The Lessons I Learned in Indonesia

Out of all the places I've travelled during the past year, I think that I learned the most about myself, about travel, about foreign cultures, about language barriers and the comforts of home from my trip to the Island of Java in Indonesia.

Here it is on a map:

Since April, I had been saying that I would climb Mount Bromo, one of Java's remaining active volcanos. In fact, since Devesh came to visit me, I had been plotting. We were suppose to go to Bromo the weekend of the Malaysian elections but due to the fact that I was terrified of what was going to happen during the elections, I made Devesh stay in KL with me instead of risking being locked outside Malaysia if they closed the borders if shit went down. Which it didn't.

Well, I finally made it to Java in the very last moments of my time in Asia. In fact, I made Indonesia the chosen country for my first and only visa run during my time in Malaysia :) And just like every other country in Asia, I had family there too :-P

Conveniently, this family was located in Surabaya, the city that you need to leave from in order to get to Mount Bromo, so this trip was a 2-4-1 kinda thing. Not only did I get to climb this mountain but I got to visit my family at the same time. I also had a friend from Montreal (John) come to travel to Bromo with me as the start of his multi-month Asia Trip. He's somewhere in Vietnam right now.

Who are the nicest people in Asia?

Straight up, it's the Cambodians. Now this is pretty bad but I'm about to update you on my trip to Cambodia, which I took about 3 months ago. Actually right now, I'm sitting in cold and rainy London, England and I've already started working in my new position in external affairs at a charity..... but, I have lots of backtracking to do before I expand more on that.

So, why did I go to Cambodia?

Very often, I'm prompted to travel somewhere because I've heard loving stories told on a particular country, detailing it's culture, quirks, sites, sounds and food and I become totally jealous as I begin to draw pictures of myself in my head exploring the foreign land. This feeling of longing begins to develop inside of me and it grows and grows until it completely fills me up and the intensity of my desire to travel begins to make my heart hurt.

I never felt this way about Cambodia.

No one had told me life-changing stories from their trip to Siem Reap and no one had described Cambodian culture to me in a way that made me say - "I gotta see this!". Truth be told, I didn't even desire to see the world-famous Angkor Wat and I had basically convinced myself that it was over-rated.

But then a weird thing happened.....

As I neared the end of my stint in Asia, I was forced to deal with the reality that if I didn't venture off to the countries surrounding Malaysia, there's a possibility that I would never see that country. Ever. I started to experience FOMO and asked myself - would I regret not seeing arguable the WORLDS MOST FAMOUS TEMPLE and getting to decide myself, if I liked Cambodia or not? I feared not having this experience and so a mad race against time ensued to get myself to Siem Reap. Luckily my dear Mother had plans to come to Asia to see her own mother in Singapore as so I deemed her my travel buddy and started planning my trip.

Pre-Trip
My mom and I started our trip to Siem Reap in typical Malaysian style - it was super, super frustrating. For some reason, Air Asia opened only ONE of their international terminal gates and forced every flight to leaveout of there, one plane after the next. To make matters worse, the gate its self could only hold the people boarding the particular flight.

This meant that we had to stand outside the passport check in a massive line (that was slowly turning into a massive blob) of people crowding to get in until the officer at the front of the line checked each individual's boarding pass and directed them either to stay at the front of the line waiting for the flight to board (hence the growth of a blob) or to enter into the holding area.

The inefficiency of the whole process was just amazing. At this point, I was well accustomed to the Malaysian logic and this didn't even phase me..........okay, it phased me a little and I was ALSO strangely and weirdly happy that my Mom finally saw what I was dealing with on a daily basis in KL. Misery loves company, as they say, and I was not holding back. I should work on that.

We eventually made it to Siem Reap and got to see all of the little town fairly quickly - our 3 days there were more than enough :) For anyone looking to travel to Siem Reap, I've put together a list of my thoughts and feelings and tips on traveling to the Land of Angkor.

Examining my Indian-ness

Hey peepz,

So, I returned back from a 2 week trip to India about three to four weeks ago, but have only now made it to the point in my blog where I can logically write about it. But before I do, a preface:

Since moving to Malaysia, I've been asked the question "Where are you from?" a lot. This was a really fun game to play while I went to school at McGill University because I'd always get an answer that went something like this:

"Well, I was born in France but then I moved to Australia and went to school there but I'm half Japanese and then I decided to come to Montreal for university and now I'm here" (fyi, that's a real description of someone that I know). So, I, in comparison, felt like my story was pretty boring when my answer to that question was "Well, I was born in Toronto and I lived in Toronto all my life, and then I moved to Montreal for university".

It was pretty lame but there was never any confusion or strangeness surrounding the fact that I am an Indian who was not born in India, nor has ever lived in India. It was pretty clear and straightforward that I am culturally and genetically India, but like many immigrant families, I was born and brought up in the land of the Moose, beavers, hockey, and winter. But, for some reason that is unknown to me, my acquaintances in Malaysia really struggle to understand the concept of immigration.

I have a few funny stories about the conversations on this topic. For example, someone once asked me how my family was in India and I told them that my family is in Canada. So they asked me if I was born in India and then moved to Canada. Of course, I said no. Then they asked me if my parents were from India. Again, I said no - they were from Singapore and Hong Kong. That brought about much confusion so I put the person out of their misery and told them that all my grandparents were born in India, making me Indian. And their response?

That Time I was in a Malaysian Show Choir

So, I don't know how many of you know, but since moving to KL, Malaysia, I have been part of a show choir called The Young KL Singers (YKLS). I joined this group of singers when I first moved to Malaysia. It was actually one of the first things I did after moving. If I recall correctly, I even knew which choir I wanted to join before I moved to KL. I know it seems like I'm really committed to my singing (and hence, I must be an incredible performer) but the opposite is actually true.

"but after her lover!"

I'm okay - and I hadn't sung in a while until YKLS. In University, I was part of a 'no-audition required' accapella group for 1 year... and for only half the year... but... while I was in high school, I was a committed member of the Middle School and Upper School choirs at Havergal College. Music has always been something I've enjoyed. One of the biggest rushes I get (and which actually makes me so joyous that it can bring tears to my eyes at moments) is playing or singing in harmony with someone else. This is exactly why I was such an active member of the Jr. and Sr. Band and a member of the Jazz band during high school. Truth be told, I like choir  because my voice could be improved by the sound of everyone else's' voices. hehehe.

So, once I knew I was moving to Malaysia, I decided I needed to start looking into things that made me happy because I knew the transition wouldn't be easy and that I'd want something to bring happiness into my life.

For the first few months, attending the YKLS rehearsals were a reprieve from the daily struggles of life (remember when I used to complain about everything in KL? Like crossing the road, and my land lord, and figuring out my cell phone plan). Things were hard and I was going through a major cultural adjustment. Singing with YKLS was one of the happiest things I did with my week! And, I was really lucky to get to sing with some incredible people with INCREDIBLE voices. The choir members of YKLS are young professionals who all work normal day jobs but enjoy singing for fun and secretly or not-so-secretly sing at night (just like me).

Finding Europen Influence in Malaysia

Yep. In the form of Portuguese people. And even though its taken me over 2 months to write about it, let me just make the excuse that I was collecting my thoughts.

About 2 months ago, I took a trip to the one town I'd been craving to go to for over half a year called Melaka - which is the Portuguese area of Malaysia just 2 hours away from KL (its also known as the town that everyone takes school trips to when they were in elementary school). It may sound a little strange to you that Malaysia has a Portuguese region... but many many many years ago when Malaysia was colonized by the British, some how, the Portuguese made it there too, leaving in their wake, a tradition of pork, churches, forts and beautiful architecture (Photos taken by the lovely Rajibul).

A trip for my heart :)

My friends, faithful blog readers, and people of the world. I have been away from my blog for much too long! ONE month! I always told myself I'd never become that person who forgets about their blog for 1 month.

Well, never say never I guess... But the neglect of my blog does not go without consequence. I have felt so guilty for not writing and now I'm just doing what I can to make myself feel better. I DO have some excuses though that you will hopefully accept.

1. I went back to Canada *surprise!!* for 3.5 weeks and didn't find anything remotely as interesting as what I am about to blog about, to blog about.

2. My choir has gone into INTENSE FULL THROTTLE MODE because the Young KL Singers are performing our big show of the year in about 3 weeks and so I rehearse three times a week - yes, THREE TIMES A WEEK and hence my life outside of work is being chomped away.

3. I am in the process of applying to grad school and the thought and stress of applying to grad school consumes my mind every second of every day because those deadlines are soon. I'm also heartbroken because focusing on important life stuff (such as grad school) means I get less time to travel, theoretically..... but I've been travelling anyway. So: Doing grad school apps + travelling at the same time don't do so well on my nerves.

But let me briefly tell you all what I've been up to in Canada..... okay. CANADA WAS WONDERFUL! For the first few days I was back, the temperature was actually hovering around the low twenties. I felt the need to wear a scarf, pants, sweaters. It was glorious and I was LOVIN' it! (Although its a bummer that I had to come back to KL right before all the trees changed colours... someone please, take pics of my tree in front of my house and send me updates on its colour change progression. I'm serious.)

You haven't experienced Asia Until You've experienced NAM! Part 2

So I left you guys (hopefully at the edge of your seat) at Thailand and promised you tails of Vietnam which I failed to deliver on.... until now!

Let me just jump right into it. So Bilal and I said good riddance to James (jk jk we actually left him in the middle of the night) to catch our 6 am flight to Hanoi, Vietnam! Thailand and Vietnam are separated by Laos and Cambodia but are not far from each other at all so it was a nice little 2 hour plane ride.

Now, I was so freaking amped up to get to Hanoi! I had heard the best things at Vietnam. I had heard that there was French influence everywhere since Vietnam was originally colonised by the French. I was told that I could get fresh baguettes on the streets and in the hostels, 20 cent "microbrewery beer" on the sides of the road, heavenly pho, and vintage Vietnam war propaganda posters. This place sounded like quite the cultural mecca. Secretly, I was also hoping that Hanoi would be the cheese oasis of Asia given the French influence....(spoiler: I was wrong).

So let me tell you my feelings about the real Hanoi...... it really IS THAT COOL and I LOVED THE PLACE!!!!!! Bilal and I were staying in a really, really tall town house in the old quarter of Hanoi. All of the architecture is like that - everything is built UPWARDS and built with French architectural influence. 

Our tall, tall hostel