A vacation back to America

6/14



Took an early bus from Mersing to Johor Bahru and then over the causeway to the island/country/city of Singapore. After going through all the customs and immigration I had to find an atm so I could take a bus or train. I was in a neighborhood in the far north called woodlands park. It was crazy b/c the city was just so clean and modern looking, and the biggest surprise was how much grass and large sidewalks and large streets there were. The other asian cities I have been too are full of disorganized tiny streets and absolutely not open space or green grass or anything. If I had just been dropped off here, I would have thought I was in one of the technology suburbs of san diego with its wide streets, palm trees, and green areas. There are signs everywhere talking about fines for littering or telling you to keep the water clean. Asians litter like crazy, but this city had basically no trash anywhere. I found the ATM and then got some lunch at a hawker stall, which was much more expensive than malaysia, though still cheap by american standards. The hawker stall was about the only thing that would have given away that I wasn't in america.



Lucas's cool aunt JoAnne had given me a contact in Singapore that worked for Micron and I was going to be staying with them. Iused a picture I had taken of google maps and then the mrt train and a couple busses to find their place.



When I got to their neighborhood I was quite impressed with all the fancy and beautiful houses. When I got to the correct address I rang the bell and the electronic gate opened. The door to the house opened and two cute little girls stepped out. I quickly met Ashlin (age 6, same birthday as my brother as she quickly point out) and Caitlin (age 9) and the house helper Vivian (from the Philippines). Also met Prince Charming (the cat, no conrad, you weren't there) and Sleeping Beauty as well as their new puppy cloey. Craig and his wife Anne Marie were at work and then playing golf. They were all very welcoming and generous and I was given full access to a fridge...an American stocked fridge! So you can believe I had some cheese and milk! Vivian cooked me some porkchops for lunch and then we ate icecream the girls had made...and then cookies they had made as well. For dinner vivan made spaghetti! (and for those that know the fake sweet philippine spaghetts, no it was the real thing) I hadn't had proper italian noodles (or western food for that matter) in a long long time. The afternoon I played darts with the girls and watched cartoons with them. Just once I'd love to see Tom eat Jerry! I met Craig and Anne Marie that night, and they were fun and nice and just great! Some friends of theres (johan and yikes, can't remember her name) from S. Africa, but now live next door came over for some wine and darts and pool.







On Saturday Craig and Anne Marie, after a breakfast of wheat toast, eggs, and cereal (special k...who knew?), took me to a fancy foot reflexology place and we had our feet massaged for and hour and a half. They treated me to it, and it was a fancy place, not just the cheap thai places, so that was quite the incredible experience for me. The rest of the morning we did some shopping for a bbq we were going to have. Went to a grocery store that was not like any of the asian grocery stores, but could have been safeway or ablertsons. The prices were definitely higher and on some things like cheese and meats I think even higher than back home. We also went to a proper butchery run by a swiss guy.



In the afternoon I went with Anne Marie and the girls to Caitlin's golf lesson. Ashlin and I hacked away at balls at the driving range. That evening the Carlisles put on a big bbq with about 20 people there (a fellow drifter, alex on her way to australia, who just graduated from SMU and was staying with an expat family was there as well). We had fancy mushrooms that the S. African expats brought (mom, your magic mushrooms are still better), fresh salmon, pork, mashed potatoes (hadn't had those since idaho), some cheese salad, and an amazing array of deserts. Just a good old fashioned bbq. Craig also had a bar where he made margarhitas (didn't know anyone in asia knew how to make those) and other cocktails. Eventually th party moved downstairs for darts and pool. And the girls taught me how to play Wii videogames, which I'd never done.



I'm staying in a beautiful room with freezing cold aircon (yes!), a hot shower (with pressure), and I can drink from the tap when I get up at night. The bed has a proper mattress, is elevated from the floor and was the first time I hadn't had bedbugs in some time (malaysian dorms are just crawling with them). It's crazy, and quite nice at the moment to be staying in an american home. I'm having a good time here, and I'm not really doing any of the tourists things in singapore (there's not a whole lot), just kind of being western again and hanging out with a family, which I miss, and relaxing. Travelling can get a bit tiring. I do hope to make it down to the city center and see a few things like the quays and little india. But I am just having a wonderful time hanging out with the carlisles. The girls are a lot of fun and Craig and Anne Marie are fun and so incredibly nice. I really can't believe how nice they are. THey don't even know me, yet they are doing so much for me and treating me to so much. Ireally can't believe how lucky I am and I am so grateful!







6/15


Yesterday they took me to the American club. It's a club for americans and other expats from europe. It has 3 restaurants, a pool, gym, bowling alley, kids zone, tennis courts, etc. Very fancy and nice. They took me to the brunch buffet at one of the restaurants. It was seriously in my top 3 for buffets of all time. Incredible variety. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner foods; indian, chinese, thai, and other asian food, and of course lots of traditional american foods and other european food. Had lots of fancy cheeses with special breads, a steak, eggs benedict, turkey, etc etc. They had this juicer thing where you could pick out fresh fruit and they would juice it for you. After the extremely filling breakfast, they showed me around the club...they even had a bar complete with an UofI vandal and DU pioneers pennant. We went down to the kids zone to play some air hockey.

In the afternoon we did a bit of a city tour. They drove me in their car around to the sites which made things nice and easy. Walked around bustling little india and got some samosas. Drove through china town, the CBD (central business district), past the singapore flyer, and some of the government type buildings. Then we walked along the river from Clark Quay to Boat Quay to the start of the government buildings and the statue of Sir. Raffles, the guy who founded the city and which the famous Raffles hotel is named after and the Rafflesia flower is named after. They treated me to dinner at a restaurant along Clark Quay river. It was a place run by an American and was a microbrewery and burger place. So of course I had a big american sized burger (got the mexicano b/c I miss mexican food for sure) and a chocolate microbrew. That night I sat in their extremely comfortable couch and watched Seinfeld and parts of the last game of the stanley cup. Hadn't seen American tv in a long time.



6/16



Yesterday I got up early and went for a mountain bike right in Bukit Timah National Park. It's the only area of primary rainforest left in Singapore, and used to be home to tigers. Craig let me borrow his bike which was a treat b/c it was a full suspension, Rocky Mountain complete with XTR components, clip pedals, disc brakes, and was a frame that actually fit my size! Went from the too small, no brakes, loose handlebar, 1 speed asian bike to a raceworth bike. There was a nice jungle singletrack that went around Bukit Timah mountain. It was only 6km (8km if you did the extranneous loops), but fun and of course very sweaty. Surprisingly not too much mud to dodge, but lots of monitor lizards to avoid. Bukit Timah is the tallest mountain in the country of singapore and after my mountain bike ride I took the jungle climb to the top. It only took me 20 minutes to hike to the top, but the fact that I was able to ride my bike around the entire base of the mountain in less time than that should tell you just how "massive" this mountain is. I think it's something like 183m tall. The bike ride to and from the park from the Carlisles was actually much longer than the trails in the park.

After a lunch of mac and cheese I took the girls to the Singapore zoo, which is always a highlight on people's trips to singapore. Asian zoos are natorious for being terrible places for the animals they house, but the singapore zoo is more like a very good western zoo and is quite active in conservation and species survival plans and breeding. And it was indeed a very good zoo. Still can't compare with the san diego zoo, but pretty amazing nonetheless. They had lots of the free ranging type exhibits which are nice. They had some cool exhibits where you can walk into the enclosure and get really close to the animals, like one where you can even pet the lemurs and flying fox bats They also specialize in primates and have lots of primate "islands" where they are in more of a natural habitat. I especially liked the orangutans. I felt sorry for the polar bears. I think they belong in Denver or Seattle, or Moscow. It's so hot here. They also have several malay tigers and the now extinct from the wild white tigers, which are gorgeous.

At night they have the only night safari zoo in the world. It's pretty cool. There are several trails you can walk along and see the nocturnal animals do what they do at night under low lighting which is a cool idea. You then can take a tram that goes through another part of the park and drives through some of the enclosures to see the night animals as well. A highlight was having a giant flying squirrel fly right over our heads. They had a cool show we watched where they had taught an otter to recycle and then showed in real life some of how the animals scavenge (hyenas) or hunt (a fishing cat catching fish).



Today, I'm just hanging out doing some laundry and computer things before taking a bus back to malaysia to Johor Bahru to fly to Kota Kinabalu in Sabah in Bornean Malaysian.