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Our transfer & flight to Singapore on Sunday was uneventful, until we go to immigration. The officer called us both up and asked how long we've been here in Sarawak, Malaysia as he can't find the stamp in our passport. Trying to think what could be the problem, and then it occurred to us -- we bypassed the immigration counter when we arrived in Kuching from Kuala Lumpur. Of course this isn't really an option, but on arrival we were the first off the plane
and after 30 hours of travelling, we trekked right on through briskly -- and when the immigration counter (relatively small airport) was unmanned (and I figured this was a domestic flight anyways -- Malaysia to Malaysia), we just kept walking. Then found out from a friend on the plane that the officer showed up right after we passed, and called everyone back (except Haley & I). So, we didn't get the stamp in our passports, and the officer had to call a supervisor over as they couldn't document how long we've been in the country. Told him the whole story, and he almost couldn't believe it. Said "this is a first", and after getting the supervisor's approval, they decided to let us go through. The supervisor was very reasonable and explained that although we got stamps in Kuala Lumpur and were still in Malaysia,
the state of Sarawak has its own immigration department and a separate stamp is required -- didn't know that, but I do now !
Welcome to Singapore ! I've always heard good things about Singapore, and there are plenty of options for very nice hotels and multi-cultural dining. English is very widely spoken here, so no issues communicating with anyone. Singapore is both a city/state and country -- it's so small that there is no other name. Only 275 square miles, it is about 3.5 times as large as Washington DC. So, it's quite easy to get around virtually anywhere in the city/country, with less than a $10 taxi fare or use the MRT subway. The 50 year anniversary of its declaration of independence from Malaysia is coming up in 3 weeks, so the entire country is displaying flags and their 50 SG logos. Tourist attractions are a little busier, due to the big celebrations coming.
For our first full day in Singapore, we hit the city to see some culture in the different neighborhoods. Going for something a bit different, we went straight to Little India. Every person we've met along the way for almost 3 weeks have been very pleasant, helpful, and welcoming. That is, until Little India. Right out the gate, we were faced with aggressive vendors that became hostile with us when we were trying to politely go to look at other booths. Hey, how 'bout that, didn't run into one bit of this in Malaysia ! In fact, the Malaysian store owners were so low-key they would just say hello, and not even try to make a sale or ask what we were looking for. But in Little India, we instantly had all of the sales tactics come out -- everything was suddenly "handmade", products that "nobody else has", "you find cheaper you come back" (yeah right!), "I give you my card and you come back anytime for guarantee", and this shirt is "cashmere cotton" (hmmmm, label says made in India and 100% cotton -- now it's cashmere cotton!), and 6 back to back haggling statements of "you tell me your best price you willing to pay". We were politely trying to have him hold the items, and we'll be back in 15 minutes just so we can compare a little bit. He starts throwing things and getting ****** off, yelling a little bit -- maybe this was the tactic, to scare them enough to the point of "here, take the money, let's get this over with". Well, that's pretty much what I did. He won that battle of India vs America.
But we kept getting more aggressive & pushy behavior, and also one after another that would feel it's perfectly fine to invade our "personal space". Waiting in line, is it really necessary for both of them to be pushing on us from behind, or having the strange guy's belly touching my backside. Or how about the guy that decides to sit right next to me on a bench (once again not more than an inch from me), and within seconds turns his head directly at me and coughs -- felt the air from his chest fly right onto my face. (as that morning I passed by a public building titled "Tuberculosis Control Unit and Elimination Programme" -- yeah, let's keep your TB to yourself buddy) Turned my head to Haley with the sarcastic look and said "realllly, once again has to sit practically on my lap, then cough directly into my face". So, at that moment,
we had got that tingling feeling of "this multi-national culture has been absolutely great, but maybe it's getting about that time to go !". I really am trying not to place stereotypes about any country or culture, as not everyone from an entire country has the same manners or behavior as the handful that we ran into. But, it sure seemed to be a consistent trend from this one country, and there is quite a big presence of them here in Singapore. It's been the first negative feelings among any of the people we've met for the entire adventure, so it's not bad considering how long we've been gone.
On a much more positive note, we went from Little India to Arab Street. This ended up being quite a nice part of our day. Great shops that had some very interesting imports from Middle East, Indonesia, China, Vietnam, and local artists -- and much of it handcrafted. Had some nice conversations with a couple store owners who explained the pride in the handcrafted items and some history associated with it. Bought some nice items to bring home, and had a great Turkish lunch -- ahhhhh, the baba ganoush, hummus, & sultan beyti -- so good. Looking forward to our family trip next year to Turkey, as I do enjoy the food a lot.
It seemed that a trip to Singapore without visiting the historic Long Bar at Raffles Hotel would be missing out. The Long Bar is where the Singapore Sling cocktail was first invented and is now a recipe found in bars around the world. We also went to the well reviewed Night Safari, but I wouldn't give it the same level of review that they seem to get. It was alright but we could've passed on this -- maybe it was the mass of humanity thanks to the 50 year celebration, and yep, you guessed it, multinational culture complete with my friends from India.
During our last full day of Singapore sightseeing, we were a little more selective on our tourist activities, and went for the 2nd largest aquarium in the world -- the SEA Singapore Aquarium
on Sentosa island. Took a nice sky tram over the water, and spent a couple hours seeing all the aquarium exhibits and tanks. Pretty nice. I was originally planning on scuba diving with
Haley in Eastern Malaysia (Sabah) at Sipadan Island -- would have loved to make a return visit there to see the staff friends Kevin & I met 3 years ago. But upon researching, I found that the terrorist activities in that region keep occurring, including a shooting 1 year ago at the same resort I was going to take her to. Nope, kidnapping or shootings from Philippine terrorists while traveling with my daughter just doesn't work well with the responsible plans. So, thus, here we are in Singapore instead, and this aquarium will be the best we can do for now in terms of seeing the sea life. We also went to the Trick Eye museum, which was quite bizarre. It's described as an art gallery of 3 dimensional images and optical illusions. In my description, it's a bunch of silly art images for people to pose for funny selfies -- apparently the people go crazy on this sort of thing. Hey, they even rent selfie sticks for free ! We took a few funny pictures, and got out of there -- didn't see the same appeal as many did.
Tonight we'll go out for our last few hours of Singapore adventure, to visit the Clarke Quay festival village, the Waterfront Promenade, and the famous Singapore Flyer (500 foot tall ferris wheel) -- Singapore's answer to the London Eye.
Tomorrow morning is our flight home, to end the Going Ape Malaysia/Singapore Father Daughter 21 day adventure. It has been a successful journey, as we completed about everything we hoped for and experienced the 2 week volunteer service with hard work & rewarding activities. Haley was a trooper as anticipated, and we got along very well the entire time (well, 99% of the time). She still likes me, so that's good. And most importantly, we have many great father-daughter memories to hold onto for years to come. This completes my 3rd father-son/daughter adventure, and in total was 49 days of travel on a one-to-one
basis with each of my 3 kids (well, kids per se). It was one of the best things I've ever done, and recommend everyone to consider something like this.
Thank you to all that have enjoyed the journey with us along the way. This blog site is helpful in a few ways. It helps me to document the fine details along the way, that would easily be forgotten by the time I got home. It makes it fun for family & friends to enjoy at home, and fun for us to see the comments from you. And, lastly it packages it all up in an archive that I can look back for memories. This, along with my video, covers everything I could possibly say about the adventure.
If you haven't enjoyed the video yet, here is the link:
https://vimeo.com/133872488
Must enter password : harrakavideos (no spaces or capitals)
We're looking forward to our first flight on the Super jumbo A380 jet tomorrow, on Singapore Airlines. Going to be a nice & lavish experience for the long 18 hours of flying time.
See you soon, and this concludes the Going Ape SE Asian Father Daughter Adventure.
Robert & Haley
and after 30 hours of travelling, we trekked right on through briskly -- and when the immigration counter (relatively small airport) was unmanned (and I figured this was a domestic flight anyways -- Malaysia to Malaysia), we just kept walking. Then found out from a friend on the plane that the officer showed up right after we passed, and called everyone back (except Haley & I). So, we didn't get the stamp in our passports, and the officer had to call a supervisor over as they couldn't document how long we've been in the country. Told him the whole story, and he almost couldn't believe it. Said "this is a first", and after getting the supervisor's approval, they decided to let us go through. The supervisor was very reasonable and explained that although we got stamps in Kuala Lumpur and were still in Malaysia,
the state of Sarawak has its own immigration department and a separate stamp is required -- didn't know that, but I do now !
Welcome to Singapore ! I've always heard good things about Singapore, and there are plenty of options for very nice hotels and multi-cultural dining. English is very widely spoken here, so no issues communicating with anyone. Singapore is both a city/state and country -- it's so small that there is no other name. Only 275 square miles, it is about 3.5 times as large as Washington DC. So, it's quite easy to get around virtually anywhere in the city/country, with less than a $10 taxi fare or use the MRT subway. The 50 year anniversary of its declaration of independence from Malaysia is coming up in 3 weeks, so the entire country is displaying flags and their 50 SG logos. Tourist attractions are a little busier, due to the big celebrations coming.
For our first full day in Singapore, we hit the city to see some culture in the different neighborhoods. Going for something a bit different, we went straight to Little India. Every person we've met along the way for almost 3 weeks have been very pleasant, helpful, and welcoming. That is, until Little India. Right out the gate, we were faced with aggressive vendors that became hostile with us when we were trying to politely go to look at other booths. Hey, how 'bout that, didn't run into one bit of this in Malaysia ! In fact, the Malaysian store owners were so low-key they would just say hello, and not even try to make a sale or ask what we were looking for. But in Little India, we instantly had all of the sales tactics come out -- everything was suddenly "handmade", products that "nobody else has", "you find cheaper you come back" (yeah right!), "I give you my card and you come back anytime for guarantee", and this shirt is "cashmere cotton" (hmmmm, label says made in India and 100% cotton -- now it's cashmere cotton!), and 6 back to back haggling statements of "you tell me your best price you willing to pay". We were politely trying to have him hold the items, and we'll be back in 15 minutes just so we can compare a little bit. He starts throwing things and getting ****** off, yelling a little bit -- maybe this was the tactic, to scare them enough to the point of "here, take the money, let's get this over with". Well, that's pretty much what I did. He won that battle of India vs America.
But we kept getting more aggressive & pushy behavior, and also one after another that would feel it's perfectly fine to invade our "personal space". Waiting in line, is it really necessary for both of them to be pushing on us from behind, or having the strange guy's belly touching my backside. Or how about the guy that decides to sit right next to me on a bench (once again not more than an inch from me), and within seconds turns his head directly at me and coughs -- felt the air from his chest fly right onto my face. (as that morning I passed by a public building titled "Tuberculosis Control Unit and Elimination Programme" -- yeah, let's keep your TB to yourself buddy) Turned my head to Haley with the sarcastic look and said "realllly, once again has to sit practically on my lap, then cough directly into my face". So, at that moment,
we had got that tingling feeling of "this multi-national culture has been absolutely great, but maybe it's getting about that time to go !". I really am trying not to place stereotypes about any country or culture, as not everyone from an entire country has the same manners or behavior as the handful that we ran into. But, it sure seemed to be a consistent trend from this one country, and there is quite a big presence of them here in Singapore. It's been the first negative feelings among any of the people we've met for the entire adventure, so it's not bad considering how long we've been gone.
On a much more positive note, we went from Little India to Arab Street. This ended up being quite a nice part of our day. Great shops that had some very interesting imports from Middle East, Indonesia, China, Vietnam, and local artists -- and much of it handcrafted. Had some nice conversations with a couple store owners who explained the pride in the handcrafted items and some history associated with it. Bought some nice items to bring home, and had a great Turkish lunch -- ahhhhh, the baba ganoush, hummus, & sultan beyti -- so good. Looking forward to our family trip next year to Turkey, as I do enjoy the food a lot.
It seemed that a trip to Singapore without visiting the historic Long Bar at Raffles Hotel would be missing out. The Long Bar is where the Singapore Sling cocktail was first invented and is now a recipe found in bars around the world. We also went to the well reviewed Night Safari, but I wouldn't give it the same level of review that they seem to get. It was alright but we could've passed on this -- maybe it was the mass of humanity thanks to the 50 year celebration, and yep, you guessed it, multinational culture complete with my friends from India.
During our last full day of Singapore sightseeing, we were a little more selective on our tourist activities, and went for the 2nd largest aquarium in the world -- the SEA Singapore Aquarium
on Sentosa island. Took a nice sky tram over the water, and spent a couple hours seeing all the aquarium exhibits and tanks. Pretty nice. I was originally planning on scuba diving with
Haley in Eastern Malaysia (Sabah) at Sipadan Island -- would have loved to make a return visit there to see the staff friends Kevin & I met 3 years ago. But upon researching, I found that the terrorist activities in that region keep occurring, including a shooting 1 year ago at the same resort I was going to take her to. Nope, kidnapping or shootings from Philippine terrorists while traveling with my daughter just doesn't work well with the responsible plans. So, thus, here we are in Singapore instead, and this aquarium will be the best we can do for now in terms of seeing the sea life. We also went to the Trick Eye museum, which was quite bizarre. It's described as an art gallery of 3 dimensional images and optical illusions. In my description, it's a bunch of silly art images for people to pose for funny selfies -- apparently the people go crazy on this sort of thing. Hey, they even rent selfie sticks for free ! We took a few funny pictures, and got out of there -- didn't see the same appeal as many did.
Tonight we'll go out for our last few hours of Singapore adventure, to visit the Clarke Quay festival village, the Waterfront Promenade, and the famous Singapore Flyer (500 foot tall ferris wheel) -- Singapore's answer to the London Eye.
Tomorrow morning is our flight home, to end the Going Ape Malaysia/Singapore Father Daughter 21 day adventure. It has been a successful journey, as we completed about everything we hoped for and experienced the 2 week volunteer service with hard work & rewarding activities. Haley was a trooper as anticipated, and we got along very well the entire time (well, 99% of the time). She still likes me, so that's good. And most importantly, we have many great father-daughter memories to hold onto for years to come. This completes my 3rd father-son/daughter adventure, and in total was 49 days of travel on a one-to-one
basis with each of my 3 kids (well, kids per se). It was one of the best things I've ever done, and recommend everyone to consider something like this.
Thank you to all that have enjoyed the journey with us along the way. This blog site is helpful in a few ways. It helps me to document the fine details along the way, that would easily be forgotten by the time I got home. It makes it fun for family & friends to enjoy at home, and fun for us to see the comments from you. And, lastly it packages it all up in an archive that I can look back for memories. This, along with my video, covers everything I could possibly say about the adventure.
If you haven't enjoyed the video yet, here is the link:
https://vimeo.com/133872488
Must enter password : harrakavideos (no spaces or capitals)
We're looking forward to our first flight on the Super jumbo A380 jet tomorrow, on Singapore Airlines. Going to be a nice & lavish experience for the long 18 hours of flying time.
See you soon, and this concludes the Going Ape SE Asian Father Daughter Adventure.
Robert & Haley
- comments
Deena Knudsen Safe travels! We'll have to get together when you guys come home, after the jet lag has passed.:). This blog has bun so fun to read.
Kevin and Marisa Safe travels! We can't wait for you to share more of your trip! Amazing!!!
Sue Priceless!
Sue LOVED ALL THE PICS AND THE BLOG ENTRIES! Can't wait for the video and book!