Happy 5th/11th Anniversary to us

We were long past due for a side trip. 11 weeks had passed since our trip to California ended and I have about a six week time limit before I start to feel desperate to get out of Singapore. We both needed fresh air and some peace and quiet.

I booked us a weekend trip to Krabi for our anniversary. It was the easiest side trip we've ever done actually. I booked the flight with Tiger airways which wasn't quite as annoying as it was when I last used their online booking system and I found Amari Vogue Krabi on Trip adviser when I was searching for quiet boutique places to stay.

Our weekend was pretty incredible. The flight was fast and uneventful. Krabi airport is clean and efficient and we were the only plane at the airport when we arrived so getting out of the departures area took 10 minutes and there was our driver right on time. We had a very clean new car that whisked us at Thai speed out to the resort and literally just a couple of hours from the time we'd left our house we were checked in and sipping tea in Thailand. So easy! It actually took a lot less time and hassle then any of our trips to Malaysia which is technically closer. Everyone assumes you need more time to do a Thailand side trip than Malaysia or Bali but really I'd say exactly the opposite.

So Krabi province is gorgeous and we only saw just a teeny little bit on our car rides and beach walks. This is an area that outdoorsy folks go to because of the climbing and parks. Our resort was right next to a big park so it felt very remote as we only had a neighbour on one side and the other mini resorts along here all seem to be very small.

We had very inclement weather but it was nice and cool the whole time with a fresh breeze. So nice to be somewhere less humid and we had no air conditioning on at all. We read books, napped, ate fruit  and sipped fresh squeezed juice and tea. It was a very chill trip and a great way to spend our anniversary.

The foods we miss

We made a bunch of Greek food tonight and started a list of food we've been missing in Singapore lately. This is what we are craving. 

Mexican Food

Greek food

Brunch

Salads 

Bagels and Jewish deli food

Cinnamon buns

Fresh Tortellini, Ravioli and Gnocci

Vegetables with flavour. (What on earth happens to veggies that get shipped here?) 

Berries 

Tart fall apples with the blush still on them

Music in the Botanic Gardens

So for the past two years we've been regulars in the Botanic gardens. We know all the back paths in the dark and the servers at the restaurant know us by first name and we rarely have to actually order our drinks. It's so close to where we live and is one of those places on the island where you can lose the sound of the city completely. We've never been to a concert in the park but tonight was the night to fix that. I was invited out with some friends to see a piano recital organized by the Polish Embassy featuring Krystian Tkaczewski playing Romantic period pieces mostly by Chopin. It was a lovely evening.

Caveman Banking on Banking Island

Singapore is packed with banks from all over the world. Investment banks, regular banks, banks that probably aren't even legal... you name it. This is Banking Island. One would imagine that Banking Island would be the easiest place in the world to get your day to day banking done. Allow me to quote my third financial advisor from HSBC who said apologetically "banking in Singapore is in it's adolescent phase." I wasn't sure what he meant but now I understand he was warning me of the awkward, unpredictable roller-coaster of hoops you jump through to do the most basic things here.

Homesickness or just memory appreciation?

Everyone I talk to about travel has a different take on homesickness and a different experience of it. When I was a kid my family moved 3,000 miles and I was a miserable homesick wreak for a year and took longer than that to really settle in. (Lesson learned: move with a 10 year old at your ow risk). Later on in my teens and 20s I moved around quite often within Canada and didn't really have an issue. The difference I think was moving on my terms and having the ability to own feelings of loneliness or nostalgia and put them somewhere more productive.

When we moved to California in 2007 I thought I'd be homesick because that was a big move. I only remember being homesick a couple of times in the first few weeks. After that I was just too distracted with our new challenges to be looking backwards. There were certainly a lot of hurdles in our first year there and it was also on our first expatriation. The learning curve was sometimes a painful one and I was at times frustrated but I wasn't really homesick.

When we did the move to Singapore we were felt like our time in California was cut short since we'd only had 2.5 years there. Our good-byes were tearful and we miss lots of things from that life. Every so often I get a pang when I see a photo of the Golden Gate Bridge or a familiar bottle of wine shows up at Cold Storage (at 4X the price). I'm convinced it's not really homesickness because it doesn't linger and I don't want to head back. It's just a moment of appreciation for a great adventure we had. So I'm re-branding this particular pang as "Memory Appreciation." The well adjusted sister to homesickness and a much better travel companion.

Tips on structuring a Singapore trip

I like to keep lots of coconuts on hand for tired guests.

It's so much fun to have guests arrive here. I love the look of shock when they finally make it to our place from the airport after their 24+ hour trip and see us here in our place like it's the most normal thing to be on the other side of the world. We have quite a few more guests planning a trip here and everyone wants to know how long they should come for, what should they do and how long it takes to acclimatize.

Don't expect too much from yourself for the first two to three days. It'll take that long to get your sleep sorted out. You'll probably crash pretty early in the afternoons and be less able to handle outdoor adventures in the heat. Almost everyone tries to do a lot on day one and then gives up and ends up by our pool instead. You probably need a week in Singapore before taking off for your first side trip. Three days to acclimatize and a few extra to do all the things you want to do here.

Singapore from a mountain bike

This is a little bucket list of things Joel's seen from his mountain bike while riding the trails around Bukit Timah. (The photos are linked from wildlife sites as Joel is never holding a camera while riding).

Long Tailed Macques

Monitor Lizards

Wild Boar

Seen in Singapore with Joel's phone

Walking through an upper middle class neighbourhood at Hungry Ghosts festival time and
seeing people squatting around oil drums burning fake money. 

One of the many truly bizzarre costumes we saw women wearing on CNY

Putting your blood type on your car. This is happening people.

We were lucky enough to see a sticker from the infamous Sticker Lady

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Joel's Singapore marketing moments

"No 1 in The Canned Meat and Mushroom category in Singapore"

Keeping cool in the city

It's been raining a lot the past few days and with rain comes a cooling breeze. Temps drop down to the mid twenties and strolling for long distances is pleasant. Usually this time of year is hot. This is "Summer."

My mother and brother were here this time last year and I remember their stages of adjusting to the heat. So just how do we cope with it? Well I think the first thing that's really important is to not over-cool ourselves indoors. It makes going outside a real shock. Humans were built to live in hot climates, Mesopotamia was not cold. Still, it's a big change for northerners and I find it's a process of relaxing. If I'm anxious about being hot, then I'm hot. If I relax then it becomes a warm tropical vacation all over again.

We have one of these air conditioners in every room of our apartment except the bathrooms and kitchen. They have little remotes where we can set them to just fan or to a particular temperature. All the bedroom ones are usually just on fan while the one in the living room is set to about 28-29 degrees during the day. 4-5 degrees cooler than outside and a good comfortable temp to live with. We also leave our windows open a bit so there's a bit of constant air exchange. We've found that acclimatizing to hotter temps indoors has also chased away the sniffles. We had head colds when we first got here and used to use the a/c a lot more. We've had none in the past year since we started turning it off.

Where you are in the city has a huge amount to do with how hot you feel at home too. If you're down in densely populated areas with lots of a/c units constantly exhausting heat you'll feel much warmer than if you're in an area with green space. Little India, The CBD, Chinatown, Clarke Quay and Orchard Road always feel about 5 degrees hotter than where we live. The coastal areas and the Botanic gardens are great places to go sit at night and be cool enough to need a sweater.