There were some great highlights in our last week in Cape Town amidst the stress of packing up our rental house. We spent an evening with a few of the students staying on for the winter at Ganesh restaurant in Observatory, watching Brazil play North Korea on the big screen - by now we were all soccer addicts! And a last meal at our favorite local restaurant, the Wijnhuis, on Thursday evening, wishing Nan a happy 40th birthday for Friday June 18. I can't believe I have a daughter of 40!!
Friday morning we rushed to the airport to catch the flight to Singapore for arrival early Saturday morning. We headed straight to the hotel to catch up on sleep. Our host, Eddy Chong, picked us up, groggy with sleep, and drove us to lunch at Food for Thought - a restaurant with a conscience in this bustling capitalistic city! After lunch, Eddy dropped us at Raffles hotel and we walked around a bit before meeting up with him again for tea with a couple of his colleagues.
That evening we ate Peranakan food at our hotel restaurant, a fusion of Malaysian and Chinese flavors, which we followed with TV soccer until the early hours of the morning until we finally fell asleep. We woke on Sunday morning, too late for hotel breakfast, so made our way to a Starbucks for morning tea and coffee and bagel; boringly safe!
We thought of all sorts of tours we could do after breakfast but finally settled on getting a taxi to Clarke Quay and walking up and down the river. We stopped at IndoChine restaurant for the most delicious fresh rice paper veggie rolls, sitting outside across the river from the row of quaint shophouses on Boat Quay, all that remains of the Singapore working dock of old. The buildings now house a long row of restaurants, each with eager staff tempting you to sit down for the special of the day. This is a 2003 photo but shows the shophouses against modern Singapore.
Sunday evening Eddy took us to his home where his wife, Yan, and their son Nathan, and Christine in the kitchen, treated us to a superb meal with little dogs, Buffy and Bella, sitting obediently on their chair, near the table, observing us patiently. A real honor to be guests in their home.
Monday was the work day, the reason Tim was in Singapore. But first, in the morning we met up with long time friends and colleagues, Cheng Chye and Hwee San, for a tour of the school where they now teach, School Of The Arts (SOTA). Cheng Chye and Hwee San were both at Raffles and were responsible for our great trip to Cambodia and Thailand at the end of 2006.
That afternoon Tim was to address students and interested philanthropists in a talk about Service Learning at the National University of Singapore's Business School's Centre for Entrepreneurship and Philanthropy where Eddy works. Eddy collected us around noon for lunch with the Director of the Centre, Albert Teo who had ordered the most incredibly scrumptious dishes for us to enjoy over an hour or so of good conversation.
Tim's talk was excellent, but somehow all that lingers of our three days in Singapore is the food we sample in that city. After goodbyes with Eddy, we met up with Wilson, another friend from the old 2003 days. Wilson whisked us away to a Chinese neighborhood where we feasted on countless incredible dishes - so very yum!
Next morning we rose at crack of dawn to catch our 7am flight to Narita and then back to SFO - a long day, but spent pleasantly relaxed over movies and more good food on United airlines.
We've been home 5 days now and it feels like we couldn't possible have been away for seven months. We're really enjoying the long summer days, the peace in our rural home, the sounds of the birds in the garden, and the long familiar hikes out here on the Point Reyes Peninsula. But we miss the vibe of Cape Town, the walks up Palmboom Road to either fetch the newspaper in the morning, or take off on a hike in Newlands Forest; the proximity to the shops and restaurants, all a short walk away; and of course we miss our friends and family.
In some way I feel divided, half of me is here, the other half in Cape Town.
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