Missing The Bike.

Some nice bikes here in singapore, making me all sentimental about my poor baby stuck in a box god knows where. Thought it would take a little longer for me to grow attached to The Bike, but i sure would like to take her for a spin right now.
I'd be even happy just touching it, caressing the slightly bent handle bars, playing with the little flap of torn seat, seeing if the 4kg of metal in my backpack is actually the right part for my missing footpeg...

Ah, thats The Bike.

Singapore Pics

Mount Faber looking over the port / industrial area

 

Clarke Quay. Add about 1 million ppl for a long wkend.

China Town

 

For the full album please refer here to Picasa

Quote of the day

"Are you traveling to india to find yourself? No, good, because we indians have a saying - if white man look to find himself in India, India look to rip him off".

Anindya Bose
PwC Singapore.

Best financial advice you will hear.

Site updated with labels

Just a quick note to let you all note that I have gone through the archives and updated the blog for labels, so hopefully this will make it all a bit more usable. You can now click on a label on the menu on the right hand side and it will show all/only posts for that label.

Hopefully this will enable me to focus the blog a little more on and keep me from rambling too much.

Adventures in Singapore

Long weekend here in Singapore, so not much happening with the bike at the moment. I've been really enjoying singapore, and seek to denounce the myth that it is a boring place! Although, the locals are tough nuts to crack.

Highlights so far:

• A couple of argentinians and I talked our way into one of the luxury residences at Marina Bay on a very hot Saturday. We thought we were heading to a garden but should have realised it was a roof top pool and spa complete with underwater exercise equipment, water massage beds blah blah. Not sure the almost totaly expat community appreciated the 'swimming costumes' we revealed but we sure enjoyed the swim! The over-weight, hairy, but very hospitable indian hedge fund manager in the spa was more than happy to accomodate the Argentinians. Putty in their hands.

The waterfront

The Rooftop horizon pool we manageds to sneak into.
• Ode to Art - Artist Lv YanJun War Fair and War Glamour collection was pretty special.
• Ode to Art - Ahhh screening at the esplanade by Charwei tai

• Star Inn, Little india. Afternoon naan bread, curry and big bottle of Tiger. Snooze, cricket or a bollywood movie. All for $8.
• Chinatown night markets - randomly spotted Claire MClintock as she walked by. Unbelievably. Not naming names, but someone should have bought that fossil...
• A couple of frenchies singing Edith Pilaf songs at 3am in the morning after playing drinking games. Entertaining.
• Beers with Jonathan from Niger talking about Africa and Australia and everything in between.

What I don't get about Singapore:

• Clarke Quay. On first impression, its amazing. Then, after a while, it was just wierd. A complete rift existed between the different cultures that were there. I couldn't really work out what was going on, but suffice to say it was an experience.
• The economy - how the hell does it work. Obviously the construction industry and the millions of Indians, Malays and bangladeshies and others that work in it are integral but Government stimulus on its own can't run an economy. The number of shopping centres and junk and consumerism is staggering and ridiculous. A local was telling me that the effective income tax rate is only about 8%, but rent is essentially a tax as all housing and land is owned by the government. Rent is supposed to be expensive but is actually comparable to Sydney. And we haven't even started on the giovernments foreign asset ownership.

 The imposing Marina Bay Sands from teh rooftop of the Esplanade

In the shadow of Marina Bay Sands

• The class structure. The divide between rich and poor is not obvious, I'm assuming the slums are hidden out the back somewhere. But the government at least appears to be concerned about the ppl working here - with lots of information available for workers regarding their work rights. But nevertheless, teh fact is some ppl are working long hours, for little money doing menial jobs whilst others are working in the professional services sector and earning big bucks. Somehow, the place works. I just don't know how.

Raffles Hotel