Singapore and Long Bawang

Singapore was an amazing place. I guess no more amazing than any other large metropolis. But I was looking at it through the eyes of someone just having spent four months in Tarakan, which isn’t a bad town but certainly not a metropolis.

Plan A for my trip: get my paperwork to the Indonesian Embassy on a Monday and leave on Friday with visa in hand. Need I say that I had to go to Plan B? I didn’t have the paper work in hand until late Wednesday afternoon; too late to take it to the embassy. Thursday morning early found me at the embassy hoping to expedite the process and still be able to catch my Friday flight. No such luck. My Friday evening flight had to be changed to Monday evening. Oh well, that gave me a couple of extra days to shop in Singapore. But not Dolce, Prada or Gucci. Rather what made my heart race was IKEA, Carrefour, Market Place, Cold Storage with their scented candles, chocolate instant pudding, almonds, raisins, sunflower seeds, Playdoh, Reese’s Peanut Butter cups, Snickers etc. ☺ I left Tarakan with a 10kg suitcase. I returned with 24kg. ☺

I didn’t spend all my time shopping. I went to the Botanical Garden, the Chinese and Japanese Gardens, the National Museum, the Merlion Park, and took a walking tour of Little India. Oh, I went to a movie theatre and watched a movie. We don’t have cinemas in Tarakan, so that was a nice treat.

A couple of weekends after I made it back to Tarakan I had an opportunity to have an experience the polar opposite of my Singapore trip. I went with the Holstens and Maynards to a village in the interior of Kalimantan. (David Holsten is the MAF program manager in Tarakan; Tim Maynard is the Maintenance Specialist.) David had been asked to speak at a church service for the CMA Bible School’s new semester. All of us were privileged to stay at the home of the school’s director. We were hosted simply, rustically yet with cheerful, generous hospitality. We were treated as honored guests. It’s quite a humbling experience. At Saturday night’s service, while the worship team led a song, we were asked to go to the front of the church while the rest of the congregation filed up to shake our hands and welcome us. That was a lot of “Selamat Malaams.” (Good evening)
The only thing about the trip that was a tad difficult for me was the bathroom facility. ☺ It consisted of a rustic squatty potty and a bucket of cold water for a shower. Since we were there only 24 hours, I opted for a sponge bath. Of course, the other had to be faced –no waiting 24 hours there. I got some pointers from Natalie Holsten on the best way to deal with that issue and am happy to say I survived. ☺

That is enough for this update. Maybe next Sunday I can recount some tales of the Chinese New Year celebration we had today. February 14, 2010 is the start of the Chinese year of the Tiger. But that will have to wait for another time.