Missing big brother

It's been a few weeks now since Tyler left Singapore to go back to Colorado, and things here still don't seem the same.  Our apartment feels a little empty and so do we.

Missing Alex's chauffeur.  Tyler was the main driver for Alex's stroller while he was here.  And at some point stroller rides switched to shoulder rides, which, of course, became the preferred mode of transportation.

Missing my chief navigator. Tyler became quite the expert on Singapore's public transportation systems, both the subway and the bus.

Missing Alex's best playmate.  Along with daddy, there is nobody Alex would rather play with than his big brother.  Legos, forts, hide and seek, playing in the pool, these two truly enjoy each other's company.

(Now of course, being brothers no one knows how to get the other one going better than each other.  And "telling" the boys to SEPARATE! was a daily (hourly?) occurrence.)

Missing the genuinely sweet kid that is Tyler.  So many people here (from the ladies in the breakfast room to the other parents at the pool/playground) have made comments to me about Tyler and Alexander, and how clear it is that the boys adore each other and what a great big brother Tyler is.

(So yes Tyler is 13, and we were not without those teenage moments, including a day I named "grump day", lots of managing screen time, you know, the usual stuff.)

And Tyler really had the chance to expand his horizons here in Singapore.  So many new experiences!

Public transportation.  As I mentioned, he quickly became an expert.  He even planned out a full morning riding each of the transit lines all by himself!

Food.  Tyler was a champ at trying new foods - naan, pork dumplings, satay.  There was a period of time when Ty went to get buttered naan from the same stall at the local hawker center almost every afternoon.

Getting his feet cleaned by fish!

To name a few.

Alex and I get to see Tyler almost everyday when we are home.   And we are so lucky that we were able to make some amazing lifetime memories exploring Singapore together.  We are definitely missing big brother.

We love and miss you Tyler B!!!

Unplugged at Telunas Beach

One of the things we are really looking forward to while we are here in Singapore is being able to do a little bit of traveling.  And there are some great places just a few hours away.  So a few weekends ago we took our first long weekend get away to Telunas Beach on Sugi Island in Indonesia.  Sugi Island is part of the Riau Islands, which is made up of over 2000 islands!

This means that the only way to get there is by boat.  Technically two boats, the first was on a regular ferry and the second was on a traditional long boat.  On the long boat we started to get a better idea of what our trip was going to be like and a little glimpse of the specialness of the place we were headed.

Telunas long boats

Telunas prides itself on capturing the local culture and on ensuring that the local community is key to making Telunas work.  There were a number of the Telunas staff on our boat.  They hire quite a few staff locally and for those that are not local, they are sent to the nearby town for cultural training.  So before we landed at our destination, we stopped at the dock for the main town on Sugi Island to let some of the staff off for their "immersion training".  Pretty cool.

And, of course, Alex made friends on the boat ride.  The super friendly staff on the boat kept him entertained with countless games of peek a boo, high fives, etc.

After the ferry and the 1.5 hour long boat ride we were excited to make it to Telunas Beach.

No railings on the front dock.  Gulp!

Stunning, and just a bit terrifying for this "slightly" paranoid mommy of a very active 3 year old.  Turns out that the front dock area was actually the only place that did not have railing...needless to say we did not let Alex spend a lot of time here.

The supports for the walkway need to replaced every five years!

The entire "resort" is built over water in the traditional Malay architectural style.  I use the term "resort" rather loosely as it is pretty rustic.  The buildings have thatched roofs, so there is no AC, but there are ceiling fans and lots of ocean breezes, so we were really quite comfortable.  The bathrooms are modern, although there was never much hot water for a shower, which was actually just fine since it was pretty warm and humid.

(We had done our research on Telunas, so none of this was a surprise to us, and we were excited to enjoy our time here.)

Meals were served 3 times/day at a set time, buffet style in a common dining area.  Food was simple and yummy (with rice at pretty much every meal).  We met some other super nice families, and the staff were so warm and friendly.

Dinner buffet

Alex's favorite friend from the weekend, was Nur (means "the light" in Arabic).  When she wasn't working in the dining area, she would play with Alex.  (And on her free time she was reading the teen girl version of the book "How to win friends and influence people", she is maybe just about 18 years old.)

Hanging out in the main area where meals were served.  Not a bad view!

Love this one of the boys!

Oh and there was very limited WiFi, which meant that we really did unplug.  Well mostly...a few times at night there was that familiar iphone glow from a certain someone sleeping next to me that "sometimes" has trouble sleeping (not mentioning any names here).

And who needed it at a place like this??

So what did we do at Telunas?  You could do as much or as little you wanted to.  The big boys actually kept pretty busy in the afternoons while Alex napped.  (Ok...I may have snuck a nap or two in myself.)

First Greg and Tyler took a boat up a river of mangroves to a hike up to a waterfall.  It was pretty muddy from the rain, but they had a great time jumping from the fall.  (The first of many high up jumps to come during the weekend.)

And then on the way back, the tide had changed so much that they had to walk back through the river to get to the boat.  Sure hope there aren't any snakes in that river!

They did some kayaking and a low ropes course too.  And one of the coolest things was dock jumping from the main dock every afternoon.  You could jump from the 10m high jump or just from the dock itself.

 What goes up...

Must come down!

 

 Now from the "low" jump.

Alex watching daddy and Tyler jumping and wanting to know if he could jump too. 

There was LOTS of beach time!

The boys!

The boys loved playing in the ocean,
and Alex loved jumping with daddy and Tyler in the waves.

I would really like to throw this sand at you.

These little bubbler crabs made the coolest patterns,
and in the morning the beach was covered with these little piles of sand and "bubbles".

We met some super nice, friendly expats from Singapore.  Everyone chipped in to make a sand city.

A man and his castle.

And, of course, there was plenty of time for relaxing.  Loved the hammocks!

Helping daddy relax.

Finally we had a beautiful last evening at Telunas, complete with making our own pizzas on the beach and roasting marshmallows over a bonfire.

Boys enjoying their pizzas.

We truly enjoyed our time at this low key, family oriented get away.  It was great fit for our family, and we made one of a kind memories that will last a lifetime.  If we were going to be in Singapore longer, we would definitely return.  (Well maybe we can fit it in...)

Um...did I mention that we just spent a weekend on an island in Indonesia?  Who would have thought?!