- Just like we speak Chinglish at home, Filipinos speak Tagalish. In fact, it's very common for Filipinos to mix lots of English into their speech.
- There's English everywhere. Kind of caught me off guard.
- 'F's sound like 'P's when pronounced by many Filipinos. As in, "You're a very good priend."
- There's a whole lot of "Yes sir" and "Yes ma'am" calling, and it takes some getting used to. It's just the service-oriented nature of people, but growing up in North America where you watch a lot of movies about Black history in the US, it sounds like the oppressed Blacks in the Southern states of America from slavery times.
- Around tourism areas, shop workers are always trying to gain the extra peso, but also always willing to give a discount "just for you". I guess it's nothing new.
- In Boracay, joining the Allan B. Fun Tour may cost 700 - 750 pesos for some, but the Filipino price should be 600 pesos.
- In Boracay, it's far easier to ask a hotel to arrange transportation from the Caticlan airport. A little more expensive (325 pesos) but less hassle and saves time. You're on vacation - so act like it.
- Massages in Boracay would run 300 - 350 pesos for 1 hour. But you better have a watch nearby and confirm the end time with your masseuse first. I doubt most of them go past 40 minutes.
- There's something romantic about having a massage on a towel right on the beach... but the romance escapes quickly when sand inevitably enters between hand and back for an exfoliating experience. If you have a choice, do it on a beach chair.
- Boracay has a Bat Cave. And little kids who try to rip you off, overcharging you for a tour and a flashlight. Do it if you really can't find anything better to do with your time.
- According to a white guy who's lived in the Philippines for 36 years, "macano" (means "how much") is the magic word. So is asking "last price?"
- You can get some really cheap and good Filipino booze. Emperador is a local brandy which is dirt cheap, and apparently very good. I bought some, but haven't tried it yet. Lambanog is a local coconut vodka, which is supposed to be pretty gnarly... like fire water. I bought some of that, but haven't cracked the seal.
- Balut, the hard-boiled duck/goose fetus, isn't that bad. Mine didn't have feathers, so I'm sure that made it more palatable. The taste is between a hard-boiled egg and chicken meat - which isn't all that surprising. Worth a go, and not as disgusting as it looks.
- Henna tattoos are really popular on Boracay. But keep you eye on the artist's work before you let him/her work on you. If your design has a lot of detail, remind the artist to make the lines nice and fine. And avoid the guy in front of La Carmela. He's an impatient one.
- While accidentally staying in the red-light district at Makati, it was common to see a fat white guy with two little Filipina by his side. Kind of gross.
- Boracay vendors and masseuses learn how to say "yi1 bai3" and "an4 mo2" to cater to Chinese tourists.
- Boracay is a beach heaven. You really don't need anything but swimwear and sandals. Fine sand and gorgeous clear water.
- We had some bogus flight delays to and from Caticlan <-> Manila. Some BS reasons stating "weather conditions". The weather was awesome. Get the plane going.
- La Carmela had an overwhelming number of staff. Had to hear "good afternoon, sir", "hello, ma'am" until my ears fell off.
- I got a waterproof camera case, and it was great. Still leaked, but reasonably good.
- If you're a decent swimmer, go swim out to a sailboat just for fun. I wanted to do this, and got half way before giving up. I feared getting water into my camera case.
- Nigi Nigi's self-proclaimed "best burgers on the beach" aren't really.
July 31, 2009
Philippines Impressions
Alright, this post was supposed to come out WAY earlier. But after I got back from the Philippines, I got very busy with foosball, work, and other things. Here it is. Just some quick thoughts from my trip earlier in the year - many points specific to Boracay.
July 25, 2009
VIFA Asia Open (July 17 - 20, 2009)
Here's an article I wrote in the August issue of FoosLife Magazine.
===============================
Let's talk about the VIFA Asia Open... in English. This is the largest foosball tournament in Asia, and in the past had brought in a lot of top competitors from across the continent. This year, players represented Malaysia, Taiwan, UAE, India, and Singapore. From Taiwan were Hsinchu foosball pals Jack Huang, Weichung Tseng, and myself.
The 4-day schedule was like so:
Day 1 (7/17): Newbie Doubles, Amateur Singles, 3000 Ltd. Doubles
Day 2 (7/18): Newbie Singles, Ladies Open Singles, Open Singles
Day 3 (7/19): Amateur Doubles, Mixed Doubles, Open Doubles
Day 4 (7/20): Mixed International Doubles, and final matches for Amateur and Open events
You really have to like foosball to embark on a journey where you play 8 tournament events over four days – almost 12 hours of foosball each day. Even so, we still made an effort to squeeze in some sightseeing in the mornings of our tournament, and the day after the tournament ended.
I had few expectations going to Malaysia. “Just to have fun” was at the top of my list. “See Kuala Lumpur” was another, because I’d wanted to go to KL for a few years now. From a foosball perspective, I hoped to do decently well in the Newbie events, have a little success in the Amateur events, and get crushed in Open events. In fact, I was hesitant in registering for the Open events at all because I saw little point in paying money to get eliminated quickly. But since my Taiwanese cohorts were playing, I had either had the choice of playing as well, or sitting around watching them play. Though I normally play with Weichung in doubles tournaments in Taiwan, I told Jack and Weichung to team up for Open Doubles because I wasn’t sure about my participation.
The average level of play common amongst Malaysian players is much higher than that found in Taiwan for one main reason in my mind: passing. New Malaysian players are introduced to the sport by training their 5-to-3 passing first, before worrying about offense. Consequently, just about any Newbie player in Malaysia has faster and crisper passing than any of us in Taiwan. This goes for the UAE and Singaporean competitors too - although most of them are pretty good players already. It can't be understated how important the passing game is in foosball. These players aren’t too shabby offensively as well, but it's the passing that sets them apart from us. I think what the Malaysian newbies and amateurs lack is in the defensive game psychology.
The foosball environment and atmosphere at Breakers differs from other countries in that indoor smoking is still allowed. Breakers renovated and re-organized their layout this past year with improved ventilation over last year (so I've been told), but when you put 40 chain smokers together in any room at one time, you’re guaranteed to inhale a lot of second-hand smoke over the course of 4 days. Some players (guys and girls) will even light up during the 30-second timeouts！ Maybe Malaysia will catch up with the rest of the world and ban smoking from buildings.
The tournament schedule can also be tightened up a bit, which should benefit everyone. A tournament event can start anywhere from 1 hour to 3 hours late. No earlier, and never on time. On average, we were playing from around 2pm until 2am each day – with pretty messed up meal times. Part of the problem here is that players just show up late. "Malaysian Time", you could say. But they won't start a tournament event until there are enough players. The remedy is to start playing on time (or only 30-mins late) just once. This would serve as a warning or threat to scare players into coming earlier in the future. Another reason for the delay is because the tournament is played in rounds, according to tournament director Raymond Kan. Each event is double-elimination with a winners' bracket and losers' bracket. A 16-team double-elimination event will first complete a 8-match round, then a 4-match loser bracket round, a 4-match winner bracket round, and so on. Each round must be completed before the next round starts. So, each round will last as long as the slowest match in the round - which creates super long delays. Tournament organizer Raymond says this is because some players have table preference, i.e. they must play on a particular table. Pickiness aside, this preference should only appear amongst the top players, not so much for newbies and amateurs. I would recommend to Raymond that games get started as soon as the match-up's teams are set and a table is available, because you never know when a game will run long. This would shorten the running time dramatically.
Foosball is a social sport and, as I've said before, breeds some unique kind of comradery amongst players. Is everyone amiable? No. But there are plenty of players that are, and you can meet a lot of fun people everywhere. I also find that, for the most part, advanced players are happily willing to share tips and techniques to less experienced foosers. This is a reason why joining big tournaments with loads of talent is important for one's personal foosball development.
I guesstimate that a good 70% - 80% of the players at the tournament, regardless of country, was between 18 – 24. In Taiwan, I would say that 90% of players are over the age of 25. With age comes added responsibilities – jobs, families, etc – and reduced dedication to foosball. This confirms what I’ve said for a while now: in order to grow foosball, we need to start from college kids. They’re the ones with the time -- heck, most students don’t even want to spend time on school. More players with time to practice will increase the overall level of play in Taiwan.
As for my personal performances, there were ups and downs. Sometimes you just never know how things will pan out; and more often than not, it’s the luck of the draw. So, here's how my events went in chronological order.
Newbie Doubles // The highest would be set against the easiest competition. Unfortunately, Weichung and I didn't make it far, losing our first match, winning the second, and losing the third. Not quite what we hoped for playing in a Newbies' event. Being our first event of the tournament, getting tossed in without time to practice, and not really knowing what to expect, I think nerves got the best of us. So it was a devastating elimination, but also let us loosen up and play with a "don't care attitude" through the rest of the tournament. I played mainly in the forward position, while Weichung played goalie, as we had always done in the past in Taiwan. In between, we switched a few times as our game fell apart, and as we finished _____ out of ____ teams.
Amateur Singles // After losing in Newbie Doubles, the nerves were gone. I normally tend to find my game in Singles play. Being able to touch the ball on every possession lets me relax and has a calming effect mentally. I don't quite remember how this event went, but I ended up tied for 7th out of _______.
3000 Ltd. Doubles // This event places a limit on the combined ranking of the two players on each team. New players have 900 points, amateurs are below 1200, semi-pros maybe 1500, pros 1800, and masters 2200. Something like that. I might have fudged some numbers. With no previous VIFA points, Weichung and I were the lowest possible 900 points. This meant we could have tried to find pro players to partner up with. But we didn't try hard, and ended up playing together in our best doubles effort together at the tournament. We were quickly discarded in our first game against Malaysia's 7th ranked player Jhin and his partner. But with my defense and offense working from the back, and Weichung's passing and Europin clicking up front, we managed to string together 3 wins before losing our last game. Good enough for 13th place out of ______.
Newbie Singles // Newbie Singles has a lot of the same players as the Amateur events. I went on a string of three or four wins before being put into the losers' bracket by the eventual champion (Hamadi from UAE). That already put me in a position for 3rd place or better. But it wouldn't get better with a subsequent loss to Andrew, a Malaysian I had put in the losers' bracket the first time we met. To find some condolence, that game went to the very last deuce point. Nerve-wracking, but spawned a mutual respect for each other. 3rd out of ______.
Open Singles // Did I really think I had a chance? Nope, lost 2 straight games to elimination. The second match actually went down to the wire in the 5th game (best 3 of 5) where I eventually lost 8-7 against a UAE player. When it gets down to the last point, I guess it could have been anyone’s game. Unfortunately, two losses put me in _____ out of _____ competitors.
Amateur Doubles // Again, Weichung and I only made it again to the third match, and maybe only because our second match was a "can't lose" match against an Indian team. I played goalie exclusively because of some success playing this way in the 3000 Ltd event. It didn't help this time.
Open Doubles // I was iffy about joining this event. Like I said, why pay money just to have my behind kicked? Didn't you see my Open Singles results? I did. But as a last day decision, I still asked Singaporean semi-pro Martin Thong if he was interested in playing together since he didn't yet have a partner. Whenever you play with a more experienced player, you trust them with making the decisions. His use of timeouts, his strategy of playing slower when you have a lead or faster and more recklessly when against stronger opponents worked flawlessly. So, with him leading the offence and me guarding the goal, we went on a unpredictable run winning our first four games. Some of these games were against pairs of Pros, but we held our own. It’s also unfortunate we had to send Taiwanese team Jack and Weichung into the loser’s bracket in our 3rd match. But Martin’s passing game constantly had me shaking my head in amazement, while his snake shot was deadly accurate. As we played, he also gave me defensive tips which went a long way in shutting down strong offensive efforts by our opponents. But our win streak would end on the morning of the next day as we played against a very strong UAE team (who eventually took the 1st place). In the losers' bracket, we took Malaysia's top doubles team to five games before losing 5-3 in the final set. It was an admirable effort by this unsuspecting matching of a semi-pro and a newbie/amateur. So I was pleased with our final 3rd place finish among __________ teams.
Mixed International Doubles // The Mixed International event is a random pairing of an international player with a Malaysian player. I didn't really have any expectations here, because it was the last event to play after a long four days. I matched up with Andrew, the young Malaysian I lost to in Newbie Singles and we just had fun with it. We lost against a strong first team, then took two matches before falling to Jack Huang (Taiwan) and his partner Melanie (right after they knocked Weichung and his partner Natalie out of the tournament). We had a chance to win after taking the first game in a best-of-3, but we weren't playing as strong after dinner as we had before the dinner break, and this game offered little room for errors. But encouraged by the fact that we had no expectations, we had nothing to be disappointed about. _____ out of _____ teams.
And that's how the tournament unfolded. I'd be slightly surprised if any readers got this far, but I hope a few of you did. Overall, my offense was mediocre. My pull shot was big when it needed to be, and my push-kick was working sometimes and failing at other times. At the end of the day, it was strong defense that gave me a chance.
A fantastic learning experience, and just an all-round fun time. I would recommend this trip for anyone as long as you can put in the long hours.
Let's talk about the VIFA Asia Open... in English. This is the largest foosball tournament in Asia, and in the past had brought in a lot of top competitors from across the continent. This year, players represented Malaysia, Taiwan, UAE, India, and Singapore. From Taiwan were Hsinchu foosball pals Jack Huang, Weichung Tseng, and myself.
The 4-day schedule was like so:
Day 1 (7/17): Newbie Doubles, Amateur Singles, 3000 Ltd. Doubles
Day 2 (7/18): Newbie Singles, Ladies Open Singles, Open Singles
Day 3 (7/19): Amateur Doubles, Mixed Doubles, Open Doubles
Day 4 (7/20): Mixed International Doubles, and final matches for Amateur and Open events
You really have to like foosball to embark on a journey where you play 8 tournament events over four days – almost 12 hours of foosball each day. Even so, we still made an effort to squeeze in some sightseeing in the mornings of our tournament, and the day after the tournament ended.
I had few expectations going to Malaysia. “Just to have fun” was at the top of my list. “See Kuala Lumpur” was another, because I’d wanted to go to KL for a few years now. From a foosball perspective, I hoped to do decently well in the Newbie events, have a little success in the Amateur events, and get crushed in Open events. In fact, I was hesitant in registering for the Open events at all because I saw little point in paying money to get eliminated quickly. But since my Taiwanese cohorts were playing, I had either had the choice of playing as well, or sitting around watching them play. Though I normally play with Weichung in doubles tournaments in Taiwan, I told Jack and Weichung to team up for Open Doubles because I wasn’t sure about my participation.
The average level of play common amongst Malaysian players is much higher than that found in Taiwan for one main reason in my mind: passing. New Malaysian players are introduced to the sport by training their 5-to-3 passing first, before worrying about offense. Consequently, just about any Newbie player in Malaysia has faster and crisper passing than any of us in Taiwan. This goes for the UAE and Singaporean competitors too - although most of them are pretty good players already. It can't be understated how important the passing game is in foosball. These players aren’t too shabby offensively as well, but it's the passing that sets them apart from us. I think what the Malaysian newbies and amateurs lack is in the defensive game psychology.
The foosball environment and atmosphere at Breakers differs from other countries in that indoor smoking is still allowed. Breakers renovated and re-organized their layout this past year with improved ventilation over last year (so I've been told), but when you put 40 chain smokers together in any room at one time, you’re guaranteed to inhale a lot of second-hand smoke over the course of 4 days. Some players (guys and girls) will even light up during the 30-second timeouts！ Maybe Malaysia will catch up with the rest of the world and ban smoking from buildings.
The tournament schedule can also be tightened up a bit, which should benefit everyone. A tournament event can start anywhere from 1 hour to 3 hours late. No earlier, and never on time. On average, we were playing from around 2pm until 2am each day – with pretty messed up meal times. Part of the problem here is that players just show up late. "Malaysian Time", you could say. But they won't start a tournament event until there are enough players. The remedy is to start playing on time (or only 30-mins late) just once. This would serve as a warning or threat to scare players into coming earlier in the future. Another reason for the delay is because the tournament is played in rounds, according to tournament director Raymond Kan. Each event is double-elimination with a winners' bracket and losers' bracket. A 16-team double-elimination event will first complete a 8-match round, then a 4-match loser bracket round, a 4-match winner bracket round, and so on. Each round must be completed before the next round starts. So, each round will last as long as the slowest match in the round - which creates super long delays. Tournament organizer Raymond says this is because some players have table preference, i.e. they must play on a particular table. Pickiness aside, this preference should only appear amongst the top players, not so much for newbies and amateurs. I would recommend to Raymond that games get started as soon as the match-up's teams are set and a table is available, because you never know when a game will run long. This would shorten the running time dramatically.
Foosball is a social sport and, as I've said before, breeds some unique kind of comradery amongst players. Is everyone amiable? No. But there are plenty of players that are, and you can meet a lot of fun people everywhere. I also find that, for the most part, advanced players are happily willing to share tips and techniques to less experienced foosers. This is a reason why joining big tournaments with loads of talent is important for one's personal foosball development.
I guesstimate that a good 70% - 80% of the players at the tournament, regardless of country, was between 18 – 24. In Taiwan, I would say that 90% of players are over the age of 25. With age comes added responsibilities – jobs, families, etc – and reduced dedication to foosball. This confirms what I’ve said for a while now: in order to grow foosball, we need to start from college kids. They’re the ones with the time -- heck, most students don’t even want to spend time on school. More players with time to practice will increase the overall level of play in Taiwan.
As for my personal performances, there were ups and downs. Sometimes you just never know how things will pan out; and more often than not, it’s the luck of the draw. So, here's how my events went in chronological order.
Newbie Doubles // The highest would be set against the easiest competition. Unfortunately, Weichung and I didn't make it far, losing our first match, winning the second, and losing the third. Not quite what we hoped for playing in a Newbies' event. Being our first event of the tournament, getting tossed in without time to practice, and not really knowing what to expect, I think nerves got the best of us. So it was a devastating elimination, but also let us loosen up and play with a "don't care attitude" through the rest of the tournament. I played mainly in the forward position, while Weichung played goalie, as we had always done in the past in Taiwan. In between, we switched a few times as our game fell apart, and as we finished _____ out of ____ teams.
Amateur Singles // After losing in Newbie Doubles, the nerves were gone. I normally tend to find my game in Singles play. Being able to touch the ball on every possession lets me relax and has a calming effect mentally. I don't quite remember how this event went, but I ended up tied for 7th out of _______.
3000 Ltd. Doubles // This event places a limit on the combined ranking of the two players on each team. New players have 900 points, amateurs are below 1200, semi-pros maybe 1500, pros 1800, and masters 2200. Something like that. I might have fudged some numbers. With no previous VIFA points, Weichung and I were the lowest possible 900 points. This meant we could have tried to find pro players to partner up with. But we didn't try hard, and ended up playing together in our best doubles effort together at the tournament. We were quickly discarded in our first game against Malaysia's 7th ranked player Jhin and his partner. But with my defense and offense working from the back, and Weichung's passing and Europin clicking up front, we managed to string together 3 wins before losing our last game. Good enough for 13th place out of ______.
Newbie Singles // Newbie Singles has a lot of the same players as the Amateur events. I went on a string of three or four wins before being put into the losers' bracket by the eventual champion (Hamadi from UAE). That already put me in a position for 3rd place or better. But it wouldn't get better with a subsequent loss to Andrew, a Malaysian I had put in the losers' bracket the first time we met. To find some condolence, that game went to the very last deuce point. Nerve-wracking, but spawned a mutual respect for each other. 3rd out of ______.
Open Singles // Did I really think I had a chance? Nope, lost 2 straight games to elimination. The second match actually went down to the wire in the 5th game (best 3 of 5) where I eventually lost 8-7 against a UAE player. When it gets down to the last point, I guess it could have been anyone’s game. Unfortunately, two losses put me in _____ out of _____ competitors.
Amateur Doubles // Again, Weichung and I only made it again to the third match, and maybe only because our second match was a "can't lose" match against an Indian team. I played goalie exclusively because of some success playing this way in the 3000 Ltd event. It didn't help this time.
Open Doubles // I was iffy about joining this event. Like I said, why pay money just to have my behind kicked? Didn't you see my Open Singles results? I did. But as a last day decision, I still asked Singaporean semi-pro Martin Thong if he was interested in playing together since he didn't yet have a partner. Whenever you play with a more experienced player, you trust them with making the decisions. His use of timeouts, his strategy of playing slower when you have a lead or faster and more recklessly when against stronger opponents worked flawlessly. So, with him leading the offence and me guarding the goal, we went on a unpredictable run winning our first four games. Some of these games were against pairs of Pros, but we held our own. It’s also unfortunate we had to send Taiwanese team Jack and Weichung into the loser’s bracket in our 3rd match. But Martin’s passing game constantly had me shaking my head in amazement, while his snake shot was deadly accurate. As we played, he also gave me defensive tips which went a long way in shutting down strong offensive efforts by our opponents. But our win streak would end on the morning of the next day as we played against a very strong UAE team (who eventually took the 1st place). In the losers' bracket, we took Malaysia's top doubles team to five games before losing 5-3 in the final set. It was an admirable effort by this unsuspecting matching of a semi-pro and a newbie/amateur. So I was pleased with our final 3rd place finish among __________ teams.
Mixed International Doubles // The Mixed International event is a random pairing of an international player with a Malaysian player. I didn't really have any expectations here, because it was the last event to play after a long four days. I matched up with Andrew, the young Malaysian I lost to in Newbie Singles and we just had fun with it. We lost against a strong first team, then took two matches before falling to Jack Huang (Taiwan) and his partner Melanie (right after they knocked Weichung and his partner Natalie out of the tournament). We had a chance to win after taking the first game in a best-of-3, but we weren't playing as strong after dinner as we had before the dinner break, and this game offered little room for errors. But encouraged by the fact that we had no expectations, we had nothing to be disappointed about. _____ out of _____ teams.
And that's how the tournament unfolded. I'd be slightly surprised if any readers got this far, but I hope a few of you did. Overall, my offense was mediocre. My pull shot was big when it needed to be, and my push-kick was working sometimes and failing at other times. At the end of the day, it was strong defense that gave me a chance.
A fantastic learning experience, and just an all-round fun time. I would recommend this trip for anyone as long as you can put in the long hours.
Malaysia Impressions
In this segment, I'll post about some things I noticed or found interesting during my stay in Malaysia.
- Love the Indian food, but probably had a little too much. Don't worry, I had regular bowel movement 97% of the time.
- Although Malay is the official language in Malaysia, English is abundant and spoken by everyone.
- Most taxi drivers are fairly friendly and talkative, and you can learn a lot about a place by talking to its people.
- Catching a cab requires a bit of knowledge and patience if you don't want to be taken for a ride, figuratively speaking. More than half of the cabs will not use the meter and will charge you twice the meter price to get to your destination. How and where you hail a taxi will also determine whether you can use the meter. If you're in a crowded area, like the Puduraya bus station, getting a metered taxi is near impossible. I probably turned away 8 cabs wanting 15 RM for a 7 RM ride, before settling on a 10 RM price. But if you're in a rush or don't mind overpaying, go ahead with a vocal price. Taxi prices in KL are amongst the cheapest in all of Asia, and they're in the mist of a price hike (effective August 1), which should see rates increased 1.5x. Sounds like a lot, but considering cab prices have been fixed for 10 years, I guess cab drivers should feel guilty into trying to earn a little more.
- Just like with Singapore, the mix of Chinese, Indian, and Malay is interesting to me. They get along far more harmoniously than any 3 races in Canada.
- Overall, things are cheap here. Food in particular. You can have a decent meal for less than 10 ringgits.
- "Lah" seems like an ending word for Chinese, but its common for any Malaysian to tack it on at the end of a sentence. So you may see some tourist t-shirts like the ones below. Not completely unlike the Canadian "Eh".
T-shirts Lah - A lot of the foosball players I met are between the age of 18 and 24. They're much more like Canadian young adults than Taiwanese young adults (who I find to be too protected by their parents). Of course, there are still plenty of FOB-ish Chinese around Malaysia.
- I swapped my Panasonic LX-3 lens cap to a modified Ricoh LC-1 according to the instructions here, and I'm stoked it worked beautifully. Just awesome. But perhaps not something most point and shoot photographers can appreciate.
- Somehow Malaysia - both in KL and the Cameron Highlands - feels familiar. Maybe it feels a little too close to Taiwan. Or maybe I've traveled to too many Asian countries that few things are eye-openers anymore. Been there, done that.
MALAYSIA! (Truly Asia)
Hey Folks,
Back from an 9-day, 8-night trip to Malaysia. I wrote most of this posting while waiting for my flight at the airport to describe how my trip unfolded. The main reason for going to Malaysia was to compete in the VIFA Asia Open foosball tournament, held at Breakers bar in Desa Sri Hartamas just outside of Kuala Lumpur. But of course, I wasn't going to buy a plane ticket and do no sightseeing along the way. The first part of the trip was with two foosers, while the last couple of days were with two of my ex-coworkers.
Anyway, on with my ramble.
DAY 1 (Thurs): After 9 hours of travel, we arrived late at our hotel around 10pm. With empty stomachs, we found a cheap Indian restaurant close by. This would be the first of my five visits to that restaurant. Roti Canai for 1 RM, chicken and lamb satays for 0.70 RM each. Darn cheap, and best of all, very tasty. Then we took a 10-minute taxi ride to Breakers just to see what was up. Slept around 3am.
Nasi Kandar Penang Indian Restaurant
DAY 2 (Fri): Headed out at 8:20am and got stuck in the stagnant morning traffic, arriving at the Petronas Twin Towers at 8:45am. Online sources had told me that they start handing out tickets for a free 10-minute visit on the 44th floor bridge (between the two towers) at 8:30am. By the time we got there, there was a huge line-up and we gave up waiting after 4 minutes. So we elected to take some photos of the Petronas outside and walked to the KL Tower, which provides an even higher view of the city, and a skyline which includes the Twin Towers themselves. The weather was hazy, but it was still worth the 38 RM entry.
Petronas Twin Towers by Day
KL Tower
We made a quick stop at our hotel, then went to the tournament site around 2pm for Newbie Doubles, followed by Amateur Singles and 3000 Ltd events. We left around 2am, and had a late meal, including Malaysia's famed Bat Kut Teh, along a night market-like street. Eyes shut at 4am.
Foosball at Breakers
Bat Kut Teh
DAY 3 (Sat): Canceled all morning tourism activities to get more shut eye, and registered for the day's tournament events at 1pm before getting a quick bite across the street. One important thing to note when playing foosball tournaments is to avoid overeating, which prevents getting into a sleepy lull during the digestive period. We played Newbie Singles and Open Singles, skipping the Ladies Open Singles wedged in between. We called it a "early" night, sleeping at 2am.
DAY 4 (Sun): KL visitation sites were the Central Market and the Islamic Arts Museum. It's amazing how fast you can get through a museum when you're in a rush. Got to Breakers just after 1pm, but the doors weren't even open yet. Someone must have slept in. Finally, when they did open, around 2:30pm or so, I had Amateur Doubles, then Open Doubles. Left Breakers at 3am and in bed just after 4am. Do you see a re-occurring pattern here?
DAY 5 (Mon): Last day of the tournament, so it started later in the day. We were up and out around noon and headed to the Sultan Abdul Samad Building, Independence Square (Dataran Merdeka), the Masjid Jamek Mosque (which we couldn't enter due to a dress code), the Sri Mahamariamman Temple, Petaling Street, the National Museum, and finally to Breakers again to finish Open Doubles and played Mixed International Doubles. We got our prizes at 1:30am, and smoked some shashi before going back to the hotel.
Sultan Abdul Samad Building
DAY 6 (Tues): A 2-hour bus ride brought us to the historical city of Melaka (Melacca). We followed a walking tour I found online to learn about Malaysia's past as a colony of Portugal, Japan, and Great Britain, and finally its independence. Truly a worthy day-trip to make if staying in KL. Arriving back in KL around 9pm, we still found time to stop again at the Petronas towers for some great night shots. That night, my ex-coworkers arrived in KL at our hotel, and I moved over to their room because we had to get up early the next morning. The foosball guys also had to catch a flight early the next day as well.
Melaka Panoramic
St. Paul's Church, Melaka
Malacca Sultanate Palace, Melaka
DAY 7 (Wed): The three of us slept through a 4-hour bus ride to the Cameron Highlands - the highest region in Peninsular Malaysia, and a good 10 degrees cooler than KL. After checking into the Strawberry Park Resort, we joined a small agricultural tour where we were introduced to the farming sector which covers the highlands. We were taken to farms for chrysanthemum, water cress, strawberries, multi-crops, lettuce, and cactus. We also did some strawberry picking from a hydroponic crop. As the day progressed, cold symptoms were becoming more and more apparent.
Farmland on the Cameron Highlands
More Farmland on the Cameron Highlands
DAY 8 (Thurs): We started the day with a nice breakfast buffet at the hotel, and soon headed on another tour. On the list were a Rose Centre, a butterfly farm, a BOH (best of highlands) tea plantation, a bee farm and a Buddhist temple (both of which there are plenty of in Taiwan). In the afternoon, more Indian food and a visit to a clinic for my cold and asthma, and a rest stop at the Starbucks before boarding our bus for a 5-hour commute back to KL.
DAY 9 (Fri): After a terrible night's sleep, I was up at 5:15am and on a monorail at 6:15am making my way back to the KLIA airport. 9:45am at the time of writing this, and on the plane ready for take off.
More on Malaysia impressions coming soon...
Back from an 9-day, 8-night trip to Malaysia. I wrote most of this posting while waiting for my flight at the airport to describe how my trip unfolded. The main reason for going to Malaysia was to compete in the VIFA Asia Open foosball tournament, held at Breakers bar in Desa Sri Hartamas just outside of Kuala Lumpur. But of course, I wasn't going to buy a plane ticket and do no sightseeing along the way. The first part of the trip was with two foosers, while the last couple of days were with two of my ex-coworkers.
Anyway, on with my ramble.
DAY 1 (Thurs): After 9 hours of travel, we arrived late at our hotel around 10pm. With empty stomachs, we found a cheap Indian restaurant close by. This would be the first of my five visits to that restaurant. Roti Canai for 1 RM, chicken and lamb satays for 0.70 RM each. Darn cheap, and best of all, very tasty. Then we took a 10-minute taxi ride to Breakers just to see what was up. Slept around 3am.
DAY 2 (Fri): Headed out at 8:20am and got stuck in the stagnant morning traffic, arriving at the Petronas Twin Towers at 8:45am. Online sources had told me that they start handing out tickets for a free 10-minute visit on the 44th floor bridge (between the two towers) at 8:30am. By the time we got there, there was a huge line-up and we gave up waiting after 4 minutes. So we elected to take some photos of the Petronas outside and walked to the KL Tower, which provides an even higher view of the city, and a skyline which includes the Twin Towers themselves. The weather was hazy, but it was still worth the 38 RM entry.
We made a quick stop at our hotel, then went to the tournament site around 2pm for Newbie Doubles, followed by Amateur Singles and 3000 Ltd events. We left around 2am, and had a late meal, including Malaysia's famed Bat Kut Teh, along a night market-like street. Eyes shut at 4am.
DAY 3 (Sat): Canceled all morning tourism activities to get more shut eye, and registered for the day's tournament events at 1pm before getting a quick bite across the street. One important thing to note when playing foosball tournaments is to avoid overeating, which prevents getting into a sleepy lull during the digestive period. We played Newbie Singles and Open Singles, skipping the Ladies Open Singles wedged in between. We called it a "early" night, sleeping at 2am.
DAY 4 (Sun): KL visitation sites were the Central Market and the Islamic Arts Museum. It's amazing how fast you can get through a museum when you're in a rush. Got to Breakers just after 1pm, but the doors weren't even open yet. Someone must have slept in. Finally, when they did open, around 2:30pm or so, I had Amateur Doubles, then Open Doubles. Left Breakers at 3am and in bed just after 4am. Do you see a re-occurring pattern here?
DAY 5 (Mon): Last day of the tournament, so it started later in the day. We were up and out around noon and headed to the Sultan Abdul Samad Building, Independence Square (Dataran Merdeka), the Masjid Jamek Mosque (which we couldn't enter due to a dress code), the Sri Mahamariamman Temple, Petaling Street, the National Museum, and finally to Breakers again to finish Open Doubles and played Mixed International Doubles. We got our prizes at 1:30am, and smoked some shashi before going back to the hotel.
DAY 6 (Tues): A 2-hour bus ride brought us to the historical city of Melaka (Melacca). We followed a walking tour I found online to learn about Malaysia's past as a colony of Portugal, Japan, and Great Britain, and finally its independence. Truly a worthy day-trip to make if staying in KL. Arriving back in KL around 9pm, we still found time to stop again at the Petronas towers for some great night shots. That night, my ex-coworkers arrived in KL at our hotel, and I moved over to their room because we had to get up early the next morning. The foosball guys also had to catch a flight early the next day as well.
DAY 7 (Wed): The three of us slept through a 4-hour bus ride to the Cameron Highlands - the highest region in Peninsular Malaysia, and a good 10 degrees cooler than KL. After checking into the Strawberry Park Resort, we joined a small agricultural tour where we were introduced to the farming sector which covers the highlands. We were taken to farms for chrysanthemum, water cress, strawberries, multi-crops, lettuce, and cactus. We also did some strawberry picking from a hydroponic crop. As the day progressed, cold symptoms were becoming more and more apparent.
DAY 8 (Thurs): We started the day with a nice breakfast buffet at the hotel, and soon headed on another tour. On the list were a Rose Centre, a butterfly farm, a BOH (best of highlands) tea plantation, a bee farm and a Buddhist temple (both of which there are plenty of in Taiwan). In the afternoon, more Indian food and a visit to a clinic for my cold and asthma, and a rest stop at the Starbucks before boarding our bus for a 5-hour commute back to KL.
DAY 9 (Fri): After a terrible night's sleep, I was up at 5:15am and on a monorail at 6:15am making my way back to the KLIA airport. 9:45am at the time of writing this, and on the plane ready for take off.
More on Malaysia impressions coming soon...
July 15, 2009
Crazy Foosers...
Alright, I've been neither here nor there with posting on this blog. It's been frustrating me, but I've been just too lazy to do anything about it.Right, so back to foos.
From February through May, I spent a great deal of time organizing and planning Taiwan's first international foosball tournament, sponsored by Carlsberg Taiwan. The Carlsberg Cup was a two-day event with 70 - 80 participants; a few of them from overseas (Malaysia, Hong Kong, and expats from Canada and the US). After all the hard work, I was pleased to see that everything went really smoothly. Here's the tournament summary, photos, and videos from the event. The only thing I could complain about was my personal performance at the event. But it's alright, I don't really mind.
In order to further promote foosball and the Carlsberg Cup, a few Taiwan Foosball Association guys went on local radio stations to interview about the sport. I went on Taiwan's only English radio station ICRT. You can listen to my interview by going to the TFA website and scrolling down to the bottom. You'll see a picture of me. Click Play. Of course, by the time you read this, that interview may be gone.
At the start of June, I put together the first TFA FoosLife foosball eMagazine. It took a lot of hard work to get the first edition out, but the result was well-received. It's a monthly magazine that is distributed to friends of foosball, and contains articles in both English and Chinese. Here're June 2009 and July 2009 Editions.
In June, I bought a used Tornado foosball table from a friend. In fact, the photo for this posting is of my table. It's in good condition, takes up substantial room in my little suite, and will hopefully make me a better player. I've been frustrated with my game lately. But anyway...
Tomorrow, I leave for Malaysia. I'm participating in the VIFA Asia Open foosball tournament. It's a huge event, with players coming from all over in Asia (UAE, India, Taiwan, Japan, China...). Four days of grueling foosball -- unless I get eliminated quickly, then it won't be so grueling. Wish me luck. After that, I'll have a few extra days in Kuala Lumpur where the tournament is held, a day in Melaka (historical city of Malaysia), and the Cameron Highlands. Should be a fun trip. Foosball's the reason for going, but I probably put equal weighting on the adventures of travel.
So... that's it!
Foos on.
June 16, 2009
Olympus Launches Micro Four Thirds Camera
Now we're talkin'.
I wasn't sure when a compact micro four-thirds camera would be on the market, so I bought my Panasonic LX-3 earlier in the year. I don't regret that decision as the LX-3 produces some great photos. But this is certainly exciting news, and my next camera may be a micro four-thirds since I'm turned off by DSLRs' sizes. But I'll wait until they've worked out the kinks.
Article: Olympus Launches Micro Four Thirds Camera
I wasn't sure when a compact micro four-thirds camera would be on the market, so I bought my Panasonic LX-3 earlier in the year. I don't regret that decision as the LX-3 produces some great photos. But this is certainly exciting news, and my next camera may be a micro four-thirds since I'm turned off by DSLRs' sizes. But I'll wait until they've worked out the kinks.
Article: Olympus Launches Micro Four Thirds Camera
June 10, 2009
Everything Foosball...
A lot of my spare time recently has been spent on foosball related activities. And the normal person would ask, "How the heck can you spend a lot of time on foosball?". Well, I'll unravel some related stories in a few postings (hopefully). For now, I just want to say that our company has purchased a Torpedo foosball table. It's a knock-off of the Tornado tables found in North America. Quality-wise, it's close enough. At least good enough to practice on and sharpen up my skills.
Now, maybe I'll be spending as much time engaged in foosball activities at a table as the time spent on foosball activities away from a table.
Now, maybe I'll be spending as much time engaged in foosball activities at a table as the time spent on foosball activities away from a table.
May 19, 2009
Rest in Peace, Mischa
I received word today that my ex-coworker and friend, Mischa, passed away from lupus at the tender age of 25. It was just 3 months ago she was getting ready for the Chinese New Year vacation when her body started malfunctioning and her immune system turning on herself. Soon after, she was in a coma and underwent multiple surgeries to address various complications. But in the end, never having the chance to come out of her coma, she lost her battle.
Mischa was a beautiful person inside and out, always putting on a big smile as she manned the front desk at our office. Learning that she has had to ensure so much turmoil in her family, it's amazing that she could always show up to work with so much energy and enthusiasm, and immediately make everyone feel better. She was one of the kindest souls I've had the pleasure of meeting, and she will be missed.
Mischa, rest in peace.
Mischa was a beautiful person inside and out, always putting on a big smile as she manned the front desk at our office. Learning that she has had to ensure so much turmoil in her family, it's amazing that she could always show up to work with so much energy and enthusiasm, and immediately make everyone feel better. She was one of the kindest souls I've had the pleasure of meeting, and she will be missed.
Mischa, rest in peace.
April 04, 2009
PHILIPPINES!
Following Singapore, we spent 6 days in the Philippines.
When planning for this trip, personal Filipino consultants CS and RT both said not to bother spending too much time in Manila, and to go to Boracay and Tagaytay instead - so we worked our Filipino visit around that advice.
Jan 30 (Fri): Our 3.5 hr flight brought us to Ninoy Aquino International at 6:25pm. We got special VIP services, having "EdlC", retired Chief of Police where the airport is located, picking us and giving us a ride to our hotel - because he's CS's family friend. In Singapore, we chose to stay in the Red Light District. In Manila, our luck would have it that our hotel was also in the Red Light District of Makati (the financial district of the Philippines). If seeing old fat white guys with two little Filipinas at his side is your cup of tea, you'll fit right at home. I don't want to get into the details of our hotel, I'll just say the photos of Citadel Inn Makati hide its age very well. Not wanting to venture too far from our hotel at night, we just walked around the surrounding area and had dinner at Filipino fast-food roasted chicken chain Andok's.
Jan 31 (Sat): To kill a bit of time in the morning before meeting a friend in the afternoon, we headed to Alaya Center, a huge mall complex in the Makati area - spending most of our time trying and buying filipino foods.
View from Our Hotel Room
In the afternoon, we met with my highschool friend LF who took us to Tagaytay. Tagaytay is city about an hour and some South of Manila, and most famous for its Taal Volcano. With LF being local, we took her on one of her most touristy experiences in the Philippines. We went down to Taal Lake, took a boat across to the volcano, and rode on donkeys up to the end of the volcano's mouth, in which sits another little lake. An expensive round trip, but if you can look past the steep price, it's a fun little excursion. The boat rides there and back get really wet and windy. Getting back to shore, we went to Tagaytay Highlands, which is golf resort and country club where LF's family owns a unit. Tagaytay Highlands gives a great view of Taal Volcano, unfortunately, we arrived late and it was pitch black. After dinner, we returned back to our slummy hotel and retired for the night.
Taal Volcano's Crater
Leaving Taal Volcano
Feb 1 - 4 (Sun - Wed): An early morning 50-min flight put us at Caticlan from where took a boat to Boracay. We checked in at La Carmela de Boracay which is a cozy retreat with a beach out front. Boracay's White Beach is often placed in discussions about the top beaches in the world - and the clear blue-green water is breathtaking when you see it for the first time.
White Sands Beach
For the next 3 days in Boracay, we...
... did a 6-hour boat tour around the island (included some disappointing snorkeling and a decent lunch)
... had massages on the beach every day
... went for strolls along the beach (White Beach)
... got henna tattoos on the beach
... suntanned on the beach
... slept on the beach
... swam
... rented scooters and
... bought local goods
Sunset on Boracay
A lot of our time was spent eating too! Seafood buffets, Mexican food (just a snack), thick flavorful milkshakes (at Jonah's), Nigi Nigi's "Best Burgers on the Beach" (which probably weren't really), great giant prawns and a terrible steak. Sitting at a table on the beach at night with a cool breeze and your feet playing in the sand below really gives that feeling of being on vacation.
Feb 4 (Wed): Back in Manila, EdlC unexpectedly picked us up from the airport again, and took us on a quick city tour of Manila hitting up the Manila Zoo, SM Mall of Asia (2nd largest mall in a country full of malls), Manila Bay, Fort Santiago (drive-by), Manila Cathedral, and San Agustin Church. I also tried balut - boiled duck embryo. The one I ate wasn't all that disgusting looking - like, you couldn't see the half-chick - and it's
We ended our trip with another dinner with LF before calling it a night leading up to our early morning flight.
When planning for this trip, personal Filipino consultants CS and RT both said not to bother spending too much time in Manila, and to go to Boracay and Tagaytay instead - so we worked our Filipino visit around that advice.
Jan 30 (Fri): Our 3.5 hr flight brought us to Ninoy Aquino International at 6:25pm. We got special VIP services, having "EdlC", retired Chief of Police where the airport is located, picking us and giving us a ride to our hotel - because he's CS's family friend. In Singapore, we chose to stay in the Red Light District. In Manila, our luck would have it that our hotel was also in the Red Light District of Makati (the financial district of the Philippines). If seeing old fat white guys with two little Filipinas at his side is your cup of tea, you'll fit right at home. I don't want to get into the details of our hotel, I'll just say the photos of Citadel Inn Makati hide its age very well. Not wanting to venture too far from our hotel at night, we just walked around the surrounding area and had dinner at Filipino fast-food roasted chicken chain Andok's.
Jan 31 (Sat): To kill a bit of time in the morning before meeting a friend in the afternoon, we headed to Alaya Center, a huge mall complex in the Makati area - spending most of our time trying and buying filipino foods.
In the afternoon, we met with my highschool friend LF who took us to Tagaytay. Tagaytay is city about an hour and some South of Manila, and most famous for its Taal Volcano. With LF being local, we took her on one of her most touristy experiences in the Philippines. We went down to Taal Lake, took a boat across to the volcano, and rode on donkeys up to the end of the volcano's mouth, in which sits another little lake. An expensive round trip, but if you can look past the steep price, it's a fun little excursion. The boat rides there and back get really wet and windy. Getting back to shore, we went to Tagaytay Highlands, which is golf resort and country club where LF's family owns a unit. Tagaytay Highlands gives a great view of Taal Volcano, unfortunately, we arrived late and it was pitch black. After dinner, we returned back to our slummy hotel and retired for the night.
Feb 1 - 4 (Sun - Wed): An early morning 50-min flight put us at Caticlan from where took a boat to Boracay. We checked in at La Carmela de Boracay which is a cozy retreat with a beach out front. Boracay's White Beach is often placed in discussions about the top beaches in the world - and the clear blue-green water is breathtaking when you see it for the first time.
For the next 3 days in Boracay, we...
... did a 6-hour boat tour around the island (included some disappointing snorkeling and a decent lunch)
... had massages on the beach every day
... went for strolls along the beach (White Beach)
... got henna tattoos on the beach
... suntanned on the beach
... slept on the beach
... swam
... rented scooters and
... bought local goods
A lot of our time was spent eating too! Seafood buffets, Mexican food (just a snack), thick flavorful milkshakes (at Jonah's), Nigi Nigi's "Best Burgers on the Beach" (which probably weren't really), great giant prawns and a terrible steak. Sitting at a table on the beach at night with a cool breeze and your feet playing in the sand below really gives that feeling of being on vacation.
Feb 4 (Wed): Back in Manila, EdlC unexpectedly picked us up from the airport again, and took us on a quick city tour of Manila hitting up the Manila Zoo, SM Mall of Asia (2nd largest mall in a country full of malls), Manila Bay, Fort Santiago (drive-by), Manila Cathedral, and San Agustin Church. I also tried balut - boiled duck embryo. The one I ate wasn't all that disgusting looking - like, you couldn't see the half-chick - and it's
We ended our trip with another dinner with LF before calling it a night leading up to our early morning flight.
February 24, 2009
Going to Singapore?
Here's my list of resources that can get you started...
My Singapore Map lists a bunch of places we visited as well as my walking routes.
GENERAL SINGAPORE LINKS
SINGAPORE CITY
A list of places to visit or pass by:
LITTLE INDIA
GEYLANG
SENTOSA
SEEING NATURE IN SINGAPORE
OTHER WALKING TOURS
The Inn Crowd has some other resourceful walking tours. You can start from their recommendations and cut out whatever you don't care to see.
OTHERS
Of course, if you want to learn more about Singapore before going, you should get onto some online forums, such as VirtualTourist and TripAdvisor. And if you're ever so lucky as I had been, you might meet someone kind enough to give you a wealth of knowledge. So my last note on Singapore is a big Thank You to my new friend Tania, who spent a lot of time answering my questions in great detail. Thanks bitbit.
My Singapore Map lists a bunch of places we visited as well as my walking routes.
GENERAL SINGAPORE LINKS
SINGAPORE CITY
A list of places to visit or pass by:
- The Art House (1 Old Parliament Lane)
- Botanic Gardens early morning to view orchids
- Chijmes (30 Victoria Street)
- Clarke Quay
- Elgin Bridge for skyline photos
- Esplanade Park
- Fort Canning Park
- Merlion Park
- Orchard Road for shopping
- Raffles Hotel (1 Beach Road)
- Parliament House (1 Parliament Place)
- Peranakan Museum
- Ritz-Carlton Singapore
- St. Andrew's Cathedral (Saint Andrew's Road)
- War Memorial Park
LITTLE INDIA
GEYLANG
- The Inn Crowd's Food Safari at Geylang
- The Inn Crowd's Geylang Serai, Joo Chiat, Marine Parade, and Stadium Cove Walking Tour
SENTOSA
SEEING NATURE IN SINGAPORE
- Sungei Buloh Wetlands Website
- Singapore Night Safari Website
- The Inn Crowd's Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve, Kranji War Memorial, The Singapore Racecourse & The Night Safari Tour
- Official Pulau Ubin Parks Website
- A Virtual Tour of Chek Jawa
- The Inn Crowd's Pulau Ubin & Changi Village
- Pedal Ubin Guide
- Jurong Bird Park
OTHER WALKING TOURS
The Inn Crowd has some other resourceful walking tours. You can start from their recommendations and cut out whatever you don't care to see.
OTHERS
Of course, if you want to learn more about Singapore before going, you should get onto some online forums, such as VirtualTourist and TripAdvisor. And if you're ever so lucky as I had been, you might meet someone kind enough to give you a wealth of knowledge. So my last note on Singapore is a big Thank You to my new friend Tania, who spent a lot of time answering my questions in great detail. Thanks bitbit.
February 16, 2009
Singapore Impressions
Alright, so my previous post was about what we did in Singapore. Let me randomly share some thoughts and opinions based on our few days there.
- Many people have said that 3 days is plenty to see Singapore. I say those people haven’t researched enough, because I didn’t think 4 days was enough. I guess it has to do with where your interests lie.
- As mentioned, Singapore is a clean city with modern architecture which stands its ground against Hong Kong and Shanghai. As far as cleanliness, Geylang and Little India are a little different.
- Geylang whores are an ugly bunch. I think some might be cross-dressers too. But at least they’re diversified, with Indian, Chinese, and Malay.
- I feel very much that Singapore is a cross between Vancouver and Taipei. In Vancouver, I see wide streets that are clean, and generally not so populated; whereas Geylang and the MRT system remind me of Taipei.
- Not to come off sounding racist, but Chinese and Indian tourists are probably some of the worst I've seen. They’re generally not respectful of (my) common sense, and tend to piss me off a little sometimes. In Chek Jawa, a place where you shouldn’t be touching anything, a group of young Chinese tourists (from China, to distinguish against Taiwanese, but that’s not to say the Taiwanese are exempt) were digging for and picking up crabs, as well as smoking and leaving cigarette butts. As we left Chek Jawa, I did tell the staff on duty, and he looked kind of serious when I told him. So I hope they found those Chinese people and cut off their hands or something. I've encountered a lot of loud Indians in places meant to be kept quite. And a couple of guys with DSLRs were letting their flashes go off over and over trying to take pictures of a leopard, which is blinding to the night animals. I even told one of them to not use his flash, and he stopped; while his friend probably didn’t hear (or pretended not to) and continued. I don’t mean to be a cop, but I have no problems telling people not to do stupid things when it affects others.
- Where are the Indian women? In a few places, like parks, you’ll see a bunch of people congregate at night. And they’re almost all guys! I'm not trying to be disrespectful, it's just a culture I don't understand.
- I thought jaywalking wasn’t allowed in Singapore… but I saw it happening all the time. Not unlike Taiwan really.
- I like the public transit system. It’s complex but comprehensive and very clearly marked. I don’t like how the EZ Link card works however, i.e. you can’t take an MRT if you have less than S$3 credit. In Taiwan, you can use the Taipei EasyCard until you have a negative credit – after which you will be required to top up funds. Way better.
- After all this, I still have a difficult time knowing what “Singaporean culture” is. It seems like it’s an integration of Chinese, Indian, Malaysian, and Peranakan cultures, but not a fusion. For example, the Chinese culture is still Chinese, the Indian culture is still distinctly Indian…
- English is the primary language, but it seems like 60% - 70% of the population don’t speak it or don’t speak it well. Maybe that’s changing with the younger generation.
- Cars are generally kept very clean, and the car wash near my hotel was always busy.
- There are lots of malls. And amazingly, there are more shops and restaurants than in Taiwan, in my opinion.
- Tourist traps Underwater World and the Night Safari are expensive, but still probably worth going to. I hear the Jurong Bird Park is good too.
- When ordering food, you sometimes need to be very clear in specifying quantity. For example, if you’re two people, and you order “mutton masala”, they may decide that you mean two servings because one obviously isn’t enough to serve two people.
February 15, 2009
SINGAPORE!
OK! Here goes my trip report from Singapore. I’ll list my resources in a later post, as well as integrating some of them in my write-up.
Jan 26 (Mon): Arrived in Singapore in the evening via Manila. Arrived late, staying in Geylang, Singapore’s red light district. After dropping off our bags at our hotel, we followed the Geylang Food Safari (also see my Singapore Google Map for "Geylang Food and Red Light District Tour" line). For starters, Geylang should probably never be the first place to see in Singapore for a good first impression – it’d be like seeing East Hastings in Vancouver. The streets are dirty and at night are crowded with men and working girls. But Geylang does have a lot of eateries or “coffee houses”, and the hotels are cheap... and probably all offer by-the-hour room rentals. Anyway, it’s hectic and just takes some getting used to. We settled down at one of the many mini food courts and had a curry fish head, a Singaporean dish. Fairly spicy, but still tolerable even for someone who isn’t big on spicy foods. As a nice mix of fish, eggplant, and other veggies, this was one of the tastier foods we had. There was a lot of eating on this trip, and this was just the start. Durian is a big seller in Geylang, and I kind of regret not eating some – even if there are few foods that smell worse.
Jan 27 (Tues): We started off busing from our hotel to Little India (Map: see "Little India Tour"). Breakfast was mutton masala and chappati, eaten with our fingers of course. In the morning, before getting cluttered with people, Little India’s street are very clean. The buildings there are colorful, and it’s hard to really tell what style they’re based upon. We found the same type of look and feel in Chinatown a few days later. We spent some time walking around Mustafa Center, a huge huge department store that sells everything – but we decided to return at night because we wanted to pick up some Indian spices and curries to bring back to Taiwan. Just walking around Little India all morning was enough for sore feet – and we ended up at Zam Zam Restaurant, famous for their murtabaks (roti prata with eggs, onions, meat, and spices). Unfortunately, ZZ was sort of an anti-climax, because I found murtabaks too similar to the 抓餅s in Taiwan – and it was less flavorful than the mutton masala we had in the morning. But I guess it’s a "been there, done that" kind of thing.
After lunch, we went through Bugis Village and spent a couple of hours at the Singapore Art Museum which had an open house that day and was free to visitors. Score! More walking followed (Map: see Singapore City Tour) taking us past Chijmes (what’s here anyway?), Raffles Hotel, St. Andrew’s Cathedral, the War Memorial Park, the old Parliament building (now called The Art House), the new Parliament House, the Singapore River, Fullerton Hotel, and through to Merlion Park.
Raffles Hotel
War Memorial Park
Downtown Skyline
Parliament Building
Singapore River
Merlion Park
City Skyline
This walking tour through Singapore’s city center really displays what you’d expect going to Singapore: fantastic buildings that bring together European and modern architecture and spotlessly clean streets. It’s great to see so many buildings with unique styles – very unlike Vancouver where not enough money is invested into adding character into architectural design. We had dinner at the large food court Lau Pa Sat and MRTed back to Mustafa Center for Indian foods to take up some luggage space.
This was the day we did the most walking – probably a good 15+ kms, with lots of standing around in between. Tired feet. Tired feet.
Jan 28 (Wed): Having done a lot of city sightseeing, it was time to switch gears. With no tourism originality, we went to Sentosa in the morning to Underwater World.
Underwater World
I should mention that we did the cable cars both to and from Singapore and Sentosa. I read online before going that it was recommend, but I wouldn't recommend it. The S$11 one way or S$12 round trip is better spent elsewhere. But since we had to walk 5 – 10 mins to get to the cable car station before we saw the prices, we still went through with it anyway because it was recommended, and because I didn’t want to walk back to the monorail station, where ever it was. You don’t see much on the cable cars anyway, and the on-going construction at the harbour isn’t very sightly – you’ll have a hard time finding things to take pictures of while you’re up there. At S$23 per head, Underwater World’s not cheap either. But if you’re going to play tourist, you might as well do what tourists do. Following 3.5 hrs in Sentosa for Underwater World and the Dolphin Lagoon, we went to Chinatown (Map: see "Chinatown and Elgin Bridge").
Chinatown Temple
We passed through Clarke Quay (photo) very quickly, and caught a late afternoon bus to the Singapore Night Safari.
Clarke Quay
Again, S$32 per person qualifies the Night Safari as a tourist trap, but it was enjoyable when you ignore the hole in your wallet. Seeing huge flying squirrels and bats up close and personal was kind of neat, but the best part was probably a performance by Borneo tribal troupe which included some of the best fire-blowing I’ve ever seen. We reached the hotel after midnight, but not before getting some mee goreng and a dosai to go.
Jan 29 (Thurs): We had a late start to the morning trying to find a currency exchange, and looking for the No Signboards Seafood Restaurant – whose location I wrongly remembered. We finally settled for some more Indian food and Singaporean pan-fried white radish cake for lunch. Then we took a bus to the Changi Village ferry terminal where we boarded a bumboat taking us to Pulau Ubin. Pulau Ubin is a small island less-visited by tourists unless they’ve done at least a bit of homework. It’s also the home the Chek Jawa conservational wetlands which has a mix of several ecosystems: mangroves, coastal forests, rocky shores, and seagrass lagoons. And it’s free! So, we rented a couple of bikes near the Pulau Ubin ferry terminal and rode 10 – 15 minutes to Chek Jawa. Walking around Chek Jawa, you can see a lot of little creatures in their natural habitat. We saw mud skippers, tiny crabs, medium-sized crabs, horseshoe crabs, a metre-long monitor lizard running in the water, a little snake, wild roosters, and a wild pig (I think it was wild). Very well worth a day trip – it’s too bad we got there so late and didn’t get much of a chance to bike around a little more.
Chek Jawa - see if you can find the snake (top-left)
We got back to Geylang for dinner, finally finding No Signboard Seafood Restaurant. Singaporean chilli crab was the highlight of our dinner – again, even being one who doesn’t eat spicy often, I just couldn’t get enough of the soupy chili sauce, which goes well with steamed or fried buns (mantou / 饅é ). Absolutely brilliant.
Chilli Crab (YUM!)
To cap off our evening, we went to City Space, a nice lounge on the 70th floor of Equinox Complex for some drinks and to enjoy a spectacular view of Singapore.
City Space
Jan 30 (Fri): Running out of time and Singaporean dollars, we spent our morning walking around Fort Canning Park before busing through Orchard Road, the equivalent to Vancouver's Robson Street (Map: see "Orchard Rd and Fort Canning Tour"). It turns out, it was a good decision not to walk Orchard Road because unless you want to do some shopping, there’s nothing there. Back to hotel and then to airport. Singapore… Done.
Fort Canning
Jan 26 (Mon): Arrived in Singapore in the evening via Manila. Arrived late, staying in Geylang, Singapore’s red light district. After dropping off our bags at our hotel, we followed the Geylang Food Safari (also see my Singapore Google Map for "Geylang Food and Red Light District Tour" line). For starters, Geylang should probably never be the first place to see in Singapore for a good first impression – it’d be like seeing East Hastings in Vancouver. The streets are dirty and at night are crowded with men and working girls. But Geylang does have a lot of eateries or “coffee houses”, and the hotels are cheap... and probably all offer by-the-hour room rentals. Anyway, it’s hectic and just takes some getting used to. We settled down at one of the many mini food courts and had a curry fish head, a Singaporean dish. Fairly spicy, but still tolerable even for someone who isn’t big on spicy foods. As a nice mix of fish, eggplant, and other veggies, this was one of the tastier foods we had. There was a lot of eating on this trip, and this was just the start. Durian is a big seller in Geylang, and I kind of regret not eating some – even if there are few foods that smell worse.
Jan 27 (Tues): We started off busing from our hotel to Little India (Map: see "Little India Tour"). Breakfast was mutton masala and chappati, eaten with our fingers of course. In the morning, before getting cluttered with people, Little India’s street are very clean. The buildings there are colorful, and it’s hard to really tell what style they’re based upon. We found the same type of look and feel in Chinatown a few days later. We spent some time walking around Mustafa Center, a huge huge department store that sells everything – but we decided to return at night because we wanted to pick up some Indian spices and curries to bring back to Taiwan. Just walking around Little India all morning was enough for sore feet – and we ended up at Zam Zam Restaurant, famous for their murtabaks (roti prata with eggs, onions, meat, and spices). Unfortunately, ZZ was sort of an anti-climax, because I found murtabaks too similar to the 抓餅s in Taiwan – and it was less flavorful than the mutton masala we had in the morning. But I guess it’s a "been there, done that" kind of thing.
After lunch, we went through Bugis Village and spent a couple of hours at the Singapore Art Museum which had an open house that day and was free to visitors. Score! More walking followed (Map: see Singapore City Tour) taking us past Chijmes (what’s here anyway?), Raffles Hotel, St. Andrew’s Cathedral, the War Memorial Park, the old Parliament building (now called The Art House), the new Parliament House, the Singapore River, Fullerton Hotel, and through to Merlion Park.
This walking tour through Singapore’s city center really displays what you’d expect going to Singapore: fantastic buildings that bring together European and modern architecture and spotlessly clean streets. It’s great to see so many buildings with unique styles – very unlike Vancouver where not enough money is invested into adding character into architectural design. We had dinner at the large food court Lau Pa Sat and MRTed back to Mustafa Center for Indian foods to take up some luggage space.
This was the day we did the most walking – probably a good 15+ kms, with lots of standing around in between. Tired feet. Tired feet.
Jan 28 (Wed): Having done a lot of city sightseeing, it was time to switch gears. With no tourism originality, we went to Sentosa in the morning to Underwater World.
I should mention that we did the cable cars both to and from Singapore and Sentosa. I read online before going that it was recommend, but I wouldn't recommend it. The S$11 one way or S$12 round trip is better spent elsewhere. But since we had to walk 5 – 10 mins to get to the cable car station before we saw the prices, we still went through with it anyway because it was recommended, and because I didn’t want to walk back to the monorail station, where ever it was. You don’t see much on the cable cars anyway, and the on-going construction at the harbour isn’t very sightly – you’ll have a hard time finding things to take pictures of while you’re up there. At S$23 per head, Underwater World’s not cheap either. But if you’re going to play tourist, you might as well do what tourists do. Following 3.5 hrs in Sentosa for Underwater World and the Dolphin Lagoon, we went to Chinatown (Map: see "Chinatown and Elgin Bridge").
We passed through Clarke Quay (photo) very quickly, and caught a late afternoon bus to the Singapore Night Safari.
Again, S$32 per person qualifies the Night Safari as a tourist trap, but it was enjoyable when you ignore the hole in your wallet. Seeing huge flying squirrels and bats up close and personal was kind of neat, but the best part was probably a performance by Borneo tribal troupe which included some of the best fire-blowing I’ve ever seen. We reached the hotel after midnight, but not before getting some mee goreng and a dosai to go.
Jan 29 (Thurs): We had a late start to the morning trying to find a currency exchange, and looking for the No Signboards Seafood Restaurant – whose location I wrongly remembered. We finally settled for some more Indian food and Singaporean pan-fried white radish cake for lunch. Then we took a bus to the Changi Village ferry terminal where we boarded a bumboat taking us to Pulau Ubin. Pulau Ubin is a small island less-visited by tourists unless they’ve done at least a bit of homework. It’s also the home the Chek Jawa conservational wetlands which has a mix of several ecosystems: mangroves, coastal forests, rocky shores, and seagrass lagoons. And it’s free! So, we rented a couple of bikes near the Pulau Ubin ferry terminal and rode 10 – 15 minutes to Chek Jawa. Walking around Chek Jawa, you can see a lot of little creatures in their natural habitat. We saw mud skippers, tiny crabs, medium-sized crabs, horseshoe crabs, a metre-long monitor lizard running in the water, a little snake, wild roosters, and a wild pig (I think it was wild). Very well worth a day trip – it’s too bad we got there so late and didn’t get much of a chance to bike around a little more.
We got back to Geylang for dinner, finally finding No Signboard Seafood Restaurant. Singaporean chilli crab was the highlight of our dinner – again, even being one who doesn’t eat spicy often, I just couldn’t get enough of the soupy chili sauce, which goes well with steamed or fried buns (mantou / 饅é ). Absolutely brilliant.
To cap off our evening, we went to City Space, a nice lounge on the 70th floor of Equinox Complex for some drinks and to enjoy a spectacular view of Singapore.
Jan 30 (Fri): Running out of time and Singaporean dollars, we spent our morning walking around Fort Canning Park before busing through Orchard Road, the equivalent to Vancouver's Robson Street (Map: see "Orchard Rd and Fort Canning Tour"). It turns out, it was a good decision not to walk Orchard Road because unless you want to do some shopping, there’s nothing there. Back to hotel and then to airport. Singapore… Done.
Her Morning Elegance
My sister shared this Oren Lavie video (Her Morning Elegance) with me today. It's one of the more entertaining things I've seen this week (which in itself was a boring week following an eventful vacation).
I’m sitting at a Starbucks right now, typing my Singapore trip blog material. And a guy sitting at a table 2m away from me just let out a terribly loud fart that made my chair rumble. Do you know what it takes to make a fart vibrate through one chair to another?
I’m sitting at a Starbucks right now, typing my Singapore trip blog material. And a guy sitting at a table 2m away from me just let out a terribly loud fart that made my chair rumble. Do you know what it takes to make a fart vibrate through one chair to another?
February 12, 2009
Wanna Meet?
Alright, I'm back from vacation. But I've been stuck in meetings this entire week with virtually no breaks. So I'll try to get some posting about my trip with some photos (which I'm not done going through) this weekend. Busy!
January 14, 2009
Here Kiti Kiti Kiti
Last week, my sister found this Valentine's Day card.It was from me, addressed to my kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Kitagawa. I know she seemed like she was 100 years old at the time, but apparently age was never an issue for us.
January 11, 2009
Dirty Money
I had an interestingly bizarre though yesterday as I was flushing the toilet. If you accidentally dropped some change into the toilet at home (where no one else would see) after a #2, how much would it have to be for you to stick your hand in to get it? A quarter? A loonie? A toonie?
Obviously, the easy way of doing it would be to get something long to extract the coin(s). But let's assume for the moment you don't have anything but your bare hands, which you're permitted to wash afterwards.
Obviously, the easy way of doing it would be to get something long to extract the coin(s). But let's assume for the moment you don't have anything but your bare hands, which you're permitted to wash afterwards.
January 04, 2009
Traveling Much? (Hotels)
AC and I are planning a trip for the Chinese New Year. Without revealing too many details of the trip yet, here are just a few things I'd like to share that might be useful if you're planning your own trip. Got your own tips? Post a comment.
Hotel Bookings: In the past, I have used HotelTravel.com and have been pleased with their prices and reliability thus far. However, for this trip, I found another site Agoda.com, which is providing even better rates and a rewards program. The prices are better than those I've found for the same hotels on HotelTravel.com. I've also looked at Orbitz.com, but I think the Agoda prices are still better. The rewards are credit (monetary value) towards your next booking. The credit is applied to your account 30 days after you check out from a hotel (and expire after 1 year OR at the end of the calendar year, I'm not sure). So, if you're a repeat traveler, the credit can save you more. Since I don't really travel more than once outside of Taiwan each year, I won't consider the rewards - but the listed hotel prices are already cheaper than a lot of other online sites I've used.
And just on hotel bookings, I found this list informative.
Add to this list:
Hotel Bookings: In the past, I have used HotelTravel.com and have been pleased with their prices and reliability thus far. However, for this trip, I found another site Agoda.com, which is providing even better rates and a rewards program. The prices are better than those I've found for the same hotels on HotelTravel.com. I've also looked at Orbitz.com, but I think the Agoda prices are still better. The rewards are credit (monetary value) towards your next booking. The credit is applied to your account 30 days after you check out from a hotel (and expire after 1 year OR at the end of the calendar year, I'm not sure). So, if you're a repeat traveler, the credit can save you more. Since I don't really travel more than once outside of Taiwan each year, I won't consider the rewards - but the listed hotel prices are already cheaper than a lot of other online sites I've used.
And just on hotel bookings, I found this list informative.
- Special requests. At check-in, ask for a room with a window that can be opened. Cooped up all night with air conditioning or constant heat can be quite confining, and having fresh outside air can often make your stay (except maybe in Beijing). Sometimes a maintenance worker has to be called to open it but the receptionist usually knows which rooms already have adjustable windows.
- Location. Don’t get a room by the elevator or ice machine. You will feel the vibrations all night long. It may not be apparent at first, but, believe me, when the lights are out, it will be. One more thing, if the hotel has a disco, make sure you get a room at least two floors away. I can’t tell you how many nights in South America I tried to sleep to the beat.
- Stop the free show. First thing, go to your window and close the curtains, especially after dark, because the number of unwitting strip shows that I have been privy to and likely that I have provided myself through the years, is plentiful.
- Pass on the cashier. The poorest place to exchange money is at the hotel. Not only will they give you the worst exchange rate possible, they might even charge a commission. Go to the nearest ATM for the rate of the day.
- Do not disturb sign. If your room does not have one, call the concierge or make one out of the hotel stationery paper. Without it, the housekeeping crew will drive you bananas in the morning. I have lost count of amount of times a maid has caught me in a naked stumble for the bathroom.
- Say Hi to hygiene. Take off your bedspread — the hotels probably clean them as much as the airlines clean their seat covers, which is once annually, if at all. Use a sani-wipe or at least a hand towel and wipe off the TV remote control. I shudder to think what the last occupant might have been doing with it. And I am sure most everyone has heard about the special media report on the scant attention the maid service gives to the room’s glassware. Be sure to clean any kitchen item before using, especially glasses.
- Acclimatize the air. Set the air temperature right away, so you can get a feel for it and adjust it accordingly before you call it a night. If you only get to it before you sleep, you could wake to a frosty room or find yourself in a tropical sweat. Either way, your sleep will suffer.
- Check the plumbing. Turn on the shower and flush the toilet. If there is a noticeable change in water temperature, keep your guard up, because hot spikes are probable. The number of times that I have been burned in the hotel shower is shocking, or I should say, scalding
- Avoid room service. It’s expensive, anti-social, anti-cultural and should be reserved for a special occasion or in desperate times, such as romantic interludes, sickness, sunburn or utter exhaustion.
- Television timer. If there is a timer function on the remote control, set it, no matter how alert you feel now. Waking up to a horror or war movie on high volume is a scary experience.
- Double take. When leaving, look around the room for things you might have left behind. Put your towels in the bath-tub and your garbage in the trash bin. Not only does it help the maid but you may re-discover that thingamajig you almost left behind.
- Concierge caution. By all means ask the concierge for directions and recommendations on dining and entertainment, but be aware that many higher priced places offer bribes in exchange for their suggestions. If they tell you to mention their name to the owner, give it a miss.
- Relax. Make some time for yourself. Lie in bed for an extra hour, take an extra long shower, lounge around in your robe. You may miss your family, but I bet you could use a time-out. If you take a break from the daily drama, you will be well rested for your return.
- Take but don’t steal. We all know the things in hotel rooms that are considered okay for taking home, like pens and stationery, but other items like remote control batteries, toilet paper, light bulbs and towels are in fact stealing and can be charged directly to your credit card.
- Earplugs. Yes, my top in-flight tip is also one of my top hotel tips. It’s very important that you get used to wearing them. Put them by the bedside table. Bring a back-up pair, just in case.
Add to this list:
- Water Pressure. Ask for a floor with a water pump. For older buildings, the higher floors might have weaker water pressure.
- Street Noise. Ask for a room that's on a higher floor to avoid hearing street noise from your window. Kind of goes against the previous tip, but if a higher floor has a water pump, perfect.
January 01, 2009
Ring in the New Year
This year's New Year's Eve was low-key and private. It was too cold to be outdoors anyway. I went to AC's place in Taipei, made dinner, and we watched Disney's High School Musical 2. As the clock neared midnight, we went upstairs to the rooftop above the 15th floor to watch the Taipei 101 fireworks. With 101 towering all buildings and 
AC's apartment the highest in its surrounding area we had an unobstructed view of Taipei 101, which is about 20 minutes away. Being further away from the action, we also got great view of not only the 101 display, but also fireworks going off around Taipei City. So, at one time, we could see 6 or 7 lighting displays. And an elevator ride put us right back in the warmth of AC's home.
I hope everyone else had a great countdown too...! HAPPY NEW YEAR!
[Photo taken by EW who was closer to the 101 action. A little blurry though.]
AC's apartment the highest in its surrounding area we had an unobstructed view of Taipei 101, which is about 20 minutes away. Being further away from the action, we also got great view of not only the 101 display, but also fireworks going off around Taipei City. So, at one time, we could see 6 or 7 lighting displays. And an elevator ride put us right back in the warmth of AC's home.I hope everyone else had a great countdown too...! HAPPY NEW YEAR!
[Photo taken by EW who was closer to the 101 action. A little blurry though.]
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
