Malaysia

There's a horrible commercial that gets played a lot here encouraging tourism in Malaysia. It has a bunch of shots of jungles and plates of food, and then for some reason a random white lady doing yoga on a beach. And there's a song in the background with the tagline "Malaaaaaysia.....truly Aaaaaaasia!" Like I said, it's terrible. But I guess it somehow worked its way into our subconscious, because when a couple friends invited Mike and I to Malaysia for the day, we jumped at the chance.

We had to wake up at 6 am to get to the harbor in time to catch a boat. We got there around 7 and had to wait till around 8:30 to get going. Mike and I learned very quickly there's no use asking how much longer, because no one actually knows what's going on, they just take your passport and put it in a line. There's not really a system set up, the boats come whenever they feel like coming and you wait till you see your stack of passports is next. Helpful! But eventually we got on a boat, and about an hour later we arrived in Pengerang, which is a small post in the southeast state of Johor.

From there we went to Rengit in one of the most terrifying cab rides of my life. The driving rules are apparently pretty flexible in Malaysia; things like staying in one lane, driving on the correct side of the road, and going at a reasonable speed are all optional. I'm just glad we made it alive, but we were going so fast I couldn't get any non-blurry pictures of the trip there, which was a really beautiful ride with the sea on one side and thick hills of jungle on the other. I couldn't actually tell you HOW fast we were going, because everything in is damn kilometers here. Foiled by the metric system yet again.

So Rengit is a small town just off the coast, and it's perfect for a day trip. Eventually I'd love to visit Kuala Lumpur or Malacca, but those places are farther away so you have to fly or take a bus and spend the night. I think the only downside is that since Rengit isn't as touristy, we got quite a lot of stares. Some guy saw Mike and just started laughing his ass off, which was a little disconcerting. Poor Mike, he does tend to stick out. As does yours truly.

In a lot of ways, Rengit reminded me of the Texas coast, it looked and felt like parts of South Padre (minus the white kids on Spring Break, thank god). Lots of rotting wood and rusted metal, the way a town gets when it's close to the sea. Malaysia is a lot messier than Singapore, more unkempt and wild, it has a much more lived in feeling. Like an old boot that's molded to your foot, and who doesn't like an old boot? We wandered around the town a bit, taking pictures and looking for a place to eat lunch. Malaysia has a reputation for great seafood, so we settled on a restaurant called the Jade something-or-other that looked promising. We got three dishes, which were all freaking delicious.

The first one was really simple and clean, just fresh white fish with soya sauce and ginger and onion. Then we got salted yolk crab, which was kind of like crab in an orange hollandaise sauce that was devoured in record time. And finally we got cereal shrimp, which is exactly what it sounds like, just whole shrimp rolled in cereal and fried up. They're crunchy and sweet, you just have to get used to eating the shells. We also got coconuts to drink, which are always refreshing and fun to eat once you've sucked up all the juice. They gave us plastic spoons, though, and I broke mine trying to pry out all the meaty bits.

After eating, we walked through the main part of town and then through the neighborhood out towards the sea. Some of the houses were beautiful and painted bright colors, and then some of them were so old and run down they looked abandoned.

We wandered around for awhile, but it was so humid and it looked like it was going to start raining so we headed back towards the main street and ducked into a little shop. While our friends enjoyed refreshing and unappealing ice kacangs, Mike and I were introduced to li hing mui, which are these crazy salty sour dried plums covered in orange powder. They're super strong but also strangely addictive, like a Chinese version of sour patch kids that have the added benefit of turning your mouth a smarting shade of orange.

Since the last ferry back to Singapore left at 4, we had to be back in Pengerang before then, and after another frightening cab ride we made it back to the post. Just in time, too, since it started pouring rain as soon as we got there, and we got absolutely soaked on our way to the boat. And since the boats don't have windows, it wasn't that much dryer inside. Still, there was something kind of soothing about being wet and hot, sitting on a newspaper on a wooden bench while the rain beat down on the tarps. It was like being in a really cheap sauna that smells like gasoline.

I fell asleep on Mike during the ride back, and even he had to shake himself awake a few times. By the time we got back, we were so tired we peeled off our wet socks and napped on the couch, which is really too small for the both of us. As it always goes, one of the best parts of traveling is getting back home.

Hazy Daze

First off, apologies for the delay between blogs, I'm sure the three of you who read this were very disappointed. Mike got sick about three weeks ago, so I was taking care of him, and then literally the day he started to improve was the day I came down with it. We've pretty much spent the last month taking turns getting each other juice, Gatorade (or the Singapore equivalent called 100 Plus), and visiting what we like to refer as the "wall o' Ramen" in the grocery store.

Here's Mike perusing said wall. I only got about half of it in the shot, and this is at our local store, not one of the big ones. So far we've tried mushroom and chicken varieties, which aren't half bad. They actually have way less salt than the Ramen noodles back home, but as a result they aren't as strongly flavored. Still, there's nothing better for a cold than a big bowl of chicken flavored noodles with chili sauce. It'll cure what ails ya.

So we're finally both feeling better and we're slowly emerging from our cocoon of blankets and wadded up tissues. Of course, as soon as we can breathe again, Indonesia has to go and set Sumatra on fire and fill the entire city with smoke. At first we had no idea what was going on, I looked outside and thought maybe it was just really overcast, but when I went outside everything smelled like burning rubber and the smoke started stinging my eyes. Apparently this happens pretty much every year because Indonesia has a real problem with forest fires because farmers use fire to clear land, and on Thursday the Pollutant Standards Index reached "unhealthy" levels in Singapore. We tried to stay inside as much as possible to avoid the haze, but it was quite inconvenient. The Singapore government seemed politely annoyed about it too, the Environment Minister was quoted in the paper as saying "this is not the first time that we have informed the Indonesians that they should pay attention to hotspots in Sumatra and Borneo," and that if the haze worsens, "we will register our concerns again, perhaps on even stronger terms to our Indonesian colleagues." Uh oh, watch out, the hall monitor is pissed! Seriously, that has to be the most non-threatening warning I've ever heard in my life. 

Lovely view, isn't it? But it rained twice over the weekend, which helped to dispel a lot of the haze, so we were able to go outside without coughing. A couple of our friends invited us to a movie and then dinner over in Little India on Saturday. When we first got to Singapore we were staying quite close to Little India and we wandered over there a few times, but since we moved to the east side of town we haven't been back. It's such a colorful, different area of town, and right now everyone is gearing up for Diwali, the Hindu Festival of Lights. This year Diwali (or Deepavali) is November 5th, but they already have a bunch of lights strung up and down the streets. It reminded me of Congress during Christmas, and I realized how strange it is that it's not getting colder here! My body keeps expecting a change of seasons, and I constantly think it's still July.

It was Saturday night, so the streets were bustling, lots of people around buying food from the open markets. We saw tables of fireworks for sale, and it looked like every shop was selling marigold garlands, so it smelled amazing. We walked around for bit until we got hungry, and then we ducked into a small restaurant called Zaika. I think almost every restaurant in Little India could be described as "hole in the wall" by American standards, here were only maybe 6 tables in the whole place. I actually like that the restaurants are so small, it means you have a bunch of places to try, all next to each other. Plus, I've always found the smaller the restaurant, the better the food, and this place was no exception. We got a couple of our usual favorites like aloo gobi and saag paneer, and then our friends recommended we try the butter chicken. Oh man, it was one of the most delicious dishes ever, I wanted to drink the sauce. I didn't, but only because we were eating in front of other people. I'm not sure if it's a popular dish back home, but I don't think I've ever seen it on the menu at the Indian restaurants we used to go to. It may sound a little simple, but "butter chicken" doesn't really describe it properly; the sauce has a ton of ingredients, just one of which is butter. Anyway, the whole meal was great, even though Mike found a tiny bug in the tray of candy coated fennel seeds at the end. I don't care, I still ate them, I have a slight obsession with those. I once ate an entire bag of pastel colored candied fennel seeds that Mike's mom gave us. Pretty sure that was supposed to last a couple months, not two days.

Alright, friends, I promise to be more diligent in the future with regards to my blog. Happy Halloween! 

Mid-Autumn Wanderings

I've been trying to keep busier during the weekdays, which is great for me, but unfortunately the blog suffers. I started spending sunny days down by the pool with a book and my ipod, which means when I lazily stumble back to the apartment, all I want is a soda and AC, and it doesn't make for good story fodder. However, my tan is coming along nicely, proving once and for all that anything you set your mind to can be accomplished. And before you freak out, mom, I'm wearing sunscreen and a hat, and I don't stay in the direct light for long. I'm not BROWN per se, but I am turning a nice golden color; makes a nice change from the blinding white I used to be. The only downside is the freckles on my shoulders are finally doing what I feared they would do for years, and joined together to make one large über-freckle. Sigh. But a lot has been going on in the mean time, so I'll try and sort through the highlights.

Mike is officially 30! Hooray! I have to say, he took it quite well. No tears, no tantrums, no denial of the fact that he's a year older; very impressive, especially since I plan on doing all those things when I turn 27. Instead, we went to a sort-of-Italian restaurant called Lenas and got a couple pizzas and some beer. I say "sort of" because while they have pepperoni pizza and bruschetta on the menu, they also had curry seafood pizza and cheese fries, neither of which I think qualify as Italian. I don't know for sure, I've never been.

We finally tried chili crab, which is one of Singapore's specialty dishes. We were down in Chinatown again, this time during the Mid-Autumn Festival, which is also called the Lantern Festival or the Mooncake Festival. Basically it's just a big Chinese harvest festival that involves a lot of lanterns and little cakes. Everywhere we go we see mooncakes for sale, they're little pastries shaped kind of like flowers filled with flavored lotus seed paste. The taste is very similar to fig newtons, they're just a little bigger.

Anyway, we went down to Chinatown to look at all the lanterns and wander around, and we met some friends at a seafood restaurant and ordered chili crab and black pepper crab. Both were very good, but I think the chili crab wins most delicious; it's a little spicy but also somewhat sweet, which worked really well with the sweetness of the crab. Plus, the extra chili sauce was great for pouring over fried rice. Look, you can see its little eyes staring at you all accusingly! Mmmmm.

We also made it over to East Coast Park, which is kind of like a boardwalk along the eastern shore. There's a bunch of shops and restaurants along the water, and long paths that people ride their bikes around. We even saw a few rollerbladers, which I didn't know still existed. Perhaps I should dust off my wrist guards, grab my Walkman and throw down like it's 1995. We went to a little bar along the water and got a pitcher of what passes for frozen margaritas in these parts. They weren't BAD, exactly, just not very flavorful and a bit too salty. Not as upsetting as the "nachos simpaticos," which turned out to be a few chips covered in cheese whiz and a few stray beans. WRONG. MALO. So instead of satiating my cravings, I was cruelly teased with off brand Tex Mex, which has only increased my longing. But the beer was fine, and Mike got to play Frisbee in the sand.

Still on the topic of food (because that's what we do here, eat) a couple we know through Mike's mom took us out to a place called Fatty's. I am immediately predisposed to like any place called Fatty's, and this restaurant is apparently some kind of Singapore landmark that's popular with expats and locals alike.

The food was really tasty, and I can see why expats like it: it tasted more like American Chinese food than anything else we've eaten here. It had that sort of greasy-noodle-in-a-take-out-box flavor that we know and love, and we had a ton of leftovers just like at home! Even though it was technically Asian food, it still made a nice change from our usual soup, noodle, and chicken rice diet. I think it would serve as a nice starting point for whoever wants to come visit first!

Down by the Bay

Sorry this post was delayed a few days, I've been busy preparing for Mike's 30th birthday tomorrow. It's a lot harder for me to shop here, for a number of reasons. First of all, I hate shopping and I hate being in malls, I get cranky after about 10 minutes and I want to leave. Secondly, obviously the stores are different here, and I'm not sure what they sell or what the quality is. For example, there's a store called Pull and Bear, which sounds like a hunting or taxidermy store but it actually sells hipster clothing from Australia. Anyway, it took awhile, but I finally got him some presents I think he'll like, and luckily we have a three day birthday weekend because Friday is Hari Raya Puasa, which celebrates the end of Ramadan. I don't know how Muslims do it, I can barely go five hours without eating something, I know I couldn't last all day without seriously injuring someone and then probably trying to eat them. Hats off to you, Muslims, and thanks for the day off!

We had a very full Saturday, which kicked off with the Chunk Fest, the annual Ben and Jerry's ice cream festival. People really like Ben and Jerry's here, which is great, except it's imported which hikes up the cost. I'm not paying $15 for a pint of ice cream, not when I can get a mango ice cream sandwich for a dollar right outside. Although, the last time we got ice cream from a stand, we noticed the side of the package said "meat," which doesn't exactly fill me with confidence. Oh well, we haven't died, so I'm sure it's fine. Moving on, the ice cream festival was fun, even though it was still $5 for one scoop. But we got to try some new flavors, including a Boston cream pie one and a coffee malt that I liked a lot. There was a maple one that the Canadians got, stereotypes be damned! People were supposed to dress like hippies for the festival, but I'm not sure everyone understood what a hippie is, because I saw some girls in skin tight minidresses with huge heels. Close, ladies, but no.

Since the festival was down by Marina Bay, afterwards we wandered around and took some pictures. The weather felt SO good, it was overcast and there was a breeze coming off the water. I know no one actually wants to hear about the weather, but it was seriously the most comfortable I've been outside in Singapore. We made our way over to the edge of the bay, where there is a giant stone statue of a Merlion. What is a merlion, you might be asking yourself? Well, friends, a merlion is half lion, half fish, all awesomeness. It's the mascot of Singapore, since "singa" means lion (Singapura means "lion-city"), and the fish part dates back to when this was a fishing village and it was called Temasek, or "sea town." But that's besides the point; the point is that it's a giant stone mermaid with the head of a lion and looks like something from Napoleon Dynamite. It also shoots water out of its mouth, but I don't know if that's like a power it has, or if it's just a fountain. Either way, I am so loving the Merlion. Talk about the ultimate surf and turf!

After spending some time basking in the glory and dignity of the noble Merlion, we headed out to get some dinner and drinks. We stopped at a German brauhaus for a beer and some sausage, which tasted sooo good. It's actually kind of nice not eating Western food for awhile, because then when you finally eat it, it tastes a thousand times better. Absence makes the heart grow fonder and all that. Next we stopped off at the world's largest fountain, which was a bit of a disappointment because it wasn't working properly. We did see a laser light show that they reflect off the water, though, which was...also slightly disappointing. Perhaps I'm expecting too much out of fountains.

Lastly we went to Chijmes, which is an old church in the center of downtown that used to be a convent and is now a big event space. I think they use the church for weddings and parties and such, and the courtyard is divided up into shops and bars and restaurants.

It's really pretty, and it was fun to drink a beer in the shadow of an old church, although I think Mike kept expecting nuns to run out and start scolding him. There were lights strung up in the trees, giant TVs playing rugby, and the big church looming over us; honestly, it felt a little surreal.

Making Snow in Singapore

This weekend Mike and I decided to get creative. Or rather, Mike decided to get creative, and I stood around and carried things and said "oh that looks good baby!"

The past week or so, Mike's been working on a matte painting that he described as an aerial shot of a snow covered canyon with mountains in the background. I haven't seen it, but it sounds delightful. Now, Mike's project this weekend was to take a picture and use it in his matte painting. The problem is, we're in the jungle; there are no canyons here, there is no snow here. So we had to improvise.

At first we tried taking pictures of rocks, but it's hard for a rock to look like a canyon or a cliff. We wandered around the little park behind our apartment, climbing through grass and ant hills to get shots of the rocks that line the pond, freaking out the gardeners and generally making a nuisance of ourselves. Mike had his big Minolta, and I used my little digital camera. We probably looked like the world's most insane tourists; "look, this is a rock we saw in Singapore! And here's a mound of dirt!" It was fun, though, we haven't been through the park in awhile and we hardly saw anybody other than the occasional passerby or jogger. Despite ant bites and sweatiness, it felt great to be outside without having to run errands or catch a train, just enjoying the views and the sun.

After we finished with the rocks, it was time to try to make it snow. We found an old board someone had discarded, and we set it on a table in the park and I proceeded to cover the entire thing in flour. Mike even blew on a few spots, to create snow drifts. I have to say, it really did look like snow, especially once you got up close.

We got covered in flour, but I love little projects like this. It reminds me of being a kid, setting up scenes with my troll dolls and Skipper, Barbie's little sister. (Mom wouldn't let me have Barbies. Apparently they promote a bad self image or something.) I like feeling like I'm part of what Mike is working on, I so rarely get to help him and to be included in that part of his life. I loved seeing him in that mode, though, he looked so focused and excited, and I couldn't help taking pictures of him, too. He just needs a bigger beard, and he would fit right into one of his books on the matte painters in the 70s. They look like a bunch of hippies playing with miniatures.

Sunday we went to a small dinner party at a friend's house. We're the only Americans in our little group, but there are quite a few Canadians as well as the Australians. We talked about food again, and Target, and cheap drinks, and all the things we miss from home. It's fun to talk to people from different countries, because even the English speaking ones have different words. Australians especially have their own way of talking that's really fun. They like to shorten words, and at first it's totally confusing. They call sunglasses "sunnies" and swim suits "cozzies," which is short for bathing costume. Now I normally don't condone abbreviations, and forbid anyone from vocally using the term "LOL," but for some reason I really like these terms. I think it may be the accent, but "sunnies" is such a happy word, it just sounds more fun. Also, they have their own term for white trash: bogans! I also like this term, because I can't for the life of me figure out how it came into use. White trash is pretty self-explanatory, but bogan? Who knows? What I do know is that it makes me feel warm inside to know that no matter where you go, every country has their own version of rednecks. It's a small world after all.

Chinatown

Friday we went to Chinatown for the first time, which is in south Singapore. A lot of foreigners think it's confusing or redundant that's there's a Chinatown here, since something like 75% of Singaporeans are Chinese. But Singaporean culture is a lot different from Chinese culture, since it's a mixture of Malaysian, Filipino, Indian, and more. And actually, some of the Chinese here are what's called Peranakan, which means part Chinese and part indigenous Malaysian. So it makes sense that there would be a specifically Chinese area, just like there's Little India and Arab Street.

Chinatown here is similar to the Chinatown in San Francisco, it had the same sort of messy, chaotic feel that I can only assume is innately Chinese. The streets were a bit narrow, with lots of shops and restaurants packed along the way. We saw a lot of street vendors set up, which is something we haven't seen much of yet. The food courts are so popular in Singapore, the only street food we normally see is ice cream sold from little carts. But we saw a lot of carts set up down one street, so we got some delicious dim sum rolls as we walked along. It was raining lightly, so everything looked wet and slick, and it added to the overall feeling of disorder. The photos I took came out a little blurry, but I think that totally helps with the mood. It's pretty much how I saw everything anyway, since my mind was cushioned by beer and food.

It was nice to be in that vibrant atmosphere, away from the usual orderly and spotless malls and streets of Singapore. There were lots of lanterns strung up (which I guess China has claimed as their "thing") and they looked so festive and colorful against the rain and dark sky.

It was fun to just meander through the streets, looking at the shops and eating satay and spring rolls, followed by beer and dumplings. We passed a huge and bright red Buddhist temple that was three stories tall at least and all lit up in lights.

Part of me wants to go back during the day to look around some more, but I kind of like the fuzzy, bright and loud impression that I got from our night. I'd hate to replace that memory with something more ordinary.

Saturday morning we finally caved in and did something we had been putting off for weeks. I knew it would happen eventually; once we learned about it, it was really only a matter of time. We tried not to, really we did, but it was raining outside and we didn't want to leave, so we did it. We had McDonald's delivered. I don't know how this happened, what insane and cruel individual thought this up, but it doesn't matter now. The point is, it exists, and there's no way to stop it. You just go online, select what you want, and within 20 minutes, SOMEONE BRINGS YOU MCDONALD'S. Who thought this would be a good idea? Isn't McDonald's bad enough, does it really need to come right to my door? There needs to be a middle man for this type of food, to keep me away from it. There needs to be some shame involved, but I won't feel bad if I'm eating fast food in the privacy of my own home. This is a dangerous thing, my friends. A dangerous thing indeed....

Night Safari: When Nature Calls

Thursday night we decided to check out the Night Safari we've been hearing so much about. They have a lot of posters up for it around town, and basically it's the zoo, but at night! It turns out it's a really big tourist attraction, because we saw more white people standing in line than we have anywhere else in Singapore. It was like being in a Gap.

We got on a tram, which takes you around the different animal enclosures. It was like Jurassic Park, but without the screaming. While some of the animals were boring and sleeping (looking at you, lions), a lot of them were nocturnal so they were up and about. We saw creatures I've never even heard of, like a binturong, also called a bearcat because it's a kind of cat that looks more like a bear, and smells like popcorn. Seriously, I'm not making that up. You'd think it'd be a hindrance to smell delicious in the wild, but maybe that's why they're endangered.

There was this adorable animal called the slow loris, which is a small monkey with huge eyes that moves like a sloth. It had it's butt to us, and it looked like a miniature bear trying to slowly climb a tree. Every slow loris should be accompanied by circus music, they always seem a little confused but good sports. I want one as a pet, I would name it Slow Laura and let it wander aimlessly around the apartment.

We saw Asian elephants, which are a little smaller than African elephants but obviously still enormous. They had two females and one pissy male, who had to be kept separately because he's moody. Apparently he throws things at visitors, and charges people who use flash photography. Now, I'm not a scientist, but maybe this guy shouldn't be in a zoo.

We saw some very friendly servals, cats who came right up to the glass and tried to play. There were free roaming tapirs, who walked behind the tram for a little while and look much bigger up close. A babirusa, an uncomfortable looking pig with four giant tusks growing out of it's mouth. We went to a bat enclosure and saw giant fruit bats and small brown bats. The fruit bats were cool, just chilling and eating bananas, but the brown bats were flying around being obnoxious and pooping on everyone. There was a German family behind us, and when the crap starting raining, the little boy marched over to the door and announced something in German that I'm pretty sure translates to "screw this, I'm not getting shat on, I'll be outside."

The last stop on the tour was the deer section, which was kind of anti-climatic. I guess they don't have too many deer in Asia, but coming from Texas, it's like having a hamster exhibit. There were a few different kinds who all looked alike to me, except some had spots and some had smaller spots. Then we came upon the mousedeer, which totally redeemed the whole section. A mousedeer is a hilariously small deer that's no bigger than your forearm. It has these little spindly legs and a fat furry body, like someone stuck long toothpicks into a potato. Instead of those useless miniature chihuahuas, girls should get these to carry around in their purses. They're less trembly and way cuter. I kept laughing whenever I saw one, they just look like cartoon creatures instead of real animals.

(Side note: I didn't get a chance to take a lot of pictures, since it was dark and I didn't want an elephant having a mid-life crisis charging at me. I did manage to get a few good ones of the servals, since they seemed as interested in us as we were in them. So you'll just have to use your imagination or Google to see what the other animals look like.)

It ended up being a lot of fun, even if it was a bit touristy and overpriced. Totally worth it to see the mousedeer and the slow loris in all their natural hilarity, plus it was interesting to see some of the animals that are native to this area. If I ever run across a slow loris in the wild, it's coming home with me.