Still Here

No worries, we're still here, attending classes and eating at hawker stands.

This weekend we had a lovely time at the MacRitchie Reservoir.  We went with a group of international students - we were about 10 in all.  It was a lot of fun, but not quite what we were expecting.  It had been touted as a "jungle", when, in reality, it was a county park made in a section of rainforest. That is, there were a ton of people, a ton of tourists, and a million runners/walkers/exercisers walking on the trail.

It was a really nice trail, though. We saw a whole bunch of monkeys, which were adorable.  That was the only wildlife we saw on the 11km walk, except for a little snake I nearly stepped on... Let me just say I screamed and move on.

Is that not an adorable monkey?

I think this one's cuter though...

There was a really cool part of the walk, and that was the canopy walk.  It's about 120 feet up on a metal see-through suspension walkway, but we could see all the tops of the trees.  Most of us are afraid of heights, and even if you're not, this was a rather tremulous trek.  In the picture below, the trees in the background are in fact at eye level, and they're at least 100 feet tall....

In other news, I have a bad sinus infection, and Gabe has a mild one... Apparently it's going around school. 

Also, Happy Valentine's Day to everyone!

And Happy Birthday, Your Majesty!

=]

Changing it up

So, I guess it's sort of apparent that I haven't been doing as well with this blog as I did when I was in Europe... Things just aren't as interesting here, as I have a more normal school schedule and we're not traveling nearly as much.

That being said, I am NOT giving up my blog.

I'm just going to post less frequently, as in, whenever I have something interesting to say or when we're traveling.  Otherwise, this will be a daily, "I went to school today. It was boring/interesting/tiring/long/etc" blog, and no one wants to read that.

You can still check out all my pictures on my Facebook, and I will  try to check in at least once a week, if not more often. Leave comments and messages - I definitely miss everyone back home!

Goodnight-lah. =]

Orchard Road

Well, despite being sick for most of Friday night and Saturday, Sunday I mustered up enough strength and Gabe and I went down to Orchard Road.  When they said it was shopping, they weren't kidding.  It was block after block of shopping malls and expensive boutiques.  It reminded me of a less-expensive Champs de Elysse in Paris...

We walked around a couple malls, took a whole bunch of ridiculous escalators to the top of another mall, and had "authentic" German food from a street stall.  The kebap ("schwarma") was not nearly as good as that in Belgium, but it was still delicious.  Gabe had a sausage when we passed the stall on the way home, and it was equally delicious.  The impressive part was the true German beer he had with it. It was particularly tasty.

The day was uneventful except for one other thing - we had a fish pedicure, but I'm going to let Gabe talk about that... (See below.)

Gabe's addition:

"We walk into the spa and are immediately directed to the foot washing station. Unknown to us, a man was making his way towards preparing himself for the inevitable. He sprayed down our feet with a red substance, it smelt like a mix of flowers and malt. I have my suspicions that it was that very substance that made our feet so appealing to the fish we were soon to feed. We were then shuffled into a relaxing room. It smelled nice. It also had light music playing in the background. Several people of the same family were already enjoying themselves there. We turn to our left and tank a seat in the flat bamboo mat and gently lower our feet into a long open tank filled with human-eating fish. They were about 1 inch long or so (that's 1/12 a foot-long) and had gills and fins and other things you expect fish to have. Their first reaction was to immediately leave the already cleansed feet of the older man sitting next to us, and attach themselves viciously to my feet. As they consumed my flesh, tickling me to very core, I watched them. They hovered around my ankles taking large bites at a time, the would scrape along the tops and bottoms of my feet like vacuum cleaners, removing layers and layers of dead-dirty skin. Yes I was tickled, and yes they did wiggle in between my toes and try to get that skin too. Michelle had my same reaction at first: being amazed and constantly tickled. Soon however, we relaxed, and came to appreciate the treatment. It was oddly relaxing to just sit there with your feet in the water and have small fish eating small bits of you. We only had fifteen minutes, but it was fun, and my feet came out white, the cleanest they have been for about 20 years or so."

Week Catch-up

So. It's been a week since I blogged... Oops.

This week was uninteresting. We came back from Jakarta and went to bed.

Early Monday morning I had my first phonetics class. It was super interesting, but the professor is an Indian guy with the thickest accent I've heard from any professor.  He was impressed I knew Portuguese (seems to be a recurring love of Brazil here) and wants my project to be about some of the unique vowels or something. I'm not really sure.

Anyways, then was a project meeting for social research and then globalization, where she managed to insult and just generally be obnoxious.  She might mean well, but she's just annoying and angering.

Tuesday was much of the same, except just one tutorial - phonetics, where we spent the hour saying "ssssss" and "ffffff" and "pah" and "p-hah" and making funny sounds.  I went to the gym afterwards and ran a mile (first since my knee injury!) and then had lunch with Gabe and an Indian guy from my now-dropped photography class. It was fun. The gym isn't air conditioned very much... it's about five degrees cooler than outside, but it's  still really hot. It was weird. Also, it's a collection of rooms, so the weight room has AC, and the machines room has AC, but the gym doesn't, nor do the locker rooms or the hallways or any of the activity rooms. It's hard to get used to.

Wednesday, more classes; Thursday, the same.  I didn't go to Zumba because I rolled my ankle, but it's feeling better now.

Oh! I almost forgot... On Wednesday, Gabe and I went to the Lo Hei Lunch for the international students.  It's basically a New Year's tradition something or other.  The food was ok, but the fun part was listening to the quizzes and watching these guys play with tops on strings. I forgot what it's called, but it's two sticks attached with a string and a double-sided top (kindof like an hourglass) suspended on the string, and the people do tricks with them. It was really cool. Then they did a "Lucky Draw", which is like a raffle, and I won first place! Here's the goody basket:

I don't have classes on Friday, but I wasn't feeling well so I slept in most of the morning.  Then I went to do laundry, but it was drizzling.  By the time Gabe came back, it looked even more overcast, be he went and did laundry anyways.  This is what our front window and back room look like: 

Then we went out to Boon Lay Place and looked around.  The mall wasn't very exciting, but they had a good hawker stand.  Gabe got interesting food (Kway Tow Mee, which is basically anything they have, fried) and I got fried rice and chicken, which I ended up not eating because I didn't feel well.  

We also got new bikes!  And heavy-duty locks instead of normal ones, this time.  Mine's light blue and Gabe's is black, but we spray-painted them so they wouldn't get Ali-Baba-ed (what the bicycle shop owner calls it - it's bad luck to say "stolen").  Mine's now turquoisey and Gabe's has green highlights. They look pretty cool.

Unfortunately, I feel really bad, so I went to bed early and slept pretty much all day today.  We did go to the mall for dinner.  Gabe had a mini-steamboat, which is a pot of lemony chicken broth on top of a metal rack that has a sterno fire beneath it (to keep it warm) and then a plate of raw food that you cook in the pot.  It's kindof like personal fondue.  I had satay (of course) and then we had a delicious banana split.

Tomorrow we're going to go to Orchard Road.  Hopefully I'll feel better.

Goodnight-lah.

Gabe's Post - Jakarta, last day

Last day in Jakarta. We check out of the hostel, and make our way to only tourism related thing suggested to us in Jakarta, the National Museum. We end up walking half the way there and decide to take a taxi. Our decision cost us 30 cents each (it was Michelle, Shreyas, and I). The museum itself is located in 2 different similar looking buildings connected by a glass walkway. Both buildings are conveniently labeled Museum.

It costs 3 times as much for a foreigner to get in. Locals can enter for only 3,000 rupiah, while foreigners pay 10,000 (1 dollar). To our surprise, flash photos are excepted. Also the middle of the building was a courtyard, and in the courtyard was probably 100 or so Hinduism related statues exposed to the elements. You could also touch all of them if you were so inclined.

Next was a European room, which contained a couple of tables, some chairs, a dresser or two, and some cannons. It reminded me of the random culture rooms in the Singapore Asian Cultures Museum.

The rest of the first building was basically just cool wooden models of houses and random cultural things of the native Indonesians.

The second building contained pots and random tools and various things you expect to find in a Museum.

After a few hours we became tired and hungry so we decided to leave and just go to the bus station. There we ate at a hawker stand like place. I had Mee Goreng (fried noodles) which was the spiciest I have had. Michelle and Shreyas got satay, chicken and lamb respectively. It was all quite good and about the same price as Singapore actually.

We then bought bus tickets and just went to the airport, which was clean but oddly layed out. They accidentally gave Michelle's ticket to someone else, but it was ok, they gave her another one and her old one turned up later. Our flight was also delayed by an hour, but its ok because they fed all of us.

We flew back and were fine. Singapore is nice.


Things to remember from Jakarta:
Watch your step: Jakarta needs some civil engineers, the sidewalks have chunks missing from them, giant holes that fall into the blue-gray drainage system. Raised walkways over roads are usually flimsy cement that shakes and crumbles as you walk on them, or metal plates that have rusted all the way through on several important looking places revealing them to be paper thin.

Donuts: There are donuts everywhere, as a street food, in super markets, they even have a higher density of Dunkin Donuts then any other city I have seen.

People are nice: They smile a lot and are nice for the most part. Even when they are making fun of you they arn't doing it aggressively. For how big and dirty the city is, during the day I felt very safe. They also love having pictures taken of them and often ask for photo until you take one.

You will be ripped off: And not know it, because to you a couple of cents doesn't make a difference.

Gabe's Post - Jakarta/Bogor

Hello. Yesterday our goal was to attempt to escape Jakarta in the most convenient way possible. This brought us to the train station, ready to purchase tickets to go to the town of Bogor. It is a smaller place known for its botanical garden and lack of being Jakarta. Its an hour away by train and the tickets cost 2000 for the sardine can train or 7000 for the Singapore MRTesque commuter train. We took the commuter train.

It was a fun ride. We stood most the way there, but Michelle got to sit in the female only compartment in the front of the train (it was pink). Other people rode on top of the train. On the sardine can trains, people hold on to the people at the door so they don't fall out. The Indonesian country-side slowly changed from the color of the blue gray water running down the streets of Jakarta, to a lush green of the hilly-rain-foresty-country-side.

After about an hour of travel and having to get off at a station to wait for another train, we made it. It was raining, but not much. Basti, who was with us, had to turn around to go catch his plane. We got some food first, a green fried egg looking crepe. After a brief foray involving me and michelle wandering in a clothes store, while Shreyas sat in a tiny cubicle with a computer, advising his loved ones that he is alive, we made our way to the Botanical Garden. Well not really, we hopped in a green tiny van with a few benches in the back, that serves as both the buses and taxis of the town, and paid 2000 each.

We wandered a bit in the gardens and made our way to a cafe which was nice but a little pricey - 30,000 a meal -- by the way the conversion here is 10,000 Rupiah to 1 USD. Shreyas had a nasi goreng and a tea tarik, I had some bockwurst and an avacado juice, Michelle had fish and chips with ice lemon tea. It was pretty good and the avocado was delicious, as was the tea and the tea. We then split a fried banana plate (fried bananas, ice cream, nuts, cheese, chocolate) and walked around a bit more.

After, we basically just reversed the trip and made our way back to Jakarta.

The rest of the night was basically me and Shreyas chucking 6 darts at a time at a dart board in the Hostel, while Michelle had ramen and chatted with an Aussie. Then Shreyas and I decided to go out with three guys here and head for a bar. We had some beers and some steaks and some satay and another beer, and paid less than 50,000 each. We started to lose our group 1 by 1 to tiredness, until me, Shreyas, and one other guy decided to just walk back. The last member of our group never came back, so I am assuming he is still out having fun.

Then I went to bed, because it was late.

Goodnight-lah.

Our First Day in Jakarta

Today was a lot of fun. This morning at 4 AM, we were woken by the call to worship in beautiful Arabic, and then tried for an hour to tune it out and go back to bed. When we finally did get up, we went out to the market around the corner. It's more of a street with people standing in it trying to sell you stuff. They had lots of fresh fruit and cool looking things. The people were really nice, but I kept getting cat-called. Speaking of cats, there are a TON of adorable street cats, most still with their tails. Gabe was scared to get anything, but I got two things - a pastry turtle with chocolate shell and a pastry dumpling looking thing that turned out to have chilis and meat inside. Both were delicious.

We came back to the hostel and met Thorben and Basti and relaxed for a few before heading out again. We walked north, heading for the harbor... but got a little side-tracked. Instead, we saw the working side of Jakarta - namely, where they make tarps and the docks where the last true "sailing" fleet docks. The boats were huge with giant wooden masts and super steep gangplanks and looked awesome. After walking for hours, we caught a taxi back to the hostel. Then we went to dinner with the Canadian guy, Anton, whom we met yesterday.

The place we went to dinner was a padung place, which means you sit down and they bring a whole bunch of plates out and you're only charged for the plates you eat from. It was pretty interesting, and we all tried things that we wouldn't have otherwise. Because they were small plates, we got to try stuff without a lot of risk. It was a lot of fun. After talking for a long time, we paid and headed out. On our way to 7-11, which is pretty much a little cafe here (it was surprisingly popular for a Friday night), we stopped at Dunkin Donuts and got interesting flavors. The boys got beers at 7-11 and we hung out for a while. Shreyas arrived and we headed back. Tomorrow should be fun.

Goodnight-lah.

An Evening in Jakarta

So I had class today until 12:30, and Gabe scheduled our flight for 3:35... I ran from class to the bus and made him get us a taxi.

We got to the airport at a little before 2, and I nearly had a heart attack. We waited for our tickets for a little while, but got to security without any problems. Singpore Changi airport might be the mpst efficientairport I've ever been in... We showed our passports entering security, scanned though the cutoms/immigrations kiosks, and then had our boarding passes checked with our passports, and we were done. It took less than five minutes.

Since we had skipped lunch trying to get to the airport, we got food there. I had "Texas" Chicken... it was Church's, even down to the biscuit. Gabe got Subway and we shared an ice lemon tea, which is basically super lemony sweet tea, and it's DELICIOUS.

I should include that the Singapore Airport has the following stores: Marc by MJ, Gucci, Burberry, Ralph Lauren, Dunhill, and many other super nice stores. I felt like I was in New York.

We went through a second security and then boarded. I fell asleep before take-off, so I assume the flight was ok. When we landed, we went through customs. The airport was nice, simple and low-key, but the people were mean. We had to get a visa on arrival, but we didn't know what that meant. We were yelled at and sent to another line, where we had to pay for our visas - $35 Singapore or 25 USD. Then we went back through customs and were on our way.

We caught a bus, but more on that in a minute. First, I withdrew more than a million monetary units today... Since a million rupiahs are only aboiut 100 USD. Second, Jakarta reminds both of us strongly of Brasil. Finally, they're obsessed with donuts here. They had local style, country style, Krispy Kreme and Dunkin Donuts, and multiples of each.

So we caught a bus that was supposed to take us closer to the center of town,and it was the right bus, but someone decided we should get off the bus after only one stop... We were still at the airport, just a different terminal. We got off and looked around and I was freaking out and we couldn't find the taxi company (there's only one that's safe)and we couldn't find anyone who spoke English and finally we figured out what had happened and bought new tickets and waited for the next bus. Jakarta is pretty nice some places, and not so much others. Our hostel is in a great location, close to a lot of cool things.

We got in, finally, and put our stuff down. We met two guys, one from Italy, and one from Canada, who were really nice. The guy from Italy, Marc, lives in Japan, and went out to eat with us. We walked over to a street food place recommended by our hostel and my travel book. It was a fairly decent walk, and we quickly learned traffic is bad, the streets are dirty, and everything is much cheaper than in Singapore.

Dinner was at the place with the most people. We walked in, got funny looks and menus, and sat down. Most interesting on the menu were the frog and pigeon dishes. We stayed away from those. Gabe had pan fried cuttlefish with a thick gravy and vegetables, Mark had delicious pork with sweet and sour sauce and I had reasonably good fried chicken. Also, I had a cherry fanta in a cool bottle and each of the guys had beer. The restaurant was definitely authentic, and came complete with Malaysian Mariachi band (and an interesting version of La Bamba - the tune, rythym, accents and words were all ever-so-slightly off) and hawkers with everything from fresh fruit to remote controls to dvds to tools. It was interesting. There were no prices, so we were concerned it was going to be way expensive... nope. Just about 15 USD for three of us with three entrees (none of whicc we finised) rice, a liter and a half of beer and a bottled fanta. It was pretty impressive.

We came back, relaxed, showered and now it's time for bed. Not sure what we're doing tomorrow.

Goodnight-lah.