FFF (24) - Random Facts

No stories this week!  School is starting and things are pretty busy, so I’ll just post some fun facts that I’ve learned throughout the past 6 months (yep, I’m halfway through my contract!).

Korea is one of the Four Asian Tiger economies, along with Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Singapore.

The martial art 'Tae kwon do' originated in Korea.

Korea is the only divided country in the world currently.

WWW (19)- To Be

To be or not to be? That is the question!

We’re making big strides here.  If you haven’t already noticed, this week’s word happens to be a VERB.  In other words, we’re gonna start making sentences.  In actuality, this is probably the most important verb for you to know, hence why they always teach it first in Spanish or French class back in the States. 

Korean, being a very simple language, has only 2 forms of “to be” (or at least for the level at which I have learned it).  And it doesn’t change depending on the subject.  The only change occurs due to the ending of the previous word (i.e. if the last sound is a vowel of a consonant).

Korean:이에요

Pronunciation: i e yo

Used: last sound is a consonant

Korean: 예요

Pronunciation: ye yo

Used: last sound is a vowel

Spontaneous Singapore

Singapore was spontaneous.  All of you faithful readers out there would notice that Singapore didn’t quite make the cut for winter travel… or did it?  When originally planning for our vacation we limited ourselves to (or treated, depending on who you talk to) 3 countries: Malaysia, Cambodia, and Vietnam.  But we realized very early on in our travels that a big city is, well, a big city.  So after exploring Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia’s capital (re: big city) for two days, we got to wondering “Welp, what are we going to do on our third day?”

With the help of our seasoned traveler friend, spontaneity took control.  That little conversation over dinner in Malaysia forever changed our plans.  After 2 hours of sleep, we were on that 1 hour plane flight to Singapore, watching the sunrise above the oil refineries just before touching down.

7am- Singapore Sunrise.

Welcome to the land of oil.

Now I’m not gonna lie, a lot of Singapore is forever lost in the sleep deprivation that consumed my mind.  But my body will tell you that we walked what seemed like the whole city five times.  The majority of our time was spent surrounding the waterway that snaked through every portion of this beautiful city.

Following a salad (a weird concept in Asia) we walked through the European styled streets, to the business district, and to the famous Merlion (fish and lion) admiring the vast developments in this SE Asian country.

Salad- something that was left behind in the U.S... or so we though!

Adorable European style streets.

Jump shots by the Business District.

Merlion and expensive "cruise hotel".  A casual $600/night.

Fail.  Notice the water running THROUGH
his hands.  This is why I leave the picture
taking to Brandon!

After 10 hours of being awake, at a mere 12pm, we found a lovely patch of grass to relax, gazing up at a Singapore rainbow.  Whew, it was good to take a break.

Now comes a time when memories are really lost, only to be survived through the lens of a camera.  After getting lost and walking wayyyy to far for the lack of sleep we’d had, we hopped in a taxi and made our way towards the Singapore Botanical Gardens, filled with wildlife and vibrant, oversized flowers.

Love.

Everything is so green!  Welcome to SE Asia!

Just a few countries...

Wildlife!

Big leaves.

Making our way through the gardens and braving a city bus, we made it back to our little waterway just in time for a birthday dinner.  On the menu- LOBSTER.  In Korea, you eat Kimchi, in Vietnam, you eat Pho, in Thailand, you eat curry, and in Singapore, you eat fresh marine life.  And of course there were a few Singapore Slings and Tiger Beers to go with that.  How else were we suppose to keep ourselves awake after 16 hours of adventure on 2 hours of sleep?  Following a night visit back to the Merlion and we were back on the subway, making our way towards Singapore Changi Airport.  Arriving late night back in KL, we decided to stick it out on the airport floor (not carpeted, but concrete), as we only had 4 hours before checking-in for Siem Reap, Cambodia!

Dinner on the Quay.

Fresh lobster.

My favorite picture. 

Singapore has amazing bridges.

Merlion at night.