Beauabram’s Travels

Arriving into Asia

After Australia, my next continent was that of Asia—a steamy visceral melting pot of many different cultures and countries inexorably tied together by their geographical closeness and their eerie similarities. From Singapore to Vietnam, I spent close to three months traveling around South East Asia, and then on to Hong Kong, Tokyo and South Korea in the north. In Oz you see hints of Asian culture—Chinatowns in the big cities, immigrants and restaurants, but to go to the source is of course, altogether different. I was really exited to get across to Singapore and take a bite out of what Asia has to offer. Now, sitting down and reflecting on the last weeks and months—the parties, the beaches, the food, the people, the places and the memories, I think I can accurately recount my experiences, starting with a city that is also a country and an island, all at the same time—and don’t even THINK about chewing gum when you’re there—Singapore.

Singapore

Leaving Brisbane, Australia and all it’s white people behind, I flew to Singapore on my first stop in Asia. Flying on September 11, my mind was awash with images of steaming bowls of noodles, crammed streets and food stalls, green oceans and smiling locals, Buddhist temples and reverent mornings in the green mountain sides. I always laugh when I am done traveling through a place and thinking back on how I thought it was going to be and how it actually turned out to be. Traveling can really put a firm stamp of reality on any misconceptions or false ideals you might have about other parts of the world. I thought, through whatever influences play on your mind—TV, movies, news stories and general American paranoia and prejudice that Asia would be an amalgamation of these factors, a little bit Full Metal Jacket, a touch of The King and I, maybe a dash of Crouching Tiger. I didn’t think that there would be the multitude of white, pushy tourists milling about from the Western world, or what’s worse, that each country I visited would have sprouted machines of industry and tourism to handle the crowds swarming around its beaches, temples and natural wonders. While some countries were more built up both economically and for the tourism trade, it didn’t matter if you were in small river town in Laos, or on one the glitzy islands of Southern Thailand, there was always a place to check your email, get a beer and watch Scrubs on a TV with other backpackers. That doesn’t mean I didn’t have a ball scooting around Asia, but for someone to think it’s just going to be them and the locals, well, that really never happens. Maybe if you went completely out of your way and into the jungles of Cambodia you could make this happen, but then, how would you check your email, get a beer and watch Scrubs? Exactly.

So, Singapore. There are two things Singaporeans do with their time. Eat and shop. If they’re not eating, they’re shopping, and if they are crunched for time, they do both at once. I was so primed for Asian food I went a little bananas at the plethora of food stalls lining the streets of the city, which is great, because Singapore is divided into three gastronomic/cultural parts. There is Chinatown, Little India and the rest of it; I guess you would call it Shopping Town, an area where if they don’t sell it, you don’t want it. I was walking around with this guy who wanted a very specific remote for his expensive digital camera so he could set it up and take a picture of himself giving the thumbs up in some remote locale. The FIRST store we went into, he said I need a SXC-234 for his FGT-3938 and the guy went, oh yeah, here ya go, that’ll be 20$. The same worked for the food there. Whatever you wanted, you weren’t far away from whatever whetted your appetite. Since I was sleeping in this cool little funky hostel in Little India I had access to all the Indian food you could shake a stick at, which was cool, but I had to learn to either bring the food back to the hostel or stay within sprinting range of a toilet from the restaurant, because as much as I like the curry, it runs through me like a quarter horse at the Kentucky Downs on race day—I had a close call or two but I am proud to say I didn’t –and still haven’t—shit my pants in Singapore (and Asia at large, thank you very much).

But I need to back up a moment and describe my entry into the city.

8-hour flight from Brisbane, unshaven and hat down low, I get on a series of trains from the airport into the city, to my eventual destination, Little India. I was a bit greasy, jamming out to the new 50/JT hit “Ayo” and sitting on my rucksac in the tube stations waiting for my ride into town. I was zoned out keep in mind, so when this small Indian girl approached me I was taken aback when she asked me,

“Do you know Justin Timberlake?”

I looked around and understandably said, “what?” She then launched into this diatribe about her hero, Justin Randall Timberlake, and the influence he’s had on her life, how his music and the love he has for the world has changed her how…blah, blah, blah. Seriously, on and on for 3-4 minutes. Then they got on the train with me. Oh, did I forget to mention her boyfriend was there nodding along the whole time, when she was telling me I am JT to her, I look and, more importantly, FEEL like him, and please please, sir…would you autograph this for me? She pressed a date book in my hand and at this point I had to say “Are you serious? Am I being punked?” But my answer was in her reaction—she was hurt, really hurt that her JT representative from heaven reacted so to her humble requests. Anyways, I signed, ‘BBB—JT loves you’ on a crowded train packed with quizzical Indians wondering what this white kid was up to. Then we get off, and she kisses my hand, tells me she always wants to be a part of my life, and gives me a matching bracelet/necklace set—one for me, one for JT if I ever see him. I still get 8 page emails updating me on every nuance in her life and it just cracks me up. Of course if you know me, you know I have a thing for JT anyways, I mean I got the damn sexyback suit tailored in Hoi An, and all my lady friends say I got a JT strut, so this story always makes me giggle that much more.

Anyways, Singers—shopping, eating, great markets with more fake Rolexes than you could ever believe existed, they have a great phrase for them—“Genuine knockoffs” I love it. 3 days later I was on a bus to Kuala Lumpur, where Asia really kicked off for me…

Queensland.

After the three-week odyssey in Melbourne, I had to move on with my travels. Reluctantly, I packed my bags and divided everything I owned into two piles—one that was to go with me for the next 11 months, and one that I was to send home. See, after less than a month I knew I had brought too much stuff with me. Clothes, moisturizers, hair products, warm weather gear, cold weather gear, tops, bottoms, middles, shoes, shorts—in short I halved everything and put it in my carry on and sent it on a boat home, leaving me with a (still too) heavy backpack and smaller bag for my laptop and various electronics. So, I had my sad goodbyes with Juzzy and the household, and had a last dinner with Cleary, enjoying her kangaroo sirloin salad before I flew to Cairns in the morning.

I had decided since I had spent so much time enjoying Melbourne, and since it had been expensive to boot, I would do a whistle stop tour of Queensland and see as much as possible from Cairns to Brisbane—not my favorite thing to do when seeing the sights but in this case it was my only option if I wanted meaningful time in Asia. I left myself less than two weeks until I flew out of Brisbane to Singapore, and I literally flew down the coast. First thing in Cairns I knew what I had heard on the road in Oz was true—Cairns, while a jump off point to the Great Barrier Reef, is a piece of shit tourist trap. There are three types of business in Cairns vying for your money—tour operators, restaurants and bars, and sometimes if you are lucky you can go to one place and satisfies all three needs in one. And it is filled with drunken English Irish and German folk in between dives or short terms jobs and, bless ‘em, I got tired of the “Oz backpacker scene” real quick. Starting off my trip staying with friends was fantastic but spoiled me for my life on the road, and as I look back on it now I know how good I had it. So, I took one quick island trip to the fringe of The Reef and then booked it Mackay on a little twin prop for my favorite part of my Queensland experience—sailing.

Airlie beach is definitely another tourist trap but I booked a trip as soon as possible upon getting in and spent two days and two nights out in the Whitsunday Islands and it was amazing. Even though we were still in the tail end of the colder months It was still warm enough to go about in shorts and t shirts, even though we dove and snorkeled in wet suits it was still beautiful, especially at night under the stars when we moored in the bays of the some 74 islands that dot the coast off Airlie. The crew, a crazy mix of Aussie, Canadian and English were all young and obviously loved the ocean and their jobs, and with a good group of passengers as well we all had a great time in the water, seeing the pretty coral and fishies, going to the draw droppingly beautiful Whitehaven beach, a 3 km stretch of shifting white sands and turquoise waters, and eating and drinking on the boat at night.

After sailing I was tapped and needed to get to the cheap shores of Asia, so I spent a quick weekend in Brisbane, and with the exception of a nice day out at the Koala Sanctuary where I cuddled koalas, fed kangaroos and watched Aussie sheepdogs in actions, I chilled out and caught a 10 hour flight out of Oz to Singapore to begin my second leg of my trip. All in all Australia was great, but I had too little time, money and patience to fully explore it—I never made it inland, to the Western Coast, or even out of a major city. I think when I return I want to do at least 3-6 months taking my time in the country and I definitely want to return to Melbourne as it is now one of my favorite cities; officially.