Gulliver's Travels...

Yes yes I know, I haven't updated my site in a while so this posting will try and summarize what I've been up to for the past week or so:
Thaipoosam: A Hindu festival in Singapore where participants attach spikes and such sharp metal objects through their back, face, nose, tongue, feet, etc. We went to the festival expecting to be disgusted but watching these men put themselves through enormous pain with a fixed trance-like devotion to God made me feel like a lesser person. Many spectators became emotional, and I felt a little overwhelmed too; makes you realize how different the self-serving culture of North America is to the Eastern philosophy of community and divinity. It was a cool experience, something I will probably never see again!

Sultan of Brunei: Yes, this is the very same royalty who invited Ms. America to be a guest in his country (for a reported sum of $250,000). Unwittingly she thought that she was going to be a distinguished foreign guest -- to her dismay and his pleasure she was essentially an over-priced hooker. Needless to say she filed for a sexual harasment suit once she got back to the US but nothing ever happened, money does buy you happiness! So this guy, received an honorary PhD in Law from NUS, Loc and I were lucky enough to witness the event and even luckier to eat at the Hyatt catered reception afterwards. Many notables were there, including the President of Singapore.

Kualampur, Malaysia: We visited the capital of Malaysia over the past weekend. Loc, Sonia, and I decided to take an overnight train (total cost for one-trip = $10cdn). The train was pretty sick except that it was over an hour late. We each had a bunk bed and I was on top :). We also met some MBA students from INSEAD (business school in France). We arrived in KL at 7am and didn't yet have a place to stay. The whole trip was kinda haphazardly planned so we kinda flew by the seat of our pants - which was fun but tiring. A bunch of other students from NUS were staying at a nice hotel so we put our bags there and did the tourist thing. Petronas towers (featured in Entrapment - tallest twin towers in the world - booyah NYC), and then the Batu Caves. A collection of temples carved out of a mountain. They were REALLY dirty due to some huge festival and monkey, cocks (as in the bird - perverts), and bats were everywhere. The place smelled like the toilet after Paan is done taking his daily shit and so we got the hell outta there ASAP. We then visited Chinatown -- Holy Fuck -- these guys have fake shit from Tag watches to Diesel shoes to DVDS. The largest size of shoe they had was a 12 and since those who know me know I where 13 -- I was shit outta luck. There XLs are also the equivalent of a Large/Medium back home so I was fucked again. But I did buy some DVDs and bracelets and some gifts for my mom. I also bought a nice necklace for Jennisa (happy? ;). I thought about Toops (shout out) but didn't get anything for him. (I had to put your name in somewhere -- happy you bastard). So - the night progressed - - we went to a jam (surprise surprise). The Beach is supposedly where the hookers go to pick up middle aged white men, so no one approached me. I was brown, broke, and smashed. We did have a good time though, 5 of us got a bottle of vodka upon entry and that set the tone for the night. I also wolfed down some hot n spicy mutton curry after the club (highlight of the night :).

This was an extremely high level view of my week -- I'll add some tidbits later. I'm going to Phuket this weekend...until next time...