 |
| Some of the rattan furniture we ordered in Singapore. |
Dearest Friends,
Before we headed home to Texas, John had arranged for a most wonderful treat--three days in Singapore! I was absolutely giddy with excitement.
We caught the 3:00 flight out of Jakarta, checked into the Singapore Hilton, then headed straight for the Harbour Grill restaurant there in the hotel. I'd been salivating for some of their buttery lobster, and Caesar salad prepared table-side, ever since John told me where we were headed. Afterwards we went down to the club "Le Bistro" to listen to a bit of music (so glamorous compared to the only bar in Cilegon!) before turning in for the night.
The next morning John had to go into the B&R office to take care of some paperwork, but we met for lunch at the outdoor cafe on the roof of our hotel. Next it was furniture shopping! Or, to be more precise, furniture ordering. There was one company that specialized in rattan furniture, and so many of the B&R families had ordered from them that they knew all the ins and outs of getting it added to our sea shipment when it stopped there in Singapore, to be combined with others that were heading for Bahrain. We just sat there flipping through photo albums, saying "We'll take one of these, and one of these. Ooh! And what about one of these?" And, of course, it was all dirt cheap compared to what it would've cost us back in the states -- especially since John's company was shipping it for us. After that I went to a beauty salon (for the first time in months!), then we had dinner at our favorite Chinese restaurant, The Bamboo House. How embarrassing to glance over at the table next to ours, and realize that we had ordered twice as many dishes as that family of four! We couldn't help it though. It had been so long since we had eaten anything like this, and everything on the menu sounded sooo good. We finished off the evening at a disco called "Barbarella", of all things!
The next day, we had another exciting mission. After we got engaged, I sent John some pictures of the china, crystal, pewter and stainless that I was thinking about registering for. When he saw that most of my china choices were from Noritake, he told me not to register for that. He said he knew of a special place in Singapore where we could get it really cheap, and this way we would get more of the other things we needed. When he said that the Noritake place was "special", he wasn't kidding. It was like no other store I had ever experienced. In fact, it was more like going on a treasure hunt...in some grandma's attic...with boxes and crates and loose dishes stacked everywhere...to the ceiling! Right away I fell in love with this sort of 60's flower child pattern with, of course, lots of color on it (I have a thing for color, you know) but it took us several hours before we managed to scrounge together place settings for twelve and all the serving pieces, and arranged for it to be packed and shipped. What an adventure! John was so worn out afterwards, he had to go get a massage. That evening we returned to Harbour Grill and Le Bistro, where we ran into some people John knew. They then took us to an authentic Chinese dance hall. Two adventures in one day!
Friday was our last day there, and while John went back to the office for a few hours, I decided I would get my first (and as it turns out, my last) massage. For one thing, I thought it hurt like hell, and I couldn't understand how anyone found that relaxing. For another, I have never been all that comfortable being nude with strangers. Last, but not least, my little shrimp of a masseuse was working on the back of my thighs when she suddenly says "Oooh! Mrs. has very tiny waist, but veeeerrrry big 'ties'!" Well. Thank you for pointing that out. We have a plane to catch, so I think I'll be going now.
After a final lunch at the rooftop cafe, we boarded our flight for the states. Twenty seven hours later, at 3:00 AM their time, we came stumbling into the Dallas airport.
Posts
2 comments:
Plan to go back and read all your diary. How wonderful. Did you keep a diary at the time. I wish I had done. We came to America in 1968. Our first stop was Austin. left after 18months and went to Canada. From there it was a move every 5 years. Now we are back here. We should have gone to Bahrain in 1968 and might have even bumped into you way back. My husband was on a scholarship from Caltex, but in the end chose not to go with them. Your story sounds so exciting.
LR: I only wish I had kept a real diary! I have a few "agendas" from that early period, when it was just the two of us. I wrote down my appointments and what we did, sometimes what we ate, but none of my thoughts or feelings. Later, when we went back overseas with our school-aged kids, I wrote lots of letters home to the grandparents, describing every little thing the kids did - so they wouldn't feel like they were missing out on being a part of their lives. A few of those letters were saved, but not near enough! We both went to college in Austin. My husband probably got there about the same time you did, and I was there from 71 to 75. The Hill Country made such an impression that we spent the next 30 years trying to figure out some way to get back there and make a living!
Post a Comment