Always something

Singapore is a city that is constantly changing, always with something new going on- somewhere. Over the last few months I’ve been away for two separate 2-3 week trips and coming back into the city afterward you really notice how much and how fast it changes- some entire buildings could be gone, or an intersection redesigned- new buildings going up. Even without the construction, the city has so much more going on beneath the surface that takes time and effort (and a desire) to see- the remaining jungles, smaller islands, the different ethnic neighborhoods, Little India, Geylang- really, a lot of Singapore is not as clean as it’s made out to be and I’ll never see a lot of it.


Last Sunday I took and aimless walk around my neighborhood- ending up near the Singapore River, and just before reaching the much built up waterfront I had to do a double take. I heard some scratching in the rocks that didn’t register and on looking back I saw two chickens and a rooster pecking for food in the gravel just off River Valley Road. I stopped to watch for a minute- I hadn’t even given it a second thought at first but then kept wondering where they were from and how they’d got there. I’d seen some before way outside the downtown area but never right in the middle of it. For as modern as Singapore currently is, it’s not that long ago that this would have been a much more common sight as even some friends the same age as me grew up in some of the last kampong fishing villages 30 years ago. Singapore’s always got something going on…

Warm Welcome back to Singapore??

It's been just over a week since I've returned to Singapore from San Diego and Sacramento but only just yesterday did I receive my welcome back present. After returning home from work and changing to go on a run I realized my running shoes were missing. Normally I keep most of my shoes outside my door which should be safe since it's a gated condo building and there should be no other people passing by my door since the elevator only serves two apartments- Mine and my neighbor's who is only there a few weeks a year...but it seems it's not as safe as I used to believe since someone came in and stole my Nike's.

The most bothering thing is there's nothing I can do. After talking with some Singaporeans it seems this is pretty common and I got no empathy. After talking with the building grounds keeper he assured me no one could have made it passed the locked gate to steal my shoes and even if they did that my shoes would be too big for any Asian to wear so no one would have stolen them though I don't find this logic especially sound. I wasn't reassured and re-pointed out that someone obviously had made is passed the gate and stolen them since they were missing.

What miserable people to wander outside peoples’ doors stealing their shoes. And now I feel miserable that I have to keep all my shoes inside my door. At least I didn’t have my shoes robbed on the street at knife or gun point while I was wearing them like I’d heard about years ago in LA (the odds of which should be extremely low, though) - no, I really doubt that would ever happen in Singapore! Instead everyone here just knows and accepts that if you’re naïve (or stupid?) enough to leave your shoes outside your door you deserve to have them stolen.

Singapore Rainbow

Walking home from work on the first day after getting back from the Philippines I saw this rainbow- One of the few I remember seeing while here

progress

A picture of the constuction site that's been next to my condo since I've moved in. It's getting close to being finished and it's starting to look a lot better than the pit in the ground that was there when I moved in.

Taken Jan 2007

Kampong Buangkok

A couple weeks ago I heard about a place in Singapore - the last remaining kampong (village) on the island. By 'last remaining kampong' it means it's the last village where people were originally living in Singapore before they were cleared to make room for either private investors or for the Singapore Housing Development Board to build government flats. Kampong Buangkok. After doing some quick research to make sure this place really existed and to locate it on a map, I met up with my friend, Fal, and we rode our bikes out to take a look. Despite the vague directions on the map, it was actually very easy to find and pretty much as I expected from the information I'd found on other websites: very small- you can walk through it in about five minutes, surrounded by HDB flats and a little bit of remaining jungle, and it even had the chickens roaming around freely. The unexpected observation I didn't understand was all the junk strewn around the whole village. Tons of it. We assumed it was being sorted and sold for scrap by the inhabitants rather than just collected, but despite the seeming state of poverty, there were also signs of money, lots of money! like the Benz parked outside one of the houses for example which was one of many other cars there. It's rumored that the rent for these places is in the tens of dollars per month, which at least I consider cheap, but still, cars are expensive here. I wonder what the people who live here do for a living. They seemed cool though, all pretty relaxed and indifferent but friendly towards us walking our bikes down the main path through the village, sections of which were not paved. Meaning they were not paved with asphalt or bricks or cobblestone even, but with carpet- which I find not only resourceful and inventive, but also classy (no it's wasn't red carpet though). Speaking of money though, the land has been reported to be valued at anywhere between 20 to 80 million dollars but the owner is unwilling to sell to private investors because the inhabitants like the life there as it is. However, they also realize that if the government wanted to take over the land there is nothing they could do about it, as in Singapore the government has eminent domain and can take over any land as required, as I understand. It's interesting though that along the kampong there are definitely signs of government public works like the cement storm drains borderign it. On one of the websites, I read that that flooding during major rains in one of the major problems the community faces. In summary, I'm glad we went to take a look and see the kampong as it's an ongoing part of Singapore's past which in many other cases has been left behind to modernization.

Kampong on Lorong Buangkok

Kampong Benz

I found this video segement about the village on youtube. Well, it's not the full story but you can see some more of the kampong

Happy Birthday

It's Independence Day for the US! at least here it is already... but unfortunatly no one really celebrates it here and can't have fireworks. Maybe I'll see some fireworks shows on TV.

so crowded

Singapore is a crowded city. It's getting so crowded now that I can look out my window and see people straight across from me... and I live on the 7th floor. Of course these people are the construction workers building the new condo adjacent to my building which has little by little been increasingly blocking my view each and every day over the last 5 months though. The progress has now reached a new height equal to my floor giving me the unique opportunity, at least for a few weeks, to look out my window and look at them looking back at me looking at them.

To compare, or contrast depending on your inclination, here is the view I used to have out the same window in the fist picture above. The new view is not as nice in my opinon... but soon it will be worse- a wall only I think.

The garden

Since i live in a condo, I don't have a yard for any plants. I do have a balcony which is really too small to even walk out onto so I decided to make use of it and started growing a some plants a few months ago. Basil, sunflowers, avocado tree, chinese celery, lavender, and hot chili peppers. I started the basil from seeds and wasn't sure if it would grow very well in the heat here but so far there's a ton of it- it's all still to small though so I'll have to keep it alive a while longer so it can get big enough to eat. I don't know what to do with the chinese celery...at first I thought maybe it was similar to cilantro/coriander- it looks almost the same but it's so different. I can't find mint anywhere but I want some as a renewable source for mojitos- I'm sure it would grow really well here (meaning faster than I could consume it in mojitos). I need to find it somewhere! You know, at first I thought growing plants on that balcony would be so easy because they should get plenty of sun and water with all the rain every day.* The last week has been extraordinarily sunny and dry though and it seems like there's no humidity at all... almost perfect weather for people... but much more dry than I thought for the plants. So imagine my surprise when I returned from work today and all the plants were bone dry and wilted. I couldn't believe! I will need to make a point to water the plants every day since it seems the natural Singapore weather will not sustain them as I planned. The avocado tree is growing fast though which is nice- Avocado grows well in SE Asia though so I'm not that surprised, Indonedia is one of the top avocado producing nations. I just hope this dry spell doesn't go on too long... I don't know if I care bare it without the rain much longer ~grin~

*I'd heard stories about people growing such huge fruits and vegetables in Alaska when they get like 20 hours of sun every day and how in Thailand when they grow grapes for their wine they get two crops a year which presents them with a problem about how to label their vintages... should they throw one of the harvests out or should they try to combine the grapes from both harvests or should they keep the second crop from producing grapes at all? who knows! because they have no idea how to make wine in Thailand yet!

so far so good

Wow, I'm surprised how many people were concerned about my bad horoscope for the year of the rat. I don't really take it that seriously and am sure this year will turn out fine especially since I'm still not Chinese yet after living here for just over a year.

the year of the rat

Xin Nian Kuai Le!
or as I hear more commonly in Singapore: Gong Xi Fa Chai!

Yes, that's right it's Chinese New Year (or Lunar New Year to be sensitive to all those non-Chinese who also celebrate the lunar calender)! Happy new year.

(some nice music to listen to for the year of the rat)

So, it's now the year of the Rat and what is in stall for me this coming year? Well, imagine my shock while reading the Chinese horoscopes, finding out it's going to be a duzy for me (born in the year of the Horse) this coming year!

This does not look like a very good year for the Horse in the year of the Rat.
The list of things to look forward to over the next 12 months:
-Obstacles in my career path
-Replacement by a junior member of the staff if I'm not careful
-A complicated love life
-Experience turbulence and lack of self control

And the advice for the coming year (amazingly succinct and vague at the same time):
-Beware of villains
-Don't drink and drive
-Take precaution with spending
-Don't enter investments
-Don't gamble because I'll suffer great loss
-Avoid both auspicious and inauspicious events

I was born in the year of the horse

The giant fortune god. He's so cavalier about passing the news of my bad fortune. He's also about 3 stories high so I won't argue with him.

Chinatown gets very crowded and is covered in lights and decorations for the celebration.

Mickey Mouse!? I was told that mouse and rat are the same thing in China. So there are a lot of decorations that look like mickey mouse (or mini mouse?)

it's thaipusam

this was somewhat of an interesting day. walking to the subway this morning I couldn't help but notice a parade of Indians, their bodies pierced with hooks and rods either supporting giant metal shrines around them or pulling carted shrines attached with hooks to their backs- and then the occasional one with about 30 limes attached to his back with hooks like some twisted citrus christmas tree. each surrounded by an entourage chanting and giving support hoping the human pincushions would materialize their enthusiasm by dancing and spinning in circles while continuing down the parade route. Though this seems like a strange seen, i was unphased, realizing it's just the Thaipusam festival and the parade route just happens to pass just down the street from my place. There is bound to be some significant religious reasoning for this holiday but the details have been lost on me since the first time i ever saw it three years ago (that's what wikipedia is for anyway). The only reason I was shocked today was that one year had passed so quickly since the last one and I didn't realize the festival was today at all.

After work I headed down to the festival and met a few friends, watched some of the parade and had dinner in little india. Since my camera is broken and I don't have a new one yet I'm posting some images from last year and also from 3 years ago when I first saw the festival.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year! this year has really flown by and now it's already 2008! I've been lucky enough survive this year and travel around a lot and get settled down in Singapore. Hopefully this coming year will be even better!

One year and counting-

This past week marked one year living in Singapore and I’m still alive to tell about it. Actually life is pretty easy here. Work is generally fun but sometimes frustrating. There have been some recent developments in my group at work and we’ll start doing some business in Shanghai, China; I really want to go to China- if not to Shanghai for work then on my own for vacation.

In the last year I’ve also been fortunate to travel around a lot:
Siem Reap (Angkor Wat), Cambodia; Bangkok, Thailand two times, U.S. two times; Bintan, Indonesia; India (New Delhi, Jaipur, Agra-Taj Mahal); Batam, Indonesia three times; Koh Samui, Thailand; and Phuket, Thailand. And next week the office is shutting down between Christmas and New Years so I’m going back to Phuket, Thailand for 6 days- not because it’s that exciting of a place and it’s going to way too crowded but it’s easy to plan a trip there at the last minute and it should be nice and sunny. After that, I’m flying to either Bali or Java to spend a few days in central Java to visit Borobudor before making my way to Ubud, Bali to where I’ll meet some friends from San Diego- we’re renting a glass studio for two weeks there, relax, practice glass blowing and have fun.

Wow, life it so good, right! I can’t believe it, right! Well there are some things that I miss (not in any particular order):
-Bar-b-ques- they’re pretty rare here
-Beef that tastes good- almost all Australian beef here- I’ve never really appreciated USDA beef before this
-Good beer- there are some microbreweries here that make good beers but it seems the locals really like their beer sweet instead of hoppy so they’re forced to make the beers more malty than I like- even beers that should be more hoppy like Pale Ales and IPAs,
-Cheap beer/wine- wine is so expensive, even wine that is like $5 USD is more like $12-15USD here. Going out to a bar in some areas expect to pay close to $10USD for one pint of beer.
-Family close by- hmm.. none of my family followed me out here so I don’t get to see them that much.
-Living next to construction sites- well, it’s often loud.
That’s a pretty short list. Not so bad, I guess.

So now some of the good things:
-Easy to travel- 2 hours flight and you can be in a handful of SE Asian countries
-Public transportation- after living in San Diego who could have guessed public transportation could be so convenient. Buses and the subways can get you pretty much everywhere you need to go and it’s cheap. And if you’re in a real rush you can take a taxi that is still cheap compared to most other cities.
-Food- it’s so cheap… depending on where you want to eat. I’m not going to rave that it’s all so good because that seems to be something Singaporeans do here and it’s unjustified- sure there is a lot of food here but to use it to define your country (they call it a Makan Culture) by saying the food is so good/cheap and that they eat so much seems to be a ridiculous thing to do. I don’t think there is that much more food here than any other major city. Sure there are really expensive places you can eat at but there are also a lot of places to get really good local food from all over Asia and it’s generally good –sometimes great and most times cheap. Then there are the hawkers (or street food centers) where a meal costs maybe a few dollars USD.

These lists seem pretty short and sad. I think I should put some more thought into them to express myself better… maybe by next year I have some better lists.

on the subway, II

I don't know why it's seems so strange when you run into someone you know on the subway when this is one of the most densly populated counties in the whole world. I read that over a million people ride it every day which is a lot when there's only about four and a half million people total on the island. Actually though, I don't think I've every really just bumped into someone I know on the subway but I have recognized people on it before. Strangers. Mostly really cute strangers. Just today I swore I thought I saw a friend of mine on the way back from work... but he lives in California so it couldn't have been. Though, he did enjoy Singapore last time he was here...

not a bad day

Yesterday’s events reminded me what an international city this is. For lunch I had wanton noodles with a friend from China then later I walked to Little India to have an Indian dinner with a friend from the UK and he had brought along a girl, Kabi, from Ghana, Africa he met here two weeks ago. After stuffing ourselves we decided to walk around the corner to an Australian pub for a beer. Little India was absolutely packed as it always in on a Sunday since its most of the workers’ only day off and Kabi was amazed because she said she had never seen so many Indians before. The Australian pub was packed because it happened that two Scottish bands were playing there as part of a St. Andrew’s Day celebration unbeknownst to us - these were real Braveheart looking Scottish guys dressed in kilts, playing bagpipes and pounding their drums as hard as they could (I would never have thought 5 drummers and one bagpipe player could be a band). Not a bad day.

A few side notes-
I had never met anyone from Ghana before. I really don’t know anything about it and when she said she had come to Singapore because she was getting away from some trouble back home I didn’t pry. She wanted to know if I had a girlfriend or a wife and couldn’t believe I didn’t. I figured she was looking to marry a westerner here and my UK friend said her sister was living in KL with her Australian husband. After she asked if I was married she also couldn’t believe I didn’t have any children either when she asked that. When I asked her how many children I should have by my age she said at least ten or twenty! She seemed serious, too. My UK friend later told me Ghana must be a very male dominated society -earlier in the night she was talking with her sister on the phone and she put him on the line. The sister was thanking him for being nice to Kabi and said she hoped he would allow Kabi to visit her in KL! As if she would need his permission to travel. Trying to keep from laughing in half shock he had replied “oh, yes, of course. Anytime.”

1st Singapore Thanksgiving

Well, it was my first Singapore Thanksgiving at least. We celebrated last Saturday since we didn't get the Thursday off work and it was a lot of fun. We had a lot of food: turkey, ham, gravy, stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, cornbread, pumpkin pie, cranberries, cranberry salad, desserts, wine... pretty much everything required for sharing a big meal. I think everything turned out really well but the turkey didn't brown like it should have- this was the first time I had used that oven and there's something not right about it. I think it only broils instead of bakes... but it was done and it tasted good. My apartment was pretty full, too, and not having an actual dining table posed a bit a challenge to having a big thanksgiving dinner but we managed.

The biggest challenge without the central table was having the thanksgiving prayer so instead we did it after dinner but before we had dessert. This being the first thanksgiving for a lot of my friends I felt obligated to follow at least some tradition and have everyone say something they were thankful for over the past year- so to make it as painless as possible we all wrote something down on a scrap of paper and then everyone drew one to read and we had one big collaborated statement of thanks. I think it worked out well.


assistant chefs checking the bird

carving the turkey is a serious job

the food

lots of dessert

the group photo

rainy night

this is one of the rainy nights common to Singapore in monsoon season. thunder. lightning. downpours. this afternoon was even sunny which was a nice change from the norm lately of overcast skies but after dinner the rain began and continued for hours trapping us inside a bar (yeah okay, twist my arm to stay!). It's not the rainy season officially but it's not surprising since weather everywhere else in the world has been so strange this year. It's nice to see the distant flashes of lightning lighting up the sky once home safe and ready to sleep, and although the rain and lightning aren't at all surprising anymore it still feels like a nice change since it's so rare back in CA.

anti drug campaigns

In many of toilets, messages from the anti drug campaigns are posted above the urinals. I thought this one had an interesting strategy to dissuade drug use... I guess reflecting just how much importance is placed on the family in Asian culture?

It's begining to feel a lot like:

(select the best answer)
a) Hari Raya Puasa
b) Deepavali
c) Christmas
d) all of the above
e) none of the above

The correct answer is D of course but there have been even more celebrations than these going on recently. In fact, there have been a lot of lights up all over Singapore since September because there is just so much to celebrate in this multicultural melting pot of a city this time of year. Oh, and if you chose E then you're definitely not living in Singapore.

In late September we had the Mid-Autumn Festival, also called the Lantern or MoonCake festival. There are many ways to celbrate this festival I found out including but not limited to "eating moon cakes outside under the new moon" and "putting pomelo rinds on one's head". Then coming up after the calender new year will be Chinese New year or Lunar New Year- the most important holiday in Chinese culture

a) Hari Raya Puasa
This is the Muslim festival marking the end of Ramadan. During this holy month Muslims fast from dawn to dusk then break the feast with family on this holiday with traditional food and delicacies either prepared specially or bought in the neighborhood markets.Late night photos of Hari Raya Puasa decorations in Kampong Glam taken with the camera phone


b) Deepavali
Deepavali is a five day long festival of lights celebrated by Hindus and Jains which symbolizes the victory of good over evil. Because of the large South Indian influnce in Singapore it's called Deepavali while in North India it's called Diwali.Deepavali decorations on Serangoon Road in Little India


c) Christmas
It really is beginning to feel a lot like Christmas around here. I didn't realize how much so until I found my self humming along to "I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas" walking though Takashimaya yesterday. I didn't even have a second thought about it until I walked out the front door and felt the wave of heat great me. I don't think Singapore's had a white christmas in while. Then again, the weather has been very strange all over the world this year so who knows what could happenThe first christmas tree I've seen this year and it was a big one standing four floors high. Of course the scaffolding is still up since it's still under construction...Orchard Road is already lined with Christmas decorations and they were up earlier this week even before Halloween. When you don't have the Thanksgiving Holiday to hold back the Christmas Season like in the U.S.the Christmas shopping season can start up with little warning. Also it's fit that Orchard Road, perhaps Singapore's ultimate tribute to consumorism, would have Christmas decorations to celebrate whats become the true meaning of the season here- commercialism of course. Buy lah!

extra credit-
If you're asking yourself 'what about that other festival of lights holiday coming up I've heard so much about called Hanukkah' I don't know what to tell you. Maybe the Jews don't have a very strong lobby here. I don't recall seeing any decorations for this holdiday yet but I'll keep and eye out.



Some extra photos of Little India with the Deepavli decorations

100M pens

We had a huge celebration though work yesterday since financial Q3 of this year had concluded with the manufacturing division producing over 100,000,000 inkjet cartridges for the first time ever. One quarter being 3 months means they made over 1 Million every day!
And this party must have cost a fortune (well, at least a small one). I'm not sure how much money was budgeted for the party itself but I think it was probably in the millions of dollars in total when taking into account all the lines were shut down for a day and everyone was given two half days off work - yesterday afternoon and this morning- I guess to get ready before and then to recover the next day. In total there were over 3,000 people attending.
So, I thought we had big work parties in San Diego but they're nothing like this. Besides the scale of the party itself, the other huge difference is since this was a manufacturing division party it means about half the attendees were workers on the lines or in the labs. For some reason it also happens that basically all those workers are Chinese or Malay girls and this party (and the other yearly parties the company holds) is just about the biggest deal all year for them so they all get really dressed up for the big night. A lot were completely unrecognizable even after seeing them all day in the lab with their lab coats on and hair in pony tails-and it's not just me...a lot of the local engineers say they can't recognize their test operators at the parties either...
The whole night was a really a blur of cheering competitions, management speeches, cheerleader competition (all were also employees), belly dancing, "HP Idol" competition, audience participation competitions, dancing on chairs (yes, it was recently legalized in Singapore!), and a lucky draw (raffle). Fun lah!