Whereami

Finally, pictures!

Sorry, only a few for now. But if you sign up for Flickr, there could be more for you in the future. If you want a Flickr invite, send me an email and I'll send one out to you. (if you sign up you can add your comments to my pictures - for example: Hey Adam, how come you're all alone in most of your pictures? Or if you're Dave - Hey Bitch, how come there's no pictures of you eating sushi off of naked Asians?) To not sell out too hard - it is a really nice site (and business). However, it is still in beta. Hence I can't buy more capacity. Instead, due to a smart business move on their part, I have to get 5 friends to sign up first - and if I do, I'm rewarded with a 1 Gig account. Which would be perfect for me since that's about all the capacity I'll need for the whole trip. If you want me to send you an invite, just drop a note in the comments section. Thanks to those who've helped. And to those who haven't...(cough - Rummel)...well, you won't be getting any postcards. (which actually is the exact same treatment that I'm giving everyone - so it's not much of a punishment)

Jaywalking in Singapore

Update #: 9
Currently: Staying late at the Internet place and keeping the poor lady at the desk from going home.

And I haven't even gotten cained yet! Despite all the things I've read about how conservative/restrictive Singapore is, my time here so far has proven otherwise. The women show their midriffs (heavens forbid!), people cut across traffic all the time, and I've even seen a little graffitti.

Thanks to I-S magazine, I discovered a pretty cool movie theater and saw a Koren/Japanese/Hong Kong movie today. It's called "Three...Extremes" and it was a series of short films, each by a different director (more graphic-intense website here). All three were very well done, if not more than a little creepy. I liked the last one, "Cut", the best - mostly because it used some well written/placed humor to lighten the scariness a bit.

I decided to take the long way home and along the way I came across a sweet little cafe, called My Secret Garden. The setting was perfect - it was late at night, only a few people there, with some chill music in the background. The cafe is hidden in a sculpture garden and they have all these cool trees/bamboo shoots throughout - made me wish I could have had some good friends with me...

Damn, the internet place is closing so I gotta run. More soon - keep the emails coming, good to hear from everyone.

I'm like the DJ

Update #: 10

In that we both came alone. Actually, I'm sure James Lavelle (one half of UNKLE and founder of Mo Wax records) had a posse with him somewhere, just not while he was on the decks.

The stage was set at Zouk's when I walked up to the bar and two kids in front of me were taking shots and lighting them on fire once the alcohol was in their mouths...Unfortunately I didn't have a lighter on me, so no fire breathing on the trip just yet.

I can't do the night justice without any pictures and I wasn't able to take any myself cause I had to check my digital camera at the door - so I'd recommend checking out the Zouk site for all the sights/sounds. I'd definitely recommend stopping by if you happen to be in the neighborhood.

Just me and the flying squirrels

Update #: 11

After a somewhat tricky trip from the Jurong Bird Park, I arrived at the Singapore Night Safari two hours before closing. This was good because I got to the Bird Park about an hour before closing, which actually meant that I got there in time to see them close up shop. Most of the shows stopped at 5:00, even though the park closed at 6:00. So, although I still got to see many of the birds, and the world's largest man made waterfall, I didn't get a chance to ride the monorail or hang out in the Lory Loft.

One of the benefits of showing up late however, was that not many people were left at the park, and I think this gave the birds a greater sense of confidence. At one point I was literally chased out of an exhibit by this little blue bird who luckily didn't decide to take flight (I actually have some video footage, as the chase lasted for quite a while).

So with a whole two hours to spare I entered, I think, the world's only nightime zoo/safari. The night started off with a little exhibition of a few of the different animals. Five minutes into the show, there was a large racoon like creature hanging upside down only a few feet (or meters) in front of me. Also right in front of me was a tourist of unknown origin - about to take a flash photo of said creature. Luckily the staff got to this person seconds before the picture was snapped (at another point in the night, we were on a tram going through a simulated rain forest and this guy decided it'd be a good place to make a few cell phone calls).

The highlight of the night (besides seeing lions, rhinos, and pumas in action) was having the whole flying squirrels room all to myself for about 10-15 minutes. When I entered this baby deer slowly walked across the path, stopping half way, looking at me, wondering what I was doing there. A few steps later and I was eye to eye with a flying squirrel, just hanging out so to speak. The night ended with a shared cab ride home with two Germans (from the south - tschus instead of wiedersehen :) Unfortunately, the cab ride was cut short right as I was about to start discussing the greatness of Dirk Nowitzki and Volkswagen.

All the memories I'll need are on their way

Apologies to Paul Ford.

At least I wasn't the first one

Update #: 12

Per Sree's recommendation, I hit up Newton's Circus for dinner tonight. Had the Tiger Prawns (delicious), some Satay (tasty and cheap), a little Sugar Cane and Lemon juice (yum), and finally some Cockles.

The first thing to understand is that a lot of dishes come standard with a bowl of soup. When you order the 'value meal' or 'set' it's assumed you'll get a main dish, some rice maybe, and a bowl of soup. So when I ordered the cockles and there was a small 'soup like' bowl nearby, that's what I assumed it was. After I finished eating, I picked up the bowl and started to slurp from it. Hmmm, kinda cold - but I had let it sit there the whole meal, so I didn't think twice about it.

About half way into my 'soup', a worker yelled from the distance - you're not supposed to drink it! He came over and explained that the liquid in the bowl was there to clean off the cockles before I ate them...

As he was leaving he said "don't worry, you're not the first one to do it."

note - let the record show that the main topic of discussion in this post was cleaning cockles.
Hee hee.

Some items that I haven't tried yet (but were on the menus):

Fishballs
Spine Meat
Pig Organ Soup, Pig Liver, Pig Stomach, and even Pig Tail.

EPCOT center on steriods

Walking around Singapore is a lot like being in EPCOT center, except that instead of other tourists you're walking around with the locals of each region. Go to Little India and suddenly you're surrounded by Indians. Head to Chinatown and everyone is speaking Mandarin. Cruise Arab Street and you'll see a Muslim street fair.

Of course EPCOT center wouldn't be complete with a gift shop and in Singapore that's what Orchard Road is for. Some stats:

number of hotels named Shangri La - 3
% of English speakers - 85%
% of Western looking people - 25%
ratio of Gucci stores to Starbucks - 1:1
$ for one hour in an Internet Cafe - 6 SD

Are you Australian?

Asked the guy at the check-in counter - I'll take that as a compliment.

Arrived safe in Bali, be here till Friday. Surf's up in Kutu (and Nusa Dua, and Sanur, and...there's a lot of beaches here).

Outta Money, Time, and Power

Update #: 13
Warning: Long post.

It's a funny thing being broke in a town where you can get a hotel room for $5 USD a night. (note - see theory on the direct correlation between hotel cost and ATM availability)

There I was, fresh from six hour hike, sitting in a fancy restaurant with an excellent view, but more importantly, an all you can eat buffet for about $3.50 USD...and I couldn't afford it. I had a bowl of rice and vegtables with my remaining rupiah (about twenty cents) and then I had to walk away from exactly what I wanted most.

Aside from the post-hike hunger, the trek was amazing. We (a couple from Holland on their honeymoon, a solo German traveller, and myself) left at about 3:30am in order to get to the peak by sunrise. Heading up, the stars (and small flashlights) were our only guides (not including the guide himself). It was a fairly strenuous trip, made even more difficult by the all the loose rocks that covered the trail.

When we made it to the top, we had an egg and a banana sandwich that were both cooked using the moutain's natural heat. I should clarify...Mt. Batur is really Volcano Batur. Although you can't see any flowing magma, you can still see steam rising from certain parts and in some locations there are small holes - where you can place eggs, bananas, a Tombstone pizza, whatever - with enough heat to cook them.

After eating, we walked along the ridge of the volcano. In the states, the board of park safety would have required that this trail have a railing or at least a rope to hold onto while crossing - however, in the states we were not. Luckily, the ground wasn't as slippery along the ridge, so we all made it safely around and back down the volcano.

Wednesday's adventure was a nice tune up to today's. I decided to extend my stay in Bali by an extra day, and with that extra day I headed for the beaches of Sanur where I'm currently staying in a hotel with a Ritz location, Hyatt quality, and a Motel 6 price. This morning I took a boat out to Lembongan Island (no where to be found in Frommer's) to do a little snorkeling and jet skiing - or so I thought.

Instead of doing the package deal, I requested that tour company only transfer me and that I would take care of my own activities. Upon arriving, I left the group to go wonder solo. I found a moped and rented it for the day. The island was filled with a mix of paved, half paved, and completely unpaved roads/trails. The layout was fairly straightforward, or so I thought, so I just drove along the coast looking for a place to snorkel. After following some crude signs for snorkeling, I found myself at the end of a dirt road with a few boats nearby. I talked to one of the locals saying that I'd like to snorkel. He'd take me he said and he started to lead me to his boat. Right before we got on, I asked if he had equipment for me to use. Puzzled, he said that he was taking me to the Mangroves - to snorkel, right? I asked. No, no snorkeling he said. (two things I've noticed in Bali: 1. Everyone says yes to what you're asking for 2. Everything is 200m away. There's a story involving both in a sec.)

I hoped back on the scooter and took another trail to a bridge that lead to Ceningan Island. As soon as I crossed the bridge, I met a local student who was majoring in English. I don't think he was very far in his studies...But he did lead me to his friend who was a fisherman, and therefore, a snorkeling guide. All three of us hopped on a tiny boat and headed for the reefs.

On our way, we passed by a big cruise ship that had a 10ft x 10ft part of the ocean roped off for their guests to snorkel in. With my guides, I was able to use everything else but those 100 square feet.

On my first dive in I was immediately suprised by how strong the current was. I had to swim as strong as I could just to stay in one place. Luckily, we didn't stay long and we moved to another spot that had much less current and absolutley amazing reefs. At this point, I felt like - and for all practical purposes I did - I had the whole ocean to myself. The guides hung out in the boat so it was just me and the versions of Nemo for about an hour.

We hit two other spots (one good, one bad. the good had some huge blue starfish whose colors were so bright they looked fake. the bad had some jellyfish that stung me as soon as I dove in) before I had to leave to meet up with tour group that was departing in an hour. In theory, it should have only taken me about 15 minutes to find my way back. But I decided to do a little exploring and take a new route. The 'English major' instructed me to go up the road 200m and take a right after passing the cemetary - from there it was straight all the way back.

Now, I don't know much about the metric system, but I do know how far 200m is. On a good day, I can run it in about 25-26 seconds. Multiple times in Bali, people have told me that something is 'only 200m' away - but they must not be very good estimators. Once it was more like a quarter mile (400m) away. A couple of times it was closer to 1/2 or 1 mile away (800-1600m). And once it was too far for me to find out. So a few minutes into my moped ride and I still haven't come to a cemetary I began to wonder.

I continued on and did eventually find the cemetary - and the only option was to turn right, which I did. But it had a very 'off the beaten path' look to it. Regardless, I went down it for a while and I was doing fine. Then it started to get a little rocky. I made a few stops asking locals for help. Am I headed in the right direction. Yes, they said confidently. Ok, fine. I continued. By now, I was in the middle of the island - so I couldn't really sense where the water was or where I was headed. I was starting to run out of time so I drove faster on the increasing rocky path. About 15 minutes before I was supposed to be on the boat back to Bali, I drove the moped down a dip in the trail and was thrown off with the bike landing on my left leg. The bike's left mirror was broken off and I had some slight damage to leg, but nothing serious.

I got back on, continued 'about 200m' more before finding some construction workers in the middle of the island. How do I get back to the town of Lembongan I asked? They said it was easy. Could you come with me I asked. They said they were too busy and that it wasn't far - they pointed to their right. I said I was lost and that I needed help...and then they saw the blood on my leg. One of the workers came up and said he'd take me back.

A few minutes in, and it was obvious that even he didn't know how to get where I wanted to be. We couldn't even ride the moped for most of the trip as there was no trail to ride. We eventually made it to a main road (ie. the size of a wide sidewalk), which lead to another small road. We reached a point where some people were in the process of building a new road. We crossed that and stopped at the top of a hill. Directly below I was told, was the lauch point to get back to Bali. But there was no way I could get the moped down the hill unless I carried it...so I set the moped down, took the keys out and ran down the hill.

The main boat had already departed, but it was nearby at another point off shore. We could catch it if I hopped in another small boat. I tossed some guy the keys to the moped and 100,000 rupiah ($10 USD) for the broken mirror and got in the boat. I wish them the best of luck getting the moped down the hill.

Lastly - my camera (which has had an - deserving of capital letters - AMAZING battery life) is now currently in need of another charging. This shouldn't be a problem as I came with my one-for-all outlet converter...however, the damn thing doesn't fit into any of the outlets. None. Sooo..no pictures over the last couple of days :(

Postcards will have to do.

Hat(e) Yai

Update #: 14
Currently: Trying to understand what the Germans are saying next to me. And to disguise my eavesdropping, I'm making faces at the baby in the crib (it's half internet cafe, half day-care. Actually, it's about 75% internet cafe, but there is a huge grib near the middle of the room.)

Well, I arrived safely in Hat Yai today, but the trip is starting to take its toll.

If I remember correctly, the travel agents at AirTreks recommended that I take the train from Singapore to Bangkok. Seemed like a good idea at the time - getting to watch all the lush scenerary pass by at ground level instead of at 30,000 feet. What I didn't didn't take into consideration was the fact that I'd most likely be travelling at night (and that I'd also have a terrible head cold).

So 20 hours of travelling 29,995 feet closer to the ground, and I didn't see a damn thing in Malaysia. AND I'm still at good half-day away from Ko Samui. I think tomorrow I'm going to try and switch to the air-conditioned busses, which seem to be both cheaper and quicker (and more comfortable if it's anything like getting from Taipei to Kaohsiung).

All is not lost though. My hotel room (with AC!) is about $4 bucks a night, and get this - there's actually a functional outlet in my room so my camera is currently charging its way back to full strength.

Note: This site recently got indexed by Google - so if you forget the URL you can now just search for it. In case you're wondering, the first three search queries that brought traffic to this site:
1. cleaning cockles
2. Newton's Circus Singapore
3. "cleaning cockles"

Hmmm.