One month Left!!!

Its weird to think this will be one of my last Singapore blogs left to write! I have one month to the day until I get back on the 1+ day travel to the US. I have 4 exams, 1 paper, 1 test, and 2 trips standing in my way!

Went and had lunch with some friends in my Islam class. We had fun comparing Singaporean versions of western foods to ours. A very common "western" dish here is spaghetti with either chicken or steak on top. They asked to try and explain the health care system, it was a little overwhelming. Singaporeans don't really do the health insurance. Many people don't have health insurance here they said. Makes sense, I got 3 injections, meds, and a doctors visit for my toe and it cost less than $90USD! There was no mention of whether I had insurance or not.

Had an interesting conversation with a cab driver the other day. He picked us up from our dorms to take us down the road late at night to meet some friends for beer and chips (the English gal named it :) ). There is a local hawkers center that we drink beer at until all hours of the night since they are opened basically 24/7. THis driver told us that women here don't get canned, its against the law to offer that as a penalty. Kidnapping is another death penalty offense. His opinion was that so many rich people and overseas businessmen work here is because they know their money will not end up on corruption or illegal activities. HE said the rich feel so safe here and bring in their families and money. Interesting theory....

SO tomorrow Alma and I will make our way through Java, one of the Indonesian Providences. We land in Jakarta, not staying there too long as its a very infamous city for corruption and illegal activities... we get in a cab and drive to Carita, a beach town to the west. In the morning, we are taking a boat tour to Krakatoa, the famous volcano that blew the loudest eruption ever recorded y humans (1883). Its required to use 2 engines on any boats in that strait where the volcano-island is just in case, as it and the two sisters it created are very active. Then we will overnight train to Yogyakarta in central Java for a few days, stopping in Solo, a small town near Mt. (volcano) Merapi. It Will be VERY Exciting, as this will be a very non-western place to visit. Java is very know for its MEGA old temples. We will be visiting a 7-9century Hindu AND Buddhist (they are separate) temple, but more on that when I return :)

The last trip left is Cambodia. I will be spending a week their with Kara (another Chicago gal) and Alma will be making a pit stop for a few days to join. I am assuming nobody reading this knows anything about Cambodia, just like I didn't until I got here and researched it, so here's some background. Cambodia has been occupied and kept record on since the late BC's. Its most famous tourist attraction is Angkor Archaeological Site, one of the 7 wonders of the world and UNESCO site, its a HUGE (spanning 100s of acres) temple complex build by the Angkor people. If anyone saw tomb raider, one of the clips was from a ancient temple that looks like its growing into a tree, that was filmed here actually... and the country is just speckled with REALLLY old temples and shrines such as this, everywhere! Recently though, Cambodia hasn't been that great. To the north, they have a border fight with Thailand, mainly in an area that holds the oldest temple in Cambodia. Soldiers on both sides like to shoot each other and deaths have been counted up until Feb 2011.

In the late 70s, the King (Cambodia is actually the Kingdom of Cambodia) did some ethnic purging, turning deaths into a genocide of anybody who was different (if you had glasses, you looked smart, so you deserve to die). The police set in charge of this would take people (I believe 1.4 million were killed...) into what are now know as killing fields, just fields around the area. Then they would be executed and left to rot. Still, 40 years later, these fields are still around with the bones and scraps of clothing. Just fields of skeletons, one of them is in the capital Phnom Phen! There were a few parks I was looking into visiting that would saw if you look towards this view, you see white in the background, thats a killing field :( A popular tourist attraction in the capital is a high school that the police turned into their interrogation rooms. Between this and the Vietnam War (Cambodia borders Vietnam, its due west of Ho Chi Minh/Saigon) the country used to be covered everywhere in land mines. All populated area and main trails for hiking have been swept numerous times, so its safe for tourists, but this isn't a place to wander off into the jungle or behind a village house in the rural area. There are still many places live land mines are known to be kept.

alot. Don't worry, we will be safe of course!

So just because I feel the need to tell you Cambodia isn't just a place with villagers and a bad history, Cambodia has the largest lake in SE Asia that provides the most fish IN THE WORLD to fishers. Yes, there is someone in the world who keeps track of this. They have 1 of 2 jungles left in this part of the world that is TRUELY NOT explored. They have tigers, elephants, and river dolphins (which only Amazon has too). They have famous beaches and a floating hotel. They have beautiful mountains and rivers and this eco-reserve in that lake I was mentioning that has the largest number of endangered birds in the world. Naturally, it holds wonders :)