Not a Fan of Singapore Crunchy Noodles

Happy Year of the Boar from Macau. I arrived last night at about 7:30 pm, which was about 9:30 am Friday at home. I left my house at 4:15 am on Thursday, so for any mathematically challenged out there, that means I was en route for 29 hours. Which, let me tell you, was about as much fun as I can take. It really wasn't that bad of a journey, although the leg from St. Louis to Chicago for some reason really had me anxious. Maybe it was the part where we started doing circles in the sky about 30 minutes into a 45 minute flight. Just flying around in circles over Illinois.

The long haul part was uneventful, for which I'm eternally grateful. We took the same route as we did last year when I made this trip, which is to say, straight north from Chicago, over the North Pole and then straight south over Russia, Mongolia, China and then finally landed in Hong Kong. Things I saw during the flight (amongst other things I won't share out of love for you, my dear reader...things like scabby feet and stinky passengers):
  • Frozen over Hudson Bay. Looked really cool from 35,000 feet.
  • The movie The Queen about the Queen's response to the death of Princess Diana. This movie portrayed Prince Charles as pathetic, Tony Blair as childishly excited and his wife as a complete bitch. But Helen Mirren? I think she was channeling the Queen. She's freaking GOOD at that role.
  • An amazing sunrise over the North Pole-ish area. Blood red and when the sun first peaked over the horizon, it was pretty awe-inspiring.

Once in Hong Kong, we had to take a one-hour ferry to Macau. Then, stand in the passport control line in Macau for about another hour. Then, had to catch the hotel shuttle. Once checked into my cozy room (all to myself!!!! am overly excited about having my own room) I ordered some room service as I hadn't eaten a meal since the "chicken and noodles" on the plane 8 hours previous. I thought I'd do the whole When In Rome thing and ordered something called "Singapore Crunchy Noodles with Stir-Fried Vegetables". Let's just say it wasn't quite what I expected. It did say crunchy noodles so I shouldn't have been surprised that they were like the crunchy chow mein noodles. But the part that skeeved me out was the slimy sauce in which the vegatables were sauteed. That and those were some of the oddest-looking mushrooms (at least that's what I think they were...tasted fung-riffic) I've ever seen. They kept reminding me of oysters, which promptly put me off.

I'm off to one of the many meetings planned for the next few days but I hope I'll be able to get back online before I head off to Beijing where there's no telling when or if I'll be able to go online. I'm going to give the mobile blogging thing a shot, but I'm less than optimistic - especially since the camera on my phone is pathetic. So if you see some unidentifiable picture(s) up here in the next few days, that should explain it.

Comments

Unknown said…
well then, you'll be happy to know that helen mirren won the oscar for the queen. glad you made it to your destination! cool north pole sunrise. and your own hotel room is pretty damn nice. i'll be checking back for more mobile blog entries! see you in a week or two.
Monday, February 26, 2007
Life said…
Glad to know that you made it. Maybe they were oyster mushrooms? Random fungi in foreign countries- mmmmmmm. I never considered that is the route a plane would take from here to there but it makes a lot of sense. Craziness. Take lots of picshures and have fun.
Monday, February 26, 2007
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