Yesterday was a day like any other. I woke up late and still tired. First to the internet where I discovered that my family has gotten a webcam and I can talk to them for free rather than burning through my prepaid cards. Eventually I was overtaken by the smell of cooking wafting up from the canteen below and I went to eat my breakfast.

My first lecture was not interesting. We have a professor from the PRC and he speaks in a very pronounced accent. He is easy to understand, but he talks very slowly with much emphasis on almost every word, so we don't get to cover much. As a result, even in our third week of international political economy we are still just covering basic economic concepts like "comparative advantage".

My next class is probaly the most interesting of the week: Introductory Chinese. We learned a few more words like "tall" (gao), "short" (ai) and "read" (kan). It is a big class so I am sure it is not the most effective way to learn a language. The professor sais a word and we all repeat it. I am sure it is impossible for her to hear each individual voice in the lecture theater, but I try anyway.

After the lecture ended, a Vietnamese girl came up and talked to me. She complimented me on my ability to pronounce the words. I had heard that the asian girls really liked white guys, but this was the first time that any girl had actually approached me and started talking. It is defenately a boost to the ego, but I don't really know if I am into asian girls. My mother has always said that I am destined to marry an asian girl due to my love of rice, but I think spending my formative years in the homogenous environment of Cape Breton have steered my tastes otherwise.

That evening I hung out with the guys from the trip this weekend, Wili, Bertrand and Vincent. First we started watching 2 fast 2 furious, a horrible movie about street racing. The movie was so bad that it was hard to determine wether the script or the acting was worse. Luckily, I guess, Wili got tired and kicked us out of his room about 40 minutes into the movie. I went to the stair well to wait for Vincent as he had a cigarette and we started talking.

Vincent is a French guy who goes to Sciences Po. This is not only the school where my sister has just finished a year of exchange, but is the top political school in France and thus Europe. We talked for two or three hours talking about economic and social development, international relations, the future relations between China and the West, the position and future of Europe, and French politics. I was so happy to finally find someone whith whom I can discuss these topics and not just feel like I am talking to myself. I went to sleep late and happy.

The next morning I was reluctantly woken by the sound of my phone repeatedly playing a tune that resembles the "drunken sailor" song. I remembered that I had told my parents that I would have a teleconference with them and my grand parents at that time. I got up put on a shirt and got online. Due to some glitches it didnt' work in time to talk to my grandparents, but I talked with my parents anyway.

Not much happened in the rest of the day until, like always, and like many of the other exchange students, I made my way down to the african bar (a place that used to be an african themed bar but has since shut down leaving picnic tables where the exchange students go and drink their own alcohol) and hung out with some Kiwis and a Malaysian.

Thats it for now. I have lots of pictures of my travels so far and I am more than willing to share them. If you want them (as they illustrate many of the stories in this blog) just find me on msn...

Marc

Last week was a week like any other. There were ques, burocratic hassles, hanging out with other exchange students, drinking, and excessive expensive clubbing. While some of this might be of interest, as it happened last week, it is in the past and I will focus on more recent and interesting events.
On friday I went to Indonesia. I went with Willi (short for Wilhelm, sort of), a German and Bertrand, a Frenchman. We were to join a large group of other NUS students who had already left for Bintan Island, Indonesia earlier in the day and week.
We left PGP at mid day looking to catch a taxi to the ferry terminal across the island. We tried all the usual taxi catching spots on south buona vista road but all the cabs were already full. Eager to get on our way we walked to the taxi stand at the National University Hospital. True to Singapore style, there was a long que there. We passed the time by learning vulgarities in German and conversing about those around us in French.

Eventually our turn was up and we took a cab ride across to Tana Merah ferry terminal. We bought our tickets and proceded to the duty free shop. After a month of expensive singaporian alcohol, we jumped at the chance to by duty free booze. I got a litre of rum (sadly, there was no Cuban rum on sale), Willy got vodka and a carton of cigarettes , Bertrand got Gin. We then got onto the boat.

As we were leaving the dock we made our way to the deck out back to get a view of the skyline as we sailed away. On the deck I met a middle aged Singaporian man with yellow, decaying teeth who told me openly that he was going to Indonesia for sex. He told me and the others about a good hotel to go to that had a disco in it, but we declined the invitation and returned to our seats.

As we were sitting and passing the time, Bertrand remarked to me in French that there was an attractive girl sitting behind me. Before long we were talking to her and it turned out that despite being ethnicly Chinese she was actualy Indonesian and just in Singapore on a shopping trip. Between her and her friend they had filled three large bags full of new clothes and things. We made a bit of small talk and at the end of the ferry ride we all exchanged hand phone numbers.

As we were getting off the dock, we ran into an Indonesian man who claimed to know our friends. Having a healthy skepticism of unwanted solicitation in third world countries we ignored him until we ran into Steve, one of the exchange students who had come before us. Steve and the Indonesian man lead us up to the hotel where everyone was staying.

We had barely checked in when Bertrand received an SMS from Meliani asking us if we had found our friends and hotel ok. Seeing this as our chance, over the course of a brief SMS interchange, we arranged to have her come and pick us up and go out for dinner. We cracked open our bottles and passed the hour until she was to show up.

So Meliani pulls up in her brand new BMW. If this were Singapore, it would not be such a big deal, but in a country where the GDP/person is less than C$1000/year such a car turns heads. We get in and she drives us around the town to an outdoor food court/karaoke bar.

As soon as we sat down two women in competing tight short beer brand dresses came up and asked us what kind of beer we wanted. After short persuation on the part of one of the women, we got the local brew, Bintan Pilsner. While she was getting us our beer, Meliani ordered the food.

This place was unlike anything I had seen. It was similar to the hawker centres in Singapore but it had a bit more of an old person bar kind of atmosphere. It was filled with middle aged and older chinese people taking turns going up and singing old Chinese songs on the far too loud Karaoke system. Meliani seemed to know the owner, the staff and a good deal of the patrons despite her being at least 20 years younger than anyone else there.

When the food arrived after much anticipation we were not let down. We had a full scale feast of two kinds of snails, prawns, calimari, vegitables cooked in peanut sauce, chicken, and an outstandingly tasty omlet in sauce thing. As we sat there and ate and drank Meliani talked to us about her time studying fahion in LA and how there was nothing to do in Bintan. Apparantly most of the young people just play computer games on a friday night. She said that most of her friends had gone to a neghiboring Indonesian island to go out that weekend. We sat and talked and went up do to karaoke until the place closed around 2:30 at which time she drove us home and arranged to meet again the next day in the afternoon.

We got back to the hotel around 3 and looked around for the other exchange students. After an exaustive search we found that they had all gone to sleep so we hung out and talked about German cars for a while before going to sleep.

The next day we got up, had our Indonesian breakfast of spicy fried rice and told the other exchange students about our night. The others were all leaving that morning for the beach resort area of Trikora and we promised to meet them there later that day.

After breakfast we checked out and walked around the market area. Indonesia is a much less developed country than Malaysia. The streets were dirtier and more filled with small stands and sidewalk vendors selling counterfiet everything from shoes to DVDs to clothing. Even though the island is considered a resort island for Singaporians, we were the only foreigners that we saw that entire morning and all the goods in the shops were clearly aimed towards locals. As happens in such places, we were somewhat of an oddity and people were staring at us, talking with us and trying to sell us cab rides and their cheap wares. At around 1 in the afternoon we got an SMS from Meliani and we went back to the hotel to meet up with her.

As we were waiting on the steps of the hotel, a man pulls up in a car and sais he knows our friends and offers to take us to the hotel where they are staying. We pay little attention to him except to tell him to reserve us a room and that we will find our own way. When we say we are waiting for a friend he is confused as he was told that there were only three of us. Then when Meliani pulls up in the BMW, he gives and impressed and understanding look and we go off.

We go for lunch at Meliani's cousin's restaurant. We get similar food to the night before but in an airconditioned environment with foreign tourists. Meliani tells us that while she can't come out to the beach with us that day, she could have her driver take us out and join us the next day.

After lunch Meliani took us to her friend's shop that sells the counterfiet DVDs that Bertrand and Willi were looking for. I bought the Matrix Reloded while Bertrand and Willi bought 6 DVDs each. From there she took us to another one of her friend's shops where we got bubble tea and snacks after which she took us to her house.

Meliani lives with her parents in a big (even by Canadian standards) house in the only gated community on the island. There is a large fish pool in the back which impressed us, but paled when she took us to see her unkle's fish tank at his house across the street. He had 1m long goldfish (what ever thier real name is...) and had won several prizes for them. Then she called her driver and while we waited for him to show up we watched Pirates of the Caribean in a purpose built TV room complete with a cieling mounted projector and 13 bottles of unopened premium cognac.

The movie turned out to be quite good, but our viewing was cut short when Meliani's driver showed up. He was given instructions to drop us off at the hotel at Trikora beach and we were on our way. As the driver did not speak any English, Bertrand, Willi and I were able to discuss the events of the last 24 hours as we drove through the insane roads of Indonesia.

About an hour later we were at the Trikora beach area. We had all been under the impression that this was one large beach with several hotels on it, we were mistaken. In fact, the area was rather large and undeveloped save a few houses and hotels that appeared by the road at sizable intervals. The driver stoped at the first hotel where Willi went in and talked to the manager. The manager said that the PGP people were not there but there were several europeans staying in the hotel. Wanting to find our friends we pushed on. We passed several shoddy hotels as we drove, but as we had not really paid any attention to the man who had talked to us earlier, we did not know which hotel our friends were staying at. Eventually we reached the end of the road. There was another hotel there, but our friends were not so we decided to go back and have the taxi drop us back at the first hotel, which was the only establishment in the area worthy of the name.

We went into the lobby and talked to the manager who had a good command of english. He said that two of the exchange students had been by earlier but did not stay and that he did not know where they went. he said he could call the other hotels or call us a taxi but did not seem eager, or even willing to actually preform these tasks. After consulting in French we decided that Willi should learn better french and that we should procede on foot to check out the other hotels in the area.

As I had earlier described, this area was not densely populated at all. There was just one road and few houses and even fewer hotels. We walked down the road (away from town) for about 20 minutes and reached the second hotel (and I use the word very loosely). It was built in the style of the Vietnam war movie town built on stilts in the water. We walked out to where the lights were and enquired about are friends. No one there had seen them, so as this place was not acceptable for staying, we walked back to the road and moved on. After about 10 more minutes of walking, a mini bus showed up. We got in and instructed him to drop us at the next hotel, the travel lodge (not affiliated with the american chain of similar name). When we got there we saw a very happy hotel manager and his friends sitting around. To our relief, the whole group was here sitting by a fire (as by now it had been night for some time) having a good time.

When we talked to the manager, he told us that all the rooms were taken and that he could offer us accomidation, but it would be in the dorm with them. As we were tired from our journey and happy to see our friends, we accepted this (after all he was only asking for 20 000 rupias - C$4 each). We dropped our stuff off in the unpowered unwatered shack and joined the others by the fire.

Once there we had good fun telling our story to the others while breaking into the duty free booze we had bought the day before. There was much rejoycing and merry making ending (for me at least) with me falling asleep on the beach about 10m away from the fire. I awoke some time later and walked back to the remaining people at the fire, mumbled some obscenites and went off to bed, covered in sand.

The next day we were awoken bright and early by the hotel (if you can call it that) staff talking loudly in front of the shack. Annoyed and still not recovered from the night before, I made my way over to where the other early risers (Bertrand and Wili for the same reason and a German guy who was freaked out by the bugs) were hanging out. After a futile attempt to kill the large bee-looking insects plaguing the area we decided that we needed a real shower and a real bathroom (as this "hotel" had none). Feeling empowered by the knowledge that everyone else had paid 30 sing for their package and the nice hotel (the first one) down the street was only charging 25 sing per person, we got in a mini bus, that is much easier to find in the day, and went back. We checked in and were shown the way to our air conditoined rooms complete with real shower (hot water included) and real toilet (as opposed to a squat toilet). We took turns showering and went down for breakfast.

At breakfast, we discovered that the other guests at this now somewhat run down hotel/resort were european and Canadian expats living in Singapore out for a weekend of kyte boarding. They were rather friendly and the food was passable and cheap so we decided that should we ever go back to Bintan again, we should stay at this place.

It was some point after I called Meliani that I realised that I shuold really be going back that day and not on monday as I had originally planned. It was certainly best that I didn't miss my lecture and I had an important email to send, which certainly could not be done from Trikora. I briefly went down to the beach and saw how beautiful it was before tearing my self away to go back to the travel lodge to join the group going back that afternoon.

Apon arriving in Tanjong Pangar (I think that was the name of the town with the ferry terminal where I spent my first 24 hours) I went to a ferry ticket seller. I told him that I wanted to change my ticket to the earlier sailing which I had been told over the phone had space available. To my dismay there was no space reserved for me, despite my explicit request over the phone to have this done. Then the ticket seller offered me something unexpected. A ticket on another ferry for only 20k rupiah, a mere $4, a fraction of what I paid for the round trip ticket. I took this and returned to Singapore.

Today I went to the centre for language studies to sort out my Chinese class' tutorial group. I was greatly dissapointed to hear that the only spaces left for exchange students are on fridays. I saw my weekend travels melt before my eyes... I thought I might have better luck some other time. I do hope I can make it into another group, otherwise these posts may become less frequent or less interesting.

Marc

Nothing of great import happened between when my last email ended and wendsday night. On wendsday night, however there was a reception for the UBC exchange students where we heard some speaches, shmoozed, got a big cheque, and (most important for me) got to dress up. I wore my new suit and was defenately looking sharp (pictures to follow when I get a computer with that cheque...).

As soon as the reception was over at about 7pm, two other UBC exchange students and I left for Kuala Lumpour (KL). We took the MTR (just like the sky train) to a bus stop where we took a bus that got us over the border. The bus was unlike anything I had seen before. First, the bus dropped us off at Singapore's exit customs, once there we went up the escalator had our passports stamped and then went down the other side where a bus (the same route, but not the same physical bus) was waiting. We got on and it took us to Malaysian customs where we did the same thing. The interesting thing was that when we got on the third time, we were riding a Singapore bus in Malaysia, defenately a step beyond riding a West Van bus in Vancouver. The bus then took us to the bus station in Johor Bahru (JB, the Malaysians are big into acronyms), we got to the bus station at about 9pm.

The bus system in Malaysia is very different from ours in Canada. First, there are many different bus operators running the same routes at the same time, second, most of the smaller operators do not have set fares but rather charge you are rate that you have to bargain out, finaly and most advantagous to us, busses in Malaysia are much more comfortable having only three business class seats in a row as opposed to four on nearly all north american busses. After some intense and tireing negotiations with bus ticket vendors that did not lead anywhere, we opted for the only bus operator that had set fares and sheduals. We paid RM20 (C$1=RM2.7) for a seat on the 9:30 bus and we were on our way. The bus its self was all decked out. It had super big, plush seats and curtains on the windows, and the driver was playing arabic prayer music over the sterio system. Once we got on the highway, we went into our reclining position and passed out.

We were unceremoniously woken several hours later by the bus driver announceing that we had arrived in KL and we had to leave the bus. Groggy, we gathered our things and walked out towards the first hotel we could find (which was convieniently located across the street and was found for us by an indian man saying "backpakers, here"). After surveying the rooms we settled on a RM38 room with a fan instead of a/c.

The next morning we awoke and set forth onto the city. The other two guys, Ryan and Johnny, both in commerce, each had lonely planet south east asia books and some idea what they were doing, so we set out for china town. On our way we ate breakfast in a dodgy mall food court. China town, or at least the touristy part, consists really of one street, covered by a huge glass cieling, that has been restricted to pedestrian traffic and is full of stands selling counterfiet clothing, shoes, sunglasses, and almost anything else you can think of. I picked up a pair of "ray ban" aviator sunglasses, while Ryan and Johnny each got linnen shirts (but unfourtunately there were no linnen suits to be found :( from there we wandered by _____ square (I have forgotten its name but it is an important part of the story so I will continue refering to it in this way) where we took some pictures and were approached by a middle aged indian man who, unsolicited, gave us the best and most comprehensive tourist advice about KL that we could have hoped for. He went on to explain that he was homeless and living in the square, but the whole time he did not ask for money, nor was he a crack head like so many of those who give "advice" in vancouver. Johnny was so struk by his story that he twice returned to the square to look for this man.

Armed with the avice and an annotated map from this man, we set off once again. We started on the "parks, monuments and national stuff" (my words, not his) trail that he had set out for us. But, after seeing the sculpture garden and the national monument (both very nice) we decided to forget all this and go shopping at the golden triangle malls he had suggested.
Once again his advice was right on the money. As soon as we walked into the first mall he suggested, I saw at the other side a store called "factory outlet". Knowing that many (or nearly all) clothing is made in south east asia, I knew this would be no north american factory "outlet". First, it was not just one company, but had many different brands on sale, second, and most importanly, everything was in Malaysian prices for western brands and styles. I got a pair of real zara pants for RM20 and a two button collar shirt (not as nice as my other ones :P) for RM50.

That night we thought we would go out and experience the KL nightlife. Well... being that Malaysia is a muslim country it was not as good as I had hoped. We took a 15 minute cab ride out of town from our hotel to a bar district with many small bars. After walking up and down the strip, we walked into the most full bar. Being malaysia, the bar was mostly filled with chinese, but with a m:f ratio of about 65:35 or worse. To agrivate the situation, despite playing dance music, there was no real dance floor, just a bar area, so things were very crowded and not too pleasent. After one drink and 30 minutes, we moved on to the next place. We soon discovered that the only difference between this one and the first one was that the first one was popular. Disheartened we took a cab home. Once back in our neghiborhood we regained our drinking ambition and found a tourist oriented regge bar. There, to our surprise, we found three other NUS students at a table drinking. We pulled up with them ordered a few more pitchers and had a good time talking about thier native Sweeden, Canada, Singapore, and Malaysia.

The next day we all took a bus out to a cave that was also a hindu holy sight and filled with monkeys (yes, this one's for you Cameron), really. We took a few pictures (which I will send/post when I get a computer) and went back to town.
Since we had decided that we didn't want to do more shopping, there was only one thing left to do, eat. The day before we had found this place called the S&M food court and we decided to check it out. To our surprise it was clean and full of good food, we left happy. Johnny and Ryan went back to _____ square to find the indian guy and I went back to the hotel to write the last mass email. When they came back, we were off to the beach. Or so we thought...

The bus to Port Dickson was supposed to be at 6:30. We made our way down to the platform where we waited and waited in a poorly ventilated basement full of busses that passes for a bus station in this random third world country. Finaly at 7:15 a bus shoed up. There was a mad dash to get on and in the confusion, we didn't make it. The bus, already almost full when it arrived, left without us. We were told that there would be one final bus at 7:45 that we could get on. Not wanting to inhale more bus fumes that we had to, we went back to S&M food court and ate again. When we got back to the bus station at 7:45 everyone was still waiting, and waiting, until 8:15 when the second bus finaly showed up, but not in the bay it was supposed to, but rather two births over. There was a mad dash as weary travelers trying to make it home/to the beach fought their way onto the bus. Luckily this time there was enough room for everyone, although some unlucky people had to stand for the trip. As the bus started roling, I passed out.

Again with the unceremonious awakenings and we were in Port Dickson. Despite having eaten three times already that day, we decieded we should eat again. We went to the outdoor restaurant at the bus station and placed our order and waited, and waited... as we watched american wrestling on the tv we started to wonder what was happening, but we decided to wait more. 30 minutes after we placed our order we inquired about the status of our food. Unfourtunately the only one who spoke passable english, and the one who had taken our order in the first place, had left. Feelign pissed off, hungry, and mostly confused, we cought a cab to the area recomended for us and started looking for a hotel. The first two places we tried were closed for the night (it was by then rather past midnight) so when the third was open, we didn't care enough about the ants crawling on the wall to turn it down. We brought in our stuff, played cards, and drank some beer we had packed with us and went to sleep.
I was sleeping on the top bunk, and above me there was a hole in the cieling. It did not go all the way through the roof, but it was a hole above my bed. When we were checking in I complained to the manager that there was dirt on my sheet. He said that it must have come from the hole and he got me a new sheet. I thought the issue had been resolved... Unfourtunately it had not. At around 7am (which, if you know me, you must realise is the middle of the night) I awoke to the feelign of little tickles all over my body. I was shaked to consciousness when I realised they were ants, in the neighiborhood of 50 of them, having fallen from the hole in the ceiling, crawling all over me. I made futile attempts to kill them, then I realised that they had won. I got up, cleaned myself off, and bunked up with Ryan (who was in a double bed). Eventually, after I finaly got my mind enough off the ants... I fell asleep for another few hours.

We got up and went to the hotel's restaurant to have breakfast. I must say, if the ant experience were any less jarring, it would have made up for everything. Johnny and the hotel owner were both chinese so they got to talking and we got ourselves the best meal I had the entire time in malaysia. It was just claypot chicken and stirfry vegtables, but the were done so well...
After breakfast we bought some beer and headed for the beach. Until this point the whole islamic country thing hadn't really been an issue, but at the beach it was a real impediment. The beach we had gone to was almost entirely local and that meant that the women, the few that there were, were wearing headscarves and modest clothes. Talk about a downer. What is even the point of going to the beach? We sat, drank beer and played cards for a while before heading back to town to catch the bus to Singapore.

We got to the bus station at 6:08 to discover that the bus to the next town (who's name I have also not bothered to remember) had just left at 6:00. The next bus being at 8:30 combined with our desire to sleep in our own (sortof) beds that night lead us to charter a taxi for RM30 to take us on the same route. Like always, we passed out on the way. Again, we arrived at the station at 8:05 only to discover that we had just missed a bus at 8:00... So, after some looking we found one that would take us to JB at 8:30, so we bought our tickets and waited, and waited... at 9pm it showed up. We got on, and surprisingly didn't fall asleep. Maybe it was the nap we had just taken or maybe it was the aqua remixes being blasted by the bus driver on our business class bus but I stayed up reading The Economist by the light of my hand phone until the battery died.

When we arrived at the bus station in JB our luck finally changed; we just barely caught the bus to the border. Getting on this bus gave us all such a feeling of relief. This clean, air conditioned bus was taking us from the third world back into the first. We knew there would be no more busses that leave on time only when they are being missed, we knew there would be no more ants, we knew cleanlyness was job 2 (behind law and order), we knew we could again trust the food and water. We were home.
I start school tomorrow, and I will be getting a computer some time this week. I don't know if I should keep sending these long messages and I don't know if I will still have as many interesting things to say as I fall into a routine, but judging by the positive responce I have had so far I will keep sending more as circumstances warrent. Also, I have taken about 50 pictures so far on my digital camera and many of them go with much of what I have written in these messages (S&M food court, ants on the bed, monkeys, scotch in the club from the first email...) so I will send/post/find some way of conveying them as soon as I get a computer.
'Till the next one
Marc

The next day (after the MRT tour around Sinapore) I met an american/brazilian/englishman (he has all three passports and has lived in each of those countries, and many more) and we decided that we both wanted to go downtown and drink a Singapore Sling at Raffles hotel. So we took the MRT down to Raffles Place stop and got out. Not knowing exactly where Raffles was, we stopped at the first bar we saw (which was basically the same place that I had walked by the day before), had a Sling and talked a bit about our trips to Singapore. Feeling refreshed and ambitious after the drink we decided to set out to find Raffles. We walked along the river in the opposite direction that I had been the day before and we found oursleves surrounded by an interesting mixture of colonial and new architechture and parkland. Thinking that we were near to our destination we asked several people for directions, but to our surprise neither the locals nor the tourists knew where Raffles hotel was. Being very hot in the tropical midday sun (Singapore is less than 1 degree north of the equator) we sought refuge in an underground mall built with much the same concept as the one in Montreal (only to protect people from the heat, rather than the cold). There we asked a mall information booth for directions and several more wrong turns later we were sitting in the courtyard of Raffles hotel sipping Singapore Slings and speaking of the glories of the Empire.

That night a group of around 15-20 NUS exchgange students (of which I was one) decided to go sample the local night life. Someone suggested "double O" on Mohamed Sultan road (the biggest bar street in Singapore). The club was really nice, it was large and had three bars as well as a big dance floor. Being that it was ladies night, the girls quickly got drunk for free while us guys slowly sipped down our expensive beers and cocktails. Eventually they started to play some good house music and I got up and danced. After a few hours and a few drinks I was ready to call it a night so I shared a cab and went home.

The next day was registration. Even though this was supposed to be done immediately upon arrival, because of my nervousness regarding the whole SARS thing I waited until I was somewhat sure that they wouldn't just kick me out before I would voulinarily have any contact with the NUS authorities.

In true Sinapore style, registration involved wating in line, filling out forms, waiting in a different line, filling out other forms, then waiting in line to get into a waiting room. Once there, there was some more waiting and we were finaly given our student cards and some more forms to be filled out and told of more forms and burocratic busy work that had to be done before we were fully registered.

Put off my the thought of doing more of that, I went with a group of students to the nearest market/shopping area and bought a new Nokia 2100 hand phone (or cell phone to all of you in North America (and yes I realise that is all of you)). Although setting up the phone did not involve much waiting, you will be relieved to know that it did involve plenty of form filling. If you are interested my number is (+65) for singapore, 90751463... unless it is important or you feel you can't go on without the sound of my voice, please don't call as even though it might me cheap for you, I pay 25 cents a minute for air time. On the other hand, please feel free to send me text messages. They are only 5 cents and almost as good as an msn chat.
With my new phone in my pocket returned to campus where I joined up with another group of students and then set off for little India. Little India should more properly be known as little Tamil-Nadu/Sri Lanka as nearly all the Indians there are Tamils. As such there is a huge variety of very good and very inexpensive (I got a great meal for about C$2) vegetarian food. Surprisingly, this is also where you find the second hand electronics shops. If you want a TV, this is the place to go. So we ate and then looked at some shops. To my utter dismay, in the first hand phone shop we went to I saw the exact same phone that I had just bought across town for S$198 selling for S$168... well now I know...

From there, through pure chance and the need to search out A/C we walked into the largest electronics mall in Singapore (which, since this is Asia does say alot). This place is six floors of wall to wall computers, cameras, sterieos, and components. None of the shops have posted prices, everything has to be bargained for, which can be fun.. and tiring.

When I got home that night, I was too tired to even think about going out again so I read a little and went to sleep.
The following day was a friday and a my new American friend (who I had met the day before on the shopping trips) Nick and I spent most of the day trying to drum up support for going to Zouk, reputedly the best club in Asia. We talked to Sweeds, Danes, Finns, and Brits... and then we eventually went with some Americans and Canadains and went to Liquid lounge... the second hottest club in Sinapore. It was a small club with no cover (yay) but $10 drinks (boo) and a dj from the UK spinning tech house. After dancing for a bit, Nick went up and talked to the people in the VIP area. Fifteen minutes later we were all invited up. The "VIP's" were mostly Sweedish and American investment bankers (one was from Short Hills, New Jersey hehe...) who were just looking to have a good time with the huge amount of money they were making. We chilled up there and drank on them for the rest of the evening before cabbing home with a promise that we would hang out again.

Woke up the next day with a minor hangover and a renewed desire to go to Zouk. I spent most of the day eating and lounging around the residence area with the other exchange students. That night, Nick, myself and some Norwegens went to Zouk. It did not dissapoint... once I wrote off the $28 cover charge I went exploring. Zouk is really three clubs connected by hallways. The space in the main club is really cool, it has a high cieling and white plaster doves haning from the rafters... if you want to know more, it has a website www.zouk.com.sg I think... After a good night of hanging out with the Norwegens I went home and slept well.

The following day, sunday, Nick and I went back downtown and went to the biggest market in Singapore. I bought some counterfiet diesel shoes for $38 and a satchel for $18. The market its self is an experience. It it a permanent outdoor market with stalls selling clothing, shoes, bags, and lighters, all for prices lower than I thought I would find in Singapore.
Well... I have a bus to catch... I am currently in Kuala Lumpur and have to go off to the beach now... but I still have a few more days of catch up before I can get to that.

If you think I am going into too much boreing detail or you just don't give a fuck about what I am doing please let me know.
Marc

Ok, for those of you who have gotten the mass emails, you can skip this... otherwise these are the first few major installations of my asain adventures

On July the 24th at 3:45am I took a plane from Vancouver to Hong Kong and began my student exchange experience. The trip was long and uneventful, but as I flew Cathay Pacific the food and entertainment were good and it passed quickly.
Upon arrival in Hong Kong I was met at the airport by my friend Carolynn who has been living in China for the past few months. We took a train into the city and found a hotel in the Jordan district of Kowloon, just across the bay from Hong Kong island. As is the standard practice in this part of the city, this hotel offered hourly as well as reasonable nightly rates. We took a room with two single beds for the night. After I had showered and changed we set out upon the city. Hong Kong is unlike anything I have seen before. The streets are narrow, the buildings are tall the sidewalks are crowded, there are wall to wall shops on the first three floors of the buildings, and there are signs hung across every street at almost every hight. Walking around Kowloon you get the feeling that there is so much more going on here than you had ever thought possible.

On our walk we were approached by a man who was offering to sell me a taylored suit. We went in and he gave a 20 minute song and dance about the quality and workmanship but refused to quote a price. When we finally got a price out of him it was far too high so we walked out, to his apparant displeasure. The next taylor (there are several of them all working on the same block) was much nicer. We discussed price first, then went into everything else. He offered (and I accepted) to make me a taylored suit and one taylored shirt, both of the matrial and style of my choosing (three button blue pinstripe and a box pattern with spread collar respectively) for HK$1000 (about C$180). I was measured and we were on our way.

We then took the ferry to Hong Kong island. There there is a similar level of activity, but of a different sort. While in Kowloon there are many small shops and small businessmen, in Hong Kong there are Expat investment bankers and lawers walking around in smart suits with trendy restaurants and news stands on every corner. We walked much of the way up the hill to a residential neghiborhood and saw the place of the fatal bus crash in Hong Kong just a few days before.

After much walking, talking, and many iced mochas we went to one of the many electronics oriented malls in Hong Kong to buy me a digital camera. I did not know exactly what I wanted to after much looking and many quotes I got exactly what my dad had bought just a few weeks before. We then walked back to the waterfront and marveled at the amazing lit up skyline of Hong Kong from across the bay. We then walked home and, exausted, we fell asleep.

The next day we got up early and went for dim sum. We had found a place in Carolynn's lonley planet book and set out walking to find it. After wandering for nearly an hour we decided to catch a cab and ask the cabbey to choose a place for us. To our surprise the place he took us, which he highly recomended was back where we had been walking, and coincedentaly, right next to the taylor from the day before. We had a feast at dim sum and set forth to arrange our trip into China.
Somewhere along the way Carolynn decided that she could also use a nice taylored suit at a low price so we went back and she was measured. While we were in there I thought that I could use some more shirts and that she could use a few blouses. We negotiated a price of HK$175 per shirt/blouse and we each had 5 made.

From there it was onto China. Having earlier obtained my visa we got on the commuter train bound for the Hong Kong - China border. The ride was interesting. The landscape of the New Territories (the northern part of Hong Kong) varries between "towns" full of 30-50 story apartment buildings and completely undeveloped hills covered in bushes and grass. This type of pattern continued all the way to the border of with China some 45 minutes on.

Upon arrival at the last stop I (but not Carolynn) was suprised to see everyone running towards the border. The reason was that there was a huge line of people waiting to go through customs and that by running the fast ones would be ahead of everyone else on the train. Being that I was carrying a large back pack and that I had still not adjusted to the heat and humidity, we opted to walk and be towards the end of the line. Customs went smoothly and then we were in China, Shenzhen to be precise.

The special economic zone in Shenzhen, southern China, adjacent to Hong Kong, is probably the biggest boom town in the world. Before the Chinese reforms began in the late 70s this area had been home to some fishing and farming villages and little else. Today it is a large and busy city of 7 million people where much of the world's electronics are produced.

The first night there we went out for dinner at a very trendy (and since it is China, cheap) restaurant and then to a club with Carolynn's friends. The club was full of expats, rich Chinese, and people from Hong Kong looking for a good time. I brought in my own bottle of scotch and not only did they not say anything, they brought us glasses for it. I spent most of the night between dancing and talking with the interesting and very random expats.

The next day was pretty much a bust as both Carolynn and I were tired from our adventures over the past two days and our excessive drinking the night before. When we did get out it was mostly to eat and run a few minor errands in the very modern and impressive downtown of Shenzhen. That night we went for a (legitamate) massage at a neghiborhood massage parlor. For about C$13 we each got a shower, sauna, several non-alcoholic drinks, 2 shared large tsintao beers, a 2 hour full body massage and a 45 minute foot massage. It was pure relaxation heaven.

The next day I got up early and made my way across the boarder to get back to Hong Kong. I took the MRT (mass rapid transit) into the city to pick up my suit and shirts, which all turned out quite nicely, and then took a bus to the airport.
The flight from Hong Kong to Singapore was quite short. On my reservation I had a window seat, but when I got to the isle there was a vieled Indonesian woman (who did not understand english) sitting there, she was taking the flight all the way to Jakarta, the plane's final destination. Not wanting to instigate any problems I sat in the middle seat.

The flight was short and we were fed quite well. On my left was the Indonesian woman and on my right was a deaf French woman on her way to Bali. I made some rather difficult conversation with the French woman but spent most of the flight looking over my papers. To my shock and dismay, the offer sent to me by the National University of Singapore (NUS) had a second, SARS related page attached. I had paid no attention to this before as I had been assured that the quarentine rules were to be applied only to Toronto, not all of Canada, but now as I was reading it I found that it said all students traveling to SARS effected countries had to be quarentined for 2 weeks or they could not register for classes. As I was arriving after the end of the school wide quarentine period for the students from SARS countries, I became quite worried. If they enforced this policy, I would be unable to go through the quarentine and would thus be unable to register for classes. I was very nervous as I went through customs, but there were no problems. Upon my arrival at the student residence, I gave the person incharge my passport and braced for the worst. To my relief he retured with my keys and nothing else.

I made my way to my room and set up my stuff. As I was setting up I noticed an open door across the hall. I went in and introduced myself to the Kiwi. He has been in Singapore for one term already and he gave me some advice on what to do and where to go. Then, tired and still nervous about my position regarding SARS, I layed down under the powerful cieling fan (a total life saver) and went to sleep.

My first day I thought I would avoid anthing official that might jeapordise my position so I took the MRT downtown and walked around for a while. The downtown of Singapore is very modern and impressive and on its outskirts there is cool colonial architecture that has been presevered nicely. After walking for about 2 hours I got tired and decided to take a cheap tour of Singapore so I got on the MRT and took the circle line around the whole island. It is much like the Skytrain in that it is an elevated train so I got a good sense of what Singapore is like: medium density apartment bulidings build by the government with shopping areas sprinkled throughout.

Sorry to all enjoying the story but I have plans to go out and must go. I will continue my account later and write personal emails tomorrow.
Marc