GUEST POST: Kathy and Scott in Singapore
- kathyduffin
- Mar 31
- 9 min read
Hello to Sean and Vivian’s blog readers! I am Kathy, Sean’s sister, and my husband, Scott and I had the wonderful opportunity to visit Sean and Vivian at the end of January. Sean asked me to type up a guest blog post and it has taken me a couple of months to finish, but here we are. I asked Sean how many pictures I could add and he said it was unlimited, so you have been warned. Get ready for unlimited pictures!
Ever since Sean and Vivian’s mission to Singapore started at the end of 2023, we have been following their experiences and we were excited to get a chance to visit!
The first leg of our trip took us to San Francisco for a day, where we enjoyed a gorgeous sunny day (in January!), took the cable cars around town, and had some yummy food at Fisherman’s Wharf.
The next step was our 17½-hour flight from San Francisco to Singapore. I knew 17½ hours would be a long flight, but until you experience it, it’s impossible to describe how long it feels. I didn't think it would ever end! But somehow it did. And we walked out of the airport into the warm, humid air of Singapore and took a Grab (which is like an Uber) to Sean and Vivian’s apartment where we got settled in and slept!
Sean and Vivian live in a high-rise apartment building, like most people in Singapore. There are about 6 million people living there so space is at a premium. They recently moved into a new apartment, and one of the more important amenities for Sean was the swimming pool. He starts most days with a swim and I got to join him a couple of times. Singapore stays pretty warm. I was surprised to learn that the all-time recorded low is 67 degrees! That pool was pretty cool in the mornings though. Not exactly a cold plunge, but definitely refreshing and a great way to start the day.
Most of you readers are quite familiar with Sean and Vivian’s mission, but for any of my friends that find their way here I will give a little explanation. Vivian is a therapist for individuals, couples, and families. In 2023 she and Sean retired (Sean from the Federal Reserve Bank) and decided to serve a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They chose a mission where Vivian could use her skills as a therapist and they were called to Singapore, where she serves as the Asia Area Mental Health Advisor. She counsels missionaries struggling with depression, anxiety, or other concerns and advises their mission leaders. Sean serves as her assistant, helping with scheduling and other administrative tasks, as well as taking on other assignments and projects, including teaching classes for the young single adults.
One of the first things we did, after swimming and breakfast, was to walk with Sean and Vivian to their offices at the church, a 15-minute walk. I loved seeing where they do their work and attend church and spend so much time. It was nice to get a peek into their life and responsibilities. They are very selflessly doing a lot of good! (Maybe I should mention they don't get paid anything for all they do. It's all volunteer service.) We joined them and a pair of young missionaries for lunch at the office and enjoyed getting to know those young men and learn more about their life there.
After lunch, Sean and Vivian continued working and Scott and I went exploring. Sean gave us very clear directions for using the public transit system and some great ideas of places to go. Traveling to places where you know people is really the best. You get all the good insider info and recs!
Traveling by train and bus in Singapore is easy and convenient. Everything is clean and comfortable, air conditioned, and it is inexpensive. Traffic in Singapore was not bad at all considering all the people there. Turns out that is because you have to pay for a permit to have a car there that costs around $100,000! That’s not the cost of the car or insurance, just the cost of having the right to drive there! That’s one way to manage traffic.
Our first activity was taking the cable car up the mountain to Mt Faber. In San Francisco, the cable car is on the streets, so that’s what I was picturing when I heard cable cars, but in Singapore they are in the air, like the tram that goes up the hill near the hospital I work at in Portland. It was awesome seeing the beautiful city from that perspective. (By the way, Singapore is a city, an island, and a country.)
At the top we were able to hike around Mt Faber.
After our hike we hopped back on the cable car and rode to the little resort island off Singapore called Sentosa. It was a fun place with beaches, a water park, a marine park, and other attractions. We checked out the beach a little, but we were losing steam by then and didn't stay long.
Next we headed to meet up with Sean and Vivian for dinner. We ate at a hawker market, one that was actually in the movie "Crazy Rich Asians." There are a bunch of different food booths with authentic, delicious food from the many cultures of Singapore. One thing I love about Singapore is how multicultural it is. There are Chinese, Malaysians, Indians, Singaporeans, Japanese, Indonesians, Pakistanis, and on and on. We ate delicious satay (skewered meat with wonderful flavors and dipped in a peanut sauce) and some chicken, rice, and bok choy.
The next day while Sean and Vivian worked, Scott and I took a bus ride to the bayfront. Riding a bus through the city is a really fun way to see a lot of different buildings and neighborhoods. One super cool thing about Singapore is how much they incorporate plants into the buildings and neighborhoods with full walls of plants in many places. It’s so beautiful! (Some of these are pulled from another ride on a different day).
At the bay it was a little rainy, but beautiful to see the views across the water.
The Marina Bay Sands mall was fun to walk through. It’s a super fancy, high end mall with stores that I was too intimidated to enter because they were guarded by security guards and were way out of my league, but fun to look at anyway along with the cool features and attractions in the mall, like waterfalls and a casino.
Actually, there was one store I went into. I saw the cutest shirt and skirt in Ralph Lauren. It reminded me of a dress that I loved that Lindsay Lohen wore in a movie on Netflix (Irish Wish), so I felt compelled to see how much it cost. The skirt alone was $375. (I didn't buy it in case you wondered.)
We had some good lunch at the food court, and since everyone I talked to about Singapore asked about the food, I will show some pictures of our lunch.
After the mall we walked over to and around Gardens by the Bay a little.
We then left to meet up with Sean that afternoon to go to the National Museum of Singapore. I loved learning more about the history and people of Singapore. Such a fascinating place!
After all that we met up with Vivian and went to a more down-to-earth mall where we had a super delicious dinner at Din Tai Fung, a Chinese restaurant.
The next day was Saturday and we got to join Sean and Vivian for their weekly shopping. We went to a fun baking store with all kinds of great baking supplies, and then to McDonalds for lunch because why not? Then it was on to a huge grocery store that was very loud, very crowded, and very interesting. It was cool to see all the different kinds of products. It was all decked out for the Chinese New Year.
Our plan was to go to the zoo that night for the Night Safari, so we knew we needed to factor in some rest time during the day so we would be able to make it. Scott and I were still struggling some with jet lag, getting tired early and waking up early. So we went home to put groceries away and rest for several hours. Then we took a walk to a great Italian restaurant, which surprisingly was located over a grocery store with views down into the store. That was funny, but the food was fantastic. The walk actually took us through a neighborhood with houses, which is kind of unusual as I mentioned before, in that most people live in apartments. You gotta be pretty darn rich to live in a house and have a car!
Then it was off to Night Safari at the zoo, which was a long ride on the train and then a zoo shuttle. It was super cool to see the live show and wander around to watch the animals in the dark and see the more active nocturnal animals. We took a train ride around the zoo and my favorite part was the elephants. I didn’t get great pictures because of the challenge of the dark, but it was a lot of fun to see. By the end of the day we were definitely tired! Our first three days, according to my watch, we walked about 7 miles each day. It was time for a day of rest.
Sunday we took things a little easier. We had a slow morning and then met Sean and Vivian at church. They had gone early for some meetings. They serve in a Young Single Adult ward and it was fun to be part of their services and get to know some of the members there a little bit. There was a “linger longer” after church with yummy food and good conversation. After that we attended a temple preparation class that Vivian taught.
After our church meetings we took a double decker bus out to see the temple site. Once again it was great to see the city from that perspective and exciting to see the spot where there is going to be a temple! And for any that read this and do not know, temples in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are places where special learning and ceremonies take place aside from regular Sunday worship. One example of something that happens there is that people can get married for eternity instead of just this life. It will be wonderful for the members of the church there to have one so close.
Then we walked through Har Paw Villa for a short time before we decided we were too hot and tired to enjoy it. It was a neat place though with a lot of displays representing stories from Chinese legends.
That night we just enjoyed a quiet evening at home. Vivian made us a yummy dinner and we played some games.
For our final day in Singapore, Scott and I spent the morning doing laundry and packing up while Sean and Vivian went to the office. Then we got ready for a fun visit back to Gardens by the Bay, where we started off at the fantastic cloud forest dome. If I had to pick a favorite thing it would probably be that cloud forest. It was magical! So I will proceed to post 75 million pictures of it. I mean . . . Sean said it was unlimited!
After the cloud forest, we continued through the park to celebrate the Chinese New Year. We loved seeing all the lights and displays and the live performances. It was a great way to spend our last night in Singapore!
Early Tuesday morning we left for the airport to go to Bali for a few days of lazing by the beach and pool before we headed home. We are so thankful to Sean and Vivian for being such wonderful hosts and showing us their life in Singapore. It is a truly fascinating place that I would love to return to. I also appreciated getting a first hand view of the mission life there and how hard Sean and Vivian work. They are amazing, talented, and dedicated! And as always, I loved the chance to just spend time with them, to visit and hang out.
I'll end with some photos of our stay on Nusa Lumbagen, a little island just off of Bali. It was so nice to just lay by the pool or the beach, jump in for a swim, get out and read and relax, jump back in and swim, get out and eat, go back to the lounge chairs, on repeat all day! I swam more in my time in Singapore and Bali than I have for years! The water was beautiful and the place we stayed was very comfortable with great service and food. What a dream!
Loved the pictures. Really showed what Singapore is about!