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Let's see if this post earns me some cool Hipster-award... 

Yesterday evening I went to have dinner with one of the most successful spanish scientists in USA. His name  is Gabriel Nuñez and I am really glad I had the chance to spend an evening with a researcher of his caliber and to learn from his experiences. This is where we spend the evening:

No. It is not an aquarium store. Maybe this will give you a hint:

No? Well, it should because it is THE NAME OF THE PLACE. Exacly. The signboard of the restaurant says "No signboard"...

From what they told me this restaurant did not have a sign at the beginning and now that it is one of the most famous in town it does not need one. And they seem to be pretty proud of that.

This is what we had:

It's chili-crab! :) It is one of Singapores typical dishes and it is REALLY good! The bums at the side are sweet breads (not that there was any other kind of bread here in Singapore...) that you dip into the sauce.

We also had some pretty awesome prawns...

Ok, as much as I love this picture of the gorgeous lady, I have to show it to you so you can see that we were actually wearing! You can order these for like 50 cent and then then main-waiter (i'm sure there is a professiona term for his position, but let's go with main-waiter for now) who looked like a secret agent with a black suit and an earplug with a microphone he was constantly speaking through, came and put it on you. Yeah. He did it. Because our hands were dirty up to the ellbows. So for a few hours I was 2 years old again.

These are a few pics of the place. It does not look super luxurious, but those are usually the best places. Plus  with its reputation it's not like it needs any luxury.

They even had some Christmas decoration!

And this is the battlefield after we were done. If I don't get the #1 hipster award it will only be due to the fact that my cellphone does not make any incredibly deep filter-effects. So close!

Christmas is all around me ♫

With only 15% of the population being christian in Singapore one would not expect much fuss about Christmas around here. WRONG. I have not seen as many lights and Christmas decorations as can be found in Orchard Road right now in all the cities I have been to combined. Although the celebration might not be as "romantic" as in Germany or as devoted as in any predominantely christian country they sure make an effort to acknowledge this festivity. Many argue that it is mostly a commercial celebration, but looking at the great lights I can only think "Who cares?" and be glad they decided to celebrate Christmas, even if it is their own way. 

I have not been there to take pictures yet (I was only shortly and took a picture with my cellphone), but I will definitely go one of these days (there is still some time left, it is not even December!). Here is a short impression of what you can expect:

Some of the figures are so funny! But I don't want to spoil anything.

Oh and look at the Chistmas decoration at the airport:

I would have never thought I would see (such a huge) ANGRY BIRD Christmas decoration, but apparently it is the new thing. Come on and let it snow!

Walking among temples

How about winning the "most-pictures-in-one-post"-award that I am sure Blogger grants every year? Let's give it a try!

These are some pictures I took while we were moving from one temple to another in our tuk tuk (that's right, our private tuk tuk for the day. I should have taken a picture in front of it like the hip-hoppers do). The tuk tuk for the day was actualy only 10 US Dollar (and a lot of fighting with the driver that was trying to rip us off every 2 minutes). I'll just show you the pictures and I hope you can see that in Angkor Wat not only the temples are really amazing but also everything in between!

These Figures were part of the railing of a bridge.

Ugh! Those ugly landscapes hurt my eyes! But wait, there are more:

One of the bridges:

This is a temple from the outside. I like the man in the lower right corner, that is fishing and the fact that I managed to find a moment were there were not 100 tourists running over to the temple.

Some of them are a little blurry because I took them from the tuk tuk. I usually hate pictures like this, but I really wanted to show you this temple and there are no better pics...

I am starting to run out of Cambodia pictures so I either step it up here in Singapore or I will have to present you my latest ELISA results very soon (don't know what that is? You better inform yourself about this immunological detection method before I hit you with all the data! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ELISA).

Siem Riep

Siem Riep is the city that is nearby the Angkor Wat temples. We did not spend much time there (only a few hours after arriving and before leaving) but long enough to take a few pics:

This is the view you have from a Tuk tuk. In Siem Riep there were more cars and less Tuk tuks than in Phnom Penh (wich is not much of a contest). Also this city was richer and cleaner, probably due to it's high amount of tourists.

Hipster timeee! This is what we had for dinner. The thing on the right is prawn with pinnaple and tomato and it was really good!

There was a night market nearby. You can also see various Tuk tuks from the side for those of you who did not know what I was talking about all this time.

There was a river and they had those beautiful lanterns swiming on it! The thing in the background is an ilumminated bridge, if I remember correctly. It's a pity we did not get to see more (I had a few more pictures on the other card...) but I am glad we were able to visit this city at all!

Ice-ice baby

Today I tried the best Invention in the world. The first time I heard about it I was a little skeptical, but now I am in love with it and arranging the wedding date. It's....

Ice cream with bread!!!! ♥ And I don't want to see any of your disapproving looks! The bread is colored but actually tastes like regular toast. And it is so good!

From now on I will only eat it like this (I have to figure out how to color my bread, though...). Oh, it is so delicious...

Tomb Raider

So this is how childhood dreams come true. Ever since I watched the first Lara Croft movie with my father when I was 10 (and I decided that I wanted to be like her) I told myself I would go to the temple in that appears in the movie. It turned our the temple was Ta Prohm near Angkor Wat, so I had to take the chance, because I don't think I'll ever be closer. 

Into the adventure!:

Uhh so mysterious.....

I don't know how Lara Croft could find the piece of the triangle she was looking for with all the tourists running around...

Looks like the tree won the battle!

Nearby there were some kids bathing in the lake, which made it very genuine (I bet the people from the temple paid those kids to jump around in the lake... seriously, I don't know what else they would be doing like 20 km away from the city...)

With a location like this you don't even have to look while you take the pictures, they always turn out great (I think that is the secret of the National Geographic guys... they don't know how to hold a camera, but they go to amazing places and get great pics...)

Omg! What is Lara Croft (in a new super-sexy-yet-temple-adequate outfit) doing in this picture?? 

Adventure time, indeed...

Phnom Penh

As I told you in the last post I lost as good as all of my Phnom Penh (more silent 'h's! MORE!) pictures. Fortunately I have a few that are not incredibly great, but they might give you a small impression. Jump on this Tuc-tuc for a ride around the city! (for those of you who don't know what a tuc-tuc is, it's a small wagon attached to a motorcycle and its basically the substitution of a cab in Cambodia. In the cities you cannot walk 5 meters without some guy running to you "Lady, tuc-tuc? Tuc-tuc, Lady? You want Tuc-tuc?" and as you are saying no to this man who is impossible to get rid of, the next one is already running towards you. Neverthelesss it is a very cheap way of getting around. For 2 US dollars (and 10 minutes of barigain) you can go across town and see all the small streets). So much for the parenthesis, that is longer than the rest of the post.

Traffic in Cambodia. Coming from Germany this is one of the craziest and most outstanding experiences I have had. People mostly drive motorcicles in this country (appart form a few (thousand) tuc-tucs (btw. "Tuc-tuc, Lady?? Tuc-tuc?") and some suicidal cars). The traffic here is best compared to Sodom and Gomorra. Really. It goes from whole families (and this means the father (driving), the mother (holding one of the kids) and one to two kids (often completely naked and usually standing on the seat between their mother and their father)) on one motorcyle and noone apart from the driver wearing a helmet (if you are not driving then you cannot be hurt, apparently), to carrying the most incredible things (that I could not carry with four friends by foot) on one motorcycle and to DRIVING IN THE OPPOSITE DIRECTION. And not just in some small streets. ON THE HIGHWAY (well, highway means around 50 km/h, but still). How do they still live!?   The motorcycles always passed 1cm from our tuc-tuc ("Tuc-tuc, Lady?") and the lanes were usually completely ignored. Never, NEVER complain about your city for doing the driver licence again! NEVER!  

Ok, now that I cooled down I show you soe pictures of the central marked. It is a very beautiful building where they have everything (mostly copies). As usual you have to bargain because the initial price is impertinently high! Here is the entrance tho the market building:

The guy in the frame is the late king of cambodia. He died last month so there wer pictures of him all over the country. 

This is the mall from the inside. It was like a big hall with four hallways like a cross. I hope you get the picture.

This is a picture of a very cool guy (ha-ha). In case you cannot recognize it he is sawing some huge block of ice. I don't know how that can be a lucrative business at 30 ºC in the shadow, but apparently the ice does not melt that quickly.

And to finish this short impression a picture that caught my attention. In a country in which half of the population has to sit on the floor of the streets these three dogs get a their own chair (and apparently they stay seated...). Never forget your good manners!

Angkor Wat

This is the second main reason why I am happy that I still have the second card left, rather than the first one. Angkor Wat is the amazing temple that is near Siem Riep and about 240 km away from the capital Phnom Penh (I go through so much pain every time I have to type this city. Why on earth do they randomly insert 'h's in that name?! It took me a while until I got it right the first time...). It was built in the 12th century and is a national symbol (not to mention a huge tourist magnet). It is so important its silhouette appears on the national flag:

 

(source: Wikipedia (who would have guessed?))

I had  some great shots from the fron but they were on the first card so the only pic I have left from the outside of the temple is this one:

You get the idea of which famous building I am talking about, right? Here are some pictures of the inside of the temple-complex:

Here is the proud owner of this humble site.

Inside the temple there were some very interesting buddhist altars and statues like the one above. 

Angkor Wat is even bigger that what it looks from the outside. I wonder what the monks did in all those spaces (especially in these patios that were everywhere)?

There were so may great espalnades in between. They probably played soccer on this one (I heard that's what buddhist monks usually do...).

On the right you can see the way that leads from the entrance to the temple itself. This path is flanked by two small ponds with palms.

And last but not least a Buddha-statue. Don't be fooled by my breath-taking phoptography skills. The place was more than overcrowded. You were free to walk around where you wanted to but most people followed defined routes or guides so my friend Isa and I tried to see corners, that were not so full (that's why it appears as if we were the only ones there on most of the pics...).  Good night!