Samomatic

As a very small country measuring 42 by 23 km in size, high ranking Singapore government officials are better paid than president of the USA. Its government has very high decision making power but does not abuse the power, the corruption rate is one of the world’s lowest.

Their subway, known as the MRT, is extremely well planned out and thus owning a car is not necessary. The public washrooms are extremely clean, though there is a fee of 10cents and I wonder if they lose money hiring someone to collect the fees.

I had the chance to meet Frank and Luke, fellow Pentaxians I met online. They were very kind and showed me the local Singaporean lifestyle and sights which added so much more to the overall trip. Frank decided to shoot film for the day, it was interesting to hear him worry about running out of film. :D

This is Sentosa, a resort island connected to Singapore, containing many of the key tourist attractions. Shuttle buses provide the connections between the different attractions on the island.

Underwater World, visitors can walk through an underwater tunnel.

Apparently built-in cellphone cameras are not replacing the digital point & shoot cameras, though I doubt it is any use inside an aquarium.

Next up was the Dolphin Lagoon show. The late comers sat in the sandy area in front of the chairs but some of them would not sit down and was quite annoying and unfair to the others.

I wonder how much power they can output in order to leap out of the water.

Outdoor Jazz performance, food, sunset. Not bad.

The Jurong Bird Park. The tropical climate allow them to house a wide variety of species.

But by far the best thing in Singapore are the people. The crime-rate is very low so the people are warmer toward each other and it is a joy just to walk around the street and see the different cultures and colorful shops.

Probably due to the diverse mix of people in Singapore the people are very accepting toward other ethic groups and English can be understood everywhere.

Their smiles are so beautiful and so genuine. They don’t seem very rushed and would usually strike up short conversations.

Overall it was a fanastic trip and I met a lot of cool people along the way!

The past week in Boston went by way too fast, but I did get to catch-up with friends and co-workers. On Sunday night, Pat, Ryan and I went to the St.Anthony’s Feast in the North End.

Feast is definitely a good word to describe the North End. There were lots of food, drinks, games, and concerts but I still don’t know who St.Anthony is except people like to pin dollar bills to his figure.

Summer in Boston have so much happening and the overall mood is very relaxing.

I worked in the New England Aquarium for 3 days and it was a lot of fun. Even after spending hours near the giant ocean tank taking photos of the different animals I didn’t get tired of the seeing the expressions on the children’s faces when a shark or sting rays swims by.

I had the opportunity to go behind the scenes and watch them feed baby penguins, perform a endoscope check on a French Angle Fish, and join the seal trainers during their training sessions.

Tim and I went on a whale watch and we were very fortunate the whales were breaching (jumping) out of the water! Hard to imagine the power needed to send these 30 tonne animals out of the water!

Work starts tomorrow for me, I am quite excited. Hope everyone have a good start at school and work for the coming term.

So on Monday I went on a whale watch, it was a beautiful day with a very calm sea (1-2ft swells).

I was amazed at the size of the whales, at one point we were moving parallel with a fin whale and it was bigger than our boat!

A lot of time they surface, everyone rushes over but the whale has already made a deep dive into the ocean already.
With the boat, my arms, whale all moving at the same time it was pretty tough to lock on a shot.
Everytime I go indoors I would feel slighly woozy so I stayed outside. By the end of the 4 hr trip I was a little pink and light-headed from all the wind.
I definitely recommend it to those planning on visiting Boston, the staff on the boat were very knowledgeable and throughout the trip provided facts and described different species of whales and their behaviors.

Afterward, I did a photoshoot at the Aquarium focusing on the different animals.

After that I dragged all my belongings to the bus station and hopped on the bus, they gave me some slack and allowed my 82lb luggage. The bus trip lasted 14hrs and by the end even though I didn’t do anything, I felt like I was beaten up. Now I am back home enjoying my mom’s cooking!

My second visit to the New England Aquarium. This time it was pretty empty, probably due to the snowstorm from the previous day, I wanted to take my time and just read about the different species. I love aquariums with its dark and mysterious atmosphere, but it also makes taking pictures really difficult.

Interesting event this week:
I had rounded up about 10 people to go to the circus but about 10minutes before we were leaving from work someone brought up that the circus performs till the 21st and it was the 22nd…apparently when I moved an hour forward at 11:30pm in Bermuda, my watch had not advanced to the next day and so I have been 1 calendar day behind for the past 2 weeks! I haven’t felt that stupid in a long time…and Paul called me a ‘muppet’. LOL.