Singapore/Thailand, Part 3

A short walk from the resort was this lovely beach, where we frolicked in the warm, clear water for hours on end. I realized immediately why Thailand's beaches have such a great reputation.

Alas, we had to leave eventually as we had a show to get to that evening, at Phuket Fanta-Sea. It was like an amusement park complete with midway games but with a Thai culture slant, if that makes sense. This was the only elephant riding I was able to do, since the tour coordinator didn't think a pregnant woman should gallivant through the Thai jungle for 4 hours on an elephant (booooo).

The following day we did a kayak tour that took us to some beautiful scenery. There was a bit of rain at one point, but it was such a great experience that we didn't mind at all. The day ended at another awesome beach. This was a major highlight of our time in Thailand.

That evening I was not feeling well, so the guys went out on the town for a little bit while I rested up.

The next day was a whirlwind tour of various spots throughout the island. There were lookouts, temples and shops to explore. We easily passed the morning taking everything in and wishing we had more time before having to fly back to Singapore that evening.

I don't think either of us expected to enjoy Thailand nearly as much as we did. We started talking about wanting to return some day in the future, so perhaps that'll work out for us sometime. For now, we're thankful just to have wonderful memories of a very special place.

Singapore/Thailand, Part 2

The next day started off very rainy, which gave us a chance to sleep in and recover from the whirlwind that was Day 1.

It was also someone's special day, so we let birthday boy decide what to do. He decided to take in a movie. In Singapore the movies are not general seating, you select specific seats when you purchase the tickets. So we didn't have to deal with sitting down in an empty theatre only to have people come in later and sit right next to us. It was actually a very nice birthday gift since usually people flock to sit by us in empty theatres. After we wandered the area, which was really swanky with lots of upscale retail shops and modern architecture.

It was on this day we met and fell in love with Bread Society, a bakery selling all kinds of cheap and delicious sweet and savory pastries and bread products. So my birthday boy was able to have some birthday cake. I promise some of it actually went in his mouth, although that doesn't appear to be the case...

We continued exploring several areas on foot well into the night before having birthday dinner of fish and chips (yes - no Asian food!).

The next day we went to the Singapore Science Centre. We only had until the early afternoon before having to head back and catch our flight to Thailand. We thought that was plenty of time. Well, it soon became clear we had underestimated how easily we can be distracted. There was a big kinetic garden outside with tons of different science bases games and experiments you can participate in and that alone took us over an hour. Once inside we spent the next few hours reading, playing and learning. We made it through about 75% of the exhibits and were sorry we had not allowed ourselves more time there, it was so much fun.

We flew to Phuket that night and got in late. So, once we checked in we had dinner and played cards by the pool before turning in.

Singapore/Thailand, Part 1

We took our most recent vacation in September to Singapore and Thailand. It was the first time either of us had been to Asia. We worked with a friend who moved to Singapore for work about a year and a half ago and we fortunate enough to be able to finally visit him.

Singapore was much bigger and spread out than I had imagined it to be and exploring it was a bit of chore. We had to determine what area to visit for the day and plan to be gone all day since coming back and forth would be really time consuming. Public transportation was efficient, however, and taxis plentiful.

Our first day we explored 2 nature preserves where our friend assured us we would practically be tripping over monkeys. While the scenery was lovely and the temperature was comfortable, there was not a single monkey to be seen. There was a super fun swing we got to play on, though, so it was all worthwhile.

We continued on to the Chinese and Japanese gardens and found a turtle preserve to wander through on the grounds.

Afterwards, we met up with another friend who took us around Little India, where he lives. We explored Hindu temples and a HUGE (I can't stress how HUGE) department type store where you can buy anything from toiletries to electronics to linens to fabrics to anything you could possibly fathom.

Indian food for dinner that evening and finally a very, very long day had come to an end. Oh, and I solidified my notion that I do NOT like Indian food, regardless of how authentic it is.

And Baby Makes Three

Where have I been???? Oh yeah, well as it happens, for the last 6 months I've been busy trying to prepare to become a mom. Ha! As if anyone can actually learn all they need to learn to be a good parent from 9 months worth of library books. However, I've got to start somewhere. Yes, we are expecting!

So to recap the pregnancy so far, the first 3 months were terrible. I felt nauseous, irritable and totally exhausted all the time, although, thankfully I never actually got sick (maybe because I avoided food and drink?). Anyway, once I climbed on into the second trimester I got to feeling much better and got some of my energy back. Well, certainly enough energy to enjoy a vacation overseas (more on that another time) and make it through almost all of my usual work schedule without killing any coworkers. Now I'm starting to enter the last trimester and other than the backaches and the fatigue I can't complain much. I've started to get a baby bump too, making things start to feel a bit more real.

We do know it's a boy but we haven't yet started to get his room ready or anything. We're just enjoying the anticipation and the excitement for now and taking it day by day until we meet him. Reading books, starting our childbirth classes and making a dent in our honey-do list takes up most of our free time now and we're pretty happy about that.