After two months of hotel bliss, Ben and I were finally ushered into the real world when we moved out of the Singapore Marriott hotel this week. Sure it was nice having a perfectly made bed, soft poached eggs to order, extra pillows upon request and virtually no messes to clean up…., but I must admit we are excited to be in a place we can call home….What was I thinking when I wrote that!?! I was clearly delusional at that point because after only a week of making my own bed, moping the floors and batting of cockroaches, I realize that there are very few things that could keep me from living in a hotel for the rest of my life. The first is definitely the financial burden that would occur within the first couple of weeks and second that I can’t do much cooking from a hotel room. Sure you can make sandwiches, oatmeal, hot chocolate, etc, but it is the full on cooking that I miss. In fact, Ben and I both missed it so much that the other night Ben and I decided that we were going to try an experiment and cook in our hotel room. Now, I have to tell you that our hotel room was not, before Ben rigged something up, equipped with culinary gadgets, hot plates, or any cooking device, but that didn’t stop us.
Our weapon: standard Mitsubishi Iron.
Our mission: Buttermilk Pancakes 
Outcome: a little inconsistency due to minor hot spots, but not bad.
Future missions: Grilled Cheese Sandwiches, Bacon-we may get caught for the smell, steak…ok probably too far there.
So, I wrote that post nearly 3 weeks ago and - at the time - I thought Ben and I were quite possibly the only people who would attempt to “cook” or prepare anything beyond a sandwich from their hotel room. Well, I was proven wrong.
Just the other day I was in the grocery store in Kuala Lumpur and a man in his 50’s approached me and said, “Excuse me Ma’am, do you work here?” My quick reply was, “Nope, but can I help you find something?” (I had been in the dairy section for nearly 30 minutes, trying to understand some of the dynamics of the Malaysian dairy industry and therefore knew just about everything in that case.) “Well I am looking for this whipped cream stuff from back home. It comes in a box and with a few shakes” he motioned with his hand “POOF, it turns into fresh whipped cream just like that!” he asked in his thick British accent. “Umm, I don’t know if I have seen that, but you can try this can of Reddiwhip”, as I proceeded to explain to him how it worked. “No way, that is so cool! Wow that would have saved me 12 minutes and the trouble of having to hand whip the cream for my dessert last night?”, he said. He then proceeded to pull out his phone and show me a picture of what looked like strawberry shortcake. “I’ve lived in a hotel here in Kuala Lumpur for 2 years now and just want you to know how much time this is going to save me when I make my desserts!”….. Turns out I am not the only crazy one
Ok back to the apartment. Sorry I get sidetracked easily. It is a 700 square foot apartment with the following luxurious amenities:
- 2 bedrooms (yay for all of you visitors!)
- A trash shoot….more on that later…trust me it is a good story filled with duct tape and cockroaches
- 3 “aircon” units- a must in Singapore
- 2 toilets equipped with fully functional bidets
- Close to MRT(Mass Rapid Transit), Bus Stop, My Office
- furnished (sometimes I wondering if this is a good thing or not.)
- Horn Man- a guy who walks around our complex honking his horn for hours alerting the people, I am here to gather free stuff! You don’t want it I’ll take it. He doesn’t actually say anything, he just honks his bike horn and people know that he wants anything you’ve got that is free.
Oh and the best part is Ben and I haven’t seen another white person since we moved here. There are some old men that play checkers in the breezeway all day and every time Ben walk by you can almost hear them say, “oh a white guy moved in, here goes the neighborhood.”It is so funny; people are so cautious around us and look at us like we are part of the government or something.
Our Living Room: Notice the stylish saloon girl curtains. Ben made me promise him that I would leave them up until I found some new ones....he loves them.
Our Bedroom: Yes those are bars on the doors, but don't worry Singapore is incredibly safe and the bars are more or less useless. Don't you love the retro tiles.
Our Kitchen: Note the tiny fridge (nearly 1/2 the size of our old fridge in the US) and super small microwave.
Sorry no pictures of our spare bedroom, too many boxes.
