April 03, 2006
wait. theres just one more thing
so one day i left to go to singapore.
we got there late, planning to head to mersing right off then to pulau tioman. however everyone warned us not to go in the night, but i dont think it would have been a problem.
instead we spent the night at the airport!
we woke up took the mrt to bugis, took the bus to johar bahru, crossed the border and took a taxi to mersing.
we went to pulau tioman where i learned to scuba dive in 3.5 days. I did PADI open water. it was amazing. i had a really tough time at the start, a little nervous to be breathing underwater. once i got over it, it went pretty smoothly. saw tons of fish, turtles, sting rays, barracuda...the reef wow! phil saw a shark but i think i missed it
here's the island, its quite nice, i dont think i'll ever experience anything quite like it again
from there we headed to kuala lumpur by bus! i really liked KL, the people there are really polite and nice. ate cool arabian food and stayed at hotel midah. whoo. the next day i saw a few sights before getting on the plane to go to bali
aerial view of kl
upon arrival at the airport in bali i got detained!! the immigration officer was like he's from vietnam! and then they took be into a back room just like in the movies. I talked to the head guy, while looking at a framed giant photo of him that was right behind him.he was a chief or something.
our conversation went something like this
chief: do you speak english?
me: yeah.
chief: have you ever been to vietnam?
me: newp.
C:have you ever had another passport?
me: newp.
C: are you a vietnamese refugee?
me: no
C: where were you born?
me: houston
C: are you a refugee?
me: no
C: what do you do?
me: i'm a student.
C: what school?
me: university of texas, but i'm studying abroad in Hong Kong.
C: are you a refugee?
me: no.
C: no, I think you are a refugee.
this continues, and he shows me some data on some guy with my name from ben tre. bleh. it was pretty scary, but really cool now. He thought i had a fake US passport... the kids i went with, crystal alicia erin sasha karen phil had to wait for me while i was being interrogated. then we were off to find a place to live, we ended up at the ramayama a really nice hotel.
bali was pretty dissapointing for a couple of reasons.
it rained on and off throughtout the whole trip =(
furthermore we went during a hindu holiday kind of like new years, but during this new year all the shops closed and people are not allowed to leave. we had to stay in the hotel for a full day. it was still a good time, but i didnt get to see as much as I would have liked.
i didnt take many photos this trip, i was pretty busy doing things =(
we went to singapore through jakarta. the others left, and me and alicia explored singapore a little. we stayed at sleepy sam's a hostel in little malay. we went to chinatown and little india. lunch was really good indian food. then we took the mrt to the esplanade area. that was ok, walked to boat quay and then the other quay thats important but the name slips my mind. more importantly we went to the night safari which was really cool! i've never been so close to sedated aniimals! and watching them eat at night is pretty cool too. then we went to a hookah bar where the manager gave us free hookah, desserts for alicia, and tasty mint tea! yeah! he then told us his life story and his thoughts of the course of the next couple of hours. it was a nice time. then we picked up our stuff and came home early this morning to hong kong! bye!
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we got there late, planning to head to mersing right off then to pulau tioman. however everyone warned us not to go in the night, but i dont think it would have been a problem.
instead we spent the night at the airport!
we woke up took the mrt to bugis, took the bus to johar bahru, crossed the border and took a taxi to mersing.
we went to pulau tioman where i learned to scuba dive in 3.5 days. I did PADI open water. it was amazing. i had a really tough time at the start, a little nervous to be breathing underwater. once i got over it, it went pretty smoothly. saw tons of fish, turtles, sting rays, barracuda...the reef wow! phil saw a shark but i think i missed it
here's the island, its quite nice, i dont think i'll ever experience anything quite like it again
from there we headed to kuala lumpur by bus! i really liked KL, the people there are really polite and nice. ate cool arabian food and stayed at hotel midah. whoo. the next day i saw a few sights before getting on the plane to go to bali
aerial view of kl
upon arrival at the airport in bali i got detained!! the immigration officer was like he's from vietnam! and then they took be into a back room just like in the movies. I talked to the head guy, while looking at a framed giant photo of him that was right behind him.he was a chief or something.
our conversation went something like this
chief: do you speak english?
me: yeah.
chief: have you ever been to vietnam?
me: newp.
C:have you ever had another passport?
me: newp.
C: are you a vietnamese refugee?
me: no
C: where were you born?
me: houston
C: are you a refugee?
me: no
C: what do you do?
me: i'm a student.
C: what school?
me: university of texas, but i'm studying abroad in Hong Kong.
C: are you a refugee?
me: no.
C: no, I think you are a refugee.
this continues, and he shows me some data on some guy with my name from ben tre. bleh. it was pretty scary, but really cool now. He thought i had a fake US passport... the kids i went with, crystal alicia erin sasha karen phil had to wait for me while i was being interrogated. then we were off to find a place to live, we ended up at the ramayama a really nice hotel.
bali was pretty dissapointing for a couple of reasons.
it rained on and off throughtout the whole trip =(
furthermore we went during a hindu holiday kind of like new years, but during this new year all the shops closed and people are not allowed to leave. we had to stay in the hotel for a full day. it was still a good time, but i didnt get to see as much as I would have liked.
i didnt take many photos this trip, i was pretty busy doing things =(
we went to singapore through jakarta. the others left, and me and alicia explored singapore a little. we stayed at sleepy sam's a hostel in little malay. we went to chinatown and little india. lunch was really good indian food. then we took the mrt to the esplanade area. that was ok, walked to boat quay and then the other quay thats important but the name slips my mind. more importantly we went to the night safari which was really cool! i've never been so close to sedated aniimals! and watching them eat at night is pretty cool too. then we went to a hookah bar where the manager gave us free hookah, desserts for alicia, and tasty mint tea! yeah! he then told us his life story and his thoughts of the course of the next couple of hours. it was a nice time. then we picked up our stuff and came home early this morning to hong kong! bye!
apetureized
i couldn't get ps to work, so matt edited it for me. one of my first photos that i've ever really liked
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