Well, I am officially done with my internship in Singapore. This has been an incredible journey filled with incredible people, fun experiences and lots of traveling. I will be leaving tomorrow morning to meet up with my fellow Duck classmates in China for two weeks before returning to school. I cannot wait to see everyone, I have missed you all a lot. I just wanted to give a special thank you to everyone I have met here that has helped me to have an incredible experience I will never forget. Everyone at the hostel was amazing, even the temporary roommates who drove me nuts, and I would definitely consider staying in a hostel again. It has its challenges, but in the end I cannot imagine staying anywhere else and having as good of a time. The manager SK was incredible and very helpful, I am lucky I got to stay here. Also my American counterparts here Rachel and Prashant have kept me sane (for the most part) and I want to thank the both of you for sharing in this great summer with me.
At work, I have to thank all of my coworkers for putting up with me and doing absolutely everything in their power to make my stay here a great one. Bob, Syed, Lenard, Farah, Jen and the entire crew at SPEX house, you have all been great friends and coworkers and I thank you for everything you have done for me. You are all some of the most genuine and generous people I have ever met. I wish you all nothing but the absolute best and truly hope to keep in touch. To my buddy Matt, who was also there and helpful for anything I needed and took charge of showing me around I will miss you terribly. I never knew I enjoyed British humor so much (or that anyone did) but I wish you the the best at Sports School. And last but not least Sarah, who had the unfortunate task of dealing with me from the moment I arrived in the country. Even though you probably still cannot spell my name, I will never forget how great you were to me. You are all amazing and thank you.
I hope you all have found my blog entertaining, and I hope I haven't offended too many of you in the process. This has been an incredible summer in Singapore, and I cannot wait to see what lies ahead in China. Thank you again city of Lions!!!
Saturday, September 8, 2012
Sunday, September 2, 2012
Bali-wood
Good morning sports fans. A very special good morning to all you Duck fans out there, congrats on starting the season off right! Scoooooooo Ducks!!! Ok so now that that's out of the way, on to the next topic: my weekend in Bali! The most recent stop on the "Ameer's tour of South East Asia" was the beautiful island of Bali in Indonesia. The trip started well with a decent flight, although it seemed like the pilot landed the plane on one wheel... kinda felt like he was doing a trick. I wasn't too happy about that but I was in Bali so who was I to complain?? Turns out you have to PAY to get into the country and to leave! Entry visas into Bali are $25 and Departure taxes are $15. I was already in the hole $40 without having stepped outside the airport. Not good for my cheap tendencies.
Stepping out into the Bali air was shocking, because it was actually breezy and cool! I haven't felt a breeze in over 2 months, I almost wanted to throw on a jacket I was astounded. The airport in Bali left something to be desired, as it was pretty run down but supposedly "improvements are underway." Once waiting forever to get through customs and staring at a sign that read "Smuggling drugs into Bali is punishable by death!" you make your way down an old corridor without 15 people in single foreign currency exchange booths begging for you to choose them. The poor people looked so bored and lonely, but there was no way I was changing money with them. They had all their rates hand-written and I was sure to lose money somehow. We walked outside to find out hostel shuttle amidst about a thousand other drivers all holding up signs. You would have thought it was a red carpet, but instead of cameras people were holding up names. We found ours in a sea of names and maneuvered through the thousands of motorbikes to the road on our 15 minute trip to the hostel. I have been to Amsterdam, and they say there are more bikes than people there. In Bali, it's motorbikes. They are everywhere! And from what I saw there are no lanes or rules of the road, people just cruise on out wherever they like. Don't know how we made it back safely but we did. It was almost 1 am when we got there, so we decided to turn in and head out to the beach early in the morning.
The next morning we hit the beach and it was gorgeous. The sun was out, the water was cool and there were millions of surfers out in the waves. So many in fact that they actually discouraged swimming in a lot of parts of the beach for safety. After walking around the beach for a while we grabbed a spot by the water and laid out ready to soak in all the sun I wasn't going to be seeing for the following 9 months. After applying a generous amount of sunscreen, we were out in the sun ALL DAY. People would come over and try to sell us everything from ice cream, to sarongs, to a cross bow! I actually considered the cross bow. Oh and there was one European lady who decided to go topless. For some reason she became the most popular woman on the beach... don't know why. It was so relaxing and I made sure to ignore the signs and go swimming/bodysurfing a few times as well. It was a beautiful day, unfortunately when I headed back I was sunburned everywhere! My body was on fire, and it did not feel good. The shower after was filled with screams of pain, especially once the gritty towel from the hostel came into play. After going out to dinner I didn't feel up to doing much since I was so sunburned, so we stayed in and watched a marathon of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. It was awesome, I miss TV.
The next day after an uncomfortable and restless sleep, we set out to visit the shops of Bali in the bustling downtown area. Bali was not near;y as cheap as Bangkok, but still plenty of options to bargain or haggle. As long as you don't mind paying more for lower quality products. I considered buying a counterfeit watch, but did not find anything in the price range I was willing to pay. The shopkeepers over there were incredibly aggressive, and even followed you down the street trying to coax you into buying their products. All I gotta say is, if you want to buy a fake Rolex, Oakley sunglasses or beats headphones... head to Bali. You can get all 3 for less than $60. The area we were in was very touristy, so there wasn't much local food available. But the food there was pretty cheap as well, and most of the meals we had were under $5. I could really get used to such cheap food. After the shops we went back to the hostel to lounge around at the pool, get even more tan/sunburned and have pool-service food brought to us. It was really a tough life.
The evening capped off with a very nice dinner at a beautiful hotel restaurant. The view was overlooking the street, and the food was delicious. The fanciest dinner we had there was only $30 total. And that was for steak, lamb, and appetizers. What a deal. Other than the waiters who could not pronounce names, though insisted on continuously trying and repeatedly getting it wrong. I felt like I was watching the skit on SNL when the Scandinavian family can't pronounce the names of people even though its like Scott or Mark. The guy called Rachel Carol, Raquel, Rachelle, and something else unintelligible. It was hilarious, but they really tried.
Overall, it was a very relaxing trip. Lots of lounging, eating, and sun-tanning. I would highly recommend traveling around this part of the world when you get a chance because it is absolutely beautiful. Unfortunately there was no crocodile farm this trip, so we did not get to see anyone else die. Oh well, I will always love Bangkok!
Stepping out into the Bali air was shocking, because it was actually breezy and cool! I haven't felt a breeze in over 2 months, I almost wanted to throw on a jacket I was astounded. The airport in Bali left something to be desired, as it was pretty run down but supposedly "improvements are underway." Once waiting forever to get through customs and staring at a sign that read "Smuggling drugs into Bali is punishable by death!" you make your way down an old corridor without 15 people in single foreign currency exchange booths begging for you to choose them. The poor people looked so bored and lonely, but there was no way I was changing money with them. They had all their rates hand-written and I was sure to lose money somehow. We walked outside to find out hostel shuttle amidst about a thousand other drivers all holding up signs. You would have thought it was a red carpet, but instead of cameras people were holding up names. We found ours in a sea of names and maneuvered through the thousands of motorbikes to the road on our 15 minute trip to the hostel. I have been to Amsterdam, and they say there are more bikes than people there. In Bali, it's motorbikes. They are everywhere! And from what I saw there are no lanes or rules of the road, people just cruise on out wherever they like. Don't know how we made it back safely but we did. It was almost 1 am when we got there, so we decided to turn in and head out to the beach early in the morning.
The next morning we hit the beach and it was gorgeous. The sun was out, the water was cool and there were millions of surfers out in the waves. So many in fact that they actually discouraged swimming in a lot of parts of the beach for safety. After walking around the beach for a while we grabbed a spot by the water and laid out ready to soak in all the sun I wasn't going to be seeing for the following 9 months. After applying a generous amount of sunscreen, we were out in the sun ALL DAY. People would come over and try to sell us everything from ice cream, to sarongs, to a cross bow! I actually considered the cross bow. Oh and there was one European lady who decided to go topless. For some reason she became the most popular woman on the beach... don't know why. It was so relaxing and I made sure to ignore the signs and go swimming/bodysurfing a few times as well. It was a beautiful day, unfortunately when I headed back I was sunburned everywhere! My body was on fire, and it did not feel good. The shower after was filled with screams of pain, especially once the gritty towel from the hostel came into play. After going out to dinner I didn't feel up to doing much since I was so sunburned, so we stayed in and watched a marathon of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. It was awesome, I miss TV.
The next day after an uncomfortable and restless sleep, we set out to visit the shops of Bali in the bustling downtown area. Bali was not near;y as cheap as Bangkok, but still plenty of options to bargain or haggle. As long as you don't mind paying more for lower quality products. I considered buying a counterfeit watch, but did not find anything in the price range I was willing to pay. The shopkeepers over there were incredibly aggressive, and even followed you down the street trying to coax you into buying their products. All I gotta say is, if you want to buy a fake Rolex, Oakley sunglasses or beats headphones... head to Bali. You can get all 3 for less than $60. The area we were in was very touristy, so there wasn't much local food available. But the food there was pretty cheap as well, and most of the meals we had were under $5. I could really get used to such cheap food. After the shops we went back to the hostel to lounge around at the pool, get even more tan/sunburned and have pool-service food brought to us. It was really a tough life.
The evening capped off with a very nice dinner at a beautiful hotel restaurant. The view was overlooking the street, and the food was delicious. The fanciest dinner we had there was only $30 total. And that was for steak, lamb, and appetizers. What a deal. Other than the waiters who could not pronounce names, though insisted on continuously trying and repeatedly getting it wrong. I felt like I was watching the skit on SNL when the Scandinavian family can't pronounce the names of people even though its like Scott or Mark. The guy called Rachel Carol, Raquel, Rachelle, and something else unintelligible. It was hilarious, but they really tried.
Overall, it was a very relaxing trip. Lots of lounging, eating, and sun-tanning. I would highly recommend traveling around this part of the world when you get a chance because it is absolutely beautiful. Unfortunately there was no crocodile farm this trip, so we did not get to see anyone else die. Oh well, I will always love Bangkok!
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| Entrance to the beach |
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| What a view |
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| You can't see the hole in my trunks from here |
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| When in Bali, have fish eat your feet |
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| Bustling sidewalk |
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| Too many comments. |
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| Not a bad room. Complete with LCD TV! |
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| Pool right below the room |
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| Outside our hostel |
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| Bali runs on Dunkin' |
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| Airport surrounded by ocean... |
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| Getting sunburned... |
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