Downtown

We haven't all been back downtown together since we moved here and none of us had been there at night. There was a river festival going on this month and since Samara napped late Friday and the festival ended Sunday we thought it was a good time to head downtown.

Notice her little beaver? We've been trying to figure out where Samara learned about beavers. For about a week, she'd ask me everyday if we could go buy a "(l)ittle beaver". When I asked where she'd seen one or where we could buy one she'd say, "well, at the mall ... probably". She was very good to forgo her M&Ms for going potty to save up stars to earn the beaver.

This is a nice little street full of restaurants (you'll see it in the picture with Ben and Samara with the boats in the background), where someone stands in front every single restaurant and tries to get you to eat there. It is quite annoying!

Le Skyline

Samara had a great time running around...

...and stopping at each of these lights, which were about every 10 feet. She'd sit down and start talking to her beaver.

Then she made some friends who were advertising for the boat show they were in. Samara made sure to get an invitation for each of us. Ben was frightened by them and they reminded me, maybe because of the boats and maybe because of the blue man in the background, of pilot episode of Arrested Development. Tobias on the other boat wearing Lindsey's blouse, anyone?

You can see that street across the river with all the restaurants.

The famous Fullerton Hotel and the Cavenagh Bridge, the oldest bridge in Singapore that exists in it's original form and dates back to 1870. It was build to commemorate Singapore's new crown glory. Part of what is now a hotel was originally a fort built in 1829, then changed to the first general post-office in 1874, then used as an exchange building, the Singapore Club, the Marine Department, the Import and Export Department, and as the Chamber of Commerce and other government departments. It is now a upscale boutique hotel.

The downtown is breathtaking at night and much more enjoyable to walk around as the weather is much cooler. If you ever visit or live here make sure to go for an evening stroll there. We will definitely be returning.

And finally, we went on a great hike Saturday. The Nature Reserve is just 19 bus stops away from our house (can you tell I miss having a car?) and this is the first time we've made it there. We planned on doing a short hike but ended up getting a little lost and hiking about 10 km to the other side of the reserve. It was not 19 bus stops to get back home. It was very worth it though. The tropical forest is so lush and beautiful. It rained quite a bit, which was nice and kept it cool. We couldn't help notice the contrast between the city and the forest and talked about how crazy it is that the whole island used to be covered in rain forest. We are glad they've kept some of it preserved to give us a break from the busy city and all the people. The disappointing thing though was how much litter was on some of trails. They do so much to keep the downtown spotless and it's a shame they don't try to enforce it there too. We didn't have the camera but did get one picture with our phone. Total cost of the weekend ~$17 for bus, train, and taxi fares.

Funky Turtles

If you have ever sat next to Samara on the MRT chances are she's invited you to the turtle museum. She loves it so much that we got a year pass, which was only $30. It's just 4 MRT stops and a long but nice walk to the museum. Last monday, we met up with Ben on his way home from work for FHE so I thought I'd bring the camera along.

Chinese stripe-necked turtle

Pig-nose turtle

Red-footed Tortoise

Forgot to take a picture of this guy's sign. I must have been distracted by his weirdness.

Matamata

Snake-necked Turtles--WEIRD!

African Tortoises

Asian Brown Tortoise

Giant Asian River Turtle--You can make a wish to the world's largest fortune turtle, who is 82 years old and whose lifespan is 200 years.

Koi Fish (I think that is what they are called). They must be the world's hungriest fish because they go crazy when you throw food in as you can see by their wide open mouths.

To India with love

I bought this darling outfit in Little India back in March and finally got around to taking some pictures of Samara in it last week. This was one of the first ones. She wasn't too thrilled that we continued past the initial pose. Poor thing will probably seek counseling someday because either mom's or the locals' cameras are constantly in her face. When we were out once with Tanya and Sasha, this group of like 15 tourists swarmed the two of them, who were sitting there, and each proceeded to take their own personal snapshot with the two of them. The paparazzi should look to hire from Asia. It also doesn't help that one of her parents (I won't name names here or point fingers) told her if she didn't want Mommy to take her picture anymore then she just needed to look away and say, 'I'm all done with pictures'. Anyway, here's a little breakdown of how the next 10 minutes went.

"I can't work in this environment. I'm already hot and sweaty, my hair's all a mess and sticking to me, and I don't like the scarf. It's too itchy." After the promise of M&Ms she agreed to take a few more pictures. What..who me? I'd never use that to bribe my sweet baby.

"I don't want to wear this scarf. I don't like it."

Young lady, keep it on or you are not getting ANY M&Ms.

My favorite picture of the bunch.

"Fine, but I will look away just like Daddy taught me."

At least it makes for a cute pose.

"My patience is running out. You have two more minutes."

"I'm all done. Finished! How can you expect me to work in these conditions? This isn't worth M&Ms!"

The Indians here are so kind and friendly. They are all fascinated by Samara. We've been told it is the pale skin. They love to stare at her and take pictures with her. So, I came up with an idea to fund our travels. I'm going to print a few of these and start selling them when they come up to us or I'll just charge them to take a photo.

Last but not least...look who sort of almost has enough hair for "pony nails"! I wonder if her hair would grow faster if we stopped giving her cold water to drink.

Disclaimer One: This wasn't our actual conversation-just my version of it.

Disclaimer Two: They are the small baking M&Ms and I'd feed her the healthy version if they had them here or didn't cost $20/bag. This disclaimer was for my mom and sister particularly.

Totally Chic or Unibomber?

I don't know which. But she sure does look cute in these knock-off sunglasses.

Samara Stories

I am thankful for headphones.  Here's the explanation...

A lot of men here have freakishly long pinky nails. I'd say 40-50% of them do. We can't figure out why. Some have it long on one hand while others have it long on both. Some even have it on other random fingernails. It doesn't seem to be specific to just one ethnicity. We have only ever associated that with drug use but don't think that is the case here. We tried googling it but haven't come up with anything, so please leave a comment if you know why, as we are dying to know.

Recently, we sat down on the crowded train next to one such fellow with a particularly long and grosteque nail. I didn't notice it until Samara pointed at it and said, "Look at that nail." fake laugh "That's funny, mom. We should polish it." (We had just polished our toenails.) As I bit my lip trying not to laugh, Samara said, "Is that funny?" (she always says that in the silliest voice when she knows I'm trying to be serious with her.) So, I looked up at him and thankfully he was totally oblivious to what she'd said as it was blocked out by the music in his headphones.

Here is a cute conversation with Samara from a few days ago when I told her Daddy wouldn't be home from work for a couple more hours.

S: Mimo, I have a good idea.
M: What's your good idea?
S: To get daddy home. Short pause. Can you sing that song 'bout so glad when daddy comes home?

Does that melt your heart or what? It sure made Ben feel like a million bucks.

Last one: Samara has been interested in potty training again recently. She still drinks way too much water (like 6-7 of those 7 ounce cups day) for when we go out for extended periods of time and won't be near a bathroom. But at home or when we aren't out for long she's been doing well. Anyway, we were at our playground yesterday and she was trying to go down the slide but was sticking and not really sliding but having to push herself with her legs. Then I heard her mutter, "hum, I should have weared a diaper today. These underwears are not slippery."

Silver Slides Photography

I am putting together Samara's 2nd year book and wanted a family picture at the end of it. I remembered that I had my super talented and fabulous sister-in-law, Shanna, take some of us when we were in Canada for Thanksgiving.  I was so thrilled with how they turned out. I wish I looked so good in real life.  She just emailed me a few for the book and I can't wait to see the rest. Her website is www.silverslidesphotography.com. Check her out--she's awesome! 

Duke-NUS

As I mentioned in the last post, we got to go see Ben's new office on Saturday. They just moved into it a couple weeks ago when it was completed. It is a very nice building. We stopped to eat dinner at the canteen near his work, took a picture, and then the camera battery died. Ben got some pictures today so you can all see where he works.

Eating out here can be super cheap--much less than groceries, which is probably why I am always the one with the most stuff in my grocery cart. My Indian meal cost $2.50 and Ben's Chinese one cost $2.80--that's a lot of food for $5.30! Canteens are restaurants provided for an organization such as a hospital, school, or company (there is one for the transit employees across the street from us at the bus interchange). There are also hawker centers all over Singapore. They are also inexpensive but not quite as cheap as the canteen. It is fun to try new foods and we'll try most things but I'm pretty wary of meat because there is some sketchy funky stuff out there. We'd probably eat out a lot more if there was anything other than plain rice that Samara liked.


Duke-NUS occupies the whole building. The medical school is on the first three floors and the remaining eight are dedicated to research labs. Previously, med school here had been done only on an undergraduate level (as is still the case in almost every country of the British commonwealth), but now with the Duke-NUS collaboration, med school is done at a graduate level and the students in this medical school spend relatively more time doing laboratory research in addition to their clinical studies.

Not bad views for Dr. Ben. The first view is right behind his desk and the second is a nice little atrium on the opposite end of his floor.

The extensive lab space is still relatively empty, but will fill up as new faculty come in.

Staircases--Samara had a great time running up and down the hallways and going up and down the stairs and can't wait to go again...neither can I (the a/c was really nice!). This atrium is located in the middle of all of the floors. It's a great feature.

In other noteworthy "Ben" news, we thought we'd figured out what led to his beautiful bare head. Last week, a taxi driver told him that drinking cold water had caused his baldness. Boy, were we ever relieved to find that out. But then we remembered that he started losing his hair while he was on his mission in Russia, where he was forced to avoid cold water because in Russia it "causes sore throats". The mystery still remains.

Kampong Glam

Ben had to go into work for a little while on Saturday so we decided to join him so we could see his new office. To make the long ride into the city worth it we thought we'd check out a beautiful little ethnic enclave beforehand. Unfortunately, the camera battery died by the time we got to his new office so I'll have him take some pictures at work tomorrow and do a post about Duke-NUS later in the week.

Kampong Glam is a neighborhood that was once the seat of Malay royalty and has been designated as the Malay-Muslim enclave since the early 1800s. The original "kampong" or village grew into a bustling hub of Muslim commerce as traders and immigrants from Malaysia, Indonesia, India, and the Middle East settled here. The "glam" refers to a variety of eucalyptus that grew in the area. They used the bark of the plants to make boats and the oil for medicinal purposes.

We always grab the free tourist brochures whenever we are at the airport and most of these ethic enclaves have little self-guided walking tours. Perhaps we are nerdy, but Ben and I love doing walking tours. It's a great way to see the interesting architecture and learn some history too. Shop houses are amazingly beautiful to me. If I had to be a building, I'd be a shop house. I really have no clue what I am doing when I take pictures of buildings but hopefully by the time we leave I'll figure it out and maybe even find a way to get up in one to get a different view/ angle. How do I take a picture without the triangle of sky in the corner?

Or get one like this without having to crop it to get just the shophouses? Seriously, photographers out there leave some comments and fill me in.

This picture is for Grandma Sheila. :)

Back side of the shophouses and view of the Sultan Mosque

Bussorah Pedestrian Mall with another view of the mosque. The Sultan Mosque is one of the largest in Singapore, was completed in 1925, and marked as a national monument in 1975. It was a very hot/bright afternoon so we didn't stay too long but we will definitely go back.

This was probably my favorite. I love the green and white together and all the detail.

I never thought a 7-11 store could be so pretty.