Fifteen Hours Ahead

Opening the Circle Line MRT

2009-06-11T15:47:00.000-07:00

Can a train have “new car smell”?

The first day after the official opening, I took an exploratory ride on the Circle Line train. This is the newest train line in Singapore’s Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) system, owned by Singapore’s Land Transport Authority. Not only are the cars and seats all shiny and new, but it has the same new smell that you get from fresh paint, vinyl, and rubber compounds.

Currently, the Circle Line doesn’t go anywhere, so the stations and trains were not very crowded. There are only a few stations open, and the rest of the 29 stations aren’t scheduled to open any time soon. All the Circle Line currently offers is a shortcut between two existing train lines: it connects the imaginatively named North-East line (the “Red” line on the MRT map) to the North-South line (the “Purple” line on the MRT map).

This short-cut is actually kind of nice, because it allows you to cut across town without having to go all the way into the central business district where the Red and Purple lines cross each other. If you want to cut across town, this is helpful. We live on the Purple line, just one stop away from the Serangoon interchange that connects with the Circle Line. So this shortcut gives us easy access over to the Red line and all the stations along the Red line.

For you train buffs, the rolling stock consists of Alstom Metropolis C830 trains running in three-car formation. The three-car length trains are half the size of the other MRT lines. I thought the short length might be just temporary while they finish construction of all 29 stations and grow the number of daily passengers. But the train stations are only long enough to accommodate three cars, so they really don’t have the option to expand the trains.

Looking out the front window is my favorite part of the Circle Line. Unlike the other MRT lines in Singapore, the first and last cars on the Circle Line have forward and backward looking windows, so you can see where you’re going and where you’re coming from. None of the other three lines allow you so see anywhere but sideways.

Here is the two-minute ride from one station to the next:

Get Your Geek On!

2009-05-23T07:28:00.000-07:00

I knew my plans were set when I saw the ad for the Gaming and Electronics Fair coming to Singapore this weekend. Deanna was stuck in statistics class all day, so I was free to fully get my geek on.

The Suntec Convention Center has 6 floors of exhibition and convention halls. The gaming fair was on the 6th floor. For any convention-planning readers who might value these things, it is the largest column-free meeting area in Asia.

Despite the large size and absence of internal columns, the fair still was packed - mostly with boys but also a few girls here and there - all kids about half my age.

Some were quietly playing collectable trading card games. The more aggressive of the crowd (again, mostly boys) were battling each other in the latest mass-networked computer games. I wanted to play too, but I’m not all up on the moves and secret codes required to compete in the newest games. In fact, I was actually hoping to find some older games on sale.

The newest games typically to require too much memory, computing power, or dedicated graphics processing chips to run on my 2 year-old laptop. But I can usually get older games to run okay, so long as they are not too graphic intensive.

I couldn’t find any old games I wanted enough to buy, but I did get to spend a lot of time watching these younger and geekier versions of myself playing the cool new games that I’ll never be able run on my computer.

I also got to spend some time checking out some of the latest gaming hardware.

Now that almost everyone has a high definition flat panel TV, it is pretty standard to have it all connected up to play your X-box, Playstation, and home theater sound system. Gaming now has become so mainstream that its taken over your typical middle-class living room.

You’re almost not a geek anymore: guys, you’re playing on the same setup your mum and dad use for watching American Idol!

Being that I’m probably as old as some of these kids’ mums and dads, it was time for me to move on.

On the way out of the gaming convention, I noticed that there was an early-childhood education convention going on directly below the gaming convention.

Their convention has a cheerful manga-eyed mascot to greet the kids. I didn’t initially realize this was a different convention. I thought it was just another computer character from some new Japanese game being promoted upstairs.

I also discovered a universal truth on my way out: even in an economic downturn precipitated by falling real estate prices, and even at a gaming convention populated mostly with 20-something boys, you can still find some guy pushing dodgy real estate investments.

Having satisfied my inner geek at the game fair, and skipping the chance to make 28.98% return in London real estate, I took the escalators down to the ground floor of the Suntec mall. There was another event in Suntec I needed to find - the Carrefour International Wine Fair.

We’ve lived in California all of our lives within a short drive to some of the world’s best wine regions: Napa Valley, Sonoma County, Mendocino County, Marin County, Monterey County, San Luis Obispo, Paso Robles, etc. So we’ve come to expect great wine at reasonable prices. Once we moved to Singapore, however, we discovered neither.

Singaporeans are not big wine drinkers. And when they do, they don’t typically import their wine from California. They look for nearby regions like New Zealand or Australia. Or even France.

Not that you can’t find good wines from France. They’re just not as good as the ones from California. And when you add in the shipping costs and the Singapore import duties on alcoholic beverages, they’re never reasonably priced here.

Fortunately, the wine fair solved two problems. One: they had plenty of wines from all over the world. And two: they had free samples!

What more needs to be said. The wine fair was a hit! I accepted as many samples as they offered. And took liberal advantage of the sample stations set out for me to pour my own.

Alas, I couldn’t stay long enough to finish all the open bottles - I had to meet Deanna after she finished with her statistics class. Thank goodness for Singapore’s public transportation. A couple drinks in the US, and you’re stranded by blood-alcohol. In Singapore you just hop on the train, swipe your ez-link card, and you’re off to the next party.

But as I wobbled out of the wine fair, I thought about the real estate salesmen stuck upstairs in the gaming convention. They might have found a more receptive customer had they have pitched their booth in front of the wine fair instead.

Triathlon

2009-05-10T04:12:00.000-07:00

According to Wikipedia, the first known swim/bike/run triathlon was held at Mission Bay, San Diego, California on September 25, 1974. It was invented by members of the San Diego Track Club, which sponsored the race. Only 46 participants competed in the race.

Last month, I completed my first triathlon in Singapore. It was sponsored by Tribob Singapore. Nearly 1,000 people entered, and 748 people finished. Technically, the race was classified as a “sprint” distance triathlon, which means it was half the distance of an Olympic triathlon.

The triathlon was the final of a three-race series. They gave me the bib number (374) for all three races:

Aquathlon
Swim: 750m
Run: 5km

Duathlon
Run: 3km
Bile: 15km
Run: 3km

Triathlon
Swim: 750m
Bike: 20km
Run: 5km

Total Combined Distance
Swim: 1.5K
Bike: 35K
Run: 16K

For people participating in all three races, their results are combined for a final overall score. My final position after all 3 races was 60th out of 229 finishers in my age category (men 40-49).

The thing about racing in Singapore is dealing with the heat and humidity. It is pretty much always 80 degrees in Singapore, day or night. And the humidity makes it feel about 5 to 10 degrees warmer still. Obviously this doesn’t much impact your swimming, but once you get out of the water and start biking or running, you really get hot.

A couple of our friends came out and met Deanna at the beach to cheer me on. I only got to see them for a couple of seconds each time I passed the race checkpoints. After the race, however, it was really great to have friends around to congratulate me and buy cold beers.

USS John C Stennis

2009-04-28T07:10:00.000-07:00

There are a few unmistakable symbols of American’s supremacy as the world's surviving superpower. One of the most formidable is a US Navy aircraft carrier strike group.

We recently had the opportunity to tour the USS John C Stennis while it was docked in at Singapore’s Changi Naval Base.

One of Deanna’s cohort in the Rutgers MBA program is a Navy sailor stationed in Singapore. He does not serve on the USS Stennis, but he helped arrange a tour while the carrier was visiting the Singapore base.

The simplest and most obvious observation is that the ship is huge--an entire airport, accompanied by a self-contained mobile city with a population of 6,500 crew and officers.

The city infrastructure is supported by 2 nuclear power plants, and a 400,000-gallon capacity water distillation plant. The city hosts four squadrons of F/A-18 Hornet fighter jets, and five other squadrons of military aircraft. Eight additional ships complete Destroyer Squadron 21 and make up the JCS Battle Group.

We were invited first to walk into the indoor hanger that makes up the guts of the ship. Here is the giant repair shop where aircraft are taken for routine maintenance and upgrades, and for loading and unloading missiles, weapons, or other equipment, as needed.

The hull contained massive rolls of bubble wrap, which we learned are rapidly consumed by the ongoing repair and maintenance operations. All spare parts removed from the aircraft or waiting to be installed must be protected with two layers of bubble wrap at all times when not attached to an aircraft. An additional third layer is required when parts must be shipped away for repairs that cannot be made onboard. You can never be too careful when your worksite houses two nuclear reactors and enough bombs and missiles to police the world.

From these busy, but well-padded internal operations, we next took one of the four aircraft elevators for a quick ascent to the flight deck.

On the flight deck, the crew allowed us to walk right up to the various planes and helicopters. We were able to touch the aircraft and they encouraged us to take photos. The crew members explained how the four catapults launch fighters down the runway and how arrester cables catch them when they return.

It was fascinating to learn that the launch catapults are powered by steam. Even when they are not operating, you can smell the steam and see slight hints of it rising from along the slot that runs the length of the launch deck. In retrospect, it makes perfect sense when you think of a nuclear reactor as just giant pressurized boiler. The four turbine propellers that drive the ship are also steam powered, as is all of the electricity on the ship.

It had been raining earlier in the day, and the sky was still overcast with clouds. But it was still a great view from the flight deck looking back over the other military ships at docked at the base, and out to sea with the crowd of civilian cargo ships waiting to load or unload at Singapore’s busy seaports.

After our return back down the elevator, several of the women got a more personalized tour when they went looking for the women’s restroom. Of the 6,500-strong population, how many do you think are women? “Not many” was the answer. One of the few female crew members was recruited to lead her civilian sisters into the depths of the ship, down steel staircases, and through waterproof hatches that locked behind them, beyond the executive officer Board Room (and the executive Ward Room), until they found the restroom marked “women.”

After our women returned to us safely, we were invited to tour one of the battle group’s support ships, the USS Antietam, a guided missile cruiser. A few of the group took up the offer, but unfortunately, we did not have enough time to stay for the second tour.

Like all good American institutions, of course, the ship also sold souvenirs. We browsed through them before we left, and if they had miniature toy aircraft carriers or fighter jets I definitely would have bought some.

Returning through the naval base, we passed the USS Antietam, and several other ships in the carrier strike group, along with a few other visiting ships from the Italian and Japanese navies. And of course, the Singaporean navy was present in force as well.

Before leaving the base, I paused to use one of the porta-potties placed for civilian contractors wherein I noted three discarded cans of Heineken, an empty bottle of Jack Daniels, and a used Starbucks Venti Frappuccino cup.

Were these of former civilian or military use? Our tax dollar at work?

No word on the comparable contents of the women’s restroom.

Sprint Duathlon

2009-04-03T19:21:00.000-07:00

I completed the second race in the three-race Tribob sprint series. I finished pretty much in the middle of the pack at 281 out of the 620 finishers. According to the final results, my total time was 1:06:26 for the 3k Run - 15k bike - 3k run. Again, I spent too much time in the transitions, but I'm happy with my times.

I finished the first 3k run in 13:56, and then spent 3:06 in the transition to biking. I finished the 15k bike ride in 30:30, and then spent another 2:46 in the transition back to running. In the final 3k run, I took 16:06.

I learned it is much harder to go back to running after the bike. My time for the second run was much slower than the first. I have not trained on any two sports at the same time. They each use different muscle groups, so I think I might have to start doing some combination swimming, biking, and running to get used to switching between muscle groups in the same race.

Having completed the Aquathlon and now the Duathlon, the final race in the series is the Triathlon -- it is coming up soon, so I better get working.

Puerto Galera Philippines

2009-03-19T16:49:00.000-07:00

We took another weekend getaway from Singapore and went to Puerto Galera, Philippines, where we stayed at the Sunset Resort at Aninuan Beach with some friends. We spend the weekend snorkeling, scuba diving, and mostly just hanging out with friends at the beach.

Now we are all back at work.

The Great Gatsby Affair

2009-02-28T18:33:00.000-08:00

We got all dressed up last night to attend the 2009 George Washington Ball presented by the American Association of Singapore. The Theme was "The Great Gatsby Affair" and so we dressed in our best 1920's style clothing.

For the guys it was easy. Put on a hat and an art-deco inspired tie and you're pretty much ready to go. In a pinch, a tuxedo will serve you perfectly well.

For the women, though, it was much harder. You might find a feather boa hiding in the back of your closet, but very few women can just produce a flapper-style dress you haven't worn for a few years the same way a guy might pull out a black pin-striped suit.

We almost didn't go when we couldn't find the "right" dress. But just two days before the event, Deanna found a dress shop with a black dress with beading said 1920s. She even referred a friend who also needed some last-minute flapper fashion for the occasion.

Of course a new dress means new shoes and a new purse, too.

We tried to find a feathered headband to complete the look. We went to a couple different costume stores. But the first one only sold dance costumes, and the other one only had a couple broken, dirty rentals. And nothing in the right color.

We finally decided to just make one ourselves. I found everything we needed in a craft store. As a bonus, they also carried strings of pearls in bulk spools. I spent the last few hours before the ball making a pearl necklace and the beaded feathered headband you see below.

Deanna was a little apprehensive about dressing up at first. After putting everything on together, she thought it might be a bit too much. We've never been to the George Washington Ball before. We have a couple of different friends that went before and they said they always just wore normal formal attire -- just a standard tuxedo and evening gown. This was the first time that they had a theme. All the previous years, it was an ordinary formal ball, so no one knew what to expect.

People must have been ready for a change, because almost everyone dressed up in theme. Some people were dressed more than others, but we definitely fit in fine.

I think having a theme made the affair a lot more fun than just typical black tuxes and dresses. If we're still here in Singapore next year, I hope they continue to have theme events rather than just ordinary formal attire.

Sprint Aquathlon

2009-02-22T00:44:00.000-08:00

Since learning how to swim, I've been training to build up my speed and endurance so I can compete in a triathlon. To motivate me to stay on track, I signed up for the Singapore sprint series.

The Sprint Series consists of 3 races building up to a triathlon.

Race 1 was an Aquathlon - a 750m Swim / 5km Run, at Tanjong Beach on Sentosa Island, which I just completed.
Race 2 will be a Duathlon, a 3km Run / 15km Bike / 3km Run at Upper Seletar Reservoir on the 15th of March 2009.
Race 3 will be the Triathlon, a 750m Swim / 20km Bike / 5km Run, at Changi Beach Park on 19th April 2009.

Before the 1st race, I was mostly worried about swimming because I'm still learning, and I've never had to swim in race conditions. On the other hand, I was not concerned at all about the run, because I know I can run a 5k without trouble. But during the race I swam faster than I expected. And unfortunately, I ran slower than I expected.

I used up a lot of my strength in the swim because people kept crashing into me. I was warned that you get tussled around quite a bit during the swim. But nobody really explained just how many arms and legs would be smashing down on me, pushing me under water or interrupting my stroke. And I never anticipated how much getting bumped disrupts my swimming. In the pool, I have OK timing with my strokes and breathing so I can maintain a steady pace. But in the race, every time I got hit, I lost my sense of timing. It made me swim faster, because I was constantly trying to pull away from whoever was hitting me. But it also made me swim spastically because I got hit from every direction.

I wasted a lot of strength trying to swim away. I finished the swim faster, but by the time I got to the run, I was worn out.

About half-way through the run, my stomach started feeling "hot," and I had to slow down and walk for a bit until it passed. I got better and continued the run, but I was a little disappointed that I had to walk in the middle of the 5k run.

I forgot to note my time when I came through the finish gate, but I think I finished the race in the middle of my age group. They haven't posted the race results online yet, so I'll update the blog when the race timings and standings are released.

Before the next race, I'll put a little more thought into staying calm during the swim. I think I'll also put more effort into my running. Once I get better, I want to move up from the "Sprint" distance to the "Olympic" distance. The Olympic distance is also known as the "international distance" or the "standard course." It will be double what I'm working on now, or 1.5mm swim / 40km bike / 10km run.

But I still have to finish the sprint series before I'm ready to move up to the next distance.

UPDATE:

The final results are out. My times:

750m Swim:	0:17:29
Transition:	0:02:22
5k Run:	0:26:50
Total Time:	0:46:43

Overall rank:	241 of 780
Rank in my category (male age 40-49):	53 of 143

Food Republic

2009-02-16T00:38:00.000-08:00

The Singaporeans have a cozy relationship with food. As I noted in one of our first posts, food is very important to Singaporeans, and they keep plenty of it around, so you'll never go hungry in Singapore.

In fact, Singaporeans find eating so important that they feign sovereign nation status for their eateries. Hence we find pastry shops operating under the name Donut Empire:

There is a popular chain of food courts operating under the name Food Republic:

And you can buy sweets sold at the Candy Empire:

And one more "empire," the Imperial Herbal & Singchi Tcafe:

I Qualified for the Singapore Biathlon

2009-02-11T05:10:00.000-08:00

I just completed my swim trials, and I passed! That means I'm qualified for the Singapore Biathlon on Saturday the 7th of March, 2009.

I'm especially excited because I just started learning how to swim after we moved into our condo here in Singapore.

Its the first time I've had regular access to a swimming pool. And I'm not confident in my swimming. So I've been worried about being able to qualify.

The Singapore Biathlon is a 1.5km open water swim followed by a 10km run. To qualify, they make you complete the full 1.5km swimming distance in under 40 minutes. Judging my own swimming progress, I thought I had about 50/50 chance to qualify. I qualified with a time of 32:28, which is much faster than I expected.

The reason I was doubtful was because I never really timed myself before. The reason I never timed myself is because I didn't own a water-resistant watch.

Actually that's not quite true. I bought a cheap plastic watch that claimed to be water resistant. And it was. Once.

Fortunately, my wife surprised me this week with an officially-licensed Ironman(R) Triathlon watch that is water resistant to a depth of 200 meters. Thats deep. Even on our Big Scuba Weekend in Borneo, I've never been deeper than 26 meters. You need special equipment, training, decompression stops, and special blends of oxygen and nitrogen to get close to 200 meters deep.

This all makes the warning on the watch kind of funny: "Watch is not a diver watch and should not be used for diving." How else do you get to 200 meters if not by diving?

Back to the topic, there is one thing I regret about signing up for this biathlon. When I was registering for the race, I blindly registered for the men's open category. No big deal. But it didn't occur to me that I'm old. I qualify for the men's "veteran" category for age 40 and up.

This was the first time I've been officially classified in a "senior" category for anything. The Singaporeans are pretty strict. Once you register in one category, they won't let you switch. Its against the rules.

Its not going to make me swim any faster or slower, but I think I'd rather to see my results posted against the other struggling 40-somethings rather than all the sprightly members of Gen-X, Y, and Z.

Bali, Indonesia

2009-01-27T19:44:00.000-08:00

We left Singapore during Chinese New Year to spend the holiday in Bali Indonesia. We skipped the touristy areas around the beaches and town of Kota. Instead, we gravitated to the interior of the island, to the village of Ubud.

Ubud Village

The internet informs me that Ubud is not really a single town, but 14 villages that merged into each other as they grew. Much of that growth appears to be centered around the main road of Jalan Raya Ubud, where it crosses Monkey Forest Road.

Bali is not a large island, so Ubud is not far from the International Airport, nor really any of the perimeter of Bali's beaches. But it is still isolated by the long, slow drive along old village roads, frequently narrow and pot-holed from the abundant rain. It took us more than an hour to make the 22 mile drive from the airport.

We stayed in the center of Ubud, on Monkey Forest Road at the Ubud Village Hotel. But even here, in the center of town, surrounded by incessant growth, you can still see terraced rice paddy fields if you leave the main streets and explore behind the hotels. The villagers go about their businesses, intermingling with the tourists here and there, but mostly tending to their own private affairs. We were able to find abundant traditional shops and crafts amidst the mass-produced baubles and trinkets.

Monkey Forest Sanctuary

From our hotel was a short walk to the Sacred Monkey Forest Sanctuary, one of the area's biggest attractions for me. The signs warn you not to touch or tease the monkeys. But you are allowed to feed them, as long as you do so carefully. They even have monkey experts and helpful signs to advise you.

"If there is no monkey expert nearby, please toss the food to the monkeys from a safe distance. Do not hide food. The monkey will find it even if it is in your pocket or bag. If a monkey gets on you, drop all your food and walk away slowly."

This little guy jumped on my back and tried to grab my camera while I was taking photos:

I returned to the Monkey Forest Sanctuary several times. Early in the morning, I found the monkeys out in larger numbers, and more playful than in the afternoon. But I also found the mosquitoes in larger numbers. I suspect the monkeys were questioning why I was so stupid to stand around giving blood to the mosquitoes just to watch them scratch themselves and play with their food.

Rice Paddy Fields

On our second day in Ubud, we rented bicycles and left the center village to explore the surrounding rice paddy fields. We didn't have a map; we just followed different roads out of town.

Along one road, after a long climb, we left the road and turned into the fields at random to follow a narrow path along the rice paddies.

After winding through the fields, the path came to an end. To our surprise, we found an Australian woman walking towards us. Our first thought was to apologize, but she was inviting us to join her.

Rhonda invited us into her garden for a glass of cool water. After brief introductions, we were sitting in a beautiful villa on a raised open-air pavilion covered by a thatched roof. Rhonda was from Australia. She and her husband were restoring the villa, and they had plans to rent it out when completed.

As we sat there however, their plan was delayed with low crashing sound and the appearance of a team of workers looking hesitantly down an incline - their foreman holding his head in his hands.

The crash also produced two of Rhonda's guests, Phil and Elsha, curious about the noise and activity. We joined the construction crew looking down at a scattered pile of large concrete blocks and wet cement. It was all collecting in a pile of mud and water flowing out of the hill that was no longer retained by the wall that was no longer standing.

Rhonda left to assess the damage and negotiate with the construction company.

Phil and Elsha returned with us to the pavilion. They were building their own villa outside the town, and were staying with Rhonda until their construction was done.

As we talked with them, the sky threatened with thunder, and it started raining. We spent the next few hours protected from the rain under Rhonda's thatched roof, talking with Phil and Elsha about politics, philosophy, and the economics of building, owning, and renting out villas. When the rain finally stopped, they joined us back at the main road to continue our conversation over an early dinner at a local restaurant.

Cycling Kintamani and Mt. Batur

After a day of unmapped and unstructured biking through rice paddies, the next day we signed up for an organized bike tour of the Kintamani and Mt Batur areas, and then down through the back roads of Bali to the village of Pejeng.

The easiest part of the tour was the climb to Kintamani - they toted us to the top by van.

On the way up, we stopped at a coffee plantation for Lewak coffee. Not being a coffee connoisseur (or even a coffee drinker), I didn't know what that meant. It turns out there is a little animal the locals call the Lewak that lives in the trees and eats the coffee berries. They cannot digest the coffee beans, which allegedly ferment in the lewak's stomach and digestive tract. This supposedly imparts a richer, heavier flavor.

The lewaks poop these things out like Baby Ruths in Caddyshack, which the locals then collect, clean, and roast like any other coffee bean.

I wish I had learned the full story before I cavalierly ate a few whole beans out of the roasting pan.

After coffee and some local fruit (presumably not processed the same as the coffee), we continued up the mountain for breakfast overlooking Mt Batur and Lake Batur.

Mt. Batur is an active volcano and we could see the still-black scars and burnt trees along its sides. Lake Batur is the largest lake on the island of Bali.

From here we began the real bike trip: an easy descent, as the van already did the hard work bringing us to the top. The ride was incredible, making it easy to overlook a few mishaps due to lackadaisical bike maintenance.

On the way down we followed little back roads, where we met local villagers going about their daily routines. We rode through rice fields and farmland. We passed innumerable Hindu temples and traditional Balinese family compounds. We watched the landscape and villages change as we descended from the cooler mountain air into the warmer wetlands.

We finished the day, riding into the village of Pejeng, where we enjoyed a traditional Indonesian meal, before returning to our hotel for warm showers and lazy swim in the hotel pool.

Bangkok, Thailand

2009-01-07T16:20:00.000-08:00

We took a weekend getaway to Bangkok back in November. But I never updated our blog or posted any photos until now. I blame facebook.

I blame facebook for making it easy to update my current status without actually writing anything of substance. Facebook gives me a superficial feeling similar to writing a blog, when really all I've done was written "Eric is at work again."

Our trip to Bangkok was just a couple of weeks just before anti-government the protestors took over the parliament offices and shut down the international airport. In Thailand, there is some form of politically-inspired violence almost every day. But we felt safe the entire time we were there; in fact, we were looking forward to seeing the Thai political process in action. Unfortunately, we never saw any demonstrations or other political activity while we were there.

Our Singaporean colleagues warned us away from Thailand because of protests, demonstrations, and general ongoing political strife. But Singaporeans are squeamishly uncomfortable with any sort of political speech, so we didn't give their concerns much credence.

Coming from Santa Cruz, California, political protests don't faze us. To the contrary, I was looking forward some meaningful political strife. Most of what you see in Santa Cruz, is pointless posturing over intangible concepts, trivial slights, or other random thought occurs to you on the way to a city council meeting.

In the US, our political grievances are mundane compared to the problems of the rest of the world. We hold peaceful elections every 4 years. Even when the popular vote selects a different president, we allow power to transfer peacefully from one president to another until we correct our mistake. We might grumble under a failed presidency that misunderestimates the economic and political temperament of the nation, but we'll wait patiently for new elections to lawfully replace the current administration.

In Thailand, they ignore elections altogether. They do keep a roughly 4-year cycle, but instead of electing a new government every 4 years, they have a coup (or at least an attempted coup) on average every 4 years. When the Thai ruling party misunderestimates their nation, they are physically removed from offices with much shouting and gesturing.

So it was after work on a Friday in November that we flew to Thailand. It was a short trip from Singapore, and a perfect weekend getaway. But you have to be prepared for a murky Monday morning after maximizing your weekend in Bangkok.

We stayed in Bangkok's Chinatown area.

If you've ever visited San Francisco, you probably think of Chinatown as a diverse tourist-friendly neighborhood combining a genuine ethnic enclave with bustling commercial kitsch.

Not Bangkok's Chinatown. This is not so tourist friendly. More enclave than kitsch. Nearly all of the sights we wanted to see are located out of Chinatown area. And Bangkok traffic makes getting in or out of Chinatown a serious hassle.

So, we avoided the traffic and mostly walked out of Chinatown. Our first stop was Khaosan Road. This neighborhood is a big hangout for the international backpacking set (western 20-somethings on trust fund walkabout before starting that big investment banking career). Not that there's anything wrong with that; if there is one group of people who really know how to party, it's definitely those folks. And they have the time and resources to devote themselves wholeheartedly to the calling.

Whatever its reputation for partying at night, Khaosan Road is not very happening during the day. So, while the party boys and girls were still sleeping, we did some touristy shopping and availed ourselves of the local Starbucks for reliable coffee and internet access. We found some good Thai food and some local beer.

We spent most of our days in Bangkok just wandering around by foot or taking the sky train. We also took the water taxi along the river, from one side of Bangkok to the other. In the evenings, we switched to regular taxis and tuk-tuk rickshaws.

When we were in Mumbai, India, the taxis were expensive and you had to negotiate the prices in advance, while the tuk-tuks were metered and cheap. In Bangkok it was the opposite, so we mostly stuck to taxis, but we still enjoyed a couple of short tuk-tuk rides.

We were also warned that some dishonest drivers may try to divert us from our intended destination. You'll end up in their friend's store or some other place where they get kickbacks from the shop-owner. We did not have that experience from any of our drivers.

But we were offered some unsolicited "help" from a concerned pedestrian who told us that the shopping area we were looking for was closed for holidays. He volunteered to direct us to another shopping area. We declined. We found our destination ourselves. Yes, it was open for business.

Since this was our first trip to Bangkok, we found that walking around and taking public transportation is the best way to explore a new city. We followed the river and small canals. We walked the main streets and small alleyways. We went to the parks and commercial districts. We watched people working and playing.

At night, we went back to Khaosan Road for cocktails and dancing. We found the dance clubs kept the music playing right up to the end of the evening.

When I say "right up to the end of the evening", I mean that literally. Back in the US, the bars and clubs give you some sort of warning before closing time. They announce "last call", they start playing slow songs, or flicking the lights, etc. In Bangkok, the DJ keeps things spinning loud and fast right up until the very last minute the bar is permitted to be open. On that exact moment, they abruptly shut everything down with no cooling-off period. One moment, you're dancing. The next, you're squinting under sharp house lights and being herded towards the door.

But it wasn't all drinking and dancing. There was also lots of eating. When you go to Thailand you have to have as much Thai food as you can.

Being westerners with sensitive stomachs, we can't drink the water or eat the street food without getting sick. I managed to stay fine all weekend, but I was feeling a little ill on the flight home. Deanna knows a co-worker who enjoys the street food so much that she eats everything and just plans for being sick. She arranges her vacation so she gets sick on her timeline.

I can't say for sure if my queasiness on the return flight was due to the food, the drink, the dancing, or the lack of sleep. Whatever the cause, though it's the proper way to be sent home from Bangkok: tired, hung-over, and happy.

Happy New Year 2009!

2009-01-01T02:07:00.000-08:00

Some good friends invited us to join them at their local "neighborhood bar," the 1TwentySix on East Coast Parkway. We sat outside in the warm Singapore evening. The bar had a band and a DJ to help us ring in 2009. You can't see from this picture, but we danced so hard we had sweat spilling out of us.

Or maybe it was wine spilling out. The bar had a voucher system. The cover charge came with five tickets, each ticket good for one drink. Or you could combine 6 tickets and have them bring a bottle of wine. When you ran short of tickets, they cheerfully let you "top up" the difference with cash. I lost count of the bottles of wine the waiters brought, so its a good thing I was busy dancing most of the night.

My new year resolution: dance more.

Vietnam

2008-12-29T04:49:00.000-08:00

We just got back from spending our Christmas holiday in Vietnam.

Normally, we like to arrange our own travel, but we got a late start organizing this trip. That, combined with the holiday rush, we had to rely on a travel agent to make the arrangements. I never used a travel agent before, and they definitely made our planning easier.

But they also made the trip more expensive. And the more busy. Normally we’d leave ourselves tons of free time to just explore whatever and whenever we feel like. But the travel agent crammed all kinds of activities into our trip.

We’ll plan our next trip ourselves, now that we know the basics of traveling in Vietnam.

We started in Hanoi, where we stayed at the Melia Hotel. This was a Spanish-owned hotel (or at least a Spanish-themed hotel), as all the facilities had vaguely Spanish names, such as El Patio Restaurant, Cava Lounge, and the Latino Bar where we finished most evenings with tapas and cocktails.

For our first day in Hanoi, we took a rickshaw tour of Hanoi’s Old Quarter and walked around the shops.

We also learned how to cross the street. There are almost no traffic signals, and the few in place are largely ignored. You learn to walk slowly but confidently through the traffic, don’t change pace, don’t hesitate. The motorbikes and cars will flow around you like water. Nobody can move fast anyway, so you won’t get hurt too badly if you get hit.

The next day, we visited the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum and His Former Residences.

We also visited the Vietnam War History Museum. As Americans, we immediately think of "The" Vietnam War, meaning the American war in Vietnam.

But for the Vietnamese, their war history begins long before that, with the battles against Mongol and Chinese generals thousands of years ago, and continuously through hundreds of years under Chinese rule.

Of course, the War History Museum eventually makes its way to the French colonial wars leading to The Vietnam War that we Americans think about. We all have a general familiarity with the facts of the Vietnam War. But it was enlightening to see it conveyed from another point of view, as perceived from the Vietnamese side.

We took a two-day side trip from Hanoi to visit Halong Bay, at the mouth of the Red River Delta.

The bay is one of the UNESCO World Heritage sites, filled with thousands of limestone rock islands.

We climbed to the peak of one island. Some of the islands have large caves. We explored one island cave by foot. Some caves open only to the water, and I explored one bat-filled cave by kayak. While I was out kayaking in the dark, Deanna visited a floating fishing village.

I also attempted squid fishing, without any luck (or skill, I might add).

For Christmas Eve, we spent the night on the bay, cruising in a wooden junk, designed and furnished in traditional Vietnamese style, but fitted for leisure travelers like us.

They offered nice comfortable accommodations, better than many hotels I’ve stayed at. We had Christmas dinner on the boat, with Vietnamese/Asian food and a traditional western-style holiday feast of turkey, stuffing, gravy; everything you’d expect for Christmas dinner in Vietnam.

The next day our fellow boat-mates took a Tai Chi lesson on the sun deck. We ignored them and slept late.

After breakfast on the boat, we cruised back to the port, where our guide and driver met us for the journey back up along the Red River Delta and returned us to Hanoi. Along the way, we marveled at the locals carrying their goods on motorbikes to sell at the local markets.

What is the most you’ve ever carried on a bike or motorcycle?

A flock of ducks:

A clutch of chickens:

Three dozens dustbrooms:

A roll of six foot-high fencing:

A small cow (yes, a cow, there were pigs too, but I didn't get the photo):

A flower garden:

Several barrels of water:

A carton of toilet paper:

Seventeen cases of bottled water (including 3 cases on your lap):

Your two best friends:

A nuclear family:

Everything else:

Back in Hanoi, we checked back into the Melia Hotel for the next two nights. We spent our last days in Hanoi wandering around the Old Quarter. We bought some local art to bring home. We hung out at various cafes. We watched the traffic. We practiced crossing the street. We saw a water puppet show (which was touristy but surprisingly good, even though we didn’t understand any of the Vietnamese). We got caught in the rain.

Breaking News

2008-11-05T19:06:00.001-08:00

Barack Obama is elected in the United States, but who manages to get her photo on the front page (above the fold, no less) of TWO newspapers in Singapore?

President Barack Obama

2008-11-04T23:14:00.000-08:00

I'm still in awe. I witnessed history today as Barack Obama was elected president of the United States.

Its Wednesday in Singapore but still Tuesday night in the USA. Deanna went to the American Club this morning to watch the election results. They were hosting an elections party. Both sides were there together, Democrats and Republicans, watching the results unfold slowly as each state closed their polls and CNN revealed their projections.

I was working and trying to keep from being distracted by the elections.

But the internet always distracts. Throughout the morning, I clicked back and forth to CNN.com to see what was going on.

By mid-morning, the eastern states had all been predicted. McCain hit the end of his road when CNN announced Pennsylvania for Obama. McCain could not win without Pennsylvania.

At this point, it was officially still an open election, but the reporters were all waiting until the west coast polls closed to make the call.

The networks called it simultaneously the moment the west cost polls closed. Obama clinched the presidency.

It is the most important and most anticipated election of my generation. But it was unreal. The victory didn't sink in. Not until CNN streamed McCain's concession speech did I realize that Obama had really won. And then I couldn't work any longer.

I took a taxi to the American Club, and I arrived in time to catch Obama's victory speech. I was standing in the back. I couldn't find Deanna in the crowd. I watched from the back.

When I found Deanna, I hugged her. And we cried.

Lisbon, Portugal

2008-10-27T22:07:00.001-07:00

Lisbon was our last stop in Europe, before returning home to Singapore.

We were here for a week, but we were not here for fun. Deanna had to attend a business conference during the day, and I spent most of the day in my hotel room working remotely from my laptop.

I don't have any good pictures of the hotel room because it was too stylish to photograph.

Like a ninja. Our hotel room was completely black. So much black that there was no reflected light. So much black that even in the bright of day, with the blinds open and the room lights on, you couldn't see yourself well enough to shave in the bathroom mirror.

Not just the guest rooms, Deanna said the conference rooms were also all black.

See, this hotel was a self-described "style hotel." And to prove it, they made sure that their style superseded your function. They celebrated the geometric flat surface of the bathroom walls and doors by refusing to install hooks or towel racks. And to make sure you keep your towels to yourself, they made the doors go all the way to the ceiling so you couldn't even drape your towel over the door.

They suffered no power outlets or handles or knobs or any other clumsy devices that might interrupt the perfect flatness of the perfectly black walls.

Even our room number was banned from the door. You had to look along the floor to find your room. Walking to your room was a featureless corridor of black. Like a morgue. Or Princess Leia's prison cell on the Death Star.

Other useful things for which the stylish have no need: irons and ironing boards. I don't know about you, but when I travel for business, one of the first things I do when I arrive is unpack my business shirts and give them a quick touch up with the iron. Feel free to call the cleaning service.

One plus: they had good wireless internet access (extra charge), and I was able to work without too much trouble once I also discovered how to access the concealed power outlets.

It was a strange hotel, but it was was comfortable and it made a good jumping-off point to see Lisbon because it was just a short walk to the local metro station.

In addition to seeing Lisbon, I made one day trip out to Sintra, which was about an hour's train ride east.

I had never heard of Sintra before. But when we were back in Barcelona, the clerk at the hotel said that Sintra was the most beautiful place in Portugal, and we had to see it. So I did.

But mostly I went there to see the castles.

Everybody loves castles, don't they? Especially boys like me who grew up playing Dungeons & Dragons and medieval war games. But its not just us Ren-Faire geeks and gamer boys. You will find tourists of all persuasions out to see the castles.

Its not just the castle itself that draws you, but everything that a castle implies: swords and shields, knights in armor, moats and siege engines. Everything that castles were built to withstand, all of the manual and mechanical devices of medieval warfare that became obsolete with the introduction of gunpowder.

For some reason, it seems more romantic, more honorable to fight wars with swords instead of guns. And castles represent this romantic ideal. As the great sage, Kool Moe Dee, teaches:

Guns, we don't like to use them
Unless, our enemies choose them
We prefer to fight you on like a man
And beat you down with our hands

Sant Sadurni d'Anoia, Spain

2008-10-23T16:37:00.001-07:00

We took a day trip from Barcelona to go wine tasting in Spain's Cava region. It felt good to be in a wine-growing region. It reminded us of back home in California.

Cava, we learned, is Spanish sparkling wine, produced mainly in the Penedès region in Catalonia, Spain. This region is an easy day trip from Barcelona, just inland and south west. It was a relaxing tour bus ride through the Spanish countryside.

From the bus, we saw the massive rock formation that makes up the jagged Montserrat mountain. We didn't get to visit Montserrat, but I'm curious, because it is supposed to be one of the possible locations of the Holy Grail from the legends of Kind Authur.

We did see the village of Sant Sadurní d'Anoia and the surrounding area, which produces nearly 95% of Spain's total Cava output. This is where the most famous (or most prolific) Spanish Cava is produced by the winery Freixenet.

Even though I've become big fan of Champagne and Prosecco and other sparkling wines, we didn't go for the Cava this time. For this trip, we went after the Spanish reds. After drinking our share of the local reds, we each bought a couple of bottles to take home -- but not too many bottles, mind you, because Singapore has very strict limits and very high import duties on wine and spirits.

Then we both took a well-earned nap on the bus on the way back to Barcelona.

Barcelona, Spain

2008-10-21T06:51:00.000-07:00

We originally planned to take the train from London to France and then on to Spain. But we were surprised to learn that the Eurail train is more expensive than flying. We already had the experience of taking the Eurostar channel tunnel train on a previous trip from London and Paris, so we decided to skip the trains this time and just fly straight to Barcelona.

One of the cool things about Barcelona is how compact it can be. Nearly everything we wanted to see was in the "Old Town" area on either side of La Rambla or in the Gothic Quarter. Our hotel was on the edge of the Gothic Quarter (on the center right of the map), just a few blocks from La Rambla.

I'm not the only one to say this: if you do only one thing in Barcelona, you must walk La Rambla, from the bottom at the harbor, to the top at Placa de Catalyuna. It is the one thing that everyone recommends.

As you walk this pedestrian mall, you'll pass cafes, bars, restaurants. You'll see hawkers selling birds and turtles; tourist shops selling typical baubles and trinkets. Its similar to Pacific Avenue in our hometown, Santa Cruz, only more so.

One of the fun things to find along La Rambla is every sort of common slacker made up as a human statue tacitly asking for small change. They’ll spend hours standing around semi-patiently dressed as random pop-culture references doing little tricks for tourists.

Here are some of the ones we photographed. My favorite one is the first guy in this series, who made subtle little faces appropriate for his task:

Given the diversity and creativity of Barcelona's street talent, I suggest we send our own Pink Umbrella Man of Santa Cruz out to Barcelona to take some fashion lessons.

As I mentioned above, we stayed at the edge of the Gothic Quarter, which was almost as much fun as La Rambla. The Gothic Quarter is a dense maze of old medieval buildings, with thin streets winding seemingly randomly through them.

From our hotel, we were just a few steps away from Barcelona's cathedral, La Seu, protected from the main street by old Roman battlements.

The cathedral is dedicated to Santa Eulalia, who was killed by the Romans in some horrible way for being unapologetically Christian, and who now serves as the patron saint for the local sailors.

At some point in every trip to Europe, you get tired of seeing yet another cathedral. And at Barcelona is where this started to happen to me. But what made this cathedral worthwhile was the cloister of geese protecting the church gardens. The geese also represent the virginity of Santa Eulalia. Apparently, there are 13 geese to represent the age of Eulalia when she was killed.

Barcelona has a fabulous street scene, day or night. And its not limited to just La Rambla. The medieval streets themselves are so fun to wander, it draws out the locals and tourists alike to join in the fun. We spent several afternoons and evenings just walking around watching people and looking for places to hang out or eat or drink.

Of course no visit to Barcelona is complete without visiting the various creations by Antoni Gaudí throughout the city.

The most obvious Gaudí attraction is the Sagrada Família, one of the most famous churches in the world. It is still unfinished, after more than a century of construction. Sure, its yet another cathedral, but unlike any other cathedral in the world. Actually, its not technically a Cathedral, but a temple; its full name is the Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Família./

I don't know what the difference is between temple, cathedral, abbey, or church.

Continuing on our Gaudí tour, we went to the rounded, organic apartment building La Pedrera. Unfortunately, we couldn't get inside because we came to late. We did manage to spend an afternoon in the Alice-in-Wonderlandish Park Güell, which Gaudí designed and lived with his family in the early 1900s.

In addition to seeing the works of Gaudí, we also made it to the Salvador Dalí museum and the Pablo Picasso Museum. And we got out of the city to the Spanish countryside for a bit of wine tasting.

I first wanted to go to Barcelona after I graduated from college and was living in an apartment in Santa Cruz. My housemate, Dag, and I used to go to a local dive bar, called the "One Double-Oh Seven," named after its address of 1007 Soquel Avenue, Santa Cruz. The bar was walking distance from our apartment, so Dag and I could play pool not worry about driving.

The thing about playing pool in bars is you only get to play as long as you are winning. If there are people waiting, whoever is next in line takes the place of player that looses the match. The new player pays for the game.

If you keep winning, you can play all night and never have to pay for your own games. But if you're with the bar with friends, you probably want to play together as long as you can. If one of you looses early, then you have to wait until your friend's name moves up from the bottom of the chalkboard waiting list until you can play together again.

If you sink the 8-ball in typical bar pool, you loose. Game over. The next challenger struts over to take your place and start a new game. If you had a good game, that's okay. But if you just started a game and accidentally sink the 8-ball in the first few rounds, then it spoils your fun to walk away early. You can't hide the sunk 8-ball, because all the challengers are watching your game, waiting for their chance to play. They all know when you loose.

That's why we invented a pool game we called "Barcelona-7." In Barcelona-7, you play by normal bar rules unless you sink the 8-ball early. When that happens, if a challenger approaches the table, you tell him "we're playing Barcelona-7."

Nobody ever asked what that meant. I think because they didn't want to admit there was something they don't know about pool. What it really meant was we were going to keep playing. And for the rest of the game we treated the 7-ball like it was the 8-ball. It is helpful that bar pool rules tend to vary from bar to bar, so its rare that anyone is 100% sure of the local house rules anyway.

I think we came up the name Barcelona-7, because we happened to be practicing putting "English" on the ball for making trick shots. Some drunk guys were tying to be clever and were joking about putting some "Spanish" on the ball. Which is when we improvidently sunk the 8-ball and wanted to keep playing. "Spanish" of course triggered "Barcelona-7," which sounded just slightly exotic and convincing enough to justify keeping the table.

That story has no real connection to the actual city of Barcelona, other than sharing the description "slightly exotic."

The Roman Town of Bath

2008-10-18T22:20:00.000-07:00

After seeing what the prehistorics did with their bare hands in Stonehenge, we also went to see what the Romans did when they had their chance to have a go at things in the nearby Roman town of Bath.

The Romans had better building techniques and modern tools for stone cutting. They also took advantage of two important inventions: They understood the weight-bearing ability of arches (probably a “discovery” more than an “invention”). And they developed a modern concrete mixture of cement, lime, sand, volcanic ash, and finely crushed rock or brick.

Like today’s concrete, Roman concrete hardens even under water, which is important when you need to build pools, drains, bridges, dams, and aqueducts. The Romans used all these features during their occupation of England to build the famous baths at the naturally-occurring hot spring in today’s English city of Bath.

The location of Bath was originally a Celtic town before Romans wandered in. But the Romans made it famous for the alleged medicinal power of the waters. They used the water from the hot springs to fill the bath house. And nearby, they build a Temple to the Roman goddess Minerva (Sulis Minerva).
Similar to today, the combination of bath house and Minerva temple attracted tourists and religious pilgrims from around the Empire, which in turn brought wealth and prosperity to the town.

Various authorities have called Minerva the goddess of intelligence, creativity, poetry, and wisdom. Some claim she was the goddess of domestic skills, handicrafts, and commerce. Others claim she was was the goddess of warriors or medicine. At least one myth says she was the inventor of music.

Like most Roman gods, Minerva was copied from the Greeks, where she was known as the Greek goddess Athena. And the copying didn’t stop with the Romans. My kindred Californians copied her again when they designed the Great Seal of the State of California.

Adopted in 1849, the Great Seal was designed by Major Robert Selden Garnett of the United States Army, and it was introduced to the new state at California's constitutional convention, where it was described as follows:

"The foreground figure represents the Goddess Minerva having sprung full grown from the brain of Jupiter. She is introduced as a type of the political birth of the State of California without having gone through the probation of a Territory. At her feet crouches a grizzly bear feeding upon clusters from a grape vine emblematic of the peculiar characteristics of the country. A miner is engaged in a rocker and bowl at his side, illustrating the golden wealth of the Sacramento upon whose waters are seen shipping typical of commercial greatness and the Snow-clad peaks of the Sierra Nevada make up the background while above is the Greek motto 'Eureka' (I have found it) applying either to the principle involved in the admission of the State, or the success of the miner at work."

Global political and religious connections are everywhere. It makes us Californians feel welcome among the Roman ruins.

But it also illustrates how our own country was once much more religiously tolerant than we are today. I can imagine the extreme religious right getting all incensed today if the legislature proposed symbolizing our state as a female pagan goddess sprung from the brain of another pagan god.

The Romans and their gods were eventually forced out of England in the 5th century. Not by the religious right, but buy the Saxons. The Saxons were subsequently forced out by the Normans, who abandoned the city of Bath after trashing the place. The hot springs of Bath were forgotten until rediscovered in 18th century and restored in the Victorian period.

Today Bath is a modern English city. There is a museum on the site of the original Roman Baths and the temple to Minerva still stands. At some point, the British recovered the original head of the "Sulis-Minerva" statue and returned it to the site.

Adding to the religious diversity, the Christian Bath Abbey sits across the street from the original Roman pagan temple.

But even the Christians never agreed among themselves who’s religion was best. The first church was built by the Anglo-Saxons in AD 757. When the Norman’s forced them out, they tore down the Saxon Abby and replaced it with a massive Norman cathedral. Unfortunately, the cathedral was so big that the monastery could not afford to maintain it, so it fell into disrepair and ruin like the original roman temple. The current Abbey church was built in 1611.

Today, same as then, the temples and baths continue to attract tourists from around the world, bringing wealth and prosperity to the town.

Taste Test Challenge

2008-10-17T19:16:00.000-07:00

English food has a terrible reputation worldwide. Why? Well I can give you at least one example. The last time we were in England, we had a breakfast in our hotel. It consisted of eggs and sausages boiled in grease. Yes. Not fried. Boiled. The grease wasn't hot enough to fry, just sort of a warm simmering pan of week-old oil. Boiled long enough to absorb the greasy flavor of everything else they cooked in the same oil that week, but not hot or long enough to actually fry the egg or fully cook the sausages. If you accidentally cooked this at home, you would throw away and start over.

But to be fair, that was hotel food. And it was a very cheap hotel at that.

Is the rest of English food all that bad?

One way to find out is to do a taste test. Based on my previous experience, I didn't want to set the bar to high. So I had to find some type of food to give England a sporting chance.

So my taste test challenge is English Food vs. Airplane Food. It seemed like an obvious match-up of historically bad cuisine. And I didn't have access to other obvious contenders: hospital food or high school cafeteria food.

But it is not fair to represent all of England by one cheap hotel breakfast. So to find a better ambassador for the Empire, I went to a traditional pub in the afternoon and ordered one of the specials off their hand-written chalkboard menu.

Please meet today's contestants:

English Food	Airplane Food
click to enlarge	click to enlarge
The Defending Champ: On the left, representing England, a traditional pub meal from an inn in Wiltshire county.	The Challenger: On the right, representing the air travel industry, from Singapore Airlines Flight SQ-318
Weighing In With: Grilled sausages, potatoes, carrots, peas, gravy on everything, a basked of pre-buttered sliced bread, apple pie (not shown), and a pint of cold beer.	Weighing In With: Grilled beef, potatoes, carrots, crackers, cheese, one bread roll, shrimp salad with packet of thousand-island dressing on the side, and a tiny plastic cup of water.
Scoring: Visual Appeal: 8 Ambiance: 8 Taste: 9 Beer: Yes	Scoring: Visual Appeal: 3 Ambiance: 1 Taste: 5 Beer: No

The winner by unanimous decision: English Pub Food. No contest really. A meal with only a tiny plastic cup of water will never compare to anything with a pint of beer. There is nothing better than a generous country farm meal served with beer in a traditional English pub.

In fact, everything we ate in England was good, and with generous western-sized portions and friendly, but never overly persistent waiters.

As much as I've enjoyed all the variety of Asian food back in Singapore, noodles and rice can get old now and then. It is fabulous to get back to the west where you can enjoy a hearty meat-and-potatoes supper. Congratulations England!

Stonehenge

2008-10-14T07:51:00.000-07:00

Our trip to England got a bit further out when we visited Stonehenge.

This is one of those nearly mythical places that you hear about all your life. But I never expected to ever see it in person.

You have to drive several hours from London to see Stonehenge, or take a bus as we did, to the English county of Wiltshire. But to visit such an enduring icon, the journey is well worth it.

There is no end to the speculation about who built it, why they built it, or how they built it.

Stonehenge has been credited, at one time or another, to the Phoenicians, Celts, Romans, Sumerians, Druids, extraterrestrials, wizards, and all sorts of other paranormal beings. It has been called a solar calendar, a Buddhist shrine, a temple of animal worshipers, or altar where defeated soldiers were sacrificed for blood offerings to heathen gods.

Archeologists continue to argue over which race or culture is responsible for building it, and how old it is.

Not to diminish its mystery, but I don't see the need to create any big cultural or spiritual explanation for why someone would want to build a big circle of stones.

Guys do this stuff all the time. Just hanging out, having reached some tacit group understanding to dig a big hole and half-bury some rocks in it.

Add beer (invented long before Stonehenge) and repeat. And Stonehenge is not the only evidence of group drinking spots in England. There are over 900 stone rings in the British Isles, and scholars say that twice as many may have existed before modern men started knocking them down. Also frequently the result of beer drinking.

I'm guessing building it was a lot more work in the old days. But ancient civilizations built a lot bigger things using only manual labor. It doesn't seem much different than any gathering of able bodied men with access to simple tools, alcohol, and a lot of free time. Well, at least until the "clever" one decides to go all artistic and line up a few rocks with the sunrise and sunset.

Whatever the reason they decided to build it all those thousands of years ago, they certainly captured the imagination of many generations.

And rightfully so. It is a very impressive monument. And it gets even more impressive the closer you approach.

You used to be able to walk right up and touch it, and climb on the rocks. Not anymore. But keeping people out of it makes it a more powerful experience to see up close. It doesn't need any ancient magical powers to be a place of wonder. There is no question that Stonehenge is (and was) a site of great awe and wonder.

London England and Windsor Castle

2008-10-12T05:15:00.000-07:00

We spent a long weekend visiting England, the political motherland for our great country.

We started our weekend in the City of London, where we ran all around the city on the bus and underground, but also took a tour bus out to Windsor to see the Castle.

This is supposed to be the oldest and largest "occupied" castle in the world. Apparently, at least one English royal sometimes lives there, justifying its more formal name, "The Official Residences of The Queen And The Official Residence of The Prince of Wales."

Nobody explained why the "residences" are plural for the Queen but singular, "residence," for the Prince. Maybe the Prince only has one room? Or maybe it’s related to the fact that the Queen really does stay at Windsor Castle on the weekends, but the Prince does not?

Other than her statute, we didn't get to see the actual Queen during our visit. But our tour guide insisted that the Queen really does stays in Windsor Castle for the weekend. Apparently she commutes back to London for the workweek, where our guide says she works just like you and me.

I doubt that the Queen's job is much like you or me. Start with her job title, "Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and of Her other Realms and Territories Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith." Put that on your business card.

With a job title like that it nearly justifies earning nearly as much money as JK Rowling.

What can you say about the Queen’s place in Windsor?

Well, it’s a castle, and thats always fun. And it’s guarded by blokes in ridiculously impractical hats.

Our guide said these guards are actual live British soldiers, who rotate in and out from their various soldiering jobs. Not many left, she commented sadly, since so many have died in America's war in Iraq.

Of course, we road all around on the London Underground for sightseeing. I took a couple of morning runs through Hyde Park and Regent's Park.

We visited the mythical offices of Sherlock Holmes, consulting detective, at 122b Baker Street.

We also took advantage of London’s cultural diversity to purchase black hair care products, which are not generally available in Singapore.

Oh, and I got my picture taken in an English phone-booth.

Of course, we did a bunch of other fun stuff too. Its too much to write about here, but I have pictures posted online in our flickr account.

Five Year Wedding Anniversary

2008-09-20T17:48:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we celebrated our 5-year wedding anniversary.

Here our "before" photo 5 years ago taken Theo's Restaurant:

We celebrated by leaving Singapore. Not quite. We were still in Singapore, but we left the main island and spent the weekend on Sentosa Island at The Sentosa Spa and Resort. (We've discovered that Asia hotels eagerly misapply the term "Resort" to intentionally exaggerate their amenities; fortunately The Sentosa was deserving of the label.)

Even though Sentosa Island is technically part of Singapore, it feels like leaving Singapore, because going to Sentosa gets you away from all the normal activity of the city. There's a bridge to the island and you can get across by car, taxi, or bus. They also have an express monorail, and even a 1.6 kilometer cable car to Sentosa from Singapore.

We had dinner back in Singapore at the OSO Restaurant.

Here is our "after" photo 5 years later taken at OSO Restaurant:

The restaurant is on Tanjong Pagar Road. This is in an interesting area of Singapore. Located just outside of Chinatown, it is mostly filled with karaoke lounges and girly bars with blacked-out windows downstairs and massage parlors upstairs. But these are interspersed lightly with some legitimate pubs and restaurants and about a dozen wedding shops. It’s a strangely appropriate mix.

Nike Human Race 10k

2008-08-31T06:01:00.000-07:00

I joined a bazillion other people and ran the Nike "Human Race" 10k this weekend.

First thing you notice is Nike did some clever marketing for the race. Instead of providing a bib number in advance and a separate race shirt after the race, they provided the race shirt in advance, with the bib number ironed on (or maybe screen printed on, I can’t tell the difference).

So instead having people running in different shirts, with different colors and different logos, everyone in the race wore the exact same red Nike shirt. This created a giant Nike mobile marketing team, a sea of red Nike logos threading through Singapore's downtown and tourist areas.

The last organized race I ran in Singapore was the JP Morgan Chase 5.6k in April 2008, For that 5.6k, I finished in 42 minutes and 35 seconds, which was a pace of about 7 1/2 minutes per kilometer.

For the Nike 10k, I finished in 70 minutes and 18 seconds, or a pace of about 7 minutes per kilometer, giving me an improvement of 30-second per kilometer.

I was also happy about finishing several minutes faster than the Singapore average of 74 minutes and 24 seconds.

My finishing acheivement took on a different meaning on the subway home after the race. There was a young guy on the platform, also wearing his red Nike race shirt. Naturally, I asked him how he did, and he said he ran in 44 minutes. I said that was a great time, and told him how I did. He said my time was a great time too.

I figured he was just being polite, but when I started to compare his time to mine, he added, "yea... but how OLD are you?"