signing off from singapore

as a welcome home gift upon the return of my thailand adventures, my computer decided to crash.... dell seems to think it is my harddrive which apparently is a good thing to have die - except i've put most of my pics on my computer and was not sharp enough to back them all up....

over the past few days i have learned just how much the internet and msn means to me (LOL) -- in order to save face, i will not elaborate on this right now...

thailand was a great trip - we ended up going to bangkok, chiang mai, surat thani, koh samui (which was not so nice at all, and also where we stayed in the most ghetto place imaginable at the reccomendation of our host (chris' family friend) -- this is also the place where the ring chris was bringing back for his sister was stolen-- ironic because picking up the ring was the only reason we were in surat thani or koh samui in the first place!) ok back to the places, we then went to koh Phi Phi which was gorgeous (ask me sometime about my altrication with the owner of the snorkling tour boat i took and my almost run in with the police... yep, thats what happens when you leave me alone for a day) and finally we went to phuket town before flying back to singapore

oh, and if i didnt say it before-- the food in that country was INSANE... chris and i even took a cooking course (which doesnt mean i'll be able to recreate it in any way, unfortunately!)

right now i am avoiding studying for my law and economics exam which is tomorrow-- hard to even be interested at this point- especially since i am flying out of singapore friday morning at 8 am!!!

i'll likely put some more pics up on flickr when my computer life has been restored, but i suppose this entry is the final of my days here in singapore... as fun as its been, i am very much looking forward to coming home and seeing everyone -- i've missed you!!!

thanks so much for reading :)

thailand!

howdy!

actually on line for a change and writing from chiang mai --- we are taking the night bus back to bangkok tonight (booo) and i am enjoying a little down time... heres a quickie update of what is going down in thailand so far!

1. bankok -- a million temples!!! so hot!!! so many street vendors of deliciousness
-- also was promptly wisked on a shady tour and chris bought 600 worth of suits - we shall see about that! :)

2. chiang mai - sonkran festival (thai new year) = giant water fight-- insert people with water guns, pails etc.. lining the streets or in trucks and tuk tuks soaking everyone and everything in sight -- pure insanity -- lasted for 4 days but today (thankfully is a dry one!!!)

3. took a thai cooking course -- it was great but whether or not i can recreate it with my little cook book is another story!! oooh but i did set fire to my pan and that was quite fun!

4. 'trek': we rode an elephant (booooo!! it was awful and sad) we walked around a lot through a national park (very nice) we didnt really chill withthe hill tribe peeps (bonus) we went on a bamboo raft with a million thais drunk and picnicing and throwing water (highlight)

5. chris has bought 2, 100 usd crystal buddhas from some temple here --- high roller -- i have bought 3 necklaces for 1 cnd (in total) lol!

food is great, weather is nice and hot like i like it and we are heading to the south to meet chris' parents friend and then hit the beach -- thats what i'm talking about!!

hope the studying/working/chilling is going well

miss you and cant wait to see you at home!!!

chioma + cambodia = endless fun (and endless work!)

howdy!!!its 3 am here in singapore and i am fighting with my school work... its just about that time of night where you dont understand anything that you are saying and can only hope that somehow the words you have put down actually convey meaning... under normal circumstances i'd take a nap - but i have a funny feeling that i wont be able to wake up -- so those of you reading this entry have the pleasure of being part of my mental lapse (yes i understand some of you will stop reading.... now. :))this week i made the academically imprudent decision of going to cambodia-- the picture is me and arieh (my guitar lesson western friend) and was taken at the Angkor temples on our first night in Siem Reap - the sunset was absolutely beautiful...and as the guards were trying to usher us out- we were trying to get in as many pics as possible! (dont worry, i got mine, my sandal broke on the way down the hill leaving me to walk down the jagged side in my bare feet -- OUCH)i went to Siem Reap from tuesday (arrived at 6am) and left at 6am on friday- short trip but well worth it - the Angkor temples were AMAZING... i had no idea of their scale-- apparently the area the temples are in used to be home to over a million people and was the size of NY city!! - crazyon wednesday morning we got up early again and went to see sunrise at Angkor Wat- it was breathtaking --- and oddly it was busy but it felt really peaceful- the temple is huge and you can walk pretty much anywhere so i was able to steal off and find myself completely alone in some places -- hard to imagine that the buildings have endured for over 1000 years... or what it must have been like to discover them after so many years!our days were long and temple- packed - we caught sunrise and sunset every day--- including thursday when we biked in at 4:30 am to see the sun rise at Srah Srong (my spelling is definately wrong) -- i cant lie, i barely felt alive riding my uncomfortable bike at that hour- but again it was well worth it! the bikes were a great chance for us to take our time and appreciate the scale of what we were seeing... plus, who gets to ride a bike down shady paths lined with ancient temples? totally cool --- however, it took us 1.5 hours to bike out of the Angkor Temples at the end of the day - man were our butts hurting!i've posted about 70 pictures which is a small fraction of the ones i took - hope you enjoy them!! be lucky you arent reading arieh's blog- he took 1200 shots!!! (imagine!)now i am writing 3 essays through the night because i am leaving with Chris for thailand tomorrow afternoon (aaarrrggg - so much to do before then) but i thought i'd give a little update and am even going to try to do so from thailand --- we've got 18 days- there has to be some time to get online!alright- for those of you at home writing exams - best of luck!miss you all and see you soon!

jenn comes to singapore!

this will be a quickie since i'm not feeling too hot and am leaving for cambodia at 4 am tomorrow!!!

jenn and matt came from hong kong this weekend (note pic on the side of us at Raffles Hotel having the signature Singapore Sling- the verdict --- tooo sweet!)

some of the things we checked out on our whirlwind 3 day tour of singapore included: new asia bar, dinner at hooters on clarke quay (the boys idea), the botanical gardens (which were a lot less cheesy than i anticipated given my trip to Sentosa island earlier this term!), shopping (grumble grumble... i just cant stop here!!!), Ministry of Sound (a massive club with a hip hop room, a techno room, a 70's room and lots of exclusive side rooms -- which gets way too packed with about a million singaporeans!),the merlion, the asian civilizations museum (where they hid fake things around the museum for april fools day -- type A girls that we are, we couldnt leave until we found all of them!!! sadly, we didnt win the draw for 50 dollars of free haagen das, but something tells me that was for the best!), chinatown, little india, high tea at Raffles hotel (yes, i am a princess in training, so what?) and the magical night safari (again an example of extreme cheesiness but very entertaining)

i've uploaded my pics of our little adventure if you are interested.... my body is compelling me to get to bed in anticipation of my early start!

will post when i get back from angkor wat!

singaporisms

greetings from sweatiness central -- abe, i chose this particularly flattering photograph especially for you!! normally i'd have a sufficient sense of self preservation not to put a pic like this up but i am currently in the aftermath of the depicted glory... yes, i engaged in a 'singaporism' = late night jogging outside-- as you can see this is not for the faint of heart... you step outside and immediately you are covered in sweat....although i have to say it was a lot easier than i expected! (go figure)Jenn is arriving here for her weekend of fun in s'g and instead of doing school work (sigh) i thought i'd share with you some cultural 'highlights'......
1. 'la': much like 'eh', 'la' can be added to the end of just about anything... essentially it means, right? for example, Q: can i break a 50? A: ok-la
2. if people walked any slower here they wouldnt be moving - perhaps evolution and oppressive heat has just gotten the better of everyone
3. moving out of the bus occurs in both directions (yes, imagine how much longer this takes) moving onto the subway does not require one to wait for other people to get off-- its way more fun if you just plow into them...
4. ladies first? not likely when it comes to lines or seats (but they have free booze on wednesday - sandra i'll have to tell you those stories sometime later ;) )
5. anything you want, someone will agree to give you -- but they never mean they are agreeing...real life example: Tanya: i dont want soup, i want noodles vendor: ok-la result: tanya gets a take-away soup (repeat this in every situation- lesson learnt: make sure you specifically point out what you want!)
6. if you want something done simply or efficiently - forget it.. there is one way, it must be done that way
7. although the city is approximately 45 minutes to drive across and many times smaller than the niagara region (thanks, vlad) no cab driver has any clue where they are going --- EVER.... my dad thinks this is a ploy to make more money...i am more convinced they are genuinely clueless
8. if you have a boyfriend (or girlfriend) you must be touching them at all times during your life... you must lean on them on the shuttle bus, you must sit on them in the study rooms, makeout at the bus stops or in a swimming lane of the pool.... example, if your man goes on the treadmill, you should stand next to it to keep him company (for the record i almost got of mine due to the revulsion i felt at this true life scene)
9. if you are on the subway you must fall asleep - preferably with your mouth open (what is most impressive is that people magically wake up at their stops!)

ok, so thats an odd number but these are the ones i can think of right now!!! maybe it will help you to imagine life here!

on a roll....

yes i realize this is post two in one day but technically it is two days where you are so whateves... i attempted to take an 'of the moment' pic of myself to share with you -- but as per usual blogger isnt letting me upload it.. which is too bad, i thought it really captured what i'm doing here (aka nothing)

i may or may not have mentionned to some of you that recently i have been feeling a little 'fed up' of singapore- i will elaborate on this when i write my bit on 'singaporisms' but for now i will recount a bit of my day that i found redeeming

i went to the pool this afternoon to swim my painfully short distance (450m- laugh if you will, but it gets me tired enough that sometimes i try to breathe underwater - which, for the record is quite uncomfortable not to mention impracticable!) when i was leaving one of the peeps at the gate brought to my attention that my front crawl happens to be "all wrong" (i suppose i shouldnt be surprised) anyway, after giving me several tips on my stroke, 'Ken' and i had quite a little chat about life, love and work.... here are some gems from ken

1. true love is hard to find - if you find it once, no matter how long it is, you should consider yourself lucky
2. life is like a train - you get off at different points, decide which path to take and this repeats itself over and over - there is no use dwelling on things- just accept them as part of your journey
3. ideally, do a job that could double as a hobby
4. this being said, divorce lawyers in singapore make some serious coin, read: up to 38,000 per month (his advice - that i relocate here! ... too bad i never took family law!)
5. plan to be independent and able to support yourself
6. society owes poor old people basic necessities - like drugs, for example, they've paid their dues already
7. 13 year old girls are hard to raise
8. you decide whether or not to be happy in your life, and you get just one life, so confront your emotions and decide to be happy - no excuses!!!

not bad from a 3o minute conversation at the side of the pool, eh? (my friendly face does it again)

after my pool jaunt i headed accross the street to a canteen - while i was eating 'Umar' came up to me and introduced himself-- from Ghana, he was interested to know where i was from (not too many of us africans running around NUS) ... turns out hes an economics phd student who just finished writing and submitting his phd in economic models for business and monetary policy... we had a most interesting conversation about economics, development and democracy - here's what we reflected on:

1. whether there is hope for africa ... given the lack of infrastructure or a foundation of honest politicians or informed citizenry, Umar fears that there is not
2. is democracy the be all and end all? democratic ideals might work well in the west where most people at least have 3 regular meals - but does it matter if you can demonstrate if nothing compels your government to action? the answer might just be no....
3. this leads to ideas that governments much like singapore's (i.e. strong 'dictators' with rigid policies and little room for political dissent) might be a better model for african countries ... some have began to study this -- he used the term 'looking to the east'

this discussion interfaced nicely with a documentary i watched this morning on singapore (loving this internet tv thing) which discussed the social policies of the government here... i found myself wondering about how bad it is that people here dont have much of a say against their government... and maybe for singapore the time has come for people to challenge the status quo... but i hadnt considered that maybe for other countries in the world, this place could serve as an example, at least a more relevant one in terms of lifting people out of poverty....

so my trip to the pool led to some very interesting conversations, quite different from the crazies that are typically the only people who approach me at home... nice work, singapore!

ok, so i know its been two weeks!

blogger as usual is messing up -- so you'll have to check out my pictures link to see evidence of my latest adventures :) -- i dont know why i am having so much trouble with it, but alas, of course i cant hope to fix it!

last night i just discovered 'nusnet' -- we can watch television online on the school server -- things are about to get really dangerous, i fear... i just watched a documentary on singapore and now they have moved on to christopher columbus -- less interesting but you know how tv starts to suck you in.... alas, i will try my best to fill my time with something else!

so last week i actually did some work and completed a draft of one of my 3 essays... this was on wednesday and i promptly shut off my brain for the rest of the week!! i wrote my essay on the sex trade in Thailand and how government policies and complacency has led to a situation where the country is known world wide for its sex trade, women and children are being trafficked and AIDS is on the rise... its a pretty sad situation really... i initially had wanted to do something on tourism in south east asia and its impact on the people who live here- but unfortunately there wasnt enough material... but it really got me thinking about the impact of my travelling on the places i go to -- for example: the high amount of natural resources it takes to fly, the strain my consumption of electricity and water puts on already taxed infrastructure, how tourism helps to entrench gendered roles and limits the choices of the people impacted.... anyway, before you all fall asleep- its really interesting stuff! i swear!

on thursday night we went to New Asia Bar which is on top of the Swisshotel -- happy hour is from 3-9 (not bad eh? kind of compensates for the 20 dollar drinks - which are half price during this time!) checked out the view of singapore -- sure that you'll find it pales in comparison to hong kong--- its mainly just endless rows of apartments that everyone here lives in!! it was good fun though- dressed up and most of us had some nice cocktails--- i say 'most' becuase i was greatly amused by the one called 'gentle testicles' (ridic!) and of course had to order it-- and it was AWFUL -- take a look at my pics for my genuine reaction... serves me right, i guess :(

friday anna, tanya and i went to luke's place for a party - luke also goes to western and himself, his girlfriend, and two other people share an appartment- which is AMAZING -- the apartment itself is really nice and fairly big, and the ammenities! they have a pool, a gym, a sauna, a hot tub, tennis courts and even a mini putt!! imagine! it was dark but i took a bunch of pictures and couldnt stop gushing --- what difference compared to the halls of prince george's park where i spend my time! and as for the party (hahaha) it was very good, spent the evening out on the patio by the pool chatting and having some drinks...

at the end of the week, tanya and i decided that we wanted to go to a beach for the weekend - given our poor planning skills we didnt actually leave for this excursion until sunday!! we ended up going to pulau sibu in malaysia from sunday until wednesday... its this tiny island (1km by 6km) and there was pretty much no one there! until tuesday, it was tanya and i and this older couple and a group of 20 kids and their teachers from some private school in KL (pretty nice school trip if you ask me!!) normally you'd think that 20 kids would just about ruin anything but to our great surprise, we hardly noticed they were there! this is partly because they had activities seemingly all day everyday but also because they were ridiculously well behaved! we pretty much never heard them- even during their free time!!! come to think of it, it was actually kind of creepy! (LOL) ... so for a couple days all i did was eat, sleep, swim and (gasp) school work! (its way easier to do without distractions-- case in point is the fact that i am writing this entry instead of working this right now!)

the staff there was pretty nice too -- we ended up talking a lot to the cook, who regaled us with stories of reality tv and, later one evening, his one night stint in jail for masterminding ripping off some credit card!! i also went swimming at night - which was really awesome because i am totally scared of water at night and also of all the bloody crabs that were out chillin for the evening--- funny part is that i went with some english dude that worked there who i didnt realize was hitting on tanya and i when we were on the shore -- until i was out in the water with him and he started talking about how lonely it is on the island and how girls have treated him bad in the past -- tanya of course had had the sense not to come into the water-- so there i was, being all sympathetic and at the same time marvelling at my stupidity.... lol... one day i'll get it

we came back to singapore yesterday afternoon and then went to a graduation dinner for law students here... it was really nice... we got all dressed up, and the food was fantastic! it even made me a little nostalgic about the end of my law school days... and not being at home to finish them!! it was nice nonetheless and i'm happy that at least i started to feel some of that - given that sometimes it feels so far away from where i am now- and it was fun to have a dinner to commemorate graduation, even if it wasnt with my class! .... on a side note, one of my profs stopped me when we were going into the dinner to ask me 'whether i had time for such an even given my school work'... i'm not so hot on this prof because has sent me a couple relatively rude emails and also insists on calling me rachel despite the fact that i dont even call myself that! of course i gave my 'polite girl' answer... but then, guess who ended up at our dinner table!! ridic- it figures! he's even in a pic with me and jo - taken just before he started asking us what we think of singaporean guys - eek! i'll save my answer for my next entry where i plan to outline some of the highlights of 'singaporean' culture as i see it.... since i'm here all this weekend... rest assured this will come sooner than later!

holla.

this should go below the picture... but blogger keeps messing up!

yesterday i turned the big 2-4 --thanks for all the birthday wishes from home! it was the best 36 hours of birthday i ever had ;)

this pic of us is at cafe iguana- which is in clarke quay -- a strip of clubs and restaurants and such along the riverside here in singapore -- very nice to eat outside by the river-- and the food was mexican and (surprisingly) excellent! afterwards we headed to a local club 'attica' and hung out for a bit- breathing on the dance floor was like smoking a cigarette so we mainly stayed out on the patio -- none of my usual dancing antics (proof i suppose of getting older!)

i have been here in singapore since we got back from vietnam and have had the pleasure of writing a 48 hour take home exam on material i had no clue about this past weekend... my only hope is that my ramblings were sufficient to pass (they should be as they were taken in entirety from the professors book!)

as jenn is coming at the end of march and chris at the beginning of april, i am attempting to force myself to do work (3 essays) so that i will be able to more fully devote myself to dicking around for the last 5 weeks of my exchange... this plan is not working well -- this week i:

1. slept most of monday (because i spent sunday night making up for procrastinating throughout the weekend)
2. went to a photo exhibit at Alliance Francais on monday night (instead of working on a paper with a friend) and then because i didnt have enough free wine, went to this bar called 'Loof' which is a play on how asians say 'roof' -- its on a roof too and its pretty chill - nice patio, not too loud music- and the singapore standard- steeply priced drinks! (read 78 sing dollars for a bottle of house wine!)
3. slept most of tuesday - save a half hearted attempt at working in the mid afternoon with jo-- its like having a fever, its so hot here mid day (say about 40 with the humidity) and then your bod goes into shock in the air con (which i swear is like 10 degrees) -- no happy medium, therefore no happy student!
4. wednesday was my birthday -- no one works on their birthday -- plus i ate chicken at the thai place in our canteen for lunch, because i do really like green curry -- and figured that one cant contract bird flu on their birthday -- but i've been feeling sick since then...so i'll update you on the results of that theory
5. today jo physically dragged me to go study with her at the business school... i spent at least a third of the time stretched out on a bench napping (oops)
6. tonight i went out with my law buddy and one of his friends, wai lai (prob spelt wrong) for dinner - we went to holland village - which is this trendy, kind of ex pat little area not too far from the school -- we had noodles and Marc (my buddy) ordered his with pig intestine - just so he could force me to try it --- if you are wondering about this- it is NOT good - it was a little sour and i just couldnt help myself from remembering what intestines do!!!

--> as usual i learned some new 'tidbits' - here is the most interesting:
we went to different places to try some 'singaporean desserts'.. at one of our stops we each got a different dish -- mine was this brown liquid with nuts and barley and dried longun -which is supposed to make me feel better in light of my recent food poisoning/brush with bird flu
another one was made of beans in a thick syrup with fried dough on top -- simple enough, but
the fried dough is done in rows of two -- this is because once there was a chinese admiral who was murdered by a man and a woman who were traitors (of the government), the frying of the two rows is symbolic of frying the murderers and apparently at the grave of this admiral there are statutes of the man and woman (one on either side) that the people who visit the grave spit on!! imagine ... and i thought fried dough was just tasty fattiness!

and that, my friends, is all i got...

24 in the 'pore!

the pic i was referring two in the entry below- i've been trying to post that entry since tuesday, so when it started to work, i just went with it- and quickly! :)

vietnam

some preliminaries:
thank you kevin and abe for your 'comments' i apologize for not having updated this sooner - you were right in that it is going to take a hell of a bit of time to blog now that it is all over (and so, lucky reader, vietnam might just be a two part entry)
thank you puster, for providing somewhat timely advice and for trash talking me to all those who would listen -- perhaps in the future i may travel with you, and provided we dont kill one another, i might learn to get it right...

ok, to vietnam!

we flew out on saturday (18th) evening to hanoi - when we got off the plane it was like stepping out into a different world - unsure of where to find the airport shuttle we went to the information desk and were given a blank stare and '$12' as a response... undaunted we went out into the night and randomly saw a rickety minibus that turned out to be the shuttle -- welcome to vietnam!

the bus drops us off in the middle of nowhere and instantly we are swarmed by about 15 men all asking us to go with them to their hotel on their bike or in their cab.. overwhelemed tanya and i latched onto a pair of german girls who actually made a reservation and went with them to their hostel (thinking safety in numbers) -- for $8 US we had the pleasure of sleeping in what was essentially an ash tray that opened up into the alley (ok, so the back door was raised about 10 cm off the ground!!) needless to say we found another spot for the next night, which was probably the best place we stayed for only $2 more!!

in hanoi we saw ho chi min himself (or uncle ho, to those who regard him with affection) you may ask yourself - did he not die almost 40 years ago? - and you would be right, but luckily they have preserved his body and he is lying in state in a mausoleum with dim orange lighting, a faint chemical smell and surrounded by guards -- believe me, its more than a little creepy!

walking around the city we also saw 250lb preserved turtle - which finally gave me some insight into why puster loved the city so much- they are really into turtles, something to do with a story about a turtle in the lake in the middle of the city keeping a sword safe or something.. which was also a story we saw acted out in the water puppet show we saw-- very cool

from hanoi we did two day trips: one to the perfume pagoda and the other to halong bay

perfume pagoda: because it is just after the lunar new year, many local people make a pilgramage to this pagoda which is named after the strong scent of incense that surrounds it... after driving for a couple hours 18 of us got into a really small boat rowed by someone in the back and in the front--- seriously, the boat was floating just above the water- i'd say not more than 10 cm... initially i was not cool with this because i was sitting on the end and we all know about how i swim (and obiviously safety is not an issue for those administering the trip!) but since the boat ride was about an hour and the scenery was so nice and there were sooo many other boats, eventually i forgot about it! the pagoda itself was about 4km up a mountain side which was essentially a bunch of loose dirt and rocks lined with stalls of people selling an insane variety of things... when you finally make it to the top, you descend into this cave which is where the shrine is and it is packed with people praying, picnicing and trying to catch water dripping from the ceiling 'for prosperity'!!!

halong bay: is a unesco world heritage site (note to self: figure out what that actually means!) we took a one day boat tour that drove us through the bay (you'll have to check out the pictures) it was really beautiful and i can only imagine what it might look like when the sky was not overcast (its spring there, so everything was grey) the trip was really good - and came complete with an offer to go to heaven from our tour guide (i'd explain if i understood) and being swindled by the locals (offered a boat ride into a 'cave' which actually turned out to be just riding under a rock to see exactly the same stuff that was on the other side!)

then we took a night bus to hue - which is also filled with unesco sites and hired motor bike drivers to take us to them because we only wanted to spend one night in the city! i think that vietnam easily has the most motor bikes in the world and they are all careening and weaving through traffic, honking madly and stopping for no one-- although it was slightly less crazy in hue as compared to hanoi or saigon - it was still a crazy ride-- and the air in vietnam- AWFUL soo polluted from the diesel -- i bought the mask in the pic above for jokes since everyone seemed to be wearing one... and then when i was on the bike i actually put it on for real- because the air was that bad! my driver got a real kick out of the fact that i had one!!

the next day we took a beautiful bus ride down to hoi an and chilled out in the nice old town... really good for walking around and relaxing, we also toured the 'old town historic sites' another unesco heritage thing... i also succumbed to having some clothes made-- i guess thats no surprise-- there are more tailors there than you can imagine, lining the streets, imploring you to come in- it was absolutely insane- you could even get shoes made (ridiculous) in the end i got some pants and a jacket- i think they did a nice job... and it wasnt like walking up to a sweatshop which is what sealed the deal for me (except later tanya was like- they are probably on the outskirts of town! - shit! we came to the conclusion that at the very least it was good we skipped the western middle man in getting the stuff made) ... i also was stopped in the street by this random guy who wanted to take a picture with me -- its not easy being the only black person fro miles!!!

then we took an absolutely insane 24 hour bus ride to saigon... i swear to you, i was convinced i was going to contract birdflu!!! like 3 people on the bus were hacking their lungs out the entire night and one of our drivers pretty much left his esophagus out on the road hoarking out the window in intervals of less than a minute (yes, T and i timed it, it was that bad) all i have to say is thank god for my mp3 player- THANK GOD ... it was also really handy when the second driver thought that driving through mountains in the middle of the night was best done as fast as possible (how fast? who knows? the odometer wasnt working!!) ... needless to say, morning was a relief!! dropped off most of the bus in Na Trang (i moved promptly to the back to get away from el horko) and the scenery on the way to Mue Ne was gorgeous (as was the beach, which we sadly stopped at for only one hour-- sigh!!!!)

saigon was way more modern than any of the other cities we visited but just as crazy busy as hanoi was... again we were swarmed by people 'marketing' their hotels and managed to retreat into a back alley where lo and behold we found accomodation! the following morning we went to the Cu Chi tunnels- that the viet cong constructed to evade the americans during the war -- it was truely amazing to see how ingenius the network was -- kilometer after kilometer of tunnels, with kitchens, reading rooms and hospital sections -- it was even several layers deep becoming increasingly narrow to permit only the smaller vietnamese bodies from going through the tunnels!!! they had decoy tunnels and entrances to trap americans and had vents from their kitchens diverted to spots well away from the actual tunnels- it was incredible! we went through a part of the tunnels that had been widened for north americans- it was so small i still had to crawl on my hands and knees and it was pitch black -- a little scarey!

the next day we went to the mekong delta to see the islands and hang out.. had a pretty good tour, ate some coconut candy (which i later found out includes durian- ick! - -- dont worry, am bringing some back :) ) drank some banana wine (you'll want to pass on that)... didnt see any rice paddies tho (apparently that was for the two day tour) but i saw them up north -- interesting thing about them is that there are sometimes graves in the middle of paddies- that is because people had to bury their dead on their own land, and sometimes that is all the land they had!! probably not a bad side advantage to have some fertilizer for the crops!!!

and the next day (thankfully, because my wrist is cramping) we checked out some markets, wandered around a little more and then got in a cab headed to the airport and back to singapore!! there you have it, ten whirlwind days of vietnam - filled with natural beauty, constant hawking of goods and services, tons of air and garbage pollution and people with seemingly endless energy! good good times :)

thanks for reading!

test post- this thing is so screwy -- good news is that flickr is working again (bad news is that blogger is giving me troubs)

hong kong!

brace for yet another long entry!!!

last week was relatively low key - taking international criminal law intensive course that has me in class mon-thurs 3 hours each evening -- soo much potential to be interesting, so little of it fulfilled

on thursday morning i flew to hong kong to meet vlad and jenn... in the waiting room before boarding there was this really gross man who kept falling asleep and jerking his body around and making disgusting snoring/horking like sounds...i prayed that i would not be assigned to sit next to him and luckily was not... although strangely i could still hear him lurking somewhere near me on the plane but could not see him.. hmmm....

the man i did sit next to on the plane was really nice! when we were about to land he asked me about where i was from and where i was going- his name was 'Go' and he was singaporean heading to mainland china to work for a couple months - it turns out his daughter was on exchange in the US -- since we were both heading to the same train station, he had me go with him through customs, get our bags, make sure i got the proper train pass, rode with me to the city and then went with me to the taxi stand to tell them where i was going in chinese since pretty much no one speaks any english in hong kong!! how nice was that????

upon getting to jenn's residence i was both shocked and horrified at how cold the weather was (maybe just under 20 C) its amazing how i have adapted to the oppressive conditions in singapore!

thursday nite we went to the temple market (i think) and then headed over to this bar called aqua that had a great view of the harbour - luckily we were able to score some great seats near the window!

friday i did more walking that i have in possibly all my days in singapore combined! in the morning we had waffles at pun's fave spot 'the flying pan' in soho, where i also got to see the worlds longest escalators -- because the city is on a hill and most ppl dont drive, there are escalators to take padestrians up the hill and from level to level (imagine that the roads circle the hill) .. unfortunately for the lazy, they only go upwards!

among the afternoon's highlights was a visit to the 'walled city' which is now a park but used to house an insane amount of people in a really small area (and in recent years was where you could find a lot of people messed up on opium) The HK government demolished it in the 90's and turned into a park! I also had my first taste of 'shandi' the odd 0.5% alcohol beer/pop combination (the verdict is still out as to whether this is good).. we also went to the temple of 10,000 buddhas which was really amazing - the entire path up a hill is lined all different golden buddha statutes and leads to a temple filled with small gold buddahs - amazing! at night we headed to the peak and got a great arial view of the city (as can be seen in the above pic!)

at night we went to lai kwai fong - a popular nite spot... while eating dinner in a crowded little restaurant, jenn recognized a friend of hers from church in bc!!! about an hour later while walking on the street i ran into denise tam-- a friend from undergrad who went back to HK to go to medical school! two crazy coincidences, dont you think!!?? (for all you doubters, i totally have a pic!)
then we met up with some of jenns exchange peeps and puneets friend seehal and his crew and hit up a number of spots till early in the morning! highlights: hanging with the beautiful people at 'dragon' and 3 am dancing with the locals in 'hei hei'

exhausted, the next day we had dim sum in this insanely large (and remarkably efficient) restaurant, went shopping (i bought 2 winter coats, for shame!), went along the walk of stars at the harbourfront and then went to causeway bay- vlad's hood (because he spent 5 nights in a hostel there!!!) later we went out with some more exchange peeps to a local lounge

sunday while jenn went with vlad to the airport i went to the HK museum of art - they had a number of exhibitions but perhaps i was too tired to enjoy them fully!!! vlad will be happy to know that when i met up with jenn later- we had mcdonalds for lunch! (for my first time in asia, who hoo)

i almost missed my plane back to singapore because HK has the biggest airport ever... earlier i had checked in while in the city (its really cool, they give you a boarding pass and send your bags to the airport while you stay behind) so i didnt give myself tons of time to get to the gate, but it turns out that the damn airport is set up in a straight line and had EIGHTY gates - man, did this girl ever run to make it to her gate on time!!! (ridiculous, i know) whats worse is that ppl dont observe the rules on the moving sidewalks, so yep, i had to run without their help -- great for the person who had to sit next to me.. lol

today i attended what i call the 'nafta tea' - which was a welcome tea for north americans --- they had asked us to submit photos from our experiences in singapore and i submitted a pic of my head in a dragon from chinese new year... they actually made us get up and talk about our pic and our experiences in singapore- and then the 15 ppl who attended (lol) voted on the 3 submissions (lolol) ... naturally my eye for the artistic prevailed in the highly competitive field and i was awarded with a t shirt that says on the front 'does size matter?' and on the back 'not if you are in singapore!' LOL as well as a key chain and gift certificates to a place i've never heard of before! who hoo!!

i'm heading to vietnam on saturday so i prob wont post till after that - thanks for reading again!

also- i'm having flickr difficulty so i havent been able to upload my pictures - I'll do it as soon as i get it straightened out!! :)

a month already!!!!

Hard to believe that i have been in singapore for officially an entire month as of today! time has seriously flown by!!!

Updating this blog weekly i run the risk of writing way too much (and some of you may already think that i have been doing little to curb this tendancy), but here goes yet another attempt:

Firstly - a big shout out to Megan - your gift of a flickr account upgrade was absolutely wonderful and is saving me tons of time uploading my pics! I'm having a great time exploring my new 'pro' account! THANK YOU!

On Wednesday this week i went and saw the Indian president, APJ Abdul Kalam speak in the annual Singapore Lecture. He was to speak on the 'evolution of enlightened societies' - a very vague topic at best-- and the talk proved similar -- he essentially spoke of ties between india and singapore and of future economic plans including education, information sharing and a focus on the service industry... it was typical political fare, some nice, broad ideas and smooth evasion of the more critical questions posed by the audience....

Thursday i recommitted to my swimming aspirations- but managed to buy a pair of utterly useless cheap goggles that fill with water after half of a lap of the pool -- i should have known that goggles purchased in a random grocery store would not be useful, even if they were flourescent green... :(

On Friday night, i went out with the canadian contingent: suyin, claire, tanya and anna (plus jo, who is bajan-british but i digress) - we ate at this great indonesian restaurant in the Suntec Towers (home to the worlds largest water fountain-- sorry too focused on food to take pics!) we then went to kareokee (a first for me). It was in the National University of Singapore grad club- and was pretty swanky - the only problem was that the machine sang with you which seems to defeat the whole purpose of kareokee, no? I have since been informed that there are many venues that dont suffer this same ailment- unfortunately their songs are generally not in english!

Saturday went out with my 'law buddy', marc (who is top left in the above picture) - we met up with 4 of his friends from the equivalent of his highschool days (junior college here) and went around the city visiting each of their houses for the chinese new year! It was a lot of fun, seeing the city, eating too much, playing cards and hanging out! I also learned a couple more rather interesting things:
1. a local delicacy is called 'birds nest' - which is essentially bird saliva! the stuff i saw was opaque yellow with pieces of rock sugar in it... apparently it is sweet, sometimes drank, good for your health and skin -- but quite expensive (about 20 cnd for a small jar) -- from what i could understand, it is harvested by rinsing bird's nests (they use saliva to make their nests)... i didnt have the gall to try this- sorry guys!
2. to buy a car here, you need a certificate that costs $20,000 on top of the price of the car- imagine! certainly makes multiple cars cost prohibitive!
3. about 80% of the population lives in government owned housing complexes (i have some pics of these on fickr) - people can 'own' their places, but the buildings are ultimately owned by the govt and under their control -- they are often in clusters of identical buildings- makes it hard to find your way around!!

I also went to a parade downtown for chinese new year (have also posted pics of this). Dad, you would be happy to note there was even a group performing from angola! -- some found this contrived, but i admit i was largely entertained!)

Finally- today i went to Pulau Ubin - a Singapore island which has been left in its 'natural state' (read: not like the artifical paradise that was Sentosa)... It was fun to take a bum boat over to the island and the highlight was spending the afternoon biking around the island's many obscure and poorly marked trails... as you can see from the pics, it was less than scenic, but nonetheless very fun to go around! If you check out my pictures, there is one where a large fence runs through the water - thats because right accross from us was Malaysia!! the coast guard was actively patroling the area around the little island we were on - i'd guess to keep people out, not in!

i'll prob post my pics tomorrow - (monday) should you be interested... heading to Hong Kong to meet Vlad and Jenn on Thursday- should be a fun week!

thanks for reading :)

happy chinese new year!

On monday, jo (left) and i travelled accross the city to gia's (centre) place for chinese new year's lunch. Her boyfriend edmund is on the left. While there we were treated to endless plates of cookies and treats and lunch -- by the time we left, jo and i could barely walk! Her parents were super nice to have us, and her mom told us a bit about customs at the new year, including: firecrackers on new years eve, which used to be so loud that you couldnt hear people in the same room as you after dinner! (firecrackers have been banned here for about 30 years), when visiting guests, you exchange tangerines for prosperity, on the 8th day of chinese new years, people meet and eat dried fish to toast and celebrate everyone's birthdays and chinese new year lasts 15 days. When we left, her parents even gave us little red envelopes with money in them -- which are given to single people during the new year celebrations (so i guess it literally paid to be single!!)

Yesterday (monday) tanya, anna and i spent the day in arab town and little india-- nice change of pace and as a bonus some areas were a lot more calm than usual owing to the public holiday. We were out for TEN hours, but it was a lot of fun and we got to add to our list of sketchy eating experiences!! speaking of those, given that i dont want to return to canada completely irrecognizable (as in 30 shades darker and 30 pounds heavier) today i made a tuna sandwhich for lunch.. while this in itself is less than exciting, my comment on the experience is that you dont know how much you appreciate the 'dolphin free' symbol on the side of the label until its gone....

another week in s'pore!

ah, where to begin? its chinese new years this weekend = quiet times here at pgp as most students have either went home for the holiday or have taken a holiday (in the case of exchange students)... for the number of us left its a chance to chill out in the city and - gasp- do some pre-emptive school work!! (you'd be impressed to know i read 50 pages today)

this week i finally met my law 'buddy' who is singaporean... we went out for dinner at nearby the school and i learned many interesting things about my temporary home -- first, all males must serve 2 years in the army after junior college and then are 'on call' for the next 13 years! they live in barracks and everything and even have 3-4 months of training and living out in the bush! intense! i also found out that you can get gum but only from pharmacies, and they require id! (still not sure why tho)... additionally i learnt that singapore is hoping to move to a cashless society-- this is the reason why any time i try to pay for something (like my school fees, my visa etc) no one will accept my cash or credit cards-- yep thats right, when anna and i got our student visas this week, we had to pay by first putting money on our bus cards! lol

tanya and i booked our reading week trip to vietnam this week as well - we'll be travelling from hanoi down to saigon over the course of 12 days... getting my visa for vietnam was quite an ordeal--- its in the middle of this obscure and wealthy neighbourhood- we seriously looked for it for 2 hours and found it only by spotting a small flag in the distance... it is seriously getting hotter here too- i have to estimate that it is at least in the high thirties, so wandering outside for hours = not as fun as it sounds! (however, please dont interpret this as a desire to see snow... i'd be quite happy to only see it once or twice more in my life time, to be honest!)

on the bright side, i was able to sample a local delight-- which i am pictured with above -- pork floss bun! yep, its a bun that is covered with these floss-fine pieces of pork... unfortunately i found it as bad as it sounds and the memory of it still makes me a little queasy, but at least i tried it!

i also had my first 'swimming lesson' with claire this week --- believe it or not, by the end of this term i might actually float - disproving the myth that black people sink... i will document it as it happens (hahaha) -- i am finding it really difficult to do the front crawl with my face underwater but with claires encouraging comments like 'swim accross the pool now, mofo' i'm sure its gonna happen any day now....

last night i went to chinatown to witness the light up for the new year without rain -- new pictures are now posted on flickr -- it was a lot of fun and really busy -- apparently the whole city will shut down tomorrow (sunday) and monday (and as a bonus the school will still be closed on tuesday- hooray!) ... in an interesting turn of events a chinese girl on our floor invited jo and i to her house for lunch tomorrow to celebrate the new year! amazing! we're going to celebrate chinese new year the chinese way -- really nice of her to invite -- i'll make sure to post about it!

inspired by abe's questions about what i've actually done in Singapore, i took the opportunity to sample a bit of the island this weekend.

friday claire (a girl from mcgill) and i went to the orchestra... we decided to take a cab which normally is not a problem at all - - except it turns out that when you need one, they are not available, in fact, it turns out that when you need them, they may not even bother to stop!! even my hike up the skirt trick didnt work... it doesnt help that nearly everything is illegal here- which makes even legal things feel illegal, if you know what i mean... for instance, walking on a side of a street that didnt have a sidewalk (which turned out to be forbidden, as we learned from the sign about 20 metres into that adventure).... we ended up walking to the hospital and waiting in this ridiculously long line (above) and missed the first half of what was a really great show!! at least in the end, our attempt to be 'cultured' prevailed

yesterday i met up with elva (who we met on our tour of Kakadu in darwin) and we walked around singapore --- i've uploaded some of our pictures on flickr --- most notable was sentosa island-- singapore's man made retreat-- we took the cable car there and delighted in its cheesy trails (see the dragon bones pics), gravelly beaches, and senic views of ships and ship yards (yep, you can swim while watching singapore's shipping industry in action) -- we went to chinatown too, but had limited fun sampling the many 'delights' because it began to rain, and quite frankly, i think the marvel of sentosa had zapped our remaining energy!

finally my first post!!!

alright! here it is my first real entry to this blog-- its taken much trial and tribulation but i have finally set up some primitave links, shrunk enough photos and mustered the will power to get this thing rolling!

i took the above picture from my room here at prince george's park residence (or PGP as we call it-- creative, i know).. there are 3000 rooms here- crazy, eh? we have a grocery, several canteens (aka cafeterias) a gym, ball courts etc... its like a retirement community for the young! the only bad part: it is on one coast of the island - this means you always have to take a bus or cab into the city (bit of a drag)... other interesting campus info: its the hugest campus i've been on in my life- there are shuttles that run 4 different routes all day and evening every 5 minutes are so-- crazay! (the bonus is that i can leave for school less than 10 minutes before class!)

by now most of you know that i skipped out of singapore 3 days after i arrived to head to darwin, australia -- it was last minute, but worked out great because i only ended up missing one class and was able to go for a week -- the bad part was missing meeting people and orientation stuff, so when i came back i felt disoriented all over again, but i'm starting to feel more settled... the link to my pics has some of my selections from that trip.... darwin itself was a pretty sleepy place, and we couldnt swim on the beaches because it was box jelly fish season (=injury/death) so we walked around a lot, sat by the water, toured some of the city's 'sites' -- including sitting in on a supreme court of the northen territory sentencing (ians idea!) -- it was geeky but cool-- they all wore those ridiculous wigs-- it was all we could do to keep from laughing!! -- even chicks wear them!!! why is our profession so insane???

towards the end of our stay we went on a tour to kakadu national park- about 200km from darwin -- 9 of us went, 8 of us crammed in the back of this small 4wd... uncomfortable to say the least -- but we had a great group of peeps- a number of them were ppl who had real jobs and then decided to up and go for a year of travelling, which i thought was pretty cool... we saw some pretty neat things despite the uncomfortable accomodations (read: room with 18 bunks and possible bed bugs).. we went on a crocodile boat tour- where they lure crocs out by dangling meat in the air (ridic), we saw some rock art, climed some big ass rock mounds, swam in some gorg water falls (which we realized later potentially had freshwater crocs- sorry mom!) ... someone on a different tour (but at a waterfall with us) was actually bitten by a snake - the guides were like dont worry its not poisonous-- but we found out later that what they meant was that the bite wouldnt kill the guy-- it was poisonous! he went to the hospital! (insert ian shaking his head incredously that we didnt sign any waivers-- what a man of the law)

other highlights: intense raining (took almost a week for my shoes to dry!) and eating kangaroo (surprisingly good- think steak but less fatty), insane bites on our legs (see pictures)

as for singapore!!! i havent done too much here yet -- been out along the esplanade, ate crabs on the cost, went to the symphony last night (actually quite enjoyable)... wednesday is ladies night here and that means free cover and free (real) drinks all night long--- fantastic!! (usually clubs are pretty expensive here about 25 sing or 18 cnd for cover including one drink) -- so think bargain! ... today i'm heading to the colonial area of town and then to the cable cars for some scenic singapore with a girl i met in australia who just happened to come here next! i promise to post some pictures of this place --- as soon as i take them!

other news: i finally got my first cell phone (an abs necessity here! -- its totally exciting and i got a very chiq little bag for it in the market where i bought it -- its second hand and quite hobo like, but i bargained for it and i like it)

this place is also a consumer's dream: money is falling out of my hands like water-- many of you who know me know that this is not unusal, but at least i'm getting (a little) more for my dollar here!

ok, that's it!! the end of post one! i'd love to hear from all of you about whats up-- and thanks for reading!!!

hmmm