Batam

From the visual above, u'd think that the International People's Forum against the IMF & World Bank held over the weekend in Batam was one happening event, filled with protests a plenty. But the truth is...that was hardly the case at all. The whole thing was in short, a snoozefest. Everything was so staged it was almost as if they were acting for the cameras. And only for the cameras. On one such protests, someone even yelled 'Cut' at the end of the 10 minutes the group had set aside for their fist-punching and hollering.

So u see, pictures can be deceiving.

For a more accurate depiction, see this other one below.



But as boring as the forum was, Sunday night's dinner at the Holiday Inn with fellow colleagues from CNA and Radio more or less made up for it. Black Pepper Crab by the poolside. Mmm Mmm. What can I say? And the bill came up to be only 20 bucks thereabouts. Unbelievable.

One thing I took home from this short Batam trip was a heightened awareness that smoke-free restaurants or any enclosed air-conditioned environment for that matter, are really just more of a Singaporean regulation than a worldwide standard. That said though, for once, I'm actually quite thankful for it.