The Number 8

In Chinese culture, the number 8 is a lucky number. Everyone wants the number 8 to be associated with their lives. If your car’s license plate has the number 8 in it – that’s good news. When you get a new mobile phone #, you can pay extra (sometimes a lot extra) to get a number with lots of 8s in it. Even the Singapore $1 coin has an octagon on it – because the government wanted everyone to be carrying around the number 8 to bring prosperity to the country.

When China won the bid for this year’s Olympics, they scheduled the opening ceremonies for Aug 8. (8/8/08). I’ve even heard that the ceremonies will start at 8:08pm – but I’m not sure about that.

For me, the number 8 will be important this year too. On 8/8/08 this year, I return to the US… for good (or, at least for the foreseeable future).

Well, I’m trying to make the most of my last few weeks here. Last week, I flew down to Bali for a few days vacation with a friend. We spent the time relaxing at the beach, boogie boarding, and eating well. There’s a great bar there, called Ku De Ta. They have reclining beach chairs that look out over the beach. You can sit there, watch sunset, and lounge around to Café-Del-Mar-esque music.

The beach that we were at was pretty touristy. And, it’s the Indonesian school holiday, so there were tons of people there. But we did get away to a different beach, called Dreamland, one of the days. It was more secluded, and much nicer. But the waves there were crashing down pretty hard, so boogie boarding was out of the question.

I’ll definitely go back to Bali. I want to get around to some of the quieter parts of the island. And, I gotta get back to do some diving there.

This past weekend was the last Dragonboat Race for me in Singapore. They had 800m races out at one of the fresh-water reservoirs in Singapore. Tons of teams were there (from the expat organizations, the universities, and different corporations & groups). And, the American team had a special guest with us…

We were joined by Dhani Jones, a linebacker from the Cincinnati Bengals. He is traveling around right now, filming a TV show for the Travel Channel about sports all around the world. He’s played Rugby in England, done Muay Thai in Thailand, and came to Singapore to do Dragonboating. He & his film crew spent the entire weekend with us, and I wound up paddling one row away from him in one of the races.

So, keep an eye on the Travel Channel next Feb. You just might see me. :-)