Posted by Ted on Oct 22, 2010 in
Travel,
Vagabonding After two weeks on Gili Air, you might not think that the world’s fourth largest financial center and busiest shipping container port is a place to relax, but Singapore was a very comfortable place to re-acquaint ourselves with modern society.
An island country city-state of over 5 million people within 274 square miles, it has all of the advantages of a big city without the frenetic feel of other Southeast Asian metropolises such as Hong Kong, Ho Chi Minh, Jakarta, and Bangkok.
While our last weeks on a small island in Indonesia were certainly paradise, we were already beginning to look forward to some modern conveniences such as fresh (not brackish) water, indoor plumbing, hard (not sand) sidewalks, and more choices for food than mie goreng, nasi goreng, and gado gado. Neither overbearing nor aloof, Singapore provided all of these things, and then some.
The cleanliness of the city is legendary, so of course it was one of the first things I looked for. As we rode the MTR train from Changi airport to Bugis station, I looked out on the streets below and was amazed by the lack of trash. While one could see the occasional discarded wrapper or food container, it really was the exception rather than the norm. A game of “spot the litter” revealed maybe a dozen or two items during the 15 kilometer ride. This initial impression was only confirmed as we walked across the city over the next several days.
We had made reservations at the InnCrowd hostel in Little India, and while sufficient, confirmed for us that we really don’t prefer dorm lodging. However, the location allowed us to enjoy our first Indian food on the peninsula, and to get a taste of what the streets of Chennai might be like. The streets were alight with Deepavali celebrations. While India was not on our short list of places to visit before, it sure is now. We had the best Mushroom Masala Dosai at a place called Madras Woodlands.
During our previous few weeks in Indonesia, we had been compiling a shopping list, mostly of toiletries, that we needed to stock up on in Singapore. Most of the items were easily found, oddly, save Imodium or equivalent. Apparently, the anti-diarrheal of choice is simply activated charcoal tablets. The other very important todo item was getting my camera cleaned. I had noticed when taking photos that spots were appearing on every picture, regardless of lens. So early in the trip, this was unacceptable. Thankfully, I tracked down the Camera Hospital, conveniently only a few blocks from the hostel, and open on weekends.
Another modern convenience we enjoyed was watching a movie in a theatre, taking advantage of A/C in the middle of a hot day. While the evil villain’s raison d’être was somewhat ludicrous, Reign of Assassins was a thoroughly enjoyable movie, with excellent martial arts, an intricate plot, and a warm love story. 
While in Chinatown, we also sampled the food at a “hawker centre“, like a food court, which exist throughout the Malaysian peninsula, but the best was experience was snacking our way down the Chinatown Food Street one night. We also tried a durian pancake – not bad!
All in all, our three day stay in Singapore was a welcome re-introduction into modern society. However, it totally blew away our daily budget, and so we moved onwards and northwards into Malaysia.
Tags: RTW, Singapore
Posted by Ted on Sep 19, 2010 in
Travel,
Vagabonding At T-1, we’re one day and 13 hours from leaving everything behind us except what fits in our two 35L backpacks, a camera bag, and a satchel.
Because of our self-imposed domestic homelessness for the past month, we’ve been moving bits of our stuff around the Bay Area for much of that time. “Recreational moving” to the extreme. On the one hand, not living in our home while still in our home town has been a bit surreal, having to schedule visits to see our stuff and our cats. On the other hand, it has afforded us a gentle shift in adapting to a more nomadic lifestyle, such that leaving in just over a day feels no sense of apprehension. In fact, the thing that I am most looking forward to at the moment is sitting in seat 41K on Korean Air flight #24 with nothing on a todo list. However, I’m sure the elation of being in that seat will wear off a few hours in to our 19 hour trip from San Francisco to Bangkok, via Seoul.
Now that the last mail orders of clothing and gear have arrived, the packing begins in earnest. Replacing my iPhone as my closest guarded possession for the next three months, my money pouch now holds;
- My passport, which will have many more stamps before returning home to New York for Christmas
- My travel wallet, which contains;
- Bank card
- VISA credit card – zero balance, low interest rate and credit limit
- PADI certificate card
- DAN insurance card, which covers both diving and non-diving accidents
- Red Cross blood donor card, conveniently displaying my blood type
- California drivers license
- Spare passport photo
- Couple of business cards
- 541 US Dollars
- 95 Euros
- 2550 Thai Baht
While the pouch will be kept close to me, I have no love for it, especially in hot climates. Whether worn around the neck or one’s waist, money belts are often in the way and are excellent collectors of sweat. What do you carry in your money pouch when you travel? What kind of pouch or belt do you use?
Tags: Gear, Preparation, RTW
Posted by Ted on Aug 21, 2010 in
Travel,
Vagabonding In just 30 days and 12 hours, we will be boarding Korean Air flight #24 out of San Francisco, bound for Bangkok, via Seoul. 
The past 10 days have been exceedingly busy. We have had a house-closing party, our first truly successful party in the Bay Area, with enough people from different circles meeting and enjoying each others’ company. We had a map of SE Asia up on the wall, which sparked several conversations with folks who had been to the area with suggestions on where to go.
We cleaned the house and packed up most of our clothes and valuables, moving them into a 5′x6′ storage unit a few miles away. Tetris skills came in very handy. However, the biggest challenge was simultaneously setting aside clothes for a month of couch-surfing, Burning Man, backpacking across SE Asia, and Christmas in New York.
On Wednesday, our three subletters from New Orleans arrived in two taxis, 15 minutes after we’d cleaned the last corner of the kitchen in preparation for their arrival. We took them out to our favorite local Ethiopian restaurant to welcome them to their new home. Afterwards, we gave them a tour of the house and an introduction to our cats, before handing them our keys and heading off to our first home-away-from-home.
Except it isn’t. We don’t have a home for the next 4 months. Our lease effectively ended, and doesn’t begin again until December. Our stuff and our cats are currently in someone else’s home. When we returned the next day to pick up some more of our things, it was a somewhat odd experience to first arrange a convenient time, and then to walk into a house with all of our things, and yet already see the ways in which the subletters had made it theirs. To be a visitor among one’s own possessions is a curious feeling.
For now we are house-sitting for some friends currently vacationing in Eastern Europe. Next week we go to Burning Man. The week after that we have no plans at all. Then we spend a week with some other friends. Then we leave, to begin the real adventure.
Stay tuned!
Tags: Preparation, RTW
Posted by Ted on Aug 10, 2010 in
Travel,
Vagabonding Today I moved the first boxes into a steal of a $24/mo storage unit 10 minutes away.
In just 8 days, we will be homeless.
We’ll still be in the Bay Area, but we will be house sitting, camping, and couch surfing until the end of September. We may even get to visit our cats in our house that we’re not living in.
Phrao, Thailand, just outside of Chiang Mai
Then, 6 weeks from today, we get on a plane bound for Thailand, via a stop in Korea. Our return to the U.S. isn’t until mid-December. Assuming a perfect world of ontime plane departures and arrivals, there will be 84 days, 23 hours, and 45 minutes between when we land and take off again from Bangkok. That’s 12 weeks of living by whim alone. That’s just over a year’s worth of a 9-5 job (2039 hours).
After exceedingly busy months of the metronome tipping ‘is-it-going-to-happen-or-not’, everything finally fell into place over the last month, and our vagabonding trip throughout Southeast Asia is GO FOR LAUNCH! We are now in full preparation mode, with just over a week to have a party, pack everything away, and live out of what we can fit in the car for a month. And we’re very much looking forward to it.
We were able to sublet our flat, find cat care, and secure cheap storage. Unsurprisingly, the biggest factor of all was our cats. We knew that they would be the hardest logistical problem to solve. While we were lucky in finding subletters willing to both take care of our place and our cats, we had a 4th cat who was a local stray that we had been fostering for six months. Finding a home for Snuffles – a sweet, skittish, FIV+ cat that courted us for six months before we even let him in – proved much more difficult than we could have anticipated. Finally, just as we were thinking we might have to give up, we found the North County Humane Society, an all-cat no-kill shelter in Atascadero, south of Monterey. With some sadness, we drove 7 hours last Saturday to take him to his new home. We are so glad to have found them, and they are worthy of your donation. Now our efforts are on cleaning, organizing, and packing. It’s going to be a very busy week!
Stay tuned for our continued Countdown to Homelessness!
Tags: Bangkok, RTW, Southeast Asia
Posted by Ted on Jun 14, 2010 in
Vagabonding One my way back across the bay from San Francisco one afternoon last week, I was surprised to discover that the front wheel of my bicycle had been stolen. After casing everyone and every corner I could see, I gave up ever seeing it again. Being the Bay Area, I walked a few hundred yards down to the bike shop and asked how much a new wheel would be ($130). This would of course be the bike shop that conveniently offers a free bike valet. The very same valet that I passed that morning, running late and heading straight for the bike racks.
Last week’s Vagabonding column outlines my easy five-step process to get through any situation.
Many life lessons are in that infuriating category of ‘something preventable‘ where the only one you can really blame is yourself. I once left a brand new Hong Kong tailored suit on a Shinkansen between Tokyo and Kyoto, and a favorite Panama hat on a bench in a hotel in Shanghai. I dived into a shallow pool in Costa Rica which led to eight stitches in my forehead, and I slid down a waterfall in Fiji and nearly drowned. Even the emotional pain of finding that the exact same leather handbag you purchased at the shop next door in the Djemaa el Fna of Marrakech is now half the price in the shop you’re in can generally be avoided by simply paying attention.
However, when we inevitably lose a gamble by taking something for granted, it’s important to realize that both the cause and the incident are in the past and to focus on the present and future. Whether you are in Port-au-Prince, Shanghai, or Oakland, more important than what happens to you, is how you deal with it.
If five steps are too many, Suhail, of TruePhresh has a three step option.
Tags: advice
