Diving in Perhentian

Finally, I did my first dive of the year at Palau Perhehtian, which is located outside of East Coast of Peninsular Malaysia. This is a very special place to me as that is where I started diving. I was there in July 2003 to get my PADI open water diver certificate.

I was quite busy and not feeling well last week actually. My dizzy problem came back again but this time there were no particular reasons. The first day, I decided to just rest at home as I thought was the same problem. However, I still had the same problem at the 2nd morning. So I decided to go to see my doctor. She suggested that my inner ears might have some problem and try to draw out how the inner part looks like as well as explain what causes the problem. It seems that I went to another biology class again. However, everything seems to be better on last Fri and lucky that the problem seems to be gone by Sat afternoon.

So I decided to join them in the afternoon. I did 5 dives this trip and my favorite dive site is Takong Laut (Temple of Sea). The marine life there is really beautiful that I saw plenty of Nemos around and we saw at least 7 babe sharks in that dive. I really hoped I can be down there for a longer time and get the chance to see more things around. I believe I would be back very soon and I won't get bored with that dive site ever. Here are just some pictures that our group took during the dives:






I also spent some time on the nice and beautiful beach. The view and the sea in front of me was really amazing. There were a lot of kids playing on the beach. I really enjoyed their smiles and laughs. There are only "joys" over there. I felt that I was washed by the mother nature again and again with the sound of waves. It was really refreshing. Besides, that was also full moon last week. The beach at night with the moon light is another spectacular scene that I felt the world is so big. I shouldn't 't be bothered with small things around at all. It would be really great if I can find someone to share the fun and enjoyment of both diving and salsa together.

Why Taiwan Matters?

The International Cover Story of the latest Business Week is "Why Taiwan Matters?". It strikes me immediately as this is the question I am thinking all the time. Basically, this article is discussing about Taiwan's important role in the global economy and the obstacles it's facing, mainly the cross-strait issues. However, the part that strikes me the most is "China may threaten Taiwan as No. 1 IT supplier. But for now it's Taiwanese engineers who provide ever-more-ingenious solutions to manufacturing and design conundrums. "In Taiwan, people say the U.S. understanding of outsourcing is backward," says Victor Zue, co-director of the Computer Science & Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at MIT. "It feels more like the Taiwanese are outsourcing marketing and branding to the rest of the world.". It brought me to my questions I got after back from CeBIT.

What's Taiwan's role in this global marketplace? How to maintain its leading position and even create more competencies to sustain this leadership? How can I contribute to my country, Taiwan, on this? Seems it all points to the answers, marketing and branding, which we are lacking of. According to the article, there are only 2 major brands from Taiwan, BenQ and Acer, concentrating its efforts on building up the brands. All of us know this route is very tough as it costs a lot of money and efforts but we all agree that this is the way out for Taiwan. It makes me start wondering if I should go back to join my follow people in this war and bring Taiwan to the next level.

However, I haven't accomplish my mission here. I have spend the past three years working on my babe, RANGER. This is even a tougher fight as its objectives is the same as BenQ and Acer that we want to build up the brand name but we are at a much smaller scale and with very little resources. However, I just can't let go and leave all my previous efforts into waste. I give myself maximum another one and half a year on RANGER and I would need to make it self-sustainable before I need to go back home. It's like mothers who would not just give up their babes easily and want to raise them until they can live by themselves. What a big dream to me at this moment!!

Gathering

It was a big gathering yesterday. One of my old friends, Chau, from Finland comes back to work in Singapore. I was planning to meet up with the whole gang after my class, but I only left office around 8:30 because of uploading the new product packaging design. So I just go straight to meet up with them. Sorry! Teacher.

First, we went to "Tea Joy", the monthly AIESEC in Singapore alumni gathering. I haven't been there for at least one and half a year. I have been kind of busy with classes on Friday night but I finally make it because of Chou and Ying this time. The best rewards I got is to see these two young girls, Ying and Cheryl, wearing "SKIRTS" at the same time. I can only say "Skirts" are not the common clothes for them previously, but you know, people would change over time. Ying & Cheryl, Welcome to the Skirt Team and hope to see your MINI Skirts soon. : )


After that, we went to meet up with the other "mature" gang at the high-end bar. It's a very nice place at the top of the Swissotel Hotel, the tallest building in Singapore. The atmosphere there is a very good as you have a wonderful view of Singapore or might even be able to see part of Malaysia or Indonesia. They have live Jazz music and piano performance. The waitresses are very beautiful and well trained as this is quite a high end bar. This is much better and suitable for us as we are no longer young people jumping around discos and dancing throughout the night. It is a good place for chatting and enjoying the beautiful part of the city.


Chau, great to have you here again and thanks for grabbing me out of the work and study life to enjoy a nice Friday night.

Mayday Long Weekend

I should be at Palau Perhentian this long weekend for my first dive trip of this year, but something cracked up last minute. And it was too late to arrange any other trip out of Singapore. So I just decided to stay back. Luckily, Jess' parents were here over weekend. So we brought them to their favorite Durian Place in Singapore. To be frank, I still can't take anything related to Durian after being here for almost 4 years. My mom always wants me to try because Durian is supposed to be very helpful and good for ladies as our bodies tends to be cold. Unfortunately, I still overcome the wired feeling whenever I smell it, but I guess I got to try it once before I leave Tropical Zone, the place with the best Duriens around.



On Sunday, I decided to visit my dear polar bears as I didn't see them for almost one year. It was very very hot yesterday, especially when we were waiting for the polar beer feeding show around 1pm. We were waiting almost half a hour before that and the bears were sleeping until the few minutes right before the show. They are still so cute as usual. All the audiences around were really amazed by any single movement they got. I guess I would still be touched by the cute actions they have even hundred years later. They are just so cute. I also found another cute bear at the shop. Seems that is a "bear bear" day. : )