Marie, 12 mei 2010
Singapore , Serangoon 33°

The world can be sooo small…

After 30 hours and about 5 of the latest movies I made it to Ozzie and Kangooroo Land.. The land of gold seekers and the Mekka for geologists (as you can guess, I bumped into a few geologists already..hehe).
So far I spent about 10 days in Perth, Started working full days but quickly got a taste of Australian office hours and enjoyed the more relaxing way of going to work.
I got to taste the most different dishes from Japanese (don’t ask me what it was, but tasted nice) to Australian BBQ to the most ordinary Belgian Fries (Oh yes, they have a Belgian Beer café.. Perfect place to bump into some other Belgians and in the mean time enjoy a normal beer, for a ridiculous price of course..).
But the most amazing was to find back some old friends I met along my geologist career.. Went out for dinner with South Africans I met in Namibia and Ghana, went cycling and beer drinking with guys I worked with in Qatar, Latvia and even Belgium, I was taking very good care of by Maarten en Evelien (Friends from university), I met the geologist I ll be working with in the next months who turned out to be French and from the same school in Nancy (and we have some friends in common.. really cool) and I delivered a present from a friend in Peru to the frech born half Belgian-half Australian baby boy of an in the mean time not unknown person anymore.. And all this in 10 days time just made me realise that the world today is really really small and you just don’t know how and when you can meet up with old friends again..

Over the weekend Maarten en Evelien were perfect touroperators and showed me Perth from different angles.. Went for a picknick at the lake (mmm in nice end of summer temperatures, just perfect to get a holiday feeling..), I got to see my first kangooroos and Koalas since a very long time, got amazed by the Australians on high heels hiking in the national park.
We made it just in time to see the sunset and had dinner in Freemantle (the COOL place to be for cool people like us) and there it was clear, if you want to be trendy in Australia you have to forget to put your pants on when you go out.. oh yes, the shorter your long tshirt the better, or if you decide to wear a dress, just make sure there is zip at the back in case you get hot you can quickly zip it up a bit.. (I didn’t know I was this old fashioned, but my girl would not be allowed to walk around like this , actually I should take pics, just to prove my point, I m sure many would agree.. Evelien did and Maarten was just happy he could have a peep.. haha).

For the second week I came to Singapore to teach my Chinese colleagues in some of our software. In the mean I got a chance to discover a new world to me.. A world that seems Western on the outside, but a mixture of Aziatic and Indian with a lot of wanna be western on the inside.. Everybody has an I-phone (apparently more than 60%), but on the menu it is noodles or lice (rice), chicken, fish and cully with chopsticks, dresscode is a mixtures of tastes from traditional to beach wear, everything is possible and pink, purple and kitty are cool for guys .
The city is divided in different areas as China town, little India, .. but this is mainly for the tourists, as the Singapores prefere to go shopping in the huge malls all over the city.
As a good tourist myself I went to explore Singapore with my Chinese collegue (Singapore consists mainly of Chinese, than of Malai, Indians and Euro-Aziatics (the mixed ones)); We walked all over, visited the mall, did a boat trip, went into the flyer (big wheel) to overlook the city and enjoyed a free concert along the river.. We ended the night in the hottest place in town, a mixture of bars from fancy coctailbars to a fake hospital where u sit in a wheelchair and drinks are served as infusions..
Sunday I visited the botanical gardens and discovered how cool bonsai trees actually are..really it is stunning to see how such a small tree really is a miniature huge huge old tree.. The hot, wet climate makes flowers, plants and trees grow like its nothing, so the parks and the streets are just an amazing collection of green and colour we would all like to have in our houses/gardens..

Actually I want to write so much on the differences between the different cultures I ve noticed and been impressed with. How everything is so organised and clean, how you hardly see people smile, its like life is functional, not about making fun (except for Karaoke), how Indian people stay in the uptown hotels and than eat with their hands screaming over the tables to each other.
How superstition is everywhere and the 1 dollar coin is made as a fortune bringer, as the president wanted everybody to have good luck in his pocket..
How everybody is crazy by shopping, but in the chinese areas you ll find clothes, in the Indian electronics of course,...
I think I could go on for a few pages, but its already getting a lot..so..

2 more days left in Singapore (with more local dishes to try and non touristic places to visit on the menu) and than I m returning to Perth, where I ll go camping in the weekend around the Pinnacles.. I m already excited!!!

Met HalloBuitenland.be kun je Mariiiej in Singapore echt goedkoop bellen!