Oasia means Oasis in Singlish

Oh what a difference a day makes! We checked out of our sardine can at the Value Hotel Monday and took a taxi the few blocks to the towering, elegant Oasia, where we are ensconced in a spacious room that truly feels like an oasis after last week! All week long, I've had the theme song from The Jefferson's TV show playing in my head: "Movin' on up to the east side, to a de-luxe apartment in the sky...." That's exactly how it feels! Just one more week of hotel living and then we'll be moving to a fully furnished, beautifully decorated modern two bedroom condo with pools and a great playground for Sofie. Details and photos coming next week. We'll have an open house. You're all invited!

View from our room at the Oasia Hotel

I must pause a moment to relate our experiences riding in taxis. Three out of five times this has happened. We get in, we give the address where we are going (a landmark location), then the driver makes an excuse to take extra turns that lengthen the ride resulting in a higher fare, of course. The first time, the driver missed the drop off and had to literally drive around the harbor for a second try. The second time, enroute to the Asian Civilisations Museum, a barricade was set up on one end of the museum entrance, so the driver sped off and circled over to the opposite side of the museum.

Singapore currency and coins

Ka-ching! Heck, we could have just gotten out at the barricade and walked to the main entrance. He was fast! The third time was the taxi ride yesterday a few blocks to this hotel. Twice the driver, a chatty, friendly fellow, failed to make the correct turn thus adding several dollars to the fare. We are starting to wise up to this tactic. I know, I know... What took us so long? We will be prepared next time in order to stave off this potential gouging. Stay tuned! Better yet, we will avoid taxis in favor of the MRT with which we are becoming more and more comfortable.

Our current spacious diggs at Oasia.

These are minor annoyances, of course. The important thing is life is good! Our room on the 12th floor looks out at the pool and terrace on the 8th floor. We had it all to ourselves Monday afternoon. The complimentary hotel breakfast here has restored my soul! Sofie now has a desk where she can safely use her colored markers to "work," as she calls it. I brought a deck of cards and have been teaching her a few simple games. The games she likes best are ones she makes up on the fly. She always wins.

Poker face

We've also been working on numbers. She quickly counts up to 20, but needs work on recognizing numbers out of sequence. Her preschool in Papua has asked her to make a video telling her classmates what she's been doing. Hapny will shoot it with her iPhone and I'll interview Sofie, since she needs some prompting to get through it. I also want Sofie to have a visual way to count down the days until Blossom Clover is expected to make her arrival. We created a wall calendar for May and June. As you can see, June 26 is D Day.

We're hoping the baby will come a little earlier. Aron plans to leave Papua June 18, so after that would be fine. As things stand, my June 27 departure date will have to be pushed back. And, with such a late date in June, Aron has wisely decided not to make the trip back to the States with family in July. They will come instead during the Christmas holidays.

Not the Best of Times...but getting Better!

It's Saturday night, April 26, and I'm struggling a bit with how to spin this week. The good news is our plight will greatly improve come Monday when we move back to the luxury of the Oasia Hotel for a week (when Aron won't be paying from his own pocket).

Our cell at the Value Hotel.

Hapny, Sofie and I will still be sharing one room for another week, but it will be twice the size of the cell we presently occupy at the Value Hotel. I for one look forward to having a chair to sit in! A bed or the porcelain throne have been it for sitting this week in our cell. Looking on the bright side, I have my own bed! And, we're on the same floor as the pool, which is nice.

We love the hotel pool.

The so-called complimentary breakfast factored into the cost of the room is, well, dreadful. The next door Asian restaurant sets up a two-tiered buffet. One row of Asian cuisine and another row of strange mostly non breakfast food masquerading as Western fare. There are watery scrambled eggs that I tried to choke down a couple of days, and a cocoa crunch cereal, but also bad offerings from the freezer like French fries, onion rings, chicken nuggets, as well as shriveled Vienna type sausages, canned beans in tomato sauce, iceberg lettuce and tomatoes, but no dressing. There is usually whole wheat bread for toasting and that has been my mainstay with cafe latte from a dispenser. Surprisingly, there is a dearth of fruit except for cubed watermelon, and a very watered down orange drink reminiscent of Tang! Fresh fruit is very expensive here and must be imported. I realize I've gone on a rant here, but food anxiety has been the most difficult aspect of this week.

We love this grocery store!

There are no good options for my tastes in the vicinity of this hotel. I cannot eat Asian food all the time. It will get better, I know, and it already has with my discovery of a few familiar chain restaurants in the shopping mall at the MRT station next to our hospital. Nothing beats a whopper for comfort food! We also found a good grocery store and I look forward to having our own kitchen soon!

Sofie just a bit scared at museum.

Moving on to other aspects of this week....We have gotten down to business with the paperwork involved in having Hapny, a citizen of Indonesia, give birth in Singapore. It's a hassle, but that's a big reason why I'm here to help. We are dealing with the obstetrician, the hospital, the insurance company, Singapore's immigration, the Indonesian embassy, and the US embassy for starters! We're already getting conflicting instructions. Time to buckle up for a bumpy ride!
We did do some sightseeing twice this week. On Tuesday, we rode the MRT to the Art and Science Museum next to the Marina Bay mall to see the dinosaur exhibit as promised to Sofie. She was a little bit scared at times, but persevered when we offered to bail. Proud of her for that. The museum offered an interactive app for smartphones or tablets, but we couldn't make it work on either of our devices. As Hapny is fond of saying, "No worries."

Korean "all American" burger.

The highpoint of the day for me was eating a hamburger at the Kraze "all American" restaurant, a Korean owned establishment! It was no whopper, but it was satisfying none the less.
Then today, we visited the Asian Civilisations [sic] Museum next to the river walk we viewed during our bumboat tour last weekend.

Buddha in the entry hall of the ACM.

There are permanent exhibits featuring the many cultures of Singapore and a special exhibit of Tang Dynasty Chinese artifacts from more than a thousand years ago. With a docent led tour, that was fascinating. It closes next weekend, so I felt some urgency to see it.

Hapny as a Hindu dancer. 

Afterward, we walked across a historic bridge next to the Fullerton Hotel, which started out as a colonial era post office.

Historic Fullerton Hotel at left.

Then we found the nearby MRT station and got ourselves back to our familiar stop at Novena. We ate fresh at Subway, bought some grapes and bananas at the grocery store there and walked the 4 or 5 blocks to our lowly quarters.  As usual, Hapny takes Sofie next door for Asian dinner, but I prefer instead to stay in and savor a few minutes of quiet. Yes, next week is going to be better!

Bumboats and Bayfront's Best

Merlion looks out at the Bayfront Sands Hotel.

On Saturday, the 19th, we visited one more furnished apartment then took a cab to Merlion Park on the harbor front. The merlion fountain statue, symbol of this city, was just as impressive in person as all the photos I had seen, but of course I had to shoot a dozen more. It was disappointing that the fountain was not flowing that day.

Bumboat dock where we boarded.

This would be our last day to play tourist as a family. Aron would be flying home to Papua on Easter Sunday to return to work leaving us three girls to manage and explore the Lion City on our own. The best thing we did that day was to tour the harbor and Singapore River on a bumboat, a traditional watercraft that nearly went extinct until the tourist industry rescued them. The origin of the name is disputed. Some say the merchant traders were the "bums," but the more accepted explanation has it that the term was descriptive of the hull bottom.

Bumboat eye wards off evil.

Whatever the origin, they are ideally suited for transporting 20 or so tourists around these waters. All these boats have been fitted with quiet, energy efficient, environmentally friendly electric motors, one of the many ways Singapore shows its respect and modernity.
The bumboat tour was a great way to see how the city has preserved and repurposed its colonial era architecture and made an attractive riverfront for shops, restaurants, hotels, arts and historic sites nestled against towering skyscrapers of finance and industry. I hope we can explore more of this area on foot.

Once a seedy district of brothels and opium dens, now refurbished for tourists.

Singapore has been aggressively converting water into land to the point that the harbor is no longer a functioning harbor for sea vessels. The shipping docks are located away from the city center, which preserves its pristine beauty for showcasing its architecture and tourism. This city waterfront has few contenders more beautiful in its sleek, sophisticated style.

Merlion is dwarfed by behemoths of stone and glass.

We exited our bumboat at a dock near the Bay Front Sands Hotel. That's the trio of towers with the "surfboard" on top connecting them! There's a public observation deck , but we chose not to go there. The hotel features a pool on the surfboard and you can barely make out the tops of palm trees to give you an idea of the massive scale of this structure.

The Shops At Bayfront.

In between the hotel and waterfront is an undulating roof underneath which is a massive three tiered shopping mall with every high end retailer imaginable, restaurants, an ice rink and waterway with boat rides a la Venice. It's quite a lot to take in. We walked the length of this shopping mecca and found a modest Mediterranean falafel sandwich shop for a late lunch. (I'm always happy to find eateries besides Asian fare.)

The Art and Science Museum.

Outside the Pita Pan across a courtyard was the much smaller, but equally unique architecture of the Art and Science Museum. It has no permanent displays, but an ongoing calendar of visiting exhibits. Sofie immediately fixated on the dinosaur sculptures outside promoting the Dawn to Extinction exhibit inside. I promised Sofie we would come back another day to see the dinosaurs.

Mumu risks her hand to show Sofie the dinosaur won't bite.

That ended our outing for the day and we took a taxi back to the Oasia Hotel for our last night. Sunday, we checked out and went back down the hill to the Value Hotel now in one tiny room with two single beds, where we girls are staying in close quarters for a week (while Aron works on financing a better living arrangement for us). We had one last Chinese meal together before saying farewell to Aron likely until mid June when Blossom Clover is due. Thus ends this chapter and begins a new one.

Bye-bye Daddy Aron!

The Masters of Close Living

Friday, the 18th, we packed and took a cab from Value Hotel the 3 or 4 blocks up the hill to the beautiful Oasia Hotel where we were placed into two rooms on the 24th floor.

 Room with a View at Oasia.

Nice view of Mt. Elizabeth Novena Hospital and the cityscape. Next, we set off to visit some furnished residence apartments Aron had circled on a map. Several were near the MRT transit line one and two stops south of the hospital (ground zero for our purposes). We were able to take a hotel elevator down to a tunnel access to the MRT. Hapny and I bought rechargeable transit cards, but it's not clear how many uses or days we can go before recharging. Sofie can ride for free, but she needs an access card to use that is good until age 7.

Sofie rides free on the MRT.

The MRT is clean and efficient, not a bit of graffiti or litter to be found. Stiff penalties for violators. I have to confess to breaking a law that carries a $500 fine on my first day in Singapore and I also contributed to the delinquency of a minor when I put a piece of Dentine in my mouth and offered one to Sofie! Aron clued me in before I was reported to authorities, thank goodness! Gum chewing is strictly forbidden. It's one way this city stays so pristine.
Singaporeans seem to have mastered the art of close living. Respect, I think, is the essential element. Crowds are orderly, calm. Everyone seems to be in a zone with their thoughts or their smart phone. Even traffic is orderly. It is rare to hear a horn honk unlike some American cities. They drive like the British on the left side of the road and that takes some getting used to. I have no desire to drive here. Sidewalk traffic is similarly bearing to the left, so I'm having to be deliberate about where I walk. Singapore's orderliness is evident in the design of crosswalks and pedestrian bridges over the busiest roads.

Family on a pedestrian bridge over busy roadway.

Jay walking is a big no-no. Streets are clearly marked for pedestrian traffic, and vehicles actually yield and stop when a pedestrian is crossing properly. I am so impressed by these efficiencies and the cordial, respectful populace that has made Singapore the clean, comfortable, and safe city it is. Can you tell I'm liking it here?
As for our quest to find living quarters for us three girls, I can report that we liked what we saw and one in particular. But it's now up to Aron and his company to work out details. We hope to move to one of these sometime in early May. Until then, it will be close living in a hotel room. It's all part of the Singapore experience after all. Ich bin ein Singaporean!

Sizing Up Singapore

The ferry passed scores of freighters and container ships in Singapore's busy shipping lanes.

We returned to Singapore Thursday afternoon, the 17th, aboard the ferry that had brought us to Bintan. We breezed through customs and immigration and I have a 90 day visa, which is standard, so no worries or inconvenience to renew while I'm here.

A taxi brought us to the Value Hotel, where we checked into two very small, sparsely furnished but clean and tidy rooms with no closet, no chair, but a narrow bureau with mirror, a sizeable wall-mounted TV, and comfy king bed. The small bathroom has a drain in the floor and an open shower. We've gone from first class accommodations to coach. That's no complaint, just observation.

View from my Value room.

None of the places we had stayed so far provided wash cloths, which I consider essential, so I had repurposed a shoe buffing cloth from our first night's stay at the posh Crowne Plaza and was continuing to use that on my face. Thank goodness I had packed one of those plastic net balls on a rope for body work in the bath and shower! (Too much information?)

"It's the little things you miss that take you out of your comfort zone."

After a meal at the next door Chinese restaurant, we walked the few blocks past small shops and high rise residences to Mt. Elizabeth Novena Hospital. We found the nearby MRT subway stop, which will become central to our transportation needs in the coming weeks. Aron was already hard at work checking online sources for nearby residential options. The convenience of the MRT allows for an expanded search.

Hospital next to Oasia.

We stopped by the hospital patient services and a pleasant man sat with us and went over some living options with Aron and Hapny. That was helpful and we planned to visit several beginning the next day (Friday). Two or three promising options are located two MRT stops south in a major SHOPPING district. There's a word that gets Hapny's eyes twinkling! After all, we are starting from scratch with Baby Blossom Clover (the nom du jour until something else replaces it). I only brought with me a set of four onesies size 0 to 3 months and a baby rattle. Everything else we will have to buy here.
We took a different route to walk back to our hotel and passed St. Alphonsus Catholic church where Maundy Thursday services were underway, a reminder of what I was missing back home. I hope we can attend worship services here or elsewhere when we get settled.

Rooftop pool at Value Hotel.

At Value Hotel, Sofie and I enjoyed a refreshing dip in the pool then we all ate another Chinese meal next door and settled in for the night. (I'll have more to say about dining experiences in a future post.) We looked forward to a busy day Friday including a move up the hill to the elegant Oasia Hotel next door to the hospital for a two night stay.

Golfers' Paradise, if You Mind the Special Hazards

On Wednesday, the 16th, we bid a fond farewell to Club Med with its idyllic beach and array of diversions to satisfy our gastronomic and playful interests. Aron wanted to investigate nearby Ria Bintan, rated Asia's number one golf course by some vaunted publication. Now mind you, he has never played a round of golf, and I haven't touched my clubs in at least 3 years, so it felt a bit ridiculous for our motley group to be checking in for one evening at this haven for serious golfers.

Hapny in the lobby at Ria Bintan

Sofie was an oddity in this world of adults and there was grumbling at the absence of any swimming pool. It turned out not to matter much since we spent the afternoon in a taxi investigating potential temporary residence arrangements on Bintan for Hapny, Sofie and me. The challenge for Aron is he has to return to work in Papua by the 21st, but the company maternity benefit that will pay for our residence and some expenses in Singapore doesn't kick in until May. Singapore is a rather pricey place to live. So, we need to live very frugally until then. Long story short: the Bintan plan was nixed. We will find the solution in Singapore. Stay tuned.

On Thursday afternoon, we took the ferry back to Singapore as planned, but that morning we managed to satisfy our curiosity to experience this beautiful golf course at Ria Bintan designed by the great Gary Player more than 15 years ago.

Another newer nearby course and lodge called Nirwana was designed by Jack Nicklaus, but it hasn't ascended to the reputation of Ria yet. So, my golfer friends, consider Bintan, Indonesia, if you want a first rate, first class golf vacation in a beautiful and exotic locale...but I digress....

What the four of us did is rent two golf carts and a caddy/ driver to show us the ocean course. I rode with Gusman and peppered him with questions about the course (most challenging holes, notables who've played here, etc.). Aron drove the second cart with Hapny and Sofie. The tour lasted about a half hour with stops as requested by me for photo ops. It rained while we were on the course, but that didn't matter. A midday shower is not unusual in these parts. We are practically sitting on the equator and this is the tail of the rainy season.

Looking at the green from the front edge of the tee on hole #14.

The course is superb and the 14th hole is the most beautiful and arguably the most challenging. You tee off from one jut of land by the sea, and hope to arc your ball over the water a hundred and fifty or so yards to the green on the other side of the surf. I wondered how many two stroke penalties victimized the unsuccessful.

There are some nasty bunkers and a man made water hazard or two, but you have to be mindful of a few hazards not a problem on courses in the States: wild monkeys that steal not only golf balls, but clubs out of golf bags! Although less pesky, there are two-foot long monitor lizards that roam the course. In fact, I caught this one with my camera.

Farewell, Bintan. It's been great!

Sofie's Most Excellent Birthday of Fun

Sofie loves being the center of attention, so what better place to be the birthday girl than at a resort that caters to the fancy of a little girl?

She was feted with gifts from America opened a few at a time over three days and her Mumu even brought a brownie cake she made (but then couldn't remember where she packed the birthday candles and matches until after we ate it, darn it).

That wasn't the only cake anyway. At Mini Club Med, the staff and other kids sang the birthday song and Sofie blew out the candles on that cake. The staff even gave her a gift. All of that sounds like more than enough celebration, right? Oh, but not for our Sofie!

On the eve of her birthday, she was our star in a staged song and dance performance in costume of the Mini Club kids for their families. Hapny has the video and it's undeniable that Sofie is a natural on stage. Wonder where she gets that? *grin*
Sofie amazed us even more as a circus performer the morning of her birthday.

I'm talking tightrope walking and the high swinging trapeze! Sofie showed no fear as she climbed the ladder to the high platform where she was greeted by two staffers who lifted her to the trapeze and held the support ropes to control her release from the trap to the net below. We've got that fete on video as well, but I can only share these images. Now I ask you, could there have been a better birthday for a precocious five year old?

Being Mermaid and Other Adventures

This is my first Club Med experience and there's a lot to like about it. Bintan is definitely designed for families with kids. Sofie went happily to Mini Club Med for kids' activities every day, with the option to participate a little or all day.

I'll say more about Sofie's adventures in another post including coverage of her fifth birthday celebrations (plural) that took place Tuesday.

I've been having so much fun it has left me too exhausted to do much blogging. Here are highlights: Aron and I went snorkeling Monday, only my second time ever.

Wish I could have taken photos of the colorful fish and interesting coral we saw. We didn't see any clown fish like Nemo, but plenty of black and white striped ones, brilliant blue ones, and black ones with yellow markings.  It is such a therapeutic experience....floating on the surface with just the sound of your own breathing to accompany the aquatic ballet in the clear water. I wore a tee shirt over my swimsuit since I was a bit rosy with sunburn from so much enjoyment in the surf the previous two days. You can walk 50 - 75 yards from the shoreline on sandy bottom and still be standing in chest deep water of perfect temperature.

After the mermaid experience, Aron and I kayaked around the beach area until our arms tired. Later in the day we tried putting on the golf green and Sofie got into the act as well. There also was a sand bunker and we practiced chipping out of it. More work than fun! We could have hit balls into a net on the driving range, but didn't have proper shoes at that time.

Tuesday, I signed up for an activity I've had on my bucket list a while. I rode and drove an elephant! He was a big male from Sumatra with long tusks named Arie.

His handler, Washdi, sat in front and I held onto his shoulder while snapping photos with the other hand. Then, Washdi balanced himself against a small tree and repositioned to sit behind me! That put me in the driver's seat! It was great fun and I got a kick out of watching Arie clear branches and small trees by grabbing them with his trunk and pulling. Several times the handlers offered to take the camera to capture images of me riding, then driving Arie. We lumbered through a forest jungle for 20 or so minutes. I still have "ride a camel" on my bucket list, but that will not be happening on this trip.