Small Asian boy found near Merapi

Nah, I didn't actually go and see the volcano, but I did goto Indonesia over the weekend.

Pulau Bintan is great!

We hurriedly left work on Friday so that I could get home and pack as much useless stuff into Catherine Zeta Jones (watch The Terminal if you have no idea what I'm ranting on about), hopped onto the MRT and hoped like hell we would make the ferry across to Bintan. After much queue waiting and general cussing we got through customs and onto the ferry with about 15 minutes to spare.

After about an hour on the choppy waves between Singapore and Indonesia, we reached Bintan, was pretty dark already so much of the scenery en route was lost to us. The first order of business was to find food and beverages, we lingered on beverages until midnight, then decided that a romantic moonlit walk on the beach was in order :P, the romantic atmosphere was dashed however as Chad had the tendency to stub his toes one every twenty seconds.

I attempted windsurfing the next day, it was a dismal failure... not really due to my incompetence, more so the lack of wind... in any direction. But hey, at least i know how to position myself and balance myself for less than 5 seconds on the board :D... I'm keen to go back and have another crack at it though...

Final day was good despite the set backs the weather provided. We had intended on this five hr trek, however due to the incredibly risk averse nature of the Singaporeans that ran the operation, they deem the conditions too wet and thus too dangerous... like WTF wet and dangerous is when Kiwis go tramping. We substituted the trekking with a few hours of snorkeling, which I was competent at for a change :), mucho tropical fishies and coral to look at, would've continued for longer if my feet didn't get so tired from kicking.

After lunch we decided to give the upper body a bit of a workout, hired an ocean kayak and generally kayaked around the bay, we got quite a ways away from the shore and both decided it was a good idea to leave the kayak and go for a swim... getting back on was quite difficult :D.

I don't have any photos alas, Chad was the photographer of the trip since I stupidly forgot to charge my camera before the trip :-/... next time eh?

Child molesting snake

The snake looks so dodgy in this pic.

An interesting specimen

Some white people we saw at the zoo... LOLZ

Racoon?

I think its a racoon..., I'm useless at zoos not reading any of the information signs.

Chad turns Asian

Yeah... sorry guys, he's now asian. Excitable and posing with that bloody hand thing.

Singapore Zoo

Some little critters we found at the Singapore zoo. One of the more active animals, compared to the Polar Bear they had, yes... thats right, a polar bear at the equator!!

boring and slightly messy lounge

 

View #2

And now... the other half of the pool, plus the twin jacuzzis, and interesting bits of foliage dotted here and there.

View #1

Here is the view from my bedroom window, half of the pool and all of the tennis court. Tennis racquet is on the list of things to purchase.

OK... so its been a month

Since my last post. I apologise for my general uselessness, but hey, its not like anyone reads this :P, and I've always said that I'd only put photos up here (which hasn't happened either).

Anyway...

During the last month, I have:

* Been sweaty every morning as I walk to work.
* Been getting to work earlier than in NZ, and going home later.
* Jaywalked!!!
* Purchased a new laptop :D
* Found a swanky apartment (sorry... condo)
* Applied and got denied for a credit card, I don't know why, I thought I was supposed to be one of these "rich expat types".
* Began speaking mandarin to the locals.
* Cooked twice :D

Loving the fact that:
* I feel tall (so does Chad... strangely)
* Food is cheap
* Am living like a rich capitalist :D
* Spending less due to lack of drinking
* There are DnB gigs here!!
* Most beers come in crate bottles

Angry about:
* Lack of boozing culture here (I miss getting on the piss with you all!!).
* Retarded banks declining my credit card applications.
* Retarded banks not accepting each other's cards (Its like NZ in the mid 90s!!).
* Retarded merchants only accepting cash.
* Retarded pedestrians that get in your way.
* People that don't understand me even when I speak Mandarin :(.
* Overpolitness of the general populace :-/

Work has been OK, I'm less stressed than Chad, but then again he does actual development, I'm just doing support for now :-/, hopefully we should be getting some development work in the next couple of months. The people in the team are pretty cool, and we're probably the loudest team in the entire floor.

Now that I'm settled, I'll prosbably utilise my weekends better and actually run around S.E Asia a fair bit more. In the next couple of weeks, a trip is planned to Pulau Bintan with Chad, its an Indonesian island thats not too far from Singapore, kinda wanky and touristy, but its a start. Malaysia and Vietnam are on the list as well, especially since Chandima couldn't stop talking about it after he visited.

Probably thinking of taking up diving as well, my team lead showed me some amazing pics of a dive she went on recently, so many Nemos floating around Malaysia!!!

Otherwise just business as usual, watch out for a photo blog in the weekend where I will showcase my wanky surrounds :)