Singapore: day 25: the longest day of travel

I woke up at 4am to catch my flight from Singapore to Seoul.  From there, I laid over for almost 5 hours before my flight home to LAX.  I got home safe and sound, late on the same day, but on the other side of the international date line.  So, I'm tired as all get-out, but was grateful to S for picking me up (despite being sick) and for being able to pick H up after her rehearsal. 

Home, shower, thai food, unpack, and bed.  I'm ready for it.

Singapore: day 24: RP & YST

This was my last full day in Singapore, and I was grateful to finally sleep through the night.  I met Ning for breakfast at a local spot near the hotel.  I mentioned earlier that the skies are smoggy because of the fires in Indonesia.  As an example, that building behind me is across the street and is black in color. 

Toast Box breakfast! Butter & jam toast, with very soft-boiled eggs.

After breakfast, we drove to the north of Singapore to visit faculty and facilities at Republic Polytechnic.  We started with a coffee in the library to talk broadly about their work and my book, and then we went on  a tour of their excellent facilities.   They have one of the largest foley rooms in any university worldwide, and their students played a draft of an atmos project they were working on about bombings during WWII.  After the tour, we had a lunch and continued the conversation.  

After we left RP, we were close enough to the border with Malaysia that we drove to a local park so that I could see it for myself.  Also, there were monkeys!

that's Malaysia!

We then drove back into town to visit with faculty at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music.  We had a short visit with them, talking about programmatic goals and immersive audio.  They also gave us a tour, including a deconstructed Land Rover that they use for automotive sound design coursework and their atmos suite.

Entrance Hall!

From there, Ning and I went back to LASALLE, where we checked in with some colleagues and I got to meet her head of program for a short chat.   Then, we met up with the rest of her family for a dinner of Chili Crab (and so many other things)!  Like most of my meals in Singapore, it was delicious and featured so many dishes!

After dinner, we went to a local shopping center for a bit of a walk.  Then back to the hotel for me.  I did most of my packing at night, then caught a short night's sleep before flying home. It's currently 7am in Singapore and I'm sitting at the gate for my flight home. Gonna be a long day, but after a stunning holiday and a very successful research trip, I'm ready to be home.

Singapore: day 23: Esplanade and LASALLE

This morning I woke at 5.  That's later than I slept yesterday!  By the time I leave, I'll have adjusted to the time zone.

Ning and I met for a breakfast of pratas at a local Indian place.  From there we took the MRT to the Esplanade, the large events presentation center downtown.  We met with Ting Hock Ho of the Esplanade staff and Hans Chia of d&b audiotechnik.  They showed me around all of the venues, rehearsal halls, recording facilities, and other spaces.  The venue itself is impeccably designed, and it's clear that they care for it deeply. What a lovely space!

down center in the concert hall

in the theatre

rehearsal hall with natural light!

From there, we rode the MRT back to LASALLE to meet with Dirk and Eugene, two instructors at LASALLE in audio production.  We talked about immersive audio and how they handle it at LASALLE.  After lunch, Eugene had to teach, so Ning gave me a campus tour.  

one must be specific with durian

these signs are all over campus.

this thin plastic sheet failed.

After the tour, we met Geoffrey Low of Dolby, who does a lot of Atmos teaching.  He also has a background in education, so we talked about how to teach spatial audio.  Eugene joined us for that talk too.

Then, it was time for me to give my talk at LASALLE.  I spoke to the Audio Production Diploma students and some others (alumni, faculty, staff).  I did a little discussion of my background and then use a few sound examples to talk about my approach to sound design and composition.

After my talk, Ning, Joanna, Dirk, and I went for a beer.  Ning's husband Brandon and their daughter C joined us before we said goodnight to Dirk and headed off to dinner at The Peranakan Club.  Ning and Brandon treated us to a feast  We ate so many delicious foods, most of which I had never had before!

colorful and garish decor

meatball soup

the dishes started coming fast

dark nut chicken - kind of like an asian mole

spicy fish!

pork and shrimp wrapped in tofu paper

dessert #1 - red beans, brown sugar, green jellies

dessert #2: warm tapioca flan

dessert #3: apple banana pancake

dessert #4: durian mousse

Dinner done and food coma in full swing, they drove me home to zonk out.  Tomorrow's my last full day abroad!
 

Singapore: day 22 - wandering town

I turned off the light last night at 10pm determined to get a good night's sleep.  And I woke up at 4am this morning.  Lame!  I got a lot of work done in the room during the morning, and shortly before noon walked two blocks over to LASALLE College of the Arts to meet Ning, the program head for the audio diploma here, who is also a former student and one of my guides in Singapore.

Ning and I took a car over to the Gardens by the Bay area to grab lunch with Joanna, another former student who is now getting a masters at LASALLE (though not in Ning's area).  We grabbed a quick bite and went on a walking tour of the area.  

This is the Apple Store.

The haze/smog was thick, so we wore masks outside.

Singapore feels like a very safe jumble of culture, density, buildings, and opulence.  Parts of the city are filthy stinking rich - the Marina Bay Sands complex (the three buildings with the boat on top) contain a casino, a hotel, and a mall so ritzy it has a store that sells high-end safes for valuables (and ones just for watches).  The Apple Store sits on its own mini-island and is only accessible via an underground passage from the mall.  

Other parts of the city are clearly working class.  Not poor, but built for people who work and have jobs and lead normal lives.   Lots of yummy cheap restaurants, coffee shops, mid-range clothing stores, etc.  

I didn't see a single homeless person all day.  Not that we were in poor parts of town, but even in the wealthy parts of NYC there are usually homeless people around.

We went to the ArtScience Museum, which had two exhibits going on - one was about the ocean depths, and it included both scientific elements and unusual artistic pieces.  The other was called Future World, and it was a series of room-scale multi-media installations.  Some were interactive, and some were not.  Some had clear intent, and some were just for play.  It was truly beautiful, but it was definitely more on the Art side and less on the Science side.  

After the museums, we hopped in a car to Lau Pa Sat, the Old Market, one of Singapore's iconic hawker markets.  The interior is full of all sorts of different vendors, and one side of the market has about eight different Satay vendors.  

Satay Street

one of the stalls

interior

Mackerel Paste, steamed in banana leaves

broiled stingray with chili sauce

beef, chicken, and mutton satay

We bought too much food and had a great time trying it all!  Not pictured above is the oyster omelette.  It was all delicious, and it was my first time trying mackerel paste and sting ray.

Towards the end of dinner, I started to droop.  We all headed for home.  Time to go to bed!

New Zealand: day 20 & 21 - Milford Sound -> Queenstown -> Singapore

On our last full day in Singapore, we woke a bit early to catch a 9.30 cruise of Milford Sound.  The weather was cloudy at dawn (I skipped sunrise photos), but had turned into a beautiful sunny day by the time we embarked.  We opted for the longer of the two cruise lengths, which meant that we had about 2.5 hours on the ship.  The departure time was too early for the Queenstown buses to arrive, so it was a fairly sparse passenger roster - maybe 30 passengers on board, plus a skipper, naturalist, and boss lady.  We took a clockwise cruise of the fjord, sometimes pulling so close to the cliff walls that we could touch the trees that sprouted from the walls and feel mist from the waterfalls on our faces.

penguin!

seal!

a look inland from the end of the fjord

cruise ship for scale

looking west from the fjord.  The next land encountered would be South America

waterfall rainbows!

ship for scale

ship for scale!

After we returned to dry land, we found the unmarked swing (rumored to have been built by a local for their girlfriend), which is off the path and on a spit.  S and I found it the night before, but we brought H back for one last photo op before we headed inland.

We loaded the car, checked out of the inn, and headed back to Queenstown.  The first half of the drive took us through beautiful landscape that we didn't get to see when we drove in (clouds and rain impaired the visibility, and a minor medical issue prevented us from stopping), so we stopped at a few places to appreciate the natural wonder of this part of the world.

Duck at Mirror Lakes

Eglinton Valley

We stopped briefly in Te Anau to buy a few cheap duffels for the flight and to get snack. Then, back to Queenstown to an airport hotel.  We spent some time strategically packing, grabbed dinner, returned the car, and had one last night as a family before departing separately from our amazing time in New Zealand.

We've seen so much of this country and still have so much we'd like to do.  On our drive today, we talked about what we loved, what we want to do more of/again, and what we'd skip.  We didn't have much that we wanted to skip, and most of what we wanted to do was to see places that we hadn't yet been.  I guess that's for another trip!

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The next morning I got up at 4am to get to the Queenstown airport.  I flew separately from H & S, so I kissed them goodbye when I slipped out of the hotel room.  Air NZ recommends arriving two hours before the flight, so I was at the airport at 5am.   But the check-in doesn't open until 5.30am.  Sad trombone.  The flight to Auckland was uneventful, as was the layover.  The flight to Singapore was long, but I watched tv and dozed.  There was an adorable 9-month-old taking his parents on a long flight, so he and I played a bit on the plane.

Descending into Singapore was very different from taking off from Auckland.  The skies are grey from the Indonesian fires, the air hangs with humidity, and my glasses immediately fogged up.  The airport looks like a casino!  I deplaned and went through customs/passport control without talking to a gov't officer at all!  Alum J was waiting for me outside of customs to take me to my hotel.  We chatted on the way about what we've been up to (she's getting a masters in Music Therapy here).  The trains are clean and fast.  I checked in at my hotel, dropped my bags, and headed out with J to shop and get dinner.  I only packed one short-sleeved shirt in my luggage, and it was clear that I needed more.  Then, we met alum N for dinner at one of their favorite places!  

We had a great time reconnecting and chatting, but I was getting wiped out by the jetlag.  N dropped me off back at the hotel and I unpacked, called my folks, and crashed.  Asleep by 10pm.  Before I dozed off, I got word that S & H were on their long flight home to LA.