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Took a trip to the Singapore Zoo yesterday. There were a LOT of primates there. The orangutans and chimps are a major draw as always; I guess some famous orangutan died recently and the entire city mourned her. Foreign dignitaries used to arrange for dinner with the ape. Go figure.

They also had a very impressive lizard and snake exhibit, complete with Asian Giant Tortoises and even a Komodo Dragon! It's hard to get a sense of scale from the photo but this guy was HUGE, easily longer than a human being. Most of the animals have daily feeding schedules where you can get a closer look at them, but of course they only feed the dragon twice a month. But he was still out sunning himself. They also had a few Gila Monsters. People who know me will find that highly ironic.

Wendy's mom brought home a couple Malaysian fruits last night. One is called Rambutan and tastes something like a lychee, and the other is called "Dragon Fruit" and its innards look and taste somewhat like an albino kiwi fruit. The wiki article says the latter fruit originated in Mexico, and is a traditional fruit of tribes in the Sonoran desert. My gut tells me that article is full of crap, because I've sure as hell never seen this fruit in my life. They both look like they came off a sci-fi space station.

You may have noticed I haven't posted anything the past several days. That's because I took a trip up to Malaysia to an island beach resort on Redang island. As you can see, it's far from pretty much everything, a 2 hour boat ride from the mainland pier and a 9 hour boat ride from Singapore to the pier... which is exactly why I went there. As you can see, there are two connected beaches separated by a rock outcropping. My hotel was on the southern one; I stayed at Redang Beach Resort.

The bus ride over was a night bus sleeper coach with TVs and a large selection of movies. I was a bit nervous going through Malaysia customs, but the guy next to me helped out. He had a China passport and his girlfriend was from Indonesia, but they both spoke fantastic English. They had both moved to Malaysia at age 14 and met in high school there before moving to Singapore later. At one of the rest stops they shared their food with me, a jackfruit. It tasted almost like a lychee, which will make no sense if you've never eaten one of those, but it had a sweet outer layer and a hard rocklike pit in the center. This was just the first in a string of chance meetings with really nice people.

On the boat ride getting off I met a woman from Kuala Lumpur who happened to be a diving instructor. She was on a trip with 5 other people, one of whom is an associate producer for some Malaysian travel show. The boat pulled right up to the beach and we hopped off to check in, and then they invited me for some coffee. So we dropped off our stuff and walked around to a restaurant on the other beach where I saw this:

I listened them talk a bit in Malay and a bit in English, and sipped on an iced coffee. They ordered some light snack food, a kind of sausage-jerky stuff that was green and made from fish (and quite tasty with a bit of spicy red sauce), as well as a mashed up banana wrapped up in a leaf. She wouldn't let me pay, but gave me her business card and suggested I give her a call the next time I was in the area to go diving. The rest of the Malays I met on the trip were some of the most laid back people I've ever met. Completely chill. And almost all of them speak English quite well, especially considering it's not the national language.

The package deal I purchased included a bus ride and ferry transfer to the island, 2 nights accommodation at the hotel, meals, and snorkeling trips (gear not included). Renting a snorkel and mask for the whole trip cost about 3 bucks, with a life jacket it's a bit more but not overly so. Every day the hotel boat makes two trips to other islands around the area for snorkeling, but there are reserved swimming/snorkeling areas with reefs that make for great viewing and you can go any time you want. I applied sunscreen and wore a T-shirt but still got burns on the back of my legs from being face down in the water so much.

I took my first swim around the block with the snorkel right after renting it, and was astounded at the number of colorful fish swimming around in just 1 meter of water. As I got further from shore into the deeper parts, I could see schools of zebrafish swimming around, lots of butterfly fish in large groups, and plenty of individual parrotfish chomping on the reefs (a few species: one purplish-red with green fins, and a greenish one with a blue tail and red lines radiating out from its eyes). The coral were also very impressive in a few places. While the areas around the jetty and high-traffic boating areas were bleached, the rocky areas had plenty of fan corals, brain coral, and anemones. One of the divers told me the visibility was 50 meters, and it seemed pretty clear to me. One boat trip took us to a pristine reef around a remote island, with entire forests of staghorn and finger coral, massive numbers of large fish schooling around them. It also had large numbers of jellyfish very close to the surface, and so I didn't linger for long. But I did see one clownfish way down on the bottom, hiding in the safety of an anemone. Absolutely amazing.

After snorkeling I came back and just sat around at the beach for awhile.

Sea, sun, and sand... what else could you wish for?

Two days of that was some great relaxation. I met some great people, partied with the locals working there (who were really awesome), strolled on a fantastic beach with no crowds in the way, and got a great view of the sea. At night there was live music and dance clubs for those who wanted to do that sort of thing. The hotel rooms even had air conditioning. And the whole trip cost me less than 300 bucks. Phenomenal.

Mike and Wendy were out today for their friends' wedding, so I had much of the day to myself. Yesterday I had developed a nasty blister on my foot, so I wanted to do something that wouldn't aggravate things: cycling. I borrowed a bicycle and after grabbing a bite to eat (roti prata again) I rode to Lakeside park and followed the path south. Everything was really green, the sun was shining, and it was generally a great day to be on a bicycle.

After passing the bridge to Chinese Garden, I saw a statue of a very very large lizard in the middle of the path. When I looked again, I realized it was an actual lizard, about 4 feet long from tip to tail. It was, in fact, a Malayan Water Monitor lizard, which is in the same genus as the famed Komodo dragon. I took a couple snapshots from range, none of which turned out that great, and as I moved to get a closer look he scurried off into the brush. Note that this was a public park, not a zoo... and there was a free-ranging giant lizard.

As I came back around on the loop and entered the Chinese garden to take photos, it started to rain heavily. By the time I made it back to the flat I was totally soaked. I wanted to go out and grab some more food but it rained until about 5pm, when I went out to grab some Mee Goreng (red spicy noodles) from the market, and finished it off with a lychee drink (with the fruits still in it). I thought the day was wrapping up, but then Wendy's brother came home around 7 and invited me out to eat. Not one to turn down a good meal, we went back to the market where he ordered a couple beers and a stingray. Yes, you read that correctly. I ate stingray, topped with spicy red chili sauce. It was delicious. Then for dessert he treated me to Singapore's version of flavored ice, which had sweet red beans in the bottom and tropical fruitstuffs and condensed milk poured liberally over the top.

It didn't stop there. As he's a bit of a night owl, he invited me for a midnight bike ride through the city to one of his favorite eateries. At this moment my stomach was about to burst, but he told me it would take at least an hour to get there and we'd work up an appetite getting there. He was right. Strangely enough, this seems to be a tradition. Since the buses and trains stop after midnight, and cars are so obscenely expensive (we're talking 10 grand to get a PERMIT to buy a vehicle), a lot of people jog or walk or bike there. When we arrived after 1am, the place was completely thronged. We had enough space to grab some mutton curry and some roti prata (I swear that's becoming a staple food for me, but it's so good) and admire all the fancy cars and motorbikes the rich kids had parked out front. We biked back home, and got back around 3:30am.

Yesterday I mentioned hawker centers, and after experiencing more of Singapore, I think I should explain a bit more about how these places are set up. They're a little bit grungy, very down-to-earth, and definitely something every tourist here should visit.

Typically the hawker centers are a place to get excellent cheap food. Typical stuff there costs between 2 and 3 Singapore dollars for a meal (a US dollar is about 1.40 Sing right now). Each stall has a rolling shutter in the front, and certain places only open up for breakfast or lunch, or are closed on specific days. Each shop sells a specialty food or drink, and there are often many stalls selling a food which is similar but not identical; locals will tell you they have a favorite shop which is better than the others. All of the vendors seem to speak Singlish, a sort of mishmash of Malay and Chinese and English that I haven't managed to decipher yet.

As each place has a specialty you buy the special thing from that stall and get other things from other stalls. On my arrival we had roti prata from one stall and beverages from two others. It's sort of a mix and match deal. Some others have special deals: this morning I had something called "kaya toast" with "kopi" (sweetened strong coffee) which came together in a set. It still cost about 2 dollars, and tasted great.

The markets are tied together in one building with a single roof over it for shade, but it's open to the air. There are benches and tables set up where you can sit down and enjoy your food with friends. As each shop serves a specialty dish, the food is prepared expertly and with lots of personal attention; if your lifestyle depends on making a good curry, you'll make a good curry!

Woke up bright and late this morning around 9am, and walked across the street with my hosts for breakfast at one of the "hawker markets". The place looks like an old-fashioned open-air street market, but every stall serves food. It has the feel of a similar market in Malaysia or Hong Kong. I get the feeling that people have been eating like this for centuries. We had roti prata with a mild curry-- roti prata is a flatbread that is somewhere between a tortilla and Indian naan. We also split three drinks: a soy drink that tasted like nothing I've ever had before, a black "grass jelly" drink, and the juices from a fresh coconut.

We lazed about for a few hours planning a trip to Malaysia, and then went out to do some shopping, eating a kind of Chinese uber-jerky called "bakkwa" and grabbing a bite to eat in the mall's food court. I had laksa, a kind of curry noodle. If you haven't figured it out yet, I love curry.

Many hours later found us in front of the Raffles Hotel, fanciest joint in all Singapore. We went up to the 2nd floor into the appropriately-named Long Bar where I enjoyed the eponymous Singapore Sling before meeting up with a pair of M&W's friends who are engaged. They and their family took us to a dim sum restaurant somewhere and we gorged ourselves. Got home about 11pm and now I'm just getting around to writing about it. It's 2am, I'm tired, and I'm going to bed. More later.

Well, I'm sitting at Mike and Wendy's apartment after a day of flight and wandering, zero problems on the flight here. I had a nice aisle seat on that row in the front with extra legroom, and of course the ANA flight staff was courteous as always. I was in a bit of a rush packing Monday evening; I had expected to leave on Wednesday morning but due to some poor planning on my part I couldn't leave Wednesday morning and still make the flight. I had to spend the night at Ian's place (thanks Ian!) and pack my bags in a hurry. Notable events: Narita security made me discard my tiny 3 oz tube of toothpaste because it "wasn't in a plastic ziploc bag" but didn't seem to notice the large cologne bottle in my carryon. Their loss.

I took my time at the airport. The flight arrived around 5pm, and I meandered about buying duty free gifts for friends (erm I mean for private consumption of course). I made it to the train station and bought a ticket (special RFID cards which require a small deposit) and upon my initial failure to get it working, a kind gentleman showed me how to hold it a bit further from the reader to get it to read properly. Mike and Wendy were at a wedding rehearsal so I had to wander about and kill time. It was a bit difficult with a bag in tow but I found a calzone restaurant in the basement of Raffles Plaza and had a quick dinner. I made my phone call and it turned out they finished the rehearsal early, so I waited in the Starbucks with a latte.

At that moment I noticed that the weather here is a constant summer. It's a pleasant feeling after months of freezing cold in my apartment.

The clerk at the Starbucks was extremely friendly. You know how most people take your order and then that's it? This guy actually started chatting, which was actually pretty cool. You know, like, "Where are you from?" and things like that. I also noticed that people on the subways aren't afraid to smile when I look and smile at them. It was quite refreshing after being in a country where nobody looks each other in the eye for fear of offending each other.

My first impressions: Singapore is a very modern and metropolitan city. The mix of Malay and Chinese and Indian means that everybody has to figure out a way to get along, and amazingly they all manage to do so. The food courts serve every type of food, despite the fact that the Muslims from Malaysia don't eat pork, and the Indians from India don't eat beef, and the Chinese will eat pretty much anything... and yet it all works out, and they manage to not kill each other. It's fantastic. The people I've met have been largely friendly, people talk on subways (and I listen in... Wendy says I behave like a native Singaporean). I haven't tried all the foods yet but I'm lined up to be fully impressed.

I brought my little camera that I had on the first Japan trip, no fancy SLR for me this time, but I'll have some photos for your watering eyes as soon as I take some.

What's almost as good as a pay raise? When your salary is a constant C in yen, and the exchange rate is hovering at 115-120 yen per dollar... and then the exchange rate plummets below 100 yen per dollar. Effectively my salary is up 15%.

The question is, do I trade now, or do I wait for it to sink further? If I trade now I'll make about 2500 dollars over a couple weeks ago. Historically after the rate drops sharply it slowly increases over the next month or so as people make their trades to equilibrium. But if I trade and it drops again sharply I'll be kicking myself. And it's still falling.

Incidentally, this means my expenditures within Singapore just got a lot cheaper, since their dollar seems to be closely linked to ours. Very interesting.