All Singaporean

Sim Wong Hoo

This blog entry is to highlight the fact that even in this worldwide economic downturn, which has been described by economists as the worst wold recession in 70+ years, Singapore has quietly gone about to attract the top talent be they in the entertainment,film,money or whatever industries from all over the world. The first I like to highligh is Sim Wong Hoo, who is a Singapore citizen by birth. He started a small company with BIG, HAIRY AND AMBITIOUS GOALS OR BHAG. By his choice alone, he went to the USA in the late 1980s to mass produce and sell the Creative Sound Blaster which became a household name the world over. With the money from the Initial Public Offering, and a subsequent listing on the NASDAQ or second stock exchange board in the USA, he is worth easily US$ 500 to 1 Billion.

With all this money, he could have made his home anywhere in Europe, USA or even in China but he chose to live in Singapore.A true blue Singaporean and proud of his country.


Jim Rogers

The partner of Quantum Fund headed by George Soros, Jim Rogers, decided to make Singapore his home 5 years ago. He studied the worldwide trends and decided that the 21st century would 'belong to China'. Rather than live in China, he decided to base himself and his entire family in Singapore where it is very liveable, providing his 2 girls with ample opportunity to speak Mandarin. He and his wife are offering there services to the prestigious Nanyang Primary School, an elite primary school in Bukit Timah area in the hope of getting his girls entry into a (get this) Government school in Singapore. This man is worth easily hundreds or millions of dollars and can well afford to pay for his daughters to study Chinese by private tutor or attend the Chinese International School. It speaks volumes about the Singapore school system which by any international measure, among the best in the world.

Mr. Rogers himself has started several hedge funds based out of Singapore.


Jet Li

This kung fu action star had a 'defining moment' during the 2004 tsunami, he was with his family in Maldives, in an exclusive resort, when the tsunami struck. He rushed his family back to the hotel and as the waters were getting higher and higher, he thought to himself. I am a well known person who can get things done by just a phone call, and I am only concerned about making movies and money ? God does not recognise any of this. He is non-discriminating. In the end everyone, rich, poor,powerful or pwoerless, dies.

He decided there and then to devote his life to the less privileged and set up over the course of the next years, The One Foundation. It is based in Singapore, it donates and creates opportunities to the disadvantaged and less fortunate. Jet Li himself has stopped acting entirely to devote himself to his charity.

He recently became a Singapore citizen.

Gong Li

The most famous and popular actress in China (till recently) Gong Li, married cigarette magnate, Mr. Ooi. She became a Singaporean in 2008.

In this globalised world, competitve advantage of nations lies in any nation's ability to attract the best and the brightest talents to their shores which will ultimately improve the overall opportunities of all its people. Singapore, with its open door immigration policy to qualified people, low personal income and corporate tax rates, cleanliness,transparency of an honest Government, liveability and overall quality of life is showing the world that being small is not a disadvantage, having no natural resources is also not a disadvantage, but the collective abilities and will of its people and the ever raising of its standards will ultimately be the winning formula. I AM SURE OF IT.

Thanks friends

May, Alex and Zucsa

The 4 days in Hungary zipped by and it was time for us to go, we had the loveliest of times, although I caught a bad cold on day 2 and had my voice changed to hoarse and was spewing phlegm in the mornings (and various times of day !). Little did I know that this bug took me almost 3 weeks to kick - thankfully it was not the Influenza A H1N1 which is spreading like wildfire the world over. As I write this, I have fully recovered and am training for a year end marathon.


Looks like Capsicum - Paprika

On the last day, Alex brought us to the main market in Budapest where we bought some souvenirs like T shirts, and it is the same the world over ; a market is still a market selling fresh produce like vegetables,meat,fish and of course the Paprika, which can be eaten like a salad or dried like sundried tomatoes and served as part of the goulash soup.


Ripe Paprika sold at the Market

Our memories of Hungary will always be tinged with the fine hospitality shown to us by Tibor and Tunde as well as Alex and Zucsa, who took time off from their busy work schedules to show us around. We are most grateful for that.


Tibor, Tunde and May at Buda Castle

Friends, lets meet again sometime soon, in Europe, Asia wherever and in parting, "Egeszsegedre !" - Cheers !

Balaton Arts and Craft

Lovely Flowers in Summer


Pottery all going for a song


Outside the Pottery House


Buy your Paprika and make your own Goulash soup

Balaton Lake with Alex and Zusa

Alex, dining on cake and coffee

During our final 2 days in Hungary, Alex Draculis and his wife Zuscsa, came to meet with us at Balaton.He and I met about 3 years ago in Germany and our meetings have been always very enjoyable.He is originally from Slovenia as is his wife. They live in Budapest city and he was formerly an advertising creative director in Slovenia till about 3 years ago.


Lovely House with Reed Roof

We went around the lake, and stopped to buy some souvenirs from the shops. We realised that pottery, porcelain and paprika are like the national handicrafts of Hungary and Lake Balaton is a very popular destination for tourists who would nornally come in summer from Austria (Vienna is 2 hours dirve away), Germany,Russia and the UK. The lakeside houses look lovely with their reed roofs and white facades leading one to think of a fairy tale type of town.We had stayed the night in Kesthely and discovered that it was very quiet in the evenings, almost like a ghost town and we could practically hear our footsteps !


Pottery House overlooking Lake Balaton

The summer months where the tourists do come are normally in July and August so when we visited, it was presummer. It however, did stike me that very few Asian tourists visit Hungary which is a pity as it is very beautiful in Budapest and in the Lake districts.


Pretty Loo

We left Balaton with lots of good memories, good food and great company.

Balaton Lake - Holiday Area

Blue sky and a 19 footer leisure craft ; pleasures of the rich

Hungary is a landlocked country, there is no access to the sea. Thus it is quite apt the Balaton Lake is known as the "Hungarian Sea". The Zala and Sio rivers provide the main inflows to this huge lake measuring 77km at its length and 14 km at its width.The depth of the lake averages at 3.2 m or 10 feet (not very deep) and the maximum depth is 12.2 m or about 40 feet deep. It is 104 m above sea level and the Slavic name "Blato" means "mud" or muddy lake.


Beautiful scenery and a lovely smile

We stayed in one of the many resort towns by this huge lake, called Keszthely and the weather at this time of year is very comfortable. When we arrived at the lakeside, we ventured up to view a church and the many shops selling pottery, lavender leaves with wonderful smells and porcelain.


After a hearty Ostrich lunch

Tibor and Tunde were great hosts and we have had a truly enjoyable time with the Csombordis. The 2 full days they spent bringing us around Budapest and Balaton will forever be in our collective memories of Hungary.


House overlooking Balaton lake

We hope we can all meet again sometime in either Singapore or in Europe in the near future. Many Thanks to Tunde and Tibor !

Labyrinths of Buda Castle and Europe's second oldest Subway

Preshitoric Bison Drawing


Underneath the Buda castle compounds lies an amazing complex of underground tunnels called labyrinths. According to the brochures, the labyrinths of Buda castle stretch for up to 200 km and some sections are still yet to be discovered.dating back to prehistoric times, there were actually prehistoric drawings of bisons and people hunting for food. We initially took all of this information in like primary school children learning to read and write.


Stairway to What ?

Tibor has his doubts about the age of the labyrinths and guesses that they are at most 300 years old. During our walk into the labyrinth, there was this musty smell of dampness and there was this eerie piped in music of tribal drums which leant an air of mystery and fear.I was quite startled to find that around several pitch black corners were some steps leading to some kind of pagan structure. See picture above.


Half statue (of Saint Istvan) in the Labyrinth !

There was an young American tourist group behind us and they too were scared out of their wits, not knowing what kind of beings or structures lay beneath the Buda castle. Again, Tibor put the whole thing into perspective,stating that Hungarian history had no mention of labyrinths although I would think that they would form an effective form of escape if there was an uprising by the general population !

Midway through our walk, we came across what seemed to be a statue whose head was half submerged into the ground. It was in a sealed off section and one could not help thinking at perhaps there was something sinister about the labyrinths.It came to a head, (pun intended) when we all arrived at underground fountain spouting of all things, spoilt wine from a gargoyle's head.



Stone Sentry Guarding part of the Labyrinth

We finally realised that the marketing department of this attraction had put in all of these statues and creatures to spice up what would have otherwise been a boring walk in damp underground tunnels. The joke dawned upon us when the display plate on an underground feature stated that they had found what appeared to be a footprint, obeviously of a Nike Air Max and the statement had stated affirmatively that "this footprint was obviously not from a human being" !! All of the statues were actually fakes !


Underground Station in Budapest

The underground subway at Budapest was real enough though. It was the second oldest in Europe to be built after Moscow's Subway and is still in use, although tourists who don't understand Hungarian would be lost as all the signs are in Hungarian. Very fast an efficient, it was built during the Soviet occupation of Hungary during the 70s.

Pictures from the Royal Castle at Buda

May and Me on the hill overlooking Pesc

After Saint Stephen's church, we parked in downtown Budapest and walked across the bridge to the Buda (hill) side of Budapest. Budapest was named after the 2towns Buda (on the hill) and Pesc and thus the name Budapest was formed.The first king, Stephen obviously occupied the castle overlooking the Pesc side and with the river as a natural deterrent, probably had a drawbridge or nothing at all, (they may have had to use boats to transport materials etc.) and this kept him away from the peasants. This has always been the hallmark of the rich, who create bastions like castles high above the town so that they can observe all that goes around the town and not be bothered by the commoners.


Szechenyi Chain Bridge linking Buda Castle with Parliament House

With a population of just 10 milion, Hungary has several well known figures worldwide, most famous in recent times is George Soros, head of the Quantum Fund which made billions of dollars during the 80s - late 90s in hedge funds.His partner, Jim Rogers, an American is a permanent resident in Singapore together with his family, and amazingly, Rogers has insisted on his 2 daughters on learning Mandarin, stating that Chinese language will be THE dominant language of the 21st century.

Several other famous names are Rubik, of Rubik's cube fame as well as the Hungarian Water Polo team which has won Gold in every Olympics since 1956, an amazing feat when you consider that Hungary has no border to any sea, and everyone learns to swim in the pool or public bath. Hungary is also famous for their Paprika, a chilli like vegetable, similar to the capsicum but far hotter !


Famous Hungarian Porcelain

On day 2, we drove to the famous Hungarian porcelain factory near Balaton and witnessed some of the most beautiful and expensive porcelain pieces. Costing anything from EUR 100 to hundreds of thousands of EURO, Hungarian porcelain has been renowned throuout Europe for its intricacy and colourfulness.There were entire tea sets made for the Royal Families of England, Holland and Belgium to name a few.



The porcelain process is similar to clay whereby the cups,saucers or teasets are first moulded by hand and then placed into an oven to set, after setting, the painting and the lacquering are ovelaid before the final product is ready.