S.E.A. Aquarium - A must visit place in Singapore

Singapore is one of the world’s topmost tourist destinations and it has a lot to offer in terms of theme parks, city life, fine dining, cultural events and the list goes on. Even though Singapore is a small country in terms of geographical size, I never get bored while I am in Singapore as there is always something to keep me occupied. When I first arrived here back in 2009, I wanted to cover all the popular tourist destinations like the bird park, zoo, Sentosa etc. By the time I was done with most of them, I realized that I shouldn’t have been in a hurry. Now that I have covered them, I’ll be be left with no place to visit when I am bored, or so I thought.

Within a few months, the Marina Bay Sands integrated casino & shopping center opened up and then came the Resorts World Sentosa and the Universal Studios. By the time I got a chance to visit them, they inaugurated iFly Singapore and Gardens by the Bay and couple of more attractions which I am yet to visit. Each time I visit one of these newly opened attractions, I think this is the best so far and nothing else can give me that ‘WOW’ factor again. But I am constantly being proven wrong. 

Out of all these attractions, I have a list of places which are my favorite, which I try to visit every time I get a chance. I added one more to the list recently - The S. E. A Aquarium. It is part of the Marine Life Park which is the largest oceanarium in the world. (The other part of the Marine Park being the Adventure Cove Park, which I am yet to visit) Even though it was opened around a year back, I waited till my family was visiting so that we can all go and enjoy it together. However, I was under the impression that, since I am an avid diver and have seen most of the exhibits in the real ocean, I may not be very thrilled. Also I had been to the underwater world in Sentosa before.

I was wrong again. Almost all the exhibits beat my expectations and I constantly found myself saying “WOW” for most of them. While diving, all the natural colors except blue gets absorbed by water once you are past a few meters deep and most of the stuff just looks blue under water. In the SEA aquarium, all of the displays were well lit and the creatures were a treat to the eyes. I felt like I could just stay there looking at the exhibits forever.

The largest acrylic display in the world

My naughty nephew went crazy seeing all the fishes there. He was happily running around screaming “fiiiisssshhhh, fiiiisssshhhh” everywhere.

Within the short span of 6 weeks, I have already visited the aquarium twice. If you are planning to visit Singapore, I strongly recommend that you add the SEA Aquarium to the top of your visit list. After all, the S.E.A Aquarium is the world’s largest aquarium and one of the best attraction I have ever been to, till date.

Another blue blue display

A ship wreck exhibit

One of my favourite displays, the jelly fish tank

"Nemo"

A colourful wrasse. I spent a long time at this exhibit admiring its beauty

"Never underestimate a mountain"

Mountains have always fascinated me. Once upon a time, I used to describe climbers and trekkers as people who have nothing better to with their lives. But it changed over time. As I have written before, every time I am on a mountain, I feel like I am a different person. It all started when I first stumbled up on Mount Bromo, Surabaya for totally different reasons. After that, I got hooked on the idea of being at a summit to watch sunrise. That's when I started searching for mountains which are doable with my level of fitness (beginner).

As with all good things, trekking a mountain needs time and money. So I was determined to find a mountain reasonably tough, but at the same time cheap and nearby, so that I can finish over a weekend. After spending some time in the net, I read about Mount Ophir (Gunung Ledang) in Johor, Malaysia. Information was hard to come by, numerous blogs talk about finishing Mt Ophir as a day trek. Since my main goal is to be at the summit for the sunrise (and of course, photography) I didn't want a day trek. That means, camping at the mountain before going up early in the morning.

Thanks a lot to my crazy friends, especially Jen, who was persistent to find all the details for such a trek, starting from the the contacts of the park office to what kind of diet we need during the trek. The itinerary she came up with was exactly what I wanted to have, a 2D1N with camping and lots of fun. Also, I wanted this trek to be done as a preparation to our upcoming Mount Rinjani trek (more on that on a later blog).

The rough itinerary from Singapore is as follows.

Day 1, Saturday

6:00 am: Start from home towards Woodlands checkpoint. Thanks to my dear friend Andrew, who picked us up from home and dropped us at the checkpoint.

7:00 am: That was our meeting point. After immigration we took an SBS 170 towards Larkin Bus Terminal in Johor Bahru, Malaysia.

The group that rocked Mt Ophir

8:30 am: Since my friend Yao had bought the tickets to Segamat earlier, we just had to reach Larkin terminal to board the bus. We had our breakfast there too. We reached the bus station around 11:30 (~3hrs). We asked around to find a nice restaurant (apparently very famous for their beef) for lunch. Then we got a taxi from the bus station to the park office, gate B for RM10. 

 Gunung Ledang Park Gate

The Gunung Ledang Park office and resort

Since Jenn had done a thorough job of arranging everything (including our camp, cooking stove etc), all we had to do was to fill up some forms with the details of the stuff we were carrying, get our camping stuff and walk on.

A guide explaining the route

2:00 pm Our guide was a bit late, so we started our hike around 2:00pm with another guide.

Starting our trek

Check Point 1

On our way through the jungle

 Using ropes

Our plan was to hike up till checkpoint 4 (CP4) and camp there.

Setting up our camps

4:30 pm We reached and put up the camps. After a short break, we went to the nearby twin waterfall. Its a steep descend and using slippers can get very slippery.

Relaxing by the waterfalls 

We had a great time in the waterfalls. The water was so cold that all the tiredness will go away with one dip there. We also went up to the bigger waterfalls, slightly up hill and stood directly under the falls to get a free back massage.

Cooking dinner by the camp fire

7:00 pm Reached back at the camp and started boiling the water. We had cup noodles and a lot of extra food. After dinner, we spent some more time chit chatting with others. By 9:00pm, I retired to the tent as I wanted to get as much rest as possible before the start of the summit hike

Day 2, Sunday

2:00 am: We woke up to find that it was drizzling. So our hike got delayed by an hour.

We started the hike through the dark and thick jungle around 3 am. Now all I could remember is the long hike through the steep and tough terrain, sometimes climbing almost 80 deg surfaces at KFC on tree roots, walking up top over rocks using ropes, dodging protruding rocks and tree branches etc. I couldn’t take any pictures.

5:00 am: We had our last stop for break here.

6:00 am: As usual, I had to rush the last 20 minutes to reach the summit in time to get the sunrise. The path was narrow and getting crowded with people posing for photographs. However, I managed to reach up top with enough time for me to set up my gear. Even though we were still under the clouds, we got a gorgeous sunrise. People rested for around and hour (except me, who was busy clicking)

 One of the most beautiful sunrises I have seen

The group

For the record - Yeah, we did it

8:00 am: Started our journey back through another “supposedly easier” route. It was just another treacherously long route through thick forest. The only good thing was, we were protected from the sun at all times due to the thick foliage.

I never thought the supposedly easier path will look like this

Using all fours to climb down

Yeah, we had enough water supply from the springs.

Another 40 more grueling minutes to our camp 

Preparing quick lunch

11:00 am We reached back our camps, had an hour of rest, took a quick bath in the river nearby and had our lunch.

2:00 pm: We started our journey back from CP4

4:00 pm: Reached the park entrance, had a quick shower and boarded our van (thanks to Yao who arranged it) back to SG. On our way back to SG, we had a short stop for our dinner.

8:00 pm: Reached back home with lots of great memories (& photos) and the satisfaction of bagging yet another mountain.

The time when I almost got cheated!

Being an engineer and a gadget geek, I know how easy it is to confuse a branded product (especially in electronics) with a counterfeit one and get cheated by a ‘creative’ salesman. That’s why, I usually stick with the trusted shops, when I shop for gadgets, even if that means I am paying a premium for the name. I always try to go with guideline, “If its too good to be true, its probably not true”. Even with these safeguards, I almost got cheated over the weekend at a shop in Funan mall and learned a couple of things from the experience.

I have to admit that I am a sloppy negotiator, especially when it comes to buying a gadget. Usually I go straight to one of the reputed shops which quoted the lowest price over phone and buy it without a lot of bargaining. This time, it was a Canon Speedlite I was looking for, along with couple of other accessories and I decided to go to Funan Digital mall, Singapore. Since I was not short on time, I decided to put my negotiation/people skills to test. 

I went around asking for the prices at various shops. The first shop I walked into was named 25 Cam (#03-25). The salesperson quoted a price which was around S$30 less than the price I had in my mind. “Wow!”, I thought, “a nice bargain and that too at the first shop. Today might be my lucky day”. I told him I’ll be back and went searching for better deals.

After an hour or so, I finished my recon. All of the other shops quoted a price similar to the one which I came up with, after my research. I had a decision to make. On one hand, I had a good offer from the first shop. One the other hand, couple of things nagged me at the back of my head.

1. Is the offer too good to be true? But, I countered with the argument that its not a discount of 20-30%, but somewhere around 10%. (I didn't calculate exactly how much, my mistake).

2. If this shop provided such bargains regularly, why haven’t I heard about it in any online forums? But then again, I don’t necessarily know about all the camera shops in Singapore, may be I have missed this one.

I went to the first shop and let him know about the other things I wanted - a neutral density filter, rechargeable batteries and a diffuser. I wanted a Hoya filter and that’s when the salesman started lecturing me about why Hoya doesn't produce a good ND filter. He offered me a Kenko filter, which in his argument, is better than Hoya. But I could see the real reason why he was pushing me a Kenko - he was out of Hoya 77mm ND filter. But I calmed myself thinking “if I buy couple of things from here, I might be able to get a better price”. Again, my mistake.

Once I had all the things I wanted, I told him to give me the final amount. That’s when the salesman told me to look at a third party flash with a better performance & a similar price but with no obligations to buy. “Alarm!”, a red flag was raised in my head of a possible fraud. I was never fond of third party products. But, I decided to go along with him as I didn't want to offend him.

He told me how the third party flash is better by having a better zoom with support up to 105mm and Canon doesn't (it’s a plain lie) and how it has a better guide number than the Canon one (the guide number he quoted was also wrong) and that the third party one being made in Japan even though he was unable to show me the “Made in Japan” print on the unit. When he saw that I was not convinced, he started to demonstrate. He opened a brand new looking lens cover, and attached it to an EOS 7D and the flash unit. Later he put it back the same way. BIG MISTAKE! If he is opening a brand new cover to demonstrate to a customer and putting it back the same way, how can I trust the unit he is offering me is a genuine product?

I was beginning to think of a way to back off from the deal. I asked for the final quote saying I am going with the Canon unit. That’s when his true colors came out. He said, the price quoted was exclusive of GST (Goods & Services tax) and that I have to pay extra money. (The new price came around the price quoted by other shops). When I tried to argue, his reply was, “I won’t get the money, it goes to the Lee’s (a.k.a the Singapore Government)”. But by then, he had already started putting the stuff back because he knew that I had already made up my mind. 

I was shocked and relaxed at the same time; shocked because of the extend of lies he told me and how nearly I got cheated and relaxed because I didn't get cheated in the end. I waited a bit to decide what to do next and simply walked out of the door. Later at home, a simple internet search showed me that lot of people have fallen prey to these techniques.

I learned a couple of things from the encounter,

1. When there is a voice inside your head telling you about a possible fraud, better listen to it. Proceed with extreme caution.

2. Always ask whether the final price is “inclusive of GST”. Later I realized that if I had done a simple calculation, I could have figured out the price difference was exactly 7%.

3. If there is a difference of more than 5-10% from the consensus price, most likely there will be a catch. Find  it.

4. Its OK to try and find the lowest price, but be prepared to face situations like these where you can be harassed and let down. Be ready to take what you have learned and move on.

Above all, I realized that there are people who lie through their teeth, at your face, to sell things (sometimes faulty), for a profit of a couple of dollars (sometimes, even the reputed stores). These are the ones who doesn't have any ethics, who doesn't know the values of honor and integrity. So it is the responsibility of us - the customers - to be vigilant and not to fall prey to these techniques.

Goodbye, old friend!

This is a post which I wrote the day after I moved out of my previous apartment.

Everyone has their routines, like morning chores or commuting to work or buying groceries, routines that people give little or no thought to, activities that just happen in everyday life when most people are busy planning other things. All of it changes when you know that this is probably the last time you are going to do what used to be just a routine in your life.

Yesterday when I walked to my apartment from the train station, I took my time to do it. I enjoyed the sunset more than I use to, forgot to cross the road since I stayed longer at the signal, simply looking around, got immersed in the beauty of the blue sky during twilight (my favorite time of the day) even though I have seen many times, all of this because I didn't want let go of that feeling, the feeling which I get when I am around that neighborhood for a random walk to the nearby shop or a Saturday morning jogging session, when the feelings are always that of hopes and dreams.

I didn't want to let go because, it was time for us to move out from our apartment, the place where I started my life with the love of my life, the place where we not only lived, but enjoyed every bit of it, for the last two years. The place which gave us nothing but happiness, the place which is full of happy memories, laughter and energy, the place which we set up from scratch, where we painted the walls with “loud” colors, the place which automatically gets transformed to a party place every Friday night, the place which we transformed from a mere apartment to our home.

When its time for us to move on, we all think about the time when we started it and it never looks that far into the past, it always feels like yesterday. The apartment was no different. It gave us a lot of memories to cherish for the rest of our lives. Each of those walls or windows had some special memory etched to it. The place never stopped inspiring and motivating us.

By the time we were done with cleaning and packing the last of the stuff, it was late night. Still we just sat there for a while thinking about all those nostalgic moments. Both of us felt heavy at heart. We felt that the apartment has a soul, one which we created out of our own soul, our lives, one which we hope will follow us, no matter wherever we go.

The last of the beer cans we consumed before passing on the keys to the landlord

Varnam 2013- My first Art Exhibition

As some of my readers already know, I have ventured into many types of visual art forms over the years. I started with sketch pen, crayons & watercolor as a kid but continued to use water color as my main medium until very recently. Lately I've been using acrylic as my main medium due to the ease of use and many other factors.

I enjoyed the whole process of “creation” immensely (the frequency was going down recently as I focused more on photography), but mostly I did it only for my own satisfaction. My family and close friends were my audience and it was their encouragement that inspired and motivated me to do more. I never exhibited my works for an external audience to see (except for the exhibitions I was part of in school and college days).

The fact changed when my good friend Nikhil called me a with an invitation. An invitation for an Art exhibition organised by Kaleido - a digital arts club led by the youth wing of Singapore Malayalee Association (SMA). The goal was to create a platform for amateur artists in Singapore to showcase their work, to give it an international exposure.

Immediately I agreed to join. I had 3 of my works in Singapore and I decided to exhibit them. Even though I wanted to do a new work just for the exhibition, I couldn't make it as I had a lot of things going on.

The exhibition was organised on Jan 26-27, 2013. It was conducted in the SMA building, in Singapore. 11 artists - both amateur and professionals - participated in the event. More than 80 artworks were exhibited with a variety of media like watercolor, acrylic, oil, charcoal etc. Clay modelling, miniature modelling and animations added new dimensions to an already vibrant collection of art forms. The event was a huge success with more turnover than expected by the organizers.

For me personally, the event was a big opportunity, an opportunity to showcase my ability as an artist in front of a greater audience. But more importantly, it gave me the chance to meet a lot of like minded individuals who share a common passion and spend 2 days with them, discussing ideas and exploring various possibilities of a variety of media. This enabled me to get back in track with my long fading passion for colors and to kick start my “painting” activities, again.

Crazy Weekend

My weekends generally fall into either of the following two categories. 1. Good weekends - where I have lots and lots of fun and not even realizing the time flying by, till its Monday morning and yet I feel more energetic (even with all the lack of sleep) and 2. The bad ones - where I usually sit at home doing nothing and simply feel empty by Sunday evening and hate Monday’s so much that at times I end up taking a day off.

Then there is the third type, the one which happens once in a “Blue Moon” - The Crazy One. Two weeks back, it was a “Blue Moon”.

To make the long story short, one Thursday evening, I was at my apartment in Singapore wondering what I am going to do the next day at work and how boring my weekend’s gonna be. But less than 24 hours later, I was a 1000 miles away from home - Phuket, Thailand - the Vegas of South East Asia, trying to figure out how I ended up there.

Now to the long version as on why I was wondering about the next day’s work and why my weekend had nothing planned. Like in all crazy stories, I have a bunch of crazy friends with whom I usually do a bunch of crazy things. A lot of things were happening during the last couple of months (like one of my friend’s finding his better half) that we all wanted to have some time together and thought of planning a trip. Due to some technical difficulties, Manju and I had to skip it and my friends ended up planning it. Since their flight was on Friday early morning, Manju and I decided to meet them on Thursday evening to wish them a good trip. Generally when we meet, we end up suffering from lack of sleep (and hang over) the next day, which was why I was bothered about the the next day’s work. Since they were flying, we didn't have the “default meetup” planned and my weekend schedule was kind of empty.

Well, I forgot about all my worries once I was among my friends and started partying. I remember how we started the evening. I remember we playing cards, loud music, having nachos, singing songs, lot of laughs and talks (some about me not going for the trip) and like all parties, after some time, everything started to seem like a blur and time started to slow down. Soon, it was time for the last bus to head back home and I remember reaching for my shoes. We wished them happy journey (I thinks I did) and walked towards the bus stop.

I've heard people saying that love and alcohol tend to amplify our emotions. Well, I had both in my system and I remember feeling a void somewhere in my head. I think I started my usual philosophy session and after sometime, that crazy idea stuck my head. (I do not remember whether it was me or Manju who initiated it). “Why can’t we go back, book the tickets right now and go with them?” Immediate, as the afterthought, the following questions also popped into my mind. “But then how about work tomorrow, the weekend plans? I haven’t packed anything, well I don’t even have my passport with me, how am I going to do it?” Then Manju said, “The worst thing that can happen if we go back now is, we will miss our bus and may have to get a cab to go home. But the best case scenario is, we can have a crazy weekend”.

And yeah, we did go back, partied more, arranged for “emergency” leave for next day, booked the (super expensive, last minute) tickets (barely 6 hours before), took a detour to get our bags packed, and made it to the airport just in time to board the flight - extremely hungover and with little sleep the night before.

Now when I think about that night, all I can recall is only some flashes here and there. But it was just the beginning of a crazy weekend. What happened in Phuket, is the subject for yet another post. Sometimes in life, there comes a point when you have to do something, without thinking a lot. That’s when you have to remember about the Nike ad campaign - “Just do it” (I remember thinking about it just before boarding the flight). Because, during most of these situations, you know very clearly what you want deep inside. If you ponder a lot over the decision or try to come up with every possible consequence it will make in your life, it might never happen. You might  cherish the memories forever or might regret it in future. But always remember what the “wise man” said, “Never regret anything you have done in your life, because, that’s what you wanted the most at that point in time”

Canon's Christmas gift

Since I click mostly when I travel and I like to travel light, the only major addition to my gear since I first got my DSLR (EOS 450D + EF-S 18-200mm IS) in 2008, was my macro lens (EF 100mm L Macro USM). I have come a long way since I clicked my first shot and recently the then entry level DSLR started showing signs of aging both from technology and wear & tear due to my excessive clicking (around 50K images) & rough handling. Even though it is a quite capable camera, I have started to outgrow my gear to an extend where I feel limited by it in a lot of situations. After seeing the quality of the images produced by the 100mmL, I don’t feel like shooting with my 18-200mm anymore. All these factors made me think about a complete refresh of my camera and accessories. Since Canon offers an excellent collection of SLR lenses, I was able to easily narrow down my choices on that front. But the biggest concern was about my options for an EOS body. I didn't want to go for 7D due to its crop (APS-C) sensor and 5D Mark II is an old model (60D option was “out the window” in the beginning itself). That’s when Canon announced the 5D Mark III which got me excited a lot. The only problem (as my friend Ajai put it) - If I factor in the cost of the body plus refreshing the rest of my gear, I am looking at a possible bankruptcy.

There, I was back to square one. Even though my eventual goal was the 5D MK3, I had no idea how or when I would get there. I dropped the idea of getting a new body and was considering a refresh of my lenses and other accessories like flash, filters etc. That’s when Canon surprised me with their “out-of-the-blue” announcement of a “cheap” (if you can call US$ 2.1K cheap) full frame camera - the EOS 6D - at Photokina 2012, which promised all the features I was hoping for. (Later I found that the existence of “cheap” full frame in the making was the industry’s “worst kept secret” since there were tons of rumors flying around the Internet, which I never knew) 

As per Manju, I was so excited about this news that all I had to talk about for the rest of the week, was about the 6D (I completely deny it). In the paper, its not as great as the 5D MK3 as its supposed to fit right below the 5DMK3 and above the 7D. However in my opinion, the 6D is a much more streamlined product as compared to the 5DMK3, with the likes of the introduction of GPS, WiFi, the significant weight reduction, removing CF cards etc. I don’t care a lot about the 61 AF points or the 100% viewfinder coverage or the 6fps continuous shooting speed of the MK3. These are all nice-to-have features, but definitely not a shortcoming compared to the existing enhancements and especially the ‘discount’ of US$1500 from the MK3’s hefty price tag.

As compared to the Nikon D600, the 6D might seems not up to the mark in some aspects in paper, especially in terms of the megapixel count (which is a boon for me ‘cos I do not want to upgrade my storage), or the 39 point AF system. But I am more interested in seeing how the 6D performs in actual tests rather than on paper. So far, the only data available is what has been published by Canon. I am eagerly waiting for a 3rd party review.

Now that the 6D is out, I am hoping that Canon will announce some refreshes of its current product line, like a replacement of the Speedlite 403EX II or a couple of new lenses (like an 18-300mm) during Photoplus, New York in October 2012.

What all these means to me is that, if I am going for the 6D, I’ll have to replace my 18-200mm with a 24-105mmL, get a speedlite (possibly a 430EX II refresh), replace all my current filters etc etc, which translates to only one thing, I’ll have to apply for the loan my friend was referring to, ASAP!

Life Underwater

This article has been published in the Onam issue (2012 August) of 'Ithalukal' magazine.

"It feels strange the first time. Your mask. Your awkward gear, a bit heavy. You ease into the water and your face slips below the surface. Inhale; the air comes with a reassuring hiss, and for the first time, you breathe underwater. In moments, you forget your mask. Your equipment transforms to light and agile, and you're free like you've never experienced before. With that first underwater breath, the door opens to a different world. Not a world apart, but different nonetheless." - PADI OPEN WATER DIVER Manual.

Indeed it opened a whole new world when I descended to the depths of the sea for the first time. I was barely able to believe my senses, and for a moment I thought I was dreaming. With that first underwater breath, I realised, my world would never be the same again.

Even though I loved any form of water sports from my childhood and wanted to try scuba diving for a long time, I wasn’t able to, until I moved to Singapore. South-East Asia boasts some of the best warm water dive sites in the world. I had an extra privilege. I worked in a place where there were more divers than non-divers. Also, the nature of our work required us to spend as much time in the sea as that on land. That was my motivation. From the information I gathered from my diver friends, I set out and joined an open water course in 2009. My first dive trip, for Open Water Certification, was to Tioman Islands, Malaysia. I've got to say, I got hooked after that.

Even after 3 years, I vividly remember how I felt when I descended for the first time. Once completed with the initial checks, my instructor gave me a final OK to descent. I deflated my BCD (Buoyancy Control Device) and began to sink slowly. After dealing with few distractions like equalising, orienting myself, I looked around. It was like the entire world had turned blue. And very quiet. It took around a minute for me to touch down (~ 6-8m). Since it was our first dive, we were descending into a patch of white sand. As soon as I was done with the basic skills, while waiting for others to finish, I began exploring the small reef near me. I found an anemone there inhabited by a school of clown fish (commonly known as Nemo) so beautiful with their orange and white banded bodies and their graceful movements in the corel. It was my first close encounter with any sea creature. From that point onwards, my world was never the same again, the sea never stopped surprising me. For the remaining dives, I swam along a variety of colorful fishes, saw some weird shaped creatures, all of which forged an even stronger bond between me and the nature.

Shy Nemo trying to hide from my camera, a snap I took while diving in Bali.

Me ‘n my buddy under the wreck of USAT Liberty, a World War II transport ship

A scorpion fish trying to blend in with the reef

I have gone diving in some interesting places, met people from different parts of the world and most importantly, seen some really unique creatures in the sea which sometimes were beyond my wildest imaginations. Each and every time I go underwater, I find something intriguing or learn something new. Even then, I know what I have seen so far is only a fraction of what the nature has to offer. Now that my better-half has also joined me in my passion for diving, I know I will be able to discover more and more secrets, the nature has been holding back from me and that the real adventure is only beginning.

For those who are interested in pursuing this amazing activity, here is some useful info.

Even though there are some introductory course which helps you get a feel of what its like without taking a proper certification, I recommend you start with the certification which enables you to dive anywhere in the world. There are many certifying agencies, but PADI (Professional Association of Diving Instructors) is the world's largest recreational diving membership and diver training organization.

It’s relatively easy to find a dive shop/operator in the South East Asia as some of the best dive sites in the world are located here. Either you can join a trip organised by a dive operator in your region who will arrange all the logistics or you can travel to the specific place you want to dive and sign up with a local dive operator there.

The main prerequisite for diving is swimming. You don’t have to be a world class swimmer, but you need to be able to float/hover in the water for 10 minutes and need to be able to swim 200m, non stop. In my opinion, even if you have to enroll for a swimming course, it’s worth it.

Once you take the first level of certification - Open Water Diver - you can dive up to 18m. The next level of certification is Advanced Open Water Diver which lets you to dive up to 30m. It also lets you do some of the fun stuff like night diving, drift diving, underwater navigation etc. If you are only looking for leisure dives, these two certifications are more than necessary. But there will always be a next level like Rescue diver, Dive Master, Instructor etc which takes your diving skills to a professional level. If you want to push your limits and cross the boundaries of recreational diving, technical diving is the one for you.

So, what are you waiting for? Get, set and dive!

People of Bali

Bali did strike a nerve in me. Or else, why would I still find myself thinking about the blue blue beaches of Kuta or the lush green rice terraces near Ubud or the mighty volcano - Mt Agung which we climbed or the Balinese people, even after a month since I am back? I find it very frustrating, my inability to shake of my thoughts about Bali.

Talking about the Balinese, they are one of my most peculiar people I have ever interacted with. Usually, the natural beauty or the potential activities I can undertake in a place are the main things I look for, in my ideal travel destination. Bali (Indonesia in general) is one exception. I am as fond of the Balinese people as I am fond of the place itself. They are a bunch of very polite and spiritual (may or may not be religious) people. I was amazed to see the dedication and discipline they have towards their conventional way of life. 9 out of 10 people you meet in Bali will be named either Wayan, Ketut, Madhe or Koman.

In the modern world, I usually don’t get the 'feel of spirituality' in day to day life. But while exploring Bali, the temple or a shrine within every 500 sq m, the way the Balinese think in terms of ‘karma’ etc, constantly reminded me of the presence of God all around us. Contrary to the Indian way of ‘investing in God’, Bali temples do not have the slightest touch of extravagance in them. It showed me how simple, things can be. Religion and God for Balinese is part of their lifestyle and not something they practice simply out of commitment or for attracting tourists.

No matter where I traveled in Bali, I couldn’t stop myself from feeling that this place really has something spiritual about it. The cultural capital of Bali - Ubud - with the abundance of its old, moss covered temples, made me feel that I was being watched by the Gods. In the village of Tulamben - where I was diving - I could see at least 2 temples and a dozen shrines from where our resort was. I visited a waterfall and right next to it was a small, beautiful shrine; I summit-ed a volcano, (starting from a temple) only to find a bunch of Balinese at the summit, involved in their early morning prayers.

May be this deep influence of spirituality in their life is the reason why Balinese are extremely polite and service minded. Our dive master took care of us like little kids jumping into water for the first time. When I was down with fever, the landlord shared his meal with me and when we were climbing, our guide literally helped Manju during every difficult step, which was most of the climb. Even a total stranger offered to take me to the doctor when I was coughing too much, and when I refused, he insisted that I take his medication. The experiences go on and on.

Sometimes, I was a bit startled by their attitude towards money, may be a byproduct of excessive commercialisation. Some of them can be extremely annoying with their excessive touting or while negotiating prices, be it for an item or for a service. I wonder why they ask exorbitant rates and the moment we raise doubts, they tend to reduce the rates. But this doesn't even remotely affect the way they interact with you. As Manju correctly pointed out, once the negotiations are over, the Balinese people are as friendly and caring as a close friend of yours.

Bali reminded me a lot about home and I think that is one reason I got so emotionally attached to the place. When we were boarding our flight back to Singapore, I found myself telling Manju, “There is definitely a God and that God is Balinese”. I am sure there is something magical about the place and the people or why else would I keep thinking about a way to go back to Bali?

Sunrise from a Summit

“I am stronger than you think I am”, I told Manju pretending that I meant every word, although I had severe doubts about the limits to which I can push myself at that stage. She seemed to calm a bit hearing that.

“Besides, volcanoes are my specialty”, I added on, just in case I didn’t convince her enough with my previous statement. That seemed to do it, but the next moment, she gave me one of her “looks” from which I can’t hide pretty much anything. Even though she didn’t say anything, I knew for sure that she saw right through me. I guess she felt my overwhelming desire to finish what we have started and that caused me to be totally oblivious to my physical condition. Besides, our guide was assuring us that there is only less than an hour to go, to reach the summit of Mt Agung, the highest point in Bali.

“Sunrise from a Summit” was a difficult dream for me due to my knees. A full 2 day trek to the likes of Mt Kinabalu or Mt Rinjani were unthinkable for me. That’s when I heard about this less than a day trek from a friend of mine last year. And before we knew it, we were planning for it. We trained 3-4 days a week to build up our stamina, with a focus on my knees. We arranged our trek with Mr Wayan and climbing Mt Agung was one thing I was looking forward the most during our Bali trip.

Three days through our trip, I got a severe flu & cold and I was pretty sure that I might have to abandon the climb. That’s when Manju told me “You are stronger than you think you are”, (yeah, she was the one who told me that in the first place). While I was pondering the idea of dropping the climb and salvaging the rest of the trip fearing a bad climb will put me down for a long time, she rearranged our itinerary and rescheduled our climb. Lonely planet says the climb is very taxing even for the fit and that gave me second thoughts about my decision to climb. But I decided to push myself and see what happens. After all, the whole point of this climb was to push my limits.

We started from Ubud around 12:30am and by the time we reached our starting point, around 2 am, it was drizzling. Since I didn’t anticipate a ~101 deg fever, the only warm cloth I had was a sweater. We started our climb with the 300 steps to Pura Pasar Agung temple. While our guide Madhe was praying at the gates of the temple, we were panting and discussing about our possible “stop condition”. Thus we started our long and gruelling journey towards the summit of Mt Agung.

By the time we reached the first designated resting point, we had already taken 2 stops. I started the climb with the warm clothes on, due to the slight drizzle, but had to remove them in between due to my body heating up from the climb. When we stopped, my body was burning and i was not able to conclude whether i was having a fever as all my senses were acting a bit funny. Once our guide had finished his prayer at the small spring there, we took some photos and continued to climb.

How Bali looks at night

I could remember reading that, with a normal pace of climb, we should be done with the forest within an hour or so. But even after 2 hours, we were still surrounded with lot of vegetation. We had to hurry up if we were to make in time for the sunrise, but it was impossible to do so as the more we climb, the trail became more and more difficult.

Slowly, I began to understand the phrase “This is a mighty mountain, show some respect”. At some point during my climb, we had to go through light clouds and I felt like the chill of the wind in my bones. Even though every part of my body was begging me to turn back, I was feeling emotionally “high”. Somehow I kept pushing harder.

I’ve got to say, me and manju make a good team as we tend to complement each other, well. We both drew inspiration just by looking into each other’s excited eyes, which screamed “you can do it”.

Finally, there came a point where we both decided that this is it, we are not summit-ing, we will rest here, watch the sunrise from here and begin our climb down. But I guess dropping something we worked so hard, in the last minute, is not in our blood. Manju looked at me and told me to continue, and that she will follow. I didn’t believe her, but then I started alone.

Since it was almost time for sunrise, I raced as fast as I could, and at many places the terrain was so steep that I had to crawl up. I was afraid to look down as it was too steep which made me feel uneasy. I tried not to think about the climb down.

And just when the sun was visible at the horizon, I summit-ted.

Atop the Clouds

Summit of Mt Agung

Along with the breathtaking view of the rising sun against the backdrop of a colourful sky, I was stunned to see a group of Balienese people doing their morning prayers like it was their backyard. My sense of achieving something big vanished. I was humbled. Nature had taught me another lesson.

Ongoing ceremony at the summit of Mt Agung

I missed Manju. After all, what’s a victory without your teammate. So, I began my climb down without waiting for long, only to find Manju already at the other side of the summit. I climbed back and we spent couple of minutes together at the “top of the world”.

Us

By then, the clouds were coming down on us and we began our climb down. As they say, climbing down is the most difficult part and the most stressful on your knees. By the time we made it to where we started from, it was 2pm - way too late than it should be - and I simply do not have enough words to describe our physical conditions except that for the next two days, I couldn’t bend my knees without “feeling” them.

Over the course of the entire 12 hour trek, an entire array of emotions passed through me. I felt awe at the might and raw power of nature, I learned to be humble, I learned the power of determination and teamwork, I learned to respect the mighty nature and the “Gods”, I felt fear, anger, hunger & thirst, I even felt fever and cold on the top of a mountain, but above all that, I rediscovered how it feels to be an adventurer, one who ventures into the unknown realms.

The mighty Mt Agung

Vantage Point

I like getting the big picture of things. Naturally, I spend time looking for a good vantage point to get a feel of a place, during the travel planning phase, especially while visiting a city. What more can I ask than being in the top of a skyscraper during the blue hour and enjoying the view.

The problem with most potential viewing points in a city is that, they are inaccessible. For example, in Singapore, there are a lot of tall buildings in the city center. Most of them are office buildings and so not accessible to a common man unless you know someone there. Couple of others will have restaurants in the top and you can enjoy a view at the cost of (1) most of them will be super costly (2) they will be crowded and most of all (3) hardly any of them have roof access and so you’ll be stuck in an airconditioned room without a 360 deg view. The very few ones with a deck view are the highly commercialised ones like the Marina bay Sands sky deck (S$20 per person and no access to most of the places) or One Raffles place which can be very crowded at times.

Whenever a friend or family visits me, I recommend MBS or the Singapore flyer to get a good view of the city. But recently I made a discovery, a sky deck with a jogging track in the top, connected between all the 5 towers - read extremely spacious - accessible to public (S$5 per person), with 360 deg view right at the city center and not crowded at all. Most people who visited Singapore before might have noticed it atleast once, its the Pinnacle@Duxton , the award winning HDB apartment.

Thanks to Manju’s colleague who told us about this, we really spent some quality time there. I didn’t have my full gear and here are some photos from my phone.

View towards West

The containers you see are from Keppel Port I think

 We relaxed here for a while enjoying the cool winds

The deck

I was under the impression that there are no public roof access to any of the HDB apartments  in Singapore. Now that I found this, I am gonna start searching for similar, not-so-known sky decks. Hopefully I’ll get to go here again soon and click some nice snaps during the blue hour.

'Adrenaline' Journey

I like to be on the safe side of things, especially when I travel. So, when there is a connection journey involved, I book my tickets in such a way that I have enough time between flights,. But when you have to travel on a particular date, you tend to pack things a bit too tight. That’s what happened to me last week when I had to book a connection flight with only 2 hours in between. I knew it was risky, but in my defence, I knew the transit airport very well and also I've never been delayed before by the airlines I was travelling with. And the first reason helped me from missing the connection flight in a matter of minutes.

All of this happened during my weekend trip with friends to Langkawi island in Malaysia. Since all of us had long year end holidays, none wanted to give our boss a reason to scream at us by asking for more leave. So we planned a weekend trip. In order to take full advantage of the weekend, we planned to reach the destination by Friday night itself. As with all Fridays, around one hour after reaching office - after reading newspapers - our clocks started ticking - to get out of the office. We used different methods like using the back door, setting our on-line status to be ‘In a meeting’ etc to slip out of the office early and discreetly. Somehow we all managed to reach the airport just in time before the counters closed.. 

When we reached the gate, I noticed a strange thing. The flight we were supposed to be on, was not there, yet. (Usually by the time we are at the gate, most people would have boarded). We checked at the counter and they said the flight is delayed for 20 minutes. 

Little did we know that when they told us about the 20 minutes delay, they meant that the flight would have to come from somewhere else in the world. That reduced our transit time to around one & a half hours. 

Since our only option to make it in time for the connection flight was for the connection flight to be delayed, one of my friends was suggesting a fake bomb call to the transit airport. But before we attempted any such drastic measures, the flight crew ‘assured’ us that there is a slight chance that we can reach the transit airport in time. 

We boarded in a hurry, got settled in our seats, captain announced that he was waiting for the clearance to take off and started taxi. We were anxiously waiting for the take off for a long time and later realised that we are not going to take off. Instead the flight was taxied to a remote taxiway and made to wait till there is a slot available for take off. 

Finally, by the time we took off, we kissed our weekend plans good bye.If we had any hope of making it, the flight attendants assured us that its not going to happen. It was also the last flight to Langkawi which means we had to resort to our back up plan, which we never had. But one flight attended did some ‘calculations’ based on her experience with the air routes and said there is a chance that the next flight also will be delayed. 

Since we had nothing to loose, we decided to give it a go. We switched on our mobiles and as soon as we got a signal (after touchdown), we called our friends and we heard the words we all were hoping for, “the next flight is late and will take off in 20 minutes”. 

We could easily make it, provided we are able to get to the immigrations from the tarmac (around 1 km away), pass the immigrations (as it our next flight is a domestic one), collect our bags, get out and get back in to the domestic terminal, go through the whole security process, get to the counters/kiosks, and finally go through the gate security again, in less than 10 minutes. 

At that moment, I became a believer of the concept “adrenaline rush”, as I felt my senses super tuned and my muscles stronger. By that time, most passengers knew that we had to catch another flight and cooperated with us when we pushed them aside while exiting (and the rest of them, cursed us with their ‘ colourful’ vocabulary). After exiting the flight, we ran like we’ve never ran before in our whole lives, reached & passed through the immigration in seconds, split up to collect bags and to find the information counter, screamed at the top of our voice to explain the whole situation and then finally ran through the security again. I was sure that the security personnel were going to shoot down at least one of us after all the chaos we caused there. On later thought, they may have realised that a terrorist probably would like to be much more discreet than us. When we reached the gate, it was half closed and we found our friends anxiously waiting for us at the end of the queue. And so, 10 minutes later, we were on our flight to Langkawi. 

Unmistakably this is one of the never-to-be forgotten experiences in my life which I will probably publish as a book titled “How I realised the existence of the adrenal gland in my body”. If it were not for a combination of sheer luck, quick reflexes & wit and a bunch of terrific friends, we would never have been in that second flight. Even though we went through a lot of adventures later - during the course of our trip - this was the one adventure we never planned, one that none of us will never forget and one that I really don’t want to repeat.

nVidia CUDA, nVidia Optimus, Linux & their complex relationship

After months of brainstorming on whether to get a Macbook or a Win7 laptop, how and where to buy it, what configuration to choose etc, I finally got my new Alienware M14x (Win 7) last week. Unfortunately I got my hands on it last Monday, which in my opinion left me no choice but to reduce my sleeping hours to 3-4hrs a day. With all those extra ‘sleepless’ hours I managed to find, I could accomplish quite a lot of things I had in my rather long TODO list by the end of the week, or so I thought. But I still haven’t completely set up my system, the way I wanted – lots of games, a Linux development environment etc.

The culprit is none other than the most important component in the laptop (for me) - the GPU. Since gaming, photo editing and GPU programming (nVidia CUDA) are the three things I am looking forward to focus on for most of my time, I wanted to make sure I made the right choice in selecting the GPU. The M14x comes with an nVidia GeForce GT 555M and it boasts the nVidia Optimus technology which uses switchable graphics (with Sandy Bridge integrated GPU) for power saving. All the reviews explained a lot about how this laptop takes full advantage of Optimus. But what none of the posts (I read) mentioned was, just like any other new technology, there is no support for Optimus in Linux till date, not by nVidia, not by Linux or not even by the manufacturer (in my case, Dell/Alienware).

What this means is, even though I will be able to use the nVidia GPU in Linux for CUDA programming, I won’t be able to use the nVidia GPU for any graphics applications in Linux. For example, I will be able to do computations on the GPU as a coprocessor, but it cannot be used for display in Linux environment. It doesn’t affect me a lot as I am not looking forward for any graphics programming in Linux in the short term, I already have my hands full with the TODO list I mentioned earlier. But it sure is a bummer considering I wanted to try out some graphics/game programming in the long term in the Linux environment. Hopefully there will be support for the Optimus technology in Linux soon.

I learned this fact the hard way, after spending long hours trying to setup my system to use the nVidia GPU. This post may/may not offer any solutions to any particular problem, but just a few observations and links to some of the sites/forums that helped me in the process.

To begin with, my requirement was to be able to do CUDA programming on a Linux environment in my M14x (GT 555M). On a side note, I have done CUDA setup & programming in the past and was familiar with it. My first step was to choose one of the Linux distributions supported by CUDA. I chose Ubuntu 10.10 and installed it. During my first boot, it asked me to upgrade to 11.04, which I did not accept because I knew that gcc 4.5 or above is not supported by CUDA at the moment. Ubuntu also asked me to activate the nVidia driver which I did it. Then I downloaded the CUDA dev driver, toolkit 4.0 and the code samples. I rebooted the machine and the Xserver failed to start. So, from the command prompt, I removed the ubuntu supplied driver.

sudo apt-get --purge remove nvidia*

Then I installed the dev driver downloaded from nVidia site.

Chmod +x "filename"

./"filename"

I also installed the toolkit (also set the path), samples and the required libraries for building them as specified in the CUDA Getting Started Guide (Linux). I rebooted the machine and again the Xserver failed to start. I poured through support forums & blog entries, tried the black listing method, reinstalled various drivers etc. None of them worked. Ubuntu was unable to load Xserver. So I decided to reinstall Ubuntu and start from step 1.

This time I was more cautious, I did one step at a time. But the moment I installed the dev driver and reboot, Xserver stopped working. What perplexed me more was, I was still able to run the CUDA binaries, which means the driver is installed properly. For a moment, I considered giving Fedora 13 a try.

That’s when I realized that I am using Optimus technology and the thought crossed my mind that what if Linux is trying to use the integrated GPU and nvidia driver is conflicting. My heart sank when I found out that there is no support for Optimus in Linux. There is third party software called bumblebee, which didn’t work for me. Some of the posts talks about a BIOS setting which can force either of the GPUs rather than switching them dynamically. But M14x BIOS doesn’t have that option, yet. So, I was out of options and that when this post helped me. It helped me deactivate the nVidia driver and use the integrated GPU for Xserver. Also the GPU is detected as a coprocessor so that I can do my CUDA programming as long as I am not playing with graphics. Remember to update the Intel graphics driver.

sudo apt-get install xserver-xorg-video-intel

In a nutshell, if your laptop is equipped with Optimus, better use the integrated graphics as of now for Linux. It’s a shame that so much GPU power is simply wasted.

Singapore 101: Riding in Singapore

Update: This post is the first among my Singapore 101 series where I hope to provide some basic information about various aspects of an expat lifestyle in Singapore.

It’s been around one and a half years since I started riding my Honda Phantom 200cc (motorbike) which is my first two wheeler in Singapore (overall 3rd one). Over the years, I get a lot of general questions about owning and riding a motorbike/two wheeler in Singapore. I would like to share some information which I learned after started riding here, which (I hope) will help a foreigner start riding in Singapore.

Pros & Cons

Before going to the details, here are some of the pros and cons of owning a two wheeler in Singapore.

The Good: Convenience & Cost Effectiveness - Even though Singapore boasts one of the best public transportation systems in the whole world, it can get really crowded during peak hours. During after hours, there is no public transportation at all when one has to depend on taxis which can get super expensive. Depending on the distance travelled, public transportation can sometimes get costly also. Having a two wheeler eliminates all of the above obstacles like long waiting periods for a bus or avoiding a traffic jam (which doesn’t affect a two wheeler as much as it affects a four wheeler).

The Bad: Climate - Since Singapore is a tropical country, it can rain anytime and it’s almost impossible and extremely dangerous to ride in rain. Fortunately, the rains here don’t last long.

The Ugly: Fatality - One small mistake can lead to far more serious consequences.

Getting a license

There are three classes of licenses to ride a two wheeler in Singapore.

1. Class 2B – To ride a two wheeler up to 200cc

2. Class 2A – To ride a two wheeler up to 400cc

3. Class 2 – To ride a two wheeler more than 400cc

To start with, one has to get a Class 2B license. To get a 2A license, one has to be a class 2B license holder and should not have more than 12 (traffic) demerit points for one year from the day he/she gets the 2B. (I am not sure about the details of demerit points. Also, it’s the same procedure for getting a class 2 license after getting a class 2A). To get a 2B license, one has to pass a theory exam, a test circuit (which comprises of obstacles like a narrow plank, crank course, pylon slalom, emergency braking etc) and a road test. For class 2A & 2, there is only a circuit test as you are supposed to know the basics of riding (both theory & practical road riding) already.

Before attending the test, one has to enroll in one of the three driving schools in Singapore and attend  various sessions. For example, for the 2A course, one has to attend 3 practical & 1 theory sessions. At the end of each class, the instructor has to certify the candidate is ready to attend the next class. Only after successfully completing the 3 classes that the candidate can appear for the exam. 

There is an option to convert an existing license from a person’s country of origin to an equivalent class (which I did) which will require one to write only a theory exam. For an Indian two wheeler license, up on conversion, you will receive a class 2B license. To receive class 2A & 2, one will have to go through the process described above.

p.s. Just getting a license is not enough for a person to ride a two wheeler, say a friend’s motorbike. He/she needs to have insurance for that particular vehicle.

Getting a two wheeler

One can either choose to get a brand new two wheeler or a used one depending on their specific needs. Different types of two wheelers include scramblers, sports bikes, cruisers, roasters, cubs etc. To register a two wheeler (in the case of a used one), all a person have to do is to go to the LTA office in Sing Ming Avenue with the owner (or his/her ID). It takes only around 5 minutes to complete a form and pay the fee.

General Tips & Information

Renewal of road tax & insurance, getting the vehicle inspected from an approved inspection center, routine maintenance etc are some of the other procedures which comes as a package with owning a two wheeler.

More information about owning a two wheeler can be found in the following links

http://www.singaporebikes.com/forums/

http://www.lta.gov.sg/

http://www.onemotoring.com.sg/publish/onemotoring/en.html

http://www.bbdc.sg/

http://www.singaporebikes.com/forums/showthread.php/164254-RE-quot-Help-me-choose-bike-pls!-quot

If you find a mistake in the post or if there is any critical information missing, please leave a comment.