Singapore, or, 'It can't get any hotter or stickier, right? Right?'

These past couple of weeks, I have had the amazing opportunity to travel through Asia on business. My first destination was to be Singapore, a country about which I knew very little, with the exception that you could be jailed for spitting, and they still practiced caning. What I discovered when I went was a vibrant, fantastic city with Western influences, incredible food, and some of the most fun I've had in recent memory.

I arrived in the middle of the afternoon, and headed to the corporate apartments, just a short taxi ride from the office. The weather was admittedly a bit warm and sticky (or at least comparatively warm and sticky to the chilly Sydney weather I had just left).

The view from my corporate apartment. Also,

the point where I started to get kinda sweaty.

Those identical buildings in the distance on

the right are a casino being built.

The waterfront at Clarke Quay - which felt

amazingly similar to Darling Harbor. It was

filled with tons of interesting-looking

restaurants.

One of the more interesting cars you don't

see all that often: the Daihatsu Copen.

Ridiculously-underpowered and overpriced,

I still considered putting it in my pocket and

walking off.

The building where the Google offices are

located.

The view from the 35th floor offices - one

of the busier harbors I've seen.

Lah Pa Sat - an incredible food court, and -

incidentally - the largest remaining Victorian

filigree cast-iron structure in Southeast Asia.

Steph took me here for lunch my first day.

Delicious.

Dinner at LPS with some Google-folk.

I tried quite a bit of new food on this trip,

specifically stingray and cockles. The former

was delicious.

My first meal in Singapore: sweet and sour

pork, black pepper sauce beef, and a massive

Tiger beer.

Another evening, I wandered around attempting

to find a hole-in-the-wall place, which Steph

assured me were the best places to go. I found

this one. Shady-ness level: 8/10. Perfect.

I also discovered a delicious new food item:

murtabak. The easiest way to describe it is

that it's essentially a giant Hot Pocket. Yum.

Part of the evening walking tour on which

Steph took me. On the walk back, it started to

pour out of nowhere.

Ooo - pretty colors. The view from my

apartment at night.

I was also invited to Jared's (Steph's boyfriend) 80s-themed birthday party the night I arrived. Had a blast there as well - I was in my element.

Jared, Steph, Steve Perry meets Right Said

Fred meets I have no idea, and Danielle.

I just really like this picture.

One evening, I went with a group to a dive-y but authentic Thai restaurant and ate all manner of delicious foods. Can't remember any of the food names, but much of it was quite spicy. How dive-y was it? Steph said the only stall available in the restroom was a squatter stall and it had roaches in it. The restaurant was clean, though. And I held my own quite well for an Ang Moh.

Fun fact: to hold a table in Singapore, you put a small packet of kleenex on the table.

In Asia and still the whitest one in the picture.

Figure that one out.

Every evening, outside of LPS, an amazing

world of satay stalls came to life. If you were

a block away, you would still get jumped by

someone who would drag you to a table

to try and get you to eat.

We also did karaoke one evening. I shouldn't

have led off with You Give Love a Bad Name.

As a side note, my friend Steph played hostess during my week there, and is pretty much the main reason I had such an awesome time. She made sure I ate at all the right places, saw some of the beautiful parts of the city, and didn't get lost.

One evening, we went with a group to a club called Zouk, and she kept hinting about something called Mambo Jambo. Not wanting to ruin the surprise, she kept exactly what it was a secret for most of the evening before we got there. When we finally arrived, it was the beginning of (as mentioned) the most fun I've had in a long time.

Picture this: lasers, smoke, a continuous mix of 70s, 80s, and 90s pop / rock. Sounds pretty cool already, right? Can't get better than that, right? Wrong. That's where the Mambo Jambo comes into play. Each song has hand movements that go along with it. EACH song. And everyone knows these moves. And there are platforms where people stand and do these moves. And there is a 'Mambo King' who knows all of these moves, and is damn good at them. Doing mambo is apparently a rite of passage into the club scene in Singapore. Here is an example of what I mean. I picked it up fairly quickly, and proceeded to do this for 5 hours. Those of you who know me even somewhat well realize that this is precedent-shattering. Serious fun. At 4 in the morning, we made our way to Spice, an all-night eatery catering to those still out at odd hours.

At any rate, most of you know that any time I'm near a zoo, I absolutely have to go check it out. And wouldn't you know it, Singapore has a zoo. And a rather spectacular one at that. All in all, I spent 12 hours at the zoo. Yep, you read correctly. 12 hours. Not only do they have a phenomenal main zoo, but they have a unique night safari zoo, where you can observe animals at night. The latter was a rather interesting experience, as it started pouring, and most people ran to stand under the main paddock until the rain stopped. I, on the other hand, promptly ran to the gift shop and bought an umbrella. This meant that while everyone else was huddles in masses at the entrance, I was wandering the zoo all by myself. In spite of the rain, there were still quite a few animals out and about, especially when the rain started letting up. Here are some pictures from the main zoo:

10 seconds after I walked in, I knew this was

going to be a great day. Why? This little guy

was just sitting in an uncaged tree a few feet

above my head.

Proboscis monkey! Weirdness, but so cool.

These are Babirusa - they have horns growing

out of their nose, in addition to tusks.

A white tiger - I reallllly want one.

Reason number 2 why every zoo should be like

this one. Didn't stumble upon one of these,

sadly.

A baby pygmy hippo - smallness x2! Blorp.

The entire zoo was flanked by lakes and rivers.

Aww - just like being home! Apparently Steve

Irwin came and consulted with them personally

to build the outback exhibit.

Reason number 3.

The zoo just went on and on - it probably took

30 minutes or so to walk straight from one end

to the other. Also, here's an elephant.

More of the waterways surrounding the zoo.

Mongooses? Mongeese? Either way...

Awesome.

A baby Hamadryas baboon. He tried to walk

away and each time, his mom would grab him

by the tail like it was a leash.

Disposing of the body: you're doing it wrong.

Cheetahs. On a related note, I really wish

they sold Cheetos in Australia...

Photographic proof that, no matter the size, all

cats are exactly the same.

A jaguar - not to be confused with this one.

They had a fantastic orchid garden there as well,

with pretty much every color of orchid imaginable.

Chock full of iguana-y goodness.

Continuing with the trend of large lizards, I

present to you the komodo dragon.

Oh yeah - and I got to pet a giant tortoise. The

oldest recorded giant tortoise in captivity

lived to be 176.

Cringer became the mighty Battle Cat.

And I became the most powerful man in

the universe! Only 3 others share this

secret.

The orangutans were free to roam in the

treetops throughout the zoo.

There was one particular exhibit there called Fragile Forest, which showcased some threatened species in a rainforest environment. The cool part was that it was open, so there were animals roaming all over the place.

I got to pet a sloth. They really are as slow as

you think.

When I was taking this picture, the flying fox

crawled forward and grabbed my camera with

his little claws. Friendly little fella.

I was walking across the path, when suddenly

a ringtail lemur goes hopping across right

in front of me.

In addition to six ringtail lemurs roaming free,

there was one lonesome black and white ruffed

lemur wandering around.

Naptime.

Posing...warily. This baby lemur kept getting

closer and sniffing my ear.

As I was posing with this one, it grabbed hold

of my arm and started licking it. Maybe I

taste good? Maybe it's 8 hours of sweat?

Great - I'm a salt lick.

Lemurs being ridiculous toward the end of the

day when everyone else had gone home and

I had the Fragile Forest to myself.

Considering the heat, I wished I had brought

my swimsuit.

A small park and fountain looking out across

the lake.

They also had elephant rides! Sadly, I did not

partake.

They pulled this poor guy out of the audience

and made him take off his shirt and dance.

Thank God I sat in the back.

I had a spectacular time there, and am looking forward to visiting again sooner rather than later. Next stop: a brief layover in Bangkok.

Middle Earth, a.k.a. - New Zealand

I recently celebrated my 26th birthday (a-thankya) by heading down to New Zealand for a week to do some driving, skiing, and generally to have a good time. Some of you may recall my earlier trip to the north island last year. Having heard excellent things about the south island, I had made a mental note to head back there at some point to check it out. I suppose this is me actually following through with that mental note.

I would also like to add that I will try and make as few Lord of the Rings references as possible. Apologies in advance.

I flew out mid-week into Christchurch, which would be the starting point for my 470 km drive across the south island to the holiday town of Queenstown.

My driving route - from Christchurch (A) to

Queenstown (B).

Along the way, I stopped for all manner of zoos, giant fish, huge fruit, beautiful lakes, and anything else that was shiny / caught my attention.

See the full album here.

Additionally, here are a couple of videos from my visit with the lemurs at the Orana Wildlife park.

Additionally, I figured that while I had taken the time to go to New Zealand, the global capital of all extreme activities, I should do something I'd always wanted to do: skydiving.

Sitting in the plane strapped to my instructor

Marcus, just before the jump.

Nothing like dangling one's feet out of

a plane 15,000 feet in the air to awaken

one's senses.

No warning - suddenly there's nothing

but three miles of sky between you and

the ground.

60 seconds of freefall.

Despite my jowls' best attempts to cover them

up, my eyes are, in fact, open.

Look! Up in the sky! It's a bird! It's a plane!

No, it's *flappuh flappuh flappuh*

Little-known fact: skydiving has an 86%

chance of turning you into Michael Jackson.

Coming in for a graceful landing. It looks like

even the Russian judge can't score this one low.

Success! Not shown: soiled underwear.

The entire trip was an incredible success. New Zealand is such a spectacular country, whether you're looking for food, fun, or just a place to unwind. I will definitely be going back.

The Boys Are Back In Town

This trip back from the states was a bit unique, in the sense that I had a couple of extra passengers with me on the flight - my dad and my brother. My brother is actually going to stay with me in Sydney for a couple of months before making his way to Indonesia for another 6 months, and my dad was taking advantage of cheap flights to SYD and making a mileage run, only staying for a couple of days. My dad showed Brady around a little bit while I was working and helped him get settled a bit. Had a pretty good time with both of them here.

Brunch at Cafe XXII (naturally).

We took a walk around the CBD the first day.

Dad and Brady standing in front of Archibald

Fountain at Hyde Park.

If lore is to be believed, there is a pot of gold

and a drowning leprechaun on the left side

of the fountain.

Wandering through the Botanical Gardens, we

came across a couple of rainbow lorikeets in the

trees.

Thousands upon thousands of bats hang out in

the gardens during the day - chittering, sleeping,

flying occasionally. The trees are full of them.

A flock of cockatoos (flockatoo?).

They were pretty tame - this one let me get

close enough to put a tiny saddle on it.

Couldn't have asked for nicer weather.

Brady in search of sea critters in the rocks along

the park.

Dang - I thought we just had really good parking

karma. I guess there's a reason no one else

parked there.

Enjoying pints and pies at the Lord Nelson.

They brew their own beer, which is delicious.

Cockle Bay doesn't normally look like this -

apparently it was some annual boating expo

that week. Sucks to be the guy moored in the

back.

Home Again, Home Again

If you're a loyal reader, you'll recall that I was just home for 3 weeks. Well, during that trip, I was informed of another business trip back to California...

...2 weeks after returning to Sydney from my previous trip.

I was predicting all sorts of jet lag messed-up...ness. And writing this now, after both trips, I can say my predictions were correct.

That's the only complaining you'll hear from me, though - I love traveling, I don't mind flights, and this recent trip back was a blast.

The purpose of this little jaunt across the pond was to bring together all of the L&D representatives from the JAPAC (Asia-Pacific) region with the Google University team in Mountain view to get cross-trained on some courses, share best practices, promote synergy, and determine a more global direction for the team. Also, this was the first time any of the JAPAC folks had really been able to meet in person, since we're all so spread out. That was fun too.

Ok, I think that's all the business talk - on to the fun stuff.

While they did have quite a packed agenda for us while we were there, the trip was not without its share of fun teambuilding moments. Halfway through the trip, we had a Saturday team offsite, which kinda came together at the last minute. The rough agenda was basically to head up to iFly and do some indoor skydiving (yeah, it's a very brief fall), and then drive over to Dolores Park in San Francisco for a lovely picnic lunch. What follows are the true chronicles of what happened.

Masa, SH, and Geeta at iFly before the dive.

After a brief...briefing, we got suited up in our

totally wicked knee / elbow pads, jumpsuits,

helmets, and goggles.

Sam and Carson - Wonder Twin powers,

activate! Form of...severe eye damage

from light overexposure!

You're essentially thrown into a giant vertical

wind tunnel for a minute at a time. It's a

but awkward at first, but once you get used

to it, it's awesome.

My official photo from iFly. Note the extreme

abundance of jowliness. *insert flapping sound

here*

Goggle-lined and hair going in every direction

except the right one, folks were all in high spirits

after the session.

The drive from Union City to SF was about as

exciting as such drives can be. Waiting to cross

the bridge reminded me exactly what I didn't

miss about California.

After arriving in the city and finding the elusive

parking garage that I like so much, we settled

down in the park. Couldn't have asked for

better weather.

Li-Ming, Woori, and Masa chow down on

sandwiches in the sun.

Because it was such a nice day, the park was

packed. Great for people-watching / hipster-

spotting.

My Brit-turned-Aussie teammate Will, not

smiling nearly as much as he should be on

such a great day.

Sam warily eats her sandwich, which does nothing

to hide the thinly-veiled look of mischief.

A few people were kind enough to wait in

the line for Bi-Rite ice cream (which snaked

around the block) for the rest of us. Paul

enjoys his, cone in hand.

Nothing completes a day like a delicious ice

cream. Well, except for maybe a milkshake. Or

candy. Or perhaps some sort of tasty cookie.

Or cake.

The second week we were there, we arranged a team BBQ on campus, for yet another opportunity to bond. Like the rest of the time before it, we had a great time.

We all got gifts - giant red Google beach towels!

Perfect for grass lounging.

Dinner was spectacular - ribs, chicken, potato

salad, and make-your-own wedge salad.

S'MORES. The quintessential American summer

favorite.

Steph and Eloise - a couple of our European

L&D counterparts who were also in town.

All in all, the time getting to know the rest of the global team was spectacular. Despite what the pictures would lead you to believe, we got a ton accomplished, and it was a fantastic opportunity to spend time with them.