Last year, Matt qualified for the World Sprint Championships for paddle racing. The event is sort of the Olympics of outrigger canoeing, and Matt was competing in a few different events. That meant he'd be at the race site for two weeks, and because he'd be spending so much of his time racing, we figured I should join him toward the end of the event but not attend the entire thing. Then, Matt raised the idea of going to a second location after the championships ended, since he'd have already spent two weeks at the race location and didn't really want to spend that much more time there. We began planning a trip unlike any we've ever taken.
Because this race, unlike most of Matt's races, wasn't in the PNW, or Tennessee, or even our old stomping grounds in Florida. The World Championships were being held in Singapore.
We've never been to SE Asia (or anywhere in Asia, period). The last time I took an international flight was over ten years ago and it was completely planned and organized by Birthright. For Matt, it's been even longer—he hasn't been properly abroad since 2007, when we studied in Edinburgh.
Figuring out the logistics of his two-week stay in Singapore and where we wanted to go afterward was a long and complicated endeavor, but eventually we decided on Bali and got all our plans squared away. With the generous help of my parents, we secured business class tickets and set our plans in stone. We were Asia-bound.
Matt flew out August 15, two weeks ahead of me, so he got to experience Singapore in all its glory. I watched all his races on the YouTube livestream (when I could...the 15-hour time difference made it hard sometimes) and cheered him on from across the world.
Leading up to Singapore, my sister and her friends arrived in Seattle for their own vacation. I got the condo ready for them so they could use it as a home base, and they treated me to dinner on my way out of town. My flight left Seattle at 11pm on August 27.
The first leg of my flight took me to Manila. I slept for most of it, fully taking advantage of my lie-flat seat and quiet enclave. I am very spoiled for air travel now, I'll tell you that. But I've always wanted to experience a first class international flight, and it was everything I imagined. Also, traveling in comfort made a stressful and long travel day much easier to handle. I requested gluten free meals and they were very satisfying.
I had heard nerve-wracking things about the airport in Manila, but things went smoothly. I hung out in the lounge for a couple hours and then boarded my flight from Manila to Singapore. I arrived around 9am on August 29. Immigration was a non-issue. I grabbed my luggage and stepped out into the lobby, where I used Grab (like Uber) to get a ride to Matt's hotel.
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| Reunited after two weeks apart |
I do not know how to describe the sweltering heat of Singapore summer. I thought, as a former Floridian, that I would be somewhat prepared. I was wrong. The heat and humidity were unlike anything I've felt, immediately oppressive and uncomfortable from the first moment. The city is very modern, so the paved streets and huge buildings certainly contribute.
But this modernity also means you can escape the heat in the subways, underground shopping malls, and fancy restaurants.
After Matt finished up at the race site, we took the subway back to his hotel to relax, then headed out to dinner (the Find Me Gluten Free app came in clutch for this trip) and then to the Singapore Zoo for the night safari. All the animals that are asleep in their dens during the day were out, and it was fun to see them up close.
By the end though, I was falling apart. I'd been up for over 24 hours at this point and was crashing hard, so my first day in Singapore ended abruptly when I face-planted in bed and slept the hardest I ever have in my life.
The next day, we wandered into the Arab quarter to find a gluten free bakery I wanted to try, then took a bit of a journey to a different part of town to have lunch at the Butcher's Wife, a highly recommended gluten free restaurant. It was superb.
From there, we decided to go see some monkeys. We'd been told the monkey forest in Bali was the worst kind of tourist trap (and our friend can attest, one monkey stole his brand new iPhone right out of his hand) and figured seeing less "trained" monkeys would scratch the itch.
We went to Windsor Nature Park and sure enough, we did see monkeys! The walk ended up being longer than anticipated, and the heat was no joke, but the monkeys were extremely cute. However, our plan to avoid being robbed by them was futile—one gutsy soul walked right up to Matt, hopped on his backpack, and stole the sunscreen right out his pocket.
That walk took all my energy out of my sails. While chilling by the pool after, I decided I was just too tired to make it to the Cloud Forest or lightshow Matt had wanted to bring me to. Especially because we had to be up early for our flight to Bali the next day, I just didn't have more sightseeing in me. Instead, we had a nice dinner and packed up.
We landed in Bali on August 31, and our real vacation began.
Ali
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