Singaporedream on live TV.

Singaporedream on Good morning Singapore, TV8, 31st August 2010.

Before the show, Sam was very nervous and i was very calm,

BUT

During the show, I was very nervous during the show instead, Sam was very calm.

Thank you Jiajia and your team, you guys did a good job!

My Singaporean hero... the list goes on.

WIT*e 2 Sep 2010 from WebInTravel on Vimeo.

BTW, things aside of my trip, in my greatest respect for the first Singaporean, the VERY FIRST SINGAPOREAN 1960s to win a Olympic Medal. In the 1960s, times were hard. If any boy would tell their parents that they want to be a sportsman, they will be scolded. At those times, to get a decent living is also hard and yet, Mr Tan Howe Liang made it. Compared to now, any sportsman that win a medal for singapore would be reward with a $xxx,xxx.xx but what about our forgotten hero, Mr Tan?

Take down your hat now, he is 77 years old and coaching Gym in Bedok. We should not forget our locally grown talent. He stays in Singapore after his achievement, stays in a humble 3 roomed flat and still contribute to the society of Singapore. We should learn alot from him.

I want to take time off to Bedok Gym to meet my hero...

Then, i found a forum about him:

http://comment.straitstimes.com/showthread.php?t=13451

or u can wikipedia about him.

Beautiful Sumatra

Sumatra is a hugh island!
The moment we stepped on, we felt the freedom and we knew what it was like riding a bike. unlike i Java, Hope Too's clutch cable nearly broke as there wasn't much chance for him to lift up till his last gear.

The locals in Java warned us about traveling in Sumatra. They told us that traveling at night must be avoided at all cost. There would be hidden bandits around. This is what they told us.

The second advise is that the road condition was bad as compared to Java. When we travel around, it wasn't so bad, as there were pot holes and some dirt road which doesn't really matter to us alot. Especially we had gone through the East Timor phase.

In Sumatra, we had to keep a look out for buses when we overtake them because the passengers on the bus would spit, throw rubbish or pour out unwanted fluid out of their bus onto the road. So we had to do a quick manoeuvre to escape being 'bomb'.

The first town we stepped on was a busy town. We stopped by a shop and took out our town map to digest. A few locals came over offered help. In the end, one of them escorted us to our destination and said goodbye after that. They were so helpful.

Typical Sumatra Taxi.

Sumatra styled building with curved roof.

Nice beach with good diving sites.

It's not uncommon to see buildings converted into swallow nest.

the very first time we had durian for 2 and half years. Also the first time we had sumatra durian. We were very surprise that the native Sumatra lady could speak Mandarin as she worked in Malacca for a few years in a kindergarten before she came back.

This reminded us of Chile.

The buses in Padang.

we had a quick meal with this lovely family stall by the road.

cool bike.

We crossed the equator again.

We took this picture just by the side of the road.

Sadly, we could not travel all the way north to Ache. We missed Lake Toba. We decided to ship our bike to Malaysia from Dumai because we wanted to meet Crystal, which is Samantha's best friend. She is stationed in Malacca and we would like to be there for her birthday. Meeting up with friends are more important that seeing things, especially those things that are dead!

Indonesia is such a lovely place with lovely people. It is so near Singapore and yet we had not explored it. The decision of traveling Indonesia had made our trip worthwhile.

Many said that Indonesia is messy and dangerous. I guess it is only Batam and Jakarta. Even Johor Barhu is not safe and yet many of the Singaporeans still visit.

There are still many things to see in Indonesia. So my friends out there, forget about going far far away place to visit, have you experience the beautiful Indonesia?

Are we using the road correctly?

I was traveling from Eunos, on the Pan Island Expressway, towards Jurong. the traveling speed that I experienced was the same as the Indonesia Java speed. Which means there was a massive traffic congestion through out this expressway.



1) The speed of traveling in the congestion here is EQUAL to the speed of traveling in the congestion when we were in Java (Indonesia).



2) Singapore's Pan Island Expressway had a total of 8 lanes on both ways, Indonesia Java had 2 lanes on both ways.



3) if u look at point 1 and 2, ain't our driving skills 4 times less efficient than the Javanese driving skills?



4) Indonesian uses horn to say 'hello' or 'do u want a taxi'.

Singaporean uses horn to say 'Get the F out of my way' or the longer horn means 'Get the FFFFFFFFFFF out of my FFFFFFFFFFF way!'



5) do we need to go for social driving ettiquate course? There are so much to learn from our neighbours.

Keeping blood pressure at normal

On the 2nd or 3rd day when we were back to Singapore, we brought Hope Too for a body checkup. We highlighted to the doctor that there might be some issue with the charging system or the battery but the doctor say it's ok, no problem.

I took Sam on Hope Too, to Johor Barhu (Malaysia) on the 7th day of our come back to Singapore. Hope Too need a rest by cutting off the ignition wire. We were stucked there. I need to go back on the same day urgently as I need to report to the army on the next morning.

I took out all the cover, used a small torch light and looked all over the battery compartment, charging system, fuse box and wiring. Trying to catch some loose wire hanging but no chance.

I realised that when ever i turn the handlebar, it cut off by itself.

In the end, I took a rope to tie the wire at the ignition, hoping it would be a little tight. Then i had to ride back to Singapore while maintaining the handlebar straight all the time.

It cost me S$160.00 for a new ignition changed. At the change, I asked another doctor on duty to check for Hope Too's charging system and battary... he twisted the throtter to almost 4000RPM and tell me it's ok...

the above is the old igniton.

2 morning ago, I need to go to 'work'. I started Hope Too and he said he was too tired to move. the battery gone flat, like what happened in Pakistan during Febuary 2008.

I have to take a taxi to Siglap... that cost me more than $20 to report to 'work'.

Why is Hope Too performing badly? So what when we had brought this baffolo back to Singapore and yet it broke down again and again.

Where is our stolen Hope?

We learnt to see through. It's so normal for me to face difficulty and obstacle. So, when ever we face obstacle, we take it easy and smile at the air. This method made my day better and kept blood pressure at a normal rate.

what we did so far for the past 1 month in SG

It has been almost a month since we are back to Singapore. So what have we been doing all these while?

The first week:

Getting use to home, doing home ground orientation, we were having dinner with family and friends all the night. Then we had to push some over to next available date.

Second week:

I went for my annual army training for 2 weeks. It was a great catch up session with all my close friends.

Fourth week: start to look around for $$$ opportunity.

Meanwhile, Sam is taking her driving lessons.

When ever we meet our friends, we talked over our trip. Most of the questions they would ask were:

Where is the best place that we ever been to?
Which country is good for retirement?
How did we ship our bike from different continent? Some strangers asked me did we ride across the sea.
And the best Singapore question is: how much did we spend on the trip.
Many would only want to hear our answer ONLY (the technical answer, either one or zero) and the rest they would shut their ears. We felt so sad for them.
Some even asked about things that had not happened before: Mr. Goh, what if you travel on and the bike breaks down.
Well, we don’t really have an answer for that because that has never happened before. Most of the time I am able to rectify the breakdown. We are sorry for that guy because our answer for him will be the biggest obstacle for him not to go for such trip.


There is an issue in our life, which is settling down.

Many asked: so how? Have you settled down?

What is settling down? Having an 8-5 job and a regular pay? Have baby and have the phone ringing all the time about work and tell friends around that we are very very busy with work?

No!

We had always not settled down. The day that we really settle down would be the day we pass away. Even we pass away; family around us would need to find a place for us to settle down, that is to look for a cemetery. Then they have to pay the cemetery some fees for us to settle down. It would be never ending.

So what is settling down? Is it ok not to get an 8-5 job?

We have more meaningful things to do other than earning money. Now we are back home, life is simple. We look at other people, being so busy with their life, chasing for things that they do not need.

We do understand that some have to be busy earning money to feed their family.

We met a friend, he is so busy. Let’s give him a name: Rat.

Rat has secondary education and he is now working as a crane operator in a shipyard. He has to wake up at 4am and reach home at 8pm. He has to work 7 days a week. His wife is people that gamble a lot. His 2 children, 16 and 13 years old, are in their secondary education.

We know Rat’s family. The eldest daughter is having her O’level examination in 2 month’s time and her results were bad. When ever she finish school, she needs to come home to do some housework and get lots of scolding from Mrs Rat, so that Mrs Rat could go out for gambling sessions.

I asked Rat: why not give her tuition sessions?
Rat answer: you know, some people after getting tuition, their results become worst.

The only hope in their family is on Rat. The children needed guidance from the adult. Yet Rat is busy working earning money for the family which he think it is the most important thing to do at this moment.

As an outsider we see the problem easily.

Mrs Rat care about the gambling and her own hobby.
She took money from Mr Rat to gamble.
Mrs Rat need not care about the housework because the eldest daughter is handling it.

Why not she stops spending the unnecessary money for shopping and gambling?
Why not she lightens the burden of Mr Rat, then Mr Rat would have more time for the children.

What do you think?

Sam and I thought of giving the eldest daughter tuition to prepare for her examinations since the Rat family ‘couldn’t afford a tutor’.

But we stepped back because it would be a hole that would never be filled up. It’s like a black hole.

There is a root to these entire problem and we are studying all these cases.

Friends: what do you think?