Singapore: Redux - 14/06/'08

Spent the last 10 days in Singapore being reminded how much I dig this city. Here's a few pics to recap:

A great 'Singlish" sign on Pulau (island) Ubin, which was where we shot our deep jungle scenes. An amazing place - true, dark jungle, complete with wild boars, crazy insects and very large monitor lizards

Lunch with the crew the day before shooting. From left to right: Azhar - the head of my Singaporean crew, Marnie, our on-set Props person from Perth, Natalie (hair/make-up) and Brian (editor and voice of our OGEE character) - both from Perth as well




Kartini, Azhar's wife who was also running our Singaporean Art dept, posing inbetween some set-dec stones they built for us - big thanks to them btw - they were fantastic!













Morning view from my boat heading over to Pulau Ubin @ 6:00 AM








The crew disembarking from a "Bum Boat". These are amazing - totally beat-up, but incredibly durable - kinda like uber lo-tech water-borne versions of the Millennium Falcon









Myself and Calum Worthy, one of our leads taking a break for the all important "pose"









The lil' hills way in the distance are Batam Island, Indonesia, where I spent some time 15 years ago, hangin' out and playing tennis - good times...







Oz & Singaporean art dept dinner at an outdoor cafe in Boat Quay. It's a fairly touristic strip of riverside cafes, but visually quite cool. A huge thunderstorm struck midway through dinner, but under our canopy, no one was fazed by it at all - beautiful night







View from my seat at dinner towards the Fullerton Hotel - previously the central Post Office. It's a fairly grande place, open with a huge atrium inside and a wonderful champagne bar that I introduced myself to one night









Me and Jay McCarthy - a friend from Tokyo days. I haven't seen him since then and we've been out of contact for at least 10 years, but we ran into each other, completely out of the blue at the gym I used while there


Here's a pic from the entrance of my gym. You enter it from this 5th level terrace, where beyond the pool is a stunning view of the civic district across the Singapore river. Off in the distance to the right is the "Flyer", Singapore's answer to the "London Eye". Being slightly larger than the London version, I really wanted to go on it, but unfortunately, schedule didn't allow

Overall, the trip was great - both for work and for my soul. We were able to shoot some strong jungle sequences, plus I was able to do some much-needed cultural exploring, and find a lot of enjoyment at the same time

Thanks Azhar and Tinni for your great work and personalities - and also for your fantastic crew

A very successful trip!