Malaysia and climbing Mount Kinabalu

Warning: Long post! Worth it though (I certainly think so) But thankfully I made a few headings :)

After spending several days around Vietnam, I flew to Kota Kinabalu (on Borneo Island) through Kuala Lumpur (flights through KL always seem to be cheaper). I knew I was back to civilization when our awesome hotel had a back door into a mall. That's SE Asia for ya!

Yeah those are the right colors...

Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia:

The first full day in KK we spent going downtown, having a delicious breakfast/lunch and then trying to find a ferry to one of the islands (I picked Manukan after some research). As we were walking down to the pier a guy stopped us and asked if we were trying to go to the islands and that he can give us a ride (for a price) on his boat. After looking at his actually reasonable prices, we agreed. A few more minutes until we gathered some more passengers, and we were off! It was a shortish, windy ride, but the weather was gorgeous and the view of all the islands, as well as the smell of the sea, was great!

Secret beach walk on the way back

One of the best beaches I was at this summer!

Manukan itself is a relatively small island, has a resort on it, but is also open to the day tourists such as ourselves. The water was clear and beautiful, and there were fish everywhere. Many would swarm you, though only a few were biting us. I decided to not snorkel, but just relax in the water and on the beach. We then went on a short hike across the island and decided to take the deserted beach route on the way back. Was pretty awesome and beautiful though a bit rocky. I definitely recommend this island.

The rest of the evening was just spent relaxing, and the next morning we checked out and went on to get ourselves to the Kinabalu National Park, from which climbs up Mount Kinabalu are done. I booked everything ahead of time (about 2 weeks) and was lucky as this was the popular season for climbing it apparently. The drive there was on a large coach bus, and the last 45 or so minutes it was epic seeing the mountain through the windows, even though most of the time it was shrouded by clouds.

After checking in at our lodgings in the park, we did some preliminary hiking (was kind of unnecessary considering what lay in the days ahead, and how steep it was) but it was something fun to do. The rooms at the park were a lot better than we expected, that's for sure.

Climb Day 1:

Summit trail with all the rest stops and checkpoints.

We got up pretty early, around 6:30 am or so, in order to get ourselves dressed, go have the buffet breakfast, collect the packed lunch, and hire a guide. Usually you want to be up at the trail and hiking from around 8:30ish. We found a couple of Brits to share a guide with us to cut costs and set out! Right away, it started being really hot. The first part of the hike, until where most people take their lunch, is about 4 km. We reached it by 11+am, and had a nice break. We were already sweaty and tired, as the whole way up was pretty steep. Didn't see to much interesting stuff a long the way, but it was just beautiful in general.  Already that high up the mountain was cooler (at least when you stopped).

Our British companions!

The rest of the way my buddy Hau and I had to lag (his fault not mine!) and the Brits took off. Our guide (as I will tell later) was definitely helpful by staying back and egging Hau on. We reached the Laban Rata Resthouse, at about 6km, sometime around 2. I guess those last 2km were steeper/harder? It was pretty fun either way. There are markers every 500m all the way up the mountain.

How the stairs were pretty much the whole way up!

It was great reaching the resthouse. The resthouse itself is heated, while some of the other dormitories are not. Guess which ones we got into? That's right - cold cold 4 people per room rooms. That's because we were late signing up, I'm sure. Not only that, but the dorm itself was quite a hike from the resthouse, where we had to come back to for dinner etc. Oh well! We came back to the resthouse after a quick nap in time for dinner, which was pretty early. Another delicious buffet! Because the only way to get to the resthouse is the 6km trail, the way that they get the supplies and food up there is through porters. These guys hiked up and down the mountain all day long, and all had humongous calves. Our guide told us that he used to be a porter as well. He also said he could climb the 6k in about an hour or two (I don't remember).

We tried to go to bed around 7-8 pm, all wrapped up in layers of clothes, with everything prepared for the 1:30am wakeup. Most people went to sleep around 9, so it was quite noisy in the building till then. I thankfully brought my phone and charger (yes they had outlets!) and just put in my headphones and played sleepy music. Didn't get very restful sleep though due to the cold and anticipation.

Climb Day 2:

Laban Rata resthouse

By 2am or so we were down at the rest house with the rest of the climbers. For some reason I was so awake and energetic! I couldn't really eat much at the buffet "supper", but had a bit, as well as some coffee (first time for me at 2 am, but I wasn't sleeping till that NIGHT, so might as well right?).  Muscles were sore and I did end up getting sleepy on the way up, but I was pumped. I won't lie, it was pretty epic starting the hike. A line of climbers in the dark, each with their own headlamps to light the way. Since we were lagging again and I tried to be better at staying back, one of the more awesome sights was looking ahead/up and seeing the winding line of headlamps ahead. Sometimes this made me a bit anxious as to just how high we had to climb.

The first portion of km's 6-8.7ish km was similar to what was before. Lots of stairs, either wooden or made from rocks and soil. Slowly though, this transitioned to more rocks and boulders. At this point somewhere came The Rope. A thick, white, rope, whose purpose was to help you hoist your tired self up certain steps and also to serve as a guide once the terrain became basically barren rock and you had no idea which way to go. I did look down the mountain quite often (mostly to look out for Hau) and the panorama that was emerging was quite magical. Still in the dusk, a while before actual sunrise, one could see the outlines of the hills and the lights of the towns below.

Climbers eating at the resthouse

I won't lie - I got altitude sickenss somewhere in the last km. This was characterized by lightheadedness (enough to make me stop every 15 or so meters to make sure I didn't fall off the mountain), followed by nausea. This, on top of the cold and the soreness and sleepiness that was coming over me, did not make for a happy Tanya! Many others were experiencing the same, and we all kind of joked about it, which certainly made it easier. Really though, this was quite a challenge to the willpower muscle. Of course I wasn't going to NOT make it! At some point, I just booked it to the top. This was because I could see it, but mostly because this meant I could go back down quicker and not feel so ill anymore.

At the top at sunrise (night mode on)

 Seeing the sunrise at the peak and looking out over the surrounding area made me feel like such a champ! I met up with our Brit friends, took some pictures with them, and waited a little bit for Hau (though certainly not too long). He was being dragged up by our amazing guide just as I was coming down ( I really felt too ill to wait for him much longer), so I told him I'd meet him back for lunch at the resthouse. It was all downhill from there. The exhilirated feeling that I got going down was unimaginable.

Coming down.. couldn't believe we went UP that!

The sun was rising and it was getting warmer. I could see much more of the land below, which made me really wish I had a good camera, not just my phone. (I still took plenty of  pictures!) Of course, going down was much quicker than going up, and every meter I descended meant a return to my non-lightheaded and non-nauseaus self. It was great! I think it only took me an hour or so to get back down to the resthouse. The WHOLE way down (from resthouse to bottom also) I kept being amazed at the fact that we just went UP this slope, as it was quite steep coming down.

At the top

After gathering my things from our dorm room and changing into something more suitable for warmer weather, I went down to the resthouse, met up and had lunch with the Brits, and then waited a couple of hours for Hau. I won't lie, I was getting worried, even though I saw him near the summit and the guide was excellent. Eventually he walked in around 9:30am, had a quick breakfast, and then we were off down the rest of the mountain (6km). Our guide was insistent that we leave by 10 am otherwise we may not make it down in time for lunch haha...

Coming down

It was pretty good going overall. I could literally have ran down the whole thing, but I just enjoyed the scenery, chatted, and didn't get ahead too much. We passed a lot of porters on the way up, as well as a lot of people who were in our shoes from yesterday. We wished them good luck. I still could not imagine how we went up that thing, as it seemed so steep to me. Anyway, we got done with plenty of time to have a nice lunch and chat with some people. Some were seasoned climbers, who warned us that altitude sickness will strike anyone who is not acclimated, no matter in how good of a shape you are otherwise. I guess that's why my iron lungs and quads of steel were not enough! Haha...

Coming down

Carrying a mattress up a mountain, nbd

We then shared a taxi back to KK with a pair from Geneva who were also in our climbing "group" (and by group I mean two of the maybe hundred or so people who did the climb on the same day - it IS quite popular!). That night I woke up and had the most intense calf pain ever. The several days afterwards, walking was not fun!

Anyhow, we then returned to Singapore, had amazing Fish Head Curry, I picked up my luggage, and went back to the airport. There I walked around, and spent the night napping on the chair where I got my foot massage (with calf emphasis, as I asked). Changi Airport really is great!

So ends my story in Asia for the summer of 2012!

Vietnam - Hanoi and Ha Long Bay

Streets of Hanoi by night

After we said our goodbyes to everyone who was going back to the States or traveling somewhere else, 5 of us were off on a trip to Vietnam. We arrived in Hanoi, which is in northern Vietnam, in the afternoon. After looking at a couple of hotels which were a little TOO cheap, we found an awesome one, with great staff, for about $15 a night each (Hong Ngoc Hotel, for those that may travel there in the future). Exploring the city was interesting, as the streets just go all over the place and everyone rides motorbikes, without any specific rules directing traffic.

A more peaceful street by day

  To cross the street you basically just walk at a steady pace and have the motorbikes go around you. The city itself is definitely less developed/modern than the other cities I've been to - no fancy malls anywhere, way less good cars or restaurants. But we dove right into it :) Had some delicious noodles right on the street while sitting down on tiny tiny stools and walked around the night market, trying the delicious egg custard desserts.

Cobra we were about to eat!

Next day was spent also walking around/losing ourselves around the dusty streets. Was a quite fun even though we never got to our destination! I even ran into a girl who went with me to high school and college - and later was on our boat around Ha Long! In the late afternoon we went out to find us some cobra to eat. After talking to the cool hotel staff, we were taken by taxi to a village right outside of Hanoi. First we weren't even sure we were at the right place since the driver spoke no English, but he just kept pointing at this one building, so we hopped out and hoped for the best. We came into a room that was actually a reasonably clean lobby, with the staff dressed very cleanly and treating us very respectably. We told them we wanted cobra, and the guy pointed to a cage where they had cobras and some other snakes.

Cobra menu

After picking out which cobra was going to soon be our delicious meal, the handler chopped off its fangs and let us get a closeup look at the thing. They then filled up two glasses with rice wine (?) (or some other alcohol), slit the snake's throat, and let it bleed into one of the glasses. Cobra blood shots. It's bile was put into the other glass - very green and bitter. There was a long list of dishes which were then cooked with the cobra that we got, and they were brought out one by one. Very delicious! Cobra soup, sauteed cobra, cobra in spring rolls etc. Much more appetizing and fancy than I though it would be. Super satisfied with the crazy experience. As we were leaving - we saw many families coming up. Apparently this cobra stuff is what many people do everyday - hah! No big deal.

We experienced some of Hanoi's nightlife and met some cool people from Singapore while at one of the establishments.

Next day was the beginning of our trip to Ha Long Bay. It's a beautiful UNESCO world heritage site that is a bay with many rocky structures covered with greenery, with caves, and cool beaches and islands. After a 3 hour ride to Ha Long City, we got on our boat, where we would also sleep on our first night. Though it was raining, we enjoyed the kayaking, swimming, and cave touring on the first day. All our food here was served family-style, and we had to keep some of us from eating other's portions hah...


The cruising was very fun, and we just chilled in our rooms when we were not out doing stuff, watching the other boats and the islands go by. After dinner, we had a fun kareoke session, and afterwards a dance party was approved by the captain. Some of the crew joined in on the mostly-American dance beats. They even had a disco ball!

Fun climbing!

The next day we arrived at Cat Ba Island, located in Ha Long Bay. There, it was still pouring rain, but we had no qualms about doing the couple hour hike and getting some mysterious-moving-fog views of the surrounding area. Our group decided to relax in the hotel and skip the monkey forest (as we've all been monkey-ed out by this point), and went to check out some local establishments, nap, and plan our extra day of stay on the island for rock climbing purposes. We arranged this through a trip agency located on the island, it was above a cool bar, and chill climbing dudes from Europe and California worked there.

The group at booty beach

The next day, wishing for minimal rain, we took the boat with a few other climbers to Booty Beach. Our leaders were cool - one was a Californian and one a local Vietnamese. The Vietnamese guy had impressive climbing skills - he climbed and set everything up with just flip flops!

The beach/island was tiny, but the climbing was great. First time I ever did it anywhere other than a rock wall. It was tons of fun even though I got a bit scratched up. We spend the entire afternoon there, after which we took a larger boat back and spent most of the next day making our way back to Hanoi.

Little boats across the flooded road

At one point the road was flooded so we had to get across the flooded portion on little boats. Oh the fun!
We went back to our previous awesome hotel in Hanoi, ordered some delicious food, and spent the night relaxing and playing card games.
Goodbyes were sad of course, especially after we've all shared such an adventure. My flight the next morning made me get up at 5:30 am ><

End of EAPSI!

The EAPSI closing ceremonies were held on August 3rd, Friday. Everyone gave their final, very broad, talks, and we had a nice lunch at the staff clubhouse.

The night before a few of us held a "practice" run for the talks - though this was more out of interest of hearing other people's stuff. Our talks during the ceremony were held in parallel sessions - so I got to hear only 4 others. It was very interesting to learn what others were working on during their EAPSI fellowships.

We also had a "group" presentation, where we had a video montage of pictures from the whole trip of people visiting places together, doing things around Singapore, and doing things with their labs/PI's/collaborators.

View from my room at Graduate Hall

My lab also had a nice lunch with me during the group meeting, and I gave them my souvenirs that I brought from the US - some of which were maple syrup and Old Bay seasoning!


Overall my whole experience in Singapore during the EAPSI program has been amazing. I cannot hope to summarize it in words but I will try to write a few paragraphs for those interested in EAPSI itself, doing research in Asia, or Singapore in general.

Mr. Bean was my favorite treat place :)

Cameras everywhere!

 Singapore:

Singapore itself as a city/country is very modern. I'm sure you can read about it everywhere. It was not AS clean as I though it would be (especially in some of the hawker centers), but it was very clean compared to even the cleanest cities in the US. I definitely felt safe everywhere I went and there were cameras and "interesting" signs everywhere, but it didn't feel as "Big Brother-ey" as some people claimed. I think I only saw a police car once or twice and never heard a siren. People follow the law (or else get fined).  But this doesn't mean that people are going to treat you spectacularly everywhere you go, especially if they don't speak English very well. For having English as one of their official languages, not all Singaporeans, at least not the older ones, speak it well. "Singlish" is pretty common. Malls are EVERYWHERE (kind of made me understand why so many Asians I know are so into shopping - it really is a sport/pastime there).

Ice skating rink IN THE MALL

I wish I could say I visited everything in Singapore that I wanted to, but I definitely didn't - not enough time even for a city an hour+ across. The Gardens by the Bay were very captivating both times that I saw them, and I really liked Palau Ubin for it's more village-ey feel. Partying in Singapore is expensive (but fun), and so is eating FANCY food, but eating local yummies, and using public transportation was fine. It was usually pretty easy to find where I wanted to go and everything was accessible. The climate was hot and humid - I didn't have to use moisturizer or lotion ONCE ( I have to usually use it everyday in the US). A lot of people still walk around in clothes that look too hot for the climate - but I was told this was because if you are not wearing long pants there are some places, such as nicer restaurants, where you'd be denied access, if you are Singaporean. Also no one wears sunglasses! It does rain sometimes, and when it rains - it pours. Thankfully many walkways are covered and there are usually many ways to travel from place to place and not be exposed to the rain.

There's a lot more I could say, for sure, but overall my experience with Singapore was good. It was well developed and organized, clean, and had great shopping, attractions, and food! I would certainly recommend it as a hub for anyone traveling in Southeast Asia, and as a stop in itself. It's airport is AWESOME - It has a park, hotels, napping areas, all the shops you can dream of, free foot massage chairs, and spas - ( I got a massage at one on my last night there and then just slept there for a few hours till my early morning flight).

EAPSI:

EAPSI was the reason I got to go to Singapore, do research there, and travel the area. I am very thankful that I was picked to be a fellow, and if anyone who is a grad student is even a bit interested in doing research overseas, I suggest you take a look at it. The rewards are quite multifaceted. I do wish that it was longer - mainly because I would be able to get more research done ( I actually got quite travel-weary towards the end of the program). The people who were in charge of the program and organized all the events in Singapore were all great, and gave us a few good opportunities to meet up and hear from important research people in Singapore.

Last night at Singapore together!

Research:
Research in Singapore for me personally was successful. I got to do a good amount of what I planned on doing, despite a few setbacks that were out of my control. More time would have resulted in more conclusive results, but I think that I was running out of some materials anyways and will be able to take that I learned there with me back to the US. One main difference between research in Singapore and in the US is that in Singapore they take their safety a lot more seriously. Lab coats had to be worn at all times, and also closed toe shoes and long pants (that made going to work every day NOT that fun ). Some labs had cameras in them because they contained valuable equipment.

My labmates in Singapore were VERY welcoming and friendly. I had lunch with them most days, discussed a variety of scientific and non-scientific topics, and learned a lot about their lives in Singapore and where they came from. Most of them were not from Singapore and it was interesting to see how such diversity plays out in Singapore.  Anyhow - I will miss them a lot, but I think I'll see some of them at future conferences. My Singaporean advisor was great too, and plans on collaborating with my US advisor in the near future. Early in the summer we had a gathering/party at his house where his wife made delicious Korean food and we played Wii games. I was pretty alright at table tennis =D We also went out bowling as a lab, but there I was pretty bad .

Anyways, these are my "conclusions" from the Singapore portion of the trip. But.. dum dum dum... my trip around Southeast Asia was not finished!

Bangkok

Bangkok was another weekend trip where we tried to experience as much as possible in a couple of days. There are certainly a lot of things to do in Thailand overall, but we only had time enough for Bangkok. Anyway, off to Bangkok we flew on a Friday night!

First meal at a "nice" place

Our accommodations were a pretty decent-sized suite, for 5 people, with 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, and a living room with a kitchen. Pretty hooked up! It was on Sukhumvit Road - one that has many bars, massage parlors, eating establishments, and of course plenty of the little notorious ladies. Our first night out we had so me delicious Thai eats and wondered the streets, though we did eventually settle on a bar to soak in the somewhat grungy atmosphere.





Saturday we set out to see the Grand Palace. Getting a taxi that would take us there for a fair price was a bit of an ordeal (as we had been warned), but after a detour to an overpriced boating-excursion landing, we finally found an honest driver. He even told us that he'd lower the price if we agreed to stop for 5 minutes by his sponsoring tailor shop, not even buy anything. That's very common practice in Thailand and I'd say Indonesia. The taxi driver will take the tourist to the "sponsoring" shop, which will give the driver some gasoline coupons or a cut of whatever the customer buys in exchange. Most things at such shops are overpriced and of bad quality. Anyhow, we didn't buy anything, but finally got to the Grand Palace. As you can see, it was quite marvelous, and we spent the morning/early afternoon there.

Small snippet of the Palace

Palace

After this, we were to meet up with one of Katelyn's friends. It was hard to get in touch with him at first, and this led us to take an adventurous bus ride through the city, but in the end we met up back at Sukhumvit and went to a nice Japanese lunch. 

We then basically spent the late afternoon/early evening at the mall, looking at knockoff products, cheap electronics, and bootleg games/movies. We had some dinner there as well (I had some amazing Tom Yum Soup!). The plans for the night were finalized, and we headed back to the hotel before taking a taxi to the Khao San Road area. Party central for the tourists! haha! The guy who was playing covers of all sorts of songs in the first place we went to was quite impressive, but he ended way too early for our liking, so the night continued at "The Club". Very Eurodance!

Khao San Road by night

Sunday we had a pre-booked tour of some of the Temples - Wat Pho - temple of the reclining Buddha, was very cool. One of them also had all the Buddhas of the days of the week. Depending on what day you were born, you had different qualities. I was born on a Sunday apparently. Our tour guide told us qualities that now I cannot confirm on the internet, so I won't post up what it all means. Ya'll can look it up if it's interesting :)

Reclining Buddha 

After three or so hour tour of the temples, we decided to go to Chatuchak Market - a HUUUUUGE open air market with something like 8000 stalls. Lots of interesting things there and quite crowded. Supposedly they sell crazy animals there too, but we didn't get to see that.

We got some Thai massages and chilled out at a Starbucks (those are everywhere in Asia) before flying back to Singapore.

PS. Yes, I had street food, and yes, it made me sick (though not SOOO bad that I couldn't do anything). No bugs for me though, just "normal" (?) meat.

Delicious street food