Blogs from Asia - page 13023

So we finally made it to the equator, and we're here to tell you that it's really, really hot in this part of the world. Not just that dry desert heat that everybody moves to Arizona for, but the awful, humid heat that makes it impossible for you to stop sweating or gasping for air. By the time you towel off from a cold shower, you're ready to jump right back in again. Forget about trying to keep ice in your glass folks, it's like walking around inside a pressure cooker. But the good news is that we have landed in Singapore, and they are prepared for this kind of weather. How do they survive living in the middle of this rainforest climate? Why, they go shopping of course! Singapore is the wealthiest country in Southeast ... read more

Hey guys I have a bunch of pictures labelled and ordered..ready for posting. But the internet is killing me with its slowness….I’ve been trying out different programs for picture posting but none are working as of yet. I’ll keep trying. To celebrate my last night of orientation we went to “Nepali Chulo” which is a traditional Nepali meal with traditional dancing as entertainment. It was held in a restored old castle and we dressed up in saris to go. (A sari is from India and involves a really beautiful piece of material that you kinda drape around yourself) I had to borrow a sari and it was a remarkably complicated process to put one on. Today was my second day working at the Shanti Sewa Griha clinic, which is a really extraordinary place. It is a ... read more

Dear Parents and Friends, The teachers were very pleased with the students today as everyone was punctual for breakfast. They have learnt to be disciplined. We hope that they will strive to be disciplined in every aspect of life when they return back to Singapore. The students were excited to attend lessons with their buddies this morning. Clearly the home stay has drawn our students closer to their Chinese counterparts. Seeing how happy the students were when they interact with their Chinese friends, the teachers cannot help but feel elated. It is our wish that this interaction between the students from the two schools can continue even beyond this visit. After their lessons, the students rehearsed their items for tomorrow’s cultural exchange session with the students from Deyang Foreign Language School. We trust that the students ... read more

Day 285, 12th March Georgetown It felt great to spend the night actually sleeping and not having to think about wild animals and gunmen attacking me in my tent. So, I got a lie in…. Today was the inevitable ‘Lazy Day’ doing virtually nothing apart from wandering around town, buying food, getting stamps, eating food, writing letters, eating more food…and so on. All that weight I’d lost cycling over the last weeks, I piled back on in a few short hours! There were a lot of interesting travelers back at the hostel, most of which had interesting stories about Indonesia which made me want to go in a way. Lake Toba in Sumatra sounds a great place to chill-out for a while. Maybe from Singapore I could carry on through the Indonesian islands by bike and ... read more

A page out of my "conventional" journal :-) ... The aerial view of Kathmandu prepared me of what to expect; ideal mountain setting, pastures, brick houses and…more brick houses. The international airport reaffirmed my humble expectations. The slow and calm demeanors of immigration officials and the slackness of security told me that I had just landed in another developing country. Waiting at the airport exit were self-proclaimed porters, taxi drivers and all sorts of tourist-service hawkers. Half of them smelled of alcohol and shouted in most of their conversations, some demanded payments for simply stalking me and my trolley. They flocked like pigeons to dazed and disoriented arrivals as if they were bags of corns. They may have spent years at the airport but alien to the word jetlag. The ride from the airport proved me ... read more