Hello sunshine :-D

A great day! 2 mornings in a row it has been sunny. That's not too common in the current rainy season. And today I hit the jackpot when I got off work early (meaning 17:30) - reached home and looked out the window.. And there it was - a greeeen hillside, perfectly angled against the falling sun, so that you can lie down on the slope and keep the head up without any effort.

2 minutes later I was on my way, running shoes on, in shorts and a t-shirt, making my way through and over and Over (pedestrian bridge) the 5-laned 1-way-streets which lay between me and The Hillside... My feet moved faster than...faster than...hmm...faster than beer disappears when left unguarded at a students' house! And after a bit of heavy car-dodging and quite a steep climb, I was lying on the slope, my face turned towards the sun, eyes closed, (recovering from the climb,) smiling to myself.. It's been more than a month without such a moment of total and utter relaxation in the sun.
//Last time? I guess South Africa, Pretoria, in the park of the government houses, on the 2nd of November...//

You wouldn't believe, would you? That a guy can move next to the equator (about 135 km from here), and then actually not see the sun for a long time!! That's how it is mainly. Sounds sad, and sometimes it is. But then, the moments of clear blue sky & sunshine make it all up again. Plus, of course, the moments when I imagine the crappy weather in the Baltics these days :)

So why don't I see the sun here?? Well, in the daytime I am at the office. And that's not too bad because it's too hot to be outside and enjoy it anyway. Or it's raining. Heavily. With lots of lightning.

I really enjoy the evenings, though. You can actually walk around, wearing sandals and a t-shirt, and not sweat your a** off.. Of course if you walk a bit too fast you're still sweating :)

Anyway, I will conclude my first weeks' impression of Singapore in the next post, not to have it lost in these long lines here which just tell that I'M A CITIZEN OF THE SUN.

A look behind...

To be completely honest with you, it is not the first time I am trying to write down what is going on. Blogging has worked with ups and downs also before, for example:

Las Frutas Exoticas - the ERASMUS exchange semester in Madrid, Spain

Madrid24 - 1 great week in Madrid, and another week in UK (but didn't have time to write much about UK :)

Dubai, South Africa, Germany, etc - my first trip out of Europe: 70 hours of flying in 40 days. A bunch of fun photos, and short comments. After this business trip I realized how civilized Europe actually is.

Singapore, Singapur, Singapura-pura-pura-ura....

See! Echoes in South East Asia!

That sentence is actually just saying (name slightly mis-spelled, I admit) "I am in Singapore now". Yep, that's what they call me here now - Echo. Mainly because I have a really difficult first name (three out of four characters are vocals, and all different, a nasty naming trick that only Estonian parents dare play on their children...)

Anyway, it's cool to react to a different name sometimes, and it's also interesting to live in another place which is almost on the other side of the world from your home. Singapore will be my home base for the next 1,5 years, until summer 2010.

I'll definitely go to New Zealand one of those days - that's probably where I'd come out if I were to dig a hole straight through the Earth from my home in Estonia...

Well, not to make this introduction too long:

WELCOME TO "ECHOES FROM SOUTH EAST ASIA" - the journal of my everyday life and travels in the Asia-Pacific region, through the perspective of a globally minded guy from Eastern Europe.

I intend to share some photos and short impressions with you from Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, Indonesia, Brunei, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, and if I'm lucky then also from Australia and NZ. And probably some more countries where I happen to land in the meantime.

I hope you'll enjoy sharing the upcoming views and thoughts with me. Feel free to leave comments.

ah, yes... Have patience waiting for the next post :)