Ping-pongs? Buddhas? All in one weekend

Wow. That was just a crazy weekend in Bangkok, Thailand. I have no idea what I expected but it definitely was not what I experienced this weekend. The first night that we got there, it was already 10:30 p.m. on Friday and we were wandering for an hour before we found this "Best Comfort Residential Inn" and we definitely walked past some super shady areas where girls were waving to us, offering certain "special massages." But thank god we eventually found the place and it was quite nice, a block away from the main street, close but not too lose. We put our stuff down and hit the streets right away -- headed towards Soi Cowboy (what a name). Once you hit this area you know why it's called a redlight district. Red neon lights everywhere with establishments named "Suzie Wongs," "Spice Girls," and "Cowboy." We found the least sketchy place to sit in and observed the streets. People watching on this street is quite amusing. Here are some pictures for your enjoyment:














Later on we walked into some random bar and BEWARE, anything that is behind a door or curtain on a street like this, once you walk in, there is EXPLICIT X-rated material. Completely naked girls on stage. Haha. We all walked straight out after we walked in. This was the beginning of our Bangkok experience.

The next day was full of touristy destinations. We took a private Chata Praya River boat tour for 350 batt each, which is a little more than $10. Totally worth it. The person driving our boat was super nice and tried to give us our money's worth by going slowly past places of interest, pointing out to us every time we passed a huge lizard (he had a thing for those lizards). Along the way we passed by Wat Arun, a huge temple.

Climbing that thing was a pain. The steps were so steep, basically up to my knees. Then we went to this floating market that had so much good food. It was a shame that we spent only 30 minutes there.

The boat tour ended at the Grand Palace and this is where we started getting scammed. We walk past this huge opening of the Grand Palace (not the main entrance) and some guy tells us that it's Buddha Day so there's a ceremony until 1:30 p.m. It was only noon so he suggested us go to two other temples in the area that were free, no entrance fee. At first he suggested we take the bus there, but then he said since we have 6 people a taxi would be cheaper and then he changed his mind again and said taking the tuktuk would be better. These two tuktuk drivers came up and said they would take us around for 40 batt/tuktuk for two temples and back. Each tuktuk would fit 3 people so that was definitely a good price. Our tuktuk guy didn't talk much but the other tuktuk driver was friendly and spoke English. He seemed so amiable and friendly and nice. I almost got a picture of him too. Tik in his Tuktuk (we should have had Tik the Tuktuk take us to the pingpong show in Patpong, haha):
But after the first destination he tried to bring us to this shop that sold tailor made suits. What? None of us would buy anything like that, so we left immediately and at the next stop they dropped us off and the tuktuks never came back. We didn't pay anyways so we felt like we gained. We just took a taxi back to the Grand Palace for the same amount that the tuktuk would have cost us, but in addition we got a free tour of several temples :D We get back to the Grand Palace and some other guy tells us that its Buddha Day and the temple is closed until 2:30 p.m. Something was fishy here so we ignored this guy and went to the main entrance and lo-behold, there's no such thing as Buddha Day, the Palace was never closed during the day and these were freakin scammers trying to sell us stuff. That is just so hilarious. We thought these nicely dressed guys were so friendly for giving us such detailed directions, but they were complete scams. The rest of the day went by without drama, but I can't believe how tricky those scammers were, lying to us that something was closed to send us off to some random place to sell us stuff.

Now for the last night in Bangkok, we went to so a Ladyboy show called Calypso that was pretty amazing. Not sleazy, people of all ages were there, they sang (lip-sang) and danced to random American and Asian song. They sang to "Nobody" by that Korean girl band too! It was super fun. But then...after that we went to see a Ping-pong show and that was completely ridiculous. The girls there were pulling stuff out of their vagina (razors, shooting darts, needles). The mainstay of the show was definitely the ping-pong girl though. She shot those out with such precision and accuracy. The pingpong balls went at least 10-15 feet. I was trying to avoid having the balls hit me with all my power, and hitting the balls back with a paddle. The goal was to hit the ball into a basket that some girl on stage was holding. What a show, haha.

On the last day we went to the Chatuchak market, with over 1000 stalls, it felt like the Silk Market times 10, haha. Then we ended the day with a nice Thai massage. The first massage I've ever gotten. Molly says it feels like a bus hit her but I thought it was nice. It was a big sketchy at first though since it was on the second floor of some small hotel, but things turned out alright.

That's the end of my Thailand rant. For more pictures, please visit my facebook :D
Bye for now!
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Work Day Numero One

Just finished my first day of work and I'm exhausted. I actually feel like a working woman (obvious with less pressure to complete work by certain deadlines), getting home after dinner with friends and a long day, all I want to do is shower and go to sleep.

I got to work this morning on time and most people at the office weren't even at work yet. It wasn't until 9:30 a.m. when most people started filing in, how bizarre. Additionally, the whole office is basically women except for the two other interns, Alex and Adam, and all these women are so soft spoken. The whole office dynamic is weird because everyone is nice...but kind of distant and cold. Perhaps its the work place culture? My supervisors are super nice, but it's like no one talks to each other. We had a staff meeting today and cake because it was someone's birthday, but the whole ordeal was just awkward because it seemed so polite. The girl whose birthday it was didn't even seem excited and we just sat there in silence as someone cut the cake. Good thing I'm working with Molly, at least I have someone to talk to, lol.

Turns out that I'm going to be working events for most of the summer. Making programs, documents, putting in reservations, updating the website information, etc...A bunch of pretty mindless things that don't think much thinking. Kinda disappointed that I won't really be challenged that much. Maybe I'm just underestimating this job, but I hope it won't be just a repeat of all the logistics stuff I do at school. On the other hand, the events that they organize seem pretty cool and I would be excited to attend them (some of them are at pretty fancy places :D) After work all the Bulldogs met up again, ate dinner and then walked on the Explanade. So amazingly beautiful.

Thank god the weather has been nice. Though it's been raining a lot in the night and mornings, it makes the rest of the day fairly cool. Hope this coolness keeps up!!
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Food, more food, and then a circus show?

Just finished with my first full day in Singapore! The apartment is pretty nice, with two full bathrooms, three bedrooms, a fairly large kitchen, flat screen TV and of course AIR CONDITIONING. What more could I ask for?
Here are some pictures :D
My Room:

The living room:

After settling in, I ran some errands and then met up with the rest of the Yale Bulldogs (Hong, Kate and Molly) that were here already. Hong's high school Singaporean classmates brought us to eat at some restaurant called Chin Chin, pretty good stuff (of course we had Haianese Chicken, the renown Singapore dish). However, what I was most excited about was, of course, DESSERT we had at this place called:
(which literally translates to "remember to eat"). It's apparently one of the best dessert places in town and we had some really really yummy asian style desserts with shaved ice, almond/sesame paste, etc. tastyyy. See how happy this food has made us?
More yummy stuff to come....
We ended the night at the Esplanade, giving us a beautiful waterfront view of Singapore and saw a cute circus act there also. It was a perfect way to end my first day in Singapore.


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Once Again, Off to the Other Side of the World

Hello my dear friends, it's been a long 9 months since I last posted. Tomorrow is the start of another crazy summer overseas in SWELTERING heat (New York was pretty sweltering hot today also), I heard Singapore is pretty hot over there. But no worries, I'm sure the AC will be on full blast everywhere. As of now I'm not quite sure what my internship over there really entails, but I've already been thinking about where I'll be traveling the next 8 weeks that I'm going to be in SE Asia. My ticket to Vietnam is already booked, Bali and Cambodia should be the next destinations to plan!!!!!

I just checked-in online, printed my boarding pass, and jammed a whole month's worth of clothes into my suitecase. Farewell my New York friends and hello Singapore!
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