Out of nowhere, the rain poured down in what seemed like bucket-fulls. Just two minutes before, it was clear skies (albeit a humid night). Visibility dropped to about 10-20 feet. Singaporean weather can be so fickle!
torrential downpour from Mary Qin on Vimeo.
The Night Festival, held outside the National Museum in Singapore one hot evening.
Check out the people drumming upside down at times!
fire show from Mary Qin on Vimeo.
ring of fireworks from Mary Qin on Vimeo.
Fireworks through the trees provide an interesting perspective.
fireworks through the trees from Mary Qin on Vimeo.
monkeys galore from Mary Qin on Vimeo.
Babies are just so awkward and cute. 🙂
baby monkey from Mary Qin on Vimeo.
At the Singapore Bird Park, there were quite the variety of birds to see! From frolicking penguins to macaws “making out” to upside-down parrots, it was quite the adventure.
penguins playing from Mary Qin on Vimeo.
macaws making out from Mary Qin on Vimeo.
bird climbing upside down from Mary Qin on Vimeo.
I don’t know if you’ve heard, but fish spas are the hottest thing to hit the beauty/skincare scene! They’ve been quite popular in many parts of Asia and I had been intrigued for many months before I finally got a chance to try it out when I was traveling in Thailand. Singapore also has a fair share of fish spas, as does most of SE Asia. I don’t know about China, since it seems they’re more caught up in the blind masseur thing. But in case you were ever so curious about what in the world “doctor fish” are and why in the world people would go to a fish spa, here’s a little preview!
Fish spas are supposed to be great for your skin, because these little fish come and nibble away your dead skin cells. They claim that people with skin conditions like eczema, psoriasis, and the like should get this type of treatment to help with breakouts. At the very least, you sure do leave with soft feet and a unique experience behind you. I’m sure you can read more about the actual types of fish and why it’s purportedly good for your skin, so I just wanted to share my own experience at the fish spa.
doctor fish from Mary Qin on Vimeo.
When the fish swarm at you, it really tickles! I couldn’t help but giggle out loud. 😛 After awhile you get used to it and occasionally there’s a little bite that hits a nerve, but overall it’s very gentle and immensely amusing. If you happen to know of one in LA, please do let me know! The only one in the states I found was in Virginia…
I got the 3D ones so they can stand on their own (the other ones are flat and only have two legs).
To continue my story about shopping (and sandals)…
Since my trip to Chatuchak, the big weekend market, didn’t yield anything to show for all my troubles, I decided to go to the Bangkok Night Bazaar for a second go at getting some Thai memorabilia. I instantly liked the place better – even though it had a smaller selection, it had more of the things I like. I managed to find some adorable little elephant keychains that would be perfect gift items. I came across a stall with the type of lamps that I’ve always wanted to get once I have my own place – it was a pity I couldn’t purchase them yet! I treated myself to a purple stone ring and a pair of earrings and I even got Panda a leather wallet (which I felt he needed as a symbol of professionalism).
I first saw a white one of these at Pinkberry's.
It tickles a lot at first. I had to take my feet out a few times and just giggle it out!
Was there a clump of yummy goodness there or something?
Just like grandpa's house, complete with white cloths to help the birds sleep!
I love that Chinese people use porcelain bowls to feed their birds!
Right next to that was the Flower Market, true to its name with a lot of flowers and plants in general. Actually, a lot of what they sold were just plants, but hey “Plant Market” hardly sounds as appealing, right? This place was a treasure trove, with brilliantly-colored flowers, plants shaped to look like little green creatures, bouquets bursting with all kinds of species, huge lily flowers, and even lotus flowers, complete with buds! My favorite were the vases that eat flies. I’ve always wanted a Venus flytrap, so any “carnivorous” plant will do! Oh, and I also liked the kitty who was sitting in one of the shops. 😛
A bit of a walk away was the Goldfish Market, which was more of an amazing animal market. It was mostly aquarium type animals, but I did find some adorable little kittens and even this crazy HUGE beetle that was about the size of a child’s fist. It was still true to its name though, with a huge variety of goldfish for sale, often put out in rows and rows of plastic bags, ready to be taken off the rack. Some were the normal goldfish you think of, but many were these cute globe-shaped ones, so plump they were practically spherical. I also came across some unassuming shells that turned out to be hermit crabs! I’d totally spend my weekends on this street if I lived in Hong Kong. I wish I could have gotten new pets, but alas, international travel with live animals is either a big no-no or is at least extremely troublesome.
Next up was the Ladies’ Market! At first I was afraid I’d miss it, but once I got to the street bordering one end of it, I discovered how silly that idea was. There was NO mistaking the dense market that suddenly appeared. I happy began my shopping spree, getting dresses and flip flops for myself, a tie for Panda, cuff links for the men at C&S, and compact mirrors for the ladies at C&S. I did a decent job bargaining (or at least I felt like I did) and I found some great stuff, so I was very happy by the end of it! Just for kicks, I dropped by the Jade Market and Night Market, but by then I was back to just window shopping. I did go by this one area that sold adult toys and such, which was completely random. I also managed to get a Lonpos set for only 10 HKD!!! After waiting a year and a half, it was completely worth it. The only other set I had found previously was around $100, so this was a fabulous deal.
All in all a great shopping experience! 🙂 My wallet even agrees, albeit reluctantly. ;-P
I took a little tour around SE Asia in July and my first stop was the capitol of Malaysia – Kuala Lumpur. I was told that it was pretty much just like Singapore, except less clean and that there wasn’t much to experience. Well, I was stubborn and kept it on my itinerary just because I wanted to see it for myself. It turned out to be a great choice and though there are decidedly fewer things to do there than a place like Singapore, it definitely had its own personality to offer.
My first unique experience was the monorail, which sit atop these concrete tracks suspended above the roads of the city. It’s nice to be able to look out and see things when you’re traveling, which is my one complaint against subways. Being underground and in the dark is just not very exciting. Floating over the cityscape is. Granted, they do move far more slowly and these little monorails don’t take many passengers (not that they need to). I got in pretty late that night, so I just went to my hostel to rest. I only left to go next door to get something to eat back at the hostel.
The next day I went to check out Batu Caves. I walked through Chinatown to get to the bus stop and was driven out to the surrounding countryside. A huge golden figurine guarded the stairway leading up to the cave, no doubt some sort of religious being meant to protect the place. There is a plaza area before you approach the stairs and on the string of lights in that area perched dozens of pigeons. Many more were cooing on the ground and the entire place was speckled with their droppings. I climbed up 272 steps to arrive at the foot of a big open-air cave in the middle of the mountain. The cave was mostly empty except for some roosters and, well, cavernous. I went to the other end where another set of stairs led up to an area that opened up directly to the sky and held a shrine or worshipping temple. On that side were a cluster of monkeys, climbing up and down the walls of the cave and running up and down the stairs.
On my way down the mountain, a man brought out bananas and began to throw them up the stairs towards monkeys that were streaming towards him. They grabbed whatever they could and horded what they caught, then each found their own place to enjoy their food. Being hungry myself, I decided to get some lunch after I explored the rest of the grounds and took a spin around a much larger temple structure at the base of the mountain. My lunch was pretty simple, just pickled vegetables and rice with a salty, crispy wafer of bread, but it was filling and good for my exhausted body.
A strange finding in the temple.
When I got back to the city, I walked around Central Market, where they had a lot of goodies for sale. There was a Fish Spa place where a lot of people were getting their feet nibbled at by the “doctor fish” that eat away your dead skin and leave your feet softer. I was tempted to give it a try, but decided that I would get around to it at another place. It’s pretty popular in some countries in Asia and at the least I knew there was a place back in Singapore that I could visit if I didn’t get around to it before then. Instead, I bought a little keepsake cloth art to remind me of the place and summer dress to wear when things got hot. I then wandered through Chinatown, too lazy to bargain and not really in a spending mood. I nearly stopped for a massage service but then decided against spending money and went back to the hostel.
At night, I went out to eat dinner and found myself in front of a huge shopping center called Pavilion. A beautiful fountain (Liuli Crystal Fountain) stands at the entrance of the massive collection of shops. I went inside for a stroll and found a lot of classy shops in a mall that’s probably twice the size of the largest mall I’ve ever been to before. There are something like six stories and the food court at basement level is four times as big as my own mall’s.
My final day there, I met with some people from the company distributing the Livescribe Pulse smartpen in Malaysia. I was treated to dim sum before we sat down to share our experiences and ideas. I was then taken to KLCC (Kuala Lumpur City Centre), where the iconic Petronas Twin Towers are. Yet another shopping center is situated at ground level there and I was shown the shops where the smartpen is being distributed. After a break for lunch (and sitting out a quick rainstorm), I was shown how the cloth art I purchased the day before is made. It’s called batik and they melt wax in these special “pens” and draw out designs on cloth. When the wax hardens, colors are painted on to the design and then the color of the cloth is “fixed” (not sure what that means or how it works). Cloths are then dewaxed and dried and the result is a pretty design with the white lines as areas where the wax was. Sometimes the wax is left on so the lines appear to be golden in color. A final pit stop at a chocolate-making factory was a bit less exciting since they wouldn’t actually let you view the process and only offered a huge shop with every flavor of chocolate imaginable (including durian and chili, for example).
They were using salt cystals to I guess "burn" a pattern when fixing the cloth color.
So all in all, I enjoyed myself and I’m glad I went to check out KL. Next time I go to Malaysia, I’d want to go to a coastal city to enjoy the ocean.
As I was putting up pictures from my trip to the Singapore Zoo today, I was once again struck by how open their design is. Carefully camouflaged in the moats and brush surrounding each animal’s area are barriers that have psychologically entrapped them to their designated space. Mostly it looked like electric wiring that taught the animals that once they tried to move out of a certain boundary zone, they’d get hurt. I don’t know if there were other things as well, but the cages that these animals were in were mostly of a mental construct. All you have to do is teach them enough times that going a certain place will cause discomfort or pain and they will soon stop trying to push that boundary again.
If they can climb around like that, they surely have the ability to escape. Maybe they just don't know it.
It made me wonder which is worse – to see the cage you’re being locked up in and know the physical boundaries that way, or to learn the physical boundaries through making mistakes initially and then psychologically maintaining those boundaries, whether or not they still exist. So though it was cool to see those animals with nothing obstructing my view, I hope they aren’t traumatized by this type of captivity. There was also a trade-off between how close you could get for pictures, since there had to be some sort of distance creating a barrier so it appears the animals cannot get to you, whether or not they actually can. At least there’s no fencing in the way of pictures (though there is annoying reflective glass)!
I just hope those animals aren’t suffering mentally because of this sort of subconscious control exerted on them. Just because it makes the experience better for us visitors doesn’t mean that it’s better for the animals too. I sincerely hope that the open layout is a win-win for both sides. I don’t want those poor animals to be paying both physically AND mentally/emotionally just so we can get a better zoo experience. That’s not worth the trade. I’m sure there are those who would argue a zoo in and of itself is not worth it though, so I guess it just depends on how far you want to take it.
I’m sure any of you who have looked carefully at a Chinese face have noticed that our eyes are shaped vastly differently from our Caucasian counterparts. We have these crazy eyelids that kind of fold into themselves from the eyelash area when we open our eyes, whereas Caucasians have a crease at the top of their eyelid where the skin folds in. Sometimes we’ll get this crease in the middle of our eyelid, toward the bottom and our eyes will start to fold in from there. Well, in Chinese culture, it is considered attractive to have that look, which is called “double eyelids” because now it looks like there are two parts, separated by the flap.
I naturally do not have double eyelids, merely single ones, but as a child, if I rubbed my eyes a lot, sometimes I could get a temporary crease. When I went back to China after high school, I took some glamor shots at a studio, where they taped little clear crescents onto my eyelids to simulate the look. It was fascinating to me that they would do that and I’ve always wondered if it really does look better. It certainly gives my eyes a little more dimension and now eyeliner applied along the top layer of lashes wouldn’t get buried in the depths of my eye when I opened them. It makes for more “Western” eyes, which, perhaps, is the point? It feels weird though, to have this crease in my eye, with skin folding up around it and sometimes I wonder if it’s one of those things like a displaced joint that needs a little boost to get back into place. There’s certainly a kind of pressure there and opening my eyes larger makes that feeling even more pronounced.
Sometime while I was in Singapore (and I didn’t notice at all), I somehow developed a double eyelid. That’s right, just one. So now my eyes are uneven (much like everything else in my body) and I wonder if one eye looks bigger because of this incongruency. It’s kind of cool and it has been pretty permanent, but I wonder how long this will last. Will the other eye change too? Will this one go back? Or am I stuck with one single eyelid and one double eyelid? Since I have no idea how I got the first one to begin with, I have no idea how to make my other eyelid like that, or undo this one. I guess it’s fun though, to observe the differences side by side and feel the differences when I open my eyes.
My trusty scale.
I’ve been back for just about five days now and not worked out once. Instead, I’ve gone to all-you-can-eat Korean BBQ, stuffed myself with a huge plateful of dumplings, scarfed down a gigantic serving of kimchi fried rice, and fed myself otherwise unhealthy amounts of food. I’m still happily one jeans size smaller and ten pounds lighter then when I left for Singapore, but who knows how long that will last. When I first discovered this weight loss, I couldn’t believe it. I was at the doctor’s and using a kg scale and the conversion just didn’t seem right. But since I’ve come back I’ve tried a handful of different scales and even tried on pants one size smaller to confirm. Time and time again, I’ve been amazed that I weigh what I haven’t since my high school days. Of course it’s not just about weight, but I do feel more sprightly now (though that may just be psychological, who knows). Nonetheless, it feels good and I’m still a healthy weight. So, to keep it that way, I’ve really got to buckle down and get myself to work out during the day at some point, but it’s just too easy to fall back into my lazy routine.
Oh yes, a most familiar scene.
Let me describe to you my life after college and before my stint in Singapore. I’d wake up ridiculously late, anywhere from 2 or 3 in the afternoon to even 6 PM at times. I’d casually drag myself out of bed in the heat and either go downstairs to pig out for a bit or go online and sit on the bed, typing away. At some point I’d hop in the shower to wash away the grossness from lounging around all day. I’d eat dinner around 8 PM and occasionally go for a nighttime stroll with my mother afterwards, as I promised my dad I would when he went back to China and couldn’t accompany her anymore. We’d walk for about an hour in the brisk night, then I’d get back and hop straight back into bed, prop myself up, and go online for the remainder of the night. I even set up a little snack station next to my bed, so a variety of food and drinks would be available within arms reach. I’d stay up all night on my laptop and fall asleep sometime between 6-9 AM, when the world lit up again and everyone else around me was just starting their day.
It’s no wonder I didn’t lose any of the weight I’d gained in college, despite eating less overall. Instead, my belly grew out a little and my thighs thickened, though of course I never noticed a thing, with such gradual changes. I don’t want that to happen to me again, so I’m trying to spend less time working on the bed and go downstairs to the dining room table to go online. I’ve also been keeping busy meeting up with people and hanging out in the places that I love. Unfortunately, much of that involves food, and plenty of it! It’s ok though, I just need to get off my butt and get my heart rate up to keep off any buildup. Maybe I’ll dust off that bike in the garage, or maybe I’ll bring out my beloved longboard. I do plan on learning how to surf once Ninja gets back from being Indiana Jones, so that should help with toning!
But for now, I have little motivation and all the reason to lounge around in bed all day. I’ve really got to start looking for a job though.
