THE LONG WAY HOME

 The boys slept in so Mum and I left them at the apartment and went back to Holland V. She had a final visit with her favorite acupuncturist and I had a date in mind with a roti prata. I had been astonished by how few prata hawkers were left around Singapore. It used to be a mainstay in each one but this trip I had noticed there were very few. I began walking, with my phone guiding toward three potential stalls in a hawker center in Tajong Pagar. Once there I realized the closest two had closed and perhaps gone to pray. By this time I'd been walking for 40 minutes at an unwise expat pace. Fast. I was drenched in sweat. I nearly gave up but there was this third location but where was it? I set out again and found it on the outside of a hawker center. It was very much the hole-in-the-wall mom & pop location I hoped for. They were listening to the prayers on a radio while taxi cab drivers filed in for their drinks and lunch. I ordered my meal which was a couple of dollars and enormous and sat on a red plastic chair under a fat blowing damp air at my sweat soaked forehead. But I was happy. The owner insisted on serving me a very sweet lime drink with lots of ice. 

After Mum and I returned, it was time to pack and pack and pack. It was very satisfying to find that everything fit. The front desk girl who had been so kind to us refused gratuity but agreed to take our MRT cards that had quite a bit of balance on each. 

The flight home was peaceful, everyone slept. It was bittersweet to end our adventure. As we headed to the airport in a big limovan the kids said they would be happy to keep traveling. Mum and I agreed we'd hit our stride and would be happy to keep traveling too. 

Science Center & Cable Cars

We took the MRT to Jurong East and ate at Brotzeit before heading into the Singapore Science Center. It was a quick visit as the center closes at 5 and we'd underestimated how long that MRT line would take to get us there. The kids enjoyed it and it was not busy at all so Mum and I had a fairly quiet stroll reading exhibits. 

Afterward we made a plan to add on the Mt Faber cable cars to Sentosa so the boys could get a look at the busy shipping port at sunset. Then we had dinner at Jumbo Seafood at Resorts World - not the most traditional venue - but it did not disappoint. We unfortunately missed the last cable car back so we hired another driver to get back to our apartment. A good final night, chilli crab was crossed off the list of things to eat and we were ready for the day of travel ahead. 

Lazy Day

We had a poolside morning and enjoyed a slower day. We took the boys to our old neighborhood, Holland Village, and we shopped in the old shopping malls with the strange little hallways and small shop stalls. But like the old days, it delivered everything we hoped for. 

We stopped for dumplings at lunch and a last visit to a hawker center for the boys. 
 

PORTALS AND PASTRY

Our friend Kevin highly recommended an exhibit downtown called Portals. It was an enormous collection of fantasy and sci-fi books, memorobila and art from the early 20th century to the early 2000s. It was facinating and immesive. The kids really enjoyed as did my Mum who remembered many books from the 60s and 70s.  

Before we went in we visited another location fo Tiong Bahru bakery for just a little more of those ridiculous pastries. 

A BIT OF MODERN

After swimming and journalling all through the first half of the day we decided to get us out of the apartment for a small excursion. 

Both A and C were fascinated by the idea that all the malls downtown are connected by tunnels so I took us down there to show them. We started at Ion and then went across to Wheelock Pl and then we went above ground and I showed them Isitan (for the grocery store) and finally Far East Plaza for some old skool mall style. We met my friend for dinner at a middle eastern place deep in Far East Plaza and it was fabulous food. In North America we don't go into malls expecting phenomenal food but in Singapore it's why you go. The basement floors are filled with every gourmet temptation you could imagine. From local food stalls to French patisseries and Michelin star dumplings. Basements are hidden gold in Singapore mall culture. 

Before we left I bought every one of us a blank journal and packed
supplies to create scapbook journals as we went along. We also
had a polaroid camera to add to the detail. 

BACK TO THE INITIAL SAMA

Our serviced apartment was finally ready for us to move back in so we checked out of the The Grand Park after a morning stroll on the river and a fantastic breakfast at Tiong Bahru in Fort Canning. 

Back to apartment living where we could order in groceries and settle in again. But first, can we just have a long look at this croissant filled with Lychee creme pat, glazed with a strawberry yogurt glaze. 

A PERANAKAN SOLUTION

As soon as I had the ability to walk, I busted us out of the world's most boring golf hotel and moved us into a charming Peranakan hotel, the The Grand Park at City Hall. We walked to the Peranakan Museum and took in a few hours of history and beautiful story-telling. Later we went to an old haunt of ours, brotzeit, for dinner. A Bavarian restaurant that delivered on the comfort foods we needed at that time. 

THE OTHER SHOE

There was always a chance that another of us might go down. The Dr wasn't entirely sure Caelen had eColi and had put him on an antibiotic just in case. When I woke the next morning I knew something wasn't right. I was immediately stricken with all the symptoms C had had. I ignored the advice to let my body "get rid of it all first" and took all the meds that were already in my possession. I stabilized but felt weak and flushed. I knew I was on very borrowed time. Mum and I strategized. I decided we should just get ourselves to the airport and try to get on our way. Even if we just got as far as our layover in Singapore, we could get a hotel and see a Dr there. And that is what we did. Forfeiting the flight onward to KL, we got into a car at Changi and went to the closest hotel I could find and I tumbled into bed. I emerged a few hours later and headed to the clinic knowing that a forfeited flight was going to require a paper trail of illness documented and I needed adult dosed meds. 

The hotel was at a golf course and was about as boring and corporate as they come. Every faux wood veneer and vinyl detail could be in a hotel in Sacramento. Again our crew had to find the inner peace to just sit. We missed our cabana. And we were sad that our whole side trip to Malaysia for three nights was just not going to happen. I was down for the count and after seeing what happened to Caelen I knew the first two days I was going to be flat out in bed. 

A CABANA ON THE BEACH

 

We aren't very beachy people. It could be the pale Welsh skin, or the easily distracted ADHD brains but really we are not very good at beach. Walking on beach? Sure. In for a swim and off again? Yep. But sitting? Just, not doing a thing? Nope. It turns out, when one member of your party is really ill, you have to all just learn to sit. I think we did a spectacular job. Look at this pro level sitting we did. 

C slept all day, still not eating despite the staff delivering all their cures for him from congee to vegetable broth. But he drank a lot of fluids and he was finally chipper and feeling better. Mum and I stepped out on our own for a bit to fortify our first aid items for the travel day we had ahead of us. We were set to fly to Kuala Lumpur in the morning. 

SHOPPING AND A SMALL DISASTER

Mum and I had more shopping to do so Mum and I called a car and went down to check out some shops and also a local mall hoping to uncover some boutiques that would have some higher quality but local items. We were successful but just as we were wrapping up I got a call from Joel that made me heart sink. Could I come to him right away, they had biked to the far end of the beach and C was vomiting. "Bali Belly" was something I was really hoping we'd avoid somehow with extremely careful measures around food and water and touching things. But eColi is absolutely everywhere in a country without public sanitation accessible to all and I knew the risk was very high. I was traveling with charcoal and several medications and they were on me at the time so we called another car and were there to rescue in about 10 minutes. 

C was sicker than I have ever seen anyone with Bali Belly. I ended up getting him onto heavy duty drugs to stop the vomiting pretty early as he became dehydrated and by the next morning the staff at the hotel were urging us to have the Dr come in. We were unfortunately checking out so they coordinated the Dr to meet us at the next hotel. 

At the same time Joel was leaving for the airport to fly back home so as he left, so did we with C, flushed and floppy at my side. The medical team arrived right on time and immediately assessed him and started an IV drip. This was not what C was expecting but I explained that it needed to happen and told him afterward he'd start to feel better. He was so brave, he just looked at me and didn't make a peep. 

By the time they left it was dinner time. We got ready for bed and hoped for a better day.