Asian Tiger

If you are a scuba diver as I am, I’m sure you have made plans for your next dive spots. Over time, I have made a list of places that I want to dive. This blog post list the 3 places that I am targeting.

Sipadan Island, Malaysia – This is going to be my first place that I would dive because it is nearer to home and Jacques Cousteau called Sipadan Island “an untouched piece of art“. I know how much Tourism Malaysia has advertised Sipadan and therefore, it must be good.

Cozumel, Mexico – Accessible through the beautiful and less populated town of Playa del Carmen, Cozumel is said to be vibrant in marine colours and life. On top of that, I will get to see natural limestone formations beneath the sea. Largely though, I have added Cozumel into my list because Jacques Cousteau said it was one of the best places to dive. I trust Jacques Cousteau as much as I trust the scuba technique he invented.

Banuken Island, Sulawesi – This place made it to my list mainly because of the discovery of our world’s prehistoric fish (I call them DinoFish) in 1998. The latest catch was in May 2007 also from around the Banuken Island. I really want to catch a glimpse of the Coelacanth.

It’s funny how my colleagues are now taking the email facility as their main mode of communications.  It is as if the workers here have all lost their mouth and therefore their ability to communicate through analog vibrating air signals.  I’ve even seen peers sitting next to each other in their cubicles, emailing to each other.  No wonder we are going backwards in terms of productivity.

Don’t blame the productivity plunge to Facebook, online arcade games, instant messaging or SMS. I think largely, our time in office are bogged down in front of our terminal, reading every word that email server throws at us.  At the same time, we try to read in between the lines as to what the writer really intends to say.

Many a times, we try to write as subtle as possible (trying hard not to offend anyone) but that may backfire as the reader may not get the gist of what you are trying to say.  Misinterpretation causes more loss of business productivity time. If only we picked up the phone, dial the recipient and communicate.  Saves time, save money, save face.

It took me 5 minutes to type all this in a blog post, but it took me the whole morning to clear my emails which arrived over the weekend.  Time for lunch.

Last night, over teh tarik at a mamak stall, my friends and I had a chat about our recent holidays abroad. Some recalled their “sleazy” trips to Bangkok, Thailand while others told their stories of Bali and Japan. My friends and I are avid travellers and the only thing that is holding us back is money. Yesterday, we decided to take a trip together to a place farther than ASEAN, to an exotic place that not many people have gone to. Mongolia topped our list but we are a bit hesitant as we do not know how Mongolians are going to treat Malaysians. One suggested that we should look for cheap holidays to Turkey especially since Turkey emphasizes on their culture as the foundation of their Republic. Turkey sounds exotic if you ask me.

I retired home from the mamak session and started to read more about Turkey. No wonder Turkey felt like an exotic place to visit; they border Europe and Asia, making them a transcontinental country; they have 8 neighbours and therefore, not surprisingly, adopt lots of cultures; they have a long list of histories in their soil. Check out some of the photos that you can find on the Internet and you will be amazed how Turkey have both Asian and European architectures in their buildings.

Holidaying in Turkey is not going to be cheap but I would really love to get there.  Time to bring out my piggy bank.