The breaking of the fellowship

Oh that's right, we were doing titles from Lord of the Rings. Forgot that for a while - but we're back on track again now, with the very descriptive title of the triology's first book's final chapter. You see, Alex managed to squeeze in a trip to Singapore to visit Jakob (his friend and roommate from Trondheim), leaving me on my own for a few more days in Taipei, before we would meet again to fly to Tokyo. If the flight schedule may seem a bit odd, it's because Hong Kong-Tokyo was the only flight that was part of the original plan; Hanoi-Hong Kong, return Hong Kong-Taiwan, and Singapore all came along on the way.

So as Alex left for the airport, I was left with the question: What do you do in a metropolis on the other side of the world when you can do exactly whatever you want? I'd never really been in a situation like that before, and I hadn't given it much thought ahead of time, so it felt kind of daunting when I suddenly stood there ready to embark. But I did what I knew was a winner - rented a city bike - and explored several of the city's neighborhoods, museums, parks, bouldering gyms and climbing gear stores. My whole time in Taiwan I've been looking for somehow to climb at the famous Longdong, but needing transport, gear rental, and now with Alex gone, a climbing partner - it wasn't too easy. The weather for the next day was going to be great, and I was so excited to go, but as the day drew on, more and more of my leads (messages, phone calls, people asking friends etc.) dried up. Would I find a way? And there, dear readers, we'll do a Tolkien and see what Alex is up to.

I visited the 2-28 Peace Park, a reminder of the
sad event that started a 39 year period of martial law.

The park was full of monuments and little girls painting impressive aquarelles.

My good friends the uBikes. Look at those wide, bikeable sidewalks!

That's right, while Thomas was busy exploring Taipei in a way only possible when completely left to your own devices, I... was sitting on an airplane. No wonder then, that when I arrived in Singapore that evening, I was anxious to get going and start the fun! I dropped my bag at a hostel in Chinatown, and went out to meet Jakob. As it was Friday afternoon, we decided to hit the town and I was surprised to hear that we would be drinking 7-eleven-bought drinks at a bridge on Clarke Quay. To understand my surprise you should know my first impression of Singapore: I, like many others, have this impression of Singapore being overly strict, orderly, clean, and with rules governing everything - all the way down to fines for not flushing. My superstition was confirmed by the looming skyscrapers and modern architecture I saw on my way downtown, but apparently, public alcohol consumption is not a problem, given the hordes of young people that joined us on Clarke Quay that night. Well, my planned-to-perfection theory got new evidence learning of the city's night life. Apparently, the places to go out are loud clubs, with guest-lists and expensive drinks. Not feeling it, we took a walk down the impressive riverside and ended up on Arab Street, smoking our cares away with shisha (arabian water pipe), and talking into the early morning hours.

Jakob and I were the only ones who thought we were doing the creepy look.

Enjoying some late-night shisha on Arab Street.

I'm clinging on to the orange sandstone with quite a ways to go before the next bolt, and 23 meters below me is Alvin (or at least that's his English name), a student from NTNU - National Taiwan Normal University! - and avid climber. I finally got in touch with Joshua, a guy going to Longdong with a free seat in his car, who incidentally also ran a climbing gym and could rent me equipment for a nominal fee. He was taking a group of kids climbing, and sent me off further along the beautiful coast with some pro climbers. Longdong is an amazing peninsula, with dramatic cliffs plunging in to the ocean. On nice days there is deep-water soloing there also, but today the slightly sketchy hike along the coastline was enough teasing of the waves. It was sunny and hot, and the pro climbers sat in the shade of a big boulder cooling down for ages after the hike, and seemed to only be doing climbs way out of my league anyway - so I had headed back to the others, but on the way I met these five university students, friendly and on the same climbing level as me. So there I was, leading this three-star beauty of a 28 meter route, which people came from all over Taiwan to climb. It was my fourth, though, the third having worn me out pretty badly I was already dreading the nasty fall I would take when I wouldn't make the next move. Why is there suddenly nowhere to put my feet? Oh dear...

There's not much shade to be found at high noon...

Cliff after cliff after cliff, all climbable!

Instant friends. "Can I climb with you guys?"　"Sure!"

With only a couple of hours of sleep, I was the one feeling like I was falling when I woke up in Singapore Saturday morning. Jakob lived on campus outside town, and I got on a train to NTU (Nanyang Technological University) to visit him. Here, I got to see what student life was like outside little Trondheim. Believe me, the differences are astronomical. For one, we don't have (a need for) a free shuttle bus around campus, and the faculty for art design and media doesn't look like this:

I mean, come on... they even have a rolling hill lawn on the roof for picnics!

Campus, being all state-of-the-art, was quite a sight in itself, but no time to linger: our policy for sightseeing this weekend was to see the sights Jakob hadn't got to (he'd got to half of South-East Asia though). Singapore boasts a great transportation system, yet it took us over an hour to get to MacRitchie Reservoir, an outdoors area really not that far from campus. The place though, was very exotic! Five minutes from the parking lot we were suddenly deep in the jungle, with really weird noises emanating from the thick vegetation. The jungle trail took us to a high suspension bridge, traversed by monkeys, and sponsored by some big bank. Duh, this is Singapore.



We ran the last kilometer to reach the opening hour of the bridge.
30 degrees and air saturated with water. Hot!

Alas, our nature-sights for the day weren't over. The afternoon was spent strolling around the night safari outside of town. This evening extravaganza is basically a very open-spaced zoo with visiting hours from sunset to midnight. We got to see many nocturnal (and non-nocturnal) creatures up close, and at one point we walked inside a spacious bat cage. Giant fruit bats where coming from all directions. An irrational fear of being blood-drained by these Draculas overwhelmed me, and while walking along the Leopard Trail, we were just waiting for one of these ferocious felines to pounce on us. Was that a growl I heard from the bushes? Yikes!

Plenty of monkeys by the reservoir rummaging trash cans and doing mischief.

Since it was a night safari, the pictures didn't turn out well.
I'm glad the lions were lit up by "moonlight".

Having survived the last two climbs and the sudden torrential rain that came rolling in just as Joshua was going to take down the gear, I returned to Taipei and checked out the student demonstrations. A movement had been building up gradually during our Taiwan trip, and had now become massive. Since a cross-strait trade agreement greatly favoring China had been hurried through the system without a proper treatment, students had surrounded the Executive Yuan, trying to physically block the room where the treaty was to be signed. By this weekend the protests had grown, including not only students worried about their future, but also everyone worried about the increasing Chinese influence on the government (God forbid Taiwan would become the next Hong Kong and lose its freedom of speech, freedom of press etc.), everyone upset with the undemocratic, 30-second manner in which the bill had been processed, and most recently everyone outraged at the police violence against the students. On Sunday people from all over the country gathered in the streets outside the Chiang Kai-Shek memorial for a huge demonstration - sources said everything from 100 to 700.000 people. I met friendly people, regular people, bravely taking matters in to their own hands as their leaders' hands were becoming tied with corruption. I only had my blurry phone camera that evening, so for a better impression, read some news.

Rain and thunderstorms didn't stop people from camping a ninth night.

Sleeping pads and slogans is what they had.

The Executive Yuan and the critical office window per 29.3

I left Taiwan with a nuanced picture of this young country. The once dramatically booming economy has stagnated, with jobs being moved to the mainland, leaving Taiwanese watching South Korea flying by and not quite understanding what happened. The government is re-heating the feelings towards China, who sends planeloads of tourists while still aiming rockets across the Strait. I spent my last day at the National Palace Museum. The palace in question was that of the emperor in Beijing's Forbidden City, and its treasures were moved to Taiwan for safety during times of war. It is now the biggest collection of Chinese art in the world, and the world's seventh most visited museum. I competed with thousands of pilgriming Mainlander tourists for views of their beloved relics, in my own way learning even more about Chinese culture than what the museum had on display.

The National Palace Museum is the kind you can't leave until dusk.

Of course Singapore's rules would ensure I'd never get eaten by leopards, and I also got to see what the City had on display. Visiting impressive government-run sports centres (with rock-climbing!), and seeing the spectacular Marina Bay skyline, there's not a doubt in my mind that this city is successfully governed. After its expulsion from Malaysia in 1965 the world must have thought they had heard the last from this multicultural harbour. Yet, the city-state has emerged as one of the leading economies of South-East Asia, powered by its gargantuan trading port. A trip to the Museum of South East Asian Civilizations also highlighted the many nationalities all present in Singapore, with people from all nations and religions getting along in relative harmony. Looking at Hindus and Muslims in India, Singaporeans do it better. Nevertheless there was a slight dissonance here. With the People's Action Party ruling (Democratically. Kind of.) since 1959, the city is almost too well planned out. With attitude altering propaganda all over the place, the citizens seem almost brainwashed in a way, and I saw no representatives of alternative subcultures during my stay (Jakob hadn't seen any either). Anyhow, this unique city seems to be working in perfect shape and I guess it will be up to the younger generations to decide if they want to continue their evenly straight path to success, or maybe, just sometimes, see life a little on the wild side.

Obligatory climbing, with Jakob struggling to the top
in the blistering heat. (He didn't make it.)

The Singaporean specialty "chili crab" makes your plate look like a
battleground when you've finished. Barbarian!

The light show outside Marina Sands Bay was really impressive.

Marina Bay Sands from the harbor. A room is 600 dollars a night, and an old
NTU legend tells of students managing to sneak into the infinity pool at night.

A Singapore signature Sling on top of Marina Bay to finish off an intensely fun weekend!