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 

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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