When Your Shoes Want to Take a Walk

Singapore Skyline

I live in a country I could walk across, end to end, in less than a day. All twenty-two kilometers of it. If I were fitter, I’d probably do the other way across: 44 kilometers.

Living in a tiny young country like Singapore makes me want to step out every so often, take a flight to a place where the beaches are not man-made, where the history is longer than 200 years, where culture is not a mishmash, where the food is cooked with more emphasis on the quality ingredients than the procedure of cooking.

Travel is irreplaceable when you’re looking for a certain buzz of the body and mind, when you want to be relaxed and enriched at the same time.

“The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.” – St. Augustine

How often does the travel bug bite you? Do you go on yearly breaks, or take a vacation whenever the mood takes you?

Temples, Tigers, Writing in My Head

Floating Market, Bangkok, Thailand

Life the last few days has had very little writing, cos I have been surrounded by sights that are at once strange and familiar, a language that has five tones  and every word and sentence seemingly ends in kha, khap, khrap….

Yes, I’m in Bangkok.

If I ever sort out my life enough to post about this place, I will….because, for now, patting tigers, watching tattooed, cigarette-smoking,  mobile-toting monks kiss tigers, speaking to men who are not men (long eyelashes and hoarse voices but pretty faces), eating all kinds of spiced-up noodly-wriggly fare, walking through streets crowded with Arab women braving the humidity in black burkhas, getting my eyes dazzled by the multi-colored, occasionally gold-plated temples, seeing a humungous,  5500 kilogram solid-gold statue of the Buddha (a prophet who followed renunciation!), has addled my brain.

I’ve been writing, all of it in my head…but who knows some day it will all flow out someplace.  I’m hardly online much, cos I’m hardly indoors much. So, for the moment, I’ll leave you with (very few) pictures. I’ve taken about a 1000 so far, and I’m yet to visit Ayutthaya, the historic Thai capital.

Pictures and Words: Rains in August

A lot of rain, a green-washed village, a storm, rain, a walk on metaled roads amid lush fields, no internet, no electricity, no phone calls…the clock turned into an hourglass…this was my day yesterday. I leave you with a few photos taken by my husband as he walked out and about. I know they’re not enough to bring you with us on the journey, which I’ll do some other time.

Sarawakian Tribal Dancer Video

Kuching Snapshots: Sarawakian Tribal Dancer

Sarawakian Tribal Dancer, Kuching

Another Kuching snapshot, uploaded in the time I should be rushing to finish my story for the day, so here I go, back to my daily writing!

Kuching Snapshots: Carnivorous Plants

Kuching Carnivorous Plants

I’m wondering if I should use this photo as a writing prompt. But then today is the sort of day when I don’t need any prompting, stuff would flow if I put pen to paper. Colour of the ink I’m using: green.

Kuching Snapshots: Archway view

Kuching Snapshot: View from under an Archway

Crocodiles in the Sarawak River

Crocodile at a Fish and Crocodile Farm, Kuching

I had no idea the Sarawak river was home to big crocodiles, up to 15 feet long. Here, a crocodile stalks its food at lunchtime at a crocodile farm.

Tokyo, Japan- Day 3, Shinjuku and Akihabara

Life had taken over the past month, and I had kind of forgotten I had a blog. I had drafted some posts, but forgotten to schedule them. I won’t waste the posts, so here are the rest of my posts on Tokyo, Japan.

I would begin my account of Day 3 in Tokyo with the following picture I took :

Japanese Toilet Instructions

Well, if you’re wondering what that was about, here is some info on the subject under scrutiny: Japanese toilets. Japanese are quite manic about cleanliness and hygiene, which are not necessarily bad things, but you get the picture. Massage? Front? Back? They got it all. Thankfully the one I had at my hotel was less hi-tech, and er…’convenient’! If you’ve seen the video I linked, you know more about their “toilet control panels.” Ahem. Enough said.

A Waitress on Akihabara Street, Tokyo

At Tokyu Hands, I had to keep waving in front of all the walls, before a gleaming panel emerged, with a number of buttons rivaled only by a cockpit. Well, at least I was able to flush.

Once I got over the stupefaction of its high-tech loos, Tokyu hands was a delight. Especially the stationery section. Trust me, you want to go there. I went crazy buying pens, organizers, envelopes, and letter-writing sets.

The Takashimaya mall was my next stop, but since I’d already frequented one during my stay in Singapore, it had nothing new to offer.

By the time I found my way back to the hotel, I realized it was time to set off again, this time to Akihabara, the Tokyo destination for all kinds of gadgets, new and used. Multi-colored neon-signs beckoned us into tiny, but multiple-storied shops.

My husband and his colleagues proceeded to drool, while I bought myself a handy voice recorder, which can transfer MP3 files to my Mac. I can now repeat my tutor’s Italian lessons ad nauseam.

The interesting bit was the geek bar, though, in front of which pretty young girls dressed in Victorian-maid-inspired costumes were holding big placards in Japanese, presumably welcoming the geeks that frequent this part of the city. I requested a waitress to pose for a picture, and she obliged.

Day 3 in Tokyo came to an end at a restaurant which only serves Unagi, i.e, eel, eaten in a variety of ways, with rice and condiments. Yum.

Stay tuned for Day 4 in Tokyo.

Writing about Singapore, then and now

Well, I’m hardly going to write. Instead I’m going to post two YouTubes, one of Singapore in 1938, and one of the city in the present day. How times change, and how fast a city can change with the times!

Singapore in 1938:

Singapore in the 21st century: