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Day 2: Bumpy Road, Achy Body, Gooey Mud

My day today consisted of riding for four hours on the back of a motorbike sandwiched between two Cambodian men on a bumpy dirt road that is any mountain biker's dream come true.  Allow me to explain..

This morning, we set off by tuk-tuk east of Siem Reap to visit the floating forest of Kompong Phhluk.    We first drove to the small town of Roluos where we went to the home of one of Dara's friends who had picked up a Canadian tourist who wanted to come along to the floating village.  The Kompong Phhluk area is supposed to be really cool because these fishing families basically live their entire lives on stilted houses that are built as high as 50ft above the ground.  During the monsoon season, the water from China (Tibet) flows down into the Mekong and overflows into the Tonle Sap lake (the largest lake in SE Asia). The water gets to be so high that these super high stilted houses can look like they are floating on water.  Also, the trees in the forest look like they are floating in the water because the trunks are consumed by the lake.  Alas, the weather was not on my side and since it is the dry season, all I saw were really high houses and petrified trees. 

However, the trek to the floating village was an adventure in and of itself.  After leaving the tuk-tuk wagon behind in Roluos, we climbed aboard Lim Ngee's motorbike and drove through a desert on a bumpy dirt road for about 2 hours.  Just so you get an idea of the contrast with the rainy season to now, when my friends came in February, they had done the entire 2 hour trip to the floating village by boat because the desert became part of the lake!   

Once we arrived at Tonle Sap lake, we hired this little kid to take the five of us by boat around the floating village.  This village is only a temporary establishment, because once the monsoon starts, all these families will move back "inland" to where the high stilted houses are.  To board the little boat, we had to take off our shoes and wade through gooey green mud and bright green water (I don't even know what made the water that color!).  After riding around the village, we went to the little boy boat driver's stilted hut home where we met his mother and two sisters (Dad was out fishing).  They prepared lunch for us:  grilled fish and rice, standard fisherman's meal that these people eat year-round.  You eat the fish by dipping it first into a sauce made of lemon, ginger and peppers.  It was pretty "fishy" but wasn't all that bad.. I just don't think I could eat it every day for breakfast, lunch and dinner.  This particularl Khmer family seemed to be quite enterprising because in addition to selling fish, their hut also functioned as a mini convenience store, had a TV, and turned into a local bar at night.  The kids proudly told us that theirs is a hard life, but a fun life.  For example, when it rains, the kids climb on top of the hut to hold down the roof so it doesn't fly away.  They said it is a lot of fun to hang onto the roof through the storm!  Also, they get to dive into the water during the storms to help fish out thing that might have flown off their neighbors' huts.

It is amazing how these villagers who live in the middle of a lake miles away from civilization manage to get all the latest gossip from surrounding villages. For example, the mother was telling us how a beautiful girl from Roluos (2hr away), married a guy who turned out to already have a wife and 2 kids.  Apparently the guy ended up kicking out the first wife to keep the beautiful girl happy.  Dara explained to me that it is common for men to have multiple wives who they usually keep in different villages. Sometimes, however, they have to live together, like in the cities, and then there is a lot of fighting between the wives. Dara did say that although polygamy is common, it is not necessarily condoned in Khmer culture.    

After washing off all the gooey green mud off of our feet at the local well, we climbed aboard for another bumpy ride back to the village to pick up the tuk-tuk wagon.  Later in the afternoon, we drove east of Siem Reap to the town of Phuok, where I toured a silk making compound. It was pretty cool to see how the local Khmer breed the caterpillars for their coccoons to make silk.  The long and exhausting day ended with a visit to the oldest reservoir in Cambodia which is still used to irrigate all the rice paddies around Siem Reap. 

Whew!  Now it's time to rest my aching butt and get some sleep!  Tomorrow:  first day of touring Ankgor Wat..

Day 1 in Cambodia

After checking into my hotel, Dara (my guide) and Lim Ngee (our tuk-tuk* driver) took me to Beng Melea, temple ruins avout 60 miles east of Siem Reap.  Along the 1.5 hour ride, we passed through quite a few interesting sites, including several mini "gas stations," which basically just consisted of a cart lined with empty soda bottles filled with cheap gasoline that is smuggled in tax-free from the Thai border.  We also stopped to eat sticky rice, which is made by stuffing bamboo reeds with water, rice, beans and salt, slow cooked over an open fire by the side of the road. It was kind of sweet and delicious.  We passed through several fishing villages where the people live in traditional Khmer houses built on stilts. The bamboo house is basically one big room where the entire family lives and sleeps.  The parents sleep under one mosquito net while the children usually share another mosquito net.  Underneath the house, hammocks are hung up for the kids to chill out and play during the day.  Dara told me that it is customary for a newly married couple to move into the wife's parents' house after they are married and until they can either build their own house on adjacent land or add another room.  It was interesting that it is currently wedding season (pre-monsoon) and so we keep seeing all these wedding parties along the way as we drive through the villages.  It is common to see decorations of gold-painted coconuts and silver-painted bananas as the coconuts symbolize blessings for prosperity and the bananas symbolize fertility. 

Beng Melea itself is an amazing place because the entire temple had been consumed by the jungle, so much so that all around you see trees growing up out of the walls of the former temple.  Up until a couple of years ago, Beng Melea was considered a highly risky site and was pretty much off-limits to tourists because the area was covered in land mines.  Since 2003, most of the mines have been clearned around the main temple area, but it is still not safe to traipse around the grounds.  Nevertheless, what makes Beng Melea so cool is that it is as massive as Angkor, except its not as touristy (there were 2 other people there when I went), and you can literally climb all over, on top of, and through the ruins at your leisure (and your own risk) a la Indiana Jones.  I'll put some pictures up as soon as I get back to Singapore so you can all see how amazing it really is.  After Beng Melea, we packed our lunches and picnicked alongside a limestone quarry.  There was a small pond where we saw local Khmer kids swimming.  Lunch was typical Khmer fried rice with curried vegetables.  It was pretty tasty.

During the trip out to Beng Melea, Dara and I talked a lot about his family and how he grew up only knowing war and terror under the Khmer Rouge.  He said that during the Khmer Rouge regime, his father, along with the other men in his village, always had to hide in the jungle to escape the Khmer Rouge.  As a result, his mother became a stronger presence in his life and it was she who ran the house and urged him to move away and get an education.  He also told me about his girlfriend, Kim Sa who happens to be the receptionist at my hotel (!). Dara's relationship saga has been a common thread through all my friends' visits to Siem Reap. At first, when Danah and Joe visited, Dara's relationship with Kim Sa wasn't really approved by her parents because they wanted her to marry a Vietnamese guy they know in America so he would take her away from Cambodia.  Dara wants to stay in Cambodia and is studying business while he earns money as a tour guide.  Then, when Katie/Ashley visited, Dara was able to chat up Kim Sa's uncle who he had gotten to be their driver.  This created an "in" for Dara with Kim Sa's family and now they are more accepting of the relationship.  Now I am staying at the same hotel where she works and Kim Sa is setting up Lim Ngee, our tuk-tuk driver, with one of her friends from the hotel (she just hooked me up to the internet tonight).  The whole story is really cute.    

*Note:  I have been requested to clarify that tuk-tuk doesn't mean to engage in intercourse but rather is a motorbike with a wagon attached. 

Lara Croft: Tomb Raider

So, I'm officially off to Cambodia in a few hours (my taxi arrives at 4AM!!).  For the next 5 days I will be exploring the lost city of Angkor (as seen in the movie).  Since I'm off from work, I decided to extend my trip so that in addition to Angkor Wat, I will also get the chance to trek around the jungles and see other temple ruins.  For the first 3 days, I'll be in Siem Reap by myself with my trusty tour guide, Dara (not to worry, he comes highly recommended by 2 groups of friends who have used him).  Michelle will join me for the last two days of the trip over the weekend. 

Just to give you an idea of what I'll be doing, here's what Dara says we will be doing tomorrow:

"The first day, Tuesday moring after arrival I suggest we go to Beng Mealea
and take a chance to see the viallgers starting their work at the rice
paddies for the begining of the rainy season as those who live in the
countryside have different economics and ways of living from the city
people."

On another note, last night some friends and I went to get dinner at the hawker centre at East Coast Park.  I am never surprised by some of the signs I see in Singapore, so I thought I'd share a couple:

 

Nightlife in Samui

Admittedly, the first couple nights of our trip to Koh Samui, David and I were still recovering from the craziness of our Halong Bay trip and were too tired to venture out and check out the scene in Samui.  We had heard that there are some some cool bars there, so our second night in Samui, we decided to check out the scene.  We walked around the strip and soon discovered that the only happening bars were the girlie bars, the ones that solicited “business.”  Almost every bar was named something like “Happy Bar and Massage” or “Lucky Bar and Massage.”  Even though it was close to midnight, the normal bars were all dead and deserted.  Finally, we randomly came across a bar that had a sign written entirely in Thai and seemed to be quite packed.  As we walked in, we found that we had stumbled upon a local bar that was filled with young Thai teens. On stage, there was a pretty good live band performing, which not surprisingly, included young girls in barely there outfits performing choreographed street dancing.  Of course, none of the waiters could understand English and we were the only non-local people in the place, but we still had a good time.                   

                  

Getting back to the sex tourism industry, although I have been in SE Asia for close to four months, it still amazes me when I see older Caucasian men with young teenage Thai women.  Koh Samui was no exception.  One night at dinner, we saw two older Caucasian men sitting at a table with two Thai hookers. Next to them, at the same table, sat a young girl who couldn’t have been older than 10.  It was obvious that this little girl was the daughter of one of the men.  She seemed so bored and left out while her Dad and his buddy were hanging out and having a good time with their “escorts.”  Talk about a traumatic vacation with Dad!  I predict the poor kid is going to need some kind of professional help to get over that experience!

I'm Golden!

After half a day of rest in Singapore, David and I once again boarded another airplane, to Koh Samui, Thailand.  Koh Samui is located in the Gulf of Thailand, SE of the mainland.  Most people are more familiar with the island of Koh Pha Ngan, the backpacker haven best known for the famous Full Moon Party, which is located not too far from Koh Samui.  Unfortunately, we had just missed the party the weekend we were in Vietnam.  Koh Samui is the more developed island with all the fancy resorts (which means a lot more older people than Koh Pha Ngan).  Our hotel was located at the Southern end of Chaweng Beach, a safe distance from the overdeveloped strip of shops and restaurants and a much better part of the beach.  Our hotel room was a bungalow right on the beach, which was pretty cool because we could walk out onto the patio and see the ocean straight in front of us. 

So, I won’t lie – the majority of our 5 days in Koh Samui was spent hanging out as beach bums (hence, the golden glow to my skin after just two days on the beach).  Our first day on Samui, it started raining in mid-afternoon, so we decided to rent a jeep and explore the island.   At one point, we decided to drive up to check out one of the two waterfalls on Samui.  Although it was nearly dusk, we started hiking down to the path that would lead to the waterfall because we saw signs that told us it was a mere 20m away.   After about 20m, we came across a sign that said the waterfall was 10m away, and the higher we climbed, the more signs we saw that told us the waterfall was close-by.  Although it was getting dark under the jungle canopy, David and I kept climbing up the slippery rocks, pulling ourselves up with ropes, all the while hiking up in flip flops wearing a skirt.  Not too smart. We finally turned back about 1500m into the jungle, chasing the signs to the waterfall.  Back at the car, we noticed signs leading up a steep road that we followed up for about a kilometer and lo and behold, found ourselves at the top of the trail that we had been following to the waterfall. 

The highlight of the week was our kayaking trip out to Ang Thong National Marine Park.  The park is full of preserved caves and beaches. Unlike Halong Bay, it felt as if we were completely alone in the untouched and undeveloped waters and beaches.  We spent the morning kayaking along the coast of Koh Mae Koh where we navigated beneath huge rock overhangings.  We then landed the kayaks on The Beach (where the book and film were both inspired and filmed) and climbed up through the rainforest and narrow ravines until we got to the Green Lagoon, a beautiful emerald colored salt water lake.  After lunch, we cruised through the northern part of the park and arrived at Koh Wao Yai (Dragon Island) where we kayaked and snorkeled.  It was amazing. 

Koh Samui was an amazing experience and I would definitely recommend anyone going to the Eastern islands of Thailand to do the day trip to Ang Thong.  More pictures from the trip here..

My New Job: Lizard Catcher

Last night, my roommate came home and let out a scream because she had seen a lizard/salamander/gecko in her room. I don’t know exactly what they’re called, but I tell you they are the slickest little guys in the world. Considering that we’re on the cusp of the monsoon season and it is so humid, I guess it was only a matter of time before we’d find one lurking around. Since Michelle was more than a little scared of the little guy, I got a piece of newspaper and thought we could catch him and take him outside from the balcony. Boy was I wrong. For the better part of an hour, after much pounding on walls with umbrellas, throwing of empty bottles, crushed paper and just about anything we could get our hands, the little sucker kept alluding us. He finally crawled back behind Michelle’s wardrobe and we admitted defeat for the night.

Then today, as I went to wash the dishes, a tiny lizard scrambled out of the sink. I don’t know if it was the same one, but it was either that or he had crawled up through the pipes because our doors and windows have been closed for the last several weeks since the rains started. Having seen last night how fast these things can move, I immediately covered him inside a glass, scooped it up, covered the top and threw him out the window. All in a day’s work! I’ve never called the exterminator to deal with gecko’s, but I’ll be interested to see if there is such a thing..

By the way, I'm onto Season 2 of Lost.  I had picked up a bootleg DVD set of Seasons 1 and 2 in Vietnam and I am addicted.  I think my Season 2 set is dated til 3 weeks ago, so soon I'll be caught up enough to download the remaining episodes off of Itunes.  The benefits of being off from work!

Hanoi & Halong Bay

First Night

We arrived in Hanoi on the evening of Good Friday.  Our hotel was a cute little boutique hotel in the Old Quarter near the Cathedral, which was pretty interesting because to the left we could see crowds outside the church for mass, while next door to us we could hear monks chanting at the Buddhist temple.   

Day 1

It’s 5:30 AM and we were awoken by chanting and singing into a loud loudspeaker.  No matter how much we tried to sleep through it, the monks just wanted us to wake up.  We later found out that the 90 yr. old head monk of the temple next door had passed away the day we arrived and that the funeral ceremonies would last for three days.   The whole thing was pretty interesting because there were monks in brown funereal robes everywhere. 

We spent the morning visiting Ho Chi Minh’s Mausoleum.  The whole experience was a bit surreal.  We were told to deposit our bags and cameras and to walk in a procession of two lines.  As we walked into the mausoleum, guards instructed us to cease all conversation.   Uncle Ho himself looked pretty calm, like he was sleeping, except that he had a yellow glow to him.  Everything, including the hair on his beard and head were completely preserved.  Pretty creepy. 

After Uncle Ho’s compound, we walked over to the Hoa Lo Prison, also known as the “Hanoi Hilton” which was constructed by the French to house political prisoners.  The prison is made to recreate the gruesome conditions that the Vietnamese rebels were subjected to by the French.  By contrast, there is a whole wing that is dedicated to showing how well the US soldiers were treated by the Vietnamese, complete with pictures of smiling US POW’s. 

After a bit of sightseeing, we headed back to the Old Quarter to  walk around.  It was an interesting time to be in Hanoi because the whole city was preparing for the April 30 anniversary of Vietnam’s reunification.  Every house, every street displayed Vietnamese flags and shows of nationalism.  We had a great time walking through the streets while dodging all the motorc ycles.  Apparently, the city has a population of 5 million and there are 4 million motorcycles. I think David, Katie and I almost got killed about 10 times just trying to cross the streets (which by the way, there don’t seem to have any traffic lights).   Then of course, we felt stupid as we all stood scared on the side of the street while this old man just flicked his hand in the air to stop all incoming bike traffic as he hobbled across the street.

In the evening, we decided to check out the water puppet show.  It was clearly a tourist trap, but fun to see nonetheless.  Puppeteers use bamboo poles to extend their puppets from behind the screen and up through the surface of a small pond that forms the stage.  They performed stories of daily life in the countryside and ancient tales. 

The big event of the evening was the shopping. However, things turned kind of sour when I discovered that I had somehow managed to lose my cell phone. On later inspection, I found I had also lost my Singapore identity card which would allow me free entry back into the country.  Lucky me.   

Day 2

Again we were awoken at about 5AM by the monks chanting, we stepped outside just in time to catch the funeral procession for the head monk who had passed away.  The entire street was filled with monks and ordinary people in funeral robes who had come to pay their respects. 

This was also the day we were to go on our boat trip to Halong Bay.  We had made reservations through what we had thought was a reputable travel café considering that it was recommended in Lonely Planet.  We soon found out that our boat, which had meant to have been for 14 people, had upwards of 30 people on it with 7 rooms!   We did manage to get switched to another boat at the first stop, which thankfully, was much nicer and had a fun group of people on board.  Halong Bay itself was pretty amazing.  The Bay is filled with over 3,000 islands of limestone in the Gulf of Tonkin.  We visited an amazing cave that had been discovered by the French and was officially owned and managed by the Chinese (?).  The rest of the trip included kayaking, swimming and some very inebriated people hanging out on the boat drinking cheap wine and Hanoi Vodka.

In all, despite the pushiness of the Vietnamese, the chaos of the boat trip, and spending the entire next day recovering from the night before of boat partying, the trip was a lot of fun.  We headed back to Singapore completely exhausted and mentally prepared ourselves for our flight to Koh Samui the next day for some much needed beach time…

Click here to check out more pictures from the trip

Poo Coffee in Vietnam

So, I'm backpedalling a bit back to recap on my trip to Vietnam last week. On our flight to Hanoi, David, Katie and I came across a hilarious article in one of our guidebooks on the coffee phenomenon in Vietnam (see below).  The country apparantly produces huge amounts of coffee and is only second in the world to Brazil as the world's leading coffee grower.  Believe me, it is the strongest stuff you will ever taste.  Unlike most places, where coffee means sitting in a warm cafe, sipping a latte and reading a newspaper, most Vietnamese drink their coffee on the street in small glasses for VND5,000 (USD 0.30), either perched on their motorbikes or standing in the street, trying to avoid getting run over by all the motorbikes (and there are a lot).  Drinking coffee on the street has been popular for the last century, shortly after the French started to harvest trees in the central highlands - now there are street stalls everywhere in cities like Hanoi.  My favorite "ca phe sua" was the Vietnamese "white coffee" which is made with sweet, creamy condensed milk.  But, although I didn't try it, I have to extract a part of the article on the legendary ca phe cut chon:  Fox Dung Coffee:

The Cat's Contribution

Some come to Vietnam to search for the legendary ca phe cut chon, meaning Fox Dung Coffee, which is derived (so to speak) from the civet cat. It's actually a relative of the mongoose which eats fallen coffee beans from the coffee tree and pools out the best (or most sturdy) beans that remain intact through their digestion tract.  Then lucky people inspect the ground and collect the poo.

While the coffee was easy to find 70 years ago, since the destruction of the civets' natural habitat and sudden fondness for fox meat and fur, cats and coffee are now a rarity.  (Don't forget this is the cat whose meat reportedly started SARS).

While coffee sellers peddle "weasel poo" coffee, it is normal coffee that has been put through chemical treatment to resemble the cat's digestion process.  In Buon Me Thuot, stalls are covered with boxes bearing the civet cat's image, claiming to sell the genuine stuff, yet most consider it a ploy to get tourists.

Alas, even some well-known coffee exporters have yet to see the real thing, although those who have say it is known for its chocolatey aftertaste, which perhaps makes sense, considering it comes from a cat's.. Umm, let's not probe any further.

Having coffee in Vietnam is anything but boring. There is a wide variety, and I'll bet it is probably the strongest coffee on this planet.  If I ever go back to Vietnam, I fully plan on bringing back some of the ridiculously addictive "ca phe sua" back home (the non poo variety, of course).

Going to Vietnam!

David's visiting from NY this week and my friends and I are prepping to head off to Hanoi for Easter weekend, which also includes dealing with the hassle of getting tourist visas to Vietnam.  The Vietnamese Embassy in Singapore is located on a little residential road that is nearly impossible to find.  The Embassy itself consists of a small room inside a house.  Inside the room, there is one guy who stands by a counter that is piled high with passports on the one side of the room. There is no barrier between the guy and the people, no glass wall, no desk, no lines, nothing.  People are just supposed to walk up to the guy, give him their forms, passport and cash payment.  The whole process is a bit shady because no where in the embassy does it list the pricing for visa issuance.  Rather, it feels like it is basically up to this one guy to decide how much he's going to charge someone, which seemed to be particularly relevant in cases where people who didn't have the full 5+ days to leave their passports for processing.  My friend Katie went the week prior and couldn't leave her passport there because she was traveling to Cambodia, so the guy told her that the visa would cost her $100.  Another couple needed the visa that very afternoon, and the guy told them that it would cost them $335.  I had been traveling to India for work and couldn't leave my passport for more than 4 days, so the guy decided to charge me $85.  When I paid him, he pulled out a wad of cash from his pocket and counted out my change, gave me a handwritten receipt and told me to come back in four days between the hours of 9am and 12pm.  Meanwhile, there was an American man who was arguing with the visa guy because the guy was not granting him a longer term visa and was trying to charge him a higher fee.  The visa guy started justifying that were the guy to leave Vietnam by a certain date the following week, then the visa would be cheaper.

Meanwhile, outside, my bad luck would have it that I was caught in the middle of one of Singapore's 10-minute long torrential downpours. Luckily, I had had the sense to have my cab driver wait outside the isolated embassy.  I told the cab driver my experience and wondered if the visa guy charged Americans more than he did Singaporeans. Now the interesting thing about Singaporean cab drivers is that they tend to be very opinionated (not much different than NYC cab drivers) and one can have some very interesting conversations.  Cabbie confirmed that when his cousin went to Vietnam last, the visa guy had charged him about $50 for a visa.  Interesting. I had heard that in Vietnam, they call it the "American War", rather than the "Vietnam War", but the cab driver confirmed that Singaporeans call it the Vietnam War.  Also interesting is that the cabbie thought it interesting that Vietnam and the US still have strained relations because, in his opinion, it is the Japanese who should be considered the worst kind of invaders and that if there is any country towards whom there should be ill-will, it is Japan. He went on to tell me about Japan's invasion and occupation of Singapore during WWII (Singapore at that time was still part of Malaysia).  I asked him if he thought that Japan had really been aligned with Germany or if it had its own objectives.  Cabbie told me that he had been taught in school that Japan had had its own agenda to conquer the world and ruthlessly invaded Asia.  Changi Prison in Singapore, had been first established by the Japanese.  Additionally, he told me a story about how the Japanese would dig large ditches and would round up young men in trucks and line them up by the ditch and shoot them all. The bodies would then fall into the ditch and be buried.  The cab driver told me that his own grandfather had been rounded up, but when he got to the truck, the truck was too full and he was told to go home and he was lucky to have survived.  Apparantly, now, in Singapore, the text books are being changed to downplay Japan's nagative image and what actually happened so that the younger generation no longer holds on to the grudge and negative image towards the Japanese.  It was very interesting to hear this perspective on WWII because I feel as if a lot of what we learned in the US on Japan and WWII had to do with Pearl Harbor, with the major focus being on Germany's involvement in the war. 

More to come on Vietnam after my trip this weekend!

Cover bands.. Covered Country?

Cover bands are an amazing phenomenon in Singapore. I am constantly in awe as to how well these bands can sing American songs despite speaking "Singlish" in their everyday language (no lah!).  Last night, some friends and I went to hear the band EIC perform.  There's 5 guys, the two lead singers being Indian and Chinese, respectively.  And they're really really good.  The venue was an outdoor bar called Timbre which is tucked away behind an art house theatre called Substation on Armenian Street. There are a couple of banyan-like trees that jut up inside the bar so it feels like the bar was built to accomodate the trees.  The vibe was very chill, laid back and the crowd was pretty mixed, but mainly consisted of locals and EIC's strong fan base.

I recently read something written by a local cynic questioning the cover band phenomenon that got me thinking: 

"So we have a cover band of U2 performing in Singapore, because my country is a cover country in so many renderings of the word. That a cover band is performing in Singapore slices open the heart of the cover band itself and explains why it remains a cover band without the soul of U2. In so doing, it slices open the perplexing state of Singapore and its people. A cover citizen of a cover country hearing a cover band." 

His analogy refers to how people always talk about the Singaporean lack of creativity and how they have just gotten used to having things run a certain way - a consequence of the "limited democracy" that is Singapore.  Media is controlled by the government - there is one major newspaper of any real consequence.  There is one political party.  Although the country works hard to promote an image of democracy and progression, there is a general sense of acceptance for the status quo.  But one has to question how many of these limitations are government imposed and how many are self-imposed due to blind acceptance.  Before I moved to Singapore, everyone warned me of the restrictive nature of Singapore and jokingly advised me to not chew gum or litter to avoid any risk of being fined, or even caned.  But, I was surprised that despite living here in this "relative" freedom, how easy it is to forget about the limitations.  The best way to describe it is you just stop thinking about all the restrictive rules and just start accepting that it is the way it is.  I find it weird that I used to see more police in New York than I have yet to ever see in Singapore.  When I asked my local friends why this is, they just say there is no reason for police to be out - people don't break the rules.  To them, having police everywhere means that there is a reason for them to be there. 

So getting back to the question:  why are cover bands so big in Singapore? Is it the lack of creativity? Is it because the musicians don't push the boundaries of their own talent?  I wonder..  Is the guy quoted above making too much out of the question, or is there truth in his theory?  Whatever the answer, I know that I loved singing along to EIC and plan to check them out again next Wednesday night!