11th days in Austin

Texas,USA

downtown Austin.

Heather and her 2 lovely dogs.

and the cat that thought he looked like a dog. I guess this cat has never knew how a cat looks like.

Bats and bats.

Hope Too's kidney.

The liver.

the clothings.

Hope Too in sick bay.

Making a heart pacer.

He is now camera shy.

In the surgery room.

The 65kg.

What a week! we left Dave's house on 1st July 2009, Houston towards Austin. A big thanks to Dave, also fellow traveler that had ended his latin america trip few months ago and went back home getting ready for his next big trip.

Dave also brought us to Billy and Anna's house for BBQ where they showed us their rifle and pistol. It seems that anyone could buy guns for self protection. If everyone was not allowed to buy guns, then there isn't a need to do a self protection because nobody has gun. Else, those that needed self protection should buy a bullet proof vest and wear it like they carried guns. I just don't understand.

Houston Motorcycle Exchange was a crap. For those living in Houston, please go to Houston Motorcycle Exchange and tell Tommy that he is the best salesman ever lived. He is suffering from the economy crisis. He is desprate to get money. He does not get into the point. He is a shit. He is just a businessman, not a motorcycle person that will help anyone with motorcycle mechnical problems. His latino mechnic is also not very honest. When the bill came, i was curious why did they charged me for some work that the mechnic did not do. If i wasn't sitting in his workshop watching what he does...... the bill will be on and on. usually these guys won't allow customer to be in the workshop because the shop does not insure customer when there is any accident in the workshop.

people around would say, 'this is america, we trust them. just leave the bike there and you can come back in X hours, ready to collect.'
THIS DOES NOT APPLIES TO HOUSTON MOTORCYCLE EXCHANGE.

So Dave recommanded us to go to Austin, for Gary and Heather for mechnical help.

Samantha and Dave

Goh and Dave. guess who is younger?

Goh and Indy (Dave's dog)

we were certainly impress with the roads in Texas.

Austin

Gary, Heather and Samantha at Austin's touristic attraction. every evening, many people would get a seat in this park to watch millions and millions of bats flying out of the bridge. The design of this bridge accidently became a good nesting place for bats.

we had 4th of July, USA independence day, playing fireworks. Gary and Heather brought us to downtown to watch movie 'Hangover'. the cinema was very different from singapore.

Hope Too is naked, not Goh. This is Gary's workshop.

What happened to Hope Too?

1) the engine was burning too much engine oil. I have to topped up about 2-3 liters of engine oil every 5000km where Hope Too is only crusing at 80km/hr, maximum.

what we did: took out tank and carbs. Gary taught me how to do valve clearance adjustment. I learned a new skill!

2) Handlebar was shakey.

3) The gears were very hard to engage.

4) Bike will creep when stationary on 1st gear.

What we did: Gary change fork oil for me. drained coolent a few times with distilled water and refilled with proper coolent. drained all brake fluid and topped up. grease and clean steering wheel bearing. adjusted my clutch.

What i did: i took out both wheels, clean every parts, change the bearings for front tires, grease and put back. took out swingarm and had a good cleaning for it. I cleaned it like my own rifle. grease pivots and put back. clean brake pistons.

so after 3 days staying in the workshop, We finally got the bike back in a piece and went for test ride. i was so happy.

but the results was not good. The clutch was not doing any better. we did a compression ratio check and the valve clearance didn't seems to help. we had Hope Too admited again, into Ward A, Bed 1.

this time Gary took out the clutch suspecting that the clutch disc/plates were worn out. Nah, it was perfect. what could be the problem? when we were about to put the clutch plates/disc back, we saw a missing washer. i had a complete workshop manual for my bike and in that manual there is a washer. i check with Chan from M-technik in singapore and he has investigated into this many times before me and he is sure that there isnt any washer in that place. it is a printing error. so what could be the problem of the clutch? we still don't know!

Next, we decided to drop the engine. today while Gary went to work, i removed every parts that was needed to drop the engine. when Gary came back, we took the 65kg engine out of the frame, took out the valves and piston to check. well, the Piston rings were worn out. the valve is not doing good. cylinder sized needs to be 'widen' or re-bore. there were also some seals that we need to replace. Piston seems ok.

so, now we have to wait for parts to arrive and do the big overhale to Hope Too.

BTW, we didnt have the chance to visit the NASA musuem in Houston.

Update on previous personal problems back in singapore:

1) Starhub sent me my bill for last month S$3439.63.

GPRS
Date Time Country Charged Type Usage Amount($)
13/06/09 1:57am El-Salvador Data call 2MB 813KB 55.8799
13/06/09 2:39am El-Salvador Data call 0MB 1KB 0.0195
13/06/09 3:09am El-Salvador Data call 14MB 271KB 285.2977
13/06/09 4:25am El-Salvador Data call 1MB 163KB 23.2035
13/06/09 5:02am El-Salvador Data call 0MB 328KB 6.4063
13/06/09 5:41am El-Salvador Data call 4MB 49KB 80.9584
13/06/09 6:22am El-Salvador Data call 3MB 561KB 70.9582
13/06/09 12:02pm El-Salvador Data call 24MB 193KB 483.7776
13/06/09 2:01pm El-Salvador Data call 0MB 77KB 1.5040
13/06/09 11:13pm El-Salvador Data call 24MB 195KB 483.8167
14/06/09 6:17am El-Salvador Data call 23MB 115KB 462.2733
14/06/09 9:00am El-Salvador Data call 1MB 250KB 24.8832
14/06/09 10:36am El-Salvador Data call 0MB 78KB 1.5430
14/06/09 10:48am El-Salvador Data call 24MB 90KB 481.7659
14/06/09 12:17pm El-Salvador Data call 0MB 85KB 1.6601
15/06/09 12:01am El-Salvador Data call 24MB 291KB 485.6918
15/06/09 7:45am Guatemala Data call 20MB 969KB 418.9328

could u believe that? shall i pay? what shall i do now?

2) Automobile association of singapore confiscated my S$10000.00 of bankers garentee without contacting me. i hope i trust them. thro the phone conversation with AAS, they say they will take the $10k from my bank until i have sent the carnet de passage back in their hands, then they have to make sure that i did not make any traffic offences in the countries i visited with the carnet, THEN, they will return the money to me. they also mention that i have to get my bike back in singapore now. i told them the bike is in malaysia and i am in usa. they also ask me how i get thro all these countries without a carnet de passage. hahahaha, i dont want to tell them how! they also warn me that when i return to singapore, the custom of singapore may not let me come back with the bike.

'er...how could that be? i paid my roadtax.the bike is a singapore bike.' i told myself.



i called HSBC also, direct to the person in charge of this case:

Me: 'hi, is this edmond?'

edmond:' missster goh izzit? oh..'

Me: 'i want to check with you regarding the banker's garentee because i heard from my sister that AAS wants to claim that amount from us.'

edmond: ' ah? you better check with AAS first ah? bye.' (spoke with a warning tone)

HSBC got to upgrade their service standard. i put S$10000 with them for a garentee, paid S$214 for a lawyer (their lawyer) fee for this garentee. paid 1% charges per month to HSBC to let me keep the money with them and now i kind of getting a warning from them. bad bad service. to add this on, i applied for internet banking on december 2006 and until now there is no news about it. i sent in the application form up straight to the counter girl in HSBC. bad bad.



now i am in big shit. what shall i do? the bike mechnical problems, the $10k (if AAS are honest enough) and the starhub bill.

Clutch system of Hope Too

Mexico to Texas

Corona, family size. 940ml.

The road is long...

Dark clouds filled the skys of south Mexico every afternoon.

Corona, kid's size. 190ml.

San Cristobal of Mexico. It looked peaceful but for the past 15 years, there were blood.

Every afternoon in San Cristobal we would go to this cafe to have a coffee and it is not uncommon to see old ladies and young kids approching foreigners to purchase their souvenirs. We always shake our head although we like the stuff. I think they should be encouraged to go to school. Then i saw this old man. he bought some color markers and some painting stuff to give it to the kids to draw and color on the paper with cartoons. these kids put down their souvenirs on hand and started enjoying coloring. Thumbs up for what this old man did. He introduced the joy and intrest of going to school for them instead of buying things from them.

two happy customers outside REI store with their new tent replaced free of charge.

Self explained.

one of the old church in San Cristobal.

San Cristobal was a town situated at 2000meters above sea level. It had the coolest weather in Mexico. For the past 3 nights we had been staying there and walked around the peaceful town, drinking coffee, watching people and do some touristy shopping. While we were riding through the tiny lanes in the town, a guy came to me and asked if we were looking for a place to stay as he owed a hostel by the corner. Cool!

Our time in San Cristobal was great although it drizzle daily from 2pm till dark. I saw a very nice ‘Maya’ painting which I wanted to buy. it cost about S$25.00. It was a painting of the main feature of a Maya God and was being burnt onto the leather, not paint or ink. It exhibits the side view of the God which some how looked like the Egyptian type, very rustic looking, portrait like a scroll. Yet the colors being filled on the important part of the God, with the use of deep minded colors had attracted all human eyes that had browsed thro. I decided to walk on to see if there are more of it.

Then there was a lady in her late 20s, sitting by selling DVDs. She was a little bit punk looking with a ring studded on her lower lips which I can’t put my eyes away from it when she spoke. From far we could see the covers of the DVDs were all black and white, all being Xeroxed for cheap productions.

I would not want to reveal over this blog what she was promoting. The DVD was not cheap. I decided to use the money for that ‘Maya’ painting to buy 6 of her DVDs. I was not sick. She is no witch. She spoke good English and could explain the details of every DVD that I took up. I had no regrets on buying them. I had been looking for such DVD for a long time. I asked her would she be in trouble with the police for selling such DVDs?

‘the policemen here are very native and ignorant. They do not know what are all these films.’

Sam and I managed to watch 2 of them in the hostel. It had left me a scar.

We have to move on. We were being too lazy in San Cristobal de la Casa of Mexico.

Wanting to be in USA for 4th of July was the aim. Until today, we had not stay in a place more then a night after San Cristobal.

I was very pleased with the officer that did my import permit for Hope Too. This was the first time that a custom officer would give me a feedback form to rate their service. Then I had good image of the government policies. We traveled on the highway of Mexico which there would be many toll stations. The system here is like Italy where it is a FAIR SYSTEM. The cars would pay as low as the motorbikes, if you view it from the ass hole.

To be direct, motorbikes had to pay the same as the car on the highway. I read a guy’s report about riding a bike in Mexico’s highway would cost US$1.00 for every 10km. That is to escape the minor roads where speed bums would appear on average every 20-50meters when the road gets near to a junction, schools, villages or towns. These speed bum would shorten the life span of Hope Too’s chain, brakes, tires, cables and anything you could think of. I don’t see these speed bums saved lives. There’s a strange system of traffic rules here.

Sometimes traveling on the main road, the car in front of me would suddenly stop and give way to the vehicles on the side road. I had to jam Hope Too to a halt. There isn’t any stop line or traffic lights. I told myself:

‘maybe he is giving way to his father-in-law or someone that he knew’

San Cristobal was the only city we stayed more than 2 nights in Mexico. we continued the journey by the East Coast towards USA. After 5 days of riding, we reached the USA/Mexico border.

Along the way, we met ‘fake police’ trying to stop us in a taxi. We took a video on that! One of the nights in room, someone tried to open our door. We stayed in a Mexican motel at the border. We endured the summer heat and managed to ride the lonely highway day and night to Houston from the Mexican border.

Here, we are staying with Dave. He had been a great host, drove us around Houston. Riding at such summer is a NO FUN thing. The best of what we did was visiting the Singapore Café! It’s the first time we had Singapore food since 1st January 2008, which was about 18 months ago.

We did some admin stuff here like repairing our tent, bought a SIM card, got a new waterproof bag, gather USA travel information, doing our heavy laundry and doing major repair for Hope Too.

We ordered the REI tent online and it was shipped to Singapore before we started the trip. We had been using it a lot especially in Europe and south America. The Patagonia wind had blew fine sand into the tent and had damaged the zippers. Dave took us to REI, asking if they could help us to repair the zippers. Their answer was that they could only recommend us a vendor that does the zip repair, and that is far away in north east of USA, in Seattle. Dave asked and asked and asked the lady is there a third option, finally she agreed on one to one exchange! Now we had a new tent for free! Is this America?

When we reached Texas, everything was so big. Fast food was everywhere. I went into a shop to get a bottle of engine oil while Sam was outside waiting. When I came out, a pretty lady was speaking to her in English. Her husband was also a biker and wanted to invite us to her house. I was a bit in a culture shock after 11 months of Latin America.

Along the way to Houston, about 500km away, we stopped by Mac Donald’s at 430pm for lunch. There was a free WIFI and we could do some checks. I walked to the counter and saw the lady was blond. I was wondering if she could speak English. It was kind of funny when I communicate in English. You may find it ridicules that what’s wrong speaking English to her. Well, for the past 11 months when we walked into a fast food restaurant, we could only order by numbers and answer a yes or no question, if the question was not complicated. Now we could speak without using my hands.

And the funny thing was when we were in Latin America, we felt that we were very peaceful in the restaurants because everyone spoke Spanish and we didn’t knew or understand what the guys over at the next table was talking about. It just felt like it was music playing and we do not need to hold any attention on what they said. Now, we could overhear the conversation from the next table and our mind got into ‘Working Mode’.

Bad thing about today was that Hope Too had some incurable disease that I would not put it under the hands of a Latin America mechanic. We endured till Dave’s house and we could look for a proper person to work on it. We went to Houston Motorcycle Exchange, paid US$245.29 for Engine oil change, oil filter change, spark plug change, a small gasket change and topping up of brake fluid (WHICH I COULD DO IT MYSELF as I had all the spares with me). The only thing which he did was to check the compression ratio of the cylinder (US$30) which I couldn’t do. That Tommy guy, didn’t want to do my stuff, instead, he recommended me to try changing oil and spark plugs to see if the problem is still there. Yes, the problem is still there and it became worst. He rode Hope Too around, tested it and came back talking to me and I did not know that he already instruct his mechanic to start draining the engine oil without my permission!

Well, after some checks, I wanted the most important thing to be done and he tell me he DO NOT KNOW HOW TO DO IT!

I guess there is a crisis here and that made this Tommy guy desperate in getting my hard earn money. We are just disappointed with them.

On the sunny side, we bought a Canon G10 camera online and now waiting for it to be shipped to Dave’s address, despite of the request of sponsorship letter I emailed to Canon Singapore twice, about a month or so ago, which they had not replied. Anyone wants to read that letter?

In Houston, we are planning to visit the NASA site, go to some free museums, celebrate 4th of July with the Americans and finish the DVD that we had bought in Mexico, only after Hope Too’s problem is solved.

We had Bah Kut teh, Sambal kangkong, hokkien mee and nasi lemak for the first time after 18 months! i told Dave that Singaporean like me actually do not have dining etiquette; we enjoyed the food more than the table. do you agree?

We were in a camp site having our tea time. this busload of kids waved to us in the bus as they are about to leave the campsite. 10 seconds later, the bus put on reverse gear and came back to us. about 30 of them came down wanted to take picture with aliens, which was us. Gladly we did. then i showed them what we were doing here, took out our world map and show the kids and the adults where Singapore is and where we had been. they were certainly impressed. Then we had to take picture with them one by one, and they blessed us with their heart. We kissed on the cheeks, we hug and we shake hands. I was glad to do this but after they left, we went shower again, not to say that they are dirty but to be safe of the popular flu here.

After driving for about 10 hours on the road towards Dave's home, we managed to meet Dave when we arrived at his doorstep. he just came back from somewhere. we were so lucky. He also prepared Tiger beer for us!

San Cristobal.

Lets see if Hope Too is heavy enough for the hurricane.

The bridge from Mexico to Texas, was jammed. i had to wait in queue under the 1230pm sun.

El Salvador, Guatemala and my Mobile phone network provider

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_V1yHKM7bAE

Before visiting the Copan Ruina in Honduras, we stopped by a fruit stall along the road. We ate our left over rice from last night’s dinner and bought a packet of sugar cane juice from the fruit stall. The stall was manned by 2 ladies and a man by the name of Yovany, pronounced as Jo-ba-ni. (In fact I dreamt of going to his house last night.) Yovany sold cut fruits to the local tour bus when they stopped. He made a decent living. Like others, he was curious about Hope Too and also wanted to sign on it. Later he treated us with the juiciest pineapple we ever had and wanted to give us some other fruits. He refused our money. At the age of 32, he had 3 children, and one wife. i was trying to help Yovany to sell some big papayas to the buses that passed by.

We selectively chose where to go in El Salvador, which ‘Ruta de Flora’ was along the way to Guatemala. This route was supposed to bloom with wild flowers for the stretch of 30-40km but we were not in the right season. The place we stayed was indeed a place to relax and have lots of privacy, a place which we could slack on the hammock, by the garden and read a book. To add on, the weather was great! We could afford not to shower for a day or 2.

It was a weekend and we took a bus to a nearby town where every weekend there would be food festival and many stores. There were the best meat from the country and exotic foods (not for me as a Singaporean) like king prawns, BBQ frogs and rabbits. It was almost a 70% of local visitors here, including those that were looking for opportunity. There were very old ladies that go around every table without shoe and putting one of their hands out with the palm facing up, selling sympathy. We did not buy any. There were also some elderly, not in their best dress, hanging around the tables to collect drink cans for recycle, ok; we call them ‘can collecting ladies’.

So we were sitting and eating and this ‘palms up’ old lady came to us, I had a quick glance at the ‘can collecting lady’ at next table where she wave her finger, hinting me not to give her any money and we did not.

There were also human birds around.

Human birds behaved like birds, I tried being one before.

Explanation on ‘human birds’:
After eating out at an open cafeteria, the customer leaves the table. The next moment we could see birds flying onto the table trying to eat the left over food.

I did this in Argentina and the local saw me like a freak, didn’t try to talk to me, didn’t try to be curious about where we came from and they just smile.


I saw kids in this festival, picking up left over food from the table and eat. My first impression was shocked! I wanted to buy them proper food. I remained calm and observed further. The kids were happy; they were like playing and enjoying every moment of it. After our conclusion, we don’t think these kids were hungry. They were just daring and wild. They had not eaten such delicacy before as they lived in a simple life and ate simple food. Then I noticed they had started the habit of begging for money (not good) from the people around which we had observed for about 2 hours, there isn’t anyone giving them money but a piece of meat from their plate to share.

this kid is trying to sell something to the couple. we were siting one table away from them.


My turn, they came to me asking if they could have a piece of fruit (something like green lychee) I bought and was on the table. I said ok but each would cost US$0.20. We had a game there. My motive was to deliver a message to them: nothing comes for free, they have to earn it. They try to cheat me with stones and play child’s trick to get my fruit from the table. Good try, at least it was an effort. I was very stern that I was serious with the transaction. One of them gave me US$1.00 for the five of the fruits on the table. I gave him the fruits and he gave me the dollar. The rest of the kids laughed at him because it was too much expensive for him to buy at this price and immediately he gave me back the fruit and took his US$1.00 from my hand. He does not have any concept about money until his friend laughed at him. In the end, there were too many of them crowding around me and I decided to leave without having any ‘business deal’ with them.

We also witnessed older man being birds. Are they really hungry, homeless and had no money to buy food?

There was a church 10 meters away. We visited and saw it was beautifully decorated and the garden was very neat, ready for the Sunday worship session. Was there an issue about poverty in this country? If these people could not afford to eat, they could simply go into the church to seek for help. I strongly believed that the people working in the church or the people worshipping in the church would buy them food.

Guatemala was a big country but we had chosen the shortest route to Mexico. Ok, call us chicken. We had heard from one of our biking friends that he was being stopped by 3 men in mask on the road with guns pointing straight thro his helmet, on his dick and on his back to rob him while he was riding to some place. The place that he visited was a touristic site and it happened few months ago. Our guide book also warned us about the area. Well, it could happen anywhere. It wouldn’t be nice if it happen to us when we were riding. Hope Too is too clumsy to make any quick move. The locals we met in Guatemala were nice and helpful. How?

It was a Sunday and we arrived in a local town. Sunday was a rest day for everyone and there was only a Chinese restaurant opened for business. The young man helping out in the hotel walked us to the restaurant instead he could tell us the directions. We could feel that he was happy and glad to walk us to the restaurant. No chance he would get any commission from the food we paid.

or friend in El Salvador, that had accompanied us when we were reading book on the hammock.

Mexico immigration work was easy as we were the only user at the border that required a stamp on the passport. The custom office at the border does not issue import permit document for Hope Too. We had to ride about 80-100km away to an office to get it done. After the bike was legally imported into the country, we rode further for 10 minutes and were struck by heavy rain and we took shelter at a petrol kiosk for 2 hours. It was about 5pm after the rain had cleared a little bit and we started to roll on. After 1km of riding, a white van horned at us and wanted to stop us. I ignored. The van over took me and the driver showed his badge on his shoulder that he was someone with rank and authority. It was a simple van with only a sticker at the door. He was persistent. I stopped over and the guy with a strange uniform wanted to see our passport. I had a closer look at his official badge hanging on his neck. He spoke with understanding English. I asked him ‘why do you need to see my passport?’

‘Because I am from the immigration office’

When I was about to take out my passport, which I don’t feel very safe when we heard about many fake police, I gave the excused that it was raining and I don’t want the passport to be wet. I could follow him back to the station, which we had just passed and he could check it. We wanted more eyes to witness the situation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4AoPuXDe8U

So far we had 2 days of riding on the road in Mexico and had 2 police stops checking on our passport, which never happen to us before in the trip. They were serious about the check. I guess it was because we were near the Guatemala border area.

Right now I had some problems with my mobile network provider in Singapore. They SMS me

‘Hi, we noted high roaming usage on your mobile service. Kindly call us @ +6568201633 for usage verification to enjoy uninterrupted service. Thank you.’

I called back using Skype. The operator talking to me wanted to confirm that I am still using the number and the phone was not stolen so that they would not interrupt my mobile roaming service. I asked how much was that high usage and the operator said it was S$3500. (US$2333.33) Well, my call to them was to inform them that I had not made any calls, received any calls or any SMS during that 3 days that they quoted and to verify that I did not make any high usage on my phone. They do not seems to care about what my concern. What they want to know that the phone was still with me and they had recorded such usages.

My sister had contacted the officer in the mobile network company, told them that I was not the one using that S$3500. The officer asked if we could proof that it was a fraud. Meanwhile, they might stop my roaming service when they are investigating the case.

But the most import thing now is

1) They shall not stop my roaming services while i am overseas or my mobile contract with them. I am using the mobile phone for case of emergency. If our credit/debit card was stolen/robbed, I would have to use the phone to call back immiedietly to singapore to stop the card. If we have an motorbike accident, we would use the phone to call the local ambulance. The mobile phone ensure my family and friends in singapore for my safety as i could be contacted anytime, with the use of SMS. If Sam was seprated from me, we needed the phone to communicated with each other.
2) My current mobile number is VERY important for me because of my business contacts for the past 8-9 years.
What shall I do?

extreme right is Yovany.

Here is another story, some history between me and starhub.When we were in Costa Rica and we could not access to any of the Costa Rica’s network. Sam had a Sonyericison W810i, bought in Singapore. She is a STARHUB autoroaming customer. I am using a Nokia 5310 bought in Singapore and also a STARHUB autoroaming customer. Then i logged into STARHUB’s webpage and consulted them about not having any access to the Costa Rica mobile network.

My email:

24/05/2009 5:53:32 AM

i am currently in costa rica and could not access to their mobile network. i used manual search and 'I.C.E.' was the only network but i was not allowed to use. please help me to retify this issue asap. thanks.

Then, 2 days later Starhub replied:

Date: Wednesday, 27 May, 2009, 3:32 PM

Dear Mr Goh

Thank you for your email.

We are currently experiencing high volume of queries and apologise for the extended time taken to respond to you.

We regret to inform you that StarHub does not have any roaming partners in Costa Rica. Thus, you will not be able to logon to their network via our SIM card. For more information on the supported list of operators in the various destinations, please visit http://www.starhub.com/portal/site/Mobile/menuitem.09a52aa32d5a86d530710a608324a5a0/?vgnextoid=3b1440a33826c010VgnVCM10000038425a0aRCRD

If you have any questions on mobile services, please email to http://sg.mc763.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=customercare@starhub.com or fax in to +65 6725 1603.

Warmest regards

Buvan

Customer Affairs

Then I had more enquries:

Received on: 31/05/2009 5:58:01 AM

Dear Buvan,

i have a few incoming sms from singapore which i could not retrive from my mobile phone while i am now in costa rica due to starhub not providing networking here while i still pay for the roaming charges.

is there a service where i could retrive my sms from internet?

would there be a resolution for this matter?

thank you.

Then this guy from Starhub replied me not answering to my enquiry but hinting me to terminate the service to solve the problem:

Date: Monday, 1 June, 2009, 1:30 PM

Dear Mr Goh Thank you for your e-mail of 31 May 2009.

As mentioned in our early reply, StarHub does not have any roaming partners in Costa Rica. Thus, you will not be able to receive any SMS.

Should you wish to terminate the International Roaming service, please reply via this e-mail and we will process your request.

We regret for any inconvenience and seek your understanding on this matter. We hope we have provided clarification.

If you have any further questions on our services, please call us on our Customer Care hotline at 1633 (+65 6820 1633 from overseas), e-mail to http://sg.mc763.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=customercare@starhub.com or fax in to 6725 1603.

Yours sincerely

Jayanthi Ratnam

Customer Affairs

Ok, I was not very satisfied with this JAYANTHI RATNAM’s reply. When we went to Nicaragua, we also couldn’t connect to the Nicaragua network too! I email them and asked:

Received on: 05/06/2009 7:26:59 AM

Dear Buvan,

i do understand that starhub does not have any roaming partners in costa rica as starhub website do not have costa rica as a roaming destination.

currently we are in nicaragua which starhub´s website had nicaragua as a roaming destination BUT i could not access to either of it´s network.

when i use manual search, both Claro Nic and NICMS networks came out for the option but when i select either one, the message "NO ACCESS TO NETWORK" came out.

i also used automatic mode and it can´t work. My wife also carries a starhub SIMcard and could not access to the network here.would your retify the problem for me as soon as possible?

for your info, i have been starhub loyal customer since 2001 and always have the roaming service subscribed. thank you.
goh mia chun


STARHUB reply was to advise me some very technical stuff, some adjustment to be made on my phone which they believe that there is nothing wrong with their network and there is something wrong with my phone settings.
They also wanted to know some of my location, my mobile phone specifications. I gave them in details and they did not make any good out of it. OK, the below is their kind of standard reply for such issue. you can try it by sending a ‘coverage problem’ email to them and they might reply the same to you.

Send on: 05/06/2009 10:24:07 AM

Dear Mr Goh Thank you for your e-mail. We have checked mobile service 9XXXXXX5 and confirmed that Auto Roaming service and your call facilities are in good order. Please follow the following steps for further clarification.

1. Re-insert your SIM card and reboot your handset

2. Configure network search to Automatic Selection

3. Check that your handphone is set to Line 1

4. Check that 'Send my caller identity' is 'Set by network'.

Once you have carried out the above, move to an open space and allow your handset to search for available overseas networks for a few minutes. You will be able to roam on your mobile service upon seeing an overseas operator logo. Meanwhile, you may wish to remove your current SIM card and insert it into another handset to check whether similar problem arises.

If the problem persists, kindly provide the following information forour further review.

- Handset Model

- Signal bar

- Country that you are currently roaming

- Overseas network that your mobile phone is logged on to

- Exact Location/area where problem encountered (if applicable)

- Telephone number(s) that you tried to call (please provide exact dialing pattern)

- Error message (if any) on your LCD screen

If you have any further enquiries, please e-mail us at this address or fax in to +65 6725 1603.

Best Regards
Donna

Customer Affairs


OK, I could also give them my GPS co-ordinates if they wanted. I had provided them with some details. They didn’t make use of the details. they just wanted to ask me because those questions seems to be very ‘professional’. I replied:

Received on: 06/06/2009 6:23:53 AM

Dear Donna, thank you for your reply.

after trying out the steps, we still could not connect onto the local network. if i use a manual seach for the network, CLARO NIC and NICMS could appear, then when i select either one, the message: "no network access" came out. currently im using Nokia Xpressmusic 5310.

we had tried many locations in Nicaragua, to name a few:

San Juan del Sur

Rivas

Diriamba

Managua

Leon (our current location for today.)

i also tried to exchange SIM card with my wife´s, she is using Sony Ericsson W810i and also have autoroam service, which also could not connect to the local network.

please help us as soon as possible as this is not the first time that i could not connect into a foreign network.

thank you.

2 days later, they replied, thinking that I am in USA (it shows that they didn’t border to read the problem I had), trying to find fault in me.
I had given them our mobile phone model and they didn’t care to find out the specification of our phone. I felt like talking to a robot with programming fault:

Date: Monday, 8 June, 2009, 11:11 AM

Dear Mr Goh

Thank you for your reply.

Your handset concerns may be due to that fact that various countries use different frequency bands for their mobile networks.

In summary, GSM frequency bands used around the world are:

* 850 MHz (In America)

* 900 MHz (In Europe and many parts of Asia)

* 1800 MHz (In Europe and Asia)

* 1900 MHz (In America)

You may wish to set your phone's default GSM network to 850/1900 MHz while in the States.

For more information on StarHub Roaming services, please visit www.starhub.com/mobile under Roaming › Roaming Overseas.

Should you have any further queries on mobile services, please e-mailus at this address or fax in to 6725 1603. We will be glad to assist you.

Yours sincerely

Amy Law

Customer Affairs

OK, I did some research for them since they do not know what they were talking about:

Received on: 11/06/2009 07:19:40

Dear Miss Law,

thank you for your reply.

my Nokia 5310 is operating at Tri-band EGSM900/1800/1900 MHz. refer to http://www.nokia.com.sg/find-products/products/nokia-5310-xpressmusic/specifications
and my wife's Sonyerricson W810i is operating at GSM/GPRS/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900 MHz. refer to http://www.sonyericsson.com/cws/corporate/products/phoneportfolio/specification/w810i
We had found out that starhub is not a roaming partner in any network in Nicaragua.

refer to http://www.gsmworld.com/roaming/gsminfo/roa_nien.shtml

For your information, we are now not in the state but in Nicaragua. Please clarify the issue of starhub's network in Nicaragua as we could not get any network here.

Hope to hear from you soon.

goh mia chun

ok…. I wait and wait and wait, 3 days later, a response came, asking me for more time:

Date: Sunday, 14 June, 2009, 1:14 PM

Dear Mr Goh

Thank you for your e-mail.

Please accept our sincere apologies for the extended time taken to reply to your e-mail during this peak promotional period. We are currently looking into your concerns, and will get back to youas soon as we have all the relevant information from the respective department. As your previous e-mail is already tracked and being looked into, we would appreciate your patience in waiting for our reply.

Should you have any further queries on mobile services, please e-mail us at this address or fax in to 6725 1603.

Warmest regards

Kissle Cardenas

Customer Affairs

Wao… this person is more polite. I gave them some more time.

Received on: 15/06/2009 9:11:39 AM

dear kissle, we apprciated.

still waiting for a reply,

goh

OK, they replied after 5 days from my last actual enquiry. hoping that I had got out of Nicaragua and got a network and not answering to my MAIN QUESTION IF STARHUB IS A ROAMING PARTNER IN NICARAGUA. lets look at what did they try to do meanwhile during this 5 days of waiting:

Date: Tuesday, 16 June, 2009, 6:14 PM

Dear Mr Goh

We refer to your e-mail of 11 June 2009.

We have escalated your concerns to our relevant department and wish to confirm that you are currently logged onto CTE Telecoms network inEl-Salvador.

Our respective team has also made a test call to your mobile service 9XXXXXX5 and affirm that your call facilities are in good order.

Should you have any further queries on mobile services, please e-mailus at this address or fax in to 6725 1603. Warmest regards Kissle Cardenas Customer Affairs


Of course it is in good order in El-Salvador. I am referring to the network in Nicaragua. did they tried to escape my question? I mailed back:

Received on: 17/06/2009 7:23:37 AM

dear Kissle Cardenas,

i am refering to Nicaragua. i could not get any network connection innicaragua until El Salvador. can you verify what was the issue as wewere intending to go back to nicaragua. our current location is in mexico.

regards.

goh

And their response was:


Thursday, 18 June, 2009 10:55 AM

Dear Mr Goh

Thank you for your email.

We have checked and wish to inform you that the foreign networkprovider in Nicaragua is "Enitel (Claro)". The network will bedisplayed in your handset as "71021 /Enitel GSM /Claro". Please notethat the GSM platform is either 1900 /850 /3G.

If you have any questions on mobile services, please email tohttp://sg.mc763.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=customercare@starhub.com or fax in to +65 6725 1603.

Warmest regards

Buvan

Customer Affairs

ohohohohohohohohohohhooo it seems to be going round and round. STUPIDD!!!
I am going to bang the wall with my head! I told them that about our mobile phone’s operating frequency, is compatible with Nicaragua’s network.

and what appears on the mobile phone for the network depended on the mobile phone’s model. what ever names they have, they meant to be the same network. they refer:
71021 /Enitel GSM /Claro

is the same as
Empresa Nicaraguense de Telecomunicaciones S.A. - ENITEL (CLARO NIC)
or
Empresa Nicaraguense de Telecomunicaciones S.A. - ENITEL (CLARO)
I got the reference from http://www.gsmworld.com/roaming/gsminfo/cou_ni.shtml

like in Singapore, depending on what kind of phone we are using. when we search for Starhub’s network manually, code would come out like:

STARHUB or SH or STAR or HUB or STRHB

all of those meant Starhub.

there are only 3 networks in Nicaragua. the above 2 mention and the other is ‘MovistarNI’. MovistarNI does not have any roaming partners with any countries in the world.

what our mobile phone had searched and received was , CLARO NIC and NICMS, as mention before in the previous email. both , CLARO NIC and NICMS meant was that 2 ENTIEL (CLARO) network.

I felt like talking to a cow or a pig.

shall I email them back with some more stuff?

__________________________________________

ok guys, lets do some work for me now:

step 1: click the below link. STARHUB shows that they have autoroaming in Nicaragua. It’s their website. they could also say that they have autoroaming in the Moon.

http://www.starhub.com/portal/site/Mobile/menuitem.09a52aa32d5a86d530710a608324a5a0/?vgnextoid=3b1440a33826c010VgnVCM10000038425a0aRCRD&vgnextfmt=ItemCMId%3ANicaragua

step 2: go to this page
http://www.gsmworld.com/roaming/gsminfo/cou_ni.shtml

it shows the 3 network in Nicaragua. Click on the ‘roaming partners’ and look for Singapore. Only Singtel and MobileOne are their roaming partners. STARHUB is not.

Step 3: what am I going to prove to you? Is some company trying to cheat their customer? can we report this to http://www.case.org.sg/ or some corporate/commercial crime police unit? Not much Singaporean brought their roaming mobile phone to Nicaragua, only the two of us.

And yet they want to charge me S$3500 for something that I had not used?!?!?!?

Can anyone help me on this?

Goh…

Nicaragua and Honduras

I will keep the border crossing in a summary later when I reach USA. Generally, pay and pay for it.

Nicaragua was quiet easy going. We found that the people were very much respectful to us. The aim in Nicaragua was to look for a lost friend. She is the wife of consulate, embassy of Brazil in Singapore. They left Singapore 2 years before our trip and we lost contact. She was my classmate.

When I was in brazil, I searched on the internet for their location. They are holding the position of the brazil embassy in Nicaragua. When I reached the embassy few days ago, I was told by the staff that my friend had moved backed to Brazil. So we had no more plans in Nicaragua, just to move on, meet who ever that come in our way.





A small cool town in Honduras.


There are many of these ruins in Mexico, Guatamala and Honduras. They are in the Maya period. We can't afford to visit although some travels that we met will always say that we must visit this and we 100% must not miss that. We are quite selective on where we want to spent the money and time on. We are traveling with a guide book. The guide book recommanded readers to engage a guide for the Copan Ruina. US$25 per guide. Anyway, before we engage the guide, we would know what he would say and explain.

This is the place where the Maya king held the ceromany.

That is the stone when every villagers come in and had to bow the head to.

This stone is placed in the position that it is facing the East so that...... and during the sunset, the shadows would........

This is where the king and the queen sleep and have their bath.......


well, for us we are not quite intrested in these tales. what is for what, who did what. there are no proper documantation for all these descriptions. it was all assumptions by the locals, by the scientis and with a bit of folk tales influence. we just enjoy the environment, beautiful stones and structures, big trees and nature.

to visit the tunnel, we have to pay extra US$15 per person for the 20meters tunnel. we didn't went in but one of the guard at the tunnel door wanted to sell us 'on site tickets' which is cheaper. It could be a good deal, maybe we pay $3 per person to the guard and we can see the tunnel. Sam reminded me, although it might be US$3, the money goes to the guard's pocket and the guard will be happy. If we pay the fee to the ticket office at US$15, the office will use this money and make the site better.

the above is self explained. can you see the altar?

the trees that grew up on the stone beds reacted strangely. thick roots will crawl around like snake on the ground for long distance, away from the tree.

Does the Mayas ruin looked like the Cambodia's Angkot Wat?

the above is AD2009, the below is an imaginery picture of what it was.

this tree is huge! we loved being close to the trees.

this is the proportion of me, in red shirt and the tree.

another view of that tree in the ruin.

the picture below is another imaginery prediction with some clues found on site (the picture above), that what had happened during AD200. on top of it is a huge canvas to shelter the ruins from sun and rain.

We spotted these colorful birds. they are so close to us and kept chatting very loudly.

half minute after i took this picture, these 2 birds flew into Sam's direction, so close to her. I think they are used to humans around.

Look at the bird's facial expression, they might need more exercise.

there is a place/province in Honduras by the name of 'Gracias a dios', which means: thanks to God.

we will be going to El Salvador in 2 days time, stay there for 2 days and reach Guatamala and will be out of Guatamala in 4 day's time, reaching Mexico.

good luck to us in Guatamala.

some videos

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2NhTI8zhT4




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxWYjGJ2ItE



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAUHxatdZB4

why save the money? keep it in the coffin?

I cutted myself from the cable during the canopy ride where i only used one hand to held on to the safety line and the other hand tried to reach out for the camera, trying to share a moment with you.

along the way, rain just stopped.

The following ‘diary’ below you might find it boring to read; else you can skip to chapter X.

We didn’t know what to do in La Fortuna as we heard there were many things to do here. Many came here to view Volcano Arena.

It was actually a short distance from San Jose to La Fortuna but we stopped at a recommended nursery and garden to look for export opportunities. The manager was helpful to recommend us another nursery, because they only do fresh flower cutting export.

We rode to the other town which was along the way to La Fortuna, asked around with our fifty cents Spanish and managed to locate the nursery after some wrong turns, dirt roads and lonely avenues. Well, this nursery does not do export but do have a very good collections of Bromeliads and the manager gave me their supplier’s contact which was in China. BINGO!

We tried to stop for lunch as we could see the dark clouds approaching. After a 2 hours lunch break, which was not usual for us, we rode into the countryside of Costa Rica.

good attitude! thou it was raining in san jose, the workers still continues.

The day’s ride was lucky as we could also stop for a coffee break while another cloud of rain started to pour. Even after we had our shower in the hostel, it started raining again. The dinner was with an elderly American couple traveling with their yacht from North America to Panama. They anchored their yacht in Panama and took a bus here. 36 months was their traveling period. Not for us being in the waters….

We spend the next day going around the area and found the best place to view the active volcano. Paid 4000 colones and we could walk around the resort, attached was a huge hiking area while we could hear the boiling of the volcano.

Dusk approached with clear view of few red hot lava rocks thrown out from the volcano entrance. I wondered if there were any ants crawling around that area. We have to ride in the really dark dirt road back to our hostel. Couldn’t afford to stay in that resort. It was about 8 times the cost of our current lodging.

that was the most we could see and get into our camera.

this is what the volcamo suppose to looked like at the peak season, we do not have the luck. we always get attracted by such posters to visit the place.

We headed to Costa Rica’s most favorite and touristic area: Monteverde where it settled one of the world most famous cloud forest and tropical wildlife watching area. This place was flooded with North American visitors and immigrants. From our budget, we would squeeze out S$50 for the park entrance as I always would not say no for nature watching. We packed our sandwich and drinking water for the hike as I knew that a plate of local food (rice, beans, 100gms of meat and vegetable) in the park would cost US$9.00 (S$14.00) each.

these people are really curious. like some visitors coming to singapore viewing the durian tree. ok, we were one of them, looking at the blue bird singing on the tree.

Waking up early (not usual for me) to catch the bus, we walked in the park quietly hoping to spot some unusual wildlife BUT noisy group that walked with their guide we like marching troops on their morning run. Guide was cheap (for some visitors would consider) where it cost US$17 per person. So 2 of us would need to pay for one guide, talking to 2 people at cost of US$34.

Sometimes I would overhear the explanation of the guide to the visitors, which I think I could do a bit better than them. We walked for 4 hours and sad to say, Bukit Timah hill and Pulau Ubin of Singapore would be able to charge US$100 for the entrance.

Anyway, I felt what I wrote from the above is boring. If you feel that such writing is boring please feel so. Writing about what I do, what time at where, who we met, how much it cost…. I think it is boring… sorry for the non-intelligence blogging for the above. Leave me a comment that if you would like to read about what we do, where we went OR our feelings, our findings and observations.

----------Chapter X----------

hmm, what I would share more is the life here:

Costa Rica is about 40% the size of west Malaysia with population of 4 million. This place is flooded with North American coming here for retirement or settlement as Costa Rican was generally peace loving human beings. Crime does happen but not as much as other Central America countries.

Sam preparing.

Prices of food here is affordable, again not for us. A family eatery with furniture and decorations from the 60s would be similar to the price of S$6.50. It is not that kind of fancy eatery where tourist or foreigner would go. For S$6.50, we were served with a rice, beans, raw vegetables and about 100grams of meat with a glass of fizzy drink. That’s the price for 1 portion. Else, we have the option to eat fried chicken, the cheapest food here which cost S$1.50 for a wing only. Not a wing that is as big as Honda Goldwing but a CHICKEN WING.





We went to the supermarket to buy food to cook and certainly we could only afford chicken only. If u want to know about the price of meat here, let me know and I will go and survey tomorrow and give u the actual price. I do not know how much it cost in detail but 1 KG of pork would cost not lesser than S$10.

How do the folks survive? I don’t know. Then I read from a travel book, that the author spoke to some North Americans setting up business here, complaining about their Costa Rican staff, saying:

‘These people just don’t like to work, they are just lazy.’

They came here to share the pie or set up business to ‘snatch’ away customer from the locally grown company own by Costa Ricans and yet they would complaint about the staff (Costa Ricans) they had.

Hey, this is Latin America. Is it because there are too much foreigners coming here to live and the government had tax on all products and made the cost of living higher? Making us, the Asian, coming here and feel like spending the money as expensive in northern Europe?

19% tourist tax imposed on every tourist business including lodging and restaurants. Usually they would include the price of food and room with the tax.

Coming to Monteverde, Costa Rica’s most populated touristic area, we had to ride Hope Too 40km of real dirt road with some motocross obstacle that include mud slide, rocks pour in blind corner, hide and seek holes that will sent Hope Too into state of coma. Then the only paved road here is in the town only, in total that is less than 1km paved road.

Most of the major roads in Costa Rica were paved but I do accept the fact that unpaved road would happen to villages where traffic is not heavy but this place, Monteverde is populated with tourist! Where does the 19% tourist tax go? After 10 nights in Costa Rica, the only police we saw on the road was:

1) 1st night where the policemen were in their truck, stopping by a group of guys hanging out at a dark corner shaking hands with them.
2) San Jose: sitting in their Toyota Hilux watching people
3) On the way to La Fortuna, a road leading to a small village where the police set up road block.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that the policemen are not working here or they are lazy or crime rate is high. Maybe the country is so safe that they do not need many policemen around BUT why would a fast food restaurant, book store or electronic shop need an ARMED SECURITY GUARD WITH PUMP GUNS or SUBMACHINE GUNS?

this is what they call a taxi ride.

In San Jose, while walking back from the embassy, we passed by a shop selling hand guns, knife and stuff like that. I walked in, browsed around the shelf and saw a Negro man, with the Bob Marley hairstyle and big gold bracelet and necklace checking the handguns with the owner, like in those Hollywood movies where they made some gun check without the bullet. How would you feel? Anyone here could buy arms and what kind of people are they?

Again, don’t get me wrong about the black man I saw, it doesn’t mean the outlook seems that he is a bad person or he might be organizing some crime, he might be a government official coming to this shop to make sure everything runs well.

Last night after dinner, we met an Asiatic looking girl in the Hostel. She was born in Taiwan and raised in Canada. Her name was Jennifer Wu Wan Ping. 吴婉萍. This was the first time I met a person along the trip that had the same surname as me. Jennifer shared with me that when she went back to Taiwan and spoke to the folks with her Mandarin mixed slang with English, the Taiwaness mistaken her for being a Singaporean. We also met Mauricio, a Costa Rican coming here for holidays. He shared with me a lot of views and internal affairs of the country:

Costa Rica is known as the Switzerland of Central America and they feel that how Singapore runs the country is worth an example.

Costa Rica is trying to make a free trade agreement with Singapore.

Costa Rican need not do national service because they do not have an army! Why a country would needs an army? The main reason is to defense. If every country in this world does not have army, then who will we be defending against?

War? If there are no valid reasons for a war the UN and USA would step in to help the armless country.

i will post a video on this, flying across the forest.

country 30: costa rica

The nice little place we stayed in Panama, Boquete. we had our own room, Hope Too just 3 meters away from our door, other travelers came here just go back to their room as we need not answer to their questions. we have our own privacy here.


A garden of a private property opened to the public. we were allowed to enter and roam freely around the property except for their house.


We have to pass by this 'gate' when we ride towards Boquete. There will be some unknowned liquid sprayed onto all passing vehicles. I guess it must be some hygenie control. I made a bypass, had this kind of treatment in Turkey-Greece border. Not once but 3 times at the same gate. We went into the greece border (1st time), the custom officer said we have to go to the Turkey border to purchase an insurance so we rode back, there isn't any bypass like this so again, 2nd time. after buying, we went back to the Greece border, (3rd time). Maybe the European union want to keep Asians being clean when entering the Continent. If Singapore-Malaysia border is going to implement this, i would be the first to do a rain coat rental business there.


We were lost upon entering Costa Rica. It was raining and there wasn't a soul on this path. We continued the rocky path and had a fall. Hope Too stepped onto a series of big rocks. Luckily we met some villagers that guided the way. Imagine if there were some bandits hiding in the bush, we wound not be able to make a quick stop, U-turn or speed up.

The road leading to San Jose passed alot of national parks, rivers and rainforest.

Pineapple plantation. It lasted for about 15-20km along the highway.

These granite spheres left by pre-Columbian cultures were scattered all around the town of Palmar Sur.

More of them.

Our first place to visit in Costa Rica is this world-renowned Wilson Botanical Gardens, residing over 5000 species of tropical plants, orchids, epiphytes and trees. Hosting 331 bird species. This garden also held the number 2 ranking in the world for having the most species of palms.

Costa Rica inhabited Bromeliads, one of the best collections around the world.

Not forgetting many Heliconia lovers from all around the world came for it.

Pineapple anyone? It is not the edible type we have at home.

Some other friends we met, they were actually quite shy.

There would be rain in Costa Rica in this season, almost every afternoon. We have to set off early, reaching the destination being wet. We stayed in San Jose to settle the Visas that we need for. Nicaragua, El Salcador and Mexico. Surprisingly these countries excepted the USA visa that we had except for Mexico.

We would be visiting an active volcano tomorrow. Cloud forest reserve after that, doing tree canopy, meeting with Ceiba Tree of 10meters in trunk diameter, looking for colorful frogs (don't tell Sam), white face monkeys, pumas (if we are lucky) and many more friends from the nature. stay tuned and keep the rain behind us, please....

Getting out of Panama

The sailing trip was made fun with friends on the Fritz the Cat. What annoying me were the promises made by the captain. When I first shake his it was rough. I knew that he was a working person, not the soft type that uses pen or the computer a lot. I paid US$300 for Hope Too. Captain said it include everything. When I ask ‘what about this, what about that?’ he replied ‘I said everything and I mean everything, trust me’.

So the issue was he did not give me a proper import permit. He went to the immigration office and got a stamp on my owner’s registration paper and he try to convince me that it was everything that I need to have. I was not satisfied so I proceed the journey, left the boat, to Panama City. That was a Friday.

I couldn’t do much paperwork with the government officials on Friday late afternoon, Saturday and Sunday. meanwhile the captain ask me to keep in contact with Erica, which she promised us that she will meet us on Monday to bring us to the custom office in Panama city to get a proper paper.

We call her on Saturday and whole Sunday morning she didn’t pick up the mobile. Until they really pissed me off in the Sunday afternoon conversation. Erica told Sam many excuses for not to meet us, things like:

The US$300 was only documents on Columbia side.
the bike was initially charged US$375 but we charged you US$300.
We are busy on Monday.

then I talked to the captain, he ‘explained’ to me:

look, we have things to do on Monday. if you insist us to go to the custom with u then we have to charge you for the job we had to be done on Monday.

trust me, I had ridden central America with a bike, like you before. that piece of paper that I gave you is enough. (that was 11 years ago).

we will help you over the phone. Erica will sent u an email on where the custom is. If you have any problem, call us and we will talk to you.

we didn’t have a good sleep for the past 3 nights while waiting for Monday to come. luckily, on Monday morning, we reached the custom office, did the paperwork in 15 minutes, get back to the hostel, pack up and leave this busy city.

But we had wonderful time in the busy Panama city, not the usual experience. We went to a laundry shop across the street. it cost us US$1 for a whole bucket of sweaty and salty laundry. It was a Chinese owner. Out of the 3.2 million populations in Panama, 10% were Chinese. The lady owner had 4 kids here, which all 4 held Panama citizenship but not her. We get to know about her life being away from China and coming to Panama to survive. Nice chat with the locals here.

The casinos here are really happening. Unlike in South America, casinos there are only machines like jackpots and only to get to play with computers. We went into this casino in Panama City and they had everything including blackjacks, poker, bacarat and dice game. not to mention about the jackpot machines. its managed by a five star hotel and yet we walked in with shorts, singlets and sandles.

Does Panama City looked like Singapore? Property is blooming here.

While waiting for the laundry, 2 Panamanians young chap started the conversation. They spoke understanding English and just friendly chat to know more friends, not about trying to know foreigners. Later we got to know from the Chinese lady owner that these 2 young guys were from the country side of Panama.

The entrance to the Chinatown in Panama City. we took this photo from the taxi as the driver warned us not to wander around the streets here, even we are Chinese.

Big shopping malls are so common in Panama City, as big as Suntec City in Singapore. The food court had wide varieties of fast food chain. I noticed the fast food in Latin America is not really fast. Example in KFC, we would queue up to take the order, make payment, get a recipt and go to the next counter and wait. The staff at the next counter will look at a computer screen analyze what was the order and try to put in in a tray. when my number was being called, i would collect my food. Unlike at home, the cashier took the order and will gather the food himself/herself. When the cashier is taking the order, he/her had already had the item in his/her mind and thus making the gathering of food much faster. I think the system here only trust one person on money, that´s why it´is abit slower. when i said abit, it doesn´t really mean abit. Also the person clearing trays in this huge foodcourt, they also had a trolley for trays and rubbish collection. In Singapore, any uncle or auntie would do the work much faster by pushing the trolley to the table and clear the trays and rubbish into the trolley BUT here in Panama, I saw the trolley was being used as a central collection center (where there is also one main collection center at some corners) and staff would walk around and collect the trays and rubbish with their hands, walk back to the trolley, walk back to the same table, clear again (because they only have 2 hands that carry limited) and back to the trolley. sometimes we saw 2 staff clearing 1 table. It would be much efficient if any property management from Singapore to come here to work.

Forget about telling you about the old city of Panama and the museums but something that got me interested was the relationship of Panama and USA. The USA administration was not out of Panama until 1999. There were also some contract between 2 countries about the Panama Canal.

We escaped the busy city, getting away from backpackers and Israelis, did a camping by a beach of Pacific coast at Las Lajas before reaching Boquete. The property owner in Las Lajas welcomed us. One of the co-owner often walked pass us to have a short and warm conversation. The conversation was not about where had we been, where we come from and how big was Hope Too. It was a human conversation that we would like to reply with our heart.

Again, we were welcomed in Boquete with the rain. the only affordable lodging we could stay in with proper bike parking was taken up by the English speaking bag packers. Then we have to go around in the heavy rain to look for another affortable and safe place to stay. Boquete became very popular when an American magazine for the retired rated Boquete as four top places in the world to retire. Not to be surprise as the property here rose and American product rained everywhere here. From my point of view, Cameron Highlands of Malaysia could be rated as the first in the magazine.

While searching for a place to stay in Boquete, the black cloud is chasing us.

what you think about Panama? Jungles? Panama Canal? Panama City could be as modern as Singapore. Condominium rose and properties bloomed. It seems to be Dubai of Central America. We saw sign board that was selling the property, having a swimming pool being the second largest swimming pool in the world.

We will get to Costa Rica soon after I celebrate Sam’s birthday here. We need to go to San Jose, capital of Costa Rica to apply for Nicuaragua, El Savador and Mexico visas.

we saw this advertisment on the TV here. It´s a channel from USA. it was saying something like: create jobs for America, not China. Are they trying to brainwash the citizen that China is taking away their jobs? are they trying to tell the people that China is their enemy now?