Motorbike, Motorbike Go So Slow, Motorbike, Motorbike, Go So Fast, Motorbike, Motorbike, Step On The Gas!

3/22

Cable Car and Islands

Still on Langkawi.  Well, I had to go see the cable car, and it was too late to go yesterday, plus it's so simple and fun and easy to be here.  So today, I took a quick morning dip in the ocean, then showered and left with Anne, a Dutch girl who's staying at the same hostel, who I met yesterday.  We rented a scooter and she drove us to the cable car while I sat behind her and watched the scenery go by and held on tightly.  The cable car cost RM30, a fortune here- almost $10, but it was worth it, though it wouldn't have been worth much more.  It was one of those cable cars that's the world's superlative with several additions.  I can't remember exactly what they were, but something like WORLD'S LONGEST CABLE CAR (That Feels Like A Skilift On An Island In Southeast Asia Surrounded By Tourist Shops And Crap Food Connected To A Bridge That Goes Nowhere).  We had a nice view, though you can't tell that from any of the photos I took, walked around a bit and headed back.

We had a few new people at the hostel; a German guy, Nils, and a Danish couple, Stine and Simon, who we invited to our game of Kings, which somehow turned into several rounds.  We were all having a grand time, despite their resistance to Never Have I Ever- the best part of Kings.  They were almost all playing with beer.  I was playing with Razz Rum and Diet Coke.  Maybe it was the extra alcohol in me that gave me courage, but when we found a scorpion the boys started poking at it cautiously, and then I came over and stepped on and killed it.  Later they would argue that they were playing with it and didn't want to kill it, and while that does sound juvenile and illogical enough to accept as true from boys in their mid-twenties, I still think they were simply too scared to do so.  It was definitely the extra alcohol in me that later insisted I go to bed instead of going out with them to Sunbar later, but I didn't mind and it was a great night all in all.

3/23

Stine, Simon, Nils and I decided to rent scooters to go around the island, especially to see a man-made waterfall that was supposed to be cool and some of the other beaches so we rented two ($5 per person for the whole day) and set off, Stine and Simon on one and Nils driving me on the back of the other.  It was fun and Nils was a good driver, though it took me a while to feel really safe.  We drove around for quite a while, Stine navigating, and eventually got to the waterfall, which was as dry as desert sand.  It didn't look like it would have been that impressive even if it had been falling water as it was SO obviously man-made and fake looking.  We headed over to a little locals beach with the same gorgeous white sand as Cenang beach, but much clearer, prettier water.  Unfortunately, we had to get out to keep our stuff safe from the monkeys, who really do like to steal anything that's not larger than themselves.  So we headed to the next beach, which was astonishing because the sand was even whiter than the other beaches and it seemed to go on for a mile, but was totally empty- we didn't see a single other person on the beach.  Unfortunately, I don't have pictures to prove any of this or show you the monkey trying to drive a parked motorcycle because I stupidly forgot my camera. 

By this point it was about 3 p.m. and Stine was starving.  I'd had a croissant and Diet Coke for breakfast, but hadn't eaten anything else that day.  I didn't think I was hungry, but when we sat down at the restaurant in front of the next beach we'd wanted to see, I realized I was actually starving too.  A random tourist came over and told us that the fish was excellent, and since that sounded good anyway, I ordered a fish in ginger sauce.  It took a while, but really was incredible- one of the best meals I've had so far.  The sauce in particular was awesome and had a sort of buttery softness to it that was deeply flavored but not overpowered by the ginger.

We walked down to the new beach and they took a few pictures but didn't stay.  Next we headed up a mountain almost to the highest point on the island in anticipation of amazing views.  After quite a long ride, we made it to a view point with a marker, looked out to the horizon and saw...nothing.  Fog was completely covering everything more than about 100 feet away from us.  Oh well, none of us were too fussed, so we headed back down.  They did want some panoramic pictures, so we stopped when we got a bit lower.  On the tree in front of us, maybe 500 feet away, was a bald eagle, which was very cool to see.  Strange as it seems, they actually have many eagles on Langkawi, and even have an eagle habitat of some kind though I didn't bother to visit.

Eventually we made it back to the hostel, rested a while, then went out to dinner at a Thai seafood place on the beach.  They had the largest tiger prawns I've ever, ever seen in my life, probably just under a foot long if you'd laid them out flat but they were expensive and the crab was cheap.  I went for the crab in a light curry sauce with rice, which was another amazing meal for about $5, 6 with my drink, lime juice, which is essentially limeade.  Somehow neither the German nor either of the Danes had ever had crab before which I found bizarre, so Nils ordered his own, and enjoyed it, while Simon and Stine tasted it and said it was good.  I'm always happy to introduce people to new (good) things.

We went back to the hostel, had a few beers and talked for a while, then headed out for a nice, but uneventful night at Sunbar.  I spent most of the time just watching other people dance which really is extremely amusing as most people are terrible dancers, and everyone went home happy.

*With this post I broke the 10,000 word mark for my blog- very exciting!  I know you don't care.

Lazy Langkawi

3/20/2010

Felt like crap today.  Don't really know why, but didn't do much as a result.  Until I started drinking cheap Tiger beer late in the afternoon, I mean.  The hostel I was staying in was very much a social backpackers hostel which is nice every once in a while.  This type of hostel, when it lives up to its reputation, is full of people who are happy, fun, want to be your BFF for one day only, and like to drink.  Again, not something I want all the time, but a fun culture to go in and out of and I hadn't really found one on this trip so far.  Anyway, so I started drinking early, convinced a group of people to play Kings with my awesome Disney Vile Villains cards and eventually our group went out to Sunbar, followed by a rickety little sports bar, then I went swimming with Marius, one of the two Norweigan guys playing Kings with us.  I went in fully clothed, all made up with my dress and everything, though I did take off my shoes.

Picture of Our Island, From the Beach

3/21

Beach Day!  Also did some writing, watched The Inbetweeners, a great British show about high school kids in the style of Superbad, and cut my hair (unevenly- it was a little bit long on the right side) when I got bored because everyone was watching football.  Yesterday, I said I was leaving tomorrow.  Today, I said tomorrow.

Colonization: Nothing New for an American and a Brit

3/19/2010

I got up late, lazily and happily and was hanging out around the hostel and starting talking to Matt, the cute British guy I was dancing with last night.  I mentioned that I planned to swim out to the nearest island and he said he'd go with me so after some time we headed off.  After all that heavy sleeping last night we obviously needed to rest before swimming to an island so we went to the beach, tested the waters and chatted for a bit.  He was rather interesting; psych major (and all that comes with that), funny, lazy, very friendly, and a bit arrogant and superficial, though not in any way stupid.  He'd had an easy life by his own admission, and while I think most of that is simply a reflection of who people are, it was also difficult in a way to compare.  But, as I said, he was interesting and for me, that quality alone will almost always override any negatives, and as there weren't many this time it certainly did.  Plus he smelled like blueberries.

After chatting for a bit, we went out to lunch.  I had a dish with some sauce and prawns, I mean shrimp, and rice.  It was fantastic, until I bit into a green bean.  It was not a green bean.  It was one of the spiciest chiles I've ever tasted in my entire life.  I had to spit it out and could still feel it in my ears for several minutes afterwards.  Once the burning sensation went away, we headed out for an adventure.

We left our shirts with some locals at a table on the beach.  They did a double take when we told them our plan and said they thought it was probably 800 meters.  Google maps says it's closer to a mile, so I'm going with that, especially since it sounds so much more hardcore.  We went very slowly, and though Matt had some trouble initially he calmed down as we went along and we played the movie game, which he sucked at, then we played the "Make Laura Say As Many Football Teams/ Players As She Knows" game, which I sucked at.

After about 20 minutes, I said we were halfway there.  After about 30 minutes, I said we were almost there.  After 35 minutes, I said we were almost there.  After 40 minutes, I said we were really almost there.  After about 45 minutes, we were there.

Honestly, the beach itself wasn't really particularly impressive: the ocean floor was rocky and the sand was rougher and shellier than the beach we'd left, but still it was OUR island and with the effort we'd made to get there, it felt like a real accomplishment.  Here's my poem about it:

A single crab King brandishes his claw,
Upset with his usurption by nature's law.
Its island invaded and now he's a slave,
He threatens but knows he must behave.

Oh how we lorded it over that crab,
As we had no other islands to grab.
Colonizers with nothing else to snag,
And sadly we didn't even have a flag.

You know you enjoyed that.  Don't even try to deny it.

We stayed there for a while and then hitched a ride back with a group of people who we'd allowed to go parasailing on our island.  Thus ended our lovely island day- one of my favorites so far.

*Sadly, no pictures, as I swam out to an island and didn't want to drown my camera.

Lovely Langkawi

3/18/2010

I had to get up super early (7 a.m.!) to get a ferry to Langkawi, another Malaysian island that sounded nice and beachy.  The ferry ride took about three hours and the air conditioning was on so strongly that I had to get a long sleeved shirt out of my backpack to keep myself from freezing.  I got a taxi to take me to Patai Cenang, a beach area that my guidebook said was nice and checked into a hostel- the Gecko Guesthouse, so called because there are a lot of geckos running around.  The first time I saw one, I was quite excited because I thought it was an albino gecko: white/gray with reddish eyes.  It turns out that's just what they look like.  Anyway, I checked into the dorm and hung out at the hostel for a while, writing and chatting with a British girl named Fern who'd been living on Ko Lipe, a Thai island just north of Langkawi, who was on a visa run, which is when you leave a country because your visa is going to expire, so you just leave for a short time, then go back and get a new one. 

Then I headed down to the beach with a book from the communal shelf to read.  I was really happy to see how close it really was, something I hadn't been able to discern on my way there, and that it was covered in very white sand and relatively blue and clear water and sky.  There were also a few scattered islands nearby that added nicely to the view. 

Several hours of sunning and swimming in water that was almost the temperature of bathwater, I returned to the hostel, went for a run along the beach, seeing several women bathing in burkas along the way, and got dressed to go out.  Fern and I went out for dinner (chili crab and Tiger beers) and then headed to a bar called Little Lulias which was on the beach with live music.  A guy she'd met before who was obviously trying to get with her was buying us all rounds which worked out great for me.  After a bit, we headed over to another bar, Sunbar.  It was an interesting place.  New, old style Malay architecture and decorations, with a mix of Malays and tourists.  A group of British guys from our hostel were there so while Fern talked to her guy, I went dancing with one of them, Matt.  After a while, I felt I was getting in the way of other people getting together, so I went home to the hostel.

Cendol

3/17/2010

I'm still not caught up on all my previous entries, but I decided that I wanted to write here, and in the current tense.  I'm not feeling well.  Not sick, mind you, just not well.  A spot behind my right eye that sometimes bothers me is giving me just the slightest bit of a headache, and I feel quite tired, though I slept nearly ten hours last night.  Additionally, I am having minor stomach problems.  Minor, though, just a bit of discomfort, nothing debilitating or disruptive to any of my plans.  Enough of my whining though, I'm having 1.5 kilos of my dirty laundry washed, dried and folded for me for RM8 ($2.75)!  Lunch (fried rice, deeply browned by some sauce with a fried egg on top and a can of Coke) was RM8 too.  And my 1.5 liter of water was only RM1.50 (less than $0.50)!  I'm also settling into my routine more of trying to combine actually living with traveling, which was a problem for me for the first week when I'd do everything in the world for two days, then not much of anything, then everything, then nothing.  Now, I'm basically doing very little all the time!  In the morning/early afternoon, I do very little Life stuff (writing, uploading photos, checking my emails, bank accounts and paying bills), then in mid-late afternoon/early evening I do very little touristing/sightseeing (mostly just wandering around slowly), then I have some dinner, maybe a drink, and then read or write for a while.

Really my biggest problem so far has been dehydration.  Even though I'm usually drinking 2-3 liters of bottled water daily, when I'm walking around I've often felt a bit lightheaded.  I'm also not sure I'm eating enough; it's very hard for me to tell when the food is so different from my regular diet (diet in the sense of the word meaning what I normally eat, not diet like Atkins,) and I don't know how it's being prepared, or often even what it is.  Another problem has been my mood swings.  Lately, I'm all over the place for no explicable reason.  I snapped at my Mother on the phone the other day and then later, in the same conversation, got very excited and told her how much I'd appreciated something.  Both incidents were about basically the same thing: two different people she'd told me to email for information. 

On the plus side, I finished my gigantically heavy book and can now unload it, though I do highly recommend all 771 pages of "Drood" by Dan Simmons.  It's a fantastic and deeply engrossing historical fiction narrated by Charles Dickens' BFF, Wilkie Collins, author of Woman in White.  As you probably don't remember, or care, the Broadway production of Woman in White contains my theme song "All For Laura."

Also, more positively, I'm remembering that so much of the reason I love traveling isn't the many sights (which I was already getting bored of), nor the people (as so many travelers like to pretend,) nor even the food, but that it's those little funny things other people don't even see: the tiniest, yet almost pristine shrine in a filthy, dead end alleyway or a single gravestone barely larger than my book in a Fort where all the others have crumbled and/or been removed, or the way different cultures do the same things so differently.

Random Street Pics

As far as what I actually did today; naturally, just a little.  Wandered more into the back alleyways and sidestreets of Penang, bought toothpaste, mosquito repellent and shower gel and tried Cendol, which looks like this:

If you're thinking to yourself "Wow that looks absolutely disgusting, even Laura wouldn't be crazy/dumb enough to try something like that," you would be totally correct about the former and sadly wrong about the latter.  I was dumb enough to try it and it was horrible.  It was the first thing I've tasted on my travels with no redeeming qualities whatsoever.  It was basically a lot of crushed ice, coconut milk, weird beans (similar to kidney beans), brown syrup and sweet pea noodles.  I took two bites and threw the rest away.

Wandering Around Penang

3/16/2010

I didn't do much today, again.  I got up late, changed hostels to stay in the Banana Guesthouse, wandered around looking for an ATM, went into a mosque that was like any other mosque.  At the mosque, though I was rather surprised because they had me put on a long robe and headscarf.  The headscarf is pretty typical, to the point that if I know I'll be going to a lot of mosques I'll usually carry my own, but the robe is strange.  As far as I can remember, I've never been asked to put on a robe before.  What's even stranger is that I was wearing a lot of clothes: sneakers, jeans and a shirt that didn't show my stomach or any cleavage (a boatneck shirt that went all the way up to my neck) and that covered my arms to just above my elbows.  It was very odd but the guy was very nice about it and it wasn't uncomfortable so I didn't mind.

Fort Cornwallis

Building of Some Significance I Don't Remember in Old Penang

Next I walked over to the old British Fort Cornwallis, which was mostly like any other fort but was kind of interesting because it was the original base for the East India Trading Company.  I walked back slowly by the ocean, Old Penang, a Buddhist temple and Little India.  Later I got more forgettable food, ate lots more Apom Manis, talked to a Malay guy who sold real estate, read, worked on writing and talked to some other travelers.

Buddhist Temple

Culinary Disappointments

3/15/2010

Street Food in Penang

I left KL today to travel to Penang, an island off the coast of Malaysia that's famous for their street food.  I got a bus from KL from the main bus station, just around the corner from my crap hostel.  RM36 for a five hour bus ride.  The bus looked like any other bus from the outside but the inside was bizarre.  Instead of the narrow blue and gray seats we'd normally find were what could best be described as rows of lazy boy recliners.  Two together on the right side of the bus, and one on the left.  They were wonderfully comfortable, as long as you didn't look at them because the awful green-blue '70s style pattern would make your eyes bleed, and that would be painful.

Five hours on the bus, nothing of note except the gas station we stopped it.  It is worthy of note because of how wildly normal it was.  Some of the brands were different, and the bathroom was Islamic squat style, and the cashier wore a hijab, but otherwise it was exactly the same as any gas station you'd find in the U.S.  Florescent lights, food to clog your arteries just from looking at it prepackaged in oversized individual servings, a sterile store with a disgusting bathroom, ever present Coca-Cola- it was all so strangely normal that it was bizarre. 

The bus went over a long bridge that connected the island to the mainland, and we were there, well, almost.  After a short cab ride, during which time the driver told me several times which bus I had to take to get the the beach (101), I was in Georgetown.  Found a hostel and went out to try some of the culinary delights.

Apom Manis

My tour book and all the Malaysians I've met agree that it's the gourmet capital of Malaysia, but I was not impressed.  There was no teriyaki bacon for one thing, but it was also nearly all stuff I'd seen before in KL, and none of it really tasted much better here.  I tried some random things I hadn't tried before, including jellyfish, which I hadn't realized what it was until I'd finished eating it and someone told me so.  It wasn't particularly good- it tasted pretty much the way it looks: squishy.  The one thing I had that was pretty incredible was coconut Apom Mani- mini pancakes with coconut inside them, though oddly, the coconut looked like the wooden hairs on the outside of coconuts but tasted normal and wonderful.

Lazy Day #1

3/14/2010

Pretty Hibiscus to distract you from the fact that this entry says absolutely nothing

I did exceptionally little today.  Read quite a lot, screwed around online, worked on writing a bit, but overall, really did nothing of any note, except for finding a bacon-like meat available here that tastes wonderful- imagine teriyaki flavored bacon.  In my defense, for much of the day it was absolutely pouring rain.

Mugged by the Evil Monkey

3/13/2010

Batu Caves

I woke up slightly early today to take the subway/monorail to get a ticket to go up the Petronas towers.  The subway was quite fast and while not especially clean, it wasn't dirty- certainly better than New York's subway.  I got a ticket for 6:15 that evening in the hopes that I'd be able to see the city by sunset.  From there, I took the subway out to Gombak, the last stop on the line, to reduce the cost of a taxi to the Batu caves.  Outside the complex were pop-up stalls selling Hindu wreaths of flowers meant as offerings for the shrines inside, but the bright yellow and red and purple flowers and jasmine buds looked so enticing, I bought one just to wear around my neck so I could enjoy the smell, and it was only RM2.

The caves were reached by walking past a huge golden Hindu deity and up nearly 300 stairs.  At the entrance, hawkers offered pythons, including an albino, for tourists to pay to take pictures with them wrapped around the contours of their waists, hips or necks.  The jagged halls of limestone were inlaid with various tableaux of gods and stories I didn't know.  It was a bit cooler inside the caves, but not the refreshing dampness I'd anticipated.  Near the next set of stairs, probably just three flights, I saw my first monkey, posing for pictures patiently.  Looking up, several criss-crossed another set of stairs I had to walk up.  I was at the top level, leaning down slightly to take pictures of the monkeys on the rocks when I felt a hard tug at my neck.  A monkey was mugging me, trying to steal my flower necklace.  I yelped and backed away, but he kept coming at me.
"I'm backing attacked!" I yelled, looking around to see that while no one was making the slightest effort to help me in any way, a tourist was videotaping me and nearly everyone else was watching in amusement.
He kept grabbing at me, so I had to do my best to quickly tear the necklace off over my ridiculously large sun hat.  I handed it over, and he ran away.  I composed myself then went to get a picture of the jerk.

Monkey Mugger

After that, I left the cave, taking a taxi and then the subway again, down to see the train station and National Mosque.  Neither was particularly fascinating, and I couldn't go inside the mosque since it was closed to tourists at that time, so I went up to the Islamic Arts Museum.  It was quite a nice museum, and they had a photography exhibit by the guy who took the famous National Geographic photo of the woman in red with the stunning green eyes.  After an hour there, I left the lovely and air conditioned building to walk up in the blazing wet heat to the Orchid and Hibiscus Garden.  The Hibiscus is Malaysia's national flower.  It wasn't nearly as impressive as Singapore's but it was calm and there was a quiet area with beautiful hanging white flowers.  Walking back, I tried to see the Hindu temple but it was under construction, so I couldn't really see the carved tower as it was covered in scaffolding.

Orchid and Hibiscus Garden

I took the subway again to go up to the Petronas skybridge, but before my group was allowed up, we were  led into a room to watch a fifteen minute advertisement for Petronas (a petrol company).  It would have been terribly boring, but it was in 3-D which always makes me happy, even when I'm not lucky enough to have pickaxes thrown and blood splattered at me.

View from the Skybridge

Since I'd skipped it in Singapore, I was determined to get some night walk pictures in KL.  I just took a short walk (yes, along well-lit, main roads, Mom) over to Merdeka Square, and while the buildings weren't lit up as well as I would've liked, it was still interesting to see what was, and to see the large groups of families and friends congregating, playing soccer and watching a soccer game on a huge screen in the park.

Lit-up Mosque

Eaten Alive

3/12/2010

Petronas Towers, Kuala Lumpur

Got up slowly and ate one of my pieces of raspberry bread for breakfast, paid for another night in my hostel, which only cost RM18 ($5.75) but was an absolutely crappy, horrid cockroach infested place, and left with a fuzzy image of a photocopied map in hand.  I walked in the direction of the Petronas Twin Towers, but without a real aim to get there, thus I ended up in the Golden Triangle, KL's fanciest and largest shopping destination.  And yes, I did just start referring to Kuala Lumpur as KL, because that's what locals, and anyone who has been here for more than a minute, say.  I looked around it, but left the area fairly quickly.  As in Singapore, they were almost all shops I knew, and the prices were generally the same, or more expensive than they would be at home.  I walked up to the towers and was dismayed to find that they were out of tickets for the day, but was quite excited to hear that they were free if I could get one.  So I just gazed up at the towers for that day, got some more unidentifiable food for lunch, and started heading back towards the hostel.  As little as there was to see or do on that walk, it was a fairly long one and I was feeling exhausted from the extreme, humid heat.  Still, I wasn't going to drop, so I mapped an interesting route back.

 Sultan Abdul Samad, with the Darumbia builind in the background

I walked by the Masjid Jamek Mosque and was shocked at how full it was until I realized that it was midday Friday, the most important time for prayer of the entire week for Muslims.  From there, again meaning to head back, I walked over to Merdeka [Independence] Square and the Sultan Abdul Samad building, wandered through the Textile Museum mostly because it had AC, though the antique jewelry exhibit was pretty awesome, then went through Darumbia, which was a very cool Islam design building, but mostly boring shops and offices.

Still trying to eventually get back to the hostel, though with a bit more energy after the time in the AC'd museum, I went through Central Market.  It was rather unexciting but while looking at the various tchotchkes I passed a stall with an above ground pool, about three feet tall, eight feet long and five feet wide.  Several people were sitting on silver stools with their feet in water being eaten by fish.  This "fish massage" as advertised, cost RM5 for ten minutes so I obviously paid the woman for the honor of being their dinner.  A bit cautiously, I lowered both feet into the water and watched the 2-3 inch long charcoal fish swarm around my feet.  I squealed.  I like to think of myself as fairly stoic, but I squealed so loudly that the tourist couple sitting across from me started laughing.  It wasn't the biting/eating that I minded, even though I could sometimes feel an individual mouth sucking on my toe, trying to open its mouth even wider to devour me whole.  No, the worst part was the flapping and flopping around my feet, it tickled and was slimy and gross.  Within mere seconds of first submerging my feet, they were out of the water again, taking one of the fishes with them, though it fell right back into the water.  I asked an Australian guy next to me to take a picture and this is what I looked like:

I put my feet in again, without much more success than the first time, though I do think the second squeal was a bit quieter.  Dipping my feet in and out, kicking up fish as I went, I eventually was able to stop squealing but still didn't like it.  At this point, I was demoted and moved to a tank with smaller fish.  It wasn't as bad, but I could still feel them horribly covering my feet, their slime likely transferring onto my skin.  It was icky and it was as this point that I realized that I really don't like having my feet touched by anyone or anything.  I don't know if that makes me phobic, I just know that I don't like it so I left before my ten minutes was up.

Getting back to the hostel, I relaxed for a while, reading my giant hardcover book.  Later, I headed out to look around Chinatown, which I found garbed in designer fakes of every variety from curb to awning.  Most of them were fairly well done, if you didn't look too closely or open them or feel them.  I decided against a faux Hermes Birkin bag, and a copied Chanel chain bag and looked for something to eat.  I'd already been dinner, but it was nearly 9 and I hadn't had any dinner.  So I ate this:

In case you can't tell, those are four tiny crabs, fried on a stick.  They tasted decent and actually had a pretty good flavor, but they were pokey.  You could feel their claws scratching the sides of your mouth and the back of your throat as you chewed.  It didn't fill me up so I also got some rice with a spicy, brick red sauce before heading back.

Slingin' From Singapore to Kuala Lumpur

3/11/2010

I'd wanted to walk around at night again to take some pictures of the iluma building and Clarke Quay, but I was just too worn out last night for that, so this morning, I chose to snap some while on a leisurely morning stroll, even though it wasn't as pretty.  So I woke up, got another Popiah, and headed out, walked around and took way too many pictures for a few hours, then headed back to the hostel to get my stuff and check out.  On the way, I got a watermelon juice with tons of ice in it because it was beautiful and clear, but very hot outside.  I'd never really drank watermelon juice before, and at first was a bit unimpressed because it was so sweet.  It was also very textured, which many people hate in their drinks, but for some reason I love having junk (seeds, pulp, whatever) in mine, so I didn't mind that and it was really, really cold.  As the ice melted and diluted the juice a bit, lessening the saccharine taste, I discovered that I actually LOVED watermelon juice- it tasted so good and perfectly sweet and refreshing, like lemonade.  Like lemonade, however, it was all gone far too quickly, and then I was a little sad.

iluma Building

After checking out, and loaded down with my backpack, purse and another bag, I walked over to the Raffles Hotel; an arcade with stores (of course), restaurants, a hotel, and most importantly, the Long Bar.  The Long Bar is where the Singapore Sling was first mixed, and I HAD to have a Singapore Sling in Singapore, so even though I knew it would be expensive, I figured I'd just suck it up and call it a special treat.  A sign directed me towards it, telling me it was 45 steps away so I counted and it actually took me 46 steps, but I had to move for an old couple, otherwise I'm sure I could've made it in 40.  It's a lovely bar.  Dark wood juxtaposed with cream colored walls in a 19th century colonial style.  Low wicker chairs with thick cushions sit on a mosiac of tiled floor covered in peanut shells while paper fans swim synchronized overhead, connected by an ancient copper wheel device.  While not the longest I've ever seen, the bar does live up to it's name and is also made of the shining dark wood on the walls.  Behind it is a soft, nude painting of a woman from a time when Britain ruled the waves, though I feel certain from her smile that she was not lying back and thinking of Britain.

Long Bar

One of the waiters brought me a drink menu and I think my eyes bugged upon seeing the prices.  Most of the drinks were around $30 SD!  A Singapore Sling was $25, but I still had to seriously consider how much I wanted it, before ordering anyway.  I decided to try to make up for it in peanuts, literally.  Each table had a box of peanuts on it, so I started munching away, throwing my shells on the floor and adding to the pile near me.  At least my drink was quick, and it did look really cool- bright pink with white foam on top and a stirrer with a pineapple wedge and cherry, and it was cold and sweet and barely alcoholic.  I took my time, working on the drink and a single glass of water (and lots of peanuts) for nearly an hour.  When the waiter brought the bill, I was shocked to see the price was $29.40 since they'd added in tax, which was ALWAYS included everywhere else I went, and a service charge.  I tried justifying it by converting the cost into USD, but it was still a $21 drink, so I converted it back in my mind so I could think "Oh yeah, but that was in Singapore dollars," so it wouldn't seem so bad.

I left for the airport with tons of time to spare after the last debacle, checked in without any problems and grabbed a cheeseburger at Burger King since that and Delifrance were the only places with food in the terminal and decided that a chocolate croissant would be good for the flight, so I was standing at the Delifrance counter waiting, when a British guy came up to me and asked if I was getting something to eat there.  After my affirmative answer, he handed me two pieces of paper and said they were $40 worth of food vouchers, and he wouldn't use them since his flight was finally taking off.  I started thanking him very much, and he said sure and ran off to fly home to London, as that was the delayed flight.  I obviously didn't want anything else from Burger King so I got two prepackaged cookies, two packaged pieces of raspberry butter bread, a turkey and cheese croissant, a chocolate croissant and a bottle of water and it still only came out to about $17.  With nowhere else to use the rest, I decided I would pass the other $20 voucher on to someone else, so I left it between two girls who were sleeping in the terminal.  I hope they enjoyed the surprise when they woke up.

The flight to Kuala Lumpur was only 35 minutes long and I had all that food and an exit row seat so I was quite happy.  We landed, and on the way to immigration, I passed by a large circle of green, with a sign that said KLIA Jungle Boardwalk.  I almost kept walking, but then remembered how short life is, and that I might never be there again, so I went in.  I don't know if it's a theme with Asian airports to have large green spaces inside, but I like it very much.  The tiny boardwalk was just a very short little path with a waterfall, but it was nice, and felt totally separate from the airport outside.

From the airport, I had to take a train to the city (30 minutes) and then a short taxi ride to Chinatown, the area I was told had several hostels in it.  Found a cheap hostel, hung out for a bit, talked to an interesting girl from Germany who was leaving the next day after 13 months away, and went to sleep.

Shopping Or chid? I choose Art.

3/10/2010

I'm going to have to try to keep these entries MUCH shorter or they'll never happen, so on Wednesday I woke up at a reasonable hour, around 9 a.m. and got moving.  First I went to the market to get something to eat- this time I chose a Popiah, which is a sort of roll with sauce, peanuts, cabbage, spices and some other stuff- it was actually incredible, so I ended up going back again later in the day.  In the morning, I visited a Buddhist temple and a Hindu Temple and the Singapore Art Museum, which was interesting and had some good, fairly recent art from native Singaporeans.

 Buddhist Temple

Hindu Temple

This was one of my favorite pieces of art in the museum because it actually explores the relationship between the artist, the model, and necessarily, the observer (made that much more obvious by my reflection here).

Next, I walked over to Orchard Road, the main shopping drag with thousands of stores and several malls.  Honestly, as much as I enjoy shopping, it really wasn't that interesting because they were all stores we have at home: Forever 21, Zara, Chanel, etc.  I grabbed roast duck and noodles for lunch- though I'm still not entirely convinced that it actually was duck and not chicken.

 One of the malls on Orchard Road

I headed over to the National Botanic Gardens and wandered around there before finding my way to the Orchid Garden.  Entry was only $1 SD since I still have my student card and the inside was phenomenal.  I've never particularly liked orchids, but seeing thousands of them in bloom in one place in literally every color of the rainbow (Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo and Violet plus brown and pink and white!) was absolutely incredible.  After quite a while there, I walked over to the Reflexology foot path, took off my shoes and tried that- it felt kind of good, but was quite uncomfortable at the same time.  I'd walked so far by this point that I just took a bus back to the hostel and rested for a short while.

Later, at twilight, I headed out to Arab Street, in the Arabic neighborhood.  It was interesting, but nothing was particularly fascinating until I headed down a side street and saw the hipsters.  Somehow, next to the decayed buldings, an authentic hipster enclave had sprung up.  It made for quite a bizarre sight, as I walked from the somewhat dirty streets with arabic lettering on the restaurant signs, to a cleaner street with very chic, modern clothing boutiques inhabited by Singaporeans with overstyled hair, dotted between genuine, broken concrete-and-dirt hovels in the same building.  I imagine it was what all hipsters dream about when they lie down on their 500 thread count hemp sheets.

Up Early, Then Lost

3/9/2010

    Because of the time change, I woke up at about 7 a.m. and decided I might as well get up and going, since this was probably the earliest I'll wake up anytime within the next several months.  I was starving so I headed off in the direction of the city center and found a large market area, part of Bugis Market with five rows of tiny food counters built into the building.  Some were offering food that was clearly ethnically identifable: Indian (curry's always a good hint), Malaysian (in the name), but most were foods I'd never seen before.  Only Lee Hockers Fishball Soup had a line, of about 15 people, all of whom appeared to be Singaporean.  I had the time, and I figured that if the natives ate there, it should at least be a very good version of the food, whether the food itself were good or not.  Without any idea of what to order, I pointed at a woman's bowl of soup, noodles and fishballs that looked appealing and said that, and then I waited.  For whatever reason, my version ($3 Singaporean dollars, about equal to $2.10) USD came in two separate bowls, one with the soup and fishballs, and one with noodles.  I tasted them separately and they were both quite good, so I combined them and ate it like that.  The fishballs were a bit strange, totally white and gelatinously solid, but they tasted fairly good, and the soup had some oil in it that added a great flavor.  At the same market, I grabbed a cup of cold coconut milk with large chunks of coconut meat inside ($1.50SD) and started wandering.

I didn't have any particular destination in mind, so I just walked in the general direction of the river (or at least what I thought was that general direction) and I came upon a modern, early Art Deco style building- the Park Building- maybe.  I think it was a hotel or office building.  I don't know, it was cool, shut up.  Continuing along, I walked through the Civic/Colonial District passing: the Raffles Hotel, one of the older, lovely colonial buildings- now halfway converted into a mall, a war memorial, an esplanade, a large field of some importance, St. Andrew's Cathedral (which I peeked into, but didn't even bother crossing the threshold because it was so uninteresting), and the City Hall.  I decided to head North in the general direction of a park and see if I got there.

Cool Art Deco Building

Raffles Hotel and Arcade

Pretty Flower

Surprisingly, I did actually make it to Fort Channing, which was actually a park and reservoir on the site of an old British Fort, high on a hill, that was originally where the palace for the Kings of Singapore was located before that (in the 1400s).  They had some very interesting plaques and exhibits, including some floral smells and spices to guess at.  Unfortunately, I couldn't find a plaque on that exhibit so I just had to guess at: Jasmine, Curry Leaves, Basil, and a few others.  The best board though, by far, was a cartoon version of the history of the Kings of Singapore with some bizarrely outrageous stories.  My favorite was about one King who kept trying out new brides, but the morning after he slept with them, they'd wake up with white spots all over, so he kept trying with different women, and it kept happening until eventually one woke up normal.  In the cartoon the King was shown with a look of great happiness and relief and a word bubble saying "Finally!" above his head.  I guess being forced to sleep with all those women was just exhausting.

Fort Channing was relatively small, but quite empty and peaceful, so I walked around the hill for about an hour before heading into the National Museum of Singapore.  The building was large and spacious and modern like the airport, and was much more interesting than what was inside it.  I'd meant to go shopping on Orchard Road but was feeling tired, so I headed back to the hostel at around 4.

Fort Channing Trees

Fort Channing

The Spacious National Museum

Swinging Chandeliers in the Mueseum

Directly outside the window of my room, one of the several Indian restaurants along the street had a large banner saying that Bismillah Biryani was the first search result for yahoo and google for "best biryani in Singapore," that it was recommended by a prominent food blog, and that even though it was Indian, it was truly Singaporean food.  I later checked online and while it wasn't first, it did come up on the first page on both sites.  Reading some of these pages, I began to understand how seriously Singaporeans take their biryani.  Several sites discussed the differences between dum biryani and nasi biryani, and whether that difference should exist at all, the use of ghee to add flavor (similar to the use of lard in Mexican cooking) and the proper length and wetness of the basmanti rice. 

At the time I didn't know any of this, just that there was a giant red banner beckoning me with the promise of exotic and good food.  I was the only customer at the time, so the Owner/Chef chatted with me a bit while I waited for my chicken biryani.  Arif was from Pasadena and had retired in Singapore.  This restaurant was more of a passion for him, than a way to make money, or so he said.  He brought out two poories; fried Indian bread that was hot and light and fluffy without being oily, a bit like a tostada shell, but with many more and smaller bubbles/air pockets  and lighter.  They were wonderful, and not just because I was so hungry.  A few minutes later, he brought out the biryani: a plate of orange and white rice mostly covering two pieces of chicken in a sort of mildly spicy curry sauce, accompanied by a teacup sized bowl of flavored broth and oil.  The chicken was incredibly tender- it nearly fell off the bone when I stuck my fork in, and the rice was soft and unsticky, but not dry.  Tentatively I tasted the broth/oil, and was surprised by how light it was.  I had expected some wave of heat and spice, but it really was more of a well flavored broth than anything else so I poured it in a spiral all over the rice and chicken and ate up happily.  My meal, which I could almost, but not quite finish, cost me $7SD, with a can of Diet Coke.

Fully satisfied, I went up to my room for a while to let my stomach settle and then changed and headed out for a run.  I'd seen people out running at Fort Channing earlier, but no one seemed to be running in the city.  At first, when I noticed people looking at me I felt self conscious, but then I just realized it was probably because no one (Singaporean, tourist, or otherwise) had known that a person could turn so red from a little bit of exercise.  It was still humid, but not terribly hot, and the city did look lovely at dusk and fading into night as the fluorescent bulbs lit up the skyline.  I was staying on main roads, but not heading in any particular direction, so I was quite unperturbed by not knowing where I was.  I ran through the Civic district, down to the Flyer (the largest ferris wheel in the world, beating out the London Eye), across a bridge where my running turned to walking, realized I couldn't get anywhere from there so turned around and went back across the bridge, up the way I'd come, over along the river, near the esplanade (not on it, oddly enough), and into Clarke Quay, a very touristy area with several bars and restaurants with costs much higher than anything I'd been paying.  Though I don't really trust it, my pedometer said I'd gone three miles so far so I decided I'd start heading back.  So I was trying to head in the correct direction, but for whatever reason my sense of direction was particularly confused so I kept getting turned around.  After another mile, I was tired and really wanted to get back, so then I started seriously looking at buildings and the few stand alone city maps I could find, and I continued to get confused.  I was already, despite the title here, really lost.  This made me a bit uneasy, but after another half a mile, I found a few buildings I knew and made my way back and after a quick shower, straight into bed.