Return to the homeland: Chillin' with marine life (and then some) in Singapore

Singapore: Land of my birth, cleanliness, and strangely evil-looking Merlion statues.

I took an express night train from Malaysia to Singapore, but, apparently, the train wasn't so express after all. In fact, during the night, it almost derailed (or something like that), so I ended up arriving in Singapore 7 hours late. Well, better late and alive than...er, something else, I say. Yay!

Singapore has been great so far. It's my first time back in about 19 years (since I left as a 6 year-old). Needless to say, I don't remember much in terms of what things looked like, but the weirdest experiences make me recall memories from my youth -- in particular, eating some of the local food, with which my aunt, uncle, and cousins are stuffing me silly (no complaints from my end, though...)!

I wish I could say these cuties were the same ones I saw when diving, but they are courtesy of my trip to Underwater World, which is quite possibly the coolest thing next to scuba diving itself.

My family has also been taking me around to see some of the more popular, "touristy" sites. Today, I went to Sentosa Island. Nice family fun, really...especially Underwater World! Some pics follow below, some of them demonstrating the crazy things that one ends up doing when a few persistent cousins provide a bit of encouragement.

Fishies!

Encouraged to pet a pink/humpback dolphin...

...persuaded to put a large snake around my neck...

...and, after such crazy behavior, why not go all out and take a picture of some cranes blocking the Singapore skyline? In this brave endeavor, no encouragement from my relatives was needed. I'm really such a daredevil!

Blogging backwards from Paradise...sorta

Um, yeah. So I don't really know why I left this, but I did.

Hello, everyone! Well, seeing that I have been negligent in my blogging duties, I suppose I'll have to write about my recent adventures in reverse chronological order. I'll try to keep it straight for you all!

After my brief internet interlude in Bangkok International Airport, I flew to Siem Reap in Cambodia where I saw the famed temples of Angkor. Amazing! Words cannot really describe it, so I won't even try. I will post pictures soon.

After a week in Cambodia, I flew (I know, I know...so posh!) to Kuala Lumpur ("KL" is what the cool kids say), Malaysia, arriving at about 3:00 PM in the afternoon. For some reason, the Kuala Lumpur Airport is ridonkulously far from the city of Kuala Lumpur (about a 1.5 hour ride!). So after I wandered around looking for cheap transport, got on the bus, arrived in KL city, it was already 5:15 PM. Some more wandering around yielded the fact that a train to Wakaf Bahru (from here, I could go to the Perhentian Islands for scuba diving!) was leaving at 6:00 PM. I originally wanted to stay a night or two so I could stroll around this cosmopolitan capital city, but I wanted to dive more, so I hopped on the night train bound for Wakaf Bahru. The 13-hour ride in Economy Class included my usual train/bus travel activity of playing with local kids. So cute!

So I have been scuba diving for 5 days at the Perhentian Islands. It was a great time. Now I'm an "Advanced" Open Water diver. Whee! Actually, this effectively means nothing...except now I can dive deeper (below 18 meters/60 feet). I saw some wonderful things during my 10 dives - including my first shark (a beautiful 1.5m long black tip reef shark!), turtles (oh, how I love thee!), and tons and tons of Nemos (i.e., Clownfish). Funny thing - I asked my instructor if anyone ever calls them clownfish anymore and he replied, very seriously, no. I guess Nemo is clear enough. :)

Now that I am more relaxed in my diving, I can concentrate on enjoying the experience instead of worrying about, say, drowning. I also realized that I sing to myself underwater. Mostly, it's the soundtrack to Disney's The Little Mermaid (personally, one of my favorite movies). I was swimming along and playing with some Nemos when I thought, "Wait...am I singing 'Part of Your World' right now?" "Under the Sea" is also a popular one...obviously!

In any case, I had a wonderful time in the Perhentians. It's hard to leave, but now I'm back on the mainland, awaiting my train to Singapore. Lots of time left, so I'll attempt a Cambodia update and start on my monster Myanmar update, which could take ages!

Keep an eye open...!

Goodbye, Myanmar...Hello, Cambodia (and, temporarily, Bangkok)!

I return from the internet-less abyss of Myanmar courtesy of the free internet access in the Bangkok Airways passenger lounge (terrific airline, by the way!). Glorious high-speed internet! Bangkok International Airport is pretty spiffy, too...from what I've seen, I guess Bangkok is like a really really really big mall. :)

I am currently in transit to Siem Reap in Cambodia, where I hope to see the temples of Angkor - apparently quite blog-worthy. In any case, Myanmar was wonderful. I had a super time and much blogging is needed on that journey, too. But keep cool, my babies...it might take a while, but I'll work on it. First I'll tackle this email business. Apparently, I've got 324 unread emails...most of it not spam. Yikes.

I'll also figure out what's going on with the Spartan weirdness going on with my blog design. I apologize for the lack of prettiness these few weeks. :)

See ya soon!