Bradley's Old Fashioned Weblog
A serious and sometimes not so serious personal blog
Just some random cosplay I saw down on Orchard Road (Singapore). It’s an advertisement for a gaming establishment that I assume does LAN gaming. I haven’t visited the gaming houses for network or online games in Singapore, and probably won’t. I prefer gaming on my own laptop, or on my XBOX 360.
Prior to just a few weeks ago, I had no idea there was a counterfeit goods market in Singapore at all. During my trip to Kuala Lumpur I saw plenty of counterfeit goods that looked great. When I used to think of counterfeit, or “bootleg” items, I always thought of cheap quality, or of something that didn’t look quite right. The things we saw in Kuala Lumpur were near matches though. You wouldn’t be able to tell they were fake at all. The same could be said of most of the counterfeit items I saw in the Philippines.
Shortly after returning from Kuala Lumpur I stumbled across an article on a blog that was talking about how large the counterfeit goods market is in Singapore. I can’t remember the link for it anymore, though I did find another site called “Havocscope: Global Illicit Markets Indexes” that had the value of the counterfeit market in Singapore pegged at $136.2 million dollars. Who knew?
According to the article I’d originally read, the Singapore government does its best to keep counterfeit items out of stores that are in the downtown, touristy areas. It stated that most counterfeit items are found in the outlying areas.
Now, I’m not entirely sure that what this guy is selling is counterfeit, but the slim, plastic packaging wrapping those DVDs looks very familiar. I’ve seen a lot of counterfeit DVD stalls in Kuala Lumpur and especially in the Philippines. I wasn’t really surprised that he had them, or that he was selling them. What shocked me was that this guy was selling them by the Citibank at Tampines MRT station, along a crowded area where people transferring from the bus to the train pass through. That seems a little dangerous for him.
What do you think?
A few weeks ago I posted an article about some Muslim food we’d tried. It was called Chicken Murtabak and it was pretty good. It took me almost a year to get up the courage to try out Muslim food. I think it was mostly because of paranoid fear over being poisoned or having my food spit on by Muslims because of where I’m from. Not to mention I spent some time in Iraq. Ya, sounds kinda silly and stupid right? But, for years the US media has been pushing it down our throats that all Arabs/Muslims could potentially be dangerous, and I spent a long time in Iraq and Kuwait, worrying about whether a guy was going to say hello or blow himself (and me) up at any moment. So, maybe the fear wasn’t so unfounded after all, but then again most people here ask me where I’m from. They don’t seem to recognize the accent.
Anyhow, we enjoyed the murtabak and had decided we would go back for more, but we put it off because it messed up our stomachs a bit. Tonight we finally decided to eat there again. The stuff tasted so good we were willing to risk stomach problems! Plus, we think it was the curry that’s served with the dish that caused the problem, so we were careful about how much of it we ate this time around.
As we walked up to the “Indian Muslim” stall, the guy behind the counter had an amused look on his face. Maybe there aren’t too many white guys that order Muslim food in this area? Well, that probably goes without saying. Anyhow, we got another order of murtabak, mutton this time, and a cheese roti prata. I also went to the next stall called “Muslim Food” and got an order of chicken rice. It had another name in front of that, but I can’t remember what it was. So, we had a pretty good spread of food between the two of us.
The mutton murtabak was good, but my wife says she likes the chicken version better. The cheese roti prata was fantastic. I’m going to get more of those tomorrow at lunch time. They remind me of cheese sticks from the US, or like a slice of New York cheese pizza without tomato sauce. It’s not that big, but they’re only 1.50 apiece so it’s not too bad a deal. Plus, I think I can get them cheaper around the corner from there. As for the muslim version of chicken rice, it was surprisingly good. It tasted as if it had been grilled over a real fire, which is a plus for me. I love grilled food! It also had a nice sauce poured over it. The rice was seasoned with garlic, which I enjoyed. Plain rice usually doesn’t do it for me. There was also a cup of a clear broth. That’s typical with meals purchased from hawkers here in Singapore. I wasn’t expecting much from it. Usually it’s just a chicken broth. Again, I was surprised. It had been seasoned with onion and garlic and tasted great!
It’s hard to get over cultural stereotypes, but in this case it was a good thing I did because I’d have missed out on a lot of good food.
About a year ago when I first moved here I saw some advertisements about an initiative that the Tampines Town Council was starting that would allow bicyclists to share the sidewalk with pedestrians.
To the point of being a cliche, it’s common knowledge that in Asia, bicycles are used as a major form of transportation, regardless of income level, since it’s fast, convenient, doesn’t require gas, and you can get to places on your bicycle that you can’t get to in your car. For example, you could ride up to the convenience store and park right outside it, rather than try to find a parking lot and walk to the convenience store. Singapore is designed in a way that it looks like Atlanta, but has roads and parking areas like a big city. Often you’ll find areas with no parking lots, meaning you have to drive quite a ways from your intended destination to find a parking garage and then walk the rest of the way. In my mind that defeats the purpose.
The legalization of riding bicycles on sidewalks has been widely adopted in Singapore, so the test run must have met with positive results. I think it’s a fantastic idea. When I was younger and lived in New York City for a while, my mom told me that it was actually illegal to ride bicycles on the sidewalk there. I was shocked then and I’m still shocked now. I can’t imagine riding a bicycle in the city streets in New York. The traffic isn’t as bad here, but still, who wants to share a lane with a double-decker bus or a semi-truck?
To further improve the city for bicycle use, many areas have had bike paths built alongside the sidewalks. This makes it possible for cyclists to travel faster, since they have a dedicated lane just for them. It also makes pedestrians feel safer, since they don’t have to constantly peer over their shoulder for oncoming bicycles. Bicycles are supposed to all have bells on them, and riders are supposed to use them to alert pedestrians that they’re coming but it doesn’t always happen.
So, here’s where the problem comes in. The city has legalized the use of bicycles on sidewalks, and even made special paths for them, but people don’t seem to want to use them. What I mean is, even though there’s a bike path that parallels the sidewalk, riders often use the pedestrian sidewalk anyways. To make it worse they often don’t use their bells and then get angry when pedestrians don’t move out of their way. On one occasion a rider almost hit my wife with a bicycle, in the area seen in the picture above. I chewed him out and told him he had no right to be on the pedestrian sidewalk anyways, and asked him if he was blind, since the bicycle path is clearly right next to the sidewalk and is marked with big yellow bicycle symbols. On the other hand, I often see pedestrians walking on the bicycle paths. I also see cyclists still riding in the streets, disrupting traffic.
It seems like it would be obvious to people that they should use the appropriate areas for walking and riding, but it just doesn’t happen that way. Is it a case of “I’m always right” or simply laziness?
The first time my wife and I took a walk through the E-Hub mall at Downtown East in Pasir Ris, we saw a very nice looking restaurant on the entry level floor. The name of the place is simply “BBQ Chicken”. I’ve been thinking about it ever since and we finally had the opportunity to go back.
The place is very clean and very comfortable. We were seated in a nice booth in the corner. We took a look through the menu. It’s packed with a lot of great choices. You can get everything from salads to sandwiches to stuff off the grill. Looking at the posters on the wall, I think their “main attraction” dishes are made with chicken quarters that are cooked over charcoal, possibly using some sort of light olive oil. They did look tasty, but we were in the mood for something a bit lighter than that, so my wife got a chicken salad and I got the chicken tortilla meal. We also ordered an appetizer called koshi.
My chicken tortilla sandwich was pretty good. It was nothing spectacular, but it was very satisfying. The fries were a big greasy, but that’s ok. The coleslaw was surprisingly good. My wife’s salad was fantastic. The vegetables were fresh and the chicken in it was surprisingly tasty. I think it must be prepared the same way as the grilled chicken. The koshi dish can be seen in the picture above. It is 3 shish kebabs of chicken mixed with onion and red bell pepper. They were very good. My wife liked them a lot and said she could make a whole meal of them.
I can’t say much about the place. The food wasn’t extraordinary or unique. It was just good. We’ll be going back though, and next I plan on trying one of the grilled chicken meals.
Boobs!
(Picture taken in Singapore)
Just Acia is a restaurant located in the Downtown East Mall in Pasir Ris, Singapore. My wife and I went to the mall to meet up with friends we hadn’t seen in months. Singapore is such a small island, but life gets so hectic that we still seem to only find rare opportunities to hang out with our friends.
When we arrived, the first thing on everyone’s minds was dinner, so off we went. One of our friends already had a place in mind that she said was fantastic, and had a great deal. We’re always keen to find places that are both “fantastic” and have a “great deal”. She didn’t disappoint!
Just Acia is on the ground level, back past a huge children’s play area. We’d probably never have even found it without her taking us to it. I didn’t even realize that the mall had a back area before tonight.
As we walked up to the restaurant I saw a sign that said all “set meals” come with freeflow (as in free refills) ice cream and drinks. That got my interest up, because free refills on anything isn’t common in Singapore. I was extra excited about the ice cream, because ice cream in Singapore is sold for a fairly high price. Most dairy products here are quite a bit more expensive than what I was used to in the US, because it all has to be imported. For those of you who don’t know and don’t care to Google it, Singapore is an island nation and a city-state.
When we got to the table and flipped through the menu, I was surprised again. The set meals were reasonably priced and the food looked really good. My wife placed an order for beef bulgoggi and I got the deep fried chicken, as well as a side dish of steamed dumplings. Right after ordering we were given cups and small metal dishes so we could start getting our drinks and ice cream from a buffet style bar near the front of the restaurant. The drink choices included Pepsi, Mountain Dew, some teas, cappuccino, lattes, and mocha. Again, impressive for the price.
By the time we sat back down our orders were hitting the table. The meal came with a bowl of rice (no surprise, this is Asia), a small bowl of broth soup (standard fare in Singapore), and a small dish of what I think was kimchi, though I could be wrong.
The food was fantastic! The first thing I tried was the dumplings. They were so much better than I had hoped. I’ve had a lot of dumplings in Singapore and these were the best so far. The deep fried chicken was crispy on the outside and tender on the inside. It wasn’t over cooked, and it tasted like the oil they used was fresh. My wife and I swapped a portion of our meals and her beef bulgoggi was great as well.
The cappuccino I had after my meal was fairly strong. It was nothing special, but I have no complaints about it either. The ice cream also wasn’t anything premium, but it did have a good taste to it, and I wound up getting three servings.
The last thing I’d like to mention is that the staff is very friendly and very helpful. They were always smiling and always quick to ask if you needed any help. The only drawback I found was that the hostess seemed a bit hard of hearing. She spoke English, but she either didn’t listen to or didn’t understand what I said back to her. When we first approached the restaurant, two of our group had gone on ahead, with the rest of us lagging behind. I tried to explain that we were with the other two people, but she kept saying, “Group of four? Please come this way!” Finally, we just ignored her and walked past her into the restaurant to where our friends were waiting. Later, I stepped out for moment and when I came back, she asked me if I wanted to be seated, as if she hadn’t just seen me 4 minutes previous. Still, this is Asia, so you can’t expect everyone to be as proficient in English as a native speaker, so I can’t even call this a bad mark against the restaurant. It was just a minor annoyance that most foreigners have probably come to occasionally expect while traveling abroad.
All in all, this place serves some great food for a great price, and we’ll definitely be visiting them again.
Living in the US, I got accustomed to central air conditioning. Besides the fact that it’s generally cooler in the US than it is in Singapore, the idea of having your air conditioner on all day long is culturally acceptable in most parts of the country. The air conditioner is simply set to maintain a certain temperature. It’s a set and forget type of deal, and some even have timers that will automatically disable it during the hours when no one is in the house. When someone is in the house though, it’s on, and that’s just normal.
Imagine my surprise when I found out that the same air conditioning usage patterns aren’t only uncommon, but are seen as socially unacceptable, or at the least unusual or a waste of money, in Asia? Doesn’t make sense right? Especially since it’s so much hotter here. Besides that, houses in the US are built with insulation in mind. The buildings I’ve been in here in Singapore and in the Philippines seem to be plain cinder block and plaster, with no sort of insulation at all. That means the buildings build up heat during the day and then maintain it through the majority of the night. The place I’m living now stays at an average of 33 C (91.4 F) all day long, and all night long too. We’ve even come in at 1 AM, having left the window cracked all day, and seen that it still read 32 C on the temperature gauge on the AC remote.
A typical family in Singapore (based on what I’ve seen) will only turn on the air conditioner at night, after they’ve showered, when they’re about to get in bed. During the rest of the day and evening, they simply leave the windows open and use a lot of fans. Also, the air conditioners here aren’t central, with vents in each room. They’re either window mounted units, or they’re the type that mount outside and have smaller ‘control’ units inside the bedrooms.
That’s another thing I wanted to mention. The air conditioners in Singapore are typically only located in bedrooms. From what I’ve seen myself, and heard from my wife, it’s basically the same in the Philippines, if the family even owns an air conditioner at all. The difference there, though, is that most parts of the Philippines are a lot cooler than Singapore.
At my last place, I would run the air conditioner almost non-stop. I wasn’t acclimated to the weather here and it was just so damn hot all the time that it seemed impractical to open the windows. Plus, the air conditioner provided with the room was a piece of shit (see the photo below). Who wants to sit in their own house sweating like they’re in a sauna? Not to mention that high temperatures can’t be good for electronics.
Another thing to note is that I read on Jonna Wibelius blog, SHE in China, that in China they only turn on the air conditioners during certain seasons. It reminded me of the way they did it in schools in the US. I remember days when it was incredibly hot, but the scheduled day for the air conditioners to be turned on hadn’t arrived yet. The same with the heaters.
I’m constantly finding new things that amaze me about the differences between Asian and American culture, what is and isn’t considered socially acceptable, and the way people live here.
When I moved to Asia I knew I was going to be giving up a few things. One of those things was easy access to cow meat. Singapore doesn’t have much in the way of cheap beef, or reasonably priced steaks. Or, so I thought.
During my first visit to Singapore in March of 2008 I saw that a typical diet here consists of mostly chicken, pork, or fish and rice or noodles with a small portion of some green leafy vegetable. Soups containing those ingredients are also popular. That’s pretty much all I’ve eaten for the last year as well. Not that I’m complaining! A lot of those dishes are delicious! But, I had a craving for something a bit more solid than that, and the last time I had a good amount of beef was on my birthday in the Philippines in March of this year. Even then it wasn’t a steak dinner as most Americans would envision it.
I had resigned myself to the belief that I would only have a good steak dinner when I was back in the US, so I wasn’t actively looking around for good deals. I didn’t want to break my budget to get something I can easily do without.
When my wife and I first agreed to rent our current place in Pasir Ris, the agent that located the property for us gave us a short tour of the area. Well, actually we went on an hour long walk around a good portion of the neighborhood but it was so exciting that we hardly noticed the distance we covered until we looked at it on a map later.
During this walk, we passed a small shop that was part of a hawker area. It’s called ‘Amigos; Western Food’ and doesn’t have a very impressive exterior, but the agent went into detail about how good the food they serve is. I smiled and nodded, but I wasn’t really convinced, and wasn’t in any hurry to try it. A few days ago I had an interesting conversation with a guy from Egypt, who also had nothing but good things to say about the place.
Last night, my wife and I finally got around to checking it out. Good thing the place is open late, because we didn’t make it over there until about 1am! I think we were the only customers there. We took a look at the menu, and I was surprised to see that there was a steak available for only 13.90, so I ordered it. My wife got a plate of lamb chops, which was also reasonably priced at about 9 dollars or so. Still, it was cheap, so I wasn’t expecting much. I certainly wasn’t expecting something that looked better than the picture on the menu. That’s sort of a joke, where what you order rarely looks as tasty as the picture. This time, the opposite was true, and we were more than pleasantly surprised to find such great looking dishes at a hawker stall.
The lamb chops.
The steak.
So, I suppose the real question is, how did it taste? That was the second surprise. The stuff was better than great! It was fantastic! In anticipation of a potential fail whale, we asked for Tabasco sauce, but we wound up not needing it. As you can see from the pictures above, both dishes came with a sauce. Each had a distinct taste that seemed appropriate to the meat. The potato wedges were also fantastic and the veggies used for the small salad were crisp and fresh. As for the meat, it was tender and had just the right amount of fat on it. My steak was a little undercooked, but it had been so long since I’d had a good steak dinner, and it tasted so good, that I didn’t care. I gobbled the whole thing down, then cleared the rest of the plate, and was very satisfied. My wife and I traded bites of lamb for steak, and her lamb was just as good.
If anyone’s looking for a reasonably priced place to get a great steak or set of lamb chops, this is definitely the place to go!
When my wife and I first moved to Pasir Ris we noticed that there are lots of parks in the area. That’s great, because we enjoy taking walks, or jogging. Lately, we don’t seem to have time to just wander around on weekdays, but the last two Saturdays we’ve made sure to get out of the house for a while.
Last week, we went to Pasir Ris Park, which was incredible! That park is huge! We’re looking forward to going back, but we also wanted to check out the other parks in the area. So, this week, we decided to take a look at Seashell Park.
Seashell Park isn’t quite as big as I’d hoped. We looked through it all in about 20 minutes, in fact. It’s a small park nestled in behind the shopping center we usually go to for dinner.
The first thing I noticed about Seashell Park is that it seems to be a bit rundown, at least compared to the other parks we’ve walked through in Singapore. By rundown I don’t mean horribly run down though. I just mean it hasn’t been well kept up.
As we walked into the park we were greeted by this fish head under the sign. It’s a bit hard to read in this photo, but it says “Seashell Park.” I looked at the fish head and the area around it, and it looks as though there was water flowing through it at some point. I wonder if there used to be a constant stream of water that sprayed out of it? As we walked up the stairs to the back of the fish head, we saw that it was fed through a channel from higher up on the hill. It looked terraced, and each terrace had its own fish head and a channel leading down from the higher area.
My wife’s theory is that these fish heads are just an artistic way of setting up a good drainage system. The majority of the park sits at the top of the hill, and it rains a lot in Singapore, so erosion is definitely an issue here. It makes sense.
One of the best parts of the park is that it has a 400 meter track that runs around the top of the hill. It’s not completely even, which is nice in a way, because it provides for some variety in your run. Also, there’s a great view all the way around. We’ll probably go back there in the future to give it a go.
There is a playground in the park, but I didn’t include any photos of it because it was littered with garbage when we passed through. I’m sure that’s not common, but … well, even Singapore can become dirty if people don’t take care of things.
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