Sight seeing in St. Kilda, Balaclava and then Melbourne City

For my day off, I put on pretty much all the clothes I had in my suitcase, all layered up on top of each other. Didn't think I would have such difficulty to adjust to the moderate temperatures, but I did.

St. Kilda really has a nice beach and a cute little shopping street that is full of nice little places to eat and have coffee. My favorite coffee is a double espresso macchiato. Melbourne is known for its coffee culture and the locals are very proud of the quality they offer. Yes, one can get good coffee all over, but it is a bit of a struggle to order correctly... There is just too many variations and one has to be very specific in the "local code" to get what one wants:
d o u b l e  e s p r e s s o  m a c c h i a t o.

In the evening, we met at Pelican for dinner. A restaurant just across the street from my hotel. Great tapas on the menu. I still was not feeling too well, so I just tried a bit of all the plates we shared.

Australia and my new Kangaroo friends...

So I arrived in Melbourne - motion sick from the plane. That is the first time this happened to me. Maybe I am to blame it on the Singapore Sling on the plane?! 

But, then they say, a real Indian knows no pain, so off to the next golf course: Yarrambat. Considering that I had very little sleep, was freezing and feeling uneasy from the temperature drop, I played and ok round barely breaking hundred. The flora and fauna made up for all the uneasiness. What a nice place to come to: Kangaroos on almost every hole, parrots, gum trees, eucalyptus and more.

Afterwards, I checked into the Prince of Wales Hotel in St. Kilda (http://www.theprince.com.au/). Lovely little shoebox of a room in a very stylish hotel. For dinner, I took the tram to the city and we had a great feast at the Cumulus Inc. 

Summary of my first day under: I will be in for a visual treat, cold weather (for my now tropical taste) and there will be great food, lots of great food along the way.

Keppel Golf Club... mighty hilly

Toby left early in the morning and I had rescheduled my flight to the evening (rather than flying out tomorrow) to be on the A380 to Melbourne overnight. So, I packed my bags again and headed off to Keppel Golf Club, where Frank is a member. We stored my luggage in his car and had lunch on the club terrace with two of his Taiwan team members.

Oh my, this course is hilly and narrow and there is water too. Accuracy is key here (... which I lacked on the front nine, but got into on the back nine today). We all did not really play too well, but had a relaxed round of low lights and high lights. Thank you Frank one more time!

Frank in action

My flight partners :)

Ah... lovely SingaporeAir lady at the
check-in thought my clubs needed
extra careful handling :D

Orchard Road window shopping and Marina Bay round two

It rained again a bit in the morning, so I packed my umbrella for my stroll down Orchard Road. A lot of the shopping in Singapore can be done inside to protect from the heat and humidity, but the malls concept serves equally well in the rain. I was just browsing though... have no intent to carry around shopping half of the planet. Buying (other than small souvenirs) will just have to wait for the last couple stops and the weak USD.

The streets of Singapore always remind me a bit of Florida. The architecture is very much what it looks like in parts of Miami and the big trees lining the streets are a bit like the canopy trees in Tallahassee.

In the afternoon, we played another round at Marina Bay with Andreas and a guy that claimed he played off 20... but it looked like and he played to more like a 50...
It started out very hot and I did not play too well on the front nine. The back nine though added up to a 44 and that is something to be happy about, even more so, considering that I was in the bunkers too (but got out in one in the bunker in the picture)...

Afternoon golf here means that the last couple holes are played with the floodlights on and also that they move the men's back tees to the white ones (which I played as ladies' back tees) and so I ended up playing with the guys. Even more so, I like my score today.

My golf day in Indonesia: Ria Bintan

Today we took the ferry in the morning over to Bintan to play golf at a course that is a real visual treat. Ocean views and very scenic holes. The greens were fast, so please excuse my 40 putts - even have to admit to a 4-putt :(  But, as a real highlight today, I shot par on all four par three holes and on two of the par fours holes, adding up to a 95. We started on the back nine, so the most scenic of the holes "number 9" was where we finished.

The monkey who stole my Pringles!
- but hadn't yet opened them...

Oversized black "bumble bee" or
whatever this fascinating
5cm creature was

the green of the 18th hole

the view from the tee on hole 9

all smiles after a nice round

approaching Singapore in the rain

Yesterday's breakfast was then matched by a home-made dinner: very tender New York strip from the grill with potatoes and herbed oven tomatoes. Yummie. The night then ended on the roof top of Marina Sands SkyPark observation deck at the Ku De Ta to enjoy the sky line views of Singapore.

sky lit up by lightning
- view from Toby's balcony
where he grilled our steaks

posing on the roof top of SkyPark

the infinity pool
at the Marina Bay Sands

Home-made "Zopf", golf at Marina Bay, then Chinese dinner and a foot massage

Home-made "Zopf" and honey, real Swiss cheese and "Fleischkäse" and other things that taste like home... what a nice way to start the day!

Wonderful breakfast, thank you Toby!








The Marina Bay course reminded me a bit of playing golf in Dubai at the Emirates Golf Club with the nice views of the marina sky line in the background.

The challenge on this course are the many bunkers. Otherwise not too difficult, the fairways are quite wide and stray shots are not really penalized as one can easily find ones balls an gets a free drop from the flower beds. Also, it is in really good condition considering that it is a public course that gets very busy.

Toby and I were paired up with two Dutch guys who are here on a business trip and invited us to a couple rounds of beer after the game.  After the beer, we split up. Toby and the Dutch went off on a boys night out and I had dinner plans with Frank.

Frank invited me to a nice little "hole in the wall" Chinese restaurant in China Town. Great food indeed. And then, we went next door to get an after dinner foot massage.

Wonderful idea, thank you Frank!

Leaving Phuket, passing Bangkok on the way to Singapore

Flights today were smooth, so it did not matter too much that I had to make the detour to Bangkok. If you are in transit in Bangkok, you get a Thai sticker to put on your shirt so that ground staff in Bangkok knows that you are in transit. A good chance to ask the lady from check-in to take a picture of me (I think this is a better morning look than my arrival in Thailand).

Switch off all your electronic devices... and then switch them on again as soon as possible, don't want to not be able to use the camera when I really want to. What a beautiful view after take off: a rainbow and lovely tropical islands seen right from the plane's window seat.



In Singapore, I felt even more royal than on Royal Silk. Personal pick up from the airport from a really friendly face. Frank also then took care of all my luggage, drove me home and served me champagne in his lounge before he ordered a taxi for me.






Then, I went on to visit more friendly faces and have home made dinner at Anne and Christian's new home in Singapore.