Aussie land here we Come!

So Clark and I are really excited to head off to Perth, Australia this coming weekend! Neither of us have visited Australia so this will be yet another new adventure we get to do together! Some of our plans will include:

Scuba Diving at Rottnest Island

Seeing some Kangaroos and Koalas

Or maybe even go in a shark cage...Clark's idea...yeah I'm thinking NOT! I would seriously pee in my pants!

Like are you kidding me Clark??? This is a shark from South Australia...where we will be...you are CRAZY. I think I will stick with the cute Koalas...ok?

Hopefully we won't die before we get back home. Have you ever been to Perth? I hear it is one of the quieter places of Australia but hey it wasn't expensive so we were okay with foregoing the visit to Sydney. If you have any suggestions on what to do please let us know! We leave Friday!

Homebound!

Well it is official! Clark and I will be moving back to Florida at the end of March 09! Clark's one year contract here in Singapore is over and we decided not to extend for different reasons. We will move back to our house in Tampa, which we have been renting out for the last year. Clark will work on the same RMS team in Florida and I will keep my job that I have in Singapore but I will get to work from HOME!!! YAY!

Before we head home we will stop in Beijing for about 4 days and do some sightseeing! I have always dreamed of seeing The Great Wall of China! I am sooo excited! It will also be a nice birthday gift (March 26th, don't forget!!!)!

The year has flown by too fast. It seems like we just moved here a few weeks ago. We can't wait to see all our friends and family back home though! We will definitely miss all the friends we have made here in Singapore. It was been such a blessing and great experience to be able to live in a different country and looking back on our decision we can honestly say we do not regret coming here! I'll make another blog post closer to when we are heading out because I am sure I will have some things to blog about...like things I'll miss and things I can't wait to do when I get HOME! (shop at Target, drive a CAR, not using public transport...)

We head to see the families in Chicago and Atlanta before we get home to Tampa so the countdown to Tampa is April 13th!!! Get READY!!!

Happy Valentines Day

A festive weekend with Phil

This past weekend Clark's dad Phil stopped in Singapore to see us on his way to Australia. We really enjoyed him being here and we even did some sight seeing with him.

These are pictures I took from the top of Phil's hotel downtown. Raffles Place city business district is the top picture and the Singapore Flyer and ocean is the picture below.

Phil enjoys all the Chinese medicine that Singapore has to offer so we headed to Eu Yan Sang in Chinatown to check out all the herbal medicines. Eu Yan first set up shop in Malaysia where he dispensed herbs to local mine coolies.


Next we headed to the Tooth Relic Temple where we went inside and saw the many relics of the Buddahs. Clark also thought the prayer wheel was a bit interesting.


After the temple we headed over to Mr. Wong's to grab some noodles for lunch. Mr. Wong was the first to have steamed dumplings in Singapore but then Crystal Jade and everyone else took his idea and copied him. Right after we ate there was a traditional dance performance that was going to take place inside Mr. Wongs. I believe this 45 min. traditional Chinese New Year dance brings good luck and prosperity to the shop.

To settle our food we decided to relax and get foot reflexology done. I opted out of the reflexology because it is basically a really strong foot massage that HURTS! So I decided to go to the fish spa and have these sucking fish suck onto my hands and feet to get the dead skin off. I hear they stopped this practice in the States awhile ago but I'm glad I got to experience it! It tickled for the first minute but then I got use to it!

Phil getting his feet done!

The next day we headed to Little India to watch the Thaipusam ritualistic festival. Thaipusam is one of the most colourful and ritualistic festival celebrated in Singapore. This annual event is held in honor of the Hindu God Subramaniam (Lord Murugan). It is observed as a day of prayers, thanksgiving for wishes granted, fulfillment of vows and for good health. The ceremony starts in the early morning where devotees carrying milkpots and wooden Kavadis leave Sri Perumal Temple. The elaborately decorated spiked Kavadis set off in the later part of the morning and continue till late night. These devotees will undertake a 4.5km walk from Sri Perumal Temple to Sri Thandayuthapani Temple. On reaching the Sri Thandayuthapani Temple, the devotees get into a joyful frenzy as they offer the milk they have been carrying to Lord Murugan.

Later that day we celebrated Phil's birthday! We had the hotel order Phil a cake and he was quite surprised! That night we went to the hip strip called Clarke Quay to eat some tasty Mexican food at Cafe Iguanas for Phil's bday dinner.

Enjoying our time down in Clarke Quay!

A cut in the cornea...

So I was feeling a little discomfort in my right eye two days ago..discomfort meaning I felt there was something in my eye that wouldn't come out! After much rubbing and flushing of the eye (rubbing probably not the best idea) I headed to the eye doctor and found out that my cornea has a little cut :(


The doctor put a orange dye in my eye which shows if there is any infection/cut. The little green butterfly looking thing in the middle of my cornea is my cut. So I guess its glasses for me until this thing heals...great.

On a better note, Clark's dad Phil is coming to visit today! He'll be here for a week! Yay!

A New Year, A New Trip- Bangkok, Thailand

For the Chinese New Year, which happens in January, Clark and I decided we would head to Bangkok for the long weekend! I must say we had tons of fun! We are able to leave in the afternoon, which is a change from our normal leave at 8pm at night trips, and we were even upgraded for free to Business Class-both times! woo hoo!

The first day we spent looking around Bangkok and going to the night markets they have. You can find everything from fake watches to fake Tiffany's! We even took the transportation called the Tuk Tuk everywhere! Just imagine a Scooby Doo car that is way small and has no doors! Each ride costs around 100 baht- $3 US dollars. Here is Clark right before we got in the Tuk Tuk.

Next we headed over to McDonald's to take a picture with good ole Ronald McDonald...only in Asia would you see something like this...!

The next day we headed to the Reclining Buddha. The Reclining Buddha is huge, plated in gold, and is obviously reclining. We were told to wear pants in the temple...which made it ten times more HOT!

Next we headed over the Grand Palace. There you will find a lot of miniature temples and tons of holy figures. The Emerald Buddha is located in one of the main temples and you are not aloud to take pics inside...oh well...but we got great pictures outside on the temple grounds. Also, we were not able to go inside the Grand Palace but again we took some pics outside!

The next day we booked a tour to go to the floating market where you see all the locals exchange foods such as fruits and veggies. However, they travel agencies don't like to tell you that you will be taking a few extra stops on the way to your excursions...so we stopped at the Coconut and Orchad Farm. We saw how coconut sweet chips are made and we even got to scrap the coconut out of the shell...haha yeah I know...it was cool.

We took a cool canoe speed boat to the market that had a V8 engine bolted on the back...which ended up being a longer ride than the market itself! The floating market was packed once we arrived and we waited in line for what seemed like eternity. The market is more touristy now but you were still able to get the point!

After the market we stopped at a wood carving facility. Clark and I really wanted to buy this chair but it was too much!

Then...we headed to the World War II cemetery. There were tons of graves and they were in a nice layout.

Right next to the World War II cemetery was the War Museum which was next to the Death Rail which is where the Japanese captured people and made them work to death...literally to build this railroad.

Our last tour of the week was a trip to ride elephants and see tigers at the Tiger Farm. Clark and I got to guide the elephants as well! The only part I didn't enjoy is when the elephants decided they were hot and sprayed water/snot on themselves which ended up on us as well! Yuck!

Sorry that the tigers look dead or drugged but they just ate and they were enjoying their nap!

We really enjoyed our trip to Bangkok and we especially enjoyed the cheap Thai massages every night! We booked a trip to Perth, Australia for the end of February so we are looking forward to that!