A Weird Feeling

So last weekend I went over to Batam, Indonesia for the day. Batam is a 45 minute ferry ride from Singapore, so a lot of people go to the resort areas, but we were scheduled for a one day tour. Batam is an island, smaller than Singapore, but has a population of 1 million.
I really wasn't sure what to expect from the tour... judging from the itinerary, it seemed like we would be making mostly tourist-centered stops instead of experiencing the "real" Batam. I was right, but in the end, I was a little grateful for that.
Now Indonesia is a Muslim country, and some parts are very strict. Batam, along with other popular tourist locations, are considerably less strict. People don't want to vacation all the time when they have to cover their faces and what not. Still, I wasn't sure what the experience would be like. There were a lot of people dressed in the conservative Muslim style, but no more than you see in Singapore, so that wasn't really too different. The city's public decorations were, however, designed to celebrate Ramadan, so that was interesting to see. It also gave away the fact that we weren't spending time in local areas...everywhere we went, people were eating all day long. Instant give away during Ramadan, but the area is widely traveled by many in Asia and it is hard to tell that they aren't local for someone like me.
Indonesia is also known for being less safe than Singapore. Our guide explained to us that during Ramadan, the thievery was actually worse. Apparently if you are Muslim here, which most of the people are, then you have to celebrate with everyone else (especially with end of Ramadan drawing near), but many of the people don't have the money to do that... hence the pickpockets and snatchers. We didn't really have any problems with that, but then again, like I said, we also didn't spend too much time around the locals.
Okay, okay the tour....
We were picked up in a bus outside the port for our day tour. There were about 10 other people in our group. At first we just assumed the group was  made up of smaller groups of twos and threes, but it soon became apparent that our tour was split into only two divisions... us and them. I guess they were an extended family or something, but I'm not really sure.
We drove for about 40 minutes or so from the ferry area to get to where we were doing most of our sightseeing, and it was then that we got the first glimpse of the local's lifestyle.

Looking at the run-down houses and shops, I began to feel wary of how this tour would be. I did NOT want to get off the bus on some local street corner and goggle, like the tourist that we were, at the local life. I would definitely have not felt safe there, either.
To the left is an up close picture of a row of houses, below I have enlarged another of my pictures. If you look closely, you can see behind the car that there are rows and rows packed full of houses and shops just like these, or in worse condition. It was hard to get a good picture to show you just how large these areas are, so this pic will have to suffice.

Anyway, the first stop on the tour was to this "Golden Garden" or something. They had little houses set up all around the garden (they stood right below shoulder height). They were all depicting the different styles of housing throughout Indonesia. Some were simple stilt houses, others were more fortress-looking, and one design had skulls painted on the sides. There were also animal statues, but I think the animals in Malaysia must be under-fed, because all of the statues were really skinny.
Next stop: a local goods store. There were some local foods here, as well as some local clothing and other locally-made trinkets. Some of these were interesting to see, even if I would never in my life buy them... wooden statues of women committing very private acts, husband and wife twined together in interesting ways... not something I am going to put on my bookshelf, thank you.
After that, lunch! Lunch was more or less what I had expected. A large round table (the two halves of our group got separate tables) with about six dishes to share. There were vegetables, calamari, shrimp (not peeled as usual) crab (though there was no tool to help you crack the shell, so we didn't eat very much of it), fish in a sweet sauce, soup with fish balls and, of course, rice.

Next, we watched a "Cultural Show." I use quotations because it was a little lacking, though an interestingly spent 8 minutes, nonetheless. They danced a little in the Java (pic left) and Bali (pic below) fashion, and then we watched this guy peel a coconut husk off using only his teeth (pic farther below), saw the same man eat burning charcoal (he didn't swallow the charcoal, but he stuck it while it was still flaming into his mouth), and another guy eat glass then jump through a burning hoop.

I would put the video up, but it website won't let me for some reason...you'll just have to do with these pics instead.

Also, I feel I should mention that our guide insisted that everything we saw was authentic, and that the men had entered a spiritual trance of sorts in order to accomplish these tasks. I will let you decide.

After our cultural experience, we were taken to a Chinese Temple. Interestingly, it was very different from the Chinese Temples we saw in China. Those were magestic and mysterious looking with their large golden-colored or jade statues, accompanied with the rich red banners and decorations. They practically screamed "hey, we've been here for hundreds of years being worshiped and decorated. We are awesome." Here, the temple was more "chinese themed" if you get my drift. Here on the right I have a picture of the roof with all of it's dragons. Surrounding the temple area, there were a lot of other  statues as well.

On the left I have one of the statues from the garden area. There was also a Buddha and one of those lucky frogs.
For our next stop, we were taken to another local goods store, though this one had more things that we actually might want to buy. They had tourist goods, like key chains and decorative items for  presents, but they also had more locally made clothing and shoes and such. I got one of those clutch purses for five sing dollars, and my mom bought a bracelet. After, we crossed the street (more dangerous than it sounds, trust me!) and headed into a factory outlet shop.

Remember when I told you that Batam is one of the cheap laborers types of places?...well this shop had all the clothing brands that invested in said workers. They had a lot of clothes here you could buy, but we didn't get any.
Whats next? A three hour stop at a mall. The mall was packed with vendors. We made a quick stop in the grocery store to see what kinds of goodies they had there (though dad was mainly looking for some kind  of ant killer  they don't sell in Singapore), and then I spent most of the time with my mom in one of the department stores. We each bought a pair of shoes and I also bought a purse.
Oh! That reminds me... the money here is called Rupiah. 1 USD = 8,528 IDR or 1 SGD = 7,073 IDR. At the beginning of our trip, my dad exchanged our money, then handed me 1.2 million IDR.... boy did I feel rich! Anyway, while things were slightly cheaper in Batam, there is so much tourist shopping, that prices are roughly the same as you would find in Singapore.
Back to the mall... after shopping around, we ate at a pizza place... slightly high end, apparently, though it cost us the equivalent of 30 SGD for all four of us to eat there. Afterwards, we were picked up by our bus again and taken back to the ferry for our ride back to Singapore.
So that was Batam. Nowhere we went was incredibly local, but I still can't decide if that was a good or bad thing. Oh well. As far as first impressions, my trip to Batam does not inspire me to try out other sections of Indonesia, but I know the major cities are different from this small island area, so I won't let it stop me.
Oh!... one more thing... from the time we left with our bus group, to the time we returned to the ferry in our bus, we were pretty much the only four Caucasians around. Definitely a weird feeling.

Paramore Concert

I'm a little late, perhaps, but I thought I'd post about the Paramore Concert :)

Okay so...
What: Awesome Paramore Concert
When: last Sunday night
Where: Singapore's Indoor Stadium
Why: Okay, this one shoudl be self explanitory...
Who: PARAMORE!!! and The Swellers as openers!

Okay okay... so my dad agreed that my brother and I (or me and my brother, whichever) coudl go the concert as long as we played Squash 3x a week in the two months leading up to it. What could we say?.... nothing but "deal!" of course!
Now to be completely honest, I don't know most of Paramore's songs. I have 2 or 3 in my personal itunes collection and have heard 2 or 3 more via radio, but that is about it.... it was still really good though!

These crazy Singaporians squished together on the floor like sardines packed too tightly into their container. It was a little ridiculous. The people off towards the right would push on those in front of them, and the whole crowd would be pushed over... then the left side would have either no where to go, or retaliate push, so that we would all be swept back the other way. It was like an ocean of people with crashing waves. And then, just when you'd think you couldn't possibly get any closer to the people in front of you.... something exciting would happen on stage, and the whole crowd would surge forward a little but more. 

The Swellers were pretty good. I had never heard of them before, but it turns out they have a couple of albums out... the locals sure seemed to know the words, at least. This was their last concert with Paramore on this tour (who was headed  to Hawaii after this) so they all got on stage and played together and stuff. 

But of course... the main attraction: Paramore! They were really good! 

They sang quite a few songs from some different albums... including some acoustic ones from their first album. They "finished" their concert having left out Misery Business, of course, but then returned to sing it with The Swellers and an over-excited audience member.  

 

Like I said, really good concert... enjoyed it! I would definitely see them again. I have not been to many concerts, so this may just be my inexperience showing, but the Tshirts they were selling were outrageously overpriced in my opinion. They were 50 Sing dollars, which is around 41 USD. I mean, I wasn't really planning on buying one anyway... but if they were closer to  $25, I might have considered it. They also didn't have anything about the tour on them. That would have been cool too since the tour included several Asian locations, but oh well.

So anyway, that is my two cents :) 

...what's that? You want to  know if I took any video of the concert? Why as a matter of fact, I did; and since you've asked so nicely, I'll upload one for you :)

Race of the Dragon (Boats)

Okay now, You see the words: Dragon Boat Racing... and you're probably thinking: "what's that?" Right? Well let me explain: 

One of the sports here is called Dragon Boat. It is hugely popular in Asia as well as other countries, such as Canada...even the US has a few teams of their own.
Dragon Boat teams are sort of like Crew teams... meaning that they also race in long boats... but otherwise, they are very different. The rowers sit side-by-side, sometimes 8 or 10, sometimes 20! They paddle the boat in a similar style as what you might use in a canoe.
So my brother has been practicing with the American Team for a while now, and just had his first race yesterday! There were over  20 teams!... The Irish, Canadians, Germans, Filipinos, Australians... and the multiple other groups  that are Singapore colleges or alumni groups or what have you... just to name a few. Around here, anyone and everyone can have a team. Most schools have one, most associations and business have one... so on and so forth, and neither age, race nor gender can hold you back from competing!

This is the beginning of the race. They started spread out, but had to come together quickly to make a tight left turn.

The American Dragons of Singapore.

Jeremy is the youngest on his team, being only 18... they joke that when he joined, he brought the average age of the group down by 4 years. The oldest on the team is around 60. 
This race that just took place was a 10k. For those of you who aren't aware of the conversion, that is just over 6 miles! It took just over 50 minutes to complete the course... and they were rowing during the heat of the day! The American team came in 10th or 11th over all... which was in the top half, so that is good. The SIM alumni group took the gold and the Australians the silver.

Now usually, the traditional boats associated with Dragon Boat are a little different from these. They have Dragons on the front of the boat, and there is also a drummer who marks the pace. They don't just strike the drum one beat per stroke, however. They pound beats and somehow the rowers follow them... I guess with practice lol Also, in case you saw the person standing up in the back, but don't know why he's there.. they are steering. 

Below I am posting (or attempting to post) a short video of the end of the race so you can see it yourself. If you can actually see the video, I guess you'll know I've succeeded! :)

"swing'ng" Singapore Zoo

So today I visited the Singapore Zoo with my mother and brother. I wasn't really sure what to expect, to be honest. For those of you who read about the Shanghai Zoo... you might know that it was huge, had some strange animal sections, and not always the best exhibits. The Singapore Zoo, however, is highly advertised as a "must see" of the country. They also have a Bird Park and a Night Safari, both of which I plan on visiting.

So the Singapore Zoo... it was awesome! You walk past  the entrance gates, and already they've transported you into some magical jungle-like world.

The first animals you see are these cute little monkeys with white faces sitting in this low tree... and then you realize, they aren't in a cage! They are free-ranging monkeys! There were about 6 different types of monkeys (or apes...whatever the proper terminology might be for each one...) that were "free raging" in different sections of the zoo including (drum roll please!) Orangutans!!!! haha, sorry but I really like orangutans. *interesting side note*... They always spelled Orangutans as two words: Orang Utan. Weird, right?
They also had some pictures of this really famous orangutan that used to live there... and he was with STEVE ERWIN!!!...Oh how I miss that man :(

Okay, okay... back to the zoo... They didn't have pandas here, but I think they are planning to acquire some within the next year  or two. They also had no alligators, but  they did have 3 types of crocs.
The Zoo is this section of land that juts out into a reservoir, and you could take a boat ride from one side to other... which had some nice scenery. It was a little strange, though, because the land across the reservoir and all around the zoo's property is what they call "live-fire land" or in other words, it is were the army and military and stuff do practice drills and things like that... so as we were taking this nice scenic boat tour... we hear strange sounds of firing from across the water.
The animal exhibits were all really nicely designed, and the animals seemed pretty happy with it... though I don't speak animal, so I guess I will never really know.
Another highlight?.... we all three got to ride an Elephant!!!!

Mom also had fun feeding the giraffes...

Overall? Awesome experience! It was beautiful, had a lot of animals...and showed a lot of them in a unique way! Fun for all, glad I went! Now I'm excited for the night safari...where you get to see all of the nocturnal animals roaming around!... unfortunately, many of them are probably predators, so hopefully I won't be eaten!

Tastes like chicken.

So today I continue playing informant on my Singapore adventures with my description of the Frog Farm I visited with my family earlier.
First we rode the MRT (metro) out to what one might refer to as a "suburb" area of singapore... though I am disinclined to think there is actually any such thing, or at least not in the way one would usually picture a suburban area. There were, however, less malls here...which was the basis of my classification. Anyway... we next took a taxi and entered the "middle of nowhere" area of the city... which I also thought did not exist. This area pretty much consists of all the farmers in one huge area, the large area that is a wildlife preserve (or part of it) and the military training grounds nearby, which of course are not open to the public's eye.

We were, as you might have surmised, in the farm area... and headed to the Frog Farm.
Now a trip to the Frog Farm was the grand idea of my mother... and thank goodness she never reads this blog (at least to the best of my knowledge, she doesn't) because that way she will never know that I actually enjoyed it far more than I admitted I did. I love frogs! When I was little, I would go "frog hunting" with my brother. We would go hunting all around the neighborhood collecting as many frogs... or toads... we don't judge!.... as we possibly could and haul them around until we were made to come inside for the night.

Of course, here in Asia, frogs would be considered relatively common cuisine... so "frog hunting" begins to take on a whole new meaning! The frogs raised here were actually the American Bullfrog, funnily enough, and they were HUGE. (You see how I used the big print to emphasize my point, right :] )
There were hundreds of them! They pretty much have concrete sections walled off, with a layer of water in the bottom... and then enough frogs to cover the entire floor... of course, for some reason they tended to pile up on each other... and I'm am talking piles of 15 at a time... instead of spreading out and taking it easy. They feed the frogs 3 times a day, which is probably why they weren't very hungry when we tried the same thing. Poor frogs, I am no frog expert, but since the goal of Frog Farming is to eventually eat the things, I am thinking that they were definitely being overfed to increase  their size. Apparently, the frogs are carnivores... I didn't know that! When they are younger, they often will eat one another! Isn't that interesting?...and kind of bizarre. I mean, what carnivore doesn't have teeth? Shouldn't that me a necessary item for the classification? The farm didn't feed them meat, though, but instead some kind of food pellets similar to what you would feed ducks or fish at the zoo.
Anyway, back to the farming process....
It is actually pretty basic. Areas for the frogs where they are fed and grow large, areas where they mate and lay eggs, areas where the tadpoles grow up... so the cycle continues. The farm also raised catfish and snakeheads (which are a type of fish...with sharp teeth!). They use the fish as their own sort of garbage disposable by feeding them the frogs that die when at a few months old. Apparently the fish grow well with that type of food and are more valuable in the market.
Besides those, the farm also sells eels, which are considered a delicacy in  many places around here, and Tilapia because they are easy to raise and very popular... and I have to say I can't argue with that, I love Tilapia! 
After our little "tour" we ordered a quick snack...frog, of course, as well as some crocodile bites. What can I say... "it tastes like chicken" really is not just an expression, you know.

A Scuba Tale

There and Back Again: A Scuba Tale by Christy Sunshine :)

So this weekend I completed my Scuba Certification with my family! We did this by going on a Scuba trip to Tioman, Malaysia which is a beautiful island. I, by the way, never even wanted to learn how to dive. My family practically forced me, and as such, I was pretty much what you might call "reluctant" to go. Don't get me wrong, fish are cool and all, but I just don't like the idea of purposefully putting myself far enough below water that my body has to adjust itself to the changing pressure and there is even the possibility of getting stung or, dare I say eaten, by anything with no easy escape! Some might call me paranoid or over cautious, I call myself reasonably sane and justified.
On top of that, we are taken to a beautiful and mysterious island in Malaysia for almost two fulls days, and we spend all of our time going out to the ocean to dive. How about some land exploration, people? But I am getting ahead of myself... let's start at the beginning.

So we were told by Deep Blue (our Scuba Diving Company) to meet by 5:30 at the shop because the charter bus will be leaving promptly. Due to complications in traffic, we decided to be cautious and left at 5 by taxi. As such, we arrived 15 minutes early to the shop. Pretty good, right? Wrong. The instructors laughed in amazement at our over  preparedness at arriving so ridiculously early. Imagine... arriving 15 minutes ahead of time! Of course, they had reason to laugh, it turns out, since they didn't even end up heading out to the bus until close to seven... and left around 7:30.  No concept of time at all!
Malaysia and Singapore are connected by a causeway with their respective customs points at each end. We disembarked both times and made our way through the lines with relative ease. After getting into Malaysia, the bus stopped for a quick fill-up and we all got to get out for bathroom and snack. My brother was delighted to be able to buy a vanilla coke and gum, both of which are not sold in Singapore, then we were off again! It was a long and dark bus ride, we were unable to see anything of Malaysia at all except for the lit up cities when we passed by. It was close to Midnight when we arrived at the ferry.
We were heading for the Island of Tioman, so all of us loaded onto this ferry... and not the new and spiffy kind, and headed out. I had been under the impression that the ride would last about 20 minutes... instead it lasted over an hour. By the time we finally made it to the Island and into our room, it was at least 2 am, if not nearer to 3. The room was meant for all four of us. There were four twin sized beds pushed into two groups, two plastic chairs stacked up one on top of the other, and a small table with a hanging mirror above it. I was surprised that there was both air conditioning and a fan as well in the room. The bath room was... well, the word wet comes to mind. The floor of it was tiled. In one corner there was a sink with a set of wire shelves so rusty they looked like they could give your Tetnes shots a run for their money. Next to the sink was a small toilet and across from the toilet was a shower. The shower head was a small removable kind and was fixed to the wall above a large bucket, turned upside down, and a plastic pot which was positioned so as to catch the water dripping from the faucet underneath the shower head. There was no actual shower space, but rather the entire bathroom was the space. There was a drain hole underneath the sink which the water drained down. It was literally an all-in-one room. The floor, as I said before, was pretty much constantly wet.
The first day we were woken up at 8am. There was a buffet breakfast of some local foods, which included things like rice, noodles and soup, as well as bread which could be toasted. After that, we met around 9am with our Open Water Group. We had three instructors with us: Jenni, who is actually a certified Instructor and from South Africa, Samuel, the Dive Master, and Allan, the Dive Master in Training, who was actually with us for our pool certification. With us in our group were also the three other people from our certification and then another five or so people.
Now to be certified by Padi, you must complete four Open Water dives. We did three the first day. The first two were very basic. They were in 4-6 meters of water and mostly consisted of the different skills tests we had to know, which include things like being able to take off and put your mask back on while under water, being able to take your regulator out then find it and put it back in again while under water... things like that. These dives were actually shore dives, meaning we just walked into the water with our gear. Our heavy, heavy gear. From top to bottom our gear includes: goggles (mine leaked the whole time, so that I was constantly clearing them),  the wet suit (we wore a short one since the water was warm), our BCD (the vest-like thing you often see. They can be inflated and deflated), our Air Tank (which was strapped into the BCD along with our regulators and gauge), our weight belt (mine held 8 pounds) and our flippers. Boy that stuff really dragged you down! (My excellent gear model below... thanks mom!)

For our third dive (which was after a buffet lunch of crab, rice, soup and some kind of curry-like food) we rode out in a boat, the same one which brought us to the island, to a place called Raggis. There, we dived to about 8 meters and got to swim around looking at the coral and fish. We actually saw a sea turtle there, too.

The dive was fun enough, but I have a tough time with my ears whenever pressure changes, so I often have a hard time descending into the water as quickly. It is also tougher than you would think to swim with all that stuff on, and not float too far down or too close to the surface. Even though you can put air into your BCD, you are supposed to control yourself using your breathing, which can take some getting used to.
After spending all day out there, I was pretty worn out. For one thing, my gear was starting to bother me, as would be expected of rented stuff. My flippers were cutting into my toes and ankles and my eyes were dry and stinging from all the salt water leaking into my mask. Plus, we'd been out in the sun all day managing heavy stuff!

There was a barbecue that night... and I discovered Blackcurrent Juice. It tastes like heaven. Okay, okay, maybe that is a little over exaggeration. In this case Heaven = Koolaid. It was so good, especially since 90% of the time I usually am drinking water. The food was pretty good too. They had a lot of seafood, which would be expected from an Island, I guess, and one of their dishes actually had tons of tiny, though whole, octopi in it to eat. You can see them below, in front of the calamari which I thought were actually pasta.

I don't get sea sick while in boats, but sometimes I do get that thing where after you leave boats, you still feel like you are on one. Boy did I have it bad. I pretty much went up to our room and got ready for bed, hoping that the rocking would stop.
The next morning we headed out on the boat again for two more dives. This time the place we went to, Marine Park, didn't have a lot of reef stuff, or any other common marine life other than fish. The floor was silt, too, so visibility was known for being pretty pour, but the spot was known for it's fish life, and for wrecks. There were several wrecks in the area, including one car wreck, but most of them were too deep for our level of diving. I actually enjoyed this dive better than the day before. It was a lot deeper, about 16 meters, so there were points when there seemed like nothing was below or above me, but I was completely surrounded by fish of all shapes and sizes. That was cool. We did get to see the first wreck, since it is located at about 14 meters, and that was cool I guess, though it wasn't a huge one, or one that you could swim through or something... not that we were allowed to do that with our certification level, anyway.
There was another dive that day, it was at the same reef as the day before, but I didn't go. I will admit freely that I was certified, and tired of diving! I sat on the top deck of the boat, which was open on all sides, and island-watched while the others did their last dive. The boat moved to a slightly shallower area while waiting for the divers, and the visibility was good there, so I could see the bottom. I watched as the sailors appeared to release the contents of the boat's bathroom (oh joy!) and also as an entire group of fish began jumping in unison, creating waves of jumping fish on the surface. After the dive, the group headed back to the resort, ate lunch (a buffet of too-spicy-to-eat food for me, which included more of those octopi), packed our bags and readied to leave. We were on the boat back to the main land by 1:30. This time the ride in our charter bus was more enjoyable since it was still daytime. I saw lots of monkeys by the side of the road, stocked up on some of my beloved Blackcurrent juice, got to watch Cowboys and Aliens on the bus (even though it hasn't actually been released yet, thank you sketchy dive people lol) and even a little of the Captain America Movie (which was just released last weekend). We made it through our border checks and back to the dive shop by 8:45, then off to home we headed!
So there you have it, my Scuba trip to and from Malaysia!

I survived!

So here I am on Monday (still alive and kickin') after my survival of Scuba Diving Training... I never expected this day would come!!! Haha okay, maybe I'm exaggerating a little.... but I DID feel like I was going to die during my 200m swim!... I know, I know I'm a whimp! And I mean, what's with the exercises where you purposefully take out your own breathing regulator WHILE UNDER WATER??? Do they WANT me to drown?
Seriously, though... there were parts of the training that were a bit strenuous, and other  parts that were fun. I must say, however, that I am not exactly looking forward to the actual open water dive. Oh, did I forget to mention that yesterdays lessons weren't even in Ocean water? We spent the entire day at a local pool. You wouldn't believe how many people were there... probably 70 people at least all getting certified... and there are that many every Sunday!
So our open water dives are taking place next weekend. We are staying on an island in Malaysia. The instructors informed me that I have an actual possibility of seeing a shark while I'm thee... though they probably wondered why I didn't look as excited at this news as they were. lol
Apparently a lot of people in Singapore learn how to dive, which isn't surprising, given it's tropical location, but the diving around Singapore isn't very good. I don't think they have very clear visibility... of course, they don't know what zero visibility looks like until they visit the St Johns... but that's probably a story for a different post... anyway...
 In other news, Singapore's Independence Day is fast approaching. It is on August 9th, but the locals have been preparing for a while now. Every apartment building seems to sport flags from all the windows and there are banners and flags placed everywhere else around the city too. They have been preparing for their parade (which isn't really a parade, but more like a show) for over a month now. Hopefully it will be as exciting as they seem to think it will be, but more on that when it is closer..... Over and out :)