Weekend in Bali - Part 1

Well hello my dear readers!  We are back from our first trip a tad sunburned, but had a great long weekend.

  

Where do I start?  A 4 day weekend in Bali, Indonesia means either one longgggg post or a couple broken out posts.  While I’d love to have your opinions I think it would only prolong me getting out my review of the weekend so I’ve gone ahead and chosen for us.  The verdict- you will get a few different posts recapping various aspects of my Bali weekend.

Getting to Bali

Friday morning our crew headed to Changi Airport and arrived with plenty of time to grab a coffee and find our gate.  Well unfortunately our flight was delayed by an hour, which turned into us not actually leaving the ground until an hour and 30+ minutes after our initial departure time.  But no worries, we were headed for paradise!  We took a budget airline which means no drink service or snacks.  Not a huge deal as our flight was only 2.5 hours.  Upon landing in Bali (make note it looks like you’re going to land in the ocean but you don’t), we were greeted with a 45 minute wait to get through customs!  Once through customs and getting our visitor visa, we started the hunt for our driver.  We were greeted by TONS of other resort driver services and I immediately became overwhelmed with the amount of people around shouting at us, pointing, trying to get our attention.  Due to our flight being delayed our driver was not waiting for us.  We found our way to the information booth where they would call our for our hotel to get our drivers attention.  While we were waiting taxi drivers kept coming up to us and offering to drive.  Most got the point and walked away, but one was INCREDIBLY pushy.  Uncomfortable, annoyed Laura + persistent taxi driver = MAD, rude, you’re messing with the wrong person Laura.  I repeatedly told this guy to leave us alone and tried to ignore him but he just didn’t get it.  Thankfully our resort driver showed up, an hour later, and took us to our resort.

Lunch...at the airport and routines

One of the different lifestyle habits to adjust to is that everyone goes to shopping malls and even the airport to eat and shop all the time.  Back home, if you asked someone if they wanted to grab lunch at Logan airport they'd look at you like you had 5 heads.  And lets be honest here, no one wants to go to Logan more than they have to because of the headache it is to drive around there.

Biscuits from a lady at work:

Friday's at work mean 2 hour lunches (and yes that's a full 2 hours) for religious observations.  This week was extra special because it was Keri's last day.  When I asked my group where we were going to lunch they said, "Changi Airport T3"  (terminal 3).  I looked puzzled but went along. Upon arriving at the airport they informed me that most people come here for shopping and eating on a regular basis.  In fact they are currently building terminal 4 and it is basically a shopping mall with a couple gates for airplanes.  Changi is a HUGE airport which makes eating there great because there are so many options.  So we enjoyed a filling lunch of sushi and Japanese style dishes followed by strong green tea ice cream.  It felt a bit odd sitting there for so long because I am not used to taking 2 hours for lunch!  However, it does make Friday pass by quicker :)

After work Keri and I both agreed that lunch was still holding us over and dinner was out of the question.  So we took the free work bus to Tampines (pronounced tam-pan-eeze) and walked around the mall there.  This will be the way I go home from work every day once I am moved into my condo.  So Keri showed me the grocery store that I will use, where I will pay the internet bill, and the MRT station.  We stopped and grabbed a cup of coffee at a Parisian style cafe.  Then took the MRT to Simei, the area I will live in and I was able to grab a taxi from there back to my hotel.  

Yumm latte (I think the PB stands for Prescott Batchelder) haha

I'm not sure why but this night was the first time since being here that I felt a bit of relaxation and assurance that I can do this.  Starting out in a new country where people do things differently than you can be daunting.  I was feeling a lack on confidence in knowing how to find a place to eat and how to navigate around.  Starting a new routine is always exciting but a tad stressful for me.  I like to get to a new area and immediately get my bearings for where my amenities are, how I get from one place to another, and just get a sense of how my regular routine will go.  I am quite a routine person when it comes to my during the week activity and then I am more capable of letting loose and adventuring on weekends.  My love of routines is probably part of the reason I feel in love with line-dancing in Indy hah!  But last night seeing the area I'll be spending most of my time in and understanding the way I'll get to and from work helped me realize that I will settle into my basic routine here and I will be able to find things I need on a day to day basis.   

One step at a time! 

View from my hotel room in the morning:

That feeling you get after traveling for 30 hours...and my first 24 hours in Singapore

I arrived in Singapore at midnight on Wednesday morning and made it to my hotel by 1 am.  So what does it feel like to travel for 30 hours?  Lets just say I'm happy I only have to make the round-trip twice in the 6 month period.  My long leg was just over 13 hours and for most of the flight it felt like we would never actually land anywhere.  Upon landing in Tokyo, I found out very quickly that the airport is barely air conditioned and seeing as it was 93 degrees outside when we landed, I was sweating the second I stepped off the plane.  In the 2 hour layover I had, I went and freshened up in the ladies room.  Who knew that flushing a toilet could involve so many buttons?!  The first one I pressed said Flushing Sound, which literally meant that when you hit it it makes a flushing sound...but doesn't actually get anything done.  No worries, I was able to make the toilet do its job after a solid 5 minutes.

My last flight from Tokyo to Singapore was just over 5 hours but at that point getting on a plane for any amount of time was too much.  I was able to close my eyes and get some rest on the flight but when you're stuck in the tiny middle seat of coach you can't actually get any good sleep.

The first 24 hours-

After getting a few hours of sleep Wednesday morning, I woke up at 6am, made a quick facetime call to Niles and then got ready for work.  I saw that there was a Dunkin Donuts just across the street from my hotel and figured it be a good starting point.  Newsflash - it doesn't open until 9am!!  Singapore definitely doesn't run on Dunkin.  Thankfully, the hotel had a plethora of options for breakfast and in my sleepy-jetlagged-daze I was able to get orange juice and cereal (such authentic Singapore food right?).

The taxi ride to work took about 30 minutes and on the way I was able to soak up more of this city.  It's a busy city yet I am shocked at how much lush greenery there is all around.  The best thing I can describe it as is somewhat like Florida with palm trees and tropical like plants.  All of the buildings are so unique, yet it all seems to work together as opposed to the various decades of styles you see in some cities back home.

Day 1 of work went well.  Mostly just setting up my computer and access as well as getting a quick tour of the facility.  Lunch is in the cafe or canteen and there are two options, Muslim or non-Muslim.  I opted for the non-Muslim offerings and ended up with a plate of rice, sweet and sour pork, and some random green veggie (legitimately have not a clue of what it was).  The whole plate cost me $2.90 (beat that cafe's back home)!  And Chinese tea is free everyday with lunch.  In the afternoon, the plant was holding a Singaporean fruit bazaar.  Thank goodness it was held outdoors because the main fruit being offered was the terribly aromatic and pungent smelly durian. There is a reason most Westerners do not know of this fruit and consider yourself lucky to have not had to smell, let alone try it.  Singaporeans love to watch westerners try their "King of fruits" and my boss took no time in getting me to try a piece.  Unfortunately I did not have my camera with me so I don't have pictures of what it looks like but its a big coconut-like sized fruit with a spikey tough outer shell that needs to be cracked open with a sharp knife.  Inside you find this weird yellowish looking stuff surrounding the seeds and you eat the yellow stuff.  I took a small pinch and it was this slimy, gooey, weird texture.  One bite was enough for me.  It has a pungent garlic like taste and is very bitter and just plain yucky.  Many people loved watching my reaction as I made quite the face when eating it.  But thankfully there was mangosteen, rambutan, and cherries to enjoy after.  Needless to say I won't be eating durian anything every again.

After work, Keri (the associate I am taking over for) took me to City Hall downtown.  On our way down I got a quick glimpse of Marina Bay Sands Hotel (Jack Greene- it's even more unbelievable in person).  For dinner we ate at a restaurant called Nam Nam and had pho, yum!  After dinner we parted ways and I headed back to the hotel to get some rest and try to get onto a regular schedule.  Seems that it'll be tougher than I thought to get over the time difference as my body is still not capable of getting a full nights sleep.

Hopefully day 2 in Singapore won't require as much adventure eating and will include a bit more sleep.  Pictures to come!