Night Market Krabi

I had visited Krabi, Thailand with my wife for a short vacation. The Krabi night market is definitely one of the must see places in Krabi. We were staying near the Ao Nang Beach, and it took about 45 minutes to reach the night market. There was a lot of taxi shuttles available which would take us to the night market from Ao Nang. We had gone there on a Sunday evening. It was raining intermittently, so I carried the hotel umbrella with me. A friend of mine had suggested me to try the Banana pancake there, so the first thing we did after getting out in Krabi night market is find a banana pancake shop. I thanked my friend later for suggesting me to try the banana pancake. I loved it.

The night market is a street full of open stalls selling different things, mostly souvenirs, t-shirts, accessories, and food - a lot of different variety of food.

This stall in particular intrigued our curiosity. They were selling insects. No, we did not try them. But it was interesting to see how they had cooked different variety of insects.

At the center of the night market there was this huge stage put up which had some people entertaining the crowd. We did not stay at the center for a long time since most seats were already filled.                  

We absolutely enjoyed the street food in the night market. The souvenir shops had all the souvenirs which we wanted to buy for family and friends at a good price. Music, food and shopping - night market was an enjoyable experience!!!

Uber Pool Singapore

Public transport in Singapore is not expensive. I moved to Singapore for work. I have always been using public transport for commuting to work. I would never take a taxi home unless I was starting from office in the middle of the night, which I would at times due to my work shift timings. I was aware of Uber, Grab and other taxi services in Singapore. But it was recently that my friend introduced me to the concept of UberPool and Grab Share. It sounded more like the share-auto concept which I have used in Chennai, but only better. I began to use more of UberPool everyday.

What is UberPool?
UberPool is a car sharing service provided by Uber apart from their usual Standard taxi services. UberPool will be atleast 15%-20% cheaper. Hence more affordable. Car sharing does not mean that you will find a car only if there are other people pooling. You will be riding alone in case nobody raises request for UberPool in your path.

I live less than 3 kms from my office. I was taking the bus to work everyday. My average journey time was 20-25 minutes, because I had to change 2 buses. After I started using UberPool my commute time is about 10 minutes or lesser these days. I do not use UberPool everyday though. Uber provides a lot of promotional discounts these days in Singapore. I wait for the promotions to be active. These promotions are $4 off, or $5 off, which means that I will be paying even lesser than what I pay for public transport. I suppose this is good because the distance to my office is less. If it was more then public transport might still be cheaper.

Screenshot of e-receipt

DBS Marina Regatta - Singapore

Yesterday I was near Marina Bay Sands to have a look at what was happening at the DBS Marina Regatta. DBS Marina Regatta is an event organized by the DBS Bank. This is happening on the Promontory near Marina Bay Sands. They have many events happening including a wipeout zone, food stalls, and urban beach and other things.

It was a breezy evening yesterday. I reached the promontory around 7:30 PM. The participants of the kayaking activities which should have been held earlier that day where stretching their legs and frolicking under empty stalls. The entrance of the DBS Marina Regatta had a beachy look. As soon as I entered the first thing I noticed was the big wipeout zone setup which was on the left. 

There was some people participating, and many were standing around this zone watching the event. The lighting was very good, but I got bored soon and moved over to the food stalls. They had about 6 - 7 food stalls. I started exploring what they were serving. There was an ice cream stall, a hot dog stall, arabian food, sausage stall, and a Michelin star listed stall. Food prices where not more than 15 dollars, but not less than 7 dollars. My wife and I enjoyed the delicious food. The stalls were wonderfully decorated. The place was lit up like a carnival.

After having a good dinner of hot dogs, sausages, and ice cream, I moved on to see what was happening on the other events. There was a beach setup which looked fantastic. There was some alcoholic drinks being served at the beach counter. 

The view from this fake beach was good. Since the night was breeze I noticed a lot of people enjoying with friends sitting on the hammock. 

There was also a sound proofed party dome with loud music playing on the inside. I did not bother going inside. 

DBS Marina Regatta on June 2nd was not crowded, may be because it was a Friday evening and people had not yet got into the weekend mode. My wife and I we enjoyed the pleasantness of the evening, and the delicious food served at the counters lifted our spirits.

Serpent Theory

3 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”

2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”

4 “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”


This reference from the book of Genesis is the conversation between Eve and the serpent.

From this passage we can understand that though God created all animals there were some animals which were more crafty or in other words had shades of evil in them. When I say evil, I am trying to understand what that essentially means. My understanding of evil is whatever that is not the will of God is evil. Because He is the creator.

What do we learn from the story of Adam and Eve?
What I have been taught from the story of Adam and Eve is this: Adam and Eve disobeyed God by eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge. Because of their disobedience they and the entire human race has been cursed.

Another perspective? The Serpent Theory:
I have been thinking about what the serpent did. Can we say that we in our everyday lives unknowingly become like the serpent? Human beings can be crafty as well. We become evil when we do things which are not the will of God. We become a source of evil when we suggest things which are not the will of God. Everyone have their own view and best way of doing things. Do we forget to ask God what He wants us to do and tend to listen to others than God? When we listen to others and do things which are not the will of God, we become like Eve listening to the voice of the serpent. The voice of the serpent says "He became rich by doing this, Or, He is better because of doing this, why don't you also do this to be like him?" Therefore, we must also be cautious in what we suggest people to do. If we suggest things which are not the will of God, are we not providing voice to the serpent?

In every decision we take, we will have to pray and ask God to provide us the right way and every day we need to pray that God delivers us from the evil one.

Bicycle Sharing in Singapore

I have been living in Singapore for about 2 years now. I was recently introduced to bicycle sharing in Singapore by a friend. Being a cycling enthusiast, I was excited to know more about this. I was told that there are 3 vendors who offer bicycle sharing services in Singapore - OBike, Mobike, and OFO. There might be others but these are supposedly the major ones. I immediately started to explore on what was required to register to at least one of these services. I ended up registering for all the 3.

How it works:
OBike and Mobike are similar in their operation. They have a mobile app which one has to download and use to register to their services. Once you have the app, you will have to register with a security deposit of $49. The registration is tagged to your mobile number. OBike gave me free rides worth $3 when I registered. Both the apps have a mobile wallet which will require a top-up as you use. The costs usually range between 50 cents to 1 dollar every 30 minutes. So once you register, you will be able to locate the nearest bicycle using the app. The cycle will be having a QR code which you will scan using your phone to unlock the cycle lock. Your mobile bluetooth must be turned ON for this functionality to work. Once you have unlocked the cycle, the clock starts ticking. After you are done using the cycle, you will have to park it safely at a nearest bicycle stand and lock the cycle. You will need to have your bluetooth turned ON when you lock the bicycle as this will be used to end your trip on your mobile app. Else, you will have to do a manual end trip. OFO works differently, I have not tried OFO so far. I believe it uses a 4 digit code to lock/unlock the cycle. OFO charges per use, so i suppose it is cheaper than OBike and Mobike.

• Download OBike/Mobike mobile app.
• Register using mobile number paying a security deposit of $49.
• Locate bicycle.
• Unlock using QR code in bicycle.
• Use Bicycle.
• Park at bicycle stnad.
• End trip.

OBike:
An OBike is usually yellow in color with a basket up in the front. I believe there are 3 variants of this bicycle. I found OBike to be the most easy-to-locate out of the 3 vendors. So I chose this as my first option to try. Besides, they gave me $3 worth free rides AND they offered free rides on the weekend, which was just terrific. I was able to ride for long hours without paying anything. The first time I used this cycle, I was extremely satisfied. The cycle was either new or well maintained. They do not have geared cycles, but that's okay to get around. OBike also provides the feature of reserving a cycle remotely using the app upto 10 minutes before you reach the cycle. After my first attempt, I started using OBike frequently, to office, to goto the grocery shop, anywhere nearby. It was fun, cheap and healthy. I feel I have shed some layers around my stomach.

Mobike:
A Mobike is usually orange in color with a basket upfront. I registered for mobike paying the $49 deposit. Mobike did not provide me any free rides. I loaded my mobike wallet with $10. I have not used a mobike so far though. The cycles look well maintained and similar to the Obike except for the color. Using the mobile app we can locate the nearest available cycle. Mobike allows its users to reserve a bike upto 15 minutes.

OFO:
An OFO bike is a full yellow color. OFO does not have a basket up-frount. The rates for OFO bikes are cheaper than OBike and Mobike. I have not used an OFO bike so far. OFO requires a deposit of $39 to start using.