pawrrr

Cambodia Day 5 - Oudong and Phnom Penh

2010-02-16T01:46:00.001+08:00

Sunday, 18 October, 2009

Our last day in Phnom Penh, today we shall chill.. shop some, relax, and have some good food! We couldn't resist squeezing something into our slacker itinerary, so for the morning we had our driver bring us to Oudong for some mountain air.

We wanted to try some Khmer Fried Chicken for breakfast but it wasn't open yet..

Student volunteers? Looks like a dangerous job.

back to our trusted Lucky Burger for some good breakfast and coffee. I was scolded for taking these photos!!

my cheapo breakfast.. had to ration some $ for a cappucino.

We reach the bottom of the mountain in Oudong and had to choose between climbing the olden stairs and the nice new ones

guess which we chose?

i think, i am very unfit. how to survive kinabalu?

Cambodia is a very flat country!

We tried paying the little kids out of some loose Riel, but it didn't add up to much and they weren't very happy about it. Actually we didn't really like the kids here cos they didn't really speak English and didn't give us much useful info about the place. Plus they were so demanding, even after we gave a couple of them US$1 (the ones who spoke better English), they still wanted more. We had to quickly run to our van to escape from the greedy kids.

Since we were already in the van we couldn't go check out all the food.. luckily our driver helped us to get them over, and they actually delivered it to our van. =D

We can even choose them..

These didn't turn out to be very tasty. We left a lot for the driver =D

The crab was quite crappy too.. not much meat.. but it was fun camwhoring w them.

We got our driver to drop us off in town and we ended the day's tour there. So that he wouldn't bring us to some touristy restaurant where he can get free food from and that we can try whatever we want!

At the Central Market with its Art Deco facade..

fruit monster..

I was hoping this was otah.. but it was some banana rice thing. Not bad for us hungry pple. Found this on the way to the riverside.

Found this little restaurant/cafe and decided to give it a try even though there was no one in there.

attempt at hunkhood

Had some very yummy steak and good coffee.

Time for a massage by the blind.. They were really professional and spoke good English but my masseuse was sooo strong I nearly died. I hate massages!

Even though we just ate, let's check out this French restaurant recommended by my chiong Lonely Planet.

This place used to be a bank!

Reminds me of Lawry's at Paragon. Made some reservations and off we went to check the night market

bought some scarves and anchovies for the office (the anchovies, not the scarves)

Back here at this fancy restaurant way under dressed and drenched

As we were handed our menus we were really puzzled that the menu had no prices.. Turned out that the girls' menus had no prices whereas the guys did. So that the girls don't have to worry about the price! Now isn't that a great idea!

acting retarded in a 'fine dining' restaurant

Actually my prawn pasta was quite lousy cos it was very dry. But I think the rest enjoyed their food.

They gave us a postcard at the end of the meal and called for a tuktuk for us. As it was raining when we left, they took an umbrella.. and it was huge!

haha, best.

Our Cambodian experience is complete with a tuktuk ride!

their green man actually walks first.. and then starts running towards the end!

Goodbye Cambodia! Don't think I'll be visiting you anytime soon!

Cambodia Day 4 - The day I met a real Hunk

2009-12-26T19:29:00.004+08:00

Saturday, 17 October, 2009

A full day at the temples was enough for us. Time to do something a little different today.

First off, a good hearty breakfast at Jasmine Lodge. (Everytime I see these breakfast pix I need to remind myself that this place cost us only 6usd/night/person, and includes the above breakfast!)

Nice place to chill out, where we have breakfast as well.

Today we're gonna visit the floating forest and floating village at Kompong Phluuk. The very trustworthy owner Mr Kunn of Jasmine Lodge arranged our boat tickets for us, costing only $8 each, instead of the $15 that I read about elsewhere. All we had to do was to go there, and the people there already expected us to arrive, just had to hand them a receipt prepared by Mr Kunn.

vanna loves to help us with photos

travelling to the place on a speedboat

this little island has cows on it!

they use these car batteries which have to be charged since there's no electricity.

presented with a menu once we reached! Our guide ordered for us since we are quite blur

we transfer to little row boats. We felt super paiseh that this strong little girl 'meg' was rowing for the 3 of us.

in the floating forest. you get to 'float' around the tree tops!

i was trying to help her row!

singing us a Cambodian love song

This is my hunk. Some new hunk criteria:
1. Shaves off finger dead skin with an AXE.
2. Bites toothpick
3. Pencil on top of ear
sigh

pencil: check

Fantastic lunch! fresh fish and prawn. The prawn came with this pepper/salt/lime dip which was awesome.

I later saw the family eating similar things as us at the back of the house, however their soup had no ingredients in them, and for the fish, they were only eating bones. Felt quite bad but hey I suppose we helped them in a way.

our hunk says good bye!

As we were leaving the little village we noticed that the kids had donned their uniforms and were on their way to school. What hit me was that they were all very smartly dressed, shirts tucked in and hair combed neatly. What a contrast to our youths who try to abuse their uniforms in anyway they can. I suppose that to these kids who have little, having a chance to education is a privilege, unlike us who easily take such things for granted.

Vanna saw some people roasting some snake and haha! here's our chance to try them!

good luck, little fella

you gotta peel off the skin and that's all we ate.. yum!

Our lovely guide managed to squeeze in a visit to Beng Mealea. This temple has also been ruined by the spung trees like Ta Prohm, but it hasn't been as well manicured. Hence it means more fun traipsing along the ruins!

See all that mud? Always cleaned off by the time we come back from the next place of interest

Vanna first stopped at a place where the sandstone used to build Angkor Wat was retrieved. It was then sent down the stream towards Angkor Wat.

We begin to see the start of Beng Mealea..

Met a few kids out to make some $ out of us. They spoke great English, provided some useful bits of information as we walked around, and even held us and tried to pull us up as we navigated along the rocks.

vishnu

the inside of the spung tree

vishnu is everywhere

teaching erwin n sbass how to whistle with their hands

at this point they started calling each other monkeys and themselves spiderman. very adorable kids really.

our guide was quite a monkey too

teaching them the wherethehellismatt dance

after giving them a 1usd tip each, they were so happy and started dancing again! haha. very cute.

picked up a pretty beetle

new scandal

Oh, did I mention that our tour guide had 'volunteered' to bring us out today? The previous days at the end of the Angkor tour, he mentioned that he was free and could hang out with us today. Just have to give him 'a small tip', he said. We were more than happy to have him around! And we really enjoyed ourselves today at the surreal floating village/forest, and the adventurous Beng Mealea temple.

He even had to cab back from Beng Mealea to Siem Reap alone cos we were to go back to Phnom Penh straight. So as we parted at Beng Mealea we paid him and reimbursed his cab fare back.

Now for a long drive back to Phnom Penh. The poor driver must have been real tired and we didn't even stop for dinner. Finally reached back in Phnom Penh at 9plus and had a good , hearty and cheap Chinese dinner. ($21usd for 7 of us!!)

Our lousy Goldie Boutique Hotel had a blackout and the generator didn't seem to work. We spent most of the night with this lousy backup lamp (and the first one kept swiching off, this is our 2nd one) and cold water for shower.

Cambodia Day 3 - Angkor

2009-12-20T13:25:00.000+08:00

Friday, 16 October, 2009

We woke up early to catch the sunrise at Angkor Wat. Our guide and driver were already waiting for us at the guesthouse.

this is the only apsara who is smiling with teeth shown

bullets in the walls from the war

The sunrise wasn't as exciting as it could have been.. we headed back to the guesthouse for breakfast. After which we went back to the Angkor area again to see the temples.

The South Gate of Angkor Thom. Angkor Thom was the last capital city of the Khmer Empire. Many of the temples/buildings/hotels have this long snake creature with lots of guys pulling it. That's a naga (serpent), and the guys are asuras(demons) on one side, and gods on the other side. This is the story of the 'Churning of the Ocean of Milk'. Quite interesting.. So basically these guys are using the serpent to churn this ocean of milk and in the end they get some gifts:

Lakshmi, the Goddess of Fortune and Wealth -Vishnu's consort
Airavata, the 3 headed elephant of Indra
Apsaras, various divine nymphs like Rambha, Menaka, Punjikasthala, etc.
Uchhaishravas, the divine 7-headed horse
Sharanga, the bow of Vishnu
Shankha Vishnu's conch
Amrita the nectar of immortality.

There are 14 in all as listed in wiki but these are the ones we learnt from our dear tour guide Vanna.

the good guys!

these are the gifts.. the 3 headed elephant, apsaras..goddesses..

we climbed on top of the gate for some photos

Bayon

This is definitely a must-visit! Easily my favorite place in Angkor.

learning to apsara-dance

most of these are excerpts from the ramayana.. the different armies have different details to them.

Many of my travel mates were super fascinated by this lingam, which is a phallic symbol. However seems like no one really knows what it represents.

Our poor guide was really patient with us. He kept wanting to move on but we took the longest time to take photos. So we made him join in the fun!

wherethehellismatt at bayon!

apsara dance practice

vanna was a good photographer!

Terrace of Elephants

Phimeanakas

it's always abt the 3 headed elephants

cambodian cows don't moo. they go 'more...'

Ta Prohm

tomb raiders

These trees are called 'spung'. They grow very easily and grow through crevices in the temple walls, breaking down the structures. The authorities are now in a dilemma whether or not to remove the trees. If they do not remove them, they will continue to destroy the temples. However, if the trees are removed, temples like Ta Prohm wouldn't be as beautiful as it is today.

kinda christmassy

and it was back to Angkor Wat

vanna spent the LONGEST time here explaining the ramayana to us. See how excited everyone is. Heat + afternoon = no ramayana please! I did remember some bits about some monkey.. something like that..

interesting light in this photo

too bad we aren't allowed to climb up the tower anymore!

when you don't have a wide angle lens.. you end up having to twist, bend, and lie on the floor

It's getting late. There wasn't much of a sunset to talk about either. Vanna asked us if we had plans after this and mentioned going to a 'discotheque' after dinner. Thinking that he was joking, I gamely replied sure!

We wanted to have French food for dinner, however with the guide and driver around, they refused to bring us to a French restaurant (er, cos they won't get free food there.. and it may be too expensive for us to treat them). So we realized that we could only have that on a day where we didn't use the driver.

Ended up with Thai food (and korean bbq beef).

And.. Vanna wasn't joking about the disco. We did end up at one! Here we are at 'Soksan Palace'. The kind of place we would never dare step into if we didn't have a local with us.

my choice of strawberry daiquiri

So, we were getting a bit bored sitting aroung with our drinks, and our guide talking to our driver at the side. We saw a karaoke room at the corner and asked the guide how much it would cost. After he asked around, it was $10usd/hour and we could bring our existing drinks in. They also have english and chinese songs. Sounds reasonable.

We walked into the room marked 'Karaoke' and realized that it was actually a passage way that led to many more rooms behind. We walked by an area where there were erm, a lot of girls sitting there. We quickly shuffled into one of the rooms and wow, it was quite nice! There were even 2 waitresses in there who helped us to choose the songs.

our guide sang too!

nice room

turned out there was a resident gecko in that room.

We were quite worried about being overcharged, but at least our guide was there with us. And amazingly, it really did cost exactly $10. Haha! cheap and fun entertainment! I guess people usually get more drinks but we were super cheapo and just drank our existing ones.

Cambodia Day 2 - Spiders for Breakfast

2009-12-05T13:45:00.000+08:00

Thursday, 15 October, 2009

Today we set off to Siem Reap! This is a 5 hour journey by bus. The best way to go Cambodia and visit both Phnom Penh and Siem Reap is to take an open jaw flight from SG-PP, drive/boat to SR, then fly SR-SG. However it is rather tricky to get this open jaw flight, and the SR-SG leg alone could cost $60usd.. So in order to save, we got a SG-PP round trip and had to waste a bit of time and $ to do a round trip bus ride from PP-SR.

We were rather freaked out by the level of English our 'guide' or actually, driver knew, and we were worried about how he was gonna bring us around. The night before, we called up the company daraprumtaxi (wondering if Dara is even a real person or just the company name) and asked if we could change the driver. 'Dara' assured us that Sang, although he did not speak much english, knew the route very well. And he was just a driver, not a guide.

Well.. because a one way cab ride from PP-SR already costs $80usd, we decided to just go ahead with Sang cos it was cheaper (3d 2N for $250, including this 2 way PP-SR trip which has a value of 160usd) Kinda luxurious actually, to have a driver bring us anywhere at our whim. (what's that expression, ___ and whim. I can't recall)

Okay. Enough of boring details.

We had an expensive $3.50usd breakfast at Goldie Guesthouse cos we wanted to save time. On the right is a book that I bought from a guy outside the Golden Palace for ahem, 5usd, after negotiations. I knew that it wasn't that cheap but it's ok cos we kinda needed a book anyway. We later saw more people selling these books, and other full colored books for 2usd (even before bargaining)

Sang was there waiting for us while we had breakfast. His service throughout the days was perfect. He was polite and always ready for us outside the temples after we were toured them. He brought a cooler which was always stocked with cool softdrinks+water. What really impressed me was that the van was always kept spotlessly clean! We always brought lots of mud into the van.. and the next time we came back from the next temple, the mud would have disappeared. We never caught him sleeping in the van while waiting for us.. And each temple visit could take up to 2-3 hours. Impressive!

We had asked Sang to bring us to anywhere that sold spiders for breakfast! We had always wanted to try. This is the sort of thing you see on tv but don't actually get to try cos you don't know where they sell it or have no idea how to buy them or eat them.

And here we are.. We took a look and immediately regretted asking him to bring us here. These ladies sold piles of insects, and they weren't prettily fried or anything. They looked soggy and uncooked.. Looks like they just caught them and drowned them and piled them there to sell.

EEW. Ok, eating insects? Not gonna happen.

This sweet little girl sold some pathetic bananas. She agreed to let me take a photo.. Later on I bought a pomelo from another little girl, and this girl started whining 'You take photo with me you buy fruit!' [Again, better english than Sang].. I felt really bad!

After taking photos of this little girl, I turned around and there was this frenzy.. The rest of them were swarmed! Not by insects but by a horde of little girls selling their fruits.. I walked towards them and suddenly this girl threw a huge ass spider onto my teeshirt!

They claim that it isn't poisonous and I sure hope it isn't

haojie is way too nice.. everywhere he goes he can't reject those sweet little kids, and they can sense that so he always ends up with a whole swarm of them.

The kids here are really pretty! And good natured really.

They followed us to our van and Sang quickly closed the door.. Notice that girl with the spider on her shirt, she's the one staring at me angrily and sayin 'You take photo of me and you buy fruit from her!' Oh man. I feel so guilty.

Unfortunately for us, Sang had bought a packet of crickets for us to eat! We would never have bought them on our own accord. OH well we asked for it so now we have no choice but to just try it and hope we don't fall sick on our 2nd day.

Sang teaches us to remove the wings and legs before popping it into your mouth. If we had bought it ourselves we would probably have eaten the whole damn thing, legs and all.

some preparation and...

yum. It was okay really. Oily, crispy and slightly salted. I had a few servings!

We bought mango, pomelo, pineapple and jackfruit which we polished off right away.

Time for lunch! We tried to order as much 'Cambodian' sounding food as possible.

The route to SR was rather pleasant. And the weather was perfect.

Rolling plains.. Many were rather flooded because the typhoon Ketsana had just blasted the area merely a week ago, leaving 11 dead.

And here we are in Siem Reap! First we found our lovely guesthouse Jasmine Lodge to check in and put our things. We're gonna head to Phnom Bakheng today for sunset, and the receptionist tells us that we can leave at, 4.30pm I think, and definitely make it in time. With some time left, we drop off at the old market to do some souvenir shopping.

Looks like some sort of fermented fish paste.. But it looks different from prahoc. No idea what it is but chances are we probably ate it in some of the Khmer food we had.

We decided not to listen to the experts at Jasmine Lodge and go to Phnom Bakheng earlier (cos it's usually SUPER crowded, and if you go earlier you won't be blocked by the thousand of tourists there)

We have to buy an Angkor ticket first. We're gonna get a 1day pass for the next day, and they allow us to go check out the sunset today with the ticket. Guess what.. the ticket booths only start opening at 5 pm! We were there an hour early. So much for not listening to the experts.

Come to think of it, our driver also damn blur lah. I guess cos he'sbased in Phnom Penh so he's not so clear about the rules here.

We waited for a while before lining up here to get the 1 day pass.

There!

We drove towards Phnom Bakheng and here we are at the base. At many points in Angkor, there are these landmine survivors playing music. Look carefully and you'll see the left most guy, his instrument is a LEAF! he just leaves it in his mouth and kinda whistles and there is Music! Amazing.

Here we are!

We decide to do a wherethehellismatt or, better known as the Go Visa advert here.

Climbing up the steep stairs was fun

another wherethehellismatt

The sunset was okay but not spectacular. At least the weather was fine! And it was crowded, but really not that bad. I suppose it's low season. Sang asks us if we wanna watch Apsara dance and of course we do! We head to this Tonle Mekong restaurant which is a buffet for like, $10usd and provides the dance too. Sure!

peacock

I think we are supposed to tip them

After which, we headed to Lucky Supermarket (again. Loves it) to get some beer (erwin's treat because he is rich) and donuts for the next day's breakfast.

Cambodia Day 1 - Phnom Penh

2009-11-27T21:24:00.005+08:00

Wednesday, 14 October, 2009

I love budget airlines for their crazy fares! This time, we found a $74 Phnom Penh flight from Jetstar, and this even spreads over the Deepavali holiday! The regular budget prices are over $200. I always complain about how budget airlines like to cheat you and charge you that extra $5 at the end for admin charges or this and that (tiger now charges $6).. but oh well. With such mad prices, sometimes I seriously wonder how they make a profit.

After taking Jetstar, I hardly check the TigerAirways website anymore. I used to think that Tiger is way cheaper but Jetstar's prices are more competitive now. Also, Jetstar gives that 10kg (3 more kg than tiger) of cabin baggage allowance.. and most importantly, they fly from Changi T1! The experience, is way different from the budget terminal.

The best time to visit Phnom Penh is in November to January. The rainy season is from May to Oct. I have always thought that weather would change gradually, i.e. Oct is the last of the rainy season so it should be less rainy.. After buying my air tix I realized that October has the highest rainfall for the whole year!

Source: http://www.worldtravelguide.net

All the forecasts had gloomy gray clouds and precipitation warnings.. So we were prepared for bad bad weather.

The prettiest arrival/departure card I've ever seen!

Here's Sang, our driver. I booked him from Dara Prum Taxi cos they quoted me the cheapest rates for the Siem Reap round trip. He commented that 'Dara' is not free to bring us around.. Which makes me wonder if 'Dara' even exist, haha.

Dara Prum is supposed to be good at English and very knowledgeable about Phnom Penh. Sang is not. We were unable to communicate very well with him. We asked him to bring us to have local food, and he smiled and said he would ask his friend about it. We were wondering why he had to ask his friend for local food recommendations.. Was he not familiar with Phnom Penh? It took us half a day to realize that he didn't know what 'local food' means.

always make sure everyone throws away their stickers!!

First stop: breakfast

Menu in Cambodian. I approve!!

Love the painted adverts

It took us some time to figure out what to order though. Sang seemed to only know the words 'beef, chicken, pork'. After a while we decided soup noodles was a safe choice since it would definitely be cooked on the spot.

The fishcake dish was cold, but thankfully nothing happened to us from not eating freshly cooked food. At least we got to try something different. The noodles were nice but I still prefer Vietnam's pho bo which has a lot more taste even though they look the same.

While paying for the breakfast, the waitress came back to us holding a $50usd note. Sang explained to us that the note had a tear in it which was why she rejected it. I really should have checked before using it, cos I don't even know if it really was my note.

We later tried to use the note many times, but the Cambodians were very sharp and they always managed to see the tear and reject the note!

Anything that moves can go on their roads!

First stop: Killing Fields of Choeung Ek. Well, while the weather was still good, let's go do something outdoors first. This place is located abt 15min out of Phnom Penh city. When I think about Cambodia, the 2 things that come to my mind is Angkor Wat, and images of skulls of victims of the Pol Pot regime.

The victims were sent to Choeung Ek from S-21 to be killed and the remains of 8985 victims were exhumed here.

This place is now privatized and owned by a Japanese company

This memorial stupa is filled with >8000 skulls

The clothes found were disinfected and placed at the bottom of the memorial

In order to save bullets, many of the victims were hit with sharp objects until they died. Toddlers were held by their feet and smashed against a tree.

This 'magic tree' had a loudspeaker hung on it to play loud sounds, to cover the moaning of the victims being executed.

It is always very depressing to see or write about these photos. And what's scary to me is that this wasn't committed thousands of years ago, but it only just happened in 1980.

Many kids were begging at the entrance, but this girl had time to pose for me! =)

Independence Monument, built after Cambodia's independence from France

We went over to the Royal Palace, but they were closed til 2pm. So we decided to go over all the most horrific parts of our itinerary first.. so that we can later lighten up our spirits and have a bit more fun. Time for the Toul Sleng Genocide Museum. The name itself sends shivers down my spine.

This former high school is also known as Security Prison 21 (S-21). People suspected of espionage were detained, tormented and interrogated here. They included soldiers, government officials, as well as academics, doctors, teachers, students, factory workers, monks, engineers, etc.

When the prison was found by the Vietnamese, some rooms had an iron bed frame with the victim's mutilated body still chained to it. A photo of the victim's body as it was found is hung on the wall.

shackles

Inside the prison

Barbed wire everywhere. This prevented the prisoners from committing suicide by jumping down.

tiny cell

I was quite fascinated that these people are staying so near to such a horrific place.

Ok, I think I am done with all the scary stuff. Time for lunch!

After we realized that Sang doesn't know what 'local food' means, we asked for 'Cambodian Food' instead. Here we are at Khmer Surin, which coincidentally is located right opposite our guesthouse! I love their 'fish omok' paste (bottom left), which is actually otah, but is very fragrant and there's lots of coconut milk in it.

great ambience.

Now that it's 2pm, it's time for the Royal Palace. A teenager selling drinks at the entrance started to talk to us and she told me that my shorts were too short to enter the place.. That was when we realized that her English was much better than our driver's. (We later realized that everyone's English was better than our driver's).

I went to change into longer shorts, and Erwin managed to use up my slightly torn $50 usd note while buying the entrance tickets! Whew.

This Cambodia trip made me realize that I love the saturation filter. Ok this is a bit overdone but.. haha I like it overdone!

We were super fascinated with this French building in the middle of the palace compounds! It's a gift from Napoleon III and looks totally out of place, haha. Why would anyone allow it there!

The sky was slightly overcast on one side.. but on the other side it was pretty and blue!

Chan Chhaya Pavilion

a mural of our favourite ramayana story

We went into the Silver Pagoda, but no photos were allowed inside.

From what I know, we've visited the most important part of Phnom Penh! Since we still have some time left, we headed to Wat Phnom. Wat = temple, Phnom = hill.

Most temples have this 7 headed snake (naga) at their entrance.

The temples usually have carvings of Apsaras, which are beautiful dancing nymphs.

super fat monkey!!! omg

Amazingly we still had some time after Wat Phnom. Actually we had used up the 8 hours' worth of tour for the day, but Sang was nice and said that it was fine to continue. So we actually have time to go to the Russian Market (Psar Tuol Tom Pong) to do some shopppping! I'm so excited at the thought that I can't type properly. The Russian Market is so called because the Russians used to shop here. I was quite excited because the guide books said that this market has all the factory rejects for brands like Banana Republic and GAP! AnF, here we come!

Unfortunately we didn't see anything interesting.. they did have erm, AnF.

At one section of the market, it was really dark, with a ray of sunshine coming through a hole in the ceiling, giving opportunity for interesting back lit photos.

After not buying anything at the market, we decided to head to our hotel to check in. Sang was not very sure about where it was (many other hotels are called Goldie something) so we were lucky that our lunch place was just opposite the hotel and we could just direct him to go to the restaurant.

Goldie Boutique Guesthouse. It wasn't as cheap as our other guesthouses, but the photos and reviews looked really good and we thought we would 'splurge' a bit for something nicer. (Oh, and they had this spa place that had $10usd massages too). Turned out that.. it was just OK. I think we could have went cheaper and got something still decent.

Good thing was that it was within walking distance to the Lucky Supermarket.

Of course we had to get our supplies.. So many types of Beer! Must try! (they pretty much taste like crap)

Keeping strictly to our budget, we had a very economic Lucky Burger meal.

This Lucky chain is everywhere. Supermarket, Burger, Cafe and Gelato.

Europe Day 18 - Naples to Paris to Singapore

2009-09-29T23:18:00.002+08:00

Tuesday, 26 August, 2008

Last day of our European trip. Time to make our way home from Naples. We woke up at 6am, grabbed a couple of coffees and set off to look for the place to return our badly damaged hatched back.

We were running late for our very early flight, but if we could just drop it off and if we could catch the shuttle bus to the airport, we should be able to make it.

It was supposed to be a drop-off-and-go situation since it was very early in the morning and the office was not supposed to be open yet. But because we were late, the office had just opened. We went in to hand in the keys, and ended up having to fill up loads of forms for insurance claims for the damages the poor car suffered.

Luckily we had opted for all-in insurance, including excess. However there was still a 60euro admin fee. Ouch! If we had not bought excess insurance, it would have been way worse.

We then rushed to the airport.. and with some stroke of luck, the flight to Paris was delayed! Note that we still have a flight from Paris to Singapore to catch, but with my great planning skills, I had left ample time for nonsense like this plane delay.

Great, so we can have breakfast in Naples.

pb can't stand the very strong coffee I ordered. We spent some time doing some planning and admin work at this cafe at the airport.

Finally we could check in. Pb got stuck at the customs for his tripod, and had to go back out to check it in. Luckily I had gotten through so I went to buy a couple of very shitty cold sandwiches while he was sorting out all that. 'Capri' and 'Bufalino'. Well we were glaringly the only asians there, so I couldn't help but feel that we had been singled out at the customs and given a more thorough check because of our skin color. But, I can totally understand, any other airport would have done the same to the minority races. Moreover this was quite a small airport which probably gets less asian tourists than major cities like Rome and Venice.

pb doesn't like the food.

They sold cheese at the airport duty free shop! =D

Wait wait and wait some more.

First time going up the ass of the plane

We reach Paris! Guess what this is.. It's the Tax-Rebate counter! Loads of asians there trying to claim rebates for all their LV and Hermes stuff

Our last French McDonalds meal. That's a Royale Deluxe burger.

They let pets in!

the end!

Europe Day 17 - Ravello, Italy

2009-09-28T23:09:00.001+08:00

Monday, 25 August, 2008

Q: Are these europe posts ever gonna finish?
A: Erm, yeah, very soon!!! This is the last day already!

Yeah, so let me give you a brief recap. We're still along the Amalfi Coast and have just left Amalfi town. It's already 5pm, but thankfully the days are long in the summer, so we still have time to check out Ravello. It's on the top of some hilly area so we have to drive up a little.

We were surprised to see a traffic light in the middle of one of the slopes up, causing some kind of a jam. Probably for alternating between the up/down one-way traffic due to the tiny lanes.

At Ravello..

We peeked into a little grape vineyard.. I've never seen a grapevine before!

The stupid kitty ran up the tree and was stuck there! Had to be rescued by its mummy (or dad?). We had a drink here while I fed Italian mosquitoes.

Here's Villa Cimbrone where we paid like 6 Euros each to explore.

I still can't believe that these are real grapes. Or are they fake?

Where our helicopter landed

So that was Ravello. The weather was fantastic and the sun + blue skies + blue waters were perfect!

We're back down on the coast and traveling East. We see this hugeass bus coming and I thank the heavens that I'm not the one driving.

Everyone slows down and I hold my breath as the monstrous thing squeezes through.

We finally arrive at Vietri Sul Mare, a little town on the Eastern end of the Amalfi coast that sells loads of ceramics. This is our last stop on the Amalfi coast and actually, our last real stop in Italy.

This is the messiest minimart I've ever seen.

So rubbishy right, how to find the stuff you need?!

Our last Italian gelato!!!

Picked up some cheapo pizza to eat as we drive towards our Naples hotel

We happily followed the gps' instructions to go up this highway when we realized that something was horribly wrong! Can you guess from the above pict?

These 2 cars in front of us have their reverse lights on! They are actually reversing on the ramp that leads to the expressway. Very dangerous, since we are supposed to be speeding up to get to the expressway.

The cars behind us too, had to reverse. We have no inkling of what on earth happened but it seems that we can't use the expressway! Wahaha.. Hopefully our gps could somehow help us. It was getting late and dark. However since the nearest landmark we had was our hotel, it was difficult to set the gps to take the smaller road (if there was any). Didn't help that Naples is probably the least safe city of all that we visited.

To cut the long story short, we drove around, roughly in the right direction. When we could, we asked some guys for directions (which were given in Italian). And somehow we managed to get on the expressway again towards our hotel!

So we're on our expressway and finally we reach Naples city. But now.. Naples != Hotel Joyfull, where we are supposed to be staying for the night. And we learn the hard way, that these little hotels in Italy are not like the Best Westerns and Travelodges of the US which are definitely in the GPS map. Even if you have the address, the Street of hotel (probably some little alley) cannot be found in the GPS!

We tried our best to navigate in the dark (and crime infested) streets of Naples. At one point, we drove into a little bus depot where there were a few bus captains in uniform to ask for help. Hey these guys are the bus captains so they should know the area well right?

Enjoy this little clip of me understanding his directions despite knowing only 2 words of Italian: ponte (bridge) and grazie (thank you).

You can see how dark the place was! In the beginning as I approached them, I happily rolled down my whole window and asked for help. One of them were so nice as to gesture to me that I should not roll down my whole window cos it was bloody dangerous. Only then that I realized that if they were crooks, they could have bashed/shot me/pb unconscious or something and we would never had made it back to S'pore. Yeah, it hit me that we're too sheltered and don't have such simple common sense as to protect ourselves.

I realize that I write more about these little stories than the place of interest itself. I suppose these are the memories that I take back with me from these trips!

So of course, after listening to his Italian instructions, we did manage to find the place in a dark little street. Thankfully, it was a really nice (though cheap) hotel! We didn't have much time to enjoy it since our flight was damn early the next morning and we had to wake up at like, 6am.

Hotel Joyfull

Best time to visit...

2009-09-04T13:00:00.000+08:00

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
Bali
Bangkok
Boracay
Mount Kinabalu
Kuching
Langkawi
Phuket/Koh Samui/Krabi
Redang/Perhentian
Siem Reap/Phnom Penh
Tioman
Yogyakarta/Surabaya

Key:	Good	Not so good

Now there's somewhere inexpensive to visit, anytime of the year!

[Original post 09 April 09]

[Updated 04 Sept 09)] Added Yogyakarta/Surabaya, Kuching. Nowhere to go in Oct..

Run Your Own Race

2009-08-06T23:24:00.007+08:00

After last year's 10km run in December, I totally nua-ed and gained back my 2-4kg. So for pb's health, and my ability to fit into my clothes, we signed up for this year's run. Did I mention that it's also lots of fun? Here are my training results.. This is what pigging out and not running for half a year does to you. Very crappy timings! I totally can't keep up with my colleagues! Doesn't help that I had ankle problems for a while and recently chest pain while jogging.

However I'm heartened to see that there are visible improvements over a couple of months! Slight and gradual, but improvements nonetheless.. from 38:34 in late June to 35:09 today. Though today's jog was concluded with a Blk85 bakchormee-cwings-sugarcane session.. (actually most jogs are concluded with food), I am still happy happy.

Watch out for Race IDs 24425 and 43457! hah!

Europe Day 17 - Amalfi Coast, Italy

2009-07-18T21:58:00.000+08:00

Monday, 25 August, 2008

We're still in that scary hotel of Amalfi. We woke up to find that we weren't dead, and the hotel did actually boast fantastic views.

Left: The door handle which was tied with shoelace and had a glass balanced on.

The views from right outside our door

After checking out, we had to walk up the crazy steps again. With our backpacks. Even though we were walking through lemon groves and all.. I can't say that it was an enjoyable walk.

We rested for a while after we reached the top of the 300 steps. Luckily our car was still there! Yay, we survived the weird hotel!

This photo explains the hotel situation. We parked at the top where you can see a rather grand hotel, and had to walk down to somewhere in the bottom of the photo to reach our hotel.

Stopped by a little grocery place for some mandatory overpriced Red Bull (3.5 euros)

Finally found a restaurant for brunch

The photo on the right was taken by the playful restaurant staff as he was trying to take a photo for the 2 of us

When I ordered cappucino with my pasta, he went 'Who takes cappucino with pasta?!' and gave me a disapproving look. Alright I suppose we are supposed to take wine, but the cappucino was primarily for waking me up since this was brunch.

Our chef?

It was at this restaurant as we were eating, that we heard the song 'That's Amore'. I had to ask the waiter for the song title. I like. Anyway, as we left, he presented us with this little poster which shows the actual scene. Loves!

This man thought we were Japanese and kept spewing Japanese greetings at us. He knew more than we did!

by the recommendation of the hotel staff, here we are at the Emerald Grotto. Have to check it out since we missed our chance to see the Azure Grotto at Capri.

Well, just a touristy little cave.. But beautiful. The guy kept mumbling some stuff and singing this soulful tune.

Because of the way light is reflected into the cave, there is this very beautiful shade of blue. He also splashed some water so that we could see the blue droplets splashing

Here we are, at the town of Amalfi

2 way road, with 1 lane taken up for parking. I don't like driving here very much.

And, presenting, pb's parallel parking skills.. (ahha alliteration)

Hah. I had to climb out of the driver's door to get out.

Why on earth would you need a swimming pool when you have such a beautiful sea ahead of you!

I was pretty worried for these boys jumping head first into the rocky waters.. But they were having lots of fun.

The pebbly beach does not look too comfortable to me

Thats the Duomo of Amalfi, pretty much the most impt part of the town. We walked around the little town.

This shop is selling limoncello, this lemon liquor made from the lemons of Amalfi. They were reasonably priced and we bought as much as our luggage could afford to hide. They also allowed us to taste the yummy stuff.

Time to get out of our parking predicament. These 2 ~~kaypoh~~ kind gentlemen came to ~~laugh at~~ help us get out of that teeny parking lot. And we made it of course.

Europe Day 16 - Amalfi Coast, Italy

2009-06-20T13:00:00.003+08:00

Sunday, 24 August, 2008

After our island escapade, we made it back to mainland before 4 to catch the shuttle bus back to the Atlantic Palace hotel. Retrieved our luggage and car, and it was time for our Amalfi coastal drive.

This is not your typical scenic drive.. Scenic yes, but it is a drive along the cliffs of Amalfi, on narrow roads that look like 1 way but are actually 2 way. I did quite a lot of consideration about this before deciding on driving. Anyway it's not me who's driving and hey, we got an auto car with full insurance! We have gps so we just have to follow it right?

Very soon, by following the gps, we made a turn into a narrow lane. And boy, was it narrow. After a bit, I asked pb if he wants to turn back, but he thought it would be quite difficult so we tried to go on.. until we heard a loud scraping sound of our left side view mirror and the wall.

Woohoo.. we were stuck in this stupid lane, couldn't go forward nor backwards! At one point of time, some pedestrians walked down the lane in front of us and saw us.. they must have been thinking 'Oh, some idiot drivers again'. They had to turn back of course, unless they wanted to climb over our car.

Trying to manoeuvre our way out. I hate that word, I can never figure out how to spell it. manuveure? maneuvre? manouever?

We finally made it out!!!!!! Thank goodness we didn't have to call the car rental company to help us get out of that sticky situation! The whole metal beam at the side of the car door was scraped out.. and there were also damages to the side mirror.

Time to drive towards our Amalfi hotel.

At this point of time.. there seemed to be something amiss as the car in front of us stopped to talk to these ladies..

After hours of driving, we were already so near to our hotel, yet there was a road closure due to falling rocks at Furore. Why didn't they tell us earlier?! Well, maybe there were road signs.. but they were all in Italian so we didn't understand? I don't know..

Thank goodness the police officer there could speak English and explained to us how to get to Amalfi: By making a HUGE detour.. Didn't know the places he was referring to, so he spelled it out for us. Have to make our way all the way back to Sorrento.. up the hills.. and down again.

The following map shows how we had driven from Sorrento (B) to (A), and how close we were to (F) already if we just followed the coast.. Stupidly we had to drive from (A) back to (B).. and make that huge round to reach (F). Well, there goes our leisurely scenic drive. It's time to make sure we can find our hotel on time in dangerous driving conditions (on the hilly terrain)

We were hungry but didn't have the time to stop and eat =( Saw a little pizzeria and had our best (and cheapest) freshly made pizzas of our whole trip!

Mussels!!!! We had to eat while driving.. No time to lose.

It got really dark.. You can notice that the roads are not very wide, and they were very windy. Not wind-windy but turning-here-and-there-windy. Luckily at some point of time we caught up with a bus, and just had to follow it.. Let it do the bashing through of traffic for us!

On the way there, our hotel had called us to ask if we were there yet.. Sadly we were gonna take a much longer time.

It's hard to describe what happened that day, now that it is almost 1 year ago. We reached the Amalfi area really late. It was pretty dark.. The town was still quite alive and crowded with pple.. However our hotel H.H. Le Palme wasn't in the town. It was actually halfway up the hill. Gps doesn't work here and the hotel wasn't listed.. I thought it sounded kinda cool, Le Palme.

The reviews had mentioned that it would be a 300 step climb. I got this hotel cos it was cheap and yet had a seaview.. haha, suspicious eh?

After driving here and there and asking random people AND the hotel for directions for a long time, we drove up the hill.. Along the way we saw a lady sitting on the fence. We looked at her and she just gave us a blank stare. Didn't think much of it and went on until we reached a dead end at the top of the hill. Very frustrating, we called again.. and somehow figured out that the lady was the hotel personnel.. Very nonsense.

So we drove back.. and she offered to carry my backpack for me. We parked there and she led us through many lemon trees (can't tell at night) and we climbed MANY steps down to reach the hotel. It was more of a family owned chalet. She did not even request for our passports and led us straight to the room. It was all quiet.. and we only met a couple sitting at a dark table on the way to our room. The lady asked if we needed anything to drink.. and pb rejected it instantly.

I didn't think much of it, was just happy to reach our hotel in one piece. However after the door was closed, pb spoke to me very seriously. This place is damn weird and wrong.

Reasons being:

Why didn't they didn't request for our passports?
Why did we have to walk through that dark forested area and climb all those steps?
The lady had called us several times through the day.. why were they so eager to get to us and make sure we were on our way?
The room door couldn't be latched from the inside, it was lockable but could still be accessed with a key from the outside.
If we wanted to get out of here.. we had to climb all those bloody stairs and we hardly knew our way out.
We didn't really like the look of that lady.

Sounds like a horror movie eh. It is true that they could have done anything to us while we were fast asleep..

The more we thought about it.. the more paranoid we felt and we decided to plan our escape. We would just walk out of here and go get another hotel room. What's a couple of hundred euros compared to our lives, right?

We decided to just go out and recce first. Got out.. and walked around.. and we realized that.. the living area had been locked . Someone was bathing in the main house.. but.. there was no way out! What kind of hotel is this.. the guests aren't even allowed to go out?

Defeated, we walked back into our room. It was dark, we were tired.. it seemed risky but we wouldn't be able to make our way out of here. In the end.. pb took out our shoe laces and tied it around the handle of the door. He then put a glass on the handle, so that if anyone tried to make their way in while we were sleeping, at least we would know. At least he didn't get some weapons sharpened and ready for our defence.

I then took a shower and went to sleep. Ok honestly I slept damn soundly haha, I was tired! pb was like, how could you still sleep in a situation like this?!

So anyways. We're obviously still here so nothing happened to us. The glass didn't fall to the ground either so no one attempted to do anything to us. Sorry to disappoint!

blurb!

2009-06-06T17:40:00.004+08:00

Guess what arrived?

ALL my blurb books are here! Quality wise.. quite fail if you wanna compare to photos.. especially with the previous grainy camera.. but otherwise, I'm satisfied. Especially since they're totally original and they're MINE!

The buying process is so painless that I have to remind myself that it's created in my home, uploaded to California, printed and bound in 3 days in California, shipped to Oregon in a day, and then shipped back to my home. From upload to receiving it, it takes about 2 weeks.

The issue is that I can't stop making them.. I have so many precious photos unprinted. So I'll be perpetually damn broke this year while I'm printing these lovelies.

Europe Day 16 - Capri Island, Italy

2009-06-06T17:03:00.000+08:00

Sunday, 24 August, 2008

Complimentary breakfast at the Atlantic Palace hotel, complete with Murano glass butterflies. Took the free shuttle bus to the Sorrento harbour after breakfast.

Bought our rather expensive ferry tickets to the rather expensive island of Capri!

When are smart cars coming to Singapore? I love them! (Especially, for parking =D)

Shimmering sand.. unfortch I was unable to capture the glimmer

This crazy guy was watching some show on his portable tv. pb went over to check it out and said it was, boxing or something.

Finally! Time to queue up.

Right after handing over our tickets, a lady handed us the above brochure. We didn't have much plans other than to explore the island.. But when we saw this brochure we were hooked. 'Sailing' around would be a fantastic way to enjoy our island escapade! Especially since it didn't require a boating licence!

We reach the very crowded and touristy island of Capri! This beautiful place has enticed even Roman kings, who came here for vacations.

Beach deprived Italians enjoying themselves on a crowded pebbly beach

Problem with the boating was that we weren't prepared for it so I didn't bring any appropriate clothing.. So we had to buy some extremely overpriced swimwear and towel. At least the towel says 'Capri'!

95 euros for 2 hours of private boat!

That's ours!

Ah, better learn properly

my sailor =D

A lazy dip in the cool waters of the Mediterranean sea

Beautiful.. It was a fantastic experience, if not for the time limits.. Despite what was written on the brochure that 2hours was more than enough to explore the island.. it was very rushed! We did not even manage to visit the Blue Grotto (a must visit actually) which is a cave in which you need to go in with some rowboats and it's a beautiful shade of blue in there due to the light reflecting in.

It was also extremely choppy.. I hated that. Even though the sea does not seem rough at all, when you're in a little boat that is more rubber dinghy than yacht.. It's no fun. Luckily I didn't have to drive (as usual).

It was also quite hard to figure out where we were and which limestone structures were which.. We almost had difficulty finding the area where we had rented the boats from, and luckily we did manage to get back without any penalty for overshooting the time a little.

Back on land. That's the most disgusting pizza I've ever tasted, don't be fooled by my grin

The guy on the left is so cute!! I wanted a picture with him only, but when I approached him, the guy on the right was like looking at me expectantly so I couldn't bear to disappoint him and said we'd take the photo together. Well, with him in the photo there is a even better contrast and my Cute Carabinieri .. muahaha. Actually at least he's (the right guy) is quite hunky eh, like popeye! the cute one looks scrawny next to him.

Anyways.. they make me wonder if they're trained to pose that way. Hands on Hips!

green slush

We're queuing to go up the funicular.. some cable carriage thing which brings us up to the city of Capri.

I believe that's a picture of their patron saint

expensive atas shops

Just look at the crowds in this little town

This is the most famous views of Capri.. the Faraglioni limestone structure. We drove past that in our round the island boat just now..

Our daily Italian essentials. Red Bull and Gelato!

There was a bit of a jam/crowd/rush to catch funicular down.. probably to catch the last ferries back to Sorrento.

Back here.

another gelato for the greedy

we were buying a CD of Italian music when we noticed this lady bring up some stuff from the street using this little basket.. I was too late to capture her and she was nice enough to lower it again for a photo! The guy selling me the CD jokingly tried to charge me 5 Euros for the photo. =D

Europe Day 15 - Sorrento, Italy

2009-05-30T13:51:00.000+08:00

Saturday, 23 August, 2008

From Pompeii, we set off towards Sorrento for our beach-front hotel.

you know they're deprived of beaches when you see them playing on these rocks. fun meh?!

You see mount vesuvius EVERYWHERE

After a lot of wrong turns we managed to find our hotel.. Mar Alimuri. It had the best sunset views!

Unfortunately.. the hotel manager was there to greet us at the lobby, and apparently there were no rooms for us, because he says the fax machine was broken or some shit. I really believed him but now on hindsight after reading some travel articles on Frommer's, I realize that this is a trick used by the hotel industry to earn... Downgrading you to a lousier hotel when you reach.

He claimed that it was a mistake in the first place, that the hotel's rooms wouldn't have been at that rate (which does make sense because it was quite a nice hotel plus seaview from room but I paid only abt 120 euros) .. But he was helpful and he did have some suggestions for us, e.g. some shit apartment that he claims was his own room which we rejected.. He offered a dinner at his hotel on the house, after which he would get another hotel for us.

We were quite tired after all that driving/getting lost, so we wanted to wash up somewhere first. After finding out that we wanted to go to Capri the next day.. he suggested the Atlantic Palace hotel in Sorrento. (Mar Alimuri is actually in 'Meta Di Sorrento' which is pretty far from the harbour) We didn't have much of a choice, so we followed his suggestion.. He called the boss there and personally drove there (we followed his car in our own), and handed us over to the staff over there..

It wasn't too bad an arrangement, considering

This new hotel is nearer and has a free shuttle to and fro from the harbour to Capri island
We still scored a free dinner complete with wine (save some money and still eat good food)
It's 4 stars

Just that we didn't manage to fully enjoy that beautiful sunset in Mar Alimuri hotel and there was that unpleasant hassle of negotiating with that boss..

The room at Atlantic Palace.. Pretty good, they had the same colored walls as my own room at home =D

Our complimentary dinner, actually our best meal in Italy. And the only one at which we had free WATER and wine.

friendly waiter who posed for me

night view from our balcony

and... mount vesuvius, again

Europe Day 15 - Pompeii, Italy

2009-05-24T20:18:00.000+08:00

Saturday, 23 August, 2008

When I learnt that Pompeii was in Italy, I quickly checked to see if it was possible for us to drop by. Because it's one of the things I can actually remember from my Geography textbook. So today we leave Rome for Pompeii.

Fontana Del Tritone, still in Rome near our hotel

We walked towards the railway station, Stazione Termini and on the way we had a simple breakfast. Coke seems cheaper than water so that's what we had.

Our A160.. This was, the cheapest auto car I could get. Most of the cars here are manual. We opted for auto because we're gonna be driving on cliffs and slopes so.. safety comes first!

This is the road next to Stazione Termini. When we tried to return our car that we drove from Venice the other day, we couldn't find the place to return it and kept going round, onto this road. So we met that Kungfu Panda poster many times.

Going South, towards Napoli!

Bought this from the Dolomiti supermarket. Tasted okay.. I didn't manage to finish the whole packet before it melted into a messy goo.

Could that be Mount Vesuvius?

We stopped by this quiet little city which looks like Malaysia for lunch.

Had a crazy time trying to communicate with the owners about what we wanted. We wanted to try something really local. It tasted o-k, there were not enough ingredients for my liking and we suspect they totally overcharged us.

Well, after filling our tummies, we reached Pompeii with the help of chingyuh's gps.

There weren't enough english speaking tourists to form a English tour =( so we had to get audio guides.

Like the Colosseum, we can only imagine how the place could have looked like before the nasty eruptions of Mount Vesuvius buried the whole city. It is also quite irritating that most of the artifacts have been moved to the Archaeological Museum of Naples. Pompeii was rich with art pieces, mosaics and portraits so it was a pity that we didn't have the time to drop by the museum.

These are the famous plaster casts that we saw in our textbooks.. The decomposed bodies left holes in the ashes left by the volcano, and archaeologists poured plaster into these holes to cast the original shapes of these Pompeiani. We can see that they hardly had time to escape and their bodies are contorted in pain. Even their facial expressions were captured and this guy is gritting his teeth.

Baths. I was more interested in the many dogs which came in here to escape from the heat. They all lay motionless and I was quite afraid that they could be dead.

This was where they sold cooked food

A famous canine mosaic

Colorful walls

another beautiful mosaic

You know that you're near the whorehouse when you see such phallic symbols on the walls

Were they so short?

This is the Lupanare, or the brothel. Also the most crowded place in Pompeii.

There were erotic art displayed, it is not sure if these are advertisements or some kind of menu for you to choose from.

at the Forum, with Mount Vesuvius in the background

lemonade ice

an adventurous weekend

2009-05-14T00:42:00.005+08:00

goofing around after the train we were sitting in derailed.

Rhythm of the falling rain or 雨的旋律?

2009-05-06T22:32:00.003+08:00

As I stepped into my house today, this song was in my head. But mummy was watching the 9 pm show, 'School daze' or something like that. So I waited til the advertisements and started playing this on the piano:

Listen to the rhythm of the falling rain
Telling me just what a fool I've been
I wish that if you go and let me cry in vain
And let me be alone again

The only girl I care about has gone away
Looking for a brand-new start
But little does she know that when she left that day
Along with her she took my heart

Rain please tell me now does that seem fair
For her to steal my heart away when she don't care
I can't love another when my heart's somewhere far away

The only girl I care about has gone away
Looking for a brand-new start
But little does she know that when she left that day
Along with her she took my heart

Rain won't you tell her that I love her so
Please as the sun has set her heart aglow
Rain in her heart and let the love we knew start to grow

Listen to the rhythm of the falling rain
Telling me just what a fool I've been
I wish that if you go and let me cry in vain
And let me be alone again

Mummy and daddy were quite amused. Mummy was like, wah why are you playing an oldie? And she started singing. Just a bit. Turned out their version wasn't quite the same.

那夜雨仿佛也在笑我太痴呆
笑我窗儿一扇也不开
那夜雨哪里知道我的爱不在
它一阵一阵洒下来

那夜雨仿佛也在笑我太痴呆
笑我泪珠滚滚头不抬
那夜雨哪里知道我的心悲哀
它一声一声费疑猜

雨呀请你为我音讯带
问一声他为什么不把我理睬
却偷走了那我的痴心该不该
该不该

我心里只有一个他是我的爱
他的言笑留在我脑海
我心里只有一个他是我的爱
请你去给他说明白

那夜雨仿佛也在笑我太痴呆
笑我窗儿一扇也不开
那夜雨哪里知道我的爱不在
它一阵一阵洒下来

那夜雨仿佛也在笑我太痴呆
笑我泪珠滚滚头不抬
那夜雨哪里知道我的心悲哀
它一声一声费疑猜

雨呀请你为我音讯带
问一声他为什么不把我理睬
却偷走了那我的痴心该不该
该不该

我心里只有一个他是我的爱
他的温暖留存我胸怀
我心里只有一个他是我的爱
请你去给他说明白

=D I realize that this song was in my head, probably cos I was watching 蔡琴's concert (parents were watching on tv lah) and she sang this beautifully. Too bad I can't find the clip on youtube.

Europe Day 14 - Rome

2009-05-02T14:02:00.001+08:00

Friday, 22 August, 2008

This is our last full day in Rome. The lady at Hotel Cecil (where we checked in) had recommended Piazza del Popolo as a great place to enjoy a bird's eye view of Rome. So we made our way to the Spanish Steps and beyond.

On our way we saw a movie being filmed! The actress looked really glam and had the flattest tummy I've ever seen on a real person. They look like they're supposed to be really famous but I have no idea who they are. After each shoot the actress would be surrounded by makeup artists blotting her face for her. That's what star treatment means I suppose.

We were more amused by the calefares than the lead actor+actress. It was freaking hot, yet they had to wear these winter wear. They stood at each pole and once the shoot started, they would walk around, pretending to mind their own business. There were even cars and bicycles going by with people wearing winter wear. Each time the director shouted cut, they would walk back to their respective poles and wait for their turn to walk around again.

quite cool looking calefare with leather jacket and scarf.

Walked a bit more and reached the top of Piazza del Popolo..

everywhere you go in rome (or make that Italy), you see people selling a) mini tripods, b) little wheeled alphabet thingies c) shades

we saw someone doing this, and followed suit. All along we had been drinking from the bottom of the spout.. Just realized that there was a hole on top, and you just had to stop the water flow and water would spurt out! So smart!

We walked down towards Piazza del Popolo and were contemplating whether to eat at this restaurant, when we saw Gerri and Shengxiang(?) appear! So qiao, they were eating there. I guess Rome isn't that huge a city. They said the food was not bad so we stepped in.

My generous serving of seafood mee hoon kueh and pb's measly serving of swordfish. One of the few times where my choice of menu is 20000x better than pb's.

Of course, how could we miss out the Colosseum! We originally wanted to take public transport but what the heck, decided to cab instead. Wasn't that ridiculously expensive, I think it was only a few euros.

This is my favourite place in Rome. We've grown up hearing stories about gory gladiator fights and sacrifices in here for the sake of entertainment. Coming here made me realize how real the stories were. This place forced me to imagine the scenes and grasp the actuality of how crazy humans can be.

As we approached the area, a young man approached us and asked if we wanted an English guided tour. I think it was, 23 Euros inclusive of entrance. So we agreed, paid, and waited around for the group to gather.

Our very hunky tour guide who looked like he could have been one of the gladiators himself.

We went through the security check, and he explained to us why the Colosseum looks like swiss cheese. There were bits of metal which people stole to make weapons.

The interior. What you see at the bottom are the basement chambers in which slaves, gladiators, animals were kept. It used to be covered with the platform on which the games were held.

It's a pity that the Colosseum has very much been destroyed by earthquakes, and the looting of precious metals for construction elsewhere. I always feel a sense of unjust when the tour guide whips out a 'Rome Reconstructed' book to show us how it should have been.. How are we supposed to imagine that this used to be all shiny and new?

So.. down to the details. The folk of Rome were always allowed to check out the shows, even kids! There was a class system: noble people sat at the bottom (better view) and the commoners would sit all the way at the top.

There was a canvas roof/shade draped along the top of the Colosseum, making it hot and stuffy for the audience. Along with the gory scenes before them, it was not surprising that the audience often puked everywhere.

Now for the exciting part.. what exactly went on in here?

Well, anything you could imagine. The Romans were extremely creative I should say, with a weird sense of humor.

Capable of seating 50,000 spectators, the Colosseum was used for gladiatorial contests and public spectacles. As well as the gladiatorial games, other public spectacles were held there, such as mock sea battles, animal hunts, executions, re-enactments of famous battles, and dramas based on Classical mythology. The building ceased to be used for entertainment in the early medieval era. It was later reused for such purposes as housing, workshops, quarters for a religious order, a fortress, a quarry, and a Christian shrine.

It has been estimated that about 500,000 people and over a million wild animals died in the Colosseum games. [Source: Wikipedia]

It has even been said that the Colosseum games almost contributed to endangering the lion species. Do read the wiki page.. I find it extremely, morbidly interesting.

One of the games involved gladiators. At each time 2 gladiators would fight. The guy who won a round, would strip of his armor and continue fighting with a new gladiator. This goes on until all but one gladiator was alive. Sounds like a mad killing spree to me, but for the gladiators who actually manage to survive till the end, they are given the utmost honor. Hence many still choose to become gladiators, training to be the very best.

The only remaining platform. Can you imagine the people of Rome sitting here, watching the drama unfold before them? Russell Crowe lookalikes dancing around with their bronze tans and much muscles =D

The basement.. imagine the slaves and beasts being let loose here during the games.

We left the Colosseum with its majestic appearance and stories etched in our minds. Now it was time for the Roman Forum opposite the Colosseum. Here's pb with an overpriced bottle of frozen mineral water. Tasted superbly refreshing under the sweltering heat. Another great idea, especially in Rome where there are water fountains everywhere so you could refill it as the ice melts and the water would stay cold.

this was their toilets. They had no toilet paper, instead they used a wet sponge placed at the end of a stick =p

This was their Orchard Road, or Champs Elysees.. Women walked along this street to shop for their medieval time Gucci and Prada. And as an added treat, on the right of that path, is the gym (right photo), where the muscular Roman men did their workouts nekkid =D.

Our good looking guide showing us the Roman handshake. It allows you to check if there are any weapons hidden up one's sleeve.

One of those scenes where you need a 'Rome Reconstructed' book again. This place used to be way more beautiful, but yeah. used to be. Most of the marble/statues/good stuff have been retrieved and reused in building places such as the Vatican City.

pb only know how to eat gelato

SPQR

We were grateful for these signs which were everywhere. This was found near the Colosseum. Note that our hotel is near Piazza di Spagna, the Spanish Steps, so we could just follow these signs to walk home. Fantastic!

We never thought we'd be sick of pasta and pizza only after a few days. But it's like eating ban3 mian4 and roti prata EVERYDAY. I don't know how the Romans can stand it. So we were thrilled to find this chinese eatery which was cheap too! Although it felt a lil stupid to eat Chinese food in Italy, but ah, it was a great change from the very non-creative daily pasta and pizza.

Europe Day 13 - Vatican City

2009-04-27T21:30:00.001+08:00

Thursday, 21 August, 2008

My.. I think I'll never Ever finish my europe posts. Ever.

beginner's guide to pasta. I was feeling poor so I ordered a lousy cold overpriced normal sandwich for brunch. Can't skimp on the cappucino though.

On our way to the Vatican City. We were trying to take the subway but it was closed due to some accident.. Some guy jumped onto the tracks? So we had to take a bus instead. It was crowded on the bus. We reached the Vatican Museums which houses the Sistine Chapel. It's good to reach here in the afternoon after all the tour buses have arrived, to skip the crazy queues (2 hour wait!) So it was about 1pm which means that we woke up pretty late today. Showed our student passes to get a huge discount on the tickets.

this looks like one of the mosaics from pompeii

boot shaped italy

wherever you go, you just keep seeing these irritating signs which point you in the direction of the Sistine Chapel as though they were in the next room, but it felt as though we would never reach it!

dali

and here we are.. see the Creation of Adam? I used to think that it stretched across the whole ceiling.. I imagined it to be that huge so I was a lil disappointed. However the ceiling was pretty magnificent.

ok, enlarged it for your viewing pleasure

I'd been waiting to do this! The Vatican City is a city state which has it's own postal system! It's also the smallest country in the world. So, we had to send a postcard home from here.

these are walls of Vatican City. Usually, in the morning, there are long queues along these walls.

filling our water bottle

St Peter's Basilica, which we didn't go in because it was so hot, we were tired and there were long queues. We later found out that it was free so we really should have gone in to have a look. darn. I was particularly interested in visiting the crypts which erm, store previous Popes. Especially Pope John XXIII who is well preserved in a glass coffin.

So with a couple of photos of St Peter's Square, we were ready to leave Vatican City.

Europe Day 13 - Rome

2009-04-27T21:00:00.000+08:00

Thursday, 21 August, 2008

After the Vatican City, we walked towards the city of Rome. We walked past the Castel Sant'Angelo and took some photos on the Bridge of Angels.

The Bridge of Angels over the Tiber River. An interesting legend about the river can be found here: "

The Splendour of the Chigi Family
While strolling along the Lungotevere avenues you may notice a strange glimmer on the surface of the river. There is in fact a rather humorous story regarding the dining habits of Agostino Chigi, the famous Renaissance banker. In order to keep up his reputation as the richest man in the world, he used to offer lavish dinner parties to high ranking guests in a loggia overlooking the Tiber. At the end of the meal, he ordered his servants to throw the silver cutlery and dishes used by the guests into the river! Obviously nobody knew about the deal the banker had made with the monks from a neighbouring convent who, in exchange for alms, spread nets beneath the surface of the water and each night returned the silverware to the shrewd banker. "

bought some turkish fare from a little provision shop...

and enjoyed it at the steps of this church

tak glam

Rome is a popular spot for movies and we often see these trucks around. Right now, we're walking along the Tiber River and trying to get to Travestere. This is supposed to be a more charming and real (less touristy) area with good eateries, but also more prone to crime.

Found many of these bugs on me while walking along the river. Eew.

Anyways. Travestere was pretty quiet, there weren't many people around and we didn't feel safe so we left. Took a cab right back to the Despar supermercato near our hotel. It was thankfully not that expensive to take a cab.

Back at our apartments to wash up

Refreshed, we took a slow walk around the city of Rome and somehow landed at the Trevi Fountain again. Had a gelato, and a couple of beers at a cafe near the fountain and just talked, for a while.

Europe Day 12 - Rome

2009-04-12T15:56:00.001+08:00

Thursday, 21 August, 2008

Today's plan was, a leisurely drive from Florence to Rome, through the hills of tuscany, stop at a vineyard or two along the way. Note the use of the word 'was'...

We tried, but unfortunately there were some factory outlets at The Mall at Leccio, kinda on the way.

look at all the fabulous brands

And before you think that this was my idea of a dream holiday.. Hmm nope. Not if there isn't enough time for me to explore Tuscany. So it wasn't exactly my choice. Anyways it's also cos these brands are way too high end for me. Cannot afford, sian. Actually the Gucci was super cheap but also damn ugly. Tods, Burberrys had nice stuff but no money. Total waste of time.

pb did manage to get some emil____ zegna shirts.

Roma, or Firenze?

Sadly.. there was too much time spent shopping and waiting that we didn't get to drive through the scenic Tuscan roads. I have no respect for people who make other people wait during holidays. Especially when they did not plan a single thing. Ok, you can see that I'm very bitter about this. Enough ranting.

We tried to veer off the highways a little and found this restaurant in time for lunch.

Sneaked into the kitchen to spy on the chef

view from their balcony

Right after lunch we had to go back to the highway cos there wasn't much time left. Suddenly there were many cyclists on the roads near the restaurant. It looked like a competition and we were amazed that the roads weren't cordoned off for the occasion. So here we are, driving with many cyclists around us.

And... tada! Rome!

We are super fascinated about this water fountain down the road from our apartments and proceeded to drink lots of refreshingly cool water from it. In Rome, there are many of these drinkable water fountains so you don't have to buy mineral water! Just have to refill from these whenever you see them.

The water is pumped via the ancient Roman aqueducts which are an engineering marvel. I don't understand why they can leave it running 24/7 though, really wish there was a tap somewhere to turn it off.

Our place, Daisy Apartments, is another fantastic place to stay in Rome. It's run by Hotel Cecil (which is a lot more expensive to stay in). So we had to check in at the actual hotel but walk a few steps to reach the apartments located in a ulu looking alley. There was no proper lobby or reception, but the rooms were really nice, spacious and even had a little stove for you to cook. Most importantly, the location was superb. Just steps away from the Spanish Steps. And all other (impt) parts of Rome are walkable!

Spanish Steps

Saw some people filling their bottles from this fountain. But er, I don't think so.

greedy pb saw some gao3 lak4. Few euros for lousy tasting chestnut. *rolls eyes*

interesting display in LV shop

Took a nice stroll and eventually reached the Trevi Fountain from it's side. Hordes of people!

Throw a coin over your shoulder into the Fontana Di Trevi, and you'll find yourself in Rome again some day.

Best gelato in Rome. We couldn't stand the queue and didn't try it though. Aiyah how good could it be, right?

Dream on

2009-04-01T22:27:00.003+08:00

Whenever I have the slightest hope of travelling again, I'd open google maps and gaze over the world view. Then I'd..

zoom in to each country/city that I could possibly go to, and zoom out again.
Repeat step 1 a few times
Head over to tiger airways / jetstar / air asia and check out the price
Go read travel websites about the place
Decide that I can't afford to go anyway

After a few days, repeat steps 1 to 5.

New Template

2009-03-28T23:59:00.006+08:00

Today was amazing, I somehow managed to wake up at 7 am, which is pretty much a miracle. While waiting for pb I washed the toilet, mopped my floor and folded a heap of clothes. Mummy was very relieved to see that heap folded when she got home =D. Had a good time jogging and rollerblading at East Coast, followed by a Coffee Bean breakfast.

By the time I got home it was only 1 pm. Usually I would still be asleep. I spent the rest of the day cleaning up my template. Always wanted to do this but there wasn't a real need for it, until recently I realized that the photos on my blog are of very crappy resolution. I'm super inspired by The Big Picture where they use huge, sharp pictures and it's a joy to look.

So I increased the width of my blog posts, and finally escaped from the 'blogger' style of having everything in one page. You can still access the various links through the 'Archives', 'Link' and 'Tag' tabs.

blurb

2009-03-28T00:15:00.004+08:00

I am a happy girl this week. Because something that I've been working on for the past TWO years, has finally come to near completion. Check out the first 15 pages of each of my photo books here. I have a few more books which I will order after I receive this batch! =)

[Update] I logged into Blurb (28th March night) and realized that they have already shipped! I can't believe they managed to print my 2 440 page books in 3 days. They would have reached vpost today if it wasn't a non-business day. Oh well, just have to wait til Monday. =)

Earbud cord wrapper

2009-03-27T23:19:00.003+08:00

I have only recently started using Google Reader, and have been slowly exploring the Staff Picks feeds. My favorite is definitely Design Milk with their daily beautiful designs which I can fantasize about. Second would be Make Magazine which also has DIY projects that usually brink on geeky (but i rike) which I can also fantasize about.

Anyways I noted this very easy 'earbud cord wrapper' which I almost wanted to make.. but I would alter the design so that you could wrap the cord lengthwise, hence adding less kinks into it. It's damn easy lah don't even have to watch the movie cos it's just about cutting up a credit card into the shape of a earbud cord wrapper -_-"

I was about to cut it up when I noticed the following link.. Teaching an 'Over Under' technique. Simple, but.. it's pretty magical really. Don't think I will be able to perform this on a bus full of construction workers with one hand carrying my bag and the other holding on to the poles for dear life though. More for storage of all my wires.

hard disk space required

2009-03-18T00:11:00.001+08:00

Running out.. Need those Tera thingies. =(

Europe Day 11 - Florence

2009-03-14T21:35:00.000+08:00

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

After a morning in Pisa, it's time to ~~rush~~ leisurely drive down to Florence. Firenze. I always wonder why it has to be called Florence when it is actually Firenze in Italian and is perfectly spellable and readable. Same for Roma, Venezia, Italia..

Florence is the birthplace of the Italian Renaissance when the city flourished in much art and architecture. Many great people were born here, including...

The Ninja Turtles..

Leonardo da Vinci, polymath, famous for his Mona Lisa and other paintings, inventions, and scientific experiments.
Michelangelo Buonarroti, sculptor, painter, also famous for the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel and David.
Donatello, sculptor.
Raphael, painter.

Also..

Galileo Galilei, Italian physicist, astronomer, and philosopher.
Florence Nightingale, pioneer of modern nursing, and a noted statistician.

And these designers!

Salvatore Ferragamo, "shoemaker to the stars".
Roberto Cavalli, fashion designer.
Guccio Gucci, founder of the Gucci label.

No wonder Ferragamo and Gucci stuff are so cheap in the outlets here.

Driving from Pisa to Firenze

Tuscan architecture

Tuscan trees

Driving in Florence is.. an adventure by its own. The roads are so narrow that pedestrians spill onto the road. Well, actually there are many roads that we don't even know if they are for pedestrians or cars. There are people Everywhere. Furthermore, they have these rules that we cannot go into certain roads at certain times.. And we are not even supposed to drive into the Historic Center of Florence at all.

The good news is that our hotel is damn centrally located, steps away from the famous Duomo. The bad news is obviously that we gotta drive into the Historic Center. We made prior arrangements with the hotel who said that they would liaise with the police ahead of time to allow us to drive in.

GPS is of little use in Italy. On top of the people on the roads, they were mostly 1 way roads and it was so impossible to reach our hotel. We spent about 40 minutes navigating around, finding ourselves being led AWAY from the hotel via the one way roads each time. Now I understand why the hotel said 'GPS will not work' and gave specific directions on where to turn at which corner.

There are roads like these which says 'Area Pedonale' and has other various signs which I suppose mean we are not supposed to drive through it?

And signs like these which make you wonder if you're not supposed to drive in that lane anymore, or whether that is merely graffiti?

As you can see, despite the people on the roads, cars can just drive through anyway. I don't know if they are allowed to, but they do.

This is how driving through Florence looks like. Loads of people looking like they own the road. And roads which do not look like they were meant for cars.

We finally found our hotel, Hotel Maxim after about 40 minutes? See the number of people we were driving through?!! Thats me with our Ford C-Max.

Eek. No more driving in Florence for me.

Hotel Maxim (2 stars) was fully booked but lucky for us they arranged for us to stay in Hotel Axial on another floor which was 3 stars! A free upgrade! They arranged for the garage to drive our car away at a fee, which we GLADLY paid and handed our keys over. Let's minimize driving in Florence as much as possible.

I am superbly proud for finding a decently priced hotel at such a fantastic location. Steps away from all the attractions, we could walk everywhere. It was also above the Disney Store where we promptly picked up a Firenze Minnie Mouse tee for Joy.

Even Goofy is in a Florentine mood as he dances in front of the Duomo.

First things first. Lunch. My spaghetti was ok while his pork chop was damn thin and pathetic! Haha! I clearly remember paying 3.50 euros per cup of coke and 2 euros per person for cover charge. Yeah, 2 euros just to sit there and eat crappy pork chops. Well. 3.50 euros for a coke is better than paying 6 euros for water right?

Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore

Otherwise known as the Duomo. About the only thing important in Florence.

need. a. wide. angle. lens. (or a full frame body =D)

this doggie was not impressed by pb's photo taking stances

Ok! enough of churches! Time to walk around.

Love their gelato displays. Hmm, would be good if I had a cone in my hands right now :( For the record, they taste the same as the ones in Singapore anyway. Ha.

Won't lao4 hong1 one!

3 euro Red Bull fix makes a pb less grouchy. Kinda like what a cappucino does to me.

Woo.. nekkid statue. must be somewhere important.

So this is Palazzo Vecchio.. It's a square that houses some statues.. and it's Free! :D

Oscar. very adorable!

All very violent leh.

"David di Michelangelo". Obviously a replica. After the Mona Lisa crowd, we weren't about to go into the Uffizi to catch a glimpse of the real thing. Anyways, the actual statue used to be placed here til 1504 when it was moved into the Uffizi Gallery.

This street performer was going around irritating innocent passers by. He even dragged that girl, carried her and placed her in some other strangers' laps.

Uffizi Gallery

Quite a lot of police/security personel in the city.

We reached the River Arno and were amused by these people playing soccer here! Note the little boat in the river.. Each time the ball flies into the river, they row the boat out to get it!

Ponte Vecchio. Unlike the other bridges in Florence, this bridge survived WWII. "In 1944, the retreating Germans decided to blow up the bridges along the Arno linking the district of Oltrarno to the rest of the city, thus making it difficult for the British troops to cross. However, at the last moment Hitler ordered that the Ponte Vecchio must not be blown up, as it was too beautiful." Wah. Didn't know that Hitler appreciated architecture so much.

The first water fountain we see. I only know that the ones in Rome can be drunk from, not sure about Florence so we just washed our hands. Not sure why they don't bother with the turning off of their taps. I feel disturbed seeing clean water running 24/7.

There are these peddlers selling art pieces. They keep picking them up, walking to a new place and then laying them out again. Wonder if it's cos of the police.. However there are so many of them appearing throughout the bridge that it doesn't seem that the police are actually catching them.

Selling shades

more gelato

We saw a little crowd forming around this statue and so we shuffled over to check it out. Fontana Del Porcellino Il Porcellino (Italian "piglet") is the local Florentine name for the bronze fountain of a boar. We stood around, observing what people were doing. You're supposed to put a coin in its mouth, and let it fall. If it falls through the grating, it's good luck/you will return to Florence some day/your wish comes true/insert any nonsense belief you want. I don't think I need to return to Florence and neither did I want to part with my Euros. Not even coins, ha!

This talented street artist created the most beautiful drawings on the ground.

hor.. kena summon

Last glimpse of the Duomo before heading back to rest.

There was a PI in our hotel building?! I thought these were hush hush places you wouldn't wanna be seen at if you were utilizing their services.. How could they announce their location this way.

Our cheap pizza and beer dinner.

Our 3* room. Open that window and it faces a busy street full of tourists.

saturday and sunday

2009-03-14T16:51:00.007+08:00

How I like to spend my Saturdays.

Sleep in late.. but preferably not too late cos there's so much to do. Latest 2pm.
Clean up my room
Sweep and mop my floor
By this time I would have picked up all the clothes worn that week which has been lying around my room. Hand wash them.
Use water from hand washing to wash toilet
'spa'
Remove nail polish and let nails rest for a day
Blog about travelling from half a year ago and try to remember stuff from the mouldy photographs
Work on my photobooks which are long due. This has been evolving into a >2 year project.

How I like to spend my Sundays.

Sleep in late
Hope that daddy bought brunch by the time I wake up. If not, go buy brunch for the family.
Rollerblade
Jog
Go walk around Toa Payoh central and spend most of my time in Watsons with nothing in mind to buy
Pedicure after letting nails rest for a day
Whatever is left to do from Saturday

Right now I'm about to embark on Step 8 of Saturday. Wow. I realize I'm actually quite a systematic person. However, anything not fulfilled within the weekend will be spilled to the next weekend, resulting in a filthy room or many unblogged entries.

As you can see, there's no wild partying or romantic dating involved. I love just being at home with my parents. Seems like I have gracefully transitioned into auntiedom.

dilbert

2009-03-14T16:44:00.004+08:00

asok is one of my favorite dilbert characters. he makes me feel better about myself.

hmm.. guess where I am!

2009-03-11T23:56:00.003+08:00

some friends we met along the way

Miraculously Makuang

2009-03-03T19:48:00.004+08:00

I have always wondered how it feels like to sprain an ankle. (And after that think CHOI.. touch wood) Ironically I managed to sprain mine without exactly knowing how it happened.

This happened over a period of about 3 weeks.

The day after one of my jogs, I thought my right ankle felt a lil weak. After that it was ok.
Without thinking, I wore heels one of the days. Went shopping in JP summore. The next morning, I felt the same sensation in my ankle again. Damn.. So I stopped wearing heels lah.
I also continued jogging.

The 3rd weekend.. the pain became worse and I started limping. On Monday morning at 5am, I was awoken to the pain in my ankle.. And I was shocked to know that it hurt like hell to step on the floor. At this point it was so painful that I didn't even know if it was the ankle or the heel or what.. Hopped around a bit.. And went to the polyclinic to check it out (both my ankle, and the polyclinic. hah.)

The polyclinic, as expected, did not help much except provide me with a 1day MC and very cheap services.

The next day (tuesday) I cabbed to work, limping everywhere and wincing with every step.

Some colleagues advised traditional chinese medicine (TCM).. but added a note of caution that 推拿 was only for the faint hearted and that it would be damn painful. Considering I had a flight to catch on Thursday evening and it may take some time to recover after the 推拿.. I went straight to the Makuang at tpy after work. Also, I was in such pain that I was quite desperate. 长痛不如短痛. Cabbed there of course. Where the bf is in my time of need, I don't know. =D

So anyway. The physiotherapist there, Zhu Ding Zheng was nice and reassuring after I told him that I am damn intolerant to pain. He was like, 'it's not painful.. foot reflexology is painful, but not this'. I didn't believe a word he said.

First he twisted and prodded my foot a bit and gauged my response to check where the problem was. He was very patient and listened to what I had to say. Then he went 'Ok. I'm gonna start. Do not be nervous.' which of course made me way more nervous.

Turned out that it really was not painful at all, and yet it was damn shiok lah. Best foot massage I've ever received. However that led me to doubt if it was even effective. I also made sure he could see my face so that he could tell everytime I winced at the slightest pain. And he was pretty observant and would ask if I was ok, everytime it was painful.

He also used this suction pump thing on the injured region (that I was damn tempted to take a photo of but I didn't have a camera in my hand and didn't dare to move much). He pumped and pumped, went '还顶得住吗?'. It was damn painful and itchy, and I innocently said 'ok' and then HE WALKED OUT OF THE ROOM. Leaving me to wonder how long I would have to bear with it. Finally he came in, typed a bit into his computer, and knocked the damn thing off my ankle. My ankle now had this red round lump on it and he explained, 'There, it's red.. means it's injured'. Er, I think any skin subjected to that suction thing would end up being red and swollen.

He was saying that I could go back on Friday for a review when I realized that I wouldn't be in s'pore then (if my foot was ok by thurs). And he said, oh sure, you would be able to go for your trip. And kindly calculated how much medicine to pack for me for the trip. Gave me 2 kinds, one is the herbal, black messy one which requires lots of bandage for home usage, and the normal medicated plaster for travelling.

He also advised me not to go jogging and wear good sensible shoes. Er uncle, I cannot even walk, how to jog? [However now that I feel better, I'm itching to go jog again]

After the soothing massage and slapping on lots of herbal medicine, my first step on the ground was hideously painful. It felt even more painful than before I went for the massage.. Thank goodness pb came to fetch me home.

paw trotters

See my pedicure? Java Mauve-A, my all time favorite color. Which of course isn't the point here. This was taken after the 推拿 session and I was highly amused by how my toes were swollen even though they weren't injured. Weird lor. I think they were already swollen before the session, just that I didn't realize.

After this long story. The point is.. Even though it was damn painful right after the 推拿, the next day, as I stepped my foot to the ground cautiously, I was totally surprised to find that it hurt much less than before. By the end of the day I could walk with only a slight limp and it hardly hurt. The next day (thursday), I could walk normally! wow!

So the $45 I paid for TCM is just infinitely more worth it than the $11 I paid for the polyclinic visit.

Just a note that although many colleagues rave about Makuang, I found that not all branches are that good, pb did see one in Marsiling which wasn't that miraculous.

old quarters, hanoi

2009-02-27T01:08:00.005+08:00

Currently at my friend's hotel in hanoi.. This is the room's floor tile.Damn retro :)

Polyclinic Visit

2009-02-23T14:42:00.005+08:00

Did you know that the polyclinic is damn cheap? I just went to see a doctor. The consultation fees were $8.80, ($4.50 for kids/elderly!) and some ointment + lots of panadol cost me $2.80. I only had to pay $11.60 in all. I'm sure this could have cost me $40 easily at a GP, and probably $80 at an A&E.

I waited about10 minutes to register, 0.5 hours til consultation, and then I stupidly waited at some place wrongly for 15 minutes for payment. Realizing the number was not jumping and the cashier was permanently on the phone, I asked her and she told me I was supposed to go the pharmacy at the 1st floor. Well, I wasn't really paying attention cos I was armed with my PSP, ready for the long waits.

I then went down to the pharmacy for another 0.5 hours wait. I had a good time limping around and buying crap like ankle guard, orange wood cuticle sticks and Katjes Berry Delicious gummies (to console poor sick me). My miscellaneous purchases cost me way more than the whole medical fee.

I suppose the waiting time was O-K, but it's a weekday morning. Overall quite a good experience. After which I cabbed home (2 streets away) and that only cost me $3.40.

[edit] On hindsight. The polyclinic visit was really quite bohua, considering the guy REFUSED to write a 'unfit for travel' doc for me for insurance purposes, and just merely gave a 'Refrain from strenuous activity and prolonged walks'. Sai lor. Maybe it's cos I happily limped in myself. I should have made pb carry me in or something. From opinions I gathered, polyclinics are the most giam about giving MCs and such letters. GPs on the other hand, are in a competitive business and would be more likely to give such letters. So come to think of it, I did not gain from the doctor's visit at all, other than receiving a 1 day MC for the day I went to visit.. Had to limp to work painfully the next day.

Europe Day 11 - Pisa

2009-02-21T18:06:00.001+08:00

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Because the Tower of Pisa is about 1.5 hours away from Florence and that's about the only attraction there, many say that it's overrated and not really worth it to go. Considered our options, and when Samsung used Tower of Pisa as the landmark for Italy, we knew we couldn't miss it.

I still think I'm a genius for choosing to sleep in Prato. It's way cheaper than Florence/Pisa, yet way easier to drive than in Florence (More on that later). And it is of course faster for us to reach Pisa since it's between the two cities.

Today is gonna be a super rushed day cos we only have the morning for Pisa and afternoon/night for Florence. I think I'm becoming an expert at planning these touch-and-go vacations. Most people frown upon this kind of itinerary and say it's 'too rushed.. it's a vacation and i want to enjoy my time at each place'... etc etc. But time is so precious. Anyone working will know how much annual leave we can afford to take.. and of course, $$ as well. It's unlikely we'll get a 2nd chance to come back here, so I would want to see with my own eyes, as many places as I can, even if it means rushing. Yea, I'm the kiasu type who just wants to be able to say, I've been there. And take that compulsory proof-of-travel photo.

Somewhere near Pisa.. there were these fields of sunflowers. If only we had the luxury of stopping to photograph them.. (I sound like I'm contradicting myself. But it's more because we were travelling with others that we didn't stop, not cos of the lack of time)

When you reach the area, you go through this little gate, and voila!

Magnificence!

There are people who go, 'huh? like that only ah?' when they see this.. But I really felt privileged to right here, to be able to witness this.

On close inspection, you can see that on the left side of the base, it is very shallow, however the right side has sunk so much from ground level. In order to go up, you have to book well in advance, and even then, there may be a 1 to 2 hour wait.

We waited around and asked quite a few photographers before one took this good one for us. It's really hard to find a good photographer who can take everything in for you. Have to find someone who is willing to squat and contort themselves, and preferably someone holding a big camera so he knows how to handle yours (doesn't always work). For this, it was a lady who helped us, and even then we had to judge and shift ourselves such that we were framed nicely. Luckily I am quite good at self-camwhoring.

They were selling these replicas everywhere. Very cheap way of owning some Italian art.

There is nothing much to do here at Pisa so the only entertainment is to take stupid photos with the tower of Pisa. Pb was really reluctant to but I managed to make him. Muahaha.

'please stop posting unflattering photos of me on your blog!'

Even Bart Simpson had a go at it.

Europe Day 9/10 - Dolomiti (Italian Alps)

2009-02-15T15:17:00.005+08:00

Sunday, August 17, 2008

Armed with our cheap Billa roast chicken and Coke, we set off from the Venice airport in our Ford C-Max (manual). This car is probably the equivalent of Mazda 5. Somewhere in between a MPV and hatchback. Also, it runs on diesel. In Italy, petrol is benzina, unleaded petrol is benzina senza piombo and diesel is gasolio. The gas stations were mostly unmanned (Self service) so we had to be quite cautious not to pump the wrong stuff. Anyways this Ford C-Max had really good fuel efficiency and each tank of diesel lasted us a long time.

Google maps says it's a 2 hour drive to get from Venice Marco Polo airport to Alleghe, which is a small town in the Dolomiti (Italian alps) region. I faced quite a lot of problems trying to get a hotel in the Dolomiti area, because

They are mostly small, family run hotels with no Internet websites which means

You have to call them and talk to them in Italian
There are no reviews for you to consider

Those listed on the internet were either damn expensive, or sold out

Also, because these cities are in the mountains, their addresses may not be listed in google or your gps systems. The windy mountain roads could also potentially lengthen the stipulated driving time dramatically. Aware of that, we gave ourselves a whole afternoon to reach our hotel.

We soon found ourselves in the clouds!

And here is our hotel, Alle Alpi. It is not this which is 4* and looks damn luxurious. It's this.. 3*, but still really very cozy. It sure looks very welcoming, doesn't it? The funny thing about all 3* hotels in the Dolomiti region is that, they all look the same. They probably found the same architect to do the job. Right down to the same font for the hotel name, and the very honest '***' spelled in front of the name.

I loved this place, it was so cute, had free parking AND BREAKFAST!! woohoo.

We were told to move our car to the back of the hotel to the owners' garage because there was gonna be a party tonight! What a great time to be here.

There was a church right next to the hotel.

We checked in, and it was dinner time.. We tried the cheaper looking cafe in a building next to the hotel.

Hotel alle Alpi at night

that's the DJ for the party..

Our dinner.. had some fun trying to order the food. Since it was only our 2nd night in Italy, we still had not figured out the Italian menu (major cities like venice/rome/florence have english menus but not these little towns). So there was some effort involved in ordering pizza with some Meat in it. I mostly remembered ham = prosciutto and went around italy ordering that.

I didn't like that wine jug though. I don't know why but it looks like it's a pee container.

al fresco..

The DJ/singer really reminded me of WestSide Steve from Put-In-Bay, Ohio. Just the Italian version I suppose.

And this was, one of our most memorable nights in Italy. The italians (or whoever) were all happily enjoying themselves, dancing away. And I was delighted when pb was game enough to join in. =)

when you dance down the street with a cloud at your feet

even the teenagers had some fun with the macarena

After one of the dances, this beautiful lady in white ran up to me and kissed me on the cheek! I was so surprised I didn't know how to react. Either she is lesbian, or I am a very good dancer. Ha.ha.

italian westside steve posing for us

I danced with this guy too. He smelled funny.

The lady in the white specs is one of the staff.. dont know if she was the owner. Didn't speak much english, but she did ask us to publicize her hotel. I don't think many asians come here.

having some father and son fun

They were so friendly and invited us to go dance with them in their circle. The lady in white is caught glancing at me in this pict. Maybe she really has a crush on me.

Such a sweet lady. I think we were really fortunate to be able to experience this. We didn't expect anything much to happen here, we just wanted a base for sleeping overnight before exploring the Dolomiti the next day. The best part of this night was, there were no other asians at all to be spotted in this little town, and it really felt like a vacation.

I realize that music and dance, is universal. We did get a lot of stares, the silly asian couple with the big camera, but it was good fun.

The room itself was big, yet cozy. Don't know why they use such weird unabsorbent towels though.

A sneak preview of what's to come tomorrow.

Monday, August 18, 2008

the same mountain range, seen in the morning..

view from our hotel

quite a sumptious breakfast

complete with freshly made cappucino which you could order

they even 'reserved' a table for us for breakfast even though they happily ignored the X in my name. Maybe they thought it stood for 'sign here'

right outside the hotel

We walked around the area to gather some information about where to head to for the day. Stocked up at a supermarket, and they were selling these disgusting looking ham/sausage thing with what looks like huge chunks of fat in it.

And then it was time to check out.

This is Mr Rudatis's (the owner) son, showing us his yearbook. He plays for the hockey team!

hotel owner.. lucky fella

We planned to drive towards the highest peak, the Marmolada. On the way, among the very blue skies and very green grass, we saw these sweet little things.

Lots of them!!!

One of them crossed the road, and the rest of them followed blindly. So that's where the phrase herd mentality comes from. We were really worried about their safety as it was a road bend and thus a blind spot.

I was really amused by the little darlings

Complete with shepherd and sheepdogs

whatcha lookin at

Time to continue on our way..

there were some of these tunnels which really felt like we were playing daytona

and we reached the base of the Marmolada.

Malga Ciapela Marmolada. Since we were here, might as well reach for the highest peak right? Before we went up, a man pointed at my slippers and laughed, 'you're going up in those?'. Hmm. I hope I survive!

Took the cable car up to somewhere in the middle

Some free souvenirs. "The name "Dolomites" is derived from the famous French mineralogist Déodat Gratet de Dolomieu who was the first to describe the rock, dolomite, a type of carbonate rock which is responsible for the characteristic shapes and colour of these mountains" (Source: Wikipedia). So if you wanna see some dolomite, you can visit me.

Yes, I have no idea how they managed to get up there.

Went up up and away..

a pity it was way too foggy at the top for any decent shots

and very cold. my toes were freezing away. That man was right. I couldn't feel my toes after a while.

back on the ground enjoying an ice cream cone

And it was 2pm, the start of our search for lunch. At the first cafe we saw..

it was closed already. They recommended Pizzeria Edy and gave us some instructions to get there.

We found it! quite easily. However it was closed too.. After a few stops along the way.. we realized that these cafes were all closed at the time.. until dinner. And they refused to cook for us. So we continued to a larger town in search for food. We finally found Canazei which is a much larger and touristy civilization.

YES! fresh hot cheap pizza!

It was so good we dapaoed 2 more in case we were hungry later.

After a while it was just all mountain, mountain. Luckily we only arranged 1 day for this tour. (Everyone says you need many days to explore these). Actually there are other tours, such as history tours which bring you to mountain passes used in WWI, and other hikes/cycling tours.

But for us, this was enough, as we headed to our next hotel in Prato. This is a very ulu town in between Florence and Pisa. When towns are not touristy and ulu, they can actually be very daunting as they look dark deserted and dangerous. There's no one to look out for you and there is a high chance that people do not know English.

After being extremely frustrated with 1 way roads and the gps around this Hotel Flora, we finally reached it by driving backwards on a 1 way road. Whatever lah! This front desk, and the balding receptionist looks like something right out of a horror movie. Hotel Flora was one of the cheapest hotels we had.. 3* for 60 euros.

After checking in, we walked out for dinner at some place recommended by the freaky balding receptionist.

A little overpriced, plus they charged us a few euros for the naan they served. But otherwise ok. I wasn't feeling too well and so I missed out on another Italian meal. Boo.

Everything - Michael Buble

2009-02-07T21:09:00.000+08:00

You're a falling star, You're the get away car.
You're the line in the sand when I go too far.
You're the swimming pool, on an August day.
And you're the perfect thing to say.

And you play it coy, but it's kinda cute.
Ah, When you smile at me you know exactly what you do.
Baby don't pretend, that you don't know it's true.
Cause you can see it when I look at you.

[Chorus:]
And in this crazy life, and through these crazy times
It's you, it's you, You make me sing.
You're every line, you're every word, you're everything.

You're a carousel, you're a wishing well,
And you light me up, when you ring my bell.
You're a mystery, you're from outer space,
You're every minute of my everyday.

And I can't believe, uh that I'm your man,
And I get to kiss you baby just because I can.
Whatever comes our way, ah we'll see it through,
And you know that's what our love can do.

[Chorus:]
And in this crazy life, and through these crazy times
It's you, it's you, You make me sing
You're every line, you're every word, you're everything.

So, La, La, La, La, La, La, La
So, La, La, La, La, La, La, La

[Chorus:]
And in this crazy life, and through these crazy times
It's you, it's you, You make me sing.
You're every line, you're every word, you're everything.
You're every song, and I sing along.
'Cause you're my everything.
Yeah, yeah

So, La, La, La, La, La, La, La
So, La, La, La, La, La, La, La, La, La, La, La

Europe/UK Day 9 - Venezia

2009-02-07T17:39:00.000+08:00

Sunday, August 17, 2008

We have another morning in Venice.

This guy made music out of those glasses of different sizes, and containing different amounts of water. It was beautiful. Too bad we couldn't afford the cd.

they have mambo and Souk here

i noticed the interesting reflection in the mirror, and realized that I was not alone.

tourist jam!

no matter where you walk.. somehow you will be led back to piazza san marco.

you see these guys selling handbags.. I wonder where they're from. are they from the same country, as those Eiffel tower miniature toting salesmen in Paris and Versailles?

this is the worst pasta i've ever eaten in my whole life. It sucks more than pasta mania. Cold and hard.

The gondoliers are damn skillful at maneuvering around these bends!

walked a distance beyond the academia bridge in search of Billa to buy their roast chicken (4euros, cheap). Had to ask a million people for directions.

There it is! a supermarket. I was picking up Ferrero gardens (which btw, is being sold at The Cocoa Tree, saw it in Carrefour at an overpriced S$17) when this man came up to me and talked to me.

Italian Man: "You like sweet stuff"
Me: "Yup"
Italian Man recommends me Lindt.

After some conversation about where I'm from, how long in Venice etc, we talk about the food and he offers to cook for me.

It was slightly freaky. Nice gesture, but yes still very freaky. I declined politely and said that I was leaving that afternoon, which luckily was true.. If this was in the movies, he would be a lot better looking (maybe like Benjamin Button in his younger years), and I would be a lot more adventurous, and could just go to his house and have a good romantic meal and check out his Venetian apartment and family or something and decide to stay in Venetian for good. hmm.

So he went off to do his grocery shopping and I did mine. I had to time myself properly not to meet him at the supermarket checkout so I ended up looking at some toiletries while he queued up. I hastily joined the other queue as he was paying at one of the counters.

Couldn't resist discreetly snapping what the person in front of me bought:

Turned out that I wasn't so discreet and the man behind me was like, wth did you do that for? I had to explain myself and he asked if I wanted to take a photo of his groceries which consisted of some mozzarella cheese. I regret declining him cos hey, I should have just taken a photo anyway since I had the chance right. But the dslr was with pb so I wasn't that much in a photo taking mood.

Paid up and walked out. Saw a familiar face sitting on a bench by the river. shit. It was the guy who wanted to cook for me. Have to entertain him again. He asked me again if I changed my mind.. Argh! Politely declined again and sped off.. all the while turning back to check if he was following me or something. If only it wasn't that freaky, I would have taken a photo of him.

On the way back to the apartments.. Packed up a bit and it was time to leave Venice.

Borrowed the backpacks from fred's friend and jy because we didn't wanna spend $270 on something we'd use just once. But after our Japan trip which was spent lugging 2 huge suitcases around, I'm starting to consider buying one. And it's impt to buy a good one which you can easily adjust to sit nicely on your hips. It looks huge but the good ones are pretty comfortable really and much more practical than heavy suitcases.

The buskers are really highly talented, and they even have cute costumes.

We headed off to take the Alilaguna Airport Taxi which is actually a boat of course, which brings you to the Airport in about, half an hour.

Europe/UK Day 8 - Venezia

2009-01-26T16:13:00.003+08:00

Saturday, August 16, 2008

After spending a night's rest in the beautiful Venetian apartment, it's time to go explore. The best, and actually only way to see Venice is by getting lost in its charming little alleys. It's the only way because there are so many little alleys, twists and turns that it's impossible, or just a total waste of time to use a map. To orientate yourself, you there are these signs at each corner showing the general direction to reach the few famous places like Piazza San Marco, or Rialto Bridge and you just follow them. Or, you can follow the throngs of tourists.

Venice is simply breathtakingly beautiful. I couldn't stop photo snapping at every bend I took.

this is the alley where my apartment is. Once you descend from the stairs of the apartment, open that little door, you see shops opening, and loads of people walking about.

These are the signs you kinda follow to get to anywhere important. GPS can just go and die here.

ahh! Gondolas!

blues, greens, reds

Piazza San Marco

Oh, we had been warned about overpriced coffees at this place, although it is still a good experience to be able to enjoy a drink here. We warily went into the cafe and checked out the prices. Hey, they looked surprisingly ok. So we sat down and waited to be served.

killer pigeons

Turned out that the eat-in menu was way more expensive than the to-go one that we had studied earlier. We pretended to look at it a bit and ran.

Upon seeing this guy carrying so much on a trolley, did I realize that there are no cars on Venice and since people only get around on boats, these guys have to use trolleys..

Most of the stores here sell the same things at the same price. Some do have more special masks which they claim are Venetian made, and not made in china like the rest.

We finally found a little eatery. All cappucinos in France/Italy are fantastic. I wanna buy their coffee machines coffee powder and milk.

pizza for breakfast.

Next we popped into a little store to buy water.

loads of pastries.. I'm not a fan of sweet stuff like these so we didn't try any

colors everywhere!

Murano glass beads. Venice is famous for its glassware from the island of Murano which we can visit via boat.

when you walk the dark, quiet little alleys, you can see the Venetians taking a break or a smoke.

we found a supermarket near our apartment that sells water at 1/3 the price of the earlier grocery store

masks again

our first venetian gelato

this stall owner was rubbing his doggy's tummy. It was a superbly adorable sight.

camera showdown! Canon 450d vs Sony W70!

Towards Rialto!

I had to stop myself from buying these superbly cute Dali-inspired clocks which were too overpriced. But I've really never seen anything like these before. Wonder if they can be found in Singapore.

The Persistence of Memory by Salvadore Dali [Source: Wikipedia]

Shopping in the Disney store for our princess Joy

These are the cheapest form of food you can find in Italy. It's not as bad as it looks cos they actually heat it up for you. However all that flour everyday can get really boring.

a beautifully decorated gondola

they have BATA here! Somehow the Italian BATA seems much classier. You can really smell leather once you step in the store and the stuff are really quite fashionable.

You know you're headed in the right direction when you see the crowds.

Rialto Bridge

coconut

10 euro jerseys

1.50 euro fruit cups

pb bought one of these 8 euro silk ties

i loved this combination! too bad it was summer.

This man was serenading away and he did it with such gusto we had to tip him. Impressive.

Venetian paper shop

gay pride here too? Oh, turns out that the Italian PACE (pronounced pah-chay) flag has one more color than the gay pride flag we're used to seeing in the US.

I need a wide angle lens

Murano glass I suppose

We found lunch at a little cafe where I had my best pasta for the whole trip.

Our cafe Ai Bari, and our cheapo 2 euro wine that tasted like piss

pb wanted fish, and he got ikan bilis!

We walked and walked until we saw some Gondola rides being offered. Well, we simply have to try this. At the time of writing I've already selectively forgotten how much it cost. Ok, I haven't, it should be about S$200 for 45 min (although we were shortchanged and it only lasted 30 min)

Our er, gondola man. Is there a term for these guys? Anyways he says all of them are born in Venice.

face still flushed from the cheap wine

this guy cheat our money...

So anyway, we took the gondola ride in a very ulu area of Venice so there wasn't really much to see. My suggestion would be to take it in a better place, probably near San Marco Square so that you can see better stuff such as the Bridge of Sighs. Provided there aren't any traffic issues.

more pastries

even the graffiti is colorful in Venice

As we made our way back to our apartment, we see that guy who was playing with his doggie earlier on in the day, closing his stall and going home for the day.

beautiful pinks and greens

witnessed the sunset near San Marco square

big versus small

That's how they display their seafood

met another doggie while buying pizza. We bought the cheapest pizza which only had cheese and tomato. Tapao to not pay cover charge, and enjoy with our coke in the comforts of our apartment. But it was good, at least it was freshly made.

happy new year?

2009-01-26T14:52:00.004+08:00

Whenever there is an exchange of 'Happy New Year', I put on my happiest smile, but inside I actually cringe. What's so happy about it? It's just another day. The only cny goodie I like is bak kwa which can be enjoyed anytime of the year. I guess I only like it because it's the only time my house is spotlessly clean so it's really comfortable. Oh, and also cos we get 2 days of public holiday. That's good if we don't actually have to go visit anyone. Hahaha.

In any case, my parents finally managed to stage their own rebellion and NOT go visit those less-close relatives, e.g. parents' cousins whom we see only once a year. So right now we're just chilling at home, soaked in anti-social bliss. Love it. Of course, we also save from giving those angpows to people we don't really care about.

Which gives me some time to catch up on my blogging and photos.. yay.

Since we're in CNY mood, here's what I've been busy with.. For the past week, I've been cleaning up my room, like, real cleaning up, taking everything out of my deepest cupboards and wiping them through. I donated half my room to the salvation army, hopefully they can be used somehow. It's a fantastic way to get rid of stuff that are still good but you just don't need anymore. Hopefully my stuff can help someone out there.

I also took the time to finally take some photos of my shoes in an attempt to catalog them. Will go develop the photos and paste each of them on my shoeboxes. Something that would be way easier with Polaroid but oh well. Digital is the way to go.

Not pretty right? I totally need more shoes right?

So my room is really clean now yay.

Had our reunion dinner on Saturday instead of Sunday which is CNY eve. This way we have one more day on Sunday to relax and chill.. or do last minute floor scrubbing. I did a bit of both.

It was a spread! Serves 6:

the ngoh hiang and prawns fried in batter are a once-a-year affair!

and what goes into the steamboat...

I don't like steamboat cos I hate having to cook and it's so bland and all but well it's alright if someone cooks it for me hah!

I wonder if you know, how they live in Tokyo

2009-01-25T01:14:00.002+08:00

Highlights of our Japan trip, because it will be a while before I can blog abt it.

~ Kyoto ~

~ Nara ~

~ Osaka ~

~ Himeji ~

~ Hiroshima ~

~ Miyajima ~

~ Tokyo ~

~ Hakone ~

~ Mount Fuji ~

Europe/UK Day 7 - Venezia

2009-01-18T17:22:00.000+08:00

Friday, August 15, 2008

So we reached Venice.. It's surrounded by water so the only way to get there is by boat! First had to figure out how to get to our hotel.. Took a public bus to the docks to take the public boats there.

It was dark and we stupidly took a boat in the wrong direction! After a while luckily one of the staff asked us and sent us off the boat. Finally reached Rialto station after some time. The lovely owners of the apartment we rented were waiting at Rialto station for us and brought us to the hotel. Thank goodness they came to fetch us because it is Impossible to navigate through the dark little alleys with non-visible signs, without a map. Our hotel can't be found on GPS maps either since it isn't exactly a huge hotel.

Residenza Castello 5280. I strongly recommend this apartments, they aren't too expensive, and are huge and comfortable. Plus the owners are really friendly and helpful!

Nice right! Complete with washing machine. Wish we could stay here for a few more days.

our room.. The apartment is decorated with murano glass chandeliers. (which is made on Murano, one of the venetian islands). Ok, shitloads of photos on beautiful Venice the next day.. so will take some time before the next post. =)

若是我有一百万

2009-01-14T23:20:00.000+08:00

若是我有一百万一百万我有一百万一世人就轻松

无讲无人知讲到真歹势吃甲彼呢大汉搁不曾坐飞机
拼搏彼多年无车无厝搁无爱人看人娶某搁做生意有钱搁有势

若是我有一百万我要坐飞机我要游世界HAWAII晒太阳日本吃寿司
若是我有一百万我要买车买厝山珍甲海味啥人卡福气来乎我做某

若是我有一百万一百万若是你有欠用钱开嘴免客气

若是我有一百万我要坐飞机我要游世界意大利饮咖啡路边吃Spaghetti
若是我有一百万我要买车买厝买店来收租闲闲免做工带狗去散步

若是我有一百万一百万若是你有欠用钱开嘴免客气
若是我有一百万一百万十千八千拿去用免还嘛无问题
若是我有一百万一百万
念白：朋友啊，你想一百万真多啊！

Genting Trip!

2009-01-04T14:10:00.000+08:00

Ha! currently at starbucks of first world plaza,waiting 4 my bus home at 3pm. My whole family has gone off to play slots, or shop w genting points, leaving me to take care of all the bags. This is my first time blogging from my e71!

Is a little tricky.

Anyway, it has been a fun filled n relaxing 4 days of shopping n casino... I love jackpot party! W little flying pigs n dancing dolphins hee damn cute.

Europe/UK Day 7 - Paris

2008-12-27T21:16:00.000+08:00

Friday, August 15, 2008

Our various carnets of metro/tram/rail tickets

Last day in Paris. Still hadn't taken any good photos of the Eiffel Tower. We actually wanted to go up the tower.. but didn't have a chance to. Just some shots at its legs..

We absolutely HATE it when people can't take proper photos. Can't they understand that when we say 'please take the whole tower in', it means the whole tower and not our whole bodies. And we still have to smile and say 'Wow it's great' when they ask us if it's ok.

we give up on all you lousy photographers. Will photoshop myself into his arm. Or get a wide angle lens =p

need to have a super small car, and have super zai parallel parking skills

Had our lunch at this touristy little cafe

We weren't paying attention when we asked for water and forgot to specify tap water. Ended up with this 6 Euro Evian. ouch. still reeling over it.

my fav daily cappuccino

Oeuf Cocette, an eggy mixture with foie gras in it

kinda gross but quite yummy in the soft-boiled egg sort of way

Souris D'Agneau, my lamb shank

Confit Pleurotte.. Another fantastic french meal. We still suspect that the service staff were quite evil because they stated that, the service charge was not included in the meal, making us very self conscious to tip them. So we did.. 5 euros.. =(

Rushed to the airport after the meal.

c'est tout ce que j'aime

joy and grace

2008-12-25T23:37:00.000+08:00

angels, aren't they?