Monkey Business

On Sunday we headed to Macritchie Nature Reserve, an area of preserved jungle where you can get completely away from urbanisation and try loads of different walks.

Before you reach the jungle part, there are a couple of large reservoir lakes in the area where you can fish and kayak, and lots of walks around the lakes.

Soon after getting into the jungle (which looked quite a lot like NZ bush but without the pungas and ferns) we came across some macaques. They were very used to human beings and played all around us when we stood still for a while. We ran into more of them all along the way.

These guys were playing just in front of me on the path.

About 5km into the jungle there's a 250 metre walkway built high into the treetops (the 'treetops walk'), so you can walk through the tree canopy and get a great view of the area.

As well as Macaques, we also saw some giant iguanas, but they bolted when we got closer, so no photos. Apparently there are heaps of other animals around, including snakes, flying lemurs, squirrels and skunks.

We didn't see any of these but we laid some traps so hopefully we'll get a better look when we go back next weekend.

We did find this amusing sign that made it pretty clear what the consequences of tresspassing were.

The heat was pretty intense so after 4 hours of walking we were saturated in sweat and looking forward to the air-conditioned taxi ride home. We'll definitely be back for more of that!

Our first visitor! - Blake's mum, Julia.

Yay, our first visitor, and our first chance to play host, showing Blake's mum the sights and tastes of Singapore (though she has been here before).

Julia arrived late on Weds night and spent a few days with us, enroute to Dubai, and then the UK. On Thursday during the day we went to our excellent local vegetarian restaurant for lunch, then Julia checked out the pool and I went to a job interview. Interview went well but I don't think I want the job - a strategic and analytical marketing position with American Express - just can't get excited about analysing credit card stats.

On Thurs night we ate alfresco at a great restaurant in Clarke Quay.

Blake and Mum in front of the grand Fullerton Hotel.

On Friday Julia and I spent the day chatting, walking along the river and visting a cafe and photo gallery - it's a hard life. In the evening we met up with Blake and had dinner at another great restaurant in the Chijmes dining area. Blake took at little while to wind down from a stressful day of global teleconference meetings, but after a few Coronas and margaritas there was a smile back on his face.


On Saturday (after Blake's hangover had abated) we went to the East Coast where there is an 11km stretch of parklike gardens and paths along the seafront. It's a beautiful area with restaurants and activities all the way along. After quickly grabbing some turkish food for lunch, we hired bikes and rode along the seafront for a couple of hours.

Blake wanted to try out roller blading first, but after about 10 minutes thrashing about on his skates, he was dripping with sweat and decided to join us on a bike.

In the evening we headed down to Boat Quay for some more culinary delights, and ended up at a Thai restaurant, overlooking the river. The food was average but the beer was cheap and there was a large-screen TV featuring figure skating and motorsport so we didn't need to talk to eachother at all (just kidding).

Here we are setting out for the night

(What's that in your hand Blake?)

After dinner we went for a stroll around the beautiful city, and then took a river cruise on one of the oriental-looking boats. Quite a nice way to see the city lights and sights, but not a quiet experience.

Here we are on the boat, me looking very excited indeed.

We said goodbye to Julia tonight and she set off for Dubai to visit Bec and her family (Blake's sister).

Singapore saw her out in style with the most incredible thunder & lightening storm at around 11pm - the thunder was so unbelievably loud that at one point i really thought a bomb had gone off!

The Weekend

On Friday night we stopped off at our favourite local restaurant (Green Connection) for a bite to eat, before heading into town (Clarke Quay) which is a 5 min walk from us.

We checked out a few bars, had a few beers and whilst wandering about, discovered a show was starting in the middle of a precinct, right in the hub of all the bars.

They had a boxing ring set up and four young guys sparring. One of them was a Kiwi, the others Asian. They were kick boxers and since Blake's a bit of a kickboxing fan, we watched for a while. Then he spied the beer table and that sealed the deal, we were there for a while.

After a bit, they had a break in the sparring and announced that there would be some music acts coming on. Then we were treated to about 6 different song and dance acts, which were very entertaining - they were all Thai groups singing Thai pop and love songs.

They had some pretty catchy tunes, but I thought the best part was the male duets - the fellas were dressed up in white suits with tight singlets underneath (kind of Don Johnson) with chains and things hanging off everywhere. (Damn, why didn't we get a photo of them????) They busted some Michael Jackson style moves, while singing their heartfelt pop songs.

Blake's favourites were the female love-song solos, where the (very young) girls wore skirts that barely covered their buttocks. Even better, they had to bend and duck between the ropes to get onto the ring! (It's the simple things in life...)

Blake didn't want to look like a pervert so he didn't get any shots of the ultra-short skirt girls, and I declined to oblige. But here's a shot of one of the pop groups.

Pretty soon I had tired of the Thai pop and couldn't be bothered waiting for the full fight to start, so I went home and Blake stayed to watch a little cricket in one of the bars. He soon found some Kiwi compatriots and (even better) they were in a bar doing 50% off beer. Happy as a clam.

He rolled up home some hours later and proceeded (very loudly) to make some aioli (as you do) to have on his toast.

The next day, guess who was in the gym on her own...

Our place

Thought we'd include a couple of photos of our apartment and grounds, though it's hard to get a good idea from a photo.

Anyway, this is our lounge - i am standing half way down the length, so it's about twice as long as this shows. Down the far end behind me is the dining area with table and chairs and farther back the kitchen and the entry door. We're on the seventh floor and have quite a nice view of the city scape.

The kitchen is very compact and though there is an extractor fan, the maid tells me it's DAMN hot cooking in there. (yeah right)



There is a master bedroom and a second bedroom that has two twin beds in it. That room is quite dark since there's only one window and it looks out onto a wall - it's the naughty boy room. Below is the master bedroom.

Here is the view from our lounge window.

 

We love the pool area and gardens and have been heading down there each night for a splash around. This view is from the far end of the pool area, you can just see the pool through the columns. This photo was taken at dusk but looks even nicer at night. I'll get a shot of Blake working out in the gym tonight (if he doesn't mind posing for it).


There are also separate male and female saunas down the far end, though with the high temperatures and humidity here, why would you want to!

Weekend in Indonesia

This weekend we thought we'd get straight into a bit of travelling and head to Bintan, an Indonesian island.

Bintan's only a 55min catamaran ride away, but you need to do the whole immigration/customs thing at both ends as it's a different country after all. So it's kind of like heading over to Great Barrier Island in Auckland, but with a few more hassles.

Talking of hassles, you're always queuing in Singapore and we have realised that there are tactical issues for dealing with this. You need to queue up for everything - your ferry ticket, immigration, customs, getting on the ferry, taxis, getting on coach buses etc. What the Singaporeans do is rush (even run) toward the closest seats to the door/desk/taxi rank etc, and then as it get closer to the time of arrival/departure/opening time, people start crowding toward the target area and then surge forward when the doors open.

People don't mind queue hopping either (though there are officials stationed near by to bring the queue into a single line from time to time, when things get out of hand). So anyway, we thought 'when in Rome' and joined in with gusto. First we queue hopped to get on the ferry and then pretty much sprinted to get a choice seat, and then on the way back, we did another speed-walk number to get at the front of the immigration queue. I can tell we're going to fit in no problem.

Finally, on the ferry.

Soon we arrived in Bintan, laboured through Indonesian immigration and were whisked off to Bintan Lagoon Resort. Bintan is a small island that is pretty much entirely made up of resorts and golf courses. People mostly go there from Singapore to relax, play golf and enjoy the beautiful beaches.

That's more like it, we've found the pool (one of them anyway) and the cocktails

I knew I shouldn't have had that second cocktail

When we arrived we headed out to the main pool for some delicious fajitas, cocktails and a little R&R. The pool was my kind of pool - a beautiful temperature, no arctic shock and hyperventilation when you dive in there! The pools are set amongst beautiful gardens with little bridges, palm trees and bars you can swim up to. The cocktails were big, exciting and cheap by NZ standards.

Blake made friends with the resident pool lizard - a water monitor (someone said), but it looked more like a baby Komodo dragon to us. The bar staff were feeding him scraps, and gave Blake some bacon rind to feed it - which he did, very tentatively, due to it's impressive talons and rapid movements.

This little fella hangs out around the pool and in the gardens around the pool, sometimes coming right up next to you and even taking a dip IN the pool. He did a nice little mound of poo just on the water's edge, right along the pool from Blake - lovely.

Then we headed to the beach. 100 metres away. The beach was beautiful too, with little gazebo things you can lounge under and beautiful temperate water again.

There were loads of leisure activities you can do in and out of the water but as it's monsoon season, we couldn't snorkel as there were too many waves - but that made it perfect for boogie boarding! So we spent the afternoon going nuts in the waves, which were quite full on and lots of fun. Unfortunately we didn't get any photos because we were too busy in the water.

I was so delighted by the waves and the warm water (i usually won't go in the sea in NZ 'cause it's so freezing) that I boogie boarded for hours, until my torso was so sore from the board that i had to come in. I now have a grazes all along both sides of my rib cage, but it was worth it.

That night we enjoyed a sumptuous buffet, for a very reasonable price - Indonesia is much cheaper than Singapore! I had prawns and Blake had snapper (they were both amazing), and there was a massive buffet of salads, side dishes, soups, breads and desserts. We were fit to burst by the end of the night. Here we are enjoying our night.

The bike tour:

The next day we were keen for some action so we headed off on a bike tour round the island, with our guide John. We set off at 9am, but it was already quite hot. We're not sure if John usually takes a lot of these tours, or if he's used to fat americans, but he wasn't particularly fit.

It's true that Blake did burn up the hills at a rate of knots, and I chugged along steadily some distance behind him - but poor old John had to dismount several times and wheel his bike up the hills. Blake found this very funny and I had to keep insisting that we wait for him as the poor guy must have been fairly embarrassed!

Blake with John, our guide.

A break at one of the golf courses

We stopped off at various other resorts and spots along the way and it was a great way to tour the island. We saw some spectacular golf courses and stopped at some of the clubhouses for a break. We were soaking with sweat due to the heat, the hills (there were lots) and the pace Blake was setting. Perfect for a dip in the sea, if you're suitably attired.

Here we are at the 10th hole - at the 'Halfway house' clubroom

Blake takes a dip at the beach beside Halfway House

It was a fantastic weekend, we packed heaps of things into it and we felt like we were away for more than just two days. We can't wait to head off somewhere else soon!

Getting connected

It's been a week of hard core shopping for me - but not of the clothes and shoes variety. I have been looking for a new phone and laptop, both of which were successful missions.

I am stoked with my new laptop, it has lots of cool features, and I'm gradually working my way around Vista - the new Microsoft operating system. I have a webcam which is exciting - just have to work out how to use it now.



I have visited Robert Walters Recruitment and am visiting Hudson next week. Now that i'm online again, i will also be trawling the job sites for work. The recruitment consultants tell me it may take 3-6 months to get a permanent job here - I don't know whether to laugh or cry.

Blake has hit the ground running at work. He has plenty on but things seem to be under control at this point. Tonight we're having dinner with some of his colleagues. He has been out twice already this week on work dinners - not bad going.

He'll be doing a bit of travelling later this month and next, so I don't have long to find me a fancy-man.

Yes the earth moved for me!

You probably all saw on the news that there was a huge earthquake (actually two) that hit Sumatra in Indonesia.

The shocks were felt all around the region and were certainly felt in Singapore! I was sitting at my desk, writing some letters (to try and get a job) when everything started swaying side to side. I looked out the window and the curtains were moving. It was like a massive truck was going past you shaking the house (but we're on the seventh floor and not beside a road!)

Then lo and behold, another one came along a little later, exactly the same. It was freaky but thankfully not as freaky as in Indonesia. Fortunately Singapore does not tend to suffer from the natural disasters that places like India and Indonesia do. There were no buildings even slightly damaged here. And if there's a tsunami, we are protected on both sides.

And then there was the plane crash on Garuda airlines, not a good week for Indonesia.

We're finally in Singapore!

As you'd expect, we had a great flight in business class (thanks Syngenta). I certainly made the most of it being that it's a rare treat for me. Ten hours flashed past and before we knew it we were there (at about 8pm Singapore time) so off we went to our serviced apartment.

We had been given a choice of several apartments which we checked out when we came over in Dec. We didn't manage to get into any of the ones we had visited so were unsure what we'd get.

At first we werent so pleased as this one (Central Square) seems less flash than the others, but now we're actually stoked with it as it's in a great part of town (near the Quays if anyone's been here) and it has the most beautiful garden and pool area (and there's hardly ever anyone out there).

Checking out the pool

It is very comfortable here, three times a week we get 'housekeeping' come and clean the whole place up, change sheets & towels, do the dishes, rubbish etc. We have aircon units in every room and cable TV and DVD players etc. There is a kitchen, two bedrooms a lounge and dining room, a bathroom and toilet. We're trying to acclimatise to the heat by not having the aircon on during the day, I usually cave in in the afternoon and whack it on for an hour or two. We always have it on at night though, you just can't sleep otherwise.

 

We get this place free for 2 months and then we're on our own. Just as well it is free because accommodation is VERY expensive here. A good deal for an average 2-bedroom expat apartment would be between $2,500 and $3,500 per month. We'll be doing some shopping around for a place, probably next month.

We've been doing some exploring around our area and beyond, and over the weekend visited the botanical gardens (lovely) and another park called Fort Canning, which was also amazing.


Both our cameras are not working right now, it's my job to go and sort that out this week. But in the meantime we have taken some photos on Blake's phone camera.



This photo doesn't look that nice, but in the pond there were hundreds of small turtles and loads of fish of all shapes and sizes. You could see them all swimming just under the surface.

You can't tell, but it's DAMN hot. It ranges from 30-35 degrees mostly. I have discovered that I need to drink twice as much liquid here, but i keep forgetting and then end up with a whacking great headache. Still, better than being cold.
RAFFLES
One good anti-dote to the heat is to head to an air-conditioned bar. So we headed to Raffles (the Long Bar) to do the tourist thing, and get a Singapore Sling and throw our peanut shells on the floor (I dunno, it's some old custom).
Blake was sidetracked from the Singapore Sling when he saw some fella with a very large beer, served in a glass resembling a half-yard, and in fact called a half-yard (though Blake swears it was not). His face lit up with joy as it was delivered to the table.

Here's Blake between my Singapore Sling and his half yard. They also give you a box of peanuts and you are encouraged to throw the shells on the ground. So we did (the floor and upholstery was covered in them).




One thing I struggle with is the contrast between the outside temperature and the inside one. Singaporeans hate the heat (yes really) and turn their aircon down to 16 degrees in some places. So you go inside shops, malls, offices, restaurants, bars etc, going from 32-35 degrees and hit this cold air, which is nice at first, but then you get cold. So the crazy thing is, I have had to carry around a cardigan or long sleeved top, to be comfortable INSIDE!

Other interesting things? It's illegal to spit or urinate on the street here (Blake's refusing to believe it) also it's illegal to litter, chew gum, 'outrage the modesty of a woman through gesture or word' (he's in trouble with this one too) and to jaywalk.

While everyone here speaks English, their accents are sometimes so strong (Chinese usually) that it can be hard to understand what they're saying. We're planning to acquaint ourselves with the Singlish slang that people use though. (ie they throw the word 'lai' on the end of sentences like we use the word 'aye').