Chinese New Year was in February this year and it gave us 2 days off work and a four day weekend. So, we made plans to go back to Phuket, Thailand with Charlie and Ruth. We really enjoyed ourselves the first time we were here and were looking forward to our return trip. Unlike the last time we visited, when we stayed on the west coast near Patong, this time we stayed on the east coast near Phuket Town. The hotel we picked was the Westin Siray Bay, a new hotel that opened just a few months earlier. Built on a hillside overlooking the water and a beautiful beach, we were immediately impressed.
After enjoying a welcome drink in the lobby we made our way to our rooms, which thanks to the rather steep hillside, we negotiated by golf cart. Our room overlooked the water and also had an overhead view of one of the pools which was located directly below our room. After leaving our bags in our room, we made our way up to the highest point on the property, where we enjoyed a nice lunch and went swimming in the glass sided infinity pool. And talk about hot! If we were craving the sun and the heat, we certainly found it.
We spent the next couple of days lazing around the hotel and enjoying all the amenities it had to offer. Lisa and I would use the gym each morning and then we would spend the afternoons lounging at one of the two pools or we would head down to the beach. At the beach, we went kayaking and I did some windsurfing.
After that we napped in hammocks. What a rough life!
After enjoying the delicious, but expensive hotel food, we decided to go into Phuket Town for dinner each night. Although somewhat intimidated by the hustle and bustle on the streets, we enjoyed ourselves nonetheless and found some good places to eat. We also did a little bit of shopping at a local mall and bought some stuff from street vendors who were selling knockoffs of most designer brands including Gucci, Coach, Polo, Lacoste and Quicksilver to name but a few.
Next, we set our eyes on adventure. Off the east coast of Phuket are a group of islands known as the Phi Phi (pronounced Pee-Pee) Islands, a group of towering limestone islands that are world renowned for their beauty and as a destination for snorkeling and scuba diving. We planned a day long excursion out to the islands for a tour of some of the various islands and to do some swimming and snorkeling. It was the highlight of the trip and I daresay the highlight of all of the experiences we have had here in south-east Asia. Being out on the crystal clear water in the beautiful sunshine among the islands was truly awe inspiring.
We packed an awful lot into our four day trip and enjoyed our time in Phuket tremendously. There were beautiful sunsets each night that proved to be the perfect photo op. In fact, there were so many great photo ops that we took over 250 pics during our short trip. Check 'em out and we're sure you'll agree that they were all worthwhile.
Thanks to Charlie and Ruth for the visit and thank you Phuket!
We were excited to hear Charlie and Ruth would be coming to visit us in Singapore. They would be our first visitors and we were quite excited to show them around Singapore. We would have plenty of time to do it as they would be spending a couple of months with us.
The trip got off to an interesting start. Ruth and Charlie were arriving a couple of days after New Year's at about 5:00 a.m. Coincidentally, we arrived home from Bali about 6 hours earlier at 11: 00 p.m. So, instead of going home just in time to return to meet them, we decided to sleep in the airport terminal. What a mistake. We couldn't find anywhere comfortable to sleep and once we did, they started doing some renovations on the airport and we had to listen to a jack-hammer all night long. So. by the time Charlie and Ruth got off the airplane, it was hard to tell who was more tired! The funniest part of our meeting was seeing Charlie, who arrived in the 30+ degree heat of Singapore dressed looking like the abominable snow man! I guess he didn't want to wear a winter coat to the airport when he left Saint John so instead, he wore several layers of shirts and sweaters. That was all well and good but for reasons that no one still quite understands, he wore them on the plane to Toronto, then to Beijing where they spent an entire day on a layover and finally on to Singapore some 36 hours later! What a guy!
The first thing we did was celebrate Christmas together. Thanks to a note Haylee had sent to Santa, we had conveniently arranged for the Big Guy to visit us in Singapore in January. So, on Christmas morning, which was actually about the 5th of January, we awoke to find presents under the tree. Haylee was quite excited when she received an iPod Touch!
We decided to keep the celebrations going, so the next thing we celebrated was Haylee and Lisa's birthdays, which were in October! Charlie and Ruth brought a birthday cake from New Brunswick ( Lisa and Haylee's favorite kind) and we enjoyed some good Canadian pound cake with vanilla butter icing.
We had a couple of days to show them around Singapore before we had to return to work, so we did some sightseeing and familiarized them with the public transit system so they could find their way around without us.
We visited some of our favorite places with them like Sentosa, an integrated resort area which is actually a large island (kinda like Toronto Island but with palm trees). There's a zip line on Sentosa that we had all seen when we were watching the Amazing Race on T.V. back in Canada before we moved to Singapore.
We had all decided that was something we wanted to do together and we couldn't wait to give it a try. We made our way up to the departure point and our nervous excitement about our big adventure, turned into a bit of fear once we saw how high up it was. Lisa, Haylee and myself had done it once before, so we knew what to expect, but Charlie and Ruth were a little more uncertain. But they were troopers and committed to doing it and took off down the zip line without hesitation......and they loved it! So, did we! It was a great experience to do together.
What followed over the next two months was one great experience after another. Of course, our big adventures tended to be on the weekends while during the week, Charlie and Ruth would preoccupy themselves by doing a little sightseeing, going to the casino, going to the driving range, going to the casino, shopping and going to the casino. Does someone have a problem? Don't think so, as they only stayed long enough for Charlie to lose his allocated amount and for Ruth to win it back and then some. Ruth holds her hand pretty close to the vest, so we're not exactly sure how much money she won, but it's rumored that it may have been enough to pay for their trip to Florida a few months later? But, alas, we'll never know :)
Other highlights of our time together in Singapore included visits to the Jurong Bird Park, the Fish Spa and Underwater World, where Charlie and Haylee went swimming with dolphins!
We also had time for yet another party when we celebrated Ruth and Charlie's wedding anniversary.
We had a great time together and saw and did a lot of great things together including taking a trip to Phuket together. Remember how we said we wanted to go back to Phuket? Well, we got an opportunity to do so sooner than we thought when we spent 4 days there over the Chinese New Year in February. You can learn more about that experience in a separate post.
When the day came to say goodbye to Ruth and Charlie we were sad to see them go. We hoped that they enjoyed their time with us and looked forward to seeing them back in Canada in July!
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?
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.
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.
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.
We packed an awful lot into our four day trip and enjoyed our time in Phuket tremendously. There were beautiful sunsets each night that proved to be the perfect photo op. In fact, there were so many great photo ops that we took over 250 pics during our short trip. Check 'em out and we're sure you'll agree that they were all worthwhile. 
