Bali - a small Paradise on Earth

I managed to get to Bali last weekend and it was one of the best things I could do. It was sunny and I had the best weekend!!!! Bali is an amazing place, like a paradise on earth. The place is cool, the people are cool, the things you can do there are cool. And because it is south to Equator (my first time on the other half of the world), the water is spinning the other way around then in North, hehe. So here is a short (or rather long) description of my trip: )

Diving
It is monsoon season here in Singapore and Malaysia, so could not see the sun for a while and could not dive at all. Therefore it was a must for me to Dive in Bali and it was a very good decision to do so. It was exciting to try my dive computer and explore some cool dive sites in Tulamben. We went down to the famous shipwreck : the U.S.A.T Liberty Wreck which was torpedoed in the second world war by a Japanese submarine and sank at the shores of Bali. It was so cool to swim inside the rooms of the ship and see the old canons and parts of the ship covered with corals and populated by thousands of fishes. We also met a turtle having its breakfast and doing some morning swimming exercise. They are just cute. Of course we saw all the different coral fishes in thousands of colors. Besides this wreck dive we did 3 other dives and saw some wicked fishes like some huge bump head fishes, Puffer fishes, Leap fishes (one black and one white), Ribbon Eels, Lion fishes, etc Diving is fascinating and the cool part of diving in Bali/Tulamben is that the dive sites are close to the shore and close to each other. So you just jump from your bed in the sea and there you are in the middle of action. It is also funny that on the north-east part of the island you have black sand because of the volcano near the beach. It’s wicked :):):)

Wild Water Rafting
I know that my insurance company would not be happy to know that I did diving and wild water rafting in the same weekend, but I just had to do this because it sounded too cool. We did 9 kilometers down on the river in the middle of the jungle. It is an amazing experience and full of excitement. Being in the middle of the jungle and nature with waterfalls, beautiful birds singing, all kind of exotic trees, fresh air and the sounds of nature…. It is just amazing. And then suddenly you see some signs of culture: some stone carving alongside the river. It is hard to describe it and even the pictures can’t express it. Of course this place is good also to meet new people and make new friendships :):):)

Villages, Temples, People
It is a pleasure just to walk and drive around in Bali because it is a magical place. You can see few temples in every cute village. It feels like being in a very spiritual place and in a very blessed place. Outside the villages you have the rice terraces, the palm and banana trees, the jungle and it is green everywhere. We have been to a place called Ubud which is a kind of capital for arts in Bali with lots of painters and artists. Unfortunately we missed the dance show but will go next time :):):) The people are very nice and everybody is smiling. It is very relaxing to meet these calm, friendly and smiley people. Don’t have to mention that the service is excellent in Bali, right? :):):) The place has a very good and positive energy and fortunately I still have from that energy in these challenging days.

Food
I am not traveling to places to try some interesting cuisine usually, but I need to mention the food in Bali. It is delicious :):):) It is sooo yammmmiiiiiiii that I could eat there all day long (and get fat, hehe). I don’t know what they do to the food, but it tastes soooo good :):):) That’s what I call Asian delicacies :):):)

Massage
The last thing we did in Bali was a visit to a Spa. We almost missed the plane because of this, but I think it worth it. It was the best massage I ever had. The environment was very exotic, the music was good and relaxing, the aromas were unique and of course the massage was just amazing. Balinese massage is the best, even better then the Thai massage. I would not mind getting very rich, settling down in Bali and staying in that spa the whole day long :):):)

All in all, it was a very unique experience and unfortunately it is really hard to describe these things. You just have to go and try it yourself in order to understand what I am talking about. If you go to Bali, call me, I will join for sure :):):)

Punctuality in SG + MS certificate

I am happy to announce that I am a Microsoft Certified Expert in Excel :):):) I have been to an Excel course and it was fascinating to discover how smart this little program can be. I have been using this program for years, but I used only the minimum functionality; now I can really use all the smart stuff, hehe :):):)

I guess a lot of people bitch about Microsoft that they have crap programs, but they don’t know how to use them fully and then they just make rushed conclusions. I do not want to promote MS, but I think people should also look at the good stuff they do (like Excel for example). By the way, I had the chance to play around with Windows Vista and the new Office. It is very cool. The graphics is very cool and the new functionalities are just great. The design is pretty much like the Mac design, but yeah, this is life… Looking forward to get a copy of the new office as soon as it will appear on the market :):):)

Anyway, I wanted to write about another topic: punctuality in Singapore. If you are not living in Singapore (ie. You are from Europe), you might think that in such a regulated country like this, where law and order are really important, where the economy is so developed, people would be very punctual. But it is not the case at all. Most of the meetings start 10 – 15 minutes late and usually all the appointments I had with other people, started late, people arrived late, etc. The transportation system is fairly on time and services promised to certain deadline usually are delivered, so not that many issues on that side. But on personal punctuality, it is very bad. I always get pissed off when I take a cab if I am late just to arrive in time and pay lots of money in peak hours and then I am the only one on time and wait for 20 minutes to start the meeting. The same happened when I went to this training ….

Friday update...

The heavy rain is back in Singapore and it is basically raining for the past one month with a short weekend break last Saturday and Sunday. 105 mm of rain fell in 5 hours yesterday. That explains why half of Malaysia was flooded. Singapore has a fantastic drainage system, so not much of a damage here. But this weather seriously affects my energy level and my mood. I am struggling in finding things that energize me: energetic music, lots of exercise, moving around in the office after each hour of sitting at my desk, eating lighter food, drinking a lot of tea. Any other ideas for replacing the solar energy in these cloudy & rainy days????

After staying one year in Singapore I knew the names of most of my colleagues on my floor and lots of other people. So I had the impression that I really learned to distinguish between male and female Chinese names and that I improved my skills in remembering Chinese names. Well, that was just an impression unfortunately. Now I am in a new department on a new floor in the company and I am so confused with all the new names. But the funny thing is that they are also confused with my name. So I am as bad with the names as I was before. This sucks because it can be an obstacle in networking and can lead to a lot of embarrassing moments. I mean you can’t address a person with “Hey you….” After working with he/she for few months in the same space. Any smart idea on how this can be sorted out? I already tried couple of tricks but it seems that it did not work out :(:(:(.

In one week I am off to Bali for diving and some leisure activities. If you want to join our happy gang, then please contact me :):):) Can’t wait to have the first dive of the year and hopefully we will see one of the US ship wrecks from the second world war under the water.

I completed today the list with the things I want to achieve in 2007. I have 21 objectives on my list for this year. Well actually they are not comparable in size and some of them can be grouped and yeah…. one in planning can argue a lot about whether this is a plan or not. It is more of a laundry list and some of them are really simple. But I really did not want to go in planning theories. I just have to do them. No comments, just hard work and lots of commitments. They are very challenging and I am excited about getting all these done. I will keep them for myself as of now and I will announce them with the evaluation when they are achieved or at the end of the year. Of course the list is not complete or restrictive to the things I want to do, but it is the minimum. These are the must wins!!! I did not included things like I want to do skydiving and get a pilot license. These are on my wish list, but as of now I have no feasibility study for these desires. Wish me luck in implementing them, hehe :):):)

Just to have a picture for this post, I put this one from my last trip in my University town: Oradea, Romania in October 2006. I worked today for AIESEC Oradea on a proposal and I remembered the good old times I have spent there. This is me (wow, how could you guess) in front of the City Hall. Nice, isn’t it (I mean the City Hall)???

A sunny weekend for everyone!!!

Mission statement generator!

Those who have been AIESEC members, were at least 5 times involved in creating some mission statement/vision/etc. And it is always a huge debate on how to word things to express exactly the essence of a 3 hour long discussions. There are so many conferences where a lot of time is spent in formulating objectives and different documents. The same is happening in companies and I always see the passionate debates on small phrases and some words.

But now with the advancement of technology all these things will be history because a new tool has been invented: THE MISSION STATEMENT GENERATOR!

Conferences can be cut by few days, workshops can end at the proposed time and everybody will be happier with less effort done. With this tool, people will actually have time to concentrate on the essential part of the things: work! Isn’t it wonderful????

Name-Day

Yesterday was a very chilled day for me, woke up and did some housework and after that went for lunch. Run 5 km and just chilled at the swimming pool at Albert, Irina and Luis’s place. It was sunny but not burning, and just read, slept and swam in the whole afternoon. It was very relaxing and it felt good to enjoy the sun after two weeks of continuous rain.

My brother messaged me and wished me Happy Name-Day and I realized that I completely forgot this custom and the fact that I used to celebrate my name-day when I was back home. It was always a good occasion to get some presents and sweets, especially that by this time the Christmas cookies were finished, haha :):):)

Back home is still quite a big celebration the Name-day, especially if you have some important names like mine (hehe), or János (John), László, Mária etc.

So what is the origin of Attila? It is of gothic origin and it means “beloved father/father of land or earth/father of all”. There are different versions to what the origins are. Some sources say that it is also mixed with the old Turkish name of the Volga named “Etil.”. Not sure when it was formed, but it was surely used in the 400 AD, as the great Hun leader had this name already J

Not sure if Singaporeans celebrate the Name-Day. Will ask somebody … hmmmm….. a good thing to find out for today :)

I am an EU citizen travelling to Cameron Highlands :)

It is hard to believe, but from the first of January I am an EU citizen. It is interesting to look back and see all the changes that happened in Romania since the so called revolution and the end of communism. I know that 5 years ago it was just a dream to become an EU member and now it is a reality. I am really happy for this; I really hoped that it will happen.

Being far away I can’t really feel the difference, but I know that it has a huge impact on the country’s future. I still need to get visas for the same countries as before (just submitted the documents for my Indonesian visa), however now I can travel within EU without a passport :) That is really cool :):) Of course there are a lot of other benefits and I look forward to see the country growing even further.

I celebrated the entry into the New Year in Malaysia in Cameron Highlands. It is a very nice place, it is very green and relaxing :):):)

Here is a Tea Plantation:

Also managed to learn a lot about tea making and tea plantations, visited a strawberry farm, did a bit of tracking on the mountain and played golf on a huge 18 hole golf course. I realized that I really need to practice more to be a decent golfer :):):)

Fortunately it was very good weather up there and I felt very sad coming back into the rainy Singapore. Really looking forward for a bit of sunshine and some good weather so I can do all the cool things I used to do outside. Because of the rain there is not much to do, just office and home. My next trip is to Bali and hopefully I can do some cool dives and get have another nice trip this month :):):)

And the jungle around 2000 m high with some clouds covering the top of it: