Ben Tshin

Leaving Kuala Lumpur via night express train to Singapore.

It’s been a travel and visiting blitz since Mom & Dad arrived last week. I finally have two seconds to myself without the distractions of hotel TV, parents, taxis, shopping or whatever. We only spent two real days in KL but we’ve exhausted the city and the city exhausted us. There is only so much walking, eating and shopping that my body and mind can take in so short a period. Travelling is nice but city hopping is killer. I want to be able to soak in a place instead of being a transient, an unknown.

At least I’m with family. That’s a nice change for a short while, although it’s easy to see that my parents are from the old era of fear and caution versus me: adventurous, experimental, experiential and perhaps carefree. Then again, I’ll only once… or not.

Johor Bahru, Malaysia. Final 200m of the Tour de Langkawi. Since I’m in the area, I guess I should check out the local sports scene, especially the cycling scene. This will be my first live international bike race that I have every seen. Of course, Tour de France is on the list, sometime, when I finally get to go. But start small first.

Malaysia is a decent change from Singapore. Here again for the third time now. So convenient to come here, might as well come more often. JB has a bit less of the totally developed first-world feel of Singapore. But the only problem is the border crossing which can get a bit slow especially on the weekends. But not today!

There is a really funny relationship between Malaysia and Singapore. They seem almost like a squabbling old married couple. Singapore is like the head of the family, more money, more power, but very dependent on Malaysia. Malaysia is playing catchup, trying to hold back Singapore while “giving face” of course. I’ve already met too many Malaysians at NUS. They seem a lot more happy-go-lucky than the straight-faced, law-abiding, conservative Singaporeans. Don’t know which country I prefer but together they make an enjoyable pair.

This will be short. About as short as my stay in Malaysia this time. This is the shortest amount of time that I have every visited a country: only 4 hours, in, watch, out.

Next stop in Malaysia: Pulau Aur, scuba scuba scuba. *glug*glug*glug*

En route to Langkawi. On “vacation” now although every warm day here could be considered as a sort of holiday from the perspective of a cold Canadian winter. Penang has been a nice change from the hubbub of Singapore. Seems as though every place can be “better” than the last place. Is there any good enough place for the wandering nomad? But I almost feel at home here in Southeast Asia. Theer is enough English to survive but also enough “Asian”-ness to keep me enthralled.

Life at NUS has been good. I do envy those who have travelled a bit more than me, seen a few more places. But I think to myself: do I really want to be travelling all the time and become a travel junkie?

CNY (Chinese New Year, for those who don’t know all the Singaporean abbreviations) away from family definitely makes me miss home. I fear that out of sight will become out of mind. I ended up spending CNY with an extended family of friends and other family-less people (not orphans but other international students). Always being on the move from here to there give me almost a sense of homelessness, not rooted anywhere, or rooted in anything.

Travelling is an escape from reality into a dream world where everything is cheery cheery. Just make sure to leave before you see the dark and ugly side of wherever you are. Like right now: on the ferry to Langkawi after seeing almost all of Penang in two days.

Well, I hope to start writing more often. Time to restart some good habits again. Luckily no computer around, no waste of time there. But also no talky-talky with people back home. Will I ever get the best of both worlds?

Nope.

(note: this entry is blogged from my Moleskine journal.)

Paris. The city should evoke some romantic thoughts of Europe. But I’m stuck in the airport. It’s not quite as spectacular as I had hoped. The airport here is massively huge (more sprawl than good) with almost NOTHING to do but sit in a pseudo-parisian caf�. There’s nothing like sipping caf� cr�me and eating a tasty pavot, except that it’s at riDEEEEculous prices. Well, I’m hungry.

My 6:55pm flight from Toronto Pearson Int’l (YYZ) left 30 minutes late. What else can be expected from Canadian expertise and efficiency?? But we arrived on schedule in Paris Charles-de-Gaulle airport at about 8:15am, so no complaints.

Breakfast at 7am before we landed, and now nowhere else to eat. I miss the smokelessness of Canada. Everyone smokes here!

Everything is expensive here, but that’s also counting French wine and French cheese. That’s the traveller’s dilemma, how good? How expensive? What about budget?!? Too bad I don’t understand enough about wine to appreciate them like they do here.

Coming here raises a bunch of questions: the world is smaller, but why not better (maybe it’s just Paris)? Who else is being cheated out of a good meal because there is no other option? Where are all these people going? And (very pensively in a style apparently signatory of me): where am I going in life?

At least the country ham in the pavot was tasty.

The beginning of my journey begins in a first class lounge for a simple “economy-class” traveller. I was fortunate to receive a coupon to lounge with the rich people in Air Canada’s Maple Leaf Lounge in Terminal 1. Unfortunately the New Terminal 1 at Pearson is still being built so I wasn’t able to enjoy its luxuries just yet. So I sip my last ounces of Keith’s good Nova Scotian brew for the next 4 months (I’m sure they don’t export to Singapore) all while listening to a bizarrely unentertaining biography of Tom Cruise.

The airfield is dark but abuzz with tiny moving lights. It could almost be like me: I look all calm on the outside but really I’m brimming with excitement about the next 4 months. Seems that I can be very pensive when travelling.

An weird yet interesting similarity between the first-class lounge and life in Canada. The first-class world/lounge is what I’m experience now just before I set out into the real world that is “economy class”. Everyone wants to live in upper-crust luxury, but 90% of the world is stuck in tiny seats trying to grab some shuteye that doesn’t happen.