Phuket, Thailand

Right before we left for the states for Christmas we went to Thailand with our new friends Blake and Shannon.  We stayed in Surin Beach in Phuket and had a blast.  Here are some pics from the trip.  

Surin Beach

Amazing passionfruit cocktails

Cruise around Phi Phi islands.  

Where "The Beach" was filmed.

Shannon and sun burned Blake

I love my husband and miss his crazy hair. 

I have always wanted to this.

Sunset thai dinner on the beach.  

We are back!

We have been back in Singapore for two weeks now!  I can't believe how fast the time has gone by.  This time coming back was a totally different experience, much harder than the first time.


For starters the first time we arrived we were living in a full service apartment building aka hotel.  You didn't have to worry about a thing.  When we arrived in October we were greeted at 6am with a sweet lady who showed us around the grounds, took us to our air conditioned room, and gave us a fresh fruit basket.  My, my were we spoiled.  


We are now living in a real apartment and move in day was the Sat. we arrived.  We were greeted by, well, nothing.  No lady, no fruit, and most importantly no ac or any power at all.  Our land lord met us at our apt to give us the keys and have us sign the paper work at 6am.  We sat in the sweltering heat while he took inventory of the entire apt including a huge file folder filled with manuals to EVERYTHING in the apt.  He and Greg (because wives don't exist in business transactions) went through each manual.  Greg had to initial that each item was indeed in the apartment.


The new place is in UE Square, right next to Robertson Quay.  We are in a great location!  There are tons and tons of restaurants and bars right outside our door.  This and the fact that I have no oven and no dishwasher oh yeah and the gas is out on the stove, has made my lack of cooking very easy.  We are getting to know our neighborhood restaurants well.




Other Going On's:

• I have attempted to make our place feel like home and do a few things to spruce up our place.  Before and after pictures to come.  
• Greg and I have been to the casino twice in five days.
• I started pilates, which is a great workout!  
• I am headed to Cambodia on Thursday with CFC (caring for cambodia) and some other teachers here in Singapore.  We are going to volunteer in the schools and help make supplies for their libraries.  
• I made a new friend who responded to my post on the expat forum, she is 29, just moved to Singapore from Dubai, and was just married in August.  
• I have completed the thai two cooking class and can now make yellow curry, basil chicken, beef salad, tum yum soup, and mango salad.  
• We got our passes for Singapore, Greg's work pass and my dependent pass.   You need these like a license and use them for everything from applying for a bank account to getting in and out of the country.  

Heading Home

Today is my last day in Singapore before we head back home for the holidays.  We leave today for vacation in Thailand with our friends Blake and Shannon and I go back to NY on Monday.  I can't believe it has been six weeks!  So much has happened in that time.  

• I have packed up two apartments
• I learned to cook Thai food
• I have met lots of new friends
• I flew 18 hours straight and didn't have a panic attack
• I went to Bali
• I am planning a trip to Cambodia to volunteer in the schools
• I ate chili crab and chicken rice
• I found a new apartment to live in when we are back
• I learned how and and am to use the local subways (MRT)
• I cooked dinner several nights in a kitchen with one eye on the stove, no oven, and no dishwasher
• I can finally get around the underground tunnels in Orchard
• I joined a coffee group

Singapore has turned out to be a great place to live.  I love the weather, the people, the food, and all the travel it has to offer.  

Merry Christmas Singapore!  I will see you in next year.  

Seminyak, Bali

We headed to Bali this past weekend for a quick getaway.  I had no idea what we were in store for.  I found our villa on a discount travel website and thought we were going to be roughing it for the weekend.  Here is what we found when we got there!

Ziva Villa

View from our glass bedroom

After being thoroughly impressed with our villa we headed out down the street to have a drink at a local German bar.  The only thing German about the place was the Indonesian girls outfits.   After a restful nights sleep we had breakfast and relaxed by the pool.  

Next, we headed out into town.  Seminyak is not a place to walk around!  No sidewalks and tons and tons of motor bikes everywhere. Entire families ride on them and no one wears a helmet!   We saw a lady on the back of a motor bike carrying an infant baby in a car seat out to the side.  Crazy!  The streets are not in great condition either, lots of holes in the concrete and narrow dirt patches.  It was scary to walk around and we quickly learned to jump in taxis, spelled taksi, to get around.  

We explored the town a bit and went for lunch at La Lucciola, which was recommended by a friend.  WOW!  The drinks, food, and view was amazing!  

La Lucciola 

View from our table

Our lunch

The most amazing passionfruit drink!

After lunch, we walked on the beach and explored the town some more.  For dinner we went to Matis, a very romantic beautiful restaurant that overlooks the rice fields.

Around town

Greg at Matis



Sunday we hired a driver to take us around the island.  Our first stop was a beach called Dreamland.  It was very interesting.  To start. you had to pay to use the chairs to one of the hundreds of women trying to sell or do anything for you.  The beach was amazing, very wide, surrounded by cliffs.  Huge waves and the coolest surfing I have ever seen.  Being haggled every five minutes is not the most relaxing thing and Greg and I finally relented to a massage by some of the women.  The next thing I know Greg has two Indonesian women massaging his whole body, but even for one hour  with two women it was only ten bucks.  Greg could get used to that!  

Our next stop was Uluwatu temple.  This was probably the most beautiful place I have seen in my life.  It reminds me a lot of the cliffs on hwy one in California near Big Sur.  At the temple, there are tons of monkeys, you can buy bananas and feed them.  I was too scared and just the camera girl, Greg did all the  interaction with the monkeys.

After heading back to Seminyak, we took another friends advice and headed over to KudaTe to watch the sunset.  Its a very chill bar right on the beach, with amazing fresh drinks.  For these reasons, and of course the sunset, Kudeta gets packed right around five.  We were lucky to get a great seat, have some cocktails, and watch the sunset.

Our last day we were kicked out of the villa kicking and screaming.  Our flight didn't leave until 9pm so we headed over to the W hotel and hung out by the pool for the day.  I have to say it was an amazing weekend!

Richard Said Yes!

For the past three weeks that have been in Singapore, Greg and  I have been looking for a place to call home.  We are living in a serviced apartment, which is much like a hotel, until we go back to the US in December.  We will need a place to live from January through July, six months.  Well, six month leases do not happen in Singapore.  We had searched the internet, talked to friends, hired a broker........no luck.  Until, last week!  I was at my coffee group talking about how hard is was to find an apartment when one of the girls overheard me.  She told me her and her husband were making the decision tonight if they were moving back to Seattle or not.  If so, there was a possibility we could take over their apartment.  One thing led to another and the last step in the process was to have a meeting with their very serious, very Singaporean landlord Richard.  It was up to Richard if he would do the lease six month lease for us.  Richard said yes and we will not be living in a hotel in January.  YAY!  

Our neighborhood is perfect.  Our building is in Robertson walk which is part of Robertson Quay.  It is in UE square.  There are tons of shops and restaurants all around and it is on the river.  Super cute neighborhood.

Locked Up Abroad

Saturday, Greg and I took a trip to Pulau Ubin.  Its a tiny island only accessible by boat from Changi Village.  To start the day off, we took a cab to the Changi ferry station, or what we though was the Changi ferry station.  As we entered the gates, there were no cars in the parking lot and the ferry terminal was chained up.  When the cab driver insisted this was the right spot, Greg thought he would get out and check things out.  Until he saw this sign.....

We figured out very quickly this was not where white people tourists should be. 

We finally found the place and got in line for the bumboats.  The boats are very small and only take 12 people at a time.  

Bumboats to the island.

On the way....

Tiny houses on the water.

We got to the island after a nice 10 minute boat ride.  We were greeted by lots of wild dogs.  

We rented two bikes and set off to explore the island.  If you have ever seen Lost, it feels a lot like that.  Not a lot of people, very quiet and very rustic.  There are a few food stands on the island when you get off the boat, but other than that you are on your own.  

We rode around the island, saw some monkeys,  lizards, birds, and butterflies.  We rode to what we thought was the entrance to Chek Jawa, which is where the mangroves and coastal boardwalk are located.  I had read online that you were not allowed to bring bikes into that area, so being the responsible tourists that we are, we left the bikes and started up the trail.  Only, we were no where near the entrance.  After walking for about 40 minutes, people started passing us on bikes.  Greg was getting annoyed and thought I lied to him.  Apparently the entrance to Chek Jawa was about a 50 minute hike away and had a bike rack with locks.  So.....we could have saved ourselves a lot of time but then we wouldn't have had the quality time walking in the forest together.  

Hike on the way up.  See I am still happy.  

Once we finally got there, we walked around the boardwalks, saw the mangroves, and climbed up a seven story viewing tower.

viewing tower

one of the views from the top

Mangroves

Boardwalk

After our adventures, we set out to find our bikes and get some lunch.  We noticed a van dropping people off at the entrance, turns out it was  cab. SCORE!! We don't have to hike back to the bikes.  So.....just to remember if ever in Paulou Ubin.....They don't speak English.  After riding around for about  half and hour with this guy looking for bikes, trying to show him on the map where we left them, we ended up at the entrance to the island where the boats are.  Just then the sky got really dark and we were hearing thunder in the distance.  We jumped on the boat as fast as we could and abandoned the bikes somewhere in the jungle.  I know I know, its bad but we had no idea where they were and no way to get to them with non English speaking van drivers.  Plus, we were sooo tired, soooo hot, sooo hungry, and wanted something cold to drink.  We made it back to the mainland where we enjoyed a refreshing cold beverages and some delicious steamed buns.  

Greg, clearly exhausted, not feeling guilty about the bikes. 

So, if you here on the news of two tourist missing in Palau Ubin, they found their bikes at the base of the trail but no bodies yet, don't be alarmed.   We are nice and comfy in our air conditioned serviced apartment.  Although, once they figure it all out we really could be locked up abroad!