Hey all!

Hey, I'm really sorry I haven't updated in a long time... The thing is, I've been waiting for photos from Cambodia, because we shared cameras, Hong is going to mail me a CD of all the 900 or so photos we took. The trip was amazing, let me tell you. Once I get the photos, I can post with all the details of the trip... In the meantime, in case you don't already know, I'M BACK IN CANADA! Yes it's true. Sorry I never mentioned it, but I had decided to surprise my parents and friends. I had decided a few weeks previous that I was ready to come back, I mean I've been having so much fun in Asia, but I was getting low in money and felt ready to re-join the working class back in North America. That being said, I'm not working yet, even though I've been back in Canada since May 3. I'll let ya know when I get a job heh.

So I surprised my parents completely. They had absolutely no idea I was coming back. Most of my friends didn't know either. So it was pretty fun to surprise my parents!

Back from Cambodia!!

Hey everybody, so I'm back from Cambodia. Angkor Wat, Siem Reap and Phnom Penh were great! I'd love to write about it all, but don't have time for a bit. I am still waiting on the photos from Hong, so as soon as I get those I'll let you guys know and upload them ASAP.

Thanks, Jeremy

Off to Cambodia

Hey everyone. Well I'm flying on Air Asia to Phnom Penh tomorrow morning. I should be getting into Bangkok no later than the 28th. I'll try to update my blog a bit if I can, but not sure how much access to the internet we'll have.

Talk to y'all soon :)

Singapore photos!

Ok, so it's been a long time since I said I'd post some photos haha. Sorry about that. So I finally uploaded some. They're pretty much all from clubs because unfortunately there isn't a lot to do during the daytime in Singapore. But wow, do Singaporeans sure know how to party at night. It took a bit to keep up with them that's for sure. I had a great time though!

Click the link below to see all the photos:

Singapore photos

King's Palace / Koh Pha Ngan

Hey there. Well I thought it was time I posted some pictures of another trip I took to the King's Palace. I had went a few weeks back, mainly because Sacha's friend was in town from Canada. So Hong, Me, Mai, Sacha and John went. I took a few cool pictures and thought I would share them with you. The King's Palace is quite important to the Thai and Thai Culture. Important historical gatherings would occur here and the architecture and infrastructure is truly beautiful!
Thai women like to take photos with their hands to their face such as Sacha is doing, and Thai men make the gesture that I'm doing... Not sure why exactly, but I guess its "cool".Ha ha Mai is being cheeky with the guard. They don't move at all. She was trying to get him to laugh, but guarding the King's Palace is a VERY SERIOUS job not to be taken lightly. Haha oh well...Mai being silly again...

Sacha, John and I had also went to Koh Pha Ngan, I didn't take many photos because I have already been there, but was able to get a few great sunset photos.
So that's all I really have to say. Not much I know, sorry. I had a great time and spent more money haha.

I love Singapore!

Hey all. Sorry about the delay in posting. I've been in Singapore the last week. You may ask, "why a week?" "Isn't Singapore boring?" Well the answer is "because" and "yes and no".

I was fortunate to have a Thai friend who had moved to Singapore. I think without him to help plan stuff, I would have found Singapore boring. It is a remarkable, beautiful country with lots of stuff to do and see, if you know where to go and how to find it. Unfortunately I don't have my camera with me but I'll post some pictures as soon as I can.

Everyone tells me Singapore is a boring place to visit. I liked it however. It's difficult to see Singapore for the city it is. Given one's fixation on individual freedom, Maybe it's seen as a police state. You can't help but look around and study the city for signs of authoritarianism. Getting out of the airport, you look around in bewilderment. Is this city for real? It seems so clean and civil. If this is a real city, where's the Asian street vendors, where's the poor people and the grime?

Singapore is clean, that's for sure. It was refreshing to be in a city where you can actually walk on a crosswalk and have people stop for you. The cars don't billow smoke and there aren't motorbikes driving around frantically. So you can't help but wonder if Singapore really is boring or if it's just because people have told you it's boring. After being around for a while you start to notice the government ads for being caring and maintaining civility. You almost feel this sense of being brainwashed into being respectful of others and keeping the city clean. Everywhere you go, you see signs telling you to keep Singapore clean and never litter. You wouldn't dare to litter or do anything, or you'll be fined. There's a fine for everything you could possibly do wrong in the city. Eat or drink in spots prohibited to eat and drink and you face a possible fine of $500 SGD (roughly $350 CND). It was very interesting to see an Asian city with such restrictions. I didn't mind what I saw however. The city is so clean and the people are so civil, the would never risk doing anything bad or they could face fines. It felt like I was in one of those movies like "demolition man" where the people are model citizens, never swearing and always being polite and well mannered, perhaps even oppressed. Nonetheless, I really enjoyed being there because I like things to be smooth operating and clean and tidy.

The first few days I was there, I stayed in a little hostel. It wasn't very nice, but it was ok for a budget room. I had to stay in a "dorm" style room with 5 other people. There was this strange man who seemed to be living there. I'm pretty open to different and interesting people, but he was truly bizarre. I also met some nice people from around the world. I met a girl from Holland, so she and I hung out for a few days. My Thai friend (his name is Art) took me and a few of his friends to Sentosa Island. This island is Singapore's "claim to fame". The island is entirely fabricated and they boast it to be the southern most point of Continental Asia. Woohoo. We went there and hung out on the beautiful perfect little beach, specially designed and constructed with aesthetics in mind.

I finally checked out from the "hostel" and was fortunate enough to be able to spend a few nights in Art's apartment. He lives with some girls he works with, so we all hung out. We spent the next few nights going out at night and seeing the night life. I must say, Singaporeans although may appear boring during the day, the sure know how to have fun at night. We went to this club called "Zouk". I think it was one of the largest clubs I've ever been to. The place was massive, with endless rooms and corridors and areas to hang out. I unfortunately have a foggy memory of that evening so I can't describe it in too much detail haha.

In a city where "nothing seems to ever go wrong" I was fortunate (or unfortunate) enough to have experienced an emergency situation almost first-hand. Picture this for a moment, the perfect little city where police officers and fireman are probably bored to death because nothing happens. Well in the apartment I was staying in, a group of us were hanging out, having a nap before we went out for the night and I could faintly hear some kind of building alarm in the background. No one else seemed concerned until I looked outside and people were stunned in disbelief as part of the 20th floor was on fire. WOW, I don't think Singaporeans knew what was going on. We decided to exit the building as we had no idea what was going on. It really wasn't that bad, it was just an apartment that had a cooking accident, however judging by the amount of emergency vehicles that showed up, you'd think the whole building was ablaze. Within a few minutes, this funky emergency vehicle with the slogan "civil protection" on the side showed up. The fireman/women jumped out of the vehicle and headed into the building. Then after that an ambulance showed up, then a few police cars, then a huge fire truck with ladder showed up. I think half of the "civil protection" force showed up to aid in this tragedy. It was kind of humorous really. But the little cooking accident seemed to be under control and we re-entered the building.

I must say I could definitely see myself living in Singapore one day, if I were to choose a city in Asia. It almost comes across as this rich snob city because people all seem to be well off, with nice cars, nice clothes and are very civil and obedient. Oh well, we'll see, maybe one day.

I had a great time there; thanks Art for taking me around! I'll post pictures as soon as I can.

Amazing pictures!

Hey everybody. So I went down to Koh Tao, Koh Samui, Koh Pha Ngan and Koh Nang Yuan. We had a great time! Hong, Sacha and I went with Sacha's friend John from Canada. I don't have much to say because I've been to these places before, except this time I was lucky to be able to use Hong's amazing digital SLR Camera. He has a Nikon D40, which as you'll see, takes some amazing photos. I hope you enjoy them.

So I have 77 images so I thought rather than post them all on here, I'd embed them using Picasa and google web albums. Click on the image below to be taken to all the photos :)

Koh Tao

Back into Bangkok

Hey all. Sorry for the lack of postings or pictures. I have been in Koh Tao, Koh Pa Ngan and Koh Samui. I have some great pictures to show you, but I'm waiting to get them off of Hong's Flash Drive. So as soon as I get them I'll let you all know :)

Hope everyone is doing well. I'll update soon!

Koh Nang Yuan is amazing!

Hey there! Well I had a moment to update this so I thought I'd upload this image. I went to this island beside Koh Tao called Koh Nang Yuan. This place is amazing, the most beautiful location I've ever been to. I can't belive it. So I will have more images later, but here's one for now.

Check out the website www.nangyuan.com.

Ok, that's all for now, I'll update as soon as I can. :)

Koh Tao

Hey guys, I went back to Koh Tao for a week or so. I took the bus down last night with Hong and we met up with Sacha and her friend John. Sorry, won't have an update for a week probably, but Hong has let me use his awesome digital SLR camera so we should have some wicked shots, can't wait!

Ciao all!!

Jeremy

Malaysia (continued)

Well the next part of our Journey was going to a large outdoor park where we saw some wild monkeys. This was quite interesting. The monkeys seem so cute at first. They were a bit apprehensive to get close to us but once I found half an orange, this one feisty dude came up and snatched it right out of my hand. He was standing there eating it, only a few feet away. I thought I'd get closer, maybe he likes to be petted. Well he sure doesn't. Haha in fact the second I was within about a metre of him, he tried lunging at me and was hissing and looked quite mad. Suddenly he turns from being a really cute monkey to a pretty scary monkey. Heh that was enough for me heh I wanted to high-tail it out of there. So we continue on our adventure around this "park". There were some neat paths and creeks, it was really lush and tropical. Kind of reminded me of Vancouver. Unfortunately we didn't have enough time to explore everything.
Our next trip was to the Penang Butterfly farm. In Westbank, we used to have a place called butterfly world and it was quite similar to this. I got some great shots with my camera, I have new faith in the abilities of my camera haha.
So after we were done in the lovely city of Penang, we headed across the water back to the mainland to the city of Butterworth. There we were to get on a sleeper train to head to Kuala Lumpur! I was pretty excited! So for 38 Malaysian Ringgit (about $12 CND), we stayed in a 2nd class overnight sleeper train. It was fairly small, as shown in the picture above, but it was relatively comfortable. We arrived the next morning at about 7:30am, into the main train station (Sentral Station) which is the hub of KL in terms of the transit and transportation is concerned. From that railway station, we hopped on one of the many public transit lines that could take us to areas of the city. We stopped off in China town as our Lonely Planet "bible" told us that there
I find Kuala Lumpur (KL) to be quite a beautiful city. The city seems to sprawl in the middle of a rain forest. I took the above two photos when walking around downtown to get to the Petrona Towers. The above picture is just outside the Petronas Towers buildings. It was so amazing to actually be here, something I've always wanted to see.
We also went to the KL Communications Tower. This tower is the 4th tallest in the world and has quite a nice view. We went to the lookout tower at night and took some amazing pictures of the surroundings.
Ok, so enough photos of the Petronas Towers haha. I figured I might as well capitalize on the fact that I have a camera and it seems to work well.

So we spent some more time in Kuala Lumpur doing random looking around the city. We met quite a few Canadians staying in the same hostel as us. So we hung out with them for a while and shared stories.

And then it was time for me to get on the plane back to Bangkok. I flew Air Asia for about $58 CND with all taxes. And we're talking a 2 hour plane ride on a brand spanking new Airbus A-320. The plane was so nice, leather seats and everything. Air Asia is Malaysia's huge discount carrier, they're based out of KL. We always fly them for our inter-asia flight needs because they're so cheap. Usually they aren't too delayed. You don't get any food, not even water, unless you pay for it.

As we were flying and during touchdown I decided to snap some more photos. The water on the airplane window turned out really well so I thought I'd post it. So long Kuala Lumpur and Hello Bangkok. I had a great time and hope you enjoyed my photos. I enjoyed taking them!

Malaysia!

Well, after our adventures in Southern Thailand, we made it to Malaysia. Malaysia is a federal constitutional Monarchy, believe it or not. It has substantial Chinese and Indian Minorities mixed with the Malay culture. The population is about 26 Million, 57% of the people are Malay while the rest make up the Chinese/Indian subset. Malay is the official language, but when we were there, almost everyone spoke some form of broken or fluent English. Manufacturing constitues the largest single component of Malaysians economy. Tourism, palm oil, petroleum, natural rubber and timber are other major contributers to the economy.

Now that you've been briefed on some facts of Malaysia... Our first stop was the island of Penang. On the map you'll see the small arrow pointing to the island, right above Georgetown. Don't be fooled by its small appearance, the island houses millions of people and is quite beautiful. I loved it here because its so tropical and serene in nature. The skyline envelopes tall skyscrapers mixed with lush tropical forest beside small houses on stilts and other interesting architecture. Because Malaysia was once colonized by the British, there is also some European architecture that can be seen throughout the cities.

In Penang, we stayed in Chinatown, a large area close to "Little India". We found a great little guest house called the SD Guest House. It was basic but nice and clean and looked pretty new. It was only 35 ringgit (which is about $12 CND). The staff was really nice and helpful. We went on a day trip that was organized because we had tried to do our own thing the day before but it was difficult to organize and took a while for us to get around. So we paid this guy about $60 ringgit each and he took us to 5 or 6 different areas of Penang. Our first stop was at Penang Hill now referred to as "Bukit Bendera", one of the historic sites apparently built by some British Colonials originally in the early 19th century.
These are some of the pictures from the Train and views from the top. It was pretty nice up there except it was still early in the morning so there was quite a bit of fog which limited our view. There were some cool temples at the top as you can see in the picture above. After this, we headed off to a famous Chinese temple. I forget what it's called unfortunately but it appeared to be quite famous. It was quite beautiful, it overlooked the city and was on a hillside surrounded once again by lush tropical rainforest. Quite the impressive site to see.

That's one thing I definitely enjoy about the Malaysia culture, there is so much of it. There are many different temples and mosques to visit.

Well I think I need to break this post up into a few. This one is quite long. So I'll leave this one at this for now, upcoming I'll talk about the monkeys, the butterfly farm, and the lovely amazing pictures of the Petrona Towers!!! Can't wait!