Nancy’s Big Adventure

I left Bangkok this morning at the crack of dawn for my flight to Singapore.

Singapore has a reputation as a foodie mecca and I just happen to be here during the Singapore Food Festival (coincidence? I think not!) I started grazing at a “hawker center” – a street food court when you can see and smell and eat almost anything. I was initially fascinated by the barbecued stingray, but there was so much to choose from that I had to pass it up in favor of some other notable dishes, including:
Chilli Crab (yes, that’s how they spell it), which is stir-fried crab (still in its shell), garlic, tomato, egg, and chili. You eat this dish with your fingers and it comes with bread to soak up the sauce. Spicy.
Frog Porridge looks sort of like thick chicken and rice soup, but it’s frog meat and rice porridge with fried onions on top. It’s considered a delicacy, I guess, but I thought it was icky.
Laska – all the restaurants claim to have the best – a dish of rice, noodles, shrimp, chili, and coconut broth. It looks kinda weird, but it’s good.
And finally, no visit to Singapore would be complete without sampling the Singapore Sling in the Raffles Hotel Long Bar where it was first concocted in 1910.

With my belly full, it was time to hop on the train again and head for the ethnic enclaves of Little Italy, Chinatown, and Arab Street. Pretty amazing! After exploring the neighborhoods for a while, I went to browse the shops along Orchard Road, a mile-long stretch dedicated entirely to consumerism. Unfortunately for me, but probably fortunate for my budget, I am a MOOSE compared to the average (5 feet tall, size 0) shopper here, so the fashions won’t be coming home with me. I ended my day with a nice stroll by the water and then back to my hotel, conveniently located across the street from this internet cafe.

Tomorrow morning I travel to Malaysia, crossing at Johor Bahru and traveling north and west. I probably won’t make it as far a Kuala Lumpur, but I’m sure I will see great stuff wherever I go. I let you know after I return!

Thanks for checking in – N

PS – I forgot to mention during the food and beverage discussion that I had MILK today – not SOY milk, not hot (boiled) WATER BUFFALO milk, but a huge glass of COLD PASTEURIZED COW’S milk – well, I’m pretty sure it was cow’s milk … let’s just say it was ….

You’ve probably heard the words ‘culture shock’ thrown around whenever people discuss traveling to a faraway land. Probably, a true understanding of what culture shock feels like can’t occur until you live through it. Amazingly, it didn’t hit me until last night around midnight and then it hit like a ton of bricks. There are intense, unpleasant feelings that come along with culture shock – fear, paranoia, frustration, and anxiousness – I guess the result of a series of dramatic changes in surroundings and daily life. It’s a painful, jolting experience to go through. It’s hard to describe, but when you’ve had culture shock, you know it.

Imagine losing the ability to speak, read, write, and most importantly, understand what is being said. It can be overwhelming at first seeing completely foreign characters written everywhere and hearing the unfamiliar sounds of a new language completely surround you, especially after living in a country where English is the dominant language. Everything from street signs, package labels, instruction booklets, and TV shows are all in a different language. Suddenly, simple things like reading a map, hailing a cab, ordering food, or asking how much an item costs become very difficult. When you don’t know the language the culture shock is a bit more in your face. It’s just an ever-present feeling that “this isn’t home.”

When I arrived in Bangkok a couple weeks ago, I was very nervous about going “out”. It was frightening and it took courage for me to actually leave the relative comfort of my room. I just forced myself to go out into the street and reminded myself there’s nothing to be frightened of. I think the reason it hit me last night was that I had absolutely no clue where I was (Bangkok is a BIG city) and I was feeling terribly alone. The best thing for me to do was get up early and get out, so that’s what I did – walked around for several hours until I got my bearings straight, rode the subway and the skytrain, even managed to ride the bus for a few blocks – and now I feel much better.

I don’t know why I didn’t have the culture shock in Nepal. From the moment you step off the plane, you are in a world where very little is familiar. Combine that with jet lag, thin air and smog, streets with no names and gods with many names all conspire to confuse, challenge, and astound …  Nepal is definitely not for everyone, but I felt prepared to accept and respect a completely different culture. The people are remarkably beautiful and peaceful, and I felt accepted and appreciated.  There were definitely some challenges (lack of modern plumbing, hot water and electricity) and I did have some feelings of being isolated, particularly in the villages, but I did not really have the discomfort that swept over me last night. While culture shock is a vile process to go through, it has some virtues.  I think it probably makes you stronger – maybe the more “culture shock” you experience, the stronger you become. That’s what I’m telling myself, anyway.

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