Day 9, Year 4: Time Is Slipping Away
Date: Friday, October 31, 2008
Weather: Beautiful Clear Day, But Even Hotter
Location: One 15 Marina, Sentosa Island, Singapore

Our time here in Singapore is slipping away. It is easy to get comfortable here and forget to do the things you need to do. Our son Justin emailed and asked if we were missing the slower moving island life without all the trappings of modern civilization. I have to say that we are not, but that is because this is like staying at a five-star resort without the cost. Who can turn that away? But I must say that I am sad to leave the island life behind. From here on up the Malaysian coast, most
of the stops are in marinas. And when we reach Thailand, there are islands, but they are crawling with tourists. So we are just in to a new “era.” Every time I’ve said that things couldn’t get any better they have, so I’ll just have to wait and see what comes. I said to Mark yesterday that if I could turn back time, I would go back to Flores Island. It was a beautiful island with the most beautiful weaving I have ever seen, and I just didn’t get to spend enough time there to get to know the
local people. But we move on and maybe I will find another Flores somewhere along the line.

We traveled back to the Royal Thai Embassy today and got our visas. We won’t know how much time we have in Thailand until we arrive, so we’re hoping for the two months. The woman that gave us back our passports with the Thai visa stamped inside said we have two months. So we shall see.

We are working on sending some of our photos to our website, but it is a frustrating process. We have a good internet connection, but it keeps dropping out. I called my sister Patsy this morning and after three drops, I gave up. It was great to hear her voice, but very frustrating to not be able to complete our conversation. Patsy is having knee surgery next week and I never really got to talk to her about that. I am going to try an call again tonight (her morning) and hopefully we will have
a better connection.

Tomorrow those very expensive new batteries arrive and Mark will spend the entire day taking out the old and putting in the new. We have to replace the plywood floor the batteries sit on as the floor they sit on is deteriorating due to the boiling over of our old batteries back in Indonesia. So tomorrow won’t be an exciting day, but it will a good day because it will be so wonderful to have the new batteries in place. Right now we are having to run the motor about an hour every morning and again
an hour in the evening. The new batteries should hold a charge much longer. While Mark is getting the new batteries installed, I will work on making the ‘ultimate’ list of what we need to buy and do before leaving Singapore. I have a feeling the list will be longer than we can accomplish before our visa expires next Thurday, we we’ll just have to find a way to fit it all in.