Right now I’m alone in an Irish Pub in Ipoh, decked out in a Chang Beer singlet and bermudas with a Guiness in tow. Needless to say people are staring at me in an unwanted manner, but i just felt like i had to wrote this after hearing the eyboardist belt out ‘My Way’ by Sinatra.

Yet this is why I’ve come to love travelling alone, even if its only for 2 days in a year to a place not too far from home.

Sometimes you just gotta do it your way

My first time

The first time I really travelled alone was back in 2009 with my good friend Jon as we trekked our way through Vietnam & Cambodia, before mutually splitting up after the whole ‘I’ve stayed with my friend for too long’ syndrome.

As of now I’ve been alone to Manchester(work), Yogyakarta(Mar 2011), Ipoh(Dec 2011) and Viet/Cam(June 2009) by myself.

It is indeed scary at first, being totally dependent on your instincts, wit and adaptability in a foreign land but ultimately becomes a real life changing experience as yousee how everything works out in the end.

Through my travels I’ve seen the extremes of humanity, the one side that treats you as a cash-rich tourist and the other that side that makes you realise the world isn’t that bad after all.  Sometimes it’s just a simple smile, or the effort the locals make to help you even though they know not what you are talking about.

I think the best & most important thing about travelling alone is losing that fear and apprehension to ask question, to go to 10 different hostels looking for the cheapest place, bargaining 10 minutes for 1000 rupiah ($0.20 Sg), fighting off the sleeze and taxi touts, and most importantly be open to everything that gets thrown at you.

I always try to take the road less travelled, not plan too much when I’m over there, and I’m always amazed as to how I manage to find my way around in a rickety old bus, or how by sheer coincidence I get to meet new people and journey together with them.

nullBack in Vietnam with Jon (2009)

Wah you so adventurous ah!

That’s a question I often get when I happen to meet Singaporeans on my travels around the SEA region, and often I just reply to them ‘ I’m just here to take a break by myself ‘, and its through instances like this that I realized that in our metropolitan city, many of us still aren’t comfortable with just being alone let alone travelling alone aside from Studies/Business.

When you’re alone time passes by real slow and you begin to really find that time to relax and make sense of your life as a whole just by doing absolutely nothing.

Nothing can help describe doing absolutely nothing but that’s what makes it wonderful.

In fact when I’m alone I find myself being a strong representation of Singapore in the conversations with the people I meet along the way, which often revolves around your standard chewing gum ban, lack of democracy and cost of living.

But it’s through these general topics that I really find myself understanding not just the other person’s country, but also my home that is Singapore. More often that not I leave the conversation feeling lucky that we live in such a great state, but also wonder how I can make my life just that little better.
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The things I’ve learnt

I’ve learnt that music in universal, that you should keep an eye on your wallet in a massage parlour and that I’ve become less cynical about what people do with their lives.

I’ve learnt to admire how our multi-lingual nation really helps you out even if its just asking where the ‘toilet (tandas)’ is, and that I have a bad habit of breaking into a really bad fake British Accent whenever I talk to westerners.

I’ve also have to admit that whenever I’m overseas I begin to miss the people that are close to me and often can’t wait to get back and share my stories with them (her).

But most importantly I’ve learnt that the only constant is change and that my goal in life is to just know more about the world no matter how ridiculous it may be, to learn about their political insitutions, the hassles/wonders that are a commonplace in the world and how people view myself and my country as a whole.

Here’s to 2012, to my first long haul trip to Europe and at least another holiday alone by myself

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10.17pm Dec 18th 2011

As it stands its been 6 hours since my first ever ride on the KTM train decided to conveniently breakdown in the middle of nowhere at the Bukit Anna station. Which kind of makes me wonder if I really spoke too soon about being fortunate to not have been affected by the SMRT breakdown.

As it stands here are some of the problems people on board people are currently facing
1.)  There is no bus station within a reasonable walking distance
2.)  Taxis are not coming and will not head to JB as some areas are flooded
3.)  No one really wants to share a cab with me when asked
4.)  There’s no more food and water
5.)  The only show they are playing, Goblet of Fire has been screened 6 times, without any audio.
6.)  The word refund is not found in their dictionary.

If you thought SMRT’s PR/Corp Comms was bad, one should understand that KTM essentially has what cannot be more aptly termed than No Comms. Basically no one is making any announcement, stationmasters are only informing people of the situation when asked with a mere shrug and they are actually bickering with their own engineers on fixing the train.

Suddenly i feel like Stings-Fields of Gold would a suitable song to listen to. Just replace Barley with Lalang.

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Always look on the bright side of life

The strangest thing however is that I kinda feel alright about this, I’m and not exhilarated about being trapped in Bukit Anna, but I’m taking this breakdown as part of my little adventure to Ipoh and its probably thanks in kind to the way people around me are reacting.

Yes people are complaining and asking questions, but not in a malicious and demanding way and everyone seems to be more like ‘well, that’s all they can do so let’s just wait it out’ kind of attitude.

It gives you a sense that they are in no real hurry, that they have somehow become contented or learned to live with such situations in a country meagre miles away from us.

10.55pm

I’m sitting on the tracks waiting for the third engine to come (yes the replacement engine amazingly broke down as well- cue Malaysia Boleh chant!) and take us home and suddenly think about how this scenario would have been totally different if it happened back home.  Not a pretty sigh I might add.

I’ve now listened to almost all of Radiohead’s albums to date. This has to be the best lullaby song by Radiohead-Motion Picture Soundtrack.

11.38pm

Harry Potter is taking the Portkey to catch the World Quidditch cup, yes Goblet of Fire has now played 7 times.

They have finally given us some water and a bun to go along with and we’ve got another 3 and a half hours to go to reach Woodlands, I think I’ll try and listen to some of my newer songs from YUCK, John Butler Trio and if i’m not too late, No Doubt. Haha.

2.55am 19th December 2011

I boarded the train at 11.15am the previous day, so it’s been 15 hours on the train for me, everyone’s cranky and everyone’s rushing but I can’t complain cause I’m doing the same.

Nevertheless it has been an adventure in many ways and I would like to examine more about our reactions to the SMRT failure when I finally get some rest and check the papers and forums out.

 

It’s time for me to weigh in on the taxi debacle.

And before I begin, let me just say that all the people who claim they will boycott Comfort Delgro on this Facebook Page will be back to taking taxis in no time to facilitate our very, sorry to be ironic, ‘comfortable’ lives.

I’ll say it in the beginning and the end “ If you really want to boycott taxis, then take public transport.”

nullAt least let someone with better graffiti skills do it. Did you see the SMRT one done by POSBanksy?

We are pampered, selfish little citizens
I’ll be the first to admit that I was quite shocked when I first saw the price hikes, with particular regards to the peak hours. But the more I’ve looked and observed the public sentiments of the people, the more dismayed at the kind of society that we have become.

It’s always been about us and ourselves only.

I don’t think many of us at the initial point of time even spared a thought for people like the elderly, the cab drivers themselves and the disabled who actually depend on taxis much more than we do.

Taxis are essentially to the general population, a luxury.

Now now I know, Circle Line fails (can’t report till press release), 2 hour SBS Hippo Bus Ride and the works have been sprouting out ever so often, but honestly I think we want to live in an all too perfect world and that makes us adverse to change and an adverse need to complain about it.

It also leads to pointless videos like this that make the general public feel good because hey hey, someone’s helping us to complain in a funny way!

But neither are the taxi companies right
Yes indeed service standards and the long waits for cabs are a good reason to complain, as are the kind of obvious price fixing methods adopted by the cab companies. One also has to wonder why the companies themselves(after boasting profits) do not seem to give rebates or lower rental rates for the drivers as a manner of compensation.

And what is the Government’s say in this, and will Nationalising Transportation really help us out? I’ll leave this point at least for another entry.

What I’m more concerned about
This article is essentially the only logical and thought of post I’ve seen so far, but I can’t say the same for the people commenting after. I mean, come on, staging strikes to boycott taxis? What is that going to prove?

Look at this apparent new social media movement called ‘Flash Rob’ and you get where this kind of detrimental ideas may lead to.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhlxYKpFbcA (sorry unable to load the thumbnail)

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all up for debate and freedom of speech but please find ways to justify yourselves and not link this to every single problem in your life.

And honestly for people who claim that buying a car will actually solve your financial issues with public transportation, then you obviously have a lot to learn in basic math and calculation.

Yes indeed, time is money, and unless you are willing to fork out the dough for it, I guess one should just learn to live within our limits and you know, perhaps even find ways to make trips on the train more enjoyable with a book rather than carrying an Ipad which somehow gives you priority to sit on a train.

Once again, if you feel so much pain with paying that extra $5.88(woopee for the return of the 1 cent coin), please by all means, take public transport.

 

Every December just before my birthday some 60,000 people throng to somewhere in Singapore in the largest single nipple abrasion/chaffing event, otherwise known as the Standard Chartered Marathon.

Why do people run in these marathons? Is it for that famous shirt that you will never get the correct size of at the finish line (see complaints here)? To train up for the Great Singapore Sale by navigating through tons of sweaty people who create bottlenecks? Or simply for a sense of accomplishment?

null For the benefit of the doubt I think 80% of people go for the latter, but for me marathons have always been a no go. As much as I have been a sports fanatic, I could only really push myself to engage in team sports (tennis, squash, soccer, floor ball) because they consisted of elements like positioning and shot power as well.

Perhaps it’s my injuries (strained knee, ATFL ligament tear) and increasing layer protecting my abdominal muscles that’s talking to me. Yet, I used to run a fair amount back in my heydays where I had a 55bpm resting hear rate (mind you that’s what some pro athletes have).

To me, running was more a psychological barrier rather than a physical one. No matter how conditioned my muscles were or how nicotine free my lungs were at that time, I never ran a distance beyond 15km in my entire life.

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See, I couldn’t seem to concentrate, couldn’t seem to focus long enough to get me through the distance. My forever-wondering mind was probably thinking about everything else in life except the task at hand like, “What’s for dinner?” “Why don’t I ever meet a hot girl while running?” “ Why are people enticed by Robert Pattinson? “

I tried different tips and tricks such as running with friends and doing that whole wanderning eye movement thing where you focus on a further object that you constantly had to get to.

I also tried the classic compiling of a motivational music list that included exercise hits like ‘ Eye of the Tiger’ and ‘Macho Man’ as well. And to me if listening to ‘Eye of the Tiger’ doesn’t make you want to run more, then nothing will.

So for now, I think my task at hand will be to understand why and how people run, beyond the physical component, and maybe someday, somehow I’ll find a way to get back should my body permit it.

The recent back and forth debates, petitions and symposiums conducted to preserve Bukit Brown, Old School and Rochor Centre has attracted plenty of attention and debate between the people, the ministries and most importantly, ourselves.

Interestingly enough, each land parcel holds its own different kind of memories and is currently being used for a very different purpose. A historical graveyard,  a pioneer for the Arts and an iconic Residential Area.

Advocates for the preservation of each land parcel, particularly Bukit Brown, have been flooding the forums and appeals directed at the LTA/URA, who in turn have pulled the stops by mentioning how places like Bishan and Ngee Ann City were formerly built on graveyards.

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Urbanisation vs the Singapore identity

The main thing that people are arguing is, ‘how much urbanization can we take?’

While anti-govt groups like TOC somehow still manage to link these issues to foreigners in this ridiculous article, I think that most of us ultimately leave things till it’s too late to act upon it.

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Look at the recent KTM Railway, and how everyone (myself included) thronged to the tracks and stations to get the last glimpses of the trains, walk the tracks as we searched for that sense of the Singaporean identity we’ve spent our whole lives finding, but ultimately falling short and succumbing to the pure novelty and excitement of the situation.

The only people who have the right to talk for Bukit Brown at least are the members of the Singapore Heritage Society who have been actively documenting the area for sometime now after hearing about the initial plans of its destruction.

And like my friend Kevin noted on the issue of Occupy Wall Street, many of us unfortunately choose, whether by choice, by law or by pure laziness, to fight our battles from behind the screen with simplistic and unconstructive comments.

Check out the Singapore Heritage Society FB Page to see what I mean.

For every 1000 people complaining, I can assure you that only 1 person amidst the lot is actually going about doing anything about it.  Yes, we all need the leaders and followers, but I do think we’re taking it to an unfortunate extreme.

I’ll be the first to admit that I am doing nothing about this, but at the same time (whether unfortunately or not) I just take it in my stride and try to understand where everyone is coming from and continuously try to find and identity what Singaporeans see themselves as when they look in the mirror.

Do we want to forsake economic growth and our livelihood to the tune of Gross National Happiness as proposed by the Worker’s Party? How much urbanization is acceptable? And most importantly will these things actual become cases by which we finally learn to identity being a Singaporean as?

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With the endless amounts of coffee joints now sprouting out, it seems we are spoilt for choice with different cafes catering to the needs of different people.

For me, my heart would probably be with the Pigeonhole, largely because the cafe mirrors my desire to know more about anything and everything there is to in this world.

Open Mics, exhibitions, arts-meetup, movie screenings, animal welfare talks, poetry nights, foreign worker welfare organisations, you name it they’ve got it.

I’ll be honest to say that i’ve never made the commitment to attend most of their events but after speaking to Rayner the owner, you get the sense that he’s just doing this not for the money but because he wants to learn more about the world from his customers and vice-versa.

It really is a one-two at most three man show over there, the place is never ever overcrowded except on event days and i really admire him for making the effort to spruce up the place as much as he can.

It’s great to have such a place to hangout and prices there are really affordable. Heard their mac & cheese is really awesome and you can get interesting cider drinks there as well. Also, feel free talk to anyone without any animosity like in Starbucks or the aptly named CBTL(Coffee Bean Teal Leaf).

Events there are not consistent, so the best way to keep track is to just follow them on Facebook or Tumblr!

Keep it going guys!

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Just the other day i caught Perfect Blue part of Animation Nation’s 2011 tribute to the late Satoshi Kon.

I left the viewing utterly impressed, confused and also perplexed as to how the whole idea and concept came about. Perfect Blue also further cemented my admiration for the Japanese in the way that they conceptualise all the works, be it feature Animes or manga.

One thing I noticed, are the similarities to the recent film the Black Swan. And a couple of articles I’ve read online have made similar analysis, but i’ll keep mine as trivial as it should be.

Perfect Blue = No Natalie Portman + Mila Kunis making out.

Both films explore the idea of the chase for stardom and how each individual deals with a hallucination of their alter egos in the process. But for Perfect Blue I do think one of the key elements considering it was done in 1997 was the incorporation of the online stalker thanks to the advent of the Internet.

It was interesting as to how they did it, representing the stalker as the classically deprived ‘Otaku’ (not Train Otaku) before making it seem like Mima (the lead character) was the killer instead as she continues dealing with the increasingly aggressive hallucination that is her alter ego. There is another twist to the plot at the end which I do think was justifiable once you consider the options, but overall it was a nicely thought out anime that I felt definitely trumped Black Swan in terms of concept and originality.

I should watch more of Satoshi Kon’s films soon.

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So this article by Jeff Goins (self proclaimed writer, idea guy and DIFFERENCE MAKER) has been circulating around quite a bit. Honestly it is nothing interesting nor impressive, just basically a one-sided argument by a guy who is very much insistent that travelling is the only way to understand the world/life as a whole and dismisses the idea of hesitation and a zero-tolerance for risk taking as a liability to one’s progression in life.

Now I do love travelling and wished I had more liberty and time to do it, you could say I’m 50-50 in terms of being a travel junkie and responsible corporatized individual.  Fact that i would rather travel then have a PS3 or queue up for an Iphone4s about sums it up.

National Service + Part time studying/working + finding myself amidst a recession etc. have more or less kept me occupied and grounded here, and effectively I’ve only had 8 months of complete freedom with no obligations (minus work of course) thus far.

I’ve gone to Liverpool, Tioman, Indonesia, Tokyo, Bali, Phuket and now… Batam in the past 22 months and that’s not too bad I guess.

My Argument against Jeff Goins

But that’s not the point I’m trying to make here, rather it was this comment further down in the thread that got me feeling that travelling hasn’t really made Jeff Goins really humble nor sympathetic to the feelings of others, and I wonder if this holds true for other travellers as well.

His simplistic one sentence, one-word responses and a really obviously sarcastic ‘WOW!’ at the end can easily be interpreted into a form of arrogance on his part, and sounds like a bot is operating his comments section.

That, and I guess I’m a little insulted by the insinuation that normal life is somehow less adventurous, risky, etc.’ – Jesse

It’s true what Jesse said, that a ‘normal’ life can be way more challenging and risky if we understand the lives of others, that some people just aren’t interested in travelling or that a big reason why people travel is to avoid the mundane stuff that is associated with the responsibility of growing up.

Perhaps, simply put some of these travellers really don’t have any liabilities at home to bother about, unlike a decent proportion of us.

One has to look at the societal structure of a country to understand the ideals that the people are indebted towards, and that life is more or less how you ever exciting you make it out to be.

You can take your touristy shots at the Niagara falls, but i’d be happy enough if it was at Punggol Waterfront fishing with buddies of mine.
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Plenty of my friends here have moaned and groaned about how boring Singapore is and how they can’t wait to migrate overseas to the greener pastures where most have studied at before. Maybe it would have been different for me If I could have afforded doing what these friends did, I do feel envious without a doubt, but at the same time I do think that I would rather be responsible and not put a financial burden on my family and especially my dad who was worked his ass off for the family.

I do want to go away for a long stretch, say like 3 months at least within the next couple of years for a land trip around SEA just because I want to(and its economically viable) and I hope that when I do return that my perspective of life in general will be more positive and open to criticisms unlike Jeff Goins.

 

 

 

This year has been pretty uneventful in terms of the number of concerts and performances  i have attended, i’m even giving The National a miss largely due to their no show at the Mosaic Music Festival in March.

But all that is gonna change with a real interesting lineup of plays, performances an outdoor concerts i can’t wait to catch. So what if we pay overpriced tickets for concerts, these people really only come once in their whole lives and the next time they do come it will probably be while i am waning in my 50′s and they do deadbeat tours like the Eagles and Eric Clapton.

Gemuk Girls
9-20 Nov 2011
Wed – Sat, 8PM
Sat & Sun, 3PM
Venue: The Necessary Stage
$30
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Heard rave reviews about this, and although the work Gemuk means Fat in Malay, the topics that are discussed and brought up here are far from your normal obesity problems. It’s a topic close to my heart, that of the Internal Security Act.
Kasabian
8 Jan Feb 2012
Venue: Fort Canning Park
Tickets on sale from 8 Nov at $88 for early bird special!

I have no idea about the name of the band members, neither am i a huge ass fan of them but there is something about their music that you just know will sound so kickass live. Great bass and drums and of course that great ol’ British rock vocals that is reminisce of my favourite bands like the Stone Roses and Oasis.

Chestnuts
4 Jan – 22 Jan 2012
Tickets on sale soon

What can i say, i fell in love with the crew 3 years ago and have never looked back since. It’s one of those plays where you know you will get the best of the best and nothing else, witty international humour mixed with our own favourite parodies of being oh so Singaporean, its a great show to catch with a bunch of friends and laugh while drinking teh later.

Not the funniest of videos, but you get the picture.

Laneway Festival 2012
Sun 12 Feb 2012
Tickets going for $135 from 14 Nov(visa card holders) and to the public from 28 Nov onwards

Granted i don’t know most of the bands here, but there really is something for everyone. The heavyweight to me would be Feist, M83 and my personal favourite THE HORRORS! Once again i know little about the bands but really love the music that they play, particularly M83 and the Horrors first album Primary Colours.

Next year’s lineup is really pretty darn fantastic.

It’s not that I’m close to thinking about it, but my friend Kevin made a simple but really realistic point about the idea behind weddings and proposals.

With all these high-end production wedding/proposal videos all sprouting out about now, it seems its become more of a contest about doing something unique rather than emphasizing the true meaning behind a marriage.

You got the gamers.


The film buffs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=pnVAE91E7kM

And everyone’s favourite obscenely rich people

But hey, who am I to judge?

I’ll admit that some of them are pretty sweet in that they base it on the place they first met or the stuff they do together. Yet others leave something else to be desired.

But here’s a question. Why would anyone want a giant crane zooming across them as they say their vows or are toasting to one another? Can just imagine the cameraman going ‘ ae wait wait wait, lets do that shot again’.

For me It’s more about narrowing down things that I wouldn’t want to do. Things like…

1.)  No Taylor Swift or ‘happening’ songs playing in the background

2.)  Friends, not professional production houses taking my pictures/videos

3.)  No pressure in inviting people I wouldn’t bother to speak to

4.)  Time to compose a song

Maybe someone should conduct a study of the success of marriages based on fanciness of wedding and wedding/proposal production videos.