We started the day with breakfast at the hotel and then went with Rainey and Zoe to Pulau Ubin- a small island in northern Singapore that is a century or two behind the city. At the jetty you rent barely functional bicycles and peddle yourself sweaty out to the Chet Jawa Wetland. This is the only time in my life Jawa refers to Javanese not the little Star Wars characters who sell R2 and Threepio to Luke. We saw some mangroves and monkeys and then peddled back to civilization where we spent 30 cents for a cup of ice to go with a bottle of water. The old lady selling the ice surely doesn’t understand pricing the way the cretins running pharmaceutical companies do.

Vi and I kept on the road not previously taken. She said “There’s an adventure park with a bungy jump off a 60m platform. It’s only ten bucks, wanna go?” Now if you read the previous post about rhetorical questions then you know the answer. “Of course, I would love to climb up six flights to a little metal landing and leap off, trusting my ten dollars and life to a glorified rubberband strapped to me to lower me back to Earth. You know how I hate going down stairs.”

After much fanfare of signing waivers, strapping into harnesses, multiple safety checks the bungy jump was neither a bungy nor a jump. Jumping not allowed. It was a step off a high ledge and get slowly lowered by an auto-belay. For the non-rock climbers, it is a safety device used in climbing gyms that attaches to a solo climber’s harness so that if they come off the wall it slowly lowers them down.

That’s how the GSH is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re going to get.

Speaking of forests, Vi was ready to move on. “There’s a little suspension bridge on a jungle hike that is worth 150 points if we cross it.”

“Will it be unbearably balmy?” I ask.

“Most definitely.”

“And the bridge perilously high for a narrow walkway on rusting cables?”

“Guaranteed.”

“What are we waiting for?”

The hike took much longer than expected but at least we saw more monkeys.

Then we went to the National Orchid Gallery – totally worth it because they have a cold dome with chilled mist for the orchids that live in mountainous jungles. I almost shivered. They also had some pretty flowers.

We ran around downtown Singapore collecting scattered points rather than doing the big stuff we’ve already done…notably skipping the plant domes display with dinosaurs it!

We went to dinner to another Michelin star restaurant: Willow. It was a fantastic Japanese inspired meal that included unique items like eating chunks of a fishes swim bladder floating in a soup for no extra points. The biggest shock was how Vi transformed herself into a nice looking human after putting on 28,000 steps in the hot, wet heat of Singapore.

Update:

We are headed to Bangkok next! Vi and I have been but we are starting to notice a pattern of large cities with famous outdoor/street food sites. Hmmm. 🤔

Three big cities in a row…and Singapore is the best one yet. Vi and I have been here twice before (including last September) so our focus will be going places we haven’t been. Our first trip here was for an Escher exhibit in the Art Science Museum attached to the iconic Marina Bay Sands.

This round had a few adrenaline scavenges which Vi latched onto like a vampire getting blood from a hemophiliac. Part of being in a successful relationship is knowing when you have no choice when offered a question. “Of course I want to do a reverse bungy jump strapped in a tin can that will launch us 10 stories in the air at the force of 5G and then spin us around and up and down until the fillings fall out of my teeth. Who wouldn’t want to?” I replied.

Such an event is best on an over-full stomach so we went to the renown Hawker Maxwell street food station to load up on chicken and rice, pork sandwiches, Milo chocolate drink, oyster omelet (great for motion sickness), and kava toast.

We walked past a Hindi temple and a Chinese cultural center and then had to stop for pork soup.

Getting yanked towards the stratosphere was caught on camera for all to watch. Whereas I grunted like the Neanderthal I am, Vi laughed with joy like a child getting a unicorn for her birthday.

Of course we stayed in the capsule for a second ride. The video played out the exact same the second time around.

After that we dragged ourselves for a walk in the park and then an overrated bar where the fruity “Singapore Sling” was invented so that women could hide that they were drinking alcohol…this was back in the days before they just filled their Yeti water bottles with booze.

Ok…we just found out we won the Hong Kong leg and are now in Singapore for the next challenge!

We decided to take it easy and sleep in until 6:30 and have breakfast at the hotel. This is a vacation after all. Vi and I are also slowly realizing that we might not want to win…however, it is a big choice, not because of the pacing and planning of what it takes to win, but giving up needling Rainey and Zoe every time we find a scavenge they didn’t. Oh well, I have faith in my ability to find other ways to pester people.

As part “taking it easy”, we decided to do a 5k hike straight up one of the local mountains to get a panoramic view of the island cities and a blister. It was the sort of hike that one minute in you are happy you wore deodorant and five minutes in you realize you just wasted a day’s worth of deodorant.

Because we are dumb we soon found ourselves at the bottom of another hill with thousands of Buddha statues lining the pathway up 435 steps to another temple. I get the allure of building temples on the top of hills, but logistically it’d be better if Heaven was underground…that’s where we put the dead people and it’d be better on the gastrocs, too.

We spent the afternoon ricocheting down the alleys of central Hong Kong finding egg tarts and haughty coffee shops with old Brits complaining about the amount of water for the tea, antique and art shops, getting eyebrows raised at us for going into fancy buildings, and finding graffiti and drinking iced milk tea from a street vendor (a lot more our style).

As promised, travel tips will be trickled into the blog. Bringing old clothes you are happy to throw away after one last use is critical for the days that you hike for miles. Those free socks you get with your MRI, perfect for a one time last use and I insist not the cause of my blister.

That evening we rode a boat to Macau to confirm we have no interest in going to Macau. They’ve cloned Las Vegas down to the air of cigarettes and desperation. The opulence surrounding the throwing away of money when it could be used to so much more…like building museums for dinosaurs, leaves a bad taste in the mouth, like curry fish balls.

We got back to Hong Kong about a half hour before scavenging ended and headed to their first speakeasy. This year’s GSH has an app to log all challenges and it times out every night at 10pm (a bit too early for a night owl like Vi) and starts again around 5:30 a.m. (a lot too early for a night owl like Vi).

The speakeasy had non-alcoholic drinks so Vi and I could pretend we were sophisticated without the bedspins. It was a nice end to a great visit. In 8 hours we head off to…

After our rat sighting, Vi and I headed west to the clear-bottomed cable cars that either cure you of your fear of heights or leave you catatonic.

When we got in line we spotted our good friends and arch-nemeses in front of us. At the end of the cable line we stuck with Rainey and Zoe to climb a zillion steps to see a giant Buddha. Hong Kong loves a good climb (that’s foreshadowing).

Afterwards we saw a ramshackle fishing village that makes you realize how lucky you were to be born somewhere else. The Hong Kong culture puts a lot of emphasis on luck. It seems paradoxical to grab the world by its tail and tame it and then be so concerned about luck. Through hard work they’ve built a massive city that rims mountainous islands but everywhere there are dedications and prayers to luck. As someone who often declares it’s better to be lucky than good, I like the nod to Lady Luck.

We spent the evening traipsing around vibrant night markets looking for roasted durian (blech), goldfish vendors, flower sellers, pawn shops, tarot card readers, and a Michelin starred dim sum dinner for less than 10$ per person. That was a great meal.

Taipei seemed to have more architectural diversity in its neighborhoods, but the people of Hong Kong are friendlier despite the city looking all business.

What a start! We headed to a nearby noodle restaurant and while we were waiting for our wanton soup one of the servers started squealing. A scared rat was scurrying across the floor looking for a way out. The diners all stopped to watch it run back and forth. Heads turned and feet lifted off the ground in unison like it was some sort of old-timely comedy lacking the woodblock percussion. The staff bumbled about, half running from it, half running after it. An older woman who looked like she strangled goats for a living came out of the kitchen wearing thick, black rubber gloves up to her elbows slowly walked across the room with a gait like a gunslinger and the determination of The Terminator. The rat took one look, squeaked “holy shit” in an accent no longer acceptable to lampoon. It dove into the boxes under the front counter never to be seen again.

Then, as fast as they stopped, everyone went back to eating. In defense of the restaurant, it was a skinny, athletic one, pretty much mouse sized and not getting fat off the noodles we were eating.

We got the scores for the Taipei round. They were delayed because the scoring was so close everything had to be double checked. Vi and I did over 60 challenges. That was good for over 2,500 points and taking second place by a mere 10 points to Zoe and Rainey!

Vi and I laughed and laughed. Rainey had spent the last two days saying how he was taking it easy and so fatigued and not gonna push himself and starting late and tired and, blah,blah,blah…it was amusing, even refreshing, in this world of bloated, underaccomplished egos to finally have fall sucker to some good ole-fashioned sandbagging! What a charming relic he is! As for Zoe, her heart pumps competitive juices, just like Vi dragging my butt thru the day, we all know who the boss is.

Fun times! More to come.

Vi and I needed some sleep so we slept in until 6:30. Then we headed out to a park to see old people do Tai Chi and got a giant surprise: a massive stegosaurus.

Keep in mind, yesterday we wrote on a magic lantern that we wanted peace, love, and dinosaurs. One out of three isn’t bad!

We went out to see the Wulai Waterfall and I found a scavenge that didn’t exist: pick up a giant moth disguised as a plant. 0 points but totally worth watching Vi squirm and declare only lunatics grab large insects off the walkway.

We got back to Taipei just in time for a Michelin 1-star lunch. The staff there were smart enough to put the smelly Americans in the corner so that when we ate with the wrong chopsticks (they give you a set to grab food off a shared plate and another to eat with) we wouldn’t offend the other diners.

After lunch we went to this creepy miniature museum – which is just a deceptive way of saying overly ornate dollhouses.

Not all scavenges are winners…until we found Dinotopia! More dinosaurs – awesome, but why wasn’t our third wish for youth?

Then we went to have our futures told to us by a bird. The bird owner asked me my birthdate and time. From that alone she was able to tell me that I’m successful and smart – clearly not both ‘cuz I just spent 15 dollars to have a bird tell me my fortune. Then, the two birds bickered for a couple of minutes before the left bird picked a yellow card out of the box. From the message on that card she was able to tell me that next year will be even better than this year! But 2031 will not be a good year to do any major career moves or financial risks. Thanks birds – guess I’m not going back to get my law degree at age 56. Back to the drawing board.

Apparently “birdbrain” is not a Taiwanese insult but rather an expression of exultation for knowing how to extract money from tourists with nothing more than birdseed and yellow cards.

Walking thru Taipei and taking in the scenery solves an age old question:

The question is: when someone dies somewhere in the developed world, where do all their old clothes go to? The answer, Taipei! Everyone looks like they got dressed this morning with one thought “things might get messy today, better not wear anything nice”. I told you we blended right in! These are my people. No business suits on the morning subway. Why waste time ironing? It’s just going to get wrinkled anyway. Amen to function over form.

Our next assignment was finding a themed cafe. There were places called cat cafes and dog cafes, but we couldn’t find those. We went to a Witch cafe – which winded up being young women dressed up as Hogwarts schoolgirls who served magic potion drinks along with a dancing-gesture-y sort of incantation upon delivery to your table. When we walked into the cafe the needle dragged across the record, time stopped, the single men sitting at tables looked up at us, and the women servers looked away, like we were parents busting our kids for throwing a party while we were away for the weekend. In case Vi ever wants to run for public office, there will be no photos published of this scavenge and I will deny ever writing this.

The funnest restaurant was “Modern Toilet”. No, nothing is lost in translation on that one. It is a poop-themed restaurant with dishes such as “bloody hemmorhoid sundae” (has strawberries and red sauce) and “The constipation black stool chocolate pancake”. I think my friends and I at age 12 could have come up with the menu, and I’m so impressed someone actually thought this would work. And am more impressed that it was so successful they’ve opened a second location, Number 2, so to speak.

Why they didn’t have ass-paragus on the menu puzzled me. Missed opportunity.

We spent the night chasing little points and after running like maniacs down the street after a garbage truck (some of their garbage trucks play classical music and we were supposed to record it) we decided to call it quits. On our way back home we completed a scavenge by pure luck- a dog riding a scooter!

Next stop: Hong Kong (we’ve never been, hooray!)

Nothing like going somewhere new to have a better understanding of where you’ve been. Seattle felt familiar with its laid-back, slouchy 90’s vibe. Don’t get me wrong, there was an air of hustle and cleanliness alongside the Doc Marten’s and tattoos. Seattle notably skipped lip-fillers and sparkly eyelashes as long as cat whiskers.

Whereas Taipei hits you with heat and humidity the moment you step off the plane. Everyone and everything is on the move. It is a city sprouting up out of a tropical rainforest and the forest isn’t entirely accepting of it- vines cover concrete and old buildings on the less manicured outskirts.

We got to the hotel at 6 a.m. and were scavenging by 7:30. The first place we stopped was the planet Mars. This alien landscape was formed by the different rates of erosion by the stones that formed Taiwan 6 million years ago.

For breakfast, Vi ate a tea-boiled egg at a 7-11 just to prime her intestines for the rest of the day. There’s a lot to unpack in that last sentence.

We visited a little train station village town. Their claim to fame (i.e. tourist trap) is that you write your wishes on a lantern and send it off into space. Somehow the whole country isn’t littered with these lanterns.

Eating a handful of squishy oysters held together in a gelatinous mess by a barely scrambled egg was a food challenge that Vi rose up to. I had one bite which was one too many.

At the rec of a local, we saw Taiwan’s largest block of gold. 485 pounds. Steal it: 250 points. It’s now in my carry-on.

We went to two night markets. We found a Bib Gourmand food stand that won its Michelin nod 🙂‍↕️ for stinky tofu…no false advertising there. The nauseating stench of fermented cabbage really detracted from the otherwise super-exciting tofu.

What were the critics smoking when they picked stinky tofu over frozen strawberries covered in a thin layer of rock candy all covered in an edible piece of macroplastic?

We went up Taipei 101 – the skyscraper that is like ten times bigger than all the rest of Taipei. And had dumplings at Din Tai Fung in its lower level, had a drink at a nearby speakeasy, and went to a bar for a flight of beers, ate scallion and scrambled eggs wrapped in a pseudo tortilla, and then had bao cua (a greasy pork sandwich served in a dirty ashtray- or maybe a folded rice bun).

No photoshop…Vi is that beautiful after getting a scalp massage and shampoo.

We played that goofy ring toss onto a bottle game and won in the first throw! We won a bottle of Coke. Weird. And I had to play those goofy crane games and wasted a few bucks winning a garbage toy. 30-some challenges, 13 hours, over 20,000 steps and 9 miles, and it was time to sleep.

If you didn’t click the like box at the bottom of our boba challenge (last post) please do so! It’s for points!

Hi followers! We need likes for this post of us drinking customized boba. Most likes equals points!

I have sweet passionfruit tea with little ice and lots of boba because I like risking choking to death while satiating my thirst.

We spent the day of practice scavenges with our friends, Rainey and Zoe.

As hoped, a few of the scavenges highlighted the birthplace of Grunge music. Early in the day we went to Sub Pop Records, the record label that first signed Nirvana, Soundgarden, and Mudhoney. Sal found a hat that references one of the theme songs of the 90’s and his life in general. We all have our own playlist to our existence. If you don’t know yours then it’s elevator music. Boring!

Later in the day we also visited The Black Sun – a sculpture outside the Asian Art Museum. And, for the music factoid fanatic, the inspiration for the song “Black Hole Sun” by Soundgarden.

Other highlights included taking a ferry to Bainbridge Island- what a cute little town, eating a Seattle Dog (hot dog with cream cheese and grilled onions), eating a pastry with smoked salmon pâté in it (blech), finding the original Starbucks (that place should really franchise more), petting a bronze pig, playing air guitar with a statue of Jimi Hendrix, and adding gum to the famous “gum wall”. Vi can apparently tolerate blood and guts but mounds of chewed gum are gag-worthy. Go figure.

Okay, good news and bad news. Good: We took third place. Bad: There’s only four teams. Good: This leg didn’t count…as it was practice. Good: But nice way to prove the others are all in.

But the biggest news is where we go next. As much as I love and expected Tokyo, we are not going there. We are headed to Taipei! We have never been, but we’ve had plenty of dumplings at Din Tai Fung in cities around the world.