Fievel Goes East: 2014

What? Two posts in the same week?! Yes, and this one includes more pictures:

After a total of 37 days of traveling (including my time in Fujian), I’m finally back in Changsha. The last several weeks were a lot of fun and chock full of learning experiences, but they also drained me of every ounce of energy I had. The last week I have before school starts will be well-spent both resting and getting myself prepared for the semester. Here’s an outline of my trip.

Singapore

My already-late flight was delayed departing Xiamen. Thus, I arrived at my hostel in Singapore at 4am and, despite the forewarning of my late/really early arrival, no one was around to open the door for me. I gave up on ringing the doorbell and decided to find an open convenience store to purchase a SIM card. I finally made it into the hostel and into my bed at 5:30am and was up at 9:30am ready to start my day. I’ve always had trouble sleeping in for too long. My first impression of the city (country) was that it really is as clean as they say it is. There are all sorts of laws about littering and any other irresponsible acts, like selling chewing gum, that diminish other people’s quality of life. My second impression was how multicultural it is. A significant part of the population is ethnically Chinese and there are also a lot of foreigners that live there, but the country really seemed to be a gigantic mixing pot. People who live in Singapore are taught two languages. Instruction in universities is conducted in English, but as kids grow up, they are also taught a second language associated with their background. For example, people who are ethnically Chinese will learn both English and Mandarin. The fact that English is the primary language made it really easy for me to find my way around the city and Mandarin came in handy whenever English wasn’t useful.

In Singapore, like in all of the countries I went to, I spent a LOT of time in museums. For one reason or another, I’ve always enjoyed myself in museums and find it easy to lose myself in reading the placards. My favorite was the Asian Civilizations Museum. It was absolutely huge and a great place to get a better understanding of SE Asia’s history before I went to the other countries on my itinerary. In addition to the museums, I took a boat ride up and down the Singapore River, had a Singapore Sling at the Raffles Hotel where it was invented, took a ride on the Singapore Flyer (the world’s largest observation wheel), saw the Merlion statue guarding the mouth of the Singapore River, visited the Chinese and Japanese gardens, took a stroll through the National Botanical Gardens (which included the National Orchid Garden), visited the Buddha Tooth Relic (Buddhist) and Sri Mariamman (Hindu) temples, and wandered through Little India and Arab St. When I wasn’t sightseeing, I was eating, but to be honest, Singapore’s food wasn’t particularly exciting. A lot of Singaporean food is actually just Chinese food taken from southern Chinese people who immigrated to Singapore to find work earlier on in its history. Chicken rice is the staple dish (and its admittedly pretty good, despite how bland it sounds), but my favorite was Chilli Crab. I also enjoyed the fresh juice drinks that were readily available from street vendors as well as the dried pork snacks from some Chinatown shops. Unfortunately, I would say the average meal from anywhere besides a hawker stall cost about 15 USD, which is significantly more expensive than pretty much anywhere in Asia. That being said, I could find any kind of food I was craving in Singapore, and it was nice to have so many options.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

The first thing I learned is how important of a crop palm trees are for Malaysia’s export industry because of the many different products that can be made with them. We’re not talking the tall, picturesque kind that are prevalent in Hawaii, but rather, the short, stubby kind that are more utilitarian. There were massive groves of palm trees lining the roads for the entire one-hour, $20-dollar taxi drive to my hostel. Kuala Lumpur was an entirely different world than Singapore and felt much more…well-worn. Malay, Chinese, and Indian are the three primary ethnic groups in Malaysia. Islam is the official religion, though Hinduism and Christianity definitely exist. I was actually told by someone I met that both your ethnicity and your religion are both displayed on national ID cards, which I thought was interesting. In KL, I walked an average of 9-10 miles a day, so I became very sensitive to the fact that KL has very few crosswalks and the crosswalks that do exist don’t have working traffic lights for pedestrians. To get around, I literally had to run across high-speed freeways when there were breaks in traffic (sorry mom and dad), but the time I spent playing Frogger must have paid off since I’m still around to tell about it. I saw the Islamic Arts Museum, Malaysian Royal Police Museum, the KL Bird Park (the largest free-flight aviary in the world), the National Museum, the Tian Hou (Buddhist) and Sri Mahamariamman (Hindu) temples, National Independence Plaza, the Menara KL Tower, the Petronas Twin Towers, Central Market, Petaling St. (the Chinese street market area), and Masjid Jamek (one of the city’s better-known mosques). However, my two favorite places were the Batu Caves and the Masjid Negara. The Batu Caves is a Hindu place of worship located in, you guessed it, some caves. The entrance is pretty impressive and has a gigantic statue of Murugan, who is one of the sons of Shiva. I got there pretty early and had the opportunity to watch some sort of ritual that involved the cleaning of some sort of sacred object. I was quite obviously the only non-Hindu present since everyone else was wearing special clothing and either standing in or seated in the temple area, so I didn’t want to interrupt to ask specifics. It was a pretty fascinating experience. I also took a tour of the Dark Cave, which is a nature and wildlife preservation site located in the same area. I’ve never had a fear of bugs, but the cave was home to one of the most terrifying bugs I have ever seen in my life: the cave centipede. You can click here for an example of what they look like. Even better than the Batu Caves, however, was surprisingly my trip to Masjid Negara, or Malaysia’s National Mosque. I was told that the word “mosque” may potentially have a history that makes it a pejorative and was asked to use the word “masjid” instead, which means “place of prostration.” All of the masjids I visited were open to visitors during certain times of the day. When I went to Malaysia’s National Masjid, it was fairly empty of visitors. When one of the volunteers who was stationed at an information table found out I am American, she got really excited and offered to take me on a personal tour. I got the impression she was eager to combat any misperceptions about Islam that I may have held prior to my visit. I got much more history about the masjid than I would have gotten on my own and even got to look down into the prayer room from the balcony, which is normally closed to non-Muslims. She just finished her Ph.D. in Islamic Studies in Turkey, so it was really interesting to hear what she had to say and to see firsthand some of the differences between Islam and Christianity. I learned way more than I had expected and appreciated the enthusiasm and kindness of the woman I met. It’s definitely an experience I’ll remember. As with Singapore, when I wasn’t sightseeing or taking a break, I was eating. The food in Malaysia was pretty good and seemed to have a fairly strong Indian influence with breads and curries, but Chinese food was also readily available.

Jakarta, Indonesia

I think Indonesia would have been my favorite country of the ones I visited if I had gone somewhere other than Jakarta. There are a huge number of ethnic/indigenous groups in Indonesia, many of which have their own languages, traditions, and food. For example, many people have probably heard of Bali, which is a popular tropical vacation destination. Bali is actually not a country—it is an island/province in Indonesia and has its own variations on food, its own dances, and even a different primary religion than Indonesia’s official religion (Hinduism vs. Islam). Jakarta provided only a very, very small window into the cultural richness I think exists in the country. In addition to not highlighting the country’s diversity, Jakarta’s museums, in my opinion, do far less than they could in terms of preserving and showcasing the country’s national history. This being said, I still enjoyed myself. I met two girls in Singapore who are about my age, live in Jakarta, and happened to return from their vacation a day or two before I arrived in their hometown. They offered to show me around the city and took me to several places including Jakarta’s beach, the University of Indonesia where they went to school, and a massive park that has buildings and sights representative of the whole of Indonesia. It was a lot of fun, and they offered some interesting insights into life in Indonesia. The public transportation in Jakarta is still in rather early stages of development, but since traffic in Jakarta is heinous at all hours of the day, it was helpful that they taught me how to use the city buses. While in the city, I also had the opportunity to meet up with one of my dad’s friends who has lived in Southeast Asia for a long time and whose work centers on Southeast Asia. He also offered some interesting perspectives into Indonesian life and dynamics in Southeast Asia more generally. As far as dining goes, the street food was pretty darn good, but my favorite was a restaurant called Lara Djongrang. It was meticulously decorated with Indonesian cultural artifacts, the food was great, and the staff was friendly. I had fried tempe, fish curry, chicken curry, beef curry, and a couple other side dishes with rice followed by a really good dessert with ice and all sorts of fruit. The restaurant was hosting a large group that night that hired Balinese dancers to perform, and since I made friends with the manager prior the group’s arrival, he let me into their dining area to watch. Yes, I know, I’m shameless. Overall, I would characterize my time in Jakarta as very enjoyable and especially so with the people I had the chance to meet with while I was there. However, I hope to go back one day and spend some time in different areas.

Manila, Philippines

I only planned for three days in Manila because it doesn’t have the best reputation as the nicest city in the world…or the safest. However, it was the only place I went where I went non-stop without mid-day breaks and still felt like I could fill up a couple more days with stuff to do. I really, really enjoyed myself. First off, the food was way better than I had expected, and I actually came to look forward to meal times so that I could try what the city had to offer. A pork adobo sandwich and a halo-halo (halo-halo means “mix-mix” and is a dessert of ice mixed with milk, young coconut, various jellies, plantain, beans, and a bunch of other stuff) was my favorite meal. During my first day in the Philippines, I did what every piece of advice for travel to the Philippines says not to do: I wandered outside the city. I took a public transit bus about an hour outside of Manila and then took another one-hour ride on a jeepney (picture below) to visit a volcano in a city (village?) called Tagaytay. The volcano was interesting and very pretty, but I was simply content that I made it there without any problems, especially since my pre-paid SIM card ran out of money a mere one hour after I purchased it. For a number of reasons, I decided not to boat over to the volcano and instead took a one-hour ride around the area in the sidecar of a motorcycle before getting lunch and beginning my 70km ride back to Manila. All in all, the entire day’s trip cost me about $15, and It was worth every penny. That night and the next day, I visited a couple museums, visited the largest mall in Asia, and took a tour of Intramuros, the old part of Manila that was really devastated by World War II. The tour guide was great and offered a new perspective on the injustices both Manila and the Philippines as a whole have suffered at the hands of other countries over the course of its history. I definitely don’t agree with everything he had to say but also think he had a lot of valid points. In fact, one of my takeaways from my trip as a whole is the incredible mark on history left by colonialism and the impacts still being felt in countries around the world because of it. I spent my last day taking a boat to Corregidor Island, which is where General MacArthur departed for Australia before his subordinate General Wainwright surrendered the Philippines to the Japanese during World War II. Following the surrender of the Philippines, the infamous Bataan Death March began. Our tour guide said something as she took us around that I thought was particularly interesting. The tour guides intentionally take Japanese tour groups on a different tour route so that they avoid areas of the island that depict comfort women in the Philippines during the Japanese occupation. Even today, comfort women is a hotly contested political issue between Japan and other Asian countries, and it was interesting to see that this issue has implications in everyday interactions.

General Comments/Reflections

Several people have asked me what it was like traveling on my own. I admit that, in an ideal world, it would have been best if I had been able to find some friends or classmates to go with me, but a whole host of constraints simply made this infeasible. So, considering the constraints, going by myself proved to have a range of benefits. First, I could do whatever I wanted, eat whatever I wanted, rest when I wanted, all without a set schedule, and then change plans when anything wasn’t working for me. In fact, becoming more flexible/adaptable was a personal goal of mine for my time in China, and traveling on my own proved to be an awesome opportunity to practice. Surprisingly, the fluidity of the trip was one of my favorite things about it, and despite the seemingly haphazard nature of it, I was somehow still able to see everything I wanted. During my trip, I also felt a tangible increase in my level of self-confidence. I learned how to better stand up for myself, assert myself when it’s appropriate, navigate unknown areas, and get myself out of situations that make me feel uncomfortable. There are still plenty of challenges ahead in China, but since I’ve come back from my trip, I feel well-prepared to meet them. I think the outcome would have been very different if I had not taken the trip on my own.

One last parting thought. I think that, as an American, I am blessed in many ways. One of these ways that I rarely consider is the fact that English is my mother tongue. People in every country I went to spoke English to one extent or another, even if it was in a very limited capacity. I can go pretty much anywhere in the world and communicate my needs to others (taxi, food, hotel…) without too much of an issue. How cool is that?!

And that’s it, until next time…