Monthly Archives: January 2008

I’m on a train, on the way to the border.  Because of yet another pointless dispute between Singapore and Malaysia, we’ve already officially entered Malaysia (this happened at the train station) but we’ll have to get off the train and … Continue reading →

I just packed up my room to move out — Mom and Dad and I are going on a brief tour of Malaysia.  Among the debris on my desk was the above chopstick wrapper which I carried here from Japan … Continue reading →

The only thing requiring explanation here is this next bromeliad photo.  There were a couple of buildings which were disguised by having bromeliads stapled all over their outside  (I wonder what the r-value is?).  That meant that from any distance … Continue reading →

Mom and Dad are just about to arrive at the airport here.  In order to meet them, I just arrived at the airport too.  I took the train which has its last stop at the terminal. Except… there’s a brand … Continue reading →

A few times in the last month I’ve heard baus referred to as ‘a kind of dumpling’ but I was able to shake it off.  Today, though, I was served the above item in a Taiwanese restaurant.  It was described … Continue reading →

I’ve been in bed with a fever for the last couple of days.  In order to maximize my feelings of isolation, our home internet service has been offline all week.   My landlord brought me a peanut butter sandwich somewhere … Continue reading →

In yet another ticket-buying snafu, I tried to reserve tickets online for Mom and Dad and I to travel to Kuala Lumpur next week.  The e-ticket system was completely incomprehensible, so finally I just emailed them and made reservations that … Continue reading →

I wanted to buy airplane tickets from Langkawi to Singapore but for some reason SilkAir’s website would only sell me tickets traveling the other direction.  So, I called up, paid the additional phone-reservation fee, and booked three tickets that way. … Continue reading →

I don’t know all that much about Singapore’s political system, and I suspect that while I’m here, at least, I’m better off keeping it that way.   Here’s an example of a hard-hitting local news story:  On Wednesday night there … Continue reading →

As soon as I overcame my prejudice against American coffee franchises (right now I’m in a “Spinelli’s”) I found lots of places where it’s normal to sit for hours in front of a laptop.   Indeed, the only hard part … Continue reading →