Missing… Presumed Having A Good Time

Here I am in Luang Pragang for the End of the rain festival. All weekend there have been Dragon Boat Races, boat parades, fireworks, parties… celebrating the end of the rainy season. The funny part is that its been bucketing down for the last 3 days and today has been raining non-stop ever since this morning. I’m sitting in an internet cafe whiling away the day and escaping the rain. The festival has been a riot tho. It was a special treat to be able to watch the boat races for me. I came here specifically to watch the races, but missed them by a few hours. Fortunately, the large annual all village boat race was only about 40mins away on Saturday. There were thousands of people all gathered along the banks of the river and in the river watching some really good competition. These boats are a little different than the ones we race back home. Our boats only have 20 or 22 people in them if u count the drummer and steersman. These boats have about 30+ and I’ve seen some with 50+ in them in the Capital. They have 3-4 steersman and no drummer. The winning teams also were amazing in their unison. I’m not positive on the distance they raced, but the winning time was in the low 1:40s and it looked like a sprint. If that’s for 500M, that’s pretty quick. I remember for the events that I was at, the winning times were in the 1:50s for 500M. Last night was the best part of the festival. Thousands of people were out regardless of the rain celebrating with thousands of boats and floating flower bouquets lit up with candles and sent down the river. Some boats caught on fire before getting into the river other’s would have made a Viking funeral proud while most just sailed down the Mekong with twinkling lights for all to see. I was a bit naughty and sorta lanunched whistling bottle rockets in the general direction of several of the boats. I personally was not responsible for any of the viking ships. It was sorta like Venetian night in Chicago with fireworks and lit up boats, but on a model boat scale (seeing as no one seems to own sail boats around here). Well, that and the food vendors had a slightly different menu than burgers, hotdogs… as well. Thank God there were no giant Crayola blow up crayons here either.

Alright, I figure after a month in China that I’d go to Singapore and find some civilized people, good clean food and ammenities. Singapore is world renown for it’s strict rules about hygenge and proper behavior. Well, let me tell you that just isn’t the case. It started out great! Just  about everyone in Singapore speaks Chingrish la.  Singapore is really easy to navigate and has all the ammenities of any western city except it’s stuck smack dab in the middle of SE Asia. I arrived at the airport about 7:40pm and got some info, maps, a SIM card, money from the ATM, boarded the Metro and was at the Hostel by 9pm.  I’m going to meet my friend Bob at a wedding on Sentosa Beach which is only a 10 minute taxi ride away from my hostel. I figure I should get there about 9:30. Unfortunately, on a Friday night, it is virtually impossible to hail a cab on the street and almost just as impossible to get one from a Taxi “Q”. I literally tried to get a taxi for an hour before I finally got one and didn’t get there until 10:30 sweating like a pig in the swealtering heat after putting on my dress clothes for the first time except for laundry days. It was great to meet Bob’s Fiancee and get a chance to hang out with them before their wedding in Bali. Anyway back to Singapore being not such a pristine place. I get sick the 2nd day and my stomach is just not right for the whole time I’m there. We found a cockroach in our soup at dinner the next night which was pretty gross. Fortunately, the manager came out and appologized profusely and comped our entire meal. It’s funny because in China if we had found a cockroach they probably woulda just said your lucky that you only got 1 and plucked it out with their fingers.

Unfortunately for Bob, the only thing I wanted to see in Singapore was the Night Safari since I’d been to Singapore before and had seen pretty much all the other major sights already. It’s a zoo of nocturnal animals which is a good idea in theory, but in practice, not so good because it’s dark and they’re nocturnal animals for a reason. The guide on the tram kept saying that up on your left you may see some wild animal, but they’re quite shy so he may be hiding at the moment. After a few empty areas, I started saying, “Yeah and on your right you may be able to see our Unicorn, but he’s quite shy and maybe hiding just at the moment”. I’m sure they have animals, just not when the tram passes by. Bob found an animal and decided to play with it. All in all it was pretty kewl, but it’s a little tough to see nocturnal animals in their natural habitat. So we decided to meet Bob’s friend at a Country Bar on Orchard road. This bar playing Kenny Roger’s and Garth Brooks tunes with waitresses in cowboy hats and confederate flags has to be the strangest thing I’ve seen in a long time especially in Asia, but then again it shouldn’t really be such a surprise as Singapore doesn’t really fit the typical bill in Asia either.

Singapore is also know to be one of the safest countries in Asia, but some asshole decided to steal the bottoms to my pant/shorts.  What the hell is he going to do with it?  They only fit my pants!  I think it was the lying whore of a maid at the Cozy backpackers hostel because when I asked her about it she said she’d never seen them.  But the Dutch girl that found them originally said she asked the maid what to do with them before hanging them up in the breakfast room.  When confronted she said, “oh I don’t know where they are now”.  Don’t stay there, some bastard actually stole another backpacker’s Lonely Planet as well.