A lovely rest in Singapore

Keith, Bruce, and Germaine at the botanical gardens.

"These aunties know what they are doing" says Regine, the youngest daughter in the family that we are staying with in regards to my marvel at how every cup of coffee I had to drink in Singapore had a perfect amount of milk and sugar. I love the term auntie, which Regine and Rachel explain to me is a sign of respect for people older than them.  

We had been stationed at the home of the Lim family in their lovely home near the center of Singapore for five days and four nights, double our original plan of only spending 1-2  nights.  We had met Keith Lim, the patriarch, during our tour of Taiwan.  As mentioned in one of our earlier posts, "The Food, the Friends and the Father", we crossed paths with Keith (not his given Chinese name but one he uses when he meeting Westerners) around the small town of Yuli where we subequently embarked on a Tour de Food before settling into (or onto) the 3rd floor of a catholic church for the night.  Keith, as discussed, was/is a much more diciplined cycle tourer that yours truly so the next morning he popped out of bed at his 5 o'clock alarm and sped off 20 minutes later.  For this reason he had easily doubled the amount of mileage that we had done, and through the mountains in Taiwan, a daunting task that we couldn't justify on our stop-and-enjoy type of touring.  However, we did have time to exchange information, in hopes that we might cross paths in the future.  But at that time we had very little interest or thought that we would visit him in Singapore.

One evening, when we were trying to decide what we would do with our cheap ticket we had been forced to buy to Singapore before entering Indonesia, we found Keith on the Warmshowers website and were very excited when he wrote saying that we should come to stay with him and meet his family.  Bali, and the rest of our time in Indonesia, had taken a lot out of us.  Though beautiful and filled with lovely people, we were tired of the days of endless heat, crazy busy roads, and seeming lack of knowledge of the existence of the "switch-back turn" whilst climbing a steep grade.  It had felt like it was taking a toll on our relationhip, with Bruce and I either fighting more or just feeling burnt out on riding altogether.  It was the first place where we had voiced the option of bailing on our trip early and if so, what we would do for the next 6 months (Bruce's relapsed fevers and illness made us seriously consider this).  In short, we were road-weary and ready for a bit more home-style respite that Singapore and staying with Keith's family could provide us.

A rooftop park with a view of some of Singapore's crazy architecture.

Singapore ended up being so much more pleasurable and refreshing than we could have imagined.  We had heard certain things about it: "It is very clean and orderly", "It is a BIG city", "It is very expensive to visit", "They are have very strict laws and enforce them with impunity".  In the end much of this was only partially true and even those truths had exceptions, as we discovered when we walked into a tunnel under a busy roadway where we came upon a flock of youths skateboarding, listening to loud music and sitting around smoking all the while be surrounded by signs reading "No skating" and "No loitering".  (I begged Chiara to take a picture of this but she refused, sorry readers).  The constant signs and reminders of what was expected of Singapore residents felt a little 1984 though, and I could imagine that I would get tired of the oversight if I lived there. 

A table full of food from the hawker stalls.

We found the food to be an amazing amalgamation of Chinese, Indian, and Malay, readily available at all hours at the myriad of "Hawker Stalls" and rather inexpensive to be honest.  Truly a nice treat as we were getting tired of the dishes that made up most of meals in Indonesia.  

There was an surprising amount of green space created by the proper planning and use of the limited lands.  Space to run, hike, cycle, boat, fly a kite, golf, and picnic was all available for residents to enjoy.  Like any city of the world it was not the mot personable place we vistied but it also was not rude and people were more than happy to help us when we needed directions.  

   

Some beautiful old neighborhoods.

Anyway, our time spent with Keith and his family was a joy.  They took us around to all their favorite eating spots, a deserved Unesco-rewarded botanical garden, a treetop hike in a monkey-filled forest, and took us to their Sunday night family dinner where we were fed like royalty and we left with a belly full of amazing homemade local foods and invites to stay with family members in our subsequent tour of Malaysia.  Also during our time in Singapore Chiara and I found a bit of time apart, a rarity these days and something than we think any touring couple would tell you is a must in order to ensure sanity and an ability to continue.