What is it - to lead an international life?
Getting the wake-up call from a Finnish cell phone, while sleeping in a poor bed with a pizza-thin mattress (probably it is not even "Made in China"..) in the heartlands in Singapore (no clue why it is called like this, since it is far remote from Downtown Singapore, but near the border bridge to Malaysia...).
Taking a shower with an old "Elmark"-device (made in the UK), using German (Niveau, right?) shower gel (don't ask me where it was produced).
For breakfast, taking malaysian made margarine and jelly from Australia (but with the description in Arabic, since it was produced for this export market - and finally sold in the Carrefour, which is a French chain, in Singapore) on toast bread from xyz. Well, as European-rooted guy you can't call this bread since they pre-slice the loaf and then pack it in a plastic (!) bag. Except for luxury niche bakeries, you never find a "normal", fresh baked bread loaf on the shelves, but only this gummy stuff (at least they have besides white bread also mixed wheat ones, which are supposed to be more healthy – for me one of the few sources I could brag to live healthy from…).
Ah ja, concerning "health": I just read this morning in the "Today" newspaper (a free daily that is sometimes distributed in our apartment building that the obesity problem in the USA is still increasing. The record hit Mississippi with more than 30% of its population being obese, according to the cited study! (Coincidentally, I just opened a letter from a good friend in the USA).
Incredible, if you think about the economic costs this entails and the future prospects of humankind. The coming generation or our children of now about 5-10 years will be the first who face lower life expectancy due to poor nutrition and a lack of physical exercise. Somehow, it is insane – humans have found ways to fly, hunt and exterminate animals, got to the moon and finally, we voluntarily kill ourselves through being too fat and live unhealthy.
[Admittedly, the author of these lines should keep quiet since he lives unhealthy and imbalanced as well; his "household class" teacher told him once, if he continues to refuse eating vegetables/salad etc he would die in his 30's…]
Compare this to the Asian people in here. Wherever you look, the vast majority of the people are skinny, well trained, pure skin, no acne, look very good and seem to be always happy (at least the come up with a smile pretty fast … and sometimes this does not mean to be happy).
If we Westerners want to remain competitive, innovative and aim for progress, then we need to alter our habits. There is a lot gossip on the streets here, where people find that they will soon be able to outcompete old/aging Europe and fat America!! The West is no longer the one who is being looked up to, but rather who is smiled at…
Actually, I should continue with my main theme, the globalized life…
Yeah, while I type in these words, I take notes concurrently on my Swiss-made scrap-paper book, figuring out what I shall write for a column for a Swiss local newspaper (I will frequently report about my experiences here in Singapore).
Hey – I gotta go, is already 8.30am (usually I would write such things at 2 or 3am, but since my roommate wants to sleep then he forbade me to stay at the computer after 2am, since the clicking/typing annoys him. Interestingly, he sleeps usually till 11am and is not annoyed by my typing in the morning when I get up at 6am…).
btw: I finally got my "Student Pass" yesterday - the official card allowing me to stay here for the semester, issued by the ICA (immigration bureaucrats). I asked for it on Aug 6, they said it'll be ready at Aug 11; when I came on Aug 11, they didn't have it and later on forgot to tell me when they were ready. To my emails I got a very late reply...
So, not everywhere in Singapore this PS21 (public service reform to focus public employees on more costumer oriented values) was successful....:-(((
CU soon
Dienstag, 28. August 2007
Donnerstag, 23. August 2007
Pulau Ubin - Saturday, August 18, 2007
6.15am - get awake, take a shower, drying and still feeling wet, rush-breakfast
7.05am - running to the MRT Woodlands
8.25am - meeting a bunch of Swiss people and some HSG-affiliated internationals at Tanah Merah MRT station.
WHY all this? --> the rainforest on the original Pulau Ubin awaits me!
Pulau Ubin is a small Singaporean Island just north of Changi village and near Malaysia. There are a lot of swampy quarries (i.e. ponds, sometimes fenced off, so that they can keep their natural state; sometimes seemingly turned into fish-breeding centers). Further, you get to know how Singapore must have looked before Western civilization hit it. There are a bunch of remote cabins and sometimes you wonder whether you're visiting a ghost village amidst a forest.
You get there by boat (2$ per person if the boat is full, i.e. 24 bucks a boat). After having landed there, we had lunch under umbrellas and plastic protection while a heavy rainstorm hit the island. I learnt, that a popular Chinese curse is "tamade" (=shit) and talked about other peculiarities in life.
After a while, we took off by bike. At first, they seemed to be stylish, with full suspension. But, presumably nobody did ever add some lubricants to the chain and gears... not to mention the suspension fork itself which threatened to break apart at the next road bump... but you get a lot more fun with quirky bikes rather than with none - even though your back is brownish due to the muddy road and the splashes.
We experienced the Mangroves at the eastern edge of the island, with perfect sight on changi airport. A modern waterbridge funnels you around the well preserved seaside. A visitor's kiosk provides you with a map of this nature reserve.
Later on, we criss-crossed the island, until we were exhausted. But the famous German Girl shrine could not be found (there is no accurate island-wide map...).
After the journey, probably muddier as even the road.
7.05am - running to the MRT Woodlands
8.25am - meeting a bunch of Swiss people and some HSG-affiliated internationals at Tanah Merah MRT station.
WHY all this? --> the rainforest on the original Pulau Ubin awaits me!
Pulau Ubin is a small Singaporean Island just north of Changi village and near Malaysia. There are a lot of swampy quarries (i.e. ponds, sometimes fenced off, so that they can keep their natural state; sometimes seemingly turned into fish-breeding centers). Further, you get to know how Singapore must have looked before Western civilization hit it. There are a bunch of remote cabins and sometimes you wonder whether you're visiting a ghost village amidst a forest.
You get there by boat (2$ per person if the boat is full, i.e. 24 bucks a boat). After having landed there, we had lunch under umbrellas and plastic protection while a heavy rainstorm hit the island. I learnt, that a popular Chinese curse is "tamade" (=shit) and talked about other peculiarities in life.
After a while, we took off by bike. At first, they seemed to be stylish, with full suspension. But, presumably nobody did ever add some lubricants to the chain and gears... not to mention the suspension fork itself which threatened to break apart at the next road bump... but you get a lot more fun with quirky bikes rather than with none - even though your back is brownish due to the muddy road and the splashes.
We experienced the Mangroves at the eastern edge of the island, with perfect sight on changi airport. A modern waterbridge funnels you around the well preserved seaside. A visitor's kiosk provides you with a map of this nature reserve.
Later on, we criss-crossed the island, until we were exhausted. But the famous German Girl shrine could not be found (there is no accurate island-wide map...).
After the journey, probably muddier as even the road.
Montag, 20. August 2007
PICTURE
if you wanna see some pic's taken in and around Singapore, visit:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8557504@N04/sets/72157601307864919/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8557504@N04/sets/72157601307864919/
MY CONTACT ADDRESS In SINGAPORE
In case somebody likes to write me:
Adrian Ineichen
BLK 519 Woodlands Drive 14
# 12-281Singapore 730519
cell phone: 0065 9094375 (don't use this for calls, only for SMS)
finxet: 0065 6891 2249
Adrian Ineichen
BLK 519 Woodlands Drive 14
# 12-281Singapore 730519
cell phone: 0065 9094375 (don't use this for calls, only for SMS)
finxet: 0065 6891 2249
Mittwoch, 15. August 2007
Wednesday, Aug 15
(thte 37m-Merlion and the Merlion Walk)
SENTOSA - an artificial tourist site which used to be a fortress.
Yeah, tempus fugit. On Feb 15, 1942 surrendered the Britons with 88000 soldiers against incoming 33000 Japanese. In 1968, the military island got the name Sentosa (Malay for peaceful and quiet), and the gov started to transform the island into a tourist hot-spot.
Besides some trashy features, you definitely need to check out Sentosa. You get a great overview on the Skytower (110m) as well as the big Merlion (37m), new insights in the Fort Sentosa Museum in the bunke tunnels created by the British. However, you can also do some mind-numbing activities such as the Sentosa-4d-Magix mad-pirate-movie. Anyhow, just sitting on a nice terrace and chill-out with a S$8-Coffee Bean Chocolate-Banana-Drink while reading in Alexis de Tocqueville's "Democracy in America" is quite ok.
Instead of walking back (as I did when I came in and had to make a bit detour, since the front side of the island, towards downtown, is under huge construction works) you take the monorail and glide directly back to shopping at vivocity.
Mo-Wed August 13-15, 2007
turtle/tortoise in the museum (it thought i'd feed him:-)
Hola - I visit the small Singaporean Art Museum (SAM), and then proceed to explore the Arab Quarter (where only one mosque lets me in with shorts..), but I get caught in another Shopping District (Bugis, this time).
Finally, I have a wonderful dinner at Newton Hawker Centre, where I experience Prati (Indian Pancake, with egg), Sati/Satay (Malay "Spiessli", meat on wooden sticks), Hainanese Chicken Rice and some other nice dishes. Pls, don't ask my about how fast my belly is growing (even though I am quite picky...).
Tue, August 14
Finally, I get to the Swiss Embassy (which is on a Road called Swiss Club Link near the Swiss Road:-) in order to become officially an expat (Auslandschweizer) which enables you to vote with absentee ballots (particularly since on Oct. 21 we get federal elections this year).
Then, I walk to the Bukit Timah Natural Reserve, which hosts one of the few originally primary rainforests that still exist in Singapore. It's fine for a visit, but except the insane humidity and some courageous monkeys you won't see any exotic stuff (or I am too ignorant for this?).
Finally, I proceed to the Chinese Gardens that host not only a bunch of Chinese-styled Pagodas, Houses etc. but also a quite bizarre but interesting Turtle Museum (they must have a couple of hundred turtles and tortoises free to visit).
The end of the day I spent at the New Asia Bar on the 71st floor of the Swiss0^tel Stamford with chatting to HSG-exchange and alumni people.
WET!
It is unbelievable. You take a shower in the early morning, hoping for some cooling are; but no, just as you try to dry yourself with your towel, only the sily move called "clothing" makes you sweating. During the day, at best your arms, legs, palms and your face are wet, at worst (e.g. climbing "Mt." Faber) the sweat just pours out of your skin and you feel like a river flows out of your body.
Probably the best you can get as a city-hiker it to take the daily MRT (subway) from the Woodlands to City Hall which takes 45min, enough to make you feel cool and rather dry (the only time in the day:-(
The humidity is usually around 80%, so whenever you enjoy a rest on a bench or so, you're sure that your shorts stick to your ass and legs like glued together.
Even in our flat which we (two exchange students) share with a Chinese family you sweat like hell (there is no Air-con, buhu). To "solve" the problem, they keep every roomdoor in the apartment open all day (and night); this does not only limit my capacity to work in the night (and early/late morning) - since the tipping apparently annoys my fellows - but robs you the last privacy you possibly could have.
Huh, Imiss the feeling of dryness. I just ask myself if I ever get accustomed to this kind of climate here.
Probably the best you can get as a city-hiker it to take the daily MRT (subway) from the Woodlands to City Hall which takes 45min, enough to make you feel cool and rather dry (the only time in the day:-(
The humidity is usually around 80%, so whenever you enjoy a rest on a bench or so, you're sure that your shorts stick to your ass and legs like glued together.
Even in our flat which we (two exchange students) share with a Chinese family you sweat like hell (there is no Air-con, buhu). To "solve" the problem, they keep every roomdoor in the apartment open all day (and night); this does not only limit my capacity to work in the night (and early/late morning) - since the tipping apparently annoys my fellows - but robs you the last privacy you possibly could have.
Huh, Imiss the feeling of dryness. I just ask myself if I ever get accustomed to this kind of climate here.
Homo Faber goes Mount Faber - or: Wet vs. Dry
(another merlion on mt. faber)
Sunday, August 12th
How nice - after talking to a Swiss fellow at the huge Vivocity Shopping Center (those folks over here really seem to know only 2 leisure activities: shopping and eating... but the do not seem to get fat, unlike many Westerners, like me:-() near Harborfront in the South of the City I have the unique opportunity to hike near the equator! Well, the call it Mount Faber (for a Swiss, this wouldn't even go as a hill, since it's just 110m or so high). Anyway, you get a beautiful view to the South (namely, the artificial paradise island of Sentosa) as well as to the North (Downtown).
Even the Danish understood this and built a mission and a church on the Western slope where a Danish preast lectures his 1500 countrymen here (mainly, the DK-Singapore connection is because of Maersk).
Further, I get to "Reflections at Bukit Chandu", where - shit - the Museum just closed, but anyhow, you walk on a skybridge thorugh the foreset and get a great view to the "killing fields" of a battle in early Feb '42 when the approaching Japanese basically exterminated one Malayian defending unit here and slaughtered reportedly 200 doctors and personnel of the nearby GB-army hospital.
After a heavy rainstorm I find shelter in the Kopitiam (this is like an inter-Asian foodcourt just run by one company, operating on a very cheap, but popular basis) and eat Bibimbab (Korean chicken-noodles-vegetables and who-knows-what meal).
Samstag, 11. August 2007
Saturday, August 11th, 2007
I got up early in order to be early at the ICA (Immigration bureaucracy) at 8.10am, but what d'ya see there? A huge queue. Aftr 20min I got into the buildling, got a queue ticket. When I finally reached the counter, the lady let me waiting only to refuse me (I shall pick up the damn students pass at counter 22, not counter 9). well, counter 22 does not have a queueing automaton, so how to queue there if you have no number assigned? After some quarrels I got at counter 25, where I was ultimately able to ask for the Student Pass only to recognize that they don't have it prepared (even though I was confirmed last Monday, when I travelled to ICA the first time) that I shall come and pick it up at Aug 11.
So they told me to wait at a coffee shop nearby and send me an SMS when I could come and pick it up.
After 1oam, I had no nerves and went to the city for sightseeing, fuck this pass-damn thing (and for this card I stood up at 6am... 4 hours for nothing).
It was cool to hang into the Raffles Hotel (prob. the most expensive luyury hotel in the city) with adidas shorts and a cheap, white T-shirt. They have an own "museum" (well, 3 small rooms stuffed with pic's and memorabilia), which was worth the visit, you'll get a better hint how the city evolved (cf. the old map of 1893, where the seashore was directly at the Raffles; nowadays, Singapore consists by 1/6 of reclaimed land...).
The Raffles is a huge complex, emerged in the 1880's, but was nearly gone in the 1970's (rotten).
After that I paid a visit to the Philatelic Museum (who knew that the most expensive stamp was sold for 2.6m Swiss Franc - yes, it was sold in Switzerland albeit it was a Swedish stamp). Further, I learned that I was born in the year of the boar (1983, acc. to the Chinese Calendar) and the 2007 is another boar-year (those ppl would be "intelligent, creative, kind, orderly ...", the plate said:-). Needless to say that the Singaporean Post had some stamps with boars. The first stamp obviously was printed in Singapore in 1854 (after its invention in the UK in 1840).
Highly recommendable is a visit to the Fort Canning Park (or hill). There, you can enter Battle Box, a British bunker, built in the 1930s, but lost in Feb 15, 1942 to the Japs after the Britons surrendered Singapore (which was militarily a shame). The hill as actually home to Stamford Raffles (at the Eastern edge of the hill) 1819 onwards and used as gov.-seat till 1859, when the army began to built a fort, which was demolished (except its gate) in 1926 in favor of the construction of a water reservoir pool.
To chill out, I checked out Merlion Park and the Starbucks at One Fullerton.
I got up early in order to be early at the ICA (Immigration bureaucracy) at 8.10am, but what d'ya see there? A huge queue. Aftr 20min I got into the buildling, got a queue ticket. When I finally reached the counter, the lady let me waiting only to refuse me (I shall pick up the damn students pass at counter 22, not counter 9). well, counter 22 does not have a queueing automaton, so how to queue there if you have no number assigned? After some quarrels I got at counter 25, where I was ultimately able to ask for the Student Pass only to recognize that they don't have it prepared (even though I was confirmed last Monday, when I travelled to ICA the first time) that I shall come and pick it up at Aug 11.
So they told me to wait at a coffee shop nearby and send me an SMS when I could come and pick it up.
After 1oam, I had no nerves and went to the city for sightseeing, fuck this pass-damn thing (and for this card I stood up at 6am... 4 hours for nothing).
It was cool to hang into the Raffles Hotel (prob. the most expensive luyury hotel in the city) with adidas shorts and a cheap, white T-shirt. They have an own "museum" (well, 3 small rooms stuffed with pic's and memorabilia), which was worth the visit, you'll get a better hint how the city evolved (cf. the old map of 1893, where the seashore was directly at the Raffles; nowadays, Singapore consists by 1/6 of reclaimed land...).
The Raffles is a huge complex, emerged in the 1880's, but was nearly gone in the 1970's (rotten).
After that I paid a visit to the Philatelic Museum (who knew that the most expensive stamp was sold for 2.6m Swiss Franc - yes, it was sold in Switzerland albeit it was a Swedish stamp). Further, I learned that I was born in the year of the boar (1983, acc. to the Chinese Calendar) and the 2007 is another boar-year (those ppl would be "intelligent, creative, kind, orderly ...", the plate said:-). Needless to say that the Singaporean Post had some stamps with boars. The first stamp obviously was printed in Singapore in 1854 (after its invention in the UK in 1840).
Highly recommendable is a visit to the Fort Canning Park (or hill). There, you can enter Battle Box, a British bunker, built in the 1930s, but lost in Feb 15, 1942 to the Japs after the Britons surrendered Singapore (which was militarily a shame). The hill as actually home to Stamford Raffles (at the Eastern edge of the hill) 1819 onwards and used as gov.-seat till 1859, when the army began to built a fort, which was demolished (except its gate) in 1926 in favor of the construction of a water reservoir pool.
To chill out, I checked out Merlion Park and the Starbucks at One Fullerton.
Donnerstag, 9. August 2007
Hum, ndp consisted mostly of a big military parade (seen from a video screen on remote Orchard Road); obviously the Singaporeans are quite proud of the conscription army (they have a compulsory 2-year-education for all men and then subsequent courses; comparable to Switzerland, except that our terms are much shorter:-). However, their active duty soldiers just make 70'000 and the reservists 300'000 (at least if I understood the ads correctly on the big screen at noisy Orchard).
They seemed to have invested quite heavily in technology/military equipment (F-16 even with Block 52 standard, F-15, Longbow Apaches) but still drive around with some old stuff (AMX and M-113 "coke bins" due to their light armor). They even have the Swiss Oerlikon 35mm cannon:-)
Unfortunately, I haven't seen the fireworks (which reportedly only lasted for short 10 minutes) as I was having Chinese dinner. Apparently, it seems (at least to me) ridiculous that Singaporeans are denied of buying or owning fireworks (that's probably the reason why everbody wanted to grab a ticket for the official show on the Marina as they have been distributed to an online bidding process).
I finished the evening at the Riverside/Clarke Quay area where a lot of nice pubs/bars etc. wait to be explored by well-equipped wallets.
They seemed to have invested quite heavily in technology/military equipment (F-16 even with Block 52 standard, F-15, Longbow Apaches) but still drive around with some old stuff (AMX and M-113 "coke bins" due to their light armor). They even have the Swiss Oerlikon 35mm cannon:-)
Unfortunately, I haven't seen the fireworks (which reportedly only lasted for short 10 minutes) as I was having Chinese dinner. Apparently, it seems (at least to me) ridiculous that Singaporeans are denied of buying or owning fireworks (that's probably the reason why everbody wanted to grab a ticket for the official show on the Marina as they have been distributed to an online bidding process).
I finished the evening at the Riverside/Clarke Quay area where a lot of nice pubs/bars etc. wait to be explored by well-equipped wallets.
Mittwoch, 8. August 2007
9 Aug 2007 - Singapore National Day
Hei
The folks around here celebrate their nation's 42nd birthday with the NDP (or National Day Parade) at Marina South (with gaining its independence in 1965, this multicultural country is still very "young"; . Solely for this purpose was a huge swimming platform constructed which serves as a stage for the events today (cf. http://www.ndp.org.sg/ for more infos).
Interestingly, they have 2 current national day songs (who knows for which purpose... may be to whip people up to go ahead ... alias "Malujah Singapura", which is on the national coat of arms).
Btw:
If you think that Singapore is too cool (like my Chinese fellow Gu Zhimin, with whom I share a room in a Chinese apartment in the Woodlands here; he's from Shanghai, so they tend to have up to 39 degree celsius in summer), check out some pic's made in Qatar last Saturday.
I had a stopover in Doha (yes, the Doha of the WTO Doha-Negotiation round). Unfortunately they do not even have a Tourist Office or Visitor Center, so you are advised straight from the airport to go to one of the many hotels (although, half of the hotels are under construction at least in the West Bay Area).
Sadly, the Weaponry Museum and the National Museum were closed (which I experienced only after some sweat-provoking walking, uff), so after being forced to take a rest under a palm tree, I checked out some Souq's (=markets, malls) which unfortunately close between noon and 3.30pm... (siesta in Arabic?) and finally ended up in fleeing to the City-Center Mall (western styled), where they have built an ice rink (yeah, what else could you do if you have too much money, too hot a weather and no else ideas of leisure than watching movies and go shopping?).
I think I gotta go now and check out Singapore's City on its National Day. CU later
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8557504@N04/
The folks around here celebrate their nation's 42nd birthday with the NDP (or National Day Parade) at Marina South (with gaining its independence in 1965, this multicultural country is still very "young"; . Solely for this purpose was a huge swimming platform constructed which serves as a stage for the events today (cf. http://www.ndp.org.sg/ for more infos).
Interestingly, they have 2 current national day songs (who knows for which purpose... may be to whip people up to go ahead ... alias "Malujah Singapura", which is on the national coat of arms).
Btw:
If you think that Singapore is too cool (like my Chinese fellow Gu Zhimin, with whom I share a room in a Chinese apartment in the Woodlands here; he's from Shanghai, so they tend to have up to 39 degree celsius in summer), check out some pic's made in Qatar last Saturday.
I had a stopover in Doha (yes, the Doha of the WTO Doha-Negotiation round). Unfortunately they do not even have a Tourist Office or Visitor Center, so you are advised straight from the airport to go to one of the many hotels (although, half of the hotels are under construction at least in the West Bay Area).
Sadly, the Weaponry Museum and the National Museum were closed (which I experienced only after some sweat-provoking walking, uff), so after being forced to take a rest under a palm tree, I checked out some Souq's (=markets, malls) which unfortunately close between noon and 3.30pm... (siesta in Arabic?) and finally ended up in fleeing to the City-Center Mall (western styled), where they have built an ice rink (yeah, what else could you do if you have too much money, too hot a weather and no else ideas of leisure than watching movies and go shopping?).
I think I gotta go now and check out Singapore's City on its National Day. CU later
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8557504@N04/
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