Met a few more netters this weekend. Agreed to meet this person at an Italian restaurant located near the junction between South Buona Vista Road and Pasir Panjang Road (the quality/price ratio is quite good, check it out). Armed with my trusty Translink guide, I thought I could simply take a bus to this place. Oh boy, was that a big mistake. I was "confused" on West Coast Highway for about an hour or so. Eventually met a nice taxi driver who was willing to take me to my destination. When I arrived, it was nice of him (thanks Richard) to wait for me over a vegetarian pizza. This will teach me not to be too arrogant or too confident after only 8 months of stay. Just a side note, South Buona Vista Road seems to be very out of place in S'pore. On the way to the MRT station with SBS 200, the road seemed to be one of those windy mountain roads you would not expect in S'pore. And there were these seemingly useless bus stops along the road. I suspect that these are places only couples would board and alight the bus 8-)
Met another netter on the "bumboat" on our way to scuba at Pulau Hantu. Pulau Hantu translates to the ghost island since the it is supposedly haunted by spirit of a Malay warrior. Thank goodness it's no longer the seventh month otherwise I would not have dared to dive in this place. For S$35 we got two dives off the island. After hearing all these horror stories about diving in S'pore water, the first dive was actually very pleasant. Because of the recent haze problem in S'pore, the visibility underwater was better than above water (Ok, so I exaggerated a little 8-) The wind was calm and the water was fine. We spend about an hour diving around this little reef off the coast. The only disappointment was that my buddy still had 2000 psi left in her tank when my hit 500 psi! Need to cut down my air consumption 8-( But the second dive was horrible. The wind pick up and there were quite a few speed boats racing by totally ignoring the diving flags. One of them even went over the shallow reef where we were diving. The visibility was much less and on our way up we hit a patch of oil slick, yuck! I guess we should have known better by diving in an area surrounding by refineries and shipping channels. It was impossible to get all the oily goo off my wet suit 8-( The only consolation about the second dive was seeing a sea turtle. This baby can really fly underwater 8-)
The Mid-Autumn Festival (MAF) fell on September 20th this year. It is also charmingly known as the Moon Cake Festival or the Lantern Festival. It was the time of the year where the moon is at its brightest, thus the best time for the invasion of Haiti if there was going to be one. The traditional custom during this time are "observing the beauty" of the full moon and pigging out on the delicious moon cakes. After being away from the Far East, it's nice to see all these bizarre varieties of moon cakes being sold on the street (Too bad the ice cream moon cakes weren't available this year). Had quite a few myself and had a bad case of indigestion afterward 8-( This year the moon was a bit obscured because of the recent haze problem around the region. But it's still a wonderful sight if you are with the right person. For the ladies, just be careful of the werewolf, or is it color wolf? 8-)
Another custom that's also being observed, at least in S'pore and Hong Kong, is carrying of the colorful lanterns (I know in Taiwan this is done during the 15th of the New Year.) There was a big lantern show at the Chinese Garden here. You can also see kids carrying lanterns on the streets and the parks. But I have been told by many people that the tradition is fading. Instead of real candles, they have been replaced by battery powered light ("accidental" burning of the lantern used to be the highlight during this time of year 8-) And instead of colorful and distinctive design, they have been replaced by mass manufactured standard lanterns. Or maybe it's simply old timers like us trying to reminiscence about our ancient childhood days 8-)
There is a Chinese saying that the moon is always the brightest or the fullest at one's home town. It might be true since I am a bit confused about where my home town is 8-) But it is true that many old romantic legends have been totally obliterated by the modern scientific advances and discoveries. It's sad to think that the notion of rabbits living on the moon will eventually be treated as nonsense 8-( Since many people have complained that my last article was "kiasuly" long, I will not push my luck by putting in more junk than it's necessary. If you wish to know more or simply want to talk, just give me an email.
28/09/94
