Christmas 2007

Christmas is upon us again. This is one holiday where all retailers rejoice. Singaporeans all get to indulge in their favourite pastime, whether they celebrate Christmas or not. Not that I'm complaining.

What I enjoy about the holiday is that shopping malls will try to outdo each other and try to be the best decorated. I haven't seen anything really nice this year. I did see a statue of Santa at Great World City that looked like it was made from a blow up doll.




He must be saying "Ho! Ho! Ho!" or something. Anyways, enjoy your Christmas, everybody!

Singapore Fireworks Celebrations 2007

So we went to the Singapore Fireworks Celebrations on Friday night at the floating stadium. The crowds were unbelievable. It was such a hassle getting in that we were soon thinking 'This had better be worth it.'

There were kids games and food stalls outside but we were quite late so we didn't stop to see. Anyway I don't think we would enjoy the inflated prices anyway. There was a Singapore Duck Race booth and as I took a picture of the ducks, the people ran up to me and asked me if I wanted a photo taken for $2. I ran away with my camera...



Go adopt a duck if you haven't already. http://www.duckrace.com.sg/

We went up to our seats which were pretty close to the stage. There wasn't much of a pre-show. Loud blaring music and 2 MCs that I unfortunately did not pay attention to. I think they tried to make the crowd do a wave. Without much success...

The show itself lasted 15 minutes, and I must say (for me and my kids at least), it was worth it. There were thunderous booms that shook your body, exploding lights that seem to jump at you, and lots of cheering.



I've uploaded some videos to youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zn1mbVu6wXE (link if you cannot see video above)


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJSUAnbCeJM (link if you cannot see video above)

More Pictures of Kuching

Here are more pictures I took while back in Kuching. The contrast between Kuching and Singapore is pretty great. I know it took me a long time to get my vacation pictures in order and that makes the posts here seem disjointed. :(

This is a picture of what you will typically see in Kuching. Lots of shophouses. Lately the streets are overflowing with cars and crime is rampant. This really saddens me. I cannot help but feel disappointed with the state of affairs in my birthplace.

Every where I go, I see people eking out their lives on low incomes. Stories of corruption are whispered. It all seems so far away, and surreal while I am in Singapore. To actually be there and experience it is a different thing.

There are a few popular shopping malls spaced all over Kuching. The picture above shows the only MacDonald's outlet I know of. It's a 2-storey affair, where they still serve your food with steel cutlery and ketchup in bottles. I'm not sure why there is no competition between KFC and McDonald's here. KFC is pretty much every where. The local fast food chain, Sugar Bun, is also worth visiting. They serve local food as well as fast food.

The picture above is the riverside. This, and the nearby malls, is where I used to hang out with friends during my school days. Whenever I think of it, I am always amazed how we managed to meet up every time without the aid of handphones.

These are the cat statues in the middle of town. In case you did not know, Kuching (kucing) means cat in Malay. Kuching is the Cat City. We even have a Cat Museum. There are 2 other statues nearby but I did not manage to take their pictures.

Finally, this is a picture of the Tua Pek Kong temple. Whenever I see gigantic joss sticks around this temple, I know some religious event or other is upcoming.

Well, I hope you enjoyed the photos. It's not easy taking photos with my handphone. I hope to get a cheap digital camera so that I can get better pictures next time. Thanks for reading!

I'm addicted to Tibetian food

For half a year now, my wife and I have been going to a Tibet Restaurant in East Coast Road for dinner at least once a week. When the restaurant was first open, there were a number of girls dressed in traditional Tibetian dresses outside the restaurant to greet the customers. Inside, the place is decorated with maps and wall hangings from Tibet. At first my wife was a bit hesitant to try Tibet food since it was her’s first time…actually, it was my first time too. We were getting bored of eating Singaporean hawker food such as chicken rice, fried kway teow, yong tofu, etc.


The restaurant sells, traditional tibetian food including dumplings, meat and vegetable dishes, fried noodle, fried rice and soup. Our three favorite dishes include – a plate stir-fried dou miao, ziran mutton and xiang la rou si (a pork dish fried with shredded vegetables and chile). The dishes have a sweetish, hot/spicy taste to them.

We like eating there (besides from the delicious food) is because the place is quiet and clean, the services is fairly good and fast; the portions are very large, the prices are pretty reasonable and we’ve never had to queue for a table. We usually spend between $25-$30 each meal including drinks. One time, we ate there with a group of eight, ordered around 10 dishes with drinks and spent less than $100.

The disadvantage of the resturants is the location – it is sometimes difficult to find car parking and there are no MRT close to it. Parking on the streets will cost you 50 cents per 30 minutes. Also, the restaurant only accepts cash payments.

Taking Air Asia to Kuching

So I went back to Kuching at the end of June. We booked the $0 but still have to pay airport tax. Also, Air Asia does not fly from Singapore so we have to separately arrange for transportation up to Senai Airport in Johor. $0 but not free after all. $$$.



So what's the difference with taking Air Asia? I can only compare against Malaysian Airlines as I used to take that, until they stopped domestic flights to Kuching from Johor. Well, for one thing, you have to walk to the plane and climb up the stairs to get in or out the plane. It's not very far, but you do need to climb and descend some steps. They don't allow photography (not sure why) but I have one taken from a distance.







The journey takes an hour and 20 minutes, with no food served. Their stewardesses announce over the comm system that refreshments are 'available at a reasonable price', without even batting an eyelid. You just have to look at the menu to know the truth.



Did I mention it's free seating? Be there early if this will be an issue for you. They used to have a special line for those with children or the elderly, who get to board first. I'm not sure why they abolished that policy. There is still an Express line. For people who opt for it by checking in online.

Everything else was pretty normal and uneventful. The crowd may seem rowdier (Now Everybody Can Fly), and the stewardesses less friendly, but you get what you pay for.

I just want to mention the curious design of the toilet at Senai Airport. They've remodeled it and it looks pretty nice. But the men's room has no urinals. I'm not sure if you can see from the photo below, but there is this wall where water constantly gushes down into a drain. You're expected to stand before this drain and pee. There is quite a distance from where you stand, to the drain proper. So you have to aim carefully. :)






I have more to post, about my time in Kuching itself, in future posts.

Back from Kuching, Sarawak

I've been on holiday the past 2 weeks. Now I'm back! I hope to post some pictures and stories about my trip. Stay tuned!

Poor hygiene practices in Singapore

Poor hygiene can lead to disease, illness and even death. In a time when we are so concerned about bird flu, SARS etc., people should take more care of what they are doing to ensure proper hygiene practices are enforced. Let's take a look at some of the poor hygiene practices that I have discovered while I have been in Singapore.

Cleaner picking rubbish from the trash bins
I find it strange that cleaners at shopping centres use tongs to pick rubbish from trash bins. Instead of visiting every bin and picking out individual rubbish items and putting it into another garbage bag, why don't they just empty the whole bin or just take the whole bag away? Is it because they want to save on garbage bags? What if the cleaner picked up a tissue with some flu germs? Or when he was reaching into the bin, the germs got onto his hands and arms? Isn't it more likely that germs can be spread easier by picking up the rubbish scraps one at a time than if the rubbish was emptied in one go.

Food trays not clean properly
What about food trays? Cleaners at coffee shops just wipe the trays and replace them for use again. Did you ever consider how many times the towel has been used before it was washed?

Mixing food preparation with handling of money
Have you bought roti prata from a guy who handed you the cash as well as made your prata by hand? Did that guy wash his hands before making the roti prata? Did you know that money is very dirty. One of the studies done revealed that money contains many traces of bacteria and germs. It doesn't surprise me, since money is occassionally dropped on the ground, perhaps even in the toilet, touched by dirty hands and never gets washed.

No sense of dirtiness
I have seen the cleaner in my condo, standing and jumping on top of the rubbish to flatten it out so that he can close the large bin. The bin contains all sorts of stuff you probably wouldn't want to know about. The germs and bacteria would have certainly got into his shoes, clothes and parts of this body. I don't think he would have taken a good shower or bath afterwards.

Nose picking in public
Another disgusting thing is people picking their noses in public. I was having Teppanyaki at Tampines Mall Basement 1 recently. As I was eating my pepper lamb, there was a girl in her late twenty, sitting right in front of me, picking away at her nose! Totally disgusting! Why couldn't she have gone to the toilets and did the cleaning there?

e-Waste Disposal/Recycling in Singapore

I mentioned before that Singaporeans are quite enamored by tech gadgets. They take to technology like fish take to water. I wasn't all too surprised at all the spending reportedly done during the PC Show 2007. But all this got me to thinking: There must be tons of consumer electronics and gadgets in all the homes in Singapore, so where do they go to die? All those electronic components, and batteries, is it even environmentally safe to just throw them out with the trash?

I did some internet searches and enquiries and came upon the term 'e-waste'. Yes, just prepend the ever useful 'e'. Apparently there is initiative to manage and even recycle e-waste. But when I narrowed my searches to be Singapore-specific, most of the search results were merely articles about Singapore e-waste management companies. I did come upon this article from CNA, which seems to reflect a less-than-rosy situation.

Well, I can see recycling bins around town for paper and soft drink cans, so I know Singaporeans are generally conscious about being environmentally friendly. In terms of this e-waste situation, I think we just need to step up the effort as well as raise awareness. Frankly I was a bit disappointed. Being a green city, I thought for sure Singapore would have some tough measures in place for corporations, and public programmes readily available to the public. I certainly am guilty of chucking out my unused PC monitor and other assorted electronics before this, and I'm trying to turn over a new leaf. But no one else seems to be bothered much. :(

So what do we do with all our PCs, laptops, digital cameras, handphones, MP3 players, CD players, TVs, etc then? The obvious answer, as mentioned by the article, is to do a bit of work ourselves and sell/donate the item to someone who could use it. This is, of course, if the item is still in working condition. You may think your item is too old and would not sell, but you might be surprised. If the price is right, it could be snatched up pretty fast. eBay and Hardware Zone are places you can visit if you are interested to put up an old item for sale. You can even search for similar items to see what price others are asking for first. Be sure to document the condition of the item to be fair to buyers.

If that fails, just donate the item. Salvation Army ? Or you could just pass it to one of your unsuspecting friends or neighbours.

Another option is to check with the manufacturer of the item. They generally have some sort of programme where they help you dispose of old products you purchased from them. Multinational corporations normally have these programmes in place overseas due to legislation or community responsibility, and they just have to replicate the programmes here. Again I looked online and am listing links to those companies with information on their recycling programmes that are easily found.

Motorola's ECOMOTO - Drop-off points

Dell Recycling - Scheduled pickups

HP Supplies Recycling - Drop-off points for printing supplies, pickups for large volume of hardware

There are others but I couldn't find more info on their websites within a few clicks after searching for the keyword 'recycling'. Yeah... I'm lazy... :)

Drop me a comment if you have other tips concerning e-waste.

Bring Your Own Bag Day

My family was at IKEA yesterday and we bought a small chair. When I queued up to make payment, my wife told me no plastic bags will be given out, just in case I made an ass of myself. We had to buy one for 10 cents to carry our 'some assembly required' chair. I was aware of the Bring Your Own Bag Day initiative that started in April 2007, but I was not aware at that point that IKEA had gone all the way and they do not give plastic bags out at all.

If you do not know about BYOBD yet, I hope you don't find out the hard way. One lady ahead of me in the queue had asked her son to get a plastic bag from the cashier, thinking a terrible mistake had been made. Upon finding out the truth, she shot the cashier some dirty looks and left muttering to herself. Armed with superior knowledge, I had already taken a 10 cents bags beforehand and was trying to act nonchalant as I looked on.

Plastic bags are something that we have taken for granted. It's so easy to use! We've all learned of the harmful effects on the environment which entails from all the plastic addiction, but no one had as yet done anything about it. Until now. BYOBD! Remember, the first Wednesday of every month, please do not embarass yourself.

Some people will complain. It's expensive and inconvenient. It's an excuse for corporations to suck more money from us. It's no use because people just end up buying the plastic bags. Bla bla bla. You see, it's all very simple. Just Bring Your Own Bag. All this is to encourage the culture of using re-usable bags as opposed to plastic bags.

Of course there will be people who support this whole-heartedly. I think most people will. But there's no applause. No big news story. No congratulations for the people behind this initiative. And I wonder why that is. Is singapore so attached to the use of plastic bags that there is some level of resentment or worry in all of us? I'll be the first to admit, that although I'm happy for the Environment (whoever she is), I'm a bit worried about how we'll dispose of rubbish from our homes without those plentiful, free plastic bags from the supermarket.

My First Car Inspection In Singapore

A few weeks back, LTA (Land Transport Authority of Singapore) sent me a letter notifying me to take my car for inspection before the 13 July. After delaying it for a few weeks, I took my car to VICOM Kaki Bukit for an inspection on Saturday. I went early at 8:30am to avoid the queue. The place was pretty easy to find; there were signs everywhere leading to the centre. When I got there, I found myself greeted by 4 mechanic guys in dark blue uniform. One of them pointed to the Cashier and told me to make payment first. I went to the cashier booth and paid $60.09 by NETS (Network For Electronic Transfers). When I turn around to go back to my car, the mechanics had already driven my car into the testing lanes and began inspecting. One of the mechanics saw me and told me to go to the left, along the testing lane. I was able to watch the whole inspection process. In less than 5 minute later, the inspection was completed. I collected the Test Certificate and was able to go home. I didn’t expect it to be so efficient and fast.

When I came to Singapore, for a few years, one of the things I missed was driving a car. In Australia, I passed my driving exam at 17 and after that, I rarely took public transport. Our family had two cars that were shared between my father, sister and myself.

In Singapore, to convert a foreign driving licence of a Singaporean driving licence, I just had to pass the basic theory exam and to show some proof to the officer at the Traffic Police that I have been driving for a long period of time. I remember buying the basic theory driving study booklet at Popular bookshop, studying its content for one week, booking my exam at SSDC (Singapore Safety Drving Centre Ltd) at Ang Mo Kio and going for the exam after work. The exam consisted of all multiple choose questions. After the exam, a month later, I received a letter congratulating me that I have passed the exam. With my exam results, I went to the traffic police at Euros, along with my Australian driving licence and letter from the Dept of Main Roads (Queensland's motoring authority) to do the conversion. Now I could legally driving in Singapore. But I didn’t have a car for awhile.

It wasn’t until my 5th year in Singapore that I bought a car. As you know, owning a car is expensive compared to most other countries. The petrol, insurance, inspections, parking fees, maintainance, ERP (Electronic Road Pricing), road tax, car washing are some of the things to look forward to.

View at City Hall

Singapore, the concrete jungle? This place is so different from my place of birth. Back home, the people are more laid back, and buildings didn't need to reach for the skies.

At first, I thought the closely built buildings and small apartment homes would conspire to suffocate me. And there was very little privacy. Over the years, this has become the norm for me. My personal space has decreased, and concrete walls are now more comforting.

Today I met a friend from back home, who was in town for business reasons. While I was showing him around, he commented that the escalators in the malls and train stations were moving faster than he was used to. Was it because people here are in much more of a hurry to get places? No, I hadn't really noticed, I told him.

Actually, upon reflection, I find myself walking a lot more briskly since being here. After all, there are places to go and things to do. Maybe that's why I didn't notice, I've blended into the pack. Sometimes, I catch myself getting irritated when my progress is impeded by people who hog hallways, stairs or escalators. I have pedestrian rage!

We later went up to my friend's room on the 54th floor of Swissotel the Stamford, as he mentioned he had a good view of the city. I only had my handphone, but I took a few shots anyway. I've uploaded the photos here, and a few in this blog post itself.

This one is a photo of the church which was renovated/extended not too long ago. Sanctuary right in the middle of the jungle. I don't need to be a believer to appreciate the structure's elegance.

And here is a photo with the Esplanade in the center. The sea and bay area are also visible. In the years to come, this place will see many changes.

Anyway, I parted with my friend after an unspectacular dinner at the Raku Ninja restaurant in CitiLink. Incidentally, if you were wondering about this restaurant, let me sum it up as: very dim lighting, inexperienced staff, mediocre ramen, not interested to try the other menu items.

I'll see if I can get some photos at night as well and post them at a later date, because even concrete can be beautiful.

PC Show 2007

This week, PC Show 2007 is being held at Suntec City. I was there briefly yesterday so I wanted to post about it here first. I would have stayed longer but I was carrying my daughter and the place was so crowded that when she started crying I just had no choice but to leave. :(

My family and I went via MRT to City Hall station. From the moment we stepped out of the station we knew it would be crowded. There was a Sony booth set up in CitiLink itself to hawk their digital cameras and video cameras. HD ready digital video cameras costing upwards of SGD1000 with various storage options (mini DV, DVD, HDD) were on display.



I took a picture (above) of the Sony booth. It also shows the exodus of people through CitiLink to Suntec City. Apparently PC and IT related exhibitions are very popular with Singaporeans. :)

When we reached Suntec City, we could see unending streams of people moving up and down the escalators with wardens positioned to direct traffic. It was... daunting, to say the least. After reaching the sixth floor and seeing the crowd, my wife gave up and took my son off to go window shopping downstairs instead.

I didn't get to see all the booths, but I did get to take a few pictures.



Here is Samsung's booth, promoting their HD TVs. HD is getting a lot of exposure as the next big thing in media. I didn't get to see any HD DVD or Blu Ray players. Actually I'm not sure how readily available HD content is yet, so I'm not sure what the people who bought these TVs will be watching. MaxTV's Discovery HD?


Dell made an appearance, and people were buying. I see people carrying Dell bags. Is Dell's online business model starting to show signs of inadequacy? Recently Dell started selling PCs with Ubuntu loaded instead of Windows as well. But, I digress. There were a lot of other big and small players selling their PCs, laptops and portable media players. Not really very cheap, maybe about SGD100 off the prices you get outside.


Here's a picture of Acer's DLP setup. I could consider getting one myself. :)

As I ran out of the exhibition area with a squirming 9-month old on my shoulders, I pondered the question: Why does PC Show pull such a large crowd? You can see families, and ordinary joes of all ages at the show. I think the answer is because Singaporeans are all gadget freaks. Young and old, male or female, whether they need it or not, having the best in technology can be a real show of status, or just a sign you know how to pamper yourself. Not that I'm complaining... I love the same things too.

The Orange Ox’s intro

Hey dudes. I’ve been living and working in a little place called Singapore for almost 8 years now. Originally, I was born in Vietnam. Well…I’m not really Vietnamese – I don’t speak Vietnamese, my parents aren’t Vietnamese and I don’t really look like a Vietnamese. I was born there and lived there for a very short time, 4-5 years as a toddler, then my family migrated to Australia. What did I do in Australia? I grew up there, got my Australian Citizenship, picked up the Australian accent, had a lot of mates at school, drank a lot of beer, ate a lot of meat pies and sausage rolls, and even managed to get an Australian university degree without studying very hard.

So why did I come to Singapore to work? I’ve been reminded so many times – ‘Working in Australia is so much more relaxed!’ Well at the end of 1999, 6 months after I got married, my wife and I got sick of our jobs. We wanted to go on a holiday so we packed up our bags and headed to Indonesia-Bali to visit the in-laws. Singapore is pretty close to Indonesia, so we decided to check the place out too. We heard that Singapore was a high tech city and there were lots of I.T. jobs. I didn’t know what to expect since I never been out of Australia for more than 20 years (remember – I’m not a native Australian).

Most asked question number 2 – "Why don’t I go back there?". Currently my wife and I don’t have any plans to go back. This doesn’t mean that we are not going back but at this point in time, we have decided to stay in Singapore. Well we are pretty much settled here. We have 2 kids, a full-time nanny, 2 houses, 1 car and, employment. It would be pretty difficult to re-locate at this time in our lives. We would need to sell our assets, find jobs in Australia, find someone to take care of our kids while we are at work! Another reason why we are not going back yet is I guess I want our kids to learn Chinese. This is something that I really want them to be able to do; something that will give them an advantage in life; something that I missed out in.

So being an Australian Vietnamese-born Chinese married to an Indonesian (she is also one quarter Dutch), residing in Singapore means I have a lot interesting stories to tell. Hence this is the reason why Duckling and I are putting this blog together. So stay tuned for more stories, photos, jokes, complaints and any other thing that we find interesting to chat about in this little red dot called Singapore.

What This WebLog is About

Welcome! Thanks for dropping by. This is a blog for Orange Ox and me to share our experiences, and the sights and sounds we see in and around Singapore. We've been here a good many years, so we each have our point of view and experiences to share. So, pull up a chair and enjoy!

I'm going to start off by introducing myself. I was born in east Malaysia. Kuching, Sarawak to be precise. I came over to Singapore to get my bachelor's degree in applied science from Nanyang Technological University in the late 1990's. I took a 3-year course in computer engineering, found a job here after graduation, and I've been here since. I'm now happily married with 2 children. :D

One of the biggest adjustments I had to make in coming over was concerning food. Because my favourite foods were unique to Kuching. These are things I simply MUST have at least twice a week. I remember I suffered from laksa withdrawal the first few months. Sarawak laksa is one of my favourite dishes. The laksa is Singapore is more akin to curry noodles. Speaking of noodles... they didn't have the type I liked. Kolo mee, wherefore art thou?

Of course, nowadays, you can get Sarawak laksa and kolo mee in Singapore. I think it's due to the influx of Sarawakians coming to work in Singapore. I used to frequent the coffee shop at Bedok (near bus interchange, next to library, facing the road) where the laksa is quite good. And I heard a few other places have started selling them as well. I've eaten the one at the Park Mall coffee shop at B1 once or twice. These places also sell kolo mee. And Jia Xiang, which has opened shops in Chinatown and Vivocity, also sell kolo mee. But their prices kind of put me off.

As you can see, I'll be posting quite a bit about food in my future posts. :)

I'm going to get Orange Ox to give a short intro as well and we'll begin posting in earnest after that. Until next time!