I Think I Like Today, I Think It's Good...

Wow it has been a while. I have meant to update this for a while, but I haven't gotten around to it. Things have been eventful here over the last little while. I won't necessarily share all of it, but it was definitely an eventful period. So, the biggest thing I probably have to mention is KL. Hopefully I can mention all of it...it was an eventful weekend.

So a couple weekends ago, we went to Kuala Lumpur, or KL as most refer to it over here. It is the capital of Malaysia, and definitely a different world than Melaka. It had some similarities obviously, but even in how the trip went...it was cool to see, and I enjoyed myself...but I wouldn't wanna go back any time soon. So, there were some who were flying over there, but we (David, Kathrin, and I) felt like that would be a copout, so we crossed the border to Johor Bahru and took an overnight bus to KL after sitting around a market area for a couple of hours (in which we found Dunkin Donuts   :)   ). The bus was an experience...David was sitting next to some random guy. Kathrin and I were sitting together. She was probably the only one who got any sleep, and that still wasn't a lot. I got about 20 minutes overall. I spent more time being a pillow for Kathrin than I did actually sleeping. One interesting sidenote though: I got to wear my jacket for the first time since being here because the night getting to and being in KL was actually cold. When we get there, I already did not feel great because of not sleeping (I am happy I took the bus though...it was a good experience to have)...then we had to fight our way through the throng of taxi drivers. We looked up in the Lonely Planet any accomodation options, and then we asked the drivers where certain hostels and streets were, and they told us they didn't know. Then we found someone who did know, but his price was far too high, so we tried bartering him down to next to nothing, and he just told us "Goodbye", which was fine by us. Then we accepted a lower rate (15 ringgit, so nothing...) to go to Chinatown, since the Lonely Planet had a few different suggestions there. Our taxi driver drove the wrong way down a one way street and performed all sorts of other crazy traffic moves, which I have become accustomed to in Malaysia. He eventually got us there, but none of the hostels were open, so we wandered around (at 5 in the morning), and we found a porridge shop. We each got something and then drank some coffee (I had about 2-3 cups of it to try to wake up a little) at another place. I felt awful. When I went to the bathroom, there were roaches scuttling around, but I did not even take too much notice. I was feeling bad, and I kind of expect things like that because Malaysia is just kinda dirty. As soon as we could, we got their equivalent of the MRT (which is not very good) to the twin Petronas Towers. There, we waited in line for a while to get free tickets (which are limited) to go up in the towers to the walkway on the 41st floor that connects the two buildings. Once we got our time for going up, we wandered back to try to find a hostel.

So, we were able to find a hostel. I believe it was called The Red Dragon Inn. We lucked out on it because it was the first one. The hostels were all packed for the weekend because of Thaipusam (which I will go into later). It actually had A/C...no windows, but A/C, so that was alright by me for one night. The bathrooms were normal, which is something that is not very common in Malaysia, so it was a nice place to stay. Lonely Planet helped us out again...

So we were finally able to put our stuff down in a room. I just grabbed my camera, and we headed off. We walked around, and then headed back to the Towers area. I got one more coffee, and then I felt good. So, we walked around KL, waiting for our time in the Towers. It was pretty cool to walk around. It had sidewalks and crosswalks, but still some pretty insane drivers.

Once our time came up for the Towers, we went up to the 41st floor, which is where the bridge in between the two towers is. From there, we had a great view of KL. Of course, the battery to my camera decided that was the best time to die, so I missed some pictures, but I did get a good number of them still. We got to stay up there for a few minutes, and then we headed down. The elevator we used is apparently the fastest in the world until the tower in Dubai is completed. It was wicked quick though.

We went to a park as well, which had the universal sign for "Do Not Enter", but whatever was written on the song was in Malay...not a language I can understand, so I decided that we should keep going. We did, and we came across the National Museum, which was interesting, and it only cost 2 ringgit. We stayed in there for a while. We also got our train tickets for the return home and tried to see the National Mosque. At this Mosque, there was a picture that didn't exactly thrill me...it said that no non-Muslim tourists could enter at that point (which is fine...understandable), but it had a picture that upset me. It was showing a dead Palestinian girl and had a bunch of US products with big red X's through them. This was a banner at the front of the Mosque, and after seeing it, I had no more desire to check out the inside of the Mosque. I was really bummed that they would portray a hateful political message on their religious grounds:

Later in the day we met up with the others, who had flown to KL. We went to dinner with them at some Arab place. It was good, but it was similar to what I had had a little while earlier with Mark and Tanvi, some other Techies. After this, we went back to crash at our hostel. Before I went to sleep though, I tried to take a shower. Unfortunately, my shower had no head, so I had to just use the hose with the freezing water, so my shower didn't last very long...nor was it too effective. We woke up the next morning with no bed bugs...always a positive.

The next morning, I felt great because I had already felt what it was like to not sleep and do that much in a day. It was dumb, and being a little tired in the morning was a welcome change. We woke up pretty early, checked out of our room, and paid the hostel almost no money to leave our bags there for the day. We then went out to the Batu Caves (we found our first taxi driver using a meter, so that was exciting and much cheaper) for Thaipusam. That is a Hindu event that was being held at these caves because of a temple within them. To get to the temple though, people had to climb up 272 steps. Not only did some of them have to climb these steps...some of them had hooks in their bodies and were carrying these up when they walked up the steps. It is one of the traditions at Thaipusam. There were some people who had big platforms attached to their bodies from fishhooks through their skin. It was pretty intense. These people would walk up the stairs with these hooks in them or just carrying things and take them to the temple in the caves. Here is a look at the distance they had to go just to get up the stairs to the first part of the cave:

 They had to start before these stairs, and they had to keep going through to the third main cave. We did this as well. We climbed with the masses of people not carrying anything. Everyone was packed in like sardines for a lot of it (especially the stairs), because there were so many people. I've seen things saying that about 1.5 million people travel there a year as a pilgrimage. We were right in the middle of all those people. Of course, with that many people, it smelled awful. Also, everyone just threw their garbage everywhere. So, that made it smell all the more pleasant. There were tons of booths that set up a marketplace at the bottom of the stairs. While we were there, we kept getting separated, but Kathrin and I didn't mind because we wandered around trying new little fruit type things. I think they were supposed to be some type of candy type thing. Some were really good, and some were not so good. I got some video of the event, mainly one guy getting his hooks removed after he dropped his sacrifice off at the temple in the caves. Also, quick side note...there were a bunch of monkeys in the caves. How cool is that? Anyways...while we were leaving, Brenna got interviewed by the local media, which was entertaining.

We left the caves around mid-day and the people who had flown in went to go see the towers. We went into the accompanying mall, which was really, really nice. Guess what though? Still no football. We tried everywhere that could've possibly had it, including Toys R Us. Everything there was really expensive though. They also had some of the only free bathrooms that we found in the city. We checked out a bookstore there, and the price on any of the books I was looking at (Brave New World, 1984, Edgar Allen Poe stuff) were between 58 and 74 ringgit. It was ridiculous. We ate lunch at the food court there. I got food from a Taiwanese place, which was good. So, then we took off so we had enough time to get back to our hostel and grab our bags before heading over to the train. David, Kathrin, and I had our tickets ready, but the train was delayed, so we sat around exhausted. We were hoping to get to the train and just fall asleep immediately. That didn't happen...

While in the train station though, I did see this sign on the store we were sitting next to. It said "Rather be unborn than untaught". I found that a little extreme...but interesting nonetheless. When we finally got our call for the train, we got to our beds immediately. At that point, I think there was a little excitement, plus we had moved again to get to the train, so all of us were a little more awake than before. I was on the top bunk right across from Kathrin, and David was a little to the side of both of us, but still on the top bunk. I could see both of them fine. While David was reading his book, I talked with Kathrin a little while before trying to read up on a possible trip to Thailand the next weekend. That didn't last too long before I fell asleep. I actually slept pretty well. I woke up a couple times when the train stopped, but overall, I slept pretty well. We arrived in Johor Bahru at about 6 in the morning or so. We got our stuff and headed out to get the Singapore bus back across the border. That took forever because of all the traffic. It took us about an hour to get a very short distance after we had gone out of Malaysian immigration, heading to Singapore immigration. The bus ride was awful, cramped, and long. We then got to Singapore immigration and were able to pass through as residents, which sped things up tremendously. We then got back on the bus, although not quite as packed until we got to the MRT station. From there, we took a long MRT back to Buona Vista. We took a regular bus back to near PGP and walked the remainder of the way. We were all tired but satisfied with the trip. We walked back, and Kathrin walked back to her hall. I got into my room, and I immediately fell asleep for a couple hours. Thus marked the end of our KL venture. Like I said earlier, it was fun, but it is not somewhere I am itching to go again. There were pushy vendors, edgy people, seemingly no traffic laws, and dirty places, but it was a nice place to visit for a couple days. We packed a lot into the 2 days we had in KL, but we had a good time.

The next you will hear from me is probably going to be after Vietnam...so be prepared for that. Until then...

It's Such A Perfect Day...

I feel like a lot has happened since my last post. I meant to update before last weekend because a bunch had happened, but now all that seems like a distant memory...one that happened so long ago that I remember the important highlights but not all the details. I keep myself too busy here (hence my lack of a regular update on this blog...although I will try to update at least once a week). So, I will try to cover my birthday/Chinese new year, the zoo/night safari, and Bintan. If I remember anything else I will throw it in.

First off: I went to a church service with Edy, and then he took me to Little India and showed me this place called the Mustafa. That place was huge! The items they had made it the equivalent of having a Sports Authority on one floor, a Publix on the next floor, a Kaminski on the next floor, a Kohls on another floor, and so on. So, it had all sorts of stuff. Apparently it started with one guy selling his stuff on his rug, and it has now become this hub for everything you could possibly want (except an American football...which I am still having problems finding). After that, I went and collected David to go to Sabin's house for a Chinese new year reunion dinner. That was really cool. We got to see what a typical family does for Chinese new year in Singapore. They got David and I a bottle of Coke to share, which of course made me happy, and they got me a small birthday cake and sang to me and everything, which was really nice. They cooked everything in a steamboat as they called it. It was a big pot of boiling water, and people just dropped what they wanted in until they felt it was cooked enough. It was delicious   :)    After talking for a while, David and I had to head out because we though the MRT was about to close. On the way back though, we got a call saying that all of our friends were at the Esplanade waiting for fireworks, which happened in about 15 minutes. I asked a girl on the MRT which exit got us to the Esplanade, and we had just missed it, so we got off at the next exit, caught another train back and got off where we should have. Then we booked it across this mall area where everything was closed and found our way to the Esplanade 2 minutes past midnight. We saw people walking away, and we got in contact with everyone. We found out that we had just missed the show, but that instead of fireworks, it was 1 firecracker. So kinda anti-climactic. Good memories nonetheless.

And next: my birthday. As I'm sure everyone reading this blog is aware of, I am now 21. Of course, in America that is a big deal. In Singapore, that's not the same...in Canada, that's not the same...in Austria, that's not the same. That covers where I'm staying and where most of my friends here are from. My friends tried to still make it a special celebration for me though, including the tradition of friends buying you your "first" alcoholic drinks. So I had a variety of stuff to try while we had an all-American grill going. David and I made burgers and hot dogs while playing loud American music. So, we made it as much like home as we could   :)   Also, Brenna and Stephanie brought both Colin and I (since Colin's birthday was the next day) waffles from the Snack Shop with everything on them (strawberry jelly, chocolate, peanut butter, and a different kind of jelly...not all together of course, but on different parts). All of this was after we went to the East Coast Park/Beach here in Singapore. That beach was gross, and we had pics taken of us and were watched at all times. Once I hit a certain depth in the water, it just felt like I was stepping on sludge. Most of my time in the water consisted of the game "What Am I Stepping On?". I found all sorts of things, and I also stepped on some things that I honestly don't want to know what they are. It was fun though. We threw a frisbee around a little...unfortunately it had the Canadian flag on it but whatever...it means that if we pissed anyone off, they will think Canadians (not Americans) are very rude...which I am fine with   :)

The next day was Colin's birthday, and we went to the Singapore Zoo. We got over there kinda late since it closed at like, 5:30. We went through in about 2 - 2 1/2 hours and saw most of what we wanted to see. The orangutan exhibit was actually really well designed. Also, people were able to feed the kangaroos. While we were there, a lemur just kinda leapt out in front of us and walked around for a little while. Close enough to touch. The pictures are up on facebook. Then the Night Safari opened at 7:30, which was cool I suppose. I saw some animals I had never seen in real life before (such as a tapir), so that made it worthwhile. The picture that they took of Kathrin and I at the beginning of the Night Safari actually was good, but it was too much (S$20) to buy it. Oh well. While we were at the Night Safari, we saw their Creatures of the Night show. It was pretty cool. It had otters recycling cans, which entertained me because one of the otters just kinda juggled a can for about 5 minutes. So that was fun to watch. They also brought out this big snake, and the people in charge picked Carly to be the one to hold it. They put it on her and wandered off saying how we should take pictures because it was the last time we would see her alive. Carly looked petrified at times, but she got free ice cream out of it, so that works. I took video of it. Unfortunately, it was not my actual video camera because I didn't think I would need that at the zoo:

I guess that's what we get for being the group of white kids that sat in the very front row.

Next we tried out The Butter Factory instead of Double O on Wednesday night. Guys had to pay a S$25 cover, but it was free flow, so I was able to at least get my money's worth. It was too small though, and as a result, it was very packed and very loud. Kathrin and I would stand in line for literally 30 minutes sometimes to get drinks, and then she had to get both of ours because they attend to girls first. They ran out of stuff pretty quickly. In order to hear anyone, everybody had to pretty much scream in people's ears. Kathrin and I talked for a while afterwards though once we went back, so that was cool. So I had a pretty late night, but it was fun. I don't really foresee us going back there too much though.

Then came Bintan. We were planning on going to Tioman Island in Malaysia. It's supposed to be beautiful, but we soon found out that at this present time, it would be very doubtful that we got there, so we decided to go to Bintan (Indonesia) at the last minute. We called up the Shady Shack Thursday night and the owner (Lobo) was very helpful. He arranged for his friend to pick us up from the ferry and bring us back. The accommodation was great because it was right on the beach. The beach had some trash on it, but the water was amazing. Lobo also cooked us meals, which were delicious. He also went out to get sodas and beer and such for anyone who wanted it. The next day we were pushed over next door, which was also nice. Lobo did let us play with an Aussie football, so that brightened my day. It wasn't American, but it was better than nothing. The money there doesn't mean anything, so we wound up not paying too much. It was a great experience that I was pleasantly surprised with. I had heard some mixed reviews on Bintan and the Shady Shack, but I would recommend it to whoever. It was really cool. I got some cool pics up on facebook though. On the ferry ride back to Singapore, we were able to see the sunset. That was really cool. Although, I was aware at times that I was on a boat, which of course made me uneasy, as it always does. Kathrin had to help me keep my mind off of that fact when we first started out, because the start of the boat was always the worst. The time when I saw us leaving the land behind. That's when I feel the most uneasy. So, overall though, it was fun, and I got to see the sunset. It was a fitting end to the weekend. We got back pretty late and found out that a personal pan size pizza back home is 'Medium' here and supposedly feeds a family of 3. That was a bummer, but the trip overall was a great success in my opinion.

These last couple days have been busy though. Classes have actually started now...so a lot of us have had things to do. I met Kathrin for coffee on Tuesday and then met Tanvi from GT later that day. So that was cool to meet a new person. She was fun to hang around. She had the movie 'Defiance', so we (Me, David, Tanvi, and Carly) watched that afterwards. It was pretty good, but it dragged on a little. It could've used a little more action or character development or something. It was pretty good though. I got a haircut from a man who spoke no English, but it doesn't look too bad...just shorter than I anticipated. Yesterday we returned to Double O, and I wound up being a chaperone to certain people for a lot of the time. I did play a game of pool though. I had some great shots. I think all of us prove the theory that you're better at pool when you've had at least something to drink. I was making shots I shouldn't make because I suck at pool. The night overall wasn't as fun as some Wednesday nights, but then again, some people weren't there. I usually hang out with Kathrin a lot on Wednesday nights, and she couldn't make it, so I had to find other people to hang around most of the time. It was Suzanne's birthday, so I was able to wish her a happy birthday...so that was good.

This morning I have been to class, and then I started doing some full throttle research for our spring break trip to Vietnam. I called Tiger Airways, so I got some things cleared up. Hopefully we will be booking our flights either today or tomorrow, but we have to meet about it. I should have my visa for the country on Monday. This brings me up to where I am now...sitting at my desk with Coke cans scattered everywhere (speaking of which, the housing people took the Coke out of the Coke vending machine in my building and replaced it with green tea! Why!?) and trying to think of what to write down and remembering the things that I didn't put here for whatever reason. Check out my facebook for the pictures. Until next time...

Everything's Magic

I kept hearing that Orchard Road is the place for all of your shopping needs. Plus, it is just supposed to be a really cool place. Lastly, I heard that there were supposed to be crazy sales because of Chinese New Year. Kathrin and I decided to venture over there today to see what was up. It wound up being pretty cool. Some places just looked like I would be thrown out for wearing a t-shirt, but most of it was pretty lax. It wasn't in the many, many stores that the real bargains could be found however; it was in the stalls on pathways. I did wind up buying a new camera case, seeing as how mine sadly came to the end of its existence.

It took a long time getting over there, but I am happy that we went. It was definitely enjoyable, and we were able to find a quicker way home than the way we came. That is useful information to have. Just for the record, the purple MRT line runs a lot faster than the red or green lines. In one of the malls that we decided to check out, there was a show that was put on in celebration of Chinese New Year coming up in 2 days. I didn't have my video camera with me, but I was able to get a video clip with my regular camera. So, I have uploaded it to this blog. We were just walking around the mall and heard these noises, so we decided to see what was happening. It was pretty cool to see:

It was easy enough to see this since I am taller than about 9/10 of this region. As weird as that sounds, I believe it may actually be true. One of my friends said that when they get lost, they merely have to look for me standing over everyone else to find the group. So, seeing this performance of this dragon/lion thing was pretty simple for me. I'm happy we were there in time to see it though.

Last night, we went to Little India and had dinner. It was really nice, and then we went to a pub for a little while, but it was a very good thing we didn't dally around any more than we did. We had to join the rest of the locals in running through the MRT station (most of us in flip-flops) in order to catch the last train to get us back to NUS. Thankfully we caught it, but we only arrived at the station with 1-2 minutes to go. It was an experience that I feel needed to be had in Asia. Asia almost racked another point onto its score (it is beating all of us pretty handily at this point), but we were able to get on the train in time, so that's good. Then we made a bad decision to walk home. A few people were pretty tired, and the walk was much further than we thought. So we walked home for a good 30 minutes. Oh well. We got to retell the story of our White County, GA debacle to a whole new crowd. So of course, that was interesting as always.

Tonight is Sentosa again. That should be awesome. Some people (in fact, most people) are going to a club for some themed party, but I hold the same opinion as Kathrin, Carly, and David. The beach is better than just a club. We can go to a club any time we want to. Sentosa is a really nice place. I think it will definitely be enjoyable. So hopefully we can prove that our decision was more worthwhile.

Chinese New Year is only a couple of days away. So, hopefully I will have some good things to say in my next posting...but until then...

This Could Be The Very Minute I'm Aware I'm Alive...

I got back from Malaysia today. It was definitely fun for a weekend, and I had absolutely no problem getting through security. We went to Melaka. There we found out that there is apparently only 1 crosswalk in the city (at least, so it seemed), there is very little sidewalk, and nobody follows the rules of the road. There were people going the wrong way, and there were people going every which way at this confusing triangle intersection. The lines in the road were only loosely followed, and not too many people signaled before moving over. If you had to cross the street, you had to just kinda run.

The money exchange was nice. Their money was basically monopoly money compared to the US dollar, so I did not feel that bad spending the money that I did. We also lucked out in the hostel we stayed at. The man in charge was very helpful. He would point us the right direction to places we knew of, recommend places to us, and he called to make reservations for us on the taxi back to the bus station and the bus back to Singapore. He also made sure that nobody overcharged us on anything. I would definitely recommend this hostel to anyone wanting to stay in Melaka, because it is a good value, and the man at the front desk was helpful. It is called Heeren Inn. Bedbugs are supposedly a problem in Malaysian hostels, but we did not have them in our room, and neither did the girls in their room. This hostel was very close to the main road with the night market on it in Chinatown, so that was really cool. We got to wander around it for 2 nights, and we didn't have to worry about getting back since it was only a very short walk.

While in Melaka, we went on a boat tour, went into some art galleries and museums, walked around the historic city, chilled by the river, and enjoyed ourselves at the night market. We ate some local food, which was really cool. The Western restaurant we tried was awful. It was tiny portions for a whole lot of money. To make matters worse, Colin ordered the chicken, and it wasn't even cooked, so he had to get it taken off the bill. The service was kinda mediocre, and there was an ant infestation only a little ways away from us. It was called Harper's. Skip out on this one. It looks like a cool little place, but it is not worth it. Instead, eat at a rice ball place. The place we had for rice balls was really good. I feel like we explored the city pretty well. 

They are trying to make the city a tourist hotspot, but they must first put in sidewalks and crosswalks. It is dangerous walking along or crossing the road. They are doing a good job in the river area. They are restoring old buildings as well. I think that in a couple of years it will be a much more touristy area. I'm happy I was able to see it before that transformation.

When on the bus between Malaysia and Singapore, I saw some great scenery as well. It was awesome. I hope to visit another part of Malaysia, maybe Kuala Lumpur later on, but Melaka did leave a pretty good impression of Malaysia. I don't know if I could go back there in the near future, but to Malaysia in general? Definitely. I am definitely happy to be back in Singapore though.

Heaven Must Be Just Like This...

I believe that quote from Tom Delonge sums up how things are here for me. The country is beautiful. The people I've met are awesome. The food is pretty good, and it is dirt cheap...which leads into my next topic. Dirt cheap...kinda like Malaysia! We are about to head over there. I leave in about an hour. It should be fun! There are some restrictions that we must abide by, but overall we should be fine I believe. A few of the Canadians have already been into Malaysia, and they had no problem, so we should be fine.

It is me, Kathrin, Colin, David, Brenna, Quynh, Claire, Sophie, Carly, and Scott on the first trip over. Another group is leaving tomorrow, so that sucks for them, but who knows, maybe they will get to stay later? So maybe it will pan out in the end. I'm hoping this will be a good trip. We don't have accommodation quite yet, but we are hoping that problem solves itself. There are supposed to be places to stay everywhere in Melaka (which is where we are headed), so we are just hoping that if we split into smaller groups we can all find places to stay.

I have some class issues to work out when I get back, but I won' t think about them this weekend. This weekend is purely about Melaka...not school. I will worry about school when I come back. Hopefully, like I said last time, I can post a little more regularly on here. We'll see if that happens or not. Until next time...

Peace

Holiday From Real

So, I'm in Singapore. It's pretty amazing thus far here. We'll see how much I like it once classes start. I've already found a group of friends to chill with so that's really cool. Some of the tendencies here are really throwing me off though. When riding on the bus or in a taxi, I keep getting scared because they are driving on the opposite side of the street. I am not accustomed to that yet. Neither am I accustomed to using the metric system. I went to go work out, and it was all in kilograms and such. That was not fun. Something really positive though is that the food here is only like, S$2-S$4 per meal. The exchange rate is in Americans' favor, so that is dirt cheap in my eyes. Some other things are pretty expensive though.

This post is kinda informal, but I am trying to quickly sum up stuff I've learned and done in a few days into a couple paragraphs. Hopefully I can be a little more consistent with posting stuff now, which will make things a little more specific than this post. I have Skype, so contact me if you want my ID for that. This country is so different in many ways. I miss the good ol' USA, but it is really nice here thus far. I've taken some pics, and those will be up on Facebook eventually. Also, I have taken some video of me documenting certain moments in Singapore. I hope to be able to use it to be able to capture some cultural shows or something around here. It is unreal to think of me actually staying here for 4 months, but that's the case. If it's all like this, then it will be a blast. The adventure has actually begun...