And for a week, I get to become part of their morning routine. The green powder gets mixed into three glasses instead of two. A creamy iced-tea is ordered alongside the coffee, with two extra eggs. Plus a few slices of buttery, coconutty kaya toast, for the tourist. Sie-sie-ya, thank you I say, in Mandarin.

I am in the hip, up-and-coming Singapore neighborhood of Tiang Bahru, and I am visiting my best friend, Alex, and her boyfriend Ian.  (Yep, the Alex I mentioned in my recent blog post about road-tripping through Saudi Arabia.)

The alleyway walk to our morning food stall.

The gross green morning drink (no offence Alex and Ian!)

Morning coffee and tea at the Union Café (I don’t think the café is actually called Union – just their tables are!)

Alex and I met over six years ago, while working as ESL teachers at a private Thai school in Bangkok. Though Alex didn’t stay long – returning to the relative safety and luxury of Singapore after only eight months – our friendship had already formed deep roots. Three visits to Singapore, a trip to Egypt and Zimbabwe, and a wedding in Washington, DC, have only extended and thickened those roots. After missing each other in New York this past summer, due to my hectic schedule of Canadian summer visitors, I decided to take advantage of cheap flights from Dubai to Singapore to reconnect with my bestie.

And to reconnect with South East Asia, as an added bonus. I hadn’t stepped foot in this region of the world in almost five years (too busy touring around Africa, Europe, and the Americas, I guess!). Nostalgia has worked its magic on me, and I’ve spent the last few years reminiscing about its night markets, exotic fruits, noodle stands, Thai massages, and Buddhist stupas. I’ve even gone so far as to miss the stifling humidity and heat!

The humidity wakes me early in my bed in Alex and Ian’s ground-floor apartment. My mattress is tucked into a corner of their living room, with the sofa tucked up against it “to give me some privacy.” Kitty, the orange tabby, is purring nearby. Alex and Ian are still sleeping in the room next door. Soon, they will stir, and we will share in the morning ritual I’ve already come to love (except for the green drink – it tastes like grass). Then, Alex and I will go for a massage, or maybe another yoga class. Maybe after that we’ll do some more weird exercises in the park, go to the food court nearby, or have another meal out with her girlfriends. In the evening, we could cook a delicious dinner at home again, or have a few of Ian’s work friends over for another chill party/jam-session. The day is brimming with possibilities.

My little private nook.

Weird exercises at the park.

Our home-made dinner, yum!

Our wonderful luncheon with Bubu and her bundle!

I don’t feel like writing about my visit of the night-time skyline from the southern edge of town, my bike ride through West Coast Park, shopping on Orchard Road, or the pre-Chinese New Year Festivities of China Town, though. It’s not because those experiences weren’t wonderful – they were.  It’s just that I didn’t go to Singapore in order to write about the cosmopolitanism of the city or the endearing Singlish accent. My trip to Singapore wasn’t about Singapore, really at all. It was about Alex.

The night-time skyline of Singapore.

Bike rides rock, yo!

It’s almost the Year of the Goat in China Town!

Just about the only comment I can make about Singapore is about its food. Duh, I’m so obsessed with food that even a week with my bestie can’t side-track me from my goal of trying (and re-trying) beloved Asian food! And Singapore has its share of interesting dishes to try. Its history is a fusion of Chinese, Malay, and South Asian, and the diversity of ethnicities is reflected in a wondrous diversity of dishes. There is Malaysian food, like nasi goreng (fried rice) and mee goreng (fried noodles). Chinese dishes abound (Alex had me taste loads of them, but most have names I can no longer recall!). It’s easy (and cheap!) to sample Singapore-style Indian paratha (greasy flat bread with toppings such as cheese or egg).

Yummy! Mee goreng!

Alex ordering Chinese food (meat!) from the food court where we lunched almost every day.

The prawl noodle guys don’t look too happy that I’m shooting them!

And, of course, you can get dishes unique to Singapore, like the ubiquitous chicken rice (which I don’t eat, but sometimes wish I did, because it looks so good!). Instead, I feast on carrot cake, fried white carrot, egg, and spices (not sweet ones!), and laksa, a noodle curry soup with fried tofu (and fish balls, if you’re so inclined).

Share a bunch of dishes with friends or family in a noisy, jam-packed open-air food court, wash the food down with a chilled glass of fruit juice or a fresh young coconut and you’ve got yourself a typical Singaporean meal! I was incredibly fortunate to share a multitude of such meals with Alex and her wonderful family (miss you guys!).

Ma! And Chinese food to share!

Carrot cake!

Delicious Indian paratha shared with Alex and her family.

Mine is laksa.

And so, it all comes back to Alex. Food goes into the belly and out the pooper, whereas Alex stays in the heart long after the food is digested and gone. And boy, is she stuck in my heart. It was such a revitalizing week. Alex and I had a chance to reconnect, discuss our lives, our feelings, our world views. We took energy and inspiration from one another, gained valuable insight into our own lives, and left one another feeling inspired to be the best people we can be and to live life as fully as we can. Alex always has that effect on me – you can understand why I keep chasing her around the globe!

I’m sitting on the airplane, en route to Dubai. My toes are painted a hideous lime green as a result of a pedicure where Alex – ever-crazy, or ever-creative, I’m not quite sure – decided we should both get the flashiest color possible in order to remember one another whenever we look down at it. Since neither of us has nail polish remover, the lime green is bound to stick around for months. I look down at my toes now, think of Alex, and smile.

Nice toes we got there…

Lex + Britt 4 EVA

The best things about Singapore – mangosteens, Kitty, and Alex!

A huge thank you to Ian, for putting up with me in your living room for an entire week (and for the chopsticks and portable-storable exercise equipment!) Thank you to Fay and Bubu for taking the time out of your hectic Singapore lives to see me. Deepest thanks to Uncle, Aunty, and Ma for all the delicious meals, the city tours, and the time spent with me chatting and visiting after so many years! And thank you, above all, to Alex for letting me into your world for a week and giving me a generous slice of your heart! Love you all!

The protest is officially over, and life has quickly gone back to normal. It’s almost as though the destruction and violence never occured, and Bangkok has taken an unusually quick approach to cleaning up the city.

But before they were able to wipe the “war zones” clean of traces of red-shirt vs army conflict, I was able to snap some photos. There are LOTS to see – here are a few of the “highlights”, if we can call them that.

This once beautiful statue was ripped from its post and set to burn in the middle of a generally extremely busy road near the business district.

On the same street where I played Songkran only one month early were now parked a long row of army vehicles.

One of MANY buses that were lit on fire by the red-shirts.

This photo is taken at one of the red-shirt campsites. This is the trail they left after their hasty departure – a broken barricade.

Ground Zero – Central World Shopping Center. The entire middle section of this once sparkling white, brand-new, high class shopping center is now entirely gone. Fourty hours after it was set on fire, it was still smoking and water was being sprayed at it.

Me trying to take in the extent of the destruction. It was a really surreal feeling to be there, and I remember feeling shock, disbelief, awe, and a plethora of other indescribable things.

Down the road from Central World, and across from my preferred shopping ball, Siam Paragon, a whole row of shops was burnt to a crisp. I still don’t understand why Paragon was left completely untouched…