Short break + sneak peek from Malaysia

Due to travelling, many group projects (yes, I'm studying here sometimes), changing residences (if you ever want to come to Singapore be aware of one not-so-nice aspect of living here - mould) I was super busy and away from blogging for a while. And I won't be here for another 12 days since I'm in Phillipines right now!  

Here's the sneak peek from Malaysia:

Tea plantation, Cameron Highlands, Malaysia

A lot (and I really mean it) pictures from both trips coming soon!

xoxo
Ewa

Chinese New Year Dinner

On the 9th February I was honoured (no exaggerating here) to attend a traditional Chinese New Year dinner at Tiffany's. I'm really grateful for your invitation - it was an amazing experience! If anyone ever has this opportunity do not hasitate to take it. 

Chinese New Year is the most important holidays in chinese culture. It is a celebration that lasts up to 15 (!) days, however in Singapore we only had 2 days off. On the first day families dine together, and on the others they do so called 'visiting'. They are visiting other family members, always carrying a box of oranges with them.
For me CNY felt like a mix of Christmas and New Year's Eve. It is very family holiday. And Tiffany made me feel like home, everybody was amazingly friendly and was making us eat incredible portions of food (just like in Poland!).

With Kuba, Tiffany and her Korean friend 

First we had sweets, lots of sweets

Some more sweets...

Even more sweets!

Delicious! Right in the middle (the yellow pastry)
is a pineapple minicookie. It is treaditionally eaten
during CNY. Not my favourite one :) 

Trying to eat melon seeds.
Probably not good for your teeth.

Steamboat (Hot pot). Traditional chinese dish eaten
 usually on major holidays. The concept is very
similar fondue, except for the fact
that you put all products to the boiling water. 

The choice of the products was enormous! We had
different kinds of meet, seafood, mushrooms and
salad. Steamboat is great for feasting together! We
spent more than 2 hours cooking, eating and talking.

With the family. The red envelopes are
an indispensable part of Chinese New Year.
They are usually  presented to children by the older
members of the family. Inside you can find money,
that is usually an even digit. Red colour (same as with
the ornaments) represents good luck.

xoxo

Ewa

Istana

The Istana ('Palace' in Malay) is the official residence of the President of the Republic of Singapore. It is opened to the public only on five days each year, so we took advantage of that and for 1 SIN$ (it was free of charge for permanent residents) and after 50 minutes of queueing we got a chance to stroll through the parkland in front of the residence.  For extra 2$ we saw three halls, unfortunalety no pictures were allowed inside. (Still there was not that much to see, just the gifts for the President from different countries). Compared to the european standards the residence was rather modest, but still a nice builiding in a neo-Palladian style (just in case anyone was interested).

Posing for the picture with chinese emperor

In front of the Istana

Polonia in Singapore + Charles

xoxo
Ewa

Chinatown

It is a shame to admit that I made it to Chinatown after a whole month of living here. It is definitely a must see for anyone visiting Singapore. Especially now, just before Chinese New Year it is full of people making last minute shopping (mostly buying ornaments). It's vibrant, loud and for the first time in Singapore.. dirty! There is rubbish everywhere. Still it didn't prevent me from having an amazing time, I need to come back there soon!

One of the main streets in Chinatown

Ornaments for Chinese New Year

Some more ornaments.. so reeed!

Me and my local buddy - Tiffany 

Chińskie riksze pozdrawiają tarnowskie

Rice jars. According to tradition, there always has to be
some rice inside to ensure the prosperity of the family.

Chinese lollipops

xoxo
Ewa

Some more pictures from Bintan

Scooters! We rented them for one day and went all over the island!
Probably the best way to get around Bintan, just remember not to go to
the city (put it mildly: locals drive in a very unpredictable way)

In front of the entrance to Gunung Bintan Adventure
Trek. We got there to late to hike,
but we saw the waterfall (which was rather small
and not-worth-seeing).

By the waterfalls we met a bunch of school kids. First we wanted to take
pictures with them, then they were taking pictures with us!
They even tried talking with us in English, great experience!

Buddhist Temple

Altar

Local women preparing local snack. (Forgot the name of it and google
is not much of a help!) It is some kind of a leaf with meat stuffing.

Houses on the dock

A floating house, attached to the dock only with some rope

Goodbye Indonisia! See you soon!

Food in Indonesia

Food in Idonesia was good and... really spicy! Every meal was served with green and red chilli, but you didn't really have to add it, because the food itself was already super spicy! (At least according to my spiciness standards). One time a local man took us to what looked like a canteen with a food stall in front and we got to try all the dishes you can see in the pictures below. Most of them was really good, just a few turned out to be uneatable (only because they were too hard to cut). The most intresting dish? Beef that tasted like a coconut! Weird as it seems, it turned out to be the favourite dish for the majority of us. I also liked the tiny green pastries, luckily you can also buy them in Singapore!

One of many food stalls/canteens
where locals eat out

Delicious dinner

Local mini pastries, which taste like coconut waffles.
Love them!

Takie pyszności tylko w Indonezji, ktoś chętny? ;)