Singapore's very own Chinatown!

Chinatown. You can find these almost anywhere around the world. Its an ethnic enclave of expatriate Chinese people, although it is often generalized to include various Southeast Asian people. Being the largest ethnic group, Singapore's chinatown is considerably less of an enclave than it once was. However, the district does retain significant historical and cultural significance. Large sections of it have been declared national heritage sites officially designated for conservation by the Urban Redevelopment Authority.

The best time to visit chinatown is of course, near Chinese New Year. But I strongly suggest not going there during the CNY. It will be too crowded to even move around, let alone trying to pictures or having a nice dinner. A week before CNY is just right. Everyone is in a celebratory mood, the atmosphere is great, but the streets are still bearable.

Things to look out for are traditional chinese candies and delicacies, chinese new year knick knacks, and great chinese food. Go see the Budha Tooth Relic Temple. Scour the place, don't just go to see the giant Budha, ransack the place. You'll be amazed of what hidden gems you might find there.

When walking the streets, try to take the back-streets, the alleys, the road less travelled. Its not only a good way to avoid the crowd, but you'll get to see the 'behind the scene' things that makes chinatown the way it is. Here are the pics from this hunt. Enjoys peeps!

Alight at Chinatown MRT station

Walking the streets

Corner of the road

Your friendly fruit seller

Travelling with kids is okay!

And its baby-proof!

Serenity

Entrance of the temple

Bowl of prosperity

Three and one

Pathway to Nirvana

Clarke Quay to MBS

Here it is. If you've never been to Clarke Quay, Singapore, you're missing a lot! Its beautiful, its vibrant, loud fun music, great food, and just that oh so lively atmosphere.

For one thing, Singapore's weather is just nice. Not too hot, not too cold. So enjoying outdoor activities can actually be enjoyable! In this hunt, I went to Clarke Quay by MRT, alighting at The Central, just opposite of the Quay. After a nice picture hunt at the Quay, I went to Marina Bay Sands. How did I get there you might ask? Well by using a boat of course! Because using MRT and taxis are too mainstream. Like a boss!

Using these so called 'water taxis', we get a different view of the Quay and MBS. Its just a short journey through canals, and getting off at Esplanade. After that, its a short walk over a double-helix bridge, and then, MBS. When reaching MBS, ask the people there about the water and light show. They usually play it every hour or so. Its something worth seeing when you are at MBS. Heres some pics from this hunt. Enjoy!

Alighting from The Central

Hanging out with friends

Vibrant colors

Water works

Having a splash

The rainbow effect

Cool dude on the double-helix bridge

MBS from the helix

Water and light show at MBS

BB in Singapore

Right now I’m so psyched! Just upgraded my BB9900 OS to the latest one, and let there be mobile hotspot! That means that I can connect to the internet via my laptop anywhere I go, as long as I have my BB with me. Some review even writes that this new OS can give better battery life than before, which is a huge deal for me.

As I was scouring the net on this new OS, I came across a blog. Its a BB review blog from Singapore. Why was this interesting? Because its very difficult to actually find any info, store, and anything that has to do with BB in this island of a nation. People here are iPhone, iPad, iPod and every thing that starts with ‘i’. Hardly anyone uses BB. Unlike in its neighbor Indonesia, which is the world’s largest BB consumer.

I guess it has something to do with the people here are more of a commuter than in Indonesia. I see people here use their Apple phones and pads to entertain them on the way to work or home while they are sitting (or standing) in the MRT or buses. Unlike in Indonesia (Jakarta to be precise) where you seldomly see this kinda thing. Thats because there, there are not many commuters. Most of the people either use cars or motorcycle to get them around. So they have no time to actually be bored, or have the space to be entertained. So the only thing they need out of their phones and pads are for communication purposes only. Which is the very essence of blackberry.

For a blackberry user, you would understand this. BB Messenger is far more superior than any other messenger out there. How? They have what you call an integrated group messaging system. You can manage group events through the Group function in a BBM, manage assignments of tasks, share pictures and comment for each specific picture (like in Facebook), send all kinds of files, send voive notes directly from BBM, and many other. BBM is no doubt, the best messaging app out there, well in my opinion at least. Also, you can see whether a chat that you sent was delivered, and was t read or not. So your friends cant say something like “Sorry bro, didn’t read your chat” when the chat said ‘R’ (read).

But maybe, all these things that makes BB great, doesnt really appeal to Singaporeans. They want games and apps and tunes and videos and any other thing that can entertain them when they are on the move.

But all that is starting to change. Usually, you dont have a Blackberry Singapore website, where you can buy stuff, ask questions, and get customer support for BBs in Singapore. But recently the Singapore website is up. I see more and more people using BB users on the train. I can see mobile phone stores are now also selling BB products such as casings and chargers and etc. And now this.

sgberry.com/blog

Me? I use BB. Yes, there were times that the phone was such a pain that I have thought of actually crossing over to iPhone. My BB9900 likes to ‘think’ a lot. Deep, long thoughts. At first I can bear with it, but more and more this phone is becoming such a nuissance. But I can never justify myself to actually buy one. I mean, I dont like playing games on my phones, or watch videos. I just need my phone for calling, chatting, and listening to music. Thats it. Thankfully, blackberry is now getting better. The OS are faster, the battery can go longer, the apps are more user oriented.

I just hope that these improvements are still improving. I’m not saying that its not good enough, just that I think if RIMM wants to be able to grab the market, they need to unleash more of these gimmicks for the crowd. That way, I wont find any problem to ‘maintain’ my blackberry needs in Singapore.

Hong Kong here we come!

Well, hello there

Its been awhile since my last post. I've been busy with a lot of things, such as getting married :)

Wedding ceremony in traditional South Sumatra custom

Yeah, I'm taken! Thank god for that! LOL

So anyway, this month, I'm going to Hong Kong with my wife for my late honeymoon. Never been there before, dont know what I'm expecting. I heard its quite a busy place and there is so much to do. The plan is for me to be there for 7 days and 6 nights. The first place to visit? Disneyland of course! I confess. Yes I am a Disney freak. I love animated movies, solid and touching stories, magical characters, and great songs all rolled into one. Its like having a salmon maki sushi with mayonaise, ginger and the soy sauce in one bite. How good is that!?

Other than Disneyland, my wife said that she wanted to visit some shopping place just outside of HK. Shenchen? Shenzhen? I really don't know. We are still planning our itinerary for this trip and what to do list. 

Why HK you may ask? Well, it all started when my friend told me that she just went to Maldives with her mate and had a blast there. Romantic wise, and beach wise. Then she asked me have I gone to my honeymoon yet. With a straight face I said to her that I have not. Next thing I knew I was surfing the net with her, looking for some cheap flight. HK was on the list of promotion from Singapore Airline. So then I called my wife and asked her whether she wants to go to HK for our honeymoon and she said yes.

Minutes after that, I was entering my debit card number and punching in my 'secret' code. And just like that, we decided that we want to go to HK. A bit of a sudden? Definitely. But I think its a good thing. Without that push from my friend, who knows when we actually go to our honeymoon.

The planning for the trip is still in motion. I kinda have some idea, inputs from my friends who've been there a couple of times. But still need to do some research.

Anyway, I'll write another piece (hopefully) about the honeymoon adventure. Can't wait!

Snap snap!

Now this is something I'd never think I would do.

A colleague of mine asked me whether I wanna join her and her boyfriend to go prawn-fishing. Yes, fishing for prawns. And I thought you could only use a net to catch prawns like those fishermen. How more wrong could I be! And on a sunday morning we went!
The place was actually quite nice, its called Bottle Tree, don't ask me where or which Bottle Tree, or even what a bottle tree is, cause all I did was sit back and enjoy the ride.
And then we arrived..

To tell you the truth, it wasn't quite what I expected. A bit small, and we were on dry land. I imagined it to be a big park, with a big pond, and a boat to which you can ride on to the middle of the pond and do some prawning (?). But instead it was a small.. pool, with old folks circling around it with their fishing rods. And let's not forget the joyful screaming of kids playing with fishes and other watery creatures. So its not surprising that I was a bit hesitant at first, but you can't say no, cause that's the only reason you are there, and you don't want to let your friend feel like she wasted her effort to bring me here. Hence, the fishing rod in my hand.
After awhile struggling to stick the bait to the hook, and waiting for prawns to try to nibble on it, I find that this is quite fun. Surprise surprise. And what a thrill after you finally caught your first prawn, and your second, and your third and fourth! In the end, I was actually enjoying myself with the company of my friend and her BF. Then comes the part where you have to watch the prawn being cooked alive. That's sad. Followed by another joyful time when you ate the cooked prawn.

I promise myself that one day I'll go prawning again, maybe I'll take my soon-to-be wife and hopefully she can enjoy it like I did. I wonder if I can make a company gathering and do a prawning competition. That sounds like fun!
Sent via BlackBerry from SingTel!

A first time for everything

Well, okay, here's the deal. I’ve been living in Singapore for about a month now and I’m not yet adjusted to the way things are run around here. Sure enough I’m getting the hang of it. I have been to Singapore a couple of times, mainly for recreational purposes. This makes it the first time I got here to actually working and living. It is unsurprisingly quite scary and somewhat confusing. They have so many rules here! You can’t do this, it’s against the law to do that and so forth. I am well aware that Singapore is a FINE COUNTRY, where everything you do could be fined, as many of the Singaporeans like to joke out about this, but I never really paid any attention to it till I was actually living here. Can’t believe that a month back I was still living and planning my life in Jakarta. That one phone call changed everything!

It was Pak (Mr.) Omar that one fine day called me that he have read the resume that I sent out to the company where he works in, and agreed to hold an interview for me for the job that I was applying for. A couple of weeks later he called again and said ‘Following the interview we had a few weeks back, we would like you to join our company here in Singapore’. And as I hang up the phone I know there’s something big that’s about to happen. I realize that this could be the ticket out to a grand new adventure into the unknown, a chance where I can learn and really test me both professionally and un-professionally. This thing that is about to happen meant that I have to leave my family behind, my friends, my clients, my car, my house, the place that I use to hang-out, that food stall that I use to buy my favourite snack. This means I have to leave my life behind in Jakarta. It was a strange feeling of excitement, scared, happy, sad, all mix into one gigantic weight that I know I must burden myself with. A few minutes later I called my fiancée, telling her the news that I got a call from Singapore. I knew she had the exact same feeling like I did, don’t know how to react.

Now, a month into living in Singapore, still can’t seem to get that burden off my chest yet. But I am sure one of these days it will eventually disappear. Maybe if I start hanging out more often, trying to mingle more with my colleagues, and putting myself out there, I will make it go away. But that’s actually the hard thing right?