Homecoming

Yesterday's homecoming day marks the end of the exchange: everyone is back in the Netherlands, already busy again with all kinds of stuff, like the period abroad is nothing but a faraway memory. But it is more than that. At the homecoming day, organized by the University, all students who went abroad got the opportunity to talk about their experiences and about what it is like to be back. Interesting to hear all the stories and it appears the exchange has been a life changing experience to some. Being away for such a long time, at an unknown place, does change you. For me, it made me more aware: of contrasts between countries, of different ways of organizing society, but also of my own reactions towards things. I realized that experiences are mainly determined by your own attitude: you can be cranky when you have to sit in a bus for 10 hours, or you can choose to accept it and make the most of it, even enjoy it.

Before my final words about the whole adventure, I will finish what I have started: a report on my travels.

The last time I wrote, it was 30 December 2011 and Iris and I were in Chiang Mai. On the 31st, we went for another round of souvenir shopping and in the evening we met up with our elephant-friends to have cocktails and watch the fireworks on the roof of the bar. The sky was covered with lanterns, so beautiful!

On the first day of the new year we had a looooooooong trip ahead of us: 8.45 get on train from Chiang Mai to Bangkok, duration: 12 hours. 22.50 get on train to Chumporn, duration: 8 hours in a train with seats, no beds. And it was so cold! With some books, the occasional nap, talk and phone calls home. When we arrived in Chumporn, the ferry had already left, which meant we had to wait for the 13.00h ferry to get to our final destination: Koh Tao. This wasn't without hazards. The sea was wild! And even though the catamaran was really big, it went up and down like crazy and all around us people were puking. Bags and paper to clean up were handed out constantly. Unfortunately, I was one of those puking people in the end. Thanks Iris, for not taking pictures.

The diving was great fun! I am a certified diver now and can't wait to go to other areas to explore the underwater world.

I had one final weekend in Singapore to close off the whole period. I got to see two of my dear friends and the Boon family, who I got to see regularly during my stay. It is not often you get the opportunity to see friends who have moved to such a faraway place!

On Monday evening I left for the airport, with - as it turned out - almost 45 kg of luggage. Luckily, the airline let me take it all, after some consideration. The flights were long, but as soon as they are behind you, it is almost forgotten. I watched some movies, slept a little and played "who am I?" (a piece of paper is stuck to your forehead with a name on it, and then you have to guess who you are) with the stewards and stewardesses. In Düsseldorf, I was welcomed by my whole family, they made a banner with me in my diving gear and 'welcome home' on it :D. And home I was, at last.

In hindsight, I had more difficulty leaving Singapore than I had expected. Also now, one month at home, I do miss some things: the freedom, the simple life of an exchange student, since there are much less responsibilities than back home. So I have to admit, I had to get used to life here again.

But despite some adaptation issues, I would recommend everyone to go on exchange. It gives you the opportunity to become more independent and to get a taste of life abroad.

It has brought me many things, some I am aware of now, but I am sure that in the months and years to come I will notice the influence of my time abroad.

Much love,

Anne-Fleur

Last blog of 2011

Hello from Chiang Mai, Thailand!

Sabai Dee! (hello in Lao)

We have returned to our starting country, after some adventures in Cambodia and Laos.

Due to a delay of our visas, we had to stay in Cambodia for another 3 days, which resulted in the decision to fly to Vientiane, Laos instead of going from South Laos to the North. Very unfortunate, but this is what time permits us. After 3 days of relaxing and lying around (I haven't read so many books in ages!) we left for the airport. The planes from Lao Airlines are small: there are two rows of two by two and I had the feeling the luggage was just stashed somewhere in the front. But who cares, our bags and ourselves arrived safely in a new country open for discovery.
Vientiane is peculiar: it is the capital but does not even come close to looking like one. It is not very big, but the people are friendly and the atmosphere is nice. We visited some temples, went to musea, but it turned out they were all related to military stuff. Would be nice for someone who likes weapons and stuff, but it wasn't our cup of tea.
On the 21st we had a mission: we bought Christmas hats and a cheesy sign saying 'Happy New Year' and the only thing left to do was find a nice spot for a picture and someone who was willing to be our photographer for a couple of minutes. We were able to entertain some people with our silliness (happy to!) and ourselves as well when we were putting our Christmas card together on the internet. Very carefully we proceeded, afraid to mess things up and losing our creation. When we were entering all the addresses, suddenly the screen went black. In astonishment I creamed at the guy in the internet cafe 'NO!' while Iris was sitting there, not being able to say anything. Luckily, everything was still there, otherwise all our efforts (we must have been sitting there for about2 hours already) were in vain.
One of the highlights in Vientiane was the COPE centre, which is an organization that helps people who have lost limbs. This cause is connected the what they call the secret war of Laos, referring to all the cluster bombs that have been dropped by the Americans in Laos between 1965-1975. Not many people are aware that Laos has suffered so much and still is, as the many of the bombs have not yet exploded and are sometimes found by for example children. The organization is well-organized; if you would like more information check http://www.copelaos.org/.

Funny fact about Laos: their currency is called Kip. As a non-Dutch you might wonder why this is funny, but in Dutch it means chicken. So when we ordered something for for example 40.000Kip we imagined a truck full of chickens arriving to pay for our meal.

Next destination was Vang Vieng for one day, known for its tubing, but we went kayaking and caving. We spent the night in a hostel made out bamboo which was cool. The next day we left for out final destination in Laos: Luang Prabang. It is a lovely town, and it is a World Heritage Site for all its beautiful architecture. The vibe is relaxed, we again visited some temples and the National Museum (definately go there if you ever find yourself in Luang Prabang). Furthermore, we took a day trip to a cave full of buddhas and a waterfall. The latter was great! Beautiful light blue water and we took a fresh dive into the water (cold it was, but I find myself being less of a chicken than I used to be). I followed my very first cooking course, which was a great experience. To me it mostly looked like throwing many ingredients together, but it turned out quite well anyways. So now I'm a bit more familiar with Lao cuisine!
Everywhere we go, there is some kind of market, which we of course visit to buy more stuff and presents than we can fit in our bags, but well.

Last Thursday we flew to Chiang Mai, which is a very nice city; I'm sad we are only staying here for 2 days. We took a taxi to our guesthouse: Same Same (something people tend to say here: same same, but different), took a refreshing shower and went exploring. Surprisingly, the temples here are quite different from the ones we have seen so far and they are beautiful. It is a combination of styles - sorry, can't remember which ones at he moment - and they are well-kept and well-visited. In Wat Pha Singh people were hanging money from the ceiling as an offering to buddha and there was a monk there blessing people with a which looked like a bush of sticks which he dipped into water upon which a splattered the water on the people's heads. Interesting.

Yesterday: another highlight in the whole trip: we spent the day at an elephant camp where we learned the basics of how to ride an elephant, rode the elephant, had lunch from banana leaves and the final activity was to bathe the elephants at the waterfall. It was amazing! I honestly love elephants and we were lucky to ride the biggest one :). The bathing was refreshing and later a bit less, as two of the elephants took a pee and a dump in the water. Everyone came out soaking wet, more due to the people of the camp than the elephants, and pictures were taken of everything, which we will get on a CD.

I would like to say Khop Chai (thank you in Lao) for reading and I wish you a very happy 2012. I hope you will celebrate well, maybe a few hours later than we are, since we are 6 hours ahead.

My last blog will be posted when I am home sweet home again!

xx Fleur

Travels: Thailand & Cambodia

Dear reader,

My travels have finally begun, which means that the last phase of my time abroad has started. By now, in less than 4 weeks I will set foot in Europe again, for me the first step will be in Düsseldorf, Germany. But this time has not come yet. Let me tell you about my first experiences of my trip with Iris through South East Asia.

Thailand - Phuket
After a tough period of exams and assignments we needed some time to relax and feel like ourselves again. We thought: 'Phuket, it has a beach, that must do it'. And for what we came there for - to sit on the beach, enjoy the sun and read a book - it was more than okay. What I did not realize beforehand is that Phuket has its perks. This is one of the places which magnifies Thailand's focus on the sex industry. This became clear when we walked into the bars and clubs area. 'That is not a guy' is what Iris told me about a person who convincingly looked like a woman. Oh. Ladyboys is what they call them. And then there are so-called Ping Pong shows. Imagine ping pong balls plopping out of a bodypart of a woman. Got it? Not nice. You can even select a theme on the pingpong menu: frogs, fish and I don't know what else, but it certainly is something that you do not want to visualize. You did? Sorry.

We encountered a bar called the 'husband day care center' where wives could drop off their husbands - if they want to go shopping, for example - who are then entertained by the women who work there. Curious...

All of this and more I took in with amazement and in some way it was quite disturbing. I hope to put up some pictures when the facilities on the way allow me too.

We spent two days at the beach, reading a book of which I already forgot the content and drinking some juice, and having an occasional dip in the sea (which was not cold at all!). In the evening we enjoyed a nice cocktail on the go, great invention!
Something unfortunate happened during the night, when I put my bikini on the balcony out to dry and had no knowledge, yet, about the strong wind in Phuket. The bottom part was blown away, never to be recovered.

The last day in Phuket we went on an organized tour to some islands to explore a bit and to do some snorkeling. The boat was packed and the coral reefs were largely dead, but it was a nice day anyhow. The girl who joined us on the trip to get everyone to the boat back in time was hilarious. She repeated everything a few times, scared that we would not understand English, and in 'Jip and Janneke'-taal (very easy language, so that even kids could understand). A nap on the beach formed the end of this trip :).

Thailand - Bangkok

Bangkok is not as polluted and dirty as a expected, despite the long traffic jams. When we came from the airport, we took the train and then bus 556. We asked the driver whether this was the bus to Khaosan Road and he sort of said yes. Later, about 45 minutes later, it became clear that we made a loop to return to the same place where we had gotten on. Just as well, the walk would have been far and it was a nice way to have a look around. Khaosan Road is known as the backpackers street and was filled with little shops and 'food from the street' and loads of restaurants and cafes. When you sit down to eat something, every 5-10 minutes a lady comes by with all kinds of souvenirs and asks you if you want to buy something, while making a sound with a wooden frog (I think it is supposed to be an instrument).
We did some temple hopping, which was very nice, lots of gold and all kinds of decorations. On the street you have to be aware of the monks, since they are not allowed to touch women. So take a loop around them when you run into them on the street! The temples are well-hidden and that makes it extra nice: you do not expect anything and then suddenly there is a temple.

Transport is not our strongest point. When we came back from the Chatuchak market, our bus driver turned out to be quite an assertive one. He swiveled around all the cars to drive through a red traffic light and at one point - Iris was making a video at this very moment - we hit a car.

After the BOOM! the driver shouted WHY?! which was quite funny when seeing it on the video. When we were still on the bus, we were a tiny bit frightened, I must admit.

Bangkok to Cambodia

The trip was long, but mostly enjoyable. And of course we were cheated with the visa. I was warned about it, but fell for it anyway, since it all seemed so logical. We stopped at a restaurant just before the border and some official guy gave us a form to fill out for the visa. Ok. 1200 baht. Ok… Whatever, I thought, which I should not have done, since it turned out that it is only 800 baht at the border itself. Oh well, I comfort myself with the thought that maybe his kids will get some nice Christmas presents now. We arrived near Siem Reap, Cambodia, where we were dropped off at some random place where tuktuks (bike taxis) were already waiting for us. Creating work for others, since we were told we would be dropped off at the bus station where our hostel would pick us up. In any case, we took a tuktuk to our hostel: the Tom&Jerry hostel. Mentioning this name led to some funny reactions : ). It was very nice and clean and the staff is friendly and very helpful. All this for only $3 a night! However, there was only a cold shower, which is fine, except for one specific moment during our stay (read on).

Cambodia – Siem Reap, Angkor Wat and Battambang

Cambodia is famous for its temples. To explore these to fullest (and what our schedule permits) we bought a 3-day pass to visit the temples, starting with a day tour with a tuktuk, together with to Spanish guys who escaped Spain and were living in New Zealand. We started with Angkor Wat and Angkor Tom, followed by the Bayon (which was my favourite) and the Bapuon and a few others. The temples are amazing and also here, they just pop up out of nowhere, within large stretches of woods, a lake and open land. Afterwards we went to the floating village, which turned out to be quite far away and a large part of the road was very hobblybobbly. At this point, our driver could still sort of keep up with the other tuktuk. When we arrived, we decided to buy a ticket for the boat even though it was already getting late. And it was worth it! Very impressive to see people living above the water in simple houses, with animals and 'garden' organized in a compact way. People pass by in boats and some children are walking around without clothes. Despite the isolated location, people still appear to be very much free. Children were calling out and waving and we smiled and waved back. When we arrived in the village, we got onto a smaller boat on which one of the village women was peddling, her son (no clothes) standing at the back, also peddling. So cool. As many as 680 families live there! I am still impressed by it. The sun set while we were there so we had to go back in the dark. Having no light on the boat made it difficult, but luckily another boat - with a big light - was helping us out. It was dark. And we had to go back by tuktuk. With, what now become painfully clear, our slow and scared driver. On the hobbly road he was so slow that is light did not get enough power. We basically drove by the light of other drivers. When we approached the big road, we thought, and hoped, that we, may be, would go a bit faster. But no, this was not the case. Imagine someone in the Netherlands driving 50km/h on the high way: dangerous. And that is what we were. At some point, a truck was overtaking us, so we went to the side, approaching another truck which was standing at the side of the road with car trouble. Branches of wood were put in front of it, probably to warn others. Our driver did not seem to see those and we ran into the first one. It almost got stuck in the wheels but nothing serious happened. After this, we drove even slower (it must have been around 20km/h) and we reached a low when a biker overtook us. 1,5 hours later, in twice as much time as the guys, we reached the hostel. Frozen to the bone, we had to take a freezing cold shower to get all the dirt off. I can sort of imagine now that it is cold in the Netherlands.
The next day we 'went Dutch' by cycling a longer route among the temples. Best one was the one on a hill, which was totally hidden and came as a surprise when we reached it. Yesterday, we took a tuktuk - this time a fast one - to temples further away. At the end of the day, I must admit, we were a bit temple tired and relaxed.

Today we arrived in Battambang, a little old French colonialist village and took the bamboo train. It sounds bigger than it was: two 'wheels' were put on the rails and a bamboo platform was put on it with a small motor. There was only one track so when someone came from the other side, one of the trains needed to be taken of the track so that the other one could pass. We went to a small station where kids approached us, speaking quite good English and we had a drink at a family's stand. It felt like a visit and it was really nice :).

I think I have told enough for now. For those of you who reached the end: congratulations!
As I said, I hope to put up some pictures when the facilities allow it.

xxx

Singapore approaching goodbyes

Before it is not possible anymore, I would like to give a little tour around the NTU Campus.

This is my hall. I spent a lot of my time here the last four months. I will and I won't miss it. As we are approaching the end, everything is accompanied by a mixed feeling.

I won't miss this one and his buddies. Did you know my hall is known as the bugs hall? It was not too bad though throughout the semester, until.. tatataaa my neighbour discovered a HUGE cockroach in her room.

Our lovely busstop where we wait for the shuttle bus (yes, the campus is that big).

People start to more and more eat western food, or at least that is what they call it here. In the canteens it is more like an Asian interpretation of Western food and it will do for now, until we get home and eat all the dishes we have missed. Of course, there is always McDonalds, Subway, Pizza Hut and many others that you can go to to have a taste like home ;).

In the meantime, I'm still very much enjoying the fruit juices and the bubble tea here: a drink with little balls of jelly inside, it's nice! And all the fresh fruit.. if you ever get to go to this part of the world, you should definitely try dragon fruit.

The University has opened the Student Activities Centre this year, where you can take a break from studying (or study there if you can stand the noise, it's open until 2am) by playing a board game or play a game on the Wii or Playstation, play snooker or get a drink from Starbucks and relax. Big big plus! I sometimes sit here until late and the relaxed atmosphere distracts you from the fact that you are studying: that way, you can pretend you are not studying while you are!

The main Library looks like this.

And I have to say that it looks like and is a learning factory where you can actually sense the stress in the air. That's why I prefer studying at HSS (Humanities and Social Sciences) Library where it is much quieter and a more relaxed atmosphere. Plus it is not so full, so there is even a possibility of finding a seat after 10!

And sometimes I just go home. Then my desk looks like this:

At the moment I took the picture I was still enjoying the chocoladepepernoten that Iris gave to me (thanks to her visiting mum and sister!). Now they are all gone.

Two more weeks until the semester is over. I have to admit, I am struggling a bit with getting myself to work hard, especially when the exams are still a week away. I will be happy when it is December 2nd, and I can look back on a hopefully successful semester grade-wise. In all the other ways it has been great and I'm still enjoying being here:).

Luckily some new adventures are ahead: On December 4 Iris and I will leave for Phuket to have some well deserved holiday :). From there we will fly to Bangkok and visit Cambodia, Laos and then Thailand again, where we will end with a diving course. Can't wait.

xxx

A turbulent time is behind me with many adventures, visitors and also some studying. Ahead is four more weeks until the end of the semester, which will be filled with deadlines (this week) and studying and making exams (final three weeks). I can't believe that I am on the verge of leaving Singapore. Before I return to our cold little country, I will spend five weeks traveling in Cambodia, Laos and Thailand; I will definitively report on all the events facing us then! But until then, an update on the past few weeks in Singapore and surroundings.

The first few weeks after recess were dominated

by school work (midterms and essays) and some really sad events. In about a week's time several items of sad news reached us and we did not really know how to respond on deal with this: two girls from the exchange group at NTU got into an accident in Vietnam and were in very bad condition. By now, one of them is back in Singapore but the other has passed away which has made a big impression on all the exchange students. One of the exchange students returned home after he heard that his mum had passed away; it still does not make sense and it is very sad. Finally, an accident happened back ho

me, not involving people I knew personally, but which is still very scary as it makes you realize that a fatal accident could happen just like that. And if that wasn't enough, a friend of a friend passed away in a flight accident.

Luckily, also happier things happened. I went to a concert of a symphony orchestra here on campus, together with my roomie. We could both use a break and it was a lot of fun! It was themed to children as it happened to be children's day when the concert was given, so many happy cheerful songs were played, such as the Super Mario theme song and a song called the 'Typewriter' (look it up on youtube, it is fun!).

In the meantime, my mum returned to Singapore from Indonesia and I showed her around a bit. It is very nice for me that she knows what my life is like here. We visited the Peranakan Museum which was great! Sadness overruled however when she left again, but fortunately, it would not be long until my boyfriend would arrive. I don't think I have ever been more impatient.

A block party organized by a few exchange people was a welcome change to all the studying I had been doing. I think that counts for everyone, as everybody seems to have locked themselves into their rooms to finally get some studying done as there is no way to put it off anymore. The security guard came out when it got too noisy and he wanted the names of the people who organized it. Don't give any names is the general advice, since you never know whether serious consequences will follow (have I told you that Singapore is quite strict?) As far as I know, nothing really happened except for people not b

eing able to control the volume of their voice anymore.

*drum roll*

It eventually turned into Monday. Finally. I went to the airport and waited. The flight was delayed and I waited a bit more. Eventually, Yannick got his luggage and went through the gates to meet me after 3 long months! We waited - together now, so it was all good - for check-in for our next flight to Bali.

I would like to end with some typical things for Indonesia. First thing: bargaining. It is something you have to get used to but once you are it is quite fun. The main thing is to determine what you want to pay before you start. A couple of times we found ourselves in the situation that we were looking at each other like 'I don't know, and I don't know what it is worth and I don't know how low he will go'. The results is often negative then. Of course you also need to know what the prices approximately are. If you are in a busy tourist spot, you can count on higher prices and an annoyed salesman when you try to get the same

price as on the market. It is easiest when you see something that you like, but not NEED to have. You can just stick to your price and if the seller doesn't want to sell it for that price, it's fine. We found ourselves in low season and therefore people who really, really wanted to sell something, and I mean really: they try to get you to their shop and if you don't buy anything sometimes they get angry. Luckily we ran into nice sellers as well and I got lucky buying sarongs (I'm a huge fan, I would buy so many if I couldn't control myself): a really nice Bali-style one and an expensive one which I spotted from outside which I got for much cheaper because she really needed to sell something. I have to admit that I felt a bit guilty, but my Indonesian friend (who is a tough bargainer herself) shook her head when I told her and discarded it.

Second highlight of Bali: the people in general. I picked up some Indonesian before and that shows to be highly appreciated by the locals. Some really funny things happened because of it. First, we were at the beach in Sanur where you have all these little stalls with food and also with young coconuts (kelapa muda) so I asked her how much they were in Indonesian. She looked at my in amazement and when I tried to negotiate the price, she agreed, something she would probably not do if it concerns tourists. Second inciden

t was in a shop where Yannick and I were looking at sarongs. The lady in the shop was watching TV and was totally focused on that, not paying attention to us at all. When I looked around the corner and started to say some little sentences, she was literally shocked. I don't think it fit into her frame of reference. Again funny.

I love Bali. Ubud is beautiful and there is so much to do that 3 days there is obviously not enough. Amed was a nice change from the more touristic places, where I could really use my Bahasa Indonesia, since the extent to which people speak English there is much lower. But we got a warm welcome and with some "hands and feet work" you'll succeed in understanding each other.

So far for now. As I haven't been writing that regularly, I will update again soon with my final post in Singapore!

Love, Fleur