The Cotswolds

We just got back from a three-day weekend in the Cotswolds, and it was so beautiful and wonderful. The most amazing part is that I DROVE THE WHOLE TIME. I had worked very hard to get my license, you may remember, and this is my first time hiring a car. Getting out of London was scary as shit. The roads in the Cotswolds are so windy and narrow, usually the size of one car. BUT WE MADE IT!! And I even completed a 6 mini-roundabout roundabout (right on the first, straight on the second, and right on the third to get out. Essentially it was a right hand turn on a three way intersection - I didn't cry!). And it started with some rental car bad luck, as I somehow accidentally reserved a manual car. While I do know how to drive a manual, I have never done it with the stick on the other side AND my license is only for an automatic. I had the NICEST dudes ever at the Enterprise in St John's Wood, and they somehow found another (small...five people...and luggage...oy) automatic for me for a small fee. I told them they could have charged me an extra £200 - my air bnb was already paid for, and we were totally screwed if we didn't have a car. I was SO SO grateful they found a car and figured it out for me. (You may recall that in Lisbon last year I rented the car for the wrong month. I need someone to review my rental car bookings).

Matt flew in on an overnight flight on Friday morning, arriving home around 9:30. I had gotten home with the car around 9. We packed up and drove out, finally leaving after a quick stop for some weekend carbs (challah, bagels, pita and sandwiches) at Roni's, around 11. Googlemaps took me through London a bit before we left, and that was tricky, but we made it out, through Oxford and arrived at a beautiful hike with gorgeous views. We finished just as the sun was setting and drove through dusk to our air bnb. We had looked at one that was on a farm and one that we understood was in a village. We chose the one on the farm, but when we went to book, it was taken, so we grabbed the village one. When we got there, we realized there were about five houses in the village, and the backyard was essentially a farm. It was a GORGEOUS setting, a truly Cotswoldian (I made that up) house and decorated in such a fun way. We got settled, and went across the street for our dinner reservation at the Halfway pub at 6pm. It was a spectacular dinner, though Sam only ate toast and fries. The rest of us enjoyed!

Saturday morning we got moving and went to Broadway. We found all-day parking on the edge of town and did a GORGEOUS hike. With the extra walking to the parking, it was about 8 miles, and it started with a huge, steep uphill. Sam decided they were not coming at some point, and walked way back down (what a waste!), and the rest of us didn't know what to do (13 year olds are so fun sometimes). But they changed their mind, plugged in my air pods and got grooving for the rest of the hike. It was up up up, ultimately to the Broadway Tower. Then it was down through pastures, alongside sheep, horses, past a gorgeous old church, back up and down and all around, through a couple of small villages, and back to Broadway. I did slip TWICE in the mud (no one else did, and of course the first time I fell was when I was asking Koby to stop running, because I didn't want to deal with his muddy laundry!). We super enjoyed, and finally sat down for lunch around 2:30pm. Lunch was wonderful - it's so fun that Elie is trying and enjoying more complex foods - our kids suck at eating. He had a goat cheese, roasted pepper and rocket sandwich and greek salad. Sam had a pizza, Matt and I split two great sandwiches and Koby had a burger. We drove through two other super cute towns - Stow-on-the-Wold and Bourton-on-the-Water, grabbed some milk and headed back to our house. We had dinner at a pub five minutes drive from our house. I didn't love driving in the dark, though I did love that it was five minutes. There were a few huge parties there, and it was so so loud, and after a long day, we were all a bit over stimulated. Elie and I waited outside. Sam found the pub dog to pet and Koby was busy on the Worldle with Matt's phone. While everyone had said, "I am not eating," we finished everything in the end, and the loud party moved further back in the pub, which helped with the yelling in our ears. 

We had loved Bourton-on-the-Water so much that we found a hike that went near and through there for Sunday. We packed up and somehow got everything into our tiny car, and drove to Bourton-on-the-Water. We found some all-day parking at the Farmer's Market (literally IN the car park that the market was in...) and we were off on another amazing hike. This one was my favorite. It took us through the town in all sorts of beautiful ways and then into a big field. We ran into a man walking a border collie, and he suggested we follow him for a detour to go on an old train track above the river and then see an old mill. He was lovely, and he didn't kill us, so we were happy. The trail was cool, and we could see a huge Victoria-built tunnel made for the river below. We wove through some village roads, past the mill, through farms, with sheep grazing, up and down, and through the most beautiful villages, along rivers and to another mill. It was such a diverse path, and just truly gorgeous. We got lunch and hot chocolate at a cafe in town, walked around a bit and headed back to London. 

All in all, it was a BEAUTIFUL and super fun trip. The kids were troopers in the back of a little car (after being used to a minivan!) and hiking a total of 26 miles over the weekend. We would go back to the airbnb in a second, and we are looking for weekends to make it happen. The area is truly so so so beautiful - the architecture of nearly every building is so unique, British and gorgeous. 

In other news, since my last post, the kids all went back to school, and I started working a bit. I went back to an organization I worked for for seven years, until end of 2020 when I nearly lost my mind with kids learning at home, all on different schedules, ages 5-10, and trying to work at the dining table, because I no longer had an office at home. I also am working on another online course for Harvard office of the Vice Provost for Advances in Learning. AND this event that I'm organizing logistics for at the school is soon - 1,600 people at the Global Festival - so I've been way busier. And I have been trying to not play tennis or pickleball, doing lots of strengthening exercises and seeing an Osteo for needles and other treatments to try to get my tennis elbow to heal. It's definitely better.

We had good friends, Pam and Marc from Singapore (now New York) over for Shabbat dinner. Matt went on a ski weekend in Switzerland with colleagues (he loved it!). Sam's play rehearsals have picked up (show is March 8th). We had friends over. Matt went to Senegal, Ivory Coast and Nigeria and all else is routine!

Koby's shrine to football in his room

Me waking up at 12:30 for the Michigan National Championship game. GO BLUE!!!!

The new decoration on our post box on England's Lane

One of my two birthday presents for myself. The kids always get lego sets for their birthdays. I find them so satisfying to do. So I got myself one, AND I built it. By. My. Self. The other birthday present for me was the earrings in my ears in this pic. I love them.

Elie and Koby had no school two Fridays ago, so we went to the HMS Belfast, a war ship docked in London/Museum. Super fun.

Lots of guns

We went to see Frozen the musical. It was surprisingly great! That's Elie's friend with us.

First hike - Seven Springs etc.

Sam being 13 with their phone. Grrrrr

They were almost like hairy coos. They were so cute. This is about as smiley as Elie gets

Cute, no?

Koby in the backyard of our air bnb when we arrived. GORGEOUS

Walking down the street in Broadway on the big uphill hike that Sam hated.

And more uphill

Uphill with the sheep

Broadway Tower at the top

Gorgeous church at the bottom of a hill

And up again...

and over the fence...

AMAZING views. Is it even real?

The pub our second night had a basket of reading glasses next to the fire, with the dog sleeping right on the floor.

Bourton-on-the-Water hike

GORGEOUS

the architecture...!!!

An old mill - the second one we saw

Nearly dead.

Trip of a Lifetime: Maldives, Bali, Singapore

We just got back from a truly amazing 2.5 weeks. Longest blog post ever. Feel free to skim. Or read in chunks. Or miss. It's a lot!

Last year Elie had said that it wasn't fair that he was born in Singapore, but he didn't really know much about it and hadn't been there since we moved when he was one. He said, "mom, I'm FROM there, and I have not really been there." He is right, though it's pretty far away and we didn't travel internationally until Koby was three, and then Covid, so it's not like we've had a lot of opportunity. But the kids got THREE weeks off, and we said, let's do it! And when we started looking at flights and calendars, I chipped in my 2 cents: Bali was my favorite. We were on the every-six-months plan when we lived in Singapore (search my blog for Bali, and you'll see!). We gotta go to Bali and show that to the kids. But we still had some days left. Do we add Thailand? Vietnam? Somewhere else in Indonesia? I had always wanted to go to the Maldives - it looked so beautiful. Matt worked his airlines miles magic and got us flights to and from Asia on miles and we planned on going to these three places.

I'm not the most relaxed of people, and one the places where this really shows is with sickness and travel. I have a lot of anxiety around being sick while traveling - or really, our kids being sick while we travel. Exactly a week before we traveled, Tuesday night, Koby puked all night (note that we had a big conversation about his name, and though he prefers Jacob, Koby said I can call him Koby. Phew). It was not a neat ordeal, and there was definitely opportunity for this to spread to other people. But we moved Elie to a different room, lots of clorox wipes, wash loads, etc., and he ended up being pretty sick and not going back to school that week. We were leaving Tuesday early morning. Saturday we were in the clear, and it felt like we were going to make it without anyone else getting sick - that shit spreads quickly. I thought we were ok. Sunday afternoon we were at a friend's house for tea (it was our first and very British!), and Elie started being very slumpy and felt like he had a fever. We left quickly after arriving, and he did indeed have a fever. Next day he still had a fever and sore throat. FUCK - we were leaving the next day. AND TRAVELING FOR at least 24 HOURS!!! Monday afternoon I realized it's possible he has strep, and this is fixable by antibiotics, so I took him to urgent care, they tested, and it was strep, so he took a dose of antibiotics at 4pm. We woke up the next morning at 3:45, and he had another dose - still had a fever, and poor dude, we all got on a flight to Doha. He masked, though the doc said that once he had been on the antibiotics, he should be ok. (We got anticipatory antibiotics for Koby, just in case, but he never used them). 

We landed in Doha, and Matt REALLY wanted us to go into the city. It's easy to get to on the train, and he goes there a lot for work. He wanted me to see a gulf city - I have traveled for work to Jordan and Egypt, and he's always trying to tell me how the gulf states are different in terms of the Jewish thing, and how people are so lovely. I was like, "awesome - Elie has a fever, and we're traveling for 24 hours! Let's make it more complicated!" so he dragged us into the city, we found a place for Koby to try his kebabs (he was really excited about that) and Sam to have french fries (that's basically what Sam lives on when we travel) and Elie to sit and rest. We walked around the market a tiny bit before I made us go back. All I could think is "are you Hamas? Are you Hamas? Who hates me?" So, I'm not sure we got what we wanted out of it, but it was a cool looking old city and seemed like a very thoughtful modern city.

Maldives

We arrived in Male, Maldives around 8am. We waited about an hour for a boat to Club Med Kani. We have never stayed at a Club Med before, but after researching a bunch of places in the Maldives and recognizing that our 13 year old can't stand the rest of us, and we are not GREAT at JUST beaching, we thought it was a good fit to try - and somehow it is significantly cheaper than anywhere else I looked, and also it's all inclusive. It has an option to stay on land, while many of the other hotels are only these bungalows over the water (which is a bit over the top for us). We took a boat for about a half hour to the resort, and from the moment we got there, we vacationed HARD. The biggest stress was how to fit in all the fun stuff. 

We had two adjoining rooms, and it was the first hotel situation we have had since traveling with three kids that was actually appropriate for us. Usually it's a queen in each room and maybe a cot. The kids truly hate sleeping together, and I can only deal with so many fights, so often I sleep with Elie, Matt sleeps with Koby and Sam stays on a pull-out or cot or whatever. This one had a king in one room and three twins in another room. There were not fights. It was amazing. Finding places to stay for five is surprisingly challenging outside of the US.

All meals were in this one restaurant, which I was SURE would be disgusting - definitely after 2 days of it. But it wasn't. They had some things that were available each day, but they changed everything else. There were stations, like Italian, Western, Japanese, Indian, etc., and the food - particularly the Asian food - was actually SO SO good! All the kids could find stuff at each meal, and Matt and I ate well. It was delicious and not stressful.

They have kids' activities. Sam found the teen program the first day and was off with them from 10am-9pm each day. Sam had very few meals with us even, and that was totally fine. We would find Sam with friends at the pool, we would find Sam's bag at the pool and Sam playing Uno on the beach. Sam went sailing, snorkeling, paddleboarding, scavenger hunting...had the time of their life and also total independence (until 9pm). It was/felt totally safe. The boys went to the kids' program the first few times Matt and I went diving, but then we realized we could just leave them, and they made sand castles or stayed in the room. Their ages were a bit harder to find peers - their program was geared a bit younger, but they always have each other.

Matt and I had signed up for 5 dives each and Elie signed up for a discovery dive. Every time we weren't out on a dive, we snorkeled. They offer snorkel trips once in the morning and once in the afternoon. Anyone who wants to joins on a boat, and they take you to a reef, and you follow a guide along the side of the reef. The snorkeling was AMAZING. One one snorkel alone, we saw sharks, turtles, rays, box fish, parrotfish, trigger fish, unicorn fish plus THOUSANDS of other amazing fish. Koby went every time he could, and Elie did it a few times. Sam tried and preferred to snorkel at the resort beach - didn't like the waves/current. The diving was also amazing. We saw so much on each dive. It was my first time diving since I got pregnant with Sam - I wasn't sure I would remember or feel comfortable. I didn't know if I would have anxiety underwater (this mom anxiety thing is mostly only since I have had kids, so last time I dove I wasn't such a crazy pants) and feel claustrophobic and need to come up. Nope - we did a refresher dive, and from the beginning, I was in heaven and LOVED being under water. Matt and I had such an amazing time diving. It was like a visit to 2008 Melanie, and she was doing great. 

Elie had been obsessed with diving and divers when he was about 2. He knew all of the equipment and how it all worked. You can dive when you're ten, so this was the first time he could try it. He was so so excited and so so nervous. When we got there, he was still in the strep situation, so we gave him a few days and decided for him to try on the 3rd day. He did a class together with a woman and learned about the equipment, pressure, etc. - though he probably already knew it all - and then he tried to dive in the lagoon, but he was having trouble equalizing his ears. He wasn't able to figure it out that day, but the dive shop was so so patient with him and let him try again the next day. And they rescheduled the other dives to allow us to get our dives in and also join him on his open water dive. So the next day he tried again and got it, so he got to do a real 50 minute open water dive. He LOVED it - though he was so excited he kept flapping and that makes you go up, so his instructor had to keep pulling him down (it reminded me of the aunt in Harry Potter who blew up and then flew away). But he was so happy, and it was so cool for us to do it with him. This video is from my first real dive in more than 13 years - from my dive leader guy.

We also did a session with a marine biologist who taught us about the corals and showed us some corals that they're building. 90% of the corals in the Maldives died in 2014-2015 with El Nino water temperature rise, so there's a lot of struggle with the underwater life. We learned a bit about the Maldives - there are 1,190 islands in the Maldives. About 200 are resorts. About 200 are inhabited by locals and the rest are not inhabited. It's an incredibly beautiful place, and the greatest asset is the underwater life (if you ask me).

Our hotel had a ton of baby black tip reef sharks swimming about all day. So cool to watch. These are some of the guys we snorkeled with, but more likely their parents. 

We had five days there, and we had a lot of time chilling. Played games. Made sand cities for ants. Played a LOT of beach football. Elie won a ping pong tournament and then lost in the finals of a second. Paddle boarded. Sailed. Walked. Koby played in the men's soccer game. I played beach volleyball. Read. Lots of down time. There was a show every night at 9:15, but we didn't make it to one. Too late - we were in bed by then every night. 

The kids really enjoyed the all-inclusive aspect. They had pina coladas (the boys), cokes and sprites (Sam), crepes on the beach every afternoon. I didn't have one alcohol drink but loved my soda water and lime all day long. Kids had ice cream after most lunches and dinners. This helped remind them of Michigania. The whole week they all kept saying how similar it was to Michigania. You do what you want. Lots of different sports and choices. Independence for kids. Ice cream after meals. 

Christmas was really funny. They had gifts for the kids. Koby got a lego set. Sam got a bluetooth speaker. Santa came riding in on a jet ski. They had special meals on the beach and by the pool (it was SO MUCH work to set up dining for 600 and all the food etc!) and people dressed as Santa and elves for a few days before and on Christmas. It was pretty fun to be a part of it. I saw one other family that MAY have been Jewish (French). There were zero other Americans.

All in all - we had an amazing almost week. Then we took the boat at 8pm back to Male for our 11pm red-eye flight to Singapore. 

Sam on the Doha train. I like how the people in the images were dressed

Doha hosted the world cup. Note the footballs on the train poles

Downtown Doha old market area

On the boat to the hotel in the Maldives

Football on the beach

Jetlag on the beach

Koby in the pool

Matt and Elie paddle boarding

Matt took the boys out on a Hobie. Elie sailed.

Koby played in the men's soccer game

Elie trying diving for the first time

This is us before we left for our dive with Elie

Lots of drinks

Sam

Elie and his ping pong

Elie and Koby building a village for ants

Koby got to try diving/breathing underwater one day. He's in.

Kids all did trapeze

Matt did it too

pina colada

the geckos in our unit were so resourceful! This one got a dragonfly. I couldn't believe the dragonfly didn't just fly away. 

the ant village

all our shit waiting to get picked up. the last day we had to be out by 10, but we could stay and use everything, eat, etc. until we left at 8pm. There were showers for us and a lounge if we wanted air con.

ice cream after most meals. this was strawberry and passionfruit sorbet, i think

the dive shop was at the end of this

family selfie

Bali

We landed in Singapore and rushed to our flight to Bali. Traffic was so bad in Bali, I had remembered it was an hour drive to Ubud, and it took us more than 2.5 hours. We hadn't had coffee, lunch, nothing, and it was like 3pm before we got there - brutal. Not my best me for sure.

We stayed at a group of "hotels" where Matt and I had stayed many times when we used to visit Bali a lot. This time at Kebun Indah - it was our first time at this one. I learned that 3-star-Melanie may have been 15 years ago, and I have graduated to 4-star-Melanie. One of our rooms had a tiny bit of air con, but it was still so hot, and windows weren't really sealed, so we still needed mosquito nets, and the other room did not have air con. The place is Balinese style and so beautiful, and the breakfast is amazing, and for all of us, including breakfast, it was $140/night, so I mean, 3-star-Melanie and 4-star-Melanie love a good price, but it was a bit hot for me (and Matt). Also I asked if the big poop every morning on our porch was from the big geckos. "Oh no ma'am. That's from the bats." 4-star-melanie wasn't super impressed.

Our first day we walked all around Ubud and ate our first real Indonesian food in ages. The food is just so so good. The second day we went on a rafting trip in Ubud, and it was super fun. The kids hadn't been white water rafting before, and it was very mild, but still exciting. They loved it. We got dropped off on the other side of town to try to walk the Campuan Ridge Trail, which we used to love, but it was SO SUNNY and hot, and we were in flip flops, and we didn't make it too far. We walked around Ubud and went to the market. Kids learned how to bargain. We told them to first decide what they wanted to pay, and then offer a bit less, but generally they were willing to pay more than the vendors' lowest prices, so it worked well for everyone. They had souvenir spending money as a Hanukkah gift from Uncle Mike and Aunt Jess, so they had some money to play with. They loved it. We ate dinner at a restaurant that I had been with friends (Julie and Julia) on a previous trip, Cafe Wayan, and was just such a beautiful experience. Ubud is so peaceful if you find the right places. Matt and I had great Indonesian food and kids had chicken nuggets and pizza (ew). We were all happy.

before we walked down all the stairs to rafting...

down down down

they jumped out at the end - it was fast moving! So glad we didn't lose them!

The next day we hired a car (and driver!) for the day and went to two temples and two waterfalls. The first temple was unbelievable. Our legs were wobbly from the walk down to the rafting and then back up the day before, and the temple (and waterfalls!) were all long walks down and then back up, so we really worked our quads and gluts, but all was good, and the kids barely complained (even though it was like a million degrees). We got to swim in the waterfalls, and the second one the kids and Matt all swam behind. These are the types of things that are packed with people in other places you travel, but in Bali, we still had it mostly to ourselves. So beautiful. That night we went to a restaurant that Matt and I had been to and loved in the past, and it was just as wonderful, Murni's Warung. We went to a show that we totally didn't understand, but it had amazing dancing, beautiful costumes and gorgeous music. And we were happy when it was over and we could go to bed.

that's us swimming!

lunch at the waterfall. kids table. adults table.

that's a kid behind the waterfall!

drink at Murni's. Lemongrass. Kefir lime leaves. Dreamy.

The next day we had booked a bike trip, but I hadn't realized it was really a cultural tour, and for part of it you're sitting on a bike that happens to be rolling down hill. It was a wonderful day - we learned about spiders, pigs, what a Balinese house and compound looks like, rice cultivation, lots of different fruits, coffees, including the famous one where the civet-ish animal eats and then poops the best beans. The best part of the tour was the end where we went back to the organizers' family house, and they made us the most amazing Balinese food I have ever had. We ate so much. It was so so so so so so good. Rice, with crunchy tempeh, satay, cooked veggies, amazing sambal. Plus probably other food I'm forgetting. It was amazing. Then we went to the Sacred Monkey Forest. Last time we were in Ubud, you just walk through. This time you have to enter through a gate and PAY for it. Totally different, but it was actually a bit nicer, since the monkeys seemed fed and less interested in us - though one did jump on my butt to try to reach my backpack. We swam in the pool and went for a lovely dinner near our hotel - most of the tourist restaurants have great Indonesian food but also western. 

checking out beans, peppercorns, ginger, etc.

trying all sorts of coffees and teas. Elie tried nearly everything. Sam and Koby tried the hot chocolate

LOOK AT THE SIZE OF THAT SPIDER

cooking in a Balinese kitchen

the refrigerator with no coldness. just a cupboard really

decorations and political flags all throughout the villages

there were a lot of weddings this day, because it was during school holidays. this was one side of an entrance to a temple, decorated for a wedding

amazing banyan tree with a "tree house" that they said used to be on the GROUND!!

Elie eating satay at the guide's house. SO SO GOOD

sacred monkey forest

I didn't really sleep since it was so hot, so as long as I was awake at 5am, I went to the morning market in Ubud. Was so weird walking through downtown Ubud, which is usually full of tourists, bikes and cars, and there was NOTHING, in the dark. But I went to the central market, which is below the art market where the kids bought all their stuff, and it felt like I was back in Asia. I got so many mangosteens and rambutan for $1.50! And it's nice to just walk around and see everything. There was one other white person in there. I got home and still had a few hours before everyone woke up. This last day we had nothing planned, so we spent a lot of time at the pool, bough some more beautiful things, walked around, read and chilled. We also all got Balinese massages. I had the kids try a foot massage the previous day (and most kids did TWO days in a row!) to make sure they were comfortable with the massage concept. They all loved it, so we all booked for a full body Balinese massage. We all loved it (though Elie had some reaction to something on his face and looked super crazy for a few days after, but thank goodness for cortizone and an emergency text to Markus, my good friend from high school who is a ped dermatologist!). 

We left on a Sunday at noon. The Friday before there had been gridlock at the airport. It took people 7 hours to get to the airport from Ubud, and thousands of people got out of the car on the toll road to walk to the airport and many missed flights. We were a bit nervous, so we left SUPER early for the airport - at 7:30, and we got there in less than one hour. :)

AND since we were so early, I figured I might as well check with the Singapore Airlines office to see if they had my battery pack that I had accidentally left in the seat pocket on our flight to Bali. (Yes, I'm the most annoying mom always nagging to make sure no one forgot anything in the seat pocket, and it was I WHO FORGOT SOMETHING...). They asked what it was and what seat I was in, what flight, what day. They went into the back. They came back and asked for the color. Then they came out with my battery pack!! Miracle of miracles. Off to Singapore...

snake fruit, rambutan, passionfruit, mangosteen. back in my heaven.

the breakfast was truly amazing.

Elie accidentally kicked a jackfruit down a hill and had to chase it to stop it

check out the size of the millipede - Elie's foot for reference

Campuan Ridge trail that was too hot to go too far but we used to love it

hotel pool. lots of time in that pool

the morning market

our last full day in Ubud was a day where the Balinese give thanks for everything made of metal. this includes cars, motorcycles, etc., so they all had offerings all over them that day

my mangosteen and rambutan spoil for $1.50

Our kids were such champs. This was their shower. There was no window. At any given moment there were at least 5 geckos in there with them (they named them). Loads of bugs. Mosquito nets. NOT ONE COMPLAINT.

Singapore

Going back to Singapore was surprisingly emotional for me. We had about five wonderful years there, and then the last two I really wanted to leave. I wanted to be closer to my family, and I felt like our life there was so disconnected from reality and our values, and I just didn't want to be there anymore. When we finally left (I had been on bed rest for 6 months, so we had to postpone for a year), I was so happy to walk away - though it was obviously emotional - and so happy to be back in America, close to family, with seasons, NPR at the right time, a life I had imagined for my kids etc. I hadn't really thought much about going back. But when we were there I had so many feelings about being there as a just-married couple - all of our weekends diving, dinners with friends downtown, our jobs, then having one and then a second kid. It was comforting to think of walking down Orchard Rd or in the Botanic Gardens with Sam in a stroller - or Sam and Elie. I don't think I was SO overwhelmed as a mom as I became with #3 in Newton. I remembered what it felt like when I too worked full time and had career prospects. It really brought back a lot of positive feelings and memories.

We got to Singapore with Elie's face looking really weird and my stomach not happy at all. The first night, the 31st of Dec., we walked to Orchard Rd, through a few malls and grabbed dinner in a food court in a mall. The kids were not super impressed. I couldn't wait to get off Orchard Rd, but I was happy to be back in Singapore. It POURED when we tried to return but then stopped in time for us to walk back. We did not stay up for fireworks, though I was up most of the night after that with my stomach...

Koby on Orchard Rd

The first day we met up with Brad, Stephanie and Oscar, good friends from Singapore who are also friends in London and were back visiting too. We tried out Gardens by the Bay, but coming from amazing, lush, waterfally Bali, it seemed ridiculous. We didn't love it but walked around a bit and then went to Tekka Market for lunch. Tekka is where I got fruits and veggies for a good part of five years. It's my home, and it was the thing I was most looking forward to being back in Singapore. We were all super hungry, plus my tummy wasn't happy, and neither was Koby's, and Brad and Stephanie were also with us, so we mostly ran through it to return a few days later. It was a taste of the taste. I had a masala dosai. Elie had a plain dosai. Koby had a cheese prata. They tried lime juice. Sugar cane juice. Banana milkshake. Sam had cornflakes. We said bye to Brad and Stephanie and went to our friends, Christain and Lee Fong's house. The kids played switch with their kids and grown ups talked - it was so lovely. We ordered the kids a pizza from an Italian restaurant downstairs at the hotel (they were happy), and Matt and I took my tummy to my favorite restaurant in Singapore, Yhingthai Palace - the best thai food around. It was so so so so so so so so good. And it was lovely to be out alone, on the bus, walking around. We really enjoyed our date.

our kids with Oscar at Gardens by the Bay

Koby and me in Little India

Lots of PSAs about molestation on the MRT

Yhingthai Palace!

The next morning we woke our kids at 5:10, and they all got up with a good attitude, we hopped in a Grab6 (Uber XL) down to a bar near where I used to work to watch a 6 am Michigan kickoff. It was so fun to be with other Michigan fans on the other side of the world. Koby was very schleppy and floppy, and a dad there felt him and said he had a fever. I too had felt him and he felt super hot, but I kept comparing him to Elie, and saying they felt the same, and Elie didn't seem sick, so he must be fine. (Both had fevers...oops). Before halftime, Koby and I cut out, and he went back to sleep in his bed (thermarest on the floor of the kids' room), and I watched the Michigan game and then Washington/Texas. We chilled all day. Matt and the other kids went to Bird Paradise with good friends Alexa and Graham and their kids. We have spent a few holidays at Jamie's house on the Cape with them and we stayed with them a few years ago in DC, so the kids sort of knew each other. I was sad to miss. That night, Sam, Elie and I went to our good friends, Naomi and Eric's house for dinner. The kids played SO SO nicely, and I loved catching up with them. Matt was sorry to miss. Koby had the stomach thing I had had. Elie had stomach pains that night.

us with Christian at the Michigan game before Koby and I left. GO BLUE!!

Matt, kids, Alexa and Graham and their kids

The next morning Elie woke up with a fever and Koby woke up with energy (Koby, Matt and I all slept in two twins pushed together, so at least he slept a bit better - I don't sleep either way...) but still an off tummy. We booked an appointment at a medical center, because at this point we were flying (for 24 hours...) in 2 days, and I wanted some meds JUST in case (remember, travel, sick, anxious Melanie...). The kids went in and gave poop samples (and I ran into an old friend in the doc office!). We don't have the results yet, but we are all finally fine, and I'm sure it's Bali Belly - food poisoning of sorts. And they did give me anticipatory antibiotics just in case (add it to the stock) something got awful on the way home. Then we took Elie home and he chilled all day, and the rest of us went to Tekka Market.

First of all, our hotel to Tekka market was like 20 minutes. These are MRT lines that didn't exist when we lived there. The station near our hotel didn't exist. They built SO MUCH MRT since we left. That was the biggest change for us. It was so so easy to get around.

MRT Map last week

MRT Map when we lived there

Tekka was so wonderful. This time I got roti prata, Koby got another cheese prata, Sam ate corn flakes, and Matt got fishball noodles. I also got my favorite peanut pancake. We went upstairs to all of the Indian clothes - Sam loved it. We walked around to the fruits and veggies and tofu and noodles guys. The veggie couple gave me a warm smile that seemed like they recognized me. Then I asked the fruit lady to help me pick out good rambutans (it's high risk, you can't see if they're ripe, and if they're not ripe or overripe, they're so gross, but they're SO good when they're good!). She looked up at me and said "You're gone so long! You're back already!?" I asked her if she remembered me, and she said of course! She said I always used to buy my fruits with her. I couldn't believe it (Koby was my witness - or I might have thought I dreamed it!). We walked up Serangoon Rd, through all of the ridiculous stores that my kids loved, and up to City Square Mall. We went through the mall and learned that Sam's preschool is still there, but it moved to the basement. The head teacher is still there! Most of the stores had changed but the essence of the mall was the same. We walked out the mall and across the street to our old condo. We begged three different guards to let us in (Sam said they added "immigration" to the condo), and finally someone did. We walked up to the pool and looked around and took a quick pic, but left quickly, because he didn't seem too pleased. Matt and Koby went home (Koby's tummy...plus we had left Elie for hours in a strange hotel in a strange country sick...). Sam and I went to three temples we used to go to, plus we walked over the Jalan Besar to find uncle Ben. 

us outside of our condo, City Square

Sam didn't remember much AT ALL about life in City Square. But when we got to the temple with the giant Buddha, they walked right in and around into this secret passageway behind that had a reclining buddha. They remembered all of that. And they remembered the pool of the condo. They thought the temples were cool and wanted to bring the boys back the next day. Sam and I walked in the HOT to try to find Ben and his Northern Thai Tom Yam food stall. It had been on Jalan Besar in a different location, and then it moved up north (see blog post linked above), and we went to see them right before we left Singapore, but obviously hadn't been in touch in 9 years. We found the stall and found Uncle Ben's wife (the one from Thailand), whom I had talked to much less over the years, but she was always so so sweet. She said that Ben had shingles and has had some nerve problems since then and also had knee replacement surgery, and he had been at home for six months. She said she was doing it all on her own and might not make it after this year. It was a sad conversation - Sam felt really bad and had a lot of ideas of how we could help them. We sent our love to Ben and she was really happy to see us - and obviously remembered me and Sam (ara). That night we all - minus Elie - went out to Clarke Quay. It was just as lame and expensive as it had been. But it was cool to see the river.  

Tekka Market - veggie and fruit area

Koby waiting for his cheese prata to be made

cheese prata and sugar cane juice

7 up and corn flakes for that one. plus my peanut pancake

sam where sam came out of all the time - the entrance to the mall just opposite our condo

the first temple. chinese buddhist

hindu

outside the hindu one

Ben's wife in the food stall where we found her

me aghast at the fishball and tofu selection in sheng siong

dinner in clarke quay. eh

The next day was our last full day of our trip. Matt went to work. Sam wanted to take the boys to the temples - thank goodness everyone woke up well, though still iffy tummies. I got to have a nice coffee with my really good friend, Deeksha, and Sam took the boys to breakfast. We went back to City Square mall, and the kids climbed in this crazy rope situation they have over three floors of the mall. It's actually a great use of space. They had fun. We walked around, shopped, had bubble tea and also had din tai fung for lunch. It's now in every mall, and I will be honest and say that somehow the din tai fung in LONDON is better and fresher. It was not great, and that was disappointing. We used to LOVE it. It had been POURING all day, but we prayed to the rain gods, hopped on the train and when we got to the Botanic Gardens, it decided to drizzle for a few hours instead. It was nice to be back in the Botanic Gardens. I spent a lot of time there. We made it through and then to a taxi to go to Maxwell Food Center and Chinatown and met Matt for a quick walk through and then back to the hotel. 

the thai buddhist temple where same remembered the secret areas

the weird rope play situation - sam and koby playing oversized football. you can go up and down a few levels

sub par din tai fung

koby and elie sharing the last red bean bao. koby ate the inside. 

elie ate the outside

no grabbing asses.

botanic gardens

soursop in Maxwell food center

chinatown

Overall it was amazing to be back in Asia. The food is just so much better there. Truly. Seeing our old life was lovely. This trip tapped parts of me that haven't been tapped in years. I felt love for adventure and travel. I felt relaxed. I really truly loved it. Everyone had an amazing time. Even Sam, after the Maldives, was all in. No complaints - just did the bike trip and the rafting trip and schlepped all around - even though they were sure they were going to do NOTHING before we left for the trip. They all had AMAZING attitudes, some tried new foods, all tried new things, slept in interesting places, walked right next to fast-moving motorbikes where part of the sidewalk may be missing. They just found the fun and the interesting and were fucking troopers.

the Jewel at T1 at changi airport - wasn't quite open when we got there, but it looked neat!!