SINGAPOREDREAM

first of all, we would like to say a big thank you to

KENNIE TOH

&

KOH CHIN YEE

Kennie and I were great buddy when we were in secondary one and during the military band days. we had always been seating together in the classroom for four years. thank you ‘Qing Song’ for ur support in our trip!

also Chin Yee for donating to us for the THIRD TIME!! huat ahhhh…..!

thanks Chin Yee… we really appreciate!

we were in Rome to make a 2 days visit, at the same time to do up my Brazilian visa as a requirement for Singaporean. at the Brazilian consulate, we met a kind officer to help us in everything in order and fast. as usual, the visa officer would interview me and throw many questions on why I need to visit Brazil, making sure its purely for tourism only. the interview got into a conversation where she was interested in our motorbike trip as she was also riding, a Honda Translap 650. Cool! she helped me to ask around for the seat maker out of her lunch time and it was really helpful of her to do this. she was Simone.

we exchanged our contacts and went our way.

it’s a long story on how we ended up staying at her house. Simone and her Italian husband, Enrico, were very hospitable person. we thought we would never meet any one so hospitable after leaving the Islamic countries, especially in Rome, such a westernized and busy city. both of them were travelers when they were young. they shared with us many experience they had and helped us in many ways.

then, we were introduced to Antonio and his wife, both Brazilian staying in Rome. Antonio rode a Varadero and he has been very fond about African Twin. when he sees the shaggy Hope Too, his eyes were….O O. Hope Too had the honor to get a Brazilian flag on.

ladies, if you want to marry a Italian man, go ahead with my consent as we see Enrico as a very homely husband, great cook and the most patient husband that we ever met. He was so fatherly to their pet, Chika, where Chika could almost understand every word he said. At their house, we had a lot of Brazilian influence and it make us a ‘compulsory’ to visit.
Thank you Enrico and Simone!

there were many sites to visit in Italy, especially in Rome. ‘All roads like to Rome’. it is true. if u study the map of Rome, there is a ring road. we suspect that Rome is one of the first few cities in the world that have a ring road around the busy city. it is really amazing that the Italians we great architects for the past 2 millenniums. more than words can say. if u like ruins and old buildings, u should be here.

when we were at the colosseum, we queued up and infront of us, there were a Singaporean family. the parents were in the early 40s and they had a girl about aged 10. we were really glad that we met Singaporeans but we didn’t want to talk to them as they were really turned off. the parents as usual, were the educated type. the husband wore a pair of glasses, like me. their eyes were always searching for something, something like trying to get to the best way of something. can’t really describe, sorry. they didn’t enjoy the queue. I saw the little girl holding a note pad and on the top of the blank page of the note pad, it wrote ‘ Colosseum’. how could the little girl be so hardworking that she wanted to learn things about this historic place?? then I heard from the mother talking to the child in SINGLISH:

‘have u taken notes about Colosseum? wait we go in and take the…..’

what a shame. broken English….. we kept quiet.

Sam heard the husband spoke mandarin to the wife.

I conclude for this family:
1) typical modern family in Singapore. spoke broken English to the children and speaks other language to the spouse.
2) making their investment for the children worth while. they spent their $ by bring their children overseas and MAKING SURE THAT THEIR CHILDREN LEARN SOMETHING.

for us, we do not speak good English so we always speak Mandarin with each other. even in a restaurant in Singapore, if the waiter is a Chinese, I would DEFINITLY speak mandarin with him. but usual case is that the waiter understands what I said and reply by English. is this an issue in Singapore where the children learns Singlish from the parents?

phases like:

quick quick come.

eat fast fast, wait later mummy scold.

we would not want to educate our children like that. I think it’s a wonder to the world and tourist should come to Singapore and listen how we is our conversation in English. that’s something special about Singapore.

what do u think?


back to my visits:
there was Vatican, inside Rome, where Pope and some 1000 folks lived in. they had their own swiss security forces, postal service, radio service and own currency. it is one of the smallest nation in the world. it will be the 10th country that we visited. when we enter the church of the Vatican, it was a big palace! THE POPE LIVED IN ROYALTY!! there were big statues in the church and a lot of followers praying. somee of the art pieces were made of gold! well, I think it is a rich religion. we saw a lady kneeing down infront of a alter but she was having a conversation on the mobile. is she communication with the saint? we were very curious about everything here. the catholic churches in Singapore were very simple.

we went to Church of the Holy Innocent. it was the first time in our life to see this:

this are some other sightings from Italy.




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we are now in Venize, the most expensive city in Italy. heading to Austria in 3 days time before Germany. I read some advice from the comment section, just to add on, the cheapest cabin avalible is on our current shipment. if we delay our shipment we had to stay in a higher class cabin on ship. the next available cheapest cabin is in January 2009. so $ is the main factor for us, anyway, we had already paid for the tickets to argentina. €3020 for me, Sam and Hope Too to sail 30 days in the container ship. hope we can get a part time job in the ship to recover some expenses.

we want to visit the KTM and GPMG factories in Austria.

sorry friends, internet usage cost S$10 per hour in Italy. I promised to update at least every week.

did u know???
1) pinoccio was from Italy? we bought a very small dancing wood pinoccio.
2) did u play Super Mario brothers when you were young? they are Italians.
3) ‘The Godfather’ is a movie about the mafia in south Italy.
4) Romeo and Juliet, Verdi, Rossini, Michelangelo and Columus were from Italy. not forgetting the famous motorbike racer Valentino Rossi.

Now we are in the mosquito filled venice.