Sunday, Oct. 30, 2011 (back in Singapore)

IN AN EFFORT TO STAY AWAKE (PART I).... WATCH WORKERS WORK: The plane landed about an hour ahead of schedule, at 4:45 a.m. Sunday Oct. 30. Essentially, I bypassed Saturday entirely, having left Newark at 11 p.m. Eastern Time--just ahead of the wicked storm that struck Saturday and Sunday. The day's main task was to STAY AWAKE. One way I did that was to stare unthinkingly out the hotel window at a couple of remarkable building cleaners (right). They resembled Spiderman as they "walked" along the exterior wall of the neighboring Maybank building. They performed without a net, but, presumably, with plenty of good rigging and hooks and ropes around them. This kept my attention. This kept me awake.

IN AN EFFORT TO STAY AWAKE (PART 2).... WATCH A HALLOWE'EN DANCE TO MICHAEL JACKSON'S "THRILLER": One of the first things we did on Sunday morning, within hours of arrival from Newark, was to take a walk around Marina Bay. All was as I remembered it, until we arrived at the city's signature Merlion statue. When we left in May, the scaffolding and walls were being dismantled from around the waterfront statue, ending a weeks-long exhibit that put the Merlion INSIDE a temporary hotel room. Now it stands, uncaged, in all its water-spewing glory.
Anyway, on the E'en of Hallowe'en, we heard the distinctive strains of one of Michael Jackson's great tunes, "Thriller," coming from the area around the Merlion. As we arrived, we found a group of costumed youngsters (above) dancing to the music, in bright sunshine and nearly 80-degree weather. They were, indeed, "sweatin' to the oldies."
From a distance, I spotted the organizer and noticed the shirt she was wearing. When she turned her back to me, I thought the image above the words showed a profile of Vietnam. Or Italy. Or my spleen. Then I got close enough to read the writing: "His music will live forever." Indeed.
I heard nobody mention the ongoing trial in L.A.
IT would have been great if one of the costumed kids had shown up wearing a "CPDRC Inmate" costume.

IN AN EFFORT TO STAY AWAKE (PART 3).... WATCH WORLD CUP TABLE TENNIS: How lucky can we be? We discovered from the Straits Times that Singapore was hosting the Volkswagen 2011 Women's World Cup--in TABLE TENNIS. Sure enough, Sandy--gamer that she is--needed only moderate convincing-cajoling-cooing. After a pilsner and Cobb salad at Brewerkz on Clarke Quaye (site of our February Super Bowl viewing), we caught a cab to the Toa Payoh Sports Hall.
The hall, which probably seats about 2,000, was nearly full. (In the photo above, Sandy and I are inside the circle to the right.) (None of my photos came out. The players moved too fast. I did get a photo of Dr. Tony Tan, right, president of the Republic of Singapore, who, fortunately sat quite still for at least one moment.) The thundersticks (aka, ballonstix, cheerstix, bangers, bambams) were prominent. (Too prominent, actually. Sandy nearly got whacked on her left ear a couple of times by an thundersticker with a large wingspan.) The table tennis (aka ping-pong) was, in a word, outstanding. The hand-eye coordination was amazing. So, too, was the hitting.
This was an excellent break from other sports:

Unlike tennis, there were no ball boys or ball girls. The competitors have to track down the wayward pong, or is it a ping. Maybe neither. Each had to go get the ball. If the ball bounded beyond the low walls surrounding the playing area, people (often cameramen) tossed it back in play.

Unlike baseball, they use the same ball throughout a game. They might have switched balls between games, but there was none of the annoying ball-replacement that slows down an already-slow baseball game. This is more like cricket. The same ball seemed to be used throughout--certainly during each game. As the ball "aged" and "cured" throughout the game, the players kept pace. I think they were using the official 2.7-gram, 40-mm-diameter celluloid sphere.

Unlike American football, there was no "posturing" or "trash-talking" or "taunting." Displays of celebration included a subtle fist pump. There were some grimaces. Definitely no "woofing".

Unlike cricket, the scoring was straight-forward and, dare I say, intuitive.

Unlike Rest-of-the-World football, there was no faking of injuries.

Unlike American college basketball, there were no 20-second timeouts that last long enough to accommodate a 45-second television advertisement. (During a timeout, an official emerged and placed an LED clock on the ping pong table, at the end used by the player calling the timeout. The LED showed a clock ticking down.)

Unlike, say, the Georgia-Florida football game, there was no tail-gating.

The winner was Ding Ning of China. Most of the crowd was interested in the match for third place, which featured fourth-ranked Singaporean Feng Tianwei (shown below). But she lost to Hong Kong's Tie Yana.

Thursday June 23, 2011 (Winchester, Mass., USA)

THAI-ING ONE ON: Eager to "return" to the old neighborhood (Southeast Asia), Sandy and I did the next best thing. We went to a showing of The Hangover: Part II in Woburn. Once we heard the focus of the ongoing debauchery tale had shifted from Las Vegas to Thailand, we knew we had to go. It made me feel much better about the day I had in Bangkok. I emerged without a tattoo and free from any annoying contact with a chain-smoking monkey. I do wish I had actually gotten on the Chao Phraya River, which has a couple of scenes in the movie. I tried in vain to spot any footage of Tom's International Collection or of our hotel. I longed for more glimpses of the tuk-tuks (shown above in a clip from the movie). And who knew you could zip from Bangkok to the beautiful Ritz Carlton's Phulay Bay resort in Krabi on the Andaman sea in a matter of minutes? (In real life, such a trip requires zipping around all of Malaysia and Singapore.)
The movie, despite its concentration on the, uh, underbelly of Bangkok, did NOT deflect our interest in returning to the city or country. One message from the movie: Be prepared for the unexpected in Bangkok. As Stu says in one key point, "All I wanted was a bachelor brunch." As I mentioned in my blog entry, "All I wanted was a ride to the palace." This is a perverted twist on the saying, "No battle plan survives contact with the enemy" (courtesy of the elder von Moltke, I think).
I loved the tagline in the movie: "Bangkok has them now."
Many Thais are evidently nonplussed by the depiction of the city and country.
Such a movie CAN help tourism, of course. The topic of the original Hangover movie surfaced in a cab ride in April from Sydney to the airport. The driver, who combined strong Pakistani roots with an equally strong Aussie accent, told us he'd like to visit the U.S.A.
We asked where he'd like to go.
He said he longed to go to Las Vegas.
We asked why.
He laughed and said, "We saw Hangover. I want to go there with my mates."

Thursday, May 26, 2011 (Winchester, Mass., USA)

GO TO ASIA AND FALL IN LOVE AGAIN..... WITH..... PRINGLES: Upon reflection, I've wondered about the things that surprised me during the four months in Asia. One thing definitely stood out. The Pringles Proliferation. They are sold in all the usual places (e.g., 7-Eleven stores) and in some unusual places (such as on the floating convenience stores in Halong Bay, Vietnam (above and right, with helpful arrows pointing to the Pringles cannisters).
These were a bit of a blast from the past. They came out when I was in high school. I liked them immediately, but since then we kind of drifted apart. Didn't see each other often. Really wasn't much chemistry. Then I went to Asia and BLAM. The feeling is back.
There's plenty of information on the Wikipedia entry.
There's a Facebook page for Pringles Asia.
There are plenty of flavors, including "soft shell crab" flavor. And there are some Pringles collectibles out there.
They travel well and last forever.
I will eat some in the U.S.A., especially if I can find some of that Seaweed-flavored Pringles.

Wednesday, May 25, 2011 (Singapore)

MERLION IS FINALLY UNCAGED: After spending a couple of months being cooped up inside a temporary hotel room, Singapore's signature statue, of the mythical Merlion, is returning to the light of day (see March 1 and April 29). During its life as a hotel room, it was fully booked.
On Tuesday workers were peeling away scaffolding. Not sure when the water will spew from the mouth. Glad this happened by the time we left. The statue has been under wraps basically since we got here in February.
Now Marina Bay is back to normal.
Today is our somewhat reluctant getaway day. Our flight leaves Singapore mid-morning, ending a delightful stay.
The Merlion is back in action, and we have left the building.

Tuesday, May 24, 2011 (Singapore)

A PARTING SHOT: I glanced out the window this morning and saw a little water ballet going on by the wharf. It included the incoming Los Angeles Express (left) and the outgoing San Francisco Express (second from left) and the outgoing green Lyra, with attendant tugs. I'm going to miss the water traffic. (Both of the Express ships are out of Hamburg and are in the Hapag-Lloyd fleet.)
On a whim, I submitted a photo I took this morning of the Los Angeles Express to marinetraffic.com. Lo and behold, it's on the site. (That's a screen-capture on the right.) As of now this is one of ten photos taken of the ship. Heck that's almost enough for a CALENDAR of FOLD-OUTS. I think that makes me a published ship photographer.

I'LL TAKE THE BREAKFAST BEHIND BANANA LEAF NUMBER 2: I've walked by a small breakfast place often during the last four months and have noticed a number of people buying some food that's wrapped in a banana leaf that's been folded into a pyramid-shaped structure. I never knew what was in it, and I wanted to find out. I assumed it was some sort of rice-based concoction. What better day than today? After all, we fly out tomorrow morning.
I walked up to the counter, pointed to the closest little pyramid, said I'd like to buy one. I think I was secretly hoping it was some kind of rice dish that included some Cocoa Crispies or Corn Flakes. No such luck.
I had some shredded dried FISH for breakfast, with some egg, rice, chilli sauce etc. In addition, as if to make sure I knew it had fish in it, the unwrapped leaf included the fried/dried/smoked/whatever carcass of a fish.
Not used to that.
I'm not sure of the name of the meal. I think it's some form of nasi goreng. It cost only S$3.30 (including the coffee).
No, you don't eat the banana leaf. That's what I was told by a horrified onlooker.

WHAT'S A MOZZIE? As is my wont, I went to boston.com this morning to check up on Boston-area news. This banner-ad appeared on the top of the page. I am sure it did not appear to Massachusetts viewer. It touts a "5-step Mozzie wipeout," connected to efforts to limit dengue fever.
After months of seeing the ad, I decided--on our last day--to find out what this is all about.
I am probably the only person in Singapore who did NOT know that "mozzie" is a nickname for a mosquito. (It's kind of a jaunty diminutive for such a deadly beast, no? Is it a hypocorism?)
Dengue is a big deal here. The government does a lot of campaigning for it, including releasing a booklet called Denque Prevention Tips for Foreign Domestic Maids. It's in English Tagalog, Bahasa Indonesia and Singhalese. One tip that really doesn't come up much in New England (when it comes to eliminating still-water breeding grounds) is pictured at right. The wording that goes with the picture is "Cover bamboo pole holders when not in use." It shows how to cover up the ends of bamboo poles that extend from some homes. These hollow protrusions are not designed for flag poles. They support poles used for drying clothes. They'd rather use their precious energy resources on something other than drying clothes.

Monday, May 23, 2011 (Singapore)

IT DIDN'T FEEL LIKE IT, BUT THE PROCESS REALLY WAS SMOOTH AS SILK: While in Beijing, we bought some pillows and bed coverings at the Yuanhou Silk store. We were at the store on April 13 (The little cocoons at right that we got from the store are NOT going into our luggage; Sandy thinks I threw these away weeks ago. I didn't. Took the photo today. Then I threw them away.)
Anyway, back to the silk store.... We bought some stuff. The store absolutely positively guaranteed the stuff would be at our Winchester home within 40 days. TODAY would be the 40th day. And, guess what? UPS made its first delivery attempt A WEEK AGO. We found out on Friday that UPS had tried delivering the stuff three times and was done. We heard from people at Yuanhou that the shipment might have to be returned. (Sending silk to China has that coals-to-Newcastle feel.)
Well, it turns out that the package can be held in Chelmsford, Mass., until June 2. We can pick it up ourselves. So, the long-distance shipping seems to have worked. The shipping history shows that UPS's shipping process began on May 10. Here's the lineup:

Chek Lap Kok (the site of Hong Kong International Airport) (May 11, 10:40 a.m.)
Anchorage, AK (May 12, 1:10 p.m.)
Ontario, CA (May 12, 10:27 p.m.)
Louisville, KY (May 13, 10:23 a.m.)
Chelmsford, MA (May 15, 6:11 a.m.

Went smoothly until it hit our neighborhood. They did it in less than 40 days. The guarantee, I'm sure, was that they would get it TO our home within 40 days. Getting it INSIDE was not part of the guarantee.

NEXT TIME IN SINGAPORE.... As we prepare to leave, I'm thinking of a few things I'd like to do next time here. My eyes go out to sea. I wish I'd been able to spend a couple of hours on one of those tugboats that wrangle the container ships and help them dock.

Sunday, May 22, 2011 (Singapore)

SORRY TO BE BLOCKING YOUR VIEW OF THE ARTWORK: At noon today we taxi'd over to the Four Seasons Hotel to see a colleague of Katie's and walk through an exhibit of highlights from Sotheby's June auction of Impressionist, Modern & Contemporary art in London.In the photo at right, we are posing in one of the galleries on the 20th floor of the hotel with Miety Heiden of the New York office. I know, the message appears to be that we are more important than the art. If you must know, that's "Edwardian" by John Currin at the left. We are almost totally blocking "Cafetiere V" by Jean Dubuffet--behind me-- and "Eccentric Scientist" by Roy Lichtenstein--between Sandy and Miety. We had a nice lunch afterward. I had what is probably my final nasi goreng in Singapore. I think the chilli drove much of the cold out of my head.

A LONG GOOD-BYE: We had a going-away party for the Cambridge Associates office here in Singapore from 6 to 10 p.m. (and beyond). Everyone gathered at the rooftop restaurant called the Lantern, atop the Fullerton Bay Hotel, which is perched on Marina Bay. It was great fun. All the photos were just enough out of focus to be annoying. The group shown above is sitting in the southeast corner of the rooftop. Behind them radiate some of the night lights of Singapore. Our original plans called for flying back on Monday. Now it's Wednesday. The clock is ticking. Do we have enough room in our luggage? Big question.