Singawho? Singawhat?

Singapore was, honestly, disappointing. The name conjures up images of an exotic, tropic place teeming with people and energy brought together by the seas to do business of all kinds, but what it actually looks like is one big shopping mall surrounded by government funded high rises. Like if Dave & Buster decided to plan a city.

Singapore does not look like this.

Nor does it look like this.

I think the highlight of our trip was the first family we couch surfed with. They had just moved there from the Philippines because of Jeff's (the dad's) job. They were young, really nice, and had the most amazing 2 year old daughter. She spoke Tagalog, a Filipino language, and two weeks before we got there had just started learning English. You would think she had been speaking it all her life - she could almost have a full conversation with us in English. She was constantly performing, singing, dancing, anything for attention. And that girl had moves. Her parent's would occasionally start singing "Low," and she would just start breaking it down. I think by the time she's 4 she will be able to rival Beyonce, no joke.

With no extra money for shopping or restaurants, we were basically excluded from Singapore's two main recommended activities (though we managed to scrounge funds for some excellent curry in Little India...twice). We did go to the Kranji War Memorial, an old prison that served as a POW camp during WWII, which was very interesting. We also went to the Singapore Zoo, the other recommended tourist activity (it was a very good zoo, as zoos go). And in our spare time, we took photos of the various fines strictly imposed by the Singapore government.
*Note: a durian (above) very smelly fruit...highly illegal.

Scientifically proven...to do what??

Thai Tattoos for Traveling Tourists

After Bangkok (and a less-than-wonderful overnight stay on the island of Ko Phangan, which is very boring if it isn't a full moon) we headed to Khao Lak, a small area north of Phuket, where our friend Daniel, who used to teach in Toyama, is living and teaching English. The area was beautiful, right on the coast, and very relaxed and friendly. It was a very welcome change after the bustle of Bangkok. We basically spent 4 days relaxing, going to the beach, eating seafood, listening to live music, and getting Thai massages (rough life, I know).

Daniel, Nat & I

Woman at the restaurant next to Daniel's apartment who cooked us a delicious seafood dinner. Preparation cost? about $1.

Really cool Thai instrument I wish I could remember the name of.

On the second day we decided to rent motos. Daniel has one, but cramming three people onto it each time we wanted to go somewhere was getting a little old, so Nat and I decided to each get our own. I had driven my own before in Hungary, when Ethan and I went from Berlin. It had been an experience I might describe as...harrowing. I spent most of the time trying to keep up with him as he zigged and zagged through crazy Budapest traffic, and ended up falling off it twice, leading to a bruised and bloodied left side of my body and some very dirty clothes. (Note, Ethan is not a crazy driver, we just fall on opposite sides of the Conservative Moto Driver Line.)

I thought this time would be different. Wrong. We managed to drive about 20 minutes north on a super busy road, and the whole time I was well behind Nat and Daniel thinking "one weird bump and I'm dead, one hand slips and I'm dead, oh God there are so many cars around me." I tried to push those thoughts aside, and once we got onto smaller roads I started to feel more comfortable. We arrived at our destination, a beautiful beach, and hung out swimming and eating papaya salad (spicy! spicy! spicy!). On our way out, Nat and Daniel were once again way ahead of me within the first 3 minutes, and thus didn't notice when I turned a corner and totally wiped out in the middle of the road. A man stopped to help me, though he mostly seemed angry, maybe he felt obliged to stop but didn't actually want to. So when I finally caught up with the other two I looked much worse for wear - I was bleeding from my leg and forearm and my whole right side was covered in dust.
Oh well, what do we do when we fall off the horse?

We get back on.

("I'm not a gymnast, Maury.")

So I pulled myself together, hopped back on and headed back out towards the busy busy road, trying to silence the voices in my head which had now moved past reasonable worry to panicky terror. Slowly but surely, I made it back into town. We went past Daniel's house and further on to a tattoo parlor, as Natalie was thinking of getting a tattoo and wanted to do some research. I stopped, prepared to make the right turn across traffic into the parking lot (they drive on the left in Thailand, too, who knew), and then went....but managed to wipe out once more as soon as I entered the parking lot. Awesome.
This time it was actually worse, I think, because so many people were watching. All the store owners ran out of their shops to help me up, each one acting concerned for me while at the same time laughing at what a bad driver I am ("stupid foreigner can't ride a moto" - I swear I could read their minds and that's what they were saying). The owner of the tattoo parlor and his girlfriend rushed me into their bathroom, washed me up and covered my wounds in antiseptic.

So there I had it, my "Thai tattoo" (arm wound from moto). At that moment, as I was being attended to in the back of a tattoo shop in the middle of Thailand, I made a pact with myself which I plan to adhere to:

Never again will I attempt to drive a moto.
Ride on the back, okay. But drive, never.

Moto = No Go

We ended up going back to the tattoo parlor the next day so Nat could get her tattoo. She had been planning it for months, and essentially designed it herself - frangipani (or plumeria, as we call the flower) on her foot. It is a pretty big tattoo and thus took a few hours, and so I spent the day hanging out in the shop, buying things at the convenience store for Nat (like gummi bears for her to chew on when the pain was too bad), reading, and speaking with a German tourist who came in to hang out and talk about graffiti art with Top, the tattoo guy. After Nat was finished, Top's girlfriend Nim brought out a delicious salad and Top brought out some whiskey (and taught us how to tell if the bottles are faked - yes, they even fake alcohol in Thailand), Daniel showed up, and we all sat around talking, eating, drinking, and listening to Top and his friend play the guitar. They gave us homemade honey for Natalie's cough, and two kinds of leaves they had picked, one to make you sleepy, and one they called "amphetamine leaf" to wake you up (we left that one alone). It was probably the best tattoo experience Nat (and I, the bystander) could have asked for.

Art is Pain

Top Demonstrates Fun with Crickets

Post Tattoo Sing-a-Long
(my second favorite Thai song, after Wood's - miss you Wood!)

One Night (or two) In Bangkok

Bangkok has some beautiful temples and lovely historic sights.





These are some of them.






Unfortunately, I did not see any of those things. My view of Bangkok looked more like this:

Welcome to Thailand - Now Into The Jungle!

Internet hasn't been the cheapest or most reliable thing since leaving Japan, so I apologize for the delay in postings. I arrived in Chiang Mai, Thailand after 22 hours of travel, with a stop in Seoul and Bangkok - and luckily I made it right through right before protesters closed the airport. Nat and Lindzy picked me up from the Airport in a Tuk Tuk and we went to the guesthouse where they were staying, repacked a smaller bag, and then headed right out again for a 3 day trek into the jungle!


After 3 hours in the bed of a truck up bumpy dirt roads, we started out on our journey. Our guide was Wood, an ex-Thai army Muay Thai boxer who grew up in the jungle and knew every plant and animal we came across. On one hand we knew he could kill any of us (or any dangerous animal) in a second, but he was also as goofy as a little kid.

The first day was an easy 2 hour hike, stopping every 50 feet so Wood could explain different plants to us and/or make us eat them. We reached our camp for the evening, which was a cluster of wooden huts and a fire pit. There were a few old Thai people hanging out, by the morning they were gone and new ones had come in - I think the place is used as a communal camp by anyone making their way through the jungle. We all set about cutting up vegetables, and Wood made us a huge dinner of vegetable curries and rice. Delicious. After dinner he played Thai songs on the guitar for us around the fire, under a sky with stars like I had never seen before in my life. It was pretty amazing.

Some of those mountains are Burma!

The next day was our long day, I think almost 7 hours in total. It was such a beautiful hike, really amazing. At one point we had to repel ourselves down two steep faces, using just a rope, no harnesses - badass! We stopped midday and Wood cooked us an amazing lunch (he can do incredible things with instant noodles) at the highest point of our trek. We used leaves as plates and bamboo as chopsticks, maybe the most biodegradable lunch I've had. Leaves make great hats, too!


As it got to be evening we arrived to our destination for that night, a tiny village of Burmese refugees. There were dogs, pigs and chicken running around everywhere (the chicken especially became pretty annoying as soon as we went to sleep). The villagers have one communal toilet (actually a glorified hole in the ground) and one shower (a raised pipe that emits freezing cold mountain water) in a little hut outside for everyone to use. Wood made us another delicious dinner and we ate outside next to one family's hut. After eating, Wood broke out the guitar and played for us again, and soon after was joined by the father of the family as well as his tiny son, maybe 2 or 3. The father and son (who, like everyone else we encountered on the trek, spoke no English) sang for us, all Christian songs translated into Thai. It was beautiful.

Village Huts

Village Kids

In the morning we woke up and brought out the candy we had bought before leaving to give to the children in the village. They were so freaking cute. After that we headed out on our way, just about 3 hours (and 9 mountains!) to where the driver would pick us up for a long, bumpy ride back to the guesthouse. After some showers, a few drinks, and a little rest, we were up the next day for one more outing with Wood - tiger park!

Goodbye, Japan

I miss you!

Maybe I've Been In Asia Too Long...

...or are fanny packs really back?

If anyone could help me out with this, please, I could really use some answers.

No Time To Write More, But...

...I just want to let it be known that I'm safe, despite the political situation in Thailand at the moment. Luckily I made it out of Bangkok by plane just hours before the closed the airport, and I'm currently chilling at a quiet beach town in the south. And my next flight is from Phuket, so unless things really really escalate, it shouldn't be a problem. As Natalie would say, no worries!