"Taraf de Haidouks"

The Singapore Art Festival offered an interesting show on its agenda: “Taraf de Haidouks” from Romania. These guys are playing gipsy music from Romania and they had two concerts in Singapore.

I managed to go and it was very nice, because these guys were very genuine and original. They were playing more Romanian and Gypsy folk music and the feeling was more like being at a traditional wedding or ball. It is very different then Hungarian folk music, but it was nice to hear live music. Actually I “consume” more Romanian culture here in Singapore then I did back home, hehehe. I also saw some movies (not that good one though) and a theatre play with Horatiu Malaele recently.

They made a good show and at the end of the show they just came down from the scene and started to play in front of the hall just like they would play on the streets and they even gather some money, just as the gipsy street musicians would do. The posh hotel where the concert was looked like a regular gipsy street and the atmosphere was just fantastic, people applauding, taking picture and having fun.

Had some discussions with the local people who participated at the concert to get their opinion. For them it took a while until they got into the mood of the concert and started to understand what this music is about. For them at the beginning it sounded very wicked and strange. It was probably just noise and some exotic sounds. But at the end I guess they got into it and started to enjoy it and understand a bit of it.

One thing is for sure with this EU integration. The exposure of Romania is much bigger in Asia then before and people are more curious to know more about Romania as an EU country as before here in Asia. The truth is that in Asia Europe means EU and whoever is not in EU does not really count. There were more activities in this past 6 months related to Romania then in the whole period since 2005. Lots of improvement needed in organizing and promoting these events (there are lots of issues with them, believe me), but at least something is moving forward. Good for the country.

Mobile phone usage in toilets

One of the funny things here in Singapore is that people are talking on the phone while they are at the toilet in office buildings. It is funny entering a fancy building’s toilet and hearing hard core business conversations from the “toilet cubicles”. It happens 7 out of 10 times I enter an office toilet (regardless of company or building).

I find it hilarious, just imagine a conversation:

"Dan: - Then should we do that million dollar deal lah? Can or cannot lah?

Sound of flush of the toilet in the nearby toilet cubicle….

Scott: -Ah…. sorry ah… just flushed your offer down on the toilet…. Please give me a better deal ma… one million cannot. Only half million can!"

Can’t imagine what one thinks when hears toilet flushing over the phone at the other end of the line in a serious business conversation…..

Is this a practice in other countries as well? Or only Singaporeans are that funny to think that only their voice can be heard over the phone and not the other toilet noises? Please share your experience if any :)

Sadness, Stress and Junk Food - That's My Theory

I had lots of junk food last week and drunk lots of coke and other fizzy drinks. I realised that there is a direct correlation between being sad, being stressed, unhappy and eating shit. At least in my case is true and statistically proven. I tried to look back to my periods of stress and unhappy times and it matches perfectly the times when I was eating fairly a lot at BK and McD and other random fast foods. Maybe it is like an instinct that the body knows what is bad and wants poison itself, so I am craving for shit food. I want to check this theory of mine, so let me know if this is happening with you as well or it’s only me who is weirdo?

So yeah…. if you see me eating fast food and drinking coke, then you just need to give me a hug hehehe.

On the healthier part of my life I just subscribed to run the half marathon in august (that’s 21 km). I really need to start training a bit. It is my test run before the full marathon in December (if I survive this one).

And there is a cool thing going on in the office (now that I am writing about healthy stuff), a vendor brings fruit salads and juices every day. So in the morning I just subscribe and pick what I want (i.e I feel like having a fruit salad pumped up with pineapple) and then they just deliver it to my desk. Isn’t that cool?

Competitor or what?

When I was a student and learned about competition I thought that competing companies are really enemies and would do anything to make the other company disappear. But working with MNCs and having visibility of the transactions of a big pool of global companies I realized that competition is fairly relative.

There are so many areas where competing companies cooperate, competing companies are suppliers for each other or provide services. It is somehow weird because every business one company would give to its competition basically it boosts the share price of the other company. And when share price is the ultimate goal of a CEOs agenda, then it is somehow in contrast with these “giving revenue to the competition” actions..

If you look at the advertising and the promotions, then yes, companies compete on one level: to get customers. However companies do not really compete in the process of delivering the goods and services for customers (they would cooperate with the competition just to satisfy the client). The persons deciding these have to be really with an objective mind and be able to balance between building strategies to kick the competition on one hand and on the other hand to cooperate in offering new products and services.

One example: a lot of mobile phones use chips from Samsung and competing with the Samsung phones on the market. I can’t really tell more concrete examples without publishing confidential information unfortunately, but if you are interesting in this topic, then you can surely get some facts and figures from the newspapers as well (like the Samsung one).

The same thing you can see in politics. Politicians have lots of speeches about how bad the other party is and how they want to make them disappear from the political scene, but in reality they have common businesses and they negotiate behind the back door dirty stuff.

I don’t really like this duality as I am mostly very passionate about what I do and therefore I always put my heart in one thing (be it personal life or work). I mostly like black and white decisions in issues regarding principles (like working with the competition or not). Of course being in the same business, you would cooperate at some level to represent the interests of the industry, but that does not mean that you generate revenue for the competitors. If this happens, it means that the area is too consolidated and there are just few players. Which is not good; it means that there is a small step to control the prices and that’s what hurts me…. and all the consumers.

Of course the issue is more complex then how I have described (I tried to make it a simplistic scenario), but my conclusion is that the concept of competition has to be re-defined from the consumer’s point of view. I guess this is one of the effects of a globalized world. Is it good or not? Time will tell.

I have been in Asia for too long ...

One of the stereotypes about Asians is that they send shit lots of SMS-es. Some of the people I know are so fast in typing on a phone that I can’t type that fast on a keyboard. Maybe that’s a bit of exaggeration, but somehow it shows how fast they are. And when you sign up for a mobile contract they have plans with like a thousand SMS-es. I was quite cynical when I saw that my plan has 500 SMS-es included, because I just never used before that more then 100/month.

I just got my phone bill and was very surprised to see that I used 653 SMS-es in one moth. Wow… that’s more then 20/day…. And this does not include international messages, or messages while on roaming, or the ones sent through work…. just local messages. I think that’s the indicator of becoming fairly local, at least in the way I use my phone :):):):)

What is your average number of messages you send in a month?

Hong Kong - a True World City

Peggy, my friend from AIESEC, moved back to Hong Kong and had some free time while she was looking for job (got one at HSBC Private Banking), so she invited me to visit Hong Kong and offered to show me around the city.
Peggy, me and Jackie Chan :):):)

It was a good decision to jump on a plane and go over, as Hong Kong is a fantastic city. Everybody compares Singapore and Hong Kong and there is a fair bit of competition between these two cities. But I guess the two cities can't be put in the same pot, as they are very very different and life is very different in these places. But will try to compare a bit below.

Hong Kong is very very busy, not much of greenery, there are thousands of lights on the streets, people everywhere and the city never sleeps. Proof of that is that there is public transportation even during the night, while in Singapore more or less the only option is to get an "uncle" to cab you home. I really liked the madness in HK, but I guess it would stress me out after a while.

The nightlife in Hong Kong is absolutely amazing, very cool places around and very cool people party even on the streets. It seemed that people going out there are not that show off as in Singapore, of course they have their fair bit as well. So if you are going to HK, I can recommend some nice places to hang out for a couple of drinks. The restaurants are cool as well, been to some very nice places at Soho and had some very good food and wine for very affordable prices. Unfortunately the Hungarian restaurant was closed, so could not enjoy that.
This party wants you! People drinking and chatting on the streets:

If Singaporeans are shopaholics, then honkies are super shopaholics. Everything is cheap there (much cheaper then Singapore) and there are as many malls and shops as in Singapore, hehehe. The plus in Hong Kong is that there are other things to do as well besides shopping, while in Singapore these things are fairly limited. So in that respect Hong Kong is more complex.

I guess in one aspect Singapore is way ahead of Hong Kong: housing. With all the nice houses and condos we have a very nice life here in Singapore. In Hong Kong houses are very small and very very expensive. What I liked in Hong Kong that there are hills and mountains and it is very much similar to my home :):):):) Of course nothing beats the Hargita :)

The HK Bay is a very nice area to visit, it is pretty much like in Shanghai, lights and skyscrapers everywhere. The light and laser show of the buildings is amazing and something very unique. In that bay area you really feel that you are in one of the world's most magnificent cities. The same cool view can be seen from the Peak. It was a bit foggy when I was up there, but still amazing. And the tram ride to there is wicked. Must try leh. :)

Food in HK is very oily, but except that it is pretty much the same as everywhere in Asia. Of course I tried the famous noodles, some oyster thing, the famous dim sum and some other strange foods. And the Wife Cake of course :):):) Probably for Chinese people the food is better and more authentic in HK then in Singapore, but I like more the food here. Maybe just because I got used to this one and my tastes are too much influenced by now.

Managed to travel to the outskirts of the city as well and visited a small fishing village as well with a huge sea food market and some nice beach at a small island. It was very relaxed and a very different view of HK, as in my mind HK was just a big city, never thought that it can have something else as well, haha.

I have been to some nice temples as well, it was nice to get a bit of spiritual energy and find a bit of peace, meditate and get some inspiration.

This is a family ancestry place. You can see the different generations lined up and having their memory kept for eternity in this way. Rich families had their own ancestry places in Hong Kong.

The weather in Hong Kong was great, not too cold, not tooo hot, just like summer at home. :):):) I had a fantastic time there and I am really looking forward to visit again that city. But still so many destinations in Asia where I have not been, so I really need to start visiting those, hahah. But my next trip is going to be a dive trip for sure!!!

Hong Kong is famous for being the scene of lots of movies and for its movie industry. So here is my own action movie from Hong Kong:

"Hey Bond, that's the way where the girls in bikini went. Let's follow them"

"I know that I look cool on this picture. The 007 is in action, and got to jail because of fraudulous charges. Will escaape soon and save the world. Muhahaha :)"

"I am climbing here the famuous Hong Kong bamboo constructions as you can see in all the Jackie Chan movies. Learned this trick from him, and now I can use it while running after the bad guys :):):)"