28/12

23/12
The fourth and last day it was yet again the two of us and the guide from the first day. Another pair was to have
joined us, but she had been ill during the night, so they went to the hospital instead for a checkup.
By the way, it is time to introduce our guide. His name is David Bomba, and he also the owner of his own small tour
company 'OutOfSight' - see www.outofsighttours.com. If you ever come to the Albany area and need a tour guide, look him
up. He also does trekking tours if you are that way inclined. We were very satisfied.
That day's tour was two national parks, this time inland. The first was dry, but still with a lot of green. We drove
a 42 km stretch of dirt track, didn't see another person or car. The second was a big forrest, with the main attraction
being a tree growing though a big rock. The nature was as usual fantastic. We ended the tour at another winery and
bought a bottle of very nice riesling, which we shared with our meal (chicken burger in the hotel room).

24/12
Up early to get to the airport. Too early as we were there at 6.40 and they did not open till 07.00. We hadn't had
any breakfast yet, and the cafeteria was closed, but the did serve a decent breakfast on the plane. We had 2.5 hour
stopover in Perth, but even so managed to be called when the plane was ready. They did not show 'go to gate' on the
board, so Willy thought that there were plenty of time. But we made it.
The hotel resort in Exmouth is something. And the room is just great, the bathtub is also a spa. The downside is that
it is located somewhat outside of town and there is nothing around here. And then again, we took a taxi into town later
that day, and there wasn't anything there either. Just a small center with two supermarkets. There was a shop which
sold booze and those sodas with vodka, rum etc, but no beers. For that Willy had to walk a mile, or at least what felt
like a mile in the heat. It is very hot here. On our taxi ride back to the hotel we saw emus walking in the street, as
if they owned it. This was the the first time we saw this bird outside a zoo.
We had a really nice dinner in the hotel's restaurant.
25/12
Relax, read a bit, quilt a bit, basically just feet up. Everything was closed and no tours were running.
26/12
Same as yesterday.
27/12
Willy went diving. He had two very nice dives, with lots of fish, plus a seasnake and a small shark. The visibility
was a bit diminished because a cyclone had just passed by a bit north of here, but the water was quite shallow, just
down to 14 meters, so plenty of light.
28/12
Nothing lined up for today, just get our flight to Perth confirmed, and get the blog updated. And a bit of feet up.

Merry Xmas and a happy New Year

From both of us to all of you....

22/12

We have been without internet for a while, so there is a lot of ground to cover...

We are now in South-West Australia.
The flight from Singapore to Perth was uneventful. We got to our room and that is where our exitement dropped. It was
a very small room and thus also a very small bed. But we are good friends, so no problem. Then the light fixture in the
ceiling was cracked, and there were no bed lamps.
We went for a walk in the city centre. It was getting to 18.00 and the shops were closing - and so was the city
centre.... We had expected restaurants and bars to stay open, but no, everything shut down. And it felt cold too, after
SG, so we went back to the hotel.
We send an email to our travel agency, asking them to find us another hotel when we come back to Perth.
We had dinner across the road at Miss Maude, which is a Sweedish (inspired) restaurant. Very nice.
Then we found that not only was the bed small, it was also very soft, so every move of one person was felt by the
other. And then the A/C was placed in the window frame on level with the bed and it was noisy. Not as bad as the one in
our first appartment in SG, but still. So we did not sleep well that night.
In the morning we walked over to another area called North-Bridge, because there is a museum with a display of
contemporay aboriginal art. In front of the museum was an exhibition of photos 'the Earth from above', which was very
interesting. The aboriginal art was ok too, but we found the museum to be a weird mixture of new and old in the same
room.
The city centre was now quite lively and the temperature had gone up as well. So we walked around for a couple of
hours. The park by the river is quite nice, though mostly just a big lawn. But no parrots! At our first trip to
Australia they were everywhere.
There was an answer from the travel agency, they had fund us another hotel for when we are back in Perth.
So the 2nd day in Perth was a definite improvement.

Friday we found our bus to Albany. We had to wait 15 minutes for the taxi, so it was good that we had plenty of time.
It was a 6 hour trip, with one 25 minutes stop after 2 hours. The hotel is actually a motel on the edge of town, about
3 kms from the center. And the rom is big, compared with the one in Perth. The weather is nice, though a bit windy. We
went for a walk in the area around the motel. There we saw the first parrots this time. The parrots were grey with a
red breast and head. The houses in this area looks almost like a lot of Danish houses. We are close to Denmark by the
way. And guess what, there is no highrise in the horizon..

We have now been 3 days i Albany. There really isn't much to say about Albany itself, it is rather small and after
6pm it is pretty dead.
The first tour was just the two of us and a guide. Highlight of that day was the Tree-top walk in Walpole national
park. It started to rain heavily just before we arrived, so it was a cool(and cold)and wet tour. But it kept other
visitors away, so we had it mostly to our self. It was fantastic, the walk being constructed so that the rise was
gentle, but still the highest point was about 40 meters above the ground. And the whole structure swayed when you
walked on it. The guide said that it was constructed to do that, and we decided to believe him. After the treetops we
walked around on the ground. The trees are really amazing. Some are hollowed out by fire, but still alive.
The next day we went on a river boat tour. The weather was cold, especially out in the sound, but we had a
fascinating tour, where we saw a lot. The skipper hand-fed a stingray, which was approx 1.5 meter across. There was
Percy the dancing pelican (it turned around itself) which is actually a female, but they did not know that when they
named it. The skipper picked up mussels and let (had) us try mussels cooked in only their own juice. A white-breasted
sea-hawk catching fish thrown to it. There was wine tasting, followed by tea and dampers. And all along the skipper
commented the scenery and told stories about the area. Very entertaining and highly recommendable.

The third day it was again the two of us and the guide from the first day. We did Albany itself (just a drive-
through), and then we did some of the surrounding areas. It is a fantastic nature that they've got here. The coastline
is absolutely breath-taking. And the plantlife is also great. It is hard to imagine that there nowadays only are 7% of
the orginal species of vegetation left, compared with the vegetation at the time of the first settlements. We could
have done without the flies though. The small ones are annoying - the big ones bite!

14/12

No avoiding it, our tour here is definitely drawing to a close. Friday we did a fare-well beer party for Willy's colleagues. 12-15 people showed up, and we had a very cozy evening sitting outside Harris's Bar, most drinking beer and some just soft drinks, depending on their preferences.

Saturday evening we went out to the East Cost with a british couple, he is one of Willy's colleagues in Switzerland, to enjoy some sea food. Back at the hotel, we went to the bar for a good-night drink. The bar also seems to serve as the local dancing parlour, it is amazing to see people doing ball-room dancing - and they look very serious abut it. We just find it fun to watch. In our opinion certainly much more fun than watching the big TV screen showing some boring English Premier League football game.  

Sunday was spent mostly doing the chores, we had to do the washing so that we have some clean clothes for our Australia trip. And in any case it was raining, so we wouldn't have ventured out anyway. Only late afternoon did we go out. We took the bus to Orchard Road to see the Christmas lights. One mall advertised snow with their Christmas tree, and we just had to see that. It turned out to be foam, but the kids had fun playing in it, and then they didn't have to put on warm clothes.

Negotiating the sidewalk on Orchard Road during our return walk to Beach Road was difficult even though the sidewalks are very wide. Several groups was entertaining, some singing and others did an acrobatic show - and there is all the Christmas decorations. So there were a lot of people taking pictures of one another next to the decorations. It seems that everybody was out and about. A strech that normaly takes 15 minutes to walk took over 1 hour!

And it is still warm, though wet, so we also decided to take the bus back, instead of walking as we normally have done.

And Jane finally found proof that SwissPost is indeed operating in S'pore.

 

08/12

We are sitting by the pool. But that only is because we have to abandon the room for a while for the cleaners, otherwise we would have stayed put. It is (reletively) cold and raining. And it is a holiday, so Willy is home too. Shared misery. So it was a good thing that we went out both Saturday and Sunday. Saturday we went to see the Haw Par Villa. It is really a theme park created by the founder of Tiger Balsam. He got very rich and wanted to return something to society, which of course is good and more rich people should do likewise, but maybe find a different expression. There was a number of tableus depicting some ancient stories. And a grotto with tableaus depicting, very graphically, the 10 stages of hell. Personally I think that the punishments were a bit severe. And at the end of the journey, the soul gets a cup of tea with some ingredient which makes them forget everything - so that they will do it all over again?  

Sunday we went to the big ?? bird park. The first exibition we saw was penguins. They were inside a house, and it all looked a bit sad. We certainly felt sorry for the poor things.But otherwise it was good. There were a lot of big enclosues with various birds, like different species of birds of paradise. Just strange that they have these wonderfull colors and are supposed to be real show-offs, and then they hide when we approached. There was this very big enclosure with a lot of smaller parrots. And we saw lizzards in the treetops. Big, but hard to spot as they were green.

29/11

We have moved again..

Thursday a week ago we had a meeting with a representative from the appartments, and she told us that the hammering would stop the following tuesday. Thursday they were still hamering, so we got a new meeting with another representative from the appartments. Willy told her in no uncertain terms that the situation was not acceptable and a solution had to be found. We were offered a hotel room. It is much smaller than the appartment, but we decided to accept it. The hotel is after all convenienty located. We asked for some sort of compensation, Willy suggested free beer at the pool bar, but all they could offer was one free breakfast per weekend for the remainder of our stay. Well, Willy later got that changed to 100 SGD purchase at the pool bar, which is more usefull to us. But still cheap. And then the representative had the nerve to tell us that we would not be charged extra for staying at the hotel instead of in the apartment, as good news. We were hard put to stay polite.

 

And the signs shown in a shopwindow turned out not to be political - they were advertising for a 20% discount for a Brazilian waxing.

24/11

Hi
our blog has been quiet for a while, mostly because so has life here...
But a week and a half ago, Jane's sisted came to visit for 6 days. That is not a long time, so we had a challenge. We wanted to show her Singapore, while at the same time leave space for relaxation - it was after all a holiday.
The main items on the programme ended like:

 

Day 1, Wednesday - Kate and Jane did the Hop-on-hop-off bus tour, after which all we met up for a S'Pore Sling at Raffles Long Bar.
Day 2, Thursdag - First we all met up fur lunch in the Suntec food court, so that she could try that kind of eating out. Kate and Jane then wisited the Botannic Garden.
Day 3, Friday - We all went to Batam, Indonesia. We expected to arrive at some sort of city, it was after all called Batam Center, but it turned out to be a set of shopping centers in the middle of nowehere. We hired a taxi for 3 hours,and went to another mega mall, after which we visited a spa and got a good massage. In the evening we went to The Clinic on Clark Quay, to see a bar where the chairs are wheelchairs and the lamps are the ones used in operating theatres. Kate is a nurse, so we thought that it would be fun, and it was. She got a new idea for her 50th birthday party.
Day 4, Saturday - We did Chinatown during the day. Kate and Willy tried frozen durian in a pancake, urgh, not a good idea. Kate and Jane did the S'Pore Flyer (the biggest ferris wheel in the world, bigger than The Eye in London) by sundown which was a great experiance. In the evening we had dinner at the Equinoxe Restaurant at Swissotel's 70th floor. Great view (lightning in the distance), good service and very good although a bit scarce food. But somewhat expensive.
Day 5, Sunday - Kate and Jane spent some time at the pool, while Willy was working. We had high tea at Raffles in the afternoon, after which Kate and Willy went for a walk round the river.
Day 6 - Monday, Kate and Jane went for an hour swim and then they went shopping. In the afternon we all tried Dr Fish, where you sit with you feet in water with a lot of small fish, that eats the dry skin of you feet. It tickles, but makes your feet very soft. We had dinner at a restaurant in Boat Quay. Then it was time to drive Kate to the airport and say goodbye. We all felt that it had been a good vacation, where Jane and Willy also saw something new.

 

And now there is no way to avoid the subject - Christmas is fast approaching. Jingle bells in 30 degree centigrade is a bit unsual for us. And so are christmas trees here, even though they are plastic. You can discuss style, it goes from very stylish to kitsch.

04/11

 By Jane

Quilters in Singapore 2008 Challenge Luncheon & Exhibition at The British Club.

Meeting time was at 11 am.

The British Club is a very grand place. I saw Tennis courts and a very big swimming pool and the Club House. The luncheon and the Quilt Exhibition were on 2^nd floor.

After the registration I went in to see the quilts. After a short while I thought: wait a minute isn't that Danish pop music they are playing (with Danish lyrics). So there I was in Singapore standing in The British Club listening to 'Dodo and the Dodos' and Sebastian. Who would have thought that 3 months ago? I didn't.

 The challenge for the quilters participating in the challenge was to use a parsley print fabric in their quilts.

The large oriental quilt was raffled off. The proceeds from the quilt, was more than S$3200. The money went to an ANZ retirement home for WWII veterans in Singapore.

02/11

Yesterday we went for a walk in an area outside where there should be some old collonial-style houses, so called black-and-whites. We did see 2 and yes they were very nice, but not really worth the trip. On our way back, we saw a lot of Lamboghinis (?) parked outside Hotel Hilton, it looked they were having a convention, or perhaps just an outing. They were beautiful... And the Christmas trees are comming.

Today we went down to the pool, but it started to rain after about an hour, so we went back to the room. Luckily it was only a shower, as we had booked a table in the Tiffin Room at Raffles hotel, for a high tea at 15.30, and we wanted to walk to the Raffles. We had high tea in the Imperial Room last Sunday, so we knew not to eat lunch. Which was jus as well, because the high tea included a buffet with various small very delicious items, and a large selection of fruits. The Tiffin Romm is very classic, with high ceiling, big ventilators, waiters dressed all in white, and a real live harpist to provide atmosphere. Quite expensive, but an experience.

29/10

By Jane

Color and hair cut

Like Switzerland there are a lot of hairdressers here in Singapore. I was in need of a haircut and color (to cover not the dark but the light roots). There was a lot to choose from, except most smelled of chemicals. I needed to find a place without the smell. After a serious search I found a place that fulfilled my requirements.  I took a deep breath, went in and asked for an appointment. (One thing I didn't want was a 10 dollar (a very short) haircut like Willy had a week before at another place.)

Why wait, one of the girls are ready for you. Hm. OK, I can always wear a hat afterwards.

It turned out to be the best ever experience at a hairdresser. I got a good scalp- and neck massage almost lying down, it was very relaxing, so relaxing that I nearly fell asleep while the hairdresser was cutting my hair. In fact I did dose off for a sec or two. After 2 hours and 15 min I left with a nice haircut and no grey hair.

Monday was public holiday, Deepavali. Willy and I went for a walk. We were very surprised over the lack of people and cars on the streets. All other holidays people have been out and about as usual.

 

Quilting

There are a few quilt shops here and I think that I have been in them all. I have even taken a few classes and I need to take more as I want to come home with some finished projects. I have two projects done and at least 3 more to go.

In one of the places the owner is Chinese and she don't speak that much English, only a few words but she shows and nods yes or no. Anyway she is helpful and she understands my questions. I have been there twice, the last time was the most quiet session for my part because everyone else spoke Chinese, but in an odd way it was fun. I have 3 more sessions to go if not more. That depends on the conditions in the apartment block.

 

Accommodation

Since we arrived it has at times been pretty noisy in the daytime. There is a renovation going on, on our old floor (the 22^nd). The old inefficient and noisy AC is going to be changed. Yesterday I was ready to go back to Switzerland because the workers started to drill a hole in the ceiling in the apartments next door. That was the last drop in an already filled glass. We had been advised that we were to be moved to another apartment, but in the morning the front desk called to say that we had to stay because the 'new' apartment wasn't ready yet. Apparently in this part of the world you are supposed to accept quietly. I tell you we didn't. Enough is enough. At 6pm we were moved two floors down in a 2 bedroom apartment (nice because my sister is coming on the 12^th of November for a 6 day visit). 

In the end I wasn't the only one to complain over the noise yesterday. Willy's college did as well. And guess what, today the drilling started again for an hour… I'm not pleased

19/10

We have just had a very good weekend. Saturday the weather was very nice, so we went to Sentosa Island and saw the old fort. It was very interesting. There were some cannons dating back back to the 1800s, alongside with some from when Singapore was overrun by the Japanese in 1942. There were tableaus with wax figures, to really give you an idea of how it was.
In the evening we went to the Swissotel restaurant on the 70th floor. Yes it was costly, but also very good, so we did not find it expensive. Of course you also pay some for the view, which was spectacular, but both the food and the service was excellent.
The weather on Sunday was not so good, so we stayed indoor most of the day. We did venture out late afternoon, but was soon caught out in the rain. Luckily we had brought raincoats. The picture is from our room, where the city had all but disappeared.

15/10

 Willy:

Jane and I went up to the bar on the 70th floor of the Swissotel Stamford. The idea was to test if my high anxiety could handle it, before we booked a table in the restaurant for our wedding anniversary on Saturday.

It really wasn't a problem, even when we sat close up to a floor-to-roof window with an astonishing view over Singapore. Maybe the fact that we have now been staying on the 22nd floor for over two months has helped a bit. Whatever the reason, we booked a table.

We are getting into the wet season. We haven't had much rain, but it is very humid. I dont have any instruments to meassure it with, but I would say that this morning at 08.15, it was about 30 degree celcius with a humidity of above 90 pct.

The pictures are taken form the bar.

 

 

4/10

Today we tried something new. We sat 15 minutes with our feet in a basin with warm water and small fish. The fish takes away (eats) the outer skin layer, leaving your feet lovely smooth.

It is very ticklish at the beginning, but feels rather nice after a couple of minutes.

26-28/9 (Formula1)

 

By Willy:

The big event finally occurred. The buildup had been going on for a while, with increasing problems for the local traffic, but that wasn't a problem for us, as Willy can walk to the office in 10 mins flat. For most of the local population it seemed more a nuiscance than an event, they just felt the problems and weren't going anyway. And according to some public polls, most locals really didn't know much, or indeed anything at all, about Formula 1.

We finally got our tickets on Thursday - row 59 and seats 18 and 19 on the Marina Bay Grandstand. Grand-stand surely is the right word, it holds 32000 people.

I had taken Friday off, so we could spend the whole weekend a F1, if we felt like it. We went there Friday early afternoon, to se the first tests. Those were not the F1 cars but Aston Martins, Porches and eventually Formula BMW. The latter are much smaler than F1s, but they are proper formula racing cars, as opposed to the Aston Martins and Porches. But they all create a lot of noise. It wasn't only racing, there were also food stands, ice cream stands and music.  And people. But it was also very hot and humid. Evening came and we sat down on our seats to watch the first F1 training session. We calculated that we could see about 4 seconds of the track, and a lap was about 1 minute 45 seconds. The track went under the section where we were sitting, so we culd also feel the cars going under us. And later we went down a staircase to where we could actually see, and certainly hear, the cars. You haven't heard anything loud till you have heard a F1 racer inside a building, the sound was above 130DB.

 

Saturday I went early by myself, I didn't have so much of a problem with the heat. But I was sweating a lot. There were a lot more people than the day before. iwatched some of the Aston Martins, Porches and eventually Formula BMW qualifyings. I found a good stand at corner 11, where thar cars came around relative slowly and accellerated  out of the corner. We met up a little later by our seats, and watched the F1 qualifying there.

 

Sunday I again went early afternoon by myself. It was still hot and humid and I was quickly again drenched in sweat. I saw some entertainment during afternoon. It was to young couples doing firedance. Not very good and the music was much too loud. Soon after I saw the procession of vintage cars, each with one of the F1 drivers in.

At long last the race began. There was a big screen in front of us, but with the distance, it did not feel that big. And it turned out that it was there that we should look for the exiting events. The most dramatic crash happend at 'our' stretch, but we couldn't see anything because the car ended up against the wall closest to us, so it was hidden from us. But I was great fun to be together with so many people and really feel the race. 

26/9 - F1 day 1

We had rain and thunder during the night and the morning was still rainy, so we were expecting a wet race day. But the weather cleared up, the sun came out, so the track was dry.

Today was practíce day. We saw a bit of Formula BMW, Aston Martin and Porche practices. But today's main event was of course the F1 1st and 2nd practice sessions.

We will write a more full report later - but here is a small video to give you an idea of how it looks from where we sat:

http://www.wjensen.com/hardersjensen/travel/sg_2008/F1/P1000327.avi

And you haven't heard anything loud till you've heard a F1 racer inside a building.
http://www.wjensen.com/hardersjensen/travel/sg_2008/F1/P1000344.avi

The videos can hopefully be played with Windows Media Player. Failing that, they can certainly be played using the VLC media player from here: http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

20-21/9

Saturday evening. We went to a place called Clark Quay, because we had read that there would be open-air jazz music. We walked down there (it is by the water), which might have been a mistake as it was still very hot, so we were quite sweaty when we arrived. Clark Quay is one of the places where people meet, there are restaurants, bars and at least one discoteque, all quite classy. But there are also colored lights, ice cream salesmen and large fountain, where children can play and get very wet. But no jazz music while we were there. There was a latin band, but that was not what we came for, so we took a taxi back.

 

Sunday. We went to the botanical garden. It is a very nice place, especially the Orchid section. There are a lot of those. It was also quite fun to look at those named after visiting VIPs. The one named after Margaret Thatcher was very twisted. 

But Sunday was also very hot, so we took (again) a taxi back, and spent the next 3 hours at and in the pool. 

14/9

Jane finally got her trip in a tethered baloon next to our hotel. Apparently great view.

Vi also finally went to the Raffles Hotel. It is almost an institution here, it is certainly one of, if not the most expensive hotel in town - there are no rooms, only suites.

First we had 'hi-tea' and scones in the Imperial Cafe. The cafe is quite nice, marble tables and all, and the scones were good too. Afterwards we went up to the Long Bar to try the Singapore Sling, which is the famous drink around there, it was actually created at the Long Bar in the 1930s. And the Long Bar is the only place in Singapore where littering is not only allowed, but encouraged. There are peanuts still in shells on the tables and you just throw the sheels on the floor. The Long Bar is very nice and very 'Colonial style'. But next time I'll have a beer instead if a S'pore Sling.