Off on a new adventure!

Wow, it's been 2 years since I last posted anything on this blog.  Guess what they say is true, that things you post on the net never dies.  I decided to come back to the blog as I realize that Facebook isn't really a great place to capture an experience.  It's great for sharing photos and all, but somehow, for a diary kind of experience, it doesn't really seem to workout.  Apparently, there are still page views for this blog!  I wonder if it's a real person or just some bot.  Hey, if you are a real person.. how about leaving a comment below so I know this blog is actually being read!

I'm off to San Francisco & San Jose, the former being one of my favouritest cities to visit, the latter being a convenient base for my this new adventure this year.  It's been a while since I've visited San Francisco so I am looking forward to spending a few days there.  However this trip is really going to be quite an adventure as I will be attempting to travel around the area on a bicycle.  If my plans work out, I would have covered close to 300km by the time I return to Singapore!

I must admit that it's actually kinda scary.  Quite alot of things which I am not sure what to expect. 

- How is it like cycling in San Francisco?
I've never cycled in San Francisco and actually, I never really seriously cycled overseas before! 
This time, I've actually gone online to rent a road bike and brought along my road bike shoes and my cycling gear.  I don't know what the condition of the bicycle will be (although tripadvisor reviews of the company seem pretty good), whether the bike will fit me well and I am also quite worried about the cycling conditions on the road in America.  Not that it's any more dangerous than in Singapore, but I'm going on a solo cycling trip without much prior experience and much planning. lolz.

- How to get to where I want to go?
Here's the joke.  I've googled the map, I've read some stuff, and I've ordered a bike map which I will hopefully received when I reach San Jose, but truth be told, I have no idea how to get to the various places!  In Singapore, I know where Jurong is and even if I am lost, a taxi is always available.  In the US, I don't even know which roads go where! 

- Will I survive a Century ride?
I actually signed up for a 100mile (or more!) cycling event on 16 June.  I don't know if I am really prepared to cycle such a distance and I don't know how the whole event is going to be, where to register, how to get my bike to the starting point, how to even go on the route! lolz.

I talk about taking risks and trying new things all the time.  This is really so much easier said than done.  I seriously am not sure if I might even survive this trip.  Thoughts of possible accidents and maybe even unknown disappearances are popping into my mind even as I sit here at the airport waiting for my flight.  I've decided to really through caution to the wind and just give it all a try.  Hey, we only live once. :)  I'm gonna have to just try my best to be safe and trust that everything else is in a higher Person's hands.

I'll see if I'll blog about the experience here or maybe revert to Facebook.  Next entry, either Narita airport or San Jose.    

Cycling in the Countryside to the Beach

My Taiwan host stays on a farm that's not very far from the beach. So this morning, while he was away on an appointment, he got his younger brother to bring us cycling. Before that, he decided to let us try riding his scooter. According to him, every taiwanese knows how to ride a scooter from a very young age so it shouldn't be difficult for us to learn... he couldn't be more wrong. lol.

So, after a few near death moments... (joking...) we decided to go cycling instead. It was really enjoyable cycling through the farmlands towards the beach. The terrain was flat and there were very few cars. I was riding an old mountain bike. How I wish I had my Gary Fisher with me.

Saw some duck farms. The duck pools were always paired with a pool breeding shellfish (like mollusks). Reason being, the dirty shitty water produced by the ducks', uh, shit... made excellent food for the mollusks which ultimately made excellent dishes for us humans. Yucks.

It's the season for watermelons and there were a few fields still waiting to be harvested. Learnt about distinguishing between red-meat watermelons and yellow-meat ones from my host's brother (the former having a lighter skin, like the one in the pic, and the latter being usually darker skinned with the typical watermelon stripes.

The experience of cycling along the breakwater and paths at the beach was even more memorable! Here's the concrete path constructed by the fishery owners so they can drive out to inspect the pools and of course, harvest them when ready. This breakwater extended easily more than 100m from the shore!

I don't think I'll ever have the experience of cycling 'on water' again. It was quite exciting. Some spots were covered with sand, making it really hard to cross and some spots which were still concrete had a layer of moss on it, making it very slippery. All said, it was still a very memorable experience.

Here's a small fisherman's hut Standing near the end of the concrete track.

I couldn't resist a pic at the top of the ladder.

My colleague and our host's brother, digging for tiny crabs in the sand.

We were seriously thinking about cycling all the way to the wind powered generators you should be able to see in the middle of the pic. Unfortunately, we only realised later that there was no path leading there. From our conrete path, it was just sand rocks. So we had to give up on our idea.

On the way back, my biked slipped at one of sections of the concrete path which was under some water. While I only had some minor bruises and scratched, my dear camera died. What you see above is the smashed-up UV filter. Unfortunately, my main camera is also dead for now.. can't see to get it to power up. Looks like it might be time to get a new DSLR.... Heh.

Magical Bali - View from Kintamani

I took a day trip and went all the way to the popular tourist spot Kintamani to catch the view of the volcano within Mt Batur. The trip took almost 3 hours but I must admit the view was breathtaking. The pic shows a volcano within a volcano. heh. The next time I visit Bali, I intend to do the trek to the top of the volcano which apparently takes only about an hour or two. Already planning my next trip. :)

Magical Bali

I spent the last week in Bali, kinda like my present to myself for completing the 10km run. It's my first time there and I wasn't really expecting much. But after 5 days, I must say that I quite like Bali and it might just become a reasonably cheap short holiday destination for me in the near future.

This trip had many 'firsts'. The 1st First was that this was the first flight to Bali for KLM after more than 10 years! So there was a mini-reception of sorts when we arrived at Bali airport. So here's a pic of a 'chee-ko' me with the 3 beautifully dressed ladies who welcomed the passengers from the flight.

This time, I decided to stay at Tanjung Benoa beach because I'd read that it was one of the better beaches and not as overcrowded as Kuta beach. The good thing is that the beach was certainly better than Kuta's and I could just relax away from the crowds. When I visited Kuta, the beach was filled with people and definitely not a place to just chill. However, the bad thing about staying in Tanjung Benoa was that it was kinda far away from the city centre where the shopping and 'excitement' is. It took about 30min by the hotel shuttle or about S$12 for a one-way taxi ride. I guess the next time, I might decide to stay in Kuta for the food and shopping and then move to a beach resort for a day or two to chill. Here's a pic of the beach just next to Aston Bali, the hotel where I stayed. Not bad, but the water was certainly not crystal clear and the sand was still kinda rough.

I took a day-trip to Lembongan Island, about 1hr away by fast-ferry or 2hr away by Sailboat. I of course chose the sail boat for the experience. Lembongan's beach and water was really wonderful. Clear blue waters and soft white sand beaches. This is definitely one place I'll consider staying at purely for the beach and activities.

At Lembongan Island, I attempted my 2nd and 3rd 'Firsts' of the trip. The 2nd First was I decided to try parasailing! It cost about US$20 and well.. this was one activity I never considered trying due to previous weight considerations. This time round, I threw caution to the wind and decided to give it a try. It was really exhilarating to be released into the sky with a parachute, being flown like a kite from the speedboat.

The 3rd First came about because I was still recovering from the high of the parasailing experience. When I returned to the pontoon where most of the activities were based, I saw a diving lesson being conducted. So I thought.. what-the-heck... I've already tried parasailing, so why not diving! So I paid my US$50, went through a quick 45min orientation and then went for my first ever diving experience. It was really quite unbelievable. The corals and fish were really beautiful and I've never had such an experience before. The diving instructor had bread hidden up his sleeve and he periodically sprinkled the bread in the water, attracting the fish to swim around us. Simply magical. I must say that I am tempted to pick up diving as a hobby but I know it's a pretty expensive past-time. Will think about that a little more. Here's a pic of me and my cheery instructor.

The last First isn't really a first coz I vaguely trying something like this maybe 15 to 20 years ago. But I certainly don't remember it being so fun. Heh. I decided to try Whitewater rafting. There were a few rapids to choose from so being a bit of a wimp, I decided to try the class 2/3 one first instead of the class 4 rapids. I shared the raft with a young couple from Shanghai and we had a great time rafting through about 10km of the river. My only regret after the experience was that I didn't choose the class 4 rapid for more excitement! Well, the good thing is that this leaves me with something new to try the next time round. :) Along the river there were many small water falls and here's one where the rafting guide let us off to take some pics.

The 5 days in Bali went by pretty fast. But it was most definitely a very memorable experience for me. The magic of Bali lies in the fact that the people are really very friendly and that there are really so many different things to do whether you want to just laze or go on some active experiences. The cost, while not cheap, is not prohibitively expensive and well, in comparison to places like Bintan, I think it's more value for money.

I think I left enough activities undone to warrant at least another one or two trips to Bali. :) Next time round, I'll want to try the tougher rafting, do the trek up to the volcano peak (Mt Batur) as well as maybe learn kiteboarding... :P

Well, it's back to work tomorrow. Surprisingly not dreading it. Maybe that's the mark of a good holiday.

Some Pics of Ho Chi Minh City

Some pics of Ho Chi Minh City from my trip. We spent two nights in Mui Ne, my favourite beach resort and one night in Ho Chi Minh City. I woke up kinda early and took a quick trip to Ben Thanh market, just as the tourist shops were setting up stall. So this time round, had a chance to look at the wet market in all it's gory glory.

Let's start with pig's innards... :)

Here are the tourist shops just setting up shop. It's amazing that they pack up everything in the evening and then set it up again in the mornings. As far as I can tell, some of these shops even move out their wares into the night market in the evenings. The other interesting thing is that the shop assistants barely took a look at me as I walked past, very unlike 'working hours' when you get drowned in 'sir... cheap cheap! buy t-shirt? good price!'. It's like there is an official office hour for selling to tourists.

It was a nice short getaway. Only small issue was the super long ride back to Ho Chi Minh from Mui Ne coz of the weekend traffic. But I am sure I will return to the wonderful beach again.

Now to plan my next getaway....

Yogyakarta Day 3 - Mt Merapi & Prambanan Temple

I covered quite a few memorable sights today. First off, it's off to Kaliadem which is apparently the closest and best place to view Mt Merapi.

Unfortunately, it was a pretty cloudy day so Mt Merapi chose to hide from me. You just have to imagine the volcano hidden in the clouds in the pic below.


The first scene was of buildings drowned in the dried lava. The level of the lava was more than half the height of the houses. Apparently, in the last eruption, there were no fatalities except for two people who were supposedly volunteers, not villagers.


This was a breathtaking view for me. I was standing on the river bed of a former river which was dried up by the lava flow.

Further down the river was this drop. I can just imagine the beautiful waterfall which was here before 2006. It's pretty amazing to be able to actually see the river bed without any water.

The area around the volcano is extremely fertile and there are rice fields everywhere. I caught this view of farmers threshing the rice.

I continued on to Plaosan temple - A buddhist temple with hindu influences. Although much smaller than Borobudur, I thought it was no less grand.

It was also eyeopening to see a restoration project taking place. There are hundreds of these little temples around the main temple and almost all of them were destroyed by earthquakes. On the right is a temple which they are rebuilding by trying to match the pieces together like a jigsaw puzzle.

Next up was Prambanan Temple. While Borobudur is a buddhist temple, Prambanan is a Hindu temple. It was a real pity that all the main temples were damaged by the last major earthquake in 2006. All except one was closed to visitors. This is the view from the back. If I got it right, the one in the middle is the temple dedicated to Shiva. The one on the left is dedicated to Vishnu while the right is dedicated to Brahma. In front of each temple (in the case of the pic below, it should be directly behind each temple) there was another animal temple which housed the 'transport' for the gods. Vishnu's was the garuda, Shiva's was the bull and Brahma's was the swan.

Here are part of the carvings on Vishnu's temple. They show the dance steps of the Ramayana.

The final temple I visited was a last minute inclusion. I heard about the Sambisari temple from the local guide and decided to visit it. As you can see from the pic, it's actually located within a pit. The temple was originally hidden as it was covered by layers of volcanic ash. It was discovered by a farmer in 1966 and then excavated and restored.

All in, it's been a pretty busy day but very enjoyable. Tomorrow, I'll probably just spend a lazy day in the hotel while I wait for my flight back to Singapore.

Yogyakarta Day 2 - Borobudur

Got up early at 6am today and left the hotel at 7am to make our way to Borobudur which is about an hour away. The plan was to try and beat the crowds. Well, we failed.

Here's my first sight of the temple as we walked towards it. The trees are in a park which was specially added to make space for the visitors to the temple. Apparently, in the past, cars could drive right up to the foot of of the temple.

The carvings on the temple walls are really amazing. There are hundreds of illustration and here is small sample of the carvings which tell the story of Buddha's life from birth to enlightenment.

Here's a pic of Borobudur's main stupa - the big one in the middle. The smaller ones surrounding it have a statue of buddha in them. Apparently, if you reached in and touched the statues (on the fingers for men and on the feet for women), your wish will come true (provided it's not about material gain!).

Here's a pic of the buddha statue inside the smaller stupas.

Our final view of Borobudur from afar as we made our way back to the coach.

Borobudur is constructed in a straight line with two other temples. Here's the one in the middle, the Pawon temple. Similar architecture but much much smaller.

And the other temple in a straight line is the Mendut Temple. The stupa on the top of this temple was destroyed.

It was an interesting visit but I must admit it was spoilt by the crowds. There were hundreds if not thousands of visitors and many were having picnics around the main stupa of Borobudur. On one hand, I think it's nice that Borobudur is so much a part of the people (from the way they were picnic-ing and having fun around the structure). But on the other hand, I wished it was accorded more respect as an important monument from the past.

Tomorrow, I'll be visiting Mt Merapi, Indonesia's most active volcano as well as a few other famous temples. Hope the weather will be nice.

Yogyakarta Day 1

I’m in Yogyakarata (or as the locals prefer, Jogja) and it’s been a nice start to my visit so far. I checked in for my 2-hour flight on Garuda and at the boarding gate, I was pleasantly told that I was bumped up to Executive Class (ie. Equivalent to Business/First Class) for the flight! This is the 2nd time I have had such a privilege, the first was almost 8yrs ago when I won a Business class ticket to Bangkok.

Executive Class is certainly a nice luxury. You get nice big seats and you get everything served to you in glassware. No plastic cups! Service on Garuda Airlines is nothing to shout about but it was decent. Since I was given a window seat, I took the chance to try taking cloud pics with my Canon DSLR. Here are two pics which I thought were the nicer ones. Don’t ask me what that mountain is. I have no idea. Any Indonesians know which mountain it is?

Jogja airport is a typical simple airport. Nothing flashy. You walk off the plane towards the immigration and then just a few steps after immigration, you get your bags off the ONLY luggage conveyor belt and less then 10 steps away is the customs/exit.

My first impressions: It’s already dark so I couldn’t see much. Jogja reminds me pretty much of countries like Bangkok and Vietnam. However, one difference is that there weren’t any jams even though it’s a Saturday night and the roads were quite packed. I can’t see much so I would probably be able to say more tomorrow when I go for the city tour. One interesting trivia I found out was that Jogja has about 600,000 people, of which 400,000 are students who come here to study! So the entire Jogja is pretty much like a small university town. Most of the businesses here cater to students (like bookshops/sports shops/mobile phone shops, etc).

I’m staying at the 5-star Hyatt Regency Hotel. The hotel is laid out like a resort and the pool is pretty awesome . Will try to post some pics once I get some daylight shots. Here's a pic of a cultural show which was going on in the hotel.

Tomorrow is a relatively early start. Gotta wake up at 6am so that we can reach Borobudur by 9am. I’m looking forward to the visit.

Off to Yogyakarta

At the airport now, waiting for my flight to Yogyakarta (that's in Indonesia for those of you who are not too geographically inclined). Quite exciting actually. I've never been to Yogyakarata and I'm quite excited to see the famous Borobudur. This is partially fueled by the fact that I've got my new Canon 1000D DSLR and I can't wait to try my hand and taking more pics with it.

Come to think of it, this is the first trip that I've taken in the past two years on my own. Sure, I've been travelling due to the tours that I've been leading, but I've not been on my own trip. It's only a short 4 days trip but I think I've been strangely bit by the Asian travel bug. I've never been one to be excited about travelling in South East Asian and I usually end up in either Japan or USA. Now, I'm looking forward to this Indonesia Trip and am acutally planning to go back to Vietnam and maybe visit the coastal areas of Thailand and I'm also hoping to visit Angkor Wat soon.

The busy Nov/Dec travel season is over and I must say it's been an interesting 6 weeks. Plenty of ups and a couple of downs but on the whole, I think it's been not bad.

Look out for my pics of Borobudur in a few days.

In Vietnam - Actually.. on the way out..

I've been in Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam the last week on my last group tour for the year. I've always had a soft spot for Vietnam and I've always found it more inviting than Bangkok. Although many people come to Vietnam for the shopping, I find that it's the people and the sights which are most stirring.

This time we did the usual visits to Cu Chi Tunnels and Mekong Delta. But we also had some technical visits which were a first time for me too. One was a visit to the Vietnam-Singapore Industrial Park. It's quite impressive to see how a little country like Singapore can leave such big footprints everywhere. We can complain all we want about our PAP government, but we cannot deny the good they have accomplished in our short history.

The next thing which stood out for me is the visit to the orphanage for children affected by Agent Orange during the American-Vietnam war. It's not my first time at such an orphanage but it doesn't make it any easier to see these children. It's heartwrenching to see that after all these years, the effect of the chemical is still affecting innocent babies and it's even more sad to see these children living in such simple conditions. I can't help but compare this with the victims of the Minamata disease in Japan. Of course, they also faced many difficulties and discrimination, but I am glad their living conditions are so much better and some even consider the victims as 'treasures from heaven' sent to teach the world a lesson. In stark contrast, I see these children affected by Agent Orange tucked away in a corner with very little healthcare and not even a clinic in the premises. As much as it pains me, what is more disturbing I guess, is that I (and probably most of the people on the tour) will soon forget about this and carry on with our daily lives.

After the group departed, I stayed on to do some exploration of the areas around Ho Chi Minh City. I was really surprised to find this gem of a place -Mui Ne. It's a beautiful beach area and close by, there are white and red sand dunes that look just like a desert! I'm definitely gonna consider including this place in future group itineraries. It's only about 4 hours away from Ho Chi Minh City and I think it's well worth a visit.

Well, my flight to Singapore departs in about 90mins.. then I'll be home at last. Phew...talk about a busy travelling season!