Tuesday, December 09, 2008
A Tale of Two Cities (Part One)
...which, were it Spoonerised, would become "A Sale of Two Titties".
Now allow me to tell you of my post-examination summer (the Australian summer) break trips to the Asian Down Under (Singapore) and the Real Down Under (Melbourne, to be exact).
But first, a little bit of introduction about the Singapore trip. Earlier this year, when Carrie and I first heard that Avenue Q was coming our way, we immediately made plans for to catch the show. However, when it was discovered that my exams and our YKLS concert will very likely clash with the dates of the show, not to mention the fact that it was the Filipino production, we evaluated costs and benefits and decided not to go after all.
But it was Avenue Q, after all, the only musical to which the both of us have memorised every song, its hilarious lyrics accompanying us on many an otherwise long and boring ride home from choir practice...
So when my dear oldroommate officemate Cze Wien said that her sister wanted to get rid of two extra tickets for a date that didn't clash with my exams or the concert (and at a discount, too!), I just had to pick them up.
And so, on the Friday night of November 7, Carrie and I hopped ontoa Midnight Train to Georgia an overnight KTM train from KL Sentral to Singapore.
Taking up the upper bunk. This photo was actually taken on the return trip, but as long as I don't tell you that you wouldn't know, would you?
It was actually really cozy and pretty comfortable compared to taking a bus, especially for someone who wants to read something on a long ride to nowhere. The only problem was that the train had to stop every five to fifteen minutes or so to pick people up at stations along the way. I was okay with it, but for a light sleeper like Carrie... I doubt she'll want to ride in another one of those things anytime soon.
Anyway, after 11 hours or so, we arrive in Singapore at 8.30am.
Day 1 - 8th November
We reached our hotel about an hour later, no thanks to it being located in such a secluded, inaccessible-by-car street.
On the street where we live
But it wasn't check-in time yet, so we left our luggage at the lobby and proceeded to walk all around town. Bugis Junction was nearby, so we went for a little shopping, look-see, and most importantly, breakfast.
It was deserted in the morning
I have no idea how this works; those streams of water spray upwards
We spent a whole lot of time mall-hopping and generally whiling until we could check-in. I bumped into a familiar face outside of Raffles City, though:
It was Yen Fen, sister of my pal Wen Ching as well as ex-colleague when I temp-ed at her company. I just saw her at their home a couple of days earlier, so imagine my surprise seeing her in Singapore. Which was kinda weird; I've been down to Singapore several times since I graduated from St. Andrew's Junior College, but besides planned meet-ups and such, I've never bumped into any of my ex-schoolmates. Yet here I am in Singapore and I bump into an acquaintance from back at home. Stupid thing, this Fate fella.
Anyway, after a ton of walking around, we were finally allowed to enter our room at 3pm. Check it out in its complete glory:
The sink is in the living room! That's because they couldn't fit it in the toilet. Anyway, the room was great considering its SGD80 per night pricetag (not including SGD20 peak season surchage), and they throw in breakfast too. Go to the hotel's website if you ever wanna make a booking; many budget hotels in the area are of similar quality and price range, too, so Google for them if you ever plan to have a weekend trip down there.
In the evening, we took a train to the Esplanade, where we ate at the Makansutra Gluttons Bay right outside the mall (sorry, forgot to take pictures; but the food was quite delicious!).
Inside Esplanade itself, there was this psychedelic art on display
Puppet nudity on stage (the puppet in questioned had very ugly breasts, though)!
And then the time came for us to actually watch the show we were down in Singapore for. For those of you not in the know, Avenue Q gave us such hits like "It Sucks to Be Me" and "The Internet is for Porn", and it won a Tony Award for Best Musical the year it first premiered on Broadway (2003). Let me begin by saying that the Filipino cast did not disappoint at all; heck, they sounded almost exactly like the Broadway cast recording that I play in my car all the time! Great props to them.
The only gripe I have is about the so-called 'official' merchandise; rather than replicate the T-shirts or whatever that they sell in other shows around the world, the Singapore Repertory Theatre chose to instead outsource it to New Urban Male, giving us a paltry selection of clothing none of which even sported the Avenue Q logo. If I wanted T-shirts with silly witticisms in 'funky' font, I'd head to Sungei Wang Plaza and save my money. Hell, even if I got those T-shirts printed myself I'd save money.
Our YKLS friends Jason and Alvin (whom we knew were watching the same show) ended up in the same row as we did; how's that for even more coincidence?
Anyway, after the show and after a little yumcha with the guys at Gluttons Bay, we headed back to the hotel to sleep.
Day 2 - 9th November
Breakfast provided by the hotel, of the Chinese vegetarian persuasion to be precise. The highlight was the abundance of delicious carrotcakes that they provided.
After checking out early and placing all our stuff in the lobby, we decided to drop by the (relatively) new mall in town, Vivo City in Harbour Front. But in all seriousness, what is there to blog about a mall? You've seen one mall, you've seen 'em all.
But they had Ben & Jerry's!
They also had a rooftop park with wading pools. It was really hot outside, though
And then we went down to Orchard road for even more mall-hopping at Plaza Singapura (incidentally my favourite place to hang out when I was still studying there). We shared a dinner of barbecued pork ribs (!!!) and salad at Cafe Cartel.
In a park outside Dhoby Gaut MRT that I never knew existed
Dinner! Spot the ribs
After dinner, we went back to the hotel to collect our bags, then killed time lounging and reading novels at a Starbucks in Bugis Junction for about an hour and a half... until it's time to get to the station for our train back home.
We arrived back in Subang Jaya the next day at around 7am. Later, after we've both showered and whatnot, I drove Carrie to begin her second week at her new job in Mont Kiara. Of course, thanks to the morning traffic, I left her place at 8am but only returned at 10am... Kind of a stark reminder that I was in fact back home in Malaysia.
What else is new?
The Zimbabwe Dollar Watch:
Holy cow! A lot of shit had transpired in Zimbabwe since I took a break from blogging some time ago, largely due to their idiot premiere Robert Mugabe. Sporting a failed power sharing deal, a worsening cholera epidemic as well as spiralling hyperinflation and you have a candidate for the decade's most fucked-up nation of the world.
Speaking of inflation:
Wow-wow-wee-wah! In October I said the following:
Pointless Fact of the Day:
Izuan introduced me to this ultra-obscure government website about internet security some time ago, aptly named www.esecurity.org.my. If it weren't for their hilariously cringe-inducing 3D-animated educational videos which caught his attention, this website would've gone unnoticed like the myriad of other government websites dotting the internet.
"Today we gonna tawk abowt cyberstawking!"
In all these videos you have voice actors that sound like they would much rather be somewhere else at the moment, and for some reason, somewhere along the way someone decided that the videos would sound better if the actors spoke with an American accent. Well it worked, if by better you mean that the videos are some of the funniest attempts at the aforementioned accent by Malaysians. If you thought that some of our radio ads were bad (here's looking at you, Ben), wait till you've seen some of the videos here.
Not only that, some of the advice/warnings given are simply nonsensical:
"Cyberstalkers can remotely turn on the camera or microphone on their victim's computer"
"I told you, Red. Never tell that you're a boy or a girl over the internet. Ever since you accidentally typed that you're a girl... there's creeps keeps (sic) bugging you!"
You so gotta watch this stuff. At the very least you'll be kept laughing your asses off while learning about obscure government bodies.
Now allow me to tell you of my post-examination summer (the Australian summer) break trips to the Asian Down Under (Singapore) and the Real Down Under (Melbourne, to be exact).
But first, a little bit of introduction about the Singapore trip. Earlier this year, when Carrie and I first heard that Avenue Q was coming our way, we immediately made plans for to catch the show. However, when it was discovered that my exams and our YKLS concert will very likely clash with the dates of the show, not to mention the fact that it was the Filipino production, we evaluated costs and benefits and decided not to go after all.
But it was Avenue Q, after all, the only musical to which the both of us have memorised every song, its hilarious lyrics accompanying us on many an otherwise long and boring ride home from choir practice...
So when my dear old
And so, on the Friday night of November 7, Carrie and I hopped onto
Taking up the upper bunk. This photo was actually taken on the return trip, but as long as I don't tell you that you wouldn't know, would you?It was actually really cozy and pretty comfortable compared to taking a bus, especially for someone who wants to read something on a long ride to nowhere. The only problem was that the train had to stop every five to fifteen minutes or so to pick people up at stations along the way. I was okay with it, but for a light sleeper like Carrie... I doubt she'll want to ride in another one of those things anytime soon.
Anyway, after 11 hours or so, we arrive in Singapore at 8.30am.
Day 1 - 8th November
We reached our hotel about an hour later, no thanks to it being located in such a secluded, inaccessible-by-car street.
On the street where we liveBut it wasn't check-in time yet, so we left our luggage at the lobby and proceeded to walk all around town. Bugis Junction was nearby, so we went for a little shopping, look-see, and most importantly, breakfast.
It was deserted in the morning
I have no idea how this works; those streams of water spray upwardsWe spent a whole lot of time mall-hopping and generally whiling until we could check-in. I bumped into a familiar face outside of Raffles City, though:
It was Yen Fen, sister of my pal Wen Ching as well as ex-colleague when I temp-ed at her company. I just saw her at their home a couple of days earlier, so imagine my surprise seeing her in Singapore. Which was kinda weird; I've been down to Singapore several times since I graduated from St. Andrew's Junior College, but besides planned meet-ups and such, I've never bumped into any of my ex-schoolmates. Yet here I am in Singapore and I bump into an acquaintance from back at home. Stupid thing, this Fate fella.
Anyway, after a ton of walking around, we were finally allowed to enter our room at 3pm. Check it out in its complete glory:
The sink is in the living room! That's because they couldn't fit it in the toilet. Anyway, the room was great considering its SGD80 per night pricetag (not including SGD20 peak season surchage), and they throw in breakfast too. Go to the hotel's website if you ever wanna make a booking; many budget hotels in the area are of similar quality and price range, too, so Google for them if you ever plan to have a weekend trip down there.
In the evening, we took a train to the Esplanade, where we ate at the Makansutra Gluttons Bay right outside the mall (sorry, forgot to take pictures; but the food was quite delicious!).
Inside Esplanade itself, there was this psychedelic art on display
Puppet nudity on stage (the puppet in questioned had very ugly breasts, though)!And then the time came for us to actually watch the show we were down in Singapore for. For those of you not in the know, Avenue Q gave us such hits like "It Sucks to Be Me" and "The Internet is for Porn", and it won a Tony Award for Best Musical the year it first premiered on Broadway (2003). Let me begin by saying that the Filipino cast did not disappoint at all; heck, they sounded almost exactly like the Broadway cast recording that I play in my car all the time! Great props to them.
The only gripe I have is about the so-called 'official' merchandise; rather than replicate the T-shirts or whatever that they sell in other shows around the world, the Singapore Repertory Theatre chose to instead outsource it to New Urban Male, giving us a paltry selection of clothing none of which even sported the Avenue Q logo. If I wanted T-shirts with silly witticisms in 'funky' font, I'd head to Sungei Wang Plaza and save my money. Hell, even if I got those T-shirts printed myself I'd save money.
Our YKLS friends Jason and Alvin (whom we knew were watching the same show) ended up in the same row as we did; how's that for even more coincidence?Anyway, after the show and after a little yumcha with the guys at Gluttons Bay, we headed back to the hotel to sleep.
Day 2 - 9th November
Breakfast provided by the hotel, of the Chinese vegetarian persuasion to be precise. The highlight was the abundance of delicious carrotcakes that they provided.
After checking out early and placing all our stuff in the lobby, we decided to drop by the (relatively) new mall in town, Vivo City in Harbour Front. But in all seriousness, what is there to blog about a mall? You've seen one mall, you've seen 'em all.
But they had Ben & Jerry's!
They also had a rooftop park with wading pools. It was really hot outside, thoughAnd then we went down to Orchard road for even more mall-hopping at Plaza Singapura (incidentally my favourite place to hang out when I was still studying there). We shared a dinner of barbecued pork ribs (!!!) and salad at Cafe Cartel.
In a park outside Dhoby Gaut MRT that I never knew existed
Dinner! Spot the ribsAfter dinner, we went back to the hotel to collect our bags, then killed time lounging and reading novels at a Starbucks in Bugis Junction for about an hour and a half... until it's time to get to the station for our train back home.
We arrived back in Subang Jaya the next day at around 7am. Later, after we've both showered and whatnot, I drove Carrie to begin her second week at her new job in Mont Kiara. Of course, thanks to the morning traffic, I left her place at 8am but only returned at 10am... Kind of a stark reminder that I was in fact back home in Malaysia.
What else is new?
The Zimbabwe Dollar Watch:
Holy cow! A lot of shit had transpired in Zimbabwe since I took a break from blogging some time ago, largely due to their idiot premiere Robert Mugabe. Sporting a failed power sharing deal, a worsening cholera epidemic as well as spiralling hyperinflation and you have a candidate for the decade's most fucked-up nation of the world.
Speaking of inflation:
Wow-wow-wee-wah! In October I said the following:
Well, a month later, and the Z$ value has dropped by another 100%. At this rate, the exchange rates would likely be RM1 to Z$60 by the end of the year, or worse.This is a shitload much worse than I expected. Come on, RM1 to Z$15,778? Somebody go save that country!
Pointless Fact of the Day:
Izuan introduced me to this ultra-obscure government website about internet security some time ago, aptly named www.esecurity.org.my. If it weren't for their hilariously cringe-inducing 3D-animated educational videos which caught his attention, this website would've gone unnoticed like the myriad of other government websites dotting the internet.
"Today we gonna tawk abowt cyberstawking!"In all these videos you have voice actors that sound like they would much rather be somewhere else at the moment, and for some reason, somewhere along the way someone decided that the videos would sound better if the actors spoke with an American accent. Well it worked, if by better you mean that the videos are some of the funniest attempts at the aforementioned accent by Malaysians. If you thought that some of our radio ads were bad (here's looking at you, Ben), wait till you've seen some of the videos here.
Not only that, some of the advice/warnings given are simply nonsensical:
"Cyberstalkers can remotely turn on the camera or microphone on their victim's computer"
"I told you, Red. Never tell that you're a boy or a girl over the internet. Ever since you accidentally typed that you're a girl... there's creeps keeps (sic) bugging you!"
You so gotta watch this stuff. At the very least you'll be kept laughing your asses off while learning about obscure government bodies.
