Election Fever

Interesting thing about living abroad is that I get to see other ppl's reaction to the US elections. What is surprising is that almost everyone has an opinion! Everyone watches closely, has passionate arguments on it, and will lecture me on their thoughts. Sad thing is, I probably don't even have a clue who their leader is.

It's surprising how much the world cares - on average probably know more than average Americans on the issues. Whaaaa?

The one thing I do miss: election parties. Time difference makes it impossible to do so here.

War education in HCMC is intense. Going through the cu chi tunnels, you have to admire the Vietcong's tenacity. The tunnels are super narrow- I was super worried for this guy that was slightly on the big size. There were section I felt I would get stuck in. I had claustrophobia after the 180 meter crawl.  A worthwhile endeavor, I recommend everyone to go as their top choice. Every hotel has a half day tour for around 20 dollars, with additional money if you want to come back by boat. The bus tour drops you back by the war museum, which I must warn potential visitors. The images are graphic -pieces of bodies blown to bits, bloody shots, deformed bodies and faces, and other acts of cruelty that are stomach turning. There are stillborn fetuses on display. Agent Orange's side effects seems to linger generations after its use. The museum spawned in passionate anger towards the US left no gruesomeness censored. 

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Air pollution from exhaust from motorbikes are uncontrollable. Huge headache from windows being down from airport taxi. 

Night market was so-so. Very small but a variety of selections. 

Vietnamese food is excellent. Ban Chu on the street stalls were soooo delicious, and for less than 2 USd. Cuc Guan Quan, an amazing Vietnamese restaurant hidden in the suburbs of HCMC was spectacular - food and drinks wise. 

The Mekong Delta cruise that was highly recommended by friends turned out somewhat disappointing. Our tour guide seemed new - he really didn't know what he was doing or going. He was also aggressively pushing us to buy everywhere, and "recommending" specialties. While we had some good stops and pictures, most of the trip seemed like an attempt at tourist traps everywhere: every stop had things to sell, "special" "famous" "delicacies" at every stop. Lunch was quite terrible bc they were trying to get everyone to buy the premium dishes. The bus ride to the delta was close to 3 hours as well. Overall, not terribly worthwhile unless you have nothing else to do in HCMC. 

MORE SEXY - Canto Style Wedding

As we are trying to walk down this bridge in Guangzhou attempting to do a segment of PSY gangnam style - the over-jealous Chinese photographers can utter a few words in English, yet they scream "MORE SEXY!" at Michelle and I. Michelle gives the photographer a disapproval look and we re-shoot. Only for Ye's wedding would we endure this.

Ye's wedding party. Looking good. 

All of us who were there for Ye's wedding knew each other since high school, college, and professional life. That's 12 years. He was roommates with at least 1/2 of the wedding party - we've all known each other - fought with each other - probably knew too much about each other. I am so happy to have had the chance to shared this adventure of some of my closest friends.

Hiking in our matching bar shirt. 

Yea... a little slow morning after KTV.

It's surprising how nothing has changed much. I think we all were a little older, but not more mature. We got excited about KTV when we realized the beers were only 4 RMB each. We still gossip about the same old people, did you hear about him, her, them? Having spent such an amazing time with them: from the games in the wedding, the matching Boxing Cat Brewery t-shirts we bought  to hike, the crazy train station in Hangzhou where I swore there was no air con, and to hotpots, dim sum, and McDonalds in China, I had such a great time - and realized how lucky I am to have grown up with such intelligent and kind people around me. On the train ride to the wedding, Michael told me "I didn't realize how rare our friends are until I left. There are really not many people like us in this world." Thanks Ye, Peter, Bryan, Cheng, and Michelle.

Singapore - hub of Asia

Singapore is truly one of the greatest place to live if you have the travel bug. Kicking off this weekend, I will kick off a crazy tour: Ho Chi Minh, HK or Sydney, Shanghai, Penang, Sibu, Bali, and Dubai. Here's the end of the year rush... of weekend travels. I hope I don't lose my passport along the way.

Zoom Zoom - F1 is here

F1 weekend in Singapore is the single best weekend of the year. #1 out of 52.

1. Paddock club suite tickets
2. Jay Chou, Maroon Five, Katy Perry
3. Swiss Hotel suite parties
4. Beautiful people and good friends in town
5. No one seems to be working

People actually want to party!!!!!!!!!

Zoom zoom. 

Unlimited champagne, Jean-Georges, and everything else you'd want at F1. 

Party drop 

Anyone got a temple they can spare?

If you wish for an all out temple experience, look no further than Siem Reap. The place is crawling with them - Angkor Wat is just one of the 100+ temples available for your pleasure in the complexes surrounding Siem Reap. Seems like the kings between the 6th Century to 14th Century Cambodia were busy upping each other on who can built the most temple. The King who built Angkor Thom, the Great City and one of the key tourist destinations, built over 20 temples in the area. 

You look at all the temples around the area and you wonder, did the people in those times do anything other than building these temples? The structures are huge even by modern standards. Stone had to be moved piece by piece from 70 km away. The temples are also so beautifully designed and decorated, with each border so delicatedly carved. What's surprising is that that 12th century carvings are done much more delicatedly and expertly than the 16th century carvings. It seems that time doesn't actually improve humanities skillsets, even with better technology. Can you see below which are done in the 12th century and which is done in the 16th century? (Hint: it's in the flowers)

Aside from the temple adventures, Siem Reap is cheap, clean, and very easy for tourists to get around. I recommend young tourists to stay around Pub Street at one of the hostels. We stayed at Golden Temple Villa  and they were clean and efficient. There's massage, restaurant, tour booking, and laundry all at one place. Prices are cheap - you can have a meal for US$3 no problem. Beers start at 0.50 per glass during happy hour. Pub street is where all the action is, with Temple Bar popping with ppl on a Sunday Night. My recommendation: go with friends, go have fun, and go enjoy one of the world's greatest sites in the world. Siem Reap is definitely my favorite SE Asia destination so far. 

I finally stood up on a wake-board...

Getting ready to go in. 

... for 5 seconds. But Maggie did manage to capture a nice picture. Excellent concentration given she probably only had a few seconds. So many things to remember! Keep still. Keep the tension of the rope. Don't move. Don't lean back. Don't lean forward. Don't stand up too fast. Keep tight. 

The sport of wakeboarding is fun to do - but extremely painful consequences. While I felt fine in the afternoon and evening after wakeboarding, the day after, I could not move. Every muscle in my body was sore. It turns out the whole concept of just keeping the body tight was physically tiring. All your muscles keeping tight is crazy. Even with all my clumsiness and the soreness, I loved it. Can't wait for the next time.   

Wakeboarding is very accessible in Singapore - you can rent a boat from any of the operators at Punggol Marina Club for SGD125/hour. The boat sits around 8 - 10 people. While we only had 1/2 hour each - it felt like a very long time. We definitely all sored like it was a really long time!

Enabler in Jakarta

Jakarta reminds me of a third-tier Chinese city. One street, there would be the Ritz-Carlton and a multitude of other 5 star hotels of the most extraordinary wealth. One street, there's nothing but poverty. Buses so old that they are crumbling, yet poor Indonesians squeezes into every open space. It reminds me of China 20 years ago, corruption runs rampant to get things done. However, it doesn't mean it doesn't have its perks. 

I got off my flight from Jakarta and to my surprise, the hotel driver, met us right at the exit gate. I never knew people can cross security to pick up guests. My driver told me, "we come to our guests, we don't let our guests come to us." It seems like the Dharmawangsa Jakarta, a local 5-star hotel with excellent rooms and facilities, have an exclusive agreement with the airport. In addition to being able to get into security, he seemed to have had all the connections in the airport. There was a long line at immigration after I finished purchase my visa on landing (in Indonesia, one can buy a 30 day visa for US$25 on landing), there was a long line at immigration. This man, Adun, the enabler, led me to the diplomatic line, where there was no line, asked me to hand him my passport, and told me to go ahead. At first, I was worried: "did I just leave a stranger I just met 5 minutes ago with my passport after blatantly breaking all immigration rules?" 2 minutes later, he came out, showed me the stamp, and said, "your car is right outside." Tips to ALL business travelers to Jakarta, just go stay at the Dharmawangsa Jakarta and get a hotel car, it's worth the 30-45 minutes you'll wait in line for the immigration. 

Full Moon Party in Singapore

I must say, after a weekend of party in HK, partying in Singapore really cannot compare. However, there is one party here in Singapore that rocks HK's socks off - the Full Moon Party at Tanjong Beach Club (TBC). Setting on the man-made beach of Sentosa, the Full Moon Party is a full day/full night event every full moon in Singapore. Against the beach, there are beautiful people, pool parties, cabana, flame throwers, pole dancers, firework. You start in the afternoon if you wish, to day drink. If you're a late one, roll up anytime between 7 - 10, party is alive and happening until 4AM. Dancing, drinking, partying, all with the feeling of sands underneath your toes.

While there's no drugs in Singapore (death penalty is scary here), the alcohol is free flowing, while not much more expensive than most other clubs, while giving you a refreshing way of partying beyond the usual clubs in Asia. LOVE! Also, it seems that all my friends went, given I think everyone I'm friends with seem to randomly show up there one day or another.

Megatron!!!!

Universal Studios in Singapore is FUN. Not the half-baked "reflections lake" at Disney World Fun. But as in some of the coolest rides I've ever been on fun.

Universal Studios in Singapore has one of the most crazy roller coasters I've been on: Battlestar Galaxia. It's two roller coasters in one with a human side and a cyborg side. Both roller coasters are crazy. Unlike the coasters I've ridden before, these are powered. So as you are riding them, it's not just inertia that keeps it going, it's powered so it will twist, turn, drop, and go completely crazy in the ways your body is not expecting because it's not following the rules of physics. It's so crazy that Mo lost his keys during the ride.

What really impressed me about the theme park, however, was the Mummy and Transformers ride. They are thematic roller coasters with some of the coolest effects ever. Mummy was traditional with the props, smoke, and voice overs. There are fake tombs and coffins around. The total darkness of the ride enhanced the absolute feeling of fear in the ride. For the Transformers, it's an awesome combination of 3D graphics, where we are literally driving the car through the battle field, with bumps, pulls, jerks, and lunges timed perfectly to the 3D movie sequence that is being showed.

The park is PACKED with people. The lines for Mummy and Transformers were all over an hour long - unless you go single rider style. Yup, you don't sit with friends but literally it's a 10-20 minutes wait in comparison. That's how you roll up Universal Studios style in Singapore.Thank you Yovan for dragging me there after a huge bender out!

Must go to Transformers Ride!

Wading through crowds in Egypt land

Partying in KL

One of the greatest advantages of living in Singapore is the ability to travel on the weekend easily and cheaply around Southeast Asia. KL is one of the easiest place to reach from Singapore. Only an hour flight, flights from most major budget airlines will fly. From AirAsia, there's a flight to/from Singapore every hour for less than SGD100 roundtrip.

I met a few of my female friends from HK in KL for the weekend. I took the last flight out on Friday out. Landed past midnight but randomly matched the HK girls' flights time (how convenient). We landed and went straight out, where we hung out with Annie's KL friends... one whom pulled out a bong right in the middle of the street while we were having drunk food at 4AM. Greasy pork noodles (where 2 of the ppl couldn't eat because it's not Halal) and drunk boys on weed....

Best Laksa ever.

Best snack ever - green dough
covered with sugar and coconut.

KL is all about food. For breakfast, lunch and dinner are so great for food. The entire town revolves around it. Cheap good food: best Nesi Lemak with our local friends, Steven's Corner where all the locals know (my AD in Singapore who is from KL knew exactly what I meant when I described the place), random stalls in Chinatown, snacks just from the street. Even coffee from the food trucks are amazing. I didn't have a single bad meal in KL. I wanted to eat everything and felt my stomache was not big enough for my eyes. I think the food might actually be better than Singapore's... that's pretty aggressive statement.

Round 1.

I don't recommend going to KL as a tourist - there really isn't much to see. We went to the Batu Caves, which was nice but not super impressive. But I do recommend going with lots of friends for eating, drinking, partying, and just general fun time out from the boring routines of your lives. Even if you do the same things there as you do home, it still feels like an adventure.

View from SkyBar

Be careful of....

Perverts on the Singapore MRT. No joke. I ride the Northeast line to work every day from my apartment (Farrer Park) to work (Dhoby Ghaut). Here's what I saw in my train compartment today. 

In English, the sign says "stay safe", but in Chinese, it says be careful of perverted wolves (perverts). Singaporeans are shy Asians. I feel like boys have trouble hitting on girls in bars, I just cannot imagine them having the courage to start molesting random girls in a packed train....

Air Conditioning in Singapore

Whoa, I totally haven't been using air conditioning to fall asleep the past few days. Here are a few possibilities: 

1) I've been sick so I probably prefer to sweat out the disease than be cold? 

2) I've gotten used to being hot 

3) It's actually getting cooler here in Singapore 

4) God has intervened. 

Please select the most likely answer.