Croquet: The gentleman's sport?

Nothing says relaxation like enjoying a leisurely Afternoon Tea service followed by a cordial game of croquet.

Until the croquet gets competitive.

Things started off well.  The Sanchaya Resort's "croquet official" cheerfully met us at reception and golf carted us over to the Resort's Croquet Lawn to get us set up.  We were delighted to find a lovely "lounge area" organized, complete with a (slightly small) jug of Pimm's, some sunscreen and numerous hydrating creams and mists.  

After teaching us the rules and walking us around the pitch, our official stayed with us throughout our three matches trying valiantly to keep us in line (while kindly overlooking some strategic cheating) and answering our numerous questions about the rules.  Not surprisingly, the rules became more disputed and the games more rowdy and intense with each glass of Pimm's.

The quirky rules and strategy around whacking your competitor's ball out of the way seemed to become a bigger motivation than actually moving one's own ball through the different wickets. Beth and Molly started trading shoes to get better shots and even a completely shoeless David was happy to put his feet at risk to whack a ball under foot to gain an advantage. Although one foot got smashed, we are happy to report that there have been no permanent injuries (ego, aside).  

A gentleman's game, we are not sure.  But luckily, a security chaperoned sunset walk on the beach restored all order and friendship.

Play on....

Sublime Sanchaya

This newly-opened Sanchaya Resort was the ultimate in luxury and bespoke service.  And the hotel design was just as exquisite.  So even though it doesn't do it justice, we (maybe, Beth) made a photo collage of this spectacular place.

Set sail for Sanchaya...

We were thrilled that our dear friends (and now Singapore residents), Molly and David, were able to escape for a weekend away with us to Bintan, Indonesia. And we are especially thankful to Molly for her organizing-prowess in jumping on a FT profile piece about the newly-opened Sanchaya Resort and both securing us a fantastic deal and organizing all the booking and boat arrangements.

The trip from Singapore to Indonesia is a quick one - only 50 minutes by boat.  And "Emerald Class" tickets made travel easy - allowing us to check our heavy suitcase (and avoid a repeat of our unfortunate Croatia experience!) and enjoy a coffee and some cookies before boarding the boat.  

The ride turned out to be a little choppier than expected, with an announcement part way through about an oncoming monsoon.   Within minutes, kids all around us started vomiting and the boat helpers kicked into high gear sprinting around the cabin to hand out more and more vomit bags.

Somehow, the four of us managed to escape the vomiting tsunami and we rushed off the boat as quickly as possible.  We were met on deck by the Sanchaya team who remarkably took over our entire immigration process, taking care of all of our luggage retrieval and custom duties.  Instead, the staff greeted us each by name (I now understand why they were checking out my LinkedIn profile!) and escorted us to a beautiful waiting area where we enjoyed some tea and snacks while they worked with government officials to get us into the country.

Going through immigration...

From the Desk of Beth & Geoff

Our hotel beachware

The luxurious treatment continued for the whole weekend.  We were greeted by the manager upon arrival and checked into our accommodations with the room's air conditioning set at our pre-chosen temperatures, bed pillows at the exact firmness level we requested, complimentary snacks in the mini bar that adhered to our dietary selections, outfits to wear to the beach so we didn't have to dirty our own clothes, and personalized stationary ready for us to write letters home.  Could they have possibly done anything more??

Meat selection for dinner

Naturally, we didn't leave the resort all weekend, It was hard to pull ourselves away.  For much of the day, we lazed by the very quiet and immaculately groomed beach reading magazines and books and enjoying our "care basket" full of water (both still and sparkling!), lime garnish, wet towels, sunscreen and face mister.  In the afternoons, we enjoyed Afternoon Tea with a spot of croquet or sipped quirky cocktails in gorgeous glassware finished with funky striped sipping straws.  For dinner, we devoured our custom-designed meals at the hotel's thai restaurant or a last-minute wine and cheese pairing (with a side of meat) in the Bar Salon.

The treatment at the hotel was overly decadent. And we indulged it to the fullest.  On the boat ride back, however, we realized we were going to have serious withdrawal pains.  

This is starting to be a chronic problem...

It is bad enough that we have started dressing alike so often.  What is worse is that now we often don't even realize it until we are out and about in town when it is far too late for one of us to change....

And then it got even worse as the problem extended beyond just Beth and Geoff...

Maybe it is time for Beth to just get a whole new wardrobe with totally different colours and patterns??

An Ode to Raffles Hospital...

Singapore's Raffles Hospital warranted its own blog post due to the incredible amount of time that Geoff spent there during our stay.

After several weeks suffering from a sore neck, Geoff met with a general chiropractic specialist, got an MRI, met with two additional chiropractic specialists (each with a different specialization on spinal degredation issues) and then got a steroid injection, all within one week in Singapore.

The Raffles Hospital staff were superb, responding quickly to emails, adjusting doctor's schedules to accommodate, speed walking around the hospital to meet and help patients, and showing clear expertise in their fields.

The Raffles experience was so patient focused.  And so impressive.  No wonder the Singapore health system is considered one of the best in the world.

How did we get here?

A competitive discussion that went way too far led us to sign up for a Segway tour of Sentosa Island.  

Sentosa Island is a popular island resort in Singapore that is visited by about 20 million people a year who come to enjoy beautiful beaches, the Universal Studios theme park, an enormous Merlion statue, a butterfly park, a luge track, golfing courses and food stalls galore.

For our segway tour, we focused in on the 2km beach front, hitting both Siloso and Palawan beaches.

After suiting up in so much protective gear that we could barely move, we had a quick group tutorial and then headed off (fairly slowly) to check out the island beaches.

Segways are actually quite intuitive – reacting sensitively to any body movement – and we picked it up quickly, secretly plotting ways to dart off from the group to try and get some real speed and see what the segway could do.  But before we could put the plan into action, our very short tour was over.

To celebrate our "achievement", we went over to the other side of the island for some congratulatory gelato followed by brunch at buzzing Kith restaurant.

Although enjoyable, one time on a segway is enough for us.  We think we have now graduated to trying Singapore's most awesome new toy - the electric unicycle. These amazing portable unicycles are like a bike and roller skates rolled into one and can be easily carried when not in use.  If we can get good enough, perhaps we could even join a Singapore "Unicycle Gang"!

Spectacular Singapore...

Singapore is one of our favourite cities so we were excited to be able to visit there to both catch up with some old friends as well as explore some of the sites we missed during our last trip.  

For us, no visit to a country would be complete without some kind of walking tour so we signed up for “Sultans of Spice” to see a different side of Singapore.

This tour  explore the British East India Company’s attempt to build Singapore as a hub to control the Spice Trade Route and the transition of Singapore to British control.  It also looked back at the former Malay royal family including a stop at the former palace and cemetery.  Finally, it highlighted the important Muslim influence in Singapore (one of the many thriving religions in Singapore), including a visit to the local mosque and the infamous Arab Street.  And somehow, as an added bonus, we even got chosen to be the guinea pigs for a dress-up party of Malay fashions.  Lucky us.

The tour reinforced our learnings from the “700 Years of Singapore” exhibit at the Singapore National Museum.  It also took us to a new part of town (Bugis Village) which offered more traditional and historical architecture, lots of feng shui inspired buildings (including a building shaped like a knife that inspired a "cutting board" courtyard development to keep its sharp blade from slicing the surrounding buildings)  and a wealth of different ethnic restaurants.  We even found a heavenly food court that was almost entirely vegetarian and vegan.

During our downtime, we wandered around other areas of town such as Tiong Bahru, Clarke Quay, Raffles City Hall, Singapore University precinct, and Holland Village. We were struck by the incredible diversity of the city, each with its own distinct feel and vibe and culture. But all felt green and spacious and orderly, even those spots in the downtown core.

Divine Wine Bar with Flying Fairies

When not touring or working, we got together with friends and their quickly growing kids who were slightly shy at first (the kids, not the parents) but then loved to show of their swimming tricks and dance moves (again, the children not the adults).  We also tasted delightful wines with Geoff’s old university friend, Graham, and his friends while they phoned old buddies from the Sweden School of Economics to get reacquainted.  And of course, we headed up to the top of Marina Sands Bay for a sunset drink overlooking the city, followed by a delightful (although tad spicy) dinner at the Punjab Grill before checking out the unicycle “gangs” hanging out by the boardwalk.

With warm weather, great architecture and infrastructure, a motivated and thriving multicultural community, Singapore is one of the truly great cities of the world.