Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow

It started snowing yesterday afternoon and it still continues to come down a little bit. Although this may not be newsworthy for many in London the snow is causing loads of problems. This is the most snow that London has seen in 18 years! Having lived with lake effect snow and nor'easters for the majority of my life this is nothing. The problem is twofold:

1. Cars, buses, etc aren't equipped with proper snow tires.
2. Snowplows don't seem to exist.

As a result the roads are treacherous, the snow has gotten packed down and is a sheet of ice. I've noticed just walking around today how icy it is.

Last night I had the most terrifying taxi ride of my life. I had gone out to a Superbowl party in central London and had booked a taxi for my return. I got a call from the taxi company at around 1:30 AM asking if I really needed to be picked up or could I stay where I was. Since I was at a bar I thought it best to go home. The taxi driver wasn't used to driving in snow and the tires weren't great. Every time we started from a stop the tires spun. We hit a couple of patches where we could travel at a decent speed but then came a curve and the driver didn't think to slow down so we did a 360 in the middle of the street. When there were cars leading the way the driver thought it was fine to drive faster and didn't quite leave enough room to stop on the snow. There were a couple of times we had to swerve so as not to rear end the car in front of us. Luckily I made it home safely. I did have the sense to tell the driver to drop me at the end of the road as I knew the side streets were much worse than the main roads and I wasn't sure he would make it up the road without hitting something.

I was pretty sure that public transportation wouldn't be operating in the morning so I decided to sleep in a bit. When I turned on the radio the news reports were all about the weather and surprise surprise they announced that no buses were running, the tube was having closures on the majority of lines and the trains were severely delayed. Not to mention that most of their web sites were down due to the severe load of people trying to find out if transportation was running. By far the most amusing thing I heard were the warnings to pedestrians not to walk on the streets in the tire tracks as that could potentially slow down cars even more or result in more accidents.

When I got on-line this morning I started chatting with a co-worker from Canada and we were commenting how a little bit of snow (at least from our perspective) has crippled the city. They're saying as of now that trains are going to be running on a suspended service tomorrow as well so it looks like I'll be working from home again tomorrow.

A Week in SIN

Before you all start going crazy SIN is the actual airport code for Singapore. I know I've been back for a week and am only now just getting around to posting about the trip last week but I just couldn't find the motivation until now. I'm sure you've all been sitting on the edge of your seats waiting for this.

First off here is the video clip of me on Channel News Asia:

Being in Singapore the week before Chinese New Year aka Lunar New Year was a unique experience. I was given a gift of 2 mandarin oranges by a co-worker, mandarins are always handed out in pairs and they represent prosperity for the new year. At the end of the Chinese New Year celebration Singapore holds its annual Chingay parade. Walking back from my office to the hotel each day I could see the preparations under way. Chinatown is a transformed place during Chinese New Year - lanterns are hung everywhere, they close two of the side streets for markets, and the place is mobbed with people. I did manage to make it down to Chinatown on my last night to take pictures and experience the place.

I spent a lot of time checking out the various temples around town. Every temple was happy to welcome you inside to take a look around but no photography was allowed. All shoes had to be removed before entering, some temples provided lockers at others the shoes were just left out front. Outside the temples were bundles of incense and some had people selling flowers to be brought in as offerings. Other offerings I saw at some of the monuments inside the temple were juice boxes and other food items.

I was pleasantly surprised when I went into a temple in Chinatown to see that they had a sign indicating that photography was allowed if you bought a license for $3 so of course I did.

The final area that I explored was Arab Street. This section of town was much more subdued not as much hustle and bustle as Little India or Chinatown. Lots of fabric stores as well as carpet stores. I was very tempted to look in the carpet stores but was afraid I wouldn't be able to control myself and would end up buying something. The only thing I bought there was lunch, which was delicious. Mint tea, falafel and a meze plate - yummy!

Although I normally try to avoid tourist traps when I'm out travelling I did visit Long Bar at Raffle's Hotel which is where the Singapore Sling was invented. The place reminded me of the old Ground Round when you used to get shelled peanuts and throw the shells on the floor. I did notice that they had loads of drinks already prepared all they had to do was add ice and shake. I guess if you know that most people are going to order the same thing it's easier to prepare them ahead of time. The drink was OK nothing that special really and definitely not worth the price - this is why I typically avoid the tourist traps.

More pictures from the trip will be on my photography site shortly.

Journey to Jakarta

On Friday I made a quick day trip to Jakarta for some customer meetings. Jakarta is only a little bit south -east of Singapore but it is in a different time zone, possibly because most of Indonesia is further east. When I asked at the hotel for a taxi to the airport they were very surprised that I had no luggage. I had to keep telling them and the taxi driver that I was only going for the day, this is obviously not a frequent occurrence. I told the taxi driver I wanted to go to Terminal 2, he was very talkative and when he found out I was going to Jakarta he started rambling. I wasn't really paying attention as it was early in the morning and I was tired. When I got out of the taxi I realized he had dropped me off at the wrong terminal. Garuda air is the national airline of Indonesia so in all his talking he must have just assumed I was flying that airline and ignored the fact that I told him I needed to go to Terminal 2. No problems though as there is a sky train to go between the terminals.

A quick 90 minutes later and I was in Jakarta. I was told to go to the visa on arrival desk for a visa so naturally I followed the signs which was a mistake. I found out after that most people don't read signs in Jakarta, people have been known to drive the wrong way down the streets. After finally getting to the desk I was surprised to find out that the price of the visa is advertised in USD. Had I known this I would have brought my US dollars with me, all I had was Singapore dollars so they had to convert to Singapore dollars and then give me change in the local currency Rupiah. For a $10 visa I got 10000 Rupiah note in change.

As soon as you clear customs at the airport there are a number of private taxi stands in the airport which try to get you to book a taxi with them. I had a pre-booked taxi but it was interesting to see the hawkers trying to get business directly in the terminal, typically this occurs once you walk outside. Traffic is an absolute nightmare in Jakarta.

It took about 90 minutes to get to and from the meeting site which should have probably only taken about 30 minutes. Given the insanity of traffic many people ride bikes, which reminded me a lot of Paris. The only difference is that frequently there are 2 and even 3 people on a single bike.

The meeting went well and I finished within the allocated time which was important as we had to make sure we did not interfere with the prayer time. The Regus office we were in had a small prayer room to accommodate visitors. Those that weren't praying women and non-Muslims went off to a Chinese restaurant for lunch - the others joined us after their prayers. The food was amazing and absolutely gorged myself. I ate so much I didn't even eat dinner that night. I tried chicken feet - very strange mostly skin and lots of tiny little bones. My most favorite thing though was a drink that I saw others get. I had to ask when it arrived since it was green. It is avocado and chocolate and is a local favorite. It is very rich but well worth it. If you ever go I recommend you try it.

After a nice leisurely lunch it was time for a return trip to the airport even though the flight wasn't until 5, as traffic can be impossible it is better to give yourself plenty of time. What was odd is that it took forever to get a taxi. The office building is attached to a mall and there is a taxi stand but those taxis won't take you to the airport instead we had to book a taxi similar to the one I took from the airport, we had to wait about 30 minutes. Luckily we still had an hour to spare once we arrived. In the taxi on the way to the airport I was so tempted to take out my camera and start taking pictures from the window. The only reason I didn't is that I was sharing a cab with a colleague. Along the way to the airport there were all kinds of little shops and shanty towns that were so picturesque, oh well I'll have to go back.

Boarding at the airport was something I had never seen before which is unusual. Instead of boarding by row or zone or a free for all you are given a colored card at the gate. Boarding is then conducted by color, when you board you need to hand over the card, if you have the wrong color card you are told to wait. My question was how many people walk off with the cards?

That's it for Jakarta, tomorrow or later in the week I will post a summary of the week in Singapore.

Photo Friday - Singapore Edition

It's been a long and tiring week so instead of blogging about my trip to Jakarta today I figured I would take advantage of the fact that it is Friday.

The Merlion

Inaugural Activities

The Fullerton Hotel where I am staying sent a letter around saying that the bar would be airing the live inauguration and offering specials. Two mini burgers and a beer for S$28 and also a Presidential Sling for S$16. Being the crazy American that I am I decided to go downstairs to watch the event - bear in mind that the inauguration occurs at 12 PM which is 1 AM in Singapore.

I met a co-worker in the bar for dinner and after we ordered a manager came over and asked if we wouldn't mind being interviewed as Channel News Asia was coming in to cover the celebration. I figured what the heck. We were then brought over the Presidential Sling as they wanted these to feature in the coverage being filmed. So now in front of me I have a beer, a sling and a glass of wine (we had ordered a bottle before ordering dinner) decisions, decisions, decisions.
We have our dinner and then about 30 minutes later the news crew shows up we get moved to another table and since our slings were not fresh we were brought new ones as well as new burgers. They took shots of the food and drinks alone, then they started directing us:

• Eating I don't eat burgers so I just went for the fries.
• Talking and looking at the TV coverage (the inauguration wasn't on at the time).
• Toasting with our Presidential Slings

After these shots were taken we were interviewed. I was asked what I thought of Obama's election, what I wanted to hear him say during his speech, what I was hoping he would bring to office and a couple of other things as well which I can't remember at this point. My co-worker was asked as an Australian what the inauguration meant to him. It was a lot of fun and being given free food and drinks was a nice little benefit.

I stayed up to watch the speech and at 1 AM (Noon eastern) there was a round of applause after Obama was inaugurated and the bar passed out free champagne. My co-worker texted me in the morning to let me know that he had just seen me on the news I missed it unfortunately, I keep checking the website to see if they post it and the hotel has said they will try and get me a copy of the clip as well. The web does have videos posted and I may be in 1 of them but my computer can't show the video clips :(

In case you were wondering what is exactly in a Presidential Sling - Jim Beam, Gin, Southern Comfort, Pineapple Juice, Blueberries Grenadine and some other stuff as well.

Happy Anniversary

That's right today marks my second anniversary as life as an expat. I was actually torn today whether on what to blog about as there were some interesting occurrences last night. I'll likely blog about those later today. Below is a summary of some of the highlights from the past year:

Cheapest Meal
Most Expensive Meal
100th and 200th blog post
Introduction of a new travel companion

On leap day I composed a list of 29 places I wanted to visit and since then I have managed to visit 5 of them since this:

• Poland
• Hong Kong
• Great Wall of China
• Singapore
• Cuba

I visited 10 other places for the first time:

• Whistler
• Luxembourg
• Bergen
• Dublin
• Becket
• Disneyland Paris
• Shanghai
• Beijing
• Barcelona
• Key Largo

It's hard to believe that two years have gone by already. Looking forward to see what year 3 brings.

I've been learning a lot about Singapore the last couple of days and enjoying the nice warm weather. On Sunday I wandered around Little India. Most of Singapore seems to be about shopping in little India I went to Tekka Market. At one end of the market is the raw fish and meat being butchered, in the middle is the food court. Tables are reserved by placing a packet of tissues down and then you can go and order your food knowing that you have a table. Much better than wandering around looking for a table with a tray full of food. At the other end of the market are the clothes, shoes and household items. So many vibrant colours but the stalls seemed to all be selling the same things.

Driving around yesterday I learned that London took the idea of a congestion charge from Singapore. During the weekday there are charges for driving into the city. All charges are handled electronically via a smart card that is attached to the windshield similar to the fast lane or e-z pass system for tolls in the US. These device also handles charges for all parking garages - no need to stop and get a ticket or worry about losing the ticket. The devices automatically deduct the appropriate amount from your account. These appear to be mandatory for all cars as this is the only way that tolls are received.

And I'll leave you for now with a few from the balcony of my hotel room.