Friday, December 31, 2010

Bali - The Last Paradise

Bali - it conjures up images of the last paradise. True to form, our experiences there were nothing short of out of this world.....

We were looking for a memorable Christmas in our first year in Singapore and it didn't take us long to choose Bali. 12 years earlier, when we were living in Japan, we had spent the New Year's holiday in Singapore and Bali. It was that experience that ultimately brought us back to Singapore for work and to Bali for a second time.


In planning the trip, we had to decide where to stay. Bali is a pretty big island with all types of different experiences, depending on where you stay. In our first trip here, we had stayed in a resort area called Nusa Dua which was beautiful but didn't give us much of a feel of what Bali was 'really' like. So we were looking for another locale.


Our choices:

Kuta - party central, home to all the nightlife and also where the Bali nightclub bombings took place.
Legian/Seminyak- up the coast from Kuta and the 'in' place to stay. Tends to be costly.
Ubud- the artistic heart of Bali in a mountainous region in the interior of Bali.  Also where the part of the book is based
Ahmed and Candi Dasa - a quite area on the eastern side of the island known more for its diving
Tanah Lot -  pounding surf, on the western side of the island, away from the hustle and bustle and home to the most visited of all Balinese temples.

We thought about splitting our time between two  different locations, but ultimately decided to stay in Tanah Lot at the Bali Nirwana Resort. 

We arrived at night and were immediately impressed.  The place has a Greg Norman designed golf course and so after you exit off of the main road you meander for app. 1 km through the golf course to the resort.  About one-third of the way in, there is a guard house where the undercarriage of all vehicles is inspected using a mirror to ensure there are no bombs.  This was a bit of an eye-opener for us, but understandable based on past events in Bali.

Got to our rooms around 1:00 a.m., fell asleep and woke up the next day to a beautiful, sprawling resort centred around a series of interconnected lagoons, complete with a waterfall.  And just when Haylee didn't think it could get any better,  she discovered.....the waterslide!  Many hours of the day were spent doing up and down the slide with her new found friends Greta, Jack, Ally and Maddy.  Greta and Jack are from Melbourne and we became friends with  their parents and spent a lot of time together.  Ally and Maddy are living in Hong Kong by way of London and the Phillipines.







We were looking for some unique opportunities during our stay and selected a few things that we felt would be both memorable and enjoyable.  Our first adventure was to go horseback riding. Getting anywhere in Bali is a slow process, so we chose a place that was close to our hotel. We weren't disappointed with our choice as we had a great afternoon riding on the black sand beaches and exploring a beautiful Balinese village. A couple of times during our trip we were given a bit of a scare. The first one came when someone set off fireworks in the village we were riding through. As you might imagine, this spooked the horses and scared us too. The final incident happened when we were almost finished. A group of local kids was playing a game of soccer and as we approached the game, the horses became increasingly uneasy. It turns out, one time a kid had kicked a soccer ball and hit a horse and now the horses were fearful of it happening again. Just as we got close, the loud 'thud' of a foot kicking the ball could be heard and this terrified Lisa's horse, which we were to find out later, was the one that had been hit in the incident I described earlier. Lisa held on for dear life and thankfully settled the horse down. So, as advertised, our horseback riding certainly proved to be adventurous (and a little harrowing too).

Happy Bike Tour

A second, highly recommended excursion we went on was a day long cycling trip in Central Bali with a group known as Happy Bike Tours.  Our first stop of the day was to a coffee plantation in the foothills of  Mt. Agung, a volcanic mountain.  We saw vanilla plants and cinnamon trees and how a specialty coffee called Kopi Lumak is made.  One of the most expensive coffees in the world,  Kopi Lumak or Civet Coffee is made by feeding coffee beans to a civet, who digests them and then defecates the coffee bean.  The beans are then collected from the feces of the civet, cleaned, and dried in the sun.  I kid you not!  Needless to say, we took a pass on the offer to try a drink.




 
Next, we went for breakfast at a restaurant that overlooked the volcanic mountains of Mt. Agung and Mt. Batur and a lake that separated the two.  It was incredibly picturesque and we took many great photos here.

After breakfast we began our bike tour.   Peddling the back roads of Bali through rice paddies and villages and alongside mountain streams and river valleys, the downhill ride was full of the beauty and imagery that many people envision when they hear of Bali being the "Last Paradise on Earth".

Riding through beautiful mountain villages, we were happily greeted by everyone we passed and what we saw was a way of life that has been untouched by consumerism and the modern ways of life.  Recently harvested rice was laid out on tarps by the side of the road to dry in the hot sun, people carried home fresh fruits in baskets on the tops of their heads and children played merrily in the streets.

 See what it was like for yourself....



After hours of riding through the countryside and enjoying every minute of it, we visited the family compound of the tour operator where we were treated to a traditional Balinese lunch and learned about family life in Bali.

It was the most incredible experience and something we would certainly do again were we to return to Bali.

Christmas in the Tropics

Celebrating Christmas away from family and friends and without snow was a little different, but our Christmas and New Year's proved to be quite memorable.  The hotel was decorated for the season and featured a massive gingerbread cathedral in the lobby.  The restaurant had a large Christmas tree and had a Santa and his reindeer suspended overhead.  On Christmas Eve, we went to a special dinner which featured a children's choir from the local orphanage.







We made our own Christmas tree using the branches of a tropical plant and decorated it with flowers.  Our haul of Christmas gifts was a little light as we had instructed Santa to visit our place in Singapore after the holidays so that we would celebrate Christmas with Charlie and Ruth when they arrived in early January.


 New Year's was a good time too.  We had met two other families during our stay and went out for dinner with them at the hotel pub and restaurant.  After a late meal, we went next door to the conference centre for a countdown to midnight that couldn't be beat.  There was live music, free champagne and decorations and party favors galore.  Haylee and her new found friends spent the rest of the night on stage singing and dancing to the music with their own microphone!



 Seminyak

A couple of  evenings during our trip we travelled to Seminyak, a popular restaurant area where we  found an Italian restaurant called Ultimo that we fell in love with.  The food was spectacular and the prices couldn't be beat and the atmosphere was pretty cool too.





Kuta

As I said earlier, Kuta Beach is a bit of a tourist trap that is popular with western tourists and is infamously known as the site of the Bali bombings that took place in 2002 and 2005.  As a result, it's an area that we were somewhat hesitant to visit.  Nonetheless,  we ventured there one day and had a good time here enjoying a Starbucks coffee, doing some shopping and visiting Waterbom water park. All three of us had a great time at the water park and spent the whole day going up and down the waterslides.  Even a torrential tropical downpour didn't slow us down. Running and playing in the rain was great fun and made us feel like kids again ( Haylee didn't have to work too hard at this ).  We finished off a great day in Kuta by enjoying dinner on the beach before returning to our hotel.

Golf

The Bali Nirwana Golf Club surrounds the resort and has some of the most picturesque golf holes I have ever seen.  There are three holes that play right along the ocean, one of which is a 200 yard par three with a 180 yard carry over the water.  In the background, you can see the Tanah Lot temple which is one of the most visited temples in Bali.  I played the course two times during our stay and just loved it.  I would definitely like to play this course again sometime.


The opportunity to spend 2+ weeks in Bali was an incredible experience and what some would call the trip of a lifetime.  Fun, food, new found friends...who could ask for anything more?




Saturday, October 30, 2010

October Break in Phuket

Two months after starting school,  we had a week long holiday known as the October break.   Shortly after arriving and getting our lives in order, Lisa started investigating potential holiday destinations in South-East Asia and we decided to spend our first vacation in Phuket, Thailand.  We had heard a number of things about Phuket through the media, none of which were terribly complimentary.  First of all, it's an area that has some notoriety for the child sex trade and it's also the unofficial meeting place of the transgender crowd.  On top of that, it is an area that was devastated by the horrible tsunami that struck the area during Christmas 2004.  However, after talking to a number of people from Singapore who strongly suggested it as a holiday destination, we decided to take a chance and give Phuket a try.  We are happy to report that we were not disappointed with our choice.


We chose to stay at the Le Meridien Hotel and Resort on the west coast of Phuket, just outside the city of Patong.   Our hotel room had a view of the pool and looked out on the beach and the crashing waves of the  Andaman Sea.

We spent the first several days exploring everything the hotel had to offer.  We tried scuba diving in the hotel pool, did some climbing on the rock climbing wall,  practiced archery, shot some hoops on the basketball court and worked on our golf game at the driving range and practice facilities.  When we were in a less active mood we lazed poolside or relaxed down on the beautiful sandy beach.


The food the hotel had to offer was excellent.  We started each day at the buffet breakfast which was served poolside in an open air restaurant.   We typically didn't eat much for lunch, but would return to the same venue in the evening to eat one of theme based dinners that was always accompanied by a live entertainment show that we always enjoyed.

After spending some time admiring the waves from afar, we finally ventured into the surf and had a great time body surfing on the waves, which were an ideal size to give you a bit of a thrill without worrying whether you would be injured or sucked out by the undertow.  After a day or two of body surfing, Haylee rented a Boogie board which only added to the excitement.  We spent countless hours splashing around in the surf enjoying the beautiful, sunny weather and riding the waves.  It was great to feel like a kid again or in Haylee's case, to be one.


We next set our sites on some adventure outside the resort and decided to go on an elephant trek. We weren't really sure what to expect, but had a great  two hour jungle trek with Haylee and Lisa riding on one elephant and myself on another.  Speaking of elephants, I failed to mention that we were visited daily at the hotel by a baby elephant named Lucky who was led by his keeper through the hotel lobby and around the pool.  Haylee really looked forward to seeing Lucky each day and would always to stop to get a kiss on the cheek.  Yuck !


The city of Patong was only five minutes from our hotel, but we had avoided it through the trip thus far due to a bit of nervous apprehension on our part about what we might encounter there, particularly with Haylee being with us.  If you recall me mentioning before, the area is renowned for transsexuals and  Patong is where they go to party.  But after talking to a number of guests who allayed our concerns, we decided to go there for dinner one night.  To put it mildly, the place is a bit of a circus and there is the occasional freak show, but on the whole it was a lot of fun.  Most of the bars have some transgender types who are trying to encourage you to drink at their establishment and on occasion we would see the odd 'lady-boy' dancing on top of a table.  Trying to explain what a 'lady-boy' was to Haylee was an interesting conversation to say the least, but one that she handled remarkably well, although every once in a while she would still puzzle about why a lady-boy had facial hair.

Seemed like every place was selling t-shirts or knock-off handbags and watches, or wanted you to buy a suit or give you a massage.  If they weren't trying to sell you something, they were offering to take you some where in their Tuk Tuks, which are a form of taxi.  This feeling was so pervasive that one of the more popular t-shirts for sale said, "I don't want a massage,  I don't want to buy a suit and I don't need an F***'in Tuk Tuk!"

But as crazy as this place was, we absolutely loved it and spent most of our evenings there for the rest of the trip.  Lisa and Haylee discovered that you could go to an esthetician for a facial for a very cheap price and they would go almost daily.  In fact, I actually went once myself.

We also found that the restaurants in Patong were a lot cheaper than at the hotel and we enjoyed some really good meals at a great price.  The downside?  I actually got food poisoning at Subway one night and spent the next day in bed :(


We also really enjoyed riding in the Tuk Tuks. They were dirt cheap and pretty cool to ride in.  They tend to be a little different everywhere you go, but the ones in Phuket were like a pimped out version of an old Ford Econoline van.


Our week in Phuket came and went pretty quickly but we made the best of our time there and had some great experiences.  The weather was great and the sunsets were incredible. And as the sun set on this trip we talked about coming back for more.

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

School Life

After arriving in Singapore, adjusting to the heat and finding a place to live, it was now time to focus our attention on why we came here in the first place, work.  Or in Haylee's case, school.   During the first two weeks we were here, we lived in a hotel in downtown Singapore and completed some training related to operational procedures and expectations of the job.  It was now time to hit the ground running.

The Canadian International School where we teach is a school of 750 students from grades 4-12.  We are currently located at a temporary campus while the new campus is being built.  The school is essentially two schools in one with a middle school wing, where Lisa is teaching grade 5 and Haylee is a student in grade 5 and the high school wing, where I am teaching grades 9-12.

One of the fundamental differences for Haylee was the fact that she would now be wearing a uniform.  And while most kids wouldn't be terribly excited about the prospect, Haylee was positively elated!  It certainly made life easy for us, as we didn't have to think about what Haylee is going to where to school each day.

We have a number of options in terms of how we get to school each day, none of which involve driving a car.  There's simply not a need to own a car as the transit system in Singapore is incredible.  So, each day, we travel to school by either bus, bicycle or taxi, depending on what type of mood we're in and what the weather's like.   Travelling to school by bike, we drive along a bike path through and sometimes we see some interesting things along the way........like monitor lizards!

Our current school is a beautiful indoor/outdoor campus that has a real tropical feel to it.   The classrooms are all air conditioned but the hallways are actually outdoors.  The school has a number of facilities including a track, a large gymnasium and performing arts stage.   There's also a full cafeteria so the students have the option of either bringing a lunch or purchasing food from the canteen.  The school day is quite similar to Canada with a start time of 8:50 a.m. and a dismissal time of 3:30 p.m.  After school the students have the option of participating in ECAs (extra-curriculars) that the teachers run that include everything from art lessons (Lisa offered this) to golf (which I offered at a nearby driving range) to knitting to dance (which Haylee participated in).

Just like any other school, there were all kinds of different themed days that we participated in, the biggest of which were the United Nations Day and Carnival.  Carnival gave students a chance to participate in a lot of fun games, like soak the teacher.  On UN Day, there was a parade of nations where students wore clothing that was representative of their culture/nationality.   It was a  pretty incredible experience as the student body is made up of students from all over the world.   There are students from Canada, the United States, Korea, China, France, Germany, Norway, Finland, Sweden, Japan, Indonesia and Australia, to name but a few.

Haylee participated in a lot of different extra-curriculars including being a member of the school swim team and participating in track and field.  She won medals in swimming and was very successful in track and field as well.  Her relay team finished in 3rd place, she finished 2nd in shot put and discuss and she finished 1st in javelin.  Well done, Haylee!

And as nice as our campus was this year, next year we will be moving into a new campus that is only 10  minutes from our condo.  We'll be able to walk to school next year and are quite excited about everything that the new campus will have to offer.  So here's to a great year and looking forward to next year in the new digs.




Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Rawa - Malaysia

Six weeks after first arriving in Singapore, we were ready to take our first trip abroad. We headed to Rawa Island in the South China Sea, off the coast of Malaysia. The trip was organized by our school social committee and was an opportunity for some weekend R and R and a chance to get to know many of our fellow staff members.

We were picked up in vans on Friday afternoon after work and headed out on our adventure. There are two bridges that connect Singapore with Malaysia and we crossed from Singapore into Malaysia at the city of Johor Bahru. You can't help but immediately notice the difference between the two places. While Singapore is a picture of order and cleanliness, JB is not. We were immediately engulfed in a mire of congested roads and an uncountable number of scooters which made our trip a slow one. After eventually getting through JB, we began the 3+ hour trip north along the east coast of Malaysia to Mersing, where we would get a ferry to Rawa.

Our van was filled primarily with a number of Canadians who, like ourselves, were new to Singapore. There was Kate Potosky, a teacher from Toronto, Michael Black from Hamilton, Ian Nisbet from Bracebridge and Sally Monteith who has a summer place in Katrine, Ontario to name but a few. The nightmarishly long ride on twisting and turning roads with a driver who passed slow vehicles regardless of whether there was on-coming traffic or not, was made more bearable by the free flowing conversation and alcohol. Of course the drinking did tend to slow us down some, as a number of people with weak bladders had to stop regularly to relieve themselves.
We finally got out of the vehicle in Mersing, Malaysia and after meeting up with the remainder of our group who were in a number of different vehicles we boarded our ferry for Rawa Island. It was so nice to be out on the water in the tropical evening air and we made the journey to our destination under the cover of darkness.


After making landfall around midnight, we had dinner in the large, open air dining area and retired to our quaint little sleeping cabins for the evening, eagerly looking forward to seeing the place in the daylight the following morning.

We awoke the next day and were simply blown away by the beauty of the island. We went out onto the balcony of our cabin and were greeted by a peacock. This was our first of many signs that we had arrived in paradise.






 
  We went out and explored the place and were greeted by crystal clear waters, palm trees and sandy beaches....truly the stuff dreams are made of.

 We spent the next two days swimming, snorkeling, playing beach volleyball and having a great time partying with our new found friends and co-workers. On the Saturday night, an impromptu party on the dance floor broke out and Haylee was front and centre dancing around on my shoulders. Everyone had a blast.



Our ride home was far more relaxing than the trip there and as we rode home in our air-conditioned coach bus we reminisced about the delicious food, the spectacular scenery and the good times we will remember for many years to come.

Check out all our photos below !

Friday, September 3, 2010

House Hunting

Elizabeth Hotel
After our arrival in Singapore, our school put us up in the Elizabeth Hotel for 10 days.  After spending the first few days sightseeing and recovering from jet lag,  we now had to get down to the job of finding a place to live.  The school provided us with a property agent who had arranged to show us a number of properties in the western part of Singapore know as Jurong West.  We were looking for a location that was close to our current school as well as our new school next year.  We were also looking for a place close to the subway line and other conveniences.



Parc Vista
After looking at a few places, we quickly realized that our living accommodations would not be like when we lived in Japan... they would be tremendously better!   Our place in Japan was about the size of a postage stamp (200 sq. ft. - no lie) whereas the places in Singapore are built to western standards. 


I guess I should tell you that our only choice was to live in an apartment, as houses, for all intents and purposes simply do not exist (that is not unless you have several million or more to part with).

The Main Pool and Clubhouse


What completely surprised us was not only the size of the apartments (they are quite large) but the amenities they offered....swimming pools, exercise rooms, tennis courts etc.  What a treat!  Boy, were we ever excited!



Lap Pool
After Lisa and Haylee finished playing a little game of, "Which place should we take?" with friends on Facebook, we finally decided on an apartment in a place called Parc Vista.   Our apartment is huge, with 3 bedrooms (for when people come to visit), over 1800 sq. ft. of living space, and 12 ft. ceilings.  In addition to how nice the place is, it is in the perfect location.   We couldn't be happier with our choice.



Did I mention that rental accommodations are a little pricey?  Doesn't matter where you go, the prices ain't cheap.  Without getting into numbers, take a rather sizable mortgage payment, double it (yes, I did say double it) and you MIGHT be close.    The good news is that our school provides us with a housing subsidy which makes the place quite reasonable.

And so 10 days after arriving in Singapore, we moved into our new digs.


master
 

dining rm.



living rm.


did I mention the putting green?
 

Haylee, Lisa and the property agent
 


Thursday, September 2, 2010

Sights and Sounds

As I stated in an earlier post, we did the touristy thing when we first arrived and did some sightseeing.  Here are some of the highlights:


The Singapore Flyer - each 'car' on the ferris wheel is a capsule that holds 20 people.   Sometimes people rent out the capsules and will have a dinner party as they take in the Singapore skyline.







 
The Marina Bay Sands - a hotel and casino with a 'skypark' in the shape of a cruise ship on the roof complete with a large, infinity pool.









The 'Sands' at night, with a bumboat in the foreground.








Singapore skyline









The Merlion - the mythical creature of Singapore with the head of a lion and the body of a fish.  The name comes from 'mer' meaning sea, and 'lion' which is representative of Singapore's original name, 'Singapura' or 'Lion City'.









Clarke Quay - once the commercial centre of Singapore, it is now a restaurant and bar district.