Grandma Comes To Town

Just after we returned from Thailand, Grandma (David's mum) came to visit us. She came via a few days in deepest, darkest Borneo and arrived in Singapore having got over the inevitable jetlag. Having been here once before but many years ago and remembering little about it, Singapore came as a very pleasant surprise as she found it more modern, clean and green than she had expected.

The original plan had been for us all to spend the first weekend in Malacca, about 3 hours drive north into Malaysia, as it was a public holiday in Singapore on the Monday. I'd booked the hotel weeks before but when I went to the bus station to book the bus tickets (I couldn't get the website to cooperate), they said they were restructuring their price scale so, could I come back in a few weeks time? When I returned at the appointed time, I was told that all the tickets had been sold out as it was a holiday and many Indian families were returning to Malaysia to spend the weekend with family. Did I know it was a holiday weekend? Yes, that was why we wanted to go! At the time, that was particularly frustrating.

There were other ways to get there, such as getting a taxi to the border and looking for a Malaysian taxi on the other side and then haggling over the price. Certainly, in our former days of backpacking, we wouldn't have batted an eyelid at this. But with David's mum and the children with us, 5 people being too many passengers if we all wanted seatbelts and some comfort (and we did) on a busy holiday weekend, we concluded that wasn't ideal and so we ended up cancelling the hotel reservation.

As it turned out, it was a good thing. She came with us to the childrens’ Saturday morning tennis and dance lessons and then slipped and fell on a wet tiled floor, bruising her foot very badly. Walking round Malacca would have been a non-starter for her, so spending some time recuperating in a nice hotel and at our condo (plus an open top bus trip round parts of Singapore) turned out to be a much easier way to spend the long weekend. (Janet, I hope you don't mind me posting a photo of you all in the pool, but you were all having so much fun!)


With mobility improving, she hit the shops and we did some sightseeing, including the night safari zoo and the bird park on the final weekend. The timing of her visit was such that she was able to attend Hannah's school assembly held for the Indian festival of Deepavali, too.

The assembly was a very colourful event in which all the children in the infant part of the school dressed in Indian clothes and performed a play about the festival along with other songs and short sketches. Hannah is now an expert on Rama and Sita and has been reciting the story as fluidly as if it were Goldilocks and the Three Bears.

The requirement to get an Indian outfit at reasonable cost took us to one of Singapore's great institutions - The Mustafa Centre. This is a huge department store in "Little India" run by an Indian man who started with a very small shop that has grown beyond all recognition. It now fills two large buildings over 6 or 7 floors and is open 24 hours. It's also the only place here to buy the full range of Indian cooking condiments and English made Cadburys chocolate (can't image how I know that last bit!), not to be confused with Australian or Malaysian Cadbury’s chocolate which is made to a different recipe and just not the same.

It was David's first visit and he can't wait to go back with a bit more time to spare. It really is quite an extraordinary place, an incredible emporium. Mr Mustafa keeps prices low by putting as much on display as possible (saves warehouse costs) and not worrying too much about beautifying the displays. Everything is piled high and the shelves overflowing into aisles barely wide enough for 2 people to pass. But there's not much you can't get there either. There were so many gorgeous Indian outfits it was a tough decision, but Hannah does look fabulous in the one we finally settled on.

To end Janet’s trip, we had dinner in a lovely restaurant located in the Botanical Gardens and finished with a night time stroll, wandering along the paths with the trees and shrubs subtly lit. It was a fun week and it really brings home how much there is to do here - she was here for 10 days and there are so many things we never got to. Of course, all those shopping possibilities proved something of a distraction too!

Building Business Relations

Mid October brought our half term and as David can't spend all the school holidays exploring Asia he managed to plan a business trip to Bangkok to coincide with our week so we could tag along and be tourists.

The first few days we spent in the north in Chiang Mai, and took several tours to explore the region. This was great fun and I think the highlight for the kids was a ride down a river on a bamboo raft. Gotta love those hats!

Had to add this photo in. We took this from a car on a road near Chiang Mai. We just loved the guys sitting on the motorbike sticking out of the back door of the mini-bus. No wonder the locals think we're weird when we feel uncomfortable about travelling without rear seatbelts!

We left Chiang Mai to head to off Bangkok where David was going to spend the week days seeing clients whilst we were tourists.

At the weekend we visited some of Bangkok's major tourist attractions like the Grand Palace and even the children were impressed with the gold and opulence on show there.

But one of David’s clients got wind of the fact that his family were in Bangkok too and kindly offered to take us out for a day.

Arrangements were made for us to be collected at 9am. This may not sound much, especially as we catch the school bus at 7.55 each morning at home, but getting Adam through a breakfast buffet on the scale of the one offered by the hotel we were in, in less than an hour, is quite an achievement. The lady who was going to take us out arrived early, too.

We met and she said that she was taking us first to an orchid farm. We drove, first through central Bangkok and the driver pointed out sights and she translated. We then drove for another hour or more to the outer edges of the city. Hannah was too short to see out of the windows so was, understandably, bored and kept asking how much longer. Finally we arrived. Surawee (the Thai client) was very proud of the orchid farm and I enjoyed the visit, but it was hard keeping two young children interested. Fortunately, an ice-cream or two helped.

We were then driven for another 40 minutes or so, to arrive at a temple by the river. A near disasater when, as we arrived, Adam felt sick. As we dashed out of the car in search of toilets, I turned my ankle over on an uneven bit of the path, so with me limping and Adam all green, we were directed to some chairs to sit on. 5 minutes sitting down and we were both feeling a little better, fortunately.

We saw parts of the temple and were then taken into the market. Here, with the aid of Surawee acting as translator, we tried and tasted things, then had lunch on a sort of floating platform at the back. The plan had been to take a boat trip to the floating market, but unfortunately there wasn't time to do that before Surawee had to return to Bangkok for an afternoon meeting (and besides, from the information we had, we do not think it was open that morning anyway!). The children were disappointed, but I think we hid it from her, then they were dispatched to the loos before we headed back in the car.

But 15 minutes into the journey, whilst on a highway with nowhere to pull over, Adam said he needed the loo again. He held on for a while longer, but when we got into town and were passing shops he was getting quite desperate and asking if there was anywhere we could stop. There was not. Despite not speaking English, the driver suddenly realised what was going on. He quickly emptied the contents of his water bottle out of the window and passed it to us in the back. Despite having an interest in and an aptitude for science, Adam lay back and aimed into the bottle upwards. Fortunately, I spotted this in time and managed to get him rearranged on the edge of the seat before any spillage occurred.

When done, I put the lid on and planned to dispose of it back at the hotel, but Surawee insisted on taking it and putting it in a bag to take away. I felt this was a duty beyond normal client relations, but she insisted. Finally, we were dropped off by a skytrain station as Adam wanted to travel on the Bangkok Skytrain (a raised metro system which must be the fastest way of getting around). I think that bit was the highlight of Adam’s day. The train, not using a bottle, that is!

Well, we wait to see if Dolphin gets any more business or if our slightly bored children with apparently weak bladders have ruined what used to be a good working relationship. Time will tell!