Flights and First 3.5 Days

Hi everyone,

The last 3.5 days have flown by with new and familiar experiences for the both of us. A couple of consistent things that have taken place, however, and that is the constant eating and karaoke-ing we find ourselves in.

Our total flying time was about 17 hours with a hour stop in Hong Kong. This is a very long time to sit still, but thankfully there were many ways to distract ourselves. First priority after was getting some sleep which we managed to do quite well. During the few hours that we were awake, we watched a couple of movies, and also prepped our palette for a Singapore feast by watching a couple of episodes of Top Chef that took place in Singapore. Jeff was reacquainted with some familiar foods he had sampled in the past from my mom and aunts, and what was to come upon our arrival.

We arrived in Singapore just before noon, and were warmly received by my Uncle John (our host), Aunty Molly and Uncle Peet. Coincidentally, Aunty Mol and Uncle Peet just arrived from a short visit to the Philippines an hour before, so Uncle John was able to pick all of us up. Some of you might remember Aunty Mol and Uncle Peet who attended our wedding in Vancouver.

the first order of business was food. it's been said that eating is Singapore's favourite past time and i think that truth has been drilled into us from the moment we stepped off the plane. between a 12 hour span (the time we arrived til the time we fell asleep), we ate the following items: prawn mee (a noodle soup made with a prawn broth), a plate of appies, some Chai tea along with a dosai and fixings, and a bowl of delicious mee siam (yet another noodle dish, but this time made with tamarind), and a pomelo. the food-a-thon continues each day with mouth-watering delights such as roasted duck and pork, chicken curry, chicken rice, tons of fish, water chestnut juice, calamansi lime juice and the list goes on. here's a picture of some of the family at a restaurant eating chicken rice:



[Deb, Grandpa, Aunty Molly]



[Jeff, Uncle John, Uncle Peet]

after our lunch, Uncle John drove us around to show us various areas of Singapore including Little India, Arab Rd, Roberts Lane (Deb's mom's first home, specifically), the financial district, Orchard Rd (like Robson St in Vancouver), and a downtown zone car fee. Each vehicle is equipped with some sort of a card scanner that has a pre-deposited amount of money in it. anytime you travel to a different part of time that is intended to be less congested, it automatically deducts the toll from the reader. this is also the case in certain parking lots throughout the city. so if you're ever in Singapore, make sure you plan your route well otherwise you might get dinged more than you need to by entering zones that cost a toll.

Jeff and i slept for 12 hours that first evening.

the days after have been occupied by visiting with family on my Mom's side, and eating some more food. and oh, Jeff has sang a couple of songs as well. my uncle is a voice instructor for karaoke and he asked Jeff to sing a couple of songs for him. we tried to find songs that were similar to Jeff's style, such as John Mayer, but the closest thing we could find was a song written by Jonathan Foreman of Switchfoot..this version, however, was redone by Mandy Moore. later one evening, we were at a karaoke lounge with my uncle and Jeff sang U2's "Stuck in a Moment". Jeff has even gotten a Mandarin song stuck in his head, mostly because Uncle Peet kept on singing it. we've been observing the karaoke culture here and it's fascinating to see the joy that people have when they are on stage singing. Singaporeans are known for working really hard so what better way to let go of the stresses of the day than to sing your heart out with others who want to do the same. regardless of whether they are in tune or not, i get the sense that many people have developed their confidence through this hobby and are happy at the end of it. while the music might be LOUD, and the singing a bit off at times, we appreciate this invitation to interact with a hobby we wouldn't normally participate in ourselves back home.

you might be thinking to yourselves, "well what have you done in singapore? you just keep talking about eating". we're not kidding when we say that those two activities occupy much of our day. We did manage to do a couple of things on our own yesterday which included a swim at a local pool (we were starting to feel the side-effects of eating to the degree that we are and wanted to get a bit of exercise) and a visit to the Pernakan Museum. This was one place that i wanted to check out as the family on my mom's side is part-Peranakan, and i want to learn more about my roots. The Pernakans are a hybrid-culture that formed thru marriages of local southeast asian women, and foreign traders. The majority of foreigners were other Chinese or Indian men, so the result is quite colourful. The museum featured exhibits on many cultural elements of the Pernakans including wedding customs, family life, FOOD and the role of a woman in the kitchen, death and the afterlife, religion, and speech. I might be a bit biased here, but this was one of the best museums i've ever visited.

dH