Adventures in Guangzhou!

Every store with speakers was playing traditional or modern Indian music. TV's were showing Bollywood music videos. Stores were selling Indian spices, teas, curries, and drinks. The chatter of various Indian languages was ubiquitous. There was a Hindu temple on every other street corner. While I have plans to get to the real India sometime in the near future, I felt like this would be as close as I got for a while. That was just fine though, because I really took to the place right away. Just think--India without any chance of contracting the plague!

Anyhow, we picked a random restaurant for lunch (out of the many choices) and sat down. As we looked around the place, we noticed that, a) we were the non-Indians in the place, b) we had no idea how or what to order, and c) everybody was eating with their hands. I guess it shouldn't have surprised me, but I had never seen people eat without utensils before. Luckily we had a very friendly and knowledgeable waiter who gave us a thirty-second rundown of the entire menu and helped us order. He even tracked down some forks, which was nice. While I know there are around a billion people around the world eating with their hands, I was happy to stick with the other four billion.

After an incredible south-Indian feast, we walked around through several churches and mosques. One mosque in particular was very educational and was doing everything possible to distance themselves from the radical right that everyone associates with terrorists. I think it was a very admirable effort but I was disappointed in one small part. They had dozens of posters around the walls of the outer mosque that were trying to dispel various myths about Islam (e.g., that it gives no rights to women, that they hate America, etc.), many of which were extremely informative. They made a point of noting how Muslims believe in the holy nature of Jesus and that they have a major connection with Christians and with Christian belief. Unfortunately, there was not a single mention of Jews, the close historical relationship with Judaism, or the current efforts to live side by side with Jews. Maybe it was just me and where I'm coming from, but it seemed to be a conspicuous absence.

After the mosque we went to buy our bus tickets to Kuala Lumpur, which turned out to be an amusing experience. We approached one vendor and asked the price and availability. He gave the price but said, "I don't have exactly what you're looking for, I recommend trying someplace else." Usually in China, they'd say, "This is it--take it or leave it." So we tried another vendor. They did have the time we wanted and said the price was fifty each. I went to pull out the money and the lady said, "You guys seem nice, I'll give it to you for forty each." I hadn't even asked for a discount! Whle negotiating travel arrangement can usually be a big pain, this was a pleasant surprise.

Walking from there to some of the more historic, colonial buildings, I was really struck by Singapore's beauty. It felt a little strange and perhaps a little sterile because it was so freakishly clean, but it was quite an achievement. While it lacks a harbor and skyline like Hong Kong, Singapore makes up for it in other ways, such as its diversity, location, safety. The subway system was unparalleled (at least in my experience). Each stop was listed in English, Malay, Chinese, and Hindi. How cool!

Anyhow, the next two days were spent relaxing, wandering the streets, eating TONS of tasty Indian food, napping, doing some window shopping, and eating some more. On Sunday we decided to brave the crowds and celebrate Chinese New Year in Singapore's Chinatown. While it didn't compare to the Hong Kong crowds from Christmas, it was still wall to wall with people and we had to surf the crowds out of the MRT stop to get anywhere. Once again, I was pleasantly surprised that no one batted an eye when we spoke Chinese. We chatted with a couple of store owners and food vendors, none of which were even remotely impressed with us. I guess that's what happens when you grow up in such an ethnically diverse place.

After we saw the lights and ate some snacks, we decided that the year of the pig (or boar, depending on who you ask) would roll in just fine even if we didn't wait until midnight. We retired early and took advantage of some English-language TV. I'm perfectly happy not watching things like "American Idol" on a day to day basis, but it was sort of fun for a little while...