You'll never know unless you go

Thinking With Head, Eating With Hand

Little India in Singapore

Today has been interesting and a day of firsts if you will. My time in Singapore is coming to an end and one of the gentlemen living at the place I’ve been lucky enough to stay at suggested we try an authentic Indian restaurant. Considering he is Indian I figured “absolutely”.

Whenever I go somewhere I usually try and see where people from that country eat. As an example, in Ottawa if I went for some “Pho”, I’d typically look for somewhere with lots of Vietnamese people. When I’m in new cities, I look for local cuisine where the local people go.

I remember in Kuala Lumpur, someone gave me a menu and I sat down, I looked around and it was only travelers… No local people at all, hmm….  I just left.

I digress.

So we went to this place and it’s a vegetarian Indian restaurant in Little India where you can eat as much as you wish for ~$7.70S. The meal was delicious and I’m expanding my palate faster than your average North Americans waste line. I don’t know what the meal consisted of besides some curries and rice and the picture below explains the rest.

Vegetarian Little India in Singapore

This is the first time I ever eat rice or anything of this nature with my hand. Notice I said “hand” not “hands”. Your left hand is considered “dirty” and used for “other jobs” while the right hand is for greeting people and eating. Hence in many countries if someone is caught stealing, OFF WITH THE RIGHT!

When you first start eating with your right hand, I found it difficult to get the food in my mouth properly, especially the rice. After a good laugh they showed me that you put it in your hand (finger tips), then use your thumb to push it to the end and effectively into your mouth. Requires some basic timing and coordination but makes a world of difference.

The meal was delicious and dare I say, I kinda liked eating with my hands, going to another Indian restaurant for dinner and my right hand will get some more work. One thing about Singapore from what I’ve gathered is the food. You’ve heard me talk about the night life and what not but the food here is great. Tomorrow I may try and experience something different like chili crab.

I’m out of here on Tuesday and thus far have been thoroughly enjoying my time here, mainly just “chilling” if you will. I’ve been sooooo lazy, going to bed when I want, napping during the day for no reason then I can and ingesting inconceivable amounts of delicious dishes. My hosts have been incredibly hospitable and hilarious, what else could I ask for?

Basstards Fishing Blog and T-Shirts

I got my fishing blog ~sorta going. Truth be told, it’s just for fun as myself and a considerably large crew of gentleman love fishing for numerous reasons… The fishing is fun but it’s just a way / reason to get away from doing other things, hang out and chill out with a cigar in your mouth and a green bottle in my hand.(Heineken, Moose Head, Tanqueray)  Probably why I’m so fond of golf as well. It doesn’t matter how you score or what you catch it’s just doing it that’s fun. Also I want to wear a shirt that says “Old Dirty Basstard” on it. To the original ODB, RIP.

I’ve been looking around the web and wow, lots of travel blogs… Started thinking how can I best position this one as it is different then most, updated more then most and will hopefully span a larger area then most with a host more entertaining then most…

Started finding some travel networks and I’m quite impressed. One that I like in particular is “The Travel Exchange“. It is like a social media site for travelers. It also has a great interface, I’ll be using it for some time to come I believe. Another one is CouchSurfing. I’ve heard from numerous people to “get on it” but never did, signed up and alread chatted with some people, even made a donation to get verified but you have to do it through credit card and I opted for paypal. Whoops, wish my first donation was more “piker style” now but “C’est la vie”. Considering I loathe touristy stuff and want to get a feel for “how people live around the world”… This seems like a perfect match for this gregarious gentleman.

Fullerton Hotel in downtown clarke quay Singapore

Remember how I told you my paypal was limited and in the past I’d go grey freaking. I just went and eat curry, jumped through the hoops and all is back. I also called the affiliate who screwed my site and had a pleasant conversation with him, seriously. I mean it’s over now and what can I do about  it? Why get mad at someone for something you can’t change now? I was just paying major affiliates average monthly income which is a bigger risk to me, especially when your paypal gets limited. Now it’s “back to normal”, thankfully.

Also some of the ideas I had just weren’t lucrative enough. I mean sure they could produce some income but I’m not a monkey bound to sit by a machine pumping in crappy code. I’d rather focus on a few things and ruthlessly cull ideas that don’t have big enough potential before wasting even a single mouse click on it. I’m going to spend much more time on The PPT researching stocks. It’s the easiest way to bank coin when you already have coin.

Einstien has a great quote and it’s something to the effect of … When asked what he’d do with the last hour of his life he said “I’d spend 59 minutes figuring out what the best thing to do is, then do it”. How many of you (myself included) spend 1 hour flip flopping on numerous projects and never get anything truly great going? Thinking is hard work and that’s why so many people never try it.

Singapore has been a great time, I’m glad I stayed longer then most. Most people I talk to only spend a day or so here due to costs. Then again most people told me Kuala Lumpur was expensive and I thought it was great. I’m flying to Bali on Tuesday and from there, who knows. If I leave on the 16th, I can fly to Bangkok for ~$120US which is ~30-50% cheaper then any other date I found. Flip side is why not check out the rest of Indo and maybe Borneo… I’d like to go to Philippines but my friend there is hosting after Xmas already so maybe now isn’t the right time and you can always jump over when you’re in Taiwan or somewhere near there.

Burner problem at Indian Restaurant in Singapore

Right now, I’m off to eat some more Indian food and then do what I like doing most, relaxing in a nice place with good friends and no commitments. The guys above are where I go daily as it’s close, they are super nice and the food is great. Something was up with the oven last night, a good laugh was had by all.

Good day,

6 Comments

  1. Ahhh that food looks great, I had Nepalese food in Singapore’s Little India and it was awesome and similar to that (had naan bread rather than rice though).

  2. Indeed, had some garlic naan bread tonight, always delicious. The more I eat foods from around the world, the more I want.

  3. Ooo – you had a thali!! That makes me miss India sooo much :-) That’s about one of my favorite lunches from India because you get to sample so much. :::huge sigh::: I think I need to go find a local Indian restaurant now!

  4. Hi Shannon,

    Never been to India but looking forward to it very much. Everyone I know who went there says they loved it for a multitude of reasons.

    Thanks for stopping by!

  5. Hey Rob

    Good to see your still alive and having fun. Sounds like you might need a worldwide pass to the gym or maybe “Jenny Craig” if you keep it up. Just curious, do youfind yourself hanging out with locals or just other travelers. It seems from your writings it is just other travelers. Just curious as I am interested if you are getting any inside looks at the cultures you are passing through?

    Enjoy as always

    Bruce

  6. Hey Bruce,

    Hanging out with a mix. That said, in Thailand near the end mainly hung out with the bar staff during the day on Koh Lanta. In the other places, mainly tourists but we always got along great with the local people an I always end up meeting random people who live there here and there.

    In Singapore, I’ve only met 2 tourists, the rest of my time ~10+ days has been spent with some friends who live here and the people he lives / hangs out with.

    That said, I always find at least 1 restaurant that I go to regularly and get to know the people who work there very well and they tend to fill me in quite well or I go for a walk and just meet people on the street and hang out for a bit.

    Glad to hear from you,

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