MATT'S TOP 10 FROM SINGAPORE
Weeks 73-90: August 26, 2012 – December 29, 2012 [PART 1]
Happy New Year everyone!
I hope everyone is doing well and that everyone enjoyed the holidays. Lisa was able to get home for a couple of days at Thanksgiving and I’ll be able to get home next week now that quarter end is over. I’m definitely looking forward to getting back to the States for a few days and hopefully seeing a bunch of you!
Below is my latest blog. As has become customary with my last three blogs, this one is also in two parts. With writing these once a quarter, I always end up with more than 10 things to share…maybe I should start calling it a Top 20 list J.
I really do hope everyone is doing well and that 2013 brings great things. Hope to see many of you next week!
Here's Part 1:
1. My ‘most favorite’ blog topic – the bathroom…
It's been a while since my last blog, so instead of easing back into things, I figured we'd just jump head first and talk about my favorite topic here in Asia...the good old bathroom.
That being said, here’s a news flash for you – I STILL HATE THE BATHROOMS HERE! I can’t write a blog without a mention/reminder of some of the absolute grossness that we experience on a daily basis here with bathrooms. Here’s a couple of my ‘favorites’ from over the past few months:
That being said, here’s a news flash for you – I STILL HATE THE BATHROOMS HERE! I can’t write a blog without a mention/reminder of some of the absolute grossness that we experience on a daily basis here with bathrooms. Here’s a couple of my ‘favorites’ from over the past few months:
a) The good old ‘hole.’ I especially think this one is interesting because it’s on a podium – two steps up to actually get to the hole. I’m still proud to say that I’ve never used one of these death traps.
b) This picture cracks me up. I think the sign on the left should instead read: “DANGER – THE TOILET MIGHT EAT YOUR KID!” Kind of reminds me of Pac Man…
A special call out to the 'squatting pan' sign on the right too...
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A special call out to the 'squatting pan' sign on the right too...
c) Let’s throw an actual nice bathroom in the mix here. This is the best bathroom ever – this is at our hotel in The Maldives. We had one of those overwater bungalows and the floor in front of the toilet was glass so you could see the ocean below and watch the fish swimming by – pretty cool stuff.
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d) Bathroom with a view in Thailand – yes, that is outdoors.
Speaking of bathrooms….I’d just like to throw this out there to everyone. It is NEVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER acceptable to stand over a sink in a public restroom at work (or anywhere for that matter) and blow your nose directly into the sink OR toilet without any tissue, paper towel, toilet paper, etc. Heck, you can even use your shirt – I really don’t care. But if I see one more person in the bathroom at work here in Singapore blowing their nose into the sink during the work day, I think I am going to throw up. I snapped a photo of the latest culprit/‘colleague’ on my phone as he was walking by my office and it’s taking everything in my power to not post it here. Moving forward when I interview new candidates for a job, I might be forced to ask about personal hygiene practices. G R O S S
2. Christmas…
Like last year, because of quarter end we unfortunately were not able to come back to the US for Christmas. This year instead of staying in Singapore, we decided to go away to the Maldives for the weekend – even though we had to travel back on Christmas Day so we could be in work on the 26th, it was still good to get out of Singapore for a few days.
The Maldives is a set of islands off of Sri Lanka in the Indian Ocean – by far one of the most beautiful islands I’ve ever been to. I always thought that Hawaii was my favorite beach/island place – but in my humble opinion this actually trumped Hawaii…
You fly into the capital called Mele (pronounced Mali). From here, in order to get to our resort, we had to take a 30 minute sea plane ride. Overall, it was a pretty amazing experience. If you ever get over to this side of the world, I highly recommend it. I think it’s been my favorite place that we’ve been over here so far. Here’s some pictures. The beaches and the water reminded me of pictures that you see in a travel magazine (Sorry to those who may have already seen these on Facebook):
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3. Speaking of Christmas…
For all of you who have small kids in the US, you know how long the lines could be at malls at Christmas time in order to see Santa.
Santa is known here, but he’s obviously not as popular at Christmas time as he is in the US. Case in point – the mall next to where we live has had a Santa in a storefront window for the past month. Each day when I walk through the mall on my way home from work, I stop to watch how the little kids react to him.
First, I’ve never once seen one on his lap. Second, they all (and I mean every one of them) peak around the corner of the glass storefront where Santa is and then run as fast as they could past. And this isn’t just one or two kids – it’s all of them. At first, I laughed out loud at this…but as I kept seeing it day after day I started to think about it some more – imagine what a big white guy with a big white beard and a red suit looks like to a little Singaporean kid. I guess if my parents brought me to the mall during Chinese New Year to see someone dressed up as a big China dragon, I would have been scared too. Heck, I get scared today when I see people dressed up as dragons here around Chinese New Year J.
(Sorrry for the quality of the picture - but I think you'll be able to make out Santa sitting reading the newspaper with no kids around):
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4. Just your average day at the movies…
I know you’re all going to be jealous of this one. When you go to the movies here in Singapore, they have the normal candy and popcorn like they do in the States. However, for those that have the craving for a dried fish fillet while watching your favorite flick, they’ve got those too - and those aren't your average gummy/Swedish fish or goldfish crackers - that's a genuine dried fish fillet.
And I thought serving hot dogs that have been sitting there for months at a time in movie theaters was gross.
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5. Gotta love taxi drivers here…
Check out my cab driver from the other day. Driving and reading the newspaper at the same time. Made me feel really safe riding in his cab whereas he wasn’t the greatest multi-taker in the world.
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6. Recent Visitors…
We’ve been lucky enough to have a bunch of visitors over the last three months. Here’s a shout out to a few that have visited:
Lisa’s Parents
Lisa’s parents were here in early October and spent 1.5 weeks in Singapore with us. We also went to Bali with them for a few days…great times overall (except for the monkeys – see part 2 of this blog coming in a couple of days):
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Jen and Dave
My good friend Jen from college and her boyfriend Dave came to visit over Thanksgiving. With Lisa being in the US for Thanksgiving, it was nice to have Jen and Dave here – and to top it all off, we actually got to watch the Patriots Thanksgiving Day game against the Jets at a bar that Friday morning…from what I remember, there was also a good night out with them the night before Thanksgiving complete with Irish car bombs in Singapore - great times!
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Alex and Kevin
So this visit is the one I’ve gotten the most questions/enquiries about. All I would like to say about their trip to Singapore and our long weekend in Phuket was that it was an amazing time. If you’d like more stories than that, you’ll have to come visit us here so we can go to Phuket together - Phuket makes Vegas look like a place that is suitable for kindergartners…and I don’t exaggerate here. All in all, great times had with Alex and Kev:
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7. I can’t hear you…
Does the US have these bunny ear cell phone cases yet? They’re everywhere over here…I can’t figure out what the appeal is:
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8. One thing Asia does extremely well…
Escalator etiquette. If you’re on for the ride and not in a hurry, stand to the left….if you need to get up a little quicker, walk up on the right side. Last time I was in the States I went to Macy’s in the mall. When I got on the escalator I felt like I was going to have an anxiety attack – a bunch of lazy slobs crowding up both sides of the escalator with no concern about people who might want to get up the stairs a little quicker. I almost threw a temper tantrum ( I know – big surprise). It’s funny how something may seem totally irrelevant and meaningless until you see it done a ‘better’ way. Now, I know escalator etiquette is not that interesting or not that mind boggling – but it’s the little things that you look for that make it easier to be so far away from home.
9. Say what?
Here’s some more interesting signs from our travels around Asia. This set was taken in Beijing…
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10. We’re moving…
So work has decided to move us…from being directly downtown to out to the outskirts of Singapore near the airport….good times. Lisa and I are both looking forward to the hour and 10 minute commute vs. the 5 minute commute we have today – yes! I have lots more to say on how much of a waste of money I think this move is going to a higher rent building, but I’ll keep that to myself for now and instead focus on what I will miss/not miss about our current office location
What I will miss:
My office – and more specifically the view from my office:
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What I won’t miss:
The bathroom at this office – and more specifically the giant green snot that I have to look at every day while going to the bathroom – that’s right folks – every day for the past year, this is what I stare at in our bathroom at work – you think by now, the crusted thing would have been cleaned off the wall. I guarantee it’s from someone who was again blowing their nose at the urinal without a tissue. And because I have to look at it every day, I figured I'd let all of you share in the pain with the below picture...G R O S S
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again – the bathrooms here are disgusting. This blog pretty much writes itself…
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I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again – the bathrooms here are disgusting. This blog pretty much writes itself…
Part 2 to come in a couple of days…I hope everyone is doing well!
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