The owners of our lovely apartment building decided that each unit needs to be 1/3 of its current size, so we were given a one month notice to leave in January.  It wasn't unexpected, however, as they had advertised in the paper over a year ago that our building was 'en bloc' (i.e. sold for demolition) - a fact repeated to me by every cab driver as they approach our doomed domicile!

 

So, we found a 'landed' house (i.e. one with a yard) and moved over the weekend.  Moving, normally a stressful task, was made simple by the movers hired for us who wouldn't let us pack or carry a single item.  We did end up living out of boxes for a few days, but essentially we were teleported from one building to another.

 

So far, so good - we like having 'land' and it's nice being on a small street as opposed to a major road, though we have now found that the flying fauna of Singapore makes a helluva lotta noise in the morning...

Hi - not much to say 'cept we're back in Singapore (after 20 hours on the plane!) and not travelling anywhere anytime soon.

I just found out I have a class on Saturday mornings (!) which will really keep me landlocked - though it's probably not such a bad thing as I have a lot to catch up on after running around the States for the past couple of weeks.

 

We're so happy we got to see so many people during our visit to the States - and hope to catch up with everyone else soon.

Just a note to stay that we're still alive, just busy with travel, work and studying (for me). 

We have our trip planned back to the States - December 24th - January 9th - and I'm so looking forward to being there, though less so the 2x 20 hour flights.

 

Photos still forthcoming...

Will try to get them up next week...

 

Not much new in Singapore - the haze from the Indonesian farmers burning their fields has finally lifted so we can see the sun again.  I see that it's been cold in the States - which reminds me of how unseasonal it is here.  I do miss the autumnal chill and the start of the snowboard season - but I'm not sure I could handle a New York February at the moment!

Quick update - Lorraine and I were married on Saturday September 16th. It was a beautiful day on the beach in Amagansett and we had a great party afterwards.  Pics to be up as soon as we get them from the photographer...

Well it's 5AM on the Thursday before my Saturday wedding and I can't say how much I'm looking forward to it!  Without getting too gushy about it, I've finally finished the hell of my exams and now have a wonderful wedding to a wonderful woman with all great friends and family around in a beatiful place.  Can't ask for anything more...

 

Every time I come back to the states, there's always something in the first 2 hours or so after landing that just sticks out at me.  As we were driving through Brooklyn on the way back to Long Beach, I just looked around and could believe how stereotypical 'Brooklyn' the people in Brooklyn were.  Hooded tops, full length black leather jackets, gold chains, and even someone giving us 'the finger' from out of a Cadillac Escalade.  As I said to Lorriane  'You couldn't make them up...'

Finally got some new photos up of our vacation in Bangkok and Bali in August.  Note the failed attempt, once again, to get a picture of me actually standing on a surfboard...

The lack of updates is certainly caused more by the difficulty of my financial engineering course as opposed to interesting things happening.  Since the beginning of the month, I've been to NY and back (for a weekend) and am currently in Shanghai.  Lorraine is now in NY and will be there until she is officially Mrs. Rajeck!

 

I really should get some pics up of Shanghai - it's like the future as it may have been pictured in the 1950's and never updated, kinda like Land of Tomorrow at Disney World.  The expat community here seems very energetic and young and this place certainly be appealing to me if I was 10 years younger.  Everyone here, apparently, has some import/export company idea in the making but it's very difficult to find local partners.  Haven't seen much of the nightlife (or day life for that matter) but what I did see was extravagent and expensive.  Looking forward to coming back actually as it's quite easy to get around and there's apparently very cool things to see all around the city...

Pictures are from Lorraine's vacation in Spain.  Looks like it involved a lot of wigs.. :-)

OK, finally some photos of our trip to Sydney in May.  Unfortunately, as the taxi pulled onto the highway towards the Singapore airport, we realized that we had forgotten our camera so the pics are from a disposable :-(

 

Included is another failed attempt to get a photo of the Opera House at night...

It's official.  I'm now a student at a university here in Sinagpore and my first class was a 4 hour matrix algebra lecture on a sunny Saturday afternoon.  Good times.

 

At 36, I feared that I may no longer fit in with the academic lifestyle.  I imagined that my university would have a campus full of trendy young students sipping coffee and talking about MySpace, ringtones, and other things I don't understand - with me furtively looking for a cab to get back to old-person world.  Instead what I found was a series of concrete buildings with the occasional food-stall and absolutely NO ONE around.  It felt like a post-apocalyptic land of parking garages but one with your choice of fried noodles or fried rice.

 

I've assembled a collage of photos from the university brochure to give some idea of what I'm talking about. Attractive, no?

I've not updated lately because I've hit such a routine that there's not much to report.  Partially because Lorraine is still in Spain (on the plain?) so my social obligations have been reduced, but also because I've been trying to avoid the booze and crap food which accompanies a typical expat lifestyle. 

 

Every day is a summer day in Singapore, so it's tempting to sit outside at one of the many bar/restaurants, sipping beer and eating greasy food.  Trouble is, those calories accumulate on the belt line in no time and I'm finding that it's tough as hell to get rid of them - even with regular exercise.

 

I can't really complain, though.  I've set up a gym at home with a TV so I can huff n' puff on the elliptical, watch the O'Reilly Factor, and learn I need to know about current events in the States.  Magic.

Back from the travel, and even had a Bangkok trip on the end of all that.  I'm looking forward to a little rest and relaxation this weekend - and I'm not going anywhere near an airport!!

Over the next couple of months, Lorraine and I will be travelling a whole heckuva lot. 

 

On the first leg of our world tour, we travel together

 

April 28 - Melbourne, Australia

May 2 - Sydney

May 7 - Back to Singapore

May 11 - London

 

On May 15th, we split up.  I stay in London for work, returning to Singapore on May 22nd.  Lorraine, however, keeps going:

 

May 15 - New York

May 18 - Chicago

May 22 - New York

 

Then in June she's off to London, then Spain, and London again before meeting me back in Singapore on June 22nd!

It sounds all a bit much to me, but Lorraine is on the wedding planning trail and September is rapidly approaching...

I thought it might be time to put up a few photos...  Included are

It's been some time since I updated, but life has been pretty business-as-usual since we returned from Vietnam.  We did take a trip to Bali shortly afterwards to stay in our friend's villa - but the house was so gorgeous that we found it difficult to leave, so we took very few photos.  I will try to find some from the villa as the place is straight out of MTV Cribs...

 

We are going to Australia (Melbourne & Sydney) at the end of April then on to London shortly after that.  Lorraine will then be in the States in June - visiting 4 continents in as many weeks!

 

Other than that, we will be hosting Lorraine's niece in July and visiting Chiang Mai in northern Thailand for a week during her visit.  We've heard varying reports about the place, but I've never had a bad time in Thailand so I'm not too worried.

The latest set of pictures are from Halong bay which is an essential trip for anyone visiting Hanoi.  The reason I say that is that it's a very reasonably priced excursion and an absolutely beautiful part of Vietnam that hasn't been spoiled at all.

 

Lorraine had taken the budget trip to the bay before, so we decided to do the 'luxury' version which we booked at the Tamarind restaurant - $100 US for a 2 day, one night excursion including all transport, loging and meals.  The 3 hour drive to the bay was quite dull although occasionally we were treated to a view of pastoral Vietnam and it did give me the opportunity to see 'real' Vietnam.  The boat that took us around in the bay was lovely - it had a very nice dining room, plenty of outdoor deck space, and we had a clean cabin with private bathroom and shower. We had no problem eating despite our finicky, meatless diet and, as the pictures demonstrate, we were surrounded by some of the most beautiful scenery I've ever experienced.

 

A couple of the pictures also show the people from one of the 'floating villages' in the bay.  These people apparently live and work in the floating homes and even have floating schools for their kids.  They're very poor and seem to make at least part of their living by floating around the tourist boats selling various items to those touring the bay.

Coming out of Hanoi airport, I was quickly reminded that Vietnam's most prominent characteristic is the seemingly endless flow of scooters followed closely by ubiquitous clouds of dust.  The taxi we were in had a seatbelt but there was nothing to attach it to, so Lorraine and I looked out the side windows to avoid seeing our driver pull 2" behind hapless moped riders at 30mph.  Some of these scooters had families of 4 on them (one kid standing in front, the other perched between the mother and father) and the carnage following a collision is unimaginable.  The strong fatalistic beliefs of the Vietnames are truly reveled through their driving habits! 

 

But as I often say about traffic in countries like this - "somehow it works" - which is more than what I can say for Hanoi's crumbling infrastructure. After suffering hundreds of years of mismangement by various occupiers, the latest culprits (the communists) sure have made quite a mess!  The first thing which is immediately noticeable is that there is little of the corporate presence which normally gives a city center its 'sheen' - all businesses seem to be small, dumpy, owner-managed enterprises.  Apparently foreign investment in Vietnam has to be conducted as a joint venture with a local firm, and if the current state of affairs are anything to go by, I cannot blame companies for not sinking money into this still-totalitarian state which apparently rewards inefficiency and lethargy.  Say what you like about Starbucks - at least they wipe their tables and don't dump their trash on their doorstep.

 

Another thing which makes Hanoi unusual as a capitol is that the center (the Old Quarter) consists almost entirely of tiny 10' x 30' shops (and I'm being generous here).  Apparently building owners are taxed according to how much frontage space they have on the main street which encourages the building of narrow, cramped buildings and little incentive for businesses to expand beyond their tiny storefront.  This leads to rows of identical shops all selling the same stuff with price differentials based purely on how long you're willing to haggle with the owners.  In short, even though there's some great stuff to buy, it's a crappy shopping experience and quickly tiring.

 

But I often had the feeling that the Hanoians really weren't interested in placating tourists - they seemed satisfied and quite occupied with their own business.  Sure there was the odd merchant who nagged and pleaded for us to buy something but for the most part, they seemed to be pretty nonchalant.  I mused that it had something to do with that Vietnam still is an agrarian society and uncomfortable with modern business tactics.  Urbanization is a very modern phenomena here and perhaps as more of the 80 million move from their home farms to the city, this attitude would change.  I never felt, funnily enough, that their apathy to consumerism has anything to do with their history with the USA - in fact, the "American War" (as it is called throughout Asia) is really quite a small part of their historic struggle against occupiers and not as important as their battles against the Chinese or even the French.  I do think, however, that once they are brought into the global economy, they will do well as they seem to be shrewd traders amongst themselves (which makes it all the more curious that communism became their brand of nationalism...)

 

So summarizing about Hanoi: the tourist sites here are good - Ho Chi Minh's tomb is surreal and the "Hanoi Hilton" prison has some great photos of Senator John McCain when he was imprisoned here - and there are good cafes which offer respite from the madness outside.  The cuisine is impressive as well - I particularly liked how they used fresh herbs in place of vegetables in stir-frys and spring rolls - but I was a bit tired of fried food by the time we left.  I hesitate to recommend Hanoi to those not willing to get a bit dirty, but for learning about Vietnam's history and culture I would say a visit to the capitol is pretty much indispensible.

 

We also paid a visit to Ha Long Bay which I'll cover in another post when I have a moment...

No excuses for such a long time between comments as things have been rather quiet here lately.  Actually, that's probably why I haven't felt compelled to say much as its business as usual - hot weather in the day, a bit of rain here and there, and a lot of nice evenings out.  Can't complain for early March really...

 

One bit of drama is that we've had notice that "they" are knocking down our beautiful apartment complex.  Apparently it's like 20 years old or something and was built when people liked to have big apartments.  Well now they want to reduce them to 1/3 the size - so 80% of the building has been sold for that purpose.  I can't argue with the economics of it, but I'm not sure that knocking down a perfectly good building is really moving the country forward.

 

On the plus side, we've seen a number of houses with land which really make you feel like you're in the jungle in colonial times.  It's a really peaceful setting with all sorts of crazy plants all over the place - I absolutely love it.  So hopefully, we'll get the chance at scoring ohe of those and I'll forget all about our lovely condo!

 

We're off to Hanoi this weekend and then Bali the weekend after.  Funny, things have been hectic at work lately so I actually need a break!

Lorraine and I went windsurfing this weekend and learned a few things:

1) Windsurfing is not as hard as it looks at first, but gets very difficult as the day goes on

 

2) The locals here apparently don't like to get up early on Sundays - but come noon the beach is packed

 

3) "Water resistant" sunblock does not mean "waterproof" sunblock - so today I'm doing my impression of a human strawberry.

 

All in all it was a good day, but as my back is very sore today I would recommend that first timers only do it for the morning - and get a massage in the afternoon!

Perhaps I'm overemphasizing the culinary differences between our two fine nations, but I couldn't pass this one up.

 

Goodbye chicken floss - meet the Pizza Hut 'Loveberry pizza'.  And I quote:

 

"Nothing says 'I love you' like the heart-shaped Loveberry Pizza. Generously topped with succulent chicken ham (sic?), roasted chicken, juicy pineapple chunks, diced red capsicums, and sweet cranberries on a cool lime mayonnaise base sauce with a crispy parmesan cheese sprinkled crust.  it's like the perfect pizza for a romantic Valentine's Day."

 

Personally, I think it would say something much more frightening than "I love you" if someone delivered a heart-shaped plate of meat and mayonnaise on a crust to me, but I'm odd like that.

 

Picture of pizza lovingly placed on bed of roses to follow...