I feel hunted

A lot of things work very differently here in Vietnam… One example is who asks who to get married with whom. I always thought that usually the guys ask the girls whether they want to get married with them or not. Here I am asked fairly frequently whether I want to marry her by the girl (or her friends). Of course this happens only to white guys. I feel hunted down….

One typical conversation I had yesterday with a girl in the elevator:

Girl: How are you?
Me: Fine thank you, and you?
Girl: I am ok too. How old are you?
Me: 28 … and you?
Girl: 24… so are you married? (asking with a very shy voice and looking down to the floor… I already know where this is leading as I have been in this conversations a couple of times… so I enjoy the moment)
Me: Not yet (she suddenly has a big smile and sparkling eyes, bright face)
Girl: And do you have girlfriend?
Me: Not really (even bigger smile on her face and already I feel that she is ready to jump on me)
Girl: Do you want to marry Vietnamese girl?
Me: Why not, if I find a nice Vietnamese girl like you (playing to the tune)
Girl: oh…. I can marry you if you want (Realizes that she is in trouble now as she exposed her thoughts and laughs, becomes shy again, looks down and she is relieved that the elevator door opens and she can run out)

I would have not written about it if it would not have had happen this conversation at least once a week…. I already know the flow of the discussion as it is the same each time. They are very direct in this matter and they have a flow of questions, doing market research professionally. :)

Another typical situation I get in is when one of my Vietnamese friends/colleagues invites me for coffee, drinks, dinner. Most likely then not, totally "unexpectedly and unannounced" one of the female friends/cousins/neighbors just happens to join, then somehow always gets seated near me (it is funny how they always make the arrangements in a way to ensure this).

And then after the meeting comes the evaluation part when I am asked by the friend/colleague whether I liked her or not, if I got her number, if I want to take her out. This questioning also comes with a sales pitch on how nice she is, what qualities she has, why she would be a good wife/girlfriend. Now it is easy if it is about a nice girl, but I am fairly embarrassed when I have to politely tell that she is ugly and there is no way I am going to go out with her.

With all these offers on hand, I still won’t get married for a while, don’t worry about it. Especially that I am super busy and getting even busier in the next couple of months…. but at least I can assure my mom that there is hope :):):) hahah :)

Superchallenged

Beware of what you wish as you might get it... says one of the Metallica songs (a bit more poetic is the expression that they have in the song).

I wanted challenge and I got it. The most extreme of it i guess.... I am superchallenged personally, professionally, physically, mentally, culturally, etc... Whatever area you name it... I am superchallenged in it. When I think that I am on top of the things, then comes another challenge... even more different, even more stretching.... Every day is a new lesson for life and it is so intense that I feel like I am living in one day as much as I lived in one year previously.... every hour spent here puts me in a situation which is new, which requests quick decisions on what to do, how to act, what to say, how to behave... it requires me to figure out what is behind every gesture, word, blink of an eye, smile, letter in an e-mail.... As one of my friend said... it's the feeling of cluelessness of a baby in a topless bar (not the best metaphor I guess but at least it makes you think how that feeling might be, which can be a challenge itself) ....

I go to sleep now, as tomorrow is another day when in spite of all the preparation I will be superchallenged again... it is the way of life here and if you want to change your life and challenge everything you were and you knew before, then you can join me. :) Things will never be the same again!!!

Evolution of technology in emerging markets

Sometimes countries like Vietnam can be a big surprise in terms of technology. Because when you do some infrastructure investments, you start basically from scratch as there is nothing built yet, so you can deploy the latest technologies. There is no much worry about replacement issues, compatibility between old and new, costs, etc. That's why sometimes technology in these countries can be more advanced then in western Europe, at least its usage can be wider. It is interesting to see that while certain technologies are so backward, others are so up-ro date. So if the country can change its infrastructure fast enough, it can gain better competitiveness then the west. Of course there is the human capital issue as well.

One example in this sense is our company office check-in/check-out system. We just moved to a new building as the company was extending too fast and there was no capacity in the old building. So we bought this building and there is no card system at all, but we check in and out with our fingerprints. Suddenly having a card around your neck is so old fashioned. Of course, being a financial institution, it is important to have secure facilities and to know exactly who is in the office, when and why, as there are lots of confidential information handled by people.

Now while it is very good for the company, it is very bad for people who like to sleep in the morning, as any delay from work is registered.... you really can't give your fingers to your colleague to check you in before 7.30..... as we start work at 7.30..... you can't skip work either... but it feels very high tech, and in a country like Vietnam, where there are so many challenges, it is refreshing to have high tech things around :):):):)

It's damn hard huh?

An article from "The Saigon Times Daily":

"National Assembly Chairman Nguyen Phu Trong proposed bolstering legislative cooperation to contribute to furthering the relationship between Vietnam and Romania. He was speaking at his talks with President of the Romanian Chamber of Deputies Bogdan Olteanu in Budapest yesterday following a welcome ceremony given to him on his official visit to the European country."

I think the vietnamese media knows something... that some people from Romania would like to have Budapest as the capital instead of Bucharest:):):):) But I am sure this kind of articles are not really "furthering" the relationship, hahaha.

This one is just another story besides the ones where flight attendants announce the landing in Budapest instead of Bucharest (3 times on the same flight), or people actually landing in Budapest instead of Bucharest....

Good Morning Vietnam

This ship is taking me far away…
You might wonder what have happened to me that I did not write on my blog for such a long time… well…. I have moved to Vietnam…. And besides that I also changed my job and industry…so basically I kind of changed completely the way I have lived and what I have done… it is pretty bold change so to speak, scary and exciting in the same time…

Just after New Year’s Eve I have mentioned that I foresee a major change in my life and I was actively looking for it. And I think it is fairly true in this case that those things happen to you that you want to happen… Just like Jack Sparrow’s compass in the Pirates of the Caribbean…. It shows the direction where your heart wants to take you…

This ship is not DHL ship and not anchored in Singapore…
My time at DHL was definitely full of learnings. Even if there were ups and downs, just like working for any company, I can say that there are lots of learnings that I took away and I use now in my day-to-day job. And looking back now, there are lots of learnings from the downs as well, not just from the ups. In a very weird way, I felt nostalgic of leaving, even if it was my decision to leave. 3 years is a long time and you kind of know everybody, you have lots of friends, you know the system… it is somehow comfortable and there is a link that keep you tied. I am also loyal in my nature, so probably that’s why I felt a kind of sadness when I actually had to pack and leave the office. Of course in the same time I knew why I was leaving and I was excited to start my new adventure.

I felt quite bored with Singapore and I was waiting to leave the soonest possible. I did not feel anything, until Friday (left on Sunday morning), when I met one of the most important (non @ related) persons that made my Singapore stay special. Then I actually realized that I am leaving the country and I will be a tourist… and I will miss the people I have met there. Singapore became my home and after being there close to three years, definitely a part of me will remain always there. I can say that I miss quite a lot of things from there. Beside my friends I guess I miss the most the clean air, the east coast (and the coffee bean there) and the endless possibilities of doing sports).

Bottom line is that no matter where you stay for a longer period of time, you will always leave a piece of you there and you will always miss that place, however life goes on and new places wait to be discovered by you and those new places will conquer a piece of your heart as well. This is the essence of the nomad life, goes on in a circle until the whole world is your playground and you feel home everywhere.

Back to blue…
I have to say that I am very excited about my new job here in Vietnam. Since day one I started to work effectively and started to produce…I have joined the securities arm of Asia Commercial Bank as account manager and now we are in the process of becoming a full-fledged investment bank. My role is to reorganize and improve sales in the institutional clients arena and sell the full range of investment bank services of our organization.

I learned in three weeks more about finance and macroeconomics then in my whole four years of university… While in DHL I managed to have a good overview of the movement of goods around the globe, here I have a very good overview of the flows of money and how an emerging market economy is developing, coping with the pressure of globalization and how financial markets contribute to this development. It is fascinating to feel the pulse of the economy so close and understand all the small nuances of each decision, move of the market and the whole interaction between global and national markets…. Really fascinating… suddenly all the theory about these becomes so simple and so obvious when I see it in action… see it in reality…suddenly the articles from The Economist talk about things that I can relate to, suddenly economy books become understandable… Now a 100-page report about the macroeconomic review of Vietnam sounds exciting and with each day passing I can connect more dots of how elements of the economy influence each other. This steep learning curve and this discovery process is what I was looking for and learning every day something new makes me very happy… I missed this intellectual challenge….

It is also interesting to meet people who manage millions of dollars and can influence the stock market, the destiny of companies, it is exciting to meet CEO’s of different companies and discussing their development plans and financial results.

Vietnam and Saigon
V for Vietnam:

Until now I did not manage to see much of the city or the country. I worked from very early in the morning till very late, and after that I was looking for a house to live in. So not much time left. I was also busy in the weekends as the company was celebrating its 15th year anniversary and lots of sport and other activities have been organized. This weekend I have also been to an investment seminar, so not much time left to go out and explore.
Now I am in ACBS colours and playing in Vietnam, not in the ESPZEN League in Singapore for DHL. Back to Blue... to the @ colours :
So far people seem very nice and very eager to learn and do something with their lives. There is a lot of drive in the people and a big desire to succeed. But in the same time there is also a kind of relaxation and coolness as well. Some things happen with the speed of light and other things just take so much time. I guess this is the case with every development country more or less.

I guess I don’t have to emphasize too much that Vietnamese girls are extremely beautiful and sexy :) Not much of going out yet, but I just see in our company and in the companies I have meetings and I have to say that this place is much better then Singapore for the eyes (and not only), but of course there is a lot of Asian-ness here as well. The connoisseurs know what I mean...

The food is great in terms of taste and diversity. I have only two problems with the food. First of all the size of the portions is very small, I always have to order two main dishes. The other problem is that sometimes might not be prepared the most hygienically and this sometimes gives some trouble for my stomach… but besides that I love the tastes, the spices and the fact that it is fairly healthy with lots of vegetables. I love that you can find nice bread here and good bakery products, which is very rare in other Asian countries. Some good thing that the French left behind I guess is the influence in cuisine.

I almost forget one of the most important things: I bought a motorcycle :) I got myself a Yamaha Nouvo and in this hectic traffic of Saigon, it is a thrill each time I go for a ride. There is no other way to move around the city then on a motorbike. During the day I use the company car to go for the meetings, but it can take 3 times more with car then with motorbike. The downside of the motorbike is that you inhale lots of gases from the other bikes and that it can be fairly dangerous. IF you have ever played computer games, then riding a motorbike is like one of those games, where things are coming towards you from all directions and you have to avoid the. Just that there is no margin for error here…. It takes time to get a hang of it and to develop the peripheral vision needed for safe cruising. At the beginning it can be frustrating when cyclists take you over, but you need a couple of weeks of practice to be able to go faster then 20 km/hour :)

It looks like that this coming week I will move in my own apartment, and then I will be able to settle down more and explore the city more. I hope that I will also have some more time to write and blog and I can share all the exciting things that happen with me.

So far I feel good and happy that I am here. And of course, from next week onwards you are more then welcome to visit me, as I will have a nice house where I can host you :):):)
(My favourite song for this week: Muse - Starlight)

Two songs on repeat mode

There are two songs that are on repeat mode for me for the past two days, listening them again and again:

Paul van Dyk: Let Go




Linking Park: Shadow of the day

(the link is the original clip, the embedded one is just the music with some text)



The 2 songs are very different, in terms of style and feelings but I really like to listen to all kind of music as each type of song covers a paret of my complex soul. I like the lyrics a lot as well.... On youtube you can find couple of interesting remixes as well, so you can really enjoy different versions and you can't really get bored with them.

Special Report about Vietnam

The Economist made a special report in this week's issue about Vietnam. Very interesting and for me very exciting... these days almost everybody is talking about this country and wherewer I go and whatever i do I stumble upon some interesting thing about the country.

Enjoy:

http://www.economist.com/specialreports/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11041638

Changing world :)

The world is changing and some things that were unimaginable couple of years ago are now a reality. It is amazing how things transform and how people adapt to it. My parents just bought a computer and connected to the internet through cable and they have also a webcam. It was an interesting feeling to receive the first e-mail from my father and being called by my mom on skype. Both of them have no computer knowledge and they never used one before.

They got excited when at Christmas time the whole family had a video conference through the internet as we could not gather in the same country. Because we all live in different countries, they decided that they want one and from now on they want to use this method to keep in touch with us. It is funny that they now consider phone and old school thing when couple of years ago we could hardly convince them to get a mobile phone.

I know how many argument we had with our father to convince him that agriculture is not the future and that having cows and pigs is not the way to go. And now the same man instead of doing that kind of stuff is surfing the net and keeping in touch with people through e-mail. I really admire my parents for being so open at the end of the day to these things. They were always liberal in thinking even though in the same time they were extremely traditional. I am like that as well, extremely liberal in some matters and extremely old school boy in others.

Now we can conclude that if THEY have internet in a hidden city in the middle of Romania, then internet is now a commodity and a must have for everybody. It is just like food and clothing!!!

Jakarta – a city of nice people

I got an invitation to visit Jakarta (JKT), so I booked a ticket for the Chinese New Year holidays and was looking forward to explore one of the most controversial cities of South East Asia (SEA). And I labelled it controversial because the people who I talked with about Jakarta either said that it is the worst city, either said that it is the best place to be in SEA.

After spending there 4 days or so I must say that I love the city and I do it so because of its people. I guess the fact that I had one of my poshest holidays ever also helped to come back with a good impression.

About the posh part: I stayed in the Central Business District in a 5 star hotel, I had a car at my disposal with a driver, hanged around in the coolest clubs, restaurants, spas and bars, and met some VIP category people from JKT while I was playing golf on the same course with the president of the country. Thanks for my lovely hosts for that :)

It was raining quite a lot while I was there so I did not do much of sightseeing, however I interacted with lots of local people and also managed to get a bit of insight of how rich people live in that city and also what makes that city tick. If you have a bit of money in JKT then you are a king and you can have a lifestyle that you can see only in the movies. I must admit I had a hard time to adjust to it though. For example the driver was always jumping out the car in order to open the door. At the beginning I always opened the door myself, however he perceived this as a failure for him for not being too quick to open the door for me, so next time he always tried faster to jump out of the car and open the door before me. Tried to communicate with him, but he was not the best English speaker, so he did not understand that no need for him to open the door and that I can do that myself. After a while I just gave up and let him to open the door and the smile returned to his face when he managed to do so and I did not open the door myself. Very funny experience.

Wherever I went, it was always the same thing, huge smile on everybody’s face and everybody was doing his 120% just to serve you. I guess Singaporeans should learn how to serve people and manage customers. Of course there are flaws in their processes of serving the customers, but the attitude and the willingness of serving you it is just amazing. I have never met such nice people in SEA as in Jakarta in terms of how they treat you as a customer, as a tourist, as a friend, as a person. Haven’t seen so many smiling faces in a long time and that was very refreshing. It felt somehow like being on a Singapore Airlines flight for four days. And this is somehow in so much of a contradiction with the bombings and terrorism and extremism in the country...

People in Jakarta are very friendly and very curious to learn from foreigners. I went to play golf with couple of guys I did not know and we became such good friends. I really felt that these people are very close to me and they were so open to share their lives, their thoughts and they gave so many insights about living in Jakarta, how Indonesia functions, how the economy is, how the society is. They also were concerned to make sure that I go all the right places and try all the good things and they were giving me lots of advises. Great people and very humble in their way!!!

Jakarta is not really a pedestrian friendly city; there are no pavements and boulevards to walk. You have to go with car/bike to everywhere. Public transport is quite bad and therefore if you are a backpacker tourist, then you will have a hard time to visit JKT and have a good time by doing so. The traffic is bad because everybody is driving an SUV, however I still think is not worse then Bangkok, Manila or Bucharest for that matter. Actually the city in a way is similar to Bucharest in a sense that all the good places are all over the town and if you want to explore the real stuff, then you need a local to show you around and take you to all the cool places. Otherwise you won’t get a real picture of the city, you don’t get a real feeling of how it is to live there and be there.

With 14 million of people or more in the city, you see all that it can be seen in terms of living standards. Of course there is poverty and dirt and criminality and all the consequences of being in a developing country with 200 million people. But I also admire the fact that people are still happy and smiling and helpful and try to make a decent living. It is hard, corruption is high, you have to “tip” for everything, most of the things are held by some oligarchs who control everything and are damn rich. There is lots of money in that city and you can see it.

Somehow all the street musicians standing at street corners and at traffic lights playing for couple of bucks add a good feeling to the town. You can see street vendors mixed with these musicians and you just feel good roaming around the city. If you are stuck in a heavy traffic jam, then you just listen to the music of these guys playing for you. In some countries these guys clean windshields, sell newspaper. In JKT they play music for you:)

Speaking of traffic, they introduced a regulation that makes the presence of at least 3 passengers compulsory on certain roads in peak hours. So what is really happening? You have guys called jockeys standing at the entry of these streets and at the gates of the office buildings and you can pick them up for that part of the road for 1 dollar or so. They travel with you for money, so you can use that road. Congestion problem of course has not been sold, but some people earn couple of bucks. This example shows how this country works I guess. There is always a way around to beat the law which is somehow good for everybody to on the very short run.

I have been toured around the clubs and bars as well and I have to say that JKT has a fantastic nightlife!!! These places are must tries: Red Square, X2, Nu China, Dragonfly, Tabac, Eastern Promise and a couple of other bars I can’t remember in Kemang area. The parties are wild, girls are absolutely gorgeous and friendly, drinks are cheap and the atmosphere is phenomenal. It worth going down there just for some good parties.

I also managed to havea peak into how people from indonesia treat their women with double standards, even educated and important people (or they do it even more?). I think it is quite hard for being a housewife there and being a women. I guess it is coming from the still very strong religious influence, but don't want to offend anybody with this topic. It made be a bit sad, but it explains a lot in how the society functions.

Food is also great in JKT. A bit too much oil used there as well, but otherwise absolutely delicious. I have been also to couple of malls down there (very posh holiday indeed, hahaha) and they are much better then the ones in Singapore. They are bigger and less crowded, so you can actually walk around and buy stuff without stressing out yourself. But I still did not buy anything, hahahaha

Yah, due to the rain I did not do much of sight seeing and I did not have a camera either so I have no pictures to share. But then again, this can be an excuse to go down again and enjoy the hospitality of the nicest people. I am very happy with this trip and who knows, I might end up living there once.

2007 vs. 2008 - Part two

This morning I went to have breakfast and tea at one of the coffee places here and was reading a book about Buddhism and was also thinking about what I have written yesterday. And realised that somewhat for me the last year was also a year of becoming empty, of off-loading a lot of things from myself.

I wrote about the cycles of life yesterday, that I feel that my life is going through cycles. And realized that during the part of the upward cycle we accumulate things and shape ourselves. It is like flying with a hot air balloon and gathering objects and experiences in our gondola. However at a certain point our gondola is full and we do not fly upwards with our hot air balloon. At one point our experiences and learning and life tops on a journey and we just float and instead of flying high, we seem to land in a place, being dragged down by all the things in our gondola. This landing is the downward cycle and we might choose to land, or we might choose to continue our journey.

But in order to continue our journey and go and fly again, we need to get rid of some parts of our past, of some parts of our souls. We need to off-load some of the stuff from our gondola. And that is very hard. We are afraid of loosing what we have gathered. But if we want to fly high, over the rainbows, then we need to offload. Somehow 2007 was a year for me where I was offloading a lot of things, maybe that's why I felt that it was fairly hard. I was getting rid of the extra weight from my soul, my gondola, and becoming lean again to be able to fly high.

And now I am already flying, I am empty, I am light, I am looking forward to fly to another level and gather new things in my soul/gondola. It is a good feeling and I feel the winds of change blowing in my face while I am flying with my hot air balloon.

P.s: It's not the DHL balloon! That is not a hot air balloon, but a sealed helium balloon, tied down with a rope, with limitation to fly up to 150 meters only. No rainbows there, just a nice view.

2007 vs. 2008

I have not been writing for a very long time. I just felt no need for it, however lots of things happened. I guess it was that period for me when I just set back and meditated about how the last year was, what happened, what experiences did I go through, what are the learnings. And the beginning of this year started with planning on how this year should be and figuring out what I want and how I want things to happen.

Last year was an interesting years, I achieved most of my objectives and most of the things I have proposed to myself, however did not make much progress on two big ones that I wanted to change. On those areas it was an "almost year". I almost made it there. So overall i feel that 2007 was a good year, but just not good enough. Not extraordinary. Maybe subconciously I choose stability over change and comfort over bold measures. So here are the headlines of last year:

- Doubled my pre-tax income
- Travelled in 6 new countries and in couple of countries where I have already been.
- I met very cool people :)
- Read more then 15 books
- Managed to go home to Europe twice
- Run a half marathon
- Helped my parents to buy a new car
- Improved significantly my golf and did some very funky dives
- Helped my AIESEC Local Commette in Oradea
- Got a First Aid license
- Almost found love and had some very nice almost relationships

Yeah, these are couple of things for the year. Of course these are just some results, but what it matters most is the journey itself. That was sometimes rocky, sometimes good for last year so I have mixed feelings about 2007.

On the other hand this year will be a year of change. I feel that this will be an exceptional year and so far I really enjoy it. Changes started right at the beginning as I have moved into a new appartment. I have also changed my spectacles, hehehe. Even my golf is just much better this year. :) Somehow it feels that while last year I had to struggle for every achievement, this year everything is much easier and the road is smoother. I am much more relaxed, much more confident and happier. It seems that the whole universe is helping me this year and this will be my year. Hope that at the end of the year I will be looking back at this post and agreeing with what i write now, hehehehe.

Do you have this feelings, instincts about how your year will be? Do you feel that you are in cycles in your life and then you feel when you enter a good cycle and when you are in a bad cycle? I feel the engines roaring and I am Taking Off!!! What about you?

Singapore Marathon

I am proud to say that I finished the Singapore Half marathon in 2h:13m:48s. My target was two and a half hour, so I am happy that without any training I could achieve a better time then expected. Probably if I will be able to train for the next one, then I can do a very good time :)

You can find some statistics about my performance here:

http://www.runpix.info/sin07/21/finord.php?LastName=Vajda&lan=&aset=0

Running in general is quite boring, but running a race like this is a fantastic feeling. The atmosphere is amazing and you can see thousands of people running. At this event there were around 40.000 people and I was competing in my category with almost 8.000 people.
Just want to share one moment from this race that I really enjoyed. I was running through the central Business District of Singapore, and there was a nice wind, the street was wide and empty (meaning there were no cars, only runners and supporters). The skyscrapers were there just for the runners standing high as if they would suggest the amount of strength is needed to complete the marathon. A band was playing some very nice songs and the drums gave a nice tempo for the run. People were cheering and encouraging people to keep running. People were motivating other fellow runners who had to stop and were walking. A drop of humanity in Singapore. It just had such a special atmosphere. It was so nice to run through this place, this atmosphere gave me lots of energy and strength as I was just half of the distance and needed a boost.

This marathon was special because it was my Mum’s birthday as well. She just got 54 years old and I was running this race for her. I also wrote this as a Reason for my run. Each runner could write its own reason for running the marathon on his/her back.Not sure how long my knees will resist, but I will try to train up and run the full marathon. It’s a challenge that I have to achieve. Maybe I can do it in 4 hours?

First Aid

I had been in a situation a couple of months ago when if the things would have not been lucky, some people might have died just in the front of my eyes from drowning. Luckily managed to help the persons to get out from that situation without any consequences to personal health. However I was just thinking that if the things would have turned bad, I would have had no skills or knowledge to resuscitate for example a drowned person or stuff like that.

Mainly this was the reason why I have started thinking of my first aid skills. It also added to my concern that I travel in some countries where it is good to know some skills as there are no hospitals at every corner. Not much a chance for survival in countries like Cambodia, Laos, Indonesia, etc if you are in a jungle and a tiger bites you. There are quite a lot of snakes around even on top notch golf courses, not only in the jungle and you can easily die from a mosquito bite as well. I am also a diver, so it is good to know some stuff regarding those health hazards that can incur during diving.

While going through the list of all the dangerous things I do, I have decided to sign up for a first aid course. I just got my final the exam on Tuesday and I can happily say that I get the maximum points possible. So now I am trained in CPR (Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation) and I know some first aid procedures for choking, wounds, burns, cardiac arrest, breathing problems, unconsciousness, broken bones, etc.

Another thing… if you watched all the ER and Grey’s Anatomy and all this kind of shows… well then forget them…. The real thing is very different and you should not assume that you know something about first aid and CPR by watching movies! Yes, CPR and Rescue Breathing (mouth to mouth) is simple, but if you do not do it properly and you don’t pay attention to the details, it won’t work!

I really recommend you to do it; you can learn a lot of things that might be helpful. Hopefully you should never use it, but if the situation requires, then at least you know what to do. It can save a life!

I hope I already got a brownie point from God for saving one life this year, so at least that should compensate some of the sins of my life here in Singapore. No….. I won’t tell you what I have done last night :)

Singaporean Sunday Morning

I have signed up for the Standard Chartered marathon couple of months ago, but unfortunately my knee got injured so I could not practice at all. I am taught to never give up and fight until I die, so it is quite unacceptable not to run. Therefore I am pushing myself in the last minute to prepare for the half marathon. This means that I managed to run last week once and the previous week once, which can hardly be called preparation for a 21 km run. So I said that Sunday morning is a must for me to run as there is only one week left till the event.

At 7 am I was ready and looked out from the window to see how the beach looks like. It was everything calm and a cool breeze came through the window. I was prepared for a calm and quite jog. But when I got to the beach, the whole east coast was full of people. It was more alive then at any other point in time during the weekend. But I really liked the atmosphere of this morning. Though it is quite sad to think that probably all those people had no sex on a Saturday night, hehehehe

Here are the things I saw and made the atmosphere special and wicked and unique:

- Every 50 or so meters a group of middle aged or old people doing thai chi while in the background there was some very relaxing Chinese melody. So nice :):):)

- Another group of people doing some martial arts exercise with some huge swords. Feels like running through the scene of an action movie. :)

- A man teaching a huge parrot to do some tricks. Just feels good to know that you are the one running and not wasting your time with the parrot. Wicked. Why would anyone wake up so early to teach a stupid parrot?

- Hot babes with ugly dogs. Real motivation to run fast.

- Ugly babes with nice dogs. Real motivation to run fast… as far as possible from them.

- All kind of combinations of dogs and babes. The hotter the babe, the uglier the dog and vice versa. There must be a psychological explanation to this. Any ideas?

- Some Chinese dance group practicing some Chinese dance. As Borat would say: NICE!

- A group of Indian families playing some games. A lot of Indians skip Sunday morning sex apparently and try to get closer to each other through these games I guess, just like in the Bollywood movies.

- Groups of runners preparing for the marathon. Somehow it felt that everybody was faster then me and everybody was running effortless while I was slow and putting a huge effort in each step..

- An expat runner pushing a twin baby carriage with two cute babies and running faster then me while the babies were sleeping. I guess would have been the photo of the year if I could have capture that image with the rising sun in the background. Cute :):):)

- The tide is high in the morning, so you can hear very close the waves as they reach the shore, almost feels like running on the water. It gives a good rhythm to the run.

I think there were some other things as well, but I forgot those as my brain was running out of oxygen after the first 3 km. But I guess the nice setting made me to be able to run 10 km in 1 hour and 5 minutes and this gives me some hope that even without much training I can do the 21 km in less then two and a half hour… Fingers crossed and will see the results next Sunday. Come and cheer for me :):):):)

It seems that Sunday morning was discovery time for me, as I discovered that one of the restaurants on the beach is offering a breakfast buffet for 12 SGD (6 EUR). After my run and a quick shower back home I went down to the beach again to re-energize and had a huge breakfast while watching the buzz on the coast and the ocean. I think this made the whole morning very special as well! I had a great run and had a great breakfast while meditating about all the things on the beach. Very nice and a must repeat :)

Magical Laos

I have never heard of Laos until I moved to Singapore and even after that it remained a mystery, as it is not a popular tourist destination, it is not developed at all and there is not much buzz about it in the media either. Seems to be a very isolated country. It is not that easy to reach from Singapore, therefore not many of my friends have been there (actually none I can recall). So I was really excited to discover the mysteries of this country.

There is no direct flight to Laos from Singapore, therefore I needed to change in Bangkok, so stopped by there for a nice Thai massage and for a short walk in Khao San Road, to remember the hecticness of this place, eat some nice pancake and kebabs:):):)
The good old famuous Khao San Road:
Besides the stop over in Bangkok, some other challenges had to be overcome before entering the magical land of Laos. As I can’t get a multiple entry visa to Thailand, but I had to come back to the country on my way back, I needed a re-entry visa. I supposed to get this at the exit border, but in the evening when I got to the Thai-Laos border to the Friendship Bridge, they told me that I can get it only during business hours. So was stuck at the border for a night and could enter Laos only the next day morning.

But all the challenges worth it. Besides some arguments with tuc –tuc drivers in Vientiane, the whole experience was very relaxing, magical, spiritual, fulfilling. The capital city of Laos is not really a capital, it is more like a small provincial town, therefore decided to visit it only on the way back as we could enter Laos only with some delay. Therefore we took a local bus to Luang Prabang, a city which is part of the UNESCO world heritage.

Riding a local bus is a great experience; it gives you the sense of the real life. Laos is a very laid back and relaxed country and so were the bus schedule and the whole trip. The bus stopped randomly where there were passengers on the road or where people needed to go to the toilet (I mean pee in a bush). It took 10 hours or so the ride and by the time we got to Luang Prabang, already had a good feel of the country. The nature is just simply magical (this is the repeating world in this blog entry I guess), with nice mountains, green forests, rice fields, small little cottage villages alongside the road. The road itself, which is the main road, it is hardly enough for two cars and you can find everything on it: cars, cows, people, children, motorcycles, biking tourists, and ambulant sales people. No wonder that our average speed was around 50 km/hour.

Besides the untouched nature, one can see the poverty this country is. Most of the houses are just small cottages made of bamboo or some other similar material. Passing by you can see the building that supposed to be schools and you wonder how they can have good education there. But fortunately you see lots of children in those schools and talking to some of them you realize that they actually can speak some English, as they learn it in the school. It is a country ravaged by a war that nobody talked about in the western world, but apparently it has more landmines then Cambodia. It is said that it is behind Cambodia in terms of development and I can believe this, after being in both countries. Some signs of development you can see in these villages, some people have mobile phones and in some of these really bad cottages, you can see color TV and satellite dish near it. It is interesting to see how the value or wealth means different things in Laos or in Europe for example. After the communism in Romania, people wanted to have a nice house and you were poor or rich based on how your house was. Mobile phone and color TV was important, but way behind the house. Here having a mobile phone or a satellite dish and color TV is higher on the priority list then a decent house or even a decent cottage. Or maybe these are already considered basic needs in 2007, while in the era when I was poor, these were still luxury items.

Luang Prabang is not like the rest of the places I have seen in Laos and it is very different from Vientiane. The city is the former capital of the kingdom and it is a very relaxing place. It is a mix of very old temples and French influenced houses and buildings, beautiful mountains all around and the impressive Mekong River. I liked its whole atmosphere, because it offers what a big city never can offer, spirituality and nature. I guess these are the most important things that I can’t find in the big cities I have lived in so far and it is always refreshing for me to be close to the Gods and Nature. I guess I also have an affinity to Buddhism in a way, because all the Buddhist temples just gave me a nice and positive feeling. I feel good being in them and being around them. Luang Prabang, which has the size of my home city, has 30 plus temples. The most famous one is Wat Xieng Thong built in 1560. It is very simple, but very nice, with gold decoration here and there. You can see a lot of pictures below with it. It just amazes me, but I guess there might be people who are not much of fans of these.

In true French Style, there is a promenade near the Mekong River and it is a nice sight to walk around there, admire how the locals go with their small little boats and admire the green hills around it. Very peaceful.

The king’s palace is transformed into a museum and even if though there is communist rule in Laos, there is much respect here for the king, for the kingdom as a form of state and locals are talking with lots of respect about there king. Comparing this castle to the castles of the kings in Europe, you can see a huge difference. The one in Laos would probably not match even the summer provincial residence of a king from Europe. But I guess Laos was always a bit behind other places in terms of wealth. What was interesting in this palace, that I could see a gift from the US government to Laos, which contained the Laotian flag that was on the moon in the spaceship of the first moon landing and some small pieces of moon soil. 10 cm is the closest that I could get so far to the moon, if we assume that if we get close to the parts of an object, we can get close to the object itself. :):):):)

Another impressive experience was listening to the drums of the monks as they called people to the temple. It was nice to be in that peaceful place, inhale the fresh mountain air, feel a nice breeze but enjoy the warm sun in the same time and feel the spirituality all around and listen to the drums. It is magical :)

In the middle of the city there is a hill with some temples on it. This place called Phu Si (yeah, not to pronounce pussy), offers a fantastic view from above to the town, the mountains and the Mekong river. All the tourists come here to see the sunset, so it might be a bit crowded and noisy, but it is still stunning. As the sun goes down, the Mekong turns red and offers a magical view. You feel like being on the top of the world and close to the nature. Ah…… so good feeling thinking back to this while writing it down. Feels like writing it down again and again, just to re-live the moment again.

Some streets get closed in the evening and the night market tries to charm the tourists. It is nice to walk around, however very few original things are there. I guess they were commercially influenced by Thailand, because you can see most of the things that you can find in any Thai tourist city. But still you can get some nice stuff if you are in shopping mood and you have enough patience to look for authentic local stuff.

We went to the local theater to see a local show. It was prepared for tourists, lots of French people, and it gave a glimpse of the local dances and mythology. I have seen something similar in Cambodia, and these shows are always a nice window to the nation’s soul. No need to mention that the Lao girls were so beautiful and so graceful…. I guess one of her look is enough to fall in love with them, and then the way they dance so gently it is the cherry on the cake.

No country description can be without the description of the local food. Lots of French influence in Luang Prabang, so you can find a bakery with nice bakery products at every corner. It is nice to have a very good breakfast with some good bread, some choco pancake…. Yum…. Yum…. Food from the street was also delicious and of course very cheap. The bread there is just like bread ad home.

However the highlight for me was a dinner at a Laotian restaurant with some magical food. The pumpkin soup was the best soup I ate in a very long time. It was so delicious that I just could not stop eating. The chef was in the team of chefs that was once cooking for the king of Laos and had been in Europe as well. So that explained the royal tastes of the food. I guess it worth going back there just for that pumpkin soup :). The bonus point of that restaurant was that they had Hungarian text in the menu. They were writing in Hungarian “Koszonjuk Szepen es Viszontlatasra” and they had written “Forralt Bor” as a specialty. I was so happy to find this in a place so hidden and so far from home. I also tried the sticky rice wine, a very fruity drink. It has no wine taste, more like liquor, but it made the evening more enjoyable. Worth trying if you are around there.

Laos is a very laid back country and everybody seems to be very chilled and relaxed. The whole place is inspiring relaxation, calmness. So was the whole airport in Luang Prabang, they did not even know when the flight departs: “Just wait for the plain sir, should be here around 12, did not arrive yet, when it comes then just hopp on it.” Instead of the local bus we flew back to Vientiane with Lao Airlines. Again, an experience in itself. IF during bungee jumping you get excited because of the danger only 4 seconds or so, here the excitement lasted for over 40 minutes. Quiet nice service and food on the plane, however flying with a small old plane is very different then flying with the jumbo jets that I am used to. You feel everything much more… Good thing that Laos is so beautiful from above as well that you can’t take off your eyes from the window and you keep yourself busy with looking to the mountains and the greenery.

In Vientiane we have visited the famous Patuxai. It seems the French built one of this everywhere they went. However this Arch de Triumphs is with local design. I like this picture with the Tuc-Tuc, it really gives the Asian flavor to it: “The Arch de Triumph with a Tuc-Tuc”

Vientiane seems to be a city without much charm, except the center and some of the old temples, like the Wat Si Saket (pictures below). Probably I did not stay enough there to discover its charm. But sometimes you know if you like a city or not from the first moment that you see it. And I guess after Luang Prabang it is not as exciting to visit it.
Some victims of the wars... decapitated Buddha statues:

Wah, this became one of my longest entries. Maybe this is an indicator that I enjoyed Laos so much. I liked the place and I could relate to it so much. I really hope that it will develop as a country fast, but without loosing its charm and its spirit. Capitalism is at the corner and the country is opening up. There are foreign companies and as the picture below shows, the American influence is still/already here (after screwing the country during the Vietnam War). God bless Laos.