A list of places I would like to visit while I'm in SE Asia this semester, in no particular order:
1. Bangkok, Thailand
2. Cambodia
3. Vietnam
4. Bali, Indonesia
5. Hong Kong
6. Taiwan
7. Malaysia
To be honest, HK I would not be terribly bothered if I could not get to, as I've been before. It's more that I have friends there now (R among them), and it would be nice to see them again and be shown around, to see the city without the baggage of family. Taiwan I could probably also suffice without, as it is not entirely dissimilar to China. I would really like to visit the first four on the list, however. Malaysia I am not quite sure where I stand at the moment, aside from passing curiosity and belief that it should be visited if only for no other reason than it is so close.
One of the exchange students (from the U.S., Northwestern Law) continues to compare Singapore and every other city to New York. "Singapore is so vanilla," he said tonight. "Nothing stands out. There's no personality."
I stared at him in disbelief.
"Oh," I said after a moment, grinning to take the edge off my somewhat offended bewilderment. "You're one of those people. The ones who are so in love with New York. I know people like that. None of them are actually from New York."
"But that's the great thing, people are from everywhere!"
I don't think he realized the irony of that statement while standing on a bus in Singapore surrounded by, well, people from everywhere, right after he had dismissed Singapore as not diverse enough to his NYC tastes.
As with so many things in life, it's really all in how you look at it. It's your attitude and perspective that matters the most. It takes a special kind of perspective to walk through Singapore and find it boring and vanilla and uninteresting, I feel.
4 comments:
unrelated but HI MEI, YAY YOU HAVE A TRAVEL BLOG AGAIN. I remember how I used to creep on your beijing one ~back in the days~. :3 :3 :3
also, bali!!!!
ALSO, THIS IS LIZ, BTW... I didn't even know I had a blogger profile, oops.
wow so. i am in disbelief over that. nothing stands out?! no diversity?! singapore has chinese, malays, indians, eurasians, mainland chinese, india indians, bangladeshi, indonesians, filipinos, japanese, koreans, europeans, british, pakistani, thais, vietnamese....or do they all look the same to him?
also if 'nothing stands out' to him, he has obviously never taken a walk out of orchard road. there are so many interesting ethnic places in singapore to go to! in every corner and space in singapore you can see the mingling of the different cultures and how we all live and work and merge together, against the backdrop of a country that went from a swampy island to a high-tech, modern city within 40 years.
sorry if i'm sounding defensive here, but i am just truly astounded, lol XD
anyway, malacca (melaka) is pretty nice, but otherwise malaysia isn't that interesting. do go to bangkok and bali, though :) and i love taiwan! <3
@Liz OH HAI LIZ. :3 I remember that Beijing summer well. <3
@Gem Oh Gem, trust me, I'm on your side. I was honestly dumbfounded. Sorry there is not enough graffiti and bad-smelling trash and hipster culture for you, guy, but wtf. I mean, I don't love NYC to death, but I can appreciate its diversity - but that in no way diminishes the absolute wealth of what Singapore offers too. I was just like, wtf.
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