Category > Asia

Feb 8, 2015
India
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Steep

Munnar, India

Screeching tires on every hairpin turn. Passing smaller vehicles, or at least vigorously honking at them, on a one-lane mountain-side road. Radio reception dropping every so often, rudely interrupting whatever Hindi or Tamil film song I was bopping along to. Getting hit by branches through the pane-less windows every few seconds. Me, literally flying out of my seat every few seconds. (Don’t sit in the back of an Indian bus.) Such was my final Tamil Nadu bus ride of five hours, going from dry plains to steep mountainous forest, and my first stop in Kerala. I actually did get a little light-headed, both from the relatively quick altitude gain and just general motion-sickness.

Then all of a sudden… tea.
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Feb 6, 2015
India
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Devotion

Chidambaram, Thanjavur, and Madurai, India

Upon Uncle’s recommendation, Therese and I headed for three cities and three temples in three days — one per morning, before the heat makes it uncomfortable. First, we bussed over to Chidambaram.
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Feb 1, 2015
India
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Wedding

Chennai, India

Getting out of the airport felt… familiar. Back on India time, two hour luggage wait and all. Back to haggling for a ride. Back to the chaotic traffic and honking and lane-ignoring auto-rickshaws and nearly being run over every time I cross the street. A lot may be different down south, but it’s still India, and it feels good to be back after four years.

I’m here this time for my NUS friend Dhiviya, who’s getting married. She’s connected me with a few of her other friends living in Singapore who are also here for the wedding, Jayasri and Deepika, who are more than happy to explain everything that’s going on, and Therese, a non-Indian who has never been to an Indian wedding. Now this’ll be fun.
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Jan 30, 2015
United Arab Emirates
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Restless

 Dubai, United Arab Emirates

On my way to India from Boston, and on my way back to Boston from Sri Lanka, I had 8 and 12 hour layovers respectively in Dubai. Both overnight, that left about 2-4 hours each night to do something in the city before attempting to sleep on a chair in the airport. (Not pleasant.)

Shoutout to my friend Abhishek, who gave me some great tips! …which due to my own fault, I was unable to follow.
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Aug 11, 2012
Turkey
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Wrong time

Istanbul, Turkey

I was supposed to travel through Turkey with Sally for two weeks.  When I received the bad news, I wanted to cancel my flight entirely.  Unfortunately, that wasn’t possible.  But with my Schengen zone allowance running out and Istanbul being a good hub city to go anywhere, I eventually decided to take the flight anyway and completely restructured the rest of my trip to re-allot the non-Schengen days I was to spend in Turkey to other countries I hadn’t planned on going to.

I think that Sally probably would’ve wanted me to continue travelling Turkey.  But I knew I wouldn’t be able to handle it – and I think my short stay in Istanbul only confirmed that.  I did do some sight seeing, met some people, had a nice time…but the whole time, I couldn’t help thinking of who was missing.  One day, another year, I’ll come back and do Turkey some justice, see it with a better mindset. Continue reading →

Aug 8, 2012
Israel
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Two sides

Tel Aviv, Israel

Rather than taking the same way back we came to keep the stamp out of my passport (Bernhard didn’t care anymore), we took the risk and crossed from Aqaba, Jordan to Eilat, Israel.  Despite having no entry stamp into Jordan and no form with the stamp either, they let us through – it just took some explanation and a big smile.  Israel, as usual, offered the option to stamp on a piece of paper; this time I got the form, which certainly makes leaving the country easier.  (I wonder what Israelis think of this whole security thing.  We were told, “You look nervous!” when we approached, despite being far from it – intimidation factor?  We were questioned at length about how we knew each other, what exactly we were doing in Singapore, and a ton of personal details unrelated to the trip.  Yet going through the bag check, I had an agent who was cracking jokes.  But again, going through it all with a smile always works.)

Realising that in all of Israel, we had only seen the ethnically and religiously divided Jerusalem, Bernhard and I decided to head to Tel Aviv to catch a better glimpse of Israeli life.  We admittedly had low expectations at first – Tel Aviv has an international reputation of being a hard-partying city, with its big beach and nightlife – but came away pleasantly surprised and extremely positive. Continue reading →

Aug 5, 2012
Jordan
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Hospitality

Aqaba, Jordan

We arrived in Aqaba, intending to partake in some snorkelling (diving being out of the question with my eardrum almost but not fully recovered) or just some beach time by the Red Sea.

Well, that went out the window pretty fast.  At the hotel, a big gust of wind blew the door shut…on my fingers.  Profuse bleeding on the floor commenced.  My right ring fingertip was badly bruised, but my middle fingertip was a completely mangled mess.

The hotel receptionist helped me out, cleaning my wound with alcohol (OWWW) before taking me to a pharmacy nearby, as he had no bandaging.  A curious old man, the owner of a souvenir shop beside the pharmacy, came in with us.  The pharmacist was a woman in niqab (wearing the full face veil save for the eye slit) – obviously for a Muslim woman that devout, she couldn’t touch or treat me.  Handing over more alcohol, gauze, and tape, the receptionist and the kind old man followed her direction and wrapped me up. Continue reading →

Aug 3, 2012
Jordan
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Solitude

Wadi Rum, Jordan

Given how I seem to suffer from heat exhaustion and a stomach illness after each desert visit I do (well, all of two), I was initially apprehensive about coming to Wadi Rum.

Oh, how naive I can be sometimes.  I certainly didn’t suffer at all this time – in fact, Wadi Rum was at a downright comfortable temperature most of the time – but I certainly didn’t expect the scenery that was coming.  (Again, I’m glad I didn’t spoil myself with photos beforehand!)  I’ve been travelling for awhile now, and certainly I’m a little bit jaded, but this one really blows everything out of the water.  Oh, and I had no idea that this area is where T.E. Lawrence (“Lawrence of Arabia”) was based.  I also have no knowledge of his story, other than what I’ve just learned while there – he worked for the British as a liaison to the Arabs, in support of their revolt against the Ottoman Turks; though friendly to the Arabs, he struggled with the knowledge that his assistance was with an ulterior British motive and tried unsuccessfully to fight for Arab independence.  I’ve also never watched that famous movie (also filmed in this area)…but I guess I’ll have to now!  More recent movies have been filmed here as well, usually with Wadi Rum standing in for alien planets given the stark landscape and the red sand. Continue reading →

Aug 2, 2012
Jordan
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Wonder

Petra, Jordan

Petra is Jordan’s star attraction, and it’s not hard to see why.  I came in not having seen any pictures, knowing absolutely nothing about the sight other than its reputation as a must-see destination, a formerly lost city.  We began our first day at 6 am, hoping to avoid both the crowds and the heat.

The approach is long – a 15 minute walk from the town of Wadi Musa (“valley of Moses”, so named as tradition states this is where Moses struck a rock with his staff, releasing water), then a few hundred metres from the visitor centre to the Siq, passing a few tombs in the process.  Impressive already…and then we reached the Siq. Continue reading →