Back

Finally back ; ) Well this blog has been around for a couple of weeks now and I have to admit there is not much readership....well at least the counter is hitting the 50 milestone soon heh. Couple of friends and guys at work have asked me what Asiablues is really about. Is it a travel thingy kind of blog etc etc? Well the idea of Asiablues is to talk about Asia the way it really is. I've seen way too many "Come to Asia! Asia is this...Asia is that.....blah blah blah". Not that there is no truth in those but I just want to talk about Asia in a more.....real? Down to earth perspective perhaps? To the people who have asked me, Asiablues will contain some travel information as long as I can gather them hehe. Anyway I am in the midst of collecting some information on this really laid back spot in Malaysia which I've been to a number of times. I would like to add that despite being there a number of times I have failed to see one of the place greatest attractions!! In fact I had no idea until a friend showed me his pictures. More on that joint soon enough ; )

Techno Techno 2

Well that was fast! I....er.....think its working heh. I'll see how things go and maybe do a short review...erm ok that might be a little tough for me to do....I'll just do a post and share my experience on using Technorati : )

Techno Techno

Getting to know technorati.Apperently i have to make a post to prove i own this blog.Well lets see how it goes Technorati Profile

Make way for Adsense ; )

Finally my Adsense got approved!!! Yipee!!!! I can see tons and tons of money now....or not..heheh. Anyway Asia Blues got a tiny revamp to fit in the the new links and buttons etc. Somehow I really like the buttons..

In dah HOOD punk!

Well a little more insight into Asia and this time Singapore. There are gangsters everywhere in the world that's for sure. Well you don't see a lot of them in Singapore cause law enforcement is pretty tight but she does get her fair share of street punks. The "Ah Bengs" is what the locals call them. This characters are usually teens....and we all know the problems with teens heh. They get into brawls from time to time, some petty crimes here and there and matter of fact is that they actually do form a small part of Singapore's culture. Now the issue with this "Ah Bengs" is of course not as simple as it seems. While some of them may be tiny independent groups others are part of a larger picture. That's about as far as I can safely go on the topic for now...but the fun thing is that these folks have some kind of gang mottos or whatever and they are in rap form! Below is another video link where some of the more creative of the lot actually got together a music video yes a music video of their gang motto. I'm sure it was done in the name of fun or even some kind of flim project base on the quality and I'm also sure somebody already has their eyes on them. Its tight. Well putting that inside it does provide a glimpse into Singapore's pop culture.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MR01Vqgl8ic

Blog Resources

This is a new label I'm setting up to talk about blog resources. The main idea here is to share my experiences using them. As you can see from my site there are already a few of them in place and working. The seasoned blogger will most likely know a lot more than I do but just in case you happen to be a newbie like me I think you will find this rather useful. First up is Blog Soldiers. Its a traffic exchange program and the way it works is that when you surf other blog soldiers sites you get credits and those credits in turn become traffic for you : ) Try clicking the banner on the rite of the blog to find out how it can help your blog : )

My personal ranking for Blog Soldiers is 7382/10000 ; )

Erm????

Ermm....I don't know about this guy but I'm a lvl 60 warrior and a lvl 40 shaman. Weird...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAJvBvvckA0

Turn away if you are the superstitious type

This one is really a good look into Asia. The link I provided below is what appears to me as a Buddhist funeral in Vietnam. I've seen Buddhist funerals specifically Chinese Buddhist funerals in Singapore and what hits me most is that Asian countries and their cultures can be so different and alike at the same time. And in case you are wondering why I say turn away if you are superstitious is because in many Asian cultures funeral are very much unlucky and even taboo stuff. So unless you are suppose to be involved some way like for example it's your funeral and you are suppose to haunt the joint hehe kidding...you would want to be as far away from it a possible. In a nut shell they are generally consider inauspicious.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utzZhSKJLHU

This is Asian Culture

I believe I've rambled on something about mythical and mystical Asia and how progress seems to have masked this particular facet of Asia. Well the key word is seems and here is something that very much proves Asia is still all that. It's a Cambodian dance and is similar to Thai dancing in certain aspects. I would point out that the costumes are very alike and this would be akin to Cambodia's and Thailand's proximity to each other and their close history. The two of them had been at it a number of times in the ancient days.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBGiXehiCuA

Idol Fever!!

American Idol is everywhere!!!! It's in Asia too!! Somebody stop them!!! In Asia there are a few official adaptations of the show i.e Singapore Idol and Malaysia Idol.(everyday I wonder when we'll get Iraq Idol, Afghanistan Idol and how they would look like!!!! hahahaha). Below are two links to an advertisement about Malaysia Idol.

When you look at this one you might think its about India Idol haha! Goes to show the cultural diversity in many Asian countries.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2_dfNOyMSM

East and West not so different after all when you fail an audition lol!!! Erm..this might hurt sorry.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvkhmUOe0b8

Give me my Money Back!

This one is about Singapore. Do you know that Singapore has a DEA too? Haha well unlike the one in the U.S this DEA = Debt Enforcement Agent!! As the name implies they collect debts! They are a private company not government agency mind you hehe. Here is a link to a video about them. It is not very clear and some of the speech is in a local dialect but it can give you insight into one of less know facets of Singapore

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkS5Qtw3lHQ

Asia Blues no doubt

South east Asia is having the blues alright.....in this case maybe the grays hehe. Well normally during this period we have this problem with the dreaded HAZE. Everything looks sickly because of it. It is mainly caused by forest fires in Indonesia due to the weather and partly because the fires were set deliberately by poor farmers. Well...these folks farm for a living but they are too damn poor to afford fertilisers so the only way they can get some is to burn the forests and use the ash as fertilisers. For a fact, the Indonesian government apologises to its neighbours all the time when the haze problems occurs which leads to this thought among many south east Asians "Since you know this problem, other then apologise why don't you do something about it?????" Well...other than to put out the fires as they occur which is not easy, the other thing to do would be to stop the deliberate burning of the forests right? But what would become of the farmers if the Indonesian government clamps down on the burning? Personally I think it is a tough call but regional governments are working together to fix the problem so I guess other than whine about it the only other thing to do is sit back and like the politician prove their worth hehe.

So what exactly is this haze thing? Below is a brief description form Wikipedia.

Haze is an atmospheric phenomenon where dust, smoke and other pollutant particles obscure the normal clarity of the sky. It occurs when dust and smoke particles accumulate in relatively dry air. When weather conditions block the dispersal of smoke and other pollutants they concentrate and form a usually low-hanging shroud that impairs visibility and may become a respiratory health threat. Dense haze caused by industrial pollution is also known as smog.

And this is what it looks like and also a link to a news about haze.

http://sg.news.yahoo.com/061011/1/43zm7.html

Mystical & Mythical Asia?

Asia is a land of beauty and full of mythical and mystical things. Hehe I bet the stray cat below my block right now is a mythical beast on the prowl lol!!! Well.....to be fair that was how people describe Asia many many many years ago and to a certain extent the mythical part was accurate due the colourful cultures the many races here in Asia have. Asia is indeed beautiful and still described as above but not solely. In fact the traditional Thai dance costumes does give people a mythical and mystical feel when they see it. This is just one of the many colorful things to see in Asia. so onne can pretty much say that the description on Asia earlier does hold true....but personally I feel that given the rapid development of Asia, things have started to dull somewhat. Take for example Singapore. A prominent part of Asia, it has a mythical creature call the Merlion in its ancient legends. Wow! Shouldn't that be pretty close to a dragon as far is being mythical is concerned? But do you know that Singapore is most probably going to have free Wi-Fi access throughout the country next year? That means as long you have the hardware you can be online almost anywhere in Singapore! At this point I'm more interested in the Wi-Fi than the Merlion! I'm not saying its a bad thing, in fact I fully support such developments but doesn't that seem to make Asia loose it mythical and mystical appeal? Frankly if you were to tell me Asia is a land of beauty and full of mythical things etc etc just like that...I would expect to be very immersed in a fantasy world kind of thing the moment I step on Asian soil! Yet I find myself on the forefront of development! I'm sure I am not alone on this and pretty certain many people have come to Asia and left disappointed. Fact is there is no stopping development and Asia is already being masked by it. So don't be like me and expect to be immersed the moment you step on Asian soil. All the hype about Asia is still there,....but it is probably not going to be delivered the way some expect it to be. So if you are really looking to loose yourself in the beauty and mysticism of Asia etc etc hehe, don't expect it to hit you the moment you arrive. You have to know where to look! Beyond the tall buildings, sprouting malls, hustle and bustle.....its there all . I might just be able to help ; )

Under Construction

Asia Blues is born from a previous blog called Spare Change. Spare Change was pretty much a training blog for me. I mainly used it to explore blogging tools and how to make money with them ; ) I signed up for a lot of traffic exchange programs, referral programs so on and so forth while thinking of what to blog about. I finally realised that the one thing other than making money ; ) that I want to blog about is Asia! I could do it on Spare Change but it was way too oriented towards money making topics and it just didn't have the right feel hence Asia Blues is born : ) Asia Blues will be very different from Spare Change in content but layout wise it will be very similar to Spare Change. In order to make things more manageable for me and to avoid confusion, I've deleted Spare Change and as far as possible deleted all my accounts in the relevant blog services. I've even got a new email from Yahoo and signed up for a new account here with Blogger. Yes Spare Change was also from Blogger but under another account. I have to admit that I hope Asia Blues will be able to generate some income for me so I intend to sign up again with the traffic exchange programs etc etc but this time using the new and dedicated email that I am using now with this current Blogger account. This way I can keep my accounts straight, have an email that is dedicated to Asia Blues so I can easily manage all matters related to the blog(I'm serious about this blog)and basically a FRESH start in my blogging journey ; ) In case Blogger administration is reading, I would delete the other Blogger account if I knew how....

Testing

This is a test post used for construction of this site