Bhutan, Bali, Singapore

It has been a long long time since our last update! It’s a Sunday afternoon and we’re actually at home, so an opportune time to get caught up. Be warned this is a long entry!

We moved apartments in early January to another area of Singapore – near Buena Vista MRT (train) station and a 20 minute walk to the expat enclave of Holland Village. Brian and I were just talking today about how much happier we are now.

Today was a fairly typical Sunday at the new place. Julietta (our maid who comes once a week) arrives, we go to the gym, eat breakfast, sit by the pool and do a little work, go for a dip when you’re hot, say good-bye to Julietta, sit by the pool and plan a trip to Laos, have some lunch by the pool – and the now daily thunder storm at 4pm means we’re back in our clean apartment. It may seem like this life isn’t too exciting, but after a long tiring week it is heaven.

The storms each afternoon are short but quite intense now. We had a really dry January, so I guess it’s much needed. Yesterday afternoon Singapore’s “iconic” Merlion (part mermaid part lion statue) was hit by lightening – it now has a hole the size of a soccer ball. This is a very superstitious society, so we’re sure people are seeing it as a very bad omen for Singapore, especially considering these are recessionary times.

What has been going on? Well, we’ve spent time in Bhutan and Bali. I went to North America for work/fun.
And we’ve been spending time in Singapore.

Bhutan:

Incredible. Interesting. Authentic. Highly recommend it. We spent 2 ½ weeks in October traveling around western Bhutan, and loved every minute of it. Where is Bhutan? It’s a mountainous country nestled in between China/Tibet and India, with the western border in the Himalayas. The whole country consists of hills and valleys – the roads are nestled in the valleys twisting and turning.

You must be with a guide and you have to pay at least $200 USD per day per person – that covers mid range hotel, all meals, guide, driver/transport, entry to sites, hiking permits, etc. Some of our most memorable experiences included:

- Culture: We visited many dzongs which are part monastery part administrative headquarters for the district, all built in a similar style. We loved hiking up to the famous Tigers Nest monastery perched up on the side of a cliff. Inside you get blessed by the Buddhist monks and see their different treasures. All locals who enter the dzongs must wear traditional dress, as do government workers and school kids during the day, so it really does make you feel like you’re stepping back in time.

- Mountains: We spent an incredible 10 days hiking in the mountains. Tough going, very very cold, but worth it. We spent at least 5 nights camping at 4000 metres, and hiked 2 mountain passes – one at 5,000 metres. At some points I wonder if we’re slightly abnormal in how we define “fun” and “holiday”. We walk 7-8 hours on some fairly tough terrain, get headaches from the altitude, huddle in our sleeping bags in our non-walking time trying to keep warm. But the views!! The views were spectacular. We felt so lucky to be there. Each corner we turned offered something new.

- People: Bhutan is famous for it’s measurement of “gross national happiness”. The monarchy and government place more importance on this than GDP. So everyone wants to know “do the people look happy?” Yes, they really do. Not in a obvious kind of way, it’s more subtle. They are a gentle people, proud, shy, friendly. The children were lovely – we visited school children in a couple of remote places and they were very keen to get their pictures taken so they could look at the screen after. One bunch made Brian sing “mary had a little lamb” – they were an appreciative audience. Another group of older kids (late teens, early twenties) made both Brian and I sing karaoke in a bar in Thimphu. They survived it! One of our favorite days was camping beside a local community hall in the mountains where they had an archery tournament. Each time the men hit a target they would all sing and dance. At night they had a camp fire where they danced and sang. It all felt surreal for us being there – it was just Brian and I and a guy from Malta. One of those special moments you remember for the rest of your life.

- Animals: As you know we love taking pictures of animals. Hiking we were surrounded by big yaks and our horses/donkeys which were carrying our gear. On one hike we saw lots of cute marmots and blue sheep who we tormented while we tracked them with our cameras.

- Food: What’s travel without experiencing new food? The main dish is chilies and cheese. Two of my favorite things! I had heard that the Bhutanese liked extremely spicy food, but was a little disappointed because the locals made our food very mild. I guess they are used to older tourists who don’t like spice. So we surprised them by asking for extra chilies and piling them onto our food!

All in all it was a fantastic trip. And extra special since Brian and I hadn’t seen each other much in the two months prior due to his work travel schedule.

Bali

Our next holiday was in December. On Xmas Day we chatted with family using the web-cam, then went to our friends Carly and Anthony’s place for a big catered brunch. After much food and champagne we boarded a plane to Bali – just a quick 2 ½ hour flight from Singapore.

While last time we did the fancy resort thing in Bali, this time we stayed at cheaper accommodation (e.g. as low as $15 a night!). But we definitely weren’t suffering. We spent three nights amongst the rice paddy fields in Ubud which is in central Bali in the foothills. It’s an artistic town with tons of galleries and little temples. The Balinese are Hindus (mixed with a bit of animist) and are quite devout – everyone has either their own temple or at least access to the larger community temple.

We came across a few processions/celebrations – one where we were staying on the more remote east coast for a few days. When a baby reaches the age of 3 months the family all come together to celebrate for 3 days. On New Years Eve they were partying it up, playing loud music and singing, so we decided to go over. Well, by that point it was just a group of younger guys/boys drinking hard liquor and beer. No women in sight. But when they saw us they cheered and made us sit with them. After half an hour of sitting on the uncomfortable ground while trying to look demure wrapping my shawl around me I had to go home. It had been a long day of scuba diving (a wreck and wall) and traveling around the area on our motorbike in the pouring rain so we did have an excuse for passing out before midnight!

Bali is one of our favorite places in the region, which is unexpected since it is touristy. But it’s so easy to get away from the tourists. And the local people are extremely friendly, nice and honest. The Bali bombs had a big impact on the economy, so they’re really happy to see you there even if you’re not spending money directly with them.

So, the people, the beautiful scenery, the food, the culture, everything makes it just a great place to visit. We went twice last year and I’m sure we’ll go again at least once this year.

2009

As I mentioned earlier, the year began with moving apartments. The next weekend we went to our friend Christina’s for a champagne brunch.

I should digress actually and explain one of the Singapore expat experiences – champagne brunches. All the fine hotels in town put them on each weekend. We’ve gone to one at the Swissotel – it’s in their restaurant on the 70th floor with great views of the city. For four hours we drank as much champagne as we wanted, ate as much seafood, cheese and dessert that we could fit in our stomachs, and enjoyed our friends’ company. (We were with our good friends Stephanie and Lisa – Lisa unfortunately has moved back to Canada, and this was a farewell.)

Getting back to the story, Christina put on a brunch at her home where all 13 of us brought a bottle of champagne or sparkling wine, and while we dined on scrumptious food Christina had cooked we did blind taste tests of the champagne. While the champagne we brought did not fare that well (though I stand by the Shiraz bubbly – it’s unique!), most of us gave the Veuve Clicquot the top rating. Brian and I ended up drinking a bottle on February 13th – it was a Friday the 13th which is a special day for us! (And lucky for us there’s another Friday the 13th in March so that means another bottle of champagne ☺

In January I went off to North America for 2 ½ weeks of work and visiting, and Brian went to Indonesia for work. It was fantastic seeing family and a few friends when I was in Canada. The visit was too short, but I guess that’s how it is when you live so far from home.

People keep asking us what we do with our time in Singapore. Well, our weekends have been busy connecting with friends usually over a meal, doing errands, and getting some exercise. Brian is playing rugby on Saturdays – it’s a good group of guys which is great.

On Valentines Day we had breakfast with the orangutans at the Singapore Zoo. They had a 2 month old baby orangutan which was adorable.

In February we got to witness the Thaipusam festival in Singapore – a Hindu festival where guys go into a trance, pierce their bodies with skewers and walk a few kilometres between temples. Disturbing but interesting. Apparently they don’t allow this practice in India anymore. I wonder why?

We also had another dose of culture with Chinese New Year. Lion dancers put on a show in our condo complex – we watched from the balcony as they danced around the pool. The guy at the head actually jumped up onto the shoulders of the man behind him while standing on a narrow strip of land going out into the swimming pool! As the lion tossed out oranges local kids would jump into the pool with all their clothes on so they could reach the fruit first and get good luck (or just have fun!).

Tonight we had dinner with Mike, my sister-in-law Elaine’s brother, who was in Singapore on business. Jana and I stayed with Mike and his family here in Singapore almost 9 years ago when we were traveling in SE Asia and Mike’s family was living here. So now we got to play host! We went for dinner at a local hawkers which is an open air food court. Good, cheap food.

As I mentioned today we were planning our trip to Laos which we hope to do in May. We also have a long weekend in April, so potentially a trip to Darwin or Borneo will be in order. So little time and so many places to see!

I’m sorry for the lengthy entry, but it has been a while so there’s lots to talk about. We’ll try and write more often this year.

Happy new year, stay in touch and even better, come visit!

Anne & Brian