Oh man, I’ve been meaning to write this for ages. Specifically on the first day of 2019. As you can tell, I’m an expert at procrastination.
So many things have happened since my last post, but two main things have remained the same. My mother-in-law, Raya, is still in Busan, and we’re still here in Singapore.
I’ve actually been doing a ton of traveling, mostly for work, and at first I’d wanted to continue posting, but I’d made the mistake of getting an iPhone SE with only 16GB of memory, which means I had to constantly back up and delete pictures which became a major pain.
BUT! I now have an Android-powered Huawei P20 Pro! More pictures! And with better quality! YES!
Eh, close enough
Anyway, before I get into the other stuff, our plans have changed quite drastically. After considering France, we’d agreed that it might not be practical, and Raya decided on Jeju-Do instead. I was pretty stoked. But again, there’s no direct flights to it, and since most of her siblings are on the mainland, it made her understandably concerned about being somewhat isolated.
In the end, she settled on Incheon, which is where the main airport is located, which you’d fly into to get to Seoul! Gotta say, I’m stoked about this too! At long last I might see Seoul! And of course, the ticket prices are gonna be cheaper too, since we’d be able to take direct flights.
Right now though, there’s a sort of property downturn, and no one’s buying or selling. Hell, she’d even drastically reduced the cost of her luxury apartment, and yet there are no buyers still. Not even prospective ones. So she’s staying put in Busan for now.
In the meantime, things are going pretty well for me in my current role! Been traveling often to KL and even been to Bangkok twice, hopefully with more trips to come.
There really is so much to write about, but for now, I’ll share a few pictures of the places I’ve been.
First, Bangkok!
View from the roof of the Avani Riverside Hotel, in BangkokPretty common sight in BangkokOn one of my quests to find Halal food in Bangkok
Next, Kuala Lumpur!
Actually, I haven’t had the time yet to take many new pictures so um, keep tuned!
Spent a week in KL recently for a conference and to meet a few prospects. Nowadays I travel to KL for work every other week, sometimes for a day, sometimes longer. The last time I’d been in the city proper before this job was probably around 17-20 years ago. HOLY CRAP I AM OLD!
Anyway, it’s a mixed bag to me. If you live in Singapore and head over there, it’s like being in a different version of the same video game level. You’d know immediately that it’s different, but at first you’d probably struggle to identify the specific differences.
But first! Here’s a picture I took on the way to the hotel from the airport:
Buildings! And clouds! How exciting!
It was a 40-min ride (“WHAT??” – Singaporean who’d never left the country before).
I’d take Grab or Uber everywhere I went, so it took me a while to notice that it is NOT pedestrian-friendly! I once booked a hotel that was geographically close to the client’s location, thinking I was so clever. “Ha!” I thought to myself “It’ll be so easy to get to the client’s location! I will not be wasting time with a long commute and will therefore be more productive!”
What is typically a 10-min walk in Singapore, turned out to be more like 30 minutes. Brilliant.
Stayed at Holiday Inn Express, which was OK for the most part. Had a visitor in the form of a small cockroach so that was nice since I was getting a little bit lonely.
Also, I only remembered to take a picture at night. So yeah.
The conference was scheduled to begin two days later, so after the last meeting on the first day, I figured I better get my shopping in now.
Now I could see the twin towers (Suria KLCC) from my room, but since it’s KL, walking would probably take me a few days and by the time I arrived I would’ve had a long beard and a volleyball named Wilson.
Fortunately a nice lady was going near where I was headed, so she offered to escort me to where I’d just need to get off just one or two more stops to the KLCC station.
I was NOT expecting to cross busy roads in dimly-lit areas at night. But I made it! Either that, or this is a really crappy dream.
Behold! A mall! With a giant peacock inside of it!
I think it was just after Deepavali, so there were a ton of Indian tourists there and the festive decorations were nice. But the mall was huge and I was tired. Can’t recall if I got everything I wanted in the first evening, but over the next couple of days I would return and complete my… destiny. Shopping. Just a little bit.
I’d been missing quite a few hours of sleep throughout the week, so I figured that at the end of a long first day, I’d at least get to recharge without being interrupted.
Me at 2.59am: Ahh… recharging. Gonna wake up fresh for a brand new day tomorrow!
The building opposite the hotel at 3am: HAHAHAH LISTEN TO MY ALARM ALL NIGHT LONG, YOU FOOLISH MORTAL!
So yeah. That happened.
Lack of sleep is probably why I can’t recall taking this picture just outside the hotel:
Loved how they tacked on “with LAW” at the end, as if it were a nice additional topping in a salad.
Whenever I’m in town, I try to find food that I normally couldn’t get the Halal version of back home. Lo and behold next to the hotel lobby:
O’Briens!
Yea I know… I know… it’s nothing to scream about but I love places like these, and Halal ones are hard to find in Singapore.
It was a little intimidating at first, I’ll admit. When they ask what you want, naturally assuming that you, a fully-grown adult male in a suit, would know what you want. But I was just in awe of all the choices. So… many… choices…
Once I must’ve ordered something extraordinary “Jalapenos? Cranberries? Eggs? Sauce made from the happy tears of yellow Yaks that reside in a temple in the Himalayas? YES PLEASE. ALL OF THEM. NO. ONE WRAP. ALL. OF. THEM.” because the girl actually called out to her colleagues and exclaimed in Malay about how… unreal it was.
So anyway yea, loved O’Briens.
Like Singapore, there’s an interesting mix of old colonial-era buildings and spanking new concrete and glass towers, quite similar to Singapore.
What was interesting though is that nearly at all times, you could see the remnants of a forest trying to make a comeback. Overgrown grass next to sidewalks, vines and what seemed to me like little patches of forest here and there, in between buildings, next to expressways, under overpasses.
On the second-last day I think, I finally got to leave the conference a little earlier and got to see the towers in broad daylight, as opposed to seeing them only in the evening like some kind of vampire without all the cool powers.
They… they looked bigger in-person
Oh, and this was me on the final day of the conference.
Yeah.
Headed back to the airport and was surprised by a pretty cool cover of “Mentera Semerah Padi”, by M. Nasir. Probably the only Malay song I kind of like.
Yea overall it wasn’t a bad trip, and KL’s starting to grow on me. Which is what I thought. Until I missed my most recent flight and had to spend more than 12 goddamn hours at KLIA.
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