I Lied

Well I found some quick things to post since I am waiting for our ride. Okay so I am 1 1/2 hours early. But these are some cool pics!! So April is normally the hottest month in Singapore. However, this year the weather in April has been crazy crazy! Temps are 90-110F+ and it thunderstorms in the middle of the day everyday and pours for about that length of time! Crazy! Even the Singaporeans are upset about it! It only rained for 2 hours in Cambodia while we were there. Which was an amazing trip! We'll give u some pics when we have some American food in our bellies!

FYI This is the view from our condo! Which will be missed by us! And we will miss our hilarious roomie Paul!!!

Aiyo (uh oh, now you've done it)

Hello Everybody!!!

Well this past week has been crazy busy, between working, prepping for presentations, going out (of course this is an absolute necessity!) and packing for our holiday (vacation) this weekend, we have not been updating the blog. For this we apologize, knowing our devoted readers are disappointed.

We are traveling with Paul to Viet Nam and Cambodia for a 7 day adventure!! Excited we are! We are seeing some war memorials, going to a rice field (!), and hiking the Angkor temples of Cambodia!!

Upon our return, and most likely when we are on home soil, we will be updating the blog. Do not dispair!

Thanks for reading and hope you've enjoyed the photos and commentary thus far!

Take care! Love youse guys!
Lisa and Juli

The Fruit of the Dragon

Dragon fruit is beautiful. However, it is kind of lacking flavor. It's a little sweet crunchy like kiwi texture.

Elliptical machine for kids on the playground! About 4 years ago the Ministry of Health noticed that people were getting bigger in Singapore. We've really only seen a handful of obese people here as well. Therefore, there was this big initiative to get Singapore healthy! Even in school! TTSH wanted their employees to have a BMI under 26. Those over received a membership at the gym and time with the personal trainer.

A Malaysian wedding

4.1.07 Dewi, one of Liser's preceptors at TTSH, invited us to her family friends wedding. The couple is Malaysian and Muslim. The wedding starts with the groom going to the brides family so the couple can get blessings from the elders in her family. The celebrate, then they go to the groom's place and receive blessings from his family. They do not drink or dance, but they have karoake (or as they say in Singapore, K-TV). The family and friends were singing all of these Malaysian songs, they we did not know a word to, but it was like they were trying out for American Idol!!

The groom's place and tent.

The tent was in the play area of an apartment complex. But it was fun! The food was spicy and everyone was dressed in their most bedazzled kachangs and headresses.

Lisa, Dewi, and Juli.

These bikes were used to annouce the arrival of the bride and groom. The groom is in a motorcycle club, so the members did some celebratory engine revving, donuts, and manuevers.

The Entourage.

The bride and groom came with the make up artist, Muslim drumming band, and some family.

The groom Irwan and bride Naiine.The drumming band. The members played the a beat for their arrival and during the welcoming moves of the grooms family to them. The members would perform a mix of tai chi, bowing, and hand guestures to welcome the couple to the family.

Eggs are a sign of fertility at Malay weddings. It is also customary to give a hardboiled eggs as a gift to the family, along with money. The couples do not register at Ikea for gifts or anything.


The girls and the couple. At least 10 people took pictures of this.

The traditional wedding cake.
The yellow is glutenous rice, and there are hardboiled quail eggs, prawns (shrimp), and chili flowers on the cake!!

Dewi and her sister. Her mom is in the back in the black headress.

Phuket - the craziest place on earth!!!

Here are some pictures of our time in Phuket Thailand. It's a little island full of character, beaches, mountains, shopping, Tuk tuks, and the availability to legally purchase a weekend companion!

The beach we went to was absolutely beautiful and the water was the temperature of a nice bath!

Shopping was interesting. The shop workers wouldn't just let us look. If we went near the shop they were trying to drag us in and bother us to buy stuff. They even had people walking on the beach trying to sell us stuff like elephants (they are considered to be good luck), decorative fans, sarongs, traditional hats, etc. The one good thing was that they would also walk around selling cold water, soda, and beer. It got to be very annoying after a while and I wish I bought a tee shirt I say that we saw that summarized Phuket very well. It said "No, I don't want a suit made, a tuk tuk or an elephant!"

We did get to practice our bargaining skills. I had fun with that and found it amazing that if we would start to leave, the price would magically go down!

We felt like we were famous people since we had to walk up steps to get on the plane...

... until we actually got on the very cramped plane! It was a budget flight, so what could we expect. It was so budget that you had to pay cash to get any drinks on the plane!

Our hotel room at The Expat Hotel. Expat is what the foreigners are called by the locals both here and in Singapore.










This is the shower in the hotel. No curtain - just shower! in the bathroom and try not to make too much of a mess!

The pool at the hotel.

One of the main roads with shops and bars.



Jamba and Liser enjoying the tasty margaritas!!!!!!!





This is the Tuk tuk. It's a little open taxi like van that every one wants to give you a ride in for a small fee. We felt it would be safer to just walk!

The beautiful beach!!!!! It was absolutely gorgeous!

Yes, that is a dog chillin' on a jet ski. There were lots of dogs all over the place and most of them appeared to have owners. This little guy would swim out in the water after his dad even though his dad was driving the jet ski and he couldn't catch up!

Where's Waldo?