Tioman Island - Day 2

Another day in paradise. 

I have to admit though: the sleeping situation was not paradise. hahaha. Throughout the night I would cover myself up with a blanket to protect me from mosquitoes, and then I would uncover myself to cool off, and then cover myself up again because I was being bitten by so many mosquitoes. 

I ended up sleeping in a little because I didn't actually sleep much during the night and I had to catch up on sleep in the morning when the mosquitoes weren't so bad. haha. 

Monitor lizard. They were all over.  

So in the video you can see this better, but I went on a hike to monkey bay which was pretty cool. Then I got offered a ride in a water taxi back to Salang (the beach where I stay), which was even cooler. The hike was super sweaty and I was happy to have an alternate way to get back. 

Swam out to this platform and chilled. It was super nice. 

This is actually the next morning, but here's the crew!

Tioman island is one of those places that you go for relaxing vacation and stay for 10 days or even a few weeks. The couple from Italy/USA (Eugenio and Katie) had done just that. They planned to go around Malaysia but instead decided to spend all their time (I think 13 days) in Tioman. I was pretty tempted to stay there longer, but there's too much of the world to see and I'm too young and full of energy to hang out in one place for too long. 

Here's a short video of Tioman Day 2: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5-9nD4hLXg&feature=youtu.be

Tioman Island - Day 1

Tioman Island is pretty much the closest Malaysian Island you can get to from Singapore. Time magazine rated it as one of the world's most beautiful islands. I was excited to get out there and check it out for myself.

On the boat ride out. In this photo the water is already clean, but it was pretty interesting to see how dirty the water was when we were close to Malaysia and then how it progressively got cleaner as we went along (2 hour boat ride).

We also passed many other islands along the way. 

....this makes me miss Japan 

Everyone had their cameras and phones out to take pictures

This was a snapchat that I decided to just save on my phone and not send to my friends. I didn't want to make everyone too jealous. haha. 

It reminded me of the Amalfi coast in that it's one of those places you really have to go see in person to fully appreciate all the beautiful shades of blue there are. 

In the water you can see all the way down to the coral. Without even putting on a mask it's like you're snorkeling. 

My host, Joanna, is on the far right. In the middle are new friends that I made who went there to dive. Next to me is Tony, Akhil, Eugenio, Katie, and then Joanna. 

We all went out for dinner together. The dinner conversation was amazing. Especially Tony seemed to know a lot about just about everything and it was really really interesting just sitting there and listening to everyone talk. I'm usually a pretty talkative guy and would consider my background pretty interesting, but in this circle I just wanted listen to everybody else. It was really awesome. 

To see a video I made of day 1, click on the link below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pm6-5DKhoYA&feature=youtu.be

Singapore - Day 2

For day two I was on my own during the day because Chappy had classes, but I had contacted the Singapore YSA so I could join them for FHE that night. 

First stop: Haw Par Villa

It's free, it's crazy, and I think it would be a really great place to play hide and seek. 

So apparently if you get a photo together with your wife in front of these 9 dragons then you will definitely have a son. I'm not married, but I know I will want a son, so I posed in a way that I can edit her in later. : D

The guy who created this place was also one of the creators of Tiger Balm, that great stuff that everyone uses on their mosquito bites in Taiwan. 

One of his clever advertising methods was to drive around in this car that looks like a tiger. 

Hell, yeah, I guess I should go check it out. 

As I was looking at this depiction of the first court of hell, I thought it was kind of funny that they were missing the bridge for all the sinners that I guess they slip off and fall into a river of hot oil or something crazy like that. 

As I was walking later along a fragile bridge, I realized that they had conveniently given the bridge to us in a life-size model so we could all experience it. 

The merlion! Every city needs something to help your friends on facebook recognize where you've been, and the merlion is the most recognizable symbol of Singapore. 

So this was pretty cool. First I see all these kids photos and think to myself, why do they have these on display outside? That's funny... I guess I'll take a photo. 

Next thing I know I turn around and see this::

They totally brought the kids drawing to life!!

....if only I had grown up in Singapore. 

Trying to capture how big the open area of the mall here..you kind of have to be there. 

Gardens by the bay. Singapore spent a ton of money to build these weird trees. 

These leaves would make for some nice umbrellas. 

I love this: A photo of a guy taking a photo of a girl taking a selfie. 

The missionaries gave a great FHE lesson about Christ. 

This is the group! I had a really fun time in Singapore but I knew there wouldn't be much going on during the week anyway so I was excited to go on to Malaysia the next day. 

Singapore - Day 1

Singapore is one of those four Asian tigers that has seen a lot of economic success. One of my reasons for visiting Singapore was actually because I wanted to check out if it was somewhere I'd like to live someday since I know there are a lot of job opportunities there. 

Of course, I had literally just finished my finals at school so I definitely came here to have a good time.

Everyone told me to make sure I try the chicken rice while in Singapore. It was great! I actually prefer the chicken rice in Thailand, but they had that here too! One of the nice things about Singapore is that you get a great culinary experience of the whole region in one city. 

Me and Chappy, my host in Singapore. He grew up in Singapore but his parents are originally from Hong Kong. He definitely likes people to see more of the realities of Singapore, so even though we saw all this street art and other cool stuff, we also went through some back alleys and some of the red light district type stuff in Singapore too. 

I love the building numbers. 

Hahaha, I thought this sign was great. "temporary inconvenience" yeah, just until 2017. haha. 

So after dinner I decided to have some carrot cake. 

no, not that carrot cake! 

This carrot cake...yeah...not exactly what I was expecting. It was edible, but definitely not a dessert. !!

If you want to see the video of my time in Singapore, click on the link below::

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KJxRX6rF0A&feature=youtu.be