Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

The midnight meals with Malaysian students inspired me to plan a weekend trip to Kuala Lumpur (KL), the capitol of Malaysia. Traveling to KL consisted of bus, to MRT station (4 stops, then another 4 stops on a different MRT line) then a bus to the Singapore border, bus across the bridge to the Malaysian border, and finally a 4-hour bus ride to the city of Kuala Lumpur.  Upon arrival we immediately dropped our bags off and proceeded to find dinner.  I am embarrassed to admit, but instead of getting adventurous with some nice Malaysian cuisine we decided to play it safe with pizza from a reggae themed restaurant down the street from our hostel.  

We began Saturday off to an early start by taking the city bus to the Batu Caves Temple, a Hindu temple built inside a cave that sits 1000 ft above ground level, built in 1891.  I found the entrance to the Batu Caves Temple to be slightly intimidating due to the enormous (approx. 1000ft tall) gold statue standing guard nearthe first step and the fearless wild monkeys who literally grabbed food from visitors’ bags as they hiked 300 stairs to the top. 

The top of the steps made for a beautiful view of KL and further revealed how different Malaysia is from Singapore.  The city of KL appears generously dispersed over miles of flat land, opposite of its neighbor Singapore (the most densely populated country in the world).  Inside the cave we found additional Hindu figures and fearless monkeys.
 
On Sunday we visited the Petronas towers before heading back home to Singapore.  Overall this adventure was a peaceful, air-conditioned nights sleep and escape from our extremely humid campus life in Singapore. 

Six Suppers Across Singapore!!!

A friend of mine from Organizational Behavior class invited me to attend “NTU MSA Supper Hop.”  I tried to ask more information regarding what exactly that was, but he responded in a thick Malaysian accent making his English difficult to comprehend.  Basically I was able to piece together that I needed to meet at 10:30PM near the bus stop and we would be traveling around the country all night eating 6 “suppers” at 6 different signature Singaporean locations until 6:00AM.  I invited my Swedish friend Machala and my friend Emily from San Diego.  We walked to the bus stop around 10:30PM assuming there would be a collection of different NTU students from Singapore and exchange students.  Instead I learned my friend from class was also the president of the NTU Malaysia Student Association (MSA) and we would be joining MSA for supper!  

Initially, it felt a little awkward being on a charter bus filled with 50 Malaysian students who were curious about who we were, where we came from, and what we were doing here (since we obviously we were the only non-Malaysian students with the Malaysian student association.)  All awkwardness was soon gone and replaced with several new friendships.  This was definitely one of my favorite experiences because I truly got to experience a different culture. 

Meals in Singapore have always been a bit of an adventure.  Despite the fact the country’s primary language is English, their culture is a melting pot of Chinese, Malaysian, and Indonesian, so most of the food available in Singapore fall under one of those three cultures.  I am usually not one to shy away from trying new foods because normally (well in America) you can’t go too wrong, I have decided that it is possible here.  By “too wrong” I mean pig organs with a side of rice, fish ball soup, and chicken feet.  I felt a bit better about trying new food, knowing that my new Malaysian friends are recommending them.  My favorite dish was the BBQ stingray and squid.      

My favorite: BBQ Stingray 

Bintan, Indonesia

Bintan, Indonesia was my first trip outside of Singapore.  After nearly 3 weeks of being cooped up inside Singapore, several international students and I planned a last minute trip to Indonesia for the weekend.  Bintan is only a short 1½-hour ferryboat ride from Singapore.  We booked a rooms online at the Nostalgia hostel, a sister resort to one of the nicest resorts on the Island.  Luckily we had access to a shuttle bus and all the nicer resorts facilities, but I would HIGHLY suggest paying the couple extra bucks to stay in an actual hotel or resort.  We reserved a “beach bungalow” that appears as paradise to the untrained eye, but in reality is only a death trap set above the ocean (at least during high tide) infested with mosquito’s, geckos, crabs, in addition to a variety of insects.

 
The hour-long taxi ride to the hostel also acted as a reality check showing me a different side to the Indonesia I had imagined.  I naively assumed all of Indonesia was similar to the vacation spot Bali I had heard so much about.  It was depressing to see that much of Indonesia’s population lives below poverty.  From what I could tell most of these people lived without a proper sewage system ultimately poisoning their own water supply, this was obvious after taking a closer look at the condition of the water near the hostel.  I regret only being 

able to spend 2 days here and due to safety precautions didn’t venture far from either of the two resorts.  Luckily the rest of the trip was more positive.
My absolute favorite part of this adventure was spending Saturday snorkeling off a small Island near Bintan.  For less than USD $25 our amazing snorkel trip included, gear, half day on a boat with a snorkel guide taking us to areas with lots of coral and marine life and back to the main resort.  This was unparallel to any snorkel experience I had ever had in the cold Pacific Ocean.  The water felt like a warm 80 F as I skimmed the water’s surface observing the abundance of fish and other sea life living in the coral.  This little excursion only deepened my need to become scuba certified!

Pulau Ubin

Our "Bum Boat" Captain

My first Friday lecture was cancelled and a few of us decided to travel to Pulau Ubin, an Island just off the northeastern tip of Singapore.  After recent trip to Sentosa Island, I had imagined a similar environment from Pulau Ubin.  I couldn’t have been more mistaken.  My travel book describes the Pulau Ubin as “Left behind by developments on the main island, Ubin was for a long time the last stronghold of old Singapore”. 

The journey involved a short bus ride to the MRT station, the Green Line MRT all the way across the country (approx 1 ½ hrs) then a second bus to the Changi Point Jetty.  What I can never get over with all methods of travel in Singapore is that the do not operate on a time schedule, busses get there when they get there (with or without you).  I was misled to believe we would be taking a ferry, instead we waited for 8 other people to show up (the boat doesn’t leave at a certain time, it leaves when it has 12 people ready to go), and then we were escorted down to the docks and began loading up the “bum boat” (NOT Ferry).  I still don’t understand exactly what defines a ferry vs. bumboat, but this definitely was a bumboat (I guess that is all you can expect from a $2.50 boat ride)!  

About fifteen minute later we arrived at Ubin, immediately we could see the entire town without really having to leave the dock.  There are less than 100 people who live on Pulau Ubin, it is just 5 miles across and 1 mile wide, and I can confidently say we saw EVERYTHING.  Since there wasn’t much to the town besides a convenience store, restaurant and a few religious establishments, we decided to rent mountain bikes and explore.  A 3-hour bike ride up hills and through jungle allowed us to see and experience all that is Pulau Ubin.   

Lunch: Ostrich

After the bike ride we ate at the local restaurant that served a combination of Asian food family style.  We thought we would get adventurous and ordered a dish of Ostrich.  Ostrich doesn’t taste as unusual as it sounds, it actually tastes similar to chicken but much more chewy.  After we returned the bikes and waited for the bumboat to fill up so we could head home.  

After a long successful mountain bike ride to the top of Pulau Ubin

    

Culture Puts a New Perspective In Organizational Behavior

Luckily one mediocre professor isn’t an indicator of the quality of teachers at NTU.  I have been very impressed with my Organizational Behavior professor.  He is a short, passionate, enthusiastic, Asian man who had foot surgery the day before our first seminar class, yet that didn’t prevent him from bouncing (realistically it was more like limping I suppose) around the classroom as he gathered class participation and encouraged opinions.  It wasn’t until I found myself literally LOL (laughing out loud) during this class did it occur to me how much of an influence one person can have on your entire outlook towards a subject.  I easily could have been in another organizational behavior (business management) classes attempting to stay awake as a teacher regurgitates terms from the textbook in the background.  What truly makes this professor standout from others is his ability to utilize the diverse backgrounds of his students as he looks for opinions and experiences that relate to the text.

 

Picture the classroom, approximately 4 round tables equally spaced around the rectangular shaped room, two tables consisting purely of students from Singapore.  A table made up of a student from India, Siberia (but she studies in Italy and is currently on exchange at NTU) Singapore and Germany.  Then the next table “Europe” as the professor refers to them (2 guys from the Netherlands, 1 from Sweden, 1 from Finland).  Finally there is my table (2 Malaysian friends and 1 Indonesian) and of course me (the ‘Western Influence’). I love how this professor has taught above and beyond what the text reads, he has taken every concept and puts it in context in terms of culture.  He frequently asks why/why not this would work for a company in Asia or the U.S. receiving answers in the form of students’ personal experiences.  This class alone has brought new meaning to the saying “you can’t judge a man until you have walked a mile in his moccasins.”  I left the first 4-hour class session of organizational behavior with a new appreciation for diversity and realization of how blessed I am to have this amazing opportunity and experience to spend half a year living and studying in Singapore!