2 years, 9 months and 1 week

According to our ticker right at the bottom of this blog, it's been that amount of time since our major big adventure. We are still alive and kicking, just that well we procrastinated and neglected this blog for the longest time ever. 

We actually got back to Singapore in September 2011 and bummed around for a period of approximately 4 months, doing things like sitting in on the parliamentary sessions in Singapore, volunteering at Cat Welfare Society and basically trying to figure out what we wanted to do in our lives since everything was kind of an anti-climax after the trip. 

After bumming around for the longest time ever, CS got a job and before you knew it, we were packing our lives up in Singapore and made the move to....... Bangkok! When he got news of the job offer and told me about the possible move, it was really a no-brainer to say yes. We have been wanting to get out of Singapore wayyyy before our major big adventure but work-wise it never happened. So this opportunity was really great, and since I wasn't working, I had no job to think about and we said yes within a week (?) I think. Since he had to start work almost immediately, it was left to me to pack up the house and take care of all the necessary arrangements like finding tenants, figuring out how to bring Kit Cat over and various other items. Thanks to the kindness of friends, I also had a place to stay in after our apartment was rented out and before I made the move with Kit Cat.  

Moving Kit Cat over itself was an adventure and I did an article for Cat Welfare Society which is re-published here.

When people heard we were relocating to Bangkok, one of the first few questions we were asked is "So what will you do with kit cat?" Our immediate answer was always "We'll take him with us of course."

Kit Cat has been a part of our family ever since we adopted him 5 years ago from the cat shelter. He is a part of our family, and there was never any doubt that we would bring him with us wherever we might go. When we found out that my husband would be posted to Bangkok, we began researching on how to bring Kit Cat with us.

The natural starting point was the AVA website. It takes a while to navigate but with enough patience you will find the information needed. They also recommend that you go down to their office to speak with the staff directly and we found this to be a better option than calling the hotline. Don't swing by during their lunch hours (1-2pm).

The first documentation you will need is the export permit. You can complete this online and just print them out. The export permit is only valid for 30 days and you must bring your cat out of Singapore within those 30 days.

Next, depending on which country you are bringing your cat into, you either need a government health certificate or endorsement of a health certificate by an official veterinarian. You will need to bring your cat to your regular vet to get a health certificate. Check on the specific requirements that the country you are going to because each country differs - Thailand for example, requires the cat to be free of rabies. Vaccinations should generally be up to date and the cat in good health. You need to bring the certificate from your vet to AVA within 7 days for AVA to endorse or for processing the government health certificate. The AVA government health certificate as well as their endorsement of the health certificate is only valid for 7 days so do plan your departure date properly! You can print the government health certificate yourself or self-collect.

With Singapore sorted, it was on to the Thai requirements – an import permit specifically. The information was readily available online and though my husband's company handled the documents, we learnt that there are companies that can assist with such things in Singapore as well.

After all the paperwork, we needed to decide on an airline. Most airlines require pets to be in the cargo hold. This was not an option for us because Kit Cat is easily stressed and we wanted him to be with us while travelling. Luckily, Thai Airways allows pets in the cabin provided the weight of the pet and carrier does not exceed 10kg and the carrier fits the dimensions. We booked the tickets and informed Thai Airways that the pet needed to be with us. We only needed to inform them of Kit Cat's microchip and provide his health certificate number.

We arrived early at the airport and had to produce the health certificate and export license but had no other trouble clearing immigration. We covered his carrier with a towel to help calm him, but for a cat that hates car rides, he was remarkably calm and happy on the flight. We brought him through Bangkok customs and the Animal Quarantine sections, produced our documentation, paid the last fees and then it was off to our new home! We have retained all our receipts and documentation for future reference and to prove Kit Cat was brought in legitimately.

Here he is with the Bangkok Post to prove that he's really in Thailand and not in Singapore!

So yeah, our family is reunited once again and we'll try to update this more often, which will include backdated trip entries as well as our adventures in Thailand!

Getting down and low in Goteborg

After Stockholm, we visited Goteborg, which was a much smaller city and felt a lot friendlier.

We arrived in the evening, checked into our costly, out of town guesthouse and proceeded to hunt  for dinner in town. Mostly places were closed or closing and luckily we found a small place recommended on the web. CS ordered fish balls (yes, swedish fishballs). I had the traditional swedish meatballs with lingonberries. These lingonberries are wonderful, CS describes them as "little sweet explosions in your mouth", nothing like the terrible cranberry sauce you get in the Singapore Ikea cafe.

Fishballs. Tasty but not like Fei Siong (Singaporean brand)

Meatballs and little explosions

The next morning, visited the Rohsska Museum, Sweden’s only design and crafts museum. They had a selection of Chinese art from 2000BC to 1900s as well as 18^th century furniture and objects. The museum is attached to a university (I think) and we were wandering around for a while before we found the entrance. It was a rather small and cozy museum and it was fun to walk around looking at the various exhibits and how things have changed and yet remained the same throughout the years. The iPhone as well as a Nokia phone (can't remember the model now) were also part of the exhibits to showcase modern design aesthetics.

We then had a quick lunch at a very local restaurant eating their famous herring and did a boat tour, which was rather fun. During the tour, we went under 20 bridges and also out to the harbour. Luckily the weather was rather good otherwise we would have both frozen to death. One of the bridges (Osthyveln) was so low, I was kind of afraid my head would get chopped off. Our guide was also really lovely and told us some interesting facts like how Swedes are the biggest consumers of bananas worldwide! Bet you never knew that, did ya.

Only in Sweden

We also visited the Universeum, which is the National Science Discovery Centre. It’s kind of like Singapore Science Centre but way bigger with lots more interesting and educational exhibits. There are a total of 7 main exhibits with themes such as Ocean Zone, Rainforest, Deadly Beauties etc. The temporary exhibition was about solving criminal mysteries and discovering modern forensics, which made me think of my BFF who works in HSA. It was rather fun and we had quite a few laughs playing with the exhibits. There was also a section about learning new things and we couldn't solve one of the puzzles even after pondering over it for the longest time ever. Though the place is targeted for children, we had loads of fun there as well.

Found Nemo!

Apparently there are 2!

After the coldness in Stockholm, Goteborg was a welcome change and definitely a good way to end our trip in Sweden.

On the way back to our guesthouse

Tracking down the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

The next day we visited the Nobel Museum to learn about the Nobel Prize and its founder, as well as the Nobel Laureates and their creative endeavours. We learnt that Alfred Nobel invented dynamite and got very rich in the process. Apparently he wanted to leave a better legacy behind rather than being known as the inventor of dynamite and thus established the Nobel Prizes which were to be given annually in the areas of physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature and peace. However as he wasn’t very clear in his will regarding how the prizes will be given as well as the criteria for some of the prizes, there were some controversies such as how Tolstoy never won the prize, amongst others. More than 800 Laureates have since been awarded the Nobel Prize and from the ceiling of the museum, visitors can see all the Laureates along a cableway. The museum guide was fairly informative though he seemed pretty new to the tour guide thing. We also learnt that Alfred Nobel wrote a book, Nemesis, however the entire stock except for three copies, was destroyed immediately after his death. Kind of make you wonder exactly what the book is about, and whether it was so bad that they destroyed it so as not to stain his legacy.

Fried herring... A swedish classic.

We went for a walking tour after that which was short but very enjoyable. There was a changing of the guards ceremony at the Royal Palace and we managed to catch the ending bits of it. To our surprise, they played some ABBA songs, I always thought they will play more stately songs at these type of events but apparently not. We learnt that the Royal Palace has 1430 rooms so even though Buckingham may occupy more space (77,000 m² versues 61,210 m²), they have more rooms, lol… We also visited the smallest public sculpture in Sweden, Olle, which was a major tourist attraction! We had to wait our turn as tourist after tourist went to touch its head, which apparently gives good luck.

We dropped by the Historiska Museum as we thought we could learn about the Vikings but there wasn’t much to it, so it was a bit of a disappointment actually. Instead, the exhibits mentioned how the Nazis used the Vikings in their propaganda and some educational stuff about the daily life of a Viking. We left after a short while and went over to Skansen Open Air Museum, which also turned out to be a bad idea. Perhaps due to the off-season, a lot of the places were rather empty and there wasn’t much to see. One of the more interesting shops/ places we visited was a hardware store where the man looked like he has been working there since forever. He had a really ancient cash register that still works! That was pretty cool honestly. However the rest of the place was kind of deserted and we got bored after a while.

Skansen Open Air Museum

After that, we went for our ‘Millennium tour – The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’. I’ve watched all three movies but not read the book whereas CS has only watched the first movie so our knowledge was kind of limited. Still the tour was fairly interesting and it does let you see Stockholm through the author’s eyes. Walking up and down the various streets, I almost felt like I was in the movie!

Wandering around Gamla Stan

According to our guide, Daniel Craig was filming a few streets away the week before or something like that. He didn’t catch him and the producers seemed to keeping it rather secretive. 

With that, we ended our trip in Stockholm and headed to Goteborg. I guess the only thing we didn’t do in Stockholm was to visit the world's largest Ikea store, but we'll save that for some other time.