Travels in Asia: 2005

Oh yeah... singapore was great! We had a blast at the Zoo and the Night Safari - thank's Jill for recommending it... although every single person I've met along the road said the same.  The zoo was amazing, nothing like I've ever seen.... Sort of a day to make you feel like a kid.  Jordan also got to hold a 10 foot boa at the Night Animal Show - he had a grin of a little kid on his face.  But honestly - all zoos around the world should be like this - barely any cages - just free enclousures with moats separating the people from the animals.  They're increadibly well taken care off and the amount of babies is sufficient proof of that. 

The downside is that everything was so expensive - in 3 days in Singapore I think we spent as much as in over a week in Thialand.

Oh well.

Jordan and I arrived at the Singapore Airport just shy of 10pm.  He checked in to his flight - flying Singapore - Shinaghai 00:55, then a 10 hour stop over in Shianghai (hopefully only 10 hours this time around) and another 11 horu flight to Vancouver.  After seeing him off at about midnight I planted myself in a very uncomfortable chair and did my best to sleep - a task that was utterly impossible.  I tried to consol myself by saying that even keeping my eyes closed will be equivalent to rest, but I'm not sure if that really worked.

Right now its just past 6am, I have finally checked in and got to go into the departure area.  This place truly rocks!  Huge flat screen TVs everywhere with any news program you want, Football matches, music videos etc. just choose the one that suits you - plus free internet.  Has anyone ever heard of free internet at airports?  I haven't and I've visited quite a few airports.  Well... hence me writing right now.  Plus the seats are really comfy as well so might plop myself down in one for a short nap before my 8am flight to Taipei.  There got a 4 hour stop-over and a flight to Seattle.

If everything goes smootly should be home tomorrow afternoon - well - I guess today afternoon for me...

And maybe when I get a chance I might post some pictures or maybe I'll decide to keep them a mistery until the slideshows get put together (probably one in English and one in Polish this year round)...

But yeah - reality will be kicking in soon.  Coming home to an insane school year, with nowhere to live, needing to find an apartment in a matter of a couple days, then move in, furnish it and well... sort out all the other stuff there normally is to sort out - not to mention figure out how to pay for school and everything with the nice and huge debt I managed to acquire over the last four months.  And oh yeah - try to find a job with a law firm for next summer...

The stress is already setting in.

Kasia

Well, we've made it to Singapore.

Kuala Lumpur was fun.  The city was a nice change form most other big cities recently visited.  It was more western than anything I had seen since China and the order somehow made me relax.  You could actually get around easily - with metro and sky trains everywhere and it just seemed western - high rises everywhere but simulatneously a lot of really nice architecture. 

August 31st is their independence day so it was a bit crazy on the paitriotic side as they were all preparing for huge festivities.  The number of flags flying around wwas just nuts.  There would be buses whose entire roofs would be covered by hundreds of little flags. We saw one highrise, probably a good 40 floors, which had a 4 foot flag hanging out of every single window - all 4 sides of the building.  Just nuts.

And the Petronas Towers were simply amazing.  Architectural feet.  GTS would have loved the steel contract for that - 452 m of stainless steel tubing around the outside, not to mention eveyrthing else.  All in all 88 floors and the facts are stimply staggering.  13,200 cubic meters of concrete poured into the foundation over a continuous 54 hours to set the groundwork.  A 800+ seat philharmonic theater under the lobby designed to the best of accustic standards.  Research libraries, 5 star restaurants, and just wow!!!!  The place was stunning and the view from the sky bridge staggering although it is only located on the 41st floor.

We did some shopping there too being completely amazed by the shopping center filled with designer stores that would empty most peoples wallets not to mention max out quite a few credit cards - most girls dream come true and most mens (husbands, boyfriends etc.) nightmere come true.  Yet this eneded up being nothing to what we saw in Singapore today.

Take Robson street and make it 3-4 times longer.  Now take Metrotown Mall and place about 25 or so of these on each side of this street.  Now elliminate all the crap stores that you find in Metrotown and Robson street and instead fill these 50 gigantic malls with designer label stores such as Prada, Gucci, Ralph Lauren, Versace, Zara, Giordano, etc. etc. etc.  The list could be over a mile long as would be the number of zeros attached to most credit card bill coming out of there.  It is simply mind blowing.  And I trully do wish I were a milionair.  The stuff is amazing, beautiful and you have everything.... absolutely everything.  And yet I have nothing, my bank account long since depleted and the big minus sign infront preventing me from going on a shopping spree of my life.  Oh well... guess you can't have everything.  But when those Law jobs finally take hold and the money starts rolling in (as it better do), then I know where to come back - screw Paris, New York or London - Singapore is definitively the place.

Tomorrow we're off to the Zoo and Night Safari - for a relaxing day out.  Then one more day of bumming around and we might treat ourselves to a highly recommended dinner on the 70th floor of the Swiss Hotel  and then off to the airport for Jordan to catch his 1am plane and me await my 8am flight out.

Till later,

Kasia

Hey all,

sorry, little time plus have been spending the last few weeks on islands where internet is either increadibly expensive or non-existant.

Today finally made it off the islands and are waiting for a night bus to Kuala Lumpur and will write probably some more from there.

Jordan finally arrived 4 days late basically.  We did a head-over-heels tour of Bangkok and then headed by night bus to Ko Pha Ngan.  4 hour boat ride after the bus ride finally got us to an amazingly stunning beach that seemed to come straight out of a postcard.  However, on the first day(afternoon) there I wasn't feeling to well so spent most of the day napping in our cabin and on the next day the weather was miserable so we got to spend the time in our bungalow or in restaurants.  And unfortunately that was it for our time allotment for Ko Phan Ngan.  From there back to the mainland, where a bus was to take us to Krabi but after being taken from one bus to restaurant, told to wait for another bus, then taken to yet another restaurant we finally managed to cover the 3 hour bus journey arriving after 9pm in Krabi when there were no more boats.  Instead we spent the night there and caught a boat out bright an early the next day, climbing over tide, clifs, rocks and caves with our big backpacks to get to Ton Sai beach and some cheaper accommodations.  That night we met up with Liz and spent the next couple of days rockclimbing and relaxing in the water.

Aug 17th bright and early we caught a boat back to Krabi where we were supposed to have a 5.5 hour bus journey to the Malaysian border since I needed to leave Thailand (my visa expired on that day).  Well... we made it to the border at 9pm - slightly more than 5.5 hours and slightly pissed since by then the border was closed, we had no cash and now I was in the country illegally.

We had just a bit of Bhat left, enough to get a hotel for the night that I felt afraid of sleeping - especially on the bed - ended up climbing into my sleeping bag with the hopes of avoiding the bed bugs.  The next morning made it to the border where they forced me to pay a 200Bhat fine - with us only having 120 and them not accepting US cash.  Eventually I confinced a motto driver to excange a couple US $, paid the fine and got to the other side where we needed to catch a taxi but had no money for it.  Eventually the driver agreed to take us to a twon with ATM machines and then to the east coast of Malaysia from where we caught a boat to the Perhentian Islands. 

THese Islands are turlly paradise on earth.  We spent the last 7 days there.  Relaxing on the white sand, swimming in the crystal clear blue water and taking our open water scuba diving course - I'm finally PADI certified although half death with one of my ears being completely plugged and not wanting to unplug for the last 3 days.

But yeah... the beaches were simply stunning - although the food was no where as nice as in Ko Samet.

And tonight off with a night bus to Kuala Lampur and 2 days later to Singapore from where we fly home on the 30th of August.

Take care all.

Kasia & Jordan

PS:  Nancy:  Should I get in touch with some profs or do you think i'd be fine doing all that when I get back in?  You wouldn't mind helping me out with cover letters?  And a get-together sounds great.

Well... I'm still in Bangkok and still waiting.

Jordan tried, begging, pleading, lying and comign up with a variety of emergency stories that would enable him to get on a flight out of China on Sunday but it was all a futile attempt.  No moving of the Chinese authorities - those buggers.

So yeah - hopefully today in the afternoon or else tonight (past midnight) - once again I'll be waiting infront of the McDonalds in the middle of the night - I might actually withdraw into the safety of this highly stylish restaurant and freeze myself to death in its aircon.  But at least I won't be a standing target for all the drunks roaming Khao San Rd. by then.  On the other hand I might have Liz for company by that time since she's flying in tonight as well.

So yeah... nothing much to report.

I went on the Floating Market tour and Tiger Temple yesterday.  The market was increadibly touristy and I can see why many people don't like it.  However, I just ended up planting myself along the sides of the canal and taking pictures and it was definitively a very photogenic place.  So I enjoyed that.

The Tiger temple on the other hand... well, I did get to hug and pet a tiger - or rather numerous tigers, and stand about 1 meter away form the head of one while taking his photo.  However, the tigers looked increadibly sedated - drugged to such an extent that they barely had strength to lift themselves up and move.  One would just lie there on its back as hundreds of people slowly filed through posing with him.  The others would let themselves be shoved around and pushed to wherever they had to be.  I asked the people working there (Aussi girl and others) whether they were in fact sedated.  The answer was that they are nocturnal animals that normaly sleep during the day and have been hand raised since they were babies hence their behaviour.  However I do find that hard to believe.  Even the most tired dog or cat that has been raised since being a puppy won't act or move like that.  Plus you could see it in their groggy eyes.  So as nice as it was to see them it was equally sad and disappointing.

Other than that had a nasty fight with the travel agency when I got back to Bangkok - trying to get money back - which is an impossible thing in countries such as these.  Eventually after me turning away a couple other potential customers tellign them not to shop at this agency the guy said he'll give me 100B back just because I'm Polish and he has a lot of good Polish customers/friends and it would be bad for his business to have a bad reputation within the Polish community.  I had wanted 200B back but settled for this figuring it's better than nothing especially here.

So yeah... now I sit and wait again.  Maybe a day at the spa... - can't go wrong with a massage, sauna, scrub and some other stuff for a price tag of under $20 CAD - nearly 4 hours of treatment


Kasia

I trully hate Typhoons with a passion.  Day 99 and 100 instead of being nice round numbered days worth celebrating turned to hell after I spent 4 hours - starting from 1am till 5:15am waiting for Jordan on the streets of Bangkok.  He was supposed to arrive at about 1am and I was to meet him in Khao San Rd.  So I waited watching the drunkards stumbling by, being hit on by sleezy Thai and non-Thai men - girl just standing in the middle of the night alone on the street is an easy target.  Not knowing exactly how long it would take to get into town at night I waited... and waited... and waited... after a couple hours I figured the flight might have been delayed and so I waited... and waited... all along knowing we had a tour booked for 7am.  Well, at 5am I started to get really worried... had no # to call, only had Jordan's flight number - nothing to the airport or to anywhere.   Well, logged on to the net to see if I could track down somethign only to get an email from my mom saying that there's a typhoon and he won't be arriving until 10am.

So I went back, had less than an hour of a nap, got up to attempt to change the tour - had to pay extra to have it re-schedualed for the next day, reschedualed our bus tickets as well, had breakfast and went to doublecked that he is in fact arriving at 10am - only to find out that he's not arriving at all today, nor maybe tomorrow and probably even not on Monday.

So now I'm stuck in my FAVORITE city of all.  A city I was more than sick of over a week ago and didn't want to come back until the very last moment (hence my prolonged stay in Chiang Mai).  Argh... and I still don't know when he's going to be here.  Maybe tomorrow maybe tuesday.  Gotta love Typhoons.  I do feel sorry for the people on the eastern coast of China, but couldn't the bloody thing have waited at least one day or one more hour.  Jordan was already in the plane ready for take-off when they called it off.   

Sorry - needed to vent.  And i really to HATE TYPHOONS and by now Bangkok as well.  I want the beaches.......

Kasia