Hovering above the styling chair, my cousin Shannon applied color to my hair while chatting casually about my trip.
"Do me a favor." She said, speaking about my blog, "Write about the people you meet, not just the places you see."
I told her I would.
I month later and we are in the thick of our trip. I was hoping to gather some great stories about the people we met, and Singapore was just the place.
Singapore is expensive. A small island city that is also an independent country, it prides itself on becoming a developed nation on it's own-- It did not require western intervention. In less than 50 years, Singapore moved from third world to becoming one of the richest and most modern cities in the world. A beautiful place to visit, but tough on our Canadian wallets.
We heard about "couchsurfing" as an excellent way to see new places on a shoestring budget. We decided to try it. Now if you have been raised in a home with pragmatic parents like mine, you are probably thinking couchsurfing is the most ridiculous concept ever. Basically, there is a website that allows travelers to connect with hosts that offer a place to stay in their houses for free. Tell any mother about this and basically you will hear about it as a way to lure unsuspecting people into the claws of serial killers and thieves. Luckily however, this was not our experience. We were changed by the goodness, and generosity of the people we met.
Our first night in Singapore was spent in the home of Koen and Likki. They are a couple from Belgium and Indonesia who live in Singapore and work as Engineers. We arrived late at night, late getting there and frazzled by the confusing train tickets, long rail rides, and no phone. We had no idea what to expect. They greeted us with big smiles and were very gracious hosts. We were grateful they could stay up to visit with us even though they had work the next day.
Apartments in Singapore are small, so Steve and I slept head-to-toe on the tiniest cot, designed to fit a lean, asian body. The room the cot was in was only a few feet bigger than the cot itself. Though small, it was an interesting taste of Singapore life and the way people make life work in small spaces. Our hosts said that most people downtown live four or five to a small apartment, and even convert the kitchen into a sleeping space! There is subsidized housing, but it is not for everyone because buying it means you only own your property for 99 years and then it goes back to the government. Expensive cities mean people get creative.
Becasue it was the Easter long-weekend, Likki and Koen were only able to host us one night. An interesting thing about Singapore is that it is made up of four major groups: East Indian, Mainland Chinese, Singaporians, and Malays. The government is secular, but recognizes two major religious holidays a year for each group. That meant our hosts were able to take a much needed break and take advantage of cheap travel in Asia.
So the next day we met up with our new hosts, Zach and Janice. Zach is an american who moved to Singapore 7 years ago to teach in an international school. He met his wife Janice, originally from Singapore, and they were married about a year ago. Steve and I hit it off with them right away. Zach and Janice are two extremely kind and generous people who open their home as a way to meet new people and share what they have with others. Zach has hosted over 100 couch surfers! After meeting we were instant friends with lots in common: Zach is a teacher, (so am I!), Janice is an Engineer (so is Steve!), Zach and Janice are both musicians, (so are we!), and Janice's best friend Kara (who teaches in Singapore) is from Edmonton, and is connected with alot of people that we know. Small world!
On the first night, Zach took us to some food stands and we bought some weird food for us to share. Singapore is famous for its food scene. The streets are filled with food stalls called "Hawkers", and food is really cheap....just as long as you stay out of formal restaurants. For supper we had Indian Teh Tarick, which is a spicy black tea made with sweetened condensed milk and ginger, and Murtabak, a type of flatbread with onions, mutton, cheese, eggs and other mysterious things. You eat it with a special curry dipping sauce. It was delicious! The thing that amazed us the most though was the way they wrap up food for take out: The bread was wrapped in brown paper and the sauce was put into bags filled with air and tied with string. The hot drinks were poured into baggies open at the top with a plastic tie looped into a handle. We felt like we were carrying hot goldfish around!
After we ate, we all stayed up late and jammed. Zach and Janice are both talented musicians and it was fun to share songs. We also had deep talks about our countries, our lives, and about our beliefs. Janice and Zach are both very wise people and their insight really challenged and inspired us. I think what we learned the most was how humbling and honoring it is to receive such generosity. No matter what you possess, big or small, or where you are at in life, now is the perfect time to serve others. We hope we can remember and stay true to those lessons.
For the rest of our stay, we took the rail during the day to get out of our host's hair, and went to the Singapore zoo (number one in the world), Little India (a large ethnic open air market), Chinatown (we visited the Buddha Tooth temple), and of course all of the expensive malls and shops along Orchard road. It was a lot of walking but great to see such a clean and modern city, although we were always paranoid we were going to accidentally break a law (no spitting, no gum chewing, no littering, no jay walking, etc).
On Easter Sunday Zach and Janice invited us to go to a homechurch they attend to have Easter dinner and celebrate. When we walked in the small condo we were greeted by an amazing family, originally from Alaska, and were welcomed warmly. Every sunday they open up their home to new people and often have as many as 40 attend. We met many new friends and experienced church in a way we never have before. There was such a mix of cultural and ethnic backgrounds and hearing people sing out with different accents was a beautiful thing to witness. We were able to share some songs with them as well and felt really blessed to be surrounded by such genuine people. We had to leave early to catch our next plane to Phuket and we were sad to leave our new friends behind.
Now in Phuket, we are excited to continue our adventure. We will continue meeting new people, and take away an important lesson from the friends and family that speak truth into our lives: Life is about relationship. Traveling is not so much about the places you go or the dollars you spend, but about the people you meet and the important people you bring along in spirit.
We thank you all at home for coming along with us!
Captions (by Steve):
1. A boat stuck on a hotel
2. Alice in wonderland style gardens
3. Main party street
4. Hindu temple
5/6. Buddhist tooth temple
7. Random Canadian
8. A large cat
9. Awesome monkey
10. Apparently big bums are attractive to monkeys...
11. Savanahs cousins
12. Outdoor indoors
13. Speed walking
14. Buddhist tooth temple
15. Easter lunch/homechurch (zach&janice top right)
16. Koen&likke
Sounds like you guys are having an amazing time! So wish we could have fit in your suitcases and tagged along... miss you guys!
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