Singapore is a country of rules.
Rule #1: No fun*.
You can’t do anything in Singapore: no gum chewing, no jaywalking, and certainly no illicit behavior of any kind.
Did you notice the asterisk?
Singapore is a country of illusions. On the surface, all seems calm, clean, and cultured. On the surface, everything is chaotic.
Welcome to Singapore, a country of no rules.
“You can get anything you want here,” the taxi driver told me on the way to dinner.
He was talking about all the delicious food of course.
Food:
Singapore is my favorite place in the world to eat. Forget formal dining, check out the food hawker stalls is a must to experience Singapore’s diverse food selection.
Your first stop should be Maxwell Food Centre for some chicken satay and delicious Hainan chicken rice.
Politics
“You can get anything you want here.” Those words played in my head again as I entered the Brix bar at the Grand Hyatt Singapore. Brix is a unique wine cellar bar located right off of Orchard Road in the heart of big little Singapore.
What makes the bar unique is how friendly all the nonlocal women were not to mention the multiple offers I received to enjoy party favors. This can’t be going on in Singapore, can it?
After heading to the infamous Orchard Towers better known as the ‘Four Floors of [INSERT WORD RHYMING WITH STORES] my suspicions were confirmed: You can get anything you want here.
While it was all illegal and presumably you will get caned if you are arrested, it was mind boggling that in a country so known for its harsh rules, that everything, was taking place virtually out in the open.
Conclusion
When I arrived in Singapore, I knew I had to be on my best behavior. This was a strict country with zero tolerance for rule breakers.
Two days later, I learned a valuable lesson that would be reinforced time and time again when I traveled to other ‘strict’ countries: all of it is an illusion.
Singapore is 274.1 sq miles in size. I’d assume it wouldn’t be difficult for the authorities to know what goes on in these establishments yet somehow, tourists are given a pass to do what they please so long as they are reasonably discrete.
To be clear, the message isn’t ‘if you’re looking for a good time go to Singapore’, the message is don’t believe everything you read, no matter where you go.
Desensitized by the ‘rules’, the next day I decided to jaywalk while chewing gum at the same time.
“You can get anything you want here.”
You’re Nobody until Someone Likes You [On Facebook]
![You’re Nobody until Someone Likes You [On Facebook]](https://thepointsoflife.boardingarea.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/hf3012.jpg "You’re Nobody until Someone Likes You [On Facebook]")
How did Dean Martin way back in 1960 know that social media would become so popular?
It’s been two weeks of me ‘blogging, tweeting, tweaking, and Facebooking,” and let me tell you it’s exhausting.
Hitting refresh on my Facebook page just to see if my Like count has gone up has me a little worried that I may be losing it. Likewise, feeling the rush from a retweet or favorite on Twitter makes me question my sanity.
But I’d be lying if I didn’t say I wasn’t enjoying it. Perhaps the angry, old professor is warming up to social media. I’m already planning a celebration for when me and A-Rod enter the 800 Home Run Club.
Then I’ll know that “You like me, you really like me.”
Step 2: Make Tuesday Humpday
We are well on our way learning how to Step 1: Enjoy #ThePointsOfLife.
As I stated in this post, the points game is only Step 1 out of 10. Now it’s time to preview Step 2 of my book, Everyone’s Advice Is Wrong . . . Including Mine, which tells you how to make a change to your current routine today.
Fitting that I am posting this on a Tuesday evening right before tomorrow’s workday.
Without further adieu I give you Step 2: Make Tuesday Hump Day
Although you can now overindulge on steak and wine by heading to Buenos Aires, Argentina (EZE) with a stopover in Mendoza (MDZ), Enjoying your #PointsOfLife to get you there, you eventually (one week later) have to return to your cubicle where your coworkers do not care to hear about, nor can they relate to, your travel exploits. With each trip, the confines of the cubicle grow more and more intolerable. Fear not, by Step 10, your former life will provide you with comic relief.
Preview ended: No worries, all ten distractions will be outlined in the book.
Pre-order link coming soon.
30 Days to Maldives: Step 3
An excerpt from Everyone’s Advice Is Wrong demonstrates how this will become your points problem:
How do you earn these points? The idea is simple and legal. You can earn points in a number of ways including flying to the four corners of the globe to gain preferred airline status, staying in a ton of hotel rooms to qualify for free suite upgrades, or, by buying one too many [Michigan] teddy bears during a 1-800-FLOWERS Valentine’s Day points promotion.
If that is not economically viable, consider racking up millions of points from the comforts of being ‘in couch’.
All you need is the following:
– A dial-up internet connection
– An excellent credit score
Then:
– Apply for an award credit card once a quarter.
– Meet the minimum spend requirement for that card.
– Patiently wait for the points to accumulate.
It’s that simple.
Before you get all the points in the world appreciate that Step 3 is a preemptive measure whereby you make a commitment to not hoard your points. This is known as Churn ‘n’ Burn. Looking at your points in a pretty Excel document that you have spent too much time at work creating is worthless when all of a sudden it costs twice as much to go somewhere than it would have had you not been so emotionally attached to your points.
I too used to have this problem and would spend all my time looking at my snazzy collection of points. See Exhibit below:
#10: Red Light Pho: Amsterdam, Netherlands
Right next to the organic coffee shops that line the streets and only steps away from the welcoming women of the skinny alley of the Red Light District is Amsterdam’s Chinatown. Fresh Peking Duck is on display in all the windows tempting the Pho seeker to give up his quest of finding that perfect bowl by settling for an enticing substitute.
Having made it past all the bland döner kebap shops that are an absolute waste of money and all the aforementioned distractions along the way, I find the only Vietnamese restaurant in the area. Mind you, I have been to Amsterdam many times but always neglect to take note of two things: 1) the restaurant is only open for dinner 2) where exactly the restaurant is located. I guess writing down the name would help.
Regardless, half the fun of visiting the Red Light District is navigating through landmarks that aren’t really landmarks:
“Oh I think you go over two bridges down one alley then past the first coffee shop next to the girl in the window and it should be on your left hand side. If you’ve gone past three churches, you’ve gone too far.” In this case, I believe to get to the Vietnamese restaurant you go left down the first street of Chinatown and it should be on your right hand side after the awful sushi spot.
When you do finally find the Pho restaurant take note, if you are on a stopover to another city that you still have to weave your way back through the maze, out of the District, across the street to the train station, and back to the airport, all the while trying to keep a straight face when answering questions from the customs agent regarding the overindulgence you just experienced.
As far as the pho is concerned, I worked up such an appetite trying to find the place that I really didn’t’ spend too much time savoring each spoon. Instead, I proceeded to scarf down the bowl to quell my suddenly insatiable appetite.
From what I do remember, the pho was quite good.
Because of the great adventure, Amsterdam Pho comes in at #10.
I am not drinking fucking Merlot!
International travel will teach you more about business, politics, and law than all the degrees combined.
If you want adventure, realize that there is a world outside your own borders. Watching NatGeo and watching the Travel Channel will not satisfy your craving for exploration.
HD television isn’t real life!
So take the points you learned from Points 101 and go to the airport.
In this section, I will show that it is possible to travel and have fun while enriching your life by seeing wonders of the world. Here are two of the New 7 Wonders of Nature that I have been lucky enough to visit.
Final 4 Free
Traveling for sporting events is one of the best reasons to travel. However, when your Detroit Lions make the Superbowl and it isn’t held in Detroit (horrible idea to have it in a cold weather city) you will find yourself scrambling for airline tickets that costs hundreds upon hundreds of dollars.
So what will you do, miss your once in a lifetime chance to see your beloved Wolverines make the Final Four?
Surely not.
Last year, Michigan came out of nowhere lead by College Player of the Year Trey Burke to make it to the Final Four in Atlanta. After putting the beat down on the Syracuse Orange, Michigan faced Rick Pitino’s Louisville Cardinals for the championship.
Only you weren’t there to see it. Don’t end up in a road side ditch, switch to DirectTv.
Sorry, just seeing if you were reading. I looked for tickets and found a roundtrip for $800. I checked Southwest and found those prices to be crazy high as well.
Out of options, I was about to give up when I realized that I had a stash of British Avios that can be redeemed on American Airlines for next to nothing with no extra fees for last minute booking.
My ticket ended up being a manageable $5 for 2 of the legs and I came out of pocket for the others. All in all it cost $150 to get to Atlanta.
So this year, if your team is playing (meaning you are from Michigan as it will be a Umich v. MSU final) and your points are right, you too can watch Michigan redeem itself to become national champions!
Otherwise, I hope you have Comcast cable as your dish will probably not get reception in that subfrozen tundra known as the Great Lakes State.
“Maybe you’ll get a ‘real job’ one day so that you don’t have to travel with points.”
My book shows how easy it is to travel even if you are not affluent. Even though I have tried to teach family and friends about my points hobby, it has not been warmly received by all.
Here is another excerpt from my book Everyone’s Advice Is Wrong . . . Including Mine describing what may happen to you should you also engage in this points hobby:
It’s not all smooth sailing when it comes to traveling, even if by plane. Jet-setting will expose you to your fair share of haters. This is especially true if you Tweet your every move while trotting the globe (Be sure to follow @ThePointsOfLife for the latest updates.) Additionally, those same skeptics will minimize your travel accomplishments equating the use of points to the use of performance enhancing drugs. For the record, I have never doped.
Following another post showcasing my travels, a former Facebook friend of mine (#SpiteErased) commented, “Maybe you’ll get a ‘real job’ one day so that you don’t have to travel with points.”
His comment is significant for two reasons:
On the one hand, these words are misguided because they fail to take into account the reason you accumulate points in the first place- to break the monotony of Cubicle-ism. Partaking in a travel adventure to some remote locale creates a sharp contrast between your daily life at home and valiant explorations abroad. Travelling opens your eyes to new possibilities, bolstering your drive to succeed. Such radical departures from the norm are out of the question given typical budget constraints. The liberation from, not assimilation to, your regimented routine, i.e., the ‘real job’, is the reason you take that trip today. Do not wait for all the pieces to come together perfectly before starting your life.
