Goodbye

As most of you know, my plans were to spend the following month travelling through my last whim, China. However, as I was about to leave the marvelous Taj Mahal, I received bad news from home. Apparently, a new kind of flu virus is spreading really fast and some countries (China among them) are talking about starting to close their frontiers. My family thought that me getting stuck at such a distance from Mallorca after 5 months of non-stop travelling was something that was not going to happen. I started to see all my plans (Shanghai, Guilin, Xian, Beijing, Tibet, ...) slowly walking away...

I must say that to me everything seemed a bit overreacting, but at that point my best efforts were focused on staying awake in an awful Indian train station filled with really big rats. I had no way of getting information about this supposed virus, so I decided to come back. That means that… yes!! I’m writing these lines from Spain!! It is really weird to be at home again, with a comfortable bed, a shower with permanent hot water and shops that do not accept the bargaining system!! (this last one is really disappointing)

But let's not make this small setback ruin my memories of the last 5 months! My exchange has been something that I would definitely never forget, an experience that has for sure changed my way of seeing things, a journey that I recommend to everybody!! Singapore, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, India... wait for me, I'll be back!!

Saris, chapatis and temples in colorful INDIA

My trip to India has been one of the nicest and one of the saddest. Nicest because I have always wanted to visit this amazing country. Saddest because it reminded me that my days as an exchange student have come to an end. Let’s start with the first one.

During these 15 days we have travelled the north of India: Delhi, Udaipur, Pushkar, Ajmer, Jaipur, Agra and Varanasi, using all the different kind of transports you can imagine: we experienced those crowded coaches that Indian trains are known for, we much appreciated the next trip in a first class carriage, we rented our own car (and suffered the consequences of the chaotic Indian way of driving), we hopped on some really congested buses, we visited temples from the top of an elephant, and so on.

The experience has been, overall, amazing. I thought that after those months travelling Southeast Asia I would be prepared for what India had to offer me, but still once more time my expectations were exceeded. The colors, the traditions, the places, … everything I had always wanted to see was finally there.

We have visited the Taj Mahal, walked the pink city, enjoyed the Ganges at dawn and understood a bit more the peculiarities of one of my favorite countries.

Yes, streets might be dirty. Yes, your tourist look attracts too much the attention of local people. Yes, there are a lot of things going on that you probably won’t understand. But still, it’s a wonderful place to which I hope to go back someday… soon!

Selamat datang ke BORNEO

… or in other words, welcome to Borneo!

Yes, you’ve guessed it right, the topic for today would be this island to the south of Singapore that is shared by Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei.

As some of you know, my time in Singapore is coming to an end, and some of my friends have come to visit me from Spain to join me in some of my last trips, Borneo and India. After that, I will still have one more great and one-month-long adventure, CHINA! But let’s focus… I was going to talk about Borneo!

There has been a lot of sun bathing, snorkeling and above all, a lot of trekking!! The Malaysian part of Borneo has everything that we didn’t see in Kuala Lumpur or Melaka: beaches, forests and very high mountains.

After our exams week, we have taken advantage of these days to relax and change our travel approach for once. We hopped on the plane without anything planed. We didn’t have a hostel, we didn’t have a route to follow and we didn’t have anything to worry about, it was only us, our backpacks and Borneo. At the beginning I thought that it was all going to turn out as a disaster (and disappointment of my friends), but it didn’t!! We had such a fantastic time.

We have taken peaceful rides by boat to desert islands and great snorkeling spots. We have done a lot of exercise trekking in the Kinabalu Park (a very, very, very high mountain, believe me!!). And above all, I have really enjoyed the visit of my friends, it has been very nice to see them again (I know you will read this, so thank you very much!!)

Inspiring BALI

We just arrived from one of our most exotic trips, BALI, and I must confess it exceeded my expectations.

For those of you who haven’t been there, you’ll be surprise to hear (or read) that this island has much more apart from beautiful sandy beaches and surf addictive waves. The interior of BALI is planted with astonishing volcanoes and incredible landscapes, populated with traditions that have not yet been corrupted by tourism and beautiful temples, some of them hanging from breathtaking cliffs.

We had a lot of fun. Of course we also tried the most touristic attractions and spent some days surfing (or at least learning to!). I must say I enjoyed it a lot!! I am seriously considering giving it a real shot :)

I would definitely recommend this trip for those of you who do not believe that tourism can be environmentally harmless. If you follow my advice and spend sometime travelling the interior of Bali and mixing with local people you’ll find out that tourism does not always replace the local identity.

I nearly forget to mention that on our way to Bali we stopped at Kuala Lumpur (the plane departed from there, after a 5 hour bus from Singapore). We had the chance to admire the famous Petronas twin towers and get a taste of a city that has a very different atmosphere than other near capitals such as Bangkok of Phnom Penh. Both its people and its buildings make it a one of a kind.

Fan as I am to admiring things from a high perspective, I truly enjoyed our trip to the top of the towers!

macau & hong kong: casinos & skyscrapers

Our last trip has been quite different from the previous: we spent one long weekend in Hong Kong and Macau.

First of all we visited Macau, a city that used to be a Portuguese colony. It was really weird to see all the signs in Chinese characters AND in Portuguese!! We could understand everything! The city had a lot of charm, with its narrow streets selling all kind of pastries. But Macau has also a dark side: the casinos!! We entered a few of them and actually played black jack. Although it was my first time in a casino and my first time playing black jack, I can proudly say that I won money!! (Okay, not very much, but at least I didn't lose!).

Our second and last stop was Hong Kong, a city with a very different taste. We were staying in an area called Kowloon, where you could find and electronic shop every three steps (literally). This is the part of the town that we visited the first day: streets full of Chinese signs (no Portuguese here), delicious pastries again, jade markets, night markets and more electronic shops!

The second day we crossed to Hong Kong island and spent the morning in the Soho, walking around town and climbing (with a tram) "the peak", from which we were supposed to see all the city (we didn't, too foggy). The tall buildings in this part of the city were amazing, it was like an "oriental New York"!

As I said at the beginning, this trip has been very different from what we have seen so far. It is for sure the richest area we have travelled to (except Singapore), but it is as well full of contrasts (specially Hong Kong, where you could see poverty one side and impressive tall buildings at the other).

good morning vietnam

Longed and waited recess week started for us on the 19th of February; the day our journey to Vietnam started. We have spent 10 days traveling this country full of contrasts from North to South, from Sapa to Ho Chi Minh, in a trip full of adventures.

In Sapa we rented motorbikes and enjoyed ridding them, viewing the magnificent rice fields, visiting the local villages and having to wear for the first time in our exchange a jacket!! Next was Hanoi, a city I liked a lot. We visited Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, the war museum and walked also through the less tourist streets of the city. From there we departed to Halong Bay, where we slept on a boat with beautiful sights.

Our adventures continued in Hue (where we visited the Citadel), Hoi An (where we made ourselves some tailor made suits and dresses) and Nha Trang (where we had some rest and got tanned lying on the beach) until we arrived at Ho Chi Mihn. This city was very different from Hanoi, much bigger, with a more European taste in some parts but with still some charm in others. From there we visited the Cu Chi tunnels and learned even a bit more about the war.

We managed to travel North to South using boat (1 night), trains (2 night) and buses (3 nights), so the 4 nights we slept in proper beds in hostels were most valued than ever!! As I said, Vietnam is a country full of contrasts; tourist in some places, 100% local in others; cold in the North, hot in the South; developed in some cities, poor in others; amazing in some ways, disappointing in others... but still our 10 days passed by so far we even thought more time is needed to explore all the great things this country has to offer.

java, the "you-are-very-brave" trip

I came back from Indonesia yesterday morning, after an amazing and very adventurous trip. This time we were only two of us (Alba and me), and even everybody warned us of how dangerous Indonesia could be for two young women like us, we had so much fun!! We spend 5 days there and visited 2 cities: Bandung and Yogyakarta.

In Bandung we visited an active volcano, where we even used the mud for a face-mask, where we nearly burned ourselves with the boiling water and the hot vapour and where we did not see any other tourist. We were only the two of us, observed by the locals living there. Because we could not resist to the very low prices, we also did some shopping in Bandung (t-shirts for one euro and shoes for 6...).

In Yogyakarta we saw two impressive temples that can be perfectly compared to those in Angkor Wat: a Buddhist one (Borobudur) and an Hindu one (Prambanan). In places like those it is easy to start wondering how people lived when these huge temples were used actually as worship centres (unlike now, when they are swarming with tourists).

The trip was full of curious and unforgettable anecdotes, from getting lost in Bandung at sunset trying to find a hostel, until the dangerous journey between the two mentioned cities (in a van driven by a driver who felt like Schumacher). 

During the whole trip we hardly saw any other occidental people, in fact, I think we were kind of exotic, since every few meters people asked us our names, took pictures with us and wanted to practice English with us!! It was quite fun at the beginning...

After a quite eventful journey we arrived home (Singapore really feels like home now!!) safes, after having slept in a "hostel" for 0,75 euro (with cockroach and mouse included in the pack), after having bought more souvenirs than ever (and still having spent less money than in any other trip), after having improved our bargaining skills, after having became used to arabic toilets (a commendable task) and above all, after having laugh and laugh and laugh. I have again fallen in love with this until now undiscovered country, and I can't wait to go back after exams, this time to Bali.

singapore - melaka - singapore

As one month of our exchange period had already gone with Bangkok, Krabi and Cambodia trips, we thought it was about time to spend some days in Singapore!! So for the last two weekends we have just relaxed a while, explored the city, visited some nearby towns and get prepared for our next adventures (Indonesia, Vietnam and Hong Kong).

On the first of these two Singapore-weekends we manage to get involved in a Chinese New Year parade (a completely new experience for us), enjoy the final match of the Australian open tennis championship (yeah!! Nadal won!!), go for a walk around the business district (rain included) and party with other exchange students.

Next weekend we decided to go on a short trip to Melaka (Malaysia), a very nice town, especially at night. We had a great dinner: satay celup (a Melaka adaptation of satay steamboat) followed by a walk around Chinatown (with fishy pedicure included!).

Once back in Singapore, we joined the SMU sailing trip for an open sea session, where we both learned and enjoyed a lot. After the hard work we just relaxed in the Raffles Marina swimming pool before going back into town just in time to see the Thaipusan procession (an Indian celebration).

Overall, these weekends have been quite intensive, although I'm really looking forward to setting out to our next destination!

cambodia in 5 days

I just got back from Cambodia 3 days ago. It was again a 5-days-trip, but even so we managed to visit quite a lot of places and to get a good impression of the country.

We began visiting Angkor Wat temples, near Siem Reap. I must recognize some of them really impressed me. The weather was hot, we had to wake up really early in the mornings and we hardly got much sleep, but still, we enjoyed 

it a lot.

We then jumped on a local-6-hours-bus to get to Cambodia's capital: Phnom Phen. I must say the change was drastic. Not only Siem Reap was much more touristic than Phnom Phen, it was also cleaner, more organized, more relaxed. Phnom Phen, on the other hand, was nearly as chaotic as Bangkok, dirty, poor. I don't think I'll ever forget the 10 minutes we spent on a local street market packed with dozens of motionless hens, fishes covered with fleas, meat lying on the floor...

in love with thailand

During my first two weekends of my exchange program I have definitely fallen in love with Thailand: chaotic streets, paradisiacal islands, stinging neon lights beckoning to drink liquor, stark white beaches, bikini-clad bargirls, ... everything is possible in Thailand.

My 5-days-visit to Bangkok can only be described as unforgettable. The city cannot be more chaotic, noisy and messy but it definitely has its own charm. Thousands of temples spread around the dirty streets, some of which are really impressive. We even visited a nearby city, ancient capital of Siam, and a floating market which has unfortunately turned into some kind of touristic attraction.

At night the city gets even more colorful. We walked through the streets where we ate pancakes, bought some really cheap t-shirts, had a beer near the river and even saw a moey thai combat. We moved around with the famous "tuk tuk", and was in fact quite funny when the six of us tried to fit all in.

When we came back to Singapore we felt all a bit disappointed since our trip had gone by so fast. But we didn't really had time to worry, as two days later we were back in Thailand, but for a very different kind of trip. This second weekend we didn't visit any temple nor did we walk through crowded streets... this second weekend was relax time.

Krabi, Phuket, Phi Phi Island,... all of them were once paradisiacal places which have nowadays become a massive tourist point. However, we spotted a really nice beach with only a few climbers that guaranteed us peace, relax, beautiful sunsets, crystalline waters and white sand scenarios. We enjoyed so much that this time it was even harder to go back to Singapore!

hello singapore

Hello Singapore. That's what I thought two weeks ago when I first arrived to my exchange destination. I must recognize I was quite excited. I had never been to Asia before but I somehow knew I would fall in love with it from the first moment. And that is what has exactly happened.

Singapore is everything I had heard about before arriving here: clean, modern, diverse, hot, packed with skyscrapers, friendly, efficient, ...

What has impressed me the most is the wide range of cultures, places, infrastructures and atmospheres that can fit into such a small piece of land!! The island has 3 airports, 1 massive zoo, 3 universities, 4 official languages, hundreds of office buildings, huge shopping malls and a wide variety of food choices. Singaporeans can be used to it, but it's still quite impressive for me!

why singapore?

I have lived all my life in Spain, and have had the opportunity to travel to several countries, but Asia remained still undiscovered for me, which did nothing more than increase my curiosity. And that was precisely what made me decide I wanted to go to Asia on exchange, but the following question was... where in Asia? China? India? Japan? I finally decided on Singapore because of two main reasons: English was an overall spoken language in the island and its location made it perfect for travelling around.

Great, now you know I was curious about Asia, I wanted to practice my English and I wanted to travel a lot, but... why did I start this blog? I thought about the different ways I could use in order to get in touch with my family and friends in Spain during my exchange (e-mail, facebook, and so on), but what I was really willing to find was some way that could be more personal and that could actually be kept as, let's say, a "diary". So when my "Digital media across Asia" teacher in my "new singaporean university" (I'll talk about it sometime later on, because it deserves a whole post) proposed us to do a blog for our individual grade... I just thought it was a great idea!

my exchange blog

On the top of this page it says "my exchange blog", and that is exactly what this blog is going to be about: about me spending 4 months in Singapore (and its surroundings). I hope it works out!