more diving in malaysia

after leaving pulao tioman, i took a night bus from the island up to kuala terranganu (the home of malaysian batik art - below is a pic of an aerial shot i took of kuala terranganu town from princess hill, the highest point in the town) then onwards up to kota bharu. kota bharu is the central jumping ground to either the thailand border or pulao perhentian (another set of malaysian islands) - while in kota bharu, i managed to swing by the local cultural center to check out the shadow puppet show. the owners of my guesthouse in kota bharu convinced me to head to the perhentian islands before trekking up to thailand. the perhentian islands are actually much prettier than the tioman islands. the diving was incredible and snorkelling even better - i saw 3 turtles just snorkelling at the surface. though, i had the worst dive buddy who kept trying to lose me in the water - what a jerk.

though the islands are gorgeous, i must say, i really need to stop being such a cheap little indian with my accommodations. i think the hut i stayed in in the perhentians really takes the cake for some of the worst accommodations i have had yet. this hut (the rock garden chalet - please, this was certainly no "chalet") had 4 wooden walls, a tin roof, communal showers and free coffee/tea (BONUS!) -- you really get what you pay for - no fan, a padlock to shut the hut and secure your belongings and one mosquito net that i refused to even touch much less actually use -- i think renee had more plush accommodations when she was in her peace corps service in west africa. but considering i spent the whole day swimming around the island, the price was the cheapest on the island (RM 20 = ~6 USD). and yes, those are my clothes hanging out in front of the hut - i am doing laundry in a bucket out here (laundry service is atrocious - 3USD per kilo - i paid less for my laundry service in boston - and i dont think these people are using soap during the laundry service, at least what i heard from others...)

i was planning on only staying for 1 night but made friends with a couple of swedes and local malays who convinced me to stay one more night. well, off to koh samui and koh tao now in thailand...more soon!

diving pulao tioman

i ventured out to pulao tioman, a very isolated island off the coast of mainland (western) malaysia. it is quite beautiful and uninhabited - kind of feels like you are on gilligan's island (lots of hammocks, a millionaire and his wife...) but with a way out if you wanted one (high speed ferry). i stayed in a beachside bungalow (bungalow in malaysia = shack) but it was right on the beach and provided me with the necessities.

i got to dive both days - beautiful diving, full of trigger fish, sea snakes and colorful stingray. all in all, tons of fun.

singapore day 2

it is quite possible to walk your way around singapore about 4 times in one day. following is a picture of one of singapore's notable figures, the merlion statue (half lion and half fish - a mermaid lion). the sights of singapore are mainly divided into 5 sectors: chinatown, little india, kampong glam (basically little arabia), the marina/esplanade and shopping. if shopping were an olympic sport, i think the singapore folk would have everyone beat. they shop like it is their job. little india and chinatown were much smaller than i had expected given the large population of these ethnic groups here.

after walking my way through singapore, i met up with NK and his family for dinner. we had dessert at hagan daz, which, in singapore, is a formal sit down ice cream parlour where they actually accept reservations. if you can see from the picture, we had ice cream fondue. it is interesting how some american chains operate here - according to NK's wife, mcdonalds has 24 hour delivery out here - mcflurries in a hurry i guess. and then they hooked me up with a bag full of singapore treats - dried mangoes and about 4 tubs of tiger balm. the backpack is starting to get really heavy...

i am heading to pulao tioman in malaysia tomorrow for some beach and (supposedly) world class diving - it is possible that the internet will be shoddy so probably no blogging for a few days...more soon!

greetings from singapore!

i am in singapore now. i must say that i am truly on my best behaviour - there is no need for me to be blogging from a singapore prison cell...i am afraid to fart too loud here in the event that passing gas is considered a federal offence.

on another note, not surprisingly, singapore is beautiful - it is extremely clean and pollution free. unlike every other city i have been in, there is a plethora of trees, flowers and grass. the weather is also quite temperate (about 80 degrees and sunny everyday).

because of the beauty and the crime-free nature of the area, it is no surprise that there are many young families here...if i was a kid raised in singapore, i would be totally spoiled - thinking that the rest of the world was just as beautiful.

i walked down the shopping district and over to the botanical gardens yesterday. following are the pictures from that visit.

turns out that NK will be free after all to meet up with me. i will be dining with NK and his family - eek!

still laying low in phnom pehn

here are some pictures of the sunsetting from my lakeside hostel. just laying low here for a day reading by the lake and getting massages.

in cambodia, most of the masseuses are blind. they train the blind with this skill to be self-sufficient, providing low-cost ($5) massages to tourists - i think it is a great idea. though, in my moronic state, i was chatting with the blind person giving me my massage and kept replying with "i see" instead of "yes" or "okay" or some other non-moronic reply. i am so clueless sometimes...surprise, it did not occur to me until later...

a little food for thought..

still in cambodia, this time in phnom pehn (the capital city). i parted ways with my MBA pals to bus it down here yesterday. i am staying in a pretty guesthouse on a lake (at the high price of $4 a day) so it is just chill time for me now - today i visited the s21 camps and killing fields that were concentration camps to over 1 million people during the polpot regime in the mid/late '70s. rather sad and depressing.

on another note, while in siem reap, my friends noticed that the beef they were ordering at the restaurants didnt exactly taste quite like beef...we later made the observation that we noticed many kittens but no full grown cats (on the flip side, there are many full grown dogs roaming the streets)--hmm, a little food for thought...

i will be heading off to singapore tomorrow. i was planning on meeting up with my friend, NK from BioTrove in attempts to score a free meal (or two if i was lucky), but it seems that NK will be heading to indonesia on a work "off site" meeting - and possibly unable to meet -- rough life.

more pics in the next post - internet is sucky here...

the temples of angkor wat

hello from siem reap cambodia! the temples of angkor wat are as cool as people say. i met up with my MBA buddies matt and seth to explore angkor wat. we rented a tuk tuk (basically motorized rickshaw) with driver to take us from temple to temple. each temple has an interesting story - most temples built in the 12th century, initially with a hindu and later a buddist influence. we managed to catch the temple at sunrise and then later at sunset - but i must say that the sunset scenery left something to be desired.

lamma island - a total bust

lamma turned out to be very uninteresting. it is a tiny island in southern hong kong - supposedly mainly a fisherman town with pretty beaches. the reality was that the beaches were not pretty (there were some recent oil spills preventing swimming) and the town was full of cicadas, blah.

at least my 2 new friends made the trip more interesting. i am off to siem reap, cambodia tomorrow, home of the angkor wat temples - i will also be meeting up with my grad school pals seth and matt. more soon!

hong kong day 2

today i ventured out to see the giant buddha on lantau island. situated near one of the oldest monasteries in hong kong, it is the largest outdoor bronze buddha statue. they offer visitors only vegetarian meals at the site as well. pretty cool if you ask me.

after the buddha visit, i went to haggle at one of the many outdoor markets, ladies market (which is not really specific to ladies - they sell all sorts of random stuff). i was able to see tons of galvin klein and seico products, ha. asia is full of faux stuff.

i also made some friends in the hostel today - more single travellers like me, rachel and andy. i will be heading off to Lamma island with them tomorrow.

hong kong day 1

i got into HK last night and quickly secured my onward visa to china - it will take 4 days so i will stay here in HK till then. which is fine because hong kong is pretty awesome. it is similar in size as boston (you can walk just about anywhere) but as cosmopolitan as nyc and london. i dont understand why my mba friend bernard would pass up living here for new jersey...hmm.

today i had a very authentic HK style lunch with bernard in mong kok (one of the many shopping districts) then head up to victoria peak for the aerial view of HK - unfortunately, it was totally overcast and foggy so i didnt get the best view :( - then i took a ferry ride along HK bay to check out the views at night.

i have noticed that most activities here in HK revolve around shopping - you exit subway stations and end up directly in a shopping mall. there is a shopping mall at victoria peak with the biggest EA games kiosk i have ever seen - i played FIFA world cup 2007 for a bit.

here are a couple of scenery pics...

hi from Dubai...

Dubai is INSANE - one day is simply not enough. i could spend most of it in the duty free alone. in efforts to get the most out of my short stay, i went on a desert safari. the safari starts out with a group of about 6 people in a toyota land cruiser. the driver takes you out to the desert and on a crazy ride through the sand dunes - its kind of like being in a 2 hr long subaru outback commercial where they speed through all kinds of terrain. lucky for me, one of the other people in the land cruiser got car sick and barfed half way through - awesome. even luckier for me was the flat tire that we got towards the end.

after the desert ride, there are camel rides (if you choose) and then off to an arabic barbecue with some belly dancing entertainment and henna tattooing. all in all pretty cool.

enjoy some of these pics!