recess week in borneo

now this is how every fall break should be spent. recess week in singapore is pretty amazing, mainly because (1) it's actually a full break (2) it's not in williamsburg and (3) it was spent in sarawak, malaysia in borneo.

borneo my friends, is so close, yet so so far away from singapore.

the trip to borneo was with 10 people, and we rented a two story cabin in the rainforest of borneo at a place called the permai rainforest resort. not exactly 5 star material, but well-suited for budget minded college kids if you don't mind bats, lizards, giant ants, oversized bugs, snakes, and monkeys [none in your cabin of course!].

our two-story cabin: 500 USD for the week


the girls room


we were located right along this unique blend of beach, rainforest, and mountain so the view from our "resort" was great!

we arrived on sunday night with not much to do, so we ate dinner and hung out in our cabin. the next day though was the start of a week-long adventure!

monday morning, piotr, felix, and i explored the beach while 3 others went into town [kuching].

later, we all met up for a session of night kayaking along the ocean. we didn't take our cameras because we didn't want to risk getting them ruined, but the view was gorgeous! we left shore around sunset and saw the sun dipping into the horizon. before the sun set though, we were able to sea a group of dozens of sea otters playing in the ocean! we relaxed in the water and sat around talking in our kayaks until it was dark. then as we were rowing back to our resort we saw a mysterious glowing light in the water.... glow in the dark plankton! it was the coolest thing ever!

tuesday, with our expanded group of 9, our cabin split up and 6 of them went to hike up mount santubong, but cat, piotr, and i decided to laze around the beach again. a perfect vacation sort of day. nothing to do but swim around in the ocean and listen to music in the sand.

we were there from sun up til sundown when we had dinner and had a great view of the perfectly blue night sky.

on wednesday, whilst most of our group hung out at the beach, cat, blair, and i went on an exciting 3 in 1 tour to see dolphins, mangroves & crocodiles, and go snorkeling at satang island!

our fearless & hilarious seafaring tourguide & "pilot"

we did see lots of dolphins, but there were all too quick to get pictures of. we never saw their bodies though, just the fins that would come up while the dolphins got some air at the top of the water.

capturing a crocodile on camera however, was much more successful. after wandering around in the mangroves for quite some time in our boat, our guide spotted a 2 meter long crocodile lazing about in the trees. the crocodile looked amazing! our guide warned us that we couldn't get too close because crocodiles jump and leap into the water. we didn't quite believe him until.... well, the crocodile jumped and leaped into the water. he actually almost grazed our boat! we could have been eaten!

there were also tons of other animals crawling around in the mud. mud skippers, bright blue crabs, flying fish, and all sorts of birds.

tiny bright blue crabs in the mud

after the excitement of the crocodile, we headed over to satang [turtle] island. the water there was much clearer and prettier than the water near our resort.

here we went snorkeling in the ocean and it was so cool! we saw all sorts of coral and ocean critters! crabs, oysters, clown fish, blue fish, spotted fish, big fish, little fish.... generally lots of fish! i wish i could have taken pictures! we snorkeled for about an hour, had lunch on the boat, and then headed to shore to explore the island from land.

we found a cool wooden branch swing that we took lots of pictures on and around the tree.

afterward, we split up to go exploring


cat and i however, were sought out by our boat driver and were told "baby turtles!" as he pointed to his pants pockets. intrigued, we followed him, and lo and behold... he had found us some baby turtles!

we actually got to reintroduce them back into the wild! we had a turtle race to see whose turtle could waddle their way back into the ocean the fastest. unfortunately, my turtle lost. but it was definitely the cuter one! a definite success!

on thursday, with the arrival of alice the night before to complete our cabin of 10, we all went to bako national park. first we took a taxi ride to the ferry, and then a ferry ride over to the park. our driver was this cute little kid... hmm, only in asia.

the ferry port

our 10 year old boat driver

bako national park was excellent! it's an interesting mix of mud, beach, rainforest, and rocks.

after exploring the entrance of the park and packing up on snacks and drinks, we took a short hike up to a waterfall where we later got to swim around in the pool of water that the waterfall poured into. it was like a scene in a movie! a fresh, cool waterfall pool in the middle of the jungle surrounded by trees and animals galore!

we were up there eating crackers, splashing around, and having good fun... until we heard thunder. on our way back down it started pouring rain and well, it was actually lots of fun. hiking in the rain in the middle of a rainforest in borneo is quite the once in a lifetime experience.

after we got back down from our hike, we took a rest at a gazebo looking thing out in the mangroves. bako in malay means mangrove, so there are tons of mangrove trees in the park.

we were quite disappointed that we hadn't seen any of the famous proboscis monkeys on our trip, but as soon as we got up, we looked out in front of us to see a group of them playing in the muddy mangroves! proboscis monkeys are only found in borneo and have extra big red noses.

aside from the proboscis monkey though, we ran across a rather vicious group of monkeys waiting by the pier. one of them grabbed onto my bag as i went to take a picture with them. silly, monkey. multiple epic battles went down and we had to watch out in case the monkey tried to grab us from behind.

the monkey eyeing my bag

the monkey trying to steal my bag

a mommy monkey and a baby monkey

after playing with the monkeys for a while, or rather, after escaping them, we took some more pictures along the beach and met up with our ferry driver again to go back to our cabin.

on our taxi ride back, felix insisted that we stop at a roadside stand for some fresh watermelon for after dinner dessert which was actually very delicious!

on our van ride back to the hotel

the next day was our flight back to singapore, but before we said goodbye to malaysia, we went sightseeing in kuching [cat] city.

the trip was tons of fun even though we did all get about a million bug bites. borneo, i miss you! you were much better than singapore.

what a tickly sensation...

saturday 12 september

yesterday, my friends & i ventured out to a more rural area of singapore to get our feet attacked by little fish and then big fish, but the big fish were rather horrifying.

fish foot spas are all the rage in southeast asia. you go to a little pool of fish, dunk your feet in, and the fish chew away at your feet to their hearts desire and take away dead skin. i'm not entirely convinced that it really works, but i suppose my feet do feel a little smoother... either way, it's an enlightening and unique cultural experience!

there are some fancy upscale fish foot spas, but being cheap & in college, we went to a fish foot spa located at a qian hu fish farm that cost 10$ / 30 mins. which, i still think is expensive.

qian hu fish spa

pretty much theres this communal pool filled with fish. you dunk your feet in said pool, and then lots of little fish come and attack your feet. it doesn't hurt... but it does tickle a lot. after the small fish, we tried to brave the big giant fish, but that was just weird and you could feel their mouths closing in on your skin so we came back to our little fishie friends in the end.

small fish

looking happy with our small fish

scary scary big fish O_O

later that night, we went to karaoke away at party world ktv in clementi. the place looks swanky enough, and its really clean plus you get drinks, snacks, & fruit when you pay, but....... the karaoke machine itself was clearly not up to par with its korean counterpart. it took us a little while to figure out how to get to all the songs seeing as they're in fake alphabetical order, and they ask you to provide the song title by number of words in the title.... uhhh... it was still lots of fun, but i think i prefer karaoke in korean... hmm.

party world ktv


sunday 13 september

my package of american contraband finally came! spearmint gum, bubble gum, strawberry gum... all highly illegal in singapore. i'm still wondering why it took so long... my chocolates were a little melted, but in otherwise good shape! & ... why did i get mail on a sunday? anyhow, i'm not complaining!

look at all that illegal gum

mass at holy cross isn't so bad... but i still want to find another church. i'm thinking next sunday i'll venture to cathredal of the good shepherd on queen street near city hall & bugis. it's the oldest roman catholic church in singapore & isn't a parish church, but home to the archdiocese! they also have korean mass there every 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 5th sunday of the month at 1130 which is good because... well, it'll be easier than making the 8 or 10 am mass... i'm not sure that good shepherd will be any less strict... but at least it'll be more historic!

http://www.holidays-in-singapore.com/roman-catholic-church.html

once this week is over, the semester will be half gone! FOR REAL? next week is recess week and my friends & i are off to the permai rainforest resort in sarawak, malaysia for a week of beach sports, rainforest hiking, and monkeys. hooray!

i do wish it were cold here though... all the leaves are still green on those silly palm trees. :(

from merlions to elephants

i've returned from the land of giant buddhas and elephants! our 3 night/3 day trip to bangkok,thailand was packed with sightseeing, bargaining, and exploring the city of bangkok. southeast asia is so much more exotic than williamsburg.

wednesday 2 september

wednesday night was our arrival into bangkok. we took the budget airlines, tiger airways, which actually was pretty nice (and by nice i mean clean and efficient) and suited us well for a 2 hour plane ride. because we got there pretty late, we didn't do much except for check into our hotel, grab some dinner, and hang out in our rooms while planning excursions for the following day.

everything in thailand is incredibly cheap but that also comes with a price i suppose. the occasional scurrying bug in your taxi, the low levels of cleanliness in restaurants... thankfully though, our hotel was very clean and the staff incredibly friendly! they gave us all sorts of information on how not to get ripped off while in thailand and told us exclusive tourist tips.

the view from our hotel lobby

you have to be really careful not to get lied to by taxi and tuk tuk drivers here because a lot of times they refuse to run the meter. then you have to haggle for a price with them to get to your destination. additionally, taxi drivers lie and try to tell you that a certain tourist attraction is closed. they then tell you to go visit this temple, about an hour's drive away, and that they'll offer you a great price for their services. along the way they might stop at a store or tourist attraction where they get commissioned to bring foreigners and have them spend lots of money. we did our research beforehand though, so we were relatively safe from these traps...

and finally, even though it's technically the rainy season in thailand, the weather while we were there was absolutely perfect! it downpoured for about 30 minutes one of the days, but that was really it. hopefully, that's what the rainy season will be like in other places too...

thursday 3 september

we woke up at 630 in the morning to go to ayutthaya, the ancient capitol of thailand. we took a taxi to the train station and then a 2 hour ride to ayutthaya from there. our ticket cost us 25 baht both ways... the equivalent of not even 1 dollar. along the way, we got to see a lot of the landscape.
ayutthaya is in central thailand and is filled with old temples and ruins. first we took a ferry across the river and then hired a tuk tuk for the afternoon and drove around to the various sites.

the river we crossed in our 3 baht (1 cent) ferry.

waiting on the sidewalk to flag down a tuk tuk


riding in our tuk tuk

our first stop was a buddhist temple with a giant golden buddha -- i want to say 60 feet, but i could be wrong

second we went to visit some ruins of a sacred monastery that was burned down during a war in the 18th century

next we went on an elephant ride --- one of those tourist attractions that commissions taxi and tuk tuk drivers. after we rode the elephants for 400 baht a person, our tuk tuk fare magically lowered from the bargained deal.


after the elephants we went to another ruined temple. pretty much all of the tourist attractions here revolve around buddha.

after spending the afternoon in ayutthaya, it was time to come back to bangkok. it started raining just as we boarded the train, and we thought we were safe from getting wet, but in true 3rd class fashion, our train rained on the inside as well.

upon our return to bangkok, we headed off to dinner and then to the night market near the business district, a place called patpong. the shopping was fun and i bought a lot of souvenirs to bring back home, but patpong is a little sketchy. there's a long row of bars and brothels up and down the street and people are constantly hounding tourists to come for a "looky looky at the naked girls." um... no, thank you. unfortunately, i didn't take any pictures at the night market because well, i didn't want to get my camera stolen.

friday 4 september

on friday we were off to the grand palace! a place bedazzled with all sorts of grand jewels and sparkly glass. along the way though, we stopped at a couple of other sites.

the first was this park overlooking the river.

then we stopped at ... yet again, another temple.

and finally we arrived at the grand palace! once we got there, i had to put on a long skirt and button down shirt courtesy of the grand palace. no shorts or sleeveless shirts allowed. it was really, really hot. :(

afterwards, we took the river taxi & skytrain to silom, which coincidentally, was about 2 seconds away from patpong.

we clearly could not trust these food carts around the streets, so we ended up going to the only clean eatery around: mcthai's!

afterwards, the guys went off to watch a thai boxing match, and margot & i went to watch a thai dance. unfortunately, no cameras allowed, which was a shame, but heres a picture of the royal theatre. it actually looks kind of ghetto... i was expecting something... more... royal.


the traditional thai dance is called khon and apparently you train for it starting at a very young age. the costumes are really cool and the dancing is kind of slow, but still fun to watch.

saturday 5 september

on saturday morning margot and i went to a thai cooking class! it was just the two of us at a restaurant called may kaidee, a vegetarian health restaurant. the class was 3 hours and we learned how to make like 10 different things. everything from green chili paste and pumpkin hummus to tom yam soup and phat thai.

after our class, margot, anande, and i went to chatuchapat weekend market. it was so crowded and sold everything imaginable from clothes to teapots to pets!

i got a ton of things from thailand, partially because they have really interesting things, partially cause they were cheap, and partially because singapore has no exciting souvenirs to offer. here's all the stuff i got while i was there! (minus the postcards... which, with the thai post... will maybe reach you all in a month.) guess which one is yours!


For more pictures, check out my facebook album! This is only half of the photos, but I'll upload the other half soon & will add the new link :)

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2022832&id=1572450070&l=375744c2c2