24 Hours in Singapore

Continued Travels!

On our way to India we scheduled ourselves a layover in Singapore. We had 27 hours to get out and see the city. We decided we would go out to see the city and come back to the airport to sleep. We arrived at 5:30am, got back to the airport at 11:30pm slept until 6am when we had to get on the plane and head to Mumbai.  

We really enjoyed Singapore. We experienced Singapore as "Asia Lite."   It's clean, everyone speaks English, the trains/buses are punctual, and it's a cosmopolitan city.  It has a true feeling Chinatown and Little India so you can acclimate to those experiences without actually dealing with the stress, crowds, and confusion of China or India.   And, it really is a garden city. There are big trees everywhere. That was pretty neat. 

I took a bit of a lazier approach by just explaining the photos.   Enjoy!

And leave comments!  I love comments!  Have you been to Singapore? How did you like it? No?  just say any old random thing.

 Made it to Singapore! The airport is packed full of art and decoration and things to do.  Bored?  Check out their roof top garden. Want a bit of wildlife, go to the butterfly garden.  Too hot? Swim in the rooftop pool. Extra money to spend?  Shop in every store imaginable. Lots of time to kill?  Take a free tour to the city!  Really. It's kind of unbelievable. 

I'm trying to capture the "NO" signs which, you might notice includes Durians.  A very smelly fruit.  Other signs also told you of the potential fines you could face for breaking these laws.  Smoking was $1000, eating was $500.  I'm not sure about the Durian fees. 

We started our day in Singapore with a trip to their Botanic Gardens. A Unesco World Heritage site. They were stunning.  The gardens were used to create and experiment with rubber trees.  Singapore provided most of the worlds rubber until the mid 1900s. 

Look at us at the Gardens! 

It's us again!   

On a treetop walk!

The city was decorated for Christmas!  We decided to take the bus from place to place so we could get a sense of the city.  Glad we did. the buildings are gorgeous and, as you can see,  festive.  

Our next stop after the Botanical Gardens was Chinatown. The first thing we did, of course, was to eat but once that was accomplished we wandered around. We both really enjoyed the architecture of the buildings in conjunction with the markets below them.  

The Buddha Tooth Relic Temple.  Yes, there is a buddha tooth here. It's houses in a solid gold reliquary that is the size of a small car.  

There was a lovely garden at the Buddha Tooth with a prayer wheel.  That big structure inside spins and as you spin it you are sending out prayers. It's pretty incredible.  

And we ate again!  

After we left Chinatown we went over to Little India.   

Isn't he adorable in all the color?  

Diwali is coming up and Little India was also decorated. In India, Diwali is as big as Christmas in the states.  

Again, we enjoyed the Architecture. We wandered down this street until we found a little corner cafe to eat.  We were the only foreigners and I was the only woman so we got a lot of stares.  

We stumbled upon a Ukulele store in Singapore.   Only Ukuleles!  It was so fun.  And run by some awkward but charming 20 something year old men.  We watched some emo music videos with them and were warned to not travel to the Philippines because the guards put bullets in your luggage.    Right? Interesting.  The store was pretty great and we did enjoy our time in there.  http://ukulelemovement.com/  They let us play with all the Ukuleles in there!   

And then, while trying to get to the CBD, we wandered though the underground shopping area following signs and hoping to arrive in the right place. After wandering thorugh the parking lot (followed signs) and then through the lobby of a performance hall (still following signs), we went up and escalator and came upon a Ukulele sing-a-long!  Over a hundred people with Ukuleles singing John Denver and Johnny Cash!  How to get Shannon to fall in love with a city?  bring her to s sing-a-long! 

Took a break from walking around by watching the light show across the bay. Pretty amazing and such a lovely rest. 

The other side of the bay.  Beautiful! 

Finished up our evening with another meal!  Singaporean Carrot Cake (an egg thing) and some satay.  Delicious!  The food stalls are really conveniently set up. You order from any one of them. They are all part of the same organization, so they give you plates and silverware that you just leave at any of the tables and the tables are bussed and cleaned.  So easy, delicious and safe. 

Long day. Jamie looking like a local sleeping on the train back to the Airport.   We got back to the airport at 11:30, found a quiet corner to sleep until 6am and then hopped on the plane to head to Mumbai. 

Leaving Antarctica

How is it possible that we left Antarctica less than a month ago?  We still have winter friends on the ice!  It feels like so much time has passed.  With only one 24 hour delay, we left Antarctica on October 13th and arrived in Christchurch at 3am on the morning of the 14th.  Also,  to be sure that we were desperate to arrive in a warm place, we were driven to the Ice Runway a full 2 hours before we could board and then had to stand outside the entire time.  It was absolutely ludicrous and we were frozen but when we were finally allowed on the plane, I can guarantee that none of us was in any way sad.   To be completely honest, Jamie and I had wandered away to find a warm spot and were running to the plane as the were closing the doors and all the support vehicles were driving away.  I like to think that they wouldn’t have left without us, but it’s not like there’s a steward on the plane checking tickets.   While it was mildly embarrassing, it was certainly memorable.  We definitely thought we deserved that duty free wine we bought when we arrived at the wee hours of the morning. 

Arrival in Christchurch was awesome, by the way.  There was a mild misty rain when we landed and even before they opened the plane doors we could smell it.  Never has rain coated tarmac smelled so sweet!  It almost made the 45 minute wait for a shuttle to our hotel worthwhile.  After our 3am bottle of wine to celebrate our 1 year in Antarctica, we drifted off to sleep to be awoken by WARM SUNSHINE streaming though our window.   The sun was HOT!  I had forgotten that was a thing. It was so shocking and delightful that Jamie had to remind me that I was standing in the window with my sleepwear on.    After that delightful morning where we could smell every tree and flower and when I teared up at the sight of flowers (true story), the rest of our stay in Christchurch felt like a purgatory.    

Jamie had secured a contract for the following winter and was ready to do all his medical paperwork. I, however, didn’t get mine until the end of the first week in the city. That delayed our departure from New Zealand from Monday the 19th to Friday the 23rd.   There is nothing worse than sitting in Christchurch waiting to leave.   I think the city is pretty amazing, definitely worth a visit and has a lot to offer but overtime we are there we are just waiting to fly out.  With that energy looming over a visit, it can be exhausting.   

On the bright side, both Jamie and I left Christchurch with contracts for the upcoming winter season- 2016 February- and had nominal issues getting ourselves through our physical exams.  Best part about leaving Christchurch?  We were going to Port Vila, Vanuatu! 

Why Vanuatu you ask?  Because it has a house that met the requirements.   Back in July, a friend of ours mentioned getting a beach house and just lounging in sun and warmth to counter the dark and the cold.  Being in the throes of winter and working 6 days a week for at least 54 hours a week, nothing sounded better.   As the only thing that mattered was “warm” “beach” and “sun” we didn’t care too much about where we went so we created a criteria for our beach rental.  These were our requirements:  could sleep 9 people, beachfront, pool, full kitchen, outdoor lounging area, housekeepers, available car and (if possible) a feral cat that would come visit.  The Casa De Mar in Vanuatu satisfied all of our requirements an, Voila! There we were.   We arrived on October 23rd and stayed until November 4th.  The majority of the time we spent lounging in the sun (with some adventures out to buy food).  It was glorious.  We avoided major sunburn and feel well rested for continuation of our travels.  

While our main goal was to sit around, we did manage a few excursions.  We hired a driver to take us around the island.  We stopped at various gorgeous swimming holes and finished up with a stop at the hot springs.  Another day, the ladies who maintained our house took us to the market and taught us how to make traditional Ni-Vanuatu food.  Finally, on our last day, Jamie and I booked a trip out to another island for an overnight to see Mt Yasur-the world’s most accessible volcano. 

While we enjoyed Vanuatu, we are both excited to continue on with our travels.    Upcoming adventures include a 22-hour layover in Singapore, a month in India, Mexico for a wedding/ a bit of travel and then home for the holidays.   Arrival back in Boston-December 16th!  Can’t wait. 

This is our Vanuatu house. Casa De Mar.  They let us use the truck to drive into town for groceries. John rented the motorcycle for a day of death-defying fun. 

Our bedroom 

backyard of the property 

Our backyard 

 Our group beach excursion.

 Cooks in the kitchen.

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 Halloween night!

 Trying kava for the first time at the Melanesian feast we attended.  Best to down it in one quick go...

The ladies who took care of us all week volunteered to cook us a traditional meal.   We started by laying out Banana leaves.  Next came the copped up carrots, onion, cabbage, manioc, potato and sweet potato.  On top of that the seasoned chicken. Then we poured coconut milk (freshly squeezed) on top of it all. 

 Everything got wrapped up and folded together to be tied up with the steps of the banana leaf. 

After everything was prepped up, we spread out the stones (volcanic)  to put under and over the food.  It cooked like this for an hour.  These stones belonged to one of the ladies who generously dismantled her home cooking fire to provide this experience for us.  Very generous of her. 

The finished product. 

 Gigantic bananas.

On our final day, we took a charted plane to see a.....

LIVE VOLCANO. 

The big grey mountain behind us is the volcano.  

The volcano. We were close enough to throw a baseball into the caldera.  This was probably the most amazing natural feature we've ever been seen, completely amazing and so worth the trip.

A Year On Ice

We finally made it.   We are scheduled to depart Antarctica tomorrow. For Jamie, it will have been over one year and just under one for me.   It's been incredible.  So incredible that we have signed up to do another winter.  Yes, you heard it right. We are coming back in four months to spend another season under the dark yet glittering skies of Antarctica.   We'll both keep our same positions-Jamie as the Galley Admin and I'll again be an Equipment Operator with Best Recycling.  We were both thrilled to get our contracts again and we can't wait to come back. It makes leaving a bit easier.

In my last post I talked about how the sun was just starting to give us a lighter shade of dark blue.   No longer. We are in full on bright mode now. I woke up last night at 2:30am because I had forgotten to pull the shade and it was bright as day out there.   Now that the sun is really and truly up, I am happy to be seeing it and am feeling more centered.  I like that it's bright out and I can see the mountains and recognize people from a distance.    But I still miss the coziness of the darkness and the night sky.  I had a brilliant dream about the stars the other night-there was so much twinkling and glittering!

With the sun coming back we got two weeks of nacreous clouds.   Nacreous clouds can only be seen when the sun is between 1 and 6 degrees below the horizon and only at the poles.   The are beautiful.  The are, unfortunately, a cause of and contribute to the hole in the ozone but they are beautiful.  "Oil Streaks in the Sky" is the way on friend described them. They were a beautiful treat to welcome the sun back.

The move into Summer was a bit more intense than I had expected it to be.   There are always stories about grumpy "winterovers" hating when new people come in and I was convinced that I wouldn't be one of those people- I like people! I get a lot of energy from people!   Oh but I was wrong.   The influx has two main phases. The first in  "Winfly" (short for "winterflight" it's the first flight after winter).   Winfly doubled our population in two days.   While it's true I was happy to see all the new faces I forgot that it also meant that I would lose the cosy community of Winter where I knew all 141 people.  All of a sudden there were 160 new faces on station and I hardly knew them. Also, because i do like people, I found myself drained of energy because I was trying to figure out who everyone was and be welcoming...in short, I found myself hiding in corners, eating in my room and only sitting with faces I knew from winter.  While I don't think I was particularly mean-I was not happy.

And then summer started.  Our station population jumped to 600 in a week.   I felt manic AND panicked.  Trying to get a meal in the galley became an exercise is patience and crowd control.  I thought I was managing it well until a friend found me standing by the salad line and came over to check-in on me because I looked so lost and overwhelmed.  A lot of people all at once!

On the bright side, there are a lot of great things happening with all the new people on station.   We had scientists come in for Winfly this year so there's been science happening since August. The dance crew has already put together and performed a dance performance,  departments are filling in and getting lots of work done and all the trails are back open for summer recreation.    And while the sun is up 24 hours a day now it  still dips a bit and we are getting stunning colors on the mountains.

I'm looking forward to another Winter but right now we are both really looking forward to Vacation!  We'll go to Vanuatu for 10 days, India for a month, Mexico for 2 weeks and then home for December 16th!  Home for the holidays!  It's gonna be great!

Nacreous Clouds

Sea Ice training.  We went out on the ice and learned how to look at a crack and decide if it was safe enough to cross with a vehicle. it invovled lots of shoveling, drilling and a little math.  It was a cold but enjoyable way to spend an afternoon. 

Bad Weather in Antarctica

Practically halfway through July.  Time is flying by.  At 1pm the sky is hinting at a light blue these days.  I was expecting to be thrilled that the sun is coming back but instead I'm a bit apprehensive.  The darkness has a nice mellow quality.  I don't feel bad just relaxing in my room or having quiet time.  It's OK if I don't want to go hiking or if I don't take a lunchtime walk for exercise.  It's dark and cold out!  You SHOULD stay in.  However, now that the sun is coming back,  it's almost like I can sense the coming frenzy.  In August our population with double and we'll have normal days and nights.  I am looking forward to it. Don't get me wrong but it feels like the end of a nap.    You know you'll be refreshed when you get up, but you'd just love it go on a little while longer.

I was worried our winter would pass us by without a good storm but we were given a doozy of one last Thursday.  We categorize our weather into three "conditions". Normal daily operations is Condition Three.  This is nice weather and we have no restrictions.  The parameters for Con 3 are: winds less than 48 knots,  visibility greater than or equal to ¼ mile, and Wind chill temperature warmer than -75°F.    Condition two comes with restrictions to recreational travel but work as normal continues about town:  Winds 48 to 55 knots sustained for one minute or  Visibility less than ¼ mile, but greater than or equal to 100 feet sustained for one minute, or  Wind chill -75°F to -100°F sustained for one minute.   It's not uncommon to have Condition two weather.  It's cold and windy but workable.  Condition One is rare.  This was the first time I'd experienced it here.  Condition One means you cannot leave whatever building you are in without a Search and Rescue escort.  If you are in the dorms, they set up rope lines between the dorms and the dining hall  so that you can eat but you have to travel in groups and check out with the firehouse when you leave and then arrive at the next building.   In this recent storm, it got so bad at one point that they cancelled ropeline travel between buildings as well.  Condition one parameters are: Winds greater than 55 knots sustained for one minute or Visibility less than 100 feet sustained for one minute or Wind chill greater than -100°F sustained for one minute.

The morning started out with bad weather.  We tried to drive up to work but couldn't make it.  At one point we tried to follow someone walking but once they got 15 feet in front of us they would disappear.   Finally we had to roll down both front windows and just drive hollering directions between driver and passenger.  We stopped at the first building we came to and walked the rest of the way.  About 15 minutes after we got to work, the operations manager called us to warn us that they would be changing the condition and we should head down the hill now.   It was 8:30am.   Travis and I struck out to get down the hill together.   Instantly, we were almost blown over and couldn't see any landmarks or buildings.  Instead,  we walked toward the hazy streetlight in the direction of town.  When we got there, it was not where i expected to be and only being able to see 20 feet in any direction, I couldn't orient myself. Thankfully Travis knew where we were and got us back on track.   We stopped in at the galley, gathered snacks and provisions and then went to our rooms to wait out the storm.  The weather continued to get worse throughout the day so we had a snow day!  It was great fun.  People came and hung out in our room, we made arts and crafts,  listened to music and generally just hung around.

While we had a great relaxing day, many other people got called out to deal with all the issues the arise from a Condition one storm.  One of the main issues is temperature moderation. The science building, IT building and NASA equipment is all very sensitive to temperature and with the winds blowing so hard and fast, it's hard to moderate temperature which meant that alarms were going off in all of those buildings all day and people had to be traveling back and forth trying to keep McMurdo systems up and running.  The galley, of course, has to go to and stay at work during Condition One, the Search and Rescue team is out and about escorting people to and from buildings with their GPS systems and fire dispatch becomes a hotbed of activity as people are calling in and out to walk between buildings, report alarms or  request assistance.

The next day is when the fun of clean-up happens.  Fleet Operations is the crew with all the big equipment to get out and plow town out.  The were in their trucks ready to start working at 7:30 on the dot.   When we walked up to our barn, we had a HUGE snowdrift in front of our barn doors. The smallest part of the drift was up to my hips and it started at the door and then came out about 25 feet.  Thankfully, because we have buckets for our loaders, fleet ops came up to help us get out so we could get to work helping to dig out town.   The winds were so intense that in some places there was no snow on the roads but in others it would be 5 feet deep.  Trucks were buried in,  cardboard had blown all over town,  many of our big shipping containers had been knocked around, off stacks or blown down the road, the supply crew had to take a full assessment of all their outside storage and, of course, everyone who was able was out shoveling.   While my co-workers were helping to plow, I had to cruise around town to hunt down all our lost or tipped trash bins and set everything back in order.  By the end of the day, remarkably, town was pretty much back in shape.  There's still a few things that need to happen, but mostly, it looks good.  This is very important because we have a flight coming in this week. The same crew that puts town in order also has to get the runway up and running.  With the condition one that we had, it means there job will be all the more difficult.   They will have to plow and groom the 14 miles of road that leads out to the runway and then smooth and groom the runway to the specific requirements of the AirForce.  Not only that, but out on the iceshelf, the wind really whips through so many of our building there are flipped over, moved and I've heard rumor that one is even lost.

For all that, it was really insightful to be in Antarctica during a Condition One.  It was a good reminder that this is a wild place.

After the walk back to town through the nasty weather,  I went to take my pants off but the zippers were clogged with snow and ice. That was from less than 10 minutes walking outside.  Snow gets everywhere.  It is insidious! 

Our friend Dan standing outside our dorm door during the storm. 

A short progession of the snow accumulation inside one of our windows. 

A nice fine cover. 

Could make a snowball out of all that. 

This is our bedroom window.  I keep that wool blanket over the bottom half to keep out light and cold so that we can look at the stars while in bed.   This window also got a little snowy.

The light is about 5 carlengths away. There's a whole building there.

This is just one of 5 milvans that got blown around during the storm. One blew all the way down the road. 

This is the bathroom out at the airfield.   Thankfully all the good inside would have been frozen.