The Phantom of the Opera is rolling through Singapore! Kristin and I, one of my Germans, decided to shell out the big bucks and attend. At S$120 bucks it was a bit of a strech, but if it's been around for a gazillion years I knew it would be good. The performance didn't dissapoint!
The staging was excellent; I was especially amazed at the flawless set transitions that seemed to occur every few minutes. My 2 favorite parts of the show are the opening sequence, after the auction, when we hear the 'Phantom of the Opera' theme song for the first time (also when they raise the chandellier). The bridge scene was also spectacular, when they create a mock-river on stage, complete with loads of candles and a boat! Really great stuff.
My advice to people who know nothing of the show is to learn the songs before you go! The accoustics are excellent, but I had no idea what the Opera star was singing because she was trilling every second word; she was speaking English. Because it was my first Phantom experience, I was content to absorb the staging and costumes and will focus more on the songs when I see it again in London.
Saturday, May 19, 2007
Sunday, May 6, 2007
Tioman Island, Malaysia
A bunch of us foreigners (8 Germans, 2 Canadians and 1 French) decided to work it up in Malayisa over the Singapore Labour Day long weekend. It's an island 32 km off the coast of Malaysia, and was featured in the 1958 movie 'South Pacific'. TIME picked Tioman Island as one of the world's most beautiful islands in 1970. In addition, it's 12,383 hectares of rainforest are protected by the Malaysian government. Thanks Wikipedia!
Normally people catch busses either from Singapore (expensive) or from Johor Bahru (the Malaysian town on the Malaysian-Singapore border) to the Malaysian town of Mersing, then catch a 2 hour ferry ride to Tioman Island. We decided to be a little bit different, in part because we're lazy and the buses were full. We ended up catching cabs from Johor Bahru to Mersing, which is a little over two hours. Now you may think that we got killed with charges by doing this, but we managed to organiz 2 cabs to Mersing for 260RM (about C$85). Divided by the 7 who initially went together, it was a bargain.
We stayed at Salang based on the recommendations of others who had gone before us; it was a great choice. The first day we chose hostels, and almost got screwed over because it's difficult finding places to stay for 10 people, then lounged on the beach, ate some excellent food and just relaxed. Sunday, our second day, was also spend lounging on the beach and messing around in the ocean. I say 'messing around' because I can't actually swim, so this consisted of my floating in the ocean, trying to tread water and swimming about 30 meters before exhaustion set in. One of my goals is to now learn how to swim! Monday we took a boat ride around the island, where we got to scuba dive a couple times, look at some pretty beaches, and went up to this nice, but small, waterfall. I'll throw up links at the end of the entry to my Tioman pics, the most of which are us at this waterfall. I think it's obvious to say that we drank beer at night at the few bars there are on Tioman, talked with all the friend's and got very little sleep. Tuesday we left around 2p.m., so we had breakfast, packed, chilled on the beach one last time, then popped on the ferry for our adventurous ride home.
A word about the ferry...
We started our journey on crystal clear waters, but after about an hour a storm started to brew. Initially the clouds came in and the sea got a bit rough, but we were okay. Sittin on the top meant that we were basically out in the open with a tarp over us. Needless to say, we got soaked. The weather continually got worse to the point where we couldn't see in front of us and the engines were working like made to propel us on. We finally made it into Mersing, soaking wet, where we found some 'private cabs' to take us back to Johor Bahru. This was an interesting choice, because we passed a bunch of police on our way to J.B., one of which saw my pretty white face and pointed to all his buddies. About 3 minutes after that we were stopped at the side of the road and our cabbie had to pay the officer 50MR as a bribe; apparently he did not have a cab license. The cabbie asked us if we'd pay the 50 Ringgit, but Krisin and I had nothing of that. It's not our fault we found illegal cabs! At any rate, we made it back to J.B., had some eats in their modern supermall, then walked accross the river-boarder to Singapore.
All in all, a great weekend where we got to bond with some of the new arrivals. I'll be travelling with a few of them at the end of the Month to Kuala Lumpur, my last long weekend in Singapore :(
Look out for a post about that
Here are links to my pictures, and to the videos I took of our ferry ride home:
Tioman Island Pictures: http://ualberta.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2042544&l=4ac93&id=120402234
Ferry Ride Home 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjZZpJcrGsk
Ferry Ride Home 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVAChgd-kmo
Enjoy!
Normally people catch busses either from Singapore (expensive) or from Johor Bahru (the Malaysian town on the Malaysian-Singapore border) to the Malaysian town of Mersing, then catch a 2 hour ferry ride to Tioman Island. We decided to be a little bit different, in part because we're lazy and the buses were full. We ended up catching cabs from Johor Bahru to Mersing, which is a little over two hours. Now you may think that we got killed with charges by doing this, but we managed to organiz 2 cabs to Mersing for 260RM (about C$85). Divided by the 7 who initially went together, it was a bargain.
We stayed at Salang based on the recommendations of others who had gone before us; it was a great choice. The first day we chose hostels, and almost got screwed over because it's difficult finding places to stay for 10 people, then lounged on the beach, ate some excellent food and just relaxed. Sunday, our second day, was also spend lounging on the beach and messing around in the ocean. I say 'messing around' because I can't actually swim, so this consisted of my floating in the ocean, trying to tread water and swimming about 30 meters before exhaustion set in. One of my goals is to now learn how to swim! Monday we took a boat ride around the island, where we got to scuba dive a couple times, look at some pretty beaches, and went up to this nice, but small, waterfall. I'll throw up links at the end of the entry to my Tioman pics, the most of which are us at this waterfall. I think it's obvious to say that we drank beer at night at the few bars there are on Tioman, talked with all the friend's and got very little sleep. Tuesday we left around 2p.m., so we had breakfast, packed, chilled on the beach one last time, then popped on the ferry for our adventurous ride home.
A word about the ferry...
We started our journey on crystal clear waters, but after about an hour a storm started to brew. Initially the clouds came in and the sea got a bit rough, but we were okay. Sittin on the top meant that we were basically out in the open with a tarp over us. Needless to say, we got soaked. The weather continually got worse to the point where we couldn't see in front of us and the engines were working like made to propel us on. We finally made it into Mersing, soaking wet, where we found some 'private cabs' to take us back to Johor Bahru. This was an interesting choice, because we passed a bunch of police on our way to J.B., one of which saw my pretty white face and pointed to all his buddies. About 3 minutes after that we were stopped at the side of the road and our cabbie had to pay the officer 50MR as a bribe; apparently he did not have a cab license. The cabbie asked us if we'd pay the 50 Ringgit, but Krisin and I had nothing of that. It's not our fault we found illegal cabs! At any rate, we made it back to J.B., had some eats in their modern supermall, then walked accross the river-boarder to Singapore.
All in all, a great weekend where we got to bond with some of the new arrivals. I'll be travelling with a few of them at the end of the Month to Kuala Lumpur, my last long weekend in Singapore :(
Look out for a post about that
Here are links to my pictures, and to the videos I took of our ferry ride home:
Tioman Island Pictures: http://ualberta.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2042544&l=4ac93&id=120402234
Ferry Ride Home 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjZZpJcrGsk
Ferry Ride Home 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVAChgd-kmo
Enjoy!
Monday, April 16, 2007
Wakeboarding at East Coast Park, Singapore
I'm no waterbaby, but I decided I had to try wakeboarding when the opportunity presented itself last Sunday. We got up bright and early and hopped on the train, ready for a day in the sun! We're all so damn white, we really needed it! Kamil and Arno, two new German exchange students staying in my hall decided to join us.
Much to our surprise, they had a wakeboarding special on at S$5.00 for 30 minutes. Normally wakeboarding is S$35/hr on the weekends, so we were more than pleased at this offer. It isn't wakeboarding in the typical sense because you are not being pulled by a boat. Instead, a mechanical line that pulls you around a small lake, and you must navigate through special booeys if you do not want to sink; if you go off track you risk sinking when the cable is switching towers, because it momentarily looses tension! The first time I made it half way around, then ditched out, the second time I made it 3/4 of the way around, but sank when the cable was switching towers (proof that you must stay on course!). The third time was golden! I figured out how to position myself between the markers, and almost made it around 2 times. Some girl fell right infront of me so I had but had to abandon the line; I did not want to deal with the hassle of a collision just to make it 2 times around!
After wakeboarding, we went for a drink and met a cool English guy named Chris. He was taking a year off life and travelling around the world; it sounded awesome! We then went rollerblading for about 30 mintues, got a goody bag with a free athletic tank top and tons of useless samples and caught some dinner before heading it back to NTU. I definitely want to spend more time exploring the unique areas of Singapore and try out new things. I actually like wakeboarding and rollerblading, and would like to improve my skills a bit. I think flying halfway around the world warrants a bit of experimentation, don't you?
Alright I want to do a bit of work before the lab closes up, so I'll close up for now. Talk soon!
Much to our surprise, they had a wakeboarding special on at S$5.00 for 30 minutes. Normally wakeboarding is S$35/hr on the weekends, so we were more than pleased at this offer. It isn't wakeboarding in the typical sense because you are not being pulled by a boat. Instead, a mechanical line that pulls you around a small lake, and you must navigate through special booeys if you do not want to sink; if you go off track you risk sinking when the cable is switching towers, because it momentarily looses tension! The first time I made it half way around, then ditched out, the second time I made it 3/4 of the way around, but sank when the cable was switching towers (proof that you must stay on course!). The third time was golden! I figured out how to position myself between the markers, and almost made it around 2 times. Some girl fell right infront of me so I had but had to abandon the line; I did not want to deal with the hassle of a collision just to make it 2 times around!
After wakeboarding, we went for a drink and met a cool English guy named Chris. He was taking a year off life and travelling around the world; it sounded awesome! We then went rollerblading for about 30 mintues, got a goody bag with a free athletic tank top and tons of useless samples and caught some dinner before heading it back to NTU. I definitely want to spend more time exploring the unique areas of Singapore and try out new things. I actually like wakeboarding and rollerblading, and would like to improve my skills a bit. I think flying halfway around the world warrants a bit of experimentation, don't you?
Alright I want to do a bit of work before the lab closes up, so I'll close up for now. Talk soon!
Easter in Saigon!
I've had an interest in Vietnam after watching so many war movies and t.v. shows with my Dad. When I found out I was coming to Singapore, I knew I had to make a point of visiting the country to see what it was really like.
After securing an extra day of leave, Sapna, Jens, Kristin and I decided to get out of Singapore and head to Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) over Easter weekend (April 6-9). The flight and VISA cost us a mint at S$313 for the flight and S$70 for the VISA, but upon arrival, prices fall dramatically. If you can, I recommend going for longer than 3.5 days, but that is all we could manage with our work schedules.
After clearing customs, we caught a cab to the 'Red Sun Hostel' in the backpackers area of Saigon. It was awesome! I'd recommend it to anyone. It included breakfast which was a real treat; Vietnamese coffee is to die for!
The first day we basically ate WMF (white man food, for those of you who haven't read my previous posts), drank beer and Vietnamese coffee, and explored the city. I had some tailoring done, which cost me US$112 for 2 pairs of pants and 3 shirts. The quality is allright, but they didn't seem to understand that I wanted it 'fitted.' Even after an adjustments it still isn't quite right, so I'll have to find a tailor in Singapore and see what they can do.
The second day we took an organized tour of the Cu Chi tunnels, located about 70 km northwest of Saigon. These tunnels were used by the VC (Viet Cong) forces in their fight against the South Vietnamese and American troops. It was interesting to listen to the presentation because it was from a totally different perspective than we are used to. The Americans were the agressors this time, not the saviours trying to liberate the Vietnamese from communism repression. Vietnamese soldiers, even some women, were given medals for killing the most Americans, or destroying the most tanks. I really felt sorry for the Americans in the room when the tape was playing; they must have been terribly uncomfortale. After the tunnels, the tour bus dropped us off at the War Remnants Museum in Saigon. What resonates with me the most about the museum are the pictures illustrating how devestating Napalm and Agent Orange are, not only to the Vietnamese landscape, but more importantly to the people; burns and mutations were not uncommon, and their effects linger to this day.
After securing an extra day of leave, Sapna, Jens, Kristin and I decided to get out of Singapore and head to Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) over Easter weekend (April 6-9). The flight and VISA cost us a mint at S$313 for the flight and S$70 for the VISA, but upon arrival, prices fall dramatically. If you can, I recommend going for longer than 3.5 days, but that is all we could manage with our work schedules.
After clearing customs, we caught a cab to the 'Red Sun Hostel' in the backpackers area of Saigon. It was awesome! I'd recommend it to anyone. It included breakfast which was a real treat; Vietnamese coffee is to die for!
The first day we basically ate WMF (white man food, for those of you who haven't read my previous posts), drank beer and Vietnamese coffee, and explored the city. I had some tailoring done, which cost me US$112 for 2 pairs of pants and 3 shirts. The quality is allright, but they didn't seem to understand that I wanted it 'fitted.' Even after an adjustments it still isn't quite right, so I'll have to find a tailor in Singapore and see what they can do.
The second day we took an organized tour of the Cu Chi tunnels, located about 70 km northwest of Saigon. These tunnels were used by the VC (Viet Cong) forces in their fight against the South Vietnamese and American troops. It was interesting to listen to the presentation because it was from a totally different perspective than we are used to. The Americans were the agressors this time, not the saviours trying to liberate the Vietnamese from communism repression. Vietnamese soldiers, even some women, were given medals for killing the most Americans, or destroying the most tanks. I really felt sorry for the Americans in the room when the tape was playing; they must have been terribly uncomfortale. After the tunnels, the tour bus dropped us off at the War Remnants Museum in Saigon. What resonates with me the most about the museum are the pictures illustrating how devestating Napalm and Agent Orange are, not only to the Vietnamese landscape, but more importantly to the people; burns and mutations were not uncommon, and their effects linger to this day.
The third day we took another organized tour down the Mekong River. This was slightly more 'touristy' than the Cu Chi tunnels, but I still had fun. We travelled in many old boats down the river, one of which was paddled by two women, saw a coconut candy factory, had lunch, fruit and tea (all at individual stops!), and of course had the opportunity to buy crafts. I opted to leave the souvenir purchases till the end; I don't want to end up with too much stuff. The highlight of this excursion was holding the python (twice!). I don't typically like snakes, but they assured me it had eaten recently and posed no danger. I guess they were right!
In the evenings we explored the city, visted the markets, drink lots of beer (Saigon beer is great in the heat!), sampled more coffee and tryie out some of the other local delights. Vietnamese spring rolls are a must have. Now a word on the coffee. It comes with a small percolator perched on top of the cup, and tastes slightly of almond. I take mine with condensed milk, which makes it a bit sweeter, but the girls had theirs black. Truly excellent.
I'm going to leave it there guys. Until next time!
Saturday, April 14, 2007
Weekend in Bintan, Indonesia: March 31-April 1
What does one do on the weekend when you don't have much time but you still want to get away? You go to Bintan, Indonesia!
Located about 1.5 hours southeast of Singapore by ferry, Bintan is a resort island for Singaporean tourists looking to get away. We intended to leave Singapore bright and early the morning of Saturday March 31st, but like all good students, we slept in and managed to miss the early ferry out. No matter, we still made it in fine form, with enough time to eat at KFC, take out money (after taking too long to decide how much), find a creepy cabby, have him dump us in his brother's 'resort' eat some good food, drink too much beer and make it back to Singapore on Sunday night.
Accommodations were more rustic than any of us were used to, but a good experience nonetheless. Sleeping over the water in an old shack, listening to the ocean at night, and experiencing rainfall in the morning were all worth it. Plus, it wasn't the girls who had the 'luxury' cockroach free, shower equipped bedroom, it was the guys! I was too tired to even offer to switch rooms when I found out they had a cockroach the size of a mouse in their room. What a gentleman. Sorry girls!
Initially we were scared of eating the food they prepared for us, but upon first bite we knew it was solid. For the equivalent of S$4.00 we ate rice, fish, cooked cabbage (delicious), various kinds of tofu (the girls opted for vegetarian fare), cuttle fish (like squid) and a few other delicacies that I can't remember. It was some of the best food I've had here, and I'm happy to inform you that Sapna thoroughly enjoyed every bite of her veggie food. Go Sapna!
All in all, it was a fun but restful weekend away, complete with cheap beer on the beach, sleeping in my first 'shack,' eating delicious food and bargaining with our 'honest' cabby. A word from the wise, never ever under any circumstance pay the cab drivers what they initially offer. You can always bargain the fare down. The rule is to start at half what they offer then barter; we'll nearly always pay more because we're white. We paid S$45 for a return journey but our cab driver's brother said we shouldn't have paid him more than S$17.00, so don't be afraid to haggle!
Here are a few pictures to put a face to what I described above:
Located about 1.5 hours southeast of Singapore by ferry, Bintan is a resort island for Singaporean tourists looking to get away. We intended to leave Singapore bright and early the morning of Saturday March 31st, but like all good students, we slept in and managed to miss the early ferry out. No matter, we still made it in fine form, with enough time to eat at KFC, take out money (after taking too long to decide how much), find a creepy cabby, have him dump us in his brother's 'resort' eat some good food, drink too much beer and make it back to Singapore on Sunday night.
Accommodations were more rustic than any of us were used to, but a good experience nonetheless. Sleeping over the water in an old shack, listening to the ocean at night, and experiencing rainfall in the morning were all worth it. Plus, it wasn't the girls who had the 'luxury' cockroach free, shower equipped bedroom, it was the guys! I was too tired to even offer to switch rooms when I found out they had a cockroach the size of a mouse in their room. What a gentleman. Sorry girls!
Initially we were scared of eating the food they prepared for us, but upon first bite we knew it was solid. For the equivalent of S$4.00 we ate rice, fish, cooked cabbage (delicious), various kinds of tofu (the girls opted for vegetarian fare), cuttle fish (like squid) and a few other delicacies that I can't remember. It was some of the best food I've had here, and I'm happy to inform you that Sapna thoroughly enjoyed every bite of her veggie food. Go Sapna!
All in all, it was a fun but restful weekend away, complete with cheap beer on the beach, sleeping in my first 'shack,' eating delicious food and bargaining with our 'honest' cabby. A word from the wise, never ever under any circumstance pay the cab drivers what they initially offer. You can always bargain the fare down. The rule is to start at half what they offer then barter; we'll nearly always pay more because we're white. We paid S$45 for a return journey but our cab driver's brother said we shouldn't have paid him more than S$17.00, so don't be afraid to haggle!
Here are a few pictures to put a face to what I described above:
Monday, March 12, 2007
Singalicktionary
I'll give 10 points to whoever correctly guesses what this word means. Carefully sound it out and then either post your response on my Facebook profile or within the comments section here!
Whiteys, Whitewashing and WMF
Some of you may have heard me talk about the 'WMF' and the 'Whiteys' here in Singapore, either on here or on my Facebook, but have no idea what I'm talking about. Well, I have finally managed to grab a few moments of my precious time to explain to you fine folk what these two words actually mean. You're in for a real treat tonight!
WMF simply means 'white man food,' and is a rendition of a phrase coined by one of my bestest fasian friends out there, Diana Wong! She came to Singapore on exchange about a year ago, and when she came home she started to call all our food 'white man food,' or 'WMF' for short. Ever since then, I've called anything that resembles 'western food' WMF. WMF is popular here in Singapore, but for some reason they think we eat porc'n'beans with every meal....
'Whitey' is a word I coined myself to represent the large expatriate (white) population in Sing. I was looking forward to being a 'visible minority' for once in my life, but that dream was shattered when I stepped on the plane in Tokyo en route to Singapore. Why you may ask? Because the whole damn plane was filled with whiteys! Jesus! The airport had even more of them. I was devastated.
Now I didn't start to call them whiteys right from the start; it took a few weeks to develop. One dayI realized that there are so many derogatory terms for Asians, Blacks, Latinos and every other race you can think of, but the worst they can throw in our white faces is 'gringo' or 'cracker.' Well I don't know about you, but gringo and cracker are pathetic and BOOOOO-RING.......so I decided that we need a new word. Hence 'whitey' was born.
I love going to Clark Quay and making fun of all the whiteys there (even though I am one). For those of you who have never been to Singapore, Clark Quay is about 95% 'expatriate' and 5% 'local'; and the locals are mostly the workers. While you are walking down the Quay you can really tell that it's been whitewashed with a bunch of whiteys devouring WMF.
I happen to think whitey is quite mild and tame, but I have got slack for using it. I have just one thing to say to you all: I AM WHITE. In fact, I'm about as white as you can get, and if I wanna call my people whitey I think I should be able to. So there.
Yours in white-ness
Sean
WMF simply means 'white man food,' and is a rendition of a phrase coined by one of my bestest fasian friends out there, Diana Wong! She came to Singapore on exchange about a year ago, and when she came home she started to call all our food 'white man food,' or 'WMF' for short. Ever since then, I've called anything that resembles 'western food' WMF. WMF is popular here in Singapore, but for some reason they think we eat porc'n'beans with every meal....
'Whitey' is a word I coined myself to represent the large expatriate (white) population in Sing. I was looking forward to being a 'visible minority' for once in my life, but that dream was shattered when I stepped on the plane in Tokyo en route to Singapore. Why you may ask? Because the whole damn plane was filled with whiteys! Jesus! The airport had even more of them. I was devastated.
Now I didn't start to call them whiteys right from the start; it took a few weeks to develop. One dayI realized that there are so many derogatory terms for Asians, Blacks, Latinos and every other race you can think of, but the worst they can throw in our white faces is 'gringo' or 'cracker.' Well I don't know about you, but gringo and cracker are pathetic and BOOOOO-RING.......so I decided that we need a new word. Hence 'whitey' was born.
I love going to Clark Quay and making fun of all the whiteys there (even though I am one). For those of you who have never been to Singapore, Clark Quay is about 95% 'expatriate' and 5% 'local'; and the locals are mostly the workers. While you are walking down the Quay you can really tell that it's been whitewashed with a bunch of whiteys devouring WMF.
I happen to think whitey is quite mild and tame, but I have got slack for using it. I have just one thing to say to you all: I AM WHITE. In fact, I'm about as white as you can get, and if I wanna call my people whitey I think I should be able to. So there.
Yours in white-ness
Sean
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