Christmas season begins in October-No Really..

Christmas in the Philippines is huge! There are really no guidelines as to when the season begins, and since there is no Thanksgiving holiday holding back the celebration, it actually starts creeping up on you in September. That is when I heard the first Christmas music, and by mid October, many of the decorations are beginning to go up in the stores, and malls.

It felt kind of funny to be serenaded by Karen Carpenters' "Merry Christmas Darling", as I searched through the Halloween candy for jelly eyeballs.

What is really funny is that when we went to Singapore Oct. 31st, their country was even further ahead! They already had decorations up at the airport and the street lights and sidewalks were already beautifully made up for the holiday season.

I never realized that while we were all making pumpkin pies and looking for the recipe for Grandma's Cornbread Dressing, the whole continent of Asia had started the party without us!

Christmas in a tropical climate is a dramatic change from what we are used to. I like seeing Palm trees decorated with snow flakes, but it is difficult to weave the Christmas lights around the Hibiscus plants without breaking off the flowers!

Since we will be in the states for Christmas, I had not planned to decorate, but after seeing the neighbors go all out, I am feeling the pressure to buy a tree, or at least some yard art. After all, who wants to be the Kranks?

Hangin' with the Ambassador

No, we are not that special. Once a year, the ambassador opens her home to all new US expats. So Terri and I got dressed up like we were going to prom. We got there a little late...probably 100 people there. Unfortunately, it was the same day that the UN Secretary General came to town. So she wasn't even there as she had to leave to meet him.

Well, we got to hang out at the house which was huge with very nice gardens. It was a old house, as every ambassador that is sent here moves in to the same house. And with Obama in office, she is probably on her way home and we will get a new one. Not a thrilling evening, but I can check off "hangin' at the ambassador's house" off my list. Here is proof.

Our house is famous

PG-13 WARNING!!!

As many of you know, our house was home to a teenage Filipino TV star, model and champion race car driver. Obviously, he ran in show business circles. As a result, a local girl band, the Kitty Girls, make a video in our house. Here it is on You Tube. Kind of weird to say the least. This video runs on the local MTV channel.

They are all over the house. After the initial sequence, one of the girls starts out in Brennan's bed, then the guest bed, our kitchen, TV room, swimming pool, living room and even the workout room downstairs with the heavy bag and the mirrors.

I gave the warning up at the beginning. The girls are very pretty and not covered up too well. Actually, that is an under statement. My boys were allowed to see it once.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfJ-JjUZ5HU

Food Combinations

I have told you about interesting restaurants and foods that we have encountered. Here is another one we found in Singapore. It is just a donut shop, but we found this pretty funny. I know there motto will get you hungry.

Donut and bean made fresh!

Singaporean Custom

Forgot to tell you this. I found it quite intriguing. If anyone hands something to you, they always use both hands. This includes change when buying things at a store, a room key at the hotel, a business card, tickets at the zoo. Anything we were handed they would always present with both hands, no matter how small. Even change from the cab drivers.

I have heard that they do this in other Asian countries, but this is the first time we experienced it. They are very polite.

Singapore Zoo

What's up, everyone? The Singapore Zoo was our last stop. It was purty cool. There were lots animals there. I saw my first Polar Bear ever. We got caught in the White Tiger place because of a "flood", it rained so hard. Oh, and check out the giraffe picture! We saw lions, and tigers, and bears (oh my). We also saw a capuchin (or "Dexter" if u watched Night At The Mueseum) that was sitting on a stump. There is a pic of him somewhere in this. He was pretty funny.

Oh yeah, there was a monitor lizard just walking on the sidewalk. Dad says they are native. So the Singapore Zoo is pretty cool.

Dad, here. This was unlike any zoo I have ever been to. Including San Diego and the National Zoo in DC. The paths are narrow through the rainforest. Covered with trees and flowers. Really nice.

Night Safari

Hi, it's Brennan. We all really enjoyed our trip to Singapore. Our first night there, Halloween, we decided to go to the Night Safari. What happens is you sit in a tram and a tour guide takes you around, in the dark, showing you all of the animals. Our tour guide was Asian, but she had a British accent. Every few minutes, she felt she had to say that this is the only Night Safari in the "wuld".

They have a stop about half way through where you can get off and go on trails to look at the animals. But, since it was Halloween, there were people in costumes jumping out of the bushes, and it is very late. The picture on top is of some tribal fire-dancers show. The problem was there were so many people that we couldn't get very close. We got to see quite a few animals, but some of them, mainly the lions, were asleep!

There was also a huge tunnel you could go through filled with bats! Landon seemed uncomfortable so I, of course, gently but quickly brushed my hand on the top of his head and he really got scared. So that was a lot of fun.

They even had a Ben & Jerry's!

Bye, Brennan

Chinatown

Singapore is known for shopping, which happens to be a personal favorite, and though most of the shops are very high-end (Gucci, Prada & Bvlgari to name a few), Chinatown was very unique and fun. We spent a day just walking the streets, looking at the old Temples and going through the stalls and wares that were being sold in the market. You can find many native handmade items, such as jewelry, bags, toys and clothing, along with some not so great things like coin purses made of frogs, and other oddities.
I didn't find the shop keepers as over-anxious as they are here in Manila, so it was much easier to browse and look for bargins. We also found that electronics are not as expensive there, and Steve managed to find a new toy, buying an HD video-camera, that also works as a still camera. He was in heaven with such a great opportunity to try it out!
Here are some pics of the temples. Brennan won't be happy about this picture, but too bad.

Sentosa

We spent one whole day at Sentosa. It is a small island just south of downtown Singapore. We took alot of video, so only Grandma and Grandpa get to see that. Which is probably fine with the rest of you.

Sentosa is the amusement area of Singapore. We started the day taking a cable car ride across the water to the island. The day included lots of little things to do. First, was the Aquarium. Smaller than most, but the bottom floor is a tunnel with fish swimming all around you. You just stand on a moving walkway. One thing we noticed is that we saw sea animals that we have never seen before. Something called a Sea Angel was amazing. Go google it, really neat.

There were two 4D shows. The ones that have 3D glasses and the chairs move around and water drops on you. Not bad and at least air conditioned. (Singapore is 85 miles north of the equator, so always hot and sticky). We also rode down one of the hills there on a luge. It is a small sled with wheels. A race to get to the bottom and then a ski lift back up. Terri loved wearing the mandatory helmet. Also, they have a huge Merlion. This is the symbol of Singapore. Half lion, half mermaid.

It was a fun day. The most interesting thing was the wild monkeys that live on the island. So at the food areas they are walking around and scrounging crumbs. This was a first for us.

Philippine Airlines

Singapore Airlines is considered one of the best carriers in the world. Unfortunately, they cost twice as much as Philippine Airlines does. And, since I am paying for this trip, we flew Philippine Airlines.

Couple of interesting notes. The flight was a little of three hours. Now, here in Asia, that is considered a short flight. Being an American, that is a pretty long flight in our opinion. Anyway, I have to admit, it wasn't bad at all. The plane was clean, the food was fine (even though not the boys favorite) and it felt very safe. There was one big, big problem though. Brennan is now almost as tall as me. And since I was paying....we are flying in coach. Take a look at this.

There is no room. Actually, it was painful. Brennan is in a middle seat, I had the aisle. But even in the aisle seat, I couldn't move my legs to move them into the aisle. Once you fold yourself into the seat, you aren't going anywhere.

I called after we landed and begged for bulkhead or exit rows. They put us all in bulkhead on the return and it was fine. Which is the only row we can sit in if we fly them again.

Vacation #1 - Singapore

This place is beautiful. Singapore is a very advanced, first-world country. The entire island/country is home to 4 million people and it is immaculate. The entire country is manicured. It is clean, organized, pollution-free, very safe and quite western. We visited the Zoo, Night Safari, Sentosa Island and Chinatown. Each of us will blog on one of them.

Currently, we are at the airport ready to go back home. This is without a doubt the nicest airport I have ever been in. Per Singaporean standards it is immaculate and organized. The baggage screening is done at each gate. So no long lines up front...just go to your gate and check in there. Also, I am on a computer at the gate with free internet.

More to come....and plenty of pics.