"Drug trafficking is a serious offense in Singapore, punishable by death".
The words coming over the planes loudspeakers were like daggers.
Daggers poking holes in the bags strapped to my body containing the nearly 50 kilos of black tar Mexican heroin. This was a mistake. I had been so sure that Singapore was a drug friendly place. Javier, the man who paid me to smuggle the drugs, had assured me there would be no trouble. I was gonna kill Javier; that is if I didn't end up in a maximum security prison or shot by a firing squad. Did they still use firing squads in Singapore? God I hope so. I did not want to be hung, that sounds way more painful.
"....your seat back. Sir. Sir. Please raise your seat back to its full up right position".
I opened my eyes and nodded to the flight attendant as I depressed the seat back button, raising the seat to its incredibly uncomfortable upright position. Oh thank god, it had all been a dream. I'm not a complete idiot. I wasn't carrying any drugs into Singapore.
"Drug trafficking is a serious offense, punishable by death". The announcement over the loud speaker sent a wave a fear through me.
Was I sure I wasn't carrying any drugs? What if a bag of weed that I picked up many months ago had been hiding somewhere in my bag the whole time? This had actually just happened to one of the members of my Remote Year group (luckily he was the one who found it and not airport security).
Turns out, no drugs on me. So, that was a complete waste of an introduction to this post.
Upon arrival in Singapore, my brother Aaron (you may remember from the previous post) and I went straight for the top of the Marina Bay Sands hotel, for some rooftop drinks.
Drinks with a view
The hotel is basically the epicenter of the city as far as tourists are concerned. It's pretty easy to see why.
Dats a sweet hotel
Rooms start at $400 a night and it has these ridiculous views.
Singapore Marina
Gardens by the Bay
Oh yeah, and it has this absolutely ridiculous 54th floor infinity swimming pool.
Best pool in the world? Quite possibly!
Unfortunately, you actually have to stay at the hotel to use it (drinks at the public bar aren't good enough). Well that sucks, I guess I'll never get to swim in it.....or will I?
The answer is yes, yes I will.
I had heard amazing things about the food in Singapore, especially about their hawker (food cart) stalls. They actually have two Michelin rated hawkers in the city. But we started out the first night eating at the hawkers by the marina. It was a row of amazing seafood and Asian options. Crabs are a big thing in Singapore and we went for the famed Singapore Chili Crab.
Singapore Chili Crab
Although it was good, it had smashed crab shell everywhere, which was impossible to pick around, so it was not that enjoyable a meal (hi I'm Matt, I complain about eating chili crab in Singapore).
Hawkers at the marina
The rest of the items we ate were pretty amazing though.
Other food...can't remember what it was. Pad thai? Duck something? Hebrew National hot dogs?
And the view of the marina was ok at night.
I'm like really good at night photography
The next day we went to the botanical gardens. The highlight was of course the extravagant orchid gardens.
Lord of the flowers
The tunnel of color
A flower
Next we tried the famed Hainanese chicken rice.
Hainanese chicken rice - its just boiled chicken and rice
Apparently this famous dish is just boiled chicken and rice. I dont get it.
That night we rode the ferris wheel in the city called the Singapore Flyer. Cause what kind of city would it be without a ferris wheel?
Singapore Flyer
The next day we decided to go big! That's right, you know what's coming. We littered and chewed gum on the streets of Singapore (both illegal). Also, we got a room at the Marina Bay Sands hotel. And you know what that means.....
I got to use the best pool in the world!!!
Me! In the best pool in the world
Me! Pointing to the best pool in the world.
Aaron and me (or is it I)! Hanging in the best pool in the world
A close up of Aaron and I (or is it me)! Hanging in the best pool in the world
Aaron! In the best hot tub in the world
Me! In deep thought looking out from the best pool in the world
Me! Using my amazing night photography skills to take a picture of the best pool in the world
Really, I have forgot everything else about the trip, other than this swimming pool.
There was something about some weird electric trees.
Weird electric trees that I have forgot about cause I was in the best pool in the world
The other side trip I took in the month of November was to Bali. Obviously! You knew I was going to say that since Thanksgiving is in November and Thanksgiving is the time that people flock to Bali.
Thanksgiving in Bali
This Bali trip epitomizes how easy it is to forget what an amazing life I'm leading for the year traveling the world.
I had nothing to do over Thanksgiving and some people were going to Bali.....sure, I'll go. I'm not even going to get excited or do any research, thought. It's just another place in Asia. I mean, I'm already in Asia, what's the difference?
If this was normal life and I was taking a trip to Bali, it would be the biggest trip of 5 years. I would plan for months. I'm a bit of a spoiled nomad.
The good news is that Bali ended up being my favorite place that I went the entire year (I may know this because I'm writing this post six months later after my trip is over....but don't tell anyone).
We started off in Seminyak which is one of the more touristy areas. I enjoyed it because all the Airbnbs in Seminyak have an open 4th wall which looks out over a pool and a wall of hedges. I know all Airbnbs in Seminyak have this setup because I saw two of them.
Looking out from the Airbnb - the same view as all the Airbnbs in Seminyak
Looking out from another Airbnb in Seminyak - Same same
Isn't Seminyak just a fun work to say. Seminyak. Sem-in-yak
I also enjoyed Seminyak because of the surfing.
Surfing in Seminyak
I lied. I actually didn't enjoy the surfing that much in Seminyak because I'm not very good and the waves were big and strong and constant and I couldn't even swim out past them to catch a wave. But, I tell people I surfed in Bali. Now you know my secret.
Seminyak is also the location where I first lost my sleeves. From this point forward in my trip, you will pretty much only see me wear tank tops. I became known as the guy in the group who never wore sleeves. People would yell at me when I wore sleeves (they still yell at me if they see a picture of me wearing sleeves).
The new Matt - no sleeves
The picture above is one of my favorite pictures ever taken of me because I look so genuinely happy. The whole no sleeves thing became somewhat of a metaphor for the transformation I went through to become a happier Matt (with no sleeves).
Just two bros, not wearing sleeves, hanging out at the Airbnb, in Seminyak, in Bali
But the Bali trip didn't end there. We also went to Ubud (that one is fun to say too). Ubud. Oooooo-boo'ed
Ubud is kind of like this hippie paradise. Or that's what it has become since Eat Prey Love. It has lots of vegan places, yoga, dirty white people and monkeys. In fact they even have a monkey forest there.
Just a couple of bros, hanging out in their tank tops, with monkeys on their heads, in Ubud, in Bali
The famous Carlos, claiming me as his bitch
Monkey Forest had pretty trees
The road to Monkey Forest
Ubud also has the world's first organic vegan cinema. What an honor.
Damn hippies
But the highlight of Ubud is the rice terraces. I don't have anything to say about them, so please enjoy the pictures (I wont take the time to remove the default caption text).
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Pretty pretty, amirite? The invasion of western influence was pretty evident even here, as they were building hotels in the middle of this rice terrace. However, they did it the old fashion way. We watched women walk for 15 minutes carrying twenty bricks at a time on their heads to supply the construction.
She's saying, don't take a picture of me white devil
If the rice terraces weren't the highlight, then the people that I was with definitely were. I went with Darrin and Heather. You may know them as the Fritses. Or you may know them as the couple from my trip that got engaged at Machu Piccu. They took me in as their child for the weekend.
Visiting a temple with my new parents
No, I'm just kidding, how could the people be the highlight? Really, the highlight was the open air bamboo bungalow (through Airbnb) on a rice field that we stayed at.
Looking out from our home
Lounge chair in our Airbnb
Oh, and did I mention it had an infinity pool?
Damnnnn
Don't mind the man physically working the rice fields in the hot sun who is ruining the picture of me in my infinity pool
OK yeah, I'm not gonna lie, it was a little awkward having people work manual labor in the fields for pennies while we watched from the pool. But, more terrifying than this was the plethora of insects and animals that we saw out there at night. We couldn't turn on the lights at night because so many moth like creatures would swarm us. However, it did provide entertainment watching the geckos sit under the lights and feast on a buffet of thousands of these insects.
Eat them all
Some sort of huge snail/slug
And then there was the scorpion we saw. It was a tiny one. The tiny ones are the poisonous ones. But, I think I would rather see the small poisonous ones than the large terrifying "harmless" ones.
Look, hes so small and cute
By far the scariest creature of all was the monster spider found in the bedroom. This spider was so big that it was eating a lizard. And not only that, but after we scared it away, it was so big that it actually picked up the lizard and ran off.
Warning: Graphic Image to Follow:
Look at the size of that thing
That was funny.
Nope, there it is
AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
And now for something less terrifying:
Total countries visited on my trip: 21 (Argentina, Uruguay, Bolivia, Peru, England, Belgium, Italy, Czech Republic, Ireland, Portugal, Austria, Hungary, Serbia, Germany, Croatia, France, Spain, Qatar, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia (Bali))
This was the question that I asked myself as I walked through the super hot and humid streets of Kuala Lumpur. It was the first Asian city that I was calling home on my journey and I was super excited for the opportunity to see kuala bears. I would soon find out, to my extreme disappointment, that not only are there no kuala bears in Kuala Lumpur, but there's actually no koala bears either.
So what would Kuala Lumpur have to offer me then? I can confidently say it offered the worst weather of my trip and possibly my life. Every day the same 90+ degree temperatures, 80+% humidity and cloudy. Everyday it would rain...monsoon rain...for an hour or two and you did not want to be caught in that.
OK, so no koala bears and awful weather. Certainly this city must offer me something, right?
Just as I started to fall into a deep depression, I looked up into the sky and saw a beacon of hope....no no, it was two beacons of hope.
My beacons of hope
The Petronas towers. The tallest buildings in the world
from 1998 to 2004. Pretty cool, amirite?
A picture of the Petronas towers (sorry about the two people in the way)
Now, I know what you're thinking. Who is that person in the picture with me? Half of him looks so much like me. Well, that is my brother Aaron....well my half-brother Aaron....brother from another mother if you will. He came all the way from western Massachusetts to visit me in Kuala Lumpur. He is obviously much smarter than me because he was not expecting koala bears.
Aaron had never been to Asia before, but he had tried Asian food, so he had a good foundation for the trip.
Aaron eating Asian food...in Asia
Aaron and I visited all the tallest buildings in the city. There was the Petronas towers:
Magical
What did one tower say to the other tower?
And then there was the KL tower:
Nothing. Towers can't talk. Duh.
I'm actually standing on top of the KL tower in that picture, so its not very helpful.
KL Tower - pronounced kuh-le (not really)
That's a better shot.
But we didn't stop at just going to towers. We also visited the Batu caves, home of the monkeys.
One of our hosts at the Batu caves
So many stairs
This host politely asked us to leave
The caves are home to more than just monkeys, though, they also serve as one of the largest Hindu shrines outside of India.
Entrance to the Batu caves - Lord Murugan (under construction)
And of course Kuala Lumpur is full of delicious Asian food. There is one street in particular called Jalan Alor (we just called it food street) that is open all night and is filled end to end with restaurants and food carts.
Dumplings are a food street special
Durian lined food street
If you dont know what durian is...you need to try it
Not a durian, but a jackfruit
Since there was a crew of us in the Remote Year group that worked nights (to match US east coast hours) we would often make trips down to food street at 2AM or 3AM. I split my days, working a few hours during the day and then 8PM - 2AM. Some people straight up did 10PM - 6AM. We called it the sucky hours crew.
Roti canai - breakfast of champions
Another great thing I got to do in KL was attend a wedding. One of the local experts who was helping out Remote Year had a brother who was getting married and he invited a bunch of us to go. First, we had to pick up some sweet traditional Malaysian wedding attire:
RY crew in Malaysian wedding attire
That guy in the middle is Wan who invited us to the wedding. He's the man.
I've got that dictator look
Other random observations about KL:
It had sooooo many malls. And the biggest malls I have ever seen in my life. You could walk for miles indoors from mall to mall. It was mall central.
It also had a sweet birdpark:
I am one with the animal
It also had Koi competitions:
Yes, this is how a koi competition is held.....don't worry they have plenty of space in there
And lots of mosques:
A little over the top
Since Malaysia is a Muslim country, I took the opportunity to learn more about the religion.
Red's not my color
This was probably the most open, non-agressive, informative visit to a religious institution I've ever been privy to. The mosque is open to anyone (even during prayer) and they have English speaking volunteers who are there to answer any questions you have about the religion. I talked with them for several hours and even got to meet Brother Dan, an American who searched the world looking for meaning and found Islam as the answer. After being given my very own Quran, I gave in and converted. So, As-salāmu ʿalaykum my brothers and sisters.
Is he kidding?
The teachings of Quran weren't the only thing I learned about in KL, I also picked up information from the public service notices in the bathrooms:
Most important thing I learned in KL
And that was my month in Kuala Lumpur. Please enjoy these dances from the Malaysian wedding:
Total countries visited on my trip: 19 (Argentina, Uruguay, Bolivia, Peru, England, Belgium, Italy, Czech Republic, Ireland, Portugal, Austria, Hungary, Serbia, Germany, Croatia, France, Spain, Qatar, Malaysia)
Yes, it turns out you've been pronouncing it wrong this whole time. As in all the times you've talked about Qatar. Maybe not so many? Well, the amount you talk about this small middle eastern country will be rapidly increasing in the coming years because the 2022 World Cup is being held here (so learn how to pronounce it).
What was I doing in Qatar (did you say it right in your mind this time)? No, it was not a Remote Year location. It just happened to be where we had an 8 hour layover on our way from Croatia to Kuala Lumpur. With such a long layover, we were able to take some time and go out on the town to see the wonders of Doha, Qatar.
Prior to visiting, I pretty much knew nothing about Qatar (no, it rhymes with butter) other than the fact that its oil rich and its hot. Well, it turns out its not oil rich...its actually oil RICH! As in the richest country in the world oil RICH with a per capita GDP of $129,726. To put that in perspective, the US per capita GDP is $57, 293. Dammmmmmnnnnnn. That is oil RICH!!! And it's very apparent that they have no idea what to do with all their money. The city is basically just a shell with luxury high-rise hotels lining the river, but no buildings below filling in down below.
Those are all the building in Doha. There is no city. Its all an illusion.
The "markets" in Doha were built in the last few years, but were created to look as if they have been around for hundreds of years. Its fake. All fake! As in straight out of a movie set fake (trust me I hang out on a lot of movie sets).
The new market. Same as the old market. Well, actually, there was no old market.
An ancient structure built five years ago
Also during our eight hour visit, we were able to fit in a boat ride across the river. FUN!
Crossing the fake river
Boat Crew (also fake)!
That's it. That's my whole blog post about fake Qatar. I just needed to get this out because its been three months since my last post and I'm writing about events that happened six months ago. Next time, bring your chopsticks cause we're moving into my Asian adventures.
Smokin the Qatar Hookah (not fake)
Total countries visited on my trip: 18 (Argentina, Uruguay, Bolivia, Peru, England, Belgium, Italy, Czech Republic, Ireland, Portugal, Austria, Hungary, Serbia, Germany, Croatia, France, Spain, Qatar)
