Everybody already bitches that the Singaporean nanny state/ civil society is intrusive, undemocratic, and evil. A poster like this does nothing to contradict that. In fact it makes the Gahmen sound like a bunch of vampires from a B-grade horror flick: “Ah… zer blood… it is so young… so vibrant… so full of life.”
Now that I think about it, if the PAP was actually a coven of vampires, it would explain Singapore’s insanely high taxes on alcohol. They do not want people to drink… vine.
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Posted by Aadisht
I’m not thrilled about this. Over the next few weeks I will suffer withdrawal pangs for a number of things: pretty girls, being flirted at, having my laundry done by professionals, and laksa and sushi.
In the past couple of weeks, I have asked myself uncomfortable questions, been out drinking with a bunch of foreign policy wonks (this is much more fun than it sounds), wandered around Fort Canning Park and Chinatown, and lost an inch on my waist despite all the eating. Now I will get back to a life of dealing with recalcitrant customers.
Oh well. Bugger all that. Time to get on with life.
The spoils from the trip include a new phone, a portable hard disk, a litre of Absolut, a litre of Absolut Mandrin, and a spray can of ironing starch. I rather suspect that it’s the starch which will being the greatest joy in the long term. Starch! In a can! Which you can just spray on while you’re ironing! Is it not beautiful?
Ahem. Got a little carried away. Anyhow. Regular programming now resumes.
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Posted by Aadisht
Weird: Seeing a Nihang Sikh in Singapore.
Truly Weird: Seeing an ethnic Chinese Nihang Sikh in Singapore.
There are no pictures, for the simple reason that it is not wise to take chances invading the privacy of a member of a martial race who is carrying a three foot long kirpan.
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Posted by Aadisht
I am off to Singapore for the next two weeks on *cough*a shareholder sponsored junket *cough cough* training.
During the course of training I will be staying at two five star hotels. It’s hard to pick the best thing about this sort of luxurious accommodation. There are two very strong contenders.
The first is the free breakfast. The idea of a breakfast buffet where I eat as much as I can before its time to head off to the seminar rooms is beguilingly attractive. When it’s being expensed to my cost code rather than to my salary account, it’s nirvanic. But it’s still not a clear winner.
Because there is the other, equally strong contender: free laundry.
Yes, free laundry. I am currently dumping all my clothes into my suitcase so that they can be washed and ironed by professional launderers (who, I just realised, will be Chinese, thus making this an even better deal). After six months of having my clothes washed by a maid who believes that the best way to deal with clothes is tough love, and who leaves the ironing to me, I will finally have an opportunity to have all my clothes stainfree, fluffy, sweet smelling, and crisply ironed. The mind reels in delight.
Right then. Time to get back to packing.
PS: Ritwik, you will have to wait a little longer for the Sohrabuddin and Idiotarians post. If I write a long post while in Singapore, it will imply a failure on my part to spend my free times out partying with an international contingent and Mr. Walker.
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Posted by Aadisht
Despite much pleading and negotiation, Mint informed me today that no way are they going to agree to a proposal before I actually write the pieces. In other words, my plan of financing a trip to the Philippines by selling multiple travel writing pieces to them has come a cropper.
Not a complete cropper. They haven’t refused to take stories, they’ve just refused to confirm. So I’m faced with a decision: do I blow up my entire bonus (which, by the way, I don’t even get for another couple of months) on a vacation, with no guarantee that I’ll ever recover the money?
Then, I discover this post in my blog feeds, and suddenly the decision is much less difficult.
I’m going to go, have a blast, write up the vacation, and sell it. It’ll take audacity. But then audacity is a virtue worth cultivating.
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Posted by Aadisht
If you’re from faaking Nicaragua or Chad you can enter the Philippines without a visa. Even if you’re from Saudi Arabia. Even Bhutan. But if you’re Indian it’s the application process with documents and visa fees for you.
Shite.
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Posted by Aadisht
My travel writing piece has appeared in Mint.
Hopefully, more will follow.
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Posted by Aadisht
Except this time, the vehicle in question is a cruise ship. Joy.
Details to follow.
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Posted by Aadisht
Kuala Lumpur:
Mumbai:
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Posted by Aadisht
This, dear readers, is where the travel journal ends. As some of you may already know or have realised, I have actually been posting the journal entries from Delhi. Internet access in China was too unreliable to post anything of consequence there, and of course there was the haunting terror that I might post something that would run afoul of Chinese censors, and be thrown into a concentration camp.
I wrote the journal out in longhand in a notebook while I was in China, and have been copying the entries into WordPress since I returned. Here’s a photograph of the journal page that eventually became this post:
And that is all where China is concerned. Maajorly Shadymax Arbit Fundaes will return to its regular programming shortly.
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Posted by Aadisht