Nerd at 25 meters below sea level

Honestly I need to admit being in a bit of a panic mode to try to see every last thing there is to offer in this region. I just returned from a diving trip to Philippines with a group of friends this time investing a proper full week rather than a hasty weekend getaway.

Unfortunately not my picture,
but pretty much the same experience
(free pic from EzineMark.com)

There are absolutely stunning dive sites in the Philippines. I visited two diving locations in the Visayas region (access through Cebu city): Balicasag island off Bohol and four different sites around Apo island. There were heaps of coral, both soft and hard, and bustling marine life in both locations. I saw massive schools of Jack Fish swirling in true National-Geographic-photo manner. I had also the pleasure of spotting my first sea snakes (Banded Sea Snakes are apparently 3 times more poisonous than Cobras), first Scorpion Fish (both leaf and with out leaf varieties), first Mantis Shrimp among number of old acquaintances such as turtles, Parrot Fish, Snappers, Garden Eels, Groupers, Flounders, Nudibranches and so forth. Another scuba related first-time-evers were diving in stronger currents, diving deeper then ever before, diving away from the reefs into the blue to seek out the big schools of big fish and diving with a group of closest friends. Still no sharks though... 

Roof of our little room, which is directly above the dive shop
and literally 3 minutes away from the Chapel reef

Special mention goes out to Apo island, which is somewhat remote destination off the bigger island of Negros. You need to travel with a medium sized catamaran from miniscule Malatapay village to an island with limited electricity (true test on how can nerd survive without wifi!) and pretty basic accommodation options but with truly mindblowing reefs starting just directly off the shore. Absolutely very picturesque location. I felt truly reluctant to ascent from my final dive into the Visayan Sea. I would have wanted to stay underneath in the magical otherworldly depths until I would have been forced to surface. On Apo we were pretty much the only customers on the whole island due to the rainy season, which didn't bother us during our back to back dives at all. We had truly wonderful weather the whole time.

However when starting our homewards journey on Saturday morning, we were greeted by dark skies, howling winds and heavy rain. The sea next to our hotel was so ruff that there was no way of climbing into any boats from there. We started to wonder whether it is safe to venture out to the sea at all and if we are going to miss our flight back home. We were suggested to hike across the island over two hills to go and ask the boat captain himself on if there is any way off the island. Getting to the other side fully soaked we noticed that the sea was indeed calmer on the east shore due to coverage provided by the island itself. However the captain told us matter-of-factly that there is typhoon Luis ranked at Signal 1 (* running rampart on the island of Negroes and it might continue for several days. To our surprise the captain still continued loading the boat and shoving us one by one into a small paddle boat to get into the same catamaran we crossed the 45 min distance on few days before. The sea was pretty ruff indeed, but not overly scary. The only half scary thing was the captain wearing an old scuba mask and laughing maniacally while driving the group of tourists into the eye of the typhoon and potentially to their wet graves. But instead of a grave, we reached the opposite shore safely. Royally soaked, but safely.

*) Googled Typhoon signaling system afterwards and Signal 1 it is actually the lowest level of warning for tropical storms and typhoons. Sounds scary enough though especially after the sad events in 2013.

Nerd at 4k (Extra curriculum activities part II)

This edition of the blog is going to be particularly lengthy description of the mountain hike excursion I concluded last weekend. This blog entry has very little to do with the relocation theme of the blog other than trips like these are perfectly doable on a long weekend when based in Singapore. So brace yourselves. Here comes easily the longest entry in the history of this blog. Don't say I didn't warn you.

Never grow up

Greetings from Krabi, Thailand this time around. The beauty of being positioned in Singapore is to have the possibility to make a quick decision to go rock climbing on signature rock formations overlooking Andaman sea. Door-to-door time from a resort near Ao Nang beach to office was 3,5 hours this morning.

I trust I will never be too adult not to get amused by this type of stuff.

17 999 teenagers and me

My brother urged me to join New Year's celebration in the self proclaimed Asia's largest beach countdown party. Apparently it is not possible everywhere in the world to dance the final night of the previous year away on a sandy beach with warm sea wind caressing your hair. Before I know it, I will be once again freezing my fingers numb trying to lit any fireworks during upcoming New Years Eves in sub zero temperatures.

I felt somewhat awkward to go there by myself, but I am glad I did. Just witnessing the masses of people having fun and sharing positive energy was an experience to enjoy. Furthermore, I feel proud saying that I didn't come home until 3 AM (did not have the stamina to stay until 6 AM, when the party ended, but still pretty good achievement for me).

The thing that keeps on surprising me is how well these people behave. Even drunk teenagers are being polite, picking up their trash and not starting any fights. Seriously, the government must be putting something in the tap water (which by the way is arguably the most purified tap water in the world -- I like the way they say it: it is not claimed to be the cleanest, but just having the most advanced technology to clean it).

Video has been done automagically by Google from video clips and photos I took at the party.
Pretty cool feature, huh?

Extra curriculum activities

This time I am sharing a selection of Singapore enabled free time activities.

One of the first water activities which I made acquaintance with was wake boarding. On this artificial island it should come as no surprise that there is of course a man made lagoon with machine run cable pulling wake boarders around. Cable operated approach made it easy to try and try again to get the surfing going on. For a good part of the first hour I was underwater after repeated unsuccessful attempts at staying upright. Somehow the lost balance was eventually found and managed to start enjoying the sport. On the next visits I have since changed from the amateur board to more intermediate board. There is clearly a learning curve happening here, but not yet on the level of the guy shown on my video clip.

Another water related -- and yet as artificial -- sport is flowriding on a man made wave. They are pumping 30 000 - 100 000 gallons of water (depending on the size of the wave) per minute and adrenaline driven fools like yours truly are aiming to ride the wave with a flowboard. Once again a balancing act -- this time asking for bit of a different angle and posture than on the wakeboard and thus starting the fun of falling down from the beginning all over again. As you can expect: a whole lot of fun.

One of the niceties of living in Singapore is to be able to pack my bags and leave on a short notice to a long weekend trip to one of the magical diving sites around. A week ago I went to Tioman Island on South China Sea off the coast of Malaysia. Through quite convenient and ridiculously inexpensive bus & ferry connection I can get below the surface in a matter of hours. After hustle and bustle of metropolitan life, there I was diving through underwater caves with sea turtles and blue spotted rays while trying to find perfect buoyancy being surrounded by schools of coral fish. I've gotta do this again soon!

One final example is about flying. Singapore has this thing with superlatives: everything has to be either the biggest or largest or longest. For example this city has the largest Ferris Wheel in the world and it is currently building the biggest indoor stadium. On that note we have the largest windtunnel for indoor skydiving. Once again an absolutely stunning experience to be suspended in midair and trying to control your position in 3D space with tiniest of movements. Overall this was one skillfully executed service offering, with thematic instruction videos and clever upsell scheme after having enjoyed the thrill of flying. Once again the guy in my video is not me, but I underwent similar experience.

Naturally there is a wide variety of other activities to be pursued. In addition to the activities mentioned, so far I have

1. rented a bike for a day to see if the bold statements about this city being entirely connected for pedestrian and bicycle access without having to wait at any traffic lights is exaggerated (which it is apparently due to so many construction sites)
2. practiced wall climbing in uncomfortably hot weather (me being the odd westerner trembling on the lowest wall holds while thin yet muscular localites scaling the walls without breaking a sweat), 
3. participated in some martial arts classes (dojo luckily was air conditioned, but weirdly no showers provided. Don't these people sweat at all?)

Still on to-do list I have things like climbing Mount Kinabalu in Borneo (and enjoying the world's highest via ferrata -- apparently Malaysians know their superlatives as well) and taking the mandatory photo opp at Angor Wat.

The old continent with familiar nightly scents

Work has taken me into lively Dublin, Ireland for a week. As is already the tradition in this blog: couple of inevitable reflections between Europe and SG.

People don't really respect pedestrian lights over here. They are there only for generic guidance, but the decision to cross a street is driven by number of passing vehicles. Obviously you do see jaywalking in Singapore as well, but as you probably have learned it by now, that's yet another punishable offense.

Speaking of which, I only now realize that I haven't really seen any police patrolling the streets in Singapore. Very, very seldom I might have spotted one or two officers in one of the MRT stations. From what I have heard, police are mostly in their civilian clothes blended in the crowds. Plenty of police over here in Dublin though -- with occasional Guinnessy Irish bloke giving them hard time. But seemingly the officers have heard those comments before and not really paying too much attention to the verbal abuse. I really can't imagine seeing that happening in Singapore. That would be one fast track to receive quick corrective caning.

Neither can I imagine smelling the poignant scent of Friday and Saturday night in every other street corner. It is truly amazing how Singaporeans can behave so well even when royally drunk at Clarke Quay in the wee hours of the night. Surely you have the occasional few who are tad bit too tired to walk or might not generally feel so well, but the thing is that there is absolutely no one behaving aggressively or even overly loud.

Something that I am a little bit concerned is how can a Finn of all nationalities be spoilt with little bit of a warm weather and spicy cuisine so fast. I have been truly freezing in the damp yet sunny Irish summer with three layers of clothing, while the locals are welcoming June with nothing but T-shirts and shorts. Also I didn't remember Fish and Chips tasting so very bland before.

Majestic scenery of Cliffs of Moher -- or so I was told. Couldn't see a damn thing through the fog.

Live long and have a prosperous year of the snake

Chinese New Year is the biggest public holiday event in Singapore at least by counting the number of continuous days off. The actual new year falls this year on Saturday and Sunday and for fairness sake both Monday and Tuesday are days off as well. Singapore does actually surprisingly well in the comparison of number of national holidays during a year.

I took a trip to Chinatown in the new years eve. It was crowded but not the extend I was expecting. It was still possible to navigate through the crowds and find a free table in a restaurant (excellent soft shell crabs in chilly sauce). Chinatown looked very nice while bathing in the yellow and red light from all the lanterns.

For an outsider I took notice of what seemed like a fixation with wealth when it comes the beginning of the new year. People hand over mandarins to each other and buy small kumquat trees into their homes. The reason being in the yellow color of the fruit which symbolizes all the gold to be captured during the year. Similarly there are significant sales towards end of the year and also for the first customers in the beginning of the year -- expected to bring good fortune going forward.

Following the local customs, this morning I handed over red packets to my kids -- once again with new dollar notes inside them to enforce prosperity in the coming year.

May you all find good fortune and happiness during the year of the snake!  

(Apparently I was not the only one thinking about another person with fixation for prosperity.

I found this image from this blog)

In a hole in the ground there lived a...

One has to wonder what is really the point in relocating to eastern time zones, if not to have ultimate bragging rights on seeing all the big movies good 6 hours before they are released in Finland? However laws of karma apparently doesn't treat well cheaters like me. The Hobbit is being released one day ahead in Europe compared to Asia. I need to try to settle for some minor boasting like seeing the movie not only in HFR 3D, but in Imax , which has still not landed in Finland. That and the sheer hilarious scene of numbers of asian interpretations of Gandalf around me.