Chinese Gardens

 

We spent a morning at the Chinese Gardens last week with a friend.

 

 

They are gorgeous. With beautiful touches everywhere. But before I go on I have to tell you about this...

Komodo dragon.

He is still haunting me.

Gage spotted him climbing out of the lake. It was huge and scary. But no one else even batted an eyelash. He crossed the path, crawled into the bushes, and we lost sight of him.

Yikes.

Gage loved feeding the turtles at the Turtle Museum.

and especially in the pond.

Lucky coins?

School Pictures

I love this picture. How fun is kindergarten? Noah is in the back row. 

 

a night in Little India

 

We celebrated Cheryl's birthday tonight. in Little India. over dinner and mango lassis.

It was just what I needed.

We spent the night watching some of the Thaipusam festivities. We watched the preparations at the temple, walked along the procession with some daring fence hopping skills, stopped for dinner, and then followed the end of the procession as the neon lit up and the party started.

The devotion of these Hindu men and the support surrounding them is inspiring.




It was just what I needed to remind myself that I love seeing new things.



that Singapore is beautiful.




that cultures are important.

Just what I needed after this morning. This morning Gage and I took the MRT to meet a friend. There was an angry and miserable man on the train. who made me cry. a lot.

And I couldn't stop thinking about it the rest of the day. It stuck with me.

Living overseas, out of your culture, your comfort zone, your circle, out of your box is not always easy. Not always a Thai beach. Sometimes it's a lonely seat on a crowded train.

But, there are highs and lows in Lansing, Michigan. and Salt Lake City. and even in Washington. So we take the lows in stride and keep moving forward. And we hold on tight to the things we know we need.

Like mango lassis.

Rainy Season

Every afternoon at 3pm it rains. On the dot. The rest of the day will be bright and sunny.

Sometimes it rains at other times too and catches us off guard (like Saturday at East Coast Park).

They tell me there are two monsoon seasons. December-March and June-September. But it all seems the same to me.

We've learned to watch the sky and run for cover just before the 'heavy rain' comes like everyone else.


Or we stay inside to build forts. and read books.

That's my favorite.

a walk to the library

Gage and I walked to the library today.

Out of our condo, through the shopping mall, around the local market area and past the HDBs.


I'm pretty sure my condo doesn't allow laundry hung out the window. But HDBs sure do. All over Singapore. So colorful.

And of course we stopped at the playgrounds along the way.

Anything for that smile.

mail is here

Gage's 1st day of preschool

Now it is his turn.

My Mister Gage.

It's the same preschool Noah went to, so everyone already knows his name. Helllloooooo Gage!

He was a little nervous during his practice day. So we played 'preschool' at home a bunch to get ready. I tried to follow their schedule as much as I could. First Circle Time then Sensory then Indoor... Even had bins for his snack and water bottle and cubbies for his backpack and shoes.

On the first day that boy walked right in and only looked back once to give me a big kiss.

When he sat down in the circle around the Mandarin teacher and his little friend Evie put her arm around him, I knew he was going to be just fine.

Only 2 mornings a week, but goodness does it still pull at my heartstrings.

And yes, he is wearing one blue shoe and one red. Mix-ups! he says.

KRABI, THAILAND

We spent Christmas break in Krabi, Thailand. Not the best substitute for being with family, but we'll take it!


After the short flight we took a long boat to our destination. The long boats are the only way to get around. Aren't they gorgeous?


We remembered to say hello in thai, 'sa wat dee' and thank you, 'korp kun.' But Noah soon corrected us on the local dialect, "The ladies all say 'korp kun ka', Mom." And he was right.

We loved walking the streets to see what we could see. We loved the cheap touristy shops.


We learned that southern Thailand is 40% Muslim and the rest Buddhist. Which is a lot different than central and northern Thailand which has a lot of Buddhists and Christians. There were a lot of mosques in Krabi. This one hadn't been painted yet.



We took tuk tuks to get around. The boys love them. This one had funky music booming from the speakers (Gage still slept through it).

And of course we loved the food: pad thai, beef with basil, green curry, ginger beef, Tom Yum soup, pineapple rice.



And Thai pancakes!! Every time we saw a hut we had to stop.

Even the street food looked yummy! You can see amazing squid hanging from the top of the cart. But we were only brave enough to try the bbqed while you wait corn on the cob. And a sausage here and there.

KRABI: Tiger Cave Temple

A drive out of Krabi Town, through small villages and past palm oil trees and rubber tree plantations brought us to the Tiger Cave Temple (Wat Tham Suea). Don't worry there are no tigers here, expect for the statues. The story is that a Buddhist monk built a shrine inside a cave to meditate and saw tigers roaming around. The cave was at the base of a limestone peak.

Now a temple has been built on top of that limestone peak. 600 meters up.


1,237 steps can't be that bad right? But those steps were steep! At step 500 I was seriously wondering what we were thinking. Good thing Oreo breaks are very motivating. And the sneaky monkeys along the way were very entertaining.


Noah walked up every single one of those 1,237 steps and lucky Gage had a strong Daddy to help him.



The top was definitely worth it. And I would do it again tomorrow. It was gorgeous.




If there are Buddhist bells or gongs, these boys will find them.


Back down the mountain we went and when we got to the last step I said, "Look Noah! It's the last step!" He replied, "No its not, Mom. It's the first step."

At the bottom we shared a few Fantas and watched the stray dogs roaming around. Somehow we missed the cave itself. But that is ok with me.

KRABI: Emerald Pools

After our epic climb to the Buddha above Tiger Cave Temple we headed to the Emerald Pool (Sra Morakot) for a swim. We drove to the Khao Phra Bang Khram Nature Reserve and then had a short hike to the pool.

The boys were troopers. Keepers, I'd say. They had a very complex game of Zapping and Deflecting going on all the way up the trail. Force fields and freeze guns included.


The water was crystal clear. See-your-feet-on-the-bottom-perfectly- type of clear. But not drinkable because of a high calcium carbonate content. That's what makes the sides of the pool super slippery too.

We all jumped right in. And stayed for awhile. Gage loved playing with the little waterfall and Noah loved watching the tiny fish around our feet.