Only Monkeys are allowed to be lewd in Singapore

Where: Singapore
When: 11/7/2011 to 11/12/2011
 
A few observations from the quick week trip out to Singapore:

1. This is the only place in the world where the Chinese willingly queue up for a line.   The Chinese-Singaporeans have a zest for rule-following that even the British will envy. 

2. Singapore aggressively embraces modern architecture but still strives to incorporate old Asian symbols into his architecture.  The effect is sometimes strange.  The thing that comes to mind is my visit to the Art/Science Musuem last week.  The museum is a white hollowed out sphere with jagged curved claws jutting up into the sky.  The architect wanted you to think it was a lotus flower.   I just thought Singapore had constructed their very own Stars Wars Death Star.   Most people skip the museum and go shopping in the four levels of shopping below.  

3. If a Singaporean man (typically older and living in the older parts of the city) has a mole on his face, frequently there will be a whole bushel of long hair growing out of it. I have not figured out whether they just haven't noticed it yet, or if society encourages this as a display of manliness.   It's not really a topic that I can bring up in a bar. 

4. Singapore has the highest density of super expensive race cars, but they don't actually use them as designed.  Wednesday, on my way home from work, my taxi driver raced & beat a brand-new Maserati off a stop-light start.  Though I am not sure that the the Maserati driver knew we were racing.  What a crime! 

5. And this, the recurring theme it seems of this blog.  A human gets capital punishment and fines for all sorts of infractions in Singapore, but animals get away with the most shocking things.  I headed to the Singapore Zoo because we had Monday off for Eid and the Hari Raya (an equal opportunity holiday for Hindus and Muslims).  At the zoo, they had about 6 different types of monkeys doing their monkey thing, which consisted mainly of this: The Orangatans blow kisses into the air, baboons backflip for bananas, and ground squirrel monkeys when pissed at each other, will bite each other penises and then run off shrieking.  (how could I make this up??)

(Cont.) Peak Bagging, Colorado, August 2011

I just did a quick look at my last post and realized that I have not been aggressively on the road since 4^th of July.  Having just driven 900 miles from Colorado home to Austin, there is still a bit of road grime that I am dusting off the car and me.  A quick recap of my mini-month visit to Colorado, cut short by Spanish classes that started this week.  (Debo apprender Espanol porque la familia de mi marido viven en Barcelona) 

The Fourteeners

I added three new fourteeners (Harvard, Shavano, Tabeguache) to my list of summitted Colorado Rockies. You can’t really call it climbing because it is just a Class 2 ascent, but it is still challenging.  My ass hurts afterwards, I wake up early to do it, and all I want when finished with the hike is a good sleep and Raman Noodles for dinner at my campsite. 

Mt Harvard – a pretty hike. I discovered a secret campsite on an obscured plateau about 20 feet over the trail that I found about a mile in. Close to a gurgling stream; it made water resupply easy. And the sound of the water put me to sleep at night.  Mt. Harvard is a really pretty route, probably my favorite of all my fourteeners done so far.   It is about 12 miles total and when you get to tree line there is a mirror like Bear Lake that would be just delightful to camp by.   Once you get to Bear Lake, you have an easy choice to either go East up Mt. Columbia (kind of an ugly mountain) or straight up the face of Mt. Harvard.   On Harvard, the top 40 feet are filled with sharp boulders.  There were a couple women with fake nails that panicked on the climb down.  I felt sorry for them, but was glad to see them trying out the climb. I imagined that this 4teener was the first step in their journey to becoming courageous mountain women.  If this transformation were to happen, their manicure and make-up would have to go.

Mt. Tabeguache/Mt. Shavano – I had a little apartment in a 100-year old building overlooking downtown Salida’s main street, so no camping here.   But the four-wheel drive road up to the Blank Cabin Trailhead was a serene but slow drive.  The sun was rising up over the Banana Belt Valley.  This is the best time of the day in the mountains.  Why don't I live here all Summer? 

The thing to remember next time (if I ever climb Tab. & Shavano again) is that there looks like a fun area to camp about 2 miles into the trail.  Good for larger groups.  The area is flat, it’s right below tree-line and there is a stream pretty close.  I smelled bacon grilling on a campsite fire as I passed through the area.  Jealous.  I ate more trail mix. 

I ended up climbing Shavano twice because it was the only stable route to Tabeguache.  By the time I got to Tabeguache, folks were high-tailing it off the mountain because the clouds were rolling in. 

I am deathly afraid of lightning so started to trail-run off the peak to safety.  However, one wonders about the probability of lightning striking twice.  Is that per proximity to a specific person?  Or to a location?  Our house was hit by lightning while I was IN it, so does that mean that I am less likely to get hit on top of a mountain?  Rather than tempt the gods, I got the hell off the mountain. 

The Honorable Mentions

It would be rude to not mention the other highlights of my time away from the heat. 

1.      Checked out the gnarly sharks with Kylee & Darcy in downtown Denver.  Every time I see Darcy, it’s like we just pick up from the conversation that we began the year before.  A sign of a timeless friendship.

2.       On a 7 mile run up Mt. Methodist (outside of Salida), I saw two elk with pretty serious racks visiting a very old cemetery.  The kind of cemetery with old weathered white crosses along the mountain side.  

3.       Got to chase one of my favorite ultra-marathoners John Peck around for 27 hours as he ran 100 miles amongst the Leadville mountains. We had the best motley crew – it even came with beer. 

4.       Discovered that my love for red wine runs in the family.  My Grandma and I got to spend some good quality time catching up.

5.       Watched the Pack Burro Buena Vista race, which is a mountain foot race that must be done while dragging an owned (or rented) burro along the route.   I think we should get a group to do this next year. 

6.       Spent some good quality time with my Mom & step-dad.  I am still thinking about the breakfast casserole that she made.  And Wayne just published a book. 

7.       Got away from the terrible heat in Texas. 

 A few snaps from the trip

Bear Lake, Mt. Harvard

Ptarmigan Lake Hike, Collegiate Peaks

Top of Tabeguache

Along the hike up to Mt. Shavano

Singapore Summary

When: June 17th
Where: Singapore
What: Cliff-notes of Singapore

Running in Singapore Rush-Hour

I got a fairly respectable run in through Singapore traffic during rush-hour.  Singapore drivers actually speed up when they see you about to run across the cross-walk.  They don't want to kill you, but they are actually racing to get to the cross-walk before you start to cross.  This mix of competitiveness and intimidation is highly effective.  As a result, no one jay-walks and there is always a pause before cross-walkers are told by the green-man that they can safely cross the street.  So anyway, back to my run...

Singapore restaurants done locally are just an expansion on the whole hawker-stall setup through-out the city.  (Note: Hawker-stalls are a disorganized & dirtier version of a Simon Mall Food Court, but they do make some amazing, fresh, and cheap food. )  The local restaurants just start out as a kitchen with a couple of plastic chairs and tables, but as the restaurant grows in popularity, the tables start to make their way out into the side-walk.  The restaurant sprawl out onto the side-walk is way more pushy than the tasteful Bistro layout that you see in the Domain or Santana Row.  However, I have to hand it to the local Singaporeans.  This restaurant expansion plan is a smart way to grab extra real-estate without having to pay more for it.  And in concentrated restaurant areas, there is really no end to the restaurants.  A long line of restaurants out on the sidewalk.  Okay really, now that there is all the background, to the run..

This sidewalk-turned-restaurant created a weird situation for me. In the morning, it was never a problem because they are closed.  But during evening rush-hour, 6 miles into the run, on a humid Singapore evening, when I've already stripped down to my sports bra and 'peeing sweat' (as Mike McNeal would say), I felt very under-dressed as I ran THROUGH the restaurants, dodging hostesses, waiters, patrons.   It was a Singapore steeple-chase.  And the only alternative would be to run in the road, which as I mentioned, has its own unique problems. 

Geylang (I can never remember how to spell it) - Red Light District

As a result, the rest of the week was very bad for running.  Wednesday evening, I headed over to Glen and Anja's place in Geylang - which is the Red Light District of Singapore.  I love it.  Geylang has the coolest Georgetown style homes with the second story shutters and front doors that open onto the street.  You see these homes all over old parts of KL, Penang, Singapore-Chinatown.  When the windows are open, from inside the houses, you can sit and listen to the restaurant chatter around the corner.  At night around midnight, Anja tells me that for entertainment, her and Glen will watch the regulars strolling on the street, picking up their 'customers' for the evening.  Anja cracks me up - she is a German that just says things so directly. 

We walked down the street to their local eatery, called the Happy Kitchen, which is an unassuming restaurant, again, sprawled out onto the side-walk.  Happy Kitchen has cheap beer, plastic chairs, plastic table-cloths, kick-ass dumplings, fried squid, stewed mushrooms for less then 45 Sing dollars.  Cheap  This place is authentic Singapore style eating, which is a long way from the buffet style food that they serve in all the chrome-steel-and-modern-glass downtown hotels stuffed with expats.

Anja (who is a vegetarian) made me try a Singaporean delight, called a Century Egg.  The name is fitting.  Glen describes a century egg as a hard-boiled egg which has been buried under-ground and forgotten about for two weeks.  And then you dig it up and douse it with horse-piss.  (Or at least, that is what it tastes like).

I agree with him.  It tasted like I had put uncooked skunk tail in my mouth.  At this point in my four weeks in Asia, I started craving cheese-burgers. 

Rainy Days in Bangalore

"41.6% of the Indian population earns less than $1.25/day in Purchase Power Parity (PPP) terms."
  - Bangalore Times, Saturday June 11, 2011.

Was In: Bangalore, India
When: Saturday, June 4, 2011. 

The Indian taxi drivers always ask "Are you going for shopping madam?"  I guess this is a reality of American women is that when in India, they prefer the nearest multi-story malls to go shopping.   Instead for me, I headed to the Lal Bagh Botanical Gardens - a 92 acre park in the middle of Bangalore. An Indian version of Central Park. 

Lal Bagh is delightful - smack in the middle of the park, there is a white temple with blue cow figurines up on a rocky slope.  And its mango season here (what is it with all the mangos lately), so there are about 30 different vendors right next to the temple, selling the fruit by the kilo for lunch. 

I got to see a crazy sudden rain storm in Lal Bagh, where everyone hid under funky canopy trees - the branches are so fat that they alone, give pretty good shelter.  The young kids take advantage of the rain to run around and get dirty.  When it is all over, everyone is universally thrilled by the big fat rainbow that appears on the horizon. 

Now the same thing happened at Lal Bagh that happens everywhere else in India.  People want pictures.  It is a little odd.  First, they are all shy and wave.  Then they say hello.  Then they want me to take pictures of them.  They REALLY want me to take pictures of them, but with my camera.  Then they want pictures of me.  Then with their children.  And from there it escalates, because in India people tend to congregate when they think something may be interesting.   The first families take my picture because I just look interesting--pale, blond, and tall.

And then the second wave mistakenly thinks that the first group of folks were taking pictures of me because I am a celebrity, and so then they want to get into the action.  But it is all in good fun - because the India kids are consistently photogenic with these bright eyes and serious smiles.  And then the women with their brightly colored weekend saris. 

The part that I have a hard time with is the beggars when they show up.  When you see the beggars, you kind of have to make your eyes go blurry, like watching a violent scene in a movie.  Kids with broken bones that healed at wrong angles, a blind man with really messed-up eyes.  It is heart-breaking, but it is a perfectly calibrated system.  The beggars have handlers that get all the pan-handled money.   It wasn't too bad in Lal Bagh that Saturday - only a couple that followed me around with their beggar zombie walk.

But this is the part that really sticks with me such that I'm writing about it two weeks later -- is that these pan-handlers at best, make the norm in terms of income in India ($1.25/day).  And while the woman and her blind companion are asking me for 2 rupees (approx. equal to 5 cents), I happen to be carrying in my bag on that day: an ipad2, ipod, Blackberry, and mini-Nikon camera, and 4 different currencies equal to USD200 (yes, it was a big bag and to would-be muggers, not a normal amount of stuff for me to carry).   The value of the crap in my purse is easily more than what these guys will earn in 3 years.  There is a really big gulf between the have and have-nots here.

But even so as you will see from a few of the photos, many Indians living with way less creature comforts than what we have in the US, still appear happy, healthy, and fulfilled. 

Photos from Lal Bagh Botanical Gardens

Monkey Stories in Thailand

Was In: Phi Phi & Phuket, Thailand
When: May 29th, 2011 Weekend
Why: 5th Year Anniversary!

[Finally have a few moments to catch up on the goings-on over the past couple of weeks here in Asia.  Work has been crazy].

We arrived in Ton Sai Bay, Phi Phi on Saturday morning.  Friday night we spent in Karon Beach at the Kathanhani hotel, which is right outside Phuket about thirty minutes from the airport.  Nice place (Karon is) this time of year.  Quiet.  No one around. 

The entire weekend Roger kept pronouncing Phuket like he was speaking French.  For some reason, Roger gets away with this.  With anyone else, they would just sound pretentious.   

To get to Ton Sai and Phi Phi, you have to take the ferry from Phuket or Krabi.   This time around, we did Phuket.  Ton Sai is the jumping off point for a lot of main attractions in Phi Phi Don/Ley.  I prefer to get away from the town in Ton Sai Bay because it is usually filled with stinky bratty backpackers.  And there is a beautiful quiet spot in the northern most part of Phi Phi Don.  Zeavola is my favorite spot.  They have a few teak traditional houses, all open to the environment except for the glass enclosure around the bed, wardrobe, and AC.   Even the bathroom and shower is outdoors. 

This area of Phi Phi Don & Ley is one of the prettiest places I have ever seen in the world.  The bad news is that many other people in the world agree with me on this.

.. So early Saturday morning, after a breakfast of lychee, mango and coffee we hired our long tail for the day and headed to Phi Phi Ley, the tiny island with the beautiful bays.  All through-out the shallow part of Phi Phi Ley, the water is sparkling light blue and quiet, great for snorkeling.  I keep wondering how much more involved the experience could be by sailboat. 

My favorite spot of all is Pileh Bay - it's almost completely enclosed by the island, so as a result, in the middle of the Andaman Sea, you have hardly any waves.  The only waves come from the wake of the long-tail boats. 

Next is Maya Bay and it is drop dead gorgeous, which is its main draw back because the beach is crowded with large speedboats plus many tourists.  Probably 15 boats and 200 people.  We took a less traveled way and swam in through the back via Loh Samah Bay and climbed up the jagged rocks and wet rickety ladder.  It was a little dicey at first.  The waves were strong and tossing us (well, me) around like seaweed.  And still wearing my fins, it made it difficult to get up the ladder.  Obviously, fish haven't evolved to climb on ladders.  My next time at Maya, I will figure out how to see it without everyone else.  By sunrise, or sunset.  After everyone else has left. 

After Maya, we headed to Monkey Beach to see the beach-bumming monkeys beg for food.  They eat bananas like humans.  Or should I say, humans eat bananas like monkeys.  A monkey ran off with someone's pink shoe.  I don't think he mistook it for a watermelon, he just wanted the shoe.  Two other monkeys were drinking cokes out of a plastic cups like they were downing pints.  I could have watched for hours.  They act so human.  They know that they are being watched.  They perform.  They have fingers that wash the sand of the bananas before they eat them. 

I should mention Roger's favorite part of the trip.  I was wearing a lime green bikini - the color of an unripe mango.  And two monkeys either wanted my bikini because they thought thought it was food, or they just wanted attention.  One started pulling down the bottoms.  The other jumped from the trees to grab my top.  I did what any good American girl would do.  I screamed but did not nothing but stand there.  Two American dudes and an entertained Spaniard looked on.

I guess the difference between male monkeys and Western men is this: what men think, monkeys do.



Monkeying Around on Monkey Beach



She needs a bra





Hola, I speak 4.5 languages.  Love me.




On ferry from Phuket to Ton Sai.



Roger (sort of) smiles when you face him into the sun

Loh Samah Bay



Zeavola, Phi Phi Don



My 'front yard' view @ Zeavola



Pileh Bay, Phi Phi Ley



Viking Cave, Phi Phi Ley

Back to Blogging (Home from Korea)

[This interest in returning to blogging was actually triggered by a old-school parchment paper journal I just received for my birthday.  I forgot how much I enjoyed writing about my trips.  So here it goes.]

From: Seoul/Incheon
To: Home
Location: Incheon Airport

It's 6:00am in the Incheon airport.  I like the buzzing silences of airports early in the morning, mostly because it is so uncommon.  A groggy airport waking up from an evening sleep. 

Being the first one in line and watching the JAL ticket agents hover around preparing the checkin gate for the days work.  All 6 identically dressed (down to the purse and hair-pins) ticket agents stood in front of me & 70 other women Japanese tourists and gave us a courteous bow as a morning welcome to their airline.  I'm connecting home through Tokyo and expecting a lecture from someone in my family because of this.

Last night was my last night in Korea.  Michelle (a Seoul colleague and now friend) and I went out for sashimi in old Songdo.  Together we had a 20 course Japanese meal.  They put us in our very own dining room with the paper screens.  We sat on the floor with the bottom cut out (sushi restaurant-done-American-style).  I prefer this set-up because that way I can't smell my feet while eating.  Ha! 

A Summary of the Plates
1. Salt Porridge
2. Roast Garlic, flax, seaweed.
3. A 1.5ft platter of 5 types of fish (pink, blue, white, cream).
4. Egg roe, seaweed & sea cucumber internal organs
5. Eight individually served dishes of:
- crab meat,
- stewed figs
- flounder
- autumn mushrooms
- a dark violet Abalone, very chewy like pig cartiliage (why is it that I know that?)
- purple abalone with a white stripe
- a crunchy, creamy brown abalone with delicate black spots.
- A Sea Squirt (another word that Michelle looked up while the food was in my mouth)
6. A bright green seawood soup.
7. Smoked Salmon Salad.
8. Flounder sashimi slices
9. Kimchi, Japanese pickle, and leaves (doesn't really count as a dish though)
10. Thin Strips of beef cooked on a hot stone
12. A fish, rice, and veggie soup
13. Fish grilled in the skin and scales.
14. Sweet Juice for finish

Most of the translations, especially the internal organs of sea cucumber, Michelle found on babelfish once I had already put the food in my mouth.  After a while, I told her I didn't want to know what I was eating.  The meal between the two of us was only 60K won/person (around $60).  Not too bad.

After dinner, we headed over to a house-warming for a colleague who had just moved into the city.  If not already stuffed, as a gift I picked up a chocolate & white chiffon cake from new Parisian cafe (the city is trying their best to appear to expats).   

It was a long day, I was stuffed, and headed home soon after. 

Highlights of This Korea Trip
1. I learned how to hit a golf ball!  I am wondering why I never learned before.

2. Visited the Royal Palaces in Seoul. Simply made but beautiful places.  Nice for reflection.

3. Walking through the thousands of textile, fabric, clothes, and food street vendors. 

4. Asian/Korean Dragon Hill Spa - Got to run around naked in the Korean Spa among all the Asia women.  That was interesting!  Here are a couple of observations on my Asia spa experience:
- They had 8 different pools of different temps, water-type, location.
- The bathing part was different, almost collaborative among friends. Asian friends go about aggressively scrubbing each others arms, backs, and butts.
- You *can* pay extra for being washed by a professional.  Strange.
- You can pay 40K won for a Hip Washing.  Look it up if you want to know what it is.

The coed parts of the spa get even more exotic.  In these areas, you can go to the:
- Salt sauna
- Charcoal kiln (yup, basically a warming oven for humans. I didn't like it)
- A freezer room (with its own snowman) - only men seemed to prefer that. I was only in for 60 secs.
- or eat at a Korean BBQ restaurant that played a dubbed version of Avatar. 

Of course, there was a lot of work in between all the fun stuff.  Really glad to be heading home.

-Jen.