Alive & well... thankfully

Hello all. It’s been a while since I’ve written, because it’s been a while since I’ve had much to write about. Things have been pretty quiet around here – just working & living, with a few interesting things mixed in.

I’m in the middle of a four-day weekend here. There are two holidays going on right now: Deepavali (Hindu), and Hari Raya (Muslim). So we have Monday & Tuesday off, and like many Singaporeans – I took the opportunity to leave Singapore.

I found a local dive shop that was planning a trip up to Pulau Tinggi, a small island in Malaysia. They were doing a two-day trip, so I decided to join. It would become one of the most mediocre and most terrifying trips of my life.

The diving was quite mediocre. As the dive shop warned, the water wasn’t in the best condition. There has been a lot of rain in the region, and that’s stirred up quite a bit of sediment. Visibility was about 10m or so. I did see a few interesting creatures, including some enormous starfish (with huge spikes on them!), a cuttlefish, and a few sting rays. The one night dive that we did was the most interesting – I saw a large hermit crab, an enormous puffer fish (about 2 feet long), and a squid. The water temp was 86F (30C), so that was nice too.

The boat we dove off of left a lot to be desired. It was pretty run down, and I don’t think they had any safety equipment on it. Good thing we weren’t doing any ‘extreme’ dives. I don’t think I went any deeper than 12m or so.

The resort we stayed at was nice, when the electricity was working. Quaint. Still, it was nice to get in the water again, and brush up on the skills. I hope to get out to do some better diving within the next couple of months.

But, the most noteworthy & terrifying part of the trip was the drive up there. As soon as we crossed the bridge from Singapore to Malaysia, our driver became an absolute maniac. Picture this: 4 hours of driving in the dark, going 80mph on a 2 lane road, passing multiple cars while driving in the oncoming traffic lane… around a corner! We had no way to know if there was a car that was going to come around the bend & hit us head on. Oh, did I mention there were no seatbelts in the van? The driver did the whole trip with 1 hand on the wheel, and the other on his cell phone. He also was swaying back & forth a lot in his seat, I’m not sure why. I’ve read that drivers sometimes use substances to help them stay awake… I didn’t want to ask. I did ask the leader of our trip if the driver could slow down a little bit. The response I got was “Oh, this is the way they drive in Malaysia. Don’t worry, he knows what he’s doing.” Fortunately, we had a different driver on the way back.

Other than that trip, things have been pretty routine in Singapore. A few misc things that have been going on:

I got out cable skiing a few weeks ago, which was a lot of fun. I’ve been wakeboarding a few times before, so the only thing that was different was the start. Instead of starting in the water & accelerating with the boat, you sit on a bench with the board on top of the water, and instantly go from zero to full speed as the tow-rope clamps on to the cable that is running continuously. I fell the first time, but got up every time after that. Fun! I’ll definitely go back.

I’ve also made my way out to East Coast Park to do a little rollerblading. There are several miles of paved path (can’t really call it boardwalk, can you?), and it gets quite busy on the weekend. There are tons of people out biking & rollerblading. Many, it seems, for the first time! You never know when you’re trucking along & someone is going to randomly swerve in front of you. Still, it’s one of the better places to hang out.

I went golfing a few weeks ago with my co-worker (another guy from MN). We got on the course at 7am, and by the time our 9 holes were done – we were completely soaked! I would have hated to play in the afternoon. One cool thing they had at the golf course – compressed air hoses at the end to clean off your shoes & spikes. It works really well! (maybe they have those in the US, but not at the courses I play at.)

Oh, and one other interesting thing about the golf course. On a few holes, you don’t want to go get the ball you hit out of bounds. There are ‘Beware of Snakes’ signs posted along the out of bounds. Hmmm…. yes, I think I will let that cobra keep my ball.

Air quality hasn’t been the best lately. Indonesia has been having ‘wild fires’ (farmers clearing land?) for the past couple of weeks. Both Singapore & Malaysia have been blanketed with a haze. Some days it’s really bad – like a thick fog covering the city.

We celebrated Oktoberfest here last weekend, which was lots of fun! I brought a couple of co-workers from the US along, and we met up with some people that I met here. I realized how international this city was when I was standing on top of a table singing ‘YMCA’ at Oktoberfest in Singapore…

The area that our office is in is called Science Park. There is a fitness center at the end of the road, that is for all the companies in SP. A few weeks ago, they had a celebration for the fitness center being open (15 years, I think). I joined in on the festivities. We had a decent dinner, followed by some ‘fitness activities’. They modeled the activities from things around the world. The North America event was a horse-shoe toss (like they do in Texas, I was told). The Australian event was a boomerang toss – trying to knock a target off of a stand. The Antarctican event was running to the end of a tennis court, and trying to fish coins out of a bucket of ice water – in order. Being from MN, I thought I’d have an advantage on this one. It was so cold! My hands were stinging at the end! There were a few more events, including everyone on the team walking with their feet attached to 2 planks of wood (really hard to coordinate, especially going backwards), and everyone holding a 20 foot long piece of PVC pipe vertically as someone tried to climb up it to get a flag. Of course, when they reached it, they slid down on top of everyone.

The evening ended with a final competition. A set of monkey bars had been constructed, out of bamboo, over the swimming pool. There was a single bamboo pole underneath them, so a people could walk out to the middle of the bars. When everyone got out above the pool, the pole was removed, and whoever could hang the longest was the winner. The problem is, that after 3 (out of 6) people got out there, the entire structure collapsed & they fell into the pool. So much for that competition!

Well, that’s about all that I’ve been up to lately. There is a bunch of people here from MN this week, including some good friends. It’s going go be fun to hang out with them, and show them around. It’s going to be a fun week.

I hope you’re all doing well!