Pulau Siba; Rimba Resort

Since we hadn't been away together even once in the region since we moved to Singapore, it was very much high time to do a get-away last weekend and the aim was Rimba at Pulau Sibu. We took a minivan over the bridge from Singapore to Johor Bahru and continued up through Malaysia for a couple of hours on roads which left much to desire. In addition, the chauffeur was was probably keen on getting home early, since he was driving close to 90 km/h where he should not have been doing more than 50 = it felt like being in a weird simulator at a fun fare. 

We then climbed into a speed boat and considering four out of five in our party are very familiar boat drivers, they were not that impressed by the skills of the captain, who steered his vessel into and over every wave he could find. This left the rest of us bouncing around like flipper balls and I was seriously worried at one point that we'd end up in the pitch black waters (which in my imagination of course comes with being eaten by sharks or drowned by jelly fish). However, we made it safe and sound ashore where we were greeted by a welcome committee fit for royalty, with help getting to our bungalows, followed by food and drinks on the beach under the palm trees. The weekend had started!

Getting back to our hut, we were further welcomed by a 15 cm long and 2 cm diameter wide millipede. And yes, of course it was me who found it walking into the bathroom. And yes, of course I screamed like I was about to get murdered. And yes, of course I made the guys pick it up..

..and put it into a huge bucket; the pic is really bad I know, but i just wanted to post proof ;)

After this I made poor Jonas check the entire place for possible lizards, snakes or large insects; besides a huge, super green, praying mantis parked right on top of the mosquito net, the coast was clear..

..but I seriously wanted our room sorted, considering it was completely open towards the jungle, with just a roof and paper thin walls. And again yes, of course I supervised all the checking from the bed, behind the mosquito net ;)

The next morning we got a good look at our surroundings walking to the breakfast..

..from our bungalow..

..next to the beach..

..passing by several hammocks hanging between the palm trees

Even the modern things like TV disk antennas had been hidden in huge palm trees (can you see them?), so the whole place really oozed genuine Malay beach village

And if you got lost, there were at least two signs sorting out the most important sites on land..

..just to make things clear

The beach, 20 meters from our doorstep, where we arrived the day before..

..with amongst others a beautiful bench facing the ocean. Imagine sitting there with a cup of coffee and a book during a calm afternoon, listening to the ocean

Entrance to the resort reception, where the entire left side of the building was completely open

The boys having breakfast in the dining room

Exited and prepping for the first dive

The boats to take us out were arriving on the beach..

..and we started suiting up..

..until everyone was ready

The first dive was done from the shore, which was new to me and considering the waters were so shallow, I don't recommend it. We swam for ever. On top of that, there had been a storm the night before, so the visibility was very bad and I could only see about a meter in front of me. And on top of that, my ears really started acting up so I had quite some troubles equalizing and it took almost 10 minutes to reach 10 meters. All in all, not the best dive in the world, but it was good to brush up some old skills again regarding the equipment

When we got back, it was time for lunch and then a short nap in one of the hammocks, rocking slowly back and forth, listening to the ocean gently rolling a few meters away

Lisen also decided to chill for a bit..

..while other guests hanged out on the typical pillowed mattresses they have all over this region

Then it was time to saddle up again!

This time we took the boat out instead and headed for a reef next to a few small islands. The dive master did warn us about possible currents, but I think everyone got very surprised they were so strong. In addition, since I need some time to equalize as soon as I reach about 5 meters, I can't just dive from 5 to 15 in one go, which is exactly what you have to do occasionally to avoid currents. Hence, when push came to shove and I tried following the pace of the others diving under the current, I felt like someone jammed a knife straight in my ear and ended up bolting for the surface. Jonas was short to follow and soon both Lisen and Robert surfaced next to us. It was only a few minutes before we had drifted at least 100 meters. Due to the bad visibility and being a bit shocked by how strong  the current had  been, both Lisen and I got slightly concerned and decided to sit out the next dive

We were let off at one of the small islands..

..with a deserted beach..

..exotic caves..

..and corral, oh so much corral

We spent almost an hour picking really cute shells and I can't remember I've done that since I was a little girl. The colors ranged all over the spectrum and most of them actually looked like candy. It's absolutely fantastic which shapes nature can take and considering the amount of shells and corral we found, the reef outside the islands must have been enormous 

I also found a huge one to put them into and it looked exactly like the one I got from my grandmother as a kid

The guys came back after about an hour and were happy with their round, amongst others spotting big, and probably quite old, sea turtles

When we got back back to the resort I realized exactly how much walls the bathroom in our hut didn't have; in addition, the actual bathroom floor was about a meter lower than the rest of the house, so you had to walk down a small stair to reach it. When I was standing in the shower area, the wall reached just above my head though, so that was OK ;) There was however no warm water, but vikings obviously don't complain  

I also realized that without glass in the windows..

..and a plastic sheet as the front door..

..which could be opened fairly easy, it was no wonder a huge camelion-looking lizard had no troubles finding its way into our house. It did leave quite quickly through the sealing when I came in, so I guess it works both ways 

The evening continued with BBQ dinner..

 ..a lot of laughter..

..more laughter..

..even more laughter..

..until the next morning. We had an enormous breakfast with a lot of coffee and left for another two dives before lunch. The water was beautiful and fairly clear. In addition I tried going down head first this round and it really helped with the equalizing difficulties, strangely enough. We saw a lot of stingrays, trigger/clown/parrot/idol fish and a very cool moray eel which was black and white with almost leopard-looking spots. Unfortunately going up, I managed to get my regulator in the wrong way and took a huge breath, swallowing half the ocean. I then swam up too quickly and scraped my leg on the boat ladder, which of course looked ten times worse than it really was. However, blood in the water and my undying respect for 2 meter long black tip reef sharks, which apparently were lurking around the reef in vast numbers, did do its trick regarding getting me on board quite quickly. Therefore, since I think I've basically done everything wrong possibly by now, according to my logic, the next time will be perfect

After the late lunch, we chilled for a few hours, before jumping on a boat again to take us to the main land. Coming back to Singapore was actually quite nice and all in all our first weekend trip had been truly great, lasting from Friday afternoon until Sunday evening. 

We are now getting in shape for the next adventure starting tomorrow and stretching on for a whole week, celebrating our 10-year anniversary. It's actually soon 11 years, but we were quite busy last year with earthquakes, moving from our beloved Japan and finding a new home, so we had to wait until things settled down a bit. Anyways, thank you Lisen, Robert and Christian for a smashing weekend and Koh Samui here we come! And yes, we will work on Jonas' tan ;)

Lady Gaga!

A couple of weeks ago we went to our first concert in Singapore and it wasn't just any artist. It was Miss Gaga, oh la la! The whole thing was a surprise from my dear husband, who had planned everything months in advance. I was really happy he'd bought concert tickets, since I still thought I hated concerts, after all my hideous experiences of standing up for hours, being pushed around by over enthusiastic fans. But with SEATS, concerts are completely different ;)

It all started with Jonas being very secretive, sending and checking messages left and right

Then, after probably the best burger we've had in Asia so far on Anson Road, we were all of a sudden in a taxi on our way to Singapore Outdoor Stadium. Close to the stadium, he showed me the above!

 My proud husband (in a very new shirt I helped pick out I might add), almost in the front of the line for our seats on one of the balconies

Since I knew something was up, I had 'accidentally' stumbled into a dress sale at Monsoon a few days earlier; this seemed like a golden opportunity to wear one of the new purchases. It's actually a bit tricky though to plan what to wear here, since if you are indoors, you do need to take care that you don't get a cold from the AC. Therefore, a dress like the above comes with both tights, a sweater and a scarf with no exceptions  

Husband J highly proud by the eminent places he'd scored; I was so thankful we didn't have standing seats!

 Posing in the VIP lounge with the lady herself in the background

 Parts of the crowd. Please notice the cupcake-white-frosting-dressed participant almost in the middle of the pic. We did. Especially when she started tap dancing

 The arena kept on filling up until it was completely bursting and then the show started with a flamingo-throw-up-like-light-show..

 ..moving on to a jail-bird-theme..

..until everyone was completely sold, rocking out in artificial mist and my favorite green color!

I was not shocked by the actual performance, since I knew it'd be something quite outrageous and who hasn't seen quite a few of Madonna's very interesting videos? But this is different. At one point for instance, the lady, who had obviously borrowed Cher's outfit from 'If I could turn back time' (minus the leather jacket), was rubbing herself against an MC. In Singapore. There was also a lot of propaganda for uprising as well and the opening act was the star herself giving birth to her entourage, standing on top of a big dummy, portraying all the glory between a woman's legs. And this particular glory was about 3 m:s high, so with her voicing labor at the same time as encouraging all her 'little monster to leave the womb', things became very graphic. I was actually rather surprised they allowed the show at all ;)

However, it was really great singing and dancing throughout and I hope there will be more evenings like this to come!  

New age, hawker, hair, vowes and flowers

During one month we did a lot of new stuff in Singapore: Jonas had his first birthday here, we changed our local hawker center, I changed my haircut completely, we saw a wedding in an HDB and got new flowers for the entire apartment.

Maybe my husband didn't completely agree with becoming a year older, but he certainly agreed with his birthday present: an iPad with all possible gadgets under the sun. Here he is celebrating with me at Greenwood Bistro where the food is outstanding (even more so this time), but pretty much everything else went wrong that can go wrong. And it always seem to do at this place, but the personnel is very friendly ;)

I mean cheese cake with fudge sauce; really?!

Choosing food at our new hawker the day after was however also an adventure..

..and required a lot of pointing, but was well worth it. It's really amazing how good the food can be at some places and cost absolutely nothing. AND it's absolutely amazing how bad the hawker food I've had so far in any educational environment has been. That's just plain weird, but really true

Singapore and hair has not been working out great for me so far (looking most days like a breed between a background singer in Bony M and anyone from Def Leppard) and one of the things from Tokyo that I really loved was my straight perm and bangs. I have hence basically not wanted to make an effort, since the last time I did, I spent two hours trying to get things straight, which after four minutes in the humidity outdoors made me look like Barbra Streisand. Eventually I got really tired of my constant beach hairdo and decided to go blonder, a lot shorter and very much straighter..

..but I still managed to sort out my Swedish side-braid, even though it's now significantly more difficult

During an early evening I passed by our neighbor HDB and saw to my surprise that they had started decorating the first floor under the houses almost like a dining room  

 Walking closer I could see that there were seats for over 200 people with real chandeliers hanging from the cealings.. 

 ..even in front of the graffiti wall for Fair Price (a large food chain in Singapore)

 I think this was the bride and groom's entrance..

..with a Thousand-And-One-Night-looking alter with beautiful flowers and gold sparkling ornaments. Everything is outdoors, but quite cleverly place under the actual apartments, probably due to the almost daily tropical rains. I thought it all looked almost magical and was quite in awe over how different the hood next to us could look in such a short time

Inspired by the above, I decided to head to a huge flower plantation shop, to find new decorations for our own home. And boy did I find a lot of orchids that will most likely go kamikaze on us as usual ;)

In addition, until just recently I had actually not been out of Singapore since we moved here in mid June last year. That is the longest I've stayed consecutively in one country since I finished A-levels, due to moves, pre-docs and conferences, so no wonder I've felt slightly claustrophobic. More about our first diving trip to Pulau Siba is coming up and I hope to have time to post it before we go on our second one.. To Koh Samui on an almost one year late 10-year anniversary, leaving this Saturday for a whole week!

Sis and BF in Singapore!

Sister Maija and boyfriend Par also came to Singapore and we managed to do the marina the very first evening! Since they were with us for three weekends, doing traveling around the region during the weeks, the following will mostly be pics of our nightly adventures. In addition, Singapore is not that big and if you are from Sweden you do want to experience the food, sky bars and everything else which is different. During the days we mostly shopped, ate or chilled by the pool. 

 Jonas, Par and Maija posing at Level 33 with Marina Bay Sands and the casino (blue) in the background

Husband Jonas and sister Maija giving it their best shot ;)

And then another sister joined the group!

A few evenings later we went to Ku De Ta, where Par scored a highly manly pink drink; he was very impressed and is it even his handbag in the background..?

Maija in the new dress we (amongst other things..) ended up shopping, with the Art and Science museum in the form of a white lotus flower in the background

It's quite pretty, but both our guests did mention that the view from Mori Tower in Roppongi was probably the best they've seen ever; not to say this is bad either..

Long Bar at Raffles was also popular, but the Sling glasses must've had holes in them

1-Altitude became a hit but Par thought it best to hold on to Maija so she didn't fall over the edge

It took a few minutes until everyone dared to lean over the rails and check out Chinatown from above..

..or take pics of Equinox and New Asia Bar on the 72nd floor in Swiss Hotel across the river 

The last dinner was had by the river at Robertson Quay..

..where the purple thing in the background was mistaken for the ordering machine they had in Japan. That mistake became hilarious, especially when sis M started talking into it

Tack lilla fina Maijabaja och Par for besoket; valkomna ater!