The end of touring

Dear Readers,

I ended all my tours last week as everyone goes on vacation for the summer. Unfortunately the summer is all I have left. One month and 25 days left before I return to the farm. Before Tammy left for her home in Arizona and her daughter's wedding, we went back to Raffles Hotel (oldest hotel in Singapore) where the Singapore Sling was invented. We ate at the buffett lunch there and wandered around for the afternoon. I will miss hanging around with her.

The next day I went on the Waterloo Street tour. We began at the oldest Catholic Church in Singapore, built by the French. The Church of the Good Shepherd is being renovated because it now sits on top of the new subway. The government has to reimburse the church for the damages blasting has caused. This church is named after a French missionary who led the church in the early 1800's. He went on to Korea where he was beheaded saying that a good shepherd must die for his flock. They renamed the church after his death and Pope Paul made him a saint. The Catholics were large in Singapore in the early years. They operated schools, monasteries, and nunneries all within the one black they owned. Now the schools have moved out to the outskirts of the main city and there is one nunnery still operating. Every once and awhile I see a nun on the MRT.

From there we walked on to a Jewish Synagogue. This sect was orginally from Iraq-they were Arabic traders and merchants who came to Singapore early. They had strict security and they have to know you are coming and have your passport number ahead of time. They are afraid of Muslim attacks. Singapore's history is full of Jewish heros. The first president was Jewish. They got very rich and have their hands in everything still. I had never been in a synagogue before-it looked like a church to me. The torah is kept behind a curtain and there is special chair of velvet for circumcision. Ouch! They have a building next door with a Jewish restaurant and a kosher store. We wandered through the store where in the old days, the rabbi use to butcher chickens every week. I was surprised to see Coke and Coke Zero there as a Kosher drink. Remember the Jews have so many laws. They can't eat or drink anything that has been prepared in the same room as dairy products. So Coke has made the cut. They also have a ritual bath for women who must bathe after their period. So many rules to remember!

Now for something totally different. We preceeded up the road to a Hindu Temple. What surprised me were the people praying there-all Asians (not Indians). The Priest was from India, however, with two red marks on his head. Our guide explained that every day he had to wash the temple and dress every god in a mini sari. The gods get new clothes every day and once a year the mini saris are auctioned off to raise money for the temple.

Next door was the new large Chinese temple that was so crowded we could hardly get inside.

In front of it were all the flower sellers selling lotus flowers for the goddess of mercy. Now it is very difficult to separate the Chinese beliefs from Buddhism and Hinduism. I am not sure they even care. They just roll everything into one. They get their fortunes told at the temple, get their lucky numbers, and then roll sticks that give them yes and no answers to their quesind interesting was the no smoking sign posted everywhere, Everyone was choking on the smoke from the incense sticks they were burning.

A few days later I caught the black and white tour where I got to see the restored British government houses that the present government allowed to remain as tribute to their history.

The houses were built and used by government officials, officers, civil servants, etc and then by the Japanese when they invaded. They were beautiful homes with gardens, cobras, and maids. Only the very rich live in them now as land and houses are expensive. The black refers to the black tar they paint around all the windows and door for termite control. Wood lasts only two years here before it's knawed away

So much for historical trips to learn more facts. I finished painting my last canvas and gave my left over paints to Steve's friend's daughter. Now I working on my last quilt, watching my last videos, eating my last time at some of my favorite restaurants. We have one more trip planned to China. The terracotta soldiers are here so I will see them at the local museum but would like to stand on the Great Wall for real. See you there!

Paradise sits in a Banyan Tree

Dear Readers,

Our 30th wedding anniversary was June 20th. We decided on the spur of the moment to do something without a plan. This is really out there for us because we like details and plan everything way ahead. We hate complications, missing connections, no uncertainity for us. But this time we threw caution to the wind and made reservations on line. The trouble was the children were out of school and everything was booked. We managed to get a ferry reservation for 8 am (you have to be there two hours early to check in your luggage, get through customs, etc. So we got a cab and did this. This ferry is far from the city as possible, on the shore, in the middle of nowhere.

There were multitudes of people there. We had bought emerald tickets which gave us cushions to sit on. We had assigned seats but we soon learned that didn't mean anything. You sat where you found a good seat. No one complained. On the 45 minutes over, they collected the $50 needed to get into Indonesia. It seems they only take American bills dated 2006 and up. We didn't know that but luckily we had it. I guess I spend the "defected bills" in the States.

Now, once we weaved through all the cargo container ships, oil riggs, pirates?, and everyone else on the straits, we wound through some islands until there we were-in paradise. A lady waving our names on a sign took us by the hand and walked us through customs. We picked up our bag and just like that we were on our way to the Banyan Resort-some ten minutes down the road.

This place looked like a dream. Here were flowing golf courses, thatch villas, siwmming pools, and white beach. All contained in one compound within a real jungle-snakes, lizards, cobras, monkeys. Tammy's husband told us he once teed off the green and hit a cobra with his club because it was after him. He told me tree vipers hung in all the trees. I never saw anything but lizards (some very big and lots very small and friendly).

To sign in, they sit you down on a couch and go over your coming and going. make dinner reservations at one of the three restuarants, and tell you how you call a "buggy" golf cart to go to and fro. We were too early to check in so we went to the beach first and changed into our bathing suits. There was a jellyfish warning on the beach but we never saw any except a couple dead on the beach. The water was crystal clear and I picked up interesting shells. Our room was ready early so they took us to our villa on top of the hill overlooking the ocean. The view was fantastic with rocks, fishing boats, and a huge bed facing all the scenery. The bed also had a mosquito net (for good reason!) We walked down to lunch at the Treetops Restaurant near our villa and had lunch. We took a nap before heading to the beach again and that was when I noticed the lizard silhouettes on the blinds. They were on the inside! Ew!

That night we went to dinner outside on the patio of an Italian restaurant called "The Cove". We had fun watching the houseboat parked off shore. The gas would ran out of their generator and the lights would die down. Then boom! All lights would come back on.

I have to say I have never enjoyed such service-all the people there including pool attendants, maids, man cutting the weeds, waitress, waiter, I mean everyone addressed us by name, knew we were having an anniversary, knew what villa we were in, and knew we were on the last ferry out on Sunday. They brought us bottled water on the beach, cokes, lunch, new towels, filled up our hot tub, and were so kind, it put the Shangri La to shame.

Saturday we went to an hour and a half long massage at the spa. Heaven. And we got to drink lemongrass tea afterwards!

I wondered what our villa would be like if it rained. Well, Saturday morning about 4 am I got my wish as thunder and lightning and monsoon rain came to visit. It finally stopped after breakfast but it was cloudy all day. Never mind-Steve still got sunburned. Breakfast was a chinese buffett for the most part. I was told the villas were at 100 per cent occupancy as a UK business was there for a meeting. They served champagne for breakfast too. The waiter said to tell him what we wanted in our eggs-I listed off ham (beef jerky is the replacement because they they don't really serve pork. Indonesia is Muslim) and tomatoes. I got a cheese omlet. Oh well. I just ate it and grabbed a donut. On Saturday night we ate Indonesian at the Saffron Restaurant. I'm not sure what I was eating but the Australian wine was excellent. The last day, Sunday, we had to check out at noon. We spent the day on the beach and about 2 o'clock, the sky went black and it monsooned on my head. I was under an umbrella under a towel. Everyone who was waiting on the last ferry was in the same boat-we had no where to go. So we endured. We were wet anyway. Then the sun came out.

I should mention I saw a large black lizard hanging out around the swimming pool. The pool guy seemed Ok with it. It ran off to sun itself on a rock. Later I saw a large one swimming in the ocean near the rocks. Ew!

Now, they picked us up, loaded our bag and took us to the ferry. They went through customs for us, xrayed our bag for drugs, bombs (really cigarettes and alcohol are the worse!) and put us first on the ferry. The ride back was bumpy and we were both green when we finally stumbled off at ten oclock at night. And there were no cabs! We wasted an hour trying to call a cab and standing in line before we gave in and paid the $40 limo fee. They had us because I had to be on a nine oclock tour the next day and Steve had to go to work.

So there you have it. A great anniversary. Thanks for all the cards, we were greatly surprised! It's good to know we are gone but not forgotten!

Winding Down My Time In Singapore

Dear Readers,

Now that there's only two months and 5 days left before I return to living on a farm in the middle of nowhere with nothing to do and nothing to look forward to, I have been trying to do some things I have enjoyed before and some things I always wanted to do before leaving this Asian paradise.

Tammy, my best friend here, is leaving for the summer. We returned to the fish spa to have our legs chewed on by little skin eating fish. This is not available in Staunton of course so I jumped at the chance. They move you from tank to tank, from little fish to much bigger fish. By the end, we are about tickled to death! I noticed they built a tiny mosque in the fish pond outside the spa below the flyer. Interesting.

Next, Tammy and I headed for Sentose Island and the other Shangri La on the beach. The water here really isn't for swimming. Oil is floating on the water leaking from the oil tankers parked in the strait. The hotel has been redone and is quite a spectacular place to stay (not to mention expensive). Multiple pools, lots of kiddie slides and sprinklers, bar in the water-Wow. I sure would like an upgrade at my hotel like that. I did manage to get the guys here to cutoconuts before they fell on the patrons. They can be deadly when they start falling.

Tammy and I had lunch at the hotel and then headed for the Sentosa casino where I had never been. It was packed with people eager to be parted from their money. There was a candy store a block long with candy ornaments in the tree. There was a "Lake of Dreams" fountain with a bronze sculpture. I told Tammy that there were no dreams there to come true-only a large withdrawl from someone's bank account. Universal Studios is there and never have any of the rides actually managed to run for more than one month before completely breaking down.

It was interesting to see where Singapore has invested its money for the future-ripping people off from other countries. It's working so far. Singapore's casinos have out performed Australia's and Malaysia's casinos and practically put them out of business. It's good to know there are so many stupid people in the world!

For something different I read about a tour of the Chiangi area being offered by a tour guide-a white lady that actually lived through WWII here. On a Sunday we got up early and went. We got to see the old prison where they interned prisons, shot them on the beach, forced men, women, and children to work in labor camps. The Japs were very mean. We went to the museum that had pictures of all the bad stuff, a copy of the mural the prisoners were allowed to paint, and a replica of the chapel they were able to build. She pointed out where the old forts were, where the Japs lived, how everyone had to learn Japanese, etc. Fascinating. We ended up at a hawkers stand where we met an American family from Charlottesville VA! They had lived in India and Shanghai before coming here. In India they said they never felt well-constant stomach problems. In China people were rude and fake-always trying to cheat you. They like Singapore. It's easy. As a plus we went by the airforce museum (old planes all bought from the US) and a crocodile farm inside the city! Pocketbooks, wallets, and products made from snakes and lizards were available. Amazing!

Well, that's all from here. I am off to a walking tour with the same tour guide. It's pouring down raining. That's what umbrellas are for. We are hitting four churches and two Tomorrow I am heading to Indonesia and Bintan which I hope will be sunny. At least there won't be Japs! See ya!