Chaos and Kairos

Friday, April 06, 2007

Merlion

One of the famous Singapore sights is the Merlion statue. This is a figure of a lion and a fish which has come to represent Singapore. For some reason, Kei was really fascinated by it and wanted to see the statue. He wanted to see the fountain one near the water (in front of the Fullerton Hotel) as well as the large one on the island of Sentosa.





We hadn't really planned to go to Sentosa, but since we were very close on our final day, we decided to go see the statue. (While we were there we also jumped on the luge ride down to the beach and took the sky ride back. It ended up being a fun adventure...)




The luge ride was fast and fun. We did the tourist thing and bought the photo of good friend Lori and the three of us since it came out so well....


Thursday, April 05, 2007

Locked out!

We left Aunt Nobuko and Uncle Dennis' house at 4:30am on Wednesday morning. We had a great time with them--visiting, eating, and see "local" Singapore. It was fun and we learned to get around on trains, buses and taxis. It is easy visiting a country that speaks English and where the time difference is only 1 hour! Anyway, we arrived back in Japan at 2:15pm and were out of customs at 2:30pm! Nice not to have checked bags! We took a train home and arrived in our town a little before 5pm. It was raining and very cold! (We were dressed for warmer weather!) I wanted to take a taxi home but the line was long so we bought umbrellas instead! The kids went home before me while I picked up a few items of food for us. I got home around 5:30pm to find the kids standing outside the house with our luggage out in the rain. It seems that our guests had fastened the front door security latch before leaving through the back door. This would have been fine, but we did not have a back door key with us. Kei and Kie tried their best to come up with ideas to get us in. I went to the in-laws house to see if the key had arrived. (Our guests were to mail the key to their house.) Well, since the in-laws are on vacation they probably stopped the mail--no key. I returned home. We tried some other options. Nothing worked. Kie was praying we could get in--she was especially cold! All of a sudden a man appeared at our gate--it was the building contractor from the remodel. He was coming to set up a time to fix a couple of things on the house! Wow! He called the door people who told us we would have to get a locksmith! Meanwhile Kei is studying the door and suggests a certain method which the contractor tries and we get a bit closer to getting in. He goes to his van to get some tools and Kei and I manage to get the latch off! So we were able to get in! Too cool! God is good!

Wednesday, April 04, 2007

Malaysia

Here are a few shots from Malaysia. Kie with her favorite drink...fresh Mango smoothie! It is also her favorite fruit. She ate it every chance she got in Malaysia and also Singapore. Takeshi and I checked out a local market near our hotel in Melaka. We also had a nice banquet celebrating 40 years of A2. We were supposed to dress in our national costumes. I am not sure what this says about Takeshi...

The kids and I are now at Chiangi Airport in Singapore waiting for our early morning flight. I will post more later. We had a great time in both Malaysia and Singapore and want to come back...




Sunday, April 01, 2007

Apa Khabar?

Khabar baik, terima kasih!

We had a great time in Malaysia. We flew into Singapore on March 23rd and took three buses and taxi the next morning to Port Dickson, Malaysia. We left at 7:30am and arrived at our destination at 6pm. It was a good start to our current adventure!

We stayed at this resort on the water from the 24th through the morning of the 29th. Then we headed by taxi to Melaka (or Malacca). That is another blog.


We had rooms next door to the kids. Our shower was semi-outdoors. You could look up to see the sky and look down to see the ocean.


The food was also amazing. One afternoon/evening we went into KL (Kuala Lampor) to sightsee and eat! We had a good time and would like to go back when we can take it slower.



On the bus ride from Singapore to Malaysia I studied Malay and learned about 8 phrases and about 30 words. It came in handy and I had fun talking to people. The title means how are you and the first line is fine thank you.

Takeshi had a great time bargaining and Kei discovered that he likes to bargain as well. Kie and I prefer to find an ice cream or fresh fruit stand and wait for the guys to come back with their prizes!!