Gardens by the Bay

We’ve been super busy doing super boring things around our new home. Setting up shop is taking all of our free time! But since it was a special occasion weekend, we took a break from Ikea and got outdoors.

It was Pete’s birthday (Happy 35th!!) on Sunday and we had ourselves a little Singapore adventure.

We’ve seen some pretty amazing architecture since we’ve been here, but the single most totally bonkers thing to-date is the grove of sixteen story-tall solar-powered trees at Gardens by the Bay, a park situated on 100 hectares of reclaimed coastal land. Undoubtedly, the thing to do is visit after dark when Supertree Grove is glowing pink and green. But even in the daylight, these trees are absolutely spectacular!

Our cameras are still en route, so all photos are via iPhone until November. But you get the idea…these things are CRAZY!

Along with the supertrees, there are also two giant, modern (and air-conditioned) domes and many many acres of flora, fauna and wildlife. We spent about 3 hours with our necks crooked 90 degrees. We toured the Cloud Forest dome, a simulated high-altitude rain forest.

View of the cloud forest from the ground below.

The cloud forest boasts the world’s tallest indoor waterfall, with 7 internal floors of interactive exhibits and indigenous plant life from tropical highlands

Stunning architecture aside, the entire park is carbon-neutral and showcases some pretty amazing interactive features for park-goers. It was such a great day. We’ll definitely go back at night with our out-of-towners.

Home Sweet Home

HI FRIENDS!!

Two-and-a-half weeks down, and we’re settling in quite happily. Esme loves her new job, office, co-workers and commute. Pete is networking and meeting people (and friendly stray cats) everywhere. It’s actually really helped to have one partner at “home” to take care of the day-to-day while the other starts up at a new job. Every night, we look forward to our walk along the river and dinner together after a long, hot day. Singapore is growing on us very quickly.

We’re one weekend away from moving into our new apartment! While our hotel has been great and we have really taken a liking to it, we’re ready to get settled into our more permanent home. Whether it’s the touristy neighborhood – or the fact that we have a front desk & need to use a keycard to get everywhere – it feels very temporary.

We went to our condo earlier this week to take measurements for furniture. GEEZ it’s so much smaller than we remembered! It’s a one bedroom with a huge deck and a very small everything else. But it’s brand new, modern and centrally-located.

During our scouting trip in August, we looked at 10 different properties. In ONE DAY. Needless to say, it was very overwhelming. It gave us a very good sense of where we wanted to live, as expats (there is a difference, as we will explain in subsequent posts). We saw beautiful, gigantic apartments in 40-story high rises. We saw older, dated condominiums. We saw a shop house that in San Francisco we would’ve taken in a second. But after all the (soul) searching and feeling like we were on House Hunters International, we went for the place that felt most like we would be an active part of the city we are borrowing.

We decided to lease this particular property because of its proximity to shops, restaurants, activities and Esme’s office. As much as we loved our place, our last year in Oakland was spent driving to eat, shop and BART, so it was very important for us to feel like we would be totally okay on foot. And in case we haven’t made it clear, the sticker shock here in Singapore is very real (we thought the Bay Area was steep!). We knew we would have to give up a little bit of space, but the downsize is still a bit of a shock. Since it will be just the two of us 90% of the time, we’re up for the challenge of living small.

We get the keys on Monday and will post lots of BEFORE pics.

p.s., we miss all of you very, very much!