In Hong Kong

Since these are our last days in Asia, we decided to do some traveling. Last weekend all of us went to Hong Kong. We flew by Singapore Airways and I was very suprised with the superior service. No wonder it is considered the best airline in the world. It takes about 3.5 hours to fly to Hong Kong from Singapore.

Next to Victoria Harbour


On a different angle



Christian enjoying Changi airport (Singapore)


Hong Kong





Enjoying? the sun in a wealty neighborhood


Traveling by Sampan in the South China Sea


In Disneyland Hong Kong


Daddy with Sarah and Danny


Main Street, USA


Cinderella's castle


Danny is learning to drive...




Hannah and Christian enjoying Disneyland


Sarah watching a movie during the HK-Singapore flight


Singapore Airline's new A380

Visit to Cambodia

Last weekend Sarah and I went to Cambodia. We visited the ruins of Angkor Wat at Siem Reap. Here are some of the pictures and later on I will write more about our impressions.

At the entry of Angkor Wat




At the airport




Angkor Thom


Face to face with the giant


Bayon head


Smiley Sarah


At the root of the problem...


In the floating village


Traveling by Tuk Tuk


Riding horses in the countryside


At the landmine museum

Happy birthday

Today my friends at the office brought a cake to celebrate my birthday (Next Sunday). It was a suprise for me, I did not expected it. One person was joking that it was a "Mexican" cake but it looked like..., well, a regular cake. It was good though.

The smalls details tell a lot about the group I'm in. It's always nice to be remembered when a birthday comes. Last year I celebrated my birthday in Ithaca, NY, altough I can't remember what we did.

Another reason to remember this birthday: My acquarium pump works!... and I looked dumb when it did. Let me explain. Two days ago the pump stopped working. I dryed it and put it back but it still wouldn't work. Then I decided to take it to the place where I bought it and complain. Sure enough, when I told the attendant about my problem, he simply took it apart, reassembled it and voila! It worked perfectly. This shows that I am definitely not a handy man.

Singapore Heat

Here in Singapore the "hot" season appears to be starting. I was told, half jokingly I guess, that there are two seasons in this tropical island: Hot and Hotter. Apparently one of the reasons to be this hot is the lack of rain. During the last 3 months or so was raining almost daily and the sky was cloudy. As a resut, the weather was hot but not unbearable. Lately, the days have been quite sunny and the heat comes in full force.

Also, Air Conditioners are blasting indoors and sometimes it gets freezing cold, in particular in my office. There is a striking contrast between the heat outside and the cold inside. All of my Singaporean friends are so used to this that they did not even notice until I mentioned it. As Lee Kwan Yews once said, aircon is one of the gratest inventions of mankind. I agree with him in this hot weather.

Japanese Sushi

Today I finally went to the Japanese Sushi place I had been eying for a while. Let me say that I am no fan of Japanese food but this place looks kind of cool. The last time I went to a Japanese restaurant was in NYC with a friend and I liked it, so I decided to repeat the experience.

However, there is a twist with this restaurant. It wasn't the food what attracted me in the first place. This restaurant is in the underground passage of Raffles City MRT station and is surrounded by glass walls, so people can see inside. The twist to the restaurant is that it includes a conveyor belt for the food! Yes, people sit in lines and there is a conveyor going in front of patrons with the different dishes going before them. People are free to select whatever they want and at the end of the meal the waitress will tally out the dishes and charge accordingly: 1.99 per regular dish or 3.99 for red dish.

I invited a friend and went to explore this place. He knows about Japanese food, so he was able to recommed some dishes. However, the type of food here is quite different from the one I had in NYC. My friend says this is more authentic and I believe him. I had some suchi that tasted OK. But then my friend had raw salmon and invited me to taste it... I was very polite and I said it was an acquired taste and I tried once: It was horrible! I cannot stand raw fish! I also had some octopus tentacle suchi, a "pregnant" fried fish and soft shell crab. I did not particulary enjoyed the suchi but I found suprisingly good the pregnant fish (is called "pregnant" because it still has the eggs in the belly). Also, the soft shell crab was good and the entire animal is edible. It is prepared by deep friyng it so the shell becomes so soft that it can be eaten. I guess now I can say that I have been to a restaurant where the food goes directely to you without waiters. Great idea

INSEAD talk

Yesterday I went to INSEAD to give the MBA students a talk about risk management and the current financial crisis. A person of the Investment club asked me why I had volunteer to do such talk. My response was simple: I really like what I do and I want people to know more about Risk Management. When I was in Cornell I had a basic idea but I realized that most of my peers did not know much about it and very few were interested in the field.

I figured that some students may be intrigued enough to explore the area and maybe join in the future. During the presentation I recieved question about diverse topics and that is one the elements that I enjoy the most: Beign challenged by a good question. I have been going to different school (NUS, NTU and now INSEAD). I hope to visit some other places to create awareness of my line of work.

Cornell Club of Singapore

A few weeks ago I attended the South East Asia Cornell Club meeting at the Museun of Asian Civilization, very close to my office by the Singapore River. Leaders from Japan, The Phillipines, Korea, Malaysia and Japan (among other places) came. The idea is to have a better integration and help with the fundraising campaign "Far Above" What I found very interesting is that at least 2 people flew from Ithaca to the event. I guess that shows the interest Asia is receiving recently.

I met some interesting people and I learned more about the new campaign that is raising funds for physical additions, scholarships and higher salaries for future professors. I'm planning on attending future events to learn more.