After a long week for Travis at work, we decided to use the weekend to begin exploring our new home. We began the weekend early Saturday morning with a trip to the Ministry of Manpower to finalize Travis' employment pass. After about 45 minutes of waiting, much like waiting at the DMV in the US, we submitted our application only to be told we would have to return again at 12:30 before we could receive our EP card. With some extra time on our hands, we decided to use the opportunity to walk to Chinatown and explore a little bit. We walked through shops, tried some Chinese sweat meets (kind of like beef jerky yet different), and eventually wandered into a Hindu Temple where we watched morning prayers.
This made the time pass quickly and before we knew it, 12:30 had arrived and we made our way back to the Ministry of Manpower to collect Travis' employment pass. Straight from there, we grabbed a taxi and headed toward Marina Bay. While there, we jumped on the Mt. Faber cable car and captured some amazing views of Singapore and Sentosa Island.
Today, Sunday, we checked out of the hotel and into our service apartment. After moving our luggage into our new temporary home, we hit the mall for a little shopping. We've been looking for a tri-pod for our camera and found one at a nearby mall. As some of you may know, Chinese believe it is good luck to make a sale on their first customer of the day. Of course, we happened to be that "first" customer and the salesman was so desperate to make a sale, he kept dropping the asking price. We ended up buying the tri-pod but unbeknownst to us, the salesman gave us the wrong product that was in fact a much cheaper version than what we intended to buy. We'd been in the mall a couple more hours before Jessica ran into the salesman looking for us. He'd spent the entire time trying to track us down. He was so embarrassed that he replaced the wrong tri-pod with a much more expensive model for the same discounted price. Can you believe it? Needless to say, that guy has earned our business for life...or at least as long as we're here!
We've included some photos below of our adventures. Be sure to click on them if you want to see an enlarged view. Miss you all!
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4 comments:
Wow, I am so impressed that you are finding time to update this so much. It is so fun reading about all of your daily adventures.
It looks like you all are settling in quite nicely! Keep posting pics and updates so we don't feel so far from you all! Happy Holidays! *mary & brian (& sophia)
Mrs. Custer! How are you? This is Kyle Didriksen, by the way. I'm enjoying your blog! I'll have to email you soon - I'm going to be in China this summer, and it would be awesome to swing by and see you guys!
Hey Travis and Jess! I so enjoyed looking at all of your pictures (they look fabulous). You are wetting our appetites. Have a fantasic weekend and we look forward to reading your updates! Tracey and Wendy
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