Hello from the Lee Kong Chian School of Business

Not going to lie, I'm writing this in class. In my defense, the teacher is answering questions about the final, which I have not started studying yet since its in 4 weeks, so this feels like a waste of time.

So, rewinding a little bit- 2 weeks ago I took a 6am Thursday morning flight to hong kong. Naturally, I went out for ladies night Wednesday night, got back to my apartment around 3am, and relaxed until I left for the airport around 4am. To everyone who questioned this decision, I stand by it being a good idea. I had a nice 3 hour nap on the plane before I spent the full day exploring Hong Kong. 

I started my day with a bagel before walking around Hong Kong Island (PSA it is VERY hilly). I explored an antique neighborhood and the SOHO of Hong Kong, before heading to a vegetarian dim sum restaurant for lunch. After that I went to Victoria Peak which has amazing views of the city. Luckily it was not too cloudy (or smoggy?) and I was able to see everything pretty clearly. I walked on some of the trails, gave in to my tiredness and got coffee, and then ubered to my friend's dorm (she was interning in hong kong for the semester and had extra beds). After a quick nap, we got dinner and went to some bars in LKF (very cool bar/club scene in Hong Kong). We met my friend Jen (who was in Hong Kong on a spring break trip with NYU) at a club, before calling it an early night at 2am.

The next day, I met Jen and her boyfriend Phil at their hotel and we did the Dragon's back hike, followed by a delicious hong kong egglet with ice cream. Then we relaxed a little by the pool before going to the Chabad of Kowloon for dinner.

Saturday we did a great walking tour of Kowloon. We then walked around the ladies market (basically a market of fake stuff) for a while. My friend was considering buying a belt, and the salesperson never gave her a price, but made extra holes in the belt since it was too big before. WHen she asked how much it cost, the woman said a price much higher than she wanted to pay, so we began to leave. SHe started chasing us and saying we had to buy it or she'd call the police. I was not involved in the transaction at all (just standing there waiting for my friend), and this lady was grabbing me too! Luckily we got away, but she chased us through this crowded market for about 5 minutes. I'm not sure what the police would've done (its not like we stole anything) but I didn't really care to find out. 

I went to the airport right after Shabbat, and returned to Singapore for 6 hours of group meetings on Sunday (yes, I do have some work here). On Tuesday morning, my friend Olivia arrived from America to visit for her spring break. We spent the morning enjoying the botanical gardens and brunch. After I finished class for the day, we went to Chinatown and tried the cheapest michelin star restaurant, Hong Kong Soya Sauce Chicken Rice and Noodle (yes, that is how they translate it). We then walked to watch the marina bay light show which was pretty underwhelming.

Wednesday we got breakfast and then spent a few hours at gardens by the bay. I had been there earlier in the year but the flower dome was not open last time, so I got to see something new. Olivia and I tried to ask a woman to take a picture of us inside these cutouts, but instead she physically pushed Olivia off and had her friend take a picture of her in the cutout instead. Maybe it was a language barrier? Not sure. We also got asked to take a picture with people (because we are very beautiful)- I've gotten asked if that happens to me a lot in Asia since I'm tall and blondish but this was only the second time, and it still feels pretty weird. We walked through Arab Street/Haji lane and tried Kaya toast (which is a specialty here but it was both mine and Olivia's first time trying it, even though I've been here for a few months). We took a nap in preparation for another early morning flight on Thursday (still a good idea), and went to an italian restaurant on the water for dinner.

    

That night we went to Ce La Vi, the rooftop club at Marina Bay Sands. It still amazes me how many really really old people are out at a club on a Wedneday night, but the view makes it worth the weirdness. We actually had time for a 1 hour nap before going to the airport for our flight to Bali. 

When we arrived in Bali and got to our hotel, it was a little scary that they had bomb sniffing dogs and metal detectors, but I guess better safe than sorry. We decided to stay at a nice hotel for this trip (which is very cheap in Bali) and had my sister book it to utilize her SPG/Marriott status. We got upgraded to a really nice suite and they were very happy to welcome "Ms. Rebecca".  While we were waiting for the room to be ready we took advantage of the large breakfast buffet. Once we were settled in we booked an UberTrip, a ride available in bali where the driver will take you wherever you want and make as many stops as you want. This costs 300,000 rupees for the first 5 hours and then 60,000 more per hour (he ended up driving us for over 8 hours and we payed a total of $42 USD). We got really lucky, and our driver, I. Made (yes, that was his name), was basically a tour guide as well. We told him things we thought wanted to see in Ubud (about 2 hours away from our hotel), and he took us around. We had asked if there were any markets, so on the way we stopped at this really cheap shopping place. I got 63 cent shot glasses which makes you really question how places in the U.S can charge $10 for the same thing. We wanted to go to the rice terraces but it was raining and I. Made said it would be slippery during the rain, so he took us to a coffee plantation first. There they showed us how they make coffee out of cat shit, and then gave us 14 different teas and coffees to try (not the cat shit one since that kind is very expensive- it was available for purchase but I decided to pass). This place also had a big swing, so once the rain stopped we did that which was a lot of fun. 

                                        

Next we went to the rice terraces, which were really beautiful. I. Made walked us through them to avoid the slippery areas. After a while there it was super hot and we were ready to head back. We stopped for dinner at the Yoga Barn- we didn't have time for a class but you feel more zen just from sitting in the cafe. We also stopped to get some water and snacks for our hike the next day, and went to bed around 8:30pm.

 

We had to be in the lobby of our hotel at 1am, and then we had a 2 hour drive to Mt. Batur, which we would hike to see the sunrise. After sleeping on the bus, we stopped at a rest stop type thing for coffee and banana pancakes. The guy who worked there was pouring everyone coffee, and accidentally spilled the entire pot on my leg and foot. I immediately ran it under the sink, but there were huge blisters and it did not look good. Then the guy started rubbing coffee grinds on the burn (as if thats some sort of alternative medicine?) which I was not very happy about. They wanted me to wait at this reststop until a doctors office would be open (it was about 3:30 am at this point). I said I'd rather go back to the hotel and see a doctor near there. Olivia and Talia tried to come with me. I told them to go on the hike, since I would feel much worse if they had to miss it, but I guess it's not so convincing when you're also crying. It took my mom yelling at them on the phone for them to agree to go. Once the group continued on their way, the guy who spilled the coffee on me drove me 2 hours back to my hotel. I got back around 6:30, took a 3 hour nap, and then got breakfast. Then I took a 2 minute uber (yes, the driver was judging me for not walking) from the hotel to a hospital which was actually really nice and clean. Everyone spoke great english and were very nice to me (I have to say that despite the fact that someone spilled an entire pot of coffee on my foot, all the local people I met in Bali were so sweet and friendly). They cleaned the burn for me (the doctor confirmed that putting coffee grinds on a burn is not a form of treatment), wrapped it, and gave me some meds. 

I went back to the hotel, relaxed, and then went to a local mall with Olivia because she still needed some gifts. That night we had a nice dinner at the hotel and went to bed early (we had slept about 6 hours total in the previous 48 hours). We woke up Saturday in time to take advantage of our hotel breakfast, before spedning the day relaxing by the pool. Unfortunately I could not get my foot wet, but I did put one leg in the water when it got really hot. We got an early dinner at the hotel, and then went to the airport after Shabbat.

Sunday I caught up on work and had a group meeting- next week is the last week of class, AKA project week, when everything is due. Monday I went to the clinic at school before class, where they confirmed that the Indonesian meds I'm taking are legit, but also that the healing process for burns is pretty slow and painful. Luckily the clinic is very close to my house, so I can go back every day for them to clean and dress the wound, at least until they are closed on Good Friday when I guess I'll have to figure it out myself. 

Now I'm just working on group projects and getting ready for Passover. Shoutout to my parents and Olivia for getting me Temptee cream cheese and Breakstone butter in Singapore, because it really wouldn't be the holiday without it.

Hello from Sunshine Plaza

For anyone who was wondering, I did get my new passport before my trip (with a few hours to spare). That feels like ages ago, but I'll start from the beginning.

On Wednesday Feb 21st, after 2 presentations on Monday and a midterm on Tuesday, I woke up bright and early to get my passport from the US embassy. Thankfully, they actually had my passport this time (after an unsuccessful attempt to get it on Tuesday). Later that afternoon, I went to the airport to fly to Phnom Penh Cambodia. I hadn’t heard the best things about Phnom Penh, and had low expectations. For this portion of the trip I was with 3 friends (Talia Trevor and Grace). Once we landed in Cambodia I took out some riel, the local currency, only to find out that everywhere accepts and prefers USD. We checked in to our first Mad Monkey hostel of the trip, found a nice bar on the river, and went to sleep. The next day we hired a tuk tuk (small cart type thing pulled around by a motorbike) to take us around for the day. We went to the genocide museum and the killing fields, both very sad but also really informative. Personally I knew next to nothing about the Cambodian genocide before this trip, so it was really eye opening to go to these museums. 

After an emotionally and physically draining few hours (it was so hot that I almost fell asleep every time we got back in the tuk tuk), we got lunch and went to get our luggage from the hostel. Talia and I were supposed to have some food delivered for Shabbat, but the Chabad Rabbi insisted that we could not leave Phnom Penh without seeing the Chabad house, so we made a quick stop there before finding our bus to Sihanoukville. 

The bus ride took about 5 hours, and we got to Sihanoukville pretty late at night. From the bus it looked like a pretty seedy place, but luckily the bus took us directly to our hostel, so we didn’t have to find out. First thing the next morning we splurged and took a $2 tuk tuk to the ferry terminal instead of walking with our luggage. At the ferry terminal we boarded a 'Speed Ferry Cambodia' boat to Koh Rong Samloem. The trip was only 45 minutes, but I was clinging to the bottom of my seat the whole time to stop from flying in the air when we hit waves. There were some older people who didn’t get seats, and I felt bad not offering them mine, but I don’t think my legs would’ve worked if I tried standing on this boat. 

Once we reached a pier, we boarded a smaller, much calmer boat, which took us to our hostel (the other way to get there is a 45 minute hike through the jungle after the initial ferry). When the boat stopped a few yards from the beach, we got off the boat into the water, luggage in hand, and walked to shore. This island had the whitest sand and the bluest water I’ve ever seen. It’s completely isolated, untouched beauty. Our beach was occupied solely by our Mad Monkey hostel, and surrounded by either jungle or water on all sides. Me and my friends had a 4 person bungalow which opened right up to the beach. This place is like a super relaxing paradise/adult summer camp. Reception, which was also the restaurant and bar, was surrounded by picnic tables. When we got sick of lying on the beach, we’d get food, drinks or just play cards. One night there was trivia, the next was pizza night and a fire show. Friday night we made kiddush with the many israelis there, who were very excited that we had brought grape juice and challah with us from Phnom Penh. The two days I spent on Koh Rong Samloem were the most uneventful of the trip, but in the best way possible. 

   

On Sunday morning, the ferry company that we had booked only had a ferry leaving at 10am. Since we had a flight from Sihanoukville at 1:20, and these boats often don’t leave on time, we wanted to take an earlier one. The hostel was really helpful and said we could get tickets for an earlier boat, and that one of their taxi boats could take us to the main pier in time. It turns out that they were able to do this because they also had to take all the garbage from the hostel to the main pier. So we got to walk through the water (this time it was high tide-going up to my waist) and ride the garbage boat to the pier. But, needless to say we made our ferry (which was even more rocky than the way there) and we made our flight with a few hours to spare in the very small Sihanoukville airport.

                              

Next stop- Siem Reap Cambodia. One friend, Grace, left us in Sihanoukville, and two more, Yoni and Lauren, joined me Talia and Trevor in Siem Reap. We found a vegetarian restaurant, went to the night market, and went to sleep early. The next day we woke up at 4am to go to the Angkor wat temples for sunrise. The temples were really awesome-very different (much older) than any we had seen anywhere else. However, the sunrise was less awesome, mostly because it just didn’t rise. It got light out, but no sun in sight. On the bright side (no pun intended), arriving so early allowed us to explore a lot of the temples at a more bearable temperature. After 6 or so hours there, we went back to the hostel, napped, and had a snack before going to the Cambodian circus.  

  

The next day we got really good brunch, a manicure (which I picked off immediately since it was so bad), and then did a tour of a floating village at sunset. It was really sad to see the village as it was really poor, and the standard of living there was so low. The person steering our boat looked about 15, and we passed many people bathing in the river (which was very dirty) along the way. The sunset was beautiful, but overall it was sad to see, and I feel like poor peoples lives shouldn’t be a tourist attraction. 

Once we got back to the hostel, me and Talia grabbed our luggage and went to the airport to fly to Chiang Mai, Thailand. Our flight consisted of a 40 minute leg to Bangkok, 7 hours in the Bangkok airport, and a 40 minute flight to Chiang Mai. We slept at a hotel called sleepbox (inside the airport terminal). Definitely wasn't the best sleep of my life since you could hear the flight announcements through the wall, but it was certainly better than nothing.  

Our first day in Chiang Mai we relaxed in the morning, before taking a vegetarian cooking class in the afternoon. I learned how to make some really good stuff, so hit me up if you want pad thai! That night we went to chabad for megillah reading. It basically felt like we were in Israel. The next day we went to an elephant sanctuary, where we fed, bathed, and hung out with elephants. As most people know, I'm not the biggest animal person, but they were actually so cool. After that, we showered, relaxed a little, and went back to chabad for the purim seudah. On the walk there, I ran into my roommate from my gap year in Israel, and a few other Israeli's from my program. After Chabad we went to a traditional Thai dance show, which I had to see for my dance class in Singapore. 

                                  

The next day, we got Shakshuka for breakfast at chabad, dropped out bags at our new hotel (we figured it would be nice to stay at a hotel as opposed to a shared dorm in a hostel for shabbat, so we stayed at Lanna Palace 2004 hotel- pro tip: don't include the year that the hotel was last updated in the hotel name), and hired a red van to drive us to waterfalls an hour and a half away. The waterfalls are called sticky waterfalls, I think because they are not slippery and you're able to climb them which was a lot of fun. At one point, I asked an English speaking couple to take a picture of me and Talia, and then offered to take one for them. The guy responded "Thanks, she actually just said yes to marrying me!" He had proposed to her on this hike, and I was their engagement photographer (which was a lot of pressure). 

That night we went to chabad, and then walked around the night market even though we couldn't buy anything. The next day we overslept a little and were late to Shabbat lunch (and had to sit with old people). After lunch we walked around the old city of Chiang Mai, and then rested at our hotel since the heat is so tiring. Saturday night we tried a vegetarian restaurant and got cocktails at a cool bar recommended by someone I met at the hostel. Then we went to check out the first of two night markets, but they were already packing up  when we got there. We went to the next one and the same thing happened. I was able to grab some quick gifts from the stands that were still open, but it was pretty sad considering we had seen how many options there were the night before.

On Sunday I got a Thai Massage at a really nice place for $11. I have had other Swedish massages before, but the Thai one was definitely interesting and different. We got falafel for lunch at Sababa, before heading to the airport to go back to Singapore. The trip as a whole was really amazing. Travelling is definitely tiring and it's been nice to be back in Singapore this week. At this point my Sunshine Plaza apartment really feels like home. I have a few more trips planned, but the semester feels like it's almost over, which is really crazy. That's all for now- sorry to bore you but thanks for reading if you made it this far!