Questions and Answers

I hear a lot of the same phrases time and time again:
"You are crazy."
"Your'e so lucky."
"How are you able to travel for so long?"
"How do you have the money?"
"Where do you stay?"
"What do you do?"
"I wish I could do what you're doing."

I'll address a few of these:

"You are crazy."  

Maybe.  I think, to be more descriptive, I'm being adventurous, risky, and a bit reckless.  Why?  Because life hasn't been going according to plan, so I can't find justification in trying to stick with it.

"You're so lucky."

Yes, I really am.  I am a very lucky lucky girl to be able to have supportive friends, family and amazing opportunities (ie: traveling to Hong Kong, Vietnam, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, China, etc).  To be fair, I've also come across some bad luck.  Examples would be messing up my knee, being sick more often than normal, chipping my tooth, missing two flights, having cancelled flights, etc etc...it's easy to get caught up in the bad luck, but I have to remember all the good, too!

"How are you able to travel for so long?"

"How do you have the money?"

"Where do you stay?"

I'm just bunching these three together because I can answer all in one go.  Unlike some speculations, I actually saved up my own money for the past year.  I also had a savings account I never touched but kept for several years and inevitably had to tap into when I made the big decision to stay abroad longer.  So savings combined with generous friends who let me stay at their places = stretched budgeting.  Yes, it's scary and risky, especially for someone like me who likes having a solid plan, but money is money and it's something I can make back (I hope).

"What do you do?"

These days, a lot of job hunting.  I also like to aggressively keep in touch with friends back home aka Facebook stalk people.  I also like to eat a lot; I gained weight in Asia.  I take photos, though not enough.  I go out on weekends mostly and try to recruit girls for our group.  I should really do more.

"I wish I could do what you're doing."

You know, I hear this allll the time...and the annoying truth is, you CAN.  I did it; I am doing it, so can anyone else. However, I understand that unlike me, most people have jobs and responsibilities.  I'm just saying that many of these responsible adults hate their jobs and live with a slight regret of never traveling.  If you really wanted to, you could.  As for accommodation, check out www.couchsurfing.org.  It's a great site that is dedicated to connecting people all over the world and safe about it.

I'm trying to stay young and grow up at the same time.

Anyways, the real purpose of this post was to cover this past weekend.  Saturday was pretty important to me because I wanted to take my generous and gracious hosts out as a small thank you for letting me stay with them for so long.  Singapore was actually more of a last minute escape plan, but they have been so good to me to let me stay for such a ridiculous amount of time and help me get back on my feet.

As a quick recap, we went to Lantern, which is this lovely lounge bar a the top of the Fullerton Bay Hotel that has a great view of Marina Bay.  Of course, I didn't take any photos of the actual lounge itself, so I'll have to do that next time.  I reserved a couple bay couches for us and ordered a Rose to chill out before heading to Ku De Ta (again).  Adam has been awesome at getting us in and so I really wanted to take my friends up there before I left Singapore since it's so difficult otherwise.

A different angle of the Sands.

After, we headed to Stereolab and supper at Netwon Hawker Center.  Aaand now I'm too tired to keep typing.  The end.  For now.

Life by Weekends

Like everyone else, I feel like I've been living life by the weekends.  As I've been living in Singapore (for the most part) for over 3 months, I've been getting into a routine while still discovering new things. 

Friday was fun because we got to go up to the top of the new Sands Hotel and check out the new (and only) bar/lounge up there, Ku De Ta.  Apparently there is a Ku De Ta in Bali, Indonesia that is just absolutely stunning, so we got to check out this new one that had its soft opening this past week.

View of the infinity pool and Ku De Ta.

Interior of Ku De Ta.

View of the pool and city from Ku De Ta.

It was slightly drizzly, hence the clouds and interesting lighting in the photos (and why no one is sitting on those comfy looking couches on the terrace).  It was really amazing to see the top without all the tourists and hotel guests in the pool.  It's the best view of the city, by far.

Continuing my taste for new things, I've concluded that I've seriously lived through life as the worst excuse for a Japanese person.  I've never had this dish, photographed below, which seemed to consist of various vegetables, fish eggs, mochi, etc.  You poured it onto the hot plate and mashed it up until it was cooked and soaked in with the juices.  It was really tasty along with some of the other dishes we had.  Pretty cool, it was owned by Japanese and obviously had great food.  I will get back to what this dish was called as well as the restaurant.

Saturday was with a more familiar feel: China One.  It's a bar in Clarke Quay that has a bunch of pool tables, a dance floor and good music that makes it easy to just stay in the whole night.  It kind of reminds me of Busby's in LA where it has a bit of everything for everyone, has a good location and is just an overall good bet for the night.  

If you can't tell, I made the extra effort this weekend to lug around my SLR so that I can practice my photography.  Low light photography is something I want to master because it's usually my favorite setting.

Despite everyone's doubts, I woke up Sunday (today) DETERMINED to go kayaking.  I think I've been craving to go for over a month now and so me and Ky went out in search of this fabled activity at the MacRitchie Reservoir, which is this huge piece of beautiful jungle right in the middle of Singapore that I was never aware of!  We went kayaking and I did a short hike before my body started shutting down (4 hours of sleep, that's a little impressive, right?).  They have all these really cool (and intense) hiking trails that you can go on including the Treetop Hike, which is this huge suspended bridge that goes over the tops of all the trees.  It looks incredible!  Definitely on my to-do list before leaving Singapore.

Yes, monkeys!  In the middle of the city, there are monkeys!  They are really used to humans, naturally, so they just ignored me as I snapped away at them. 

So that's a recap of most of my weekend, which felt good-tired in the end.  I'll reiterate, again, how people claim that there is nothing to do in Singapore just aren't looking in the right places.  The country is changing so fast, there is always something new or different to check out.  I'm not saying that you're going to like all of it (I'm not a fan of intense hiking or jogging) but I think you can gain an appreciation for trying new things as well as the familiar (Hello, Ku De Ta and China One.).  

Overall, it's come to the point where I'll be pretty disappointed if I leave Singapore next month.  I'm emotionally attached and feel like I've put a lot in.  Returning to California is definitely not a depressing idea, I love the place (duh) and the people; I have everything to gain going back.  But I definitely feel like I've passed a point where I'll be broken hearted if I have to leave this place.  I never expected to find myself in this situation, but then again, who ever does?