Sunday, July 31, 2011

Sleepless in Singapore

     Admittedly, tonight has been a little difficult. I believe the independent aspect of this trip, notably traveling by myself, has been a good decision. Brisbane represents the very best of this decision; I arrived by myself, and 7 months later I feel like I have left a family behind. I miss them every day.

     So clearly, it is an approach that can be successful. But the more I dissect the experience, I understand why it was such a smooth transition. I was working 50+ hours a week with many people in the same situation. This incredible group leaned on each other, and whether we knew it or not, the BBC represented most of my social life.

     When you are traveling, you have no set schedule. Meeting people is not a given. You must go out of your way. Which is especially interesting here in Singapore. I will walk around this wondrous city, utterly taken aback by all it has to offer. It seems that spell is ruined when I see another tourist; perhaps part of me is thinking "Go Away! I don't want to break this illusion."

     After a lively day, this has been a lonely night. I think I have just realized I wish I could be sharing this with someone. I can think of so many people I want to be here right now. I'd love to explore all these multi-cultural neighbours with my mother, or sing in the streets with my dad. I'd love to stroll through these streets with my brothers, Sasha and Milan.

       Cribbage with Hefe, tea with Grant, a film with Sam. Honestly, the list is long. I figure it only indicates my excitement to come home after this trip. I will be fine, I just wish at the end of this Southeast Asia trip, I wish I could turn to someone and say "We will never forget this trip."

But I won't have that. And that is something I have realized.

Saturday, July 30, 2011

Singapore (Day 2): Busy Day

There are signs everywhere in Singapore like this.
 It's been a busy day. It will continue to be. I have 30 minutes, therefore I am simply going to post a few photos, and comment about them. Hope they serve their purpose.

Photo #1: Homemade "Fine Signs"

Remember how I said there was a general mentality that one should clean up after themselves. Now I'm not 100% certain how enforced these laws are, but even in internet cafes owners put up these homemade signs. The hope is to prevent bad business if the police show up. My only question is, we have similar signs in Vancouver. Do not vandalize this bus. Do not let your dog poop in this park. Why do we still litter in Vancouver? Honestly, in a city three times more crowded like Singapore, I still find it fascinatingly clean. There are more people, and certainly more waste. Interesting stuff.

Little India. Glorious, glorious Little India.
Photo #2: Little India

What an absolutely fantastic place. I walked around with my video camera just to experience to vibrancy and energy of the area. It seemed like every business was run by a family, and supposedly they lived in the place above the business. Little India brings me back to similar feeling I felt walking through the beautiful streets of Lhasa, Tibet. I think my mother would absolutely adore this portion of the city. The variety in the neighbourhoods here, just spectacular. I will surely enjoy Chinatown tomorrow.
Literally the dirtiest street I found all day.

Photo #3: Clean, Clean, Clean

As a challenge, I wondered throughout the city, looking for the dirtiest street I could find. I assumed I could find a few ugly back alleys somewhere. This was especially true in China, where their major streets and sidewalks were impeccably clean, however most of the litter was just hidden behind the buildings. Not the case here. I proudly report this as the dirtiest street I found in 4 hours. Note the rusty bicycles, a little bit of aging on some of those buildings.......you get the point.

Friday, July 29, 2011

Singapore (Day 1): "No Phone. No Phone. I just want to be alone today."

Singapore is certainly a city of colour
         The lyrics above are taken from a band I used to like called CAKE. I lost interest in them-- I thought they seemed out of touch, sarcastically complaining about modern life, modern relationships, and the sad state of things. Strangely enough, ten years later, by myself in Singapore, these lyrics have a new meaning. Allow me to explain.

           In a world where everyone seems entitled to complain about anything, I found the song "No Phone" to be needlessly cynical. The lead singer wails throughout the song about the evilness of modern communication. Why on earth would you want no phone, and why do you so badly want to be alone?


         I left my phone, my laptop, everything in Australia. People place way more importance in their phone than they readily realize. Its more than a communication tool, for many its an extension of one's social existence. For me, I simply enjoy the comfort it allows. I have to ability to speak to someone I love, and to hear a familiar voice. There is little that is a familiar here.

          I arrived at 4:40 AM, and read "Angela's Ashes" in the terminal until the first city train left for downtown Singapore. Red-eye flights can certainly take their toll. I fell asleep, and started to dream that I was late for work in Brisbane. I awoke, to find myself on a passenger commuter train in downtown Singapore with businessman staring at me. Good start.

Western Business sticks out like a sore thumb
         I'm told that Singapore is the 2nd most densely populated country in the world. It sure didn't seem that way early in the morning. I feel I narrowly avoided the business rush. I reached into my pocket and remembered something useful. A friend of mine in Perth, had given me some notes regarding interesting neighbourhoods to find, tourist traps to avoid, and most immediately important: a cheap place to sleep. All signs pointed to Bencoolen St... Backpacker Central.

The sidewalk leading up to my hostel


         Apparently that was old news, as each Hostel turned me away saying they were full for the weekend. Not a worry, I ventured deeper into 'Little India' and found myself a place to stay. Keep in mind Singapore is widely regarded as the most expensive country in Southeast Asia, but $20 for a clean bed, breakfast, a guided tour, and a prime location sounds fine to me. I booked for three nights. Following an afternoon nap (this will become a tradition. It was 33 degrees centigrade at noon)  I awoke around 5pm to find a man across the room reading a local paper. I said "Hello," and it was easy sailing from there.

           He was a Malaysian man, who spoke very good English, because he had gone to university in Arizona. His name was Sam, and he had an undeniable aura of being a worldly traveler. He indeed was. He told me he had sold his house to travel the world, living in hostels along the way. His bunk was decked out, and he informed me he would be there for a few more months. When he found out I was new in town, he went out of his way to be helpful. Tomorrow, Sam is taking me on a personally guided food tour. I'm attempting to be a vegetarian this trip. To this he smiled and said, "Yes. We will see." As I have no phone, I wrote down his name in my travel book.

         Next I went to a lovely Indian restaurant around the corner. My goodness, it was good, and for less than three dollars I was stuffed with vegetarian goodness. I feel this trip is going to be incredible for my physical and mental health. I keep having little moments where I forget I am in Singapore. I will read my book for 10 minutes, forget where I am, then realize here I am all alone. But that is the Backpacker existence. We are all in the same boat. To quote myself, immediately after I had spoken with Sam, I walked out into the street and said:

" "Mica Prazak. That's the best thing you can do... just opening your damn mouth."

OBSERVATIONS:


The legend is true. The cleanest city I've yet to see.
- Singapore is truly multicultural. I am surrounded by places of worship. Freedom of religion is protected here. The dominate ethnicity is Chinese hovering just under 70%.

- As I anticipated, the city is spotless. Reasons for this include: garbage bins everywhere, an ever-present city cleaning system, but all things, a genuine expectation to clean up after yourself. It's true about the bubble gum, and you can even receive a $400 fine just for eating or drinking on public transit. $500 fine for smoking where you shouldn't be.

- I read somewhere, that in many communities in Singapore, eating with your hands is the norm. On top of that, it is expected to eat only with the right hand in certain restaurants. As I am new here, without being on some kind of  tour, I am playing it safe. Have you ever tried only eating with one hand? I have cheated, carrying a book around, and reading with my left hand while I eat with my right.


Taxi Drivers keep you well informed in Singapore
- Interestingly, taxi cabs have a very interesting quality in this city. In Canada, if the light is on, the cab is available. Here it is not so simple; the taxi cabs here are much more informative. Either red or green in colour, I have seen these messages so far:

(green) AVAILABLE
(red) HIRED
(red) ON CALL
(red) TAKING A BREAK


          All in all, it has been a fascinating first day. I'm really enjoying this lone wolf role. If nervousness or loneliness has time to catch up with me, I will take that on one step at a time. Since my traveling life is far more 'eye-opening' than working life was in Brisbane, you can expect far more entries now and far more pictures. I intend on filming everything, however I won't be able to edit any of that footage until I get back to Australia.

         Fine by me. I have fully embraced my backpacker lifestyle. Unlike Australia where black work pants and dress shirts were my required attire, here I am dressed like Mica Prazak likes to dress. Homemade T-shirt wearing, beard growing, headband sporting, backpack sporting, and knees breathing.


The journey begins my friends, my journey begins.
      

Monday, July 25, 2011

Western Australia



Leaving Brisbane was a very difficult thing to do. The staff at the Bavarian Bier Cafe had essentially become my family over a 6 month period. A multi-national body of love, that I will never forget, and make every effort to visit in their native countries in the future. As a birthday/send off party, we had a large gathering in my home, in which people were most gracious, kind, and sentimental. It was one of the loveliest nights of my life.

I arrived at the airport, only to be told I have been moved to a different flight for "fuel efficiency" reasons. Fair enough. Unfortunately, this meant a 4.5 hour flight, next to a morbidly obese man. When I brought this up with my friends in Perth, they all firmly believed that someone who takes up more than one seat, should pay for more than one seat. I don't think that would fly in Canada.

Perth is everything Brisbane isn't. It is isolated, an oasis of civilization with far less coming and going. The backpacker lifestyle is also very limited here-- it seems to be a more entrenched existence. That's not to imply that there is little sense of adventure here. Simply put, it is the people that make Brisbane an exciting town, whereas Perth is an exciting concept to begin with. Geographically, its a small strip of green, staring down endless semi-arid red sands. Erin's father, "Quincy", informed me why the sands are so red here. They are incredibly rich in iron, making the interior of Australia such a mining operation.

A few days into my stay here, Erin's boyfriend Oscar took us to his family farm. What a treat. Their farm, largely sheep and wheat, literally covered mass expanses that required automobile use to travel. Which meant, I got a few driving lessons. Without giving much more away, here is a video of my travels in Western Australia. You may note my use of a pretty stellar camera. This handy little GOPRO camera is the size of a TIC TAC box but provides very powerful images. It is also waterproof which makes it ideal for Southeast Asia. I think it is the beginning of a very good cinematic relationship.

Adios, miss you all.