Tuesday

So, anyone expecting adventure and drama can stop reading now. This blog will most likely be about the most mundane things I enjoy. Like hotel breakfasts…or dogs.

Speaking of breakfast, cruel mummy forced her children to wake up early again, a; to hopefully get them to sleep at night and b; because she was hungry. Don’t judge me.
A fluffy steamed pork dumpling, salad, eggs and coffee, perfect! And a dog!!

Bea and I then went for another walk along the canal whilst Ben stayed in the room, he’s been tired today (spending hours in the pool+jet lag). We managed to spot the turtles again, and some other interesting critters.

In the afternoon we had a bit of rain that felt so refreshing, the air had that wonderful wet soil smell. There is actually a word for that; “Petrichor”. Try and use that in a sentence! The refreshing feeling lasted for about 5 minutes and was quickly exchanged for a wet warm blanket kind of feeling. I’ve not had many good hair days in my life and now I doubt I’ll ever have one again. The frizz is real folks!

When you live in the tropics the exotic fruits are no longer exotic and this is what’s in my fruit bowl today. Bea and Ben tried Mangosteen for the first time and really enjoyed the soft sweet and tangy flesh hidden under the peel. Dragonfruit is already a firm favourite with both of them. Personally I can’t wait until I’ve got my balcony and can start trying to propagate some of the seeds. Dragonfruits actually grow on a cactus, how cool is that?

We found a nice Italian restaurant for dinner (Bea couldn’t take more noodles…but pasta was well received). The kids even managed a quick game of Double without a fight before our dinner arrived!

Finally, a walk to try and get us some sim cards for our phones (unsuccessful as we needed our passports with us). Walking through a block of houses there was an unmistakable smell, you don’t need to see it to know it’s there: a Durian Fruit stall!

The smell reminds me of the Swedish delicacy “Surströmming” (fermented fish). The spiky Durian fruit is incredibly popular here and these stalls are everywhere in wet markets and hawker centres. They are so stinky you are not allowed to travel on public transport with them. We’ve yet to try it but will definitely have a Dougberg Durian challenge at some point. I promise to do a post on it, I’m actually very curious to taste this strange looking smelly thing!
That’s all for tonight, I’m off to hang some washing (told you this would be mundane!)
Cheerio!