Popping...it's cool

Popping Animation Skit: http://youtube.com/watch?v=PmN9hs__Aos

Extra Slo-Mo Popping: http://youtube.com/watch?v=yY5et2t2dn4&feature=related

If you want to learn it: http://youtube.com/watch?v=5A9cNEmgg2U&feature=related

Deepawali

Nov 11 was Deepawali (or Diwali), an Indian holiday also known as the Festival of Lights. Part of this holiday involves detailed sand-based drawings, put on the ground. I saw it in KL Malaysia all over the place, and below are a few samples.

More Malaysia...

Just happend to get a glimpse of a Blue Mosque (I don't think it's THE blue mosque) on the way to the Airport: We stopped at a "Petrol Station" shortly after - the fumes were so overwhelming that I had to exit the car. It wasn't the normal gas smell, rather a paint thinner smell.

My best meal in Malaysia was at Le Bouchon - a French restaurant in KL.

Started off with a cold foie gras salad, with grapes. Quite rich and tasty (no pic). The main was a 3-meat grill of Lamb, Rib Eye, and Chicken:
Dessert - Cheese plate.

Look: America's Auntie Anne's pretzels:

In the far distance, you can see 2 (3 actually, but the 1st one moved to quickly) military helicopters with supplies hanging below:

Memories of an unpleasant hotel stay at the Renaissance:

(L) Smoking in the lobby; (R) a used ashtray on the non-smoking floor (why is there an ashtray on the non-smoking floor?)

Photo diary of my Tour of Duty to Kuala Lumpur...

Ah, the Petronas Towers... just about the only thing my ignorant self could identify with Malaysia before coming. Otherwise known as the site for Sean Connery & Catherine Zeta-Jones' film, Entrapment. It is an office building, of the Government Linked Company (GLC), Petronas, and also called KLCC - Kuala Lumpur City Center. Other interesting things about Malaysia are...

• Buses often have a sales person on the bus who helps the driver get customers - sometimes, drivers don't leave the bus stop until they get a full bus, thus delaying the "schedule".


• Cabs often try to rip you off - skipping the meter in favor of a verbal agreement. This was quite frustrating, in having to negotiate for a 2 minute cab ride home. Also, they are sometimes so lazy that they won't even stop to pick you up, even if it's 12 AM and they won't get any other business anyways.


• The Malay government heavily favors the ethnic Malays, also called Bumiputera. For instance, publicy-listed businesses must have 30% Bumiputera ownership, developers must reserve 30% of new developments for Bumiputeras, and there are huge affirmative actions in Universities. I went to the National Museum, and paid all of RM 2 (USD 0.57) to get in - the Bumi's got in free!
  
• They have the "World's Largest Bird Park" - yes, I went - upload photos some other time... it's big, but probaby not the largest. Pretty cool, and I escaped sans bird flu.
  

Pictures from the plane to KL:


Surprisingly, there's some innovative advertising ideas in KL - the Monorail (their above-ground subway) is sponsored by companies, who have adopted stations, and actually get logo sponsorship on the monorail map.

Singabore-Part 1

(Note: Message started in Singapore, completed in HK)
The government is probably monitoring this message as I type, as the ISP I'm using is probably government owned/invested. Even if that's not the case, it's monitoring the web for anything that might cause unrest in this ostensibly harmonious society.

In my fourth trip to Singapore, I've just now begun to see that all may not be idyllic in this uniquely clean-air city-country in SE Asia. As I wander around the streets at 10:30PM in downtown looking for a cab, I wonder why is it that it is so difficult to get a cab in a city that's supposed to be so well-oiled. There are no shortage of cabs flying by, and I believe that skin color is a non-issue, but none stop because they are supposedly "on call". This phenomenom is something devised by something-probably-called the Ministry of Transportation, and seems like a great idea - anyone can advance book a cab for a reasonable fee of SGD 2. However, attempting to advance book oftentimes is an excercise in frustration with a busy signal from all five Singapore cab companies (or they let you know with the automated big brother system that "there are no cabs available in your area). By the way, all five are owned in whole or part by the Singapore government. I've heard that cabbies often pretend they're on call, either to 1) just to pick up desperate passengers that are willing to pay the on call fee; or 2) wait until they do get the on call call. In anycase, my suspicion is that the government fosters this type of environment because at the end of the day, they believe it results in higher wealth for the country. I think my own experience, as well as a look around at the ridiculously long cab lines at the hotels and companies (even during off-peak times), would point to the fact that this belief is founded on faulty assumptions.

During the past weekend, I visited Sentosa (a man-made resort island, which is an amazing feat itself). On the way there, I tried a NYC-style maneuver in the subway. As we came down the stairs, the doors were beeping as they were on the brink of closing. As I've done in almost every city with public transportation which I've been to, I extended my leg into the doors in order to cause it to reopen. However, as 1 second, 2 seconds, 3 seconds passed, I realized that Singapore is different. There are rules, and if you don't follow them, you pay the price! I pulled my leg away from the two sets of doors (subway and platform), a few moments after which the train left. Needless to say, I will never try that again (in Sg).

COME ON!

My latest trip to City Super in Times Square revealed some more extraordinarily overpriced foods. Note the head of broccoli which costs HK$42.70 (~US$5.55)! The Dragon Fruit costs about HK$39 or US$5 (To put this into perspective, in Taiwan, a dragon fruit costs about $1, and in HK a meal at a local restaurant costs about HK$30). Paying a premium for quality fruit and veggies isn't that crazy, especially for organic or imported goods. However, paying about 500% for these goods is crazy. (That said, I bought some $7 romaine lettuce the other day for my salad, and about $4 for my red bell pepper). COME ON!

Went to Stanley Market this past weekend to get a bit of the non shopping side of Hong Kong. It was extremely hot, so I wasn't able to go kayaking ,but the views from the number 6/6x buses were nice. Below are a few of the more notable pics.

(The Boathouse restaurant, decent food costing 480 for 2 people with sodas)
Stanley Beach (fenced off for recent shark warnings)

This is how they roll in Hong Kong

You've got to have THE car, not just any car. It must be a luxury vehicle. You get bonus points for loud engines. Multiple vehicles, rare vehicles.

Anything else would be uncivilized.

Once you get it/them, you have to annoint it with all that shows that you are in the SAR game. Club plates, China plates (USD 50,000 gets you this right), a driver. Once you're there you can't just rest on your laurels, as the guy who's got the adjacent parking space in your building has told you about the deposit he's just placed for the 2008 lambo. You've got to get a package - Brabus rims, Chanel upholstery, German glass.... (yea, couldn't think of anything better).

Custom suits don't mean all that much, as they come quite cheap here. However, well-tailored name brand suits / custom-tailored high-end cloth will definitely get you on the list. Even if you only make 20K/year, you've got to get the thousand-dollar her outfit if you work in Central. You can't show up to work without the latest in heels either.

Everyone's an investor, and these days - everyone makes bank in the market (except me). A friend told me that he was recently at the well-known rich man's Chinese restaurant, and chatted it up with a waiter. The waiter ended up revealing that he'd invested his savings into one of the many Chinese bank IPOs in HK, and he'd netted HKD4mn (USD500K+)... yes, he's still a waiter.

You've got to have a maid... or two or three. Heaven forbid that you actually have to raise your own children! Feed them? Bathe them? Dress them? Not for any self-respecting HK-er. They'll just get a few Bun-Moy's or a few Nepalese. They're like US$600-$1000 / month for full-time live-in service. You can ask them to make you any food you want, anytime. Clean this, clean that!
.................

Bored of Happy Valley Food

I'm so sick of the food in Happy Valley. I've gone through my local HK cha can tang phase, where you can get dinner for US$4. That ended when I found a piece of twine in my bitter melon beef (they said it was from the veggies). The rice there is also pretty bad, kind of day old and wettish. Incidentally, I like to get Wat Dan (slimy egg) anything, or Chicken with Corn. Next I went through the higher quality Chinese food phase, (Pang's kitchen), where dinner will set you back about 10 to 15 USD (rice costs extra!). I've also (briefly) gone through the McDonalds phase, given that it's open 24 hours and costs even less than the US. I've most recently gone through the Western food phase, satisfying it with Il Bel Paese, the local italian grocer which thankfully offers ready made pastas and sides. The cheese there is actually priced competitively vs. City Super or the Great.



If I want to go upscale a little bit on the weekend with 1 or 2 of the friends I have in HK, I can go to Yakitori Tei and Barbarian, which are equally good yakitori places (Tei has better atmosphere, but I've never been upstairs at Barbarian which seems to be more happening than the small downstairs).

King's Palace Congee is another midend (my hyphen key broke) Chinese place, that features a BBQ pork dish called SIK SUN (or god of food/cooking, like the Stephen Chow movie). It's good but has a oddly likeable sauce on the rice. It also comes with a fried egg on it.

There's a famous roast meat place on Sing Woo Rd, but it's not that great. It's practically free, but the BBQ pork is not all that. It's actually not as fatty as you'd like it to be.

Note: Tonight I went to Times Square to find some decent food. Unfortunately, all I found was some discounted City Super spider roll. I trammed it back to the Valley and had a chicken sandwich and a big n tasty. God help me...

Sushi Tatsu-revisited

(My favorites are above-nothing like raw eggs and sea urchin to boost your cholesterol).

Sushi Tatsu - my second time there in Singapore. It's in the Chymes. Sushi's like a 8/10 - i don't think it ranks in the same league as my NY favorites, but it'll do. It also seems more expensive for what you get... I had dinner there by myself and it costed about USD 75 (2 beers, an ochazuke [i saw them use the fresh salmon from the sushi bar], Negitoro maki (SGD20) and a pretty nice sushi deluxe set (SGD 50, seared swordfish and otoro, 2 uni's, 2 kanpachi's, white tuna, ikura, shimeaji (sp?) - they let me choose, which was nice).

Note that the waitresses and sushi chefs are kind of salesy, which is a turnoff.

Singapore Food and Views

Look closely for views of birds (probably sparrows) swarming:

Views of Singapore Chinatown:

(Above right: SGD 3 meal, eggnoodles with a tea egg and fish balls)

This is a view of the Chymes (sp?), a renovated church which has restaurants, bars, and a lot of nice cars parked outside on the cobblestone driveway. The Japanese restaurant was pretty good, but had quite small pcs as you can see.

These pictures below are from a restaurant I do not recommend. It's called Samy's, and it is Indian. The food is very... local, in that there are flies on the food that you pick out before sitting down. I had stomach issues for a few days afterwards, and almost tossed my cookies at the table (maybe more b/c I am not used to Indian spices, vs. the actual sanitary levels).

Captions: (Fishhead soup, i did not try) (Squid, was pretty soft) (My plate, a leaf)

Crab pictures

(Below L to R): Crab on Coral, Crab eating a pc of scallop upside down, Crab eating dried shrimp)

(Below L to R): Crab hitching a ride on Crab, Crab eating dead shrimp, Crab wandering

Expensive Fruit

Carrots from Japan (HKD 38 for 2, or USD 4+, on the bottom right back):
Cantelope from japan (HKD 400 for 1, or USD 50+):

Furama - Phone but No Phone

One additional item about the Furama is the phone service. If you have an international calling card, which has local a access number for Singapore (as most do), you'll be happy to find that you are unable to dial direct from your room. (This is, of course, only a problem if you have a working phone to begin with.) If you have a working phone, then you are obliged to call the operator/front desk to put you through. But it's not that simple. They have to call you back, and then put you through. Further, they don't usually pick up within 10 rings, nor do they call you back right away. I think they have 1 staff after midnight.

Might stay at the Swisshotel next time (former Westin, I hear).

Had some really good sushi tonight, in the Swisshotel, at Inagiku. SGD 90 for a sushi deluxe set, which comes with 9 pcs sushi, including uni, ikura, chu and 0-toro, hon-maguro, botan ebi, squid, some other tasty fish, maguro-maki. Also had some Gindara Misoyaki (cod fish with miso), and Hamachi (SGD35 for 5 pcs sashimi) and some below average kaki fry.

The total bill for four people was SGD 780, with drinks.

Furama City Centre Hotel - A partial timeline of painful customer service

Furama City Centre
60 Eu Tong Sen Street
Singapore 059804
Tel: 65-6533-3888

Recommendation: Never stay here. Ever.

Day 1: Check in at 12:30AM. Phone does not work. Go downstairs and tell staff to fix it - engineer to come up soon. Wait 15 minutes, still no one. I want to tell them to forget it, but I have no phone, so I have to go to use the elevator bank hotel phone on my floor. Oh, that one doesn't work either. I make the trip downstairs and tell them to fix it tomorrow.

Day 2: Get back to room in evening, and phone is still out. Go downstairs (b/c the hotel phone at the elevator is still out). No one checked the phone. As a matter of fact, the person who told me they would check, asked me, "Do you know who you spoke to?" YOU!!!

Day 3: (Same as Day 2, but the phone company came and can't fix it... somehow). So I do a room change next door at 11PM. Internet doesn't work. After some language problems, they send someone up. Their cable is broken, so they replace it.

Day 4: No problems.

Day 5: Get woken up by construction directly on top of my room. Change rooms at 11AM on Saturday. Evening comes, and I get frozen b/c the room's A/C is stuck at 23 degrees.

Day 6: In AM, tell them to fix A/C. Result? A/C is stuck at 22 degrees

Day 7: In AM, tell them to fix A/C. Result? No information... call up and after 10 rings at the front desk, and being on hold for 10 minutes, tell me someone 2 days ago "checked it". Great, ... what did they do? Did they fix it? No.. instead they made it colder. Tell them to fix it again tomorrow.

Day 8: ...TBC

Canine Crustaceans

(Original post date: May 1)
My "fish" tank has been relegated to a crustacean tank, as parasites run rampant in Hong Kong fish (maybe that's why $50 fish in the US cost $1-2 in Hong Kong). Anyways, I have 3 inhabitants.
1) Cleaner shrimp
2) Hermit crab (Plain orange)
3) Hermit crab (Fluorescent blue, with black stripes)

The cleaner shrimp was originally purchased in order to de-parasite the fish I was buying. Since all the fish have since passed, the shrimp is left to eat algae and whatever microorganisms are in the tank. That said, it has molted healthily, and survived without much care. The crabs have done just as well. I just returned from a 2-week trip, and all three were still thriving in my 29-gallon tank.

Although raising crustaceans may seem (it is) a tad boring, they actually do have interesting quirks. For instance, I just put some dried shrimp at the bottom of the tank, and just a few moments afterwards, the Blue hermit crab smelled it and rushed over to start at it. It was like a dog finding a bone!

Link to a Happy Valley blogster

While looking for the Happy Valley Police Station phone number, I turned up this other blog: Powmarday. Looks like this person's been living in Happy Valley much longer than I have, and has posted up a bunch of interesting HK and Happy Valley info.

Enjoy...

Views of Singapore

Although this sign (about US$700 for littering) indicates quite rigid control of its society, Singapore is not as strict as you might think. You still get executed for drug possession, and caned for graffiting, but this society still allows such vices as drinking, smoking in bars, prostitution, and souped up cars.

I'm not a whisky connoisseur by any count, but in attempting to understand it some more, I tried the whiskeys below at Highlander (Clark Khee, Singapore), as well as a 12-year Macallan and 12-year Glenfiddich (Indochine, Singapore). I liked the Macallan better, due to smoothness and aftertaste. Had them both with 1 cube of ice each.
(this was a single-malt TAHDHI from November 1969, which cost about US$20 for a single. It was smooth, and had some indescribably nice aftertaste--kind of like chocolate?)

Takashimaya basement has many food stalls. This one was notable because it had an Yakitori machine, which dipped yakitori sticks in sauce before grilling.

Pics from the National Museum of Singapore, and its History & Living exhibit (bascially, a history of the country)

(above right) An old school textbook supporting the Kuomindang (Nationalists). 60% of Singapore citizens are Chinese.

(right) This was a cool exhibit, which allows you to smell food ingredients common to Singapore, such as coconut and lime.