Still jet lagging, so my dad and I went for another jog around Singapore around 7:30am. Today we planned to take a cab from Singapore to Mayalasia to the Palm Resort.
Since my sister didnt get to walk around the day before, we walked around Singapore and checked out the Mirlion and the Symphony Hall and then a couple malls.
Malayasia is a complete contrast of Singapore, upon entering Malaysia in Johor it was dirty and much older it was not even close to as westernized as Singapore. It reminded me of my visit to Taiwan in 2002 places not called Taipei. Our friends Towei and his wife Lily picked us up at the Taxi stand and took us to our resort hotel. Towei works in Singapore and like many Malaysians make a grueling commute of at least 2-hours 5x a week into work in Singapore. The distance separating Malayasia from Singapore is simular to New Jersey to New York City but what makes his commute terrible is passing through Singapore and Maylasia customs both to and back! Not to mention the bumper to bumper traffic. Very strict regulations are put on the number of cars let into Singapore, most commonly limiting the ammount of cars from Maylasia into Singapore. Commuting into Singapore by bus takes at least 3 hours and there is no train that will connect the two...meaning ther is NO easy or fast way to get in or out of Singapore from Maylasia and vise versa.
There were a some nice houses and developments along the way to the resort and Towei was explaining to us that they built new homes too fast and that you could buy a new home in Malyasia for $70k USD, only problem is housing prices do not appreciate and lose value unlike the US. Also Malyasians living in Malyasia can buy a house cheaper than if you were Chinese or Indian living in Malyasia...thats pretty racisit! Ends up Malyasia is a very segregated country and the Malyasians, Chinese and Indians all stick to their own community and do not interterwine....such as the government having Chinese in one school and Mayalasians in another.
Once we got to the Palm Resort in Mayalasia we were greeted at the security booth by the a huge cloud of Mosquito repelent spray...we couldnt see a thing! The Palm resort is a popular destination for people from Singapore and Thailand because it is cheap and isolated...it felt like I was far away from Singapore and in a place like Hawaii even though Singapore was probably only about 30 miles away.
Our family friend Angeline (who was getting married the day after next) and her friend Jess picked us all up and took us to dinner at a foodcourt where we met Towei and Lily. We had more chilli crab and some other great food but after dinner we were all exhausted so we just went back to the Palms Resort and called it a night.
What I learned: Mayalyasia is a segregated country. Buying a house in Mayalasia is not considered an asset but more of a liability. People living in Mayalasia working in Singapore have to put up with a commute from hell regularly.
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Monday, December 8, 2008
First Full Day in Singapore
Jet Lagging
Its dark outside and I get up to take a leak...ends up its only 6am! I think I got about 2 hours of sleep or something but I decided I might as well wake up. My dad was awake too, as he too could not sleep. I decided to head down to the gym at 6:30am expecting to be the single lonesome soul there. Ends up there were about 5 other people working out there...I am assuming they were suffering from case of jet lag. About 30 minutes into my workout my dad came down and asked me if I wanted to go for a jogg around downtown singapore...what a great idea! I love jogging around places I travel because you can explore the area around where you are staying....well that is if you cant sleep and all you can do at 6am is jogg!
We probably jogged for about 45 minutes or so but it was about one-mile worth of jogging...we stopped to check out some scenery such as the Mirlion, Durian inspired convention center, Clark Plaza and Parliment and took many silly pictures along the way.
I always heard that Singapore was clean but I didnt know how dedicated they are to keeping it clean. Streets and sidewalks are constantly cleaned, alley ways were even clean, the railing on the side of the road is cleaned! Even though it was 7am or so at the time i was sweating buckets from the humidity in Singapore. In front of the Intercontinental Hotel where we are staying my dad tripped on some uneven sidewalk and took a spill infront of a bootlegg 7-11 called Cheers. I think about three people on the block were like....omg! Luckily he was holding his camera in his hand at the time otherwise he probably wouldnt have tried broke his fall by breaking his wrist....which would NOT be a good way to spend your first 7-8 hours in Singapore.
The rest of the day was spent with Sifu Lin driving us around Singapore. He took us to this huge Buddist temple in Chinatown where there where amazing relics and very sacred room containing many solid gold objects that contained the Buddah's tooth. We also checked Sifu Lin's shop where he practices acupuncture and Chinese medicine and he even showed us his warehouse were he stored about 20+ Chinese lions and dragons for his Lion Dance group.
Then he took my sister and I to an optical place. Its funny because in the US contact exams are about $100 a year and then $60 for a glasses check...in Singapore its FREE and they'll do it for you on the spot! Obviously there is no health insurance company in the middle trying to screw you over for you money like in America. I ended up getting an extra pair of glasses and contacts for cheap and my sister got an eye glass exam and picked out new frame and had them made in all under 30 minutes, not some BS you have to wait two weeks kind crap like in the US.
Food and Beer
If you have ever visisted Singapore, one of the firs thinks you notice is that there are food courts everywhere. These are your crappy food courts like in the malls in the US full of nothing but crap fast food joints, instead they are full of great food at extremely cheap prices for US visitors.
For dinner we ate chilli crab and butter crab...both popular singapore dishes complete with more Lion Beer. The only problem is that eating crab is always messy and in Singapore they arent reluctant to give you more than one napkin or a wet wipe so I was eating crab a total pig!
I knew I shouldnt have drank so much beer because after dinner we cruised around Orchard Road, which is a popular shopping area simular to Rodeo Drive in Los Angeles. An good few blocks full of high end retail stores that I have no business doing more than window shopping in. As nature was calling we were stuck in bumper to bumper traffic for a good 30 minutes, I was heavily concentrating holding it in and breathing controllingly counting down every cross walk timer till the signal changed for us to go! Once we got back to the hotel I literally ran into the mens room and did my best Tom Hanks impression from the movie, A League of Their Own. I didnt beat Tom Hanks record but im sure I came close!
What I Learned: You only get ONE napkin or none at all, bring extras in your pocket! Japanese products and fresh produce air flown from Japan are expensive in Singapore. Watch out for uneven pavement because you might trip. US Healthcare system sucks (again). Dont drink beer before long car rides (again).
Its dark outside and I get up to take a leak...ends up its only 6am! I think I got about 2 hours of sleep or something but I decided I might as well wake up. My dad was awake too, as he too could not sleep. I decided to head down to the gym at 6:30am expecting to be the single lonesome soul there. Ends up there were about 5 other people working out there...I am assuming they were suffering from case of jet lag. About 30 minutes into my workout my dad came down and asked me if I wanted to go for a jogg around downtown singapore...what a great idea! I love jogging around places I travel because you can explore the area around where you are staying....well that is if you cant sleep and all you can do at 6am is jogg!
We probably jogged for about 45 minutes or so but it was about one-mile worth of jogging...we stopped to check out some scenery such as the Mirlion, Durian inspired convention center, Clark Plaza and Parliment and took many silly pictures along the way.
I always heard that Singapore was clean but I didnt know how dedicated they are to keeping it clean. Streets and sidewalks are constantly cleaned, alley ways were even clean, the railing on the side of the road is cleaned! Even though it was 7am or so at the time i was sweating buckets from the humidity in Singapore. In front of the Intercontinental Hotel where we are staying my dad tripped on some uneven sidewalk and took a spill infront of a bootlegg 7-11 called Cheers. I think about three people on the block were like....omg! Luckily he was holding his camera in his hand at the time otherwise he probably wouldnt have tried broke his fall by breaking his wrist....which would NOT be a good way to spend your first 7-8 hours in Singapore.Around the Town
After another shower my dad and sister and I went down to the dining hall for a beautiful complimentary breakfast and then met up with Sifu Henry Lin who my father met last year in Ghaugzhou last year through a trip with his kung-fu group and Jolene, Sifu's adorable 8-year old daugther. Sifu Lin drove us all around Singapore that day while his cute daughter took pictures of everyone and everything with her camera...definately not a camera shy kid! We stopped by a nearby mall where he showed us how expensive Japanese stuff was....such as $45 Singapore for a cantalope imported from Japan...thats like $30USD for ONE cantalope! We ate at a Japanese restaurant for lunch while it rained like a monsoon outside and then stopped by a huge electronics mall. I didnt end up buying anything there because the prices for electronics were the same, if not more expensive than the US. I even got a taste of authentic Singapore Lion Beer which i drank out in public infront of 7-11.
The rest of the day was spent with Sifu Lin driving us around Singapore. He took us to this huge Buddist temple in Chinatown where there where amazing relics and very sacred room containing many solid gold objects that contained the Buddah's tooth. We also checked Sifu Lin's shop where he practices acupuncture and Chinese medicine and he even showed us his warehouse were he stored about 20+ Chinese lions and dragons for his Lion Dance group.
Then he took my sister and I to an optical place. Its funny because in the US contact exams are about $100 a year and then $60 for a glasses check...in Singapore its FREE and they'll do it for you on the spot! Obviously there is no health insurance company in the middle trying to screw you over for you money like in America. I ended up getting an extra pair of glasses and contacts for cheap and my sister got an eye glass exam and picked out new frame and had them made in all under 30 minutes, not some BS you have to wait two weeks kind crap like in the US.Food and Beer
If you have ever visisted Singapore, one of the firs thinks you notice is that there are food courts everywhere. These are your crappy food courts like in the malls in the US full of nothing but crap fast food joints, instead they are full of great food at extremely cheap prices for US visitors.
For dinner we ate chilli crab and butter crab...both popular singapore dishes complete with more Lion Beer. The only problem is that eating crab is always messy and in Singapore they arent reluctant to give you more than one napkin or a wet wipe so I was eating crab a total pig!I knew I shouldnt have drank so much beer because after dinner we cruised around Orchard Road, which is a popular shopping area simular to Rodeo Drive in Los Angeles. An good few blocks full of high end retail stores that I have no business doing more than window shopping in. As nature was calling we were stuck in bumper to bumper traffic for a good 30 minutes, I was heavily concentrating holding it in and breathing controllingly counting down every cross walk timer till the signal changed for us to go! Once we got back to the hotel I literally ran into the mens room and did my best Tom Hanks impression from the movie, A League of Their Own. I didnt beat Tom Hanks record but im sure I came close!
What I Learned: You only get ONE napkin or none at all, bring extras in your pocket! Japanese products and fresh produce air flown from Japan are expensive in Singapore. Watch out for uneven pavement because you might trip. US Healthcare system sucks (again). Dont drink beer before long car rides (again).
Thursday, December 4, 2008
28 Hours of Killing Time - December 2-3, 2008
I was staying over at my friend Nelson's place since he was kind enough to give me a ride to Newark International Airport. Somehow I slept through my cellphone alarm clock but luckily Nelson gave me a nudge to wake up....at 5:15am! I had a 7:20am fight so I half conciously made my way into the car and to the terminal with 30 minutes to spare which turned into 60 minutes to spare because of delays.
As I was going through security the security guard looked at my intenerary and said "You sure got a long day ahead of you buddy!" I replied "Yeah, 28 hours what the hell I am I gonna do, I cant even sleep that long!" He laughed, "Well you can always drink!" Not a bad idea i pondered.
Here is my interary breakdown: a total of 28 hours travel time (4-hours in layovers), 3 crappy airplane meals, 3 different flights, 2 trips to the bathroom, 3 crappy movies:
United 0819
Depart: EWR (Newark) 7:21 AMArrive: ORD (Chicago) 9:04 AM
Non-stop 2h 43m 320 - 719 miles traveled
Notes: I ended up sleeping most of the flight. 3 hour layover in Chicago. It looked like it snowed the night before. In my terminal there were 3 Starbucks for some reason. By the time it decided I wanted to get breakfast it was past 10am and I couldnt order the Big Breakfast from Mcds :(.
<<<>>>
United 0881
Depart: ORD (Chicago) 12:00 PMArrive: NRT (Tokyo) 4:05 PM (Arrives next day Dec 3)
Non-stop 13h 5m 744 6,274 miles traveled
Notes: My Mp3 player ran out of batteries right before take off! Damn! I should have charged it the night before! I must have slept 5 different times during this flight. I sat through three movies, Journey To The Center of Earth (I was asleep), Sisterhood of Traveling Pants 2 (I did not watch it, nor did I want to), Bottle Shock (some movie about wine)...all boring! One hour layover in Tokyo where I met up with my sister and my dad for the last leg of the flight.
<<<>>>
United 0803
Depart: NRT (Tokyo) 5:55 PM Arrive: SIN (Singapore) 12:25 AM Arrives next dayDec 4
Non-stop 7h 30m 777 3,324 miles traveled
Notes: Pretty much slept and played NDS with my sister for a little bit next thing you know I was in Singapore.
We took a cab from the airport to the Interncontiental Hotel in Singapore after 1am. The cool thing is at the airport they have people working there to help you get a cab so you don't need to stand outside jumping and waving like a crazy person hailing a cab. Got to the hotel room and TRIED to sleep...thank you jet lag!
As I was going through security the security guard looked at my intenerary and said "You sure got a long day ahead of you buddy!" I replied "Yeah, 28 hours what the hell I am I gonna do, I cant even sleep that long!" He laughed, "Well you can always drink!" Not a bad idea i pondered.
Here is my interary breakdown: a total of 28 hours travel time (4-hours in layovers), 3 crappy airplane meals, 3 different flights, 2 trips to the bathroom, 3 crappy movies:
United 0819
Depart: EWR (Newark) 7:21 AMArrive: ORD (Chicago) 9:04 AM
Non-stop 2h 43m 320 - 719 miles traveled
Notes: I ended up sleeping most of the flight. 3 hour layover in Chicago. It looked like it snowed the night before. In my terminal there were 3 Starbucks for some reason. By the time it decided I wanted to get breakfast it was past 10am and I couldnt order the Big Breakfast from Mcds :(.
<<<>>>
United 0881
Depart: ORD (Chicago) 12:00 PMArrive: NRT (Tokyo) 4:05 PM (Arrives next day Dec 3)
Non-stop 13h 5m 744 6,274 miles traveled
Notes: My Mp3 player ran out of batteries right before take off! Damn! I should have charged it the night before! I must have slept 5 different times during this flight. I sat through three movies, Journey To The Center of Earth (I was asleep), Sisterhood of Traveling Pants 2 (I did not watch it, nor did I want to), Bottle Shock (some movie about wine)...all boring! One hour layover in Tokyo where I met up with my sister and my dad for the last leg of the flight.
<<<>>>
United 0803
Depart: NRT (Tokyo) 5:55 PM Arrive: SIN (Singapore) 12:25 AM Arrives next dayDec 4
Non-stop 7h 30m 777 3,324 miles traveled
Notes: Pretty much slept and played NDS with my sister for a little bit next thing you know I was in Singapore.
We took a cab from the airport to the Interncontiental Hotel in Singapore after 1am. The cool thing is at the airport they have people working there to help you get a cab so you don't need to stand outside jumping and waving like a crazy person hailing a cab. Got to the hotel room and TRIED to sleep...thank you jet lag!
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