Recess Week part II: Big Hit in Thailand

We said goodbye to Vietnam for the moment and hailed to another South East Asia beauty: Bangkok. As for now I'm still in a speechless and *shaking-my-head* mode of all the amazingly random things there, but let's start on the Pattaya day trip. It was the closest beach to Bangkok so it's a good way of sampling the beauty of Thai beaches. First activity in Pattaya, though, was riding the elephants. Yes, there's an elephant village near the beach. Only in Thailand haha. The beach was quite crowded during the day, and from what I heard Pattaya is actually one of the quite shady spots in Thailand where the tourists love to go. Oh well, beach wasn't quite a big deal but Tiffany's Show definitely was! It was the Broadway for prettiest and most talented lady boys in Thailand. They were such princesses and they'd chase after you after the show to get you take a picture with them (and hence your tip).

So what does a city tour of Bangkok look like? Temples, temples, and more temples. Oh, and the grand palace that looks like a temple too. If you're feeling cheap, look for one of those 3-cents tuk-tuk ride. The driver would tale you to few temples but he got a task for the passengers. Beside taking you to the temples, he would take you to jewelry stores and ask you to pretend to be a potential buyer so that he can get the free gasoline voucher to take you around.

Khao San road is where the wild things are, as featured in the "Hangover 2". Backpacker ghetto full of night market stalls, massage houses, bars, restaurants, lady boys, and other random happenings. Shopping there isn't so great, but street pad thai is cheap and decent. It was raining so we decided to go into the McDonald's, ordered a drink, and eat our pad thai dinner there. All the sudden, a random Vietnamese Australian guy with his friend asked if we were Singaporeans. How have we become such, oh my? Apparently these guys were past NTU exchange students who are just spending months travelling in Southeast Asia at the moment. They have been, let's just say, through a lot of random things. But they knew where the free and hygienic toilet is where they also gave free soda (which happened to be a pub with lady boys as ushers). And they know how to distinguish lady boys from real ladies accurately, which is by asking directly (Ann tried this to a hostel employee before asking about nearby shows but he gave a not-so-pretty face. Woops). No offense to Thai ladies (you're amazing just the way you are), but that got me to question the femininity of the ladies I saw in Thailand thereafter.

Ok so the overall best thing to do in Bangkok, well other than getting Thai massage, is shopping.  Chatuchak market is where you can find everything under the sun, but I prefer the cheap and trendy fashion items. Not satisfied? Head to the outdoor market at Siam Square on the way back but expect slightly higher prices. Still have money to splurge? Go to the 81st floor of Baiyoke Sky, which is the tallest building in Bangkok, and get a nice buffet dinner with the best view of Bangkok just for about US$ 20.

Pre-Recess Week Post

So the moon cake festival at Takashimaya was not disappointing at all despite of what everyone said regarding "No need to go Taka, can do at any mall". What a huge festival with a LOT of moon cakes to sample. I've never seen so many varieties of moon cakes before such as durian, red wine, chocolate, caramel, red beans, even Angry Birds. Kudos to Matt, the local buddy of my UK exchange friends, who guided us through and took us for the fish and chips dinner long-missed by the UK chemists bunch (Yup they're all chemistry majors.No offense to the engineers, but eating with engineers is getting overrated after 4 years of Drexel).

After church Sunday, I went with Ann, Rensy, and Purun to Swensen's. We can say it was quite a spontaneous plan. As a buffet fan, I haven't tried to go to any self-serve buffet in Singapore. It was only a dessert buffet, but that's exactly why it's perfect for girls outing time :) First time I have a piece of real carrot cake in Singapore (as opposed to their carrot cake). We had such a great time that me and Rensy almost forgot that we had a Chomp Chomp dinner appointment with Louis and Rayden, local buddies of ours. More local tastes from the best hawker centre in Singapore (I had asked more than 5 locals to confirm this).

So what's next? Recess week is here! I just need to attend 2 presentations tomorrow morning then off I fly to Ho Chi Minh in Vietnam. The 4 of us (Rensy, Ann, Diana, and I) are travelling together this time. We'll spend Friday through Wednesday exploring Ho Chi Minh and staying at Rensy's house. Another bunch of exchange friends is joining us on Sunday and Monday as they come down from Hanoi and would continue their journey to Phnom Penh. Comes Wednesday, we'll be in Bangkok until Sunday. Very excited for this trip of a lifetime ;)

Back from Discovery Weekend

Another week of Singapore awesomeness was just behind me. It's been raining every single day, but today the sun was shining so brightly. A call to do laundry for me haha :D Anyhow, class assignments and readings have started to pick up their dynamics as groups are being formed for our various term projects. Praise the Lord that I got into that one Friday morning class that I thought I wouldn't get. I know the timing sucks, but I need it to graduate. I also joined another club on campus called Deli Aprecio. We had our first meeting this past week, and I'm excited for the activities planned for this club. Woaa, so busy lah. And in the midst of all, I was able to fit a weekday lunch with Giang, a fellow Dragon ending her co-op abroad with Scoot. I visited her during her lunch at Changi and we went for some Japanese food. She's flying back to US in a week or so, and as for now I just don't wanna imagine myself doing the same yet. Send my regards to Broad St., Giang!

A backpacking trip for recess week is being planned as well. I would spend 10 days in Southeast Asia with my girls Diana and Rensy. The original plan was to do Vietnam-Cambodia-Thailand, yet due to safety reasons we've just decided to call Cambodia off and spend more time exploring the other 2 instead. Definitely exciting stuff!

By the way, I've just came back from an overnight Discovery Weekend organized by the lovely campus staffs here at Singapore Cru for college seniors. I heard some cool testimonies as well as talks that were intended to equip all of us to discern God's calling for our lives after graduation. Something that God has put in my heart since last year's Radiate conference was to dedicate a year post my graduation to intern with GAiN. Somehow, I dismissed that call and insisted that it wasn't for me until a couple weeks before I left for Singapore. I felt like God was really pressing it hard on my heart during those times until I couldn't stop thinking about it and finally fell on my knees. After some period of struggles in prayer, I finally forwarded the long-abandoned email from a GAiN staff I met through Radiate to another person in-charge of the interns. I guess we'll wait and see how God's plan for me in this unfolds as we pray for His will to be revealed in my life.