July 30, 2006

They don't build 'em like they used to

In my recent trip to Nias, an island off the west coast of Sumatra which was recently hit by a series of earthquake and of course the 2004 tsunami, we were told that some traditional architecture withstood the test of nature.

In fact, these architecture were so fantastic that it attest to the traditional indigenous knowledge of the people on the island. They were familiar with the concept of earthquake-proofing their homes.

Unfortunately, these homes are no longer built on the island due to the loss of knowledge and the lack of materials. I guess each house would require the depletion of a good piece of primary hardwood forest.

Round Traditional House

There are two designs, representative of architecture from different parts of the island. At this point in time I cannot remember which is from the south and which from the north.

Square Traditional House

One has a roundish design and one a squarish one. Personally I prefer the round one. Of course they are on stilts. And if you look closely at the round one, not only are they on thick trunk stilts, they are also crossed and double crossed at the bottom which make for very stable foundations.

None of these houses were reported to have collapsed during the multiple earthquakes over the last 2 years.

Unfortunately these houses are expensive to maintain and when we interviewed the homeowners, they reported that the houses were built in the times of their grandparents about 2-3 generations ago and now nobody knows how to do it and also do not know why the houses were built on stilts or in the manner that it is. In fact, the grandma from the square house said that his grandfather built the house himself. Now they just reguarly replace the the thatch roof and it's as much as they can do. Did I mention that I heard these homes were built without nails?

Dog

How long will these informed and intelligent, tried-and-tested-against-time architecture last on the surface of this earth? In Thailand, researchers are helping to preserve traditional architecture and building method by having the last of the men with the knowhow to teach them to scientists and academics who would then record them down and for the technique to remain for future generations. However, even in Penang, when I visited the building guild, the beautiful nail-less wooden sedans and intricate constructions built generations ago are now rotting away in a little room with none of the guild members able to reconstruct or replicate its grandeur.

Why do we often let these knowledge slip through our fingers and not realizing, or perhaps never realizing even after it's too late.

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July 25, 2006

Taiwan in Pictures

Stinky Tofu and Mango Ice

For more stinky tofu and mango ice, see Taiwan in pictures at my flickr.

Sadly I still have not been able to scan the photos that were taken by the disposable camera. Gah... I can't even remember where I last saw them!

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July 24, 2006

Pilgrimage to Ximending

4 years ago when I was planning to go to US for studies, I bought an airticket that requires me to have a layover in Taiwan for 6 hours. Then, I already decided I want to make my pilgrimage to Ximending - the Shibuya of Taipei, Taiwan.

However, as things turned out. I never made that trip. Still, I constantly hear references on TV and watch shots from the place on taiwanese programming on TV. I must admit, despite all appearances, Monkey is very ha-tai. That basically means that instead of being a jpop or kpop nut, I'm actually a tpop monkey. lol You can see why...


My house is at Ximending!

Unfortunately, as circumstances would have it, my companions for this trip were not very cheena and find no excitement whatsoever in this "shopping district". Well, I will have them know that it is more than just a shopping district. This is a mecca for youth culture thankyouverymuch!


Look! Even miaomiao comes with its own shrine here. (Postscript: I think this photo was taken beside Shilin MRT station instead of Ximending)

Enough talk from me, just look at the pictures!





Some of the highlights of the short one-hour whirlwind tour of ximending included some students doing hiphop dancing along the street. There were also some people doing breakdancing in front of a hiphop clothing store which I dare not take picture of. I'd look too much like a hick lol or perhaps not at all since isn't it asian culture to snap snap snap? lol



Of course Monkey couldn't resist taking photos with the cutiedolls and the Da Ding Dang (mama came up with that name lol). Message from mama: "tell erkie that you take picture with a da ding dang! lol"



It was just too bad that we didn't see any cosplay girls (and guys) in action! We did see one at Shilin market area and she had a witch/maid outfit with a frufru umbrella, sitting at the MRT station waiting for her friend. Was hoping to see more in Ximending. Oh well. But perhaps this could pass off as some costume-play.



It's interesting how the indigenous people of Taiwan has costumes similar to the Native Americans. And more interestingly, a visit to the indigenous people museum near Yangmingshan and a very indepth and interesting conversation with one of the museum staff who was also of a ethnic-native background informed monkey that the tribes in Taiwan are of a austronesian background and have closer links to the maoris than to the tribes of sino-tibetan origins. *phew* that was a long sentence. In fact, none of the tribes have concept of the sea so they could not have had migrated through seafaring. The only tribe with such a concept was the Yami people who were from Philippines and travelled by sea to Taiwan and they are the "newest" people in Taiwan, well apart from the Han Chinese who arrived just a few hundred years ago.

See more photos from taiwan at my flickr account.

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July 18, 2006

Email blogging

Here I am sitting the BRR headquarters in Nias, facing the sea, looking at colorful fishing boats parked offshore with lulling waves and sticky sweaty clothes on. What can be more perfect.
 
The internet connection is a tad slow but I discovered the joys of email blogging which makes the whole blogging process very much faster.
 
You can tell which ones are by email by the yahoo byline.
 
Oops, gotta go!


See the all-new, redesigned Yahoo.com. Check it out.

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Pulau Nias

Selamat Bagi!
 
From 17-20 July 2006, I will be at Pulau Nias, Indonesia, off the coast of Northwestern Sumatra helping out with a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) capacity training for local officials and the staff from Banda Restoration and Rehabilitation (BRR) in Nias. These are the people who essentially help to rebuild homes for the Niasan who lost their homes in the 2004 tsunami and the many subsequent earthquakes. In fact, there was just an earthquake last week.
 
It is to no surprise on my part when my mother called me yesterday with a worried tone in her voice asking me if I was alright because on the first day we arrived here in Nias, an earthquake of magnitude 7.2 hit East Java, subsequently causing a tsunami. Of course there were some concern by some of our team that the tsunami would hit Nias which is nothing more than a small island.  However, I rested well, assured by my basic geographical knowledge that any tsunami from the Pacific side of Indonesia would take quite a bit of effort to reach the Indian Ocean where we are.
 
The island is really rather fantastic. I took several videos and hopefully will one day share with everybody. Maybe even upload on Youtube or something. It’s just beautiful here. Settlements line the road along the eastern coast of the island where we are. The main tourism of the area involves hardcore surfers. That’s how rugged and pure this place feels to me. I visited a local Christian Orphanage where our NGO liaison volunteers. It was quite the experience. Also we saw a US hospital ship pulled up near the shore and people were registering to get on board for treatment. I almost wish we could stay here longer.
 
Currently we are staying at a house maintained by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). Surely if I don’t ever get to work for UN, at least I can say I’ve once in my life stayed in an UNDP accommodation. Yes, yes, I know it’s just cheap thrill.
 
Today we make the handing over ceremony of various work that we did with the remote sensing images and GIS datasets. I am also trying to learn as much Bahasa as I can. I knew I should have taken Bahasa last semester. Instead now I am just confusing my Thai, English, Mandarin, Spanish, Bahasa Melayu and Bahasa Indonesia! *lol* The good part is that some knowledge of Bahasa Melayu is coming back to me. Very very slowly though. Thanks to the lesson from itik a while back ago, visits to Frasers, ordering food from Malay stalls and just watching tons of Malay TV when I was a kid is really paying off. Haha!
 
While I am writing this in our living room right now, I would be posting this online from the headquarters of BRR that comes equipped with free wireless!
 
Stay tuned for more!


Do you Yahoo!?
Next-gen email? Have it all with the all-new Yahoo! Mail Beta.

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July 14, 2006

Sailing off

The MV explorer sailed away from the port of Singapore 10 minutes go.

I miss them already.


At Ubin

The good thing is that I have hope that I will see them again.

How do I know this?

This month, in fact, over the next 2 weeks, a friend from Indonesia and a friend from China whom I got to know in Germany BYEE and Philippines Ecominds respectively is coming to Singapore.

We will be meeting up and I will be showing them around.

See, there is hope yet!

In fact, I felt good just hearing from Sofia on MSN a minute ago. There is hope in this world yet for a viable monkey social life.

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July 12, 2006

Landsickness

im feeling woozy walking on land now that im no longer on the boat. its very disconcerting.

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July 11, 2006

Going to Pulau Nias

I just got word that I got the opportunity to go to Pulau Nias on a fully sponsored trip to train the local people in GIS from 17-20 July!!!

I am really excited. If I had promised anything during those dates, well I'm cancelling everything.

This is a once in a lifetime opportunity. How else would I get to go to Aceh, Indonesia?!

Wonder if I need visa...

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July 10, 2006

So much to say...

...so little time

A lot of things happen to me on this boat that i want to share. Every new experience is a blog-worthy experience.

But I don't have the minutes for it nor do I want to bore you with the details.

I just came down from the deck, enjoying the seabreeze and the full moon, with good company and good music from a laptop. I need to do more of this one thing called relaxing.

But then I couldn't deal with the lack of contact from W so I decided to come check on the computer for emails and still, no word. Feeling so bad because I missed a call from him when we left port and I'm feeling freaking depressed about it. Getting a headache just thinking about it.

So far no seasickness for me but lao sai probably from the food.

Indigenous duck, I think you would like to know that the classes are taught by people who knows less about asian ecology than me. Some have never been to this region. I was in my biogeoscience class and I felt so... puzzled half the time. Then I felt like I needed to comment and "correct" but not sure if it's the thing to do. It really isn't very polite. Oh well.

Anyways, yeah king penguins indigenous... gawd knows.

I'll stop using the classes for personal experience but to help them out instead. I have had more fun with the anthropology lecturer who knows and lived in SEA before rather than the ecology lecturer who hasn't.

Really I don't blame him. I didn't know anything about california when I went there. Surely didn't know it has the most diversity of grass in the world just in one small area of Cali!

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July 9, 2006

Sailing to Singapore

Internet connection has been bad the last few days and I was not able to log into blogger but then life at sea has begun.

Today I just went for the first 2 classes. It was weird seeing these knowledgable professors trying to talk about places they themselves are not too familiar about. so frustrating I keep needing to comment. sigh. i really shouldn't.

ok, minutes are aticking at USD0.40 per minute!

P1010118
My kinda street.

Can't talk long but photos have been uploaded. Check them out!

P1010125
I did my nails! :p

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July 6, 2006

Taroko Gorge, Hualien, Taiwan

Currently at a hotel internet place using the computer for SGD$0.50 per 5 minutes of "airtime".

Seriously, this is just lame. On the boat it is USD$0.40 per minute! *ARGH*

Anyways, currently I am at Taroko Gorge in Hualien which is in eastern part of Taiwan. But the worst part is that, my camera broke down, AGAIN, when we were still at Changi Airport when I was trying to take a group photo. It fizzed out again. Seriously, I am feeling so deprived in Taiwan with so many things to take photos of and NO CAMERA. C'mon, I don't know why I decided not to bring dad's camera.

I was going to then I found out that my camera works. Who would have figured it would fizzed out again! I didn't want to carry two cameras so I opted for mine.

Not a smart choice at all.

Anyways, today I got really depressed and I got a disposable camera for SGD$200. I feel broke. Life is miserable.

Last night we went to the night market at Keelung and had the most horrid dinner. Then I went with the american students to a bar and gawd... I am... disgusted. What's new. They're doing it everywhere.

Anyways, time's running out and I gotta go so... ciao.

PS: Made friends with some colombian students from Canada. That is a reprieve.

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July 4, 2006

Bye Bye Monkey

Tomorrow I will be leaving for Taiwan to board the Semester at Sea boat at Keelung, Taiwan.

I hear the boat will have wireless and I am bringing my laptop.

Regarding my itinerary in Taiwan, not too sure since I will be on the boat mostly. Am thinking of joining the following classes:

SEMS 106: Environmental Ethics and Human Rights
SEMS 101: Global Studies (mandatory)
SEMS 160: Special Topics: Biogeoscience
SEMS (# to be determined): Environmental Geology

Sounds interesting.

For my itinerary in Taiwan:

5 July: Arrive in Taiwan
6 July: Day trip to Taroko Gorge
7 July: Yangmingshan Park

Itinerary in Singapore:
Boat docking on 12 July, rushing to school for honors briefing at 10am then will be back to boat, bring people to Ubin on 13 and then perhaps I will be off to Eunice's home for dinner. wonder when i'll go home.

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