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Out and About at the Races

We’ve been out and about town recently and have taken lots of photos. Last Friday we went to the races. With a little luck we won a sum on three races and managed to break even for the night. I always imagined horse races to be more glamorous than they truly are. Like all forms of gambling there seemed to be a lot of desperate people trying to make a quick buck. In Singapore currently, there is only one other form of gambling which is a very odd sort of lottery game. Next year Singapore will welcome its first casinos. The casinos will offer something like 30,000 new jobs. The government has recognized that there is a downside to welcoming this kind of resort; as result they are imposing an S$100 entrancec fee or a onetime fee S$2,000 for a year. The casinos are also not allowed to extend credit to the local population. I have also heard that if a local wants to enter the casino they have to go through a mini credit check to ensure that their income is over a certain amount otherwise they will not be allowed in.

Further trying to boast the Singapore tourism industry, the government also welcomed the first ever Formula 1 night race. In case you don’t know what F1 is this link should help: http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2007/5/6063.html

The race cars hit speeds near 300 miles an hour. The cars create a noise duller and louder than you could ever imagine that slowly rumbles throughout the island. There were lots of ticket options ranging from pre race events to box seats to the main event walk about tickets, which is what we opted for. I would say that I am glad I went for the story, but for a person who is completely ignorant to racing I found it extremely hard to follow. The course was setup so that only people who had purchased grandstand seats could see live video which meant it was very hard to tell what was happening in the overall race. I think next year I might opt for the luxury of a bar stool instead of a ticket to watch the race.

Our Neighborhood

What does Singapore look like? New, New, New! Singapore is all about luxury and knocking things down to get it. It also cost more to keep in an older car in taxes than just to go out and buy a new car. Lamborghini cars are so common place here that everyone refers to them as "Lambo" (I know it's a bit ridiculous). There are a few pockets of old Singapore that remain. One of them is our neighborhood, Chinatown.

American Club 60th Birthday Party

John and I were lucky enough to snag event tickets to a big annual bash at the American Club. The theme was that you should dress of an era 1950's-1980's. We went all out 1980's. For the most part I would have to say it was a pretty unimaginative crowd, not everyone dressed up. We ate the best food we have had in Singapore -it was a mix of both Western and Asian. The music was top notch- two live bands. There was also fake tattooing, a tarot card reader, and a photographer running around snapping photos that you could pick up at the end of the night. All in all it was good old fashion fun!

Bird's Nest Advert (click on photo to enlarge)

“Malaysia Truly Asia” –Malaysian Bureau of Tourism

About a month ago joined John in Malaysia for part business and part fun. I flew Tiger Airways, an Asian budget airlines with no thrills and a nickel and dime you attitude. They are so budget that they don’t even fly out of the main terminal here in Singapore. They fly out a 1970’s orange and white hanger. The waiting area feels more like a bus terminal than an airport you even walk across the tarmac to the plane. Once on board I was upgraded to an Emergency Excited seat, that’s right up graded. Had I chosen this seat when I was booking my flight I would have been charged extra. A quick 45 minute flight and I was in Kuala Lumpur. Now I had been to the KL airport once before but I had forgotten the exact workings of the place. Immigration took nearly two hours to get through, no sweat I wasn’t in a rush and I had time to notice all the Chinese with surgical masks waiting the quarantine area –no idea why, but glad wasn’t with them! After getting out the airport I booked a taxi and was off. The airport is about an hour outside of the city and I must say Malaysia seems to have a very modern highway system.
Arriving at the Ritz Carlton around dinner; I didn’t know it then but it was turn out to be, “The worst 5 star hotel ever.”(JM) The hotel was one big fat disappointment and we had a list of complaints a mile long: broken sink, missing luggage, missing robes, hand prints in the bathroom that weren’t ours, constant miscommunication with staff and no follow through, and incessant noise –just the tip of the iceberg. Thankfully, the hotel was very reasonable priced, guess that should have been a clue! The most interesting part of staying at the hotel we stayed at were the amount of Arab tourist. I could probably write a blog just on this subject. It turns out after 9/11 Arab travelers no longer felt comfortable in the USA or Europe and they started to flock to KL. I was in what I would say is the most luxurios mall in South East Asia and all of the Arab tourist were snapping up jewels and handbags. The experience was very culturally eye opening.
We had a chance to meet up with an old family friend of mine. Rohan worked for my father about 10 or so years ago when he was a student in Malaysia. He now is happily married with twin boys! He and his lovely wife took us for a traditional and delicious Indian dinner just outside the city, where Rohan grew up. Hopefully, we’ll be able to meet them again the next time we are in Malaysia.
Besides seeing the famous Petronas Towers we also took a tour outside of the city to the Batu caves. These are very scared in the Hindi religion. We walked up 272 steps to reach the opening of a cave that became a natural Hindu temple. One of the fun and kind of nervous aspects of the adventure was that we were surrounded by fairly aggressive monkeys the whole time. I think my biggest problem was that I had seen "Outbreak" one too many times!

So how is life in Singapore?

So how is life in Singapore? I have yet to post any personal thoughts on this very professional blog that Margaret has set up for us, but perhaps that is because I am not sure what to say. I do, however, know that I have an answer to the question “how are you and Margaret doing?” The answer is a simple but all encompassing “great”. While we both share an intense longing for our family and friends back home it is surprising to me how we have come half way around the world and yet feel right at home together.
Together Margaret and I like cooking, reading, swimming in the pool, playing rumicube and watching House or Ugly Betty. We also go out to eat and yesterday went to see the new Batman movie at the Gold Class Cinema, which is a movie theater with only 24 lazy boy recliners and waiters who deliver you food and wine. Intellectually, we like discussing global politics and economics, Singaporean/SE Asain conundrums and family & friends.
One of the best things about Margaret, is how she loves to try new things. This is perhaps self evident in her decision to move here with me, but it means that we are both able to get along very well and enjoy our experiences together. In some cases she is even more outgoing than me. Today, for example, she is volunteering at one of Singapore’s abundant shopping malls to help raise money for the SPCA. Something I think very few Westerners or Singaporeans would choose to spend their time doing. You wouldn’t get me into a jammed packed mall on a Sunday even if my life depended on it.
While finding a job in Singapore has proven to be difficult for her, Margaret has recently been hired as a consultant to work on a 1 week project at a very reasonable wage. In fact she and I were totally surprised at how quickly the company was to engage her, which speaks to her abilities and value. We are hoping that it may lead to a more permanent role, which would most likely see her working from home. Thus, in retrospect, one of the best decisions we have made may have been moving into an apartment close to my office. The fact that it is so close means that I can come home for lunch and share time with Margaret during the day, and if we also decide to foster a puppy for the SPCA I can help take care of it. It also means that the small 2 bedroom apartments we were looking at would have been much more confining vis-à-vis our 3 br place.
For those who are curious about my new job, I cannot comment lest I fall afoul of my company’s HR department. But, let me just say I am happy to be in Singapore. Hopefully you can come and visit soon.

The Land Down Under

We just returned from a trip to Sydney, where we did not catch a glimpse of Crocodile Dundee, but we did spot a Subaru Outback. To be honest most of the cars there were either Ford or Chrysler, who knew!?

Oops

The first part of our trip was a little rough. The flight was long (7.5 hours) and packed. The man sitting next to me was angry at me that I wouldn’t switch seats with him; he simply just wanted an aisle seat. Not mention my seat was starting to fall apart, which leads me take back my stellar review of Singapore Airlines. Apparently, there is a big difference between economy and executive economy. After collecting our luggage and breezing through customs we headed to the money exchange, only to discover all of our Traveler’s Cheques to be missing. Realizing that they likely were on the immigration checkpoint counter, John frantically tried to convince an airport official to go and look. I suspect they only look half heartedly as they came up with nothing. We got in a cab, a bit stressed, but hopeful at least it wasn’t cash :/ It took us nearly a week to get replacement cheques, which we now would like to dispel the myth that traveler’s cheques are easy to replace. Thankfully we weren’t penniless because it turned out that I had accidentally packed my jeans in the wrong suitcase and they never made it to Sydney. So I spent the first couple of days of our trip in my dress pants. I did manage to find a pair of jeans on clearance for $30.

The Pope

Realizing all was not lost we pushed forward our first day in Sydney. After grabbing a bite to eat things started to get better. We headed off to find…the Pope! It turned out that at the same time we were in Sydney so where nearly 200,000 pilgrims who were attending World Youth Day. These pilgrims where made up of mostly 16-18 year olds who ran around (Left- Starting to feel a little crazy)the city screaming “Oy, Oy, Oy!” or stopping on the street to tell passerby that “Jesus Loves You.” (Above- Swiss Guard aka Men in Black Pope Security)We spotted them saying mass at the harbor, on cliffs, on the beach, in parks, in churches, outside of churches. We even heard a gaggle waiting for a ferry chanting, “We love Pope.” John and I waited about 2 ½ hours to see the Pope in his Pope-Mobile. It was an extremely disappointing event. It turned out the Pope’s security got nervous and he flew by going at least 25 mph. We had to laugh when the following day a news caster announced “Slow Down Pope!” He was much smaller than I imagined.

Wine

Realizing the city was swarming with semi-idolatry Pope loving youth, we decided to head for the hills. More specifically, Hunter Valley –Wine Country! John and I believe (besides seeing old friends) this was the highlight of our trip. The weather was ideal, blue sky and about 70 degrees. It was such a welcome change from the noise and hustle of Singapore. We stopped at a small village to test their “jungle juice [port]” and munched on delicious scones. It reminded me so much of Maine and its tiny villages. From there it was on to Mount Pleasant Vineyard, started by the McWilliam’s family, for a tour, lunch and of course a tasting. Even though it was winter there was still much to see and explore. The people in our tour group where fairly lack luster except of the driver and a couple (in their 80’s) from Tasmania. Of course I had to mention the movie “Young Einstein” to them although the more serious topic became the Tasmanian Devil, which has been inflicted with a very serious facial type cancer that is killing them off in droves. (Even at the zoo they were not to be found). We dined on fish and chicken while sampling four different wines and then John I headed for the wine tasting counter where we settled on a very nice 1979 Limited Reserve port. Next we touched down at the McGuigan Vineyard. We started to notice a trend of Irish Surnames. Ironically, the Irish had a large hand in the wine industry of Australia. Which may have stemmed from the fact that many of the early settlers/prisoners were Irish. Also, it should be noted that Yellow Tail is exported at a cheaper price than you can purchase it in Australia (much to the chagrin of many an Aussie). Here we learned about Muscato and Semillon wines which we have never seen in the US. Our third stop on the tour was to a shopping village that reminded me of the outlet shopping areas of NH and Maine. We were told a wealthy man’s daughter wanted to get married but she couldn’t find her perfect church. Her father not only built her a church, but also a small hotel to house the wedding guests, later came the shops. Beyond these more popular locales we stopped at are many small family run vineyards where you can only purchase their wine at their shops. There are also weekend homes sprinkled all over the countryside and some had their very own mini vineyards.

Food

We had a pretty difficult time finding food in Sydney that did not cost an arm and a leg. Pub fair seemed to be far and few between. If you wanted anything after 9pm the situation got even worse. The best meal we had was in Surry Hill a trendy Brooklyn like part of town. Billy’s was recommended by one of the porters at the hotel and he couldn’t have been more right. I am still dreaming about the Oysters and the amazing chocolate pudding, which was something between a soufflé and a molten brownie served with both a chocolate and a cream sauce. YUM!! After dinner we took a stroll, hit up a trendy local bar and found a bar/restaurant called the White Horse. For those of you who don’t know there is an amazing restaurant in Jersey City called the Light Horse. We found this hilarious as there is also Sam’s Warehouse instead of Sam’s Club, and a Hungry Jack’s instead of a Burger King. Our food binge continued with our friends Sara and Tracy. They took us to a German eatery where the beer was big and the Schnitzel even bigger. What I didn’t realize before my trip to Sydney is that there is a strong German influence there. You can pretty much find Schnitzel anywhere. A few days later we took a ferry ride across the bay to a town called Manly where John’s friend Sara, who he met in Japan, took us to a great restaurant where we had more yummy Oysters and KANGAROO! It’s quite delicious. We were also treated to a very special dinner our last night in Sydney by John’s (Below-Kangaroo served rare) friend Don from work, where we dined on more fabulous Oysters and very trendy Italian.

Zoo/Bondi Beach/Sydney Harbour

Sydney offers some breathtaking view and sights. According to all the tour guides it's the most recognized city in the world...I happen to know some New Yorkers who might beg to differ. Alias it pretty spectacular. The Sydney Zoo was stellar. All of the animals seemed to be very up beat and aside from some annoying tourists who insisted on touching all the animals the experience was A+. John's friend Sarah was kind of enough to show me around the dazzling Sydney water front areas including the famous Bondi Beach while John was at work. One really neat thing I saw was the salt water pools that are installed along the coast and fed by natural waves that will crash over into the pool. We also came across a cooky homeless person living on the edge of cliff. The authorities don't seem to mind, but from time to the person gets kicked off (not literally), but he always returns. You can't beat the view.

Next Stop Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia....

Burgers, Freedom Fries & Fireworks

In case you were worried that we not be able to enjoy a typical 4th of July, breathe a sigh of relief. We ventured out to the US Military Officers Club, Terror, where America proudly showed off the best that she's got. They brought in Fireworks, Miller Light, Cheeseburgers, Coleslaw, and Funky 70's classic hits band from Malaysia.