Show Notes – 5/6/2010

EDIT: oh man, what a goof. I started recording over some hilarious Asian arrangements of American songs, but accidentally left 5 minutes in at the beginning. I didnt really mean for all that restaurant noise to be in there. Sorry for the screwup!

Business
- mobile recording, editing, and posting
- this is an unedited episode.
Games
- Stories in existing Canon vs. Writing unique worlds
Travel
- Bangkok overview
- Singapore travelogue
Creativity
- Cultural practices as inspiration
* Malay Wedding
* Thai Coronation Day and other nation’s holidays
Early Listener Bonus
I’ve had an idea for a cooperative narrative RPG about political standoff situations and I am looking for collaborators. If you’re interested, email me: tim@dicefoodlodging.com

I started writing this back in May. Oops. Enjoy!

Singapore smells good. Really good. It might be the clean odor of lush tropical plant life; or the fantastic food that lurks down almost every block; or it might just me comparing it to my last two locations, which are notably more polluted. Whichever happens to be true, my nose has probably had the best vacation of all.

Singapore is a well-known foodie destination and for good reason. Singaporeans have a habit, I’m told, of discussing what they are going to eat during the prior meal. Food is a BIG DEAL here. The most famous is probably the “Hawker” food, which are public food courts where you can get spectacularly good food for extremely low prices. Just be prepared to fend off rampant “touting,” or hard sells from food vendors. The large blend of cultural cuisine (Chinese, Malay, Indian, British, Filipino, and more) makes for a wild array of flavors which are often mixed and matched to make plenty of new dishes. Be prepared to eat well.

One of the great sights is the Singapore Zoo, which is reputed as one of the best in the world–with good reason. It is made up of of three parks (four, when the River Safari is completed in 2012). The tropical environment is also much more suitable for a lot of the animals you find there, such as the Orang Utans, though the polar bears are even more of an oddity here. What really made this zoo stand out, to my mind, was the close proximity of the animals. Apes, just a few feet out of reach over the path; an encounter with a ring-tailed lemur just around the corner. It is literally unbelievable.

I count myself extra lucky on this trip to have had friends to see, and help me navigate the landscape. It’s not so much that the place is huge – quite the contrary; the entire country is only 274 square miles. It’s also easy enough to get around… The Lonely Planet iphone guidebook is excellent and provides a ton of tips on experiencing the area. It’s the little, weird things that you get to experience by having a local show you around that are key. In this case, I went to a Malay wedding. Surprise! A Malay wedding runs basically as two receptions – one thrown by each family – with a little bit of parading, pomp, and photo opportunities. According to my friend, there are often so many people invited to these receptions that one could easily crash the party, and most everyone would just assume you knew someone else there. It’s an enticing idea, all the food is really delicious and the environment is relaxed and inviting. Only the newly married couple and some of their closest friends/family were dressed up. And boy were they dressed up! The costuming is spectacular, and I don’t envy them the amount of clothes and makeup that they were wearing.

I had a great time there and would go back in an instant. It’s pricey, but it is probably one of the nicest places I’ve ever been. Just don’t vandalize anything, or stay too long.