We Can Drink the Water Here: Singapore.

Singapura, or Singapore as it is know to the rest of the world, has an solid reputation as the cleanest city on the planet. We went to see for ourselves. Singapore has also been described as a "police state" with the clean streets and ordered society coming from the barrel of a gun. Our friend Celeste, who used to live in Singapore said she appreciated the cleanliness but felt it was taken to the extreme. Along with other drawbacks of living in a strictly controlled society, her final decision to leave the City-State came after seeing the military shooting birds out the trees to prevent them from pooping on the sidewalks. That being said we were surprised to not see a single police officer in the four days we were there. Even with the governments firm grip on many aspects of life, Singapore is far more liberated than its neighbors with respect to sexual expression: You can wear whatever you want, and pre-marital dating is not frowned upon.

Singapore is a young and truly international city, having been founded only 200 years ago with the sole purpose of becoming an international trade center. The standard of living is equal to any European nation and the cost of living rivals that of a mid-Western American city. It is the only country in Asia where you can drink the tap water, (straight up.) Unlike its neighbors, Singapore's economy has been based on trade for its entire existence. We're still not sure why the British decided to abandon Malacca (see last post) for Singapore. Shortly after gaining the historically significant port they concentrated their efforts on building up Singapore and Penang (Malaysia,) abandoning Malacca. British colonialism brought a certain amount of forced immigrant labor to island, however after some time foreigners seeking a better life began to flock to Singapore on their own. The majority of the population is ethnically Southern Chinese, and just like Malaysia Singapore has a healthy Indian and Malay population. Other smaller ethnic enclaves make up this melting pot; for example, in the Arab district you can find schwarma and hookah bars on Baghdad Street.

Typical scene on the ultra modern subway. Many Westerners live and work here for international corporations.

Having grown up during the media frenzy surrounding a young American teenager who was caned for vandalizing cars, (we thought it was for graffiti but apparently the issue is more complicated than that-- we wikipedia'ed it... check it out,) we were apprehensive in our daily actions. How serious is jaywalking we thought as we crossed outside of the lines. What about Max? He gets phlem, is spitting really a crime? We were walking on eggshells the first couple of days. Like we said, we didn't see any cops and received no fines, but we did notice most people followed the rules. Singapore, so fresh and so clean clean.

...or is it? This disgusting and vile ice cream container spoon combo overflowing from the trash bin clearly tells a different tale. We were constantly on the look out for the frayed edges of this reportedly seamless tapestry. We're watching you, Singapore. More evidence later.

No but seriously folks. This is the subway. Can you see the reflection of the straphangers in the floor?

Kara would to open this caption with the following disclaimer. "Normally I do not support zoos. I think they are inherently cruel and 9 times out of 10 the animals are being mistreated." The very act of confinement is cruel and unusual punishment to our animal friends. Many of them have psychological disorders. That said, we heard from multiple sources that the Singapore Zoo is a notable exception; the zoo has a very open plan with animals given a lot of freedom of movement and adequate living space. The zoo has an activist minded mandate with lots of educational signs about the conditions of endangered species and what you can do to help. They also fund conservation projects. Basically, we were impressed. Beyond that it was a lot of fun. Here is Kara excited to see some animals.

Ooooh yeaaaah. This is a proboscis monkey. The bigger the nose, the more attractive he is to the females. The zoo posts feeding times of popular animals and gives a short talk about the species. At first we weren't sure why they did this but we think this picture says it all.

We told you the animals are free to roam as they please. This was one of two peacocks we encountered walking on the same path as us.

Orangutans! Not caged! Really! "Orang" means person in Malay and Indonesian. "Utang" means forest.

This couple was snuggling pretty hard right before this picture was taken. It got pretty hot. They didn't seem to mind that everyone was watching.

Huge tortoises. They were the size of Kara. Kara says no they were not. Max says "I know she's not that big, but for a turtle...." Anyways, this grouping of turtles are endangered in many parts of the world and now even extinct in Madagascar. The Singapore Zoo serves as a refugee camp for these lovely creatures. You might remember Kara's love of the sea turtle in previous Indonesia posts. It extends to their land bound cousins. "Love you turtles and tortoises!"

Komodo dragons. Yep, they eat people. But did you know that they also eat each other? The young komodo had to be separated from this older male komodo because of this. Once the younger komodo grows older they will be able to cohabitate. Most people don't die from blood loss like with most predators. The komodo tongue, seen here, is covered in such nasty bacteria that the victims die from the infections of their wounds. We were stoked to see them here as we missed visiting their Indonesian homeland of Rinca and Komodo.

Although there is a Chinatown, it is hard to tell where it ends...or begins. Kara was convinced we were living between Chinatown and Little India, however we were no where near Chinatown. Even though Singapore has 4 national languages: English, Chinese, Tamil, and Malay, the first two dominate most of the signs.

Hot pot restaurants are so popular in Asia. They are called steamboats, hot pots, and shabu shabu, but they are all the same thing. You cook your own mess of meat and veggies in a boiling pot of broth set into the center of the table. We love hot pots but its difficult to find vegetarian friendly venues. See the Xi'an, China post for information on that.

The Chinese community does support vegetarianism. Here is one of the many vegetarian food stalls. Chinese vegetarian food is into fake meat. Sometimes you can't even tell the difference between the two, at least by looks. Kara is not into the fake meat. "Its gross, y'all." Max likes it. Kara and Max are most different when it comes to food. At least we are both vegetarians.

Indian food, YEAH. Indian vegetarian food never uses fake meat. Indian vegetarian food uses good ole vegetables and grains to feed us herbivores. Max thinks this is a slanted caption but he loves Indian food too. This was a restaurant near our dorm in Little India. Our dorm room alone cost us more than our usual daily budget.

Walking along the streets of Little India.

One morning we woke up with a busy itinerary which included the newly renovated National Museum, seen above. We loved this place. We stayed here for 6 hours, a new museum record. Most of our time was spent in the history section. There are over 10 hours of free audio guide available. We thought about coming back after eating lunch but our brains were overwhelmed.

We did make it that day to the Armenian Church, St. Gregory's. The Armenian community was once small but influential, numbering about 100 families at its height in 1880. They have since assimilated into Singapore's population or moved elsewhere. St. Gregory Church was the first church built in Singapore in 1835.

Kara continues to stalk wedding parties taking cheesy photos in Asia. Here they can be seen on the Singapore river. We imagined that the buildings in the background were what Singapore's financial district used to look like.

Here's what it looks like now. Though very compact, these few blocks are home to key players in the Asian and global economy.

At night the waterfront is nicely lit. This is an old bridge from the 1800s with LED lights.

Oh man. So we walked over that bridge to find that Singapore was having a free outdoor music festival all week long. We were lucky enough to catch the last night of it. After sitting through a couple of bad bands from KL and Indonesia, the Japanese group The Condors blew our minds. They are the best live show we have seen in a long time. They don't speak English, we don't speak Japanese. It didn't matter. Despite the ultra high energy performance the crowd was about as responsive as an oil painting. They would only clap their hands when instructed and when the music was at the height of its frenzy, the most we saw were a few heads bobbing in a sea of quiet. It was bizarre. Anyways, check out the Condors.

Kara didn't realize it at the time but this is a shot of one of the singers from the band in front of the dazzling skyline.

The day before we left, we decided to take a journey out to the east side of the island to visit the Changi Museum and Prison. The Changi Prison was used by the Japanese during their occupation in WWII. It's a sad place and there was a well laid out presentation about the history of the occupation, but the site itself was unexceptional. The original prison is now only a museum but there is a modern Changi prison just next door that we would have liked to tour, but that is not possible. We kind of had a hard time locating the museum prison itself because directly in front of it sits a swanky restaurant and cafe that seems to be a favored lunch spot by local businessmen. That was odd.

Back in the city. This spiky looking thing is the Esplanade Theaters. It is more commonly called "The Durian," named after the fruit it resembles. We think it looks more like a jackfruit, but whatever. The Durian seems to be Singapore's newest defining landmark; we read that the city hopes that the Durian will become as emblematic as the Sydney opera house. We read that.

Singapore is still rapidly expanding. From the Durians we could see three large buildings in the works. These migrant workers were working at the site of outdoor soccer field that sits on a barge on the water. It is netted of course and has stadium seating on the shore with a beautiful view of the skyline.

We look well lit and cute here. There is a lion mermaid statue (Singapore's national animal?) spewing water behind us. Alright, so we looked it up and technically Singapore's national animals are the lion and the cresent sunbird. This statue is a MERLION and is a symbol for Singapore.

See? Trash. We told you. For shame, Singapore. For shame.

(We loved Singapore.)

We loved Singapore. Unlike many of our destinations whose most stunning features comes from their natural beauty or their cultural heritage, Singapore's appeal comes from its modern achievements. It was great to enjoy a city solely for what it is, right here and right now. We wanted to stay longer but its so fucking expensive.

We'll be in another country next time,
Kara and Max

Malacca, a Mini Post.

The founding of Malacca is seen as the beginning of the Malaysian nation-state. Malacca was not on our list of Malaysian destinations originally, but after we found out about its historical significance to the founding of the country, we decided to check it out. A 4 hour bus ride south of KL lead us to this UNESCO World Heritage Site. Malacca used to be one of the most important ports in all of Asia; it was founded by an exiled Sumatran prince back in 1400. Any ship trying to travel from Eastern Asia to India or beyond has to pass through the straights of Malacca, or make a several thousand kilometer detour around Indonesia. Although other cities along the straights had been trading with distant nations for many years, Malacca quickly gained the monopoly due to its low or lack of import tax and highly organized port administration. Four high level government officials were assigned to take care of foreign traders while they were in the port. Malacca came under successive colonial eras when it was conquered by the Portuguese in 1511, followed by Dutch rule in 1641 before the British took over in 1824.Because of this, Malacca has unique colonial architecture and a population of mixed decent. We stayed for a couple of days, not giving the city true justice. Even though the city was filled with museums and cultural relics, we felt that we had gotten the idea after about 48 hours. Also although there are volumes of information and warehouses filled with historical relics from the colonial era, all buildings, writings, and pre-colonial information about Malacca had been destroyed by the Portuguese and other imperialists. We weren't really interested in learning more about Portuguese gun models and the meticulous record keeping of the British.

The city is flooded with tourists and flamboyantly decorated bicycle rickshaws. We're not sure which heritage this comes from.

The main canal running through the city. This used to transport goods inland from the port. It now transports tourists through Malacca for about $20 for a half day ride.

St. Francis Xavier Church. Gutted out and filled with tombs of old colonialists. St. Francis body was buried here for a few years before being exhumed and moved to Goa, another colony of the Portuguese located in South India.

Kara in front of the former gravesite.

View of the port from St. Francis Xavier Church. The large pole in the foreground was built last year for tourists to get a panoramic view of the city.

Walking towards Jonker Street, Malacca's Chinatown. This area was designated for Chinese sailors to stay while their ships were in port back in the 1400s. It is a charming part of the city that boasts quiet streets and nice lighting.

Old City Center. This Church was founded in the late 1700s and its architecture is typical of other colonial buildings in the area.

There are more Malaysian tourists who come to visit Malacca than foreign. It's kind of like Philadelphia in America.

Malacca museum: smiling colonial dudes. Max really likes this picture for some reason. "They're just all so happy to be colonialists, I don't know..."

Being enticed by the Beyonce blasting (yes they sport radios) bicycle rickshaw driver. We did not get in. Our walks through the historic district were filled with the sounds of American top 40, Euro techno, and Bollywood music. The rickshaw drivers seemed really excited to be playing this music as part of an entertainment service, but we thought it was tacky, so fucking loud, and definitely out of place.

On the "Eye on Malacca." This ferris wheel used to be in Kuala Lumpur but was moved to Malacca to boost tourism. Gave a nice view of the city.

We enjoyed our ride.

Apparently Malacca's desire for tall vantage points was not satisfied by the "Eye," so they built this revolving tower (shown at beginning of post).

View of Malacca from this revolving thing.

We felt like this was kind of a boring post, and maybe a boring place, but we went there, and we wanted to share it with you. We'll try to get crazier next time.
Max wants to say that he is glad we went there.
History is important.

Also, it was a good stop over to Singapore, our next destination.

K and M

KL in a Nutshell.

Though this was technically our third time in Kuala Lumpur (KL), this was the first time chance we got to explore the city. Our first experience with KL was a 24-hour layover in the low-cost airport en route to Indonesia. The second experience with KL was just spending the night before meeting our friends Soon Kit and Chin en route to Taiping (see last post.) This time we meant business, and we spent almost two weeks here. What is there to say? We love cities after all.

Kuala Lumpur is the capital of Malaysia and is home to 10% of the country's population. It is the melting pot for the three main ethnic groups who live in Malaysia: Malays (mostly Muslim,) South Indians (mostly Hindu,) and Chinese (mostly Taoist and Buddhist.) Though these communities have their own neighborhoods, community organizations, and languages, you can find all of them shopping at the same malls, frequenting the same clubs, and eating at the same food stalls. Well, up to a point. When we first arrived, it was refreshing to be in a city with sizable minorities making a visible impact on the culture. Seeing different ethnic groups with very different histories eating, working, and walking with one another was in stark contrast to the countries we had previously visited. However, as we learned more about the culture and politics of Malaysia, we found that while on the surface things might look integrated, Malaysia is still a very sectarian and racist society. Relationships have improved in the last few years with the various ethnic groups of the country, for example there is seldom violence between the groups, but some basic inequalities still define Malaysia. Chinese rule the business world, Malays are heavily favored by government economic and education policies, and Indians are viewed as the lower class. The Chinese population's business success has a foundation in their historic role as merchants and traders. Long before the Portuguese, Dutch, or British colonized Malaysia, the Chinese had set up profitable mining and trade operations throughout the country. The Malays, the native people of the land, remained mainly in agricultural and traditional industries until recently. The Indians initially came to Malaysia as cheap labor; the main Indian neighborhood in KL is called the Brickfields. Many other Southasians, such as Nepalis, Pakistanis, and Sri Lankans still emigrate to Malaysia on 3-year work contracts, with the intention of returning to their home countries with a wad of relatively high Malaysian currency. (Which by the way, is called the Ringgit, and at the time of writing is approximately 3.59 RM to the USD. Compare that to the Indonesia, which is around 10,000 Rupiah to the USD.) In conclusion, Malaysia is a complex society and we just scratched the surface. On to the pictures....

Queueing up at KL Sentral Bas Station. No, those aren't typos.

"East" meets "West." Malaysia attracts many Middle Eastern tourists, especially from Dubai, Iran, and Saudi Arabia. The tourism department makes an effort to attract such guests who feel comfortable in a familiar Islamic setting. Most tourist maps and signs are in both English and Arabic. You can walk around the street in a burqua without attracting much attention. You can also walk around in a mini skirt without much attention as well. Malaysia, interesting.

Israelis are not allowed in Malaysia. Period. Clearly anti-Semitism persists. We saw a lot of these "Think Local" stencils combined with the "no Jew" sign around KL. This was disturbing an a little scary for us. We never felt personally threatened by this, but then again, people always assume we are Christians because we are White. However, as Max's beard continues to grow to astronomical proportions, his ethnicity is often questioned. Beards are generally associated with devout Muslim men, so many Malays began to ask if Max was an Arab. Considering this stencil, and the anti-Israeli propaganda on television, he always said he was "American" and left it at that.

A canal near our guesthouse. The dome is Masjid Jamek, one of the most popular mosques in KL.
The street in front of Masjid Jamek on a Friday afternoon. Friday afternoon prayers are similar to Sunday Mass in that they are the most popularly attended service of the week.
The Brickfields, KL. Here you can find garlands of marigolds and jasmine. In Indian Hindu culture, flowers have many different uses. Many similar stands dot the streets of little India.
Sarees, Salwar Kameezes, and Indian Threading Salons. Kara was so pumped. In fact, it was the main reason she wanted to come down to little India on the first day. Eyebrow upkeep! Max really wanted to watch as Kara did a little self-maintenance after 6 months of traveling, however, Indian beauty parlors are usually off limits to men. Max is concerned that no one knows what threading is, so we will explain. Threading is an ancient Indian hair removal technique in which two twisted threads are used to grasp individual hairs and pluck them from their root. Threading has become extremely popular in New York, as it creates cleaner and more specific eyebrow shaping than waxing. Kara suggests you all try it. Kara wishes she was in India right now so she could get it again.

Enter Linda, our fabulous host in KL. Before we came to KL we tried to arrange to stay with a couchsurfer. He was unable to host us, but invited us out to a food night, which was a bit like "couchsurfing show and tell," with hosts bringing their wards to meet and eat. Linda was there that night and after hitting it off, told us to pack our bags and come stay with her. We were delighted. This picture was taken before Linda took us out to a club, something we hadn't done in months. Linda dressed Kara up in hot pants, high heels, and encouraged her to wear makeup. Thank you Linda, Kara says. Linda is both down to earth and knows how to have a good time. We really loved staying with her.

View from Linda's apartment. She lived on the outskirts of town, where the city is vastly expanding.

Linda adopted a kitten in the week we stayed with her. It was refreshing to join her on such familiar errands as picking up cat food.

Kara got a haircut, with Linda's encouragement.
Walking to the National Museum. The official route takes you on a twisting path that as you can see is right on the freeway. The walk was well worth it; KL's National Museum is informative, cheap, and interesting. The museum is inside the Lake Garden, an all-in-one tourist destination which includes the National Islamic Arts Museum, the National Mosque, the Bird Park, the Planetarium, a Museum dedicated to Malaysia's first president, the Butterfly Park, and of course, the Lake.

At the Butterfly Park. Over 5,000 species of butterflies are free to fly around this large netted area. We learned that the butterflies kept here have a much longer life than the ones in the wild, mostly because there are no predators here. The average lifespan of a butterfly from conception is about 5 days! Inside the butterfly park, some butterflies live up to 14. We were concerned that it would be an underwhelming experience, but luckily we were proved wrong. The air is teeming with exotic butterflies and it was very magical.
Butterfly face!

Inside the educational exhibit, Kara asks Max to take pictures of her with various butterflies for her sister, who loves butterflies more than anyone she knows. Michal, this is for you.
The exhibit included not just butterflies but other weird and wonderful insects. This beetle, is very large, as you can see.

Kara's childlike wonder makes this one of Max's favorite pictures.

Rush hour in KL. This is the morning we went to the world famous Petronas Towers.

They are massive. They used to be the tallest towers in the world. Since Taiwan now holds that title, the Petronas Towers now claim they are the tallest twin towers in the world, a title not likely to be challenged anytime soon.

WHOAAAAAAAAAAAA. So big, right?

You can only ascend as far as the sky bridge, which connects the two towers together. At 47 stories tall, it is still less than halfway up the towers. You may remember this sky bridge from the movie, "Entrapment," starring Sean Connery and Catherine Zeta-Jones. Although the movie reveals nothing about Malaysian culture, it was many people's first introduction to these towers.
Inside the towers is a giant mall. UGH.

Linda threw a pot luck party in our honor. Did we mention she is great? Many couchsurfers from KL came, as well as Linda's other friends. She told everyone we were vegetarians so we were well fed. We made guacamole again. Kara tried to make a key lime pie but after 2 days of attempted coagulation, the pie was abandoned in triage. Apparently Linda had boasted that Kara was going to make this pie, and when it didn't show up at the potluck, Kara was ashamed. Max blames this on the lack of familiar ingredients and Kara's inability to taste the dish due to her wheat allergy.

The National Mosque. It was closed for us non-Muslim tourists when we arrived. There are non- Muslim visiting hours, but with a 5X/day prayer schedule, the hours were fairly limited.

So we just walked around the outside. It was big, it was beautiful, and it was a Mosque. In the background is the building that used to be the tallest before the Petronas were built. After learning this, we realized what a huge impact the towers had on the skyline. Though more skyscrapers now crowd downtown KL, the Petronas towers are still by far the biggest tourist draw to the city.

Club night! We never made it to the island of Borneo, however we made it to this club that bore the same name. This cover band was really good. Linda pushed us out on the dance floor and we had a great night. She was a very good influence on us and made us feel at home. We're trying to get Linda to come to Burning Man next year. Linda, thank you for everything, we can't wait to see you in the States!

Oh yeah, so at some point before we went to Taiping, our friends Soon Kit and Chin (see last post) brought us to the Sultan's palace. We found out that just a couple of hours after we left, this site erupted into a mass protest against the expansion of English language subjects in public schools. Soon Kit told us about this and said that we were lucky to have just avoided the madness. Max and Kara were bummed to have missed it.

Our last night in KL, we met up with Soon Kit and Chin for a vegetarian meal. The fish looked and tasted so fishy that we questioned its vegetarian credentials. The rest of the meal was awesome, and the company was even better. It was our send off to Soon Kit and Chin, as they were also headed on a journey on their own journey...to Australia. It was fun to make friends with another traveling couple. Travel to America, guys!

Batu Caves. After walking up around 300 steps, you arrive at the mouth of a giant cave. There are three in total, but the main cave is free and is always open to Hindu worshipers and tourists alike. We had just missed the festival of Thaipusam, which is celebrated by mostly the Tamil community. (Tamil Nadu is a state in Southern India. Most of the Indians in Malaysia and Singapore are Tamil.) During this festival, devotees perform various acts of self-mortification. From carrying milk ontop of the head, to dragging carts attached by chains to hooks in the skin. This festival is dedicated to Murugan, the youngest son of the Hindu deities Shiva and Parvati. This gold statue is the largest Murugan statue in the world.
The Petronas Towers reflected in a near by office building.
We left KL, thinking we wouldn't be back...

Until next time,
K and M