Category: Photos

Revisited – Phuket, Thailand

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This my second visit to Phuket. Before the trip, I have been repeatedly asked by many kind people why I am still going to Thailand in spite of the chaos. Even my parents are worried.

Either way, I confirmed with friend who went up the week before and he told me there was no trace of tension or unrest over in Phuket. On top of that, another friend was in Bangkok. If I am not wrong, he stayed just a few junctions away from where the red-shirt protesters were holed up and the fact that he could tweet about his situation there tells me that even in Bangkok, much of the Thai capital is safe. I was not very concerned with what goes on in Bangkok and to be frank, I was actually more concerned with an earlier quake down at Sumatra. After all, I had already taken leave, booked the tickets and hotel rooms. I am quite sure I would be perfectly pissed for the rest of the year if another tsunami wiped out the beaches in Phuket.

Why am I going Phuket again? It’s because I just wanted to get away from Singapore – where every road is always congested and everywhere is full of people. I just want to go to a place where I could get away from the crowd here to just laze around and relax, even if I am not doing much sightseeing or shopping.

Either way, this round I didn’t get out to Phi Phi Island again, even though I originally wanted to go. The reason was that I was running short of Thai currency and end up spending a lot of time near the vicinity of the resort (Phuket Island View) at Karon bordering Kata and two nights sipping beer and looking at ‘ladyboys performing’ over at Bangla Road in Patong.

If I compared it to the last resort (Woraburi) I stayed in, the room Phuket Island View is just passable. I didn’t quite like this because there wasn’t enough power points in my room to go around (I had to ‘steal’ from one of the bed lamps), the air-conditioning was weak on the first day until a technician came by to fix it, and the water pressure at the shower was pathetic. However for the price difference (almost 6000 baht if I remembered correctly) between Woraburi and Phuket Island View, it is difficult to complain. The consensus is that we’ll still go back to Phuket Island View as long as prices stayed at that range. After all, we don’t really spend that much time in the room.

So as usual, here are the photos from this trip.

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Back to the situation in Bangkok, as I am writing this post the Thai army is clearing and in fact, has cleared the area where the ‘Red Shirts’ are holed up in. Around 1500 ~ 1530 hrs Singapore time, it was reported that the leaders have surrendered, and two of them have been arrested. The rest will surrender to the police soon after.

My personal opinion is that democracy cannot come to a land when there is no rule of law and a strong and vibrant middle class. The government gahmen must also have a vision for nation building – a ground plan on how the country should proceed for the next 10 ~ 15 years, whether it remains in power or not. A gahmen can claimed itself to be democratic, but it is not just about free elections and universal suffrage. When a country does not have these fundamentals, then its elected gahmen will be as fragile as Thailand’s.

Anyway, I sympathise with the ‘Red Shirts’ for several reasons. First of all, it wasn’t the ‘Red Shirts’ who started this entire mess. The so-called People Alliance for Democracy or ‘Yellow Shirts’ did much worse back in 2008. While the ‘Red Shirts’ have generally stationed in central Bangkok, the ‘Yellow Shirts’ created trouble not only in Bangkok but all over Thailand. Secondly, most of the ‘Red Shirts’ are generally just poor people from the poorer north and northeast regions of Thailand. The People’s Power Party (PPP) gahmen they supported after the last election in December 2007 was removed through a combination of street violence, political intrigue and what I called ‘judicial wizardry’. Not only were two Prime Ministers, Samak Sundaravej and Somchai Wongsawat ousted, the PPP was ultimately dissolved. It was the political equivalent of razinjg the stronghold to the ground after killing the leaders. Lastly, while the police had issued arrest warrants for Sondhi Limthongkul and 8 other ‘Yellow Shirt’ protest leaders on charges of insurrection, conspiracy, unlawful assembly and refusing orders to disperse, no action has been taken against them until today.

The military operation in central Bangkok may have ended the protest and the violence but it will not end the deep rooted resentment of the poor in Thailand against the more affluent or those considered to be the social elite. The people will pay close attention to the action taken against the ‘Red Shirt’ protest leaders now in custody and it is unlikely that the political situation in Thailand will normalize in the near future.

I will remember Bangkok May 19th, 2010 the way I remember Beijing June 4th, 1989.

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Phuket

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This is my first visit and I arrive on Wednesday (16-Sep) to a… rainy Phuket. It was quite a turn off and all of us were quite disappointed, since the main objective was the sun and the nice beaches there. Anyway, the weather did start to clear up a little in the afternoon and the days after, though we get rain often in the early hours of the morning.

The sand on the beach is very fine, not the variety you get at the old playgrounds in Singapore (which we don’t see anymore these days). The waves are rather deceptive and while it laps harmlessly at the shores some distance away at times, the next one could rush up all the way and one would find himself knee deep in water. The pull back of the waves is so strong and I almost fell into the water once. My friends who went swimming had a ‘near death’ experience as they struggled against the waves back to the shore when they got too far out. The lifeguard appeared a little upset as he blew his whistle loud and repeatedly while he waited impatiently for them to come back nearer to the shore. (I personally didn’t understand why he wasn’t down in the water though, but it was later we saw him running back with a surf board while we headed back to the rooms.)

Beyond the beach, my first impression when looking at some of the more urban areas near Karon beach was that it’s like Singapore stuck in the 80s. There doesn’t seem to be too much traffic around either around the beach areas (or at least the areas I am in) and all transport are either by hiring private cars (and if more than 4 then they are SUVs and Minibus) or the ‘Tuk Tuk’. One can bargain a little before the trip starts and usually you might get a 50 – 100 baht discount off the regular price from the drivers. As for taxis, I recalled I only saw one taxi on the way from the airport to the resort.

At the later stage of our trip we have given up on the ‘Tuk Tuk’ and just hire a private car to take us to the Phuket shooting range. There is a counter at the resort’s lobby which will call one for us. Surprisingly, one can also bargain at the counter. The driver will show up usually like 10 ~ 15mins later (or at an arranged time). This is where we befriended one of the drivers and he complained a little about how the ‘Mafia Tuk Tuk’ (i.e. ‘Tuk Tuk’ syndicates) makes life difficult for those driving hired private cars. For e.g. if he gets a call to pick up a passenger in Karon and then drop people off in Patong, he will have to return with his empty vehicle to Karon or respond to another call before he can pick up another passenger. If there’s a prior agreement to a return trip as well, then he park and serve as a tour guide as long as the passengers did not object to it. He seems to be unhappy that the ‘Mafia Tuk Tuk’ work in concert to drive the cost up for all tourists even though he agrees it doesn’t really matter to the White Men as their powerful Euros, Pounds and American Dollars makes everything cheap to them in Thailand after the currency exchange.

I joked with my friends that we have ‘Mafia Tuk Tuk’ in Singapore too, the largest being Comfort Delgro. We agreed that if the government gahmen isn’t strong enough to be in control, then another power will always step in. While it is not necessary good for these syndicates to fix prices and run others out of business, it also creates and maintain some semblance of control. At least now tourists don’t end up being charged / cheated by ‘Tuk Tuk’ drivers quoting ridiculous fares. In a way, it is really a double edged sword and nothing we would complain about.

As for the shops at normal tourist locations like Patong, the driver says that the prices for some items are usually inflated once the people there identify us as foreigners. The ladies in our group usually help us to bargain the prices down and that is when I noticed that some of those shops there are now run by foreigners from Myanmar and India.

After arranging with the driver for another trip, he took us to a place where the seafood is nice and cheap that night. The place looked a little remote and like Punggol in Singapore in the past. On the last day, he took us to the night market at Phuket Town, and also arranged for a minibus to pick us up and send us back to the airport. Apparently, it’s a business some of the drivers in Phuket run at the sides in the face of the limitations placed by the ‘Mafia Tuk Tuk’.

In general, the food in Phuket is nice, and I think they probably watered down their Tom Yam way too much to make it not spicy for the tourist. The coffee they made is great and it puts all the coffee made in Starbucks, Coffee Bean, TCC etc to shame. (Hey, at least I didn’t feel more thirsty after I drink their coffee and I can’t say the same about our coffee here!) There’s obviously no problem with hygiene there since I didn’t get a stomach upset for all the 5 days I am there. Even though the water from the taps in the hotel can come out brown at times, all you need to do is let it run for awhile and it will then be clear. That was a clear sign you can’t drink it off the tap though among the guys, we just boil it and drink it anyway, at times without checking whether the water that comes out of the tap is ‘naturally colored’ or not! Either way, it did taste a little funny but we couldn’t really quite sure what it tasted like.

As to the locals, most of them are friendly though not all of them are conversant in English. None of them were actually outwardly rude. However, it might take one some time to get use of their accent and English pronunciation. Being a non-English speaking country and where it only started teaching English in schools only recently, one has to give the Thai people credit for trying to accommodate us and attempt to speak our language to serve us.

It wasn’t long that our trip in Phuket ends, and because of the weather we didn’t manage to take a boat out to the surrounding islands like Phi Phi. I guess I’ll be returning again to visit those places some time next year.

So long, Phuket… see you again next year.

The Dead Sea Scrolls Exhibition #2

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I went back a second time and spent another $20 on this exhibition, this time with my ‘apprentice’ chillycraps and my mei xinyun. The reason being I wanted to take better photographs of the exhibits this time. (Read my write up on the previous visit here.)

While the exhibits are the same, there is a slight variation in the curator’s presentations and so I learn some new things or at least catch whatever I missed the other time. In the last room especially, the presentation was slightly longer than the previous time I was there and I know more about how Erasmus’ new Latin Bible ensured the accuracy of the Latin translation and root out almost 1000 over years of errors and mistranslations, and also how William Tyndale’s work on the English translation indirectly created the modern English language we speak today. Of course, we also learn how the English translation then go on to influence the translation of Bibles of many other languages. Likewise, the work of Martin Luther (who was a contemporary of William Tyndale) fostered the development of a standard version of the German language. The curator in the last room also touched upon German dock workers facilitated the spread of copies of Martin Luther’s 95 Theses throughout Germany within two weeks, and then throughout Europe within two months.

Anyway, we left the exhibition each learning something new on our own. Please also check out the write up from chillycraps and my mei xinyun.

If you are interested, you might also want to check up on the following documentary on the “Battle For The English Bible” (divided into 6 parts) uploaded to Youtube:

Part 1 , Part 2 , Part 3 , Part 4 , Part 5 , Part 6

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The Dead Sea Scrolls Exhibition

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I went to the Dead Sea Scrolls Exhibition last Friday (4th Sep). There weren’t much of the scrolls I see except some fragments and personally I would say it would be better called the ‘History of the Bible Exhibition’ instead.

After clearing the entrance we are shepherded into a small room where we are shown a short video – talking about the invention of writing – from Sumerian cuneiforms to Egyptian hieroglyphs and then to the alphabet. It also talked about how inscriptions are first placed on stone blocks, then to tablets and finally to animal skin parchments, papyrus and then paper. In it is also the importance of the Dead Sea Scrolls and how they are used to verify the other translation of Bibles we have today.

Following that, we are led upstairs to the exhibits which are displayed in 3 different rooms (or halls, or whatever you like to call them) and each section is dedicated to a part of the history of the Bible and a guide will give you a brief account of history of the Bible in that room. In the first room contains some fragments of the Dead Sea scrolls, and also the Holocaust Survivor Scroll. In this room, a brief historical background of the Second Temple period and the Jewish Rebellion against the Roman Empire between 68 – 73AD is given. You will hear about the tragic end of the Jewish defenders of the fortress at Masada, and how the scrolls were destroyed and then left in their sorry state. At the end of it you will understand how the fragments are pieced together and also the scientific methods which are used to identify and confirm that each fragment is placed where it should belong.

In the second room we were then given a brief account on how the English Bible came about, how the printing press make mass publication possible, and how the other language then proliferated. There are several copies of the old Bibles in different languages on display in the room – and some as as huge as bricks and some going as far back as the reign of Edward VI.

Going on to the third room, are the display of the works of the main figures of that led to Protestant Reformation, for e..g John Calvin, William Tyndale, Martin Luther etc. There is a brief talk on how each of these figures contributed to Protestant Christianity and the theology that were passed down to us in the modern church today.

This is why I said it would be more aptly called the ‘History of the Bible Exhibition’ instead. There isn’t very much of the Dead Sea Scrolls you will see here and frankly I wouldn’t expect the Shrine of the Book in Jerusalem to allow all of their most important relic to be taken away and put on display elsewhere. Even so, I am surprised that photography (though without flash) is even allowed. That is the reason why I will be going back for another viewing, because I would like to take better photos of some of the displays.

The following is photos of some of the displayed items I took using the Blackberry Storm.

Recollection and Recent Photos

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It has almost been a year since the acquisition of my employer by another company, but only lately has it caused me to feel quite down. The relocation under one roof is almost completed and thus we are getting less busy. Even though our position in the merged entity is now confirmed, it would appear to me that our days in the new entity might not be long as there’s some discussion on outsourcing going on. Granted we would likely be employed by the firm taking up the outsourcing, I don’t find that prospect appealing even though the consolation is that I will likely continue to be employed. Personally speaking – I wished the person who first conceived outsourcing was never born, and since he was, I wished he would die a terrible death and I’ll be there to witness it.

On top of which, the chances is that a lot of my current colleagues will most likely soon be leaving – either because of headcount redundancy, or because they find it difficult to adopt to the new environment. While I have no problems with the new colleagues in my department, since there is usually little office politics among IT guys, some of the colleagues in other departments have discussed their lack of prospects in the new entity and bitched about their less than cooperative colleagues who generally treat us from the bought over firm like refugees and second-class citizens in spite of the top management’s seeming efforts to create an warm and welcoming environment. Even where some might get a confirmed position in the new entity, they actually prefer to be retrenched and hoped for generous retrenchment package instead. That is the reason why even though there is a great view at the new office (see below) – we almost seem like we are at the top of the world – morale among some of us who would like to stay remained at an all-time low.

Leaving a place one has worked for almost 8 years is difficult, and the impending changes at times make me feel that life is really not that easy in Singapore. Why we would feel that way is something that the likes of Wee Shumin, elitist little brats born with a silver spoon in their mouth, will never understand. The need to get use to the new office and new colleagues, and adapting to the different practices and culture of the new entity only add on to that feeling of deep loss. The new lunching places in the vicinity only made it worse – the loss of my usual lunch partner, the even greater difficulty to find a seat during lunch compared to the eating places in Raffles Place, along with the ever present long queues at the stalls makes the place seemed more hostile than it actually is. At times when I passed by Raffles Place, I even felt a tad of sadness. That explains why even while I generally gave the NDP Fireworks a miss, I had gone back to the old office this year to try and capture some photos of it. It would be the last time we get to see the fireworks up close and in comfort. Too bad my pathetic photography skills failed to capture the full glory of the NDP after dark and the fireworks (see below – include night shots from the new office as well).

Anyway, these are some of the reason why I took the opportunity to take some leave and enjoy a super long weekend. We have a lot of leave under the existing employment benefits, and there is no compensation for any ‘unconsumed’ leave. I thank God that the there were showers over those days I am on leave keeping the weather cool, and I took the opportunity to visit Hort Park and part of the Southern Ridges which I wanted to for a long time.

It was a walk in nature which I enjoyed. Though my spirits was not at all lifted after the walk, it was still a walk much needed. While it was hardly a work-out, the walk took me almost 2 hours, at times going uphill and giving my leg and thigh muscles some long needed stretching. Even though the scenery was not as breath-taking as the Peak in Hong Kong, the scenery on the way up to Faber Peak was impressive. I am glad to discovered them and did my best to capture them in photos.

Let me take the opportunity to share it here.

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