sgBlogs - Singapore's Blogosphere :: Latest 3 Entries From the Top 200 Singapore Blogs

Sassyjan :: If something is too good to be true…

It usually IS too good to be true.

mrbrown: L'infantile terrible of Singapore :: mrbrown goes to YOU... powered by Citi!

Here's a video of my day Ngee Ann City Civic Plaza checking out a carnival organised by Citibank. I tried to find ways to spend the points on my special card on the food and games!

A L V I N O L O G Y :: Alvinology goes to Shantou – Day 3 of 5

On the our third day in Shantou, we went to Puning City (普宁市) in Jieyang (揭阳) in the morning. Rachel and I got to ride in one of the VIP’s BMW, thanks to my boss, Chim Kang.

Rachel and I inside the BMW

The first activity for the day was to head to one of the local government’s banquet hall for another opulent feast. Nicholas, Rachel and I decided to skip this banquet as we were still full from our heavy breakfast at the hotel. We also wanted to take a breather from the straight-laced official itinerary.

The three of us explored the local market nearby and were captivated by the vibrant sights and sounds. We bought some local tidbits to bring home and then had a simple lunch at one of the street stalls. It was just porridge with some vegetable and meat dishes, but it felt good to eat normally for once.

On the street of Puning

We were on a street with lots of mobile shops

Loud music and catchy displays were ubiqutious to all the mobile shops

Somehow, this Ronald MacDonald sees to have more oriental features

Commericial trishaw

Overdressed for marketing

Chicken and rabbits waiting to be slaughtered

Mutton with assorted body parts

Fishmonger

Fish slaughtering

Vegetable stall

More vegetable vendors

Meat vendor

Fancy some tortoises for lunch?

Home-farmed eggs

We bought lots of quirky flavour potato chips

Potato chips we bought because of the funny brand name

We had our lunch here

Meal for three pax

Close-up of our meat and vegetable dishes

After lunch, we went to the Puning Overseas Chinese Secondary School (普宁市华侨中学) for a tour. The Singapore Teochew Poit Ip Huay Kuan (新加坡潮州八邑会馆) has contributed funding to this school and some of the members in our group were happy to witness how their money has been used for a good cause.

Inside the school compound

The Chinese really like slogans - even on buildings

The lux cars from our entourage, parked at the school basketball court

Students flocking to classes

Random school girls

Lots of parked bicycles

School kids playing badminton

Rachel and I enjoying lollies we bought from the tuckshop

On the importance of speaking Mandarin

School noticeboard

Another signboard encouraging students to speak Mandarin

Time for poetry recital by the river

The dormitary

Freshly constructed extension wing

The new building

A dedicated hall in the new building to showcase the school's achievements

Next, we headed to the Puning Chinese Medical and Herbs Market (普宁中药材市场) to check out the wide array of traditional Chinese medicine and herbs found in Chinese medical halls around the world. Other than the ubiquitous herbs like Lingzhi and Cordyceps, there were also rare items that are not commonly found elsewhere. Rachel and I were fairly disturbed to find a shop which specialises in deer products – all the way from the antelope to the deer’s penis.

Entrance to the Puning medical hub

Minature representation of the entire compound

There were rows and rows of medical shops like this

Another shop

Variety of herbs

Nicholas and Rachel outside one of the herbs shop

Cordyceps (I think)

Sacks and sacks of these

A large piece of Lingzhi

Mountain of herbs

Packed into bags

Stuffed little Bambis

Rachel feeling sad for the deers

Inside the deer specialty shop

Whole antelopes for sale

Smaller bits of antelopes

Really thin slices of antelopes

Deer tendons, with the hoof still intact

We then took a long ride to a gigantic house owned by a rich Singaporean Teochew oil tycoon. We did not get to meet this tycoon, but there were caretakers and gardeners present who are responsible for the house’s upkeep though no one seems to be be staying in it.

There, the tycoon had made arrangement for a few truckloads of firecrackers for our group to play with. We were also all presented with a large box of preserved plums and Shantou oranges each.

This was the first time Rachel and I have come so close to firecrackers and so many of them at a go. The sound was really booming loud and you could feel a tingling pain in your ear drums after a few minutes. The sea of red left behind as residue is beautiful, but probably a pain to clear up later on.

One of the two door god that greeted us upon entering the house

The other door god

The door the two gods are guarding

Setting off firecrackers to herald our entourage's arrival

Lighted firecrackers

Close-up of the firecrackers

Me walking away as the noise started to get deafening

Here’s a video recording of the lighted firecrackers:

Gawking villagers

The trail of red residue is beautiful

Rachel and I standing amidst the firecracker residues

Another shot

Beautiful firecracker residues

Another picture of the residues

Slogans adorn all the entrances

Many many doors

Gangsters from the 70s

Another gangster shot

Picture of Nicholas from the second floor - the house is really big

Me peeking out of a window on the second floor

Rachel on the second floor

Empty alley

Couple from 80s China

A walk into history

Next, we headed to China Jade Capital (中国玉都), which controls more than 20 percent of the jade market in China. It’s the biggest in China and has a large amount of Burmese jade. As we are not familiar with jade pricing, we did not buy anything although we were quite impressed with the beauty of some of the white and purple jade pieces.

At the Jade Capital

Inside one of the main building in the Jade Capital

Layout of the compound

Security cameras

Buying jade

Daily food items, carved out of jade

Gigantic jade flower

Jade Guan Yin

Another large jade table piece

This one looks realy fragile

Rachel the jade seller

We had dinner at Temeisi Hotel (揭阳特美思大酒店) which seems to be helm by a famous head chef. We were quite hungry this time as we had a light lunch. Hence we were able to eat quite a bit.

Temeisi hotel lobby

Very catchy giant Yun Bao at the lobby

Lighted Yun Bao

Inside the banquet hall

Fresh seafood

Famous chef

Chinese bacon

A large piece of fresh abalone

I ate two pieces as Nicholas do not eat abalone

Steamed fish

Crispy prawns

Fried Toufu

Pork ribs soup

Delicious kampong chicken

Salted fried mushroom

Veggie with pig stomach

Jade green veggies

Teochew Ku Chye Kway

With Ms Chong Phit Lian, CEO of Jetstar Asia

After dinner, we headed back to Meritus Shantou, ending our official itinerary for the day.

Nicholas’s cousin came to look for him that night. His cousin is a surgeon and a very friendly chap. He offered to take Nicholas, Rachel and I to a nearby massage centre which is frequented by the local medical community. I did not take any pictures of the massage centre, but the services and facilities were really excellent.

Rachel went a seperate room for ladies. The three of us guys went for a sauna first before getting a good massage. We then joined Rachel in the resting area where they actually served us porridge with some light ingredients.

After the meal, we took a quick bath and changed. Nicholas’ cousin then kindly drove us back to the hotel. It was nearing 2am. We felt really guilty as he still has to work the next day, but at the same time, touched by his hospitality.

The massage centre Nicholas' cousin brought us to

Stay tuned for my next update on day 4.

Previous Entries:

Home and away in Shantou (Rachel’s my paper article)

Plane Solemnisation

Day 1 – Arrival, Teochew Opera

Technorati Tags: airplane rom, airplane wedding, ellie and carl, ellie and carl up, getting married on a plane, jetstar first shantou flight, jetstar inaugural direct flight from Singapore to Shantou, jetstar plane marriage, jetstar plane solemnisation, jetstar singapore to shantou, meritus shantou, plane marriage, plane rom, plane solemnisation, plane wedding, shantou, shantou travel, singapore first plane marriage, singapore plane solemnisation, singapore teochew association, singapore unconventional wedding, teochew poit ip huay kuan, up movie, wotif.com, 新加坡潮州八邑会馆 , shantou travel, shantou flight, singapore to shantou, teochew travel, Shantou’s Waisha International Airport, Waisha International Airport, 汕头外砂机场, guandong travel, chaoshan travel, 潮汕, chaozhou city, chao zhou, 潮州, 普宁市, 普宁, 揭阳, jieyang, jieyang travel, puning city, puning travel, 普宁市华侨中学, puning overseas chinese secondary school, puning overseas chinese school, 普宁中药材市场, puning chinese medical and herbs market, puning medical hub, linzhi, cordyceps, deer parts, antelopes, chinese deer, firecrackers, chinese firecrackers, shantou firecrackers, 中国玉都, burmese jade, china jade capital, 揭阳特美思大酒店, temeisi hotel

Naughty . by . nature ::

I have too many things to do

Our dragon boat Captain decided to pursue his career elsewhere and has tendered his resignation. His duties of "bao sua bao hai" have been passed down to me.

On one hand, I love the challenge of motivating the team and helping to build the strength of the team, numbers wise. On the other hand, I think I will be very, very tired this year. A number of oncoming projects (work wise) are heading my way.

Meanwhile, i am still doing a lot of meddling with people's lives like introducing single girlfriends to single (or divorced) boyfriends, forcing people to lose weight cos they're really fat (and single), telling people they should get insurance in case they get hit by cars driven by mad drivers, etc.

I am also very proud to say, from Nov till now, I have lost 4 kilos, 2 inches and 5% fat percentage.

And I'm going for more =)

Wish me luck!

Tan Kin Lian's Blog :: Need for stronger regulation

I spoke to a professor in a UK university who was previously an actuary working in the insurance industry. He told me about the background of the regulatory environment and the mis-selling over the past decades.

For many years, the authority in the UK regulated the sales process, disclosure of information and expected financial advisers to observe ethics and professionalism. It did not work. Many agents sold bad products to their customers to earn high commisison. The regulator imposed heavy fines on the financial institutions but it still did not solve the problem.

The regulator has finally decided to ban the payment of commission to agents. This will take place in the near future.

Singapore followed the UK approach in regulation. But the authority in Singapore did not impose the heavy fines on the institutions for mis-selling. The situation is quite bad in Singapore and many consumers are offered bad products that gave them a poor return on their savings. What will Singapore do, now that they role model (UK) has found their approach to be a failure?

Tan Kin Lian

Tan Kin Lian's Blog :: False hope

I spoke to an investor in a land banking product. He has invested for nearly two years and is still waiting for his invested sum to be returned to him. He has not even collected the interest payment of 12.5%. He has since lost his job and his money is tied up in this investment. He has been promised a few times that the company is finalising the sale of the land and expects to repay the investment in the near future. It never materialised but he still remained hopeful and naive.

He is reluctant to lodge a complain with the authority or talk to the newspaper as it might cause the company to collapse. He still harboured the hope that his money will be repaid to him in the future. He even hoped that the company would be successful in the sales to new investors, so that they can collect the money to repay him. This is a selfish attitude, which reflects a shameful character of many Singaporeans.

What this investor does not realise is that there is virtually no chance of getting approval to develop the land or for the land being sold at a profit. The company tells a false story to keep the naive investors from taking action to enforce their rights. As time goes by, their chance of recovering their invested money will diminish, and it will soon be too late. Even if the company is able to get new funds, they will not repay the naive and weak investors. They will just cook up another excuse to give false hope.

If you are caught in this situation and you wish to meet other investors in the same situation, give your particulars here.

geraldgiam.sg :: Sylvia Lim: Tier electricity pricing to favour small consumers

While offsets to low-income households will be useful while it lasts, an additional idea is to have a tiered system of pricing electricity in favour of small consumers. The fundamental idea is for a threshold level of power consumption by households to be determined. Households consuming less than the threshold level will enjoy a low tariff charge. With increasing consumption levels, the tariff escalates. The higher tariff collected in the upper tiers can be used for 2 purposes: to cross-subsidize the first tier tariff, and to encourage all households not to over-consume electricity.

Singapore News Alternative :: More than 4,000 Singaporeans have registered their interest in migrating to New Zeland

Negaraku Brunei Darussalam, 15 Mar 2010SINGAPORE, March 15 (NNN-TODAY) — It is often said Singaporeans are in demand by other countries. And if figures from a pilot project by Immigration New Zealand (INZ) are anything to go by, Singaporeans are just as interested.INZ’s pilot project, launched on Jan 15, seeks to attract specifically working Singaporean holidaymakers and students. Nearly 80 per

Singapore News Alternative :: Universal Studios Singapore Expects 4.5 Mil Visitors

Bernama.com, 16 Mar 2010SINGAPORE, March 16 (Bernama) -- Singapore's Universal Studios located within Resorts World Sentosa (RWS) on Sentosa Island is officially set to open to the public on Thursday.RWS's Communication Assistant Director Robin Goh told newsmen, during a pre-opening tour today, that 4.5 million visitors are expected to visit Universal Studios while the resort anticipares a

Singapore News Alternative :: Worker health and well being central to new Singaporean plans

Thomson Online Benefits, 16 Mar 2010Health and wellbeing of workers in Singapore is central to new government plans to ensure that productivity and morale stay high in offices around the city state.A new grant of around £215 has been made available for organisations that promote healthy activities on behalf of their workers and it is believed that at least 50 businesses will qualify for the cash