I think I am losing this keen sense of observation I had when I first arrived in S'pore. I used to be able to pick out those little tiny details that escape most tourists. Things like the absence of the ubiquitous third brake lamp on cars, bolsters that you can't find in any other regions in the world, and, of course, people always bathe here instead of shower 8-) It's little things like those that make my stay here interesting. Recently someone told me that most S'poreans don't know what the difference between "dark meat" and "white meat". I assumed that this was common knowledge here. Maybe it's because I always order the extra spicy crispy chicken at KFC and couldn't care less about which parts they are (I know, parts is parts 8-) In the States, dark meat refers to the drumstick part of the chicken, while white meat refers to breast part of the chicken. This incident came up while they visited the newly opened Kenny Roger's Roaster Chicken in Marine Square. On the menu, they mentioned dark meat and white meat which confused a lot of people. Yes, Kenny Roger's chicken has finally arrived in S'pore, along with K-mart, Pizza Hut, TGI Friday, McD, Chili etc. And supposedly Planet Hollywood and Walmart are on their way here too. I wonder if Frank Purdue will make it to S'pore. Wendy made it here but didn't survive 8-( Speaking of Kenny Roger, why is there such a hatred toward country music in S'pore when there is not one single country music station?
For those of your who enjoy water sports, there are quite a few places around S'pore that you can do your favorite activities. Other than parasailing and hang gliding, which are banned in S'pore, you can find most of the popular water sports such as sailing, windsurfing, water skiing, power boating, kayaking, etc. in S'pore. Just remember to stay away from those live firing and dangerous goods loading areas (no smiley here). Whoever said S'pore is boring should check out places such as Pulau Seletar and Selat Pauh (FYI, in Malay, pulau means island and selat means strait or channel.) These are the two of the most popular areas for water sport. Scuba diving is another story though. You have to venture up north to Malaysia for that. I heard Tioman is a very nice place to Scuba. I will elaborate on this once I have taken my Scuba lessons 8-) Sigh.. one more license to collect.
Few additions to my previous power boat posting. If you are ever going to take a power boat license in S'pore, make sure you get the first five questions correct. Like the EIT (enginering in training) exam in the State, (I am sure some of you must be groaning) you have to pass the law section. In this case, you have to get all the questions on regulation for preventing collisions at sea correct. The questions can be quite tricky, as most of my classmates found out later 8-(
I met a group of very active people during the power boating course. The group leader used to be a figure skating and roller skating champion in both M'sia and S'pore. He was a coach for the Fuji ice skating rink before it was closed down last year 8-( Now he is a businessman helping SDU to organize outdoor activities. As a follow up activity, a group of us went to Pulau Seletar this past weekend. There are lots of islands around S'pore to be explored. You can either take a ferry and hire a power boat. In our case, we gathered at Sembawang and went over to Pulau Seletar by boat. The objective of the trip is to jetski, power boating and banana boating to our heart's content. Jetski is a misnomer. The original term refers to the one that you stand on. Nowadays it includes Yamaha's WaveRunner and other similar machines. You can't rent jetskis in S'pore because the government won't issue license for rental. FYI, our group attended a jetski clinic this past weekend 8-)
Pulau Seletar is a little island that situated on the S'pore side of Selat Johor. On weekend, you can usually see people camping, picnicking, water skiing and doing other sort of activities. The only way to get there is by boat. Jetskiing is a fun sport. If you have done it, then you know what I mean. I have done it on the ocean in Taiwan where you can't be reckless because it's dangerous to your health. Those unpredictable huge waves can be a killer. I have also done it on Lake George in New York when the owner keeps a very sharp lookout for any reckless activity, but the water tastes much better 8-) This time I got to be as reckless as I want to be. Until now I have never learned how to upright a overturned jetski 8-) The trick is to turn it clockwise ONLY to avoid the water getting into the engine compartment. Our group staked out a place on the beach. Every time someone with a jetski rode by, he will do some trick or stunt to impress the girls. Of course, two of us decided to do a 360 turn in front the group. But we ended up overturning the jetski. It's a bit embarrassing to say the least 8-( There was this guy who works for Yamaha. He was doing all kind of stunts and tricks to impress the ladies. Things like driving the jetski sitting backwards, turning himself around while driving, and drive with feet only. Maybe I will practice these moves on my next outing, with just the guys 8-)
Other than jetskiing and power boating, we also did something called the banana boat. It's a inflatable raft shaped like a banana. It can seat up to 6 people. At first it was towed by a jetski. With six people, we were going at a good pace and it was quite enjoyable. When you do get thrown off, you simply get a dip in the salty Selat Johor. Then someone got the idea to hook the banana boat to a power boat, that's when things really get exciting. On the very first overturning of the banana boat, six people piled onto each other. We can hear bone crunching, back cracking and all kind of undesirable noises. Though no major casualty, most of the ladies ended up with black and blue bruises. Most people didn't get on it after that. Expect for few adventurous (or stupid) ones, myself included. Instead of sitting on the banana boat, we found out that by hugging the boat we get a lower center of gravity. Combined with some bobsled leaning technique, we were able to stay on it much longer. Well, this was fine with the riders but not for the lonely and sadistic driver 8-) He tried very hard to throw us off by increasing the speed and sharpening the turning radius. After that it was holding on for our dear life. A casually relaxing sport had turned into a battle between a driver with a purpose and three guys who simply want to live to see the next day 8-) We could see the satisfaction on his face when he threw the first person off the boat. I could never forget that gratifying smile just before he made that very sharp turn to throw the rest of us crashing into the water. I could have swore that I tumbled at least 4 times in the water and losing my sport goggle in the process. After that we simply surrendered and he was nice enough to towing us back SLOWLY back to the beach.
Well, it's been a few days and some of us still suffering from the trip. Most of us woke up the next morning with pain on the neck, back and places we didn't realized they existed. Some of us had bad cases of sun burn. But overall it was a very enjoyable trip. Whoever said S'pore was boring? Hope to get on the water of S'pore again in the very near future.
23/06/94 (My 153rd day in S'pore 8-)