Hong Kong: Misty Memories, Short Tempers

I always love going to Hong Kong. I may not have many memories of living there but it still feels like home in a way. Tara and I arrived late at night on the 2nd and made our way to Kowloon and then got a cab to our guest house. The place I booked was on the main tourist/shopping street in Kowloon called Nathan Road and was pretty cheap so we weren’t sure what to expect. We were dropped off in front of a big building with a bunch of little stores selling knock off watches and purses and no sign of any type of accommodation. After asking a few people directions, we were directed inside, towards an old group of elevators and told to go to the 12th floor. At the front office for the Cosmic Guest House, we were asked to pay in full for all four nights and then taken to a room. They told us that we would have to move after the first night because our other room was not yet vacated, but that they’d put us in a nicer room for the first night. The room they took us to was the size of a large closet, with three small cots packed in, and a one square meter shower, and one square meter toilet/sink room. We decided that it was a bit small, but very clean and pretty safe feeling, and the crazy jet/rain shower made up for it.
The next morning, we went across the street to have our first dim sum. I asked the front desk for a recommendation and they told me there was a superstar dim sum restaurant across the street. I was pretty excited because I figured this must mean the food was amazing, but when we walked over I realized that the place is actually called “Superstar Restaurant.” Luckily, it lived up to its name, and we feasted on dumplings and buns for as long as our stomachs could handle. When we got back, they had us switch rooms to an interior (no window) one that was a tad bit larger, except it only had one square meter bathroom area where there was a dinky little shower head connected to a hot water box on the wall behind the toilet: definitely the definition of a one-butt bathroom.

We moved just in time for Carly’s arrival and went down to meet her on the street. She was quite the trooper and was ready to go out and explore even though she had just gotten off a long flight from South Africa. After grabbing a quick lunch for her, we walked down towards the water on the Kowloon side, passing the famous Peninsula Hotel, and down the Avenue of the Stars. Unfortunately there was a thick fog covering the whole city, so you could see the first few rows of buildings on Hong Kong Island but none of the hills behind. Later we had some quick noodles for dinner and then met up with my friend Mamta, who was also a Computer Science student at WashU and just graduated in December in the same program as me. She took us to a delicious mango dessert place in the mall across the street from our hotel and then to the Mong Kok market, which sells fun, cheap little trinkets in a long, outdoor stretch of stalls. It was really nice to be with someone who knew the area well and it was fun to see her.
That night we decided to check out the night life in Kowloon and went to Knucsford Terrace to a place called Bahama Mama that had been recommended by the guide book and my friend Simon. It was fun, but kind of quiet since it was a Wednesday, so we decided to walk around and see what else there was. Carly spotted a sign that said it was Ladies night at a club called “Bubbles” so we went up to take a look. Turns out it was the hotspot for the night and we were given free Bubbles planners and free drinks by the owner who was pretty amused by his only non-Chinese patrons and wanted to practice his English. We got back to find that, although we had complained earlier, our toilet was still broken and would not flush. A hotel staff member told us it couldn’t be fixed that night and we couldn’t move rooms until after 11 the next day, so we should use the shower head to fill up the tank and then fill a bucket with water to pour in the bowl to flush it.
The next morning, we happily found that our toilet was working again. Apparently they had been working on the toilet pipes for the whole section of our building, and had just left them not hooked up over night. We got up and found it was another cloudy day, so we decided to save the Peak for the last day and go to Lantau Island instead. We took the Star Ferry over to Hong Kong and then jumped on the fast ferry over to Lantau. When we got there, we hired a cab to drive us through the twisty hill roads to the Big Buddha. The Big Buddha pretty much fits his description. He is a very large bronze Buddha statue that sits high up on a hill overlooking a monastery, the largest seated bronze Buddha in the world, in fact. We climbed up the 260-stair pathway leading to him and circumambulated a few times. Then we went down and walked through the monastery, enjoying the smell of the incense and the singing voices of the monks. After that there wasn’t much to do except get gelato and go home. It was nice to see though, very pleasant and peaceful.

For dinner we went back to the mall across the street and went to a Japanese place that made pizzas that had rice as the crust. It was pretty good and we decided to start a chain in America when we get back. Back in our room, we turned on our air conditioning and it started making loud noises and spitting water everywhere. It had also leaked a whole puddle of water all over my bed, and our stuff on the bedside table. I called the front desk, and the lady came down, took it apart, wiped off the table with a rag, frowned at it for a while, and told us that she didn’t know what to do and she’d fix it tomorrow. I asked her to get me dry sheets and she said she’d rather not because she would have to get them from upstairs, but that I should put them under the fan and then they would dry. We were feeling tired that night, so we went back over to the mall and saw Avatar in 3D because Carly and Tara hadn’t seen it yet. It’s an amazing movie even with Chinese subtitles. If you haven’t seen it yet you definitely should.

We had decided that we’d spend our last day exploring Hong Kong Island. Much to our dismay, there was still a fat cloud squatting over the whole city. We took the Star Ferry over again and then got an angry cab driver to take us to Central where we found the famous Luk Yu Tea House and had dim sum. Unfortunately the waiter (who was also very angry… bad day for Hong Kongers, I guess) told us that EVERYTHING HAS PORK! So we found a nice little vegetarian café afterwards for Carly. The man who worked there was in a much better mood and said he had lived in San Francisco for a while. His whole place was decorated with vintage American signs, clothes and toys, and apparently it’s a member’s-only restaurant, but he made an exception since we were only visiting.
After lunch, we made our way over to the Peak Tram, and went up to the Peak.

The Peak Tram is an old cable tram system that goes almost vertically up Victoria Peak on Hong Kong Island. The peak is supposed to have the most spectacular view of the city, harbor, and Kowloon all together. We could vaguely see the harbor once we were at the top, but everything was coated in white mist and not very clear… so we got gelato. On our way down, we got off at the Kennedy Road stop, and after confusing a lot of people and resorting to our trusty iPhones for directions, we found the place where I used to live - #1 Monmouth Terrace. I explained to the man at the gate that I was born here, and used to live in apartment 20A and got just about the exact reaction I expected: a completely blank stare and a “so… what?” He told me that no agents had come that day, and that I’d have to come back with an agent to see an apartment. Oh well... it was fun to see the outside at least. From there we made our way back... to the trusty mall again… for some pho dinner and mango dessert. Since our flight was early this morning, we stayed in and rested a bit.

At about 10 pm, the fire alarm went off, which thoroughly freaked us out. We jumped out of bed, got dressed and got our bags and were about to quickly head out when a little security man came down with a Cosmic staff lady and started yelling at us to “not smoke in the room!” We had clearly not been smoking in the room – it was so tiny and boxed in that it would have been pretty obvious if we had. This accusation was the last straw and made me pretty angry. I started yelling back that we weren’t smoking and that they were being irresponsible and should check the other rooms because there could still be a fire. They walked down the hall, looked at each of the doors without opening them, came back, and told me that it was probably someone’s shower making too much steam and to forget about it. This is about the time that I decided that I do not like the Cosmic Guest House. I wish I was a Lonely Planet writer and I could go up tell them they were thrown out of our book for bad behavior. Unfortunately, I had already paid in full, so my yelling really came to nothing.
I guess since I’m more familiar with Hong Kong I didn’t really describe much about it, so for those of you who have never been there, here are the things I can think of that might be interesting. All the cabs are red and kind of old fashioned, boxy cars. The cab drivers are much angrier than anywhere else I’ve been, I think. It seems like even since last time I was there less people speak English and more people speak Mandarin (the local language is Cantonese). I guess that makes sense since its part of China now and not a British colony any more. It’s a very beautiful and cosmopolitan city with people of all sorts of ethnicities everywhere. It’s mostly made up of Hong Kong island, which has the downtown area as well as some beautiful rolling, green hills. The buildings line the beautiful turquoise harbor and the mountains make a crazy contrasting backdrop. On the other side of the harbor is Kowloon on a peninsula. Kowloon is also highly populated and has a lot of shopping and hotels. What a city. Love it.
Anyway - Sorry I’m running behind on these. We’re now been in Beijing for a day and have already had some interesting adventures… but I’ll save those for the next entry.

Balinese Dance vs. Javanese Dance

Here are the videos I took during both of the Indonesian dances I went to. I also just posted a blog entry below!!

Yogyakarta. Your face is like from Indiaaaa

I think that Yogyakarta is in its awkward teenage phase of development. You can see traces of Javanese culture, and countryside or small town mannerisms, but it’s also packed with people, buildings, cars, bikes and a bit of city grime that makes it rough around the edges to say the least. I think that it takes a few days to get used to, especially after experiencing the openness and innocence of Bali. Luckily we were there just long enough to grow fond of it despite the intense stares and “Hallooo lady! Yes! You have boyfriend?” calls we frequently heard.



Everything in Yogya (Pronounced Jogja) is much cheaper than in Bali. The exchange rate is about 9000 rupiah to the dollar, which makes you a millionaire if you have a little over 100 US dollars. When we booked our internal flights in Indonesia, we cringed as the automatic voice announced in a very Dr. Evil way that our tickets cost “one…… MILLION … four… hundred… rupiah.” It makes it very hard to tip people, because you feel generous giving someone 5000 rupiah… but then remember it’s only about 50 cents.



We arrived around noon on the 30th and asked our cab driver to take us to Losmen Setia Kawan in the Sosrowijayan area, and luckily he understood us despite our horrible pronunciation. The way you actually say “sosrowijayan” is really amazing. They force it into something that sounds like a two or three syllable word but still uses all the letters. This is the one hostel that I couldn’t figure out how to book online, so I had called from Skype and talked to a man on the phone who could barely understand me. Not only did he say my name very strangely, but I was unsure about whether or not he understood what day we were arriving on, and he didn’t ask me for any spellings or contact information. We decided we’d just cross our fingers, show up, and hope that he had written something down. When our cab stopped, there was a very excited little man waiting at the mouth of a narrow alleyway, who asked if we were staying at Setia Kawan. He led us down the long narrow alley, past little Laundry places and Batik shops to the hostel. Impressively enough, they did actually have a record that “Amoe” was coming today. We decided to live it up a little and upgraded to a room with AC AND hot water for about 25 dollars a night.



The part we stayed in is the newly built extension of an older hostel. Even though it is crammed in a tiny space in a tiny alley, it’s very peaceful and pleasant. It has a center courtyard with plants, flowers, a large fan palm, and a fake rock wall that has a fountain on it. Facing in towards the courtyard are all the rooms, which are each hand painted with crazy, colorful hippie looking pictures of large hands, faces, moons, suns etc. Our room was very clean and new looking. It did seem, however, that they had left out a few important things in order to accommodate their artistic touches. The only pieces of furniture in the room were the two beds, each with a very thin shawl like blanket on it to serve as the only form of covering. I also feel as though I’ve always taken nightstands for granted. Not having one turned out to be much more inconvenient than I ever would have thought. The bathroom had a very stylish bowl sink and pretty tiles, but there was literally nothing in the whole room to hang anything on. This makes hand washing clothes especially hard. They had also put in three, very pretty and modern light fixtures on the ceilings. They were the kinds that you see in restaurants for “mood lighting” or maybe in rows in houses for more dramatic point lighting. Tara and I would probably have preferred to be able to see at night to having roman tic lighting, though, so they were kind of wasted on us. All in all it was very clean and pretty, even featuring a very nice umbrella displayed in the corner painted with lizards.



The day we arrived, we set up a tour to see the famous sights (Prambanan and Borobudur) the next day, and decided to take a stroll to see what the city was all about. There are not many sidewalks around, so after dodging a few motorbikes and large busses, we got to the end of our street and found the entrance to a market. The market was jam packed with locals, and after an hour or so, we were feeling very overwhelmed by the shoving, yelling, and creepy noises that men were making at us even though we were wearing jeans and big T shirts. It is in times like these that it’s very comforting to run into something familiar, which is maybe a good excuse we can use for heading straight into a Pizza Hut for dinner. Sometimes it’s worth indulging in over-priced American food.



The next day, our tour left at 5 am, so we had to get up and ready at some ridiculous hour of the night. A driver picked us up, along with a couple from Canada. By six we were at Borobudur, which is a stunning Hindu turned Buddhist temple/monument from around the 9th century AD. It was rediscovered by Raffles when he was doing his whole SE Asia/British rule gig. Since then they’ve restored it really nicely. It’s made up of multiple levels of stone bas reliefs depicting scenes from Hindu stories and sitting Buddha sculptures that lead up to a large stupa at the very top. After that, we checked out a smaller temple, and then Prambanan. Prambanan is a site also from around the 9th century with multiple Hindu temple structures, each dedicated to a different manifestation of God. They were tall, stone, somewhat circular structures that came to a point at the top, much like many of the temples I saw earlier at Angkor. They were very impressive, but definitely a bit less intricately carved and carefully designed than the ones at Angkor. There was also a Buddhist temple structure nearby and a random park with pretty, spotted deer roaming around in it. It was nice to see how much these structures are still valued and taken care of despite the fact that Indonesia is now predominantly Muslim.



We were very hot and wiped out after that so we took a long nap and then had a delicious Indonesian dinner of eggplant curry and spiced chicken. Taking advantage of our second wind, we decided to go to a Javanese dance performance of the Ramayana. It was very classy and well done, with very talented dancers and tasteful costumes. Javanese dance is very different from the dance we saw in Bali. It was much slower and smoother and easier to follow the story (I guess it’s unfair because we already knew the story too).



The next day we hired a little pedi cab to take us to Kraton, the old part of the city. The pedi cabs are very interesting in Jogja. Instead of having a bike with a seat area trailing behind, the seat area is in the front, right above the front wheel. The driver sits on a high bike seat so that he can just see over your head and pedals in an almost standing posture. This is a little unnerving, given the traffic patterns there, and seeing as how you would be the padding for your driver if he were to be hit by something. Our driver was very nice though, and distracted us by talking the whole time in English that we mostly couldn’t understand. We did catch words here and then like “blah blah blah... swimming pool!... blah blah..kraton.. blah.. palace!” We mostly smiled and nodded and hoped that we wouldn’t get slammed by a huge bus of Japanese tourists. First we checked out the palace, where the current sultan lives. An English speaking guide took us around, showing us the little museums and pictures of the sultan, where they have big parties, and where he keeps his wine for guests. Since we were asking about the royal Batik, she took us back into a private area where women were making it by hand. They were really sweet and showed us how it was done and how to tie it on as a sarong. It was right next to the sultan’s garage, which housed his daughter’s tricked out Celica. After that, we went to the Sultan’s swimming pool. Apparently the current sultan is number 10 and the pool was deserted after sultan number 3. They recently restored it for tourism. It was built by sultan number 1 as a little escape for him, his wives, and his children. It consisted of three swimming pools: one private one for him, one for his wives, and one for his daughters. I guess his sons also had one but it was further off and has since been destroyed. The sultan’s private pool was separated from the others by a three storey building. Apparently back in the day, the sultan sometimes had around 40 wives. He would go up to the third storey, watch his wives swim for a while, and then pick one to come join him in his private pool. Sounds like kind of a creepster to me. As you can guess, the sultans have had many children through the years, and the ones that are not set up to be the next sultan are, at some point, ejected into society. Our guide at the palace told us she was descended from the third sultan. It sounds like many people in Jogja are descended from some sultan, or from some palace worker. Unfortunately, descendants beyond the grandchildren of the current sultan are not considered part of the royal family.



Everywhere we went, people were confused about our nationality. They’d say “Where you from??” and we’d say “America” and then they would chuckle and give us a “yeah right” look followed by the declaration that my face “is like from Japan” and Tara’s “is like from India!” She got it a lot more though, with random people stopping her on the street, staring intensely, and then saying “Your FACE!... is like from INDIAAAAA.” She also got a few people thinking she looked Javanese which was cool. By the time we left, most of the men who sat along our alley chatting and lounging in the shade knew us and would make fun of us for walking back and forth so much. We’d leave our hostel to a chorus of “Hallooooo!!!s and every now and then an “Amoeee!” with enthusiastic waves. We learned to walk through quickly to avoid getting taught how batik is made for the 40th time. We also discovered these really yummy cookie pastries stuffed with pineapple paste at a nearby store. After a few tries with the crusty, fake Tim Tam cookies they sold next door, we defaulted to the pineapple cookies as a sugar source.



Today is a whole, long day of travel for us. We had to wake up at 4 am to make a 6 am flight to Jakarta, followed by a flight to Singapore, where we’re now waiting for 5 hours for our final flight to Hong Kong. Our flight to Singapore was packed with hordes of small school children, all dressed the same and making loud noises. They all screeched when the plane landed, which was kind of startling.


I will definitely miss Indonesia. I’m glad we got to see two very different parts of it. There is still so much to see – hopefully someday I can dedicate like a month to visiting all the islands. I’m not gonna lie though, I’m ridiculously excited for Hong Kong and Beijing. The next two weeks should be a blast.



Sorry this is so long again, but I figure if anyone is still reading at this point then they must be used to it . As always, comments make me happy and so do update emails. Later gaters.

Ubud, Bali: Livin the Island Life

Wow, Bali is amazing. It’s kind of hard to explain, but somewhere between the laidback island feel, the beautiful scenery, the traditional dress and customs everywhere, and the friendliness of the people, it’s really hard not to love. Bali has a lot of places to go for being a relatively small island. The main attraction is Kuta beach, which has great surfing and white sand beaches and also now has a plethora of bars, malls and stores as well as sun burnt tourists. Another popular place to visit on the island is called Ubud, and is more of a cultural center with a lot of Hindu temples and kind of a small town feel, although it’s also clearly been changed by tourism. Tara and I decided we’d skip the beach scene and spend our time in Ubud, which is up in the hills near the center of the island, about an hour drive from Denpasar and Kuta. I was so excited to see her walk out of the airport and catch up, that we talked for an hour standing in the receiving area and barely noticed that the guy picking us up from the hotel was very late. When I was booking hotels for this part of the trip, I was looking for budget places, and we were expecting to be in kind of a dirty, slightly uncomfortable place, so the brand new, leather seated car that picked us up was a bit confusing. When we pulled up at the hotel itself (called Taman Harum) we were sure that there had been some mistake. The outside was beautiful traditional stonework and carving. We were led through a pathway lined with hibiscus flowers and overflowing greenery, passing a beautiful infinity pool that overlooked rice paddies, to a covered check in area where they fed us tropical juice. After we checked in, we were led further down the pathway, past little cottages, to a slightly larger building, where up the stairs we were faced with a huge, intricately carved and painted, Balinese style wooden door. Our room was huge, with two twin beds, air conditioning, free bottles of water, and a large bathroom with a western style toilet and hot shower. It also included a nice American breakfast of eggs, ham, toast, fruit, and coffee every morning and free rides into Ubud (about 10 mintues away) whenever we wanted. We really hit the jackpot. This place was 40 US dollars per night.





We decided we didn’t want to waste any time, so after checking in we asked to be taken into Ubud to grab dinner and see a dance show. We had a nice meal at a place near Ubud Palace, which is where the dance was to be performed, that included the famous “Gado-gado,” a vegetable dish with peanut sauce and rice. Bali has a lot of traditional dance forms, and the one we saw was called “Legong.” It was very interesting and completely different from anything either of us had seen before. The music accompanying it is kind of a repetitive, metallic/xylophone pattern, with a quiet flute melody. The dancing is very other worldly, with quick, flipping of the hands, shimmying of the shoulders, and shuffling of the feet. One of the things that stands out the most is the facial expressions and eye movements of the dancers. The female dancers keep their eyes very wide open, and quickly switch the direction they’re looking along with the beat of the music (picture one of those cat clocks where the tail and the eyes tick back and forth). The best description we could come up with for the facial expression that they very impressively held for the whole dance was kind of a gangster “She said WHATTTT?!” face. They wore beautiful traditional costumes and hats. We didn’t really get the story, but it seemed to go something like this: A beautiful princess dances with her two attendants. A large dragon dog comes out and plays with some monkeys and a banana. Four large kings come out and look very concerned and dance around with each other. Then, four comical men come out and have some sort of dialog, after which the princess appears again with many more attendants. Later there are two larger kings who come out and argue about who gets to have the princess. She dances some more after they leave, and then the dog comes back out, along with the comical men and they all dance together. Clearly I missed the point, but it was very nice to watch anyway.

The next morning, we got up and went into Ubud to walk around and have lunch. It’s very pretty, with Hindu temples on almost every block, and little artsy stores lining narrow roads that wind up towards the center of the town. The people are very friendly and relaxed, mostly wearing traditional style clothes like sarongs, and head scarves. We were surprised to find that almost everyone we met spoke English very well. Apparently they start learning it in elementary school, and continue up through secondary school and some in university. People walk up and down the streets, carrying their loads on their heads, cushioned by their headscarves and sometimes small towels. Along every sidewalk and ledge there are little offerings that they put out periodically throughout the day with fruit, flowers, incense, and little grass woven holders. We shopped for a while and had a nice lunch, brownie, and “detox” smoothie, and then headed back to the hotel. As soon as we got back, it promptly started torrential down pouring - flooding the walkways with huge fat raindrops that would soak you immediately if you stood outside. We decided to stay in that night, have dinner at our hotel, and go for a warm swim when the rain stopped.





The next morning, we woke up early and hired a local guide to take us on an advertised “Nature Walk.” He took us first on about a two hour walk through nearby rice paddies. Although it was a bit muddy, and the “path” often involved scooting over tiny bridges and jumping over ditches, it was cool because our guide had grown up in the area and his father was still a farmer there. He pointed out birds and snakes to us, and explained just about every plant we passed, telling us to smell their leaves and saying what they were used for in medicine, food, or tradition. It was beautiful and green, and we could see Bali’s big volcano in the distance. It was also extremely hot, and we were relieved to come to the end of the walk at his father’s hut with fresh coconuts to drink. After that he took us to see a pretty black sand beach, a waterfall, and a few little local craftsman stores selling batik, silver, and paintings. He was a very interesting character – extremely forward - and had apparently met Obama when he came to Indonesia. By the end we were pretty worn out, so we went back to shower and eat lunch. We had made friends with one of the drivers at our hotel named Balik, who had offered to take us to see Kuta for a cheaper price than the hotel charged, so we agreed to go with him around 5, and decided to make a last run to Ubud to get some souvenirs. As soon as we got into town, it started down pouring again turning the streets into rivers. Although we bought an umbrella, by the time we got picked up we were pretty drenched. Despite that, we got back and quickly got ready to go check out Kuta. Balik was a very interesting person. He has a car and two motorcycles and lives nearby with his parents. He said he went to university to study Tourism, and has been to Japan to visit his sister, who married a Japanese man and now does Indonesian dance in Tokyo. He drove us down to Kuta, proudly playing his top 40 hits American music CD and teaching us some Balinese words. When we got there, he took us to a mall that faces the ocean, where we were able to catch the last part of the sunset. He ended up hanging out with us there, and going to dinner with us at an Indonesian food place in the mall. We walked around and shopped a little afterwards, and then he drove us back. We paid him for the rides even though he insisted that we shouldn’t, but we figured we got a good deal – a cheap door to door ride, nice dinner, and new friend. He told us next time we come to Bali he’ll show us all the amazing things we missed this time. Kuta was nice, and we’re glad we saw it, but also glad we didn’t stay there. It almost felt like it could be in Florida.





This morning we sadly packed up after our delicious breakfast and left our paradise, promising them all we’d be back someday. Luckily our flight did not fall out of the sky, and we got into Yogyakarta around noon. It’s very hot here and the vibe is definitely different from Bali, so it’ll be exciting to see other ways in which it is different. Our hotel is called Setia Kawan, and we decided to upgrade from 15$ per night to 25 so we can have hot water showers and AC. Tough life . Anyway, now that we’re all cooled off, we should probably go explore the city. Talk soon!

Lion City

(this picture was in a cab we took in singapore. luckily I had left my Durian at home so it wasn't a problem) (for those of you who don't know, Durian is a large, spikey, extremly smelly fruit)

This morning I said goodbye to my Mom at 3 am when she left for the airport to fly home, and then a few hours later I got on a plane to Denpasar airport in Bali, Indonesia. The airport is a little old, but I was happy to find that it was air conditioned. After going through customs, however, I was immediately ejected, first into a huge line of money changers waving and yelling at me, and then straight outside where I was bombarded by taxi drivers. This posed a bit of a problem since I’m waiting here for 4 hours for Tara’s plane to come in, so I awkwardly pushed through them and darted towards a little café that I saw a few yards away. Seeing that most of the customers were airport workers and locals, I tried to quietly buy a bottle of water, ended up knocking over a chair with my backpack and scaring the crap out of everyone else, and then finally sitting down a bit flustered. So here I am, slightly roasting outside, but happily hydrated at least, and ready to tell you about Singapore.



I have to start out by saying, that if you are afraid of traveling in Asia and want the most cushioned, Western introduction possible, Singapore is your place. Not only are the bathrooms mostly western style and generally clean, pretty much everyone speaks English, and most shocking of all: the tap water is drinkable! The name Singapore comes from a story of a Sumatran king who came to the island and saw a Lion. SInga means Lion, so he named it Lion city -> Singapura and thus now we have Singapore. Although it was involved in some China and India trade through the centuries, it was mostly a smallish fishing village until Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles arrived in 1819 and decided it would be a great coastal city to help British trade in SE Asia. The British planned out the Island and developed it, and many people moved in from Southern China. After WWII, it was part of the Malay Federation, until it was kicked out in 1965. At this point, most people thought there was no way the little island city could make it as its own country, but a Chinese guy named Lee Kuan Yew, leader of the socialist People’s Action Party, took over and set strict regulations on social behavior and started an intense industrialization plan. He’s why Singapore is known for having tons of ridiculous rules and fines for things like chewing gum, spitting, smoking, drugs (for smaller offenses you get flogged), etc. On the upside, the government has done a lot of things like building tons of condos and subsidizing them such that pretty much everyone owns their own property. It is very rare to see an extremely poor person in Singapore. There aren’t really people selling cheapy trinkets or fruit on the street (except for in little shops), and you don’t see beggars, and unlike China, it’s not because they bus them out to the countryside periodically to clean up. Anyway, now Lee Kuan Yew’s son is in charge, and he’s apparently much more tolerant and a little less strict with his policies. The population is mostly Chinese (~75%) and the rest are mostly Malay or Indian. The country has four national languages, one of which is English, and children are encouraged to maintain the language and culture of their family, as well as learn English from an early age and take university classes in English. When you’re walking around you hear a lot of different languages and dialects, but pretty much anyone you stop on the street will be able to speak to you in accented, but fluent English.



Singapore is basically a huge city on a little island, with a little sub island that has casinos and beaches on it for the tourists, and a bit of fringe forest and less populated area. We stayed in a hotel right in the heart of the city. It’s a great walking city, with huge clean sidewalks, orderly street crossing (gasp, in Asia??), and lots of greenery. Also, there are still a lot of colonial style old buildings mixed in with the modern skyscrapers. We arrived in the morning, so after hitting up an AMAZING Indian lunch buffet we walked around the old colonial parts of town. We ended up walking into the Asian Civilizations Museum, which was really interesting and in depth. It covered SE Asian artifacts, culture and history in detail, along with China and West Asia. It has so many floors and displays that we only ended up scratching the surface before we got tired and decided to head out early. After that we walked a bit more, but it was so hot that we decided to head over to the famous Raffles Hotel for their signature drink the “Singapore Sling.” They have a lot of places to eat and drink there, but the famous one is called the Long Bar, which is kind of an old fashioned setting, where you crack peanuts and throw their shells on the ground as you enjoy your drinks. We had eaten so much for lunch at the buffet, and then so many peanuts that we decided to skip dinner and take a swim instead that night. The air is so thick and hot and humid that constantly being close to air conditioning or a pool is important.



When my mom graduated from college, she came straight out to Singapore to live for two years, study Chinese and teach English. The school where she taught was called Nanyang University, and has since been almost completely reconstructed and renamed Nanyang Technical University. It’s a little ways outside the city, and the next morning we hired a cab to take us there and drive around a bit. My mom didn’t really recognize much except the old administration building, but she found the hill where her old apartment had been. Coincidentally, in its place is now a massive Computer Engineering building. After that, we headed over to the zoo, which sounds hokey, but it was actually really cool. It uses this new “open concept” layout, where basically it mostly feels like you’re walking on a pathway through the jungle, and you look over the railings and see the animals. They are actually enclosed in their areas somehow, but the settings are very natural and large. The most impressive display is that of the Orang-tans, which is a system of trees, ropes, and ledges where they can freely swing and wander over the heads of the people watching them. The zoo also has public feeding times for each of the animals, where they either bring the animals close to the windows or fences to feed them, or actually allow people to pay and feed them themselves. Obviously that doesn’t work for animals with sharp teeth, but for white rhinos and the Orang-utans its fine. The sign there said that the local people had originally thought the Orang-utans were another tribe of people in the jungle, so the name literally means “Man of the Jungle.” It must have been surprising to try to trade or communicate with them and figure out they were much smaller, hairier, and oranger than expected.



That night we went to this newish, classy bar and restaurant scene called Clark Quay for dinner. The river that runs through the city used to be filled with little boats and waste and was extremely dirty, but also part of the sea trade personality of the city. In the late 70s, they decided to start a ten year clean-up program and have the river be clean enough to swim in by the end of the time. They cleared out all the boats and waste from the river, and lined it with walls, walkways, and a food and nightlife area. I guess people were pretty upset, but it is really nice now (for tourists at least). The future plan is to turn it into a fresh water supply that will make it so Singapore is no longer dependent on Malaysia for their water.
The next day we walked along Orchard Road, which is the main shopping street in the city. It’s mostly designer now, with huge malls and Gucci, Prada, D&G etc. I swear each mall has the same stores, and none of them are really even worth going into. As you get down the street, it gets a little more reasonable with stores like Aldo and Banana Republic, and then way down it turns into cheap souvenir shops (more my budget). For lunch we went to Din Tai Feng, which is an amazing Taiwanese soup dumpling restaurant (they actually have one in LA), and for dinner we went to this cool little complex called “Chijmes” that looks like it used to be some sort of Church with a school or something attached. It’s all nice restaurants now though.



So that was Singapore. There’s also a Chinatown and Little India that are recommended that I didn’t check out. On the plane ride here I was reading my Southeast Asia on a Shoestring book and it kept talking about how there’s bird flu in Indonesia and how recently the local airlines have had planes falling out of the sky, so I’m feeling a little nervous about this, but I think it’ll be a lot of fun. I’m very excited for Tara to get here, mostly to see her, but also because there’s sweat dripping down my back and I’m kind of missing that nice cool hotel in Singapore. We’re getting picked up by someone from our hotel, which is called Taman Harum and is in Ubud, up in the hills of Bali. Ubud is known for being kind of a cultural center of Bali, which is the only Hindu island left in Indonesia (the rest are Muslim). Kuta beach is where most tourists come for clubs and surfing, and I didn’t really plan that into the schedule at all, but now I’m kind of wishing there was time to check it out and see what all the hype is about. Maybe in the next few days we’ll find time. Well, I guess I’m kind of rambling now to avoid the stares I’m getting for furiously typing on a tiny computer, but maybe a better answer is to put it away.

As always, I love to get comments and email updates! Talk soon.

Goodbye Bangkok, Hello Singapore!

Well, we’ve just said goodbye (or Sawasdee rather...) to Thailand and are on our way to Singapore. It’s much further than I thought – about a 2 hour flight, but it gives me a good break to write about the past few days we spent in Bangkok. Honestly, my opinion of Bangkok is not very high, which may be because I was pretty tired from the trekking days in Chiang Mai, or because it was generally overcast (or smoggy...) the whole time, but we did do some interesting things. Luckily our hotel (called Tenface Hotel) was great, had amazingly soft beds in modern suite style rooms and, best of all, delicious breakfasts which included dim sum every morning.



The train from Chiang Mai to Bangkok was comfortable as far as trains go – there were two levels of beds that folded out from the chairs. Unfortunately, although they require that everyone be quiet at 10 pm, they leave the lights on all night, so being in the top bunk was kind of like sleeping in a dentist chair with the lights blaring in your face. I guess it’s okay though, because we saw some little cockroaches and Tony told us that if we killed them, all their friends would come looking for them and we would be swarmed. Luckily they don’t like the light very much, so they mostly stayed away and we didn’t have to kill any. Tony kept us company most of the afternoon, explaining some Thai customs, telling us about his fiancé named Golf, and telling us our horoscopes based on our days and years of birth. He told me it is best if I marry a man born on a Sunday, and that the small Thai Buddha that I bought is actually my Buddha (because its pose signifies that it’s a Thursday Buddha) and it will be good luck. Who knew. He also told us some funny translation stories, about Thai names that don’t translate well to English. He said that the word “Fuk” means “pumpkin”, and that “uman” (pronounced “You Man”) means something like “strong man” (you can probably see where this is going).. anyway he has a friend named “Fuk Uman” who will most likely have to change his name if he ever chooses to move to an English speaking country. Also, the word “porn” means wishes, so many people have names with “porn” in them, like … “Siriporn” which means “good wishes,” and also “Tittiporn” which means “fulfilled wishes.” He said that some English names sound really funny in Thai… but he wouldn’t tell us which ones so we suspected that maybe someone in our group has one of them.

Everyone in our group got off at the train station before ours, so we had to say goodbye sleepily at around 6:30 am when we arrived in Bangkok. It was definitely fun traveling in a group. Hopefully we’ll keep in touch.

After that, we went to our hotel, and sat in the café until we were allowed to check in and pass out in the huge bed. Needless to say, we didn’t do much that day. That night, we met up with a friend named Siriporn, who was introduced to us by the Welkes when she worked for Microsoft in Redmond. She has since moved back to Bangkok, and now works as a Microsoft evangelist there. She took us to a wonderful Thai seafood dinner on the river and told us all about her encounters with the princess.



It’s so cute how much the Thai people love their royal family. The king’s pictures are seriously EVERYWHERE. As you drive down most major streets you’re bombarded with pictures of him doing various things – standing in his royal garb, talking to little school children, visiting remote villages. His wife is in most of them as well. We learned that he has four children, three daughters and one son. The first daughter married an American and renounced her royalness. She has since divorced, so instead of being addressed as “Her Royal Highness” she is just “princess.” The second child is the son, who is the Crown Prince and is set to take over the throne from his father (who is now 82 and has been in the hospital for 3 months). The third is the princess that most people seem to love the most. She’s remained single, but has followed in her father’s footsteps, taking great concern for the Thai people, traveling to remote areas to hear their requests, etc. We didn’t hear much about the fourth daughter, but I think she’s married in Thailand and kind of lays low. Anyway, they’re the local celebrities, and saying anything negative about the king is punishable by law. My guidebook says that someone once referred to him as the “skipper” and was arrested because people weren’t sure what it meant. Also, since his picture is printed on every bill and imprinted on every coin, it is illegal to step on money. So I guess I’ve strayed a bit from dinner… but the point is that it was great food and company.


(a sticker in one of our taxis)

We’re landing in Singapore now, so I’ll have to write the rest of this later. Also there’s a man hacking out his lungs three seats away that’s making everyone nervous. Poor guy. Everyone’s holding napkins to their faces and glaring at him. Hopefully we don’t all get the swine.



.. Okay, where was I... oh yes, Bangkok. So the city itself is very depressing from what I could tell. There is no city planning or zoning work to speak of, so it’s kind of just a jumbled mass of grey concrete, some of which is tall office buildings, and some of which is probably the gloomiest slum-like apartments I’ve ever seen. There is very little greenery, and there also seem to be very few sidewalks, and thus not many pedestrians. It’s PACKED with cars though, and during rush hour it’s literally at a standstill. The one upside is that many of the taxis are hot pink. So there you have it.



While in Bangkok, we heard the major must-see site is the Grand Palace, so we checked that out on the second morning. It is, indeed, very impressive. Although it’s made up of a lot of beautiful things that are tightly packed together and pretty confusing to navigate through, each building is a masterpiece. Especially the temple area that houses the “Emerald Buddha” (remember Tony told us the lightning story earlier?) has amazing detail. All the buildings are either completely covered with gold encasing, or completely covered with the most intricate mosaic designs and patterns. The Emerald Buddha himself has three different gold outfits to go with the changing weather (rainy seasons, summer, winter) that they swap out ceremonially three times a year. The rest of the grand palace area has an interesting mix of European and Thai style buildings, including living areas, throne rooms, and weapon displays. There is also a Haagen Dasz that serves amazing caramel brownie ice cream - definitely an important part of the experience.



Later that day we checked out the big famous shopping area called MBK. It’s basically six floors packed with knockoff stuff. The tech area was actually pretty crazy. They have iPhones and every camera you can think of. It’s strange because it’s a lot like the silk road shopping area in Beijing, but the stuff seems like much better quality. It’s also much more expensive. I figure if you’re going to buy knockoff stuff, it might as well be cheap right? I’ll wait for China.



The next morning we went to the famous “Floating Market” which is about an hour and a half outside Bangkok. I think at one point, it was a local market where people went to buy their veggies and other goods for daily life from merchants who fill little boats with things to sell and float around. Now the experience goes something like this: pay a guy to take you out in his little narrow boat -> get stuck in something that resembles Bangkok car traffic, but is on the water and involves boat exhaust spewing at you from odd angles -> get pulled from every direction by boat merchants selling the exact same souvenirs as each other and as every other land market merchant -> get back to the dock and have them attempt to sell you an awkward picture of you printed on a bowl. I guess after the Cambodia floating village, it just seems insincere and overly populated with tourists. Honestly, it’s not horrible, but you should only go if you really want to buy souvenirs and fruit and are sick of the normal market scene.



That night we went to a dinner and traditional Thai dancing show. The dinner was great – they gave us little bowls of a lot of different things – curries, veggies, spring rolls etc. The dancing was also good, although I think I don’t quite understand the technique enough to appreciate it. They had beautiful sparkly traditional costumes, and the dancing involved a lot of kind of “move and pose, move and pose” type thing – with really subtle head and hip movements. The most striking thing is that the dancers curled their fingers back at what seemed like a very unnatural angle as they dance.



Anyway, that just about brings us up to date – to Singapore. Landing here was like a breath of fresh air – the lawns are all perfectly manicured, there’s green everywhere, everything is orderly - the palm trees are even strategically placed. We landed over beautiful blue, tropical water and islands, and the sky has been blue and clear all day. It’s definitely a large contrast to the chaos and grit of Bangkok. Maybe I just went at the wrong time and saw the wrong things. We did miss the two biggest temples because I was a bit templed out. I guess I won’t meet the large reclining Buddha until next time. So, I’ll update again after we see some exciting things here. Also, I posted a lot of my pictures from Cambodia and Thailand here:

Thailand

Cambodia

I still have more to add, but there are probably already more up than any of you will have time to look through, haha. If you’re interested though, I’ll write again when I add the rest. Talk soon!
P.S. comment! Because it makes me happy! and I can never tell if anyone is reading this Cop Koon Kaa (Thank you) <3

Sawasdee!

In Thailand, Sawasdee (Kaa/Kup for Female/Male) is kind of like Aloha, and serves as a polite hello and goodbye. It’s pretty much the only Thai that I’ve learned that I remember.. except that Mai Pai means bamboo… But anyhow, it’s a good one to know.
Well, now we’re on a train, heading from Chiang Mai to Bangkok after a crazy trekking adventure through the hills. It all started three days ago, when we packed up our rented day packs with rented sleeping bags and all our stuff for 3 days, loaded up into one of those pickup trucks, like bench taxis, and headed off into the wilds. And by wilds, I mean that a lot of people live there but the bathrooms have no running water, the roads are not paved, and most electricity comes from solar panels.




After stopping to check out a pretty waterfall in the woods and grabbing some fried rice lunch in a bamboo hut, we were left off at a trailhead that led into the jungle, about 2 hours out of Chiang Mai. It was hot, and immediately required a steep uphill climb that got most of us panting. I was kind of expecting a nice little nature walk, but it ended up being mostly dramatic up-hills and down-hills with a sprinkling of level ground, much of it through what seemed like never- or relatively infrequently-trekked through areas. The jungle was beautiful, very green and lush and a fairly cool temperature in the shade. Every now and then I got a buzz in my ear, but other than that the bugs were minimal. The first part was through mostly pine tree forest, with huge rubbery vines hanging down that some people tried swinging and climbing on a bit. Our Thai tour guide, Tony, is apparently a budding archeologist, and he showed us a few foundations of old structures, mostly made out of brick remnants, that he claims were temples about 400 years ago. They both had large pits in a certain area, where he said there used to be gold Buddhas, but that someone must have tried to come dig them up and steal them. Everywhere you looked, there were green rolling hills, and sometimes if you got low enough there were rice paddies visible at the bottoms of the hills. The trek was about two and a half hours, but seemed much longer because of the strenuous ups and downs. My mom took a dramatic fall on one of the down hills, which was scary but she was pretty much completely fine (a little shaken) afterwards, so we trekked on.



Finally, after a particularly steep downhill stretch, we saw a little village appear beyond the bright red, long stemmed poinsettias. It was a village of about 200 people, and most of the structures were made out of bamboo with either thatched or metal roofs, raised above the ground. Chickens, dogs, and water buffalo wandered around, and the people watched us walk through, pretty unphased and uninterested, except for a few little giggling girls who kept peeping over the ledges at us. Most of the women were dressed in shirts and sarongs, and we watched one of them sift through some rice to separate the hulls. Tony led us to a larger structure, also made of bamboo, right next to a stream, which was our home for the night. In the stream they had set up a bamboo log that ran the same way the water flowed. The log stuck straight out over a small drop off in the stream, so we went and stood on the flat lower area and the water that ran through the log and shot out, serving as an extremely cold but also refreshing shower. The boys chose, instead, to grab beers and go chill in a waterfall area a little further downstream.



Our local guide, whom we called Mr. G, had bought a lot of food at the local market for us and served as our chef (among other things) for the whole trip. On the first night he made some delicious spring rolls and curry. There were two outhouse-type bathrooms, one with a western toilet and one with a squattie, and two large bedrooms, one for girls and one for boys. After dinner it was actually pretty cold, so we all sat around the fire for a while and enjoyed Tony’s baffling magic tricks (he’s a jack of many trades), which used strings and coins and cards, for a few hours. Then we passed out early to the loud sound of water running right by the cottage. There was no electricity, so we used little flashlights, which made for scary treks to the outhouse in the dark.



The next day my mom decided that her trekking days were over, so she hired a local guy to take her to the next village on his motorbike. After a few hardboiled eggs and some toast, the rest of us set out on our second trek. At first we trekked through some hills in a bamboo forest, which led to a lower area with rice paddies. We stopped for lunch in an empty raised hut by a rice paddy and Mr. G pulled out our lunches – noodles wrapped in big beautiful banana leaves, with grilled chicken and fresh-cut pineapple, which was really delicious. On the way, he had carved chopsticks for us out of bamboo. He and Tony never ceased to surprise us with their talents. The water buffalo around us made funny little noises that sounded like “hmm?” as we passed them and trekked on through more rice paddies, and then back into a bamboo forest, and over multiple little streams. The trek ended up being about 4 and a half hours total, including lunch, but it went by quickly and painlessly and was pretty fun and pleasant.



The second village we stopped at was about twice as big as the first, 400-500 people. The bathrooms were also like outhouses, but much closer to the raised hut where we were sleeping. They had Southeast Asian-style baths, which are huge tubs of water and a small bucket in a little outhouse, where you stand and repeatedly fill the little bucket and pour it over yourself. The water was very cold, but it was nice to be able to at least control it and brace yourself before each splash. This hut was bigger, so we got to sleep about two people per room, but the beds were the same type of thin pad on the bamboo floor. After arriving, they called in a group of elephants to take us for an hour ride. It was really fun! We sat in little boxes on their backs, while their trainers sat on their heads and directed them. They took us on a path through some fields and woods, and then back through the river. One of the elephants had a 6-month-old baby that tagged along, weaving in and out between its mother’s feet.



When we got back, we washed and freshened up a bit, and then took a walk into town to visit the local school. Since this was one of the largest villages in the area, it was where all the surrounding villages’ children came to school. Most of them lived there Monday through Friday, going home to their parents only on the weekends. Tony explained to us how they learned to cook and clean there, along with their other lessons. Some of the boys on our trip joined a large game of soccer with the kids after they finished dinner. Later, we enjoyed another wonderful Mr. G meal, which included banana spring rolls and a sweet pumpkin dish.

We stayed up a little later talking and listening to Tony tell us about the king and queen and princesses of Thailand to candlelight for a while after dinner. Apparently the king hand-picked his third child, a princess, to succeed him. It seems that although the government has changed hands multiple times in recent history, the royal family as served as kind of a stable form of leadership. They are highly respected throughout Thailand, and most businesses have their pictures up, and sometimes a large, elaborate shrine for them. Tony told us about how he encourages the kids in the villages to write to the princess to ask for improvements in their roads and other more modern accommodations. Unfortunately, it ended up being very hard to sleep that night because the roosters decided to have some sort of crowing festival under our hut.

In the morning, we woke up early, had breakfast, and then loaded ourselves and all our stuff onto two bamboo rafts that had just been built by the local people. They each were basically made of about 15 long bamboo trunks tied together, with a little tee-pee type structure at the front to hold our bags above water. We put 5-6 people on each raft, and Mr. G and Tony served as rowers along with two local guys (2 rowers on each boat, one front and one back) each rowing with a long bamboo pole. We all mostly stood on the rafts, since the bamboo floated just below the water and a lot of water came through the cracks. The morning was a bit chilly and overcast, and sometimes we would go over small rapids and have to kneel down, so we ended up getting kind of wet (except Kate and Bill were talented enough to stay dry through the whole thing). Jim, Marc, Mr. G and Tony all went for a swim when it got a little warmer and the river was deep enough. We rafted for about 3 and a half hours, through peaceful jungle scenery, listening to Tony and Mr. G sing random popular American music (you know:.. “hey jude”, the Titanic song(!), the typical ones..) and some Thai ones. We ended up at another little bamboo hut, where we were served great phad thai, and then loaded back into our truck taxi and drove for 2 hours back to the city.

I have to say, as fun as the trek was, it was so amazing to have a hot shower and a soft bed back in Chiang Mai. Our 2 star hotel seemed like the most luxurious 5 star possible and I think we all slept very well.

This morning we woke up, and my mom, Kate and I went to an Elephant Training Camp that Tony recommended. It was really awesome, and there were tons of elephants with their trainers walking around. We got there just in time to see them get washed in the river that runs through the camp. As they walked past us they reached out their trunks to us, hoping to find some bananas or sugar cane. They didn’t find any, but we got to pet them, which was cool. They went down into the river and rolled around and sprayed themselves as their trainers scrubbed them down with brushes. Then we bought some bananas and headed over to the nursery to feed them to a baby elephant. The elephant mom was jealous, I think, because she kept blasting me with air.. and snot and other things.. with her nose.. so that was gross. But the baby was cute. After that we watched the main show, where the elephants played soccer, darts, harmonicas, and even painted pictures. It’s shocking how smart they are. One of the elephants painted a whole landscape, while another painted pretty little flowers growing out of a pot, and another drew a tree.

In the afternoon, Tony took us to look around the old part of Chiang Mai town, which included a few temples, one of which was about 600 years old called Wat Chedi Luang and used to house the “emerald” Buddha. Tony told us a story about how the emerald Buddha didn’t want to be in Chiang Mai, and its temple kept getting hit by lightning and then collapsed during an earthquake in 1545, so the king took a hint and moved it, and himself, just in time before Chiang Mai got attacked and overrun by the Burmese.

This afternoon we packed up our stuff and loaded up on to a train, which we’ll spend about 14 hours on, and wake up in Bangkok tomorrow morning. Phew.. it’s been a packed couple of days. Sorry I had to save it all up again and pack it into one entry, but needless to say the villages didn’t have internet access.

So far, I love Thailand. The people are very friendly, and not super aggressive (not as much as in China anyway). It has a very pretty and respectful culture, and the people are very proud of their culture and history and love to share it with visitors. My one complaint is a problem that I suppose I’m contributing to, which is that there are SO MANY tourists here. I swear in some parts there are more European -looking people than Thai. Anyhow, I can’t blame any of them for wanting to visit or live here. It’s beautiful, warm and the food is amazing. The temples are very intricately designed, often using either gold encasing or trim. It is very rude to point the sole of your foot at someone, and just like in Cambodia, the sign for thank you is to put your palms together under your chin with your elbows out and bow slightly. The people here definitely look more East Asian than those in Cambodia. Cambodians have generally darker skin and rounder eyes than the Thais or Vietnamese. It’s interesting how Cambodia got so much more Indian influence than the countries around it. It makes me wonder what Laos is like.

We had to say Goodbye to Mr. G yesterday, which was very sad, and will soon have to part from Tony and his many skills, which will also be unfortunate. Luckily we have a long train ride to rack his brain for ideas of how to spend our next few days in Bangkok…. Till next time.

PS. I didn't realize that my small camera uses an XD card, and I don't have a card reader yet, so I can't put some of my awesome bamboo rafting and other pictures up until later. These ones are from my mom's camera