About the hometown [backdated]

The feeling is very different. The last time which I was back was in April, and it's august now.

We've heard so much about this country, especially the tabloids in Singapore. Not a lot of good things actually come out of it.

The perspective which I got this time was a very different one. One of a tourist's. I try not to see the struggling broken social and economic fabric. I ignore how the taxpayers' money was carelessly poured into the sea of useless structures and buildings to house ineffective barely bilingual civil servants. How the Highway roadworks always seem to happen all year long, especially during the public holidays, and not during midnights. I try to understand the country from a foreigner's view.

Since young we've been influenced to repel them. They get the rights. They get the right of way. The leaders are biased, corrupt and are just filling in to fit their own personal agendas. We're the invited child. And we claim that we built the country.

When I come back this time, I saw improvements. I saw the struggling lower class from various races.

It's a great country. This is my conclusion after a week here as a tourist. Just like any country, they're almost always friendly to foreigners, and helpful too.

Sometimes we hate so much we forgot to love. We forgot the greens along the highway. We no longer remember the seemingly never ending northsouth highway which we know by heart. The white rectangular consistent lines which ran for 1000 kilometers.

Most of the food here have not been commercialized and still has the authentic taste. The roadside stalls which have been around for the past 50 years stand true to its taste and genuinty. The food originity battle, was meaningless and we know deep in our hearts what the outcome should be.