There are collectors and then there are COLLECTORS. My cousin David G is clearly in the latter category. And what does he collect? Lots of stuff. But the big-time main things he collects are Hard Rock Cafe pins. And in the world of Hard Rock pins, all the good collectors are also Pin Traders. And this is a serious bunch. What Laura Croft is to Tomb Raiding, these folks are to pin trading. As in no place too remote. And they all have secret identities (i.e. day jobs) that fund their explorations: David G is an assistant Fire Chief down in Alabama.
So when David G alerted us that he would like to come for a two-week visit, we knew darn well that he wasn't planning to spend it all with us in Singapore. It's not that he wouldn't be happy to see us (and us him), it's just that Singapore (which is about to have two Hard Rock Cafes) is just too good a place to serve as a base for visiting even more interesting (i.e. remote) places that just so happen to have Hard Rock Cafes.Like Kuala Lumpur & Penang (Malaysia), Jakarta (Indonesia), Macau, and Hong Kong. And what was amazing to us was that he knew people in each location and had arranged to rendezvous with fellow top-ranked traders while he was in town.
In between these side trips, we were able to give Dave an updated tour of Singapore. He'd been here before, so we wanted to show him some of the new things in town. And of course, we brought him around to many of our favorite places to eat. Like the River Valley Nasi Padang near Great World City shopping mall. The place doesn't look like much, but wow - do they serve up some great Indonesian food. The beef rendang (a dry beef curry) is really terrific, and they make a hot-spicy pineapple side dish that is wonderful (if you like spicy foods, ...not so much if you don't).
And we made the rounds in Chinatown. It's one of our favorite places to take our visitors. There's always something interesting to see and experience. The Buddha's tooth relic temple is remarkable place to visit. The old-style architecture deceives that it was completed just in 2007 (at a cost of over S$60M). It is a busy place, with sutras being chanted, the smell of incense always in the air, and thousands of little Buddha statues on the walls.
Food wise, we made a point of trying the new twin-flavor snow ice confections at Mei Heong Yuen. The mango-strawberry won over the coconut-black sesame.In the end, our visiting Collector deemed the trip a success. Not only was he able to secure some additional pins, we all were able to add to our collection of shared experiences and memories. It's nice that way when family visits!
