Local Burger

When I traveled through Los Angeles on my way to meet up with the crew in Indonesia I made sure to find an In-N-Out while I was in town. In-N-Out is a fast food chain that is only on the west coast and has been rated one of the top fast-food restaurants in the country. Since I had heard so much about their food I was really happy to be able to stop at one. When I found one I could easily tell how popular this restaurant is by the long line of cars that stretched all the way across the shopping area parking lot at it was mid-afternoon, not even when most people eat a meal! There was also an employee who directed traffic and walked from car to car to take orders and radio them back to the kitchen to speed up the process. The menu at In-N-Out is very simple and not with much variety but what they offer is very, very good with fresh ingredients. I have to saw that the burger that I ordered did live up to its claim to fame and was probably one of the best fast-food burgers I’ve had!

Here in Malaysia there are fast-food restaurants such as McDonalds, KFC, and even a few local brands, but there aren’t any In-N-Out restaurants. That’s okay though because we’ve found something I like much better. It’s known as a local burger and can be found at most night markets where Malaysians go to get dinner. Like a lot of the food stalls I’ve found on the side of the roads these ones only offer one dish, although you can get several different types of burger. They are cooked on a flat stove, their buns are toasted, and they can come with coleslaw, cucumbers, egg, cheese, mayonnaise, special sauce, black pepper. They aren’t very expensive and you can get patties of chicken, fish, beef or even rabbit! And if you want you can get a double which comes with two patties. The person working the local burger stall makes them as soon as you order and even though there isn’t a drive through we seen cars lined up on the side of the road as they wait for their turn to get out and order. The burgers are big, messy, and delicious! Some have even been served with a fork and spoon if things get too messy. A single chicken burger costs less than 3 Ringgit and a burger with only fried egg cost only 1.20 Ringgit!

There you have it! Two delicious and very different burgers from two very different parts of the world!

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Cendol!

Before I visited the historic town of Malacca for a day I read about a popular dish served there called cendol. It’s a traditional desert in Southeast Asia and can be prepared different ways depending on where you get it but is based on coconut milk, a jelly made of rice flour and green food coloring, palm sugar, shaved ice, and often red beans or corn. Sounds like a strange mixture, and it is, but it was actually very good when I tried it! It’s similar to a very sweat snow cone with coconut cream. There were several street vendors and shops selling cendol in Malacca and it quickly became a favorite treat of mine, especially after sightseeing in the hot sun for a few hours. I ended up getting it three times while I was in Malacca (it was a very hot day) and I’m looking forward to trying different versions of cendol as we continue traveling!

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Sentosa Island And A Few Singapore Pictures

On my last day in Singapore I decided to visit Sentosa Island. Sentosa Island is a small, family themed island development in the southern-most part of Singapore. It’s designed to attract Southeast Asian families for weekend, or longer, vacations, similar to Disneyland back home. I wanted to go to Sentosa for three reasons: to see Singapore from the cable car ride to the island, to visit the aquarium there, and to visit the southern-most point of the Asian continent (according to Singapore). I was able to do all three!

To get to Sentosa I had to take the metro all the way to the last stop on the red line, Harborfront. From there I had to find my way to the cable car which was a little confusing since like most metro stations, this one let out in the middle of a giant shopping mall. Once I found the cable car it was just a short ride onto the island. The view from the cable car of Singapore was well worth the ticket! From the air you can really see how big of a role the shipping industry plays in Singapore’s economy. It seemed like the shipping ports were several times larger than the downtown area of Singapore, and you could see massive shipping vessels lined up by the dozens in the surrounding waters.

Once I got onto the island I bypassed the ticket counters selling tickets to all sorts of crazy rides, shows, and other attractions and went straight to the aquarium. I was just in time for the sea lion and dolphin show. The aquarium has three pink dolphins!

Inside, the aquarium itself was fairly small but still had some neat exhibits. In addition to the usual shark, ray, and turtle petting tanks they also had two aquariums with “windows” in them where you could stick your hand through the side wall! Take a look at the picture below and try to figure out how this is possible!

There was also a moving walkway that snaked under a massive aquarium while all sorts of sea creatures swam around you.

Here is a picture of me in front of one of the many reef colonies that were in the aquarium.

After checking out the aquarium I headed down to the beach. According to Singapore this beach is the southern-most point on the Asian continent, but Malaysia disagrees! I made it just in time for sunset.

This is a picture of me just after the sun had set. Most of the lights in the background are shipping containers!

I wandered around the island a bit more and most of it was brightly lit with neon lights illuminating water features, statues, and decorative vegetation.

There was even a giant merlion statue that was several stories tall!

As I headed back to the main island of Singapore I could see the downtown skyline rising up from Sentosa.

After almost six days exploring Singapore I was happy to finally be heading back to the boat for some much needed rest. Below are some other pictures from my favorite parts of Singapore.

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