From my weekend trip to visit Norm in Beijing -- Mom and Dad, this one's for you. Sorry that both of your children are in Asia, but look! We're having fun. And Norm stripped on the Great Wall.
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Not done yet
I'll add stories to this when I get back from vacation, but until then:
Trip to Bali over Chinese New Year in February:
Trip to Bali over Chinese New Year in February:
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Slideshow #2
This is of the Redmans' visit to Singapore, a trip around the Singapore Botanic Gardens, the Ngee Ann dinner dance (ie big party for the faculty at Greg's school), and the Time Out pub crawl. Can also check out my writeup of the pub crawl on the magazine's website: www.timeoutsingapore.com. I think I'm still on the home page, which is hotly embarrassing, but makes the story easy to find.
More to come! Also, will be home in NJ starting March 20 for Easter, and then off to Aruba on the 25th as a tagalong on Greg's family's trip. Not a bad life I lead. :) Give me a call on my old cell # while I'm in the States, it'll be functional for a couple days. Mwah.
More to come! Also, will be home in NJ starting March 20 for Easter, and then off to Aruba on the 25th as a tagalong on Greg's family's trip. Not a bad life I lead. :) Give me a call on my old cell # while I'm in the States, it'll be functional for a couple days. Mwah.
Modern technology...
...continues to astound me. I apparently can upload my albums from Picasa onto my blog, so here's my first attempt:
It's an album with ZoukOut (the all-night beach party in December) and Greg and my Christmas trip to Thailand.
It's an album with ZoukOut (the all-night beach party in December) and Greg and my Christmas trip to Thailand.
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
MIA
If anyone's looking for me this weekend, I'm going to Beijing to visit the Norm. The little brother. I'm very excited; we're going to have deep thoughts on the Great Wall. I'll be back on the 10th with plenty to blog about: lady boys in Phuket, fire dances in Bali, and, of course, how my parents are doing since both of their children are in Asia right now. Cheers. :)
And here, for once: a normal photo. Me and Greg (Greg and I) in Phuket
And here, for once: a normal photo. Me and Greg (Greg and I) in Phuket
Sunday, February 3, 2008
The kok of Bang
Ah, the long-awaited Thailand posts. I took my first trip out of Singapore a few days before Christmas -- met Greg in Bangkok, where we spent 3 days, and then we went on to beach locale Phuket for 2 days, staying there until Christmas morning.
Have to say, LOVED Bangkok. It was dirty, smoggy, noisy, the sidewalks were cracked and uneven -- I know, sounds like West LA or something. But it was awesome and such a nice change of pace from Singapore; I felt like we were visiting Singa's hippy cousin up north. Highlights from the trip:
1. The food. There were street vendors everywhere selling delicious fried chicken, and we could buy these burritos (ohhh, the burritos) made by a guy from California at a stand on Sukhumvit Road (I hadn't had quality Mexican since I got to Singapore in November -- we had it twice in three days in Bangkok).
2. The hostel -- nicest hostel I've ever been to called Suk 11 (I highly highly recommend it for anyone going to Bagkok). It was cheap, clean, had a great crowd, there was TP in the bathroom (unheard of for a hostel) and it was decorated like a jungle hideaway. Indiana Jones would probably be out whipping snakes and rescuing women, and then would come down here for some pad thai and a beer.
3. The shopping. On Saturday, we stopped by a weekend market called Chatuchak Market -- 900 vendors, some people dress up in costume, play songs, make noises to attract customers. It's easy to get lost in there though, especially after you take an hour looking at the puppies for sale (it's also apparently a hotbed for exotic animal trade, but you didn't hear that from me). So Greg, our friend Angilee and I sit down to take a break, and a teenage Thai girl asks us if she can sketch us. We figure sure, what the hell, and then all of a sudden the girl and her art teacher are sketching individual portraits of all of us with bamboo dipped in ink.
They turned out well, but Greg's came out the best. Here are Greg and the teacher posing -- teacher poofed up his hair and put on big shades to play the part:
4. The people -- incredibly, genuinely friendly. Case in point: Greg and I were cranky, hungry and couldn't find a place to eat down south of the Chinatown area. We were standing on a street corner looking like we were about to explode, and a guy just came up to his and used hand gestures to find out what was wrong, and pointed us in the direction of a restaurant. In most places, I would expect him to ask for cash or we'd find out he was the owner of the restaurant, but no: he just thought we looked pissed and stopped to help. Wha??
5. There was great local music at a jazz club called Saxophone -- this four-piece band played rock/blues the night we were there, with a guy who looked like a Thai Chuck Berry with a big Panama Jack hat ripping some sick guitar on "Johnny Be Good"; also played Hendrix, Clapton, Allman Brothers, etc.
6. The Royal Palace. Lots of golden temples, a Buddha relic, men guarding the gates in colonial uniforms. A couple pics from our afternoon checking out the grounds:
7. The muay thai! Went to a local muay thai match, which is the "king's sport" -- boxing that involves kicking. Kicks to the head and ribs are fair game, and we saw enough of what looked like groin shots to wonder if they were wearing stainless-steel cups. We were there on a championship night, so tons of locals were out, all wearing their yellow polo shirts ("the king's shirt") and betting on the matches. We had to sit in the foreigners' section of the stadium, which had about 7 people in it. No matter, better views for us. The best part of the fights are the music and dancing that go along with them. Before every match, the fighters --wearing floral garlands around their necks -- do a traditional dance around the ring, sweeping their feet, bowing, bouncing around. It's a pretty big dichotomy watching them do that until the bell rings, and then they start kicking the crap out of each other. The music is played throughout the match, too, so a lot of times they fight in time to the beat. Such talented athletes, these muay thai men.
8. The baby elephant being paraded down our hostel's street. We're just walking home from the jazz club, looking for some fried chicken, when we run into these guys leading an elephant around. Tourists were paying them $$ to feed him peanuts or something equally cliched. I started clicking pics, then felt really bad for the baby elephant. Then I took more pics. Wasn't much else I could do.
Eight's considered a lucky number (Chinese New Year's coming up and all), so I'll end there. Bangkok rocked, Phuket was only "eh" -- "The Beach" it was not. Will write on that in a bit. I only have two words: "ladyboys" and "sexpats."
UPDATE: Here are all my photos from Bangkok and Phuket.
Have to say, LOVED Bangkok. It was dirty, smoggy, noisy, the sidewalks were cracked and uneven -- I know, sounds like West LA or something. But it was awesome and such a nice change of pace from Singapore; I felt like we were visiting Singa's hippy cousin up north. Highlights from the trip:
1. The food. There were street vendors everywhere selling delicious fried chicken, and we could buy these burritos (ohhh, the burritos) made by a guy from California at a stand on Sukhumvit Road (I hadn't had quality Mexican since I got to Singapore in November -- we had it twice in three days in Bangkok).
2. The hostel -- nicest hostel I've ever been to called Suk 11 (I highly highly recommend it for anyone going to Bagkok). It was cheap, clean, had a great crowd, there was TP in the bathroom (unheard of for a hostel) and it was decorated like a jungle hideaway. Indiana Jones would probably be out whipping snakes and rescuing women, and then would come down here for some pad thai and a beer.
3. The shopping. On Saturday, we stopped by a weekend market called Chatuchak Market -- 900 vendors, some people dress up in costume, play songs, make noises to attract customers. It's easy to get lost in there though, especially after you take an hour looking at the puppies for sale (it's also apparently a hotbed for exotic animal trade, but you didn't hear that from me). So Greg, our friend Angilee and I sit down to take a break, and a teenage Thai girl asks us if she can sketch us. We figure sure, what the hell, and then all of a sudden the girl and her art teacher are sketching individual portraits of all of us with bamboo dipped in ink.
They turned out well, but Greg's came out the best. Here are Greg and the teacher posing -- teacher poofed up his hair and put on big shades to play the part:
4. The people -- incredibly, genuinely friendly. Case in point: Greg and I were cranky, hungry and couldn't find a place to eat down south of the Chinatown area. We were standing on a street corner looking like we were about to explode, and a guy just came up to his and used hand gestures to find out what was wrong, and pointed us in the direction of a restaurant. In most places, I would expect him to ask for cash or we'd find out he was the owner of the restaurant, but no: he just thought we looked pissed and stopped to help. Wha??
5. There was great local music at a jazz club called Saxophone -- this four-piece band played rock/blues the night we were there, with a guy who looked like a Thai Chuck Berry with a big Panama Jack hat ripping some sick guitar on "Johnny Be Good"; also played Hendrix, Clapton, Allman Brothers, etc.
6. The Royal Palace. Lots of golden temples, a Buddha relic, men guarding the gates in colonial uniforms. A couple pics from our afternoon checking out the grounds:
7. The muay thai! Went to a local muay thai match, which is the "king's sport" -- boxing that involves kicking. Kicks to the head and ribs are fair game, and we saw enough of what looked like groin shots to wonder if they were wearing stainless-steel cups. We were there on a championship night, so tons of locals were out, all wearing their yellow polo shirts ("the king's shirt") and betting on the matches. We had to sit in the foreigners' section of the stadium, which had about 7 people in it. No matter, better views for us. The best part of the fights are the music and dancing that go along with them. Before every match, the fighters --wearing floral garlands around their necks -- do a traditional dance around the ring, sweeping their feet, bowing, bouncing around. It's a pretty big dichotomy watching them do that until the bell rings, and then they start kicking the crap out of each other. The music is played throughout the match, too, so a lot of times they fight in time to the beat. Such talented athletes, these muay thai men.
8. The baby elephant being paraded down our hostel's street. We're just walking home from the jazz club, looking for some fried chicken, when we run into these guys leading an elephant around. Tourists were paying them $$ to feed him peanuts or something equally cliched. I started clicking pics, then felt really bad for the baby elephant. Then I took more pics. Wasn't much else I could do.
Eight's considered a lucky number (Chinese New Year's coming up and all), so I'll end there. Bangkok rocked, Phuket was only "eh" -- "The Beach" it was not. Will write on that in a bit. I only have two words: "ladyboys" and "sexpats."
UPDATE: Here are all my photos from Bangkok and Phuket.
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| Thailand |
HDB livin'
Finally took a couple pics of where I live, though not a ton:
Here's one of myself and Greg's mom when his parents were visiting over Christmas. We're in the common room -- please note the purple windows and the koala bear sitting on the TV, which is the closest thing to decor we have:
This is a view from our common room window, 10 floors up.
And a lovely reminder of what not to do in our elevator:
Have not had to report any culprits to the authorities, luckily. My co-worker, though, keeps having this run-in with one of his neighbors in his elevator: an old lady in a floral print dress who stares at him with bugged-out eyes, gyrates her hips and drools while staring at him. Since creepy only begins to describe it, we all took it one step further and made a YouTube video for his birthday to remind him of her looming presence at home. Yes, we had some free time on our hands last week -- and if you're wondering, the guy at the end is the talent behind the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0qfy4BYxcY
Here's one of myself and Greg's mom when his parents were visiting over Christmas. We're in the common room -- please note the purple windows and the koala bear sitting on the TV, which is the closest thing to decor we have:
This is a view from our common room window, 10 floors up.
And a lovely reminder of what not to do in our elevator:
Have not had to report any culprits to the authorities, luckily. My co-worker, though, keeps having this run-in with one of his neighbors in his elevator: an old lady in a floral print dress who stares at him with bugged-out eyes, gyrates her hips and drools while staring at him. Since creepy only begins to describe it, we all took it one step further and made a YouTube video for his birthday to remind him of her looming presence at home. Yes, we had some free time on our hands last week -- and if you're wondering, the guy at the end is the talent behind the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0qfy4BYxcY
Peer pressure
I've been guilted into blogging again, as apparently "Christmas in the tropics" doesn't have the staying power to keep everyone sated with information for two months. Understandable. So, I'm back. :)
Happy February! (Since 2008 is SO one month old already.) I actually just realized that I never explained the name of my blog, which might help anyone wondering why the hell Jack Kerouac's book title has an extra syllable. "Lah" or "la" is part of Singlish, the Singaporean rendition of English (triiiiiicky). According to my co-workers and a friendly cabbie, it's tacked onto the end of a word or sentence to give emphasis/affirmation, to mimic a Chinese tone, to act as punctuation, and to make foreigners look stupid when they try to blend in.
Ex: You going to the movie later?
Cannot lah! I have too much work to do.
Ex2: Would Mike Huckabee beat McCain in the Republican primary if Chuck Norris was Huck's running mate?
No lah, only if Chuck Norris gave McCain a roundhouse kick to the head.
Does that make sense? Also, "can" and "cannot" are very popular Singlish (contractions are more of an American thing). They substitute for Yes and No a lot (see above), and carry a heavy emphasis on the first syllable. CAN-not blog tonight, too tired!
Wish I could hitchhike here like Kerouac did, but there's probably a law against it. You get fined $500 for eating or drinking on the subway, get fined for not flushing a public toilet. I would imagine hitching isn't very popular. No matter -- still plenty of traveling to be done.
Happy February! (Since 2008 is SO one month old already.) I actually just realized that I never explained the name of my blog, which might help anyone wondering why the hell Jack Kerouac's book title has an extra syllable. "Lah" or "la" is part of Singlish, the Singaporean rendition of English (triiiiiicky). According to my co-workers and a friendly cabbie, it's tacked onto the end of a word or sentence to give emphasis/affirmation, to mimic a Chinese tone, to act as punctuation, and to make foreigners look stupid when they try to blend in.
Ex: You going to the movie later?
Cannot lah! I have too much work to do.
Ex2: Would Mike Huckabee beat McCain in the Republican primary if Chuck Norris was Huck's running mate?
No lah, only if Chuck Norris gave McCain a roundhouse kick to the head.
Does that make sense? Also, "can" and "cannot" are very popular Singlish (contractions are more of an American thing). They substitute for Yes and No a lot (see above), and carry a heavy emphasis on the first syllable. CAN-not blog tonight, too tired!
Wish I could hitchhike here like Kerouac did, but there's probably a law against it. You get fined $500 for eating or drinking on the subway, get fined for not flushing a public toilet. I would imagine hitching isn't very popular. No matter -- still plenty of traveling to be done.
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