Musings from Singapore: Sporadic AirCon

Almost everywhere is air conditioned....note that I said ALMOST.

My office is air conditioned, but the elevators are not. And the hallway outside my office, where the elevators are, also not air conditioned. My first day at the office, I had wandered around trying to find the place (I took the correct MRT to the correct stop, but had no idea which way to go once I got off the train. Thus, the wandering). Them I took the unairconditioned elevator and waited in the unairconditioned hallway for someone to let me in.....in the 90 degree heat and 90% humidity. By the time I got into the office, I was a hot sweaty mess.

Most buildings - including my office - have box unit air conditioning (that everyone refers to as AirCon, not to be confused with Con Air, a delightful film from the late 90s in which Nicolas Cage sports a rad mullet) rather than central air. I have several thoughts on this:

• Box units allow for tighter control on the area cooled and the electricity used to do so. At night, I can turn on the bedroom aircon unit, turn off the living room unit, close the bedroom door and stay cool all night, without using electricity to run the living room unit.
• Since it never changes season or temperature here in Singapore, there's no need for a heater. That renders a full HVAC system unnecessary, so maybe unit aircon is more efficient.
• This leads to interesting architectural challenges. My aircon units need an exhaust and fan system, which must be connected to the unit. This means I have a box outside my window that powers the unit. There's one outside my living room window and another outside my bedroom window. My building has open columns in the middle of the building that are JUST for housing these units. In the US, buildings have square (or rectangle or trapezoid or whatever) exteriors and the interior is wholly covered by central HVAC. 

I turn the aircon in my apartment off when I leave in the morning. And if I'm the first in the office (or last to leave), I turn the aircon on and off there as well. It's a different system, for sure. Just another quirk of living in Asia.

And I'm pretty sure that if I had gone to school in Columbia, South Carolina in buildings that had air conditioned classrooms, but not hallways, it would have been a long, sweaty four years. You know, more than it was already.

Cambodia: just a lil hike, mmkay

At the waterfall at Kbal Spean

From Banteay Srei, we got back in the car and headed to Kbal Spean. Our guide had told us that morning that we would go out of town to some temples, then continue out of town to the lake, for a boat tour of the floating village. On the way from Banteay Srei (temple 1) to Kbal Spean (temple 2), Piseth turns to us (in the backseat) and says "The BF and Charlie: we are heading to Kbal Spean. We will get out of the car and hike up to it. It will take 45 minutes to get there. The hike is very steep. Very strenuous. Ok?"

At this point, we're like "uh....ok?" I mean, we are in the car, halfway there. And we wanted to see this thing, so we werent going to back out. But I'm not entirely sure that was an option. I think he was just telling us this as part of his tour guide spiel, not as a question or even as a warning.

The BF and I at the waterfall. See how we are NOT wearing
hiking gear? Also, we are drenched in sweat.

So we get to the spot, get out of the car, grab some bottles of water and start hiking. We proceed to hike about a mile uphill, gaining about 700 feet in elevation as we do so. Now, a 700 foot elevation gain might not sound like much, but over only a mile, that kind of elevation gain means I'm using my hands and feet to scamper up some rock clumps in more than one spot on the "trail". As a point of comparison, Little Si (outside of Seattle) is an elevation gain of 1200 feet over 2.5 miles. That's about 70% of the incline of this little trail.

Our local, fit guide scampers on up the trail, staying just within eyesight of us, where he stops and waits. Then he continues on while we slowly make our way up. Keep in mind, we were informed of our hike about 10 minutes before commencing on said hike. The BF is wearing sandals (granted, they're Keen all-purpose sporty sandals, not some Rainbow flip-flops, but still) and I'm wearing Sperrys. Boat shoes. Known and desired for their lack of tread on the sole.

We reach the top of the hill in due time, quite sweaty, but otherwise fine and begin taking pictures of the waterfall and carvings in the river bed. Kbal Spean is the location of the "thousand lingas". A linga is a phallic symbol and according to legend, water that passes over a linga is imbued with special powers and holiness. Therefore, in order to have pure, holy water in the village below, the Khmer people carved a thousand lingas into the rocks in the riverbed. And a thousand years later, the carvings are still visible. Pretty impressive.

The riverbed carvings of lingas

The rain pouring through the
thatched roof on the edge of
the guard shack where
we waited out the storm.

Of course, while we were taking pictures of the carvings, it started to rain. Not "spritz a little on and off like Seattle in January" kind of rain; the "dump buckets of water at a time so hard it hurts, like July in Florida" kinda rain. We duck into the nearby trail guard station to get out of the rain, and sat there for a few minutes waiting for it to die down. We chatted with our guide and learned that he had a wife and son and that he wanted his son to grow up and go to college, perhaps even medical school. 

Sitting in the guard shack, waiting for the rain to die down.
My Sperrys have been with me on four continents,
through all kinds of weather. And now, they've been with me
on an impromptu Cambodia hike and rainstorm.
Love these shoes.

When the rain finally slacked up, we started hiking back down to the car. In the rain. On a now slippery steep trail. It took us a while to navigate back down, getting rained on the whole way, and I just kept thinking "Fritha and Conan would love this. But I'm glad I'm not holding Bucca's leash right now. I would totally fall and slide all the way down this muddy mountain."







We finally get back to the car, where our guide is waiting patiently. We plop our wet selves into the backseat and head off to lunch.

Zip-off pants, FTW. Again.

The  orange t-shirt, brown zip-off pants and offending bare legs.

The top level of Angkor Wat is still used as a temple and as such, there are guidelines you must adhere to before climbing the 50+ stairs (at a 40 degree incline) to get to the top temple. Women with uncovered legs and shoulders are not allowed up. It was 98 degrees and 95% humidity....clearly I was wearing shorts the day we visited the temple. But because of my aforementioned affinity for looking down on things from up high, we returned to Angkor Wat the next day (sans guide, with appropriate attire) for additional exploring. 

The view from the top

The view from the top

After contemplating several options for "appropriate attire" for the temple, including taking a scarf I bought in the city market and tying it sarong style around my waist, I opted for my hiking pants. Also known as my zip-off pants. These bad boys were once the object of my ridicule, but have more than once earned my love and praise. Peru, for example. Mountains of western Washington. And now, Cambodia. I donned my brown zip-off pants (sans legs) and an orange t-shirt and headed off the day. When we arrived at the stairs to the top of the ruins, I promptly zipped on some pant legs, got clearance to pass and viewed the top of the structure. It was awesome. I descended, removed said legs and went on about my way. There was no way I was wearing more clothes than absolutely necessary: it was 104 degrees Fahrenheit that day. I know this because the refrigerated truck vendor guy who sold us some bottle water read us the temperature off his meat thermometer. It was SO HOT he was reading air temperature on a MEAT THERMOMETER.

Once again, my zip-off pants have proven to be worth their weight in gold.

Me in the top of Angkor Wat

The streets of Siem Reap

Cambodia is very tropical. Lots of vegetation, lots of things grow here. And the BF and I sweat a lot.

But we're having a good time! Some photos from our first day, in the town of Siem Reap.

The Old Market in downtown Siem Reap. Market sells everything from silk goods, pants, scarves, placemats, etc. to tourists. It also sells meat and fish and fruit to locals. Wandering through an open air fish/meat market in 95 degree heat and full humidity is an experience.....that my nose would very much like to forget.

The streets of Siem Reap, where there are few cars and LOTS ot tuk-tuks. Tuk-tuks are moped-pulled coach thingees, something like a modern-day horse-drawn carriage.

The active streets of downtown Siem Reap.

Just chilling in a Cambodian cafe, after drinking a $1 local beer. $1 beer?!? From my seat in the cafe, across from the market, we saw all kinds of locals and tourists, including a couple of European travelers (we guessed German) who we would run into three days in a row. And about whom we would speculate quite a bit. The BF thinks they are boyfriend/girlfriend. I think they're father/daughter. Yeah....

Singapore is like Band Camp

Like, for REAL.

Queenie and I have traveled around a bit, always having a good time, often getting weird looks from strangers and usually laughing. And over the course of our travels, we have come to the conclusion that there are MANY things in life, for which we are properly prepared, thanks to Band Camp.

For those of you who are unaware, yes, I was in the band in high school and yes, I went to band camp. Our entire HS marching band went to camp together for a week each summer to do marching band stuff. 

And at various points in my adult life, I have had the occasion to think - and then exclaim - THIS is just like band camp!

A train in France was just like band camp, in that there was a woman chaperoning a school group on our train who scolded us much like the infamous band moms of our past.

Peru was just like band camp, in that we walked a lot and ate meals as a group. And we had sherpas carrying our things around for us. (Although at band camp, the sherpas were freshmen and they were free. In the Andes, we had to pay for that. There were no freshmen around.)

And Singapore is like band camp in that you walk a lot, get sweaty and no one really cares, because everyone else is walking a lot and is just as sweaty as you. So that's cool.

Of course, this means Singapore is also like band camp in that you need Band-Aids, sunscreen, baby powder and athletic tape, for the blisters, sunburn, heat rash and sprained ankles that come along with.

Asian Adventure: Day 5

So I guess it's day 5 of my Asian adventure. Depending, of course, on which time zone you're thinking about.

First meal in Singapore #seattleite

Since arriving here LATE Saturday night, I've eaten Indian food, French food, Vietnamese food, Paranakan food and Starbucks. It's that kind of place: you can literally get anything here.

And it's all delicious. The tropical climate means things grow here and it's all super fresh and delicious. Does sweating burn calories? Cuz that seems to be my primary activity right now and I'm going to need some serious activity to burn off all the delicious food I'm eating. 

On to the real topic: sweating. It is 88 degrees and 90% humidity pretty much every day here. Today feels cooler though, so maybe it's only 87. Those of us who are from Seattle (where it is frequently the same temperature as the inside of a Singaporean refrigerator) are just not used to this kind of weather. I'll adapt, I'm sure, but in the meantime my hair has not been seen in any form other than a bun (not even a ponytail, just a bun) and I just show up sweaty. A lot.

Like freshman moving day in Columbia kinda sweaty. Only I'm supposed to be a "business lady". So instead of sweating through a sorority t-shirt, I'm sweating through work clothes. Oh well....

No Naked Ladies!

I have this recurring issue with my gym: there is excessive nudity in the locker room. Yes, I understand the purpose of a locker room and that nudity is inherent in that, but I often fall victim to FLAGRANT nudity in the worst ways.

Until today!

I worked late (major event next week; lots to do) and then went to the gym. I got there 8:30pm-ish and was alone in the locker room. While changing, another girl came in, quickly changed her shoes and then left. NO NUDITY!

I worked out (worked out hard, actually...ended up VERY sweaty and gross. it was great!) then returned to the locker room to change and leave. Still alone. Still no nudity. Also, there was no one in there to judge me for a) stinking to high heaven or b) putting on a hot pink t-shirt with my bright orange shorts for the trip home.

On a related note: I was so disgusting when I left the gym that I was afraid I couldnt get on the bus, for fear of offending...well...everyone. Now, given that homeless people are sometimes on my bus, imagine the kind of smell it would take to really be inappropriate for the bus. Yeah.

So I walked home. Now, my office is only 2 miles or so from my house and on nice evenings (like tonight) I often walk home anyway. But when you walk home out of civic duty and love for your fellow man, rather than choice, it changes things. Also, let's remember that I was (by this point) a hot, sweaty mess wearing a hot pink "Sanitary Fish Market" t-shirt and bright orange Virginia Tech shorts. With a bright red face and post-workout hair. Awesome.

I like to think it was a safety technic: you're less likely to get accosted if you look like a color-blind sweatbag who's probably street-rat crazy.