So after a long few weeks of touring and much more activity travel, the latter part of my itinerary was more focused on relaxing and catching up. I spent a few days between Koh Samui, Thailand, Singapore and Bintan Island in Indonesia. This part was decidedly less active and doesn't lend itself as well to pictures, activities and blog posts, but here is a short summary of my days and experiences in each spot.
Koh Samui
My three days in Koh Samui were mostly filled with relaxing at the beach, pool, reading, eating or other equally relaxing ventures. Located a short flight from most mainland destinations within Thailand, its a small island paradise in the south China Sea. Along with others (Phuket, Koh Tao, etc) the beaches are a popular draw for travellers around SE Asia. While most of this stop was designed as a wind down from a few weeks of heavy touring destined to be spent at the beach and pool of the resort, I did venture out a bit, but with decidedly less agenda. I spent some time visiting the town and tourist destinations Friday evening at the walking night market at Fisherman's Village. Significantly larger than previous night markets I've visited (less Siem Reap), the market also drew a much larger crowd with its weekly frequency. Koh Samui has a thriving tourist and backpacker draw, and this was present in the market. A bit of a mix between Cancun bar/club/restaurant hybrids and the night market souvineer and food stalls of Asia, it was hot, crowded, but a delicious and interesting way to spend the evening and kill a few hours outside of the resort.
Singapore
So Singapore was my next destination, but more of a travel hub for travel between Thailand, the Bintan Island, and the eventual jump off to Japan. I spent two seperate nights here with not much time to do much but walk and explore the shopping and food areas surrounding my hotels and catch glimpses of the city from my transit to and from airports and ferry terminals. I was left with a lasting impression of both the quality and density of the city. Extremely clean and weathly feeling from the roads, sidewalks, and level of shopping its clear that the cost of living and operating a vehicle is extreme in Singapore. There is not one junky car to be found anywhere, and the registration cost of owning and operating a car drives not only the quality of autos, but the quantity (Singapore experiences very little congestion despite its incrediple population density). I spent some time in my second evening around the Marina Bay area, which is like the central water/tourist area, think Baltirmore Inner Harbor or Chicago River Walk, only much nicer. The whole area is smartly designed with a contiguous walking path that circumnavigates the entire area, over 3 km. They have tons of nice water front restaurants and bars, and that combined with the cleanliness of the area and the water made me more jaded about our inability to accomplish it in the states. It just seemed so much more refined and well done than your typical tourist-area-around-water-withfood-and-drink type of place in the US. Needless to say, a beautiful city and one worth deticating more time.
One thing I did pick up on was the tension between native Singaporeans (Malay) and the influx of Chineese immigrants, a racial sentiment articulated in many of the countries I've visited, but interesting to hear how quickly it comes up in conversation and how many parallels there are to other countries (including our own).
Bintan
I spent two of my relax days on the Indonesian island of Bintan. Bintan is only a short 45 minute ferry from downtown Singapore, and is home to a spur of recent resort development aimed at vacationing Singaporeans. Indeed, it seems a world away, soon after leaving a city marine terminal, you are amidst hundreds of shipping cargo and tanker ships, then next thing is a small ferry terminal on a seemingly remote island. New and modernly well developed, there are a host of resorts on the island. My resort was new as of last fall, and whether we are in the low season, I am not sure, but I spent much of my two days at the resort without seeing another guest. Needless to say it was a super beautiful and relaxing respite before heading back to Singapore and onto Japan.