Singapore and Bintan, Indonesia

Chinese New Year was spent this year with 7 of us traveling to Singapore and Bintan Island, Indonesia. We are all primary school teachers and had the week off from school. Singapore is about a 3 and a half hour flight from Hong Kong. When we arrived, it was almost midnight and we went straight to the hotel. While driving around in a taxi the next day, Singapore felt like it could be any other English speaking city in the world. All the road signs were in English, you actually had to search to find signs written in another language, such as Malaysian. It is clean and easy to navitgate, very western. If you did not know already, you could be fined for chewing gum in Singapore, they take their clean sidewalks seriously. Singapore is an island (I just can't seem to get enough of islands!), it is abougt 45 km west to east and 25 km north to south. Its population is over 4 million. Two of the 4 official languages are Malay and English. Singapore's port is the 3rd busiest in the world. Shopping is a big attraction here, particularly on Orchard Road. We did some strolling around this area where there are endless malls. I really was not that interested in the shopping, Hong Kong has more than enough shopping options!

The city is divided up into several ethnic neighborboods, including Chinatown and Little India. We were staying near Chinatown, but I did not venture into that area since, again, I am living in Chinatown! Little India was more of an interest for me. It was fun to browse and people watch there. I imagine this was a small introduction of what some parts of India might be like. People out selling their wares, bright and beautiful fabrics to choose from. There were so many places to get really good and cheap Indian food! We went to that neighborhood twice for lunch-yum! One day, Michael and I took the subway over to the Arab Street area. We took a tour of a beautiful mosque in the neighborhood and there was a wedding ceremony going on inside. They had no problem with us watching and taking pictures. All the woman sat on the floor on one side of the mosque and all the men sat on the floor on the opposite side. The attendent at the entrance supplied us with simple cotton robes to wear to cover up while we walked inside the mosque. After the mosque tour we stopped at a cafe for strong and sweet ice coffee and some local pastries.

you could be fined for chewing gum in Singapore, they take their clean sidewalks seriously

Another highlight of the trip was are evening at the Night Safari. They claim that they have over 1000 nocturnal animals of about 130 species on their 40 hectares of forest. (I didn't stop to count the animals so I have to take their word for it). We took the tram ride through the park with a guide pointing out and naming all the animals we saw. Have you ever seen an Malayan Tapir or a pangolin? Well I have!

We spent 4 days out of the week on the island of Bintan, about an hour boat ride from Singapore to this Indonesian island. (Again...another island!). The boat ride over was so rocky, people were getting sick all around us and this was an enclosed boat, no going outside! It was a rough entry to Bintan! We just wanted to get to the hotel and lie down for awhile. The main point of this trip to Bintan was to relax at this resort and that is what we did. We sat by the pool, sat by the beach, had a massage, got a pedicure, read books, and decided what restaurant to go to for dinner. It was a good getaway. One day, Suzanne and I hired a driver to take us out of the resort to the village areas to we could get a glimpse of regular life on Bintan.

Traveling in a group of seven can have its challenges, but we did quite well and I met my goals of relaxing and seeing another corner of Southeast Asia!