Roni Responds: Malaysia and Singapore

Nicole:

hey fellow traveler! any advice for malaysia/singapore. we’ll be flying into KL and will have about 7.5 days to do stuff…hope all is well!

Roni:

Malaysia:

I liked KL. If you feel the need, go up the Petronas Twin Towers, but know that you only can go to the middle of the towers to see the view.

Petronas Twin Towers

It’s still all right, though. Make sure you check out the Batu Caves.

Batu Caves

As much as I hate monkeys, they are an experience.  Plus, it’s Hindu, which makes it different from the rest of KL.

Batu Caves

I found Penang to be boring. Kent Foster’s favorite restaurant is there, but I didn’t find it to be so mind-blowing.

Penang

Remember: It’s a Muslim country. Just so you don’t get surprised. It shouldn’t really affect anything in what you do or how you carry yourself.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

(I don’t know of how much use they are, but here are two vids from Malaysia.)

Singapore:

I like Singapore. Make sure you check out the different areas.  The food in the Indian area is good. The mosques are nice.  It’s a varied sort of a place. By the water is cool. I think, by now, they might have casinos?

If you want something touristy, you can go to Sentosa. It’s like Asian SeaWorld.

(More YouTube vids of probably little use.)

1st, my 11,000+ hit controversially titled vid:

More of Sentosa:

After the dirty bustle of a lot of SE Asia, Singapore can be a boon, but

Remember: No matter how nice and clean it seems, there are lots of basic freedoms that are lacking, such as freedom of the press, freedom of assembly and freedom of speech. They keep a tight rein to keep it nice. 4 official languages (English, Malay, Chinese and Tamil), but the people are mostly Chinese.

Hope that helps.

All pictures/videos in this entry taken by Roni Weiss.

Roni Responds: ChatRoulette

ChatRoulette.com

Request:

oh wait i’ve just stumbled across this

http://nymag.com/news/media/63663/

weird weird weird weird
you should write a piece about it

(http://chatroulette.com)

Piece:  The NY Magazine article poses a ridiculous question:

Is ChatRoulette the future of the Internet or its distant past?

Without a doubt, the distant past.

Here’s the crux: On ChatRoulette, you are on a video chat with strangers. Unlike Skype (or anything else in this day and age), you have no control over who you’re seeing/talking to.  No “by location” function. Nada. Totally random.

You can see them, they can see you, (provided cameras work on both ends and aren’t obscured or replaced with a video).  You can type to one another.  And, if one of you doesn’t want to see the other anymore, you press F9 and it goes to the next video feed.

That’s it.  You want to know more about my experience (which is probably the experience of anyone that isn’t a chick)?

Roni’s Interview with youcanteachenglish.com

Teaching English in Taiwan

The good folks over at youcanteachenglish.com recently interviewed me about my past and current experiences teaching English overseas.

Check it out here.

Roni Responds: ATM card for South America?

Roni Responds is a new feature on TORWB, consisting of questions asked to Roni about travel, politics or anything else the public wants to know.  All questions are anonymous, unless permission is given to use the petitioner’s name.  Please say if you want your first name, first and last name or user name used.

All questions can be sent to roni@dontworry.tv.

Question: what is the most common bank in south america? I currently have bank of america, but im not sure if i should change to Chase or something due to access or lack thereof, in south america.

my other question is what do you think is the best way to get a phone? Should i keep verizon and pay the extra to have a working phone in south america, or should i get different pre paids from city to city?

Roni Responds: Can’t look at South America like it’s a country…  The banks and cell phone companies are all going to be different.  Even when you find the same bank internationally, it isn’t connected.  I have HSBC as one of my many ATM cards.  I cannot deposit money anywhere outside of the US with that account.  Not only that, with their fees, it is actually cheaper for me to use other ATM cards at an HSBC ATM abroad than to use my actual HSBC card.

My best advice…