Singapore

September Thursday 23

Flew into Singapore International at 3pm in a tired state. Spent the previous in the district of Wan Chai, for Adrienne's and Amy's birthday.
We left China to stay at a hostel in ChinaTown, Singapore. it seems i can't shake this Chinese monkey off my back.
After a bit of a nap we headed to Clark Quay, along the Singapore River for some dancing and drinking. We departed to the jungle they call Orchard towers here to continue our evening adventures but the night finished with me hiding in the corner from the Lady Boys which are very common here.

Friday night was Athica, Clark Quay. Epic in one word.

Saturday was a bit more successful as we had breakfast at Blue Diamond in Little India and took the MRT to Marina Bay where the F1 racetrack resides. This is also home of the most amazing modern architecture that I've ever seen. The Sands casino is composed of 3 towers connected at the top by viewing platform at 55 stories. Across the Marina Bay harbor is the Swiss hotel of 70 stories with the New Asia Club at the top, which we later visited.
We met Kiyome for dinner on Arab st at an excellent egyptian restaurant with shishah. From there we went to Zouk which is a labyrinth of bars & clubs. Kiyome's friends took care of us at one of the bars & at 5am Magnus & I hoped into a taxi with a Siekh man with a turban for some early morning Punjabi lessons with Jack Daniels. Had an excellent asian breakfast in Chinatown when we got back consisting of freshly made pastries & pork buns.
Sunday we lost a day until 6pm. I got a race walkabout pass from our hostel neighbor ($150!) so I headed to the track for a bit. The environment was  highly energized, but the walkabout pass is a bit unfortunate because you can only see small segments of the race and at no point can you watch the big screen and the road. Only 16 cars finished the race, with Alonso for Ferrari taking the race.
When I got back the group had met a kiwi going through a mid life crisis who spent the rest of the night taking us to Le Noix VIP & Ithaca VIP with bottle service. In the VIP there was a huge bald Swede who threatened Andreas life when she touched him drunk, punched Nathan in the mouth and spent the rest of the night telling Magnus his mafia background.

AWE

This place is Amazing. I have never seen pictures of Hong Kong and didn't quite know what to expect, but getting a ride in a taxi from the airport blew my mind away. The entire city is built on a vast mountainous jungle. These people have conquered what seems to be one of the hardest platforms to build on...
9M on a tiny island makes this the most densely populated place in the world

Culture & mishaps.

I have met a huge amount of the exchange students here who are all outgoing and fun. I have had a bit more trouble in the first week in meeting the local students who seem to keep to themselves. After a week I have managed to break through the superficial reserved nature with my silly "American" humor. Last night I had them teach me Mahjong and I got my butt kicked at PES.
At first I was sure they either didn't want to meet me or were intimidated by my loudness. In the elevator when I would say hello or try to interact with them, they would usually turn into the corner, glance at me and then look back at the floor, often times pretending they couldn't hear me. This was extremely frustrating, especially when they did answer it seemed like they were very uncomfortable and would Run full tilt when the doors opened. I quickly learned from locals who's English is a bit better that everyone understands me but that they are shy, and don't want to be wrong when they speak so it makes them more hesitant. I was aware of the fact that looking into someones eyes is a bit aggressive here so I've been trying to not make direct eye contact. Greatest news of all is that they invited me to play on the hall basketball team!

Tuesday was $10(HK) vodka at Carnegie's in Wan Chai, and we lost Jeremy, Sam's roommate to a group of prostitutes. We were eating doner wraps when he disappeared and we weren't really concerned because HK is quite safe and he's a big guy. The next day when I saw him it looked like a tiger had attacked him and he was wearing a large cast. According to his story he found himself on the 8th story of a whorehouse, terrified for his life, and broke the window with a chair to climb out. He climbed down the side plumbing of the building and ended up in the street where locals saw him crying and called an ambulance...