Smoke on the Water

Cough, cough – greetings from hazy Singapore. Here we’ve been encountering a month worth of Beijing-style air, not from factories but from clearing forests for palm oil farms in Indonesia.

  

The haze varies each year in its severity but this year it’s not only been severe but it’s been very long lived. While we’ve been hiding out inside we’ve learned a few things during the worst haze this year. 

No those aren't storm clouds

• PSI is different than AQI (Air Quality Index – which most of the world uses.) This is Singapore’s own air rating system.
• While we think its bad at a 300+ psi in Singapore we can stay inside and turn on the air conditioner and our air purifiers. There are reports that in Indonesia it’s over 2000 psi.
• At over 300 psi, the Ministry closes their schools, like they did on Friday.
• In these conditions you want a mask that is labeled N95 to properly filter the air.
• You look ridiculous in a mask no matter how hard you try. (Raegen said I looked like Shredder from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Personally I was thinking more of a cartoon duck.)
• While we’d all love to boycott unsustainable palm oil so the harmful haze stops happening but it is literally in everything we use from margarine, lipgloss, vegetable oil to ice cream (gasp – not ice cream!)

• For a list of companies who are using sustainable palm oil click here. In case you’re curious, Target, Subway and Costco rank at the bottom.
• Most of the investors in these palm oil farms live in Singapore.  Oh the irony.

Think of us while you’re out on a jog or driving with the windows open and send some fresh air karma our way!

Until then,

Amy & Raegen

Scooting Through Saigon

We’ve already given you a little taste of our trip to Ho Chi Minh in Hungry in Ho Chi Minh. Now that brings us to our Saturday night activity – a foodie tour with XO Tours. The tour boasts that you will not eat ‘typical’ Vietnamese food that you’d see in a restaurant. Boy were they right.

The night started with three lovely ladies who were our drivers for the evening picking us up on three mopeds. There’s no way for me to tell you the details and excitement we experienced on this adventure as it would be three pages long. We explored five different districts within the city and enjoyed every minute of it.

When we were leaving Chinatown it started to rain so we all put on our rain gear. (Yes we know we look like cartoon penguins).  Then the real rain came. It was raining so hard that it hurt your face while cruising on the scooter. I can’t explain how (although watching the video below may help) but that downpour made the night go from epic to legendary. We were driving on the back of scooters over rivers and through the heart of the city through the city getting absolutely soaked.

During the tour we had bo hue (beef noodle soup), grilled goat, okra, frog legs, shrimp, and Vietnamese spirits. The last stop of the night in District Four was certainly the most unique food we’ve had. This place had great seafood but then came the Vietnamese delicacy called balut. (If you have a weak stomach stop reading here and skip to the bottom.) Balut is a fertilized duck egg that grows for 2-4 weeks. It’s then cooked like a hard boiled egg and eaten the same way. Yes there is a bird in there. Trust me, I still think it’s gross. We all accepted the challenge and Mario* was the first to finish his and then Raegen. I will proudly say I tried half but once one of the girls showed me a photo on her phone of  a cross section of the egg I couldn’t do it anymore.

Driving home along the river in the post-rain fresh air was just what the doctor ordered and a great way to wrap up a trip of a lifetime.

Happy Trails,

Amy & Raegen

*Not his real name. I should've called Raegen Luigi to make this post a little more fun.