Esmo & Rach

The Longest Break......

Hi all, so sorry as I've not been updating my blog for the past few weeks. You see, we've been on a LONG break from work and we had totally enjoyed ourselves. What break you ask? Well, we were on 5 weeks leave from work and we had returned to Singapore and Malaysia for the duration. (Shiok right?.... how many employers allow their workers on such a long leave, especially when I've just completed my 6 months probation?... haha )

We left Brisbane in the afternoon of 21 April 2007, and spent the first week in Singapore and the second week back in Batu Pahat, Johor, Malaysia. As my camera was stolen, I didn't have any pictures taken for these first two weeks.

Technically, they were spent catching up with family, relatives, friends and ex-colleagues. We had also spent a fair bit of our time shopping! After 10 months away from Singapore, we now truly believe that Singapore is a shopping haven. We just couldn't peel our eyes away from the clothes, shoes, knick knacks and brick bracks right before our eyes.

When we got back from Malaysia, our first destination was the Indoor Stadium. Why? Because of the Aviva Open, a world class badminton tournament participated by world class badminton players! We bought two season tickets to premiers seats for SGD$52 each. It was well worth it! We were seating close to the courts and could see the players clearly.

The view from our premier seats.

The tournaments were so exciting that it got all the spectators so worked up, rooting for their players, shouting, clapping, drumming (yes, I'm serious. Somebody brought a small drum, a few brought kompangs - signature of Malaysia's supporters).

Malaysia' bus load of supporters, armed with uniforms, flags, kompangs and whistles...

The fans of various countries have their own characteristics. Malaysia's for example, will unite (regardless of race of players) and cheer with all their heart, bringing along their kompangs and chants of "Malaysia Boleh!". Indonesia's supporters are mostly students, with 1 big Indonesia flag and chants of "In-do-ne-sia! clap! clap! clap! clap!". Where as China's, they have powerful vocal cords that are so sharp and clear you can hear them from across the stadium even if there were only a few of them. They came with 1 big flag and chant of "中国队加油!"

When there are no Malaysian players playing, the Malaysian supporters will root for their neighbouring countries and especially the host nation - Singapore. The Indonesia supporters never roots for China. And they also jeered at Singapore's Ronald Susilo as "import" and asked him to "Go Home" as he was originally from Indonesia.

Not only did we get to witness world class badminton standards, there were also bargains to grab! Yonex, one of the sponsor of Aviva Open, had their badminton goods on display. After every match, the booths were packed with badminton fans, selecting sporting outfits, badminton racquets, shoes, bags, magazines, etc etc... Not only the spectators frequent the booths, but the players as well. And we met Peter Gade, defending champion of Aviva Open's Men's Singles. Unfortunately, Peter Gade lost to China's Chen Yu (the eventual runner-up).

Above: Esmond with Denmark's Peter Gade. Right: Peter Gade vs Taufik Hidayat (Indonesia) who's famous for his backhand smash, which didn't get to materialise because Peter played in such a way that he doesn't have any chance to "出招".

The finals was held on Sunday, 6 May 2007. We arrived an hour early to "chop" seats. The turn out was very good. There were 5 final matches: the men's singles, women's singles, men's double, women's double and mixed doubles. Out of all 5 matches, the most exciting match is the last match of the tournament - the men's doubles. It was China against Malaysia. The crowd were divided into two factions, each rooting for their players. Whenever they score, they celebrate with cheers and claps so loud that it thunders across the whole indoor stadium. After 3 heart stopping games, China won. Malaysia was so close to winning but alas, it was not meant to be.

Top: Malaysia's veteran players Choong Tan Fook and Lee Wan Wah vs Tony Gunawan and Chandra (Indonesia) in the semi finals.

Bottom: The winner (China) and runner up (Malaysia) of men's doubles.

Actually, this year's Aviva Open went to the underdogs. Heavy weights who were expected to proceed to the finals were eliminated as early as the preliminary rounds. Lee Chong Wei, Peter Gade, Lin Dan (Top 5 players in the world), Taufik Hidayat all didn't make it to the finals. Instead and unseeded Thailand player won the men's singles - Boonsak Ponsana. He beat world no. 1 - Lin Dan and went on the fight Singapore's Ronald Susilo in the semi-finals.

Thailand's Boonsak Ponsana with his coach after his victory against Singapore's Ronald Susilo.

Why the sudden interest in badminton you ask? Actually, I was hooked onto badminton back in 1990s when Malaysia hosted and won the Thomas Cup. After secondary school, the interest waned and was only rekindled when I'm in Brisbane as we've been participating in weekly badminton sessions with some friends.