Posted by Mark on November 9, 2007

Not So Fast, Jackass…

I admit it, I got really quite excited to return to the states. I mean I really enjoy Europe, but I have been traveling for weeks.

The flight I am on is Heathrow-frankfurt-newark. Only it didn’t work out that way. The flight out of hethrow was delayed by over an houre due to storms in frankfurt, and I missed the newark leg.

I go to the counter, and explain myself to the counter person-

1. Wait for four hours and take another flight from Frankfurt to jfk (sub optimal, since the friend I am going to stay with lives in Hells kitchen, a few New York blocks from the port authority bus station- I can just catch the bus in to the city. Jfk is a long, expensive, cab ride way away, but whatever.

2. Fly to Bern, and hope the forecast is wrong, and they don’t get snow.

3. Fly back to hethrow and catch a BA flight to jfk.

“This idea is absurd” the woman behind the counter says in a very thick accent.

“I am not a fan of the Bern idea because if that doesn’t work… I mean bern would be worse for me to to try to get out of if things go wrong… Bern would be a worse than this one,” I offer in way of reply.

She doesn’t miss a beat: “No airport is worse than Frankfurt, sir”

At that point her and I connected on a cosmic level, and silently agreed that I would spend a couple of hours in the business class lounge instead of rolling any more dice.

Posted by Mark on November 9, 2007

The Biggest Blunder So Far…

I am never flying lufthansa again. In a model of german efficiency business class has less room than a seat in coach on United. And no laptop power. Unfortunately I am just going to have to deal- there is no other option. I am on a plane waiting to fly to frankfurt, where I will catch another crufthansa flight to Newark, where a clost friend is having his 40th birthday. I suppose I’ll have to do something simmilar I 6 months.

The only difference between business class and coach is leather seats.

Posted by Mark on November 2, 2007

“So long, Mister Mark…”

“…you have good trip, we see you again soon!” I loved the staff at the Amara in Singapore. They were friendly, cordial, and without fail they called me “Mr. Mark” which I thought was both unsettling, because I don’t always see myself as a “Mr.” anything, and thoroughly endearing. If you think about it, it is brilliant- They call you by your first name, so it implies a familiarity that makes you want to engage, but they also imply reverence that you are the customer, by giving you a title. I especially enjoyed the attention from the staff in the “club room” where I ate my breakfast. A cozy, private place where people on the 17′th and 18′th floor, in suites, could eat their breakfast un-accosted by the masses. The eggs were perfect, and I really liked the banana bread. The English version, unfortunately, just can’t stand up. Then again, they really don’t try to. The same quality of hotel in England would cost several hundred dollars more per night than I am paying.

The place I’m staying isn’t bad, in fact it’s quite nice, but it is markedly different- The floors creak, and the place definitely has “character”. Plus, instead of everyone speaking Mandarin or Hindi everyone speaks Polish. I don’t speak ANY Polish.

The one thing I was really impressed with is that Singapore seems to lack the plethora of bugs that Bermuda had, except…

Look into my eye…

This is not actually an insect. It is a detail of the Singapore Opera House:

They took a page from Sydney, and tried to make it look like a microphone. On the one hand, it really is distinctive, on the other it does not seem to have the cachet of it’s Australian brother. I saw this on a tour I took of Singapore, on my last day. The tour consisted mostly of pricing data on the bus system, with specific attention paid to how it contrasts with the MRT (subway) and the taxis. Every time we would pass a landmark we would get one or two sentences about the history, then a long explanation of how much it cost to get there on the bus from various places around Singapore. Personally I found this less than useful, but perhaps the Germans and Irish that were also on the tour were interested.

The next thing we saw was the symbol of Singapore. It is a fish with a lion head. This is one of three statues of it around Singapore- Why their national symbol is projectile vomiting I have no idea, but it really is beautifully done:

“You sure you no want the mint, missure, it is wafer thiiin!”

A second one is on top of the second highest “mountain” in Singapore. It is in a beautiful garden. It was actually raining quite hard about 30 seconds before I took this shot (or the rest of them in my gallery) but then the sun came out and gave me a really beautiful contrast.

The view of Singapore from the top of this mountain was really quite nice:

Most of what you see is government housing- The government encourages home ownership, and subsidizes citizen purchases. As well, they have a mandatory retirement savings program that siphons like 20-30% of your income off into a savings account, which you can draw down for your kids education, a down payment on a house, or retirement. I think this is one of the things that the governement has really done right here: Every family has savings, every family (to the tune of 90+%) owns the home in which they live. It makes a huge difference in the quality of life people expect. Home ownership is easily attainable- It makes a big difference in how people respect the environment in which they live. It also serves to reduce crime.

One thing I noticed about Singapore, and Asia as a whole that differs greatly from the US: While advertising in the US is about being “cool” (wear these clothes and you’ll be cool) everything in Asia is about “fun”. Witness the mascot of a local soybean chain:

I really liked this mural, painted on the side of one of their stands. It says:

“School is like a lollipop: You only enjoy it fully when it’s gone.”

I thought about that a lot during my walk from the area where the tour ended, back to the hotel.

Before the trip ended, however, we stopped at a jewelry factory. I can’t say I’ve been that bored before. It’s not so much like watching paint dry, as… well, it’s boring as snot. The really interesting thing, however, was the exit. We were escorted into the factory, and the first thing I looked for was the way out:

I’m sorry, Dave, I can’t let you leave yet… You haven’t bought me any rubies…

The tour ended in Little India. While walking down the street I was accosted by a nice Indian gentleman that actually convinced me to go into his restaurant and look at the menu. Normally I just ignore them and keep walking, but this time I sat down.

“Hey Sanjep, we need to do something to…
you know, liven up the place…”

Holy crap the food was good. I mean not just good, it may just have been the best curry I’ve ever consumed. I had chicken in a cashew paste curry that was just exquisite. Very subtle, wonderful texture… I mean I can’t wax poetic enough about how damn good this food was. I left stuffed.

After wandering down the street a little further I waddled my way into a tented Indian market:

“Mr. Simpson! Please be removing yourself
from my chip stand!”

I was the only honky in the place. Kids running rampant, people screaming at each other, it was a really interesting environment. Later, while having a drink in the hotel bar, my Mumbai native bartender said: “Don’t try that in India. You would have been robbed blind in moments.” I didn’t once feel any sort of concern: Singapore is just that safe.

Then I found Singapore’s poor, huddled masses. This is where the Singapore have-nots live, the crane people:

Hey baby, need a lift?

Maybe this is where they go to die… I don’t know… But I have never seen so many cranes all in one place… They reminded me of abandoned toys.

So so long, Singapore, I really had a wonderful time, and with any luck I will return again. Well, no, I know I will return, it’s just a matter of when (and if I can get my boss to send me).

Posted by Mark on November 1, 2007

AAAaaaaah, England.

Well, I’m here. I got in last night after a reasonably pleasant flight, with the exception that I kept popping the breakers on the seat power plugs. It turns out that the macbook pro power supply is 85 watts. The Singapore Airlines power supply is 75 watts max. End result, plug in the macbook, hit the power button, and “pop” goes the breaker, no more power.

There were five people in business class. At a certain point the flight attendant said “Just try another row…” I think I ended up smacking three rows of power before I got the startup sequence down. If I booted the macbook with the battery, switched to shore power (plug in the mag plug) then pulled the battery I could get the beast up and stable. I hate to think of what would happen if I tried to crank up my personal 17″ macbook pro. The 15″ macbook pro seemed to be just at the limit without the battery installed.

More in a little bit…