Asia Adventure

So I have just 5 days left until I fly back to good old New Zealand to start work and a new chapter in my life. The last 6 weeks have been amazing, and I thought I might fill you in on what I've been up to. This is going to be a monster post so hang on to your hats!

Jack + Jordan's Wedding!

I've known my cousin Jack for a long time, probably all my life actually (he's older than me). I have many fond memories of him showing me how to play the guitar, how to make startlingly realistic fart noises, and how to break the horn on Aunty Jenny's car. So it's only fitting that I would be chosen as one of his groomsmen, or heng tai. This is a bad thing. A very bad thing. In Chinese culture, before the groom and the bride can marry, the groom must choose a bunch of his buddies to go through a whole host of embarrassing and/or physically uncomfortable tasks in order for him to secure the hand of his beautiful bride. Dog food, chillies, leg waxing, armpit waxing, wasabi-tooth-brushing, cross-dressing, cricket-eating, lizard-eating, it all happened.

Here are the unfortunate 30. I'm in there somewhere... Probably hiding at the back.

After clearing the obstacle course, it was time for eating! Malaysians love the crap out of food. Everything is an excuse to eat and celebrate. Getting married? Dinner. Got a new job? Dinner. Managed to peel an orange without squirting juice in your eye? Dinner.

The reception was pretty mean.

I remember one particular occasion a long while ago when Jack, a couple of younger cousins and I were in a car together, and Jack turned to us and asked 'Hey guys, should I marry Jordan?' Obviously we all said yes, and obviously he took our advice!

Yussssss

The Fam Bam

My family is awesome. Crazy, but awesome.

Some of my dad's family. There are at least 15 people unaccounted for in this photo!

Some of my mum's family. Evidently it's very hard to get entire families to stand still in one spot for a photograph.

My cousins are awesome (and crazy) as well:

Some of my cousins on my mum's side.

Most of my cousins on my dad's side, with an aunty and an uncle thrown in for good measure.

Singapore

Singapore was pretty mean. I went here:

It's pretty big in real life. Just like my... Nevermind

Unfortunately, this was closed:

Also pretty big in real life. Just like my... Nevermind

There was a cool show in the evening called 'Songs of the Sea.' It looked like this:

For some of the time.

Pretty awesome. The level of development in Singapore is nuts. Everything is clean and runs smoothly, and the public transport system is so kickass that it's actually painful. Well not really, because then it wouldn't be a very good public transport system. But yes it is very good.

Chiang Mai

Chiang Mai was pretty awesome too. We did heaps of stuff.

My new pals Mae Sa and Mae Rim:

Elephants are awesome.

The elephants have one trainer for life, so trainer and elephant have an amazing bond. They spend all day and all night together and they seem to have a lot of trust and understanding for each other.

So cool.

Here's my other new pal Lucky:

Just being a badass and chilling with a tiger. No big deal.

I asked one of the caretakers if anyone had ever been hurt by one of the tigers. His reply: "Yeah, sometimes."
"Did they get hurt badly?"
"Yeah..."

One of the many Buddhist temples in Thailand:

The architecture is amazing.

Our tour guide told us that Buddhism (and temples in particular) are become increasingly commercialised and straying further from the religion's original teachings. Pretty stink.

And that brings us to today! Phew.
See you all soon!