Back in the US

I'm back in the states now for almost 2 weeks. I'm in Oregon and it's freezing here. Everyone's has been going on about the warm weather since it's been in the high 40's this week! Yeah, I know it's pretty ridiculous but it's so easy to get used to the warm tropical weather in Singapore. I really miss the warm rain vs the cold, windy rain here in Oregon.

Over the weekend I stayed at my friend Kirvan's house and the plan was to go snowboarding on Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday, I found out the snow was pretty bad and I was very jet-lagged so we skipped on boarding for Sunday. Instead I took a nap and watched the Super Bowl which I think was the first game I saw all season.

On Friday I'm flying down to Sacramento to Nathan's house and the plan is to try Tahoe for snowboarding on Saturday and then some wine tasting on Sunday. It's really a rough life.

Since I've been back, I've really taken the opportunity to have as much pizza as possible. It's almost impossible to get good western food, especially pizza, in Singapore. Actually I've been eating western junk food almost exclusively since I've been here....a lot of burgers and pizza. mmmmmm!

Catching Up

I'm getting very far behind on my postings as I'm still getting used to actually using this blog to keep track of what I'm doing and experiencing here in Singapore. I'll have to make a better effort to keep it up to date.

I’ve been in my new apartment for over a week now and I’m starting to get some furniture. I had a few things delivered today and most importantly I’m having a carpet delivered tomorrow so I’ll have something else besides hard tile to sit on until my couch arrives.

Last night I went to an art opening at the National University of Singapore Museum called Objects and Desire. It was from a program that sponsored 8 artists from different countries to come live for 3 weeks and make art based on their experiences w/ Peranakan culture (this was from the people called the Straights Chinese who were of Chinese ancestry but had adopted mostly Malay practices here on the island of Singapore). I had met a few of the artists a couple weeks back at Jane Cowie’s house (she is running the hot glass studio I’ve found here).

Sentosa Island
A few weeks back, my friend Jenny who I had met up with in Cambodia to see the Angkor temples near Siem Reap arrived in Singapore. She was about halfway though her month long trip around SE Asia and she stayed here for a few days. This forced me to do some of the tourist things I’d never done here … one of those things was going to Sentosa Island. You can see the pictures on my Flickr site here. Sentosa turned out to be much better than I thought it would be. The aquarium was great and had an underwater tunnel you could walk though, the pink dolphin show was strange (no one else thought it was strange that the dolphins were pink), and the laser/fountain show at night was very impressive. Much better than the fountain show I’ve seen in Vegas. The show ended with fire balls and lasers coming out of the Merlion’s head. Quite a show.

The fountain show.

These are the Merlion's lasers.

new diggs

I was able to move in to my new apartment last Saturday morning and I received my shipment from San Diego. When I unpacked it I was surprised with what I found. It would have been very smart of me to have packed at least one thing I could at least sit on since I have no furniture now. I'm starting to look for furniture fast since having a completely empty place with such hard tile floors isn't as much fun as you'd think. The good thing is that I have a bed since the owner provided a new one as part of the lease agreement. I'll have to get some sheets for it soon, too.

After living in the new place for a few days I've found out that it really is in a good location. It's within about 5-10 min walk to all the subways lines. It's also very close to several of the art schools, museums, galleries, and the National Library. Being so close to Little India there is also a lot of good Indian food around. The construction has turned out to not be that bad since it's only going on during the days (so far). I have to put up w/ it on the weekends but by the time I get home during the week, it's usually finished.


Here's a link to some pictures

Moving out, again

It's been almost two weeks since I've had a chance to update this page but that doesn't mean nothing's been going on. The most important news is that I can finally move into my permanent housing... actually in about 30 minutes. My agent supplied by the relocation company is going to pick me up and take me over to get the keys for the new place. Let me tell you finding a place was not easy. While I was just re-packing all of my things I found the paper showing all the places I had viewed. This one that I'm taking was number 30! But it was worth the wait. It should be a great location and I'll be able to take the subway to work and back. Though, I have heard some stories that hill it's on is haunted by a female Malaysian vampire who floats around late at night. So the neighborhood has some character.

Little India scout

It was a sunny day again so I decided to go out and walk around Little India. I've been looking at a lot of apartments w/ my relocation agents since I arrived trying to find something that I can afford and also something that's decent and in a good location. I saw one yesterday that would be really good and it's pretty central to Little India, Orchard Road and the marina. I've walked through Little India before but I wanted to explore the area a little more to see what it would be like living there. I took a shuttle from my temp apt to Harborfront MRT (subway) station and then took the MRT to Little India since I would do the reverse trip for part of my commute to work on the subway. It wasn't bad; only 5 stops so it went pretty fast.

Little India is supposed to get packed on Sundays and it was pretty crowded for sure. It was also hot. It turns out the apt would be in a really good location and close to a lot of things to do, and the subway. The only downside to the apartment's location is a construction site across the street where they're building a shopping mall. It's pretty loud work they're doing but I figure it could only last a few months...plus that is why the apartment is affordable since otherwise it would definitely be shown for more money. I got some very delicious Indian food for late lunch then headed back. What an exhausting day!

Botanic Gardens

The rain let up today and it was so sunny I decided to spend some time outside at the botanic gardens. These gardens are a real haven from the rest of the busy city and plus they're very nice! I had never been here on any of my previos trips to Singapore and I wasn't sure what to expect because they never seemed that exciting but after seeing the park I was really impressed. I think it's a lot like Balboa Park in San Diego: a huge maintained garden open to the public in the middle of a busy city.

The Tanglin Road entrance to the garden

Singapore national flower: Vanda Miss Joaquim. It's a hybrid between the Vanda hookeriana and Vanda teres orchids. Apparently Miss Joaquim owned the garden where the hybrid was first made.

It's amazing how much diversity exists in the park. There is a Sun Garden featuring different types of cacti and succulents...
...then only a few yards away it's a rain forest.

Some turtles hanging out on a wooden walkway

A reflexology walking path. It feels good.

A waterfall. It feels nice and cool under here.

Angkor Temples

Between the week of Christmas and New Year's I took a vacation to visit the ancient temples of Angkor near Siem Reap, Cambodia. I met up with my friend Jenny and her cousin Paul on Trursday morning and she had arranged to have an offical guideon Friday, Saturday and Sunday which turned out to be a very good idea since otherwise we would have had very little idea of what we were seeing. This left Thrusday for us to explore the city of Siem Reap.
One thing I noticed very quickly was that there were bars set up on corners all over the city with bottles and bottles of Johnny Walker Whiskey.

Our tuk tuk driver stopped at one of them and called out something in Cambodian to the bartender. All right! this is my kind of driver.
She came over with a bottle of Black Label in one hand and a funnel in the other. They seem to be very serious about their drinking here. However she kept walking and went straight up to the opened gas tank and poured the whole litre in. Turns out it wasn't whiskey at all but instead: gasoline (I'm assuming).
I have to admit those are some very different gas stations. I've never seen anything like it. Gas cost a little less than $1USD per liter since we got three pieces of fruit back as change to the bill the driver handed her.

The temples:

We started our tour on Firday morning and visted Angkor Thom, Prasat Kravan, Ta Prohm (of Tomb Raider fame), then Pre Rup for the sun set. It was a full day.

Saturday we woke early to view Angkor Wat at sunrise.

After sunrise we returnd to Pre Rup to see it in the day light, then continued to East Mebon and then a long drive to Banteay Srey know for it's intricate and well preserved carvings.

After we Banteay Srey we a few more temples, Ta Som, Neak Pean, and Preah Khan before calling it a day. On the last day we visited Angkor Wat again, this time after sunrise we it was light enough to explore the temple and miss the early moring crowd. You can view more of my pictures here.

Bangkok Bombings: New Year's Eve

I had to leave early on Sunday to fly to Bangkok for one night before heading back to Singapore. Jenny and Paul were flying to Bangkok later that day to meet and celebrate New Year's eve. Our hotel was near Khoasan road and the streets were packed. After walking around for a while I returned to khaosan road where there was a stage set up for the countdown to the new year. Shortly after the hosts came on stage and told everyone to go check the news and go back to their hotels. Right after that they shut down the stage and started taking it down. Many of the celebrations were canceled due to the bombings that night and there were two waves. One early in the night and one later on just before midnight. Luckily no bombs were set of near us and we were fine. There were a lot of police and military out. shortly after midnight they started walking down the streets shutting everything down. By 12:30pm everything was closed and not letting anyone else in so we went back to the hotel. I woke up early to catch my flight back to Singapore.

You can view more of my pictures here.