Final Instalment on the Americans

Cheat instalment two is going to focus on our amazing long weekend in Bali. We ran away from work early on Thursday afternoon and spent the rest of the weekend in the glorious Bali sun.  Even on the cusp of rainy season we lucked out with glorious weather each and every day, with only the odd thunderstorm thrown in for good measure. 

Drinks in front of the ocean at Ku De Ta

Visiting the Monkey Forest

Fabulous local Indonesian lunch with the perfect view of the rainforest

The boys enjoyed cut-throat razor shaves (once Jeff decided he was brave enough)

Pina coladas, Poppies' style

We took them to our favourite restaurant, Sardine 

Setset at Ku De Ta

Getting some culture at the Elephant Temple

Beach days are different in Bali 

Visiting the rice terraces really makes you realise how far away from home you are!

American Buddies

After my first few posts about the American’s visit everything in my world got a little bit busy and I missed out a couple of instalments. I blame the fact that I had to prep the office for a new boss and get an awful lot of work done on a short week when I kept leaving the office at 4pm to ensure that we had ample time for play dates in the evenings. 

            To make up for it there are going to be two very brief photo heavy updates to share all the fun and adventures in one fell swoop. Instalment number one is filled with the last day in Singapore. While Nick had to head off for a work event after work we set ourselves up for a bit of a geeky evening. We started by eating all the dim sum we could physically fit into our bodies, then we went to 28 Hong Kong Street, one of the top ten bars in the world (apparently), and we rounded off the day with a trip to the Night Safari, where we of course forced Catherine to wear giraffe ears all the way around, and she loved it! 

Geeking it up at the Night Safari 

Banana, peanut butter, bacon and flowers - Catherine cocktail of choice

Sunday brunch day

Catherine's sweet potato latte - it was as gross as it sounds!

When Catherine and Jeff told us that they were going to be coming to stay, we earmarked their visit as the only time in these six months that we would be attending a proper champagne brunch. I am not sure that they were entirely ready for what this would entail, but we were, and we’ve been dieting for the past 5 months in preparation!

Brunching! 

Along with Kev and Jules, we had booked ourselves in for brunch at Raffles Hotel, not only because the food is amazing, but because one must-drink item on every visitors list is the classic Singapore Sling, which was first served in Raffles, and is this year celebrating it’s 100^th anniversary, so with brunch at Raffles, where the cocktails are free flow we were really killing two birds with one stone. It would have been foolish not to!

            After taking Catherine to try out the local favourite “sweet potato latte” (which yes, is as disgusting as it sounds) while Jeff had a quick dip, we were then at Raffles and ready to brunch as soon as the clock stuck midday.

Brunch recovery 

Four hours of free-flow all you can eat and drink then passed in a blur of stomach aches for everyone other than Jeff who somehow managed to clear an impressive five plates stacked high with food, and a ridiculous amount of cocktails to accompany them.

Pool time 

By the end of the session, we found ourselves reclining outside, trying to digest as much as possible before taking a little tour around the rest of Raffles and then heading home to recover in the swimming pool for a few hours.

3D viewing and minimal moving around for the rest of the day 

We had mentioned to Nicks uncle, who is passing through town, that we might have been able to meet up with him for dinner if he wanted, but when he called us at 7pm to see what we were up to we were already all lying on and around the sofa in the recovery position, drinking tea and watching Jurassic World in 3D on Nick’s fancy projector. There were no more adventures for us that day, just PJs and tea for the rest of the day! 

We love having visitors

It might seem a little bit sad, but some of my favourites times in Singapore are when we have visitors over to stay with us, and we get to show them around some of our favourite Asian haunts over the weekends and evenings. Coming to work during the week while they are here is always a bit rubbish, but with Catherine and Jeff in town for two weekends and one full week in between, I think we should have ample time to show them around and then also leave them with enough napping time to battle the hefty jetlag too.

Curry for breakfast 

It’s always tricky to travel between the US and Singapore because it’s just so far away and on totally backwards time zones, but at 2am on Saturday morning I met Catherine and Jeff from their 26 hour journey, and we welcome them to Singapore in the only way that you can: with cocktails and a good catch up session.

Preparing the durian for tasting

Seeing as their body clocks were insisting that they were only really at lunchtime, we managed to keep awake through until about 4am when we decided that, for the sake of not wasting the whole weekend on jetlag, it was time to go to bed and try and get in sync with Singapore time.

            On Saturday morning I was awake and ready to play by 9am, despite the late night, and in their sleep deprived confusion, the Americans were up and about too, so after a preparatory cup of tea we threw on clothes and headed to Tekka Wet Market. I wanted to make sure that they got a really strong burst of culture shock as the first thing they did, and to my mind, Tekka is both amazing and slightly terrifying, so it felt like the perfect introduction.

            Catherine loves Indian food, so we welcomed them to Little India with roti parata and bajhi for breakfast from some of the hawkers at the front of the market before wandering around the main body of the market, trying durian (a very stinky, famous local fruit) and checking out the veggie, fruit, meat and fish options (which for the first time that I have seen, included baby shark by the bucket load).

Drinks on the beach

After braving a stinky and culture shock session, the rest of our Saturday was spent in a slightly more casual way. We made the trip over to Sentosa island for a quick drink, and run down the hill on the amazing Street luge and a walk to a beach which means that we were on the most southerly point of all continental Asia!

Street luge!!

Following a dip in the pool and a quick shower, the evening was then spent at the top of a lot of high buildings. Drinks were had at both Southbridge, a favourite rooftop cocktail bar of ours, and at Altitude Bar, which is the highest alfresco bar in the world meant that we got to point out the sights and really give them a proper birds eye view of Singapore. Dinner was then at the Chinese restaurant on the 68 floor of an office block, but that is less about the view and more about the amazing food and the tea ninja who pours tea through the most ridiculous teapot you can imagine, but with some serious skills. 

Serious tea pouring skills 

I had worried that Jeff would want to stay out and play until the wee small hours, which might have made Sunday a little but trickier to handle, but thankfully by around 11pm we were all ready to call it a night, and so with one final cup of tea we all headed to bed, ready for what promised to be a Sunday of excess! 

Drinks with a view up at Altitude bar