In April we packed up our bags and moved to…Singapore! Our company was looking for some experienced staff to help expand their consulting business in South East Asia. We are living in a very nice condominium less than 10 minute's drive from the office. Then again, in Singapore, nothing can be more than 45 minutes drive (it's a very small island). One of the "interesting" features of our apartment is our kitchen - which is physically outside. While this avoids the expense of cooling down a warm kitchen, because it's generally 90 degrees and very humid makes cooking dinner in the kitchen an aerobic activity. However, most of Singapore eats out most of the time, so we are "going native" and doing the same. We've committed to staying for a year, but have the opportunity to stay longer. We're enjoying ourselves so we aren't really sure when we will return.

One of our major acclimatization tasks was learning to drive on the wrong side of the road. Actually, initially, that was all we were doing but we can now (generally) stay on the proper side of the road (which is NOT the right side of the road). If that wasn't confusing enough, we've had to deal with a different style of driving. In spite of how expensive cars are and how much the Singaporeans love their cars, they show an amazing disregard for even the simplest of rules of the road. For example, no one feels any great compulsion to pick a lane and stick with it; they glide between this lane and that one constantly, or, more commonly, drive down the road in both lanes. We've started to adjust but we are worried that we will use these same techniques when we return to the U.S. Our best advice is to stay off the roads for the first few weeks after we return.

In September, Rose & Vincent (Veronica's folks) braved the 24+ hour flying time to join us for a 2-3 week visit; they even got to squeeze a little side-trip to Sydney in. It was very nice having the company and they were very good sports about exploring Singapore on their own and trying the wide variety of food we forced upon them.

One of the big reasons we agreed to take this assignment was that we wanted to use Singapore as a base for traveling and exploring the region. While we've been doing some traveling, most of it has been for business rather than pleasure. Greg's been to Thailand 5 times and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia 6 times. Unfortunately, he's seen nothing but client offices, hotels and the airports. Veronica was staying in Singapore for most of the year but is finishing the year with a whirlwind tour of our territory in December, all just before we fly back to the U.S. for a little over a week for Christmas. However, we have managed 3 weekend getaways (Penang, Malacca and Bintan) and we've started making arrangements for next year (Northern Thailand in January; Borneo in March and either Cambodia or Nepal in February).

The other major reason we agreed to the assignment was the food. As Greg remembered from his youth, Singapore has great food. Eating is one of Singapore's national past-times (along with shopping), so there are places to eat all over. The range from very plush restaurants to much more humble hawker centers (unairconditioned food courts with small mom-and-pop stalls selling an amazing variety of things. The hawker centers have the added attraction of being very cheap; the two of us can eat a complete meal for about US$5.00.