Saturday, January 21, 2006
i wanna wake up where you are
"could you whisper in my ear
the things you wanna feel
i'd give anything
to feel it comin'"
late night 1.30am. 2 episodes of scrubs and 1 more episode of grey's anatomy later. and here i am, blogging. after 1 day of endless pigging out and talking cock.
was supposed to meet ben at the ubc bookstore today. he was going to buy the lonely planet guidebook to mexico and we were going to discuss our plans for our mexican extravanganza for spring break.
anyway, we ended up at starbucks after tt discussing lonely planet over mocha grandes and cinnamon dulce lattes. and christabel joined us too. ben had a class at 11am, but he skipped it - we were there till 11.30am, whereby christabel had to leave to prepare for her 12 pm class.
oh, so we've planned our trip itinerary. at least 10 nights in mexico starting from feb 8 to feb 18 (i bought tickets to watch russell peters on the 19th and there is no fucking way i will miss it). we're going to fly out to mexico city and spend 3 nights there. mexico city is very culturally and historically rich with its museums, monuments, plazas, colonial buildings, monasteries, murals, galleries, historical remnants, archaeological finds, statuary, shrines and religious relics, and its centro historico is definitely worth a look. during one of the days we are also going to take a day trip out to see the aztec civilisation while we're there. from mexico city it will be on to the smaller city of guadajalara 8 hours from mexico city by bus, where we'll be spending another 2 or 3 nights there. it's supposed to be the most "mexican" of all the cities in mexico, so we'll definitely have much to see there, from the handicrafts at the flea markets to the mariachis to the salsa dancing at the clubs by night.
from guadajalara we shall be taking another 5 hours bus to puerto vallarta on the central pacific coast of mexico, where we intend to get to by wednesday so tt we can catch the bullfight scheduled at 4pm. ben calls vallarta uber-batam, and i guess it is. tropical climate, sandy beaches, non-motorised water sports like kayaking, windsurfing, snorkelling etc etc etc free (somebody stop me now!!!!!!!!!), scuba diving available at extra cost, bike tours and horseback excursions up to the mountains available all by day; and by night entertainment and music and latin dancing... we are SO going to be in heaven. add this to the fact tt according to someone, mexican girls are THE HOTTEST in the world. most beautiful, hottest bodies (hour glass figures + curves in all the right places), and apparently, the best personalities... told ben tt he would DEF have a lot to look at. but dammit now i sound like some hum chee guy also. tmd.
so from starbucks, it was on to ben getting his cigarette fix (although he's cut down quite a bit) and then on to travel cuts to inquire about flights down to mexico city and from puerto vallarta. we got a pretty reasonable quote, so we did some rough calculations on how much damage to expect from this trip and how much to bring and what hotels to book over pizza at trek express. the main thing was trying to convince alvin tt a) it was ok to skip 3 days of school (or more); and b) tt it was not too expensive for a once-in-a-lifetime chance to go to mexico.
well. and on the lonely planet book we notice a section marked "dangers and annoyances" near the end of the mexico city section.
and below is what the book had to say on dangers and annoyances in mexico city (taken from the lonely planet website):
"Dangers & Annoyances
Mexico City experienced a big increase in crime after the economic crisis of the mid-1990s. On the whole, though, it's your possessions that are more at risk, particularly those you carry with you.
When going out, leave whatever valuables you don't need for the day in the hotel safe. Most hotels have a safe; if not, it is probably better to lock your valuables in a suitcase in your hotel room than it is to carry them around the streets of Mexico City. Carry only a small amount of cash on you - just enough for the outing you're on. Visible round-the-waist money belts are an invitation to thieves; don't keep valuables such as purses, bags or cameras in open view any longer than you have to. Do not travel alone after dark and don't carry ATM cards or credit cards. A fairly common practice among robbers is to force their hijacked victims to tour the city and withdraw cash from ATMs. Robbers will also hold people past the stroke of midnight in order to withraw the daily limit twice.
Mexico City's metro, buses and peseros (minibuses) are favourite haunts of pickpockets and thieves, particularly when crowded. Avoid crowded cars, where thieves can get close to you without being noticed, but also be wary of near-empty cars. Avoid getting off at Hidalgo station, where pickpockets and bag-snatchers wait for foreigners and follow them onto crowded trains. If you're on a train that's going through Hidalgo, use only the last cars, so that thieves are less likely to spot you.
Robberies are also most likely to occur in places frequented by foreigners. These include central metro stations, the Bosque de Chapultepec, around the Museo Nacional de Antropologia, the Zona Rosa and the area around the US embassy.
When walking, walk with purpose and be alert to those around you. And if you become a robbery victim, don't resist. Give the perpetrator your valuables, which are not worth the risk of injury or death."
NABEH.
so we spent over 2 hours sitting at trek express discussing whether it was worse to get robbed at gun point by a some local punk or to run to a policeman and get robbed by him. scenario: punk #1 sticks a gun at you and takes all your pesos at the plaza. then you go over to the police officer, HE punches you and then takes the rest of your US dollars.
so how like tt? mexico must avoid taxi drivers and policemen. wah lau eh.
so ben started going on about the corruption in the force. he whole life got something against policemen. not tt i blame him lah. but nevermind. anyway we were discussing if we should get a gun while we're in mexico. and we were also discussing how to get around mexico city. take the metro and risk being pickpocketed, or take a cab and risk getting assaulted and robbed. or walk the streets and get robbed at gun point. ben said he would rather get robbed than pickpocketed. at least robbed he has a chance to fight back (assuming the guy doesn't have a gun). if the guy points a knife at him he will punch him and run. but pickpockets only leave you feeling damn bloody stupid, or so he says.
we decided tt we should all dress down and look like poor asians. and we also wondered how the HELL we could sell mexico to alvin considering how unsafe it is.
anyway we had to walk back to law fac for our 2.30pm fundementalism class (it's fundemental concepts of law, but my tutor is this crazy old man who's a fundementalist tt spends most of his time discussing aristotle and strange irrelevant stuff). and he was telling me about how when he went to cambodia, some kid pointed an ak-47 at him and asked for 10 US dollars. i was like: "wtf!!! fucking ak-47 ask for so little money???"
anyway fundementalism never fails to reassure me tt it is a waste of time. sure, it's interesting if i wanna learn about waffly philosophy, but i really haven't the slightest idea where the class is going. ben was falling asleep and i was doodling on my paper. argh. and a lot of the ideas tt the tutor propositions are just so radical/extreme tt you just CANNOT agree with anything he says; def not everything at least.
he ended his class at 3.30pm... and only on time because he had another class after tt. no wait. he WOULD have ended his class at 3.30pm had he not said tt there was no distinguishing difference between 1 time frame and the next, which brought ben to raise the question tt by this, was the tutor meaning tt there was no such thing as cause and effect, tt there was no difference between 1 time period and the next? at first, the tutor scoffed him coz he doesn't intone his english perfectly, but this soon became an interesting discussion tt the tutor seemed bent on winning because he'd realised tt ben was a lot more intellectual than he'd let on (which is a mistake most people tend to make abt him. yeesh.). it actually ended up bordering on religion - ben believed in cause and effect except for what logic could not explain, which he believed to be the existence of a god or a higher being. but for some reason, the tutor refused to delve into the realm of religion, preferring to dismiss it as not being within his area.
but anyway the discussion was left to be continued. ben and i then decided to go over to alvin's place to sell him our mexican extravanganza. diana, who'd thought tt the 2.30pm tutorial was at 3.30pm, joined us at 3.30pm and then we walked together to varnier.
where we stayed from 3.30pm to after 10.30pm.
at first, it was about convincing alvin to skip 3 days of school and tt mexico would be fucking worth going, even with the violent cops and taxi drivers, but it seemed tt it wasn't tt difficult to convince him after all. he seemed damn gian to go. he also wanted to try and convince more people to go with us, but it seems most of the people here just don't even *consider* mexico on their radar.
anyway we had dinner @ 5.30pm at varnier; i had meatballs, pasta and cream of chicken soup. and then while we were one of the earliest to have dinner, we were the latest to leave. we spent over 2 hours discussing singapore politics in the varnier caf till someone had to chase us away close to 7.30pm. thing is coz ben is anti-police; and ben and i both have qualms with the emphasis placed on meritocracy in the system and how it perpetuates the class divide; while diana is idealistic. in the end we decided tt out of the 3 law students, diana's the idealistic one, ben's the cynical one, and i'm the cynical one who wants to do something about it.
anyway alvin was supposed to join the rest of the exchange students for a round of drinks at koerner's pub, and i didn't feel like going, so ben was somehow persuaded to go with alvin instead. except it was all 4 of us who followed alvin back to his room to get changed.
erm. we spent the next 2.5 hours in alvin's room discussing religion. alvin's a catholic, diana's a christian, i'm a lapsed catholic and ben's someone who's searching for a god to believe in. in the end we ended up discussing bible intepretations (which some of us believed were wrong or could have been done better) and doctrines tt could be changed in a way tt would be for the betterment of the world in general. it got pretty heavy at some point, but it was a lot of fun. very intellectually stimulating, tt. and i had fun punching alvin's green beanie man, much to his horror. and somehow the topic ended up veering towards angelina jolie and brad pitt, though i don't know how we got there.
anyway we finally decided to leave close to 11pm. it was fucking cold by this time, so the walk back for diana and i (ben and alvin did go to koerner's pub after tt) was horrible.
c.o.l.d. fucking 4 degrees and coz it had been sunny, i didn't realise it was going to be so cold and i wore less than usual. knn.
but yeah. it was fun. lots and lots of fun talking. and to top it off, fraser was around too. :)
now playing: hotel costes - cafe de flor
the things you wanna feel
i'd give anything
to feel it comin'"
late night 1.30am. 2 episodes of scrubs and 1 more episode of grey's anatomy later. and here i am, blogging. after 1 day of endless pigging out and talking cock.
was supposed to meet ben at the ubc bookstore today. he was going to buy the lonely planet guidebook to mexico and we were going to discuss our plans for our mexican extravanganza for spring break.
anyway, we ended up at starbucks after tt discussing lonely planet over mocha grandes and cinnamon dulce lattes. and christabel joined us too. ben had a class at 11am, but he skipped it - we were there till 11.30am, whereby christabel had to leave to prepare for her 12 pm class.
oh, so we've planned our trip itinerary. at least 10 nights in mexico starting from feb 8 to feb 18 (i bought tickets to watch russell peters on the 19th and there is no fucking way i will miss it). we're going to fly out to mexico city and spend 3 nights there. mexico city is very culturally and historically rich with its museums, monuments, plazas, colonial buildings, monasteries, murals, galleries, historical remnants, archaeological finds, statuary, shrines and religious relics, and its centro historico is definitely worth a look. during one of the days we are also going to take a day trip out to see the aztec civilisation while we're there. from mexico city it will be on to the smaller city of guadajalara 8 hours from mexico city by bus, where we'll be spending another 2 or 3 nights there. it's supposed to be the most "mexican" of all the cities in mexico, so we'll definitely have much to see there, from the handicrafts at the flea markets to the mariachis to the salsa dancing at the clubs by night.
from guadajalara we shall be taking another 5 hours bus to puerto vallarta on the central pacific coast of mexico, where we intend to get to by wednesday so tt we can catch the bullfight scheduled at 4pm. ben calls vallarta uber-batam, and i guess it is. tropical climate, sandy beaches, non-motorised water sports like kayaking, windsurfing, snorkelling etc etc etc free (somebody stop me now!!!!!!!!!), scuba diving available at extra cost, bike tours and horseback excursions up to the mountains available all by day; and by night entertainment and music and latin dancing... we are SO going to be in heaven. add this to the fact tt according to someone, mexican girls are THE HOTTEST in the world. most beautiful, hottest bodies (hour glass figures + curves in all the right places), and apparently, the best personalities... told ben tt he would DEF have a lot to look at. but dammit now i sound like some hum chee guy also. tmd.
so from starbucks, it was on to ben getting his cigarette fix (although he's cut down quite a bit) and then on to travel cuts to inquire about flights down to mexico city and from puerto vallarta. we got a pretty reasonable quote, so we did some rough calculations on how much damage to expect from this trip and how much to bring and what hotels to book over pizza at trek express. the main thing was trying to convince alvin tt a) it was ok to skip 3 days of school (or more); and b) tt it was not too expensive for a once-in-a-lifetime chance to go to mexico.
well. and on the lonely planet book we notice a section marked "dangers and annoyances" near the end of the mexico city section.
and below is what the book had to say on dangers and annoyances in mexico city (taken from the lonely planet website):
"Dangers & Annoyances
Mexico City experienced a big increase in crime after the economic crisis of the mid-1990s. On the whole, though, it's your possessions that are more at risk, particularly those you carry with you.
When going out, leave whatever valuables you don't need for the day in the hotel safe. Most hotels have a safe; if not, it is probably better to lock your valuables in a suitcase in your hotel room than it is to carry them around the streets of Mexico City. Carry only a small amount of cash on you - just enough for the outing you're on. Visible round-the-waist money belts are an invitation to thieves; don't keep valuables such as purses, bags or cameras in open view any longer than you have to. Do not travel alone after dark and don't carry ATM cards or credit cards. A fairly common practice among robbers is to force their hijacked victims to tour the city and withdraw cash from ATMs. Robbers will also hold people past the stroke of midnight in order to withraw the daily limit twice.
Mexico City's metro, buses and peseros (minibuses) are favourite haunts of pickpockets and thieves, particularly when crowded. Avoid crowded cars, where thieves can get close to you without being noticed, but also be wary of near-empty cars. Avoid getting off at Hidalgo station, where pickpockets and bag-snatchers wait for foreigners and follow them onto crowded trains. If you're on a train that's going through Hidalgo, use only the last cars, so that thieves are less likely to spot you.
Robberies are also most likely to occur in places frequented by foreigners. These include central metro stations, the Bosque de Chapultepec, around the Museo Nacional de Antropologia, the Zona Rosa and the area around the US embassy.
When walking, walk with purpose and be alert to those around you. And if you become a robbery victim, don't resist. Give the perpetrator your valuables, which are not worth the risk of injury or death."
NABEH.
so we spent over 2 hours sitting at trek express discussing whether it was worse to get robbed at gun point by a some local punk or to run to a policeman and get robbed by him. scenario: punk #1 sticks a gun at you and takes all your pesos at the plaza. then you go over to the police officer, HE punches you and then takes the rest of your US dollars.
so how like tt? mexico must avoid taxi drivers and policemen. wah lau eh.
so ben started going on about the corruption in the force. he whole life got something against policemen. not tt i blame him lah. but nevermind. anyway we were discussing if we should get a gun while we're in mexico. and we were also discussing how to get around mexico city. take the metro and risk being pickpocketed, or take a cab and risk getting assaulted and robbed. or walk the streets and get robbed at gun point. ben said he would rather get robbed than pickpocketed. at least robbed he has a chance to fight back (assuming the guy doesn't have a gun). if the guy points a knife at him he will punch him and run. but pickpockets only leave you feeling damn bloody stupid, or so he says.
we decided tt we should all dress down and look like poor asians. and we also wondered how the HELL we could sell mexico to alvin considering how unsafe it is.
anyway we had to walk back to law fac for our 2.30pm fundementalism class (it's fundemental concepts of law, but my tutor is this crazy old man who's a fundementalist tt spends most of his time discussing aristotle and strange irrelevant stuff). and he was telling me about how when he went to cambodia, some kid pointed an ak-47 at him and asked for 10 US dollars. i was like: "wtf!!! fucking ak-47 ask for so little money???"
anyway fundementalism never fails to reassure me tt it is a waste of time. sure, it's interesting if i wanna learn about waffly philosophy, but i really haven't the slightest idea where the class is going. ben was falling asleep and i was doodling on my paper. argh. and a lot of the ideas tt the tutor propositions are just so radical/extreme tt you just CANNOT agree with anything he says; def not everything at least.
he ended his class at 3.30pm... and only on time because he had another class after tt. no wait. he WOULD have ended his class at 3.30pm had he not said tt there was no distinguishing difference between 1 time frame and the next, which brought ben to raise the question tt by this, was the tutor meaning tt there was no such thing as cause and effect, tt there was no difference between 1 time period and the next? at first, the tutor scoffed him coz he doesn't intone his english perfectly, but this soon became an interesting discussion tt the tutor seemed bent on winning because he'd realised tt ben was a lot more intellectual than he'd let on (which is a mistake most people tend to make abt him. yeesh.). it actually ended up bordering on religion - ben believed in cause and effect except for what logic could not explain, which he believed to be the existence of a god or a higher being. but for some reason, the tutor refused to delve into the realm of religion, preferring to dismiss it as not being within his area.
but anyway the discussion was left to be continued. ben and i then decided to go over to alvin's place to sell him our mexican extravanganza. diana, who'd thought tt the 2.30pm tutorial was at 3.30pm, joined us at 3.30pm and then we walked together to varnier.
where we stayed from 3.30pm to after 10.30pm.
at first, it was about convincing alvin to skip 3 days of school and tt mexico would be fucking worth going, even with the violent cops and taxi drivers, but it seemed tt it wasn't tt difficult to convince him after all. he seemed damn gian to go. he also wanted to try and convince more people to go with us, but it seems most of the people here just don't even *consider* mexico on their radar.
anyway we had dinner @ 5.30pm at varnier; i had meatballs, pasta and cream of chicken soup. and then while we were one of the earliest to have dinner, we were the latest to leave. we spent over 2 hours discussing singapore politics in the varnier caf till someone had to chase us away close to 7.30pm. thing is coz ben is anti-police; and ben and i both have qualms with the emphasis placed on meritocracy in the system and how it perpetuates the class divide; while diana is idealistic. in the end we decided tt out of the 3 law students, diana's the idealistic one, ben's the cynical one, and i'm the cynical one who wants to do something about it.
anyway alvin was supposed to join the rest of the exchange students for a round of drinks at koerner's pub, and i didn't feel like going, so ben was somehow persuaded to go with alvin instead. except it was all 4 of us who followed alvin back to his room to get changed.
erm. we spent the next 2.5 hours in alvin's room discussing religion. alvin's a catholic, diana's a christian, i'm a lapsed catholic and ben's someone who's searching for a god to believe in. in the end we ended up discussing bible intepretations (which some of us believed were wrong or could have been done better) and doctrines tt could be changed in a way tt would be for the betterment of the world in general. it got pretty heavy at some point, but it was a lot of fun. very intellectually stimulating, tt. and i had fun punching alvin's green beanie man, much to his horror. and somehow the topic ended up veering towards angelina jolie and brad pitt, though i don't know how we got there.
anyway we finally decided to leave close to 11pm. it was fucking cold by this time, so the walk back for diana and i (ben and alvin did go to koerner's pub after tt) was horrible.
c.o.l.d. fucking 4 degrees and coz it had been sunny, i didn't realise it was going to be so cold and i wore less than usual. knn.
but yeah. it was fun. lots and lots of fun talking. and to top it off, fraser was around too. :)
# posted by Kitana @ 1/21/2006 05:28:00 PM 
