Hello Ladies and Gentlemen,

It’s now Monday morning in Singapore and I’ve enjoyed SPENDING my time here. Tomorrow I’m meeting an acquaintance of my parents for lunch, shortly after that I will be leaving.

Yesterday was good, it started out in Orchard Road and then spilled over to Sentosa which is basically the beach area of Singapore. The beach is nice and if I wasn’t spoiled from Thailand I would of probably enjoyed it. There are many resorts with much to do. One thing I will note is that unless you are staying at one of these semi-deserted resorts, they aren’t so welcoming. We were hanging out at one and there was even a bouncer at the bathroom who pointed us to the “public toilets”. That was cool, later when having some drinks which are egregiously overpriced, I wouldn’t give them a dime. Not that it affects their bottom line but purely based on principle. Also, the parties were incredibly tame and “not worth getting er going” so to speak. Not to mention with the “price of fuel” it makes it a lose, lose from the start.

The beach is alright as I stated, just there are tankers and cargo ships all surrounding it, we all know what kind of pollutants those big rigs leave, as a result the beach becomes much less enticing. If it’s the only beach you have access too, ever saw… Maybe. On that note, not sure why anyone would even want to go to one of those over-priced hotels. IF one can afford to stay there, why not bring you and your family to Bali, Malaysia or the Thai islands?

I was going to get a haircut and looked around. I didn’t really see anyone I trusted for a haircut. That said if I was in KL and they wanted ~$3-5US for a haircut I’d be willing to “wing it”, but when they want $20US+ which is more than I pay at home, I don’t want some old lady cutting my hair who I seriously doubt knows what I want. Peep the photos below, would you get your haircut for $20+ from someone displaying “these gems” in their window? I think not.

I’ve been eating a lot of curry lately and jokingly pointing at a sign that said “Curried Mutton”, I’ve never had mutton and only think of Seinfeld episode whenever I hear about it. While remarking yesterday, a friend of mine from India points to my plate and says “man, that is mutton, you’ve eaten mutton every time we’ve been here”. That got me thinking. I’ve been eating mutton for about a week or so now and dare I say, it’s not that bad.

The more I travel the more I’m realizing that countries are like hotels or clubs if you will. Every club is good for something different and if you’re fortunate enough to have the ability to visit many of these clubs, you should do what’s most applicable at that club. For example, if you want to drink and party on a beach, you go to a Thai club. If you want to live cheap in a city or experience beautiful jungle and not drink, you go to the Malaysian Club. If you want to have a casual drink and chat with people making moves from around the world, you go to Singapore. If you want to spend your day in a coffee shop and forget about everything, you go to Amsterdam, if you want to push your peddle through the floor, you visit Germany. Get where I’m going with this?

That said, if you aren’t going to “dive into how the locals live” so to speak, why bother going? If you’re just going to go to take photos and eat MacDonald’s, save yourself the time and money by going to a drive-thru then looking up photos on wikipedia and google images.

Currently, I’m looking for a club where I can relax and just unwind. I miss Bangkok or even KL. Beaches are good fun but I’m no sun worshiper and after spending X amount of time… I want variety. As a result I’m thinking of skipping Bali all together and going back to KL or Bangkok for ~1month to just “relax”. Watch some “TV”, get a new web host and build those ~2-3 sites which are just itching to be online.

What will happen, I’m not sure but my focus and the way I see things in a global perspective are changing, drastically. Singapore is great fun but I’ve spoke with many people who live here and many locals are worried that this place is becoming too expensive. Singapore is going for the “Monaco of the East” which is evident even by Sentosa, hosting a massive variety of activities including massive zip-lines, street luge things, sky diving simulators and of course surf training.

Supposedly, unless you are an expat aka recruited talent they can’t get locally, the wages aren’t that high compared to say North America and the living expenses through the roof. Then again, this whole country is not more than ~700km squared. That’s tiny, absolutely minuscule.

Today, I will shop for a new host while going back and forth with my current one, then I will take a leisurely jaunt through China Town to meet a friend when he gets off work.

Truth be told, the country I’m most interested in now is CHINA. Everything comes from China and if you want to make moves, why not go where the waves are coming from?

Good Day,

P.S: In the subways, they have this guy… Not sure who he is but he creeps me out.

Spent the day out and about in Singapore. It started and ended with Orchard Road.

Orchard Road is a shopping mecca and it has everything and anything you’d ever want to buy, all authentic as well. One thing is for sure, bring your wallet or don’t bother showing up.

One crazy thing about this street is that it hosts the Prime Ministers house, the Royal Thai Embassy and the red light district. In fact, the red light district is directly next to the Thai Embassy, crazy, yes?

You’ll find every major brand name and the street is absolutely packed most of the time. One thing I noted was at some intersections there is an “underpass” instead of an “overpass” where pedestrian traffic travels underground through another mallesque (sic) area.

Also visited a few other places which I’ll discuss tomorrow. It’s currently 1:32AM in Singapore and frankly, processing photos or even writing this makes my eyes shut.

Another interesting thing about Orchard Road is how well maintained it is, similar to the rest of Singapore of course, at night they have the most amazing lights hanging from everywhere. I have a video and will process it soon.

If you venture slightly off Orchard, there is a multitude of magnificent dining opportunites. Had dinner at Que Pasa with a new friend from Japan, quite nice but nothing at the menu jumped out at me, that said it’s more a place to drink expensive wines with a menu, opposed to an extensive menu with some wines.

Finally, on the way home, we had the sketchiest cab driver ever. This guy almost got us clipped leaving Orchard, as he was leaving it was a “he can’t be going can he?” Later, I even said “here we go” as the guy floored it on the highway, 2 seconds later this other car cuts in front before a motor bike and “Carl the Crazy Cabby” slams on the breaks sending us into a slight skid on the highway.

Goes to show you can go anytime, but when they say 40% of all Canadian deaths abroad are motor vehicle related, they aren’t kidding, in many countries it’s even sketchier just crossing the street. An accident even happened to Tiger Woods over the weekend.

This is turning into an actual update and having less and less to do with Orchard Road so I’m out.

Good night,