Nymi moved to Malaysia

Well, it's no secret I didn't stay in Singapore for more than 2 years.
Instead the adventures of Nymi took a new turn and I ended up in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

This blog is about Singapore, but I started a new one about my life in Malaysia.

If you are interested in reading about what happened and what I'm doing now,
please visit DiGiTAL-OSMOSiS where the story continues...

Cheers to u all
/Nymi

The man who fell in love

Yes, I'm now making it official. I have fallen in love with Singapore and have yet again extended my stay here. It's so serious that I'm even looking for work over here and will also apply for a 1 year employment pass visa. The lord works in mysterious ways...

Wednesday the 22nd November, I went to Bangkok for a four day trip. It was awesome experiencing Bangkok not like a tourist, but with Thai people who really know what Bangkok is all about.

Actually, I didn't go to many tourist attractions, partly on my request. Among the absolute highlights were Sirocco, a restaurant/bar located on the roof of the 67th floor or something. It was a really really nice place, and very romantic. We had some drinks, sitting under the bare sky, looking at the stars. The view from there was amazing. The photo of me is taken from there.

We also experienced Bangkok traffic jams where people can get stuck for hours. Luckily I had a very skilled driver who knew some pretty innovative shortcuts, so most of the times, we came out OK anyhow. Bangkok is not a good place for people with weak nerves, especially not if the same person is in a hurry. In Thailand things just have to take it's due time. Frustrating sometimes, yes, but overall, an attitude I can both understand and live with. Then again, I'm not doing business in Thailand, but if I were, I suspect my opinion would be different.

Shopping in Bangkok is easily described in one word... insane!

Yours truly shopped til he dropped, visiting a grand bazaar of clothes. Prices were extremely nice, and sure, most were copies of the original brands. But who cares when the clothes are of good quality anyway? :D How about a pair of Diesel jeans for 600 baht? (equivalent to 100 SEK or 7 quid) I also did what every male should do while in Thailand, I had a jacket tailor made for me. Maybe I'll upload a picture of me wearing it... time will tell.

The only real tourist place I DID visit was a huge buddhist temple area combined with a royal palace. It was impressive enough for me to swallow my pride and go along with the other tourists. There were ALOT of temples in a very large area, almost competing against each other who could sport the most splendor and grandeur. The temple I'm posing in front of, is actually totally covered in 24 carat gold mosaic tiles.

By the way, I mentioned I shopped a jacket didn't I? Well, I got good use for it since 2 friends were getting married in Bangkok while we were there. In Thailand the weddings are both a bit similar to weddings in Sweden, but then a lot is very different. For example, 200-500 guests doesn't seem to be extraordinary. Had it been Sweden, I guess 150 guests would have been classified as a very very large wedding.

It's not anything unusual with friends to the bride or groom bringing friends of their own, even if they may not know the couple to be married. It didn't matter, everyone was welcome anyway. So it didn't take long for the awkward feeling of having intruded on something very personal to go away. It just left me with a warm feeling inside when I left the place... a feeling that matched the nice weather we had for the full period of time on the Bangkok visit.

*happy sigh*
/Nymi

Highlights in Singapore

There is no way I can put in text all the great things I experienced here in Singapore. But there are some that is worth mentioning before I completely escapes my mind.

Me and Skotten went on a tour the other day. Just close to where we live in mt Faber lodge is a park. The stranded ship on the picture is actually a restaurant in that very park. Further up the park is a cable car station which is really nice. Of course we took the cable car to Sentosa which is pretty much a fairly big amusement park with a lot of nice attractions. Unfortunately we didn't take the opportunity to ride the downhill carts, but we did go to underwater world. It's a small aquarium with alot of
sharks and other cool sea creatures, very touristy but nevertheless quite
fun to watch. We took a stroll down the dragon hike too which was a really corny place claiming to have dragon fossils, dragons that was turned into stone and stuff. We had some good laughs walking that trail.



Another thing really worth mentioning is the cinemas over here. In Vivo city mall they have gold class cinemas. This is an exclusive cinema for only 20-30 people at a time, but jeez, the standard was awesome. They had REALLY comfy chairs the size of a smaller couch which was fully adjustable to more or less lie down and watch the movie. It was awfully cold in there, but we had blankets to keep the warmth. Best of all was the call button :P Just press it and a waiter comes even during the film and took your order for food, drink and snacks. Awesome! The movie was "The Guradian" which was an ok movie, but it got a hell of alot better with the overall experience from watching it in gold class, courtesy Martin who took us there.

Another great experience was when Martin and Aryn took us to a special place down Marina South for a fantastic sea food dinner. The place had loads of aquariums where you could actually pick out the very fish, or crab you would like to have for dinner :D I think we had about 5 different dishes, all gourmet stuff. The main course was a huge crab which Aryn poses with. I wouldn't want to meet one of those while having a swim.


Stop the press! Skotten actually sang karaoke yesterday when we went to Boat Quay to party a little. All the time being here, he has whined about not wanting to sing. Well, he did, and not just one song, he had a show going with Wonderwall by Oasis to mention just one. The others I can't really remember ^^ We had a good time in the bar called Bedroom. I suspect Skotten had a really good time, since he even made out with the manager.

Hm, there is probably more I should mention here, but now I really really need to sleep since it's already 2.30 am down here.
Take care you all

/Nymi

Change of plans

Yours truly have changed the travelling plan a bit, there is a story to it too of course :)

I will stay in Singapore for 10 more days, leaving the 26th of November to New Zealand via Bali and Sydney. Aryn's special ala carte menu, that I mentioned earlier was delicious I have to add. We actually did go out later that night to some really nice dance clubs. One was called Forbidden City which had some really cool live shows with dancers and drummers. The other one was by far the best place I've ever been to, it's called Attica and is Aryn's regular club. Through her we got VIP status and got in for free, and had immediate access to the members only area :P
It was dancing all night long til we dropped listening to great music. All in all it was a fantastic evening, one I will never forget. I didn't even have to use my phone card memory stick to remember it ;)

By the way, I managed to do it again... catching the famous summer cold. Now how the hell can you get a cold in 30 degrees heat you might ask. Easy! Airconditioners can be really tricky if you turn them down too cold, and of course I managed to do just that. First time was in Japan and I thought I had learned from my mistakes. But history teches us that we never learn from history, so...
Now I'm gonna go to bed a get some sleep and recover a bit.

/Nymi

Singapore - the world's busiest port

Well... now I really know what rainy season is all about. At lunch the other day we had a downpour that I have never seen the like of before. A wall of water just came crashing down on the outdoor restaurant where we had some chinese food. I mean seriously, there was not even any idea to walk that rain with an umbrella, it would have been torn apart instantly. When the rain had stopped, and the rivers on the streets had subsided a bit, we went to one of the tallest building in Singapore. It's called Prudential tower and Aryn and Evon actually work there.
Unfortunately we couldn't get to the top 62nd floor, because it was restricted or something, but we came pretty high with a splendid view of the Singapore skyline.

We met up with this Aussie guy, Peter, who is a somehow related to Darksideon's work. He was a really nice guy who knows a thing or two about shipping, barlife and general life in Australia. We spent some time down in Boat Quay which is a nice cosy little place completely crammed with restaurants and bars along the canal. Among the highlights was Eskibar, a cool place, literally. They hand out thick winter jackets to the customers, because the bar is so cold. Small place, but definately with charm and attitude :)

Yesterday me and Skotten went to see what Darksideon's job was really all about. A ship had docked in Singapore harbour, so we accompanied our host while he was supervising the loading of cargo bound for Perth, Australia. Peter was also with us when we "inspected" the ship and supervised the loading of the cargo. Hm, to be honest, that kind of job is not the most exciting I have ever experienced, but we got to see a midsized freighter ship. On the bridge we had a nice chat with the dutch captain over a beer, which he kindly offered us.

After a tiresome day of hard labour ( :D ) we went to this really nice place and had a New Zeeland 400g steak which was among the nicest I ever had. You could probably have eaten the steak with a spoon, that's how tender it was. :P


Today we are having dinner at home. Aryn is preparing Tom Yum soup and a number of assorted asian dishes, "YUM". It's perfect since it has been raining the entire day. Gonna have a nice relaxing evening, which might end with us going out, or maybe not... only time will tell.
And if memory fails me, then I hope the memory card on my cell phone camera won't ^^

Til next time
/Nymi

New phone number

I just found out how expensive it is to answer a call from any phone.

So, I got a Singaporian number.
Therefore I can no longer be reached on my old number.

The new number is +65 92 444 373

Monkey business

Me and Skotten have actually become more or less regulars at a local pub called "the office". The manager there is a nice guy even though I was surprised to learn that his name was Jasmine. Well, at least in Sweden that is only a name for girls. Anyway, everytime we come there, it's only a matter of seconds before the chilled Heineken is in front of us on the bar counter. It's a good place to get some information about local stuff. Like for example the food court just down the road where the "normal" people go eat. For a measly 3 sing dollars (equivalent to about 1£ or 15 SEK) u get a proper serving of curry chicken and rice, including something to drink. Not bad at all if u ask me. Unfortunately the food court is an open area which is pretty busy, so Skotten doesn't like to go there. The boring sod ;)

This weekend we went to a premiere opening of a nightclub just down the road at where we live. Martin couldn't make it though since he had been working very hard that day, and we left him sleeping on the coach. So four of us, Skotten, me, Aryn and a collegue of Aryn, Evon went to a quick stop at "the office" before going to that nightclub. It had a latino theme with a great live band that had half of the club dancing in a matter of minutes. It was in this place that Skotten met Louie and Jerry, two Singaporian guys who really knew a lot about Singapore by night. When Aryn and Evon had to leave, these two guys took me and Skotten to one of the best dancing clubs I've ever been to, "the velvet".
It's hardly no surprise for the ones that know me that I really like electro, techno and dance music. Well, this place had it all, and yours truly was extremely satisified when the night ended.

Unfortunately I was a bit late to the wakeboarding we were going to do the day after. I was exhausted from all the dancing and exercise, so I just regained some strength while the others had a day on the water. Later that evening was movie night with home delivery food and just chilling. nice!

Sunday was Zoo time!
Singapore apparently has a famous Zoo even though I must admit I had never heard of it. Now I know why it's so famous. It's a huge area divided into two parts. At day time you stroll around the "normal" zoo and watch the huge variety of exotic animals they kept there. The jaguar and white tigers was among my favourites, but there was actually so much to see that we skipped some. Instead we went to get some Ben and Jerry's ice cream and visited the most decorated toilet in the world. When I say decorated, I mean it has recieved the most awards in the world, for design, cleanliness, functionality etc. After our break at about 18 pm darkness had fallen all around us, and it was time for night safari. This is the second part of the zoo which opens after dark. Here we went with a silent tram in the dark jungle with only special dimmed lights to show the animals. It was really cool, since the animals are so much more active by night and we saw a lot of different deers, bulls, hyenas, cat animals etc in a state u normally don't see. Half way through the tour, the tram stopped and we took a stroll along the leopard night trail. This hike took us through the flying squirrel cave, and also "shiver me timbers" the bat cave. Lucky for me I was immune by wearing my Batman t-shirt and well, the others were safe too, since the bats mainly feed on fruit and had just been given a generous serving of oranges and bananas to munch on. We could come very very close to them though. I liked it alot! Anyway, the lions were still sleeping and we learned that they do that about 20 hours a day, so we didn't feel too dissapointed not seeing them in the active state like all the rest of the animals. (Aryn want's to be a lion too after learning that) :)
A great tour ended with a nice Safari lamb burger at the Bongo Burger restaurant with live shows with fire dancing and a lot lot more.

Now me and Skotten has to hurry to Martins office with our passports so we can be allowed admittance there when the heavy lifter ship arrives. Gonna be interesting exploring a really huge freighter ship when it docks.

ta ta
/Nymi

Singaparty

Ok, I hereby declare Singapore as the city of partying.

This is the second night out we had so far at a nightclub. It was a favourite rerun to the club Insomnia which is a pretty small place, but it has good live bands.

The name of the place where Insomnia is located is Chijmes.
Chijmes is basically a cathedral rebuilt to house loads of pubs, restaurants and clubs, with two entire stories in an area about the size of a small city block.
Skotten doesn't remember but we think that Insomnia closed at about 6am or something like that.

Earlier in the day we went to Brewerkz and had lunch. This is a local brewery where they make like 12 different kinds of beer that they serve directly to hungry lunch guests.
Really good beer, and nice burgers too :P
We were there with a client of Martin from Germany who lives and works from Bejing, China. A really funny guy. :)


I don't know why the drinks tastes better here, but Martin tells me that the bars don't dilute the booze with water. They don't measure the booze either... they just
make the drinks and they taste great. I learned my lesson tho, so no more Long Island Ice teas for me, at least not for some time. :D

I think Singapore is a great place to party just because the people who live and work here really don't have much else to do. They seem to get very easily bored, just like some people when we go raiding in WoW ;)
Anyway, I think that's the reason why there is an insane amount of entertainment establishments here. It's very tempting to get a job here tho, with a nice salary, but then again... maybe you get as bored as the locals do. I guess there is only one way to find out.

Now me and Skotten need to go on a quest to get some epic food. We are really hungry and Skotten need to replenish his energy from sleeping on the floor in the hall after the party yesterday.

Til next time...
/Nymi

The Travel Plan

On request I've put my Travel Plan on the blog with dates for arrival and departures:

26th October 2006 - 16.40 (local time gmt+1)
Flying from Gothenburg to Singapore

27th October 2006 - 19.55 (local time gmt+7)
Arriving in Singapore

17th November 2006 - 19.55 (local time gmt+7)
Flying from Singapore to Auckland, New Zealand

18th November 2006 - 12.25 (local time gmt+12)
Arriving in Auckland, New Zealand

17th February 2007 - 6.45 (local time gmt+12)
Flying from Christchurch, New Zealand to Hong Kong

17th February 2007 - 17.45 (local time gmt+7)
Arriving in Hong Kong

11th March 2007 - 08.00 (local time gmt+7)
Flying from Hong Kong to Gothenburg

11th March 2007 - 21.40 (local time gmt+1)
Arriving in Gothenburg

Which marks the end of this travel plan.
/Nymi