Singaporean Mentality - in Krabi

Hello guys ... I am back from Krabi after a week of holiday there. It was great. What did I do there for 5 days? Most would expect me to go diving and snorkling and all the fun under the sun activities. But the truth was I did nothing like that. It was more of a retreat for me. To get away from all the noise in Singapore and relax, and catch up on my sleep and relax somemore.

There were some very interesting moments with Singaporeans in particular, and since this is a blog which I also talk about Singaporean observations, here goes with some notable ones :)

- Tiger Airways. This Singaporean guy (A) sitting near the aisle, was hit by a bag that fell when this fellow Singaporean (B) was trying to open the top cabin after the plane took off. The guy (A) who got hit was super perturbed when the bag hit him. The other guy (B) just let out a "paiseh" look and stuck out his tongue, and without saying sorry, sneaked back to his seat behind the angry man (A). I was quite surprised at how rude that young man (B) was, for not apologizing. But I was even more surprised at how many times that angry guy tried to stare at him, expecting an apology, and even turned back to give that man sitting behind him his angry stare. Why didn't he (A) just say "hey, I think you should apologize". I wanted to step in and ask the young man to say sorry, but the angry man (A) looked like he was going to do so, for a long long time. Nothing eventually happened, and I just decided to forget it and not get involved.

- There was a bus at the airport to send us to the hotels. Sweet. They included in this ride a free city tour and a lunch at some duck noodles store. Cool. I got on the bus, and yup, loaded with Singaporeans. First thing I noticed, the radio was blasting some hokkien thingy that was definitely not Thai. Well then I noticed, they were playing some VCD of a Singaporean made video. Very bizarre. The Singaporeans on the bus appears to enjoy it, especially the older folks. But just real bizarre. The kicker? I later found out from the tour guide lady, that they've been playing this for years and she doesn;t even understand what the hell they were playing. Why didn't they play some Thai related stuff I wonder? Was this their way of making Singaporeans feel at home? :P

- The bus was full. I was seated at a single seat right at the front. I saw an old man at the back who had no seat and since no young men around him gave up their seat, I offered it to him. His wife, without saying thanks, urged his husband to take up the seat quickly. I stood up, the old man took my seat, and again, no thanks. I walked towards the back and sat on the floor of the bus. This lady turned back and said "woah you got a special seat". I was thinking to myself, "why would you like to have this special seat? I'd be happy to exchange with you." Then seated near the back where I was, was actually a young father whose 2 year old kid decided to have a seat all to himself, and that explains why there was a "lack of seat" on the bus. The kicker? The young father, was the son of the old man I gave up my seat for.

- I had a few days of spas. One day I had a facial treatment done, and that night, I got bitten by mosquitoes in the night. Thus when I went back for a subsequent session of massage, they thought I was allergic to the facil treatment, thinking that the bites were rashes. I related this incident to one of the Singaporeans on the trip and she suggested "Why didn't you tell them that yes it was due to their facial? Scare them lah!". I was immediately reminded of an entry (Link) I wrote about nasty Singaporeans. Really why should we be so mean?

I was glad that this was a free and easy trip - that means, no more bus rides with the rest of the Singaporeans until the last day heading back to the hotel. The trip was mostly not about what I observed above, but mostly like the pretty pictures I took below. Well, here are some of the shots. There are more at my .Mac homepage. And I will definitely be back in Krabi soon - when it stops raining so often.

Click here to my .Mac Homepage with More pictures