Feb 9, 2013

The zoo

We've bought a membership to the zoo. I always like to go to zoos, even if they are a little bit sad because the animals have no space and generally appear less than perfectly happy. But with a 2-year old, living in the western part of the island, close to the zoo, a membership to the zoo seems a must.

We've had it less than a month and already visited the zoo at least four times that I can recall. It's part way between us and downtown, so sometimes we just pop in for a snack and see some monkeys.

The Singapore Zoo is famous for not using obvious fences and animals appear to roam freely. The orang-utans are a good example. You can see them climbing up high in the vines above the path and aping around. But a closer examination shows electric wires on trees, to prevent them going too low or too high. And the males are banished to a little island with some dead trunks. Since they're heavier, males are not prone to monkeying around high up in any case, and I suppose the babies need to be somewhat protected from potential masculine hormones. It's still a great sight, and you can have breakfast with them.

The monkeys are generally the best thing about the zoo, as is the Splash World event with an active sea lion - at least, it impressed my 2-year old. Today, though, we discovered a very new part of the zoo which was truly wonderful. It's a section that has butterflies, ducks, weird looking birds, parrots bats, lemurs and some sort of tiny deer running around among the tourists and visitors. The lemurs are very comfortable just hanging around next to you - my hubby was able to take a picture from less than 30 cm away, without it running off.

The other fantastic part of the zoo is Kids World, where kids can splash around in ankle deep water, with hundreds of fountains, sprays, tipping buckets, and a number of slides. It was busy there today - a nice hot day in Singapore, Chinese New Year, etc. I invested in bathers for my son and myself and off we went. We had a ball.

We've learned some tricks. You bring your own camera because you really don't want to pay $35 for a badly taken photo of you feeding bananas to the elephants. You should bring your own towel, because the $10 ones they sell at Kids World barely covers my head. The food at the zoo is generally bad, unless you invest in breakfast with the orang-utans (is my guess, since we've not done this yet). The rest is bad versions of hawker foods that have been drying out in their hot-trays for several hours before it gets to you. And the boat ride is definitely not worth it.

Today's surprise is that even if you have a membership that entitles you to a free tram ride, that, apparently, does not count on a weekend. Strollers a definite plus, therefore.

Jan 30, 2013

Campus Life

We've been here 2.5 weeks. Just three days after our arrival, we moved into our apartment on campus. There are many advantages: close to work, inexpensive, nice community of families with kids, etc. So it's not the impressive expat house one might imagine, but that in itself makes it feel like a humble option. To compensate, we promised ourselves that we'd do the best we could with what we had.

What we have isn't all bad. Three bed, two bath, around 1600 square feet. The kitchen is quite big, though empty. We've invested thousands of dollars in new electronics, including a fridge/freezer, a stand-alone stove, washer, dryer and a host of smaller items. To make our kitchen feel somewhat more like a working kitchen, we invested in several Ikea stand-alone counter tops with wire racks. I can't wait for my pots and pans to arrive to occupy the space and make it look lived in. The rest of the place has yucky green and brown furniture. Again, this will go as soon as our things arrive. Maybe tomorrow, maybe Monday. The boat was delayed.

There are some oddities. We don't have hot water in the kitchen or plugs in the bathroom. None of the sinks have cupboards underneath, so there is nowhere to stow toilet paper. Both kitchen and bathrooms are tiled floor to ceiling, so there is no option to put up shelves. The consequence is that half our toiletries fall off the counter every time we brush our teeth. And of course, the decor isn't to our taste, but at least the rest of the rooms have white walls and off-white floor tiles, which we can work with.

We've adopted the whole of campus as our backyard. There are playgrounds next to every apartment and the one opposite our building seems to be the choice spot for toddlers and young children. By now, he's made his way down the big slide, which he vehemently refused on the first day.

The university sports centre is right next door, with an Olympic sized swimming pool. There are also diving platforms. And a toddler wading pool where the boy and I spend most of our afternoons. He loves it; a real water baby - no surprises there.

Campus also has lots of buses much to the boy's delight. "Bah. Bah!" is a constant in our lives. Along with appropriate finger pointing to a passing bus. When there are several, it's almost too much to bear. The shuttle buses are free, so we often hop on one for entertainment and head over to the opposite side of campus where Starbucks lives. A super-exciting event.

I've bought myself a bike to get to and from work. The buses might be delightful to a (nearly) 2-year old, but to a working woman, they're irritating because they don't pass often enough and the stops are just that little bit too far away from home. With my bike, I'm at work in under 10 minutes - a vast improvement over the nearly 45 minutes it took me one morning to make it to the office. Plus, it seems to agree with my waistline.

There are surprises too. A gecko leaped out of my dishcloth one morning. I leaped in response. Today, one was hiding in the waste basket. I didn't jump this time, but it still catches me out. The national air force ensures that we wake up at appropriate times and stay alert all day. I'm not sure if this happens to be an intense training period for fighter jets or if they simply enjoy flying close to Malaysian airspace.

The best thing is that we already know plenty of people. All very helpful and willing to lend us stuff. Toddler boy has a bunch of toys on loan, and had several play dates. It's good for his confidence and social life, and good for ours too. 

First Impression of a Returned Traveller

We've been to Singapore before. About 13 years ago. This time, things are different. We have a toddler in tow. We'll be living on the West part of the island, far away from expat central. Singapore has doubled in population.

Over the past five years, I've visited Singapore a number of times. The first time, I expected things to be the same. It threw me. I would see a stretch of road with buildings and shops I recognized. Then, the next section would be completely unfamiliar. It was as if I was in a bad dream, where my internal expectations didn't match the external sensations. It left me disoriented and disappointed.

Singapore had always been, in my mind, clean, calm, a place Hong Kongers visited for some down time, or "detox" as the expat community used to say. That was not what I experienced in my visit a few years back. Singapore was busy, noisy, chaotic. Far from the organized quiet I anticipated.

So I knew, coming here again to start a new job, I had to set aside all my expectations and expect nothing. Or maybe everything. I would be an open book, with a blank page, willing to take it all in.

Being in a totally different area of the city helped a lot. We arrived here, to a serene campus full of beautiful trees and very little traffic. We walked around in the humidity and heat. These were all things welcome to the senses. Sure, there is still chaos downtown, but mostly we avoid that. Ah. Singapore. My first sling impression is not so very bad, lah.