Friday, March 25th
It was a beautiful, warm Friday so I decided to take Mitchell to the beach. We left our apartment around 2PM to drive to the beach that's about a 15 minute walk from our house. I hadn't been to the public beach so I thought it was probably best to drive since I didn't know exactly how long it would take to walk and was too lazy to lug all our beach gear that far. We found beach road without problems but when we got close I realized we were in for problems. EVERYONE had the same idea I did about going to the beach that day! The one-lane, one-way road that runs parallel to the beach was PACKED. We inched along watching the smart people who decided to walk zooming past us! We finally made it to the first parking area about 2:30PM and circled and circled but found no empty spaces and no one looking to leave. I drove down to a much larger, paved parking area and my heart sank. It was so full and there were tons of people just circling and waiting for someone to leave. I joined in the madness. We circled for about 15 minutes and found nothing. There was another sand lot next to the paved area and I wasn't even willing to try to find a spot in that lot because people had started parking in there with no rhyme or reason and I was afraid if I drove in, I'd never get out. At this point I was frustrated, tired and just ready to go home. It was 2:45 PM and we still had no sand between our toes!
I pulled out of the parking lot, ready to accept defeat, and saw that we were very close to the short-stay apartment we lived in the first 2 weeks in Dubai. I remembered there was a sand lot close to that building. We pulled right in and parked! Yippee!!! We WERE going to the beach! After a short walk we made it to the crazy sand parking lot I refused to pull into. A man stopped his car in front of me, opened his window and asked me if I knew where the exit was located. I told him no, not a clue. His reply was "I think I'm stuck in here." I applauded my decision and we continued on to the beach.
We found a spot for our towels among the swarms of people who had the same bright idea about enjoying the gorgeous day at the beach. Mitchell put on his goggles and we were off to the water. Mitchell jumped in first and urged me to get in because the water was "perfect!" Not perfect! FREEZING!!! Although it had warmed up outside, the water hadn't had a chance to warm up. I tiptoed into the water, watching Mitchell enjoying playing in the ice water, KNOWING that I would have to get in. I finally just made the plunge and dove in, screaming at the top of my lungs under the water. After I got used to it, the water wasn't that bad. It was a windy day so we had some great waves to play in.
I finally got Mitchell out of the water so we could rest a bit and watch the people. There was a group of guys who brought their own professional looking volleyball net, set it up and started playing. There were a number of little girls playing with just their bathing suit bottoms on. (Very European!) A few completely naked babies playing in the sand making me wonder how their parents planned to get the sand out of all their nooks and crannies! Most women tend to wear bikinis no matter WHAT their size. It is very rare to see a woman in a one-piece suit. As for the men, anything goes! Some men were wearing big baggy bathing suits. Some were wearing teeny tiny Speedos. Others were just wearing their underpants!!! I'm not kidding. I saw more than one man wearing briefs on the beach! WHAT THE HECK!?!?!?!? Just look away! That's my new motto!
We had such fun at the beach that we decided to do it again the next day with Chad. It was a much smoother process! We knew exactly where to park and how to avoid the traffic, which wasn't nearly as bad because we left our apartment at around 11am. We were able to tag team with Mitchell in the water and I was able to relax a little on the beach and read my book! AAAHHHH!!! Parenthood should definitely be shared...equally! Especially when the boy has boundless energy! :-)
The evening of March 26th, after tucking Mitchell into bed and killing a little time at our apartment, I drove my rental car (yep, still waiting for my car) to the Dubai airport for a flight to Singapore. I dropped off my rental car because, by the time I got home, Chad would have picked up my car from the dealership!! YEAH!!! A car of my very own! The Singapore Air flight left just before midnight. After a couple of glasses of red wine at the business class lounge and a Tylenol PM, I slept the majority of the flight...not too comfortably, but slept none the less. I woke up once to use the facilities (AKA toilet in these parts) and get more comfortable. The overnight flight was about 7 hours in duration and landed in Singapore around 11:30AM. After landing I headed to baggage claim, retrieved my suitcase and headed to the taxi stand. The first thing I noticed at the airport was....A McDonalds! Seriously! McDonalds has taken over the WORLD! I'm not sure how far from America you have to go to NOT find a McDonalds! I caught a cab to my hotel and noticed RIGHT AWAY that they drive on THE WRONG SIDE OF THE STREEET in Singapore AKA the left hand side! It was fine since I wasn't driving! The city was very humid and very green, even the end of March. It was probably about 85 degrees and did I mention HUMID?!?!? The streets were lined with beautiful trees that reminded me of old live oak trees in the River Oaks area of Houston and there was so much green! Humidity does a city good!
I arrived at my hotel around noon local time. I was able to check in early and get settled in my room on the 34th floor. My room had an amazing view of the city and the architecture was out of this world! One of the buildings was actually 3 buildings with a huge boat on top spanning all three. There were other beautiful buildings and I couldn't wait to see more of the city. I was a little tired but ready to explore! I called my boss and we decided to meet up to go on a city tour. I had noticed a double-decker bus tour company not far from our hotel on my way so we asked the concierge where we could catch the bus. We didn't understand much of what he said but headed in the direction he gestured. After walking a little ways, we asked another guard, who gestured us farther on our journey. We walked through a convention center/mall with a busy and crowded food court with interesting (fishy) smells. We finally found the Duck Boat and City Tour counter. It was only around 1PM and the next duck boat tour started at 2:20PM. We bought tickets and decided to grab a cup of coffee at a nearby coffee shop...Gloria Jean's (again, you can't get away from American franchises!) while we waited. I walked up to the counter and got in line behind the only man I saw at the counter. After he ordered, the cashier, instead of waiting on me, accused me of cutting in line in front of the person BEHIND ME!?!?!? REALLY!?!?!? I could have sworn I didn't see anyone else in the store when I walked in! Have I become so Dubai-ized in two short months that I don't even realize when I'm cutting in line? Has it become second nature to me now? I DON'T THINK SO! I looked flabbergasted and the person behind me let me place my order...in my rightful place!!!!
After coffee, we wandered around the mall for a while until it was time to catch the tour. I realized that when walking around the mall people tend to walk on the left, instead of on the right and many of the escalators were also designed to go up left and down on the right (in line with how they drive). It was interesting.
It was finally time for our tour so we listened to our safety video (extremities inside the vehicle at all times...blah, blah, blah!), boarded the bus and headed off into the city. We drove around the city for a short while before we entered the water surrounding the city (the beauty of a duck boat is that they're amphibious, we drive along the streets for a while and then we drive right into the water for a boat ride!) The city was the home to many interesting buildings, two buildings that were built to look like microphones but looked more like armadillos or fly eyes, a museum that was built to look like a lotus flower and some other miraculous buildings. There was also the Singapore Flyer, the largest Ferris Wheel in the world (for now), that had 26 or 28 (I can't remember) "pods" for the ride that held 30 people EACH!!! They told us the Ferris Wheel used to turn clockwise away from the city but they had spent over $1MM to change the direction to "anti-clockwise" (as opposed to counter clockwise) for better luck...to bring the money that looked like the scientific 3-D version of the same. Very cool! We also found out that the three buildings with the boat on top was a hotel that had a casino in it. Anyone could go in the casino BUT, if you were from Singapore, you were charged $100 to enter because the government wanted to discourage its citizens from becoming addicted to gambling!
After our duck boat tour, we were able to go on another city tour on a double-decker bus. We saw more sights, Little India (when the recorded message said to look around and take a big whiff to smell the smells of Little India I had to swallow a HUGE LAUGH because I have smelled my share of not so sweet smelling Indians in the past 2 months! Enough Said!), Raffles Hotel (very exclusive) a church that had been struck by lightning TWICE and rebuilt and China Town. The tour was hop-on hop-off so I decided to hop off in China Town. It was beautiful with bright colors and a multitude of stores ranging from authentic to tacky touristy. I was searching for a great souvenir for Mitchell and finally stumbled upon an art store where there was a woman who drew names in pictures. Since Mitchell's birthday was coming up, I thought it would be a great keepsake and a present all in one. The artist started drawing and talking all at once. The "M" was a dragon, the "I" was a candle, etc. It was all free-hand and wonderful. Each letter was a different picture and each picture signified a character trait (bravery, honesty, beauty, success, etc.) She was a delightful and talented woman. She was just about to take me to a friend's restaurant for dinner when I got a call from a co-worker about dinner. It was about 5:15PM so I headed back to the bus stop and back to the hotel to meet up with some co-workers for dinner.
At about 6:15PM we headed out for dinner. One of my co-workers had lived in Singapore for a few years in early 2000 so we let him lead the way. The city is connected by many tunnels, malls and subways. We blindly followed him, bought a subway ticket and headed across town. When we emerged from the subway we found more malls, restaurants and people...EVERYWHERE! He asked us "what do you want to eat?" We were looking at each other thinking, you brought us all this way and you have NO PLAN?!?!? No DESTINATION? By this time it was after 7:30PM and we were all starving! I saw a Dairy Queen across the street (seriously) and almost suggested eating there because I was about to eat my arm off! I wished I had stayed in China town with my new Chinese artist friend! We wandered the street a little more (which is more like being a groundhog because it's almost impossible to cross a street above ground. You have to come above ground to see where you are. If you see where you want to go and it's on the other side of the street, you have to go back down underground into the tunnels to cross UNDER the street.) After doing this a few times and no one being willing to decide on where to eat, I finally took charge and chose a noodle house. At this point ANY food was better than NO FOOD! The food was OK and we were all getting tired. By the time we finished dinner it was almost 9PM and we were all travel-weary. We headed back to the hotel...mall, tunnel, subway, tunnel, mall, etc.
The next few days were much of the same, meetings, lunch, meetings, dinner, malls, tunnels, humidity, a little rain, and repeat. It was a great city and I would love to return with my family to explore and enjoy more of what the city has to offer (outside of meeting rooms!)
My last day of meetings was the day my parents were heading to Dubai. I was very sad because I was getting into town about 10 hours after their arrival. Unfortunately, they had problems with their flight and I got a call during my meetings that they were delayed and would not get to Dubai at 7:30 PM on the 30th, they would be an ENTIRE day late! I was devastated! At least I would get to pick them up at the airport, but I would miss out on a day with them while Mitchell was in school (my only day with them w/o Mitchell.) Bummer!
My flight left Singapore shortly after midnight on the 31st. After a few glasses of red wine and a Tylenol PM (are you seeing a pattern here?!?!?) I slept the majority of the way and arrived in Dubai, as scheduled around 5:30AM the same morning.
My parent's flight arrived at 7:30 PM on the 31st, exactly 1 day late. We were waiting, and waiting, and WAITING for them outside the airport. They finally emerged around 8:30 PM and I was ecstatic! I knew they were coming but they were FINALLY HERE!!! We loaded up in my car and headed home.
More to come on our adventures with Mom & Steve!
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