Just a quick post to say Happy New Year 2009. I know you guys haven't hit 2009 yet, but here, in the future, it's pretty cool. No flying cars yet. Anyway, we went to see some fireworks at Marina Bay. I have a video, but only people in 2009 can see it, so come back in 10 hours.
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Merry Christmas, etc
From Singapore to you all - Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah, and we miss you guys back in the states. :-)
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Translation
For those who don't play World of Warcraft, a small dictionary might
be necessary to understand the first part of Mathew's post.
WoW= World of Warcraft
WotLK = Wrath of the Lich King (the new expansion)
Tank = guy who leads the group into battle. He has a lot of armor and takes all the damage so everyone else doesn't have to.
Guild = a group of players who play together
80 = the new highest level
Also, "Lucky Draw" means a contest drawing here.
What wasn't mentioned in his post, by the way, is that we discovered that we could have had our friends purchase WotLK in the states and email us the codes. It turns out that Blizzard, the company who makes WoW, put it online for people to download once they upgraded their account with the code. I had mine earlier than Mathew because Jon got me the Collector's Edition and I got my code an hour or two after the US launch, 22 hours before the launch here.
be necessary to understand the first part of Mathew's post.
WoW= World of Warcraft
WotLK = Wrath of the Lich King (the new expansion)
Tank = guy who leads the group into battle. He has a lot of armor and takes all the damage so everyone else doesn't have to.
Guild = a group of players who play together
80 = the new highest level
Also, "Lucky Draw" means a contest drawing here.
What wasn't mentioned in his post, by the way, is that we discovered that we could have had our friends purchase WotLK in the states and email us the codes. It turns out that Blizzard, the company who makes WoW, put it online for people to download once they upgraded their account with the code. I had mine earlier than Mathew because Jon got me the Collector's Edition and I got my code an hour or two after the US launch, 22 hours before the launch here.
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Update from Mathew
OK, so I know I've been pretty bad about posting to the blog... well, let's be honest: my contributions, save for one post waaaay back at the beginning, have been non-existent. So, let's see if I can rectify that a little bit, with an overall update/summary from me, of my takes on our adventures on this side of the world so far. :)
1. Wrath in Singapore
As Jenna posted last month, getting copies of WoW's expansion, "Wrath of the Lich King," wasn't quite the same here as back in the States. It started out easy enough... we went to Challenger, an electronics store in the mall across from our apartment (maybe a 10 minute walk, including waiting to cross the street and navigating the mall), where they had a giant sign advertising Wrath of the Lich King. Interestingly enough, two days before the release (when we decided to do our pre-order), the sign actually had a hand-written sign at the stop stating, "In Stores Now!"... this wasn't actually true, so we purchased two copies, and got two credit-card sized preorder cards, which we were to turn in at the "Launch Event."
Now, in the US on release day, one would go to the store where they pre-ordered and pick up their software. As Jenna detailed, such is not so here, and they have ONE place for everyone to pick up their software in all of Singapore... that's right, the 10,000-strong WoW population of Singapore converging on one place, for a box with a disc and a software key. Considering how advanced this culture seems to be in a lot of respects, this did not seem like the smartest way to do this. Oh well, when in Rome...
Jenna posted some pictures of the event itself, and some details on the overall/outside view of the event, but I probably have a slightly different take, since I was actually in the thick of things. Here's my approximate timeline:
Previous night - Jenna and I decided to have dinner near the launch venue, so we knew where we were coming the next day. At this stage, we had no idea what to expect. We took the MRT, which was maybe a half-hour ride and a few transfers, to where we thought it was going to be. After a bit of wandering, we found the building, where there were already a half dozen guys camped out. Keep in mind this was 9pm, and the event wasn't starting until noon the next day. At this stage, I began contemplating when I should head there.
Later that night: After some debate, I decided to stay up for the night and head to the launch event on the first train, at around 5:20am. Around 3am I realized I was exhausted and decided to sleep... amazingly, I somehow got up on time.
5:30am: Left for the launch site, with a PSP (entertainment), water (hydration... sitting outside in Singapore for hours is the perfect recipe for dehydration), and some soda (caffeine... remember, no sleep) in tow...
6:00am: Arrived at the launch site. Amazingly, the number of people from 9pm the night before had only about doubled, and I was just around the first corner of the building, in maybe the first two dozen people. As expected, I was the only caucasian in line at this point (and the only I saw until much later in the morning, whom were much further back in line.)
6:15am: Settled in for the long haul... since there was nobody to hold my place in line, I basically prayed I didn't have any sort of bathroom emergency. Luckily, all was fine.
8:00am: Other people actually started to show up, in a slow trickle. Probably 3 times as many people there as when I arrived... still not a huge number.
9:00am: Now people were really showing up, and there were at least a hundred people in line... still just the start
10:00am: Definite signs that something was going on... several hundred people in line, and the alleyway where they had the line going was starting to get full... they had some barricades set up about halfway back in the alley, to set up a snaking line, and they were quickly filling.
It was also around this time that the trucks hauling Wrath showed up. (That's right, they weren't even in the building yet.) At least half a dozen trucks showed up, each with 4-5 pallets of WotLK each. And they unloaded them right next to the line... in front of those of us who had been waiting hours, and were just itching to play, since our counterparts on the other side of the world were already well on their way to 80.
10:30am: Some of the guys in the line around me started joking about forming a raid to take on the guys unloading the trucks, for some "epic loot." I was nominated to be the tank... Maybe because I mentioned I play a tank in-game, or maybe because they wanted to throw me to the wolves. (I was definitely a minority at this event... not only because I was about the only white guy, but because there were WAY more hordies than Alliance.) Raid fell apart due to lack of heals.
11:00am: The Guild Master for the guild the guy behind me in line was in showed up, and handed him a STACK of prepaid cards... we're talking like 70 cards. I'm not really sure what it was all about, but I think he was actually buying copies for his whole guild... so strange.
Noon: Woo! The wait was finally over... they started moving the line forward so we could head in.
12:05pm: Line moved forward but stopped...
12:10pm: Still waiting
12:15pm: Finally, they moved a group of people forward to move in. Now, in the States, this would have meant walking in the building, giving them your prepaid card, and getting your game. As with everything else having to do with this event, such was not so here. They had us take the side entrance to the building, and go up SIX flights of stairs. (Awesome idea for a group of nerds who have been standing in the sun all day...) At the top was a dark room with funky lighting, a few monitors on the walls playing the WotLK trailer, and a fog machine. Someone in the front said a little spiel, and let us in.
Table one: turn in prepaid cards and get WotLK
Table two: get poster
Table three: get Razer mousepad
Table four: get some sort of complimentary canned drink (one of the local sodas I think... some sort of promotional thing... I ignored it and moved on.)
Down the stairs, to the floor below...
Here, a guy directed me to a computer to sign up for the "lucky draw." I threw in my information and quickly moved down to the next floor. I wanted out!
There was another bank of computers here, and a guy tried directing me to one to play "Blizzard demos" or to go out to this little area where they had some weird games set up. (No joke, I think I saw a bean bag toss thing.) I just asked him how to get out, and moved on.
Finally, down some more stairs and I was in the lobby. There were workers milling around, and I was the only consumer in site... I think most of the guys in front of me were still stuck in the floors above, while I'd just rushed through. I headed for the front door (which literally cut right through the line outside) and proceeded away from the building, amidst stares from the people still waiting.
At this stage, I think Jenna's pictures from her post tell the best story. Her and I met up at this point, wandered around for a bit to get a full view of how many people were there (thousands at that stage), and proceeded home. I was EXHAUSTED, but still managed to play for a bit before passing out.
While I didn't go to any release events in the States for Burning Crusade, I do know with absolute certainty this was NOTHING like any of the events in the States. While I can understand how they want to capitalize on having that many gamers in one place, it seemed lost on them that the only thing we wanted to do was get our game and get out. Oh well, with any luck, if/when there's another expansion, Jenna and I will be back in the States.
(Aside: Tygrand, my main, hit 80 last night, less than a month after the expansion... if it weren't for the Thailand debacle, this would have easily happened a week or two ago.)
2. Thailand.
While we don't get any days off for Thanksgiving here, since Jenna had the week off from schoolwork, we decided it would be a good time for me to take some time off from work and for us to go on vacation.
Our original thought was to go to Australia... I've always wanted to go, and while it's not super close, it's far closer than going there from the States. However, after checking flights and other costs, we decided it was going to be a bit too pricey, and to find a cheaper alternative. After checking Tiger Airways, a low-cost carrier out of Singapore, we decided on Bangkok, Thailand... the flight was only a couple hundred each round trip, the hotel was next to nothing, and it looked like it would be a fun, interesting trip. We were certainly right about the "interesting" part...
Our plan was to leave on the Sunday before Thanksgiving, and stay until Friday, giving us four full days. Two days we were going to do planned tours, and the other two days we were going to explore. On Friday we booked the flight, found a hotel, and booked a couple tours online (one was to a nature reserve, and the other was a Thai cooking class... we debated a couple others, but figured we could sign up for more later.) Our trip was set.
Sunday: Before heading for the airport, I checked on our tours again... while the nature tour thing was confirmed, the cooking wasn't, but I wasn't worried. I mean, they probably don't work weekends, right? And the cooking wasn't until later in the week, so there was plenty of time.
Our trip to Thailand was uneventful... the flight was quick, exchanged some money at the airport (S$1000 -> 28,000 Thai Baht), and found a taxi to take us to the hotel. The guy didn't use the meter, but only wanted to charge us 500 Baht (about $17US), so we figured that was fine.
We got to the hotel, checked in, and everything was grand... the trip had gotten off to a great start. Maybe this wasn't going to be so bad after all!
Monday: We had nothing planned for Monday beyond exploring, so when we got up that's what we were going to set out to do. I checked my email quick, to find out that our tours had been cancelled, with no explanation. WTF! Jenna assured me things would be fine, so we just decided to venture out into the city and figure out the rest of the week as we went. Jenna talked about our tuk-tuk adventure, so I'll leave that be... bottom line, by the end of the day, we had full bellies, Jenna had some new jewelry, and we had tours planned. While the day started off on a low note, it again looked like this could be a good trip!
Tuesday: We got up insanely early (5am), to catch our tour for the day. I'm going to leave the tour details to Jenna, since she still has pictures to post, but while on the tour we heard about some unrest going on back in Bangkok... something about a bomb somewhere, and some protests. All-in-all, at this stage, it didn't sound like anything too bad. Boy, were we wrong.
When we got back to the hotel and checked the news, we found out protesters had "peacefully" taken over the international airport, shutting it down. From all reports, it sounded like it still wasn't anything to worry about, and it would all be cleared up in a couple days, and we'd be able to get out as planned on Friday.
Wednesday: Jenna and I wandered and shopped... I don't recall anything terribly significant from Wednesday beyond this, but I'm sure Jenna will add more. The unrest at the airport continued, but our flight was still supposed to be on as scheduled, so we weren't really worrying... yet.
Thursday: Another early day for tour two. I'll leave details to Jenna and her pictures, but my bottom-line comment on the tour was it was terrible. While the actual content of the tour was neat, around every corner it felt like we were getting screwed over by the tour guide. First, we signed up for two things - floating market and rose garden - but the tour was apparently stopping at a third place - crocodile farm - which we were basically forced into going to and paying for. (Well, we didn't have to go/pay for it, but our only other option would have been sitting around waiting.) Second, the tour "ended" at a jewelry store, where we were forced to go through in order to get a van home at the end... basically, it was a bit of scam by the tour guide, where she got some sort of cut for each person she brought in to the store. I was LIVID and made this very apparent... the tour guide apologized several times, showed us through the store, and we got on our van to the hotel.
Back at the hotel, we checked the news, and found out the airport crisis was still going on... but our flight had not yet been canceled... I was still hopeful we were going to get out of there on time.
Friday: The day we were supposed to leave. I got up, checked my email, and found out our flight had been canceled, with no word at all from Tiger Airways about how we were supposed to get out of the country. Dammit! I checked the US-Thailand Embassy's website to see what they had to say for US tourists stuck there, which turned out not to be much... basically, there take was Thailand had to figure things out, and recommended US travelers just sit tight and wait for it to be resolved... incredibly helpful.
Weekend: Jenna and I were officially on holiday overflow at this point, and we had nothing planned, nor anything we really wanted to do. The weekend was basically spent wandering around a bit and shopping, avoiding incessant tuk-tuk drivers, and habitually checking the news to see if there was any update on the airports. Had we both brought laptops (I, stupidly, left mine in Thailand... I mean, why would we possibly need two laptops for such a short trip?), it probably would have been spent sitting around the hotel playing WoW.
Monday: With still no word on when the airport crisis might be over, I decided Monday morning it was time to find some other means to get out of the country... enough was enough! I did some preliminary checks online, and it appeared that the train from Bangkok to Penang had some seats available for Tuesday or Wednesday. Perfect! That would have meant an overnight train ride, a short taxi to the airport in Penang, and a quick flight home... for a second, I even let myself thing something about this trip would be simple.
At the train station, we were approached by a very helpful information person, who spoke fairly good english. We told him our plan, at which point he informed us that the trains from Bangkok-Penang/Butterworth were booked until December 7th. Dammit! His suggestion: take the train from Bangkok to Hat Yai, where there were "lots of buses"available to Penang.
We headed up to the window, where we found out there were no sleeper seats available for Tuesday, but we could get one on Wednesday... not perfect, but at this stage we wanted out of the country, so we took it. Jenna and I couldn't figure out at all if we were sitting together based on this tickets, but, again, at this stage we just wanted out.
The rest of the day was spent doing a little more wandering... Jenna and I found a really nice park on one of our earlier outings, which we visited again. I believe she has lots of photos which I'm sure she'll be posting soon.
Tuesday: Tuesday AM I woke up very early, very sick. I still have no idea what caused it, but I had nasty stomach pains, and spent the majority of the morning in the bathroom. Jenna was wonderful and took care of me. :)
Wednesday. Departure day... The whole two day trip back to Singapore really deserves it's own post and pictures, so I'm going to leave this for another time. I think Jenna and I have been a bit too burnt out from our vacation to actually put this together. Long story short, it was a long, hellish journey, but we made it back to Singapore safe and sound.
3. Holiday time in Singapore
It's hard to believe that Christmas is only a couple weeks away... it's hot, sticky, and green outside, so seeing Christmas decorations up at the mall just doesn't feel right. When Jenna mentioned to me that Christmas was only a couple weeks away, I hardly believed her. It just doesn't feel right...
I'm kinda thinking that Christmas isn't going to feel very much like Christmas this year. It's too difficult to send presents back and forth with people in the States, so I've basically decided to hold off on anything like that until we're back in the US in a few months. This will be my first Christmas not spent back in the Midwest with my family... I'm not really sure yet how I feel about that, but I suppose it was going to happen sooner or later. Jenna and I have been talking about doing some sort of late Thanksgiving-turned-Christmas dinner (with turkey and everything), which would be really, really nice, and hopfully make things feel a little bit more like the holidays. Though it's likely going to be tough, given our tiny oven and lack of virtually all cooking implements. We'll see though. :)
Well, that's really all I've got... since this is my first day back at work in two weeks I should probably get some actual work done. :) I'll try to be a little bit more talkative on the blog going forward. Now that I feel a bit "caught up," hopefully it won't seem so daunting.
1. Wrath in Singapore
As Jenna posted last month, getting copies of WoW's expansion, "Wrath of the Lich King," wasn't quite the same here as back in the States. It started out easy enough... we went to Challenger, an electronics store in the mall across from our apartment (maybe a 10 minute walk, including waiting to cross the street and navigating the mall), where they had a giant sign advertising Wrath of the Lich King. Interestingly enough, two days before the release (when we decided to do our pre-order), the sign actually had a hand-written sign at the stop stating, "In Stores Now!"... this wasn't actually true, so we purchased two copies, and got two credit-card sized preorder cards, which we were to turn in at the "Launch Event."
Now, in the US on release day, one would go to the store where they pre-ordered and pick up their software. As Jenna detailed, such is not so here, and they have ONE place for everyone to pick up their software in all of Singapore... that's right, the 10,000-strong WoW population of Singapore converging on one place, for a box with a disc and a software key. Considering how advanced this culture seems to be in a lot of respects, this did not seem like the smartest way to do this. Oh well, when in Rome...
Jenna posted some pictures of the event itself, and some details on the overall/outside view of the event, but I probably have a slightly different take, since I was actually in the thick of things. Here's my approximate timeline:
Previous night - Jenna and I decided to have dinner near the launch venue, so we knew where we were coming the next day. At this stage, we had no idea what to expect. We took the MRT, which was maybe a half-hour ride and a few transfers, to where we thought it was going to be. After a bit of wandering, we found the building, where there were already a half dozen guys camped out. Keep in mind this was 9pm, and the event wasn't starting until noon the next day. At this stage, I began contemplating when I should head there.
Later that night: After some debate, I decided to stay up for the night and head to the launch event on the first train, at around 5:20am. Around 3am I realized I was exhausted and decided to sleep... amazingly, I somehow got up on time.
5:30am: Left for the launch site, with a PSP (entertainment), water (hydration... sitting outside in Singapore for hours is the perfect recipe for dehydration), and some soda (caffeine... remember, no sleep) in tow...
6:00am: Arrived at the launch site. Amazingly, the number of people from 9pm the night before had only about doubled, and I was just around the first corner of the building, in maybe the first two dozen people. As expected, I was the only caucasian in line at this point (and the only I saw until much later in the morning, whom were much further back in line.)
6:15am: Settled in for the long haul... since there was nobody to hold my place in line, I basically prayed I didn't have any sort of bathroom emergency. Luckily, all was fine.
8:00am: Other people actually started to show up, in a slow trickle. Probably 3 times as many people there as when I arrived... still not a huge number.
9:00am: Now people were really showing up, and there were at least a hundred people in line... still just the start
10:00am: Definite signs that something was going on... several hundred people in line, and the alleyway where they had the line going was starting to get full... they had some barricades set up about halfway back in the alley, to set up a snaking line, and they were quickly filling.
It was also around this time that the trucks hauling Wrath showed up. (That's right, they weren't even in the building yet.) At least half a dozen trucks showed up, each with 4-5 pallets of WotLK each. And they unloaded them right next to the line... in front of those of us who had been waiting hours, and were just itching to play, since our counterparts on the other side of the world were already well on their way to 80.
10:30am: Some of the guys in the line around me started joking about forming a raid to take on the guys unloading the trucks, for some "epic loot." I was nominated to be the tank... Maybe because I mentioned I play a tank in-game, or maybe because they wanted to throw me to the wolves. (I was definitely a minority at this event... not only because I was about the only white guy, but because there were WAY more hordies than Alliance.) Raid fell apart due to lack of heals.
11:00am: The Guild Master for the guild the guy behind me in line was in showed up, and handed him a STACK of prepaid cards... we're talking like 70 cards. I'm not really sure what it was all about, but I think he was actually buying copies for his whole guild... so strange.
Noon: Woo! The wait was finally over... they started moving the line forward so we could head in.
12:05pm: Line moved forward but stopped...
12:10pm: Still waiting
12:15pm: Finally, they moved a group of people forward to move in. Now, in the States, this would have meant walking in the building, giving them your prepaid card, and getting your game. As with everything else having to do with this event, such was not so here. They had us take the side entrance to the building, and go up SIX flights of stairs. (Awesome idea for a group of nerds who have been standing in the sun all day...) At the top was a dark room with funky lighting, a few monitors on the walls playing the WotLK trailer, and a fog machine. Someone in the front said a little spiel, and let us in.
Table one: turn in prepaid cards and get WotLK
Table two: get poster
Table three: get Razer mousepad
Table four: get some sort of complimentary canned drink (one of the local sodas I think... some sort of promotional thing... I ignored it and moved on.)
Down the stairs, to the floor below...
Here, a guy directed me to a computer to sign up for the "lucky draw." I threw in my information and quickly moved down to the next floor. I wanted out!
There was another bank of computers here, and a guy tried directing me to one to play "Blizzard demos" or to go out to this little area where they had some weird games set up. (No joke, I think I saw a bean bag toss thing.) I just asked him how to get out, and moved on.
Finally, down some more stairs and I was in the lobby. There were workers milling around, and I was the only consumer in site... I think most of the guys in front of me were still stuck in the floors above, while I'd just rushed through. I headed for the front door (which literally cut right through the line outside) and proceeded away from the building, amidst stares from the people still waiting.
At this stage, I think Jenna's pictures from her post tell the best story. Her and I met up at this point, wandered around for a bit to get a full view of how many people were there (thousands at that stage), and proceeded home. I was EXHAUSTED, but still managed to play for a bit before passing out.
While I didn't go to any release events in the States for Burning Crusade, I do know with absolute certainty this was NOTHING like any of the events in the States. While I can understand how they want to capitalize on having that many gamers in one place, it seemed lost on them that the only thing we wanted to do was get our game and get out. Oh well, with any luck, if/when there's another expansion, Jenna and I will be back in the States.
(Aside: Tygrand, my main, hit 80 last night, less than a month after the expansion... if it weren't for the Thailand debacle, this would have easily happened a week or two ago.)
2. Thailand.
While we don't get any days off for Thanksgiving here, since Jenna had the week off from schoolwork, we decided it would be a good time for me to take some time off from work and for us to go on vacation.
Our original thought was to go to Australia... I've always wanted to go, and while it's not super close, it's far closer than going there from the States. However, after checking flights and other costs, we decided it was going to be a bit too pricey, and to find a cheaper alternative. After checking Tiger Airways, a low-cost carrier out of Singapore, we decided on Bangkok, Thailand... the flight was only a couple hundred each round trip, the hotel was next to nothing, and it looked like it would be a fun, interesting trip. We were certainly right about the "interesting" part...
Our plan was to leave on the Sunday before Thanksgiving, and stay until Friday, giving us four full days. Two days we were going to do planned tours, and the other two days we were going to explore. On Friday we booked the flight, found a hotel, and booked a couple tours online (one was to a nature reserve, and the other was a Thai cooking class... we debated a couple others, but figured we could sign up for more later.) Our trip was set.
Sunday: Before heading for the airport, I checked on our tours again... while the nature tour thing was confirmed, the cooking wasn't, but I wasn't worried. I mean, they probably don't work weekends, right? And the cooking wasn't until later in the week, so there was plenty of time.
Our trip to Thailand was uneventful... the flight was quick, exchanged some money at the airport (S$1000 -> 28,000 Thai Baht), and found a taxi to take us to the hotel. The guy didn't use the meter, but only wanted to charge us 500 Baht (about $17US), so we figured that was fine.
We got to the hotel, checked in, and everything was grand... the trip had gotten off to a great start. Maybe this wasn't going to be so bad after all!
Monday: We had nothing planned for Monday beyond exploring, so when we got up that's what we were going to set out to do. I checked my email quick, to find out that our tours had been cancelled, with no explanation. WTF! Jenna assured me things would be fine, so we just decided to venture out into the city and figure out the rest of the week as we went. Jenna talked about our tuk-tuk adventure, so I'll leave that be... bottom line, by the end of the day, we had full bellies, Jenna had some new jewelry, and we had tours planned. While the day started off on a low note, it again looked like this could be a good trip!
Tuesday: We got up insanely early (5am), to catch our tour for the day. I'm going to leave the tour details to Jenna, since she still has pictures to post, but while on the tour we heard about some unrest going on back in Bangkok... something about a bomb somewhere, and some protests. All-in-all, at this stage, it didn't sound like anything too bad. Boy, were we wrong.
When we got back to the hotel and checked the news, we found out protesters had "peacefully" taken over the international airport, shutting it down. From all reports, it sounded like it still wasn't anything to worry about, and it would all be cleared up in a couple days, and we'd be able to get out as planned on Friday.
Wednesday: Jenna and I wandered and shopped... I don't recall anything terribly significant from Wednesday beyond this, but I'm sure Jenna will add more. The unrest at the airport continued, but our flight was still supposed to be on as scheduled, so we weren't really worrying... yet.
Thursday: Another early day for tour two. I'll leave details to Jenna and her pictures, but my bottom-line comment on the tour was it was terrible. While the actual content of the tour was neat, around every corner it felt like we were getting screwed over by the tour guide. First, we signed up for two things - floating market and rose garden - but the tour was apparently stopping at a third place - crocodile farm - which we were basically forced into going to and paying for. (Well, we didn't have to go/pay for it, but our only other option would have been sitting around waiting.) Second, the tour "ended" at a jewelry store, where we were forced to go through in order to get a van home at the end... basically, it was a bit of scam by the tour guide, where she got some sort of cut for each person she brought in to the store. I was LIVID and made this very apparent... the tour guide apologized several times, showed us through the store, and we got on our van to the hotel.
Back at the hotel, we checked the news, and found out the airport crisis was still going on... but our flight had not yet been canceled... I was still hopeful we were going to get out of there on time.
Friday: The day we were supposed to leave. I got up, checked my email, and found out our flight had been canceled, with no word at all from Tiger Airways about how we were supposed to get out of the country. Dammit! I checked the US-Thailand Embassy's website to see what they had to say for US tourists stuck there, which turned out not to be much... basically, there take was Thailand had to figure things out, and recommended US travelers just sit tight and wait for it to be resolved... incredibly helpful.
Weekend: Jenna and I were officially on holiday overflow at this point, and we had nothing planned, nor anything we really wanted to do. The weekend was basically spent wandering around a bit and shopping, avoiding incessant tuk-tuk drivers, and habitually checking the news to see if there was any update on the airports. Had we both brought laptops (I, stupidly, left mine in Thailand... I mean, why would we possibly need two laptops for such a short trip?), it probably would have been spent sitting around the hotel playing WoW.
Monday: With still no word on when the airport crisis might be over, I decided Monday morning it was time to find some other means to get out of the country... enough was enough! I did some preliminary checks online, and it appeared that the train from Bangkok to Penang had some seats available for Tuesday or Wednesday. Perfect! That would have meant an overnight train ride, a short taxi to the airport in Penang, and a quick flight home... for a second, I even let myself thing something about this trip would be simple.
At the train station, we were approached by a very helpful information person, who spoke fairly good english. We told him our plan, at which point he informed us that the trains from Bangkok-Penang/Butterworth were booked until December 7th. Dammit! His suggestion: take the train from Bangkok to Hat Yai, where there were "lots of buses"available to Penang.
We headed up to the window, where we found out there were no sleeper seats available for Tuesday, but we could get one on Wednesday... not perfect, but at this stage we wanted out of the country, so we took it. Jenna and I couldn't figure out at all if we were sitting together based on this tickets, but, again, at this stage we just wanted out.
The rest of the day was spent doing a little more wandering... Jenna and I found a really nice park on one of our earlier outings, which we visited again. I believe she has lots of photos which I'm sure she'll be posting soon.
Tuesday: Tuesday AM I woke up very early, very sick. I still have no idea what caused it, but I had nasty stomach pains, and spent the majority of the morning in the bathroom. Jenna was wonderful and took care of me. :)
Wednesday. Departure day... The whole two day trip back to Singapore really deserves it's own post and pictures, so I'm going to leave this for another time. I think Jenna and I have been a bit too burnt out from our vacation to actually put this together. Long story short, it was a long, hellish journey, but we made it back to Singapore safe and sound.
3. Holiday time in Singapore
It's hard to believe that Christmas is only a couple weeks away... it's hot, sticky, and green outside, so seeing Christmas decorations up at the mall just doesn't feel right. When Jenna mentioned to me that Christmas was only a couple weeks away, I hardly believed her. It just doesn't feel right...
I'm kinda thinking that Christmas isn't going to feel very much like Christmas this year. It's too difficult to send presents back and forth with people in the States, so I've basically decided to hold off on anything like that until we're back in the US in a few months. This will be my first Christmas not spent back in the Midwest with my family... I'm not really sure yet how I feel about that, but I suppose it was going to happen sooner or later. Jenna and I have been talking about doing some sort of late Thanksgiving-turned-Christmas dinner (with turkey and everything), which would be really, really nice, and hopfully make things feel a little bit more like the holidays. Though it's likely going to be tough, given our tiny oven and lack of virtually all cooking implements. We'll see though. :)
Well, that's really all I've got... since this is my first day back at work in two weeks I should probably get some actual work done. :) I'll try to be a little bit more talkative on the blog going forward. Now that I feel a bit "caught up," hopefully it won't seem so daunting.
Monday, December 8, 2008
God is Big
Mathew and I were wandering the mall looking at strange Christmas gifts (in 80 degree weather) and the sound system in the store was playing a very God-friendly CD. One of the songs got stuck in both of our heads and I felt the need to share it with you all.
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Back in Singapore
Just letting everyone know, we made it back (somehow) safely. All of our luggage did, too. We are now once again clean and showered and we're both really, really tired.
I will tell of our journey tomorrow. For now, good night
I will tell of our journey tomorrow. For now, good night
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
The adventure begins...
Just wanted to tell everyone that we're about to leave for the train/bus/ferry/cab/plane ride. Jon has been very kind and created a map for everyone to follow our journey.
http://tinyurl.com/5kosh9
Mathew's tummy is much better, which is good. And we're mostly packed. It'll be good to get out of here.
Wish us a safe journey. See you on the other side. :-)
http://tinyurl.com/5kosh9
Mathew's tummy is much better, which is good. And we're mostly packed. It'll be good to get out of here.
Wish us a safe journey. See you on the other side. :-)
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Tummy Problems
Mathew woke up this morning around 7am very sick. I don't know what he ate, but he's throwing up and such. I went out and got him tummy stuff, but he's not feeling much better. I hope he feels better soon.
Monday, December 1, 2008
Planes, trains, and automobiles
We have decided to do something, rather than sitting here for any longer without any action being taken by anyone. The red shirts have started demonstrations in Bangkok, and the government hasn't done anything at all. So today we went to the train depot and booked a sleeper car to some other part of Thailand. This is an 18 hour train ride. At the end of the line, we need to find a van/bus or another train for an additional 5 or so hours. Then we will have to take a ferry from there to Malaysia. Once in Malaysia, we will get a cab to the airport, where we will take a plane (already booked!) to Singapore. The train leaves on Wednesday (not tomorrow, but the next day) and we get to Malaysia on Thursday. We should hopefully get to Singapore on Thursday night.
Wish us luck.
Wish us luck.
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