Flights delays, durians and banana leaves

Well, first and foremost I'm in Singapore, safe and sound.

I was gonna fix all the typos on my previous post, but now that I look at it, it really captured my mood quite well. Here's the lowdown on what happened. I was scheduled to leave Boston at 9:40 pm on Lufhtansa, arriving 7 hours later in Frankfurt at 10:30 am local time Wednesday. Then I was to leave on Singapore Airlines for Singapore at 12:30 pm Wednesday, for a 12 hour flight, landing in Singapore at 6:30 am local time Thursday morning. Well, my flight from Boston got delayed an hour (without them ever really acknowledging it on the departures). Additionally, for reasons unknown to me, the plane took a "more northerly route", thus adding an additional hour and a half. Do the math, thats arriving 2 and a half hours late in Frankfurt where I was supposed to have a 2 hour layover. So, after standing in line for an hour and half with 100s of other frustrated Lufthansa customers (for this and other reasons), they finally booked my on a Qantas flight leaving at midnight (Wed night/Thurs morning) direct to Singapore (12 hr flight). So I was in the Frankfurt airport for about 11 hours. It wasn't fun. I was exhausted. I had planned to stay up on my Boston-Frankfurt flight, so I could sleep on my Frankfurt-Singapore one, and thus be well rested, and arrive in the morning. Well that backfired. I did sleep 1 hour on my Boston-Frankfurt when I noticed what might happen. But basically, until I fell asleep on my Frankfurt-Singapore flight, I had been up for 32 hours with a 1 hour nap in there.
Well I made it to Singapore, my flight landed around 6:00 pm (Thursday). Its now 10:45 pm. I know I'll be able to sleep tonight too. Good thing is, I got so disoriented through all this hooplah, my body believes whatever time I tell it to believe, it feels like 10:45 pm.
I made my way to the hostel from the airport via MRT (Singapore skyrail/subway). I checked into my hostel, nothing fancy, but it seems safe and clean. Fortunately they have a little internet room which from which I'm writing this.

SINGAPORE ROCKS!

In the time between when I checked in and now, I've been exploring the neighborhood I'm in, Little India. I can see there's an array of influences making this a really cool city (though, quite hot and humid at the same time). Obviously, Indian is the primary influence around here, and I like it. All sorts of shops, restaurants and more. You hear the call to prayer blasting in the streets at the appropriate time.
And of course, I eat.
I went to this little hawker center, and there was a fruit stand. And that fruit stand had durian. and you better believe it, I ate that durian. The stand was run by (I assume) a husband and wife team. They were more than eager to prepare the durian for me. They have a bucket of water they pour over your hands so you can "wash" them. You pick out a durian, and pay by weight. They appropriately suggested a small one, about 1 kilo (by far most of the weight is shell/spikes and other hard stuff), they knew this was my first time trying one. And it only cost 5 Singapore dollars (about $4 US). There's 3 lobes inside this thing. Its kinda hard to explain. Anyways by cutting through the "shell" they pry the whole thing apart into 3 pieces, and expose the lobes (what I call them ,basically the part you eat). Inside each lobe is a large seed which you cant eat, so you eat the soft stuff around the seed (I have no idea if this makes sense).
First of all, let me say, I did indeed enjoy it.
Well, people try to describe its taste and texture, which is hard to do. Nonetheless, I'll give it a shot. Its like cooked onions, sweet custard, and very soft ripe cheese all mixed together, and with a very slight fruitiness. That being said, there's nothing I've had quite like it.
The couple at the fruit stand were funny. Before I was to set down at one of the tables in the hawker center in which they were located, they had my try it right there, behind their stand, which butted up to a side street (the center is open air). I assume they did this to see my reaction; they were very friendly. They told me to ignore the smell, which, as it is infamous for, is absolutely horrendous (not allowed on trains, in hotels etc.). Well, it tasted awesome. I had to take little bites at a time, because it is pretty strong tasting. Nonetheless I ate 2 and a half lobes (couldn't quite finish it , too much of a good thing).

I also took part in another food experience I wanted to try. A banana leaf restaurant. It's basically a meal, of which rice is the center, served on a piece of banana leaf. Banana leaves are very large and were cut into rectangular pieces roughly equivalent in size to a larger plate. So you get a nice pile of white rice (which they add to, free of charge, out of a large serving bowl they bring around, as you eat). Around the rice, on the banana leaf, are 4 different, small piles of items relevant to what you ordered. I got the vegetarian, so they were 4 different vegetable items. There was also fish and chicken as well as plenty of non-rice dishes. One was like squash cooked with lots of spices, another was raw onions and cucumber and such in yogurt, and so on. Additionally you get 3 small cups, each containing a different "gravy". One was lentil based, thick and yummy. Another was thin, spiced, and very sour. The other was kinda thick and dragon's breath spicy.

I really liked the lentil one, though they were all delicious. But basically, you pour some of the gravy on some on your rice (you pour different ones on different parts of your rice and so on and so forth, all to your liking). So the rice is wet and covered in gravy, and you eat it with pieces of your other foods (i.e. my vegetables).

Something makes it really unique. You eat with your hands. Well, with just your right hand, as proper manners demand. So you grab rice and other food with your fingers and pop it in your mouth. It's a lot of fun. And of course, the food, as you might assume, was absolutely delicious. I'm sure I'll be going back, they're nearby and VERY affordable.

So despite my hectic time getting here, I am absolutely loving it so far. I am stuffed. I'm pretty tired. I'm excited for the rest of my time here. I see myself taking it pretty easy tomorrow; I got plenty of time. Did I mention how clean and efficient it is here? I didn't, but it is very much so, but I'll save that for another time. So far, I've found the people to be quite friendly as well, such as the guy who, without me even asking, informed me we had to change trains on the subway, as the one we were on wasn't going any farther (I think my complexion and big backpack prompted him).

Well that does it for now. I'll update you all soon enough. Hope you enjoyed reading, feel free to leave a comment.

-Mike

Strike

Lufthansa´s on strike. that means my planes are messed up. my boston flight was delayed an hour, theen they took a route that added an hour and a half to the fflight. that made me miss my flight to singapore. so here i am in the frankfurt airport. 330 pm local time. i got a direct flight to singapore on qantas. it leaves at midnight. srz for the poor tzping. i cant figure out this kezboard. z and y are switched. i´ll fix it later. just letting zou all know. i´ll arrive in singapore 6 pm thurs night. im rallz tired. 1 hr of sleep in the past 23. runnin out of time. bze

Before I go....

Hi everyone,
I'm leaving in a few days. I can't believe it's almost here. My plane takes of Tuesday night from Boston, going onto Frankfurt then to Singapore. I have 22 hours worth of flying and a layover to look forward to. The 12 hour leg from Frankfurt to Singapore is the most exciting *sarcasm*. Fortunately, I'll be flying on Singapore Airlines, which has an excellent reputation (they even have free Singapore Slings!). An interesting note, due to the length of the flight and the disparity of time zones, I'll land Thursday morning around 6:30.

It's been over a year since I started to get ideas of putting together this trip. I'm just about ready to go. I finally got the last visa I needed from the Lao Embassy. I have nearly all my stuff ready to be packed, just need a few small things. All my other preparations are done (I think).

I've gotten quite a number of questions about my trip, so I figured I'd post a few FAQs here.

1. Q: Why did you choose Southeast Asia?
A: Why not? It's very affordable (perhaps the most affordable destination in the world for travel). I LOVE food, and Southeast Asia has some of the best. I especially can't wait for street food and Hawker fare (Singapore and Malaysia's answer to street food). The region boasts a wide variety of cultures. It's supposed to be pretty easy to travel around. There's a ton of history.

2. Q: Aren't you afraid of getting robbed, killed etc.?
A: No. Southeast Asia is pretty safe. Of course I'll be taking appropriate precautions. If it were too dangerous, I wouldn't go there.

3. Q: You're going in the summer?!?!? It's gonna be HOT!
A: No. Yes. While technically it may be summer (leading into Fall), in all practicality, it's not. I'll be in the tropics, so the four seasons don't really apply. It's the rainy season for a while during my trip. Nonetheless, it will be hot. Really hot. And I'm not a warm-weather guy. I love snow and sub-freezing temperatures. New England summers are too hot, if you ask me. Nonetheless, I'll adjust (I hope).

4. Q: You're going for 3 months?
A: Certainly, I'm done with school, I have no job, I'm young.

Well, I think that does it for now. I might fit in one more post before I leave, not sure. Anyways, check back soon, I'll try to give an update when I arrive. Feel free to leave a comment.

Thanks for reading,
Mike