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[the-pbd]

[the-pbd]

6.30.17 | Everywhere

Ironic how once I start actually traveling, I have no time to write about it. In the past month or so I've been to some of the most beautiful places I've ever seen, done some of the most adventurous stuff I've always dreamed of doing, and really pushed through fear of the unknown to get to the other side, as far away from my comfort zone as possible. And it's been unreal. I can't believe how lucky I am to be able to do my favorite thing in the world with some of my favorite people in the world. Life is pretty good.

[the-pbd]

5.19.17 | New Passport

About one year ago, the US Department of State discontinued the service that would allow a citizen to add additional pages to their passport. As a result, you have to get a completely new one once you fill up your old one. 

As a sentimental person this kind of upsets me because my passport has been everywhere with me through my travels (I mean literally, otherwise I obviously couldn't get through customs). So here's an ode* to the little blue book that's been by my side through it all.

*This post was unabashedly and shamelessly inspired by (copied from) The Monsoon Diaries's Calvin Sun, who is a travel idol of mine and also recently got a new passport. 

We started off going to Cancun with the family in December of 2013

My weekend to Istanbul and my German work visa which took THREE WHOLE MONTHS TO PROCESS during which I was sitting at home, patiently (maniacally) waiting for the letter in the mail that would allow me to start my internship.

My awesome trip with Carolyn and Angela in April of 2016, where we started in Dubrovnik and drove to Zadar and passed through Bosnia and Herzegovia on the way, before flying to London for a brief night's layover and then to Athens and Santorini.

My trip to the heartbreakingly beautiful country of Iceland as well as a smattering of random stamps from little trips I took across Europe during my semester there (I think Serbia and Poland are in here somewhere)

My first foray into Southeast Asia this year where I bussed in and out of KL and visited Thailand in February (Bangkok with Jameel) and in April (Krabi and Phuket and Chiang Mai with Natasha)

My visa to China which cost me and arm and a leg to get, just so I could go back and see my grandparents for Chinese New Year

My trip to Cambodia where I finally could use the janky selfies from my phone I printed from a random photo booth for my visa on arrival

Another weekend trip in and out of Malaysia and to Laos

Russian authorities don't care about the continuity of where they stamp...

Nor do Moroccan ones.

And that’s it! Cheers to a new passport and more pages of stamps.

[the-pbd]

4.29.17 | Luang Prabang

Three day weekends are the best. It's just the right amount of time for a short getaway. Unfortunately, three day weekends only come around every so often, so when they do, I try not to let that opportunity pass.

One of the main sights I wanted to see this time around in Southeast Asia was the Kuang Si Waterfalls in Luang Prabang, Laos. I was a little hesitant about going alone but I've discovered that getting around in small, remote towns is actually much easier than trying to navigate through a big city. The airport in Luang Prabang is literally walking distance from the city center (or 20 minutes by tuk tuk), unlike how it is in Kuala Lumpur (an hour's bus ride away). And the town is super chill, too; all the locals are in bed by like 11pm. I've actually felt much safer traveling through villages in SE Asia than I did compared to some cities in Europe. The most dangerous things I've encountered here (thus far) are the mosquitoes. And probably the spicy curry in Thailand. 

Anyway. My original plan was to take a bus to KL on Saturday, spend all day at the Batu Caves, spend the night in the KL airport, fly out to Laos on Sunday morning, fly back to KL the next afternoon (Monday), and then take a bus back to Singapore that night. There are only a few flights to go to Luang Prabang and most of them are wildly expensive, especially from Singapore. However, the ones from KL are quite reasonably priced so it made more sense to fly in and our of there instead. I thought it was a good plan. But as all carefully laid-out plans go, this one was doomed to fail. 

Previously, I had only taken night buses from Singapore to KL. At 3am, there are very few lines at customs- and you have to go through two (one on the Singapore side, one on the Malaysia side). The entire ride usually lasts less than 5 hours and you're knocked out for most of it anyway so it's really not that bad. At noon however, it's a different story. Our bus was delayed like 4 hours just trying to get through the borders. Customs was ridiculously crowded and messy and congested and then even after we crossed the border, there was hella traffic due to heavy rain. We'd left at 8am on Saturday morning and got to KL at 8pm. I still was determined to see the caves though, even at night. They're only a short ride away from KL Sentral Station and my flight wasn't until 8am the next morning so I had time (or so I thought). The only thing was, the thunderstorms had CUT THE POWER in ALL THE TRAINS so that NONE OF THEM WERE RUNNING. Long story short, I didn't get to see the caves. I spent a sad night in the KL airport along with all the other weary, jet-lagged travelers, competing for power outlets and the least uncomfortable chairs. Whatever. I tried not to let that day ruin what I was really there for, which was to see the waterfalls.

Luckily for me, everything else went off without a hitch. I got to Luang Prabang at 10:30am on Sunday after a restless night in the airport and was on my way to the falls in a bus by noon. On the way there, I met this really cool Japanese woman who was teaching English in Hanoi. I also met this Argentinian Jewish dude who also spoke German and Portuguese and a little Italian in addition to English and Spanish. As you can see, literally everyone else in the world is more cultured and worldly than I am. The falls themselves were similar to Erawan Falls (in Kanchanaburi, near Bangkok) but they were definitely bigger and prettier and less crowded. The colors were exactly the same though- turquoise waters with dark green jungle all around and schools of fish swimming around- and it was really beautiful. I even got to jump off a tree into the water below so that was pretty cool. Also, there was a random bear exhibition near the entrance (??) Apparently Sun bears are endangered in SE Asia and Laos was putting in efforts for conservation and education. It was pretty unexpected but nice to see as well. Waterfalls and bears. Good stuff.

We got back from the falls around 4 and me and the Argentinian guy (his name was Ezequiel. I am not kidding) grabbed some sandwiches at a place near our hostel and walked around the town afterwards to see all the Wats, or temples. Like in Chiang Mai, the monks did their daily prayer around 6pm and we sat in the back for one of them, listening to their methodical chanting, before continuing our exploration. What's interesting about Luang Prabang is that because of British and French imperialism, there are a lot of colonial European influences to the architecture. On some parts of the main street it was hard to tell you were in Asia, much less Laos. There was also a night market (of course) that sold the same things that pretty much every night market has. Laos is known for its textiles and dyed silk fabrics so there were a lot of those, but everything else was the same- colorful pants, tank tops with the local beer logo on them, etc. 

We met up the next morning to see the monks make their Alms Round, which is a daily ritual where the entire monastery walks down the main street at the break of dawn (they were super punctual, these monks. They appeared at exactly 5:30am) and accepts rice donations from the local Buddhists. This is their breakfast and for some of them, the only food they eat all day. Every one of them has a metal pot hanging from a strap on their shoulders and the locals will take a small handful of sticky rice that had been purchased earlier that morning (never leftovers, always prepared specifically for monks) and place it in each monk's pot. It's a very quiet, peaceful ceremony and if you're just watching, you're expected to dress as if you're in the temple and cover your shoulders and legs. 

After that, Ezequiel went back to bed and I decided to climb up Mount Phousi to see the temple at the top and the sunrise. AND I MADE IT (rip in peace to the three sunrises Natasha and I missed). Then I strolled through the morning markets and saw some pretty normal produce for sale (mangoes, cabbages, cilantro) and also some more exotic stuff (eels, cicadas, frogs, strange furry pellets that I didn't want to dwell too long on). I ate some fruit for breakfast and also these amazing coconut pancake things that tasted like fried dough balls made from coconut milk. Whatever they are, they're amazing and also came in this really cute banana leaf container. 

The rest of the morning, I walked north of the Mekong river and crossed this rickety bamboo bridge to see a Weaving village, where they produced fabrics and scarves and beautiful swaths of dried paper with flowers and leaves pressed inside. I ate lunch at a local stand (rice and veggies- still not too sure what traditional Lao food is but it kind of tastes like a combination of Vietnamese and Chinese flavors, which would make sense since it borders those two countries). After lunch, I checked out my final Wat

And then hopped on a tuk tuk to go home. It's also worth nothing that in a small town like Luang Prabang all the tuk tuk drivers are friends and some of them have a racing streak and like to compete with each other on the road and this greatly shortens the ride to the airport (and also possibly your life). I made it to my flight with a lot of time to spare, thoroughly explored the shops in all 4 gates, and then headed back home.

[the-pbd]

[the-pbd]

4.13.17 | Phnom Penh & Siem Reap

Our flight to Cambodia had a layover in KL so we ended up getting to Phnom Pehn at around 4pm on the 13th. Since Natasha and I were on a time crunch, we decided to prioritize more days in Siem Reap and only spend an afternoon and night in Phnom Pehn. Everyone we talked to said that they didn't much like the capital city but I ended up loved it, even though I only saw a little. 

We walked along the river from the south to the north and saw the Independence Monument, the Royal Palace where kids were playing soccer and skateboarding, and a night market where people were dancing in celebration of Songkran. It seemed like such a happy, lively city. On the way to the bus terminal, we wandered into a temple and met a really cool monk named David. We asked him all sorts of questions like how long he'd been studying to be a monk, what he thought about tradition vs religion, what he did for fun, etc. He added us on Facebook later.

Our night bus to Siem Reap left at 11pm and arrived around 5am. We got to our hostel (the Mad Monkey) and dropped off our stuff, and then decided to try and make the sunrise at Ankor Wat. Long story short, we didn't make that sunrise, either (I don't know why we keep trying). Ankor Wat was as beautiful as you'd expect, and absolutely huge. I was surprised to learn that it was originally a Hindu temple that was repurposed for Buddhism later. Every inch of every column was decorated with motifs like Ganesh and Garuda, and also carvings of spirits that I later learned were called Asparas, female goddesses that could shape shift. 

We spent a few hours walking around Ankor Wat, and then our tuk tuk driver took us to Ankor Thom and then (my personal favorite) Ta Phrom. This was a temple that had been abandoned around the 12th century and then left at nature's mercy, and huge trees eventually grew from what was left behind. It was so cool to see the gigantic roots sinking into the concrete, the moss growing in the cracks, and the branches waving overhead. While the temple itself had probably been beautiful, it was that much more surreal to see a jungle growing from the ruins.

That afternoon we walked around the night market (pro tip- don't walk around a night market when it's still daytime. You'll get a bunch of empty stalls and a handful of shop vendors looking confused) and that night we went up to the hostel bar. Since it was a party hostel, there were two bars and a pool and tons of people our age looking to have a good time. The bar upstairs was basically a big sandbox complete with a restaurant, beer pong tables, and free shots every hour. We pregamed with some of the other people staying in the hostel and then hit Pub Street.

I have to be honest- I don't know of any holiday in America that's as fun as Songkran in Cambodia was- everyone from little kids to adults were in the streets, shooting water guns, throwing baby powder in each other's faces, and getting soaked and chalked up and having the time of their lives. It didn't matter if you knew the person or not. No one made it out unscathed. By the time I got back to the hostel, I was almost unrecognizable. I looked like a sopping wet ghost. My clothes were drenched and saturated in baby powder, and I was drunk and exhausted and ready for bed.

The next day, Natasha and I booked a tour to go to a waterfall in a national park nearby (one guess as to whose idea it was to go to a waterfall). It was a pretty long drive there and I napped for most of it. But before we got there, we hit some awful traffic. Our guide told us that we could either sit in the car and wait it out, or go to the waterfall from the other side and hike for like, a few kilometers. By a few kilometers he apparently mean't like 10 (I'm exaggerating but that's what it felt like since half of it was up some really steep stairs and the other half was through thick Cambodian jungle). We got there eventually, tired and sweaty and ready to jump into some waterfalls. 

Unfortunately, the heavy traffic should’ve warned us that the national park was absolutely PACKED. Kids in Cambodia get two weeks off and adults get vacation days as well for the new year. The waterfall was stunning but swimming in it was hard because the pool below was so crowded. Natasha and I still jumped in, though, and it was super refreshing after such a long hike. We then trekked over to another temple to see a giant reclining buddha, and then finally back to the van where we all passed out blissfully for the ride home.

That night was pretty chill as well. We figured out our ride to the airport the next morning, and then hung out and partied with our friends at the hostel for the rest of the night.

The next day, we flew to KL and then I took a bus back to Singapore. And that was the end of it. It was a vacation I'll never forget, mostly because of the AMAZING people we met- the wonderful hosts in Phuket, the locals who were kind enough to help us out when we got lost, the hilarious guys we toured the Elephant Sanctuary with, and literally EVERYONE at the Siem Reap hostel (seriously, stay at the Mad Monkey. Every person I met there was so cool and wordly and knew how to have a good time). I was lucky enough to see some incredible views and make some awesome memories this whole week. It's been unforgettable. Coming back to work has been hard but I can't wait until my next adventure!

[the-pbd]

4.11.17 | Chiang Mai

We had one day in Chiang Mai and we did what everyone does- visited an Elephant Sanctuary!! 

Since our tour began at noon, we decided to get up early and try and make the sunrise at a temple first. It didn't end up working out (the second sunrise we missed) because we grossly underestimated the time it would take to get a tuk tuk and then a bus to the top of the mountain and then walk up the stairs to the temple itself. We got to Wat Phra That Doi Suthep around 9am and walked around, checking out the murals on the walls that depicted the life of buddha. There were people walking around the temple holding lotus flowers and incense and others kneeling in front of various statues of deities, praying. Buddhist temples in my opinion are a lot more welcoming than churches. Something about the fact that there are flowers and smoke everywhere and everyone is barefoot and they're usually outside makes it a lot more casual than dark pews and intimidating altars.

We made it back to the hostel and caught a quick bowl of noodles for lunch and then were ushered into a truck that was going to take us to the Elephant Sanctuary. It's worth nothing at this point that it was April 11th, the day before Songkran, which is the huge new year festival in parts of Southeast Asia. The main way that people celebrate the new year is by dumping buckets of water on each other and shooting each other with water guns. We assumed that because the festival hadn't started yet, we'd be safe. We were wrong. Our ride to the Elephant Sanctuary was in the bed of the truck, which had a roof but open sides. Right before we got to there, we got absolutely ambushed. Buckets of water were thrown at us, over and over again by children, old people, everyone in between. People were just standing on the road sides with buckets and water guns, ready to soak passing cars! No one was mad about it, though. Everyone that I saw who was splashed just laughed and said "Happy New Year!"

We got to the sanctuary around 2, and proceeded to feed the elephants crates and crates full of bananas. I was really amazed by how dextrous their trunks were, especially at the ends. Some of the elephants even knew how to peel off the skin of the banana before they ate it. After the feeding session, we got into this huge mud puddle to give the elephants mud baths, and then we all headed to the river to wash them (and ourselves) off. And because it was Songkran, we had a big water fight and the elephants loved it, rolling around the river and splashing in it with us. What's awesome about the elephant sanctuaries in Thailand is that they shelter elephants that have been rescued from essentially slave-like existences by tours that offer rides. In fact, elephants aren't supposed to be ridden at all due to the shape of their spines. But a lot of tourist centers make a lot of money from elephant tours so it continues to happen. The sanctuaries are ethical ways for people to interact and play with elephants while allowing them the space to roam free and live happily. The sanctuaries have been getting more and more popular recently and they do a lot to spread awareness and garner support for banning elephant rides. After a quick meal with some hilarious Irish guys, Natasha and I headed back to Chiang Mai. And yes, we got splashed on the way back too.

That night was pretty chill. We wandered around town with some cool people we'd met at the sanctuary, ate some pad thai, and checked out the night market. I really wish that night markets were a thing in the states. Sometimes you want to go out but don't want to pay an entrance fee or get drunk. You just want to eat and look at cool things. Night markets are fun because they're outdoors, they sell a huge variety of stuff, and there's food galore. Malls just don't offer as much and they almost always close before 10. Night markets are so much better.

That was our last night in Thailand. The next day we were headed to Cambodia.

[the-pbd]

4.8.17 | Krabi and Phuket

After so many small weekend getaways, it was awesome to take a whole week (and two weekends) off and dedicate them to traveling. My friend Natasha (who also went to Tech and is working for PwC in the fall in New York!) was in Sri Lanka doing an internship with AIESEC and finished the week before Easter. We decided to meet up and explore some islands in Thailand as well as two cities in Cambodia. 

I left Friday night, took an overnight bus from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur, and arrived on Saturday around 5am. We met up in the city center and explored KL for a few hours. I introduced her to kaya (my favorite Singaporean breakfast spread made from pandan leaves and coconut custard) and we walked around the beautiful area next to the infamous Petronas towers. And also we found Red Bull (below), which was true blessing because both of us were running on very few hours of very low quality sleep.

Our flight to Krabi was at 4pm, and we got there around 6. The hostel was easy enough to get to from the airport due to the shuttles that were running to town every few minutes. It was kind of rainy that night but that didn’t stop us from walking to the City Market and Night markets, buying some street food, and sampling exotic fruits like salak (tart, tangy, delicious) and durian (absolutely disgusting). We also ate this incredible banana/egg pancake thing that was kind of like a crepe but better. After dinner, we went back to the hostel and went to bed.

The next morning, we went into Krabi town and took a tour on a long-tailed boat to see these two beautiful mountains rising out of the sea, called Khao Kanab Nam. We docked on an island and went into some caves and tried to do a little rock climbing but failed. Then the boat driver (the captain?) took us to a fish farm which was basically just a dock with nets underneath where you could peek over platforms into the water below. They had crabs and snapper to eat and this one huge fish that weighed over 20 kilo which they kept just for show. We then floated through a mangrove forest back into town and boarded a bus to Phuket. 

When we got there, Natasha and I rented a motorbike (aka a scooter) and scooted on over to our hostel, stopping at this really beautiful temple along the way called Wat Chalong

The hostel we were staying at in Phuket was called the Camp Hostel on Kata Beach which I HIGHLY recommend, just because the host was this awesome 25 year old Thai girl named Aschi who made it a point to hang out with all of her guests and really knew how to have a good time. She led me and Natasha and a group of “campers” over to the beachside where we feasted on some dope pad thai and had some fruit juice afterwards. That night, we went to a little bar not too far away and played Jenga and drew on the walls with highlighter paint and got pretty silly.

The next morning, we woke up early to try and make the sunrise at the Big Buddha Temple, which was on top of a hill overlooking the entire west side of Phuket. We didn't end up making it for sunrise (it was way too long a drive/hike), but we made it eventually and it was well worth it. After that, we just spent the whole day on the beach- first at Karon beach a few minutes away, and then back to Kata beach to go snorkeling. 

I'd been snorkeling before, but only in places like Florida where the most fish you'll see is a school of minnows or a sand dollar. Thailand was completely different. I felt like I was in a real-life fish tank. There were beautiful coral formations everywhere with angel fish, parrot fish, jelly fish, blue starfish, clown fish- basically everyone from Finding Nemo was there. It really made me appreciate the fact that places like that still existed, because sometimes it seems like our whole world is overrun with commercialization and pollution. And though Thailand is definitely a touristy place, everything I saw was still ridiculously untouched and incredibly beautiful. Including the oceans. It was really nice.

That night, we rode our motorbike into Patong, which is a town just north of Kata beach. There was a huge party street- similar to Khaosan Road in Bangkok- and we sat down at a bar and watched a cabaret show put on by some of Thailand's famous lady boys. After that we ran into a club (FREE ENTRY FOR EVERYONE which is literally unheard of in the US) and danced for like 4 hours. In the middle of the DJ's set this aerial artist came onstage and did a whole show with ribbons and it was random but so pretty. There was also this hip hop dance troupe that was leading a group of people towards the front, near the stage. It was different than clubbing in the US because there was really no pretentiousness about it. No one was really dressed up (I got in wearing hiking sandals) but they were all jamming to the music and were just there to dance and have a good time.

The next day was a day of transit. We woke up early, rode the bike back to Phuket town, returned the bike, took the bus back to Krabi, and then hung out in Ao Nang for a few hours. We rode the long-tailed boat from Ao Nang to Railay Beach and Tonsai. Even though we didn't have time to get off and splash around, it was still really cool to sail around the cliffs and watch people rock climbing and just enjoy some of Thailand's magical seascapes.

Around 6pm, we took a bus back to Krabi airport and landed in Chiang Mai at 10.

[the-pbd]

3.31.17 | Taipei

Every time one of my Singapore friends learned that I was going to be in Taipei for a few days, they would immediately give me a ton of suggestions for things to do. 90% of these suggestions usually involved eating some kind of street food- which was fine by me. I love street food. I love the idea of not having to commit to sitting down in a restaurant, sifting through too many choices, waiting for forever for my food to come, eating like a dignified human being, and spending too much money on the experience because sometimes I literally. just. want. the food.

So yeah, street food is my jam. I was pumped for Taipei.

I landed on Friday night around 9pm to meet my friend @Cole (shoutout to him for being such a homie and traveling with me again) at Taoyuan International. We took the airport train over to the Taipei MRT and eventually located my mom's friend's place, only after knocking on a few wrong doors (sorry, old guy who lives on the other side of the block) and then finally being rescued by a nice delivery girl who let us use her phone. It was too late and rainy to explore by the time we got there, so we just went to bed to get an early start the next day.

My mom's friend (auntie Martha) lives right next to Taipei National University, so there were a ton of cafes and little restaurants and convenience stores nearby. We were also within walking distance to the Chiang Kai Shek memorial, which is a huge outdoor garden with a beautiful temple in the middle dedicated to Taiwan's first president. We spent most of the morning exploring this area, which was nice because it was early enough to where there weren't that many tourists out and about yet.

After that, we decided to check out what was called the Songshan Cultural Creative park. On the way we stopped at a random food stand and got breakfast. My Chinese is pretty bad (and in Taiwan they use Fan Ti Zi, which is a style of written Chinese that's like cursive but 100 times worse) but we were able to point at the food we wanted and get by.

On the way to the park, we ran into a Hello Kitty cafe (Taiwan was occupied by the Japanese for about 50 years and as a result, they have a ton of authentic Japanese food and vestiges of Japanese culture like Hello Kitty) which had a lot of little desserts that were SO CUTE but also SO EXPENSIVE so we didn't get anything. 

The culture park ended up being a really cool stop. It kind of reminded my of Ponce City Market in Atlanta where there are just a ton of little stores selling bougie homemade products ranging from socks with animal faces on them to delicate jewelry to tiny carved wooden figurines set up in nativity-like scenes. There was also some photography exhibition there shedding light on Taiwan's migrant workers. All in all, a worthy excursion.

We walked from there to the Ximending area, which is basically just Taipei's main shopping district. There was only one thing I was interested in seeing there, which was the famous Modern Toilet restaurant, where all the guests sit on toilet seats and eat out of tiny toilet-shaped bowls (!!!) There's just something about eating green curry out of a toilet-shaped bowl that makes it look like something other than green curry. The food was really good, though, and so was the chocolate ice cream. It was kind of gross, kind of fun, and I'm glad I stopped there but it's not a restaurant I'd be able to eat at every day. 

After that, we took a bus an hour north to the National Palace Museum, which houses one of the greatest collections of Chinese art. I have to admit, I'm not as huge a fan of Chinese art as I am of European art, but there's something to be said of the painstaking process it takes to create a scroll with immaculate watercolors and then write in beautiful calligraphy an accompanying poem on top. A lot of poems are interpreted by their brushstrokes (where the poet chose to emphasize certain words or how they chose to paint certain lines within a character) and that in itself was a kind of art- painting and literature all in one. It was pretty cool.

Shilin Night Market, Taipei's largest and most famous night market, is very close to the National Palace Museum, so naturally it was our final stop of the day. We got dropped off at the southern end and walked north. As we imagined, the streets were packed full of people queuing for stalls that offered everything from candied tomatoes to noodles to bubble tea to crepes to sausages to dumplings to lots of other foods that I didn't recognize. The first thing we ate was a freshly baked pancake/scone thing. After that we had some pigeon eggs on a stick. We then moved onto a huge savory crepe, and then finally splurged on octopus, fried in dough, covered in cheese, with soy sauce, hot sauce, and wasabi drizzled on top. It was wild and extra but so, so good.

After that we didn't have the capacity to do anything else. We made it home and fell asleep in a great food-induced coma.

The second day, we woke up and met my auntie Martha for lunch at Tim Ho Wan, which is a dim sum place (Hong Kong food instead of Taiwanese, but delicious nonetheless). One of my favorite dim sum items is sesame mochi balls. Usually they're filled with red bean paste but at Tim Ho Wan they were filled with liu sha (drool) which is basically this beautiful, golden, sweet, custard-y egg yolk filling. In retrospect, I probably should've ordered like 10 plates of those and just nothing else but I guess I'll know for next time.

After that big brunch, Cole and I made our way over to Elephant Mountain where there was a hiking trail that led up to a great view of the Taipei 101 tower. The day before had been kind of overcast but that day was absolutely beautiful, sunny and 75 with clear blue skies and a nice breeze. After so long in the sweltering humidity of Singapore, Taipei's weather was a welcome relief. The hike itself was short but steep. We camped out on some large boulders and admired the view for a while, then decided to walk to the tower to see if we could afford tickets to the observation deck (spoiler alert: we couldn't).

We walked around the downtown area after that, ran into a pet convention (so many little doggies!) saw another Cultural Creative park (this one was outdoors, with little stalls set up kind of like a night market), and then spent some time in Eslite bookstore, which was voted the #1 bookstore in Asia on account of its size and the fact that it's open 24 hours. Then, we made our way back to the south part of the city to eat some beef noodle soup (super hearty and filling) and xiao long bao, which are soup-filled dumplings. 

For dessert, we waited in line for bubble tea (invented in Taiwan!) which was SO GOOD. I know I've said that about everything I've eaten here but as a self-proclaimed connoisseur of bubble tea I have to say that the boba I had in this tea was probably the best boba I've had in my life, hands down. They were soft and chewy and super fresh and sweetened with brown sugar and other syrups that altogether made some damn good boba. I was a fan. We were close by to two night markets (Shida and Gongguan) so we strolled around those for a while. Shida had a lot more clothes and Gongguan seemed to sell a lot more fruit than Shilin. Both were less crowded so it was really nice to just walk around and check out what the vendors were selling and not get accosted by crazy tourists and hungry mobs. It was a great way to end the weekend.

I think the thing I liked the most about Taipei was the atmosphere- even though it's definitely much more urban than Singapore is, with huge skyscrapers everywhere and a bustling financial district, it still has a great, laid-back vibe to it. The people all seemed really nice. In lieu of bars, they have an incredible array of cafes, some of which are uniquely themed and all of which seem worthy of checking out. I was really surprised by how many little coffee shops there were, given that Asia is kind of big on tea, but despite the Western influences there were still a lot of traditional aspects imbued into everyday life. According to my coworker, "Taiwan is the only place I’ll keep coming back to.”

(*Side note: I talked to my friends and apparently I DID TAIWAN ALL WRONG by wasting an entire precious meal on dim sum because it's not authentically Taiwanese. Also, apparently I forgot to try a bunch of foods like oyster omelettes and some beef rice dish and also sweet soymilk with fried Chinese doughnuts so OKAY I GET IT it seems like I need to go back to do eat those things. Whatever, it was an awesome vacation and even better eating extravaganza nonetheless). 

[the-pbd]

2.20.17 | Bangkok

Hooray for whirlwind travel weekends! 

Thailand is a country that deserves much more than two days to explore but I was balling on a (time) budget so that was all I could spare. My friend Jameel had been on a family vacation in Thailand and right before he flew back, we met up in Bangkok to do some sightseeing.

I'd been to Thailand before (albeit 10 years ago) so I was less interested in the touristy stuff, and Jameel had already seen most of it with his family anyway. Luckily, there's a ton of beautiful scenery in and around Bangkok. After some research, we decided to visit Erawan National Park, where there apparently was a stunning hike along a 7-tier waterfall. (Side note: Jameel pointed out that I have a weird thing for waterfalls. After some reflection on a few of my previous travels- most notably Iceland- I have to admit he's right. But I mean, who doesn't love a good waterfall? Literally no one. Because waterfalls are awesome).

It was somewhat of a cumbersome process to get to the falls. We took a taxi from our hostel on Khasan Road to the Southern Bus Station (Sai Tai), a bus from there to Kanchanaburi, the nearest town to the falls, and then another bus from Kanchanaburi to the park entrance. All in all, it was a 4 hour trip one way on Thailand's bumpy, dusty roads in some vehicles that had definitely seen better days. The good thing was that the rides were crazy cheap.

Upon arrival, we located the beginning of the hike and after a really short walk (like, 10 minutes) we reached the first tier. Honestly, I felt a little undeserving of the view because it was something that I would've hiked at least an hour for, but there it was- a crazy beautiful waterfall barely 500 meters from the park's entrance. There were a lot of people splashing around in the light blue pools and you could see schools of skimming along the banks, and huge palm fronds overhanging the water. It was ridiculously pretty but kind of crowded, so we kept going. The second, third, and fourth tiers all had a decent number of people hanging out in them as well. The last couple of tiers were more isolated.

What was really cool about the hike was that all the waterfalls were different. Some of them were wide and free-flowing and others were more like steps, with choppier rapids. Sometimes the hike was right next to the water and other times it was through the jungle. We stopped a few times to climb up the river and snap some photos. Even though it was a really hot day (hotter than Singapore, which is saying something) the shade provided by the leafy canopy was cool. Still, by the time we got to the very top of the falls, I was super ready to go swimming.

The seventh tier- aka the end of the trail- was almost at the top of the mountain and took us about an hour and a half to get to. There were fish up there (how did they get there??) and I'm pretty sure I saw a water monitor clambering around one of the pools as well. And we even saw some monkeys! As someone who has only seen monkeys in captivity, it was weird to think that they existed in the wild, too. No wild monkeys in the US, at least not to my knowledge.

We decided to hike back down a little to swim, in order to avoid the crowds. The water was refreshingly cold but still pretty shallow, and we paddled around for a little while before drying off and hiking back to the park entrance. The buses back to Kanchanaburi were hourly and we just barely made the 3pm one. The buses were packed to the brim, with people sitting in the aisles and crouching in the back and even standing on the steps in the open doorway, holding onto railings. But for 40 bhat ($1.20 USD) I had no reason to complain. After arriving back at Kanchanaburi, we hopped on the other bus back to Bangkok and then split a taxi with some people we met who were also headed back to Khaosan. We arrived at like 7pm and Jameel and I showered and got ready for the night.

Khaosan Road is pretty famous in Bangkok, comparable to Bourbon Street in New Orleans. I feel like every major city has that one road just filled with vendors and street food and budget hostels and bars and clubs and touristy stores. Khaosan was that road. Because this was Thailand, street food was plentiful and delicious and Jameel and I basically just made a feast out of it, snacking on some spring rolls, then some satay, then some pad thai, and finally some freshly blended pineapples. All for like less than $5. We bar hopped a little and drank some beer and explored a nearby rooftop bar, and then came back to Khaosan and got some cocktails. It was close to midnight then and things were getting super rowdy. People were dancing and drinking in the streets (they had these things called vodka buckets, which are more or less self-explanatory). Bars were pumping out music as loudly as their speakers could handle, and vendors and promoters were walking with advertisements for Laughing Gas (??) and even signs boasting that their bar didn't check IDs. It was pretty wild. We called it a night soon after that and went back to the hostel. 

The next morning, we woke up and had breakfast (side note- the people at Some Rest Hostel are SUPER nice. Shameless plug for them, not the least because we lost their room key and they didn't charge us or get mad or anything and we felt really bad and then ended up finding the key in Jameel's backpack much later, after we'd already left. Oops). We spent the morning walking around Khaosan (it looked super different in the daytime) and then taking a water taxi to River City to check out Terminal 21 in Sukhumvit. On the way there, we passed by this street market, and there was this one stall that had a buffet of food. We got this incredible (starting to run out of adjectives to describe the food) pumpkin soup and a cup of tapioca pudding in coconut milk with cantaloupe. I really feel like we need these food stands in America. It would literally revolutionize the sad food industry that we currently have and make our nation a lot healthier. But then I guess that would put Chipotle and Chick-fil-a out of business, and we can't have that.

We eventually made it to Terminal 21 , which is basically just a huge shopping mall with a different city theme on each floor. They had London, Tokyo, and Paris and also two cities in America- San Francisco and Los Angeles. I thought it was unfair to include two cities from the same country- even the same state- but Jameel loved it. Whatever. Californians. We had some money to blow so we got some sesame noodles with roasted duck, spicy noodle soup, Thai tea (of course) and then got a desert of MANGO STICKY RICE. Okay, I have to say- mango sticky rice sounds very boring. It also looks very boring. It's literally just slices of mango on a mound of rice. But what I didn't know until I tried it was that the rice was glutinous, slow cooked until it had the consistency of mochi, and then cooked some more in coconut milk and condensed milk. It's soft and chewy and sweet and heavenly. The mango on top is a nice touch. But the rice is absolutely fire. Highly, highly recommend.

Anyway, we strolled around the mall for another hour or so and I bought a leather keychain strap thing because I felt obligated to buy a souvenir. I really dislike useless trinkets like snow globes and shot glasses so even though my purchase wasn't super ~*Thai*~ or whatever, it was useful and that's what really mattered to me. Side note: my friend Carolyn does this really cool thing where she gets a piece of jewelry in every place she visits. I think that's such a great idea because A) Jewelry is small and easily packed and B) It's a cultural and artistic representation of where you went without being obnoxiously touristy. Also, if someone compliments you on it you can say "Thanks! I got it in Belgrade/Krakow/Barcelona/Reykjavik" and sound super cultured and not pretentious at all. I started doing this in Europe and would've also got something in Bangkok but the mall was pretty bougie so there wasn't really any cheap jewelry for sale. 

Around 2pm, we decided it was time to get on our flights to go back to our respective homes. Jameel was going to a different airport than me so we took a taxi to the nearest metro station and parted ways. It was really nice to catch up because I rarely got to see him ever since he moved to the other side of the country. We did get to meet up once in Copenhagen last year but that ended up being a total fiasco (another story for another time.) This was our first real hangout since he graduated in May 2015, and I'm really happy I was able to catch while he was here on this side of the globe.

Bye, Thailand. I'll be back for you soon but until then I'll be dreaming about your tropical waterfalls and your mango sticky rice.

[the-pbd]

Thailand eats

[the-pbd]

2.13.17 | Singapore cont’d

I had a visitor this weekend! One of my fellow PwC interns from last summer (who has dope flight benefits because his dad is a pilot) came through on a direct flight from San Francisco to hang out in Singapore with me. We get along pretty well because we both like traveling (he’s solo traveled all throughout Japan and hiked the Matterhorn in Switzerland by himself, which is pretty admirable) and given the fact that he had a week off and could fly here for $33 round trip (Not jealous. Not jealous at all) it made sense for him to come visit, even if it was just for two days.

Cole came through really early Saturday morning, around 8am, and we caught up for a little bit before heading off to explore. The first place we hit up was East Coast Park, which had been on my list of places to see for a while. It’s a stretch of green space about 15km long, running on the Southeast part of the country next to the water. I saw a lot of people running and walking their dogs and biking, and there were quite a few places to stop and have some food. I think on a cooler day (or evening) it would’ve been an awesome place to hang out and even have a picnic on the beach but it was kind of hot that morning so after walking down about half of it, accidentally joining a Japanese tour group, and almost jay-walking across the highway until we learned there was an underpass, we proceeded to our next destination.

We hit up Chinatown, which is not only a cultural district but also a big shopping area, and is filled with tons of tourists walking up and down the streets, checking out the stands that sell everything from rubber chickens to traditional Chinese dresses (qi pao) to durian cakes to chopsticks. It was still decorated very festively from the holiday season so the entire street was covered with red lanterns strung overhead. We even saw some lion dancers. The coolest thing about Chinatown was probably the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple, which was this huge, multistory temple that had a place in the courtyard to light incense and also a room that featured a huge golden deity and lots of barefooted devotees praying on mats.

After Chinatown, we went to Little India and had lunch. I got the vegetable platter which was basically just a bunch of little bowls that had everything from lentil curry to a sweet tapioca pudding, surrounding a bowl in the center that had just white rice, all placed on a huge tray that was lined with a banana leaf. I later learned that I was supposed to dump everthing on the banana leaf and mix it together and eat it with my fingers, but I guess I’ll know for next time. Either way, it was delicious and spicy and super authentic.

After Little India we did a quick tour of the Gardens by the Bay and the Marina Bay Sands hotel, then hung out at home in Serangoon for a while to take a break. For dinner, we ate satay at the nearby Chomp Chomp hawker center and then went back to the downtown area to watch the Garden Rhapsody light show and see Clarke Quay.

The second day, we woke up early again and grabbed breakfast at a local chain, Toast Box. They’re more a less a cafe/brunch place, and sell Singapore classics like Laksa and Kaya Toast. We opted for the latter, as well as this thing called the Golden Lava French Toast which was filled with some sort of filling that rich and sweet and (I think) egg-based. It tasted a lot like a bun that’s traditionally served at dim sum and was deep fried and delicious. The coffee was also incredible, and I suspect it was made in the Vietnamese style, where they add espresso to condensed milk. This makes it stronger and less diluted than it would be if regular milk was used, but it’s still really sweet and creamy.

After that dank breakfast, we went to the MacRitchie Reservoir area to go on a hike along the lake to a Treetop Walk. Part of the trail was obstructed due to construction but it wasn’t anything a little expert maneuvering couldn’t handle (even though my shoes ended up a lot dirtier than they were when we started). Still, it was worth it because the Treetop Walk was so cool. It was just a long bridge that was suspended over the trees and gave a great view of the jungle below. And the monkeys! There were monkeys everywhere from when we started the hike to when we were on the bridge. They mostly kept to themselves but I did see one walk by us on the bridge and proceed to grab a tissue from a hiker’s backpack and throw it off the bridge. Savage. Cole also managed to trip over a giant Malayan water monitor (related to the komodo dragon) so that was pretty exciting. The was lots of wildlife in the area which is awesome because we were in the middle of a jungle but still 20 minutes away from the downtown core area.

We were starving after the hike so we took the MRT to Newtown Hawker Center, which was recommended to us by a friend. They had some really delicious laksa, and their sour plum juice wasn’t bad either. I think it was one of the nicer hawker centers I’ve been to, and it’s just across the street from the MRT stop so I’d highly recommend eating there if you get a chance.

We walked off our lunch on Orchard Road. To be honest, there’s not that much to do on that street besides window shop, unless you’re really balling out in which case DM me please. We did have a blast at the giant Muji store (basically just a Japanese Ikea) and also at Ion Sky. I even got to take home a free succulent because Ion was doing some event for Valentine’s Day. So it was still pretty productive, even if I couldn’t afford to get one of the $10k Cartier bangle things or the Jo Malone perfume or the Fendi bags. Maybe next time.

We’d planned on maybe seeing Haji Lane or Esplanade that night, but what we actually ended up doing was just looking for ice cream. After much searching, we located one at a shopping plaza only to find that the ice cream shop there was closed. There was a dramatic scramble for wifi at the nearby McDonald’s to navigate to another ice cream place, an entire ordeal where we ran back and forth between top-up machines at the MRT station, and a quick snack break in between for some Milo and kaya toast, but finally we made it to this place called The Famous Ice Cream Rolls Shop (a very literal name if you ask me, but I guess it’s good to give it to people straight sometimes) and got to enjoy our hard-earned Thai tea and vanilla ice cream rolls.

The weekend started off intense and touristy with the two of us covering a lot of ground in the short time we had, but it mellowed out towards the end. I got to see a lot of places in Singapore that I’d been itching to check out. I hung out with monkeys. And I ate some delicious ice cream. Thanks to @Cole for visiting me on a whim and for being such a great travel partner!

[the-pbd]

2.5.17 | Guangzhou & Wuhan

I went back to the motherland for the first time in 10 years! A lot had changed but it was really, really awesome to see my grandparents and spend some time with family. I had three days in Guangzhou, during which I took two tours. The first one was during the day and was a whole day of excursions to see Guangzhou’s most notable sights. We climbed up a large mountain, saw a military academy which was founded during the 1920s and was at its time on par with West Point, visited an ancient history museum, and finally saw a huge house and courtyard that used to belong to one of China’s wealthiest families.

I guess it’s worth mentioning that I don’t love tours. In fact, I kind of hate them. I had a coworker in Germany tell me that he visited Atlanta for a day trip once, and when I asked him how he liked it, he bluntly admitted (in true German fashion) that he’d hated it. But it turns out that he’d only spent his time downtown, at the Coke museum (before it was renovated), the CNN center, and then at the Hard Rock Cafe for dinner. If someone showed me those three things, I probably wouldn’t have liked Atlanta much either. The true gems of a city are not in the most touristy sites, but in the neighborhoods like Edgewood and Virginia Highlands and Midtown with their vastly different personalities, and the authenticity of local restaurants like The Nook and Ladybird and West Egg, and in the awesome parts of the city that have just come up in recent years, like the Beltline or Ponce City Market.

Anyway, I was sure that Guangzhou had a lot more to offer than what I saw, but being as I only had three days in the city and most of it was being spent with family, two tours was the best I could do. The second tour I took was much shorter because it was just a nighttime river cruise. One cool thing about Guangzhou is that all of its buildings are lit up with LEDs, especially the ones on the river. Whereas in America, only the biggest buildings have lights on them and most of these are at the top, the buildings in Guangzhou are basically just huge screens with patterns of stripes and flashing lights and even animations. They’re decorated like that because the government deems it’s a worthy investment in order to attract tourists, and since they have a lot of money and power, all of the buildings are bright and colorful and light up the sky at night.

To get from Guangzhou to Wuhan, I took a high speed bullet train. China is absolutely huge, which is why having the infrastructure to support these trains is so necessary. Even moving at an average of 300 km/hr (almost 200 mph) it still took 4 hours to get there. Wuhan is much further north, so when I got off the train the first thing I noticed was how inadequate my leggings and jacket were. My grandparents picked me up from the gate and, after adding some more layers to my outfit, we spent the rest of the day eating and hanging out.

The next day, we explored a really cool area of Wuhan that was dedicated to emulating certain countries in Europe. For example, there was an Italian street, which was filled with cobblestones and flowerpots, a Spanish street which had a bunch of bronze bull statues, and a German street, which was full of pointed rooftops and quaint German architecture. The stores were normal stores you’d find at any mall, but I thought it was really cool how uniquely they were presented. After lunch, we went to another shopping district, this time set up along the river. The prettiest part was this one tunnel that was just filled with cascading string lights. The weather was kind of cold and rainy though so we didn’t spend too much time out. We came back in the evening and after a big dinner (hot pot again!) I went to bed early to catch my train back to Guangzhou in the morning, and then my flight back to warm and sunny Singapore.

[the-pbd]

Chinese New Year celebrations call for feasts.

[the-pbd]

1.28.17 | CNY

In case you missed it, Chinese New Year was this past week (on January 28th, to be exact). This whole week, Chinese people around the world have been celebrating and coming back to their families back home resulting in the world’s biggest annual migration and leading to chaos in airports in train stations. But it’s well worth it because people get to spend extended time with their families (in China, people often get more than a week off from school and work). It’s kind of like the holidays back in America.

Anyway, my holiday actually started on the Thursday before CNY. I had two days off so I decided to go and explore some of Singapore. The main thing I saw was the Singapore Botanical Gardens, which were really easy to get to by subway. If you ever get to visit Singapore, I highly recommend visiting the gardens. Not only is it expansive, it contains a variety of different exhibits and best of all, it has free admission. One of my favorite things about the gardens was that it had a “Rainforest” section which was basically just trees from when Singapore was still just a lush tropical jungle and not the bustling metropolis it was today. In the middle of the forest was a tree called a Cannonball tree, which had grown from a seed that one of the original curators of the garden had stolen from Sri Lanka. There was an entire pathway dedicated to displaying the evolution of plants, from eons before humans existed to modern day flora. 

Another cool thing I saw was a whole room full of succulents and hanging air plants (all my hipster dreams realized). And there was even a “Cool House”, which was a greenhouse but instead of trapping heat, it was deliberately cooled so that it could display mountainous plants that grew in much colder temperatures. My favorite exhibit however, was the National Orchid Garden. This was the only part I paid for ($1 with student admission) but it was more than worth it. I could be biased because orchids are my favorite flowers, but I think anyone who has any appreciation for aesthetics would’ve loved it. It was amazing to see the sheer number of species that botanists could cultivate. There were specific stops in the garden but even the pathways were overflowing with various species of orchids. At the top of the pathway, there was a special exhibit called the VIP Garden and it had a different flower dedicated to each visiting dignitary that had come to the Orchid Garden- everyone from Nelson Mandela to Angela Merkel to William and Kate, Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. 

And I saw a couple of these guys just wandering around the gardens as well, so that was pretty cool.

The night before CNY, my aunt and uncle and cousin got together for a huge feast, traditionally known as the reunion dinner in Chinese culture. We ate and ate and watched the CCTV special that comes on every year and lasts for 6 hours, well past midnight. The actual day of Chinese New Year started off with a visit to one of the Buddhist temples in the downtown core of Singapore. My family members and I left early in the morning and waited in a huge crowd full of people holding sticks of incense to get into the temple. After bowing three times, we put our incense sticks in a huge cauldron in the middle and proceeded to another room where people were praying. The crowds were massive so we left after not spending too much time in the temple, and afterwards enjoyed a vegetarian lunch at a nearby restaurant. 

That night, we had another huge hot pot dinner and then went to the bayside to a big celebration fair that had a stage set up with performances, a huge tent full of stands selling street food, and even a fireworks display. It was cool to see how widely Singaporeans celebrated Chinese New Year.  I think because it’s less of a religious holiday and more of just a huge celebration for the coming year, all of the citizens are compelled to participate in the holiday and enjoy the celebrations. And everyone loves a reason to party.

[the-pbd]

1.19.17 | Singapore

I’ve been here for almost two weeks now! Here are some things I’ve been up to.

 My relatives came to visit last week! It was a group of six of them (3 older couples) plus a tour guide they hired to bring them around. Including me, we were a party of 8 for dinner. We ate at a restaurant called Sky on 57, located in the Marina Bay Sands hotel and the menu was incredible. I appreciated the nod to Chinese traditional cooking, but most of it was pretty westernized.Some highlights of the meal were: Maine lobster with scrambled egg whites and truffle shavings, tea-smoked French duck, and this amazing dessert of mango custard, pomelo (grapefruit), and coconut ice cream. 

The best part of the night, thought, was when I got to swim in the famous infinity pool on the top floor of the hotel. By then, it was after dinner and already dark but still, the view was so pretty. It was kind of surreal to be eye level with the top floors of skyscrapers and gave me the feeling that I was floating through the city. The infinity pool was huge, stretched across almost the entire top portion of the hotel, and it wasn’t really so much a swimming pool as it was an amphibiotic viewing deck for Singapore’s skyline. But it’s not like I was there to do laps or anything.

I also got the chance this past weekend to see the Gardens by the Bay. I think that out of all the things I’ve seen in Singapore thus far, the gardens were my favorite. I didn’t get to explore all of it- there are two huge greenhouses that have an admission fee so that’ll probably happen some other time- but I did get to see the famous Supertree Grove. It’s wild to me that some architect said “let’s make a bunch of 50-ft tall tree sculptures and cover them with a frame so plants can grow on them and install a walkway in the air connecting everything and have a viewing deck on one of them with a cafe and put lights on them so at night people can come and see a laser show” and people were just like “okay”. What I loved most about the trees was that they were beautiful but had utility, too. Their trunks and canopies apparently have over 200 species of plants that aren’t native to Singapore and they’re all different heights and colors depending on which plants are on them. But the cool part is that a lot of them have photovoltaic cells installed on them so they’re self-powering. Walking among them is such an interesting experience because you feel like you’re in a futuristic jungle or something.

Finally, I visited a bunch of farms in the northern part of the country, in Kranji. There was a really cute goat farm where we walked among the goats in holding pens and fed them hay. There was also fresh goat’s milk for us to try afterwards. And then we visited a frog farm (frog porridge is a big thing here but I haven’t had the courage to try it yet) and finally stopped by an orchid farm (that was really cool for me, because orchids are my favorite flowers).

And of course, I’ve eaten so much food the past few days as well. The one thing I’ll have to say that I don’t like about Singaporean food is its lack of fresh fruits and vegetables. Since it’s such a small country, there isn’t that much room to grow crops. Because of this, most produce- especially fruits- are imported and thus a lot more expensive compared to other products in the supermarket. In the hawker centers, a cup of fresh juice is often just as expensive (if more more) than a bowl of noodles in soup. Eating is really cheap here if you eat out but it’s pricey if you’re trying to cook. 

Good thing there are still so many things for me to try.

[the-pbd]

1.11.17 | Arrival

The first thing that I noticed about Singapore was that it was SO HOT. Everyone was wearing shorts and tshirts and tank tops and I was melting in my leggings and sweater. To justify, I thought I'd wear my heaviest clothes while I on the plane to save room in my already-stuffed suitcase. It was a good idea when I was in Atlanta and the forecast was hinting at snow. Not so much a good idea when I got to Singapore, which is basically on top of the equator.

Anyway, I was received by the President of the AIESEC chapter in Singapore Management University who also bought me my first meal here. It consisted of laksa (a spicy noodle soup based in a creamy broth), toast with butter and kaya (a kind of coconut jam), poached eggs with soy sauce, chicken curry, steamed rice with pickled vegetables, and milk tea. 

I quickly learned that Singapore is all about food- the locals typically go out to eat at "coffee shops" which aren't the ones we typically think about in America or Amsterdam. They're basically just food stands, sometimes a bunch of them all together creating a whole food court where you can get a big plate piled up with all kinds of deliciousness for just a few dollars. Cooking isn't that common because you can get such good food for so cheap. They're known for their laksa, chicken rice, and chili crab, and most of their food items are beautiful fusions of all of the cultures present here, the main ones being Chinese, Malay, Indian, and Indonesian. Most Singaporeans are ethnically Chinese (about 70%) which was really surprising to me considering how it's much closer to Malaysia, located at the very tip of its peninsula. You can take a bus from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur for pretty cheap and get there in a few hours. I learned however that since Singapore is a port city, many Chinese people came over to find new opportunities. The rest of the population are people from the surrounding Asiatic region.

One of the things I heard about Singapore was that it was really clean. This is true. There aren't that many trash cans and in some places, like the subway stations, there aren't any at all. The primary reason is that it's a security issue since terrorists can hide bombs in trash cans (security here is pretty tight as well). The city dedicates a lot of money to have cleaners who upkeep the streets and sidewalks, and littering incurs a heavy fine. Despite it being a pretty large city, the air is really fresh and smells nice, and everything looks new. The people all live in pretty small apartments however, since space is so limited. It's cool because even in the more suburban regions you can find large apartment buildings that go up 20 floors. And the public transportation is incredible! Owning cars is rare because the infrastructure is so well designed to support the MRT (subway) and bus systems, so the people who own cars own really nice ones. Still, transport takes a while since the subway stops aren't as ubiquitous as they are in NYC, for example. Buses then pick up the slack and therefore the routes have a ton of stops which takes a lot more time. A typical morning commute apparently takes 45 minutes to an hour.  

Thus far, my time in Singapore has been really good. The group of people I work with is awesome, and the other AIESEC interns and EPs have been so wonderful. I can’t went to spend my first weekend here and really get to see some of the things that this city is known for.