everything. But Henk wasn't ready to let his first experience of Halloween go yet! He put his mask and cape back on, and we set off to see the exhibits.
I have to say, it was extremely interesting to have a tall, masked, dark-cloaked figure following me in the exhibits. I would look towards the mirrored displays, and find myself slightly creeped out since I couldn't see it was Henk! Henk even managed to scare me as I was walking through a mini 'display' house by simply standing in the window and staring inside... grrr! It was almost comical to see the new-found level of 'celebrity' Henk had reached with his outfit on. People were stopping him to pose and take pictures with him, commenting on his look. Far more interesting to watch than the exhibits at the museum! We did manage to see everything at the museum, but having been to so many Singapore museums already; it was mostly repetition... so we just had some fun!
After the museum closed, we made a quick stop at Raffles Hotel on the way to the subway station. It was large and elaborate, but had typical upscale shops and decor so we didn't spend much time looking around. Oh! Henk also let me grab a chicken sandwich from McDonalds as a special Halloween treat before we went to Raffles... and we won a $10 voucher from JetStar Airlines through the Monopoly game. Woot!
We jumped in a cab back to the hostel since the subway had closed. I asked Henk what he thought of 'His First Halloween,' and despite our few inconveniences, he considered it a success! Yesss! But next year, we are for sure going to Halloween Horror Nights...
After Halloween, Henk and I still had a few days left in Singapore. We decided to mostly relax, taking it easy after our adventure. Especially after going through the short hassle of switching rooms early that morning, we wanted to rest! We stayed in bed all day, watching movies and series... Henk only left a few times to bring me back a kong bak pao (shredded pork, onions, and lettuce with a soy sauce mix inside a steamed open bun) and to get us some dinner of sweet and sour pork and some mystery dish for himself. We didn't manage to get a picture of the kong bak pao (I ate it too fast!) but here is one we found online as an example.
On November 2nd we planned to go to the 'Full Moon Party' we had heard about at the Lagnaa barefoot dining restaurant. There was supposed to be a Chilli eating contest and a 'thosai' making lesson. We worked on our blog and relaxed for another morning, because it started raining really hard again. We did don our ponchos and venture out to the City Square Mall to grab some lunch of curry for Henk and spaghetti with garlic bread for myself. (I had a craving...) Since we had eaten pretty late (it was about 3:00 pm when we got lunch) we decided to not eat dinner at Lagnaa, just checking out the events instead.
The party ran from 7:00 pm until 10:00 pm, but we didn't get there until around 9:00 pm, since we were so full. We spoke with the woman in charge and decided to just purchase some drinks and a $10 'thosai fillings' platter. Sadly, we didn't really get to see anyone 'doing' the chilli challenge, as it was pretty low-key, simply try to eat your meal at a very high spice level. That was alright though; we were fine just learning how to make the thosai. Her husband then proceeded to teach us how to make the thosai, helping us as we attempted to create our own.
Step One: Rub half an onion in cooking oil, and apply the oil in a medium sized circle on a hot plate.
Step Two: Use a spray bottle with water to cook down the plate, giving it a small spray.
Step Three: Grab out a ladle full of thosai batter (ours was pre-made for us) and drip it in the center of the oil circle.
Step Four: Start making circles with the ladle in the center of the batter drop. At least three circles in the center, then a couple more moving outwards should create a large, porous batter circle.
Step Five: Wait for the batter to cook completely, making sure all of the white spots go light brown.
Step Six: Drop any desired filling into the center of the batter circle. Our choices for condiments were an egg mixture, onions, cottage cheese, and a masala mixture. Depending on the type of thosai, you can choose to fold it in half or leave it flat.
Step Seven: EAT! I enjoyed the onions and cheese, while Henk tried the masala. We went through the process we were taught on our own three more times each, making sure to take a bunch of pictures of each step!
Completely stuffed, we made our way back to the hostel. November 3rd was a day for packing bags and paying one last visit to Chinatown (where we re-visited the large temple) and Bugis (where we tried to exchange the purse I had gotten but were denied!) where we sinned again on more McDonalds. I did win two free apple pies from our Monopoly tickets though! But I'm getting the feeling we probably shouldn't eat fast food for a while... we were doing so well! We said 'Goodbye' to Singapore that evening, getting ready for our flight to Jakarta the next morning!
Francesca
