Photo courtesy of Qatarisbooming.com

Over Christmas vacation, the hubs and I flew back to the US from Singapore on Qatar Airways. They’ve certainly established a big online presence, and if your office plays Channel News Asia all day on loop like mine does you probably associate them with hourly weather reports (and that maddening too-ethereal music!).

Since I’m often writing about flight sales and read lots of travel industry publications, I knew that Qatar was named the world’s best airline at the 2011 Skytrax World Airline Awards which, if not 100% transparent, do seem to generally rate airline quality in the same way that I would anyway. Skytrax has also rated Qatar as one of the world’s five 5-Star Airlines (along with Singapore, Cathay Pacific, Asiana and Hainan Airlines. Is it any wonder that flying in Asia is a marvel that has spoiled us for ever wanting to fly in the US again?).

Qatar has one of the youngest airplane fleets of any airline in the world, it gets great reviews for its comfortable seats and state-of-the-art entertainment systems, and yet its fares are among the cheapest of anyone flying to Europe and North America from Singapore. This NYT article, though technically about rival airline Emirates, does a good job explaining the business model. Essentially because the Middle Eastern airlines are owned by rich sheiks and emirs they’re able to be less fixated on profitability without compromising quality. Unlike, ahem, every crappy American airline that flies internationally.

So, while most expats I know here tend to travel according to frequent flier allegiances, I figured it was worth giving my two cents on Qatar in case you’re ever tempted to take advantage of their cheap fares (by the way they do fly direct from Singapore to Bali). Please excuse my low-quality photos; I was too lazy to use my DSLR and just relied on the iPhone. I’ll rate each category on a scale of 1 to 5, 5 being the best. All comments apply to Economy Class only; from what I’ve heard Qatar’s Business and First Class product are incredible, and the issues that I personally encountered would have mostly been moot.

Counter Service/Baggage Policies: 5

The airline offers convenient online check-in, but we also found counter service to be friendly and helpful throughout. I realized after I booked that I accidentally requested “Hindu Vegetarian” food instead of “Oriental Vegetarian” (I like getting tofu when I have the option), and was able to call up customer service no problem and have them change my request. In terms of baggage allowance, each traveler is generously allowed two bags weighing up to 23kg (50 pounds) each.  Suck on that, Jetstar!

Planes/Seats: 5

I can’t attribute this claim to any one source but Qatar is reputed to have one of the youngest airplane fleets of any airline, with I think the average plane averaging only about 4 years old or so (it’s easy enough to believe when you look at how rapidly the airline has grown since its “re-launch” in 1997, not to mention they’re always making headlines for purchasing dozens of new planes at all the airplane shows). Contrast this to even Singapore Airlines, which until last week was flying the Singapore-Frankfurt-New York route on old Boeing 747s.

Qatar, meanwhile, flies its long-haul routes to the US on Boeing 777-300ERs, which I’ve personally found to be the most comfortable long-haul plane to travel on (compared to the 747, the A380 or the A330). Plus, this is just me and I’ll admit I’m an extremely nervous flyer, I’m not wild about flying on the A380 (via SQ or Emirates) since they keep discovering problems with it and all the engine explosions seem to have happened in an around Singapore.

But I digress. According to SeatGuru, Qatar’s economy class seats offer the best combined pitch recline (34″) and seat width (18.9″) of any airline in the world. The hubs, who is now entirely spoiled by flying Singapore Airlines Business Class everywhere for work and finds 99% of economy seats to be uncomfortable because he’s tall and has big legs, gave Qatar’s economy seats two thumbs up. They were plush (far more plush than those dreadful hardback shell things I experienced when flying Cathay back in May) and reclined enough that we were both able to sleep for hours at a time, which is a rarity.

The planes feature nice ambient mood lighting (gotta love shades of pink and purple), with plenty of room to stand up and move about the cabin.

Food: 4.25

I mean, I couldn’t really give airline food 5 stars unless someone was cooking it up fresh for me or something, but I thought Qatar offered a nice range of dishes (fruit pancakes, Dal, frittatas and veggie hot pockets as snacks are all things that I recall), and I found myself almost cleaning my plate, which I virtually never do on planes. I’m taking off a quarter point because they didn’t have an extensive help-yourself food pantry with cookies, fruit and other snacks like I’ve seen on Qantas and Cathay Pacific (c’mon Qatar, Tim Tams make everything better!).

In-Flight Service & Amenities: 4

I couldn’t really fault the service, there just seemed to be about half as many flight attendants walking around as on Singapore or Cathay, and they were slightly less cheerful and accommodating (like, rolled their eyes when I went to the galley to ask for a cup of water). I also didn’t like that they handed out pre-packaged wipes, rather than actual cold towels, pre-flight. (Both because towels are nicer and because they never came around to collect the trash generated, which is a major plane pet peeve of mine).

Finally, this is me just being nitpicky, but it really irked me that the dude sitting in front of me on our flight from JFK to Doha was texting right until we were taxi-ing to take off. I kept waiting for a flight attendant to tell him to turn his phone off, but no one ever did. Who knows if all the interference stuff has any truth to it, but once again, I’m a very anxious flyer so I just wish they’d paid a bit closer attention and enforced the rules.

In terms of amenities, we got very nice pillows and plush fleece blankets. Each guest also gets a nifty little zip-up pouch with socks, an eye mask, ear plugs, and a very cool encapsulated toothbrush with mini toothpaste. I liked the toothbrush so much I collected one from each of our four flights — it’s great for travel.

Entertainment: 4.5

Like any self-respecting airline (*cough*United*cough*Delta*, at least on long-haul flights from Australia…), Qatar offers personal entertainment consoles with hundreds of movies, TV shows and games. The new release movie selection on our flight out kind of sucked – when I fly I like mindless comedies and rom coms, but other than Crazy Stupid Love it was all heavy dramas and crappy-looking action films – so I’m thankful that our final flight at least switched over into January with much-improved offerings (including Moneyball, Drive, One Day, and others that I now forget).

The TV selection was pretty good, but at most you’d get six episodes of any one show. One of the best features of SQ is their “Red Eye Collection” which offers full seasons of TV shows, and Cathay has something similar. Cathay also offered more and better shows; on my previous trip I watched nothing but America’s Next Top Model and Downton Abbey for 15 hours, and I could not have been happier.

On the plus side, Qatar’s video screens are 10.6″, which has to be some of the biggest anywhere, and the Oryx touch-screen system worked flawlessly.

Ground Facilities: 2

Once again, living in Singapore has clearly spoiled us. Once you go Changi you never want to go back. Stopping over anywhere (except maybe Hong Kong) feels so dull in comparison, but on the spectrum of places I’ve ever flown out of, Doha was about on par with Tompkins County Airport in Ithaca, NY. To be fair, a new airport is set to open sometime this year (of course, I think it was supposed to open last October so who knows when it’ll happen), but that place is just a dump right now.

• Shopping: Consists of one duty free store, selling mostly tobacco
• Dining: There’s one coffee shop (Coffee Beanery) and one row of fast food joints (A&W, sandwiches, and TCBY, which I love but not at 6am)
• Seating: Not comfortable, and very limited. And forget about sitting close to your gate because…
• Gates: There aren’t any. The airport (I guess?) isn’t able to accommodate jetways, so passengers are required to take shuttle buses to and from every single flight. So rather than “you may now board”, it’s more like “your plane is open so you can walk down to the bus when you feel like it.” Not only is that a pain in itself, but it makes for chaotic boarding since they’re not loading by row or seat type.

The one saving grace was the Oryx Lounge, which anyone can access for $40 (or free if you have certain credit cards or frequent flyer allegiances).

The lounge offers free Wi-Fi, showers, flat-screen TVs, fairly comfy seating, and a nice selection of food & beverage (points for the locally-flavored hummus, tabouleh and baclava. Mmmm).

Since we had a five hour layover on our way back it was well worth it. Of course, price was a key consideration in booking this ticket, and that tacked another $40 onto each.

Furthermore, because we had heard the airport sucked so much, we booked a hotel room (the Ramada Encore, which was perfectly convenient and comfortable for a 6-hour nap) for our 8-hour layover on the way out. It worked out well – the hotel’s only about 10 minutes from the airport – but obviously added another extra cost, plus cab fare in both directions.

Intangibles: 2

Ideally we wouldn’t have had to deal with such long layovers, especially going in both directions. But there’s only one flight a day between Doha and New York and two flights between Doha and Singapore. Compare that to Cathay, which has 8 daily flights between Singapore and Hong Kong, and four daily flights between New York and Hong Kong.

In our case, we had a choice between leaving Singapore at 9pm or 2am on the way out, and no choice on the way back. In short we departed Singapore at 9pm Thursday night, and didn’t arrive in New York until 2pm Friday afternoon. Compare that to when I flew back on Cathay leaving Singapore at 10am on Thursday, and arriving at 8pm on Thursday night in New York. Meanwhile, SQ’s Frankfurt flight only stops for about 90 minutes.

Long story short, I only have so much vacation time, and I’d rather spend it on the ground at home, rather than in the crappy Doha Airport. What’s more, the crazy flight times and long layovers messed me up but good with regard to jet lag. I’m usually quite good at staying awake through the day upon arrival and avoiding jet lag over the first week back, but after flying back through Doha I couldn’t help but pass out when we got home.

Would I fly Qatar Airways again? To Bali, or Europe (where the connection times are much better), or the Middle East? Absolutely. To New York? Probably not. The actual flights were fantastic – as good as flights could be, really – but the bad ground facilities and the interminable layovers really did a number on us both and we agreed it wasn’t worth saving a couple hundred bucks (I think the Qatar fare we paid was about $300 cheaper than Emirates, $400 cheaper than Cathay and $500 cheaper than SQ) in exchange for bouts of exhaustion and nasty jet lag.

I’m not sure anyone ever really feels their age; I don’t think I have since middle school (when I was 12 I felt so much younger than the big, cool 6th graders had seemed when I was in 3rd grade). I remember writing a college application essay at 18 about how things had turned out so differently than I’d imagined when I was younger. Twelve (!!!) years later it’s kind of dejavu all over again.

If you’d asked 18-year-old me what I would hope to achieve by 30, I probably would have said editor at a magazine (preferably Sports Illustrated or Rolling Stone), married, rich and living in New York City. I probably would have expected to have kids already, since 30 is freaking ancient to an 18 year-old.

Although I’m occasionally stricken with bouts of What are you doing with your life? And You are a career failure compared to all your friends and everyone you went to high school with! this old age has mellowed me a bit. I’m married to a smart, wonderful man who is my best friend and makes me laugh every day. Together we have literally traveled the world, which is certainly not something I could have fathomed at 18. If you’d told me I’d be living in Asia and eating most of my meals with chopsticks – after spending two years in Australia, no less – I would have laughed and said there was no way I’d ever sit on a plane long enough to get there.

I’m not editing a magazine but I did have the chance to work at SI, briefly. I spent a year getting paid to stay in resorts in the Caribbean and Hawaii. I have the pleasure of writing about my life abroad for a website sponsored by the largest company in Singapore. I’ve not had the steadiest career, but it sure has been an interesting one.

The “grass is always greener” concept is something you become intimately familiar with as an expat. Everyone at home instantly assumes your life is glamorous and exciting. When I’ve expressed doubts about myself and my career to friends in New York, they’ve all said “Yeah but you get to travel and live on the other side of the world.” On a more micro-level, when I tell people I work in online travel, they inevitably say “Cool! Do you get to go everywhere that you write about?” (followed by me umming and ahhing an awkward “not really”). When the hubs tells people he’s a lawyer, they say “Wow!” and picture Jack McCoy or James Spader or LA Law or whatever other TV character has glamorized the profession. They don’t think about his 18-hour-work days, the mountains of documents on his desk or the endless trips to Jakarta. He, too, will usually just say “not really.” On the other hand, I love my job, and we both know how lucky we are to be employed in the midst of global economic downturn.

My point is that things always look best from a distance. It was easy to state career goals at 18, before life and various other circumstances got in the way. But I’m not complaining. Every day I look out the window to see the sun rising over the Straits, and I feel lucky – and happy – to be where I am. Both physically here in Singapore, and metaphysically.

To celebrate my birthday the hubs took me and some of our best friends out to dinner when we were in New York. We drank margaritas and ate at a Mexican restaurant in Brooklyn, and afterwards went dancing at a bar featuring “90s Night.” Yet another sign that you are officially old: the music of your glory days is ghettoized to a Thursday retro night.

We drank beers and danced in a big circle – just like we did at high school dances (the circle dancing, not the beers) – to classics like “Shoop,” “What I Got,” “I Want It That Way” and “Basket Case.” The DJ even broke out one-hit wonders like “Tubthumping” and “Steal My Sunshine.” If I closed my eyes I could have been 16 again. It was wonderful.

On my actual birthday we were back here in Singapore and it was my first day returning to work after our long vacation. I’d been dreading it. But then, I received messages throughout the day on facebook from friends here in Singapore and in Australia. My officemate surprised me with a mini-chocolate cake. The hubs took me out for xiao long bao at Din Tai Fung. The next day the facebook messages continued to roll in from everyone back home, starting with the early morning on the East Coast until late at night in California. I got a solid two days’ worth of happy birthday messages, how cool is that?

All I could think was, how lucky am I? I’ve had a chance to make wonderful friends on three continents, and this is what I have to show for it. Yes, it sucks to get older, but these 30 years have actually been pretty amazing.

My high school yearbook quote, courtesy of William Butler Yeats, was Think where man’s glory most begins and ends, and say my glory was I had such friends. Obviously a lot has changed since I was 18, but my conviction on that point has only grown stronger.

- -

One of my best friends from high school died last June after sustaining injuries in a car accident. I’d seen her just two weeks prior at the wedding of another one of our good friends. It was awful, and traumatic, and shocking to process – particularly from 8,500 miles away – and not a day goes by when I don’t think about my friend. Her death was senseless and unfair and her absence will leave a hole in my heart for the rest of my life.

But if there is one lesson to glean from that terrible situation, it’s that life is precious and could end at any minute. Whether we live to be 29 or 100, it’s such a short time in the grand scheme of things. I’m grateful for the many happy moments I shared with my friend, and I’m thankful I got to see her so close to the end on a fun occasion with some of my best friends in the world.

In a way, this has shown me that I’m lucky to be turning 30, and need to make the most of whatever time I have in this wonderful life. It’s a clichéd and corny sentiment to conclude with, I suppose, but it’s given me a great deal of clarity.

As I mentioned a couple weeks ago, a new web portal for expats called NotaTourist.sg has recently launched, and I’m thrilled to be one of the site’s contributors (along with a number of other expat bloggers listed on my blogroll — the Singapore expat blogging community is kind of hilariously small).

NotaTourist highlights a wide range of expat perspectives and covers popular categories like Food (such a no-brainer in Singapore), Relocation, the Arts, Music and Events. I’ve also written a couple travel-related articles that fall under the catch-all “Fun” section.

The site is sponsored by Singtel (as you may have gathered by the various Singtel-sponsored events that I’ve written about in the past few months, like the Grand Prix, the TV-themed fashion show at MBS and the kick-ass Makansutra Food Tour). However, in addition to the fact that most of the posts aren’t actually Singtel-related, we have complete editorial freedom to write (or not write) what we like. As a journalism school graduate with friends and classmates writing for many of the world’s top publications I feel a little uneasy about this relationship, but have tried to be as transparent about it as possible.

This is how I see it: Singapore is an exciting place with SO much cool stuff going on pretty much all the time. I consider this an opportunity to experience much more – and meet so many more interesting people – than I otherwise could on my own.

Case in point: NotaTourist’s Launch event, which occurred in early December. For starters, I had the opportunity to be shot by the incredibly talented photographer Danny Santos, who took pictures of all the site’s contributors at various locations around Singapore (mine was at a hawker center, natch). Giant blow-ups of the photos were displayed at the launch, and they were also beamed out over Orchard Road that evening. When I moved here in March, I certainly couldn’t have imagined that my picture would some day be flashed out over Orchard Road. I must admit, it gave me butterflies.

There were two discussion panels, the first featuring local Singapore celebrities including KF Seetoh, the hilarious blogger Mr Miyagi, and actors Hossan Leong and Irene Ang. I think I understood about 30% of their jokes (i.e. someone had to explain to me afterwards the veiled references to suicides at Bedok Reservoir).

The second panel featured two expat contributors to NotaTourist, as well as the site’s [American, woo!] editor Victoria Cheng and the author Neil Humphreys. I’d never before heard of Humphreys, a Brit who first moved here in 1996, but found his rants and observations to be somewhat hilarious (although I think his heavy London accent probably made him sound about 25% funnier, much like Russell Brand). I actually found Humphreys to be so funny that I picked up one of his books to give to my Dad for Christmas as preparation for his trip here in February. But I digress.

Please make sure to check out NotaTourist.sg and let me know what you think. Some content is re-posted and some will be original, but I really do think it’s a great resource for anyone living in or looking to move to Singapore.

Yours faithfully in not selling out,

Kate

So close I can almost hear them singing…

On Thursday the hubs and I will board a flight for Qatar, spend a few hours napping in a Doha hotel, and then head out Friday morning for New York. We’re spending the weekend in New York, hopefully seeing some friends and doing a bit of American-style (read: crowded, manic) Christmas shopping, before flying down to visit my Grandma in Florida.

On December 21st we’ll fly to Cleveland, where we’ll spend five days with the hubs’s family, including Christmas. I’ve been going to my in-laws’ house for Christmas since college (obvs they weren’t my in-laws then). I probably idealize it a bit (who wouldn’t after a few years in the Southern Hemisphere?) but it really is pretty rad. First of all, Ohio is a lot more likely to have snow on the ground for an actual white Christmas than Massachusetts. Secondly, it’s just a lot of fun being in a big house surrounded by people (the hubs has five siblings). I of course love my parents (and Charlotte!), but Christmas is definitely a much quieter affair when it’s just three adults.

In Ohio the hubs plays football in the snow with his younger brothers, we all get gingerbread houses to decorate, and his Mom puts out her collection of funny Hallmark decorations (including the singing snowmen pictured above). On Christmas Eve we go to Popeyes Fried Chicken for dinner, and we stuff ourselves with candy while I make everyone humor me by watching at least two or three showings of 24 Hours of A Christmas Story. We spend ALL of Christmas day in our pajamas; I think I love this in particular because growing up we weren’t allowed to open presents until everyone had showered and dressed.

I’ve missed our traditional Christmas celebrations so much over the last few years, but I didn’t really want to write about it because thinking about it when I knew I wouldn’t be there just kinda bummed me out. I have been looking forward to going back for this Christmas pretty much since last year, when we decided we’d need to do it since we’d prolonged our time abroad. I am SO excited to see my family, and our friends, and to be in New York and Ohio and Boston, but I’m a tiny bit nervous that I won’t want to come back. Of course, I’m also majorly freaked out that I’ll freeze to death. I’m such a bad New Englander.

It’s incredible to think that our last Christmas in the U.S. was three years ago. We’d been married just a few months. Only a few days after we returned to New York from Ohio, the hubs’s office asked if we’d be interested in moving to Australia, and we haven’t really stopped since then.

Maybe I’m a bit nervous about bringing three years’ worth of expectations back with me. Each time I’ve gone home I’ve been surprised by what things disappoint me (certain food items don’t taste as amazing as I remembered, friends don’t seem to have missed me nearly as much as I missed them) and what things delight me unexpectedly (shelves brimming with 50 kinds of deodorant, a new SportsCenter commercial everyone else has seen a million times that’s totally new and hilarious to me). Of course, other things (a hug from my Mom or Dad, laughing over drinks with my best friends, watching a Red Sox game LIVE with my Dad, Charlotte or the hubs’s family’s beagle jumping into bed to snuggle with me) are always every bit as wonderful as they were in my mind. Sometimes I think it’s taken living on the other side of the world to truly realize what makes me happiest.

I wish everyone a happy holiday season, wherever you should find yourself.  With all the decorations and ever-present Christmas music, I don’t think Singapore’s such a bad warm weather place to spend the holidays (*cough* *cough*).

I can’t wait for the novelty of wearing a scarf and mittens, though. After three years, I think I’ve earned it.

In addition to being the international face of Singaporean food, Seetoh is also something of a local celebrity. I believe he has (or used to have?) a local TV show about food, and I’ve heard he endorses restaurants as disparate as KFC and Brussels Sprouts. Sure enough people came up during the tour and asked to have their photos taken with him.

The trip started by boarding a tour bus at the Singtel Comcentre behind Somerset. A number of other bloggers were present, along with expats from some other organizations and a few Singtel employees. Seetoh manned a microphone at the front of the bus and off we went toward the East Coast. He started with a brief recap of Singapore’s rich hawker heritage, talking about how the Hainanese were often the cooks (cooking for the British, Hokkiens and Teochew), and picked up on ingredients and techniques used by Indians and Malays. He told us that in 1950 – before indoor hawker centres were introduced – there were an estimated 24,000 street food vendors roaming Singapore.

Our first stop was at Mr Teh Tarik Eating House in Geylang:

We were here to try putu piring, a super-delicious snack (which I’d actually had, but didn’t know the name of) made from palm sugar steamed with rice flour, pandan, grated coconut and peanuts. Deeeeelish. I just googled putu piring and noticed that IeatIshootIpost dubbed this place “The Lord of the Pirings,” so check that out for more info. Needless to say, it’s a wonderfully mild, only slightly sweet snack. The uncle was also a total sweetheart, and seemed quite comfortable having his photo taken:

It was pretty funny tromping through the hawker centre with a big group of camera-wielding expats. Some of the locals there looked less than amused:

Next we headed to another restaurant on Geylang Road, where I took in some of the neighborhood scenery (not pictured, throngs of prostitutes):

Our whole group ate at a long outdoor table at a restaurant whose name escapes me. We ate a number of Indonesian and Malay dishes, including Nasi Padang, blackened spicy squid, beef rendang, chicken with whole chilis, and a fabulous tofu and cabbage dish (also didn’t catch the name). It was all topped off with rice and a giant bottle of Tiger Beer. Despite the absolute cornucopia of offerings, Seetoh warned us that we should only fill our stomachs to 60% occupancy, max. I had a hard time restraining myself; the squid was melt-in-your-mouth delicious (I think we’d all expected something a lot more rubbery), the chicken had a nice kick, and the beef rendang was tender and oh-so coconutty. I only eat beef, like, twice a year but this made me consider eating it more often.

Our third stop was Sinma Claypot Live Frog, pictured above. This is an actual restaurant, and we were escorted to a private room on the second floor after passing tanks of live (live!) ribbitting frogs. Soon we were noshing on frog porridge (yup, tastes like chicken, save for those teeny tiny limbs):

My favorite dish at this place was some amazingly flavorful, well-seasoned (and crispy!) fried eggplant. I seriously never knew that vegetable could taste so good:

Then came the piece de resistance: steamed shark head. The servers brought one out for each table and Seetoh dropped to his knees to inhale the delicate fragrance. He showed us where the shark’s eyes had been, and where the fin had been before being removed for soup. Consumption of shark is a controversial topic these days, but I figured if there was ever a time to try it now was that time.

Seetoh actually came over to our table to show us how to cut up and serve the meat. It was surprisingly gelatinous, even liquidy. As Seetoh so aptly put it, “If you’ve never had it before, it will probably remind you of snot.” The meat itself is very mild, which is why they drown it in that brown sauce somewhat akin to sambal (I believe, don’t quote me). I found that I actually preferred it with a bit less sauce.

I was pretty full – and getting worried about how my stomach would react to all these first time visitors – when the waiters brought out even more food, some of Singapore’s famous giant crab. At this point I was basically stuffed to the gills (seafood pun, get it?) but managed to take one little bite before exhaustion overtook me. Earlier on in the evening Seetoh had talked about the advent of Singapore chili crab in the 1950s, maintaining that “it’s a lot easier to eat it than to cook it” [in light of the many spices required to make it properly]. After this meal I have a new appreciation for how tough it must be to cook.

Our FINAL stop of the night was in familiar territory: Makansutra Gluttons’ Bay along the Esplanade. It’s actually a small hawker market comprised of some of Seetoh’s favorite vendors, and he served us a dessert he claims to have come up with on his own: banana fritters with kaya fondue. For those unfamiliar with kaya, it’s a wonderfully ooey gooey coconut jam that Singaporeans put on toast for breakfast. Banana fritters are a popular dessert here, and I’ll give Seetoh props for pairing them with a slightly more liquified version of the island’s best sweet sauce (I was so relieved we didn’t have to eat black beans or corn).

I’m not sure I’ve ever consumed so much delicious (and varied) food in one evening, but I had a truly amazing time. Seetoh is not only hilarious, but he simply radiates passion for local food in the way he speaks and describes it. He draws out words, emphasizes certain syllables, and describes dishes as “gorgeous” and “out of this world, man.” It’s a trait I noticed when he guested on Top Chef, and it was really cool to see it carry over into real life. I enjoyed the tour so much, in fact, that I plan to take my parents on it when they come to visit in March (they’re equally starstruck by Seetoh, who just appeared in the US again on Anthony Bourdain’s new show The Layover).

In addition to the epic makan session (“Makan” is a Malay word for “to eat,” by the way), I really enjoyed getting to see Geylang come alive at night, and meeting lots of other cool expats, including bloggers Laura, Myra, Bec and Antonio and foodie man about town @yongfook. Many, many thanks to Singtel, Goodstuph and NotaTourist.sg for inviting me to come along and let me do my thang:

I’ve written too much, per usual, but will write more next time about the launch of NotaTourist.sg. In the meantime, do check it out and kindly revert back to me, ok lah?