Merry Christmas from Our Family to Yours

Wishing you a very Merry Christmas from our family to yours. We have a lot to be thankful for this season including you our followers.

Merry Christmas!

Until then,
Amy & Raegen (and the rest of the Lazy Moose clan)

Enjoy a little gift opening timelapse at the Lazy Moose Ranch. 

We're Famous...In Singapore American News

We have been very lucky to dive head first into the Singapore community. The expat community here reminds me a lot of Phoenix in the fact that if you’re willing to step up, work hard, you will be able to find all sorts of ways to be involved and expand your horizons and your network. I joined the American Women’s Association (AWA) almost immediately after moving and shortly after joined their Board of Directors.  I highly suggest joining the AWA to anyone moving to a foreign country as I have met some amazing ladies and learned a lot through their local tours. But I digress…

While on my job hunt earlier this year I was encouraged to volunteer in the office of the American Association.  To make a very long story short (you’re thinking FINALLY!), the American Association’s Communications Manager asked if Raegen and I wanted to write a piece for their December issue of Singapore American News. The theme for December was celebrations around the world and since we’ve decided to get hitched she thought we’d be perfect to write about wedding traditions in Asia. 

The hardest part about the story was that there are a multitude of cultures and traditions that we could’ve highlighted but we only had 900 words to educate our audience. After submitting the story and photos we learned we would be the cover story of the December issue of the Singapore American News. A big thank you to our friends who submitted their photos and helped us with edits. It takes a village!

To read the whole story Wedding Celebrations in Singapore, click here. Happy reading!

Happy Trails,

Amy & Raegen 

Come on over, the water's fine

Since we are welcoming four new visitors to Singapore this month we wondered after 10 months of reading this very entertaining and educational blog, how Singapore lived up to their expectations.

We chatted with our first two visitors, Harry Balmoral* and Barry Heathfield*, to see if Singapore was what they expected. Here are their thoughts…

·         Singapore is much more Western than expected. Many expats consider Singapore to be Asia Light/Asia 101 because it’s much more Western that other cities in the region. English is actually the official business language, although it does have four official languages- Tamil, Mandarin, Malay and English. 

·         People here take pride in what they wear. Everyone looks put together. For the most part, the people running around in their errand-running gym clothes are expats.

An expat, wearing gym clothes, running errands and enjoying some delicious food with friends
at the Tekka Market. 

·         Singapore is remarkably clean. Barry went as far as to say spotless.

·         Singapore is a great place to visit (especially visiting the One Degree North team) but there are some amazing opportunities for quick getaways to places such as Bali, Cebu, and Phuket. In fact, one of our wonderful guests copied the itinerary straight from Don't worry, go Krabi for a midweek getaway. He was not disappointed.

·         Technology is amazing. Face Time allows us to chat live and delay free and all for the price of an Apple device. Harry remarked how he felt like he already knew parts of the city as we had previously provided him with a digital tour during our chats.

·         The food in Singapore is excellent. Don't bother ordering the ‘American’ food as it’s rarely worth the calories. Although let’s be honest, it fills the void for a little slice of home when needed.

Enjoying the crowd favorite black pepper crab as well as Raegen's favorite Din Tai Fung. 

·         The subway system (known as the MRT) is awesome and makes getting around so easy. They both understood the system almost immediately and could navigate without parental guidance.

·         Both Barry and Harry were amazed even after reading the Sticker Shock blog post, at how expensive many things are here, with the exception of the MRT (train) and taxis.

·         As with every major city, it’s also nearly impossible to get a taxi when it’s raining. Did we mention that it’s monsoon season? Although we do love the GrabTaxi and Comfort Cab apps.

·         Foot massages from Alleviate are fantastic and not to be missed. If you have some extra time check out the fish spa. Ask for ‘Steven with a V.’  

Gotta love the fish spa

Foot massages

·         The last but most agreed upon point is that it’s hot. That no matter how much we told them that, they couldn't quite wrap their heads around the hot and humid that is our weather. I believe the quote was “Hot yoga has nothing on working out outside in Singapore.”

So come on over, Singapore is fine. 

Cheers..Singapore is awesome!
A Singapore Sling toast at the famous Long Bar at the Raffles Hotel. 

We are excited to have our next two guests head our way this week. Stay tuned for the adventures and revelations surrounding their trip. We guarantee there will be a few more visits to the fish spa/foot massage place in our future. 

Happy Trails, 

Amy & Raegen 

*Of course these are not their real names. I’m sure they’re someone’s, just not theirs. 

Deer Down Under

READER ADVISORY- If you are opposed to hunting for your own food, you might want to skip over this week’s blog and check out next week’s next post. Don't worry the story is still G rated. 

Much like my father, whenever I need a break from work, I always find my solace in the woods, be it hunting, fishing, hiking or any other outdoor activities.  As I spend more time in the woods it always draws you back and I find that I need that future trip to keep me motivated.  Since Singapore is an island in Southeast Asia, there are not many opportunities for this escape, so you need to get off the island.  So why not head down under to Australia to see what they have to offer?

A few months back, Amy being the good sport that she always is, decided that she would checkout hunting camp for a few days with me and take in the whole experience.  Ian from Tru Blu Hunting was a gracious host and provided us with a bed, hot shower, food as well as loads of coffee and animals to look at!

Tru Blu hunts a property called Water Valley Ranch which is about three hours outside of Adelaide, Australia.  This ranch is one of the largest privately held ranches in the world and they claim that from one end to the other it is 200 km (about 124 miles)!  The property was absolutely gorgeous and made the entire experience just that much better.

The two species that I was looking for during this hunt was a Javan Rusa deer and a Sambar deer. The Javan Rusa and a Moluccan Rusa came very easy with perfect one shot. We now had some great venison to take home. Amy was able to be a part of the successful day of hunting as the winter sun set over Southern Australia.  Since this was her first true hunt, the expectations were high to continue to have great days like that.

The next few days did not prove to be as successful as the weather didn’t cooperate and the Sambar would not be as easy.  We saw numerous animals (kangaroos everywhere!), but there was one Sambar that stuck out. Ian said it was the biggest he had ever seen in on the property in his 15 years there, so I knew that I would have to holdout for this special deer.  After numerous attempts to take down this beautiful Sambar, we came up empty handed but had a great time regardless.

To wrap up a great trip at hunting camp we spent an evening in Adelaide where we had some amazing food and wine before heading back to Singapore.

When deer season came to an end in Australia, I called Ian to see if that large Sambar was still around. He is and it looks like I will have to find another time to make a trip to Water Valley Ranch to try again. Obviously Amy is more than welcome to join... but I am guessing she will take a rain check. Something tells me she’s cheering for the Sambar.

Amy & Hound holding down the fort during the hunt. 

While there is no hunting season, fall or cooler weather in Singapore, we made cranked down the air conditioning, made venison chili and watched college football (go Irish and Sun Devils) yesterday. Hey we can pretend!

Until then,

rhs & AB

Beijing off the Bucket List

Like most people, Amy had the Great Wall of China, one of the wonders of the world, on her bucket list.  Beijing is much closer to Singapore than the US and since we had a public holiday in Singapore we decided to make a last minute flight up there to check an item off the bucket list. China was also having a public holiday…throughout the country workers had the week off in honor of National Day. (Their '4th of July.')

Before leaving for Beijing we had arranged a tour guide for the day to visit the Great Wall and Emperor’s Summer Palace.  Jessie came highly recommended by some friends of ours. Did we mention that she is rated #4 on TripAdvisor for tours of Beijing?! (Go Jessie!)  Jessie and a driver picked us up at the hotel at 6:30 am. We left so early because as we mentioned it was a holiday week and many Chinese vacation within their country- i.e. there were A LOT of people in Beijing.  We saw the Mutianyu section of the wall and by saw I mean we could not have picked worse weather. It was cold, wet, and foggy. This meant that we could only see about 30 yards in front of us. Not exactly the way to see the massive scale of this 2000 mile wall.  There’s always a silver lining and ours was the fact that there were very few tourist there. Jesse told us that on the day before a more popular section of the wall had 88,000 visitors in one day. I might have seen less than 88 total people on our section of the wall including the workers.

Our next stop was the Summer Place. The Palace is where the Emperor would spend his summer months. As you can tell in the photos- this place was MASSIVE. It might be bigger than some countries but it was beautiful. My favorite part of the Palace were the gardens that the Emperor commissioned as a gift for his Mom’s 60^th Birthday. He had the wherewithal to start the construction when she was 40 years old. I can’t even plan 15 days out for my Mom’s birthday; way to show me up Emperor. (Love you mom!)

After a long day of touring Amy and I needed to refuel so we had dinner at the famous Da Dong Restaurant.  This is one of the most famous Peking Duck places in Beijing and they have a 165 page menu! A little history is that Beijing used to be called Peking, hence being known for the place to have Peking Duck. The meal was wonderful and might be in my top 5 places to eat in the world.  The duck was to die for. Now if I could only figure out how to make duck like that from our duck hunts at Big Lake.

Our timing in China was interesting as the protests were still going on in Hong Kong. It is widely known that China sensors a lot of the media that comes into the country. This was very evident as you watched any news channel. Right as a story began on Hong Kong the channel would go completely black until the news story was over. They also block the IP address (the web address) for Facebook and Instagram. It definitely makes you appreciate the luxuries that we have in the US and other Western countries.

The next day we decided to take in the sights of Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. We went through security to enter Tiananmen Square and if the afternoon crowd was ‘light,’ I wouldn’t have wanted to see them in full force. The square had a beautiful display of flowers since it was the holiday. 

Luckily, the Forbidden City wasn’t as chaotic as we thought. After walking through the massive Forbidden City we ended up in Jingshan Park where we walked up the hill to see beautiful, expansive view of Beijing.  We must have walked at least four miles, but we were able to see a lot of great sites.

We decided to top off our evening eating scorpions, cricket-like things, and numerous other delicacies at the Donghuamen Night Market. (Don’t worry we already had a proper dinner beforehand.) 

To that we say chow down!

Until then,

Raegen & Amy

Gentlemen Start Your Engines!

They may say gentleman start your engines in NASCAR but we can assure you that Formula One is not NASCAR. Sure they have racing teams, checkered flags and fine-tuned cars that drive really fast. But if you want to compare them they’re more like second cousins than sisters. 

Singapore has been a part of the Formula One Grand Prix Circuit for seven years and as Singapore tends to do- they strive to make their stop the biggest and most memorable. They shut down much of the Financial District for the race and start building the infrastructure three months in advance!  This year was just as impressive as past years with post-race concerts from John Legend, Jennifer Lopez and an inter-team battle for first place in the standings within the Mercedes team.

We started watching the Formula One races when we moved to Singapore so we we’re in the know when the race rolled into town in mid-September. In order to be well versed we did some research and here are a few facts for you… 

•          Singapore was the first nighttime grand prix and the track features 1,600 lighting projectors.
•         The Marina Bay Street Circuit has an average speed of just 170 km/h (106 mph), making it the second-slowest track of the year after Monaco. 10 of its 23 corners are taken in first or second gear and less than 50% of the lap is spent at full throttle
•         Only three different drivers have won the Singapore Grand Prix in its first seven running’s. Five of the six winners have come from pole position (i.e. first place).
•         There has never been an F1 driver from Singapore.
•          The Singapore Marina Bay Circuit is also one of the most demanding to drive - not only do drivers have to make an average of 80 gear changes per lap, but due to the heat and humidity, drivers can lose up to 3 kg (6.6 lbs.) of fluid during the race.
•         There are so many other interesting facts such as the cars are not allowed to refuel and are only allowed to have three sets of tires (spelled tyres on this side of the world.)

The race is a big deal for not only the locals but for all of Southeast Asia. The festivities start on a Friday with practice laps, then time trials on Saturday and the big race on Sunday. Raegen was busy all weekend hosting customers from all over for work in a suite at the Fullerton Hotel on turn 13. It was a great spot and hopefully the thrill and excitement of the race helped him to close some big deals.

I was lucky enough to watch two of the three nights of racing at the Singapore Cricket Club which had a view of the longest stretch of the track including a chicane affectionately called the “Singapore Sling.”

The selfie stick makes an appearance for a group photo of the course safety crew. 

Sunday night’s race was a typical F1 race as it wasn’t short of drama. The inter-team rivals Rosberg and Hamilton were starting in the one-two position and at the start of the race. Rosberg (who was in first place in the standings at the start of the race) had a mechanical failure and failed to start the race. Hamilton ended up winning the race and taking the lead in the standings.

The racing was electrifying and just as exciting was Sunday night’s off-track event, the Jennifer Lopez concert. Three days of racing and excitement were exhausting. So much so that we both slept through two alarm clocks on Monday morning and I missed my early morning flight. It all worked out in the end with just a 24 hour set back. Off to the next adventure!

J-Lo Concert

Happy Trails,

Amy & Raegen 

We've gone viral! Find One Degree North on Instagram and Facebook. 

First Trip Off the Island

In the expat progress of events first comes finding a home/adjustment period, the sticker shock phase and then comes the Bintan phase. (Although we’re still in the sticker shock phase no matter what anyone says.) We don’t consider ourselves to be conformists, but apparently we are as we took our first trip off the island to Bintan, Indonesia.

On a sunny morning we boarded the Bintan Island Resort Ferry and began our 45 minute journey to Bintan. We decided to spend the little extra money and travel in Emerald Class. That meant we had assigned seats, complimentary soda and water, as well as streamlined processing on-board and at immigration. (The visa on arrival is $10 USD and has to be paid in US cash.) The ride flew by as we sat on the back of the boat in the sea breeze and watched all the ships passing by headed into port in Singapore. 

Upon arrival at the ferry terminal we were taken via air-conditioned bus to the resort. We chose to stay at the Angsana Resort, a Banyan Tree Resort. There are a handful of resorts on the island and after a lot of research this seemed to be the best in our price range. The hotel grounds were wonderful, the beach was beautiful, they had a nice spa and the staff were attentive but the rooms could have used a little refreshing. We came for some relaxation so regardless we were happy to be at the beach.

On our first full day on the island, we decided to check out the ‘shopping area’ Pasar Oleh Oleh, which was not as local as we hoped but we found some great souvenirs for the house as well as a great lunch.

The local currency is the Indonesia Rupiah (IDR). The exchange rate is 11,494.25 IDR to $1 USD so it made for a bill that only P. Diddy has seen.

One night we walked over to the Banyan Tree Bintan for dinner at their Thai restaurant, Saffron. Not only was the food fantastic (we had our own rice master!) but it was also Earth Hour. Earth Hour is where millions of people across the world switch off their lights for one hour on the same day - to celebrate their commitment to the planet. From 8:30 - 9:30 pm we enjoyed our dinner in a completely candlelit restaurant. Kudos to Banyan Tree Resorts for making the commitment to our planet at all of their resorts across the globe.

Otherwise, we spent most our time at the resort and enjoyed meals in the sand at the beachside restaurant and by the pool. It was exactly what the doctor ordered after all of the months of moving stress and the challenges (not to mention the gray hairs) associated with moving to a new and foreign country.

Happy Trails,

Amy & Raegen 

Tekka-Tac-Toe

Amy and I love to entertain and cook.  Obviously we love to bring friends and family around the table to break bread, but it also means that we get to cook and sometimes even try new things on dinner victims...I mean guests.  Singapore is an amazing place to experiment with new flavors due to the abundance of fresh produce and exposure to new recipes from a variety of cultures.

We make frequent visits to the Tekka Market in Little India.  Wet markets are fresh food markets- sort of like a farmers market. They are called that because the floors are wet due to the cleaning of the floors, ice-melting, fish-cleaning and vegetable-washing. (We wouldn’t advise you to wear your new Prada sandals here.)

They have pretty much everything you could ever want in a wet market from fruit, vegetables and spices to little sharks, huge prawns and chickens chopped up however you’d like. (See Why is your time more important than mine? for more information on shopping and lifestyle in Singapore.)  There are plenty of things in the market that we can’t even identify. The Tekka Market is known for having great vegetables and meats. There are other markets that specialize in areas such as flowers (Tiong Bahru Market) or live big turtles, frogs and eels (Chinatown Market). Here is a great website highlighting the five best wet markets in Singapore if you’re interested.

Clockwise L-R : The line of cars to get into the parking lot for the market; the butcher; an overhead shot of the fish and meat part of the market; the Tekka Market is located off of Buffalo Road. 

We learned a long time ago to never go grocery stopping on an empty stomach so our first stop is normally to grab some curry at the hawker center (think mall food court) at the market.  Amy knows she can get me join her at the market if it includes a curry meal.  My favorite stop is the naan place to get some gobi (cauliflower/potato dish), dal (lentils) and garlic naan (a flatbread).  Amy heads a few stalls down for some rice with chicken served on a banana leaf.  All of that amazing food and we are usually so full we could burst for under $13!

Our next stop is at Chia Vegetables. What I love about this shop is that the people are very nice and helpful but they also have great prices.  We can get a full basket of vegetables for the same price as a head of lettuce and some brussels sprouts in the grocery store. 

From here we normally head to get some fruit.  There are a few good places to get bananas and a variety of citrus fruits if you go exploring. (They have great mango here!)

On our last trip we decided to make a purchase from the fish and meat section of the market. We didn’t adventure too far outside of our comfort zone, but we did acquire some delicious prawns for our Sunday night BBQ with friends. They were delicious!

When you come visit, we will take you on a tour of the market and treat you to some curry.

Until then,

Raegen and Amy

You Can Have Your (Moon) Cake and Eat It Too

Today (September 8^th) marks a special day in the Chinese Culture. Today is Mid-Autumn Festival Night.

The night is part of the Mid-Autumn Festival, which is the second most important (traditional) Chinese Festival after Chinese New Year. This year's festival takes place from September 6-8. It is also known as the lantern festival, Chinese Thanksgiving or the moon festival as this is the time of year that the moon is at its roundest and brightest. 

Chinatown decorated for the Mid-Autumn Festival 

Last week I went on a local tour of Chinatown to learn more about this festive time of year. The tour was set up by the American Women’s Association and we learned quite a bit about the history of Singapore’s Chinatown (which is right next to our house) but we also learned about the traditions and the stories around the Mid-Autumn Festival.  

There are many traditions and celebrations around Mid-Autumn Festival Night such as having dinner with family, making moon cakes, eating a fruit called pomelos, and lighting lanterns.

Pomelos

The moon cake is the special food of Mid-Autumn Festival. On that day, people sacrifice moon cakes to the moon as an offering and eat them for celebration. Moon cakes come in various flavors according to the region. The moon cakes are round, symbolizing the reunion of a family. People gift moon cakes to relatives and friends to wish them a long and happy life.

Moon cakes made with lotus with cranberries and macadamia nuts

One of the stories behind the Mid-Autumn Festival is the story of Hou Yi and Chang’e.

The story, as told by the website China Highlights, is as follows:

Long long ago, there were 10 suns in the sky. They burnt all the plants on the earth. People were dying.

One day, a hero whose name was Hou Yi used his bow and arrows to shoot down nine of them. All the people on the earth were saved.

One day, the queen of heaven gave Hou Yi a bottle elixir that could make Hou Yi become an immortal, but the elixir was only efficacious for one person. Hou Yi did want to become an immortal, but he wanted to stay with his beautiful wife Chang'e more, so he didn't drink the elixir and asked his wife Chang'e to keep it for him.

Hou Yi was becoming more and more famous after he shot down the nine suns and more and more men wanted Hou Yi to be their master. Most of them were accepted by Hou Yi.

Not every student of Hou Yi had good morality. Feng Meng, one of his students, wanted to seize his elixir. One day, Hou Yi went hunting with his students, but Feng Meng pretended to be ill and stay at home. When making sure Hou Yi had gone he went to Hou Yi's house and tried to force Chang'e to give him the elixir. Chang'e knew she couldn't defeat Feng Meng so she drank the elixir immediately. The elixir made her become an immortal and fly higher and higher. Finally, she stopped on the moon.

From then on, people often pray to Chang'e for fortune and safety. During the Mid-Autumn Festival they offer lots of foods to Chang'e. (sic)

So while we’re not able to enjoy moon cakes with you in person to celebrate this great day, we will enjoy them in your honor. If you’re lucky, we’ll bring some back with us next time!

Happy Trails, 

Amy & Raegen 

One Heck of a Rock

Photo courtesy of japan-guide.com.

There is an old Japanese proverb that says something along the lines of “He who climbs Mt. Fuji once is a wise man. He who climbs it twice is a fool.”

Normally I like to do some sort of surprise for Amy’s birthday, but when you are planning on hiking 12, 388 feet (3,776 meters) up a dormant volcano you can’t just spring that on someone like you’re going for an afternoon hike. (My cousin who has hiked it twice might disagree.)  The hardest part about planning was finding reliable information, especially in English.  What we did find is that the mountain is open for climbing season in July and August. We also found out that we had multiple options on how to tackle the mountain. We wanted to hike the mountain in the traditional Japanese way so we opted for a night at one of the huts on the trail.  We were put on a waiting list at one of the huts despite calling months in advance. A few weeks later I received an email all in Japanese stating that said we had 2 spots at the Goraiko-Kan hut at station 8.5.  (Thank you to Google Translate). This was the highest hut on the mountain which was about 1,000 vertical feet from the summit (top).

It’s a 2 ½ hour journey involving buses, trains and automobiles to make it to the 5^th station where the hike starts.  We knew it was going to be a long slog to make it to our beds in station 8.5 and since it is peak climbing season we knew it would take some time and patience.  As far as scenic and beautiful, the views in the distance were amazing. The trail consists of volcanic rock that made you feel like you were hiking on the surface of the moon.

After a couple hours of hiking, sore joints, a few Advil and multiple stops to wait for the hiking tour groups, we finally made it to the hut. On a good day this place would be considered rustic and cozy.  By rustic I mean there’s a hint of sewer in the air (but at least they have a western style bathrooms). If you consider 150 smelly climbers cramped into a room that closely resembles a chicken coop cozy, then it was cozy.  The photo and description do not give it justice.  When was the last time that you shared a bed with 8 people? (If you have an answer, we don’t want to know.)  Amy and I were allocated a glorified mat the size of a single bed for both of us (with 6 people next to us), two doll size pillows filled with beans and a blanket that I wasn't going to get under.  I can’t make this up when I tell you that there were times throughout the night that the woman next to Amy kept snuggling with her foot and there were points during the night that I realized I was sleeping butt to butt with the man next to me. Needless to say when you have 150 people stuck in a room to “sleep” there is not a single quiet moment, even with ear plugs! 

Around 1:30 am everyone decided to get up and start hiking so we put back on our smelly gear and walked into the 35°F cold to finish that last 1000 feet.  I was blown away by the streams of people hiking at that time. 

A view from the top of the climbers' headlamps

It only took us about an hour to get to the top, which left a very cold 1 ½ hours to wait for sunrise.  I managed to find some coffee and Amy had some weird corn soup that kept us warm.  That lasted about 5 minutes and we were back to shivering even though we were huddled and twisted together like pretzels.  I had on most of my skiing gear and I was the coldest I have ever been. The 25+ mph wind didn't help!  

Finally about 3:30 am we made the decision to start hiking down the mountain a little bit. So much for the idea of sunrise from the top of Mt. Fuji but it would be close enough.  We walked down the hill about 200 vertical feet and found a perfect quiet spot outside of the wind.  As you can see the sunrise was pretty awesome!

After an amazing sunrise we learned that the hike down was just as bad as the hike up! By that point we had no sleep, limited substantive food, and were just worn out. Although we made it down much quicker than we made it up.  At the bottom we celebrated being alive with some hot food and sake. It was such a wonderful experience but we were both ready to be back in Tokyo to take a shower and have a real bed that we don’t have to share with 6 other people.

Until then,

Raegen & Amy 

P.S. - I forgot to mention that I asked Amy for her hand in marriage as the sun was rising over Tokyo.

  

Going to celebrate. Amy's fingers were a little swollen from the hike....the ring fits now. Phew!