Happy Ending

With a few assignments lingering in the background, I figured it was the perfect time to take my first, of hopefully many, four day weekend trips to Thailand. This particular trip took me to Phuket and Ko Phi Phi on the west coast of Thailand. It was a tough start. I went by myself for the first 2 days and didn’t book a place to stay in advance. The beach that I was meeting my friends a few days later was basically fully booked except for one room and it took me half a day to find it. The next three days involved sitting on beaches, drinking beer, swimming in the ocean, snorkeling, hanging with friends, watching lady-boy volleyball matches, watching Muay Thai fights, running away from prostitutes, playing connect four with prostitutes, and getting a Thai massage.

Ko Phi Phi is the exact vision of paradise I had in my head. Azure blue water, fine white sand, massive limestone cliffs jetting out of the ocean. I didn’t want to leave. But alas, I did and now I’m home until my next trip.

Sitting on the beach in Thailand

One of my favourite things about swimming in salt water is picking the salt out of my hair when it dries. In fact that's one of my favourite things of all things available to do.

Jensing with the Lekmans

For the past few weeks I’ve been scouring the net trying to find some sort of indie scene in Singapore. I looked through MySpace and blogspot and other sources of hipsterness. Low and behold a scene exists. I emailed every label and promotions group and person I could find which ended up being one for each category. They all pointed me to the Jens Lekman concert but said it was sold out. Then they warned me that the scene is very underground and very small and that the show was sold out because the venue only holds like 50 people, but I’d be able to make it to the after party.

So I went, and took the team. The after party was made up of my team, and two other teams of about the same size and then Jens and his girl on the decks, so not many people. My first taste of Singapore’s indie scene left me pretty unsatisfied. I mean the music was great and the people were cool, but there weren’t many of them. I did get to meet some real deal Singaporeans who enjoy indie music. When I told them I was from Canada they quickly asked if I had ever seen an Arcade Fire show. I said ‘yes, many times’ and they were all like ‘wow.’

Click the picture to see some shots from the night and some pictures from my trip to KL. The monkeys in KL are totally civilized. The monkey on the trashcan from one of the pictures only climbed on the can to take a dump, then smiled for pictures and ran back up his tree.

Fake Rolex Owner

Singapore is endearingly known as Asia Lite because it is clean and orderly and relatively well off. As a traveler in the region, Singapore is little taste of home, but starting in Singapore I’m experiencing Asia backwards. This weekend was my first trip to real Asia. I hopped on a local Singapore bus, crossed the boarder to Malaysia and entered a new world. Traffic was crazy, it was dirty, and everyone wanted to drive me somewhere or get me young girls. I jumped on a bus and headed to Kuala Lumpur. Easily the best part of the trip was the markets. Negotiations class in full effect. I had my BATNAs ready and tried to anchor the price to what I wanted. I bought a fake belt, fake shirts, and a fake Rolex. Good times. Down one alley in Chinatown I found a meat market, and not like La Tulipe, I mean a real meat market. I can now check the “walk down a street which chickens running around” off my list of things to do before I die. Sorry Catalina, I know how much you wanted to be the one who introduced me to chicken streets.

Today I went to a mall to be inside

Let me tell you something about living on the equator. The concept of inside isn’t really all that important. The main floor of most apartments is open-air. There are tables and people generally lounge around, play ping pong, and smoke. Then there’s the levels that people live on. The stairs have big openings where people in Canada would put a glass window. Each floor again has huge open “windows.” Then there are the apartments themselves. The balcony and living room aren’t separated. There’s a sliding glass door that doesn’t really close and there are no screens anywhere. Basically what I’m trying to describe is that you are always outside . . . even when you are inside. On campus, a complex, like the business building, will have a common roof, but each room is its own separate entity with its own air conditioning. Going from one class to the next through the halls means you go outside. And the roofs aren’t really attached to the building. Air freely passes through the metre gap between the ceiling and the top of the wall. The only way to walk somewhere and be inside is to go to the mall.

Questions:

So are you outside right now?
I’m in my apartment, so yes I’m outside.

Then what prevents the lizards from taking up permanent residence under your microwave?
Nothing. I call the small one Shifty.

We did it! Victory for all!

I’d like to personally thank the French contingent for their generous directions, the Indians for sticking to their belief in low cost, and to all those who stayed the course despite detrimental hardships. This was a long battle filled with the kind of over priced beer that screams tourist. It wasn’t easy to break free the shackles of outsiderism but through sheer determination, strong willed individuals and a commitment to the team, the exchange faction has found a watering hole worthy of mention. WWF, Britney Spears, and Hindu pop. Cheap beers, dirt-cheap food, and atmosphere. The best of all, there are only locals in sight, and now that includes us.

It turns out Asia is different than North America

It got so cold today I had to put on a t-shirt.

New tracks from some of my fav bands. Be sure to get the LCD Soundsystem song. He loves New York.

Sentosa Island

Here’s a little background on the southern tip of Singapore. It is home to one of the world’s busiest port and is said to be the world’s largest port by shipping tonnage. There are a number of small islands a few kilometre south of the main island that house oil refineries. Then there’s a beach sandwiched right in the middle of all that. The water seemed clean, but . . . I just don’t know. Check out the pics here.

Scratch that last post

Residence is growing on me. I’m not moving out anymore. The pool and condo facilities are unmatched in Singapore and that’s where I spend most of my time. Plus they have city wide wireless internet that I will be subscribing to which means I can play on the internet and lounge at the pool at the same time. The picture is the view from my apartment.

I went clubbing this weekend. Amazing!

Rain Time.

It’s easy to forget you’re in a jungle rainforest when walking around Singapore, until it rains. Since I’ve been here it has rained for about an hour everyday and let me tell you it rains hard. I’ve never been in storms that produced such heavy rain. The sky turns black, streets turn into rivers, and there is no protecting yourself.

Moving on. Imagine the smelliest dirty ghetto with bugs running around and extreme heat. Now imagine there’s a big fine for having alcohol and rules about girls and noise and guests. That’s my residence. It’s in a great condo complex with a great gym and a 25 metre pool, but the NUS residence condo itself looks like it hasn’t been cleaned or repaired in 30 years. Needless to say I’m looking for other accommodations. Check out the pictures here, but please note the pictures make the place look alright . . . its not.

Having fun is not allowed

Singapore has an odd reputation. Most of my friends (yes you) who had never been to Singapore really knew nothing about the country but still felt the need to warn me about chew gum and told me that the country was really strict and really clean. That’s pretty much about all I knew about the country before I got here. I came with the impression that it’s a boring and kind of nerdy place where everyone falls into line behind absurdly strict rules. Luckily I was wrong. I’ve only been here two days and I already know my impressions were off.

Singapore is actually a little more liberal than Canada on a few fronts. For example, prostitution is apparently legal. There’s even a place known as the Four Floors of Whore on Orchard Street. It’s not really a prostitution joint anymore, but they still walk the halls. It's now an irony loving hipster hang out.

The real big thing is the fines and enforcement of those fines. There are fines for spitting, spitting out your chewing gum, littering, feeding the monkeys, etc, etc. It’s a $10,000 fine for feeding monkeys but its only $120 for not wearing a seatbelt. I don’t really understand the logic.

Luckily, people here like to play as well as not litter or spit. Lonely planet says Singapore is taking over Bangkok as the Southeast Asian nightlife capital. I can’t say I’ve had a real impression yet. I mean the bars have been packed and awesome, but its new years. The one thing that’s not awesome is the beer prices. The cheapest beer at a grocery store I’ve found so far is $15 for a 6 pack of Tiger beer and it’s like $10+ to buy a beer at a bar.

Also there’s no kite flying.