People Are Still People

Here's a link to a blog I wrote for class. Every week, we're supposed to write a blog relating some experience we've had to readings or discussions we've had for class. The week after we got back from Malaysia, I wrote one linking both homestay experiences and the Malaysia trip as a whole. I think it's pretty interesting, and hopefully the references to the readings are not too confusing. I think it should still make plenty of sense.

*Click here to go to the blog.

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, the 21st, 22nd, 23rd: Take It Easy!

As you might expect, the Monday and Tuesday after the Malaysia trip saw almost all of us lying around the dorms recovering. Monday, we had to write a blog for our religion/globalization class, and Tuesday we had to write an essay for our Singapore history class. Needless to say, these two days were not really any fun, but they were much-needed rest periods after the stressful and exhausting excursion.

Here's one picture I took in the campus pit, just for fun, and to spice things up. It's a sign that has something to do with the rising freshmen's orientation at the university. The theme of the orientation apparently has to do with zombies, which is pretty cool, I must admit.

Also, it reminds me of another unrelated occurrence. There are often Singaporeans in the pit working on some sort of hall project. In order to live in a "hostel" (the Singaporean word for "dorm"), you have to participate in a ton of hall activities to earn "points." So, I was walking through the pit one day, and the students who were working in the pit were listening to ARCADE FIRE!!! I really really regret not going up and striking up a conversation with them, but it was still a neat thing to stumble across.

On Wednesday, we had a group trip planned to the National Museum of Singapore. I didn't take any pictures at the museum, unfortunately, but it was a really awesome place. They had all kinds of high-tech, multimedia exhibits, which I don't even know how to describe. The coolest room was the "Japanese Occupation/World War II" room. There were various-sized cubes on the walls (arranged very artistically) with small sections of maps painted on them, showing where something happened during the occupation (bombs were dropped? People were killed? I don't remember). The walls were black and the whole room had a very eery atmosphere. Every fifteen minutes or so, the sound of a siren would go off, and the cubes on the wall would slowly turn red as a searchlight moved across them. After burning red for a few minutes, a black and white film of army officers was projected onto the uneven surface of the boxes, creating a fragmented image. It was a really moving and unnerving setup, and just one example of how innovative and unique this museum was.

After the museum, we went to a mall for dinner and to kill time. Later that night, we were planning on going to see a production of The Full Monty at the National Library Theatre. The play was funny and a lot of fun, and we somehow got $50 tickets for $15. It was a good time, for sure.

Since I didn't really take any pictures that day, here's a picture of me and Abby and Hui Qian, all sporting trendy floral outfits! I got that shirt for only $20 in the Arab Quarter, and everyone complimented it all day.

Here's a picture of me with a delicious dessert that I split with a girl in the group named Kelsey at the mall where we stopped for dinner. I'm making that face because she spilled part of it on the table :-( It was a huge pile of shaved ice drenched in condensed milk and red beans. It was soooo good!

Look at this store in the mall with my initials!

And, finally, here's a picture someone else took of the Full Monty set!

Malaysia, Days IV & V: Kota Bharu, Woodcarving Museum, and the Long Ride Back

Click here for the accompanying picture album.

Like the first one, this hotel also had a delicious buffet breakfast, from which I drank several cups of coffee and had some faithful peanut butter toast. We headed out and rode 10 minutes down the road to a different hotel, whereby we had a talk with a Christian to Muslim convert from Ghana named Mohammed Michael. He told us about the basic beliefs of Islam, but his message was a little bit too evangelical and honestly a bit ridiculous. I don't think he realized that he was supposed to be talking to us from more of an academic than a religious standpoint, but it was interesting and sparked some thoughtful conversations, nonetheless.

After the talk, we went to a mosque just across the street, which happened to be the largest mosque in the state we were in. It was, ironically, the only mosque we visited the whole time, and we didn't even get to stay very long. Almost as soon as we got there, a man came and told Francis that the governor (or minister or sultan or something, I don't remember his official title) of the state was willing to meet with us briefly.

I'm not sure how or why this came about, and, honestly, we were all suspecting Francis of more foul play at first. However, it turned out to be completely legit, and the minister (for lack of a better word) was very old and majestic, kind of like Dumbledore or Gandalf. He had a very wise, patient voice, and even though he spoke in Malay and we only got to hear Francis' miserable translations, it was clear that he spoke poetically and eloquently. I'm still not sure how or why we wound up in his presence, but it was a very cool experience, and I'm glad it wound up happening.

After this spontaneous meeting, we rode in the bus for quite a while looking for a woodcarving museum/workshop, which was also the home of the woodcarver's widow, who ran the whole affair. I don't think the bus driver knew how to get there, and there were quite a few times when we wasted a lot of time going down a road only to make a U-turn.

Nevertheless, the area we were in is practically Thailand, and so riding around in the countryside was actually pretty interesting. I'm not sure how to describe it, but the landscape really did look different from Malaysia, and somehow like what I would imagine Thailand to be like. Wide, slow, brown rivers, marshy soil, lots of wide-leafed, verdant trees. The architecture in Kota Bharu also looked very "Thai" to me, though I'm not exactly sure where this feeling came from.

The woodcarving centre was very interesting (I should get a nickel for every time I use that word in this blog. I'd be rich). I'm going to post an academic blog which I wrote for our class blog that summarizes the experience, so I won't talk too much about it here. Essentially, it is at the house of a late woodcarver, whose widow, after his death, compiled his works into a museum and started running workshops to teach people about his craft. She saw herself as a sort of protector of his craft, guarding it against globalization and modernization. It was funny how well the stuff she said fit in with what we've been talking about in our globalization class.

After the woodcarving centre, we drove back to Kota Bharu and Francis let us run loose for two hours to find dinner. It was nice to have freedom, but Kota Bharu is a filthy, slightly sketchy town, and there were not really any restaurants in close proximity to our hotel. We finally found a place to eat, and the waiter was really nice and spoke pretty good English, which was a huge plus. The food was kind of awful, though, and I was not satisfied at all after finishing it.

Fortunately, the shadow puppet show we were supposed to go to was not being performed (I really don't know how Francis didn't know about this beforehand), so Francis decided to take us to a "night market." I'd love to tell you what this is, but I have no idea. As we were driving up to the night market, we saw a McDonald's and a big group of us decided we would much rather go there than to any circumspect "night market."

It was actually a good decision, I think. There was a big group of us, and the workers seemed pretty excited to see Americans there. The most ironic part is that McDonald's was one of the nicest, classiest establishments around. They even had a big flat screen TV playing the World Cup! The hamburger and ice cream I ate completely made up for the awful dinner I had had before, and were the first time I really felt satisfied during the whole trip! Before we left, the workers asked us to come behind the counter and take a picture with them, and then gave us all free kids' toys. It was a heart-warming, rejuvenating experience after so much lifeless riding around in a bus.

We went back to the hotel after McDonald's, singing songs together on the bus. Here's a video of one of them. It was an awesome bonding experience, and a perfect nostalgia moment.

At the hotel, a bunch of us met up in one person's room and had a good ole time. We danced without music, played truth or dare, and had discussions about life and identity and dreams for the future. It was, once again, a great bonding experience, but we stayed up really late because we knew we had nothing to do the next day but ride in the bus for 18 hours.

We weren't sorry about staying up, but by midnight Sunday night, when we were going through Singapore customs, we realized how stupid staying up so late was. I felt beyond dead, and we didn't get back to the dorms until 2am. Ick.

On the way back, we played a game like telephone and pictionary combined. Each person writes a sentence or a quote or a lyric from a song and then passes the paper to the person next to them. The next person interprets the quote into a picture, folds over the initial sentence, and passes the picture to the next person. This third person writes a sentence to describe what's going on in the picture and then folds over the initial picture. The next person draws a picture interpreting this second sentence, and so on. By the end, you always wind up with something completely ridiculous. It was a hilarious game - few things in life can make me laugh as hard as that game did!

We stopped at a shack (more or less) around 1pm and had lunch. Just down the street was the beach, so we all ate quickly and ran to play in the water. It was a perfect ending to an ambiguous trip. The weather was sunny but not too hot, the water was gorgeous, clear, blue, and so warm, the sand was soft and shell-less, and there were rocks to sit on. We tried not to get too wet, but it was more or less futile. My shorts got pretty soaked, so I put on my friend's sarong after we got back on the bus! Everyone thought that was a hoot (and it really was, but the thing was so dry and comfortable!).

That's about it! As I passed out on my bed at 2:30am Monday morning, our excursion to Malaysia came to a close.

Malaysia, Day III: Homestay Part 2, Mini-Mosque World

Click here for the corresponding pictures.

*Forgive any grammar mistakes or sloppy sentences. I'm exhausted at the moment.

We had to wake up pretty early on Friday to go have a picnic/activities on the beach with all of the homestay families. First, we helped haul in a fishing net full of fish, which was mildly disturbing. There were some stingrays in the catch, which was pretty crazy!

Then we had picnic breakfasts prepared by all the homestay moms. Ours was really good, but I was covered in sand, so it was kind of uncomfortable eating it.

After the picnic, we played games on the beach. They were actually a lot of fun! It was kind of nice to act like a kid again, and most of us were pretty bad at the games, which made it all the funnier.

Each homestay family split up after that, and went to the Wet Market, which is essentially like a farmer's market combined with a community yard sale. The pictures of this explain it pretty well - people were selling all kinds of things, but mostly either clothing or food. In the food category, there were tons of fruits, and also a lot of meat. The meat area was kind of sickening (as you'll get a glimpse of in the pictures), and there were far too many flies for me to feel entirely comfortable. In any case, our host parents were mostly at the market to buy food for lunch, so we didn't actually get to spend much time wandering around.

We returned to our house after that, and I showered and took a nap. My friend had explained to me how to use the shower head to actually shower - apparently it's just like a normal shower, except you're standing in the middle of the bathroom instead of in an enclosure. This time was infinitely more successful than the night before, and I actually felt clean (and so thankful!).

When we woke up from our naps (it was one of the best naps I've ever had in my entire life - the window was open and the temperature was perfect), oomi was preparing lunch. She told us we could walk around the house and take pictures if we wanted, so we did. She also pointed to a house across the backyard and told us that was the sister's house we had been at the night before, and another sister lived right next door. They really do value family ties, I think.

Lunch was really good, though it once again included a ton of fish. Oomi and abba kept encouraging us to eat with our hands, in the local fashion, but I didn't really feel up to it. One interesting thing to note was the order of feeding - we the men ate first, with abba and our 13-year old host brother. Oomi and the daughter had to wait until we finished before they could start.

The conclusion of the homestay was pretty anticlimactic. After lunch, all the families met up at the welcome center for a closing ceremony, and that was the end of it. Oomi and abba gave us their address, and told us that if we ever came back, we could stay with them. You can see why I get the impression that Malays are very kind, generous, and welcoming.

After the homestay was over, we went to Mini-Mosque World (that's not the official title, obviously). This is exactly what it sounds like - a sort of amusement park/museum with miniature models of the most famous mosques around the world. It was actually a really awesome park, and we all had a lot of fun wandering around and taking funny pictures (as you'll see).

The Mini-Mosque World concluded our stay in Terengganu, and we rode in the bus for most of the rest of the night. We stopped at a sort of carnival for dinner, but there wasn't really that much food around. What we did find was sketchy and kind of disgusting, as most carnival food is. The carnival was kind of neat to explore, but we didn't have a lot of time and the locals kept gawking at us. Our graduate coordinator and one girl from the trip rode the roller coaster and ferris wheel that were set up. The graduate coordinator threw up.

The bus ride from the carnival to Kota Bahru, our final destination, was long and late. We played "never-have-I-ever," though, which helped pass the time and taught us all a lot (perhaps too much...:-P) about each other. It was one of the best bus bonding periods we had on the whole trip.

Of course, once we got to the hotel, we checked in and went right to sleep. Thus ended day three.

Malaysia, Day II: Francis is a Sketchball, Homestay

Click here to look at the pictures. You might want to do this after you read the blog, or open them in a new window.

On the second day, Thursday, we woke up in our resort hotel and had a DELICIOUS buffet breakfast. I went back three times to eat, and drank several cups of coffee.

We set off, and our sketchball tour guide, instead of taking us to the Mini-Mosque World, like he was scheduled to do, took us to some random silk/batik/craft place. I don't know why he did this, or how he thought he was supposed to get away with it, but it infuriated most of us, especially because we felt powerless to stop it.

Anyway, instead of actually visiting the mini-mosque world, like we were supposed to, we stopped there for lunch. Which really didn't make any sense, because it is essentially a museum, and there weren't really many restaurants, and we were terribly rushed. Francis!

ON A MORE POSITIVE NOTE, we finally DID something (as opposed to just stopping at random places) after that and went to the Terengganu (the name of the state we were in) Museum. There, we met a group of Malay university students who led us around the museum. The guy who led our group was really nice and taught us a little bit of Malay for our homestay. The museum was cool, but more than that, it was nice to finally talk to a real person instead of just gawking at things from a tour bus.

After the museum, we headed to our homestay. We were all really nervous about this, and stupid Francis didn't make us feel any better. The way he was talking, we all thought we would be staying in huts with sand floors and holes in the ground instead of toilets. But he is a chauvinistic, orientalist, patronizing, sexist, culturally insensitive jerk, and he got us all worked up for nothing.

When we arrived in the village of Teluk Ketapang, where our homestay was based, we were still feeling pretty awkward. The homestay program is actually run by the government, as a sort of arm of the tourism industry. It makes sense - it helps stimulate the local economy, promotes stronger feelings of nationalism for the families involved, and shares the "Malay culture" with foreigners. However, because it was set up by the government, I was worried about what it would be like. I've heard horror stories about homestays, and I was worried the family wouldn't care about us, that they would they just have signed up for the program for the money and treat us awfully.

I couldn't have been more wrong. When we got off the bus, there was a huge group of people there to greet us, dressed in "traditional clothes" and waving palm leaves. Everyone was extremely friendly and we soon realized there was nothing to worry about. After the welcome ceremony, which I documented pretty well with my pictures, we were assigned to our homestay families and split off for the night!

I feel like I should have a lot to say about the homestay, but I don't really. I was paired with a guy from our group named John. Our parents were teachers, so they spoke some English, but not a lot. It was enough to get by, though, and as corny as it sounds, we communicated with smiles and gestures.

After meeting our host mother (our host father was at work), who told us to call her "oomi," which I think means "mama," we got into a Honda. I know this sounds awful, but it was kind of odd seeing oomi pull out a cell phone and get into a car. I guess that's globalization for you. I never realized I was so closed-minded! (At least I'm learning, I guess.)

Oomi took us to a pastry shop and bought us cookies and drinks, which was really sweet of her. She spoke some English, but she would often talk herself into a corner and then just make a choking noise or sputter out some Malay. I felt bad, because I could tell it was difficult for her, and obviously we hadn't done much to learn her language, even though we were in her country.

We arrived at the house, which, as you'll see in the pictures, was actually really nice. The bathroom...well, you'll see it in the pictures. Here is a video of our bedroom (though there are also several pictures in the Photobucket album).

We mostly just sat around and talked and watched TV. Most of the channels were in Malay, but we obviously didn't mind. We went out to dinner at an open-air restaurant called "BB2." It was highly questionable, and the food was not that good, but hey, oomi and abba (dad) were trying. It was kind of funny, because while we were eating Malay food, their 13 year old daughter came with us and ordered Western food. Oh, globalization!

After dinner, oomi and abba said they were going to take us to somebody's sister's house for an "englishment party." Or at least, that was what John and I heard, and we had no idea what they were talking about. Of course, we just went along with them, and soon we were at another house that looked a lot like ours.

I'm still not sure whose sister it was, but the "englishment party" was actually an "engagement party." There were lots of relatives over, and decorations all around the house. In my pictures, the very last one is of the actual "engagement room." During the ceremony, the silver cushion in the middle is where the bride-to-be sits. The groom kneels in front of her and puts the ring on her finger. They can't sit on the cushion together until they are actually married.

You can't really see these in the picture, but the bride and groom exchange gifts. These are baskets in the shape of shells, with fruit or chocolate or sarongs inside (think: Little Mermaid, that first scene where Ariel's sisters are inside a shell, and then little animals with instruments pop out of shells - kind of like that). It was really lovely, and apparently the engagement party was to happen the next day, and we were there to witness the setting up for it. John and I both felt blessed to have oomi and abba share this with us.

After that, we went back home, which was just around the corner. Oomi and abba told us that, in Malay culture, family is very important, and that's why they live so close to their sister (whoever's sister it is...) I tried to take a shower that night, but I was intimidated by the unfamiliar setup of the bathroom, so I just wet a washcloth and used that. It was not a pleasant experience.

I slept really well that night, though. Oomi gave us an oscillating fan in addition to the ceiling fan, for which I was really grateful. I'm sure I would have slept well under any conditions, though, because it had been quite an exhausting day!

Malaysia, Day I: A Long Bus Ride

Here is my photo album from the first day (click on the word "here"). I think the photos explain themselves. We were basically just in the bus all day. We stopped for lunch and then again for dinner, and at some random rest stops and fruit stalls on the way, but that's about all we did.

*Make sure to click on each picture so you can read the captions that explain what it is*

One thing which we did do, but which I didn't take pictures of, was go to a turtle sanctuary. I don't even want to talk about this - after a whole day of driving, which exhausted all of us, they made us leave the hotel at 10pm after checking in and dropping our stuff off! I wanted to sleep! So I hated the whole experience and thought it was absolutely stupid and pointless. Of course, everyone else loved it.

Anyway, that's about it for my commentary. Check out the pictures!

A Little Bit About Malaysia

Since most people (including myself before this program) hardly even realize that Malaysia exists, I'll divulge a little bit of information about it. We haven't started our class section on Malaysia yet, so I only know a few vague, imprecise things. I still think it will be useful and interesting information, though:

- Malaysia is an officially and predominantly Muslim country. That means the government is run on Islamic principles, and the majority of the people are Muslim. However, as my host father was eager to assure me, they are a very tolerant people, and all faiths live peacefully together.

- Malaysia is some sort of democratic/constitutional monarchy. I don't really know what that means, but they have a king and queen. I think. I'm not sure how much power they have, or if they aren't more like figureheads.

- Malay is the official language. It is in the "Austronesian" family of languages, and is closely related to Indonesian. Personally, I think it's unpleasant, but that's just a matter of opinion.

- The "indigenous" Malay are the dominant ethnic group. Chinese are the largest minority. In addition to religious tolerance, the peoples are also racially tolerant, and all ethnicities can live peacefully side by side (according to my host father, anyways).

- This is sheerly based on my perceptions and experiences, but it seems that Malays have a strong sense of national identity. They are proud to be Malay, and have more or less clear ideas of what that means (speaking Malay, being of Malay ethnicity, practicing Islam, feeling connected to their homeland, etc.)

- Again, sheerly based on my perceptions, Malays seem to value close family ties, religious and racial tolerance, and a laid-back lifestyle. My host family was generally late to everything, and it didn't matter to them or to the neighbours whom they were meeting. Don't quote me on this, though - I realize it is a gross over-generalization based on insubstantial evidence. I'm just trying to provide a rough sketch!

Alright, now here's a map I made with Google maps of all the places we went!

A) PGP dorms in Singapore. Yes, Singapore is really that tiny compared to Malaysia!

B) Johor Bahru - We stopped here for breakfast on the first day.

C) Segamat - We stopped here for lunch on the first day.

D) Kuantan - Where we spent our first night.

E) Cherating - The location of our first hotel, The Legend Resort.

F) I think this is where we had our homestay, a small village called "Teluk Ketapang."

G) Kuala Terengannu - We went to a museum and a mini-mosque-world (you'll have to see the pictures to know what that is) just outside of this city. We never entered the city.

H) Kota Bahru - Our "ultimate" destination and the only place where we spent two nights. It is a city in the state of Kelantan, which runs along the border with Thailand.

And then we drove 18 hours straight from H back to A on Sunday! That was a nightmare! We left at 8:30 and didn't get back until 2 in the morning!

Seleamat Datang ke Malaysia: Or, Welcome to Malaysia

I guess I'll start with general descriptions. I'm going to be very frank - the parts of Malaysia we visited were, by American standards, dirty. Except for our hotels, most buildings were old, dilapidated, and in disrepair. There were ants, flies, and lizards everywhere, and I felt wary of most of the food that I was eating. Almost all bathrooms lacked a western toilet and toilet paper, so even women had to squat. My Indian friends got sick of us complaining about the toilets because they are used to them from having visited India. But even though, as a guy, I didn't have to squat, it was a big difference from what I'm used to in the U.S. Another facet of this is that Malaysia is the first "poorly-developed" country I've ever visited. I thought I was a pretty open person, but I'm not going to lie: it was a shock, and I was really uncomfortable the first few days we were there.

Nonetheless, the landscape was beautiful. It was incredibly lush and verdant, even more so than Singapore because Malaysia is significantly less developed. Also, rubber and palm oil are two of Malaysia's main exports, so they have no dearth of broad-leafed trees. Here's a short video from the bus of the forests we passed the first day.

I'm not sure what else to say in general terms. I already wrote about how much I hated having to follow a preset tour and not having any freedom. It felt awful not being able to eat when I wanted or go to the bathroom when I wanted. It felt even worse when I didn't like the food we were eating, which happened often, because they kept serving us seafood and things we couldn't identify.

And yet, from the few interactions we did have with Malaysians, I gathered an entirely different opinion. Everyone we talked to was very friendly and kind and welcoming. Most of them didn't speak a lot of English, but hey, neither did we speak any Malay, so it didn't really matter. As corny as it sounds, "Kindness is a universal language." It seemed that the regions we visited were not really frequented by American tourists, and most people seemed excited and surprised to have us there. Sure, lots of people gawked at us when we were in public, but overall, they were really eager to share their "Malay culture," which they were very proud of, with us.

So I can't say one way or another that the trip was good or bad, or that I enjoyed it or hated it. I didn't enjoy the bad parts, and I really enjoyed the good parts, and instead of adding together to create some sort of overall impression, these two remain distinct feelings. I loved and hated the trip, but I can say that, overall, I'm thankful for the experience.

Tally Ho! Onwards to Malaysia

Now is the time for me to recount our 4-day trip to Malaysia. The only problems are that I have nearly 400 pictures and I haven't decided how I want to document it. I think I'm going to do like I did for Pulau Ubin and upload all of the pictures to Photobucket and just put a link here. I'd like to also write a few posts about what we did, but I'm already so far behind!

Well, I already wrote an initial response the day after we got back (you can go back and read it if you haven't already), and it was such a whirlwind trip that it's difficult to figure out just what to say. I'll try to make a sort of itinerary documenting what we did each day, and then maybe post a few scattered posts with random thoughts and feelings I had during the trip.

Here goes nothing...

Tuesday the 15th: Too Much AirCon (for reference - the day before our Malaysia trip)

I never thought I'd say it, but on Tuesday the 15th we were subjected to way too much air conditioning for way too long. We had to go to the Immigration Checkpoint Authority to get our student visa cards made. As is usually the case with government bureaus, what should have taken only two or three hours turned into a day-long affair. We were all starving by the end and glad to get back out into the warm evening air!

We went to one of the many Singaporean malls for dinner, but figuring out where to eat was a mess. Obviously, some people wanted cheap food and some people wanted a nice meal, and some people wanted certain things and some people couldn't make up their minds. And then there was a really awful occurrence - a woman slipped on a wet floor and took a pretty messy tumble. It was horrific to be nearby to it, and so I'd rather not discuss it any further. But the worst part was that she fell in the middle of a very narrow hallway that was the only way for us to get back to the escalator.

In any case, despite all of these screw ups, Rena and Devika and I ate at a really lovely Dim Sum restaurant. I already talked about the food in my food post, but I'll put some pictures anyway so that this post won't be devoid of some aesthetic element.

It was a very nice ending to a not-so-hot (pun!) day.

Monday the 14th: Shopping for Malaysia (for reference - the day after our homestay)

On Monday the 14th, after class, I went to Chinatown with a girl from the group to look for linen pants for our trip to Malaysia. Malaysia is primarily Muslim, so we were expected to dress somewhat modestly while there. It's also very hot, though, so I figured linen pants were a good bet. (Everyone said they loved them, so I guess it was a good decision.) So here are some random pictures from our adventure!

^^ This is kind of ironic, because freedom of speech is pretty heavily restricted in Singapore. In fact, any gathering in public to discuss something of more than 3 people is *technically* prohibited.

^^ Shops in Chinatown.

^^ A random Hindu temple.

I'm not sure, but I would assume these are both apartment buildings.

Creepy mannequins in one of the Chinatown shops...

After Chinatown, we went to a shopping centre called Holland Village. It's pretty near to PGP (our dorms), and it's a really big complex with lots of shops and restaurants. It's a bit like Franklin Street, but bigger, and consolidated in a shopping centre setup. It's apparently a "cool" place for teenagers to hang out.

We ate at a hawker centre (think: food court, but rougher around the edges, and where each person owns his or her own stall and the food is healthier and more like home-cooked food than in an American food court) for dinner. Afterwards, we decided to split dessert, and figured we had to give Chendol, very popular among Singaporeans, another try.

I would explain it, but I don't entirely know what it is. I think I explained it in my food post, so just go back to that one if you want to know. It was not the best culinary experience I've ever had...but it was interesting and adventurous. I guess.