but firstly, why hasn't anyone ever told me how completely wonderful vonnegut is? i just finished breakfast of champions (i read cat's cradle earlier this summer) and he's so incredible i have clearly been living in the dark.
back to the point. singapore! amazing.
we (we=me, tom, eric) took the train down on wednesday morning and seven of the bumpiest hours of my life later we arrived in singapore, thankful we had not derailed. we proceeded to walk across town looking for a hotel as the 8 or so we had called before leaving were without vacancy. surprisingly, this was also the case with the next 10 we walked into (excluding 'hawaii hostel' which was NOT paradise - we tried to steer clear of anything charging hourly rates). we came across the strand finally and settled on it. apparently there was a huuge convention that comes to town only once a year and it was, thankfully, happening the day after we arrived. the point of this story is : we didn't sleep on the streets.
we walked down the main shopping drag, orchard road, which, incidentally, my friend dana's parents designed the landscaping for, had dumplings for dinner, and headed over to chinatown to explore. After two and a half hours of traipsing around singapore with our luggage we were exhausted and so crashed pre-midnight.
thursday we took ourselves on a tour of the city hitting all the major points: little india, kampong glam, downtown and the colonial district, chinatown, club street, and orchard road again.
that night we headed back out to chinatown for hawker food ('hawker' refers to food stalls on the street) and tiger beers (tiger beer is made in singapore). and much dancing on a disco floor later we crashed very-post-midnight.friday we headed out to sentosa, a tiny island 500ish meters off singapore. it's entirely theme-parky and very odd. we hung out on the beach, reading and watching the handful of brides get photographed on the sand and IN the water. their dresses got soo dirty just in the sand alone i couldn't believe all of them were willing to climb into the water too! (note: these were individual brides unassociated with one another.)
from there we headed back into town to watch a free concert that was happening by the water. unfortunately it turned out to be an AWFUL malaysian rock band instead of the pleasant jazz/classical i was expecting. it was quite disappointing.saturday was nature day. we hit the orchid gardens, the largest in the world, the botanical gardens, the rainforest, and a night safari. the orchid garden was my favorite thing we did in singapore.
it was sooo beautiful there and i got to have massive amounts of fun with my camera (see the dozens of pictures on flickr). orchids are fantastically magical. i wanted to have them all so i could look at them every day. 
the rainforest was rather comical because we ended up hiking (instead of the walk we were anticipating) for 2 hours up and down up and down. it was really steep and incredibly humid and i was wearing a white blouse and my falling apart sandals (they straps actually are half broken, but i love them anyway - i'm just worried they're going to give out on me). The ups were always anticlimactic because even on trails called things such as 'north view' there was no view. we also climbed to the highest point in singapore ("the summit") to no view. and then the night safari! well, it was admittedly kind of silly and hokey, but very cool. large animals are cool. i saw the biggest elephant i have ever seen too -- huuuge.it was a wonderful trip. singapore is beautiful, incredibly clean, and has the most amazing public transportation sytem i've ever used. the metro took you everywhere, but the buses filled in the few gaps there were. There were maps and clear numbers at every stop which made it easily understood. the coolest part was the cards you could load money onto and quickly scan when you got on/off any bus/metro train. they were so effective that you didn't even have to take them out of your purse to scan them! how amazing is that?
singapore was by far the most colonial place i've visited on this trip. as a result of western influence it has no other readily apparent culture present. it is a completely western city. when i was walking downtown i actually felt like i was in charlotte. maybe it's this western ness that makes it so easy to like ( i think so)... i feel a little guilty about that, but i can't help but like it.
ESPECIALLY after arriving back in kuala lamepur last night. uuugh. i have never been so unhappy to be back anywhere as i was in the train station yesterday. i went to the bathroom and remembered about not liking KL. the floor was soaking wet and there was a haphazard line system AND only eastern toilets. (i'm not sure i've explained the eastern toilet before, though it's amazing that i could have possibly made it all summer without explaining one. anyhow, if you are unsure about what it is, look it up, it's much too grotesque to explain.) i did feel better after i got some much needed food in my system...
school is VERY busy now. we had a pinup today with our malaysian counterparts. my partner is on board with me now and i think it is going to be a very successful project - i'm excited about it. i do wish we had much more time than we do...anyhow, i should get back to my work, but i'll keep posting as my project and KL life unfolds.
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