The Man With Golden Bug Eyes

Malaysia was a nice get away for our family but going out of Singapore and going into Malaysia is not without risk.

First of all there is a lot more crime in Malaysia we did not take any jewelry with us, watches, wedding rings etc... were all left in  Singapore.  Our passports and Singapore ID cards were securely locked and on our bodies at all times.  The cash we brought with us was divided between Scott and I so if one got robbed we would still have some.

We have been warned about Malaysia and the crime so we decided not to drive ourselves.  It is well known that the police in Malaysia sometimes target Singapore plates and give you a ticket but if you pay them like $300.00 they can make the ticket go away.  We did not want to deal with anything like that so we traveled in a group by taking a bus. 

The thing is.... once we got to our town, Kuala Rompin we were the only people to get off the bus, so there we were, four very white, very non Muslim looking people in the middle of this little town and not a cab was in site.

Scott asked the bus driver if there would be a cab coming by and the driver pointed to a square slab of cement and said the cab stand is there and yes, a cab will come, you just have to wait.

So we waited but we definitely stood out and were feeling a bit uncomfortable just knowing all the stories we have heard.

It was not long and a man approached us, instantly I did not feel comfortable with him, he just gave me the creeps, but we thought maybe he was the cab driver, he asked us where we were heading, Scott told him.  The man said, "oh no problem, I have a car right over there, you can just follow me and get into my car and I will take you to your destination for only $20.00."

At this point we realized this is NOT a cab driver, all sorts of things were going through our heads, but we knew we were in a public place, there were about 40 people waiting for buses not far from us.  We simply told the man "no" we will not get into your car, we will wait here for a cab.

The man then told us that no cabs would come here and that we needed to walk to a different cab station so why don't we just get into his car and he will drive us to our destination.  While Scott and the boys were assuring this man that there was no way we were going to walk to his car, I saw a nice looking woman with a bright pink shirt and a white head covering, she looked safe to me so I approached her.  She did not speak much English but did understand "taxi" and understood that I was asking her if one would come to where we were, she said yes they will come just wait.

Well the guy got the message and decided to walk away from us, about 10 minutes later a taxi did come.  It is amazing this thing even ran, lets just say it was a very interesting ride to the resort but we were happy to get away from the man with the golden bug eyes.  Before our family got into the cab, Scott took down the license plate on his Black Berry and e-mailed it to my parents "just in case".

As you can tell we were nervous.  When we arrived at the resort, it wasn't exactly what we were expecting, with some mold growing and we were all on edge.  It took us a bit to settle down and relax and actually enjoy ourselves. 

Before going home we had the hotel call us a cab to get back to the bus station, we were pleased that a nice cab came to pick us up and were feeling better about our trip.  The bus station was full of people waiting and then we spotted him, the man with the golden bug eyes was back!  He was passing out cigarettes to the young boys at the station and he waved to our family and approached Scott to ask if we had a paid ticket.  When he found out that we had a paid ticket he basically left us alone. 

I so badly wanted a picture of him as he and his ride offer was such a big part of our trip.  Then we saw his car, the boys started cracking up as it is totally not like any of the other cars and just added to the creepiness of the situation.  When we got on the bus, I had an opportunity to take some pictures from the bus window. 

Here is his car.

and here is the "Man With The Golden Bug Eyes"

We we will stick with the "just say no" policy on this one.  We were kind to him by the way just not willing to get into his car.

Kuala Rompin Malaysia

We took a little mini vacation to Malaysia at the end of 2010, this year has certainly been an adventure for our family and we needed to escape the city life a little bit and regroup.

 You can easily take a bus from Singapore over to Malaysia and with some research we found that Transnational buses had a good safety record so we went with them.

The bus stop is in Little India and the waiting is done outside

your tickets are sold from a trailer, we bought our tickets a week before we left, you can not do this on line, you have to do it the old fashion way and actually go to the station to buy the tickets.

We had a six hour bus ride and there is not bathroom on the bus, and Caleb and I had some little bug visitors on our floor.  The bus did stop to pick people up and one 30 minute stop to eat and use the bathroom, here the boys are in front of the bathrooms

There really is a lot of mosaic tile work on the buildings and just some interesting buildings in general along our way.

We stayed at the Sommerset Resort in Kuala Rompin, it is an old colonial building, very large and on hundreds of acres of rain forest land where the monkeys were running wild and swinging from tree to tree.
I tried to get a picture of a monkey but they are fast, they were having fun shaking the trees so that water fell on our heads.  Scott and the boys are pointing to one, can you see it?

 

There was a ropes course in the rain forest so the boys had fun climbing and playing on some of the set ups.

 The landscape in Malaysia where we were was very wild, so we saw many bugs, here are some red ants, we don't know if they bite so we decided not to get close enough to find out.

The resort is located on the South China Sea and we had fun playing in the waves, normally you can hire a boat for really cheap, like $30.00 a day and it will take you to all these little islands and you can snorkel but it is monsoon season so we just stuck around the grounds.

The tide was coming in and the waves had a relaxing rhythm as the sun was going down. It was exactly what we needed a little R&R.

We took advantage of having no obligations and read books, played 3/4 of a game of China Rails, Caleb was clearly winning when we stopped.

The grounds were pretty and the staff was nice, the cleanliness standards are not quite up to the standards we would have in the U.S. so that took a bit of getting used to, there was mold on the pillow etc... but all in all it was really a great trip.

Arab Street

There are many different "ethnic districts" in Singapore, today we went to Arab Street for a wonderful family adventure. 

Victoria Street Wholesale Market is right across the street from Arab Street so we started off by going through the market.

You can buy multiple items in bulk at the market, and there are definite smells in this market as well some good and some not so good. 

We were thrilled when we came across this fresh coffee stall, coffee in the grocery stores here is expensive and we are almost out of the coffee we brought with us from the States.  We were able to pick out our coffee and have it ground for a great price.

We also found some dried fruit and some nuts, even peanuts which are surprisingly hard to find here.  This man is weighing out some seedless dates for us.

 Chinese New Year is in February so there are many different stalls selling decorations for the New Year celebration.

We bought a wok lid and some small clothes to carry with us to mop the sweat off our brow when we are out, it is what all the locals do.

One can also purchase cigarettes in the Victoria Street Market, in Singapore there is not just simply a "Surgeon General Warning" on the package but rather a very vivid picture of what may happen to you if you choose to smoke, these pictures are on every pack of cigarettes sold in Singapore.

After the market we headed on over to Arab street this is a delightful area of Singapore with lots of smells, sounds and sights that took us back to when we were in Istanbul. There are a lot of basket, and fabric shops. 

Side walk cafes are a plenty and as the night gets late, the crowd gets thick, we went early and are glad we did. 

Many of the cafes have these hookahs that you can pay to smoke while you dine, this man said "yes" when I asked him if I could take his picture for this blog and he was very pleased to show me how to use the hookah.

The shops on Arab Street are very colorful and interesting it makes for a really fun shopping experience

We even found some rice patty hats and while we did not buy one it was a fun photo op, I think we may purchase one the next time we are there, they are only $3.00 and I think it may look cool hanging on our wall upstairs not to mention it is a great missions fest decoration.

We love Turkish food and while there are a lot of different Arab countries represented in the food on Arab street we did find a Turkish cafe and I was thrilled that they had all of my favorite dishes on their menu.

The Istanbul Grill and Cafe is my new favorite restaurant in Singapore, ahhhhh the smell, the music, the flavor, the hot tea, it was just perfect.

oh and they have hookahs available if you desire, we did not desire.

By the time we finished our meal it was dark providing us with a pretty view of the Mosque on our way back to the car.

Little Things

Whew it was a hot one today after church!  We walked down to see if our local MRT station was opening soon, it looks like it is almost done and the neighbor said she thought it would open by Christmas.  The opening of this MRT station is a big deal for us as it instantly allows much easier access to the whole island to the boys and I when Scott has the car at work. 

The MRT line is like a sub way, they are fast, cheap and air conditioned so we are very excited to live only three blocks from this station.  The guard told us it will open March 2011, so not yet but soon.

The sun was BLAZING hot today so by the time we walked back to the Hawker Center to have some lunch I was very hot, it seems like maybe I was having a hot flash on top of being hot as I have never felt quite like I did when we sat down for lunch.

Well it isn't that easy you don't just sit down for lunch you first have to go around to the different stalls and order what you like, wait for it, take it to your table then you can eat.

We are learning what we like at the Hawker Centers and Scott by far is the most adventurous of all of us as he sat down today he said "I have no idea what I just ordered but I am pretty sure there is no fish in it".  Turns out it was a noodle, chili, egg, tofu type thing.  He said it wasn't bad, then offered us a bite, we passed.

We are learning little things here in Singapore that helps with our communication skills.  In the U.S.if you are at a fast food restaurant you would "super size it" here you "top it up"  in the U.S.  you order your food "to go" here you order "take away". 

After eating I was still feeling very zapped from the heat so Scott went to the drink stall we like to get me some lime juice "take away", oh it is soooo good and refreshing, a bit sour, just perfect to perk you up.  We were surprised by the packaging of this "take away drink"  it came in a bag!

It tasted just great, there is much less garbage waste when you are done but you can not set it down anywhere, no matter we managed to suck down that lime juice pretty quickly on this hot day.

Merry Christmas

Christmas, we love Christmas.

 As we celebrate the birth of our Savior there are so many traditions and memories with our family.  This year we are grateful that we "The Miles Family" have set many traditions for Christmas with our children as we are surely missing all of our family back home. 

Singapore recognizes Christmas but the Singaporeans do not celebrate Christmas. Chinese New Year is the big holiday here so businesses will be closed on two days for the Chinese New Year celebration and that is when gifts are given and family gathers in Singapore.

 The businesses are decked out and Christmas music is playing but it is to make the foreigners welcomed to spend the money in their shops.  To be fair, the churches here do have Christmas concerts etc... as an out reach but it really does feel different.

Our family ventured out to Orchard road a few nights ago and here are some pictures we captured

The lights above the streets are beautiful and stretch for miles, about every half mile they change color from blue to red to purple to white etc...

We did find a big nativity scene that stretched for blocks and at the end was a stage with a church singing some Christmas Carols.  I must say it was strange to be standing in shorts and a tank top listening to Christmas Carols and mopping sweat off our brows.

We sure have been blessed this Christmas to have gifts from all our family to open and we are grateful for our computer phone that allows us to talk to our loved ones and Skype, skype is just great, we just had a skype call with Randi's family that are all gathered in Indiana to celebrate Grandpa's 79th birthday.  We hope to be able to skype with Scott's family later today also.

We awoke to our traditional Christmas morning, the reading of our last advent devotion, the lighting of our candle, opening of our gifts and feasting on our traditional breakfast, home made cinnamon rolls, scrambled eggs and bacon, yes, bacon, even at $9.00 a pound it is Christmas so the bacon made it to the table.

We The Miles Family wish all of you a very Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve

It is Christmas Eve here in Singapore.  Scott and I are getting ready to walk over to our local "wet market" it is like a never ending farmers market but they have fresh meat too.  You can find all kinds of "fresh meat" at the wet market, frogs, snails, fish, chickens, ducks, beef, mutton, lots of different kinds of feet to choose from and plenty of organs too all very fresh and fragrant.

We will be going to the beef stall to have some steaks cut for our Christmas dinner, we decided that since we live in a tropical climate we might as well grill some rib eye for dinner.

The wet market is also a great place to get fresh fruit, vegetables and flowers.

The boys are wondering just what will be under the tree tomorrow.  They said that all most all of the kids in their Sunday School class do not celebrate Christmas with trees or gifts.

We went to a nice Christmas Cantata last night (Dec 23) and tonight we will go to the candle light service at our church.  Our Church has over 42 different countries represented with the congregation, it reminds of all nations worshiping our King Jesus.

As our family finishes our Advent devotions we are focusing on the birth of our King and what that birth means to us.  May the Glory of the birth of our Savior permeate all that we do to celebrate this Christmas.