May'19: Orientation Trip - Part 1

I haven't mentioned anything that happened before we actually moved to Singapore, so here's a post about our Orientation to Singapore Trip which happened about 6 weeks before we moved permanently to Singapore.

Part of the relocation package was a 4-day House Hunting trip. Our Relocation Consultant told us that we wouldn't able to actually secure a place on our trip as it was too early. It seems as though most places in Singapore are rented vacant, and so owners want you to use an occupancy date within 4 weeks of expressing interest.

What the Consultant strongly recommended, was for them to arrange to have a driver give a half-day driving tour of Singapore and then do another half day of viewing condos with a Housing Agent which would give us an understanding of housing options, prices and sizes. Then we would have 3 additional days for sightseeing, and getting a sense of the different areas on the island/city/country.

Given the 20-30 hours of travel on each side, the only 4 days in Singapore, the huge time zone change, and we didn't want to spend another $3000 in airfare for them, we left the kids in Canada. We kept the 2 littlest together, who split their time between their Grandma and their Aunt's houses. The oldest headed her great aunt's alone.

Before this trip, we had only left Ms.C for one night here and there when she was younger, and Ms.E had only been away from home the one night after Ms.I was born. We basically had never utilized babysitters either. I decided now was as good a time as any, and also left the kids with Jonathan in advance of our Orientation Trip for a "girls" trip to Florida for my cousin's wedding, so at least the kids got used to being without Mom for a week.

We also had no Will in place. We used an online template and did one up ourselves. In true last minute fashion, we had to ask my mom to return to the airport after she dropped us off to witness the Will.

We did the short hop to Vancouver, and then 8 hours to Tokyo where I felt both elated and horrified that no one could even notify us if there was a problem with the kids.

In Toyko I tried to convince Jonathan that a 5 hour layover was long enough to leave the airport, but he wisely pointed out that we didn't know where we would go and it was getting dark. Instead we went to the food court which I wandered around forever. I was incredibly tired and feeling rather nauseous from jet lag and couldn't for the life of me find anything to eat that didn't seem to be primarily wheat based -except for sushi. But I couldn't figure out how to order the sushi (What was in it? How many pieces would I get? What was I even supposed to say at the counter?) - Seriously no idea. I think I ordered a small soup with some seafood in it eventually and stayed kind of nauseous and mildly hungry. On the planes I ate pretty good, having remembered to notify them of my gluten sensitivity.

The bathrooms were memorable in Japan. There's automatic music where you sit down on the toilet and a stall is as completely enclosed with a real door and room plus some to wheel in your luggage.

7 am and the day in Singapore was just beginning. My first impression of Singapore was "It's Florida, but with better architecture". Florida was basically my only reference point for the hot and humid. The smell of flowers was strong even at the airport door. This was Jonathan's 3rd visit to Singapore. He was excited to show me EVERYTHING!

A quick peek at the marvel that"Rain Vortex" at Jewel Mall - the mall connected at Changi Airport. It's a 40 meter indoor recirculating waterfall in a serine tropical garden. This was one of the most peaceful places I've ever been, and it's man-made. Check it out if you are near the airport.

We took the MRT (Mass Rapid Transit) into town and our hotel. Most people apparently would have grabbed a Lift or taxi after 30 hours of travel (including layovers), but we wanted to see what the morning commute on an MRT from the East Side would be like. It was standing room, but so quiet and orderly on the MRT. As Jonathan had warned me the cleanliness of the MRT. It's shockingly spotless - especially in comparison to my last experience with a subway/sky train system, which was San Francisco's downtown.

We popped out of the MRT station across from a temple and the swanky hotel Oasia where we were staying. I was so relived that Jonathan had done this all before and I was just following along. We dropped off the bags at the hotel and headed to the Maxwell Hawker Centre (outdoor food stalls). We had each taken a backpack and a small carry-on piece of luggage, because I would be leaving Singapore a week before Jonathan.

The Maxwell Hawker centre was a bit too much for how I was feeling. After the noisy, chaotic and rather smelly (not bad smelly, just different smelly) Hawker Centre, I was pondering, "Where are we? Are we seriously moving to the other side of the planet?" I was in love with Kopi right from the beginning though.

Kopi is strong black coffee with sweetened condensed milk. Jonathan drinks Kopi O Kosong (strong black coffee). It looks like mud. They pour Kopi out of a huge tin coffee pot through the long spout. I like it best when they pour it between cups a few times to mix the condensed milk in - it gets slightly frothy.

One of my major concerns was what are we going to feed to Ms.E. It still is so we stopped in a random grocery store. Where I studied aisles, and ingredient lists of products trying to get a sense of how I was going to manage gluten and daily allergies.

We did some light sightseeing: wandered through China Town, slipped though a temple, walked down some lovely walking paths to see the Red Jungle Fowl (wild birds related to domestic chickens).

I think I made it to 6 pm the first day. We were both awake for day 2 at 4 am. See my next post for more: Orientation Trip: Tour and condo viewings.