faraway

Our visas ran out at the end of September so Zach and I made the proverbial Singapore "visa-run". For expatriat residents of Jakarta, Singapore is like a regional hyperstore. A country of full of services and malls. All the things lacking in Jakarta are to found at great convenience in Singapore. For me it was a new high-tech stroller for the new baby, for Galuh it was smart materity clothes and for Zach it was the $5 styrofoam "noodle" for playing in pool. Lawrence Rowland has one and Zach just loved it. When we went swimming at the Rowland "villa" in Bogor, Zach stayed in the pool for nearly three hours playing with Lawrence's "noodle". Stephanie actually brought it all the way from Canada.

Zach really liked the flight from Jakarta. We had a bumpy landing and he turned to me with a big smile and exclaimed, "I like airplanes Daddy! Why is it bumpy?"

The immigration lady was very nice and friendly and told Zach to be a good boy.

Singapore has a great Zoo. It's kid friendly (strollers for rent), clean and has a great collection of animal held in fantastic displays. Zach has been there three time. Our main objective on this trip: the elephant ride. Tom Cormier, a collegue from work, came along. Tom is the Master of Bad Puns (MBP)and love to crack them in an uninterupted stream of punning. I think my cheeks were bruised after a day groaning at his puns. But Tom is great with kids and even though Zach didn't understand a fraction of the puns (I don't think he got even one), he liked Tom's goofy attitude. Zach likes me to tell him bedtime stories which are a retelling of the days evens in the third person. "Once upon a time, a little boy and his dad went to the Singapore Zoo..." I started. Zach quickly corrected me, "...and Tom!"

We made the elephant ride and Zach loved that. We also saw an active polar bear and a beautiful peacock and cool Manatee. Tom said "cool" alot. Zach also found a tiny statue of a stegasaurus which he liked a lot and kept asking me "why" it was there. But his favorite animal was this cow statue in front of the Ben and Jerry's ice cream concession where we stopped for a break at the end of our visit. Zach was fascinated by the udders and practiced milking the cow. He was very convincing.

Zach's favorite thing in Singapore are the kiddy coin rides in the mall attached to our hotel (Novotel Clark Quay). There are two new ones there since our last stay in Feb. In Feb, there was a cute yellow riverboat and Zach was looking forward to that. But it had been replaced by two even better kiddy coin ride: a train engine (recall Zach love Thomas the Train Engine) and a helicopter. The helicopter was very popular and I have intimidate a kid who was hogging the ride into giving Zach a turn. The helicopter part is attached to a large mechanical arm which lift and swivel about a meter in the air. Pretty innovative and Zach loved it. Every night he would ask me constantly to go down and try the rides.

Outside of that, Zach and I did a lot of stolling about. He got to try out the cool new Quinny stroller. I got to stretch my legs in a walkable city. Clark Quay is very beautiful and historic. We would walk down the canal and watch the sun set over the city.

Jerome