Brief Break in Bali

One of the advantages to living in Singapore for a while is that its location is central in Southeast Asia, so travel in the area can be done quite easily and cheaply.  We suddenly found ourselves with a five-day break in my Dear Husband’s killer schedule of six day workweeks with 18 hour days, and on two days notice got ourselves to Bali.  From the US, the flight would have been long and expensive but from Singapore it was less than three hours flight time and bargains were possible.

I had to learn a lot about Bali very quickly!  It’s a large (just over 2,000 square miles, nearly 10 times the size of Singapore) island with about 4 million inhabitants.  Most Balinese are Hindu and pretty much constitute the 5% of all Indonesians who are Hindu and not Muslim.  Bali has beaches, some with surf-worthy waves or black sand, jungles, volcanoes and mountains, cities and villages.  Each town attracts specific groups of tourists, and we settled on Sanur, on the southeast, as suitable for the budget-minded mature couple we are.  Thanks to booking.com, I located the perfect hotel for us by looking for the intersection of our price range, and the highest guest rating:  The Tamukami (http://www.tamukamibali.com).  We’d go back there in a heartbeat.

We’re not the type of tourists who lie on the beach or by the pool.  We’ve got to be doing things!  It took over an hour to get through Customs at Bali’s little (and very badly organized, to put it nicely) airport in Denpasar, during which time we each studied half a dozen tour agency leaflets.  By the time our hotel’s van had gotten us to the Tamukami, we’d agreed on what we wanted to see, and which leaflet most attracted us both.  The staff at our lovely hotel not only called the agency for us, but also didn’t add an extra charge for doing so to either our hotel bill or our tour bill.  We enjoyed exploring our very beautiful hotel, and a walk on the beach, before quite happily taking the path of least resistance and dining in the hotel’s open-air dining room.

Our tour guide picked us up the next day in his clean and well-maintained SUV, which to our delight we did not have to share with other tourists.  It was such a good deal to have a private, comfortable car and driver for the price of two tour tickets that we hired him for a second day.  

Part of the tour’s shtick is to take you to crafts workshops where you have the opportunity to purchase mementos at twice or more the usual cost. We were interested in the batik workshop, but not the jewelry or painting shops.  Our guide quickly realized that we were not interested in buying things, and focused instead on the natural beauties that did interest us.

The first natural beauty-spot we saw was the Tegenungan waterfall, surrounded by jungle and farm country.  There was no time to hike down to the pool below the falls, but just viewing it made us feel better!  Along the way we passed lush fields of vegetables, where I first saw pandan being grown. 

Pandan leaves are used in Asian cooking, particularly Malaysian and Thai, to moisturize and flavor fried foods (as in Pandan Chicken) or to give a sweet flavor to desserts in the same way vanilla is used in Western cooking.

Rice is grown all over Bali, often on terraced hillsides.  We saw these rice terraces on our way to a spice garden.  Kintamani is high up on a volcanic mountain.  We saw vanilla pods, coffee beans, ginger and a variety of tropical fruits before we came to the coffee treatment area.  

Bali is known also for luwak coffee, which has been internally processed by the local mongoose population.  You have to pay to try a sample of it, so we passed on that.  We did enjoy all the free samples of regular Kintamani coffee, which we watched a local woman roast over hot coals.

At some point we attended a dance presentation of a story involving princes in disguise, evil spirits, battle, and some broad comedy featuring dwarves.  A gamelan band provided atmospheric musical accompaniment.  Balinese dance makes artful use of the fingers and feet of the dancers, who also make exaggerated faces.  Later, we were entertained by a small Balinese troupe at a hotel bar in Sanur.  This troupe included dancers as young as 6 or 7, who were able to dance for about one minute before dashing off stage.  Their main function was to pass the hat after the performance ended.

Bali has temples and altars everywhere.  Some are large and lavish, some are makeshift; all testify to the role of religion in every moment of everyday life here.  Offerings are typically placed on palm or banana leaves and include flowers, little bits of food, and whatever the worshipper thinks will be pleasing, such as a beer (thoughtfully opened for the gods) or a cigarette.  Statues of gods are often modestly wrapped in black and white checked fabric, and sheltered by matching parasols.  

The Hindu priests wisely selected the most stunning locations for their temples.  

We visited the temple at Tanah Lot as the sun was setting.  Naturally, there were hordes of other visitors there too, but that didn’t diminish the beauty of the natural water-worn stone bridge with its 16^th century temple.  

When we visited the quieter temple at Uluwatu, further south on the island, there were fewer other visitors and little activity except the appearance of some monkeys (which I studiously avoided).  The rugged cliff arising from the ocean waves was simply breathtaking.  

Even the monkeys have their own temples in the Monkey Forest.  They didn’t seem particularly devout, but they should have been thanking the gods they’d been given a lovely forest with moss-grown shrines and statues, along with keepers to bring them food.

Being driven around Bali by a local was ideal, as the roads are extremely narrow and filled with people and animals.  Dogs, who all looked related to one another, often lay in the middle of roads, unconcerned by traffic.  

Our driver often had to pass slower traffic in the face of oncoming vehicles.  Driving on Bali seemed to require a special combination of faith in the kindness of others and forgiveness of their failings.  In fact, the warm nature of the people of Bali infused the days of our visit there with a friendly, relaxed pace.  We returned to the bustle of Singapore, refreshed by our interlude in Paradise. 

Where We're At

What sold us on our apartment here in Singapore is the location on the Singapore River.  At all times of day or night, the view of the River from our living room is always a pleasure.

The location on the River is highly valued, so apartments here are pretty expensive, even by Singapore standards.  Our place hasn’t been renovated in recent years so we were able to afford a two-bedroom unit with some storage space for luggage and the usual junk we accumulate wherever we go.  It’s certainly comfortable!  We’ve already added a jumble of wires to our living room so we can connect a computer to the big-screen TV and watch whatever we like.  The kitchen is quite spacious and kitted out nicely with appliances.  If you remember my kitchen in Karlsruhe (My First Kitchen by Fisher-Price!) you’ll understand how pleased I am to have some counter-space. 

On our back balcony are two favorite features:  our own washer-dryer combo, and our trash chute!  Like our German washer, this one takes two hours, but at least I don’t have to run up and down stairs to check on the progress, and share it with all the other building residents.  We love the trash chute so much we’re trying to figure out how to install one in our Acton home.  When we leave, however, I think it’s the river view we will miss most.

Our neighborhood is crammed with other buildings.  A view from across the river shows our sunny yellow building dwarfed by the next-door condos.  Our nearest mall, Liang Court, is five stories with two 25-story hotels plunked on top of it. 

Not everything nearby is a skyscraper; nearby side streets include some lovely older conserved two-story row houses.  There’s even a large grassy lot occupied by a numbered and protected Heritage Tree.  This Rain Tree provides lodging for dozens of ferns and is simply awesome when viewed from below.

The one drawback to our neighborhood is that it’s not terribly Singaporean.  By that I mean that many non-Singaporean families live here, and also that most of the restaurants nearby, and there are lots of them, sell foreign food.  In fact, Japanese food is most common here, followed by Italian!  When we want Singaporean food, we walk to Chinatown across the River, or take a taxi someplace else.  And we usually want Singaporean food in its endless varieties.

Still, we’re not complaining.  We’re very comfortable, are well looked after by a friendly staff, and have high-speed internet.  I can buy a fresh bouquet of orchids for a few dollars, and do so every week!  The “air-con” is so effective that we welcome the outdoor heat and humidity after a few hours working indoors at our computers.  Readjusting to our US life without resident maids and repairmen, not to mention central air, may be a lot more difficult.

Intro to Singapore 101

At my alma mater, Mount Holyoke, students referred to all introductory classes as “Baby” Whatever:  so welcome to Baby Singapore!

Chinatown's "Food Street" is lined with little restaurants.

This intro class is necessary because, although many of my acquaintance have either visited or lived in Singapore, they are few and far between.  My very own sister thinks I live in Malaysia now!  And another, highly educated, well-traveled relative believes I’m in the Southern Hemisphere!  This leads me to conclude that a few facts about Singapore will serve to orient my readers.

Just some flowers you see everywhere in Singapore.

Singapore is located less than 100 miles north of the equator.  As a result, the weather is tropical (an average daily temperature of about 90 F, and humidity in the range of 85%), and the length of days and nights (about 12 hours each) does not change throughout the year.  “Winter” in Singapore is the rainy “monsoon” season, which I hope is soon ending.  On a good day in winter there’s at least an hour of rain, and sometimes 24 hours.  In Massachusetts, sunsets can be spectacular on a clear day, and winter skies are often the loveliest of the year.  Singapore’s sunsets end quickly and in winter are often obscured by clouds.

Bird sheltering from the downpour.

This is an island nation:  one large island, and over 60 small ones, at the southern end of the Malay Peninsula.  The land area is approximately 272 square miles but Singaporeans are using land “reclamation” to extend the land area and it has grown by 20% in in the past 50 years.  Despite the increase in land area, Singapore is still less than 1/5 the size of Rhode Island!

Shophouses!

Singapore was ruled by the British from the time of its founding in the 1820s by Sir Thomas Raffles until after the British were defeated during World War II by the Japanese Army.  Singapore gradually separated from Britain during the 1950s, and briefly joined with Malaysia from 1963 to 1965.  During that period, however, the Malaysian government began to put in place preferential treatment for citizens of Malay descent.  This was unacceptable to Singaporeans, who are 75% Chinese, about 9% Indian, about 3% Eurasian and “other”, and about 13% Malay. 

Opening ceremony for Chinese New Year celebration featured a snake made of lit red lanterns.

Singapore is one of the “Asian Tiger” economies, which have grown tremendously while other economies have stalled or shrunk.  Singapore is very business-friendly, and is rated as one of the least corrupt governments in the world (second, I believe, to New Zealand).  The rich people here are very, very rich.  Poor people here are pretty well assisted by the government.  The unemployment rate is about 2%.  Something for the USA to envy! And another thing: the gross domestic product per capita, nearly $60,000 in Singapore, places it in international rankings way ahead of the US where the GDP per capita is several thousand below $50,000.

The Mustafa Center is an enormous 24-7 store that has everything, likely to be packed on weekends and busy all the rest of the time.

Singapore has a reputation as the “no” country:  no chewing gum, no littering, no assaulting the bus driver, no spitting, no vandalism, no being nude in your own home with the curtains open:  and the list is long.  The challenge, in Singapore’s early years of independence, was to unite citizens of sharply differing backgrounds, and to pull the nation out of the ruins of the Japanese invasion.  Lots of rules, sternly enforced, got everyone on the straight and narrow.

A beautifully restored shophouse with modern skyscrapers all around.

Singapore is largely a nation-city.  Old Singapore, before World War II, had mostly two-story buildings for business in either the Chinese or the British style of architecture (and inevitably the two were often blended in one building).  After independence in 1965, the Singapore government concentrated housing development on high-rise apartments to ensure that even the poorest citizens had a decent roof over their heads.  As the nation prospered, the two-story “go-downs” (warehouses) and shop-houses of old Singapore were demolished in favor of shiny, air-conditioned multi-use tower blocks.  Thankfully, sometime in the 1990s, the government recognized the cultural loss of the old buildings and slowed their demolition.  Many old mansions have been remodeled into “clubhouses” for soaring condominiums built where gardens once surrounded the stately homes of the rich.

Nicknamed "The Garden City", Singapore's national flower is the orchid.

That doesn’t mean that Singapore is an urban wasteland.  Despite being the third most densely populated nation on earth (slightly more than 5 million people live here so there’s something more than 18,000 people per square mile), there are trees, flowers, and gardens everywhere.  With all the sunshine and near-daily rain, encouraging plant growth is not the problem.   The greater challenge is to encourage desirable growth instead of mold and mildew.  Singapore’s heat and humidity are made much more bearable by the presence of gardens.  The latest contribution the nation has made, also designed as a tourist attraction, is the indoor, self-sustaining and stunning Gardens by the Bay.

These futuristic, fantasy-world giant trees at the Gardens by the Bay are topped with photovoltaic cells.

So, now you have an idea of where I am now, in time and place.  I lived here for six months with my family 12 years ago, and came away with mixed feelings about Singapore.  There is much to enjoy, but although this is probably the most accessible of Asian countries for an American to encounter, it is still a very foreign place for me.  As a Causasian and a Christian, I am in a tiny minority.  I don’t have a workplace except my own desk, or belong to an expensive Expat club, or have kids in a school here, so my social interactions are quite limited.  I am determined that during this long stay, I will find my way into Singapore, and leave it with greater understanding and appreciation.  And meanwhile, I plan to enjoy every minute of the local cuisine!  

Fried kway teow with extra veg! 

Time for a Change

Three weeks.  Not a long time to make two transitions:  from our idyllic stay in Germany to our home in Acton for Christmas, and from Acton to Singapore for the next six months.  Shortly before Christmas, we packed in a hurry, had last minute visits with good friends, and shipped home a few boxes of recent acquisitions and gifts (not all of which have yet arrived in Acton).  Acton was lovely as ever, especially with a light snowfall, and our beloved family around us.  Best of all is our baby granddaughter, our first grandchild, experiencing Christmas for the first time, using all her senses. 

 I'm wearing my apron which says "Keep Calm and Carry On" while we hurriedly decorate the Christmas tree in Acton.

Acton was also lovely because of the people who live there.  One generous, warm-hearted family in our neighborhood invited all two dozen families who live there into their home two days before Christmas!  We all took a few minutes to stroll our little streets admiring one another’s holiday lighting (except ours, of course, since we didn’t have time to decorate outdoors).  My family is now (after almost 20 years in Acton) the longest-surviving homeowners in the neighborhood and there were quite a few neighbors whom we’d never met before.  We were delighted to meet several families who’ve lived in Germany or other parts of Europe and who share our desire to bring to Acton a little of what we learned to love in Europe. 

My Dear Husband and I laughed when we remembered the last all-neighborhood party we know about:  our own house-warming party in 1993!  We invited not just our quirky, individualistic friends from academia, but also neighbors we’d never met.  It was not followed up by any other all-neighborhood parties (at least, to which we were invited) with the exception of a home-sales party which I should not have attended since we’d spent all our money moving to Acton.  Until this year, almost 20 years later!  Such a good time was had by all that we vowed as a neighborhood to do this kind of thing more often.  And then, a week later, we moved to Singapore!

This move entailed digging out, and trying on, all my summer clothes.  We had to collect six months worth of our medications and our favorite health and beauty aids.  We were each allowed two large suitcases, and two carry-ons since my Dear Husband’s work assignment, which requires this six-month stay in Singapore, provided us with business-class seats on Singapore Airlines. 

The perk of a second suitcase was nice, since I was able to bring practically all my summer clothes, but the flight, all 18 hours of it, was a treat in itself.  The airline is planning to discontinue the non-stop flight to Singapore from Newark later this year, but not before we return to the US in six months.  Everything about the flight—the flight attendants who addressed me by name, the delicious food, the extremely comfortable seat/bed we each had, and the 800 choices of audio and video entertainment—was a pleasure.  I especially noticed and appreciated the way each family with children was brought aboard by an individually-assigned airline employee, who helped each child get settled before the rest of us came aboard.  There were a lot of children on the flight (who can afford a $10,000 ticket for a pre-schooler?) but we heard almost nothing from them during all 18 hours of the trip.

Thanks to those comfortable airline seats, we were almost rested when we arrived at Changi Airport.  We were able to stay awake for most of the first day, which is amazing when you consider that Singapore’s time zone is 13 hours ahead of Acton’s.  

We have settled into the furnished, serviced apartment that will be our home until July.  We have already grown to love the view of the Singapore River from our windows.  My Dear Husband has spent weekdays in what will be his office for the next six months, and I have begun to map out, and to put into action, my plan to come to know and understand this nation-city better than I did when we spent six months here in 2001.  And I’m really glad I excavated from my closet and brought along my most comfortable pair of sandals, because that plan entails a lot of walking.