Felic says Hi.

Howdy to everyone out there in cyberspace who has the time to read this. If you want more pictures, I have a facebook page. Oh yes... I'm so techno savvy.....not. Well anyway find me and you can comment on my wall??? Ha Ha. See ya...Don't forget to drop by when you can. love FelicityXXX

June Holidays Report

We are all just back at work and school after the June break where we had not one but two visits from family in Australia and a trip to peninsular Malaysia. Here's a brief run down of events



We finished the term after exams and reports at the end of May. The boys both faced their first round of exams and given they had only been in this system for one term, did surprisingly well. On the first Saturday of the holidays Merry & Ian (Felicity's sister & hubby) arrived from Sydney. We spent a week with them in Singapore visiting Chinatown, Pierce Reservoir, Little India, museums, galleries and a few hawker stalls and markets in our local area. Felicity & I had a few days on deck at work which we tried to alternate and by Friday we were ready to head off to Malaysia.

Of course, I wanted to explore the local route into Malaysia, so we caught a bus from the back gate to the MRT, jumped on the train to Kranji station then took the 160 bus over the causeway and through immigration in to Malaysia. The only slight hiccup we had was not re-finding the bus after we checked out of Singapore. We ended up nearly walking across the causeway, until we realised we had actually gone too far and there was the bus flying past us. We had to do an about turn head back into Singers explain to the police we had taken a wrong turn, luckily we did not have to check into Singapore and out again the y politely escorted us across a corridor after double checking our passports. From there it was back onto the 160 and on to Larkin bus terminal to find a bus to Mersing.

From Mersing, we boarded the ferry to Tioman Island about 2.5 hours away. We disembarked at Tekek and were collected by a four wheel drive and headed up over the mountains to Juara a quiet village on the other side. The road was excitingly steep as we climbed up at dusk, me Xave and Jordy riding in the open back of the veichle. We stayed at Juara for 5 night at River side chalets, as pictureskew as you could imagine. The place run by an English guy and his Malay wife was set between a little river and the beach. Our cabins faced straight out onto the clear blue water - very comfortable and laid back.

We were there during the Malaysian school holidays, which were reputedly even busier this year due to the H1N1 scare - lots of people not travelling through airports but having more local holidays instead. Apparently the other side of the island was buzzing, But Juara was a blissfully peaceful haven. We did quite a bit of snorkel ling, some kayaking and jungle walking and ate at these very simple Malay restaurants on the beach.

There was a reasonable patch of coral not too far off shore right in front of where we were staying and we swam out to it a few times, lots of interesting fish and some good (but not great) coral. We also did a snorkeling trip to coral island, spending a great day on a boat cruising round the north face of the island and stopping off at some good snorkeling spots. Meredith suffered the only real setback of the trip, when she got bitten by sand flies and the bites swelled up into blisters for which she eventually needed to take some antibiotics.

From Tioman we ferried back to Mersing and had to arrange a 6-seater van to Jeruntut up in the middle of Pahang state - all the buses were booked out with local holiday travel. we spent one night in Jeruntut, a provincial town with many traditional wooden houses with Daoist shrines out the front of them. We stayed at a nice hotel and the owner took us round to a great local Chinese restaurant for dinner. The next morning it was on to the pier at Kuala Tembling and into a long low boat for a 2.5 hour trip up the Sungei Tembling to Kuala Tahan, the entry point to Taman Negara National Park.

The first hitch - accommodation was not up to standard and I had paid for it in advance. This necessitated a trip back down to the jetty to haggle and argue with the tour operator we came up with. We then set off in the heat to walk around town to find other digs. We eventually settled at Rainforest Lodge which was of a much better standard.

Whilst the jungle at Taman Negara was utterly spectacular with massive trees with huge buttress roots and a dense understory, it was hot and very, very humid, so the walking was sweaty to say the least. We did a night jungle walk, the tree top (very bouncy) canopy walk, a rapids cruise and I ventured through the jungle one afternoon to a hide where people sit and watch for birds and animals. I think the other were in an air con hotel room playing cards.

From here we went to Kuala Lipis, for a night before training it back to Singapore and getting set up for Felicity's parents to arrive. Shirley and Roy came over for 10 days, and had an excellent time. Roy had worked in Singers year ago and was amazed at the changes. We spent the last week with them going to the Museum, eating at Kopitiams and venturing out on manageable excursions. Our condo even put on a Sunday tour out through the Singapore Farms, which we all went on. We saw a goat farm, Frog farm, fish farm and some veggie farms where we could buy fresh produce. The frog and fish farms were a little on the depressing side but the goat farm was OK.

So that was June 2009 in Singapore. For now its back to work for the second half of the year, and the next installment of life over here.

A few more shots of Melaka...

Restoran Perinakan
The Istana Museum
China town Streets
Felicity frocking up as Muslim lady to enter a mosque
Sunge1 Melaka
Hotel

Exams, a route canal and a long weekend in Malacca

Things have been moving along in the last few weeks. We have had two long weekends recently, one for Labour Day and one again the next weekend for Veesak day, a Buddhist holiday. All the main religions gets a holiday - Buddhist, Christian, Muslim and Hindu. Exams are upon us - all four of us. The boys are busy trying to wrap their brains around Maths, Science, Geography and the way English is taught and examined over here. I have just written my first two English papers (and a challenging task that was) and now Felicity & I are marking a couple of hundred exam papers each.

The boys and Felicity went up to Pasir Ris water park 'Wild Wild Wet' last weekend. They enjoyed the opportunity to relax and take a look at another part of Singapore. I've been doing a bit of riding with a couple of guys from school - moved from a 40 k trip to a 70 k one, getting out west through the last remaining farm land in Singapore.

Xave played in a big soccer (football) tournament at the ANZA playing fields a couple of weekends ago. He is playing on a French team. The Sat/Sun tournament involved teams from Malaysia, Thailand, China and Indonesia - a very multicultural event. He played a swag of games in U14 & U16. He is certainly enjoying the opportunities here - especially the prospect of playing in a return tournament in Bangkok at the end of the year.

Jordy has just received a certificate for completing a conversational Chinese class at school. He has learnt quite a few words of Mandarin over the past few weeks and it's always amazing to see how quickly he picks up a new language. He has also been cooking some excellent bready foods like home made pizza (delicious!) and cinnamon buns (scrumptious!) - which he will be happy to try out on any visitors coming through.

I've been 'enjoying' a bloody toothache for a few weeks, I've finally had to bite the bullet and accept that I'm going to have to fork out for a route canal. Ouch!! Had the first treatment last week and going back for another one tomorrow, after that it's on with the crown. One of my nightmares - having to get some weird and scary procedure in a foreign country. The dentist turned out to be an expat Californian and seems to be doing a good job of it



We had a great trip to China town a few weeks ago to see a guy from school (Don) who plays in a band in a cafe down there on Friday nights. It was great walking around the narrow streets and old shop houses. Another place we have only explored once is Pierce Reservoir - really just across the road from where we live. It has great views across the Lower Pierce and walks built on boardwalks that snake around the edge of the water, then take you in through a lovely jungle park. We saw huge monitor lizard swimming through the water. Very nice first thing in the morning or in the early evening.

Our latest adventure has been a long weekend trip to Malacca in Malaysia. We took off on Friday night with Felicity taxi-ing it from a staff meeting directly to bus the terminal. Immigration was busy busy busy with heaps of Singaporeans and others heading in to Malaysia for the long weekend. After we cleared both we headed off up the west coast highway and arrived in Malacca at around 11.45pm.

We stayed in a Malay hotel which was a bit ordinary but at least it provided us with a bit of space and good aircon - believe it or not it actually felt hotter up there than it does down here. On Saturday, we spent the morning around the old Dutch church, Bukit St Paul and the museum reconstruction of the Sultan's Istana (palace). All very atmospheric, and interesting to read up a bit on the history of the place. The Portugese and Dutch certainly made a mangled mess of things round there.

Whilst we didn't lash out on accom, we did treat ourselves to some fine dining. On Saturday evening we ate at Resotran Peranikan, a restaurant specialising in the Babanonya food. It was set in an old, magnificently preserved Peranikan house. Both food and setting were inspiring. After wards we cruised around Chinatown and the Jonkers walk, where the streets were closed off for a night market. Lots of junk, but some nice bits as well and your typical narrow Chintown streets with lovely old shop houses festooned with lights. Amazing to think it's been going on there for hundreds of years.






Sunday we had a closer look at China town's streets, temples antique shops and the Peranikan Heritage museum which is set in an original Peranikan house. Incredibly ornate tile work, floors , furniture inlaid with mother of pearl - a real delight to visit. That evening we treated ourselves to a visit to Capitol Satay, a satay-steamboat style place where you select your satay sticks from an incredible assortment of known, lesser known and totally unknown items, sink it piece by piece into the cauldron of coconut, chili, palm sugar and other spices bubbling away in the centre of the table - and feast!! It was a very novel way to eat. We shared a table with two Irish girls on their way through to Bangkok.

Monday we had a leisurely stroll around the Dutch built 'Stadhuys' which was the Governor's residence and office, but is now a set of historical and educational museums - very nice buildings. The boys were back in the hotel room watching movies!!

It was a great weekend, but now its back to work, head down, noses to the grindstone until the end of term.

More pics to follow...