The James Beard Award is given to the best food and drink book that year, and this year it has gone to an outstanding book called “Save the Deli”, which is a testament of love for a great deli. In his time researching the book he ate at more than a hundred delis in North America and Europe looking for the perfect meats. The author lives full time in Toronto, but has been staying in New York while working on the book.

It was so hard to sleep in! Even though I needed to, but it’s my first time in Singapore, so my mind and body had different ideas. My first impression of Singapore is just how clean it is. There’s virtually no trash on the sidewalks or streets. No graffiti. I over heard the conversation at one of the best Singapore restaurants, where I was enjoying dinner, that Singapore is known as One Fine City, and that’s because there are fines for almost everything, from jaywalking, chewing gum, littering, spitting and of course selling drugs. I’m glad I didn’t bring any gum with me! To be honest, I did see plenty of Singaporeans chewing gum, so hopefully, they are somewhat lax on that law. I also glad I’m not into selling drugs too, the penalty is death!

I was in Little India for dinner and what was really fascinating about the place, not just the restaurant I was at, but the entire area, was the smells. So many interesting smells. It reminded me about the fact that I haven’t been to India and I really would like to go. But, for now, Singapore is my first desire. I’m so glad I choose to come here first.

Earlier in the day, I was lucky to visit my first Temple on an important day. The Temple of a Thousand Lights was all a light. I felt like I was being transported into another world. There were so many candles, incense and music. What was astounding, at least for me, was that I was the only tourist. I’m not sure why, because the ritual was fantastic. They spread out food all along this fountain, looked like a curry, then the devotees would wash it off the fountain. Then I stood in line to be blessed. I got my very first red Bindi mark on my forehead and was wished a good life.

Afterwards, I visited more of Little India and found a Muslim Mosque. In order to go inside, I had to don robes, which they provided. There were plenty of tourist there! I think tomorrow I’ll have to check out Chinatown and I’m pretty sure I’ll also have the desire to visit Honk Kong while experiencing the atmosphere of Little China.

I woke up around 6am to go on a jungle trek, which turned out to be pretty fun. It lasted about 3 hours of walking through the forest and wetlands. I was tons of monkeys, and the endangered giant squirrel, which is the size of a cat. I saw huge spiders, dears, lots of lizards and the famous leaches of Kerala, too many leaches. I had about 20 of these little leaches attempting to get in my shoes, but thankfully I had on long trousers with the leggings tucked into my socks. Those little leaches were so fast, I really had to not only keep an eye on all the wildlife, but on all the wildlife trying to get into my pants!

I saw one girl on the tour with me, she was only wearing flip-flops and after the tour, I could see she had tons of bites on her and her feet were bleeding, but she didn’t seem disturb by any of it. I would’ve been freaking out. What was sad about the jungle trek, was I didn’t get to see any pythons or cobras, but I guess that’s better than literally running across them. Plus, it is a tiger reserve, and I didn’t see any of them, but again, that’s probably a good thing. Tigers are reclusive by nature, but it would’ve been grand to see one in their natural habitat.

I was staying at one of the best hotels Kerala offers and managed to get back to my room for a quick shower and later I posted some of my extra clothes back to the UK. But before I could post it, I had to get my parcel wrapped in material by a tailor, otherwise the postal system here won’t take it. After posting my un-needed clothes, I went on a ferry trip around the parks huge lakes. As I waited for the ferry, a family started talking to me, insisting on a photo, which apparently is ‘the’ thing to do. But, after that, every time I saw them they shouted my name as if I was someone special, famous, quite embarrassing really. The Ferry ride was great. I got soaked as it rained and it became chilly, but it was worth it, because I got to see dear and bison, I even spotted a turtle.

Tomorrow, I plan just to eat my way through Kerala and try every restaurants Butter Panner Masala. Yum!