Singapura, The Lion City

I’ve now been officially living in the Lion City for a little over a week now. I’m adjusting, I think, quite nicely. In many ways Singapore is little different from other major cities across the globe. I take the bus and MRT nearly everywhere I go. Rush hour is nasty; the skyline is beautiful.

I’ve adjusted, much to my surprise, to the heat and humidity. The language barrier (Singlish and English are two distinct languages that are similar the way Spanish and Italian might be) disintegrates with the passing of each day. The bus system, an indecipherable system of numbers and location-based stops (opp block 92//shell station//Ngee Ann Polytechnic) has become a slow, but otherwise easy method of transport.

And then other things are vastly different. What I have noticed more than anything else is the constant presence of the government. Billboards across the city reinforce anti-mosquito messages. Constant vigilance against terrorism is required on the trains and buses, again at the bequest of government-sponsored advertisements. To my western eyes it seems both invasive and pervasive. It has made me appreciate the liberties of the United States in ways I had not anticipated.

On other cultural notes, I’ve now visited my school and met my principle, HOD (Head of Department), and buddy/co-teacher. I’m very excited to start school next Monday. What few students I’ve met seem shy, but inquisitive. I’ve also discovered that they read my blog – a proper hello! to all my future students. You’ll be meeting me in person soon enough.

I had the good fortune to attend my schools mid-autumn festival the day I met my bosses and coworkers at Clementi Town Secondary. The mid-autumn festival is a Chinese holiday celebrated, you guessed it, in mid-autumn, officially on the 12^th of September. The festival itself involves lanterns, mooncake, and a general celebratory air. Mooncake is a pastry filled with some sort of sugary curd and egg yolk. I found it unexpectedly bland, but very tasty nonetheless. I was particularly fond of the green tea variant.

The schools festivities included performances by dancers, musicians, martial artists, singer(s), the school drama club, and other various entertainments. It was not, all together, that different from a Halloween celebration (minus the costumes, of course) in the United States.

Keeping the festive mood, I attended Night Lights, Saturday night. In recent years, the government of Singapore has been attempting to generate a more developed artistic culture within the city. Night Lights is an event designed to propagate such artistic culture. To begin, all the museums were free from 7:00pm to 2:00am, completely open to the public. A screening of “Thirteen Ghosts” an old, hokey, wonderful, horror movie took place at 8:00pm. Various different artistic, light based, installations could be observed in the downtown area of the city. Green space invaders (think back to the old game) descended on a park. Cars iced and filled with fog created a light show on the green of the National Museum. A projector distorted the façade of the National Art Museum with the auditory cues from a microphone open to the audience. Jellyfish descended on the courtyards of the Art Museum. And a lightning disturbed cloud lit another wall. It was, in my opinion, a grand success – a perfect example of successful government activity.

On the home front, my new apartment is massive. It’s three bedrooms with a massive living room and separate kitchen. Sadly, it lacks an oven. I’ve spent the past week attempting to make it feel more home and less like a sparsely furnished barren set of walls. I’m winning the battle, but the next step is carpet or rugs and wall fixtures. I think I’m going to have several of my pictures printed in grand; do any of you have suggestions for your favorite(s)?

I’ll have more soon, but am, alas, still without internet. Updates shall continue to be sporadic at best. I’ll attempt to upload pictures soon.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

My last few days were spent in the capitol of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur. I took a bus down from the Cameron Highlands and was dropped in China Town, the backpacker district. I after securing a room for myself, I went on a wander, as I am wont to do.

The city is massive, as most capitols of a few million people are, but easily navigable and with a fairly competent public transit system. After taking a brief lap close to my hostel, I returned. And lo, on my return visit I stumbled upon a parade. And quite the parade it was. It was clearly for religious reasons, and I assume it was a combination of Buddhist and Hindus.

Mixed of mostly equal parts Chinese and Indians, the parade had several distinct stages. First came several floats with small, temporary shrines on them. Next were Chinese dancers/actors and Chinese dragons, then Indian musicians and actors, followed by more floats.

The floats were very elaborate, papier-mâché and stone statues with garlands and incense. The Chinese dancers were some sort of warriors; they carried swords and other weapons. Most amazing was their self-mutilation. During their performance they repeatedly struck their own backs with the weapons. One man cut himself severely and was bleeding quite badly – only a three inch long gash across his back.

The Indian musicians were mostly drummers. They played a fast beat on their drums and sang to accompany it. With them was a man dribbling vermillion from his mouth (it looked like blood). Worshipers would come to be blessed by him.

Wandering amongst all the dancers and floats were a variety of characters dressed as mummers, fools, and, I assume, angry ghosts. They ran up and down the procession alternately scaring and joking with the observers.

To even greater luck the parade came to a halt where I had bumped into it and began setting off fireworks. It was not a great production, but made all the more impressive by my proximity to it. And the fact that the fireworks exploded literally feet from the surrounding buildings. After the parade I returned to my hostel for the night.

The following morning I went on a much longer wander. I encountered a preserved rain forest in the middle of the city next to the KL tower (KL=Kuala Lumpur). Years ago the government decided to create a national park within the center of the city; it’s strange being in the middle of a rainforest, but being able to hear all the sounds of the city.

I did not venture to the top of the KL tower, as it cost an exorbitant rate to ride the elevator, but I did take some photos of the impressive structure. And then, slowly, made my way back to the hostel.

That night I ventured over to the Petronus Towers; they were the tallest buildings in the world for six years. Taipei 101 overtook them in 2004. Lit up at night, they are truly stunning. The lights play against the night sky and their sheer size astounds. The overall image looks surreal.

The next morning I ventured to Little India, not much to comment on, but the food was great. And then finally to the airport where I spent the night before returning to Singapore. And here I am now, a week later and just now updating. I still don’t have internet at home. Mid-autumn festivals, terrorism on the subway, and more coming soon.

Cameron Highlands, Malaysia

On very rare occasion I find a place that proves god’s existence in whatever inconscionable form he takes. And if he doesn’t exist, he damned well should. The inexplicable beauty of the Cameron Highlands is one such place. Imagine sprawling mountains covered in the most fecund, verdant green and sporadically obscured by gentle mist. And you will have no idea what I’m talking about, but it’s a start. I had been reading when I looked out the window and discovered this awful (read awe-full) site. I gazed out the window the remainder of my ride.

One of the great benefits of the Cameron Highlands (in my opinion) is the temperature. I arrived at night, and many people were wearing jackets! It was down right comfortable. Arriving late, I grabbed some food and retired to bed.

The next day, being uncertain of my activities, I decided to wander to a local waterfall 45 minutes away, according to the map. Just as I was about to leave some other backpackers were leaving, and I ended up joining them. The waterfall, it turns out, was probably 10 minutes away. It was lovely, but lacked a swimming hole.

One of the backpackers was going on a longer hike, and I spontaneously decided to join him. After a 10 or 15 minutes, I realized it was a real hike. With solid vertical climbs and rough barely blazed trails. I admit, I was not prepared. I soon discovered the hike was marked for five hours on the map. Me being me, I decided to tough it out in my bare feet.

Most Americans, I think, are at least familiar with the concept of bare feet – everything, and Vibrams. This is not the case with the rest of the world. The fact that I was hiking without shoes was astounding to my companion from England. When we later encountered another group coming the other way, they stared at my feet and me as if I were some incredibly rare jungle species. I was terribly amused.

Our five-hour hike ended up taking about two hours (the maps are poorly marked), but it was very enjoyable nonetheless. As it turns out, it rains during the rainy season and it poured on us. For a good bit of the hike, we were walking down a continuous and ever changing waterfall. I’ve never quite been in anything like it. And, blessedly, the end of our hike led us through a strawberry patch (delicious) and tea plantation (fascinating).

The next morning I intended to go on another hike to the summit of another peak. It started pouring around 10:30 am, didn’t let up, and I changed my plans. My day turned into movies and whisky clubs at the hostel – a distinct change of pace, but not a bad one.

Alas, the following morning I had to leave my Eden – I was off to Kuala Lumpur.

A note on the environment

As most of you probably know, I consider myself an environmentalist. I’m not going to rant and rave at you; I will just briefly explain why.

I am selfish, extremely selfish. I happen to really enjoy natural space. I like to walk through it; I like to hike through it; I like to take pictures of it. Yesterday, in the Cameron Highlands, I was enjoying just such a place. Specifically I was at Robinson Falls, a small series of waterfalls along the river. It looks like this:

Lovely isn’t it?

And this is the reason why I’m an environmentalist:

Plastic

More plastic

That is FUCKING disgusting. It ruins the natural beauty of the place. It ruins my enjoyment of the place. As I said, I’m selfish. The last thing I want to see when I’m dangling my feet in a river is plastic and god knows what else floating or hooked onto the water. It really isn’t that hard to properly dispose of trash. It really isn’t that hard to reuse a water bottle instead of throwing it away.

So please, lets try to keep our environment looking like this:

UNESCO World Heritage

As many of your probably know, I had no respect left for the United Nations in any of its functions. On the whole, I find the UN to be a bloated, corrupt, expensive, and ultimately ineffective organization that wastes billions of dollars; more often than not, it creates more problems than it solves.

Recently, however, I have had a slight change of heart towards at least one small subdivision of the UN. The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization provides an excellent service to the world and our community, The World Heritage Convention. Currently 936 sites are included on UNESCO’s world heritage list.

These places are a combination of natural and artificial constructions that have cultural and historic importance. UNESCO provides international recognition of a site, and often funding to help preserve and maintain the site. Over my travels I have encountered numerous world heritage sites. In some poor and undeveloped countries, these places may have been lost without the UN’s support.

So, here’s to you, UNESCO. Keep up the good work.