change is the only constant

Being away from Singapore for three weeks was a long time, and it seems longer than I expected it would. I never really thought about it before but change can happen very quickly- and sometimes unless you're away and comeback you might not even notice it. Besides seeing a few new floors completed on the condo being built next door I noticed some other changes as well. Also the price of cabs surprised me as well even though the fares had increased before I left- having arrived after midnight, I had to pay the 50% surcharge and the $3 airport surcharge. The total taxi bill came out to $24 which seems very expensive, but then again it's very cheap compared to most other cities. Walking around town yesterday I saw a lot more graffiti than I ever remember and it was mostly right out in the open. I also saw two apparently homeless bums sleeping on the side walks, also something that I recall seeing maybe once over the last year I’ve been here. Is Singapore really changing or am I just being more observant of things around me?

And then, some things stayed the same. The noise from those two construction sites next door to my apartment is still very loud. The taxi driver from the airport thought I was from Italy or France and couldn't believe I was from California. For some reason this happens a lot- people think I'm German, Swiss, French and god forbid even Australian. I don't know why. one person even thought my accent sounded South African! no one else agreed with that though. Also, the conniving taxi drivers have not changed here either. The one I took yesterday ripped me off, taking me though a separate toll area for no reason as it wasn't a short cut and it was not even the route I told him. Its times like that when their English skills suddenly deteriorate very quickly...I guess it's the best way to disarm a verbal conflict. The escaped terrorist Mas Selamat bin Kastari has still not been captured after having escaped from prison before I left for San Diego. There's really not much news about it anymore. I guess people will forget about it soon. An official report being carried out on how the escape happened, estimated to take one month, should be out soon though I doubt it will actually be released.

Overall it feels good to be back in Singapore, in my own apartment and sleeping in my own bed again. I just need to get some food for the fridge because I’m starving.

This made me try to think about what had been different in San Diego since it had been 6 months since the last time I was there. Actually nothing really jumped out at me as different which is strange. A lot of the construction on the highways that plagued my morning and evening commutes was finished and one of the bars I liked that made really good cocktails has deteriorated in quality- the Old-Fashioned I used to like there was now horrible (actually the same thing had happened in Singapore at a new bar that had opened just around the corner from my place. When it opened, the bartenders were great and they made really nice cocktails, they really knew what they were doing which I think is extra nice here in Singapore since you’re paying about $10USD for a drink. I've almost giving up on ordering mixed drinks anywhere here because either the carbonation is flat in the mixer or it's some super sweet juice mixed in with the carefully measured amt of liquor. The last time I went there, the bar staff had been replaced literally by idiots, a conclusion I based on an experience while ordering a drink. I had ordered and easy drink which was even on their bar list- Cuba Libre- nothing fancy right, and he didn’t know how to make it. After asking the other bartender who told him to look it up since he was bartender too. I ended up having to tell him how to make it and he still messed it up, dumping in an outrageous amount of lime juice instead of just a dash.) I don't know, maybe it's hard to say since the time went so fast there and I didn't really see much of the city. I’m not sure this paragraph makes much sense either. In conclusion, In San Diego it was great to see old friends and catch up.

Anyway, don't get me wrong, it's not a big rant I'm on about Singapore or change on about how things were 'back in the day.' Besides, I read The Secret while in Sedona and now I'm only thinking positive thoughts so only positive outcomes will be attracted to me. Sure, it sounds crazy but it's working. I experienced several otherwise improbable occurrences which I'm attributing to my positive thinking. I won't get in to all of them but here's just one example- when I flew from Phoenix to Portland it was a late flight scheduled to arrive around 11pm and I didn't want to be wasting a lot of time at the airport. So I was really trying to imagine my luggage being off the belt first so I could get out to the rental car and on the road. You know, ‘using the secret.’ I was also hoping for a Mustang convertible for the car but actually not so much for the convertible since I knew it would be cold in Oregon and I probably wouldn't get to put the top down. So what do you know? once the baggage starts up, mine is the third bag on it which has never happened. Thanks very much. Picked it and went out to get my rental car which had been assigned as a Mercury Grand Marquee. Obviously that wasn’t going to work. So I walked back to the desk and the guy there said I could have a Mustang (hardtop) for the same rate. One of the most important parts to the Secret is being thankful for everything you have and really spending time to acknowledge that thanks. Regardless of all the other talk about the Secret or Law of Attraction I think this is important just for living a happy and fulfilled life.

jetlag or lazy

I'm having the hardest time adjusting to the time on this trip for whatever reason. I can sleep at night with no problem and have no problems like waking up in the middle of the night (when it's afternoon in Singapore). The problem is I can't wake up in the morning... I've been oversleeping my alarm and not waking until like 8 or 8:30am. And then I'm way too tired. The other morning one of my co workers here asked if I was going for ‘the vampire look’… very pale with blood shot eyes. I assumed it wasn’t a compliment though you never know with some people and I have been out of the US for a while now. Later in the afternoon she said I looked much better so I guess I finally woke up- Despite the folklore recommending garlic, crosses or sunlight, I've found the best cure for vampirism is about three large coffees. Tomorrow I need to be up at like 6am to get to the airport in time for a flight to Phoenix. I’m not sure how that’s going to work out…. I don’t know if the TSA is letting vampires on the planes these days

grande nonfat latte

I went to Starbucks this morning to use a gift card I still had from before moving to Singapore. The Starbucks here seem to take themselves a little more seriously they in Singapore. A manager was training a new employee (the manager looked to be in her mid 40’s and the new employee looked to be in her mid 50’s). She was quizzing the employee on how to enter drinks into the register: “what if they want a grande nonfat latte?”, “what about a skinny vanilla?” “stop pressing the ‘grande’ button- it defaults to grande size, you’re wasting time”. Where could I start. I would die if I had to be trained to enter coffee orders like that when I’m 50 years old, it’s kind of sad. Plus, the size defaults to grande. Grand means medium size actually, and it’s like the large size in Singapore. The sizes of everything are so much larger here.

Starbuck's has really done a great job in creating this entire market for expensive coffee drinks that no one would have been ordering 10 years ago. They've created a culture that makes people feel special for they short time they're in the store and placing their order which is why the must come back and pay so much. People seem to take pride in the custom drinks they order, but I tend to cringe whenever I order and refuse to specify the size as 'tall', 'grande', or 'vente'. I just say medium or small... and they still know what I mean. I think they must think it's kind of a joke too...

freezing

California is freezing. And dry. It’s only around 30% humidity which is really dry since it’s normally more 100% humidity back in Singapore. I can literally feel my self drying out even though it seems like I’m drinking tons of water. I’m super itchy and dry and it doesn’t feel good. Hopefully I get used to this weather before I have to go up north in Oregon the week after next. I arrived here last Saturday and am staying until Friday morning, then flying to Phoenix to meet my parents, brother, sister in law and niece in Sedona.

Java Wedding

I’ve been back from the West Java wedding for a few weeks now and I’m still trying to digest the experience. It was blur of transport on crowded roads, disappointingly mild tasting durian, ant infested rambutan, lost passports, fried foods, dimly lit markets, kreteck cigarettes, alternating bouts of boredom and the excitement of trying to find something not boring to pass the time, bintang beer, returned passports, Cuban rum, American Whisky, wedding singers, hello misterrrrr, batik shirts, head scarves, Javanese dancers, broken English, confusion and broken bahasa Indonesia.

The transport from Jakarta to Cianjur was unexpectedly easy. It seemed that hiring a car and driver for 550,000rp would be unimaginable for locals but split between the 3 of us it seemed quite reasonably-especially since the alterative was a 5-6 hour bus ride. The road from Jakarta to Cianjur passes though some pretty sharp hills and very quickly we were in some of the thickest fog/mist I’ve seen in a while and I was actually cold for the first time since being in Asia (outside of aircon). The hills were covered in tea plantations.

Cianjur is boring…I think more so if you’re white and non-Muslim. Maybe it’s a blast if you’re an Islamic fundamentalist but somehow I still doubt that. We definitely didn’t blend in and I don’t think we saw any other buleh from the time of leaving Jakarta until returning but the locals really didn’t seem to notice or care we were there. Back in Jakarta I felt like we got more looks and stares. One of the ways we passed the time was walking around the town and through some of the markets… typical wet markets with fruits, vegetables and meats all out in the heat together but these markets had a few firsts for me as well. 1) fresh fish- held in a small tray with about 3 inches of recirculating water so the could stay alive but not really swim anywhere 2) small arms- hand guns and rifles right there next to the chili padi and butchered chicken, most guns looked pretty old 3)some guy peeing into a plastic bottle- I have no idea why and don’t want to even venture a guess as to why.

Cianjur has a Hypermart and believe me this is a big deal - a modern supermarket and assorted goods store where we found beer which became the other way to we passed the evenings. Since no bars were to be found in the town we sat on our room porches with several beers and the duty free liquor we brought though from Singapore.

The wedding was Sunday morning, early. 9am early. But actually since Indonesian rubber time was in effect it got started more like 9:30am. It was in a smaller village about half hours ride out of Cianjur at the bride’s family compound. It began when the officials from the mosque arrived, sat down in the living room and started the ceremony. I didn’t know what to expect since this was my first Muslim wedding but it seemed like a simple ceremony. Most in bahasa Indonesia but some key points read by the groom in English: “promise to provide for you… blah blah… if I sometimes leave you for 3 years or more or if I beat you or if I don’t talk to you or ignore you for more than 2 months you can go complain to the council and I will pay you 10,000rp (1USD) per day blah blah”… just the standard wedding stuff. And that was it. Everyone stands up, greets the new couple and has some food. The entertainment was out I the courtyard- traditional musical troupe, singers and dancers. As the only buleh there we very interesting to the entertainment who were looking to maybe get some fresh talent up on stage. Through the broken English we heard mosty consisting of things like “Misterrrr, dancing” and “buleh, hahahaha” I knew they wanted us to come up on stage to dance and I could feel a consensus growing to force up onto the stage. Finally, someone that spoke English went up on stage and started working the crowd up in bahasa Indonesia, getting them to cheer us on stage. Then he would switch to English for our 'benifit' not wanting to exclude us. … It was only done in English to eliminate our excuses of not understanding the request since we found one like 2 other people there that spoke English. So we went on stage. And they cheered and they laughed. And we danced with the Javanese dancers who were pretty hot. And we danced and they danced better. Then we danced more Javanese dance and we did it as poorly as the crowd expected (or hoped) and we did not disappoint there expectations at all … and man that band played the longest song and it seemed like we were up there for like 7 minutes. A simple 2 minute song would be fine to give everyone a good laugh. At least the kids laughed. I think the older ones hated us. But we gave them what the wanted and it ended up being kind of fun. Things didn’t seem like they could get much better for us after that so we took off shortly afterwards. The rest of the day consisted of walking around Cianjur, eating diner at a food stall, and tying to find something to do. It ended with us just sitting on the porches again.

The last day we went back to Jakarta to meet up with one of our friend’s friend who had moved there a while ago. Jakarta is huge. 15+ million people and the whole city is basically sprawl with limited infrastructure so traffic gets horrible. There are some very moderns area, buildings and malls but literally block away it drops off into slums. I bought a nice new batik shirt.

I'll add in the pictures later...