The Oglivy Center building in Singapore

When I first decided to include Singapore on this trip I thought it would be fun to meet some fellow web developers. In NY I belong to a Flash user group called Flash Coders NY and I did a little search online to see if a similar group could be found in Singapore. Sure enough, I found A-SFUG which stands for Another Singapore Flash User Group (apparently they even have more than one!).

By the time I visited Singapore I was already in contact with Shang, one of the organizers of the group, and we arranged to meet for lunch. Shang works at Ogilvy, an award-winning, global advertising agency (based in NY) with nearly 500 offices throughout the world. I met him at the Ogilvy Center a very nice rounded building on a busy corner in downtown Singapore. Shang brought along his co-workers, Ed, Yulun and Danny all of whom are web developers working in either Flash or .Net.

Area near Oglivy where we ate lunch

We walked about a couple blocks away to Telok Ayer Street. The place Shang had in mind for lunch was closed but we found another option on the corner which offered outdoor tables, shade and fish head curry! There was no need for menus since the ordering was simple. We just ordered one big fish head curry which was enough to feed five hungry developers at the table. The curry came out in a big bowl and included veggies, curry sauce and other good stuff all topped off with a big fish head. I don’t know what kind of fish that was but the head was big enough to have a full set of teeth! The dish was served with white rice, some sauteed green leafy vegetable and something that looked like an egg omlette. I picked up my chopsticks but was a bit unsure of how to begin to tackle that dish especially since the fish was staring at me the whole time.

Fish head curry dish

However, Shang put a stop to that fish’s staring! He reached for his spoon, dug out the fish’s eyeball brought it up to his mouth and ate the whole eyeball, spitting out only the eye socket which, of course, everybody knows is not edible. Mr. fish head then got flipped over and I was sure to get my camera out for round two. Same thing…spoon, scoop, gulp, spit, but this time with my camera snapping away creating a stop-motion animation of the whole sequence. Apparently, people say that the eyeball is the most delicious part. I wonder who the brave person was to first make that discovery!

How to, step by step: Shang eats the fish eye from the fish head curry

While the rest of us picked at the flesh of the fish’s cheek we did manage to talk some shop. Shang and the team work on a lot of full-on Flash websites or microsites for their clients. It turns out that most of the development on the team is done on PC and the IDE (for non-techies, that’s just the software we use to do our coding work) of choice is FlashDevelop. Flex is catching on but for advertising work, which still involves a lot of creative graphics and even animation, it’s not necessarily the most appropriate technology compared with straight-up Flash. It seems as though clients in Singapore get Flash and Flex confused just like they do in the US. Clients request Flex since they’ve heard from the Adobe marketing guys that Flex is the latest and greatest thing out there but they really only need their ad banner or micro-site to be built using Flash and ActionScript. For developers in Singapore, there’s no need to pay extra shipping charges for international Amazon orders since all of the latest technical books are readily available at Borders in Singapore. I was happy to see that the dress code for developers in Singapore is casual just like in NY or Tel Aviv and that’s very practical for such a hot country like Singapore.

Developers from the team at Ogilvy. From left: Yulun, Shang, Ed, Danny

A-SFUG is a fairly new group and they’ve only had a couple of meeting so far. But the organizers are enthusiastic and they’re already using tools like their A-SFUG group on Facebook (140 members so far) to manage participation including events with RSVPs for attendance and other announcements and photos of meetings. I know that many FCNY members are on Facebook and I think it would be a great idea for the NY folks to create a FB group to leverage the organizational tools already in place there too.

I asked about the name A-SFUG and the developers explained that there are a couple of other groups in existence in Singapore. But instead of always waiting to see what kind of meetings those groups would organize they decided to just move forward and create their own group. I have the feeling that Shang and his colleagues will be able to really grow the interest and participation of A-SFUG by the time Adobe releases the next version of the Flash Player Plug-in!

Georgetown
Food in Penang
Jewish Cemetery in Penang
Driving to Penang Hill
Penang Botanical Garden
Penang by Night

Also, new photos have been added from walking and sightseeing in Kuala Lumpur as well as photos from my last weekend in KL.

Singapore Skyline at Night

I haven’t posted anything to the bog other than photos over the past week because I’ve been so busy during my time in Malaysia and Singapore (over the last three days). Both countries were the two new destinations for me on this trip and I really loved what I saw of both. I had wide-ranging experiences in Malaysia such as attending the Thaipusam Festival at the Batu Caves, exploring the sites in Georgetown and motorbiking to see monkeys, tea plantations and scenic views in Penang and the Cameron Highlands. I also got to hang out with friends, old and new, as well as their family, co-workers and other friends, getting a more authentic taste of life in Malaysia.

In Singapore I saw sites and ate great food but I also met some very cool people along the way, all of whom were interesting and friendly. I got to see some examples of a really clean, organized and well run city including advanced urban features we don’t even have going on in New York yet. Last night I spent time near the river eating a huge crab, listening to live jazz and taking photos of the city at night. In addition to the photos I’ve posted, I have much more to say about my time in Malaysia and Singapore but I’ll have to play catch up while in Vietnam over the next week. For now, enjoy the photos and I’ll try to post more soon!

Hainan Association and Temple

Today was my first day in Penang, Malaysia. I actually started my visit to Malaysia over the weekend but I’ll have to write more about that exciting weekend in another post.

I woke up much later than I usually do in Asia because the guesthouse I’m staying in has no windows. It turns out that windows in guesthouses in the center of Georgetown, in Penang, are somewhat of a rarity. I’m staying at the Banana guesthouse and besides the windows situation it’s very clean and conveniently located in the middle of the backpacker strip, complete with a travel agency, cafe and free WIFI.

For breakfast I picked up a steamed bun with vegetables in the middle. I’m not sure what they call them here but they’re called bun bao in Vietnam. I was still hungry but I didn’t want to delay my walk around Georgetown since the day was already hot and was rapidly getting even hotter. I walked down a small street called Love Lane which leads into Chinatown and I passed several other guesthouses and homes. My first stop was to the Hainan Cultural Center where I was the only soul to be found. Even the person tending the desk at the entrance was off on a break somewhere. It’s always nice when you can wander into a place, snap some photos and hear the sound of silence around you.

Cheong Fat Tze Mansion

I then walked over to the Cheong Fat Tze Mansion which is a beautifully designed and decorated mansion turned hotel that was originally commissioned by a wealthy Chinese entrepreneur in the 1880s. I considered spending a few nights there (they have windows) but I think I’ll just take the tour they offer at 11am and 3pm each day.

Re-creation of lodging at the Kota Cornwallis

From there I passed many colonial buildings leading to the waterfront on the Straits of Malacca including two churches, a school, the Supreme Court, Town Hall and City Hall. It’s amazing to see these impressive European structures just minutes from equally impressive mosques and temples and from Asian cultures. On the waterfront I spent a good hour at least hanging out at Kota Cornwallis (kota means fort) which was built by Captain Francis Light in 1786 for the East India Company. The fort features a chapel, gunpowder magazine, lighthouse and an historic gallery. What I enjoyed the most was the recreation of two tents under a huge tree where I sat for a while to rest and read up on the other sites in Penang.

I went to lunch at a typical eatery between Chinatown and Little India where I ate char kway teow, a sort of stir fry with rice noodles, egg, veggies, shrimp and Chinese sausage. I shared my table with an older Chinese man, a lawyer born and raised in Penang (educated in London), who had some encouraging things to say about inter-ethnic relations and tolerance in Malaysia. In contrast, he held a less positive view towards the current education system offered to students today, particularly the level of English which, in his view, is quickly going downhill. I really enjoyed our casual chat and his particular insight into Malaysian society.

I then walked through Little India passed the garment shops and food stalls and snapped a few more photos. I stopped at the Kapitan Keling Mosque where I received a very nice tour and explanation from one of the administrators there. Read all about my visit to this beautiful mosque in my other post: A Tour and a Talk at Penang’s Kapitan Keling Mosque. I then picked up a SIM card for my phone and I was intrigued by the fact that the store owners recorded my name and passport number in order to register me with the phone number. When I returned to the Banana Guesthouse I took advantage of my air conditioned room and rested there to check email and offload my photos.

Wanton Mee with roast pork

That night I went for a walk and I was lured into a small restaurant by the smell of roasted pork. I ate a very nice wanton mee soup which is a noodle soup with wantons and roasted pork, something I’ve had at least 3 or 4 times already since arriving in Malaysia last weekend (sometimes I get it dry on a plate as opposed to in a soup). But that’s not enough food! I kept on walking until I realized I was already sweating again from the humidity, only 1/2 hour after taking my last shower. I stopped off at the fancy Cititel Hotel for an upscale sushi dinner at Kirishima. I was actually on the way to a seafood restaurant in the back of the hotel but, since it was still Thaipusam, this and several other restaurants were closed that day. The sushi, although at New York prices, was great and it was a nice break from fried food and pork.

On the way back to the guesthouse I walked down the lovely Lebuh Campbell which was a street lit up with red lanterns all along the way. It was a beautiful sight and I’ve since returned to that same street to eat dim sum for this morning’s breakfast.

Pam Bok Waterfall Near Pai

We’ve uploaded new photo albums from our first two days here in Pai in the North of Thailand. Check out photos of our motorbike travels:

Pai, Thailand – Day 1
Pai, Thailand – Day 2

Restaurants along the Mae Ping River in Chiang Mai

We’ve just uploaded 4 new photo albums of Chiang Mai by Day, Chiang Mai by Night, our one day cooking class and the beautiful 3 Sis Gusthouse where we stayed for 3 nights.

Rau Ma Drink

Tonight, after a long day at work, I went with Philipp to a local Vietnamese restaurant to try some new food. We started with a cold drink called “Rau Ma” which doesn’t look very appetizing but is very good. Rau Ma is made of ground Pennywort with ice and sugar (lots of sugar).

Bot Chien

This great drink goes really well with “Bot Chien”. Originally a Chinese dish, Bot Chien is made of rice flour cubes with fried eggs and vegetables. This may not have been the best choice for dietary reasons but it was oh so yummy!

Three cute girls outside a wedding hall

Tamar has just returned from the Mekong Delta where she spent the holiday weekend in the city of Can Tho. A new photo album for Can Tho has been added!