Muffins, Spitting Game, and Sprinting Over International Borders

Buckle up boys and girls, these travel entries may be long.

This weekend we took a wonderful 2 day trip to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Now I say wonderful very loosely, and I would like to describe why in the form of a story:

Once upon a time, there was a man named Chris. One day, when Chris arrived at the train station for the last train to KL at 11:30pm, he realized that he left his passport back in his room which was a 30 minute cab ride away. The train left in an hour meaning that he would make it back just in time to watch the train pull out of the station. But Chris, he was a stubborn lad, he said "Nay!" and jumped into a cab. 30 minutes later, he jumped back into the same cab at his dorm with his passport, and said "Back to the station my good man!" but the cab driver said, "But lo Christoffe! The train willest be leaving in a mere 30 minutes and there is still immigration and the ticket line, we'll never make it." Our brave hero Chris then spake saying: "If you can get me there in half the time, I'll double the rate I pay you."

What then ensued was little short of the craziest cab ride I've ever had. I didn't know a cab could fit between two motorcyclists like that. But story doesn't end there. While my cab driver was awesome and cut a 30 minute drive in half (earning him $60), I arrived just in time to watch everything close up as the train began leaving. But I wasn't about to be stopped now. After finding the next station that the train would be at, I decided to make a run for it. The next station happened to be across the water... in Malaysia. Some random 3 minute bus ride, 2 hopped fences, and a sprint to the finish later; I ran through Malaysia customs and onto the train to KL, to the surprise of my entire group. Hence this picture.

After a wonderful night train (I recommend it for easy and cheap travel, though bring a blanket and headphones, it's a lot colder and louder than you'd think) we arrived in KL where we took off to see Batu caves before too many tourists arrived. The public transport in KL isn't bad, though its nothing compared to Singapore, which I am convinced is probably one of the greatest public transport systems in the world. The Batu Caves are beautiful on the outside and the steps are amazing, but the inside is fairly plain,  you're only going to spend a little bit of time there if you go, but it's worth seeing. 

(Batu Caves, Lots of Steps)

Another must-see are the Petronas Towers. While it does have a fee to travel all the way to the top, it's one of those things that you need to see in KL, even if it's just from the courtyard out front. There's also food and a mall inside the lobby, making it a great evening dinner spot. We were fortunate enough to get a great hostel in a prime location within walking distance of malls, food, and the towers. The hostel was wonderful as well, and we met some very friendly people who were staying there as well. It's called Sunshine Bedz, they're great people and I highly recommend it! Tell them Chris sent you and they'll look at you strangely and not do anything special for you. Or they might, I dunno, they were nice.

(Petronas Towers, hard to get in one picture)

The next day, before leaving we hit up one of the Mega-Malls in KL. And they are mega. There are hundreds of shopping areas in KL, and I definitely recommend a visit to "Mid Valley Mega Mall". There is a bunch of food, and shops from department store to designer and everything in between. There I was able to get a private designer vest for a great price thanks to the currency exchange and the saleswoman who was hitting on me. After asking mildly suggestive questions about myself and when I was leaving the city, she ended up giving me 20% off... because I spit mad game. We shopped for a few hours, ate some delicious food. I had a muffin, it was sub-par. And then we left!

Great trip overall! Except for the fact that I came directly back to a midterm at 9am and another that I should be studying for right now. But I haven't posted in a while and I needed to tell all my stories before I get more in Thailand!

We'll be heading to Thailand this Sunday and we'll be in Phuket and Bangkok all week, I look forward to telling you all about it when I get the chance! 

Until next time!

(Hey, my title was relevant this time)

Was going to be relevant title, but then I was all, "Chris, that's not your style."

Happy Chinese New Year! This weekend has been great so far! Festivities have taken over the city and I get the next two days off of classes, not too much to complain about there. (Except the rain, I can complain about that. But hey, it's monsoon season, what do you expect.)

(Fireworks in Marina Bay)

On Saturday, Marina Bay was where the party was at for Chinese New Year. Well actually not true, if you are a white tourist who showed up for that day only, then apparently the party was at Chinatown. We visited for a little bit because we heard there was a show, but we were met with a Disneyland-style line to even get out of the MRT (subway) station. Once we got out we found that not a whole lot had changed about Chinatown from earlier in the week, except for the fact that there was a street show that we couldn't see and thousands upon thousands of people.

So to re-clarify, Marina Bay was where the party was at for us.

There was a wonderful set-up on the far side of Marina Bay in by the Helix Bridge with wonderful illuminated decorations, fair food (and even rides), a stage with performances, and just a lot of cool things to take pictures of and to enjoy until the fireworks started. The fireworks were amazing and were shot off in the very center of the bay. I bet it would've looked cool from 1-Altitude or the SkyPark in Marina Bay Sands. In fact, there were events and sights to see all around the bay (including an outdoor jazz concert), but we spent most of our time near the main set up.

One of the many cool illuminated exhibits at the street fair in Marina Bay was a gated off pile of oversized coins. Hanging in the spaces of the coins from different angles were bells, each bell had a meaning to them (Body, World Peace, Children, ect.) and if you threw a coin from outside the gate and hit the bell, you would bring luck to that particular area. I'm interested to know how much was collected because it turned into quite the money sink for the group I was with.

(Didn't hit the "World Peace" bell, sorry, looks like that's not happening this year. My bad.)

After the fireworks at midnight (which were spectacular) we headed back to campus. Over the entire night, while we did visit Chinatown, we spent a majority of our time in the Marina Bay area (specifically on the Marina Bay Sands side). If you happen to be in Singapore for Chinese New Year ever, I recommend spending your time in Marina Bay, there is more to do, great fireworks, and it's a lot less crowded. While you should visit Chinatown while you are here, do what I did and go when it is less crowded. You'll miss the show that they have in Chinatown, but in my opinion Marina Bay is good for New Years Eve, while Chinatown should be seen during the week. (So you can peruse the shops and by things you don't need)

The next day, we had a wonderful little potluck where a few of my friends and I got together to cook too much food in one of the dorm kitchens. It was a lot of fun, and especially handy because many stores and restaurants are closed on Chinese New Year. Plus, I got to make pasta, and I really missed pasta.

I plan on celebrating my next few days off by spending a lot of time in Starbucks working on some things (re-writes on my book, homework, ect.) and just enjoying way too many shots of espresso. I'd actually like to start collecting questions (about Singapore, my trip so far, study abroad, all that jazz) that you guys have for me and I can do a Q&A post eventually where I answer them (on a rainy day when things get boring and I'm not laying on a beach). 

So drop me a question on the comments below, to my Facebook, or to my Twitter (@thechrismorgan). I look forward to answering them!

First post in a while, don't worry I didn't die.

Oh hey there! Long time no see. I mean... type?

Anyway. I've actually been at school this week (I know, crazy right?) so for the most part this week has consisted of me going to class, doing homework, and listening to the soundtrack from The Last Airbender, cause hey, I'm in Asia right? (And if you say that isn't a great show, then I'm sorry, but you have lost your inner child who enjoys cool things, hope, and cartoons. Or you're just lying. Either way I blame shuffle for reminding me I had that.) But I digress again. What I mean to say is that unless you guys actually want me to post about homework and the average school week, let me know. But for now I'll error on the side of you not wanting to hear about my marketing essays.

But, as the weekend approaches, so does Chinese New Year. I have mentioned it briefly in previous posts, but I'll go into detail now because that is what will be consuming a majority of my time this weekend. Chinese New Year (The Lunar New Year) is a huge celebration here and the city has been preparing for quite a while. Decorations have been going up since I got here and have continued to grow and be added around the city throughout my entire time here, coloring many heavily trafficked areas of Singapore in red and gold. I'm not going to talk too much about the traditions or practices (because you have Google) so I'm mostly going to focus on my experience with the celebrations. For starters, today we headed down to Chinatown again to wander the shops, have some food, and get a look at some of the decorations before it became crowded for the weekend.

(Just some of the street decorations in Chinatown)

The decorations were great! This year being year of the snake, there was a long yellow snake made of lanterns that was hung above one of the main roads, winding above the busy street for blocks and blocks. We spent most of our time perusing the many street vendors that were set up along the main roads in Chinatown, which sold an assortment of clothes, accessories, souvenirs, and foods. The jelly vendors were particularly interesting, yelling into microphones and hand out free samples of these tasty little packets of jello like jelly. My friend gave them $15 and they just started packing them into a bag for her, not really paying attention to how much went in. I got a really nice gift for myself, a bamboo scroll wall decoration. I'll do more souvenir shopping for others later, its still pretty early in my trip :)

(In one of the many street vendor tents)

This next coming weekend will be the large celebrations of Chinese New Year. We'll be having a potluck-type-deal, going to the festival and parade, and hopefully seeing some fireworks. Should be pretty fun, and who can complain about getting 2 days off classes! I'll have another post after all of the festivities to let you know how they went.

Also, as I was informed, 100 days from today I will be returning home. It's pretty crazy to think about how much I will be doing in these next 100 days, learning to dive, visiting 5 countries, climbing a volcano, all while living in this great city (and going to class sometimes). Pretty crazy! I'm excited to share my adventures with you, stay tuned :)

Thanks for reading!