50 Shades of Sunburn

Hello from Singapore! Wondering what I’ve been up to and why my blog post is late? I guess I just got caught up in enjoying all of the beautiful nature and wildlife that can be found right here on my very own campus!

All (most) joking aside, an exciting week it has been here. I am settled in to my classes, have become a semi-pro at navigating campus (not a semi-pro in the Will Ferrell movie sense, although a sweat band might not be a bad addition to my wardrobe here), and have adjusted to a daily routine to keep me busy. The beginning of my week went by as predicted – classes, eating dumplings, exploring town on the public transport system, building a shrine to Singaporean dumplings, going to practice with the women’s rugby team, and engaging in public displays of affection with dumplings. When Wednesday rolled around, surprisingly enough, I had plans that weren’t dumpling-related. A friend from Elon, Nicole, had put me in contact with one of her friends from home who had a brief Singaporean stint before beginning his study abroad program in Hong Kong the following week. It sure is lucky Carlos had me to show him around due to my stellar sense of direction and expansive knowledge of Singapore and Asia in general. As usual, my expectations vs the reality of the evening were a stark comparison. I had intended to take Carlos to the Gardens by the Bay, an incredible, lush area that is practically on top of all the best sight seeing spots in the Singaporean city center. There I would show him around, seem cultured, find a restaurant that was inexpensive, local, and delicious, and finally get to see the spectacular nightly light show that occurs in and around the picturesque metal sculptures that reflect off of the water in the bay. Find a picture below of the glorious “could have been”. Instead we wandered into a taxi where I gave a distinctly unclear description of where we needed to go. We ended up at a garden of sorts but it was not the grandiose spectacle I had intended to take us to. The place where we found ourselves entailed an expensive car ride, was a far walk from any kind of impressive tourist attraction, and offered a glorified pond which, in the dark, looked like a not so glorified dark hole (pictured as well)

 

Welcome to Singapore Carlos! In an attempt to recover the evening we set out wandering. Luckily, we came upon a mega mall. I mean, can you think of a better place to show a person who wants to see the cultural complexities of a new area? And, there is no place to find more authentic food than in a mall food court. Oops, double sorry Carlos. My new companion was very flexible and remained optimistic throughout our misadventures. After the mall we headed out to meet some of his fellow exchange friends and some friends of my own at bar/club Refuge. Let it be known that I have mixed emotions about clubbing and have to be in a very specific mood (is alcohol a mood?) to have an enjoyable time. For those of you who aren’t sure about the scene either, Refuge is the place for you, there is a dance club floor, a casual bar and conversation area floor, and a rooftop deck overlooking the lit up Singaporean skyline. As I prefer the conversational aspect of going out, I prefer to spend my time mingling on the roof. I was doing a fairly good job of combatting my rapid onset need to go home and be couch potato, until a guy I was chatting with began a quest to impress with his deeply philosophical conversation about the moon. After gawking about it’s beauty and speculating on the “minuteness of human life” (…yeah okay) he asked what “those big spots” on the moon were. He actually thought the moon craters were continents and tried correcting me multiple times when I insisted otherwise. I was in a cab and on my back to school faster than he would have been able to spell continent.

The next night, Thursday, I was lucky enough to go to the D&D event hosted by my hall. D&D stands for dinner and dance and is an extravagant event involving a pageant of hall elected contestants who sang, danced, strutted, and answered questions on the makeshift runway at a pool / beach-side bar in Sentosa. Though I was the only exchange student at the event and clearly not blending, seemingly a theme in my Singaporean life, I had a great time to the credit of the hall sixteen friends who have been so kind to me. So, if any of you are reading this I would like to sincerely thank you for making my transition to NTU so seamless, whether it’s including me in your group events or just making fun of my chopstick illiteracy. I’d be your group mascot any day (unfortunately this is not a joke, please see photo below).

  

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An American, a Frenchman, a German, and a Turkish guy take a trip to Indonesia… sound like the beginning of a bad joke? Well, parts of it were. On Thursday afternoon I decided to go to Bintan, Indonesia with three friends. On Friday I went to Bintan, Indonesia with three friends. It suffices to say I was not the picture of preparation. Myself, Berkan, Timur and Hugo took two buses and a Subway to get to the ferry station where we changed some money into the European currency, Rupiah. Morale was high when I realized I was a millionaire. Morale was significantly lower the next day when I realized that one million Rupiah was only about 85 US dollars, and I still hadn’t paid my portion for our accommodations yet. Ah to be a traveling college student. I must digress for a moment to remind you all that Singapore is Asia lite. When I got here was there culture shock and obstacles to overcome? Yes. But for the most part I learned quickly how to thrive here due to Westernized aspects of the country and the widespread English. Indonesia is not a parallel experience. The country is lovely. Lush, wild, and untouched in many parts. The language, Indonesian, which is a standardized register of Malay, dominates and people who understand, much less speak, English are few and far between. After clearing customs our first task was to find a cab, which we naturally left to our fearless leader Hugo. The exhilarating race against time to check into our hotel by the cut off at 11pm took us straight to the cab of a local named Eco. Cab, however, is perhaps a generous word for this transportation method in Bintan. It seems like everyone and their mother is a cab driver in Bintan, and a cab is just the family car. We went straight to the apartment we had found online and were pleasantly surprised to find it much more tolerable then it’s harsh ratings suggested. Plus hey, a little rat problem never killed anybody (even though my scream could have deafened an entire army of people). We wandered down to an open air food court an ate delicious but entirely too spicy mystery foods which we never paid more than four dollars for. The food courts were a challenge in and of themselves. Not only did I not know what the foods were, but I did not even know how to order the unidentifiable foods due to the language barrier and the ineffectiveness of the pointing and inquisitive looks system I was employing, but this is kind of where the fun lay. It was an adventure eating there and a truly local environment. This is where we first discovered Berkan’s affinity for negotiating. I swear this man was born to haggle, which is exactly the kind of person you want in your corner when you travel to Indonesia where taking advantage of tourists is practically the national pastime. However, that is not to say that we didn’t over negotiate. Berkan’s Turkish upbringing kicked in and we had created a monster unable to suppress his bargain hunting, at one point Berkan even tried to snag a deal on a giant water bottle that cost less than 40 cents to begin with. At one point, he even pulled the ‘you owe me a bargain because we are brothers’ card after inquiring the religion of a shop owner. Berkan, you are shameless but we were lucky to have you. We went home that night and had a lovely night of drinks, cards, rat-hunting, and deep talks.

The next morning we ate at our prized food court find and texted Eco about a ride to the beach, apparently at some point during the night we had made an insta-best friend in Eco as he offered us unbeatable deals and called us his “bros”. Finally, after a long wait, I had my big vacation. The beach, the sand, the sea, the sun, the burn, the aggressive pain, the peeling. Really good stuff. I wanted to make a 50 shades of sunburn joke here but it may not be applicable as there was only one shade and that was the shade of skin cancer. However, the beach was worth it. The unperturbed white sand and locally produced huts were the stuff of movies or slow motion Sandals all inclusive vacation infomercials. At one point we walked for 30 minutes along the beach without seeing a single other soul. The beach, which I have officially deemed Indonesia’s best kept secret, was not a tourist destination at all. In fact, the only other people we saw were locals who were so taken by our whiteness (my redness) that they all wanted pictures with and even facebook connections from my friends. No stalkerazzi please. Later we made our way over to a resort where my friends got massages and I laid in the shade trying to avoid being touched at all costs. That night we met up with other friends who were on the island and enjoyed dinner together and a night on the beach. It was a great time and even too much fun for some of us (happy birthday Berkan, you can howl at the moon with the best of them). Eco, our cab driver, picked us up late at night (early morning?) and took us back to our place while telling us about –wait for it- his daughter that was born THAT DAY. That’s right, our cab driver came to deal with 4 drunk college kids instead of staying with his new born daughter because he wanted to honor his commitment to pick us up. You, Eco, are the real bro here. The next day was the day I had been waiting for all trip, the day to rent motor bikes – the primary mode of transportation in Bintan. Timur and I set off on a bike. His ‘Driving Ms. Daisy’ style vs. my own ‘Fast and Furious’ was a necessary juxtaposition that was probably good for my own safety. 10/10 would ride again. We spent the day at a different beach, napped in hammocks, hugged elephants, and had the trip of a lifetime. Thanks for the good times brothas.