One oft heard comment from friends who have just returned from overseas trips especially to Europe is that people there seem to spend so much time doing nothing. 'They just hang around doing nothing and some are even drunk in the morning'. These comments are usually said with eyes open wide with disbelief, as if the very thought of grown adults doing nothing all day is something unbelievable and incredibly amazing.

Even now, I feel a slight tinge when I type that. It seems as if my mind is telling me: 'but really, how do they survive? What do they do everyday?' Truly, what do Australians do after 5pm? Is everyone else besides us and the factory workers in India and China totally clueless about how to lead our lives? It is prudent advice to realize that when you think that everyone on the road is going the wrong way, you are probably the one driving in the wrong lane.

It seems as if the very act of being Singaporean has instilled a drive in us. A drive to keep doing... stuff. Useful stuff, mind you, piano lessons, math classes, tuition, CCAs, the list goes on. Ever since we were young, just things after things to keep us busy, occupied, and learning. So much we learn about outside but how much do we truly learn of ourselves? How much time do we have to ponder the fate our dinner, let alone the fate of our country or that of the universe.

If there's one thing I have learnt from the army, it is that 'doing nothing' actually gives us time to reflect upon our lives, give ourselves goals, and overcome mental barriers. I have never felt more awake then, even though the work I did then could be considered mind numbing. It was then that I felt as though I grew up, not through 'tough, realistic training', but by the simple caveat of having plenty of time for my own thoughts.

Some say Singaporeans are apathetic, some say that their party has created an environment where we have the stability to pursue various interests and so do not care about the government. I agree with the latter, but in a different frame. We are indeed kept busy, so busy that we have no time to look at things that do not concern us. So busy that when things like elections come up, we are too preoccupied to care. After all, we have so much better things to do, why waste it on making the stable things now variable?

We simply are not programmed to think broadly enough.

I just spent a most awesome week in Bangkok. The food was good, the hotel was fantastic and the people were really friendly. I really had so much fun and I can not wait to go back there again.

I took a flight at seven in the morning on the first day. As it was new years' there were not many people on the flight, and we got assigned a seat next to the emergency escape (read, extra leg room). We landed at about 10 and took a train to Paya Thai station, which costs about 40 baht. From there we took a taxi to our hotel in Makksan, soi wattanawong, Tango living place. It was the most fantastic hotel, at a very affordable $50 a day. It even comes with one hour of free Internet everyday. The sheets were very clean, rooms were spacious and very beautiful, and it is within walking distance to two MRT lines as well as a whole bunch of massage parlours and street vendors. After checking in, we took a train to the Chatuchak weekend market. Fifteen thousand shops, covering thirty five acres of land, it is cheap shopping heaven. The design of the place was very much like wu fen pu in Taipei, with small shops arranged in so many rows it is practically impossible to find your way back to a store once you have walked past it. As the sun set, we made our way to Patpong night market for more shopping. Unfortunately, Patpong very much caters to tourists, especially Caucasian ones, and the prices are ridiculously high as compared to Chatuchak. There were also touts all over the place trying to get us to watch the world-famous thai-girl shows. Patpong consists of two parallel streets, as well as the main roads that connect the two streets. The first street is as I have just described. However, the second street is just filled entirely with dark murky bars and loud music. Venture there only if you are feeling adventurous. Overall, patpong was an overcommercialised disappointment. Its only saving grace was the stewed pig trotter rice across the road. Thai food never fails to disappoint and this dish is probably my favourite one in Bangkok. Anyone who is going there has got to try it.

The second day was designed as a cultural and heritage day. We first made our way to The Grad Palace, next to Wat Phra Kaew, or the temple of the emerald Buddha. It was so jam-packed with people and cars that we abandoned our taxi a few streets away and walked over. They do not allow ladies to wear shorts there and will charge you 50 baht for a skirt to wrap around your body. There is an additional 50 baht deposit which you can claim from any vendor at the exit. It took about two hours to visit the temple, make offerings, and then walk over to the grand palace for a short stroll. After the temple visit, we took a tut tut over to the ratchadamnoen boxing stadium for a muay thai match. Here is a tip: The touts outside will know you are foreigners and push you to buy the first-class ring side seats for 2000 baht. They will claim that you don't get a good view at the second and third class sections and you will not get to seat down. That is a lie. The best experience in my opinion will be to get the second class tickets. There will usually not be a full capacity crowd on a given day, and you will get to have a seat. Also, it allows you to get the full muay thai experience as there is a lot of betting going on there and emotions run high. If you make your way to the front of the section, you also get the best view of the fight as you are at the same level as the ring. On the first-class seats on the other hand, you do not get the same sense of excitement and the view is frankly not as good. However, on the chance that you decide to just go for the first class seats, it is possible to bargain your way down to 1600 baht for the entry. This is only 100 baht more than the ticket for second class. The programme goes on for about four to five hours, but it is better to come midway through the programme as the earlier fights usually are between kids of about 12 years of age and are pretty boring. We rounded the day off by visiting Chinatown. It felt great to be able to talk with the vendors and people around you normally. That place is chock full of stalls selling birds nest and sharks fin soup. I have no idea why that is so popular there.

On our third day, we went to the eastern bus terminal and took a bus east to Pattaya. The ticket costs 113 baht, which is way cheaper than the 1500 baht to hire a taxi there. Once there, there is a 30 baht tuk tuk ride which you have to share with other tourists to get to the beach side. You can visit the tourist information centre to book a hotel, but the hotel list they have is either not complete, or certain hotels are paying them to advertise. The lowest rate I found there was about 1400 baht a night, but we were able to find a host of 650 baht and 950 baht hotels a short walk away from the beach, right behind the walking street. Prices there are touristy too, but can be bargained down to more reasonable levels. Massages are about 200 baht for a Thai massage, which is only 50 baht more than the cheapest near our hotel in Bangkok. The south beach of Pattaya is were the most action is at as it is right next to the walking street, a street that transforms into a bevy of bars, pubs and clubs at night. They close off the street from cars so you can just stroll anywhere you want and soak in the atmosphere.

Pattaya was so awesome that we stayed there till late afternoon on the fourth day. Did a facial and bought a pair of sunnies. Chilled on the beach with beef noodles and a nice cold coconut watching people jet ski around. It was late by the time we took the 2hour ride back to Bangkok and we visited only one small night market before heading home.

The fifth day found me at the snake farm, inside the Thai red cross institute. There was a 200baht entrance fee, which includes a snake show at 2.30pm. After that, you can wonder around the various exhibition of some of the most beautiful snakes around. Went to MBK in the evening for more shopping fun. Did not shop much though, for some reason. I guess I have not had the full experience of shopping in Thailand this time around.

The sixth day was a tour day. Left bright and early at 7.30 in the morning for the floating markets of damnoen saduak. The tour included a paid-for boat which took us around the canals, stopping at any riverside stall that caught our fancy. Spent quite a bit there as it is certainly a novel experience floating from store to store. Next we continued on the bus to pick up our guide, who took us to the tiger temple. To me, this was the highlight of the trip. The tiger sanctuary had about forty tigers and we got to take pictures with practically all of them. In addition to tigers, there were wild boars, deers and water buffaloes, all just hanging and chilling. It is only when you get up close to these big cats that you fully appreciate their majesty and get a sense of their raw power. They are just magnificent to watch. Took a ton of photos before we left for the next destination: lunch. Remember to watch what you eat and know what can or cannot be ordered when they say that lunch is 'inclusive'. It usually just means a certain amount that you can order that the tour guide will pay for. Headed off to the elephant jungle trek in Saiyok. That camp is somehow very attractive to Russians, and I amused my self by humming the tune to the trololo song near them. Then it was back into the bus and to the bridge over the river kwai and the tour was concluded. At night, we visited mansion 7, located at 14 Ratchadaphisek Road. It was a mall with a really interesting and novel concept. Really an indie mall, which has the strangest things going on. A haunted house, weirdly shaped pool tables, live bands and a really really good mango smoothie defined the place. This place is a must see, if not to shop, but to gawk.

Day seven took us back to Chatuchak as well as to Pratunam shopping centre for some last minute shopping, and also where we experienced some racism in our favour. Noticing that the shop owners were mainland Chinese,

Me: ke yi pian yi yi dian ma?
Owner 1: Zhong guo ren dang ran ke yi!
Owner 2: Ta men bu shi zhong gui ren.
Owner 1: Hua ren jiu ke yi!
Me: :)

Took a MRT back to the airport and had to run for our plane due to a crazy long queue at passport control. Remember to go in early next time.

So here it is, seven days in Bangkok. I have learnt so much and I cannot wait till I next get to see this beautiful, friendly city. It really makes a difference when you plan your own trip and see everything at the local level. It certainly a wonderful cultural experience.

It says in my environmental science textbook that statistically, smokers shorten their life expectancy by about 5 minutes for each cigarette smoked, which is roughly the time it takes to smoke that cigarette. So I suppose if you enjoy smoking twice as much as whatever else it is you're supposed to be doing you would be better off smoking then.

I was struck with sudden inspiration today, not least because blogging has been mentioned pretty often in the news lately. First up was the dude who got taken in by his own police unit after making comments regarding the controversial arrest of a photographer taking photos of a flood. Then, not so much blogging, but the person who posted some very obviously metaphorical stuff on his facebook.com profile. Two unfortunate souls who said the right thing at the right time in the wrong place. Because of that, I find it very necessary to include the following paragraph.

All opinions and views are not made by the author. They were written by a) a monkey typing at random on a keyboard or b) words spontaneously forming online which materialized on this website, depending on your favourite probability theorem. Personally I'm for the monkey one, because this was the same monkey that produced the complete works of William Shakespeares, so I suppose this must be one randomly smart chimp. As such, do not take anything here, and in all past and future posts seriously and/or literally. Anyone who does so ought to have the chimp throw faeces at his face.

Ok, with that legality out of the way, I am free to ask. Is an off duty doctor allowed to comment on the practices of another doctor? Is an ex-teacher allowed to comment on the teaching methods of another teacher? If so, why can't an ex-policeman comment on another? Furthermore, not being in the field of event itself, his knowledge of the proceedings are probabily limited and not to be taken seriously at all, which diminishes the actual impact of his words on the fate of policekind(Just as my words are twice removed and thus contain half the impact(assuming linearity of words and impact)). Whatever fate has befallen on him has caused the event to touch him, in effect making him a participatory party in the event itself. Of course now that he is one step closer to the event, his opinions become that much more credible and correspondingly, popular, the argument being that his words have hit home so much so that the authorities have had to do something about it.

The second is just plain overreacting. Its not everyday that someone calls for the death of someone else. Frankly, it was quite humerous and if I knew how to spell that person's name I might just have posted it myself. Assuming that I was actually interested in the Olympics, Jr. I watched the men's basketball finals today, (one of the only free sports channel, the same channel in HD doesn't count as another channel) it was great until the rain splashing in through the plastic protectors caused the courts to become wet and slippery causing me to wonder if that was the same day as my Inter Block Games' basketball competition and the remarkable similiarity of events. Of course, it probably rained the whole of Singapore and many games were shifted due to the weather.

Finally, an interesting article caught my eye. http://wildsingaporenews.blogspot.com/2010/08/model-city-singapore-shows-symptoms-of.html
The article claims a quote from an 'urban expert', which compares Singaporean's demands for better public service to checking into a 5-star hotel. First of all, our public transport isn't even close to a 5-star hotel. Want great train services? Go to Taiwan, where I am still amazed that I have never had to wait for more than three minutes to board and they have cute little lines for people to queue so that we, who do not play rugby, will not have to enter a scrum whenever the doors open. Secondly, you'll have to read the quote first.

Urban expert Seetharam Kallidaikurichi said Singaporeans should be prepared to pay more for public services if they expect the government to meet their expectations.

"It's like you live in a five-star hotel. What happens? You just check in,
you get your bed ready, new linen given to you, you come down, breakfast is served for you... (but) you pay for it,"

This was made in response to nothing at all but I assume that it means that we can expect costs of public services to increase. And in that quote, he compared us wanting better public services to checking into a 5-star hotel. A 5-star hotel will not try to fit 6million guests into 4.9million rooms. Even if they did, they would certainly not have the chutzpah to build another million rooms, and then raise the price of each room because they are 'upgraded'. Economically, it works out too. An extra million travellers mean's an extra million travellers' money. There's no way that you can justify making people pay more for the same of level of service. The money you need to upgrade whatever you want to upgrade is in that million right there.

It has been a long and rather eventful year for ESESC this 2nd MC, and although I could have done plenty of things better, I am quite glad at how most of the things turned out. I've learned several lessons, such as to manage your expectations, and to, hmm, I guessed I've not learnt that many things after all. The experience however, is one that I am very sure will help me out in all future events I organize as well as life in general. There remains one fairly interesting twist though. Guess who my successors are, but two whom I have approached in the past to help me run my cell. How very ironic. Lucky I don't take things too personally, so I choose to see it as me having extraordinary foresight to spot people who will be able to contribute to the cell, as well as planting the seeds of thought into their minds so that they will be able to continue what we have done. I guess I incepted them?

Its been a good many months since I last posted eh? In that time, my exams have ended, I've been unceremoniously booted out of my DDP that I chose NUS for, I've been to a camp, organized another, and been unable to attend due to ICT, spent several nights out and been to taiwan and back. Quite an eventful holiday I must say.

It sure was a huge disappointment with my grades. I was so certain that I could do it this time, and it was partially bad luck, partially just what I'm fundamentally good at. I'm a person whose results look like a rollercoaster ride. Unfortunately, this is not the type of mold that a DDP student is supposed to fit into, regardless of his intellect. Having no choice but to try to fit in, I studied harder than I have ever did. Too bad I'm just no good at math. An engineering student who's bad at math, now that's a laugh. Everyday I'm haunted over this path. Everyone says it doesn't matter, what you study in university doesn't really affect what you do in real life. If so why doesn't everybody just quit school?

At the same time, It has been more crazy than fun. Sometimes, I'm not sure what I want either. Would it be better just to drift along in life, taking advantage of whatever comes along but yet not planning too far ahead? The further you plan ahead, the greater your chances for disappointment. How much of this is zen advice and how much just an excuse to be lazy in life?

I've made a bet with myself to talk to one new person every day. So far so good. I think in the grand scheme of things, I'm just a simple thrill seeker.

It's like an escape, into a finely crafted, perfectly scripted world. They prance around looking so carefree and happy, yet somehow every step is in the right place, every move sycronized, every smile, wink, frown, lilt so perfect you know they must have practiced for hours yet looking so new and fresh. Maybe that's what I need from time to time, an escape into a perfect place where everything happens according to plan. Where nothing can change, because I've seen the same perfectly crafted swizzle hundreds of times.

Indego is a color too

Colors are often all around,
Any time you look its found.
Never have any trouble naming it,
Ten colors, what? that's it.

Don't think though that you know it all.
Every color has its hue,
And each hue has each one too.
Leaves shade different when they fall.

White even is not spared,
Indego is the color of bread.
Tree trunks and tables are all brown,
Hearts drawn on them safe and sound.

Troubles are like colors too,
Hello and how do you do?
I'm fine, what shade of pissed of are you?
Surf's up sun's down and its dark all around.

So never ever think you're clear,
However the colors may seem near.
I like studying with all my friends,
This poem is coming to an end.