An Old Story - a New Post

A lonely pushcart
Jakarta - modern buildings, mosques and shantys
Nice veggies !
Myrna bargains for prawns
"What else should we get?"

Singapore - 1/04/2007 - Back from a nice holiday visit to the US. I hope you all had a good break as well. We were happy to see some of you and hope to see the others either next trip or here in Singapore. Sophia is still in LA and is coming back next Saturday.

It was really nice to be in a cool place with great Mexican food, real pizza and burgers that taste like burgers. I think we both put on a few pounds filling up on those things we can't get here in Asia. It was also fun to drive a car for the first time in 8 months. It took a little while to get comfortable behind the wheel after the layoff but soon I was cutting people off, honking my horn and running red lights like a normal American. It took me a little while to start looking left instead of right when crossing the street and of course the first day back here I looked the wrong way and almost got hit by a bus.

We missed a lot of the rainy season here in Singapore. They apparently had an 8 inch deluge one 24 hour period while we were gone. The only consolation of the rainy season is that it isn't quite as hot as it is in the sunny season. It tops off at about 88 with 90% humidity instead of 91 and 85% humidity. A crisis occurred at our house while we were gone as there was a leak in the roof causing water to drip on the third floor. Our always frugal and short-sighted landlord was on the case. Her contractor showed up a few days later and painted over where the water leaked in. I'm sure that fix will really keep the water out next time it really pours.

I made my first trip to Indonesia last week. Jakarta is only about an hour and a half flight from here but I hadn't made the trip so far. We had a little work issue there so I figured it was time to head over and get the lay of the land. The city of 13 million people was different then I expected. I figured it would be primitive, dirty and poverty stricken. While there is plenty of poverty and a good amount of dirt it really was much nicer and more modern then I expected. It was also relatively clean for such a huge city. It is really sprawling and the traffic is a nightmare but there are plenty of brand new nice buildings both commercial and residential and even the slum like shanty towns there seem nice compared to places like India and the Philippines. It might be because even the poor areas have these nice red tile roofs, which from the outside look ok - of course they probably have no plumbing or cooling and have dirt floors so I am not ready to move in in the near future. The airport is nice and reminds me of the one in Maui. Far better then LAX which has gives Mumbai a run for its money in grime and thridworldliness. Lots of palm trees and mangroves lining the highways.

Tonight I am actually going to go out on the town with some guys from the office. Sophia and I have seen a great deal of life in Singapore but very little of it after about 10PM. At our house we often times get the joy of hearing revellers heading up our street at 2 or 3 AM after a night drinking at the bars down the street beeping their car alarms and having a good time. Tonight I will take my revenge although come to think of it if I do I will only annoy my own neighbours and they probably have the same problem we do. If only I had the addresses of those over zealous, light weight drunken merrymakers!

I went to the wet market with Myrna to get a few things for snacks for the guys before we hit the streets. Had my favourite mutton murtabak and butter prata breakfast washed down with a mango lassi. Can't get that in LA! I also took a few shots of the market. Its fun to browse the stinky meat and fish stalls and look at the huge variety of fruits and vegetables available here. Myrna is a great shopper sliding into Singlish as she negotiates with the stall owners "Last week prawns 21 per kg Auntie! Cannot pay 22 lah!" "Uncle, if those mangos not sweetest I bring back to you! My boss he like sweet ones!"