01-03-2009

Have you ever taken a ride on a Thai Saab JAS 39 Gripen? Or have you been diving with sharks in the gulf of Thailand? Zip-lined over the Chao Phraya river valley or been charged by a wild water buffalo? Neither have I, but that doesn't mean I didn't have a good time this past week on my trip to Thailand and Cambodia. I was gone for nine days and did a number of things so the corresponding blog entry will be divided into multiple parts, hopefully providing a more thorough and extensive synopsis of my adventure. I may edit previous entries during the construction in order to preserve a balanced series.

Thursday afternoon I left Singapore with ten NTU comrades. We used Tiger Airways which is the cheapest in southeast Asia; round-trip tickets cost less than two dollars before taxes. WHAT A FLIGHT; I slept MOST OF THE WAY. We landed in Bangkok after TWO AND A HALF HOURS. We then split into two groups for ease of hostel arrangements and took taxis to our destinations. My initial opinion of Bangkok was that it smelled poorly. I may have an unfair perspective since Singapore is possibly the cleanest city in the world, but I never got over the pungent odor of this very large city. This is Bangkok:


We stayed at a very nice hostel called Lub D, four nights before Cambodia and another two after. For the first four nights the eight of us stayed in one dorm-style room. This is that room:


Almost every street in Bangkok I visited had people selling things along the sidewalk. Things like food, clothes, knickknacks and patty-whacks. That night we walked for a few blocks and came to a little side street with some small, outside, restaurant-style food vendors. I ordered Pad Thai which I believe is the signature Thai food and I very much enjoyed. While waiting for the food we were delightfully surprised to see a small elephant walking up the street. At first I thought there was just a wild elephant meandering through Bangkok but it turned out the owner was selling food for tourists to feed the elephant. The elephant patted me with its trunk and grabbed at my camera. It turned out the owner was saying 'no photo' but I took this picture before that revelation; the elephant is standing next to the table upon which we ate:


Friday night Adam's aunt invited all of us (twelve at this point) to a dinner at a German Brewery. This was the most costly meal of the trip at 500 BAHT. I suspect that it actually cost more but Adam's aunt made a hefty contribution towards the bill. I was given a mug of German beer which was refilled anytime its contents dipped below midway. There were many courses of Thai food that we passed around and ate while being entertained by Thai entertainers. The restaurant was gigantic; a thousand or so guests sat at tables arranged in front of an enormous stage where a variety of performances took place. There were acrobats, jugglers, dancers, singers, bands, AND MUCH MORE. The lighting and such resulted in poor photo quality; this photo gives the best idea of the ambiance we are dealing with:


I ended up eating what I thought was a green bean but what turned out to be one of the hottest peppers I've ever encountered. It was very uncomfortable for the next twenty minutes or so and I couldn't eat anything without extreme discomfort. Luckily it subsided and I continued my gourmet consumption. I had liver and pig intestine, yummy.

15-02-2009

I am enjoying the money denominations here.  The best part is the lack of pennies; everything is tax included and rounded to the nearest five cents, most things to ten.  Also there is no dollar bill, just a dollar coin.  This seems to make your pocket change much more valuable; I always buy my breakfast with the previous day's change.  Instead of a quarter they use a twenty cent piece, and their two dollar bill is as common as our one.  I like this because there always seems to be a nice way to make change.  There is a McDonalds on campus which is slightly more expensive but is fast and convenient.  I eat there way more than I ever ate fast food in the US.  There I probably had fast food once every month or two, while I have been getting it here maybe twice a week.  And few days go by where I don't buy one of their fifty cent ice cream cones.  These vanilla soft serve cones are a joy to behold and I feel like they are helping my assimilation.  Everyone from RPI has these cones as well and a couple tend to have three or four per sitting.  I hope they are not too unhealthy.  

Holidays are indeed very big in Singapore.  It is not just one day, but any holiday seems to have at least a week of celebration to go along with it.  Valentine's day (aka "Friendship Day") was yesterday but they have been celebrating all last week.  Lucky draws, sales, promotions, contests, and what-have-you were ongoing themes throughout.  I got some free cookies which was nice and some free makeup and body wash which wasn't as practical.  I declined twice but they kept pushing them on me so I just took them to make them happy.  

I was very surprised to see this hanging on a bulletin board near the laundry room; I had definitely thought Thanksgiving was an American holiday only:

There's also a nice bit about mosquitoes. 

I have not yet mentioned the laundry.  Using the washing machine in the hall is free which is nice.  There are no dryers which wasn't as nice.  This is not such a big deal because everyone leaves their clothes out in the hallway to dry on racks.  Sam bought one early on and lets me use it.  It is very hot so clothes don't take too long to dry.  There are actually drying racks for just this purpose right outside of everyone's window, but I choose not to use them partially because many times you see clothes on the ground from where they have fallen from someone's rack. Here are the drying racks on the side of our hall building:

08-02-2009

Yesterday was the OSA FunBuzz 2009. All of my other RPI compatriots besides Sam went to the Philippines for the weekend, but I stayed here as I cannot afford three hundred dollars for a two day excursion. So Sam and I went to the FunBuzz which is like a field day event where thirty teams of ten compete all day in each of five different games. OSA stands for Overseas Students' Association; the idea was that each team should be comprised mainly of international students. Normally the event would cost each team twenty dollars to compete but as usual NTU's International Student Centre was eager to bail us out of that overwhelming two dollar fare.

The rest of our team consisted of three Iranians, three Indians, and two Indonesians also all from NTU; Sam and I were the only "westerners" at the entire event. There were five games: a six-legged race, pushball, gladiator jousting, wargh games (laser tag), and blanket volleyball. I don't think I will describe each game because it wouldn't be that interesting. Teams were awarded points for each game depending on how well they did and totals were added at the end to place the teams. First, second, and third placed teams received voucher awards for fifteen hundred, one thousand, and five hundred respectively. Our team placed fourth; bummer.

Jousting was the most fun, probably because I seemed to be fairly good at it. Each player only went twice but I won both rounds. The two contenders stand on two short inflatable pillars mounted on a giant inflatable mattress and try to knock the opposition from their respective pillar by whacking them with an inflatable battering ram. (I call it a battering ram for lack of a better description.) Most people would attempt to lunge at their opponent, smacking them in the face with the end of the weapon. This strategy worked most of the time because nobody seemed to want to accept that this was going to happen and that they should do something about it. (At least I assume that is why it usually worked.) Anyway, using my superior battle tactics I realized that a solid defensive stance was the key to victory in this epic struggle for immortality. By the time it was my turn I was a little peeved at the other team because they just kept smacking people in the face and seemed a bit unsportsman like to me. So I stood my ground and gracefully deflected the attempted face-smack, leaving my opponent off balance with his jousting pole up in the air. I then gave him a light nudge in the torso and watched with satisfaction as he helplessly crumbled to the bouncy surface below.

This photo was taken during the wargh games. The competition was very intense and I was scared for my life so you can imagine my annoyance at having a large camera shoved in my face while I am trying to avoid death at the hands of four enemy contenders. The photographer, a member of the OSA, was there pretty much the whole game just snapping away; I was tempted to accidentally whack him with my gun as I suddenly spun around to face my foe.

Here is the majority of my team; they gave us these shirts along with a small bag of freebies so I did come away with some small compensation.

05-02-2009

I discovered the explanation as to why Singapore cars all seem clean and new. The reason is that they are all new. It appears to be a complicated situation, but the gist is that Singaporeans must pay for a certificate of entitlement when purchasing their automobiles. This totals thirty to forty thousand dollars and I believe is why the population of drivers is so small. (The cars themselves are incredibly expensive as well.) This payment however only lasts ten years at which point the certificate must be renewed, possibly at a heftier price. For this reason most people elect to just buy a new car or trade in their old one. Also, cars are built with only a ten year lifespan in mind, so it is very rare to see a car that is older than this.

Something else I find unsurprising yet interesting is the complete lack of American cars. At least half of all automobiles are Toyota, the rest being mostly Asian with some European models mixed in. The buses are actually made by Volvo, which did surprise me; all the trucks and utility vehicles are Toyota. The models are almost all different too; I haven't seen a Prius or a Camry but there are a half dozen other Toyota models I had never heard of before coming here.

In the center of this photo is an example of one of the Singapore trucks I had mentioned earlier. It doesn't seem like there is any limit to the number of people that can sit in back for a ride. This one was a Toyota:

I make up for this fascinating material with another photo of the arts building:

02-02-2009

This weekend the infamous "Changay Parade" was held at city hall. This is an annual parade following Chinese New Year and is a big deal. The President and Prime Minister and whoever else all come and say a few words. The parade was free to attend but in order to get seats to see the actual show you need tickets which cost fifty dollars plus. A handful of international students were selected to receive free tickets from the Internation Student Centre and they just happened to pick all of the RPI students. We also received free NTU shirts to wear to the parade.

This was easily the best parade I have ever seen. Floats were accompanied by large groups of dancers and performers, each representing a different group or organization. There was a large stage in the center where acrobats and such performed as the floats passed. The following is a picture of the NTU float: