sliding by

It rained on Saturday which is nothing special to say the least but I was out walking around and it reminded me of something that’s been on my mind for a while. I guess you could call this another rant.

In San Diego it rains so little that when it finally does it's a big deal and the last thing I want to do is go out and do anything in it. It's also usually cold when it rains there (relatively, of course) which makes for a general feeling of miserableness when you're out in it (although it’s nothing like cities that really get cold and rainy weather like in the Pacific NW for example).

In Singapore you HAVE to go out in the rain or you'll never be able to go anywhere or do anything. I realized this very quickly while still living in my temp apartment after moving here. I swear it rained for a week straight when I first got here too, and for some reason I always had my air con cranked up full blast in that place so I was always freezing. Looking out at the rain while I was freezing to death inside, somehow I created this connection in my mind that it was freezing cold, wet and miserable outside out there. Finally when I started to go out in the rain purely out of necessity (like for food, beer, fun) I realized it's actually kind of nice since it's not cold at all. Actually, a warm rain is nice. almost… tropical...

However, instead of the cold, there is something much worse here that when combined with rain makes my life miserable here in Singapore. So many sidewalks around here are tile, very smooth tile which becomes so slippery once it gets wet. I swear it's almost like walking on ice. I have no idea why this smooth polished tile is everywhere in a country where it rains so much because people are either slipping all over it or walking crazy slow to keep from slipping (this is my tactic which is hard because I usually walk really fast). It's just such a bad idea and I don't get why the government allows it since it's obviously dangerous. A plain cement sidewalk is much less slippery and it's always nice to find a short stretch where you can walk and not worry about breaking your neck. I had a theory that it’s put in place on purpose to keep people walking slower just to discourage recklessness.

While these slippery conditions would obviously create a dangerous situation anywhere, I think it’s especially disastrous here since Singapore is now home to the worlds fastest walkers (according to a study released this past May)! That's right, I can’t believe it either, but they really say it’s true. Now keep in mind that about 1 in 4 people here are expats and the study excluded people walking in groups, people talking on the phone or people texting on their phone while walking…oh and it must not have been raining of course. So like, it must have taken forever to find enough people who qualified for the study because everyone is either talking or texting on their phone wherever they go (well, not everyone but it is a lot). Plus, they were only walking like 4 miles per hour (measured over a 60 foot ‘speed trap’). I’m so much faster than that, ha!

Anyways, I just don’t get what the deal with all this slippery tile is, that’s all. I guess it does look nice at least.

rickshaw driver

There’s a tour group constantly peddling tourists around my neighborhood in a pack of rickshaws. I've never even thought if these rickshaws were comfortable enough to sleep but it seems the are. This guy must have worked way too hard and passed out on his ride right in the middle of the sidewalk, snoring so loud

jaywalking...

...you guessed it! It kills, also. I managed to grab a picture of this cab wrap from the 'impact is forever' ad campaign right outside my office lobby the other day. I've also captured a picture of the Recklessness is Forever cab. I have yet to see the final ad from the series on any of the cabs: Speeding Kills. Maybe it would be too ironic for the speeding cab drivers to have that posted on their cars.

JAYWALKING KILLS. A minute saved, a life lost. The impact is forever. It's true and almost poetic...inspiring me to write a haiku:

jaywalking kills lah
a minute saved, a life lost
'impact forever

a link to some haiku that may be better than mine

Wii.... that's fun

My coworker brought a Nintendo Wii back with him from San Diego and he wanted to try it out on my TV since I have larger screen then the one at his temp apartment. So I invited some other people from my group over and we tried it out. I'd never played it before had only heard a few things about it. The controllers are wireless and instead of pressing buttons you just move the controller around to control the game's actions... like playing golf, tennis or bowling. After we started playing, one of my other coworkers mentioned that there's been reports of lots of broken TVs from the controllers flying out of peoples' hands while playing... good thing the controllers all have cords attaching them to your wrist.

Lined up for a game of tennis ... Melvin serves

Matt expertly returns, almost taking Melvin's head off with the controller

Nicole hits a winner down the line. Nice Shot!

Melvin rolls a ball down the lane and...

Saves the frame with a SPARE

Will, going toe to toe in a boxing match

Koh Samui

Yes, I've made it back safely to Singapore from Koh Samui! I had gone with a few coworkers last Thursday night and got back a few days ago on Sunday night. The trip seemed much shorter than I thought it would and I'd plan for more time if I did it again. Koh Samui is nice but there are als some other islands near by which are less crowded and would be nice for relaxing... if only I had more time... : Koh Tao is famous for great scuba diving and Koh Pha Ngan is famous for it's full moon parties.; Both are less developed than Kho Samui. While we were there the water was too choppy and the tour companies canceled all the boat trips between the islands and out to Ang Thong National Marine Park.

Koh Samui is very relaxed. The entire airport is outside, kind of in huts... even the security and immigration stations. There is now a direct from from Singapore to Koh Samui so it's very easy to get there. 25 years ago it was basically a fishing village when people first started marketing it for tourism and at that time you had to take a ferry from mainland Thailand. Now it's full of resorts and tourists hanging out at the white sandy beaches getting tans though there are still some undeveloped places on the island. It's still a relaxing place to take a holiday. I would normally never stay at a resort as nice as this one was, though it was a nice change. I remember the last time I was in Thailand, the last night I stayed in a place for 300baht (a that time just under $8 a night) in Phuket City and it was the only time I'd ever felt I really overpaid for a room.

At some point I'm going to have to finish uploading all my pictures to my flicker site. In the meantime here are some snapshots from the trip.

Once you're in SE Asia you start to see geckos everywhere and also big lizards once in a while

The group, just arrived and relaxing at the lobby

Walking down the street in Chaweng beach

Chaweng beach again, motor scooters are a primary means of transportation

the resort at night

the resort again at night

In case you forget what i looked like, it's me at the resort at night

The resort...again. this time the garden



The grandfather and grandmother stones (Hin Ta and Hin Yai) are an important part of Thai mythology. It is believed that all Thai people originally came from these two stones. You may have to use your imagination or ask a friend if you can't understand where the names come from

The grandfather stone

The grandmother stone

acting like tourists at one of Koh Samui's main tourist attractions

The rocks are also just a good place to kick back and relax. What!?

... ahem...

a beach hut

"trekking" through the dense jungle

A pagoda. This one is a very important part of Koh Samui history though I'm not sure why exactly

This is a very big Buddha

the beach here is called Big Buddha Beach because it's so close to the big Buddha

this one also is big buddha beach, taken from the big buddha temple

spicy tom yom soup... mmm. thai food is delicious

Archipelago Brewery

Tonight there was a meeting for a homebrewing club at Archipelago Brewery, which is owned by Asia Pacific Brewery, the makers of Tiger Beer amongst others. It was a lot of fun to tour the micro brewery and drink a lot of the micro brew.

Head Brewer Fal Allen explaining the brewing process

...see, such an easy process. Just follow the chart

curios people on the tour putting their heads into the equipment

tuns, tuns, ...

...and more tuns

more? yes, more.

I feel like my blog has been reduced to posting graffiti but there is just so much lately. I don't know what's going on here recently. People have gotten reckless for one thing.... but not reckless beyond of the point of using stencils for their graffiti. This was right out in the courtyard of the Cathay which is just around the corner from my place.

I'm not sure what these stencils represent. If you look you can see one in blue and one in black of the two faces with punk hair. I don't know know what these mean but given that they were right next to each other makes me think these taggers were just lazy. At least they used a different color paint.


This one has some other stencil graffiti on it in black. I have no idea what it is but it kind of looks like blueprints to a castle. ... nah!
Both of the images of the two heads are signed with is kind of different from other stencil graffiti I've seen. They're raising the bar.

Well if I'm back posting graffiti that means I've returned from Koh Samui. ... which will be my next post.

Happy Birthday, USA!

It's the 4th! and I didn't see any fireworks here to celebrate it!
It was just 231 years ago that our forefathers signed the United States Declaration of Independence declaring the independence from the Kingdom of Britain. Too much tax on the tea put them over the edge, and now after all these years I'm paying too much tax on beer and hanging out with the Brits here in Singapore. I'm already independent of Singapore here though so I'm not going to revolt or anything drastic like that. I was surprised today that the coffee stand people at work were the ones who wished me a happy Independence day (they're all Malaysian). The one guy said he remembered it was today because July also had his birthday and Earth Day... I wasn't too sure about that but I went along with it. I think he was talking about Live Earth this Saturday but I didn't correct him since he makes a good cofee (I think they all think it's funny that my co-worker and I order Americanos).

I think the American Club here was having a party to celebrate the 4th this past weekend. I saw an invitation for it saying you couldn't bring in any coolers and bags would be searched for security reasons... that really sounded like about the last way I'd want to celebrate freedom.
Singapore's Birthday is coming up on August 9th (national day). There will be a very big celebration for that... but I'm planning to be in Vietnam during that celebration.

I'm leaving to Koi Samui tomorrow night until Sunday. I'm looking forward to relaxing.