Did you know that Singapore has four seasons?  They are hot, hotter, extremely hot, and monsoon rain (resulting in just mildly hot weather).  Frankly, I don’t know how people manage.

After the brief stay in Tokyo (in case you missed it, click HERE), we made a return visit to this center of remarkable capitalism.  Since declaring independence from Malaysia in 1965, Singapore has enjoyed incredible development.  It is:

A highly developed country, it has the second-highest GDP per capita (PPP) in the world. Identified as a tax haven, Singapore is the only country in Asia with a AAA sovereign credit rating from all major rating agencies. It is a major aviation, financial, and maritime shipping hub, and has consistently been ranked as one of the most expensive cities to live in for expatriates and foreign workers. Singapore ranks highly in key social indicators: education, healthcare, quality of life, personal safety, infrastructure, and housing, with a home-ownership rate of 88 percent. Singaporeans enjoy one of the longest life expectancies, fastest Internet connection speeds, lowest infant mortality rates, and lowest levels of corruption in the world. (Source: Wikipedia)

Now, if they could just do something about the weather.

I managed to score a highly-coveted booking at Burnt Ends in the Dempsey Hill area for our first night.  We sat at the bar and enjoyed a selection of small plates, one better than the next.  The real show was the bar itself, with truly artisan cocktails being mixed non-stop.  And the bartenders or “mixologists” are quite the showmen.  We were enthralled.

First, the food seen below (“slider”; wings; salad & taco bites; dessert)

Next; borrowed this one to show the bar area where we sat (photo courtesy Burnt Ends)

In answer to the question:  “How do you get to the bottles up top?”  

No trip to Singapore is complete without seeing the iconic Marina Bay Sands complex (casino, hotel, high-end shops galore and endless dining options).  While the 57th floor infinity pool is only available to hotel guests, there is an observation deck atop another tower.  I steeled myself with a libation at lunch (a White Cosmo with orchid petals in the ice cube) which took the edge off being up so high (and outside).  It is quite something to see the entirety of Singapore from that vantage point. Lunch (below) at Daniel Boulud’s bistro.

In the quest for some delicious Chinese food, we opted for Jian-Nan Chun at the Four Seasons Hotel. And what an auspicious decision that turned out to be.  While looking for the restaurant in the lobby, a gentleman offered to help us find the spot.  And then asked, “Have we met before?  Were you at the Four Seasons in the Maldives (Kudaa Hura)?”  Yes, in 2017.  He was the general manager there at the time.  How did he remember us?  Because he reads this blog!  How cool is that?  If ever I question why I continue to do this, it is stories like these that connect and inspire.  We’re still in touch with the executive chef from the Maldives who we visited in Kuala Lumpur in 2019 (who loved this reunion story when I shared it with him!).

A most delicious dinner below with gorgeous centerpiece:

After learning there are giant pandas at the Singapore Zoo complex, it was an easy decision to see them along with assorted other species.  But you had me at the pandas.  While the shy mom was in the den, we watched in awe of the father and the 2-year old Le Le consume copious amounts of bamboo.  That’s a lot of what they do besides exude cuteness overload!

Below, a more rare Red Panda

Patriarch of the family 

And the youngin’ Le Le

From our Orchard Road-adjacent hotel (the St. Regis), it was an short drive for our last dinner. That was at the Singapore outpost of Osteria Mozza. Nancy Silverton (who revolutionized bread via La Brea Bakery) has excellent personnel on hand making sure the food is identical to the flagship in Los Angeles.  Given that every ingredient must be imported, that is not easy. Among the comments shared with us from the Australian-born executive chef, we found out a young lady makes all the pasta from scratch.  It was delicious. By the way, that it is atypical for someone young to be so adept at this particular skill. Especially since there are none of the Italian “nonnas” teaching her how!

With a morning departure, we said our goodbyes and boarded Singapore Air for the 2+ hour flight to our next stop — Bali.

 

As we conclude a very special and memorable year, an equally special year is about to begin. 2023 began with a long-awaited “journey” to an extensive remodeling project!  But plenty of actual travel ensued with an imminent milestone birthday looming in the New Year.  First, where we went (all linked to the posts):

Tokyo

Singapore

Bali

New Zealand (South Island)

Fiji

Wimbledon for the hubby’s milestone birthday (London and a brief trip to Wales)

Vancouver for Thanksgiving: Part 1 and Part 2

Where we’re headed in 2024:

Napa for my milestone birthday

Spring trip: **Spoiler alert – It’s a lot of stops but many require a just a few hours’ drive! Prague, Vienna, Bratislava (Slovenia); Llubjiana (Slovakia); Belgrade (Serbia); Chisinau (Moldava); Bucharest++ (Romania); Sofia (Bulgaria); Skopke (North Macedonia)

A girls’ week at Tuscan Women Cook

And a phenomenal ending:  Antartica!

Thank you for traveling through 2023 with me. These big birthdays are the impetus and incentive to see as much as possible in this enormous world. I wish you all wonderful journeys in the coming year.                       

 

Suffice it to say, a week in London offers virtually endless possibilities. That is the amount of time allocated for the trip where attending Wimbledon was the centerpoint (see last post). But that was just one day’s activity!

I’ll start with how we flew to London. I’ve often talked about booking mileage seats for international flights. The number of miles to fly into Heathrow is officially crazy, not to mention the taxes. Arguably the worst route is LAX-Heathrow. But if you begin heading east from LA, the number of miles is less. Often by a lot. That means, find other cities with non-stop flights to LHR:  Phoenix, Las Vegas, Denver, and (bingo!) Houston. Why get excited about Houston (in the summer especially)? A chance to visit with longtime dear friends as a bonus for this trip. Even with the addition of round-trip air from LAX to Houston on United, the spend was less than originating in LA. Below, with various members of the Zeidman family in Houston (who tried their best to get us to divulge the nature of the trip – to no avail!)

After a fun overnight catching up, we had a uneventful flight into London. “Uneventful” is a word that cannot be assumed these days. Both our LA and Houston drivers shared with us the turmoil their schedules have been subject to recently. It is very difficult to plan with so much air travel disruption.

It’s always a big and time-consuming endeavor deciding on a hotel (for me, anyway). Consideration includes location, cost, amenities, hotel size, etc. Staying a full week in one hotel is highly unusual for our travels. We tend to move every 3 days or so. Accordingly, even more thought went into this one.

I chose the Baglioni London for a few reasons. It was one of the most “affordable” among the Amex Platinum offerings; it has just 60 rooms (definitely prefer smaller hotels); and I like the location for walking (near Kensington Palace). It’s also a member of Leading Hotels of the World, through which I often book. Overall, we thoroughly enjoyed the hotel along with their top-notch team. In particular, the concierges were extremely helpful and very knowledgeable.

Like the recent trip to Singapore, I booked an international outpost of a beloved LA restaurant – Pizzeria Mozza. We managed to keep awake long enough our first evening to thoroughly enjoy the meal while adjusting to the time change. The delicious food below:

The following day took us back to Heathrow but for an excellent reason!  Getting our rental car (for the day) and driving on from there to Wales. Why Wales? Why not? We’ve been to all the other UK countries. But it wasn’t just to have a “look about”in the area. The route provided us an opportunity for another first: visiting Stonehenge.

Back to the Wales visit, the country has an entirely different language.  I mean, it is barely understandable. And it’s full of consonants with few vowels. Try deciphering the one below while driving!

After lunch in Cardiff, Wales – chatting with a local

I mapped our return route to see the historic site Stonehenge. It is quite amazing — a monument made of stone assembled thousands of years ago that attracts more than a million visitors annually. It is well worth the trip.

And then a trip highpoint (for me at least):  Highclere Castle — the filming site for Downton Abbey. Getting there is fairly easy via train from Paddington Station, then a short cab ride.  I pre-booked our tickets and we arrived with time to walk around the immense grounds and visit the gift shop (no purchases!).  The first glimpse below.  Don’t you half expect to see Carson walking up the path??

Photography is prohibited inside (wink, wink), but a very nice person took the photo below at the entry.  (The entry doors seemed larger on the show!) Once inside, the path is pre-ordained to include the main “great” room, reception rooms, upstairs bedrooms and the well-known and familiar grand staircase. The downstairs kitchen was filmed off premises.

Several iconic areas below that are easily recognizable from the show:

A few people asked me if tourists are allowed inside. Many grand estates in the UK are only able to exist with the funds raised by people who are curious enough to pay for a visit. Highclere has been in the same family for 8 generations and encompasses 5,000 acres. That requires a lot of “pounds” to maintain!

The rest of our London (and beyond) adventure in the next post.

The popular island paradise known as Bali is but a small part of Indonesia. The country ranks fourth worldwide in overall population (behind India, China and the US) with some 274 million citizens.  While it is a long way for Americans to travel, it is a hugely popular destination for Australians (just three hours from Perth) as well as New Zealand. Certainly, it is a breeze for travel from Singapore, our previous destination (read HERE).

Every luxury hotel brand has a presence, but there are likewise accommodations at every level. And while one might go for truly extravagant resort prices, the cost of food is surprisingly quite reasonable.  We opted not to stray far from our accommodations at the St. Regis on Nusa Dua beach for most meals and activities, save for a snorkeling/waterfall excursion. Below, feeling very welcomed by the resort.

Exquisite presentation of Salade Nicoise for lunch!

One said activity (the Uluwatu Temple Fire Dance at sunset) was a big fail due to the selected day — the end of Ramadan and a school holiday. When there’s traffic in the area, it is basically a complete standstill. What should have been a 45 minute journey was more like 90 minutes. And sold out by the time we arrived.

So we simply backtracked for our dinner at the magnificent Alila Villas in Uluwatu. Alila is Hyatt’s ultra-high-end brand. While our resort is on a magnificent stretch of beach, the Alila and many others are on cliffs overlooking the ocean. It’s hard to “go wrong” in either case.

Above, before dinner; below, view from the restaurant

Here’s what “struck” me most in Bali: the gracious staff. There’s a lot of bowing with hands clasped. In other words, extremely gracious if not deferential. We definitely felt welcome. Our particular resort is built around “bodies” of water — not just the Indian Ocean, but very large, meandering pools. None of the pools exceed 4′ in depth. Many villas have direct access to the salt water lagoon (BELOW) which I estimated in length to be two football fields. It certainly seemed that big!

With my Marriott status, we were upgraded to a one-bedroom villa that was simply enormous — the “living room” seen below.  It had it’s own small pool, plus the aforementioned lagoon access. Stunning! Now, if we could only figure out the innumerable (and unmarked) light switches. The hubby would frequently ask me, “Are you having fun yet?” as the lights went on and off. Repeatedly.

The main pool, seen above during the day and below beautifully lit at night

One full day was allocated to snorkeling, roughly 90 minutes from the resort.  Our driver provided a good deal of information during the drive but stayed on land while we had a small manned craft take us to a couple of different spots.  Of course no underwater camera on hand.  Trust me, the waters were full of beautiful and colorful fish.  After, we proceeded to the Tegenungan Waterfall for a quick bite and some gorgeous views.

Above, heading down to our vessel; below, the gorgeous falls which many hike into (not us)

These resort stays are intended to be totally relaxing. Mission accomplished. With spa pricing a fraction of typical costs at U.S. properties, two trips during the stay seemed about right. And then that gorgeous beach, seen below, in front of the resort…

If you remember the itinerary laid out initially for this trip (read here), the last stop takes us to Fiji. How do Bali and Fiji compare? Stay tuned. To be covered in a future post. For now, it is on to Queenstown, New Zealand, and a complete change of weather!

Many decisions made for the big trip are based on the farthest point we can achieve for the smallest outlay of dollars or miles. Getting across an ocean is typically involved, in this case the Pacific. For previous trips, that meant typically flying Cathay to Hong Kong, but unfortunately no more.  With American or OneWorld miles, it is now Tokyo via Japan Air.

I read a number of reviews of the plane, service, etc., and looked forward to the 12-hour flight.  I even bumped us up, taking advantage of using relatively few miles required (80k per person) for First Class. It is 60k for business, which is still a great deal!

There are just eight suites in the cabin — two rows with a 1-2-1 seat configuration. My time investment attempting to pick the ideal seat was for naught. I put us side by side and ceded the window seat to my left. That turned out to be occupied by an “influencer.” How did I know her “profession?” Because she spent the entire flight on her phone, mostly photographing herself or having the crew photograph her or taking photos of her food or changing outfits. And she wouldn’t lower her window shades (the only ones open in the cabin) because she needed light to take pictures (while many tried to sleep). Twelve hours’ worth of photos.

The staff are incredibly accommodating and do everything in their power to make a passenger happy. It was very enjoyable. Below, a few photos from the flight.  My favorite was the french press coffee! And then we were in Tokyo (Haneda airport, very close to the city).

What to do on this return trip to Tokyo?  Not much, other than acclimate to an enormous time change and hope to see a glimmer of cherry blossoms. The blossoms were gone because of an early spring debut, but I was reminded that we had a spectacular sighting of them in Stockholm last year (see below; read here).

We walked and shopped up and down the Ginza (12,000 steps worth), enjoying some delicious sushi (below) at one of Tokyo’s enormous department stores.

Our big splurge was a fabulous dinner at La Table de Joel Robuchon. Not only is the food special, but the dining room setting is just beautiful — mostly black and white with lavender everywhere.

Clockwise:  Amuse puffs; eggplant with avocado; a take on paella; waygu beef with amazing vegetables.

 

View from the 34th floor hotel room

It seems like Tokyo and Japan for that matter are on the “favored destination list” of many travelers lately.  There’s good reason for that — it’s safe, clean, beautiful, pleasant, modern and offers a great many things to do and see.  We’d happily return again, and for a longer stay.  For this trip, we head to Singapore for the second stop.

It is truly a blessing year after year to travel far and wide. “Where are you going this year?” is a common question both the hubby and I are only too happy to answer.

The general destinations are decided far in advance. After a great deal of research, plans are “finalized.” And I say that knowing full well I might change a hotel at the last minute or even during the travel. It is simply about wanting the best experience for us.

Does the following map look like a lot of territory to cover? Perhaps. It works for us in order to see the destinations of choice. Tokyo and Singapore are repeat visits. Bali and Fiji are firsts. In between, the south island of New Zealand is a repeat but for more days and a deeper dive into the area.

Suffice it to say, it is a huge bonus if one finds international flights part of the “fun.” It’s an adventure! Oh, think of the people you’ll meet. And the books one can read or the blogging one can do. It certainly helps to have the right travel companion. For us, there is a clear division of responsibility: I plan everything and he manages the currency. I do the packing and he lifts the suitcases. Seems very equitable to me.

So, here we go again. Look for posts with stories about each destination, though not concurrent with our time there. The sharing comes after the fact so as not to be glued to the computer. It is a vacation after all ..