First taste of SE Asia

A little late to the game for journaling my trip so I will give a brief summary of what has happened so far...

June 5th: Arrived at the hostel at around 1 a.m. With no hostel experience prior to this trip, I was surprised at the size of the room and the toilet that is inside the shower. It's about 20x20 with two bunk beds, three mattresses, two standup closets, a desk that can fit three chairs, a shower with a toilet inside. The mattresses were quite interesting. Visibily they seem like your standard small, cheap, twin mattresses; but when I sat on them I realized they were, in fact, compressed cardboard disguised as mattresses. They were hard as a rock. In addition, there were no blankets. For the first five days or so I used my small bath towel and my rain jacket to keep warm at night. There is an air conditioner which is very critical.

June 5th afternoon and 6th: We took care of logistics this weekend and got our first taste of Singapore in the daylight. It's a very interesting city. With a population of about 5 million during the night and 5.7 million during the day packed into an island of 270 sq. miles (wiki) it's pretty busy. The city is very modern, very efficient, and from what I have seen so far there are no slums. Most of the population is in government subsidized high-rises. The rest of the population stays in expensive homes and apartments/condos. Most children stay living with their parents until they get married. It's also well known for it's many fines. This is definitely true and the rules are well-posted. No spitting, drinking/eating on the public transit, and certainly don't trespass (bottom photo).

Orchard Road

Skyline

We went to Orchard road to get cell phones. We decided to price shop which meant running around to these two different cell phone providers. Singtel and M1 are the two biggest ones. We found that we could purchase a 50 dollar motorola phone (Motorola wx180) and get a 30 dollar SIM card for 8 dollars. Then with M1 we could purchase a 30 dollar SIM card. When we re-up the M1 SIM card we get 120 dollars free. So it seems like they have a lot of deals for pre-paid right when you start out, then I'm sure you dont get the deals anymore. It works out well for us b/c we are only here 8 wks.

In addition to the cell phones we went to get our public transit card. This is called the EZ pass. It literally is easy. You buy the card for 15 dollars, and this gives you 10 dollars on the card, so the card costs 5 bucks. At any MRT (train) station you can load more money onto it. When you enter the station you scan it to get through a barrier then you do the same when you exit. The same is true for the buses. There is a scanner that you use when you get on and off the bus. I've used about 40 dollars so far (as of June 15th). I use the transit system for all of my travels so I think it's a pretty fair deal.

EDIT: Forgot to mention we went to Singapore's most popular tourist destination -- Sentosa Island. It wasn't really that interesting to me. I have never been to Disney World, but there were lots of plastic attractions that reminded me of the image of DW I have in my mind. The experience turned around quite a bit when we arrived at a beach. We had put our stuff on this large wooden chair and, to my amazement, I was given the boot because I didn't purchase a $14 beer haha. I simply moved myself to the sand and enjoyed the sun.

All of this was done with the help of Yihan, Trina, and Trisha. Yihan was a former UW student who is entering graduate school at Stanford. She worked at BTI in the past and she was the crucial link that connected Dr. Jon Roll with BTI. Trina and Trisha are sisters. Trina graduated from UW and Trisha is still a student. They pretty much hauled us around Singapore showing us the good places to eat. My favorites so far has been Thaiexpress in Holland Village and this place in little India (pictures below) that, unfortunately, I am unsure what the name is.

Bhattura ($3.8)

Plain Dosai ($1.9)

The week of June 7th:

We started at BTI on Monday. We had a brief presentation from all the mentors on the projects. Jon gave a short speech that briefed BTI staff on the IRES program. We had a 2 hour safety orientation. We had to take a quiz! I am proud to say that I passed my first Asian examination. The building is very high tech and very secure. We all get these lanyards and i.d. cards. the security at the first floor won't let anyone without an i.d. card get into the building without being accompanied by BTI staff. It seems like they tried to scare us right away with all these rules and regulations. Starting in the lab was interesting. Lab coats and gloves must always be worn. All work with cell cultures including HELA cells and E. coli must be done in a biosafety hood. Both of these facts are very different then working at UW. Very rarely did I use a biosafety hood at UW and I have never worn a lab coat. There are times when we use gloves though. So far I have been getting used to running around the lab and figuring out where things are. My mentor is great, as are my coworkers. Studying for the MCAT during the day. Nothing too exciting. No complaints against the safety precautions; it's just a new, learning experience.

I work at BTI which is in the Centros building. One of seven research buildings in the Biopolis network.

June 12th weekend:

Now the excitement begins. We travelled to Bintan Island, Indonesia. Getting to the ferry terminal was fairly easy. We took the MRT to a bus transfer point, then took bus 36 to the ferry terminal. We did not purchase our tickets in advance. Because of this we had to take a departure time that was slightly earlier than planned, but unexpected things always arise with travel and it was no big deal. Finally we could buy liquor without the burden of the Singapore sing tax. I liter of Bacardi Superior was like 26 SD which I think is pretty darn cheap. I have a feeling duty free shops are going to be our primary alcohol distributor. The ferry was set up like an airplane with similar seats and organization. I zonked out immediately, sitting up, so I must have been tired. We arrived in Indonesia and went through the typical immigration and customs ritual. The owner was at the ferry terminal and he arranged a taxi for us. His wife was on the same boat, so they drove back separetly. It was about a 50 min drive from the ferry terminal to the resort. The roads were crazy! Very windy and uneven and narrow. I sat up front. At one point a car was in the passing lane coming right at us; it was a close call and everyone got a little nervous. The driver was very skilled though. As with all the drivers over here, they tend to dog the transmission (low rpms) which is kind of annoying for me.

Arriving a night was interesting because we didn't have an idea what the whole compound looked like. We had dinner and some drinks, then checked out the beach. They had a world cup game on which was nice during dinner. There was a match on later that I stayed up to watch, but it never worked. Their satellite wasn't working so they were using an antanee trying to catch the match over the air from Singapore broadcast. It turns out that the matches aren't on public channels, only subscription, so that did not work. I stayed up with Ian, the owner, and his uncle until probably 4 in the morning. Conversation flowed easily with drinks over the hours.

We stayed in small huts that were on the beach, about 15 feet from the surf. In total I think there were 6 or 7 huts. I don't think accommodation like this can be found in the west for 19 dollars a night.

Saturday spelled sunbathing, and that is about it. At one point in the afternoon we were soaking in the sun reading. It became so incredibly hot, yet very enjoyable at the same time. I think this was the exact moment that I learned to enjoy the heat and to appreciate sweat. I tried to stay in the water when the tide was up so I didn't get bit by so many bugs. For some reason I lucked out and everyone else is much itchier than I am. We have deep woods bug spray which is works great because it has a lot of DEET in it. Sat. night we played cards and had drinks. Lindsay learned how to play euchre, so she can now legally claim to be from wisconsin.

We woke up sunday, ate breakfast, kind of hungover, did some beach, then headed back to Singapore :(. The drive back was shorter and I sat in the back middle. The windy roads meant a little car sickness, but nothing to extreme.

Beautiful Bintan.

June 14th/15th:

The weeks are mostly SSDD at this point. Writing a blog this morning instead of studying for the MCAT was quite enjoyable, and now it's almost lunch! Last night my gruop was trying to book flights and hotel for BK next weekend. They got as far as filling in all the billing and personal info then the internet failed at the hostel. Poor buggers. I may have made an enemy last night. I left my laundry in the machine for little longer than the 30 min it takes to wash. When i went to retrieve it he did not seem very happy with me. Oops.