ADEX (Asian Diving Expo) 2004

When I got to Singapore at 1:30 am, April 17, after having been
on the road continuously for 34 hours, 26 of which in the air, the
last thing on earth I expected to see that afternoon was the ADEX
(Asian Diving Expo), the equivalent of DEMA, a trade show for
professionals in the Diving Industry, since I am NOT a diving
professional NOR have I ever been affiliated professionally with
any trade in any dive industry.

Our plan for the afternoon had been a SIESTA, after 36 hours on
the road (2 more hours added for the time it took after arrival in
SIN <Singapore Airport> and checking into the hotel), then do a
little on-site research on sightseeing and perhaps taking a short
walking/shopping tour at Time Square (where our hotel, Conrad
International, is located).


En route to Singapore, I posted this to a couple of friends:

RF> Guess what? I'll be ONE DAY late!

RF> Of all these times I've crossed the International Date Line,
RF> I had forgotten that it's ALREADY 16:30 of April 16 in Japan
RF> and I haven't even started on the flight to Singapore YET, and
RF> I had thought I was going to be there at 1:05 am on the 16th!

RF> So, I am here, at the NWA Lounge of Narita Airport Tokyo,
RF> waiting for the next connecting flight, having already flown
RF> 2 hrs to IAH, 4 more hours to LAX, and 11 more hours to Tokyo.
RF> I think we have another 3350 miles to go.

For those who snickered (they were actually just NOISE MAKERS <tm>
in rec.scuba) about me "posting while on vacation", that's just ONE
of the advantages of having a PC at all times. I continued
during the airport wait ...

RF> It's nice to have freebie internet access at the Lounge in Tokyo.

RF> Not sure what kind of internet access I'll have at the Singapore
RF> Conrad. So, if you have any NEDfest time/date for Raffles or
RF> whatever get together, the best bet is to post it in Scuba-SE
RF> for me to find it.


Soon after our three hour sleep and a $66 SGD (only about $40 USD)
breakfast, I found the broad-band access at Conrad, and this message:

B> Welcome to Singapore! Given your late arrival, I'll let you
B> sleep. When you wake up, call me on <5555-5555> ...

My phone call to Bjorn drew an immediate invitation to Lunch with
him and his son Alex since they were already having lunch, across
the street from our hotel!

At that time, we had just finished breakfast -- in which we consumed
more than adequate food for the rest of the day, so I asked Bjorn
to come to our room after their lunch instead, and they did.

If not for Bjorn, we would have missed the ADEX!! I had thought
that it was a trade show, restricted only to those in the trade.
It was then that Bjorn told us the show was "closed" to the public
before Saturday, and is "open" to the public Saturday and Sunday,
and the site is DIRECTLY across the street from our hotel also!!



And so it came to pass that the very first sight we saw in
Singapore was (besides Bjorn and his son) the ADEX 2004!



The local newspaper (The Strait Times : Saturday April 17, 2004)
already had an article "Taking the plunge into married life"
with a photo of ...

"AVID diver Daphne Chua, 28, and dive operator James
Ormiston, 23, said, or rather wrote "I Do" on an
underwater slate when they were married in a specially-
built tank at the opening of the Asian Dive Expo 2004"

<Note to CAPSphobic Noise Makers <tm> in rec.scuba:
notice the use of AVID in the newspaper article >


Unlike the size of the scuba shows in the US, where the ATL Expo
closed several years ago because it was "too small", drawing only
about 200 booths; and the latest Underwater World Expo in
Chicago had several hundred booths, ADEX 2004 is a very SMALL
show in comparison, with only about 100 booths.

The ADEX show had the major diving agencies represented: PADI,
NAUI, SSI, BSAC, IANDI, and perhaps another one. Several of the
major manufacturers of scuba equipments were there, but VERY FEW
in the scuba travel business -- in fact, NONE of the ones I
usually see in the shows in the US, such as the Aggressor, Peter
Hughes, and Mike Ball Fleets, or ANY of the Caribbean dive shops.

The travel businesses represented were mostly "local" ones, in
Thailand, Malaysia, Sipadan, Maldives, and so on.

One booth, with "Tahiti" prominently displayed drew my attention.
It turned out to be represented by PADI personnel giving out
brochures and business-cards for the tour operator. So, I picked
up some nice brochures about dive operations in several French
Polynesian groups (all of which I've dived) from the PADI rep who
had never dived in any of those islands. ))

This evening (Sunday April 18), after the closing of ADEX, several
of us will have our SIN04NEDfest (Singapore NEDfest 2004) at the
famous Long Bar of Raffles. NOBODY will be able to say that
NEDfest is "dry"!

-- Bob.