Well, this is a little late, and I hope I don’t forget things, but here is the last instalment for spring break. Cambodia and Ankor Wat ( the largest religious complex in the world). I have been real busy here in Singapore doing all kinds of things, and a little bit of school work too. That’s why I am a little late. But without further ado… Cambodia!
We flew into Penom Phen, the capital ( not sure on the spelling) early in the morning and spent the day walking around the capital but gound out that most of the places were closed for lunch and we wanted to get to Ciem Reaf ( that is where Angkor Wat is). So we jumped onto the funnest bus ride of my life. I got a lot of reading done seeing that the bus driver kept honking his horn to avoid accidents on the highway. And when I say highway, I mean a two lane road with not marking on it. There was only one close call, that was when the bus driver was dodgeing some natives on bicycles and then had to swerve back into our lane to avoid oncoming traffic. We stoped at a little food place where we saw the coolest kid in the world. Screaming at the top of his lungs, “Sir, pineapple mango sir!!” I went over and bought one. It was good. The only other thing to mention is the baby across the issue that peed on me. It was pretty funny. But the real fun came when we got off the bus at Ciem Reap. As soon as we got off the bus we were surrounded by seven tuk tuk drivers. And I don’t mean they were around us, I mean they were touching us. Right up against you, trying to get you to take theirs. After a few minutes of this we picked a random tuk tuk and headed to our hostel.
Now the reason why they want to take you to your hostel so badly is because they know you are there to see Angkor Wat and that you will want someone to take you around for the day or two. So once we were at our hostel Kiam (our driver) told us his price which was very good (15 USD for the day) and we said we’ed see him tomorrow morning. That night we ate at a street vendor that was very good.
The next morning started at 5 am. We got up, got into the tuk tuk and got to Angkor in time for the sunset. It was very beautiful. After that we spent the rest of the day seeing the temples with the rest of the tourists, mostly Japanesse tourist groups. And at every temple there were sure to be cute poor kids waiting to sell you things. You grow used to it eventually. By the end of the trip, one exchange with the kids went like this. “Sir, flute for a dollar,” “ I don’t play the flute.” “sir, postcards one dollar.” “I don’t like postcards.”
Many of the kids are very smart and speak multiple languages from talking with tourists. The girl I bought a scarf from could speak almost five languages and could sell in about ten. At the end of the day we went to a good temple and watched the sunset. We were there nice and early and got the best seats. We were those people that you wonder how long they have been and how they can still be having fun and joking with each other after two hours of sitting in the sun. People were taking pictures of us, that is how popular we became at sunsets.
The next day was pretty much the same, only different temples. They are all very steep steped and by now we seemed pretty used to them. But once you see pictures, you’ll be like, “wow, that is steep.” For one of the temples further away, the girls went ahead and me and Julio stayed behind at a food stall to enjoy the hammocks and take much needed naps. While there we got to know the kids pretty well. Even translated a text message one girl about twenty years old got from a friend. Yeah they have cell phones, but who doesn’t, honestly. We wraped up the day with another sunset (which we completely rocked) and it was back to Ciem Reap to enjoy most street food. The girls went and got another massage and me and Julio made callie mocho (red wine and coca cola), it is a weird Mexican drink that Julio likes. We toasted to a great spring break and then headed to bed because it was another sunrise the next morning.
After the sinrise we headed back to the hostel, checked out and then were flying back to Singapore in no time. We got back completely beat. What a trip, but the next morning all I wanted to do was go back to Cambodia and Thailand. It was really great and everyone I went with was great, wouldn’t have changed a thing. I guess there are more little stories here and there still to be told, but you will have to by me lunch to get those.
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Monday, March 19, 2007
Report 11.2: Northern Thailand
We landed in Chang Mai early in the morning, like 8 or something. Once there it was off to find our hostel which was no problem, we stowed our gear on a shelf there and had breakfast as we waited for our cooking school to pick us up. In about an hour an old van pulled up a few yards down the road and the husband of our cooking instructer came in right on time. We were off to A Lot of Thai cooking school for the day.
Yui, pronounced like the nickname of a U-turn, was our instructer, she and her husband and young child sid run the school right from their house. We cooked on the back porch of her house and were taken to a market just down the street. The day was fantastic. We cooked three dishes, ate all of them, then went to the market to learn all about how to pick good ingredients, and then came back and cooked three more dishes. Our favorite was Pad Thai. It is noodles and a bunch of other stuff thrown into a Wok and cooked up nice. Everything is very precise, you put in the garlic first, for five seconds, then the next thing, and the next. The order being very important. And all of our dishes turned out great. Except of course for Alicia’s soup that resembled dish water. I bought an apron from the school so that is what I will wear while I cook amazing Thai food for all of you.
Then we got to see Thai Boxing. Some think that is kinda brutal because you can kick and knee your opponent as well as punch the crap out of him or her. But it was actually pretty entertaining and not very bad. Actually, each match was fought very well and the sportsmanship was incredible. The best match by far was between a huge white guy and this tiny Thai guy that fights just for the money and barely trains. We learned that this man does not train at all from a Scottish guy in front of us that seemed to be friends with the waitress who told him about this. Anyway, the little guy was just beating on the big dude the whole time, until he went after the big guy with all he had, I mean he just tore into him. The big guy hunkered down and took every blow. Then before you could blink, he came out with a huge punch that knocked the little guy out cold. I mean out cold. It was crazy.
The next day we decided to ritz it up a little bit and spent some money to get a great tour including elephant rides, an elephant show, a rafting ride, and a tour of a long neck hill tribe. We got picked up at like seven in the morning, went to the best elephant reservation in Chang Mai. We got to watch a really cool elephant show to see the work that they used to do for real and see some neat tricks like putting their riders hat back on when it falls off. Then we got to take a long ride on them. Than had a really nice lunch. Most of the people eating beside us where families on vacation, not cheap backpackers, so it was a change from the company we usually keep. Than we took a long bamboo water rafting trip. While going our paddler let me drive for a while, but when Jen and Alicia took the paddle he jumped to the boat beside us. He was a really funny guy. Then after the long neck village (where the ladies have those brass rings around their necks) we were back in the hostel for the night.
The next two days are a little blurry. In these two days we traveled from Chang Mai to Sukothai, to Phitsonalok, to Ayuthaya, and back to Bangkok. A few highlights for you, Sukothai-very cool. It is an ancient capital of Thailand and was filled with ruins. We spent an afternoon here riding bicycles throughout the old city. It was also here that we had some really good cheap local food, always a highlight for me. More great eating was had in Phitsonalok. I ate more satay then I should have. There was this really good chicken and beef satay that was huge. Biggest satay I have ever had. I got Julio, Jen and Alicia to all try it as well. However I got to eat most of Alicia’s after a local guy said she would get fat from it. I don’t think she appreciated many of my comments after that. The train to Ayuthaya found us back in the presence of cheap travelers. In third class. At one point all four of us were touching all of the other four as we squeezed into our seats. After a while though we moved around and found the empty seats around us. Back in Bangkok, we went to one more night market and got Julio some McDonald’s as he does not enjoy cheap local food as much as I do. The next morning had Cambodia written all over it…
Yui, pronounced like the nickname of a U-turn, was our instructer, she and her husband and young child sid run the school right from their house. We cooked on the back porch of her house and were taken to a market just down the street. The day was fantastic. We cooked three dishes, ate all of them, then went to the market to learn all about how to pick good ingredients, and then came back and cooked three more dishes. Our favorite was Pad Thai. It is noodles and a bunch of other stuff thrown into a Wok and cooked up nice. Everything is very precise, you put in the garlic first, for five seconds, then the next thing, and the next. The order being very important. And all of our dishes turned out great. Except of course for Alicia’s soup that resembled dish water. I bought an apron from the school so that is what I will wear while I cook amazing Thai food for all of you.
Then we got to see Thai Boxing. Some think that is kinda brutal because you can kick and knee your opponent as well as punch the crap out of him or her. But it was actually pretty entertaining and not very bad. Actually, each match was fought very well and the sportsmanship was incredible. The best match by far was between a huge white guy and this tiny Thai guy that fights just for the money and barely trains. We learned that this man does not train at all from a Scottish guy in front of us that seemed to be friends with the waitress who told him about this. Anyway, the little guy was just beating on the big dude the whole time, until he went after the big guy with all he had, I mean he just tore into him. The big guy hunkered down and took every blow. Then before you could blink, he came out with a huge punch that knocked the little guy out cold. I mean out cold. It was crazy.
The next day we decided to ritz it up a little bit and spent some money to get a great tour including elephant rides, an elephant show, a rafting ride, and a tour of a long neck hill tribe. We got picked up at like seven in the morning, went to the best elephant reservation in Chang Mai. We got to watch a really cool elephant show to see the work that they used to do for real and see some neat tricks like putting their riders hat back on when it falls off. Then we got to take a long ride on them. Than had a really nice lunch. Most of the people eating beside us where families on vacation, not cheap backpackers, so it was a change from the company we usually keep. Than we took a long bamboo water rafting trip. While going our paddler let me drive for a while, but when Jen and Alicia took the paddle he jumped to the boat beside us. He was a really funny guy. Then after the long neck village (where the ladies have those brass rings around their necks) we were back in the hostel for the night.
The next two days are a little blurry. In these two days we traveled from Chang Mai to Sukothai, to Phitsonalok, to Ayuthaya, and back to Bangkok. A few highlights for you, Sukothai-very cool. It is an ancient capital of Thailand and was filled with ruins. We spent an afternoon here riding bicycles throughout the old city. It was also here that we had some really good cheap local food, always a highlight for me. More great eating was had in Phitsonalok. I ate more satay then I should have. There was this really good chicken and beef satay that was huge. Biggest satay I have ever had. I got Julio, Jen and Alicia to all try it as well. However I got to eat most of Alicia’s after a local guy said she would get fat from it. I don’t think she appreciated many of my comments after that. The train to Ayuthaya found us back in the presence of cheap travelers. In third class. At one point all four of us were touching all of the other four as we squeezed into our seats. After a while though we moved around and found the empty seats around us. Back in Bangkok, we went to one more night market and got Julio some McDonald’s as he does not enjoy cheap local food as much as I do. The next morning had Cambodia written all over it…
Sunday, March 11, 2007
Report 11.1: Bangkok
Ok folks, sorry for the delay, but I have become very busy over the past few days, namely trying to catch up in classes and watching episodes of Prison Break. But with my trip to Hong Kong coming up this weekend, I suppose I should write about spring break now. So here is the first third of the trip. Bangkok.
The whole crew was in Bangkok by the time Julio and I arrived late Friday night. We went to the baggage claim and got my umbrella that I had to check and grabed a cab. It was nice cause the hostel had emailed us a paper that gave us some tips and some Thai words to tell the driver. Our driver was rather impressed with Julio’s Thai talking ability. Once at Big John’s Backpacker Hostel (a very nice hostel run by this big Austrailian dude named John) we found our friends and hit the sack, them in their private rooms, Julio and I in the common room.
The first day was spent touring the city. Julio, Jen and I left very early to go see a few sights and meet the rest of the group later in the day. We saw the grand palace, a few temples, and stuff like that. One of the coolest things was the golden mountain. It is just a tample on top of a hill, but it has these winding staircases that we ran up cause they were closing soon. Jen, Julio and I made it to the top and got to see a great view of the ginormous city that Bangkok is. The thing is, that in most cities you can see where the center of the city is. Take Pittsburgh for example, when you are looking at it, you see the city and then the buildings all get smaller and see that you are out of the city. Bangkok has 10 million people and when you stand on the golden mountain you cannot see where the city begins or ends. It is just tall buildings all around. After our quick walking tour of the city me and Jen went to a Thai masked dancing show, although it was a little expencive I figure Im only in Bangkok once so bring it on. It was really cool. After they play a video about how the King rules and every sits back down, these guys come out and sing stuff while other people dance around. The story was about king Rama and his main muscle Hanuman the white monkey. Basically some evil thing steals Rama’s wife and the white monkey goes in a lays down the law. Then there is a huge war where the white monkey dominates. So that was really cool and bought a book about it so you can see what exactly I am talking about. After that it was back to the hostel and off to sleep.
The next day we woke up even earlier. After some negociations with a taxi driver, Jen, Alicia and I headed off to the floating market, about an hour and a half drive out of the city. But wow was it worth it. There is a network of steams and river that all these boats come together. Some people have there shows just right up against the water, some people have there boat full of goods and stuff, some have a stove and are selling food, while others just rent the boats and take tourists around the market. It was a lot of fun. And I bough t a wooden bowl with an elephant on it. The highlight would have probably been the lady that gave me a massage in an attempt to sell me tiger balm. Boy was she angry when I didn’t. After that we went back to the hostel and after hanging out there for a while we went to another market to walk around. While there Sascha and I had my favorite satay so far, and that is saying a lot, because everywhere you walk in Bangkok there is someone selling satay. After that market it was time to meet Aunt Marina. She is the aunt of the exchange student that stayed at my house about seven years ago who lives in Bangkok. We emailed each other back and forth and figured out a time and place and Julio, Jen, Alicia and I went to the market and all got to meet her. After I tried to get some ladies attention by calling her Aunt Marina, I walked a little further and Aunt Marina saw me and recognized me, so we sat down a little place and enjoyed the evening there. I even got to meet Mauro’s cousin Gabbi as well. After we had talked for a while, we all climbed into Aunt Marina’s party van and she drove us back to our hostel on her way home. The next day started early and we were off to northern Thailand…
To be continued
The whole crew was in Bangkok by the time Julio and I arrived late Friday night. We went to the baggage claim and got my umbrella that I had to check and grabed a cab. It was nice cause the hostel had emailed us a paper that gave us some tips and some Thai words to tell the driver. Our driver was rather impressed with Julio’s Thai talking ability. Once at Big John’s Backpacker Hostel (a very nice hostel run by this big Austrailian dude named John) we found our friends and hit the sack, them in their private rooms, Julio and I in the common room.
The first day was spent touring the city. Julio, Jen and I left very early to go see a few sights and meet the rest of the group later in the day. We saw the grand palace, a few temples, and stuff like that. One of the coolest things was the golden mountain. It is just a tample on top of a hill, but it has these winding staircases that we ran up cause they were closing soon. Jen, Julio and I made it to the top and got to see a great view of the ginormous city that Bangkok is. The thing is, that in most cities you can see where the center of the city is. Take Pittsburgh for example, when you are looking at it, you see the city and then the buildings all get smaller and see that you are out of the city. Bangkok has 10 million people and when you stand on the golden mountain you cannot see where the city begins or ends. It is just tall buildings all around. After our quick walking tour of the city me and Jen went to a Thai masked dancing show, although it was a little expencive I figure Im only in Bangkok once so bring it on. It was really cool. After they play a video about how the King rules and every sits back down, these guys come out and sing stuff while other people dance around. The story was about king Rama and his main muscle Hanuman the white monkey. Basically some evil thing steals Rama’s wife and the white monkey goes in a lays down the law. Then there is a huge war where the white monkey dominates. So that was really cool and bought a book about it so you can see what exactly I am talking about. After that it was back to the hostel and off to sleep.
The next day we woke up even earlier. After some negociations with a taxi driver, Jen, Alicia and I headed off to the floating market, about an hour and a half drive out of the city. But wow was it worth it. There is a network of steams and river that all these boats come together. Some people have there shows just right up against the water, some people have there boat full of goods and stuff, some have a stove and are selling food, while others just rent the boats and take tourists around the market. It was a lot of fun. And I bough t a wooden bowl with an elephant on it. The highlight would have probably been the lady that gave me a massage in an attempt to sell me tiger balm. Boy was she angry when I didn’t. After that we went back to the hostel and after hanging out there for a while we went to another market to walk around. While there Sascha and I had my favorite satay so far, and that is saying a lot, because everywhere you walk in Bangkok there is someone selling satay. After that market it was time to meet Aunt Marina. She is the aunt of the exchange student that stayed at my house about seven years ago who lives in Bangkok. We emailed each other back and forth and figured out a time and place and Julio, Jen, Alicia and I went to the market and all got to meet her. After I tried to get some ladies attention by calling her Aunt Marina, I walked a little further and Aunt Marina saw me and recognized me, so we sat down a little place and enjoyed the evening there. I even got to meet Mauro’s cousin Gabbi as well. After we had talked for a while, we all climbed into Aunt Marina’s party van and she drove us back to our hostel on her way home. The next day started early and we were off to northern Thailand…
To be continued
Monday, March 5, 2007
Report 10: I'm Back
Well the trip was fantastic!! I just got back a few minutes ago. It is 12:30 am on Tuesday morning. I will be presenting the trip in a series of three, a trilogy if you will. The first will be Bangkok, the second instralment will take you on a journey from Chang Mai back to Bangkok, and in the third and final post you will explore the ancient city of Angkor. I am going to bed because I have class very early tomorrow and am ill prepared.
Friday, February 23, 2007
Report 9: The Plan
OK, I am leaving in like ten minutes, here is a basic plan of what I am doing for the next week and a half:
Friday Feb. 23 Leave for Bangkok with Julio
Sat. All day in Bangkok
Sun. More Bangkok and hopefully see Aunt Marina (Mario's (my family's exchange student) aunt)
Mon. Leave in the morning for Chang Mai, Thailand
Tues, more time in Chang Mai
Wed/Thurs Traveling through northern Thailand by train to get back to Bangkok
Fri. FLy out of Bangkok to Cambodia and take a bus to the temple city
Sat/Sun explore the temple sity of Angkor Wat
Mon. Fly to KL Malaysia and take a bus back to NTU SIngapore
once again that is just the wuick run down, I will fill you in on teh rest later, keep us in your prayers for same travel
thanks!
Friday Feb. 23 Leave for Bangkok with Julio
Sat. All day in Bangkok
Sun. More Bangkok and hopefully see Aunt Marina (Mario's (my family's exchange student) aunt)
Mon. Leave in the morning for Chang Mai, Thailand
Tues, more time in Chang Mai
Wed/Thurs Traveling through northern Thailand by train to get back to Bangkok
Fri. FLy out of Bangkok to Cambodia and take a bus to the temple city
Sat/Sun explore the temple sity of Angkor Wat
Mon. Fly to KL Malaysia and take a bus back to NTU SIngapore
once again that is just the wuick run down, I will fill you in on teh rest later, keep us in your prayers for same travel
thanks!
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Report 8: The Year of the Pig is Here!!
That’s right folks, it is CNY! Also known as Chinese New Year or the Lunar New Year. Think New Years and Christmas all wrapped up into one holiday. It is a time for people to be with there families and observe traditions in order to bring in the new year with good luck. So naturally we had to celebrate by eating a lot and going to Chinatown for the festivities.
First on the list was eating everything in sight. They make all kinds of special treats for the holiday, kinda like Christmas cookies only lots more cookies and way cheeper. So luckily our hall was taking a bus to Chinatown and then to Geylang. Chinatown obviously for the shopping of CNY goodies and then Geylang for the food. Benedict, my neighbor and the man that can get you anything went with us, along with most of the hall. Chinatown was great and I got lots of stuff for my room and to bring back for the scrap book. But the main event went to Geylang.
Ben took us to some place on this one street and said a few things to this lady that worked at the place we were at. We waited for a bit and then the lady that Ben said the things to came out of the back of the place we were at with food that looked like this one thing I ate before. Then Ben went to work, he told us all about what we were eating and why. It turns out that the stuff that the lady brought us was what that place was famous for – beef and noodles. It was a huge bowl, like the size of my entire stomache! And the four of us that were eating dug in. Then came the calamari, some leafy vegetables, prawn rapped in this stuff that looked like bread, Small Ming ordered us an oyster omlete, and then we finished it off with some Frog Porrage. Oh, and there was rice in there too, but I think that is a given. Everything was delicious, even after Chinatown where I had some fish balls, a romly burger, this sweet tasting taco-like thing I had three of and some coconut juice fresh from the nut. The frog legs even tasted good, kinda like chicken only more tender. Then after that we had some dessert at the place next to the original place that I had been talking about. It is famous for its fried dough. Think funnel cake in a long piece that has the length and width of medium size pepperoni stick. You eat two at a time and dip it into this bean curd stuff that is sweet but has no real taste, or the fake milkish stuff that I was drinking. The milkish stuff finished me off and I retreated back to campus where after a quick snack of peanut sheet cookies I went to bed.
Two days later it was Saturday. With the new year only a few hours away, the traveling crew and I headed into the place to be for lunar new year, CHINATOWN. This time, it was packed!! I am not talking like it was hard for me to get around people, I am talking you don’t go around people. If the dude in front of you stops, you and the hundreds of people behind you stop. There are spots where the crowd is not as thick, but when you are in the crowd, you are being touched by four people, the guy behind you, the guy behind you and slightly left, the guy behind you and slightly right, and the guy sqeezing between guy on slight left and guy directly behind. The rest of the people you are touching as you try not to fall into them. But wowy was it worth it. Leading up to midnight there were singers, dragon dancing, drumming that was unbeatable. It was a great cultural experience. Then, once midnight hit, the fire crackers went off and it was possibly the loudest sound I have ever heard. The large dragon that was dancing with other little dragons following it came about twenty feet from me, so I got to see it pretty close. The dragon dances are really cool. They make it seem like the dragon is real, the motions they used are perfect and their legs look like the dragons. If you ever get a chance to see it, you need to. Then after that since you are supposed to stay up as late as you can (the later you stay up, the more luck you will get throughout the year) Jen, Alica, and I went to the Merlion to eat our goodies and chit chat until the sun came up. Then we took the MRT back to campus and prompty fell asleep.
For the next few nights after that, I stayed up real late and had troble getting to sleep the night before classes. Luckily, spring break is coming up soon and I wont be getting a lot of sleep there so I will be used to it. I will post my spring break schedule some time before I leave in two days.
First on the list was eating everything in sight. They make all kinds of special treats for the holiday, kinda like Christmas cookies only lots more cookies and way cheeper. So luckily our hall was taking a bus to Chinatown and then to Geylang. Chinatown obviously for the shopping of CNY goodies and then Geylang for the food. Benedict, my neighbor and the man that can get you anything went with us, along with most of the hall. Chinatown was great and I got lots of stuff for my room and to bring back for the scrap book. But the main event went to Geylang.
Ben took us to some place on this one street and said a few things to this lady that worked at the place we were at. We waited for a bit and then the lady that Ben said the things to came out of the back of the place we were at with food that looked like this one thing I ate before. Then Ben went to work, he told us all about what we were eating and why. It turns out that the stuff that the lady brought us was what that place was famous for – beef and noodles. It was a huge bowl, like the size of my entire stomache! And the four of us that were eating dug in. Then came the calamari, some leafy vegetables, prawn rapped in this stuff that looked like bread, Small Ming ordered us an oyster omlete, and then we finished it off with some Frog Porrage. Oh, and there was rice in there too, but I think that is a given. Everything was delicious, even after Chinatown where I had some fish balls, a romly burger, this sweet tasting taco-like thing I had three of and some coconut juice fresh from the nut. The frog legs even tasted good, kinda like chicken only more tender. Then after that we had some dessert at the place next to the original place that I had been talking about. It is famous for its fried dough. Think funnel cake in a long piece that has the length and width of medium size pepperoni stick. You eat two at a time and dip it into this bean curd stuff that is sweet but has no real taste, or the fake milkish stuff that I was drinking. The milkish stuff finished me off and I retreated back to campus where after a quick snack of peanut sheet cookies I went to bed.
Two days later it was Saturday. With the new year only a few hours away, the traveling crew and I headed into the place to be for lunar new year, CHINATOWN. This time, it was packed!! I am not talking like it was hard for me to get around people, I am talking you don’t go around people. If the dude in front of you stops, you and the hundreds of people behind you stop. There are spots where the crowd is not as thick, but when you are in the crowd, you are being touched by four people, the guy behind you, the guy behind you and slightly left, the guy behind you and slightly right, and the guy sqeezing between guy on slight left and guy directly behind. The rest of the people you are touching as you try not to fall into them. But wowy was it worth it. Leading up to midnight there were singers, dragon dancing, drumming that was unbeatable. It was a great cultural experience. Then, once midnight hit, the fire crackers went off and it was possibly the loudest sound I have ever heard. The large dragon that was dancing with other little dragons following it came about twenty feet from me, so I got to see it pretty close. The dragon dances are really cool. They make it seem like the dragon is real, the motions they used are perfect and their legs look like the dragons. If you ever get a chance to see it, you need to. Then after that since you are supposed to stay up as late as you can (the later you stay up, the more luck you will get throughout the year) Jen, Alica, and I went to the Merlion to eat our goodies and chit chat until the sun came up. Then we took the MRT back to campus and prompty fell asleep.
For the next few nights after that, I stayed up real late and had troble getting to sleep the night before classes. Luckily, spring break is coming up soon and I wont be getting a lot of sleep there so I will be used to it. I will post my spring break schedule some time before I leave in two days.
Friday, February 16, 2007
Report 7: Indonesia, bring it on
Well I am a little behind in posting this, but later is better than never. Last weekend a few of my friends and I traveled to Indonesia for the day. We arrived late Friday night, spent all Saturday there, and then left early Sunday afternoon.
I was a little nervous about this trip because the US Government has been sending out warnings to tourists about going there. Many about staying in very western populated areas. Like if you stay in a fancy hotel, it might get blown up. But the place we went was not a tourism hub, but it wasn’t a desserted town either. So everything was ok, especially since we knew of the potential danger and didn’t leave the hostel once it got late.
The name of the place is Tanjung Pinang. It is a pleasant little town about one hour from Singapore to there, but three hours to get back because of a one hour time difference that we were unaware of until Saturday afternoon. At one point I remember waiting to buy our visas and one guy in line asked the security guard what time it was. He said 8:30, but I looked at my watch and it was 9:30, and then I thought to myself, “what a dummy, his watch is one hour slow.”
Upon arrival we met a guy name Bobby, he seemed like a nice guy, eventhough he was just trying to get business for his hotel. But he took us to the hostel that we booked from here and made sure we were satisfied with it before saying goodbye and offering us a boat tour of the island on Saturday. We then went to a place to get some food. It was nice, a little empty, but for 2,000 rupia I sang karaoke. “I would do anything for love,” and “Lean on Me.” It was beautiful. Our waitresses, including one that was at one time a man, enjoyed my singing. Then it was back to the hostel for a relaxing night of tv movies and snacks.
The next morning we awoke to a free breakfast of weird rice, eggs, tea, coffee, and toast with kaya. Kaya is something I discovered on this trip, it is a flavor of jelly that is to die for. I could eat it on my toast for the rest of life. As we were finishing breakfast, Bobby came in to see if we wanted the tour. For 7 sing dollars we took a boat tour of the area. We went down the snake river to snake temple, across the little bay to a neighborhood on stilts, over to a mosque, and stuff like that. It was a about 4 hours and the staff of one tour guide and a boat driver that didn’t speak English was friendly and informative. By friendly I mean that the driver would jump into all our pictures, and ask to get his pictures with the girls, and by informative I mean that our tour guide would usually casually offer information by saying I read in a book once that… but I am not sure if I believe that. But in all seriousness, the tour was great and our two guides were very nice.
Then it was time for a massage. We asked bobby where a good place was and he took us there. Do I have some stories for you. The entire time we were receiving our massage, our girls were giggling and laughing at our western bodies. Often times we would make a word like German as they looked at Sascha, then after some more Chinese, or malay, or whatever they were speaking, they would all laugh at the same time. Sascha asked them if they would care to share with us what they are talking about. To which the my girl replied, “hehehehe, no no no, hehehe” She seemed to be impressed by the size of my nose. While massaging face, she kept flicking my nose and making a dong sound. All the other girls would then laugh. She was also quite impressed with the hair on my belly. When I flipped over, she exclaimed with some excitement to the other girls. This cause a little bit of confusion and I did not know what she was pointing at and making a commotion about. But after she grabbed some of my hair and repeated the word that she had been shouting to he coworkers, I realized what was the commotion was about.
That night we tried lots of local food. It was delicious. Galen and Jen went out and patronized the road side stands and brought back a feast of roasted corn, prata, fish balls, and fruit. We ate a lot and then settled in for the night. The next day we did some more shopping at the mall, I bought two shirts that are too fashionable for me. But I guess the make me look good (like that is hard).
I was a little nervous about this trip because the US Government has been sending out warnings to tourists about going there. Many about staying in very western populated areas. Like if you stay in a fancy hotel, it might get blown up. But the place we went was not a tourism hub, but it wasn’t a desserted town either. So everything was ok, especially since we knew of the potential danger and didn’t leave the hostel once it got late.
The name of the place is Tanjung Pinang. It is a pleasant little town about one hour from Singapore to there, but three hours to get back because of a one hour time difference that we were unaware of until Saturday afternoon. At one point I remember waiting to buy our visas and one guy in line asked the security guard what time it was. He said 8:30, but I looked at my watch and it was 9:30, and then I thought to myself, “what a dummy, his watch is one hour slow.”
Upon arrival we met a guy name Bobby, he seemed like a nice guy, eventhough he was just trying to get business for his hotel. But he took us to the hostel that we booked from here and made sure we were satisfied with it before saying goodbye and offering us a boat tour of the island on Saturday. We then went to a place to get some food. It was nice, a little empty, but for 2,000 rupia I sang karaoke. “I would do anything for love,” and “Lean on Me.” It was beautiful. Our waitresses, including one that was at one time a man, enjoyed my singing. Then it was back to the hostel for a relaxing night of tv movies and snacks.
The next morning we awoke to a free breakfast of weird rice, eggs, tea, coffee, and toast with kaya. Kaya is something I discovered on this trip, it is a flavor of jelly that is to die for. I could eat it on my toast for the rest of life. As we were finishing breakfast, Bobby came in to see if we wanted the tour. For 7 sing dollars we took a boat tour of the area. We went down the snake river to snake temple, across the little bay to a neighborhood on stilts, over to a mosque, and stuff like that. It was a about 4 hours and the staff of one tour guide and a boat driver that didn’t speak English was friendly and informative. By friendly I mean that the driver would jump into all our pictures, and ask to get his pictures with the girls, and by informative I mean that our tour guide would usually casually offer information by saying I read in a book once that… but I am not sure if I believe that. But in all seriousness, the tour was great and our two guides were very nice.
Then it was time for a massage. We asked bobby where a good place was and he took us there. Do I have some stories for you. The entire time we were receiving our massage, our girls were giggling and laughing at our western bodies. Often times we would make a word like German as they looked at Sascha, then after some more Chinese, or malay, or whatever they were speaking, they would all laugh at the same time. Sascha asked them if they would care to share with us what they are talking about. To which the my girl replied, “hehehehe, no no no, hehehe” She seemed to be impressed by the size of my nose. While massaging face, she kept flicking my nose and making a dong sound. All the other girls would then laugh. She was also quite impressed with the hair on my belly. When I flipped over, she exclaimed with some excitement to the other girls. This cause a little bit of confusion and I did not know what she was pointing at and making a commotion about. But after she grabbed some of my hair and repeated the word that she had been shouting to he coworkers, I realized what was the commotion was about.
That night we tried lots of local food. It was delicious. Galen and Jen went out and patronized the road side stands and brought back a feast of roasted corn, prata, fish balls, and fruit. We ate a lot and then settled in for the night. The next day we did some more shopping at the mall, I bought two shirts that are too fashionable for me. But I guess the make me look good (like that is hard).
Wednesday, February 7, 2007
Report 6: Penang; you've got time.
"Penang; You've got time," was the name of the trip that we took this past weekend. We wanted a nice relaxing weekend on the beach, and a chance to do a little more site seeing in Malaysia, truely Asia. Se we decided on Penang. Founded in 1786 by Francis Light, Penang, or Georgetown, became the first British trading post in the far east. Light, fluent in the local languages and customs easily persuaded the Sultan of Kedah to cede Pulau Pinang ("Island of the Betel Nut") to the British in exchange for military assistance. Light and men quickly established fort Cornwallis. Named after the famous General that lost the last battle in the American Revolution, the wooden structure was soon replaced by a more permanent stone structure that is still there today. With most of the island a jungle, Light ellegedly filled a canoon full of gold coins and shot it into the surrounding jungle to encourage his men to settle the rest of the island. Also, by allowing imagrants to have whatever land they could clear, Penang became a mixture of Malay, Indian, Sumatrans, and Chinese. This unique mix of culture can still be found in the bustling metropolitan city that now stands in its place. Housing Malaysia’s largest temple and southeast asia’s most comprehensive war museum, modern Penang is a mixture of all kinds of places to visit including resort areas, beaches, temples, national forests, and the colonial Georgetown. Situated on the Northwest coast of Malaysia, Penang is a hidden gem that should not be overlooked.
This story begins on Thursday night as the seven of us embarked on our relaxing vacation. Instead of taking a bus from Singapore to Penang we decided to try crossing th border first and finding a bus on the other side. After a good amount of waiting, some advice from a nice guy about making sure we get a good bus, some confusion at the money exchange place, and a short negotiation with Ron, and an entertaining ten mintues while Julio tried to communicate with little old ladies that they were in his seat (at one time even breaking into Spanish), we were on our way to Penang. We arrived around 6 in the morning and easily found our buses to take us to the beach. We walked onto a sandy beach just as the sun was lighting up the island. As we walked around to find a spot to sit, we were kindly asked it we wanted to do many things. One of those was Jetski. A guy named Gundi said that once I was ready he could hook me up. So after sitting on the beach for most of the morning, I went over and told good old Gundi that me and my roommate Jeff wanted to ride the Jetskis. After some crafty negotiation from Gundi where he told me 50 ringets for half an hour-meaning both Jeff and I pay 50 and we each get 15 minutes, which added together is a half hour for 50 ringets each- I got a better price of 50 ringets for 20 minutes. That’s less than 15 USD to say that I Jetskied in the Indian Ocean, way cool. The other highlight of the beach for me was my lunch. Also known as the greatest meal I have ever had. I walked up the Hawker center and nice lady came out and handed me a menu. I leafed through it until I came to the squid section. Unsure of which one I wanted I did what I usually in these situations and asked her what her best was. She said, quite emphatically, that the sizzling squid was. So I got that. I waited maybe 15 minutes, which in southeast asia is kinda a long time for a meal from a hawker center. But then I saw it. On top of a wooden slab, a cast iron pan heaped with squid, beansprots, and lots of vegetables and lots of other stuff that I don’t know, was floating towards me, carried by an angel. As the plate came to a rest in front of me, I could feel its warm against my face and watched the droplets of spicy sauce sizzle and spatter onto the table. With a gift of another plate full of fried rice and a, “be careful, it is very hot,” I was left alone with this mound of heaven. God bless the squid that gave his life for that meal, surely he was the noblest creature in all the waters of the earth.
Once we got to our hostel, “the malibu café and guesthouse,” we discovered that there was a small problem with our booking. Instead of having three rooms with a double bed in each room for our seven people, we only had two. So it was the three girls in one room, and the four of us guys in the other. Luckily, Rachel had brought a small air mattress, so as Julio slept on the floor on the air mattress, Sascha, Jeff and I slept widthwise on the bed with our feet hanging out over the edge, mine more than anyone’s. Needless to say, I have had better nights sleep in my life and was very happy to come back to NTU and sleep in a bed by myself.
Saturday was spent traveling to as many places outside of Georgetown that we could do. We saw a bunch of temples. Most notable was the sleeping budda, a very big budha that is always sleeping, and Kek Lok Si, that is the largest temple in Malaysia and one of the biggest in all of Southeast Asia. Sadly the road to Kek Lok Si is filled with venders selling mickey mouse t-shirts, watches, knives, mini budha statues, cards, and all sorts of suvineers. It kinda takes away from the place. Luckily there is none of that once you are up in the temple. We also went into Komtar Tower. We went to the 60th floor and had a great view of Georgetown. And at night, absolutely fantastic.
I woke up early on Sunday and enjoyed a full pot of green tea as I read about Luke Skywalker and Han solo traveling to the crystal planet. Fantastic book, but it is almost finished, so I need to get a new one for traveling. Anyway, everyone else got a later start and by the time we had bought our bus tickets for Singapore and ate breakfast it was time to go see as many places in Georgetown as possible in a few hours. I bought some fried dough stuff that tasted like a funnel cake, lunch was Indian food ( I had an egg prata), and then to wash it al down I had some fresh coconut juice. And when I say fresh, I mean the guy cuts open the coconut right in front of you, pours it into a cup and hands it to you, very cool. So anyway, we saw a few buildings, went to a museum, and visited fort Cornwallis. All very cool stuff. After that we split into two groups, one to stay and shop some more, and the other to go see Penagn Hill and get a great view of the whole island. As many of you know about my love for shopping, I decided to hang out in little Indian and picked out a few nice pairs of shoes, four belts, and this shirt that I look stunning in.
The trolley that takes you up Penang is like that found in pittsbugh. It takes 30 minutes to get the whole way up. But once you are there, it is fantastic. You can see the Komtar Tower, and looks like a tiny model. You can see the beach we were at and the bridge that connects the Penang to the mainland. Kek Lok Si looks like an action figure too small for a young child to play with, and the wild hills look even more majestic from above. With a great taste in our mouths, it was time to leave Penang for the pore.
Two things need to be noted about the ride home. Number one, it was the coolest bus ride ever. You know the sound that comes out of your ac in the car when it is on full blast. That was the sound of our aircon on low. We this because the bus driver allowed Sascha to turn the knob in order to prove to him that this was with lowest setting. If it would have been on high, we would have all died of hypothermia. I think Jen lost a foot to frostbite, luckily the six shirts that Jeff had on kept his core warm enough for him to cling to life. The second thing was that three of our travels bought knives in Penang, all for their brothers. Customs did not appreciate this. After thirty minutes of waiting, our friends were finally released. I thought that there was going to be a huge story about they almost got arrested and canned and stuff. But it just took the border people a long time to get the paperwork and stuff. They can pick up the knives in a few days.
But we all got back ok, I barely made it through my class and then took a long nap, in my own bed, by myself. That should be it for Malaysia, unless I go back to do some shopping in later months. Tomorrow I walking on a tree top pathway through a Singaporean National Forest, just like the Ewokes.
This story begins on Thursday night as the seven of us embarked on our relaxing vacation. Instead of taking a bus from Singapore to Penang we decided to try crossing th border first and finding a bus on the other side. After a good amount of waiting, some advice from a nice guy about making sure we get a good bus, some confusion at the money exchange place, and a short negotiation with Ron, and an entertaining ten mintues while Julio tried to communicate with little old ladies that they were in his seat (at one time even breaking into Spanish), we were on our way to Penang. We arrived around 6 in the morning and easily found our buses to take us to the beach. We walked onto a sandy beach just as the sun was lighting up the island. As we walked around to find a spot to sit, we were kindly asked it we wanted to do many things. One of those was Jetski. A guy named Gundi said that once I was ready he could hook me up. So after sitting on the beach for most of the morning, I went over and told good old Gundi that me and my roommate Jeff wanted to ride the Jetskis. After some crafty negotiation from Gundi where he told me 50 ringets for half an hour-meaning both Jeff and I pay 50 and we each get 15 minutes, which added together is a half hour for 50 ringets each- I got a better price of 50 ringets for 20 minutes. That’s less than 15 USD to say that I Jetskied in the Indian Ocean, way cool. The other highlight of the beach for me was my lunch. Also known as the greatest meal I have ever had. I walked up the Hawker center and nice lady came out and handed me a menu. I leafed through it until I came to the squid section. Unsure of which one I wanted I did what I usually in these situations and asked her what her best was. She said, quite emphatically, that the sizzling squid was. So I got that. I waited maybe 15 minutes, which in southeast asia is kinda a long time for a meal from a hawker center. But then I saw it. On top of a wooden slab, a cast iron pan heaped with squid, beansprots, and lots of vegetables and lots of other stuff that I don’t know, was floating towards me, carried by an angel. As the plate came to a rest in front of me, I could feel its warm against my face and watched the droplets of spicy sauce sizzle and spatter onto the table. With a gift of another plate full of fried rice and a, “be careful, it is very hot,” I was left alone with this mound of heaven. God bless the squid that gave his life for that meal, surely he was the noblest creature in all the waters of the earth.
Once we got to our hostel, “the malibu café and guesthouse,” we discovered that there was a small problem with our booking. Instead of having three rooms with a double bed in each room for our seven people, we only had two. So it was the three girls in one room, and the four of us guys in the other. Luckily, Rachel had brought a small air mattress, so as Julio slept on the floor on the air mattress, Sascha, Jeff and I slept widthwise on the bed with our feet hanging out over the edge, mine more than anyone’s. Needless to say, I have had better nights sleep in my life and was very happy to come back to NTU and sleep in a bed by myself.
Saturday was spent traveling to as many places outside of Georgetown that we could do. We saw a bunch of temples. Most notable was the sleeping budda, a very big budha that is always sleeping, and Kek Lok Si, that is the largest temple in Malaysia and one of the biggest in all of Southeast Asia. Sadly the road to Kek Lok Si is filled with venders selling mickey mouse t-shirts, watches, knives, mini budha statues, cards, and all sorts of suvineers. It kinda takes away from the place. Luckily there is none of that once you are up in the temple. We also went into Komtar Tower. We went to the 60th floor and had a great view of Georgetown. And at night, absolutely fantastic.
I woke up early on Sunday and enjoyed a full pot of green tea as I read about Luke Skywalker and Han solo traveling to the crystal planet. Fantastic book, but it is almost finished, so I need to get a new one for traveling. Anyway, everyone else got a later start and by the time we had bought our bus tickets for Singapore and ate breakfast it was time to go see as many places in Georgetown as possible in a few hours. I bought some fried dough stuff that tasted like a funnel cake, lunch was Indian food ( I had an egg prata), and then to wash it al down I had some fresh coconut juice. And when I say fresh, I mean the guy cuts open the coconut right in front of you, pours it into a cup and hands it to you, very cool. So anyway, we saw a few buildings, went to a museum, and visited fort Cornwallis. All very cool stuff. After that we split into two groups, one to stay and shop some more, and the other to go see Penagn Hill and get a great view of the whole island. As many of you know about my love for shopping, I decided to hang out in little Indian and picked out a few nice pairs of shoes, four belts, and this shirt that I look stunning in.
The trolley that takes you up Penang is like that found in pittsbugh. It takes 30 minutes to get the whole way up. But once you are there, it is fantastic. You can see the Komtar Tower, and looks like a tiny model. You can see the beach we were at and the bridge that connects the Penang to the mainland. Kek Lok Si looks like an action figure too small for a young child to play with, and the wild hills look even more majestic from above. With a great taste in our mouths, it was time to leave Penang for the pore.
Two things need to be noted about the ride home. Number one, it was the coolest bus ride ever. You know the sound that comes out of your ac in the car when it is on full blast. That was the sound of our aircon on low. We this because the bus driver allowed Sascha to turn the knob in order to prove to him that this was with lowest setting. If it would have been on high, we would have all died of hypothermia. I think Jen lost a foot to frostbite, luckily the six shirts that Jeff had on kept his core warm enough for him to cling to life. The second thing was that three of our travels bought knives in Penang, all for their brothers. Customs did not appreciate this. After thirty minutes of waiting, our friends were finally released. I thought that there was going to be a huge story about they almost got arrested and canned and stuff. But it just took the border people a long time to get the paperwork and stuff. They can pick up the knives in a few days.
But we all got back ok, I barely made it through my class and then took a long nap, in my own bed, by myself. That should be it for Malaysia, unless I go back to do some shopping in later months. Tomorrow I walking on a tree top pathway through a Singaporean National Forest, just like the Ewokes.
Monday, February 5, 2007
Report 5: The Birth Celebration of Julio
On the thirtieth of January, 1984, somewhere in Mexico, Julio Cesar Soto was born. Growing up in Mexico City, Julio has stared in Sleeping Beauty on the Mexican equivalent to Broadway, has backpacked through Europe (twice), is a certified Master SCUBA Diver, and is an all around good guy. So to celebrate the life and birth of everyone’s favorite Mexican in Southeast Asia, we had a party. Actually two.
Since he was born on eastern standard time, technically his birthday did not start on Tuesday, but we celebrated it then anyway, but then on Wednesday, since every Wednesday is Ladies’ Night all over town and girls get into clubs for free, we celebrated Wednesday too with the excuse that it was his real birthday for most of the day.
Tuesday Night:
We went to a place called Clarke Quay. It is the touristy place to go out to eat. It is mostly old rich white people walking around spending money all over the place. Needless to say, I do not frequent this land of cheeseburgers, spaghetti, “fish and chips,” and chopstick less restaurants very often, but for Julio, we needed to class it up a bit. So I sucked it up, put on a collared shirt, and went to the most western part of Singapore. While we were there we went on this huge bungee thing that gives you the best view of the bay. They strap three people in and tighten the cables and then you go flying into the air. It was a blast. The restaurant that we ate at was right by the river that flows into the bay. And at night, the lights make the bay an almost magical place. So after a nice meal right there by the water, we were back on campus to rest up for Wednesday.
Wednesday Night:
Wednesday started a little later. If you ever come to Singapore someone is bound to tell you that you must have a Singapore Sling from the Raffles Hotel. The drink costs 21 singapore dollars and in a red fruity drink with rum, served with pineapple and a cherry. So we all went to Raffles and spent the cash in order to say that we did it. The drink was good but nothing special really, the great part were the peanuts. In the bar at the raffles hotel, each lounge table has a small wooden box filled with the best peanuts I have ever tasted. And the best part is that you simply toss the shell onto the floor for some one to clean up later. Just like the Country Road Houses found in the states, only surprisingly classy. Like there are peanut shells all over the floor, but the place is still fancy. And with a live band playing some jamming tunes, the night started out great. Then it was of to a club called the devil’s club. Despite the satanistic name, it was a pleaseant time. We found a nice table in the corner and chit chatted for a while, I talked with Ana Paula, she is from Mexico working as a nanny for a Mexican family here in Singapore. We talked in Spanish for about 40 minutes, I did ok, but it was a solid reminder that Spanish is also a language that I will never learn. After that we were on the dance floor until 4am. There was a live band we danced to for a while and then a DJ. It was lots of fun. However, all in all the night costed about 50 sing dollars, which is enough to get me to Malaysia and back, so there wont be too many more of there sorts of nights.
Also, Julio and I have become good friends and have decided that he will do a little hiking with me next time he comes to the states in exchange for taking me scuba diving once I visit Mexico. So if you play your cards right folks, you just might get the chance to meet him.
Since he was born on eastern standard time, technically his birthday did not start on Tuesday, but we celebrated it then anyway, but then on Wednesday, since every Wednesday is Ladies’ Night all over town and girls get into clubs for free, we celebrated Wednesday too with the excuse that it was his real birthday for most of the day.
Tuesday Night:
We went to a place called Clarke Quay. It is the touristy place to go out to eat. It is mostly old rich white people walking around spending money all over the place. Needless to say, I do not frequent this land of cheeseburgers, spaghetti, “fish and chips,” and chopstick less restaurants very often, but for Julio, we needed to class it up a bit. So I sucked it up, put on a collared shirt, and went to the most western part of Singapore. While we were there we went on this huge bungee thing that gives you the best view of the bay. They strap three people in and tighten the cables and then you go flying into the air. It was a blast. The restaurant that we ate at was right by the river that flows into the bay. And at night, the lights make the bay an almost magical place. So after a nice meal right there by the water, we were back on campus to rest up for Wednesday.
Wednesday Night:
Wednesday started a little later. If you ever come to Singapore someone is bound to tell you that you must have a Singapore Sling from the Raffles Hotel. The drink costs 21 singapore dollars and in a red fruity drink with rum, served with pineapple and a cherry. So we all went to Raffles and spent the cash in order to say that we did it. The drink was good but nothing special really, the great part were the peanuts. In the bar at the raffles hotel, each lounge table has a small wooden box filled with the best peanuts I have ever tasted. And the best part is that you simply toss the shell onto the floor for some one to clean up later. Just like the Country Road Houses found in the states, only surprisingly classy. Like there are peanut shells all over the floor, but the place is still fancy. And with a live band playing some jamming tunes, the night started out great. Then it was of to a club called the devil’s club. Despite the satanistic name, it was a pleaseant time. We found a nice table in the corner and chit chatted for a while, I talked with Ana Paula, she is from Mexico working as a nanny for a Mexican family here in Singapore. We talked in Spanish for about 40 minutes, I did ok, but it was a solid reminder that Spanish is also a language that I will never learn. After that we were on the dance floor until 4am. There was a live band we danced to for a while and then a DJ. It was lots of fun. However, all in all the night costed about 50 sing dollars, which is enough to get me to Malaysia and back, so there wont be too many more of there sorts of nights.
Also, Julio and I have become good friends and have decided that he will do a little hiking with me next time he comes to the states in exchange for taking me scuba diving once I visit Mexico. So if you play your cards right folks, you just might get the chance to meet him.
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
Report 4: A Week in Review, Good News Bad News
So as I look back on this week I find that it was full of ups and downs. Each time there was a high, inevitably a low was soon to follow. So for this week's blog entry I have arranged it with good news and bad news. For each situation I will reveal the good and bad news, than explain in more detail what was happening. So here we go:
Good News: I found a church and went to it.
Bad News: I was a little late and by the time I got there the service had ended.
I missed the service by a few minutes. Some of the peopl were leaving while most remained behind for refrechments. I debated staying and meeting some people, but I decided that would be a little akward and it might appear that I had only showed up for the food. However the coffee smelled like home and reminded me of the corner of fifth and jackson. I almost expected Jack McMillen to call me over and teach him something over some coffee. So I think I will like that church and will wake up a little earlier next week.
Good News: I went rollerblading around a park on the east side of the island
Bad News: I was not wearing sunscreen and the back of neck is red.
Danielle, Michele and I went to a nice little park called Pasir Ris on the east coast. We rented rollerbaldes and skated around for an hour and a half to explore the area. While there we saw a water park that we decided to go to before we leave Singapore. So although the rollerblades made my feet hurt, and left with a blister, the trip was a nice afternoon.
Good News: I experienced watching a soccer match on TV with people that cared about it.
Bad News: The game was so close that a bar fight broke out.
There was a huge game on the other day with Manchester United versus Arsenal. The two top teams in the league. So I went down to Hall 8's common room to watch it with Sascha (Manchester is his favorite team). I joined about 30 other guys in a small room to shout and yell and cheer. The atmosphere was like the superbowl. Anyway, the game was close and Arsenal scored a goal in the 94th minute to win the game. It was great fun. Oh, and I was just kidding about the bar fight... that would have been good news.
Good News: I switched out of chinese class and into Film in Asia
Bad News: It conflicts with another class so I cant take that either.
So now I found a leadership communication class that Juio is in and he likes it. It fits y schedule so I sent in the paper work today. Hopefully I will know for sure by the end of this week.
Good News: I booked all my flights for spring our spring recess trip
Bad News: Because I stayed up all night I slept through my first class the next day.
Our trip plans are all set. We are going to Bangkok, then to Chaing Mai in Northern Thailand. Taking a train and seeing other sights on our way back down to Bangkok. Then we are flying to the capital of Cambodia to take a bus to the temple city. Spending a few days at Angkor Wat and then flying back to S'pore. It should be loads of fun and I will post more details as we plan. And the class was my web design class, so I should not have any problems making it up.
Well, that about sums up my week, as a side note my belt broke. It didnt have any good news to go with it. But it broke anyway. It was such a good belt. Revearsable. I have had it for almost three years now.
Untill Next Time!
Good News: I found a church and went to it.
Bad News: I was a little late and by the time I got there the service had ended.
I missed the service by a few minutes. Some of the peopl were leaving while most remained behind for refrechments. I debated staying and meeting some people, but I decided that would be a little akward and it might appear that I had only showed up for the food. However the coffee smelled like home and reminded me of the corner of fifth and jackson. I almost expected Jack McMillen to call me over and teach him something over some coffee. So I think I will like that church and will wake up a little earlier next week.
Good News: I went rollerblading around a park on the east side of the island
Bad News: I was not wearing sunscreen and the back of neck is red.
Danielle, Michele and I went to a nice little park called Pasir Ris on the east coast. We rented rollerbaldes and skated around for an hour and a half to explore the area. While there we saw a water park that we decided to go to before we leave Singapore. So although the rollerblades made my feet hurt, and left with a blister, the trip was a nice afternoon.
Good News: I experienced watching a soccer match on TV with people that cared about it.
Bad News: The game was so close that a bar fight broke out.
There was a huge game on the other day with Manchester United versus Arsenal. The two top teams in the league. So I went down to Hall 8's common room to watch it with Sascha (Manchester is his favorite team). I joined about 30 other guys in a small room to shout and yell and cheer. The atmosphere was like the superbowl. Anyway, the game was close and Arsenal scored a goal in the 94th minute to win the game. It was great fun. Oh, and I was just kidding about the bar fight... that would have been good news.
Good News: I switched out of chinese class and into Film in Asia
Bad News: It conflicts with another class so I cant take that either.
So now I found a leadership communication class that Juio is in and he likes it. It fits y schedule so I sent in the paper work today. Hopefully I will know for sure by the end of this week.
Good News: I booked all my flights for spring our spring recess trip
Bad News: Because I stayed up all night I slept through my first class the next day.
Our trip plans are all set. We are going to Bangkok, then to Chaing Mai in Northern Thailand. Taking a train and seeing other sights on our way back down to Bangkok. Then we are flying to the capital of Cambodia to take a bus to the temple city. Spending a few days at Angkor Wat and then flying back to S'pore. It should be loads of fun and I will post more details as we plan. And the class was my web design class, so I should not have any problems making it up.
Well, that about sums up my week, as a side note my belt broke. It didnt have any good news to go with it. But it broke anyway. It was such a good belt. Revearsable. I have had it for almost three years now.
Untill Next Time!
Thursday, January 18, 2007
Report 3: Today's Lesson's
Today I learned a few things about my new enviournment. Here they are.
Lesson 1, Prata is the new D.P. Dough
Most of you know about that heavenly place where droplets of wonderful are created. That little shop near the corner in downtown Ithaca that produces delightful treats that fill the stomache and warm the heart. Well there is a new calzone in town. They are called pratas. I was introduced to them a few days ago and loved them. They are like tortilla almost, but thinner. It is an Indian food that you can find at almost any hooku. Those are like food courts only outside, ussually in residential areas, but they are great for eating cause there are a few different stalls with all sorts of good food. Anyway, today I discovers an Indian place on campus that makes Prata. Then I saw a menu, or a piece of paper listing all the different things they serve I guess. Anyway it hadd all the different things you could get with your prata. Today I started out with a cheese prata. It is just the prata, then they put cheese on it and then the cook it on like a cast iron stove thing, like what you would cook pancakes on. Than they fold it over, and serve it to you with curry sauce for dipping. Sounds familar eh? So although I will not be as percise with this, I do plan on trying out all the different types, like egg, mushroom, and other stuff like that, there was like 20 or 30 on the menu thing. I will keep yo posted on my favorite one.
Lesson 2, I will never speak Chinese
So a few days ago while I was filling out which classes I wanted to take, I decided it would be fun to sign up for Elementary Chinese. It was just a fall back course, but I figured it would be fun to learn a little bit of the language that was spoken by many of the people here. However, once none of my other classes got approved I decided I should take it so that I dont owe money to Ithaca College when I return. Today was my first class. For two hours I repeated seemingly random sylabols that all sounded the same. Did you know that xi, ji, ti, and qi are all pronounced like tee. However tee means lucky, where as tee means chicken. You cant tell when I write it but I said those with different inflextions. That is to say that each sounds can be spoken four different ways. For example, lets all say tee, say it in one tone, without going up of down. Now say it while raising the pitch. Than say it by lowering the pitch and raising it half way. Now say it while just lowering it. For two hours I repeated with the rest of the class what the professor said in that manner. Then we would practice with our partner. My partner was Tachi and girl from Vietnam taking chinese as her third language. She uses many of these sounds that we were practicing in her first language so they came very easy to her. She giggled at my silly attempts to make the sounds like chuang and xing, which she commented that I, "have a husky vioce yes?" However I can now say hello quite proficiently and know a phrase that sounds like I am saying OOOOO YEAH, which means "I also am..." that is where you insert something something hao. I dont know what hao means, but it is at the end of like everything. Oh and I can kinda say "my name is jeremy" in chinese. And if I stay in the class long enough i will get to pick my Chinese name. The new game plan is to get another class approved and drop this class like spanish.
and finally...
Lesson 3, Although a little more expensive, Snapple does not come with aloe vera chunks
In every canned fruit drink you buy here, there are chunks of aloe vera in it. They sneak up on you and pop into your mouth or clog up your straw. It is kinda gross to chew your apple juice from a can. It takes a while to get used to. but I guess it is good for your skin, so rock on asian juice canning companies. But today I bought a grapeade snapple, and boy was it delgithful to enjoy the tarty taste of grape without juicy bits of plant floating into my mouth with every gulp. It was good.
well things are still going well, I got to talk to both my parents now I skype, my mom doesnt haave a mic yet so it was just me talking to her, but I will get to talk to her tomorrow some time. If you would like to talk to me on skype feel free to download it and find a microphone. My name is jertag653, or you can search my name, or my email address.
pictures from KL will be posted on Yahoo in a little bit. more details to follow.
If you would like my address here, just email me and I will send it to you.
Lesson 1, Prata is the new D.P. Dough
Most of you know about that heavenly place where droplets of wonderful are created. That little shop near the corner in downtown Ithaca that produces delightful treats that fill the stomache and warm the heart. Well there is a new calzone in town. They are called pratas. I was introduced to them a few days ago and loved them. They are like tortilla almost, but thinner. It is an Indian food that you can find at almost any hooku. Those are like food courts only outside, ussually in residential areas, but they are great for eating cause there are a few different stalls with all sorts of good food. Anyway, today I discovers an Indian place on campus that makes Prata. Then I saw a menu, or a piece of paper listing all the different things they serve I guess. Anyway it hadd all the different things you could get with your prata. Today I started out with a cheese prata. It is just the prata, then they put cheese on it and then the cook it on like a cast iron stove thing, like what you would cook pancakes on. Than they fold it over, and serve it to you with curry sauce for dipping. Sounds familar eh? So although I will not be as percise with this, I do plan on trying out all the different types, like egg, mushroom, and other stuff like that, there was like 20 or 30 on the menu thing. I will keep yo posted on my favorite one.
Lesson 2, I will never speak Chinese
So a few days ago while I was filling out which classes I wanted to take, I decided it would be fun to sign up for Elementary Chinese. It was just a fall back course, but I figured it would be fun to learn a little bit of the language that was spoken by many of the people here. However, once none of my other classes got approved I decided I should take it so that I dont owe money to Ithaca College when I return. Today was my first class. For two hours I repeated seemingly random sylabols that all sounded the same. Did you know that xi, ji, ti, and qi are all pronounced like tee. However tee means lucky, where as tee means chicken. You cant tell when I write it but I said those with different inflextions. That is to say that each sounds can be spoken four different ways. For example, lets all say tee, say it in one tone, without going up of down. Now say it while raising the pitch. Than say it by lowering the pitch and raising it half way. Now say it while just lowering it. For two hours I repeated with the rest of the class what the professor said in that manner. Then we would practice with our partner. My partner was Tachi and girl from Vietnam taking chinese as her third language. She uses many of these sounds that we were practicing in her first language so they came very easy to her. She giggled at my silly attempts to make the sounds like chuang and xing, which she commented that I, "have a husky vioce yes?" However I can now say hello quite proficiently and know a phrase that sounds like I am saying OOOOO YEAH, which means "I also am..." that is where you insert something something hao. I dont know what hao means, but it is at the end of like everything. Oh and I can kinda say "my name is jeremy" in chinese. And if I stay in the class long enough i will get to pick my Chinese name. The new game plan is to get another class approved and drop this class like spanish.
and finally...
Lesson 3, Although a little more expensive, Snapple does not come with aloe vera chunks
In every canned fruit drink you buy here, there are chunks of aloe vera in it. They sneak up on you and pop into your mouth or clog up your straw. It is kinda gross to chew your apple juice from a can. It takes a while to get used to. but I guess it is good for your skin, so rock on asian juice canning companies. But today I bought a grapeade snapple, and boy was it delgithful to enjoy the tarty taste of grape without juicy bits of plant floating into my mouth with every gulp. It was good.
well things are still going well, I got to talk to both my parents now I skype, my mom doesnt haave a mic yet so it was just me talking to her, but I will get to talk to her tomorrow some time. If you would like to talk to me on skype feel free to download it and find a microphone. My name is jertag653, or you can search my name, or my email address.
pictures from KL will be posted on Yahoo in a little bit. more details to follow.
If you would like my address here, just email me and I will send it to you.
Monday, January 15, 2007
Report 2: Kuala Lumpur me another
This past weekend as few of the exchange students and I ambarked on or trip to KL entitles Kuala Lumpur me another due to the high cost of alcohol here in Singapore and Sascha's need to get a little tipsy. Although a cheap bar was not to be found in KL, we had a wonderful time.
It started very late Friday night as we took the 10pm bus to KL. We arrived at about 4am Saturday morning and after paying too much for a taxi found ourselves in a McDonald's to pass the rest of the morning and venture into Malaysia's largest city. That morning, we went to the famous Petronous Towers, I am not sure of the spelling. But they are the towers from the movie Entrapment. It has been a dream of Julio's to see these towers and he was very excited to get the chace not only to see them , but to go up into the sky bridge later in the day. After taking lots of pictures there, we went inside and go tour money changed to Ringets, the Malaysian currency.
By then we had killed enough time to check into our hostel. It was not the Ritz by any means, but for 9 ringets or roughly 2 american dollars, it did the job. Jeff and I stayed in the common room. Michele and Danielle were in the ladies only common room. Julio and Sascha had a private room with a fan, Jen, Rachel, and Alicia also had a private room. Finally having a place to crash, we all tried to take a little nap before going back to Petronous and than out. no one slept very well at all, but by 5 o'clock we were on our way to the towers. It was very nice to go up in them. We have lot of pictures. After that we went to a nice little bar, restuarant thing and had some burgers and fries. I just had soup. Then we walked back to the hostel with a littl shopping along the way. Back at the hostel, we went to the rooftop bar to meet some other backpackers. I met a guy from the Phill area. It was nice to talk about some stuff from home. He agreed and sad it was nice to talk to someone about sports like footaball and mean the eagles and steelers instead of Manchester United.
The next day we woke up early and were off to the Batu Caves. THey are natural caves with a a huge hindu statue erected in front of them. If was very cool and only coasted two ringet to get there. There were 272 steps to get to the top. All of us went up and the caves were beatuful. You enter into a huge cave and then walk back into a place where there is no rock above you. Like a natural courtyard or something. THere were temples and such in there and all kinds of different staues. In a few weeks the place will be packed due to a hindu celebration.
After that we went to find the Lake Gardens. WIth Julio still having a headache from the morning it was hard going for him. And after walking around for a long time, we finally found a nice little street side resturant to sit and relax at. I had three fried bannanas for one ringet, very well priced. They were delicous and I will get them again if given the chance. Then I decided to try a real Malaysian meal. So I went up to the waitor guy and asked him for his best dish. He recomended rice and a mixture or stuff that he refferd to as kinda like fish shells, (I assume fish eggs). Then plop on a fish and some sauce from the end of the table, and it would be good. I said ok. They eat with their hands a lot of the time so I asked him if that is what I should do and he said yes. It was good. However Michele did not appreciate the idea of having the entire fish on the plate, tail head and all. You eat the fish almost like how were would eat chicken, you pick the meat off the bones and put it with a finger scoop of rice and the sauce stuff and eat it up. It was very tastey, and just spicey enough to be very delightfull.
Then we stumbled upin a concert in the park. We seemed to be the stars of the show as the MC of the concert kept refering to us and everyone on stage kept welcoming us to Malaysia. We couldnt understand what they were saying most of the time, but every once in a while they would look at us and speak in english to explain things. I even got interviewed by a news channel that was covering the event. I guess they recoginized me. Anyway the concert was great with traditional dance that was beatiful including a spectacular version of the song "Malaysia Truely Asia" that stole our hearts.
With a few hours left we went to the market. They are very fun. You walk up to the shop and they ask you for prices and you negotiate untill you eventually pay too much for something or walk away. At this point I had ran out of money, so I simply walked around and negotiated prices untill they were very low and then walked away. At one shirt and sweatship shop, i negotiated two soccer warm up jackets pretty low. I talked to the dudes ther for about fve mintutes. The starting price for one jacket was about 100 ringet. At the end when I walked away they had the jackets in the bag and trying to chake my hand and give me 2 for 70 ringets. It was an ok deal, but it shows that even at that price they were too willing to sell to me and therefore would have made a killing off of that.
We found the bus home with no problem, got back to our dorms at about 5am. All in all the trip was great. We will start planning our next one soon. It only cost about 50 us dollars for me to do teh whole trip, and I bought a watch and paid way too much for the taxi in KL.
It started very late Friday night as we took the 10pm bus to KL. We arrived at about 4am Saturday morning and after paying too much for a taxi found ourselves in a McDonald's to pass the rest of the morning and venture into Malaysia's largest city. That morning, we went to the famous Petronous Towers, I am not sure of the spelling. But they are the towers from the movie Entrapment. It has been a dream of Julio's to see these towers and he was very excited to get the chace not only to see them , but to go up into the sky bridge later in the day. After taking lots of pictures there, we went inside and go tour money changed to Ringets, the Malaysian currency.
By then we had killed enough time to check into our hostel. It was not the Ritz by any means, but for 9 ringets or roughly 2 american dollars, it did the job. Jeff and I stayed in the common room. Michele and Danielle were in the ladies only common room. Julio and Sascha had a private room with a fan, Jen, Rachel, and Alicia also had a private room. Finally having a place to crash, we all tried to take a little nap before going back to Petronous and than out. no one slept very well at all, but by 5 o'clock we were on our way to the towers. It was very nice to go up in them. We have lot of pictures. After that we went to a nice little bar, restuarant thing and had some burgers and fries. I just had soup. Then we walked back to the hostel with a littl shopping along the way. Back at the hostel, we went to the rooftop bar to meet some other backpackers. I met a guy from the Phill area. It was nice to talk about some stuff from home. He agreed and sad it was nice to talk to someone about sports like footaball and mean the eagles and steelers instead of Manchester United.
The next day we woke up early and were off to the Batu Caves. THey are natural caves with a a huge hindu statue erected in front of them. If was very cool and only coasted two ringet to get there. There were 272 steps to get to the top. All of us went up and the caves were beatuful. You enter into a huge cave and then walk back into a place where there is no rock above you. Like a natural courtyard or something. THere were temples and such in there and all kinds of different staues. In a few weeks the place will be packed due to a hindu celebration.
After that we went to find the Lake Gardens. WIth Julio still having a headache from the morning it was hard going for him. And after walking around for a long time, we finally found a nice little street side resturant to sit and relax at. I had three fried bannanas for one ringet, very well priced. They were delicous and I will get them again if given the chance. Then I decided to try a real Malaysian meal. So I went up to the waitor guy and asked him for his best dish. He recomended rice and a mixture or stuff that he refferd to as kinda like fish shells, (I assume fish eggs). Then plop on a fish and some sauce from the end of the table, and it would be good. I said ok. They eat with their hands a lot of the time so I asked him if that is what I should do and he said yes. It was good. However Michele did not appreciate the idea of having the entire fish on the plate, tail head and all. You eat the fish almost like how were would eat chicken, you pick the meat off the bones and put it with a finger scoop of rice and the sauce stuff and eat it up. It was very tastey, and just spicey enough to be very delightfull.
Then we stumbled upin a concert in the park. We seemed to be the stars of the show as the MC of the concert kept refering to us and everyone on stage kept welcoming us to Malaysia. We couldnt understand what they were saying most of the time, but every once in a while they would look at us and speak in english to explain things. I even got interviewed by a news channel that was covering the event. I guess they recoginized me. Anyway the concert was great with traditional dance that was beatiful including a spectacular version of the song "Malaysia Truely Asia" that stole our hearts.
With a few hours left we went to the market. They are very fun. You walk up to the shop and they ask you for prices and you negotiate untill you eventually pay too much for something or walk away. At this point I had ran out of money, so I simply walked around and negotiated prices untill they were very low and then walked away. At one shirt and sweatship shop, i negotiated two soccer warm up jackets pretty low. I talked to the dudes ther for about fve mintutes. The starting price for one jacket was about 100 ringet. At the end when I walked away they had the jackets in the bag and trying to chake my hand and give me 2 for 70 ringets. It was an ok deal, but it shows that even at that price they were too willing to sell to me and therefore would have made a killing off of that.
We found the bus home with no problem, got back to our dorms at about 5am. All in all the trip was great. We will start planning our next one soon. It only cost about 50 us dollars for me to do teh whole trip, and I bought a watch and paid way too much for the taxi in KL.
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
Report 1.99: Update
Ok, so the last post was a little bungled together with no paragraph breaks. It is also a little out of date. This is because my interenet was not working well and I just got it fixed and copy and pasted the last blog I was going post. Here is a quick rundown of what else I have done.
Water Polo, I got to train with my hall's water polo team last night. It was very difficult to play, I am not used to all that treading. But I think I did alright and the guys gave me lots of tips on how to play better. I cannot represent my hall in the games because I have not been on the lease since November. However, Jeremy (one of the guys) has told me to complain to the people in charge and claim discrimination haha. I will go and talk to the people some time and see what they will do, if they will make an exception.
I am now registered for three classes. They seem interesting and that I will like them. However, I still have not been to a class yet.
Today I went into the city with Julio, Alicia, and Sascha. We got our tickets to Malaysia and back. The orginal plan was to leave here at 10 and ge tto Malaysia early morning spend all Saturday and Come back around 530 and be on campus by midnight because Danielle has an 830 class on Monday. However because the bus at 530 was completely full, we made an executive decision at the bus terminal to take the 1030 back to SIngapore and be back on campus around 6 or 7 am. This decision was not well received by Danielle and Michele and I am blamed for the troubles.
Anyway, more updates on food. After swimming training tonight I went to a little cafe near campus and had some indian food. I believe the name is something like plasta, but I dont think I pronounce it right. It is almost like a thin tortilla fried on a grill with stuff inside of whatever you want. I found it to be delicious and will try to learn the name and all the different things you can get with it so that I can eat it many times.
OK, well tomorrow I think I will go to some place that Jen was talking about. It is like a national park. That should be fun.
Water Polo, I got to train with my hall's water polo team last night. It was very difficult to play, I am not used to all that treading. But I think I did alright and the guys gave me lots of tips on how to play better. I cannot represent my hall in the games because I have not been on the lease since November. However, Jeremy (one of the guys) has told me to complain to the people in charge and claim discrimination haha. I will go and talk to the people some time and see what they will do, if they will make an exception.
I am now registered for three classes. They seem interesting and that I will like them. However, I still have not been to a class yet.
Today I went into the city with Julio, Alicia, and Sascha. We got our tickets to Malaysia and back. The orginal plan was to leave here at 10 and ge tto Malaysia early morning spend all Saturday and Come back around 530 and be on campus by midnight because Danielle has an 830 class on Monday. However because the bus at 530 was completely full, we made an executive decision at the bus terminal to take the 1030 back to SIngapore and be back on campus around 6 or 7 am. This decision was not well received by Danielle and Michele and I am blamed for the troubles.
Anyway, more updates on food. After swimming training tonight I went to a little cafe near campus and had some indian food. I believe the name is something like plasta, but I dont think I pronounce it right. It is almost like a thin tortilla fried on a grill with stuff inside of whatever you want. I found it to be delicious and will try to learn the name and all the different things you can get with it so that I can eat it many times.
OK, well tomorrow I think I will go to some place that Jen was talking about. It is like a national park. That should be fun.
Report 1.9: Fun before classes
So classes start tomorrow and I am not sure yet on my schedule. It will be interesting to see which classes I get into, but that will be a different report. For now, I was just worried about getting a little more fun in before they started. So today I played a little soccer. Most people Ive talked to call it soccer, some do call it football. But regardless, it was very fun. One thing I learned today was that the Singaporean weahter is much different than ours. Because it is so warm and humid, I grew tired and sweaty very fast. However I didnt do too bad for not playing soccer in so long. Some of the exchange students from eurpoe were very good, as well as a few Singaporean players we joined. The great thing about playing sports is that they are the same in any language. My fun for yesterday was traveling around Singapore for the cultural tour put on by the International Student Center. We went all over the city to four differnt stops. At the first stop, we learned about a group of people called the Paranakan. They are chinese/mayasian singaporeans. Like french canadian, only not french. Or canadian... you know what I mean. Anyway it was neat eating some of their food. I even learned how to make a dumpling. And by learned I mean I did what the guy making them was doing and have him correct me and stuff. While there I sat by two Germans and four Iranians. They were all grad students getting their masters or PHD. I did not feel very smart. We went to Arab street where there is lots of carpet stores. Then to Little India where I got a slurpie at the 7 Eleven and saw a cow. And the last stop was china town. There was lots of good food in china town. Julio, Sasche, and I found a plaque that talked of the streets of the dead (In older times people would go to die there cause bad luck was put on whatever house you died in). The last word on the engraved plaque was place, spelled palce, crossed out with a permanent marker with the correct spelling underneath. We found this funny and took a picture. Well, Sasche and Julio did, I forgot my camera. But I will get some to show you all. That night we went to the staff lounge and sang Caryoke in the room they have set up for it. That was a blast and many funny videos are now on Sasche's camera. We are going to go to some bars that do caryoke later on and really spice it up then. Tomorrow I go back into the city to get my student pass. This will take almost all day and is very annoying. I will not forget any papers this time.
Friday, January 5, 2007
Report 1.1: The City
Well once I had been at NTU for a while, I decided to travel to the city because I was bored out of my mind and did not want to fall asleep and then not be able to sleep that night. (Which I experienced last night). So I took the bus to Boon Lay and got my EZ-Link card and took the green line towards Paris Ris. THen I got on the red line and went to Orchards. There is a huge shopping center at Orchards. I walked in and began wondering around. Soon I found myself surounded by purses, shoes, trendy clothing, large sunglasses, and many asian school girls. I decided to go up stairs. Upstairs was a more familar type of mall with little shops everywhere. A man told me he would give me a good deal on a custom suite. But from talking to other people, I can get amazing deals on custom suites in Malasia, if that is how you spell it.
I paid too much for an outlet adapter and decided to take the train back to NTU before I spent any more money. In the train I began to realize just how crowded this tiny island is. Traveling back at around 5 oclock was a bad idea. People would come on untill there was no more room for anybody. Then more people would get on. What amazes me is how well everyone keeps there ballance on the train. I am grabbing on to the ceilling, the doors, and reaching over people to grab the bar while everyone else just stands there.
I found my bus just fine and got back to NTU without a problem. Since then, I have gone into the city again. Today Michele, Danielle and I went in to get our student passes. Once we were there I realized that I forgot some of my paper work. I am going to go in tomorrow with Sasha, a German guy that walked around with us today. His friend Berry knew a lot about the city and all the buildings and history. So I took lots of pictures.
So far I have ate, Beef Fried Rice, Roasted Duck, Spicy chicken noodle, and Laksa (seafood and I think crawfish). Everything is really good and I can get a meal for about 2 sing dollars.
I paid too much for an outlet adapter and decided to take the train back to NTU before I spent any more money. In the train I began to realize just how crowded this tiny island is. Traveling back at around 5 oclock was a bad idea. People would come on untill there was no more room for anybody. Then more people would get on. What amazes me is how well everyone keeps there ballance on the train. I am grabbing on to the ceilling, the doors, and reaching over people to grab the bar while everyone else just stands there.
I found my bus just fine and got back to NTU without a problem. Since then, I have gone into the city again. Today Michele, Danielle and I went in to get our student passes. Once we were there I realized that I forgot some of my paper work. I am going to go in tomorrow with Sasha, a German guy that walked around with us today. His friend Berry knew a lot about the city and all the buildings and history. So I took lots of pictures.
So far I have ate, Beef Fried Rice, Roasted Duck, Spicy chicken noodle, and Laksa (seafood and I think crawfish). Everything is really good and I can get a meal for about 2 sing dollars.
Wednesday, January 3, 2007
Report 1: The Journey
So about an hour and a hlaf after the ball droped I was headed back home to finish packing, unload the car, reload the car, and try and organize my backpacking equipment as best I could. Then at 3:30 am 01 Jan, we were off. I slept most of the car ride, got my tickets no problem, and then slept almost the whole flight to Chicago. Which was good because I sat beside a lady that looked mean. Once in Chicago I sat down at my gate and watched more than half of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II revenge of the oze. Then Dan called from Iraq and I chit chated with him for what will be the last time in a long time. Then it was time for the grandaddy of all flights.
I sat in the way back of the 747. I think there were about 600 people on board. Maybe a little less. I sat by a guy named Deal. I dont know how to spell him name but he is in toy sales, so I bet that is how you would spell it. He travels to Hong Kong once a year for a big toy thing. I didn ask him much about it. He was interested in where I was going and stuff, so that is what we talked about when I wasn't watching the inflight movies, he wasn't playing his PSP, and neither of us was sleeping. Which was rare. All and all the flight was a solid OK. It could have been way worse. However there was a guy a few seats ahead of me that had something wrong with him and they brought him an oxygen tank and stuff. He is alright to the best of knowledge but I missed a lot of Gridiron Gang becuase there were so many people standing up in front of me.
Once in Hong Kong, I found my connection flight to Singapore, slept through most of that, and arrived with no problems. I got through everything just fine and waited for about 30 to 40 minutes for my taxi. After me and my taxi driver stoped to ask people where in the world house three was, I arrived by about 2 am 03 Jan.
I jumped in bed at 2:30 and promptly woke up 4 and a half hours later, still tired but not able to go back to sleep.
I sat in the way back of the 747. I think there were about 600 people on board. Maybe a little less. I sat by a guy named Deal. I dont know how to spell him name but he is in toy sales, so I bet that is how you would spell it. He travels to Hong Kong once a year for a big toy thing. I didn ask him much about it. He was interested in where I was going and stuff, so that is what we talked about when I wasn't watching the inflight movies, he wasn't playing his PSP, and neither of us was sleeping. Which was rare. All and all the flight was a solid OK. It could have been way worse. However there was a guy a few seats ahead of me that had something wrong with him and they brought him an oxygen tank and stuff. He is alright to the best of knowledge but I missed a lot of Gridiron Gang becuase there were so many people standing up in front of me.
Once in Hong Kong, I found my connection flight to Singapore, slept through most of that, and arrived with no problems. I got through everything just fine and waited for about 30 to 40 minutes for my taxi. After me and my taxi driver stoped to ask people where in the world house three was, I arrived by about 2 am 03 Jan.
I jumped in bed at 2:30 and promptly woke up 4 and a half hours later, still tired but not able to go back to sleep.
Intro
I am starting this blog to allow you people to read about what I am up to. I hope to email many of you personally, however, I will be living it up here at Singapore and will not have much time to email everyone about things I have done. I am not typing a lot tonight because I am tired and need some sleep. Look to tomorrow for the first report about my travels and my first day.
ps I choose this template to honor the great park blogspot put on by the dean of the Park School of Communications. Woot.
ps I choose this template to honor the great park blogspot put on by the dean of the Park School of Communications. Woot.
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