SFO Airport -- Hong Kong in 13 hours!

At the airport again.. Leaving really soon. It's so surreal. I can't believe this is happening. We got a lot of food today because my cousins, aunt, and grandparents came to see me off. We had a little farewell party. Ben texted me today to say that he wanted to visit before I left. He came by after work and stayed until we left for the airport. Just as we were leaving, Helia and Xiaoyu called to say that they were at the airport already. They had said that they wanted to see me off at the airport. I felt kind of bad because they had to wait half an hour at the airport for me to arrive. They event got me a little keychain leopard and a doggy travel pillow. I've always wanted one of these travel pillows. They're so sweet.

The security check in line was weird. One of the lines was really long and the other was really short. So I snuck over to the line that was really short. I don't know why other people didn't do this. Really boggles my mind. I guess I should practice being Chinese anyway. The check-in lady at the Cathay Pacific counter asked off-handedly if I had HK passport/ID. Let's see how long it takes people before they realize that I'm not from HK. haha. I think I'll put a 1HKD coin in a jar every time someone asks me where I'm from.

I don't have any real plans for the first day. Maybe I'll meet up with some relatives. We'll see how it goes. I should avoid sleeping. Joanna will join me at the YWCA for a few days. She's getting to HK Sunday night though.

Another adventure ahead. Stay tuned. I think I need to come up with new labels for this blog.

Leaving the US

This month has gone by fast! Leaving for the airport in a few hours. I'm pretty much all packed. I'm sure I'll remember something else. I feel like I haven't packed very practically this time around. Usually I would bring more things that I would need right away so that I'm not out hunting for essentials as soon as I get there. But I guess it's different this time since I'll be there for a longer term. Anyway, I'm sure I'll be fine.

I've updated the "Where is Lucy" column on the left with my Hong Kong cell phone number, in case anyone wants to call me. I'll probably be updating a lot once I get there. Hopefully the internet in my room is good. I think I will have plenty to do the first few days but I feel like I'm just waiting for the first day of work. That's why I decided to move to HK in the first place, for work. I'm not sure I know what to expect. Not sure I should be having expectations... Anyway, it'll be an interesting experience.

Packing!!

**Sob** Packing is so hard!! I've done a lot of traveling (and therefore, packing) but it's always for some definite amount of time and with some purpose. I'm usually a pretty light traveler.  But packing for some indefinite amount of time is so difficult. There's so much I want to bring. Good thing I shipped that box of books yesterday because there would be no way I can fit them into my luggage. And even with 3 suitcases, it's hard. Most of it is clothes and shoes. Shoes take up a lot of room. I would never pack so many pairs of shoes if I was just going somewhere for a few months.

Right now two of my suitcases are at 40lbs and another one is at 50lbs. So I can still stuff some more things in there. This is good since I keep remembering that I have more things I want to bring. I probably won't fully unpack for the first month either. Can't wait to find my future apartment.

I think I'm getting better from my cold but I'm still not feeling too well. Had to keep taking naps throughout the day. Blargg.. Some of my friends want to meet up but I really don't feel like going out. Oh wells, I think I'll see them in June. I think it will be good to come back in June and re-assess what I need and what I don't need. I can bring more stuff over as well. So I should really book that ticket soon.

I think Snowball is sad. He took one sniff at the suitcases this morning and went hiding under my parents' bed. Didn't see him all day until Grandma came to visit.

Boston Trip - Part 2

Only 1.5 weeks (9 days) until I leave for Hong Kong! Hm... I think I need to start packing this weekend. Let me finish writing about Boston though.

Sunday was a day where the forces worked against us. Started the day off with organizing a huge pile of state quarters. I stopped caring about these things after sophomore year or so. I think the combination of going abroad and using plastic for most things made it so that I had less contact with quarters. I do have a collection of international coins sitting in my piggy bank though so maybe one of these days I'll start a more serious collection.

We had brunch with Grace at the Canteen and talked about random stuff. At the end of it, she mentioned that she's training for a marathon. Maybe I should get back into this running thing. I definitely need to start working out more. I feel so sluggish these days.

Yalu and I had planned on going to the MIT 150 convocation. We decided that it would be okay to get there a little bit late but then the bus got stuck in traffic going over the bridge. We arrived at the Hynes Convention Center and found out from the security guard that the event is actually held at the Boston Convention center. I didn't know they were different things. We checked out the location of the Boston Convention center and agreed that it was too far away. I think the closest T stop would be the World Trade Center on the Silver Line. We had planned to meet up with some friends there but this obviously failed to happen. So we decided to look around the Zara on Newbury street. I was kind of tired and wasn't in the mood for serious shopping. So we ended up just going back to Yalu's place.

Dinner was another adventure. We decided to meet Xiumin and Helen for dinner. We wanted to pick a place where Yalu's dining miles would be accepted. After much debate, we finally found one. Again, the bus schedule was being weird so we ended up getting there half an hour before the scheduled time. It was fortunate that we did because we found out that the restaurant was holding a private party. So we ended up going to Royal East and made some last minute changes to the plan. I think I'm starting to figure out differences in Chinese cuisines. The places that my parents go to in Oakland are very Cantonese. The dinner menus are significantly different from some other Chinese places like Royal East. It's appalling to think that people lump everything into "Chinese food."

Monday. I didn't do too much in the morning. I felt really tired in the morning. I don't think I got over the jetlag during my stay. I alternated between checked email, read my book, and napped all morning. I was supposed to meet a friend for lunch but she didn't bring her cell phone so we didn't managed to meet up. I ended up wandering around Chinatown and picked up some snacks and lunch. On my way back, I stopped by the Galleria again and used my $50 gift certificate for BR.

Logan airport is nicely equipped with free wifi and lots of power outlets. The flight was okay. My TV had a connection problem and stopped working at some point. I didn't mind though because I had my Kobo to keep my occupied. And cable TV means too many choices. I usually just watch the Food Channel anyway. I really don't like flying. It's so uncomfortable. I should look into getting upgrades but that still doesn't make it any more comfortable when there is turbulence... Anyway, I've started this year off with lots of flying.

All in all, it was a good trip. It was really nice to see friends again. I actually didn't spend very much time on campus. It's still pretty much the same. It was CPW anyway and the pre-frosh are getting younger and younger!

Arrived in Boston

My flight was delayed by an hour. The flight coming in was late. I kept myself occupied with reading so I didn't mind. Shortly after take-off though, we ran into some turbulence (mountain winds?) and it was really uncomfortable for a while. The plane wasn't shaking but the air that it was going through didn't feel smooth. Anyway, I was feeling really sick and managed to get a motion sickness pill out of my bag. I didn't take it before the flight because I didn't want to be drowsy. I didn't think I would manage to bend down to get it from my bag - that's how bad it was. I passed out after taking the pill and it was much better when I woke up, both the plane and myself.

I think I'm still feeling the effects of the motion sickness pill though. I should have just taken half a pill. I really need to get outside and get some caffeinated beverage in my system.

Boston for the next few days

Going back to Boston since graduating in June 2009. Taking a mid-day flight. I've always taken a red-eye flight going east because I lose hours going that way and I'm usually trying to save time. But red-eyes are very exhausting flight so I decided to avoid that flight and instead fly during the day. I think it will be a more comfortable flight. I can read and watch TV without having to worry about the lost of sleep.

I'm at the SFO International terminal because that's where Jetblue flies out of. Just saw an Asiana flight take off to Seoul. I found out recently that they are a Korean airline. And now there announcements for a Cathy Pacific flight for Hong Kong. It's too bad that Singapore Airlines and Cathy Pacific are not with the same airline alliance. I'm beginning to think that I should bank more miles with Cathy because they have a lot more flights out of HK. I've been trying to make a list of direct flights from Hong Kong and which airline flies where. I should really get enough miles with some alliance so that I can take advantage of these lounges. They seem like a great way to be pampered and get freshened up after long flights.

To Do List

If anyone would like to help me with my to-do list, let me know!

- Scan relevant course notes and homeworks so that I can access them in HK.
- Ship books to HK.
- Go clothes shopping. I need more work clothes and jeans. My jeans are very old.

- Find a US bank that has free incoming international wires
- Find a HK bank that has free outgoing international wires (do these exists??)
- Consolidate my bank accounts
- Open a Visa or MasterCard credit card

- Figure out an investment strategy
-- General personal finance advice is welcome
- Read the investing books that I borrowed

- Pack for Boston trip
- Schedule lunches and dinners with people

- Pack for Hong Kong!

Responsible traveling

An article about responsible spending while traveling. Things don't usually happen so cleanly when you're actually trying to bargain for things but it's a good guide. I would write more about this topic as well but am in the middle of finishing a project.t
http://travel.nytimes.com/2011/03/13/travel/13prac.html?src=recg

Conclusion of whirlwind trip to HK

I went to a KFC today. I was walking around town looking for some place to eat lunch. There's no lack of places but I had a sudden craving for KFC. I haven't been to one in the US in forever. Anyway, really need to learn to read Chinese. Or at least read it faster. It was difficult to figure out the menus posted in front on some of the places...

Went to a job site this morning. The guy came to get me in a car so I ended up getting a tour of Hong Kong as well since we had to drive all the way to HK Island. You definitely see a lot of more the city this way. I wish I had a bus map of the city and could take the bus around. It's definitely a nice way to see different neighbors. Most of the MTR is underground and you're stuck somewhere in the middle with no opportunities to look outside anyhow. Anyway, we went to an excavation for an apartment complex. It was very interesting. Definitely going to try to go visit sites as much as I can. I think it would be interesting to go see the site when the structural engineering part is happening as well.

I think I got a much better idea of the two companies and what I would be doing at each one. I wish I can recount all the details here but that's probably not appropriate. Anyway, never thought this decision would be so difficult. I really hope I'll make the "right" one. I seem to always make things difficult for myself. I've always thought that I would do a bunch of internships (which I did) and just pick one of them to stay long term. Whose idea was it to move all the way to Hong Kong anyway??

I walked around town for a while this afternoon. Visited Kowloon park where they have some very interesting ways of showing pollution in the city. They definitely used space creatively to make their point. One of the exhibits was about duplicate bus routes (bus routes that overlap each other). There was a maze made with bushes and different color signs that represent bus stops. You can choose to follow one of the bus signs and it will lead you around the maze. The middle of the max has an explanation about the release of CO2 and particulate pollution. The signs serve as both bus stops and type of pollutant.

I think I can get used to living in Hong Kong. Definitely need to learn more Chinese. There are plenty of people here who can't read either but it just makes life easier. Knowing Cantonese is so useful. I also need to figure out what the local brands are so that I don't have to spend exorbitant amounts of money on foreign brands. And where to get cheap stuff. There are mega malls filled with international brands, middle class malls with more local stuff, and then there are place with more affordable stuff. This last category can be split into many different levels (I think) and I need to figure out what those are. This applies to everything: food, clothes, household items, etc.

The biggest expense will be rent. Rent in HK is not cheap. I think it will be much better if I can find a roommate to share an apartment with. Cragislist is not popular with the locals but it might still work out. Transportation can be a big expense as well. The MTR charges by stop. The smaller stops are more affordable but it does get expensive when you want to travel longer distances. Local buses are cheaper but express ones are comparable to the MTR. Bus rates are fixed. Something to think about when looking for housing.

I hope the jetlag won't be too bad when I get back. It hasn't been very bad this trip, mostly because I was forced to do things like walk around the city. I was most tired in the late afternoon. But once I get past a certain hour at night, it's not too bad. I might be sitting around in class and in my apartment a lot when I get back so that might not be so good for the readjustment.

I only go to 7-Eleven in foreign countries

7-Eleven was the first store I went to once I arrived. I needed something to drink and got a bottle of ice tea. I think it was cheaper than just water. I slept most of the flight. I slept very well in the beginning due to the anti-motion-sickness medicine and woke up for food. It’s kind of ridiculous though. By the time they served us, it was 2am. The flight took off at midnight. They served the vegetarians and people with special needs first. I just felt that they were really slow. We even got a printed menu, which I thought was overkill. The only choice we really had was chicken or fish. Everything else is the same so why bother with the menu??

Once I arrived, I got a train ticket for the airport express and got a local sim card. They were both fairly easy tasks. I managed to meet up with my uncle and he took me to his house. We dropped off my stuff and he showed me how to get to his store. From there, I spent the rest of the day with some friends of a friend.

I met with three people in total today, all young graduate engineers. They all had interesting perspectives. Very nice people who took the time to show me around and such. I met up with two people for lunch. We settled on Cantonese after going through Mandarin along the way. They took me around the Victoria Bay area while we talked about their jobs. They’re both geotech engineers in their second year. They were working on site this morning. They seem to like what they’re doing. Their work hours don’t seem extremely demanding. The on-site engineers seems to work about 9-5 on weekdays and half days on Saturdays once every two weeks. The engineers at the office work a bit more but nothing crazy.

I hung out with them for a while before heading off to meet with another friend of a friend. This guy is working in the civil group and was still working at 4:30pm when I met with him. We went to his office and chatted there for a while. He went back to work after our chat. He says it’s not usually this busy but he has two things that needs to get out by next Friday. We walked around the office a little bit and there were a number of people at the office, much more than you would expect at 5pm on Saturday. He’s not as enthusiastic with his job but had some interesting things to say as well.

I’ve been trying to make mental notes of cost of living around here. I should actually write them down when I get the chance. It’s pretty comparable to the US. Except maybe for eating out. It’s slightly less expensive but people do it more often. And I guess the cost of produce and goods vary widely depending on where you are, what you buy, and where you buy things.

Hong Kong for the weekend

Yes, I am on my way to Hong Kong. Sitting at the SFO airport right now, waiting to board. Free wi-fi here. Very nice. This was sort of a sudden decision. I booked the flight early Tuesday morning. A coworker of mine had suggested that I go to HK to visit, check things out, and see if I can say to myself, "I can live here." I didn't think I would have the time and resources so I didn't think much about it. And then earlier this week, my parents asked a relative of ours for advice and she suggested the same thing. Now that I'm not waiting on anyone else to give me stuff, the ball is really in my court. So I decided to make this trip. It took a while to find flights. There were all sorts of mysterious flights that showed up on search engines that I wasn't able to book. I finally found really late Monday night but decided that I was too tired to think properly. I woke up at 6am Tuesday morning and the first thing I thought was, I have to book the flight. So I did.

Hopefully this will really help me make the choice for my first job. I really don't want to drag this on forever. I feel like I'm thinking about this every 10 minutes and can't focus at all. Good thing my classes this quarter aren't very demanding. At least, not yet.

Anyway, wish me luck. People have been telling me that I have good choices and that I can't go wrong. So I guess I just need to decide on something. I think I've solicited advice from everyone I know now. I never imagined it to be such a tough choice.

Why I Care (about developing countries)

I gave four, almost consecutive presentations at Oakland High about developing countries on Tuesday. I came to realize that I'm getting old and my daily life is pretty far removed from high schoolers. It's hard for me to think about what they know and what they don't know. There were moments when I didn't even realize they don't understand something that was seemingly obvious to me. Anyway, class periods are so short. I don't know how any teaching and learning get done. I really wish I had time to talk about "why we should care," especially with this group of students. I'll write about it here so that I can flush out my thoughts. Maybe I should have done this before going to talk at the school.

Honestly, I did not care about developing countries when I was in high school. I didn't care until probably senior year of college, when I did D-Lab. I felt that there were so many problems "at home" and that we should really focus our energies helping people in our own backyards rather than spending resources on people far away. It's so much harder to care about people far away.

That's one of the reasons why I joined ESP, actually. I volunteered with a bunch of different organizations freshmen year, all of them focusing on outreach to nearby communities. I stuck with ESP even though there wasn't a whole lot of underprivileged outreach because the people who ran the program were cool. I consciously and unconsciously avoided all the talk, hype, and clubs that involved global poverty issues. And then I did D-Lab.

I actually signed up for D-Lab because people who I went to Cambridge with were really enthusiastic about it. They talked about the program's uniqueness and that it's something you can only do while at MIT. So I went to the first class and wrote a pretty convincing application for the class and got in. I went to class and worked on the projects but still treated everything as a class. I mean, I cared about my project (rammed earth) a lot but I didn't feel its connection to society until I actually went to Sierra Leone.

At some point either during or after the trip to Sierra Leone, I had a realization that the problems we were trying to tackle were strikingly similar to problems "at home," namely income security, food security, education, shelter, and nutrition. The problems are the same, all having to do with basic human needs. The details are different but those always are. The question is, what about the solutions? How do the solutions differ?

I really believe that by traveling to different countries and experiencing other cultures, you learn much more about yourself and your own culture. I had many eye-opening moments while in Germany (my "first" abroad experience) about myself and the culture that I subscribe to. By putting myself in a places where I didn't know the language, don't understand the culture, and have no clue about the religion, I really appreciated the kindness and understanding of other people. I became much more aware of what "culture" is and the assumptions that people make about how life should be, how things should work, etc. I (would like to think) am much more sensitive to other people's needs because I have been in situations where I couldn't articulate my own needs.

Through these experiences, I realized that I can't necessarily relate to the situation "back home." I had thought that I understood the issues that immigrants to the US face. I thought that since I had experienced it first-hand, I would be best suited to help solve these issues. But after my travels, I realize that this is a false assumption. I really don't know what other people are going through and shouldn't try to pretend that I am an expert on their experiences. There is no one formula to alleviating the problems that are entrenched in underprivileged neighborhoods in the US. And the best people to work on solving those problems may not be people who had experienced them first-hand. While these people bring with them, some sort of assurance that they understand and care about the people that they are serving, they are also the most likely to "think outside the box."

I am much more likely to think "outside the box" (since I am coming from "outside the box") on issues pertaining to people in a different community than the one I grew up in. I don't deny that I would have different emotional attachments to projects involving Chinese Americans in the Bay Area vs. Africans in Sub-Saharan Africa. But I really believe that working on projects in the developing world has made me much more capable of working on problems in the developed world. They are, in essence, the same problems.

I wish that people working on problems at home can come in with the humble open-mindedness that is so important to international work. By going into a community and admitting right off the bat that I don't understand the culture, the people, and their problems, I have a lot more motivation to try to understand the situation before proposing solutions. I am much more sensitive to the real needs of the people rather than what I think they need. Again, this last point is relevant for projects everywhere.

I hope this made sense. It's something that I have been thinking about for the past few days. I certainly don't think I have it all correct. I would love to hear what other people think about this.

After Graduation Asia Trip

I've added a SmartyPig widget on the left side of the blog. For all you RSS feed readers, you have to actually come to the website to see this. I recently opened a SmartyPig account because it seemed like a good way for me to save for my after-graduation-Asia-trip. Mint.com recently added a Goals section to their services but SmartyPig lets you make widgets like this so that other people can contribute to your goals!

I want to go to Asia after I graduate in March. I haven't been back to China since after graduating high school. So I think I should go back to see family. And then I want to do some traveling around in East and Southeast Asia. I feel like I know so little about Asia. Really looking forward to going to more places and learning more about other cultures, see historical sites, eat good food. Not sure how all the logistics will work out yet. Really hope I can travel with someone. Or even meeting up to travel with different people along the way would be fine too.

Anyway, feel free to contribute to this fund! I'll repay the favor when I get the chance, I promise. It all comes back in the end. I've deposited an initial $100 to this fund. This will be used for the buying the backpack because believe it or not, I don't have one of these backpacking backpacks. I've realized I'm pretty efficient at packing and I think I can pull this trip off with one big and one regular sized backpack.

Halfway through fall quarter already!

Totally slacking on keeping this blog up to date. There's just too much happening these days. Unlike when I'm traveling, there's not really a coherent theme to things. Speaking of traveling, I opened a SmartyPig account to save money for my after-graduation-Asia-trip. They have better interest rates than my Discover Bank account O.o!

Did laundry, vacuumed, and cleaned my room yesterday. Didn't manage to do very much homework or studying. One of our geomech friends who graduated last year came back to run the NWM and came down to campus to visit us yesterday. So we spent some time chatting with him. I'm feeling very behind on my classes though. I mean, I'm not actually that behind on doing the homework. But I usually like to read the notes before I start on doing problem sets. I need to read the notes a second time, at my own pace to absorb the material. Looking forward to later this week when I have time to do this.

I want to write a bit about last Saturday because it felt like an epic day. The DFI conference had ended Friday afternoon and my flight out of LAX was at 2pm. So I had some time to chill before the flight. One of the guys I stayed with made pancakes for breakfast. We sat around talking for a while and then decided to go to an In N Out that is really close to the LAX airport. This place is apparently very well known in the aviation industry because you can sit outside and watch the planes come in. It was super cool because the planes were really close and you can even see the vortex and air condensing on the wings. And there were planes landing every few minutes. This would be such a cool place to bring a family for lunch and easy entertainment.

And then I went on a plane myself. The security line was a bit annoying because it was a big bottleneck and took really long. And it felt a bit chaotic. After the security line, it was great. I boarded the plane right away so there was no waiting. I really thought my backpack would get lighter after the conference because I had packed sandwiches and such. But actually I ended up collecting a lot of stuff at the conference and LA.

Once I got to SF, I started calling my friends to figure out what's happening with the marathon. I managed to miss the BART leaving the airport because the people in front of me on the escalator were blocking the entire thing and not feeling urgent about catching public transportation. Anyway, it gave me time to call people and I got to the race package pickup with plenty of time to pick up stuff. The line for the race packet pickup was super long but moved pretty fast. I met up with Mahalia and Ben on while standing in line.

I came out of the tent with another bag to carry. I was already carrying my backpack, sleeping bag, and another bag with clothes. At this point, we really should've gone and dropped off stuff (as planned) but we decided to go for dinner instead. I was all for going to Chinatown because I wanted a haircut (wasn't all that interested in getting food there because I don't know any places). Anyway, we ended up dragging our stuff all over town and got to friend's place after they left for dinner. So we didn't see them until the next morning.

Since I started the LA trip, I've been having a lot of dream filled nights. They've stopped after I got back to Stanford. I guess there's just a lot going on and I literally feel like my brain is working 24/7. Anyway, really glad to be back in my own bed now.

I feel like this quarter I've really gotten more involved in student organizations, especially ones that start with ES(something). I'm not sure how all this happens but I seem to find myself volunteering for a lot of things.

Conference in Hollywood

Yes, the conference was right in the heart of Hollywood. From the balcony, I can see the Walk of Fame, the elephants statues, and the Hollywood sign. The conference itself was interesting. It was on deep foundations technology, challenges, and related issues. People had some really interesting projects to showcase. I expected more people to attend though. Or maybe there were a lot of people but not everyone sat in on the sessions. The conference had a lot of technical sessions, committee meetings, and exhibits by companies. Maybe people hung out at the exhibits more.

The conference ended before lunchtime on Friday so I had a bit of time to walk around Hollywood. I walked around the mall area a bit trying to find an interesting place to eat. I was hungry and was about to give up on this search when I saw the Lard On food truck. Of course, I had to go. I got the BLT off of their lunch menu. The buns were heated on the grill, bacon was extra crispy, huge slices of tomatoes, and blue cheese. I thought the blue cheese was a bit weird for all this but it works. When I was trying to pay, the guy saw my US Navy wallet and asked if I was in the Navy or if it was a free wallet (ha!). At this point, I realized I was standing in front of a US Armed Forces recruiting center. I told the guy I did a military youth program back in the day and he asked if it was the sea cadets! Turns out the guy was in Bryce Canyon, one of the big units in this area. Actually the LA area has a quite a few big units, I think. I was a bit shocked. We chatted for a little bit but he had to take more orders. So random.

I brought my sandwich to the Coffee Bean. I was wondering why they were all over the place when I found out that it started in this area. It's like Peets in SF Bay. I got a tea latte which was overpriced but really good and made use of their free wi-fi. After refueling, I walked around Hollywood Blvd a bit but there wasn't a whole lot to see. There's about a block or two of "attractions" like the Chinese theater, Egyptian theater, Ripleys, Wax Museum, upscale clothing stores, etc. And then it becomes hooka bars, fast food joints, souvenir shops, and other stores with no one in them. I got tired and took the metro to downtown LA. I was planning to walk around there but sat at another Coffee Bean instead and used their wireless again, made some phone calls, and just sat around drinking my tea. I don't think there was very much to see anyhow.

I'm staying with a couple of friends from Stanford and we all went out to a Korean place nearby. This neighborhood has a lot of Korean and Japanese food places. Apparently Toyota and Honda has offices here. The food was amazing!! I've never thought Korean food was all that great but this was so delicious. All the other customers were Korean. They even served side dishes of kimchi and other sides. I've always thought kimchi tasted funny. I think it's because all I've ever had were ones bought from the store that are over fermented. The kimchi at this place was so good. I had a noodle soup that was cooked in a beef and kimchi broth. Never knew what I was missing out on!

We were all stuffed when we got back so we watched an episode of Firefly. After the episode, I found out that Serenity is the movie made to wrap up the Firefly series. I had watched Serenity freshmen year when LSC showed it as part of the sci-fi movie marathon. I don't know how I didn't manage to make this connection. I think if I had, I would've watched all of Firefly by now. Better late than never....

Briefcase to Backpack

This website specializes in advice for people who want to have a long break in their careers and just travel. Very cool. Too bad I don't have a career yet!

http://briefcasetobackpack.com/

Here's a NYTimes article about it:
http://travel.nytimes.com/2010/10/17/travel/17Prac.html?pagewanted=all

Btw, I am in LA (well, LA metro area) right now. Attending a geotech conference Thursday and Friday.

SEA Wrap Up Part 4: Taipei

I think I wrote quite a bit about my adventures in Taipei in a previous post. So I'll just post some pictures here and call it a day.

This is inside the Sun-Yet Sen Memorial. Wish I had time to look and read through all the exhibits. Some of the exhibits even have English. I really didn't have time to read it all. It really interesting though. I think most of the place is a big auditorium for special events. The actual exhibits are free. I didn't managed to find the historical exhibits for a while because I came through a side entrance.

This is inside the Taipei airport. They even have special resting spot where you can read about Taiwanese cultures, like the aboriginal people of Taiwan. This airport was definitely on par with the Singapore airport, minus the massage chairs. Maybe I just missed the massage chairs?

This ends the SEA Wrap Up series. From now on, it will be back to "normal" life. I hope my readers will not be too disappointed. It's amazing how much people were reading this blog this past summer. I will certainly blog more about ongoing efforts with the ESW Padang project. So stay tuned if that's what you're here for.

SEA Trip Wrap Up - Part 3: Singapore

Sunday, August 30, 2010 - Singapore. I've been wanting to go to Singapore for years. Heard a lot of good things about this city and have been wanting to see what it's like. I think I got a pretty good tour of it with friends from Cambridge. They were super nice and showed me around town. But first, getting to Singapore.

After eating dim sum in Melaka, I got on a bus to go to Singapore. My taxi driver from the hotel to the bus station was pretty nice and told me exactly where to go. There were several bus companies that go from Melaka to Singapore. They are all the same price: 22 ringgit. I took the Melaka 707 Express which had really nice seats. There are only 3 seats per row instead of 4 so the seats were big. We got to Johor Bahru and got through Malaysian customs fine. Didn't even have to take our things from the bus. It was pretty fast. Then we had to drive quite a bit to get to Singaporean customs. It felt kind of weird not to do them one after the other. I guess it's the same when you're flying but it felt weirder on land.

The line I stood in took super long. The guy was just really, really slow. I should have switched lines but the people in front of me were on the same bus as me so I stuck with that line. After a painfully long wait, I emerged in the bus terminal only to find that the bus had left (they only wait for 20 mins)!! Luckily, I met three other Malaysians who were in the same situation. They're all pretty young, like me, and all Chinese. They were speaking Mandarin and.... my Mandarin was just not good enough to follow. Sigh... Anyway, they speak English as well but they obviously found it weird that my Chinese was so bad. They decided to take the Causeway bus so I followed them. One of them even gave me 3 Ringgit to get on the bus. It costs 6 ringgits and I only had 3. They were really confused as to why I (an American) was taking a bus from Melaka to Singapore. I wish I talked to them a bit more but I was worried about this whole situation. My phone hadn't managed to connect with the SingTel network and I was having trouble calling my friend.

That entire situation just seemed so ridiculous and crazy but everything turned out okay, due to the help of friends and kindness of strangers. I got help from these Malaysian Chinese kids who were also traveling to Singapore. The SingTel sim card I had was given to me by a friend while I was in NYC. I managed to call up a friend from Cambridge who was back in Singapore and she picked me up from the bus station. We had dinner and she handed me over to another friend who I stayed with for a couple of nights.

Anyway, the next day (Sunday), I was taken around Singapore by a couple of friends I had met in Cambridge. The friend I stayed with spent quite a while planning out my day so that I would see everything in one day. She did a pretty good job. We went through Chinatown, Little India, walked through a housing complex and market, the waterfront, ate at hawker stores, even watched a bit of the national day rally speech when we got home. I think I blogged about how amazed  I was by the Singaporean city planning so I'll skip that here.

From Melaka

My friends were super fun to be with. Really glad they spent the time taking me around because otherwise I would've done everything a lot slower because I would have to rely on maps. Well, actually, we picked up a map at the tourist office and my friends put it to good use. They were using it quite a bit. We even lost our way trying to get to the waterfront to see the Merlion. We were tempted to ask the tourists next to us who were also trying to find their way. haha.

I flew out Monday morning and pretty much the entire family was at work by the time I got up. I don't know how I managed to sleep past all of them getting up. One of my friend's brothers got up and called a taxi for me. I think I can manage to call a taxi myself but they insisted that he get out of bed and help me. I was grateful for all this help of course because I wouldn't have been able to tell the driver how to get to the house. Anyway, they live really close to the airport and even with the rush hour surcharge, the taxi only cost S$10. It was raining and I had a lot of luggage so it was definitely worth it.

SEA Trip Wrap Up - Part 2: Melaka

Saturday, August 28th - Melaka. The bus took us to a shopping center next to a Tescos. By this point, I was really tired of carrying around all my luggage. They're pretty heavy. So I decided to get a taxi rather than trying to figure out the bus system. I met a pretty nice taxi driver who knew where the hotel is. The first taxi driver I met blanked on the name of the hotel and walked away. It was really strange. It was like he didn't care about getting my business at all. They weren't very keen on helping me with my luggage either. Anyway, I got to the hotel, checked in, and showered in the rain shower. The room was pretty decked out.

I needed food so I went out for a walk towards the city center. There were plenty of food places along the street that the hotel is on. I ate at a Chinese place where they served noodles with fish cake. Pretty good stuff since I was starving by that point.

The historical part of Melaka is pretty easy to find. Everything was labeled in Malay and English. There were a lot more tourists than I expected. I walked around the historical hill and harbor and found little cendol stand. They were swamped with customers so of course, I had to get my share. The cendol was really good. Not as sweet as the ones in Padang, which is good. They were closed by the time I got back to the same place two hours later. Sold out! I got the cendol at around 6pm and was in a big rush to find a good place to watch the sunset. I was walking along the river when I noticed that the sun is nowhere near setting. Then I realized that there is a one hour difference between here and Padang but it's really not that far. So sunset was at 7:30pm instead of 6:30pm. This threw me off my schedule.

From Melaka

From Melaka

cendol

From Melaka

I tried to go to Bukit Cina but ended up back at the historical hill. So I watched the sunset from there. The city doesn't really face west so it wasn't all that great. I spent a couple of hours walking around Jonker Walk, a night market in Chinatown and got some snacks. I ate dinner on the way back to the hotel.

From Melaka

From Melaka

fried potato on a stick

From Melaka

curry fish balls. spicy!

From Melaka

When I got to the hotel, my host was in the lobby talking to four of his friends who were also staying at the hotel that weekend. They had come to Melaka to scout out venues for a conference that they are holding. They were getting directions for some food places and took me along with them. So I had a late snack of satay, Melaka style. Then in the morning, they took with them to a dim sum place. The dim sum were serve on these small metal plates. The actual dim sum are super small but really tasty.

dim sum in Melaka

From Melaka

Really wish I had more time to eat around the city. Didn't even get to try the chicken rice balls! It was a nice trip though.

SEA Trip Wrap Up - Part 1

I need to backtrack a bit in my blogging. I didn't write very much about our last day in Padang, or my trips to Melaka and Singapore. I'll start with Padang.

Thursday, August 26th - Padang. After wandering through the market on our last day in Padang and Indonesia, we went back to the dorm to say goodbye to Andi and Fengky. Exchanging pictures took a long time because we (mostly Greg) took a lot of pictures. There were 4,000+ pictures in his hard drive. To see some of the good ones, see Greg's picasa web album (I hope he doesn't mind but he's in Thailand right now so he can't complain, haha):
http://picasaweb.google.com/103391124371495903854/PadangSummer2010#

We walked our friends out and picked up laundry. We took a picture with our laundry lady and her family. I think she was really surprised that we wanted a picture with her. It would have been nice to be able to print out the picture so that they can have a copy too. Maybe we can get someone do deliver it for us... We really wanted a picture with the bakso guy and his wife. Really like that place but they have been closed since Ramadhan started. Probably went on vacation.

We bought sate and rendang and took ojeks to the beach. This last sunset on the beach was really nice. Not sure we took any pictures though. We sort of just stood out in the water and got wet looking at the sunset. I don't believe in taking too many pictures. Always afraid that I might miss the actual thing. Our friend Kevin was with us and he said it was sad watching us out there, and how we must have been thinking about our past two months in Padang, how we would continue the project further, and a bunch of other stuff. Actually I was not thinking about anything in particular.

After dinner, we headed over to Pasar Seni. One of our friends got a lot of fresh fish for us and started barbecuing them for us when we got there. Lots of small fish and one really big one. The fish was really, really good and not too spicy. We stayed until midnight hanging out with everyone and got driven back home afterwards on three motorbikes. I felt like we were some kind of celebrity.

Then we spent the rest of the night packing. Our flight to KL was at 8:30am so we had to leave our place at 6am by taxi. We got back to the dorm at around 1am so we had about 5 hours to pack up everything. I managed to get an hour or so of sleep. Didn't feel too tired during the actual packing but passed out on the flight afterwards.

Friday, August 27 - Kuala Lumpur. The flight was definitely too short. After landing, I looked all over for a working ATM. The 3 ATMs that I could use were all out of order. What are the chances?! They did not take credit card at the bus ticket selling place so I ended up going to a money exchanger and exchanging $40 (USD) into ringgits. I had to go into the domestic arrivals to buy the bus ticket. There were no ATMs inside the domestic arrivals. I guess if you're arriving domestically, you should have ringgits with you. Anyway, I managed to be the last passenger on the bus. The bus was either really comfortable or I was just really tired and passed out again. I think Melaka itself deserves a separate post so I'll end here.