Two more passport stamps!

HA's brother turned 40 in August and to celebrate, he and his wife hosted a party on the Indonesian island of Batam.  HA and I were invited to the party back in June when I originally thought I was moving back to the US.  I was very disappointed because I had been wanting to go to Singapore for quite some time.  Thankfully, I was extended in Australia and was able to make the trip with HA.

Singapore is an island in Asia which has a total land mass of roughly 249.5 sq miles or about half the size of Phoenix, AZ.  The average temperature is about 80 F with about 85% humidity.  The island of Batam, Indonesia is about an hour's ferry ride from Singapore.

HA and I arrived in Singapore on Thursday evening.  The one thing I will remember about the Singapore airport is that they have the EASIEST immigration I've ever encountered.  On both departure and arrival, I did not have to wait in line and not once did I feel like I was going to be arrested (unlike when I come in Australia where I'm constantly afraid I forgot to declare something). 

On Friday, HA and I took a later ferry to Indonesia so that we could explore Singapore a bit.  Unfortunately, nothing opens in Singapore until after 10am so we had breakfast at Starbucks and then enjoyed walking around Little India to admire all the closed shops. We eventually gave up and went out to Orchard Road to do some real shopping.  Orchard road is 6 km's of stores - including a number of American stores.  The prices weren't any different than what you'd pay in Australia so HA and I didn't really buy anything.

My observations on Singapore:

1.  It's super clean - like anally retentive clean
2.  It's super quite - you never hear sirens or construction
3.  It's significantly more green than I thought it would be.  I had it in my head that it would be all high-rises with no green space - I was wrong.
4.  You can get anything you want - there were a number of American and Australian stores and fast food joints (there was even a Long John Silver's!).


Rooftop garden on Orchard Road

From there, we hopped the ferry and headed out to the island.  This Indonesian experience was very different from my Bali experience.  There weren't as many people up in your face and it was a much more relaxed experience.  The resort we stayed out was quite nice and right on the water.  Our room had a view of the ocean and of the pool right in front of us.  We spent Friday evening hanging out by the pool and having a nice dinner with all of the guests.

For Saturday, all of the boys went off golfing while the women stayed back to watch the kids and have massages.  A good portion of GW and AW's friends have children as well so this meant alot of time hanging out by the pool to make sure they didn't drown. Once the boys were back, everyone started getting ready for the evening festivities.

AW, HA's sister-in-law, arranged for the party to be held on the pier which is a beautiful location.  The party was fantastic.  Everyone had a really great time.  AW did a brilliant job with the organization!

The pier during the day



The walk out to the pier



Beautifully setup

On our way to the party

Lots of dancing

And even a little karaoke

On Sunday, we headed back to Singapore and had dinner with HA's family at a beautiful Japanese restaurant.  On Monday, HA and I didn't have to leave until the evening so we spent the day doing a bit more exploring of Singapore.  We rode in the Singapore Flyer, took a Duck tour, visited the Terracotta Warrior exhibit and tried to buy some electronics (but the prices were not any different from Australia).

The Watts family in the Singapore Flyer

The famous MerLion

Terracotta Warriors

Pop Art Exhibit

Bali - Part 3

Alright, lets finish this Bali series. I've been slacking in the blogging department. We've only got three days left for the Bali trip. We left off on Sunday where we visited the south part of the island and got to see one of the temples on the island.

The rest of the week was fairly quiet. I decided not to organize anymore trips, and to be honest, the rest of the folks I was with are not organizers. On Monday, HA and Boris decided to rent mopeds to tour the island. I was a bit worried for them but they wore their helmets (I wish I had a pictures of HAs - it was hiliarious). HA did have a run in with the law however. Apparently, it's illegal to be over the white lines in Bali so at a stop light, he got pulled up by the police. It is apparently illegal to drive a moped in Bali without an International Drivers license. The police officer told HA that he could pay 750k rupiah or go to court. HA wisely (in my opinion) decided to pay the bribe...I mean fine. While the boys were touring the island, the rest of us hung out at the pool and then decided to do a bit of shopping. Later that night, HA took me to nice dinner just the two of us. You can get fantastic food for very little money in Bali - one of the perks.

HA and Boris at Potato Head

On Tuesday, we hung out at the pool at the house all day. Then HA booked me, Boris, and himself into a spa for a two hour treatment. When we got there, we were told that two of us would have to do our treatments together in the couples room and the other would be seperate. I promptly told Boris he was either on his own or with HA. Wisely, I think, the boys decided the didn't need to do the treatment together. HA and I decided on a massage and then a scrub. I had a coffee scrub which was fantastic. The experience was a bit different than I'd experienced before but good - I won't go into the details here. Later that night, we had drinks at a beach club called "Potato Head" which was very cool. Unfortunately, we weren't able to have dinner there as they were fully booked, so we decided to have dinner at "The Living Room" - which again, was fantastic.

Dessert from The Living Room

Wednesday was our last day. We woke up to breakfast from Made, hung out in the pool and then went to the markets in Kuta. The markets were disappointing and none of us bought anything. When we got back from the markets, we headed out to an early dinner at Sardine. Sardine was highly recommended by multiple websites and the Lonely Planet book and I can completely understand why. The setting was more than beautiful and the food was fantastic. If you ever get to Bali, I highly suggest making a booking.

Sardine Restaurant

After dinner, we headed to the airport to catch our midnight flight. In order to leave the country, we had to pay a fee of 50k rupiah a piece - yes, we had to pay to leave the country. We also had to go through security with our luggage before even checked in. As we were leaving and we passed inspection, they put a security sticker across our zipper. We were also told that we either had to lock our bags or wrap them in plastic. It was a very strange airport experience. This is because of the Schapelle Corby story - google it to get the details. Either way though, I now have a Bali security sticker on my suitcase that won't come off.

We then got back to Brisbane and barely made our flight to Canberra - but we did. We all went home, took a shower and then headed into work. I'm glad we went to Bali but I don't think I'd do it again. There are many more interesting places to visit and Bali just wasn't that special.

Rice Patties near our house

The street we had to take to get into town