Despite the Green Day concert, which in my opinion was quite lame during the last two weeks nothing really important happend in Singapore. I spent 14 hours with playing Chinese Poker, went to the Indian gambling in Little India one Sunday, but that's it.

Singapore - Green Day

But the last weekend was really amazing. I went with Nadine on thursday evening to Bali. The first night we slept quite next to the airport in Sanua in a nice hotel with straw tiled cottages. As we didn't want to have an Indonisian driver arround all the time we finally decided to rent a car and drive it by ourselves. First they wanted us to give a very old and crapy Suzuki Jeep with nearly no tires anymore. But as we thought, some tires would be nice at least, they offered us a really huge car called "Toyota Kijang Innova". We took it.
I told the renter that I didn't have a International Licence, but he told us, in case we should just offer the police 50US and we will be fine. (Fortunately we didn't get into any situation where we were forced to grease someones hand).

So we went along the south-east coast towards Amlapura, stopped at some temples and black beaches to turn after that into the heartland to finally reach after hours on narrow winding streets, passing by some rice terraces, really poor villages and a great landscape, a village called Kedisan at Lake Batur. We spent our night there in a really basic hotel with not very clean towels and linen. But we didn't stay that long in bed anyhow because the next morning we startet at 3.30am to climb Mount Batur in order to enjoy the sunrise from there.

It was a really great tour of in summary 3hours walking. We stopped at a mountain shelter to enjoy the sunrise from there and the guide - that cost ten times the price they wrote in Lonely Planet - cooked some eggs and banana toast for us. After the sunrise, we went further to the mountain top to have a great view of the whole caldera with Laka Batur in the middle.

After we came back and enjoyed a second breakfast at the hotel we drove back towards southern Bali to spend our rest of the day and the night in Ubud, the major city for arts and handycraft in Bali. There we had a look at all the tiny shops and in the evening saw one of the typical Bali dance performances, called "Legong". The dance was really nice but the music after a while kind of annoying :-) The hotel there was great, situatet at the slopes of a rainforest covered canyon in "original" Bali-style.

The last day we went to the southern peninsula to spend our time at a small and nearly empty beach and enjoyed the sand, the waves and the surfer's feats.

In summary it was again a really great weekend. Though the people are sometimes kind of annoying. They are trying all the time to sell you there stuff, there service, there skooter, ... But I think it is really worth a travel!

Singapore - Weekend in Bali

The first week back in Singapore is over and after I overcame my jet lag, it was really awesome.

At my project I managed to write my first script that worked immediately in my entire life. (I love to have success!!)
On friday then there was - because the semester starts today - a information event for exchange students at NTU. I got to know lots of "caucasian" people from all over the world and had a interesting guided tour through the Chinese Heritage Center there.
- Caucasian actually is how Asian's call non-asian white people like Europeans, Americans etc.

In the evening I had again the best dumplings in the world and after that went to "Zouk", a quite famous club in Singapore, that also organized that festival in december. The DJane "Sister Bliss" was formerly one half of the group "Faithless" and it was quite amazing to listen to songs like "Insomnia" performed live.


After 1.5 hours of sleep I went for two days to "Bintan" together with Nadine. The journey by ferry that took one hour was a bit hard as to little sleep, no breakfast, very heavy sea, puking people all arround and a ferry company that showed the most disgusting Mr. Bean videos to us. (I don't know, whether they maybe want people to puke...) But I servived quite good.

Luckily we arrived at our really nice resort. As there it was a really strong wind it was not possible to go to the sea for swimming. But as we where in our room I first saw a really huge Iguana (about 50cm long) crawling on the street right infront of the room. We fell a little asleep then and I woke up by a really loud noise. As I looked to the window about 20 monkeys jumped one after another from the roof of our hotel to the tree infront of the room. Two of them seemed to be scared of jumping and therefor climbed down on our window bar, not without having a curious look inside the room.
In the evening we went to a nice Pub with live band and I did a huge mistake when I sang along the songs too ardent. Finally I head a microphone infront of my face and was forced to sing together with the band. REMEMBER: Don't sing along with a live band!!

On sunday we joined a organized full day tour around the island. We where in four - two japanese guys, Nadine and me - and an Indonesian driver who told as really a lot about the island. Outside of the resort area the island suddenly looke very different. Not clean at all, very small and poor houses in the middle of the forest, but it was really nice. We first went through the inner part of the island, passed by at Durian trees and pine-apple fields towards the island's eastcoast. Nearly the whole eastcoast is seamed by a beach wich is 65km long. There are small wooden houses built on stilts everywhere. And I went finally to the sea which was legendary. It was so nice to see a real landscape and not all the artificial Singaporean stuff. And guess how many people fit on a motor cicle? - At least five! The whole family and additionally some goods are packed on one cicle. Amazing.


For lunch we then went Bintan's main city called Tanjong Pinang. The restaurant where we ate had it's best time long ago and the plates where not clean at all. But I survived :-) The city itself is really, really dirty, you see waste everywhere you look arround and it's also kind of smelly. From the city's harbor we went further with a small wooden boat to a small island in front of the city visiting a mosque and some original houses there. There where loads of really huge butterflies. And on the way back to the city we saw - instead of seagulls - about 20 bold eagles ("Weißkopfseeadler") circling over the water and looking for some fish to eat.

The way back then from the island to Singapore was quite calm and for a nice ending we took a wheat beer at Singapore river together with Philip and Oli, two guys working for ARD in Singapore. In summery it was a really nice and worthwile weekend trip.

Singapore - Bintan

After 10 really great days in Germany, I finally returned to Singapore. I enjoyed my time at home really much and am kind of sad that it was only so short. But life goes on and in 9 weeks I will be back for another great party with you :-)
In the meanwhile I'll go twice to Indonesia, once to Malaysia, celebrate the Chinese New Year - and of course work a little bit. I think it will be a great time, too.
I wish all of you a happy New Year! Thanks again for the nice evening with you at "Nage und Sauge" and sorry for all of you that couldn't come.
Till my next report from here, have a great time!

The last week was at least in the lab a quite succesful one. I got very good results during the calibration of the sensor. And my motor control circuit is ready. The only problem is, that I was again told, that the circuit was to advanced and we'd better used the analogue controllers they always use. I'm not sure how these people can ever be innovative, when they only use analogue stuff. *sigh*

Thursday evening I was - after I did some christmas shopping in China Town - at a cinema in Orchard Road, for watching "Twilight - New Moon". I think that the movie is not as good as the first one and the wolves are animated not very nicely. But at least in TV it is still worth to watch.

Friday there was first a christmas "party" at the International Student Center at my university. I was the only Caucasian there and I guess - as there were only Chinese and Indian people - the onle Christian, too. But they were all very kind and told me, that I was really smart, as I one something in a Movie-Title-Drawing-And-Guessing-Game. (Strike!)

In the evening I went with the msg collegues to their Christmas dinner at Singapore East Coast to a very nice Seafood Restaurant. We had lots of seafood there, but the best were the "Black Pepper Crab" (A crab with a diameter of about 30cm in black pepper sauce) and the "Chili Lalas" (Sea shells in chili sauce).

Saturday I originally wanted to go sailing. But as there was a really heavy rain (I never saw a rain like that before) we went instead to Sentosa for going to "Underwater World" (a hige aquarium with sharks and all that stuff), which didn't work aswell, as thousends of other people had the same idea and were queueing for hours. Plan C then was to walk through the left Sentosa jungle. Well, it's ok, but with artificial cascades and rocks a bit Disney-like. And for touristy climax we went to the Merlion (half fish, half lion). In the evening I went again to Stereolab. Somehow I get really used to electronic music... weird.

And today I experienced what people here think how Spaghetti with Beef should be. It's tomato sauce on dead cooked spaghetti (cut!) with mushrooms and meet. But not minced... I was really a bit disappointed, as it looked like really good pasta on the picture. And Evelyne is laughing at me, as she made the same experience two weeks before and didn't warn me. :-)

Singapore - Xmasdinner

Just a short annotation:
I once drunk that Cab-Drink in Germany. (You know: Cab - Cola and Beer, flavored with Dragonfruit) and was asking myself why it tastes only like Cola and Beer. Since I'm here in Singapore, I know it. Dragonfruit has no taste at all. I'd say even less than tofu, and that's really hard to achieve! So just a nice little marketing strategy from the producers...

Again one week over. It's incredible. And as I will travell a lot in the next year during my stay here I recognized that there are only two three weekends in Singapore left. It's a shame! But I'm sure that I will return to Singapore one day. At least to go watching Formula 1 (which must be really great here in the city) or going to ZoukOut again (which leads me to the last week's events.

In university the circuite for my measurements finally works, after we burned some resistors... But I have to say that the resistors we used in the beginning were from the beginning of UDSSR if not older. And the mechanical engineering student in the project was really afraid of them. He immediatly put on a mask over his mouth. :-)

On thursday there was a presentation of a Swedish guy, who presented the concept of using synergies in Sweden in the medicine technical field. After that everyone got free lunch, they should do that at TUM, too, when there are seminars. It increases the number of participants dramatically.

And I received my hot wire. A 25µm 99.99%-Platinum wire!!! Now we are thinking about how to mount it to a bearing.

Thursday in the evening I went to a hair stylist. It was really adventurous but finally went quite well.

On friday evening I watched the worst movie in my entire life. It was a Hong-Kong production called "Storm Warriors 2". Basically there was no story and it was only a very long sequence of not very well done special effects in Chinese language with not really good translated English subtitles.

And on Saturday ZoukOut, the largest dance music festival in Asia with about 25.000 participants took place at Siloso Beach on Sentosa Island. (After I went climbing with Filza and Evelyne in the morning.) We met before at the condominium of a friend of Evelyne and went there at 1.00 am. Though the music is normally not my prefered music, it was a really great party. And I have to say, that I really liked Armin van Buuren (who started at 5.00 pm). Finally we stayed there until sunrise and I came home on sunday morning at 8.45. (Really crazy, that there are in fact people playing already tennis at that time on sunday :-) )

And tuesday in a week my flight to Germany will depart. wetter.com told me that I have to expect -13°C on my arrival. That makes a temperature difference of about 40°C. *brrr* But nevertheless, I'm really looking forward to my stay at home. Maybe I will see some of you there?

Singapore - ZoukOut and other stuff

The first month in Singapore is over and there is still a lot to experience here.

Last week I learnd for example that it is not advisable at all to start discussions about Singaporean politics with locals. People here are very proud of their country and they like it not having to think about anything. It's quite comfortable to be told how to wash your hands, not to jump in the MRT pit, not to trust anybody, ... But I think I have to deal with that without complaining :-)
And I learnd a lot of Buddha figures at the Chinese market. But in summary they all are good for luck and prosperity.

I university my project slowly gets in shape. A student who does his final year project here - everyone in Singapore has to do a final year project before doing his Bachelor's /Master's degree - is building a really impressing test setup. Dr. Slava, a Russian research fellow has built the circuit for me quite nicely. The only thing is that they take me more as an expert advisor than as a student who wants to learn someting. But when the motion control will be implemented, I hopefully will learn something.

The last weekend I was manly in Chinatown and did some X-mas shopping. In the Red Dot Traffic Building their was a really nice craftwork market. And also at the Chinese market you can find some nice giveaways.
The Red Dot Traffic Building itself is - as I mentioned before - also the Asian headquarter of msg systems. And it has a really impressing Design Museum in it, where practical artwork can be found. For example there is a exhibition of Tupperware products at the moment, that all won the "Red Dot Design Award" in the past.

After that we went to the Buddha Tooth temple. According to my tourist guide the temple was built in the last 10 years in order to show the real tooth of Buddha. Singaporeans spent lots of money and hunderts of kilos of gold to make it possible to built the temple. Shortly after opening they found of that the Buddha tooth was in fact from a cow.

Saturday evening I went together with Nadine to a free outside Jazz concert at Esplanade. It was more like free jazz... it needs getting used to :-)
After that we went to Loof, a rooftop bar next to Raffles Hotel. And I had one of the best cocktails in my life there. "Gummyberry". (Yeah, the name sounds disgusting, I know! But you defenitly should try it, when you ever come there!) It is a forest fruit cocktail with meringue on the top.

Today I will go with Nadine and one of her collegues to Blu Jaz Café. Hopefully it is more melodious than last time.

Singapore - 4th week