Penang- Deepavali weekend

Monday is a national holiday in singapore - Deepavali so I took the opportunity to take another trip (actually the holiday is on Tuesday but the government decided to change it to monday to make it more convenient- Deepavali is a hindu holiday celebrating the trimumph of good over evil. I think moving the holiday like this is the equivelent of moving the day of Chinese New Year for the Chinse or Christmas for Christians). So for the holiday weekend I'm Penang, Malaysia with friends. We arrived yesterday and immediatly it began raining... seems I have bad luck- but today it's sunny already and it should be good to get out and look around the island

Boracay, Philippines

For the last weekend of September/ first weekend of October we had another public holiday in Singapore- the Muslim holiday of Hari Raya Puasa ending the fasting during the monthRamdam. It also turns out a friend of mine I used to work with in San Diego but has since left HP and working in Portland was on a business trip in Asia and was planning to take some vacation as well.... so I decided that's good enough reason to plan another trip. This time it was Boracay, Philippines. I'd heard the internal transportation within Phillipines can sometimes not be as reliable as desired so we made the travel plans a little bit conservative by spending one night before and after Boracay in the capital of Manila. The flight to and from Boracay from Manila was short- just under an hour by plane south- then a boat ride from the main island onto Boracay island it self which is actually quite small. Like most of my vacations - as it seems- It was raining when I arrived and the weather wasn't that great. We had one good day of sunshine with the days overcast of sprinkling most of the other time. Boracay is really pretty nice with the main beach- called White Beach- stretching several kilometers along almost the whole west side of the island. People have been coming to Boracay for a decades and but recently I think the tourism is really starting to grow fast and most of the beach front is built up with small hotels or relaxed cafes and bars but it's nowhere near as commercialized as places like Phuket or Koh Samui in Thailand. It's also a top destination for kite boarding because of the strong sea breezes. It's also nice since there were hardly any motor boats around the beach as in Thailand- most of the boats here were sailboats for tours around the islands. We rented horses and took a tour up to the highest peak on the island, Mt. Luho on one of the days which was a lot of fun....and also hired a driver to take us around the different beaches on the island.
Some photos of the beach during sunset




A cock fighting rooster. Cock fighting is pretty big in the Philippines and there are a lot of these kinds of roosters all over the place (actually there are two in this picture). We didn't go to watch one of the actual cock fights... I think it's pretty sad to watch from what I've heard and it normally not even a real fight as often one of the two won't really even put up a fight at all. Often razors are attached to the claws of the roosters and I've heard a legend that at one fight one of the roosters flew up into the air and slashed at one of the spectators throat, killing him. Seriously, that's almost about like the last thing I need to happen on my vacation.


One particularly cool place we found was a resort on the beach north of the main beaches on the island. this resort was called Baling Hai and we found it only by coincidence from looking at different places on the island by hiring a driver to take us around. There were not really any rooms per say... each room was a separate building built out of stone and sea shells terraces down from the mainland to the beach- only seven different rooms are available to rent. Once you reached the water there was a private "port" where boats could dock and a private bar also made of rock and seashell where no bartender was stationed. to order a drink you could write it on the pad of paper, put the order in the bucket and use the pulley and rope to lift it back up to the top of the cliff where they would drop in the drinks and lower it back down. Pretty cool.
looking from the Baling Hai bar out to the water maybe five feet away.. this was a private dock where boat from the main land could drop the people staying at the resort.... definitely something worth looking into if there is ever another trip to Boracay


Anyway, despite the rain, we had a fun time on the trip and really enjoyed the island. There was one full day of sun... which really burnt me... but it's since turned into a nice tan. There was also very cheap beer and lots of really nice food all basically just on the beach. I'm not sure if I would go back to Boracay or not- for sure we had a really nice time there- but more than anything else it's made me realize there should be a lot of other great places to visit in the Philippines. Having never seriously considered the Philippines a vacation destination, now I've changed my opinion, and sometime soon I could see myself going to see what other places it has to offer.

manila fish spa

after retuning from Boracay and having one day to spend in Manila before our flights back home departed we were looking for things to do. It only so happens that I read on the in-flght-maganize that there was something called a fish spa in Manila at the Ocean Park marine aquarium.. So having nothing else to do we decided to go check this out. Basically "fish spa" means putting your feet into a pool filled with small fish that will start to eat you... or more precisely, they eat only the dead skin from your feet... and legs.. and anything else you place in the water. So before and I thought this should be easy, right? But when it came down to it.. putting your feet in the pool and watching them being surrounded by hundreds of fish, then letting them start to eat you was more than daunting... I freaked out! I was really surprised! but I guess it's some kind of self-preservation instinct where something eating you seems bad. Finally I was able to relax enough to let the little fish do their work and give me the 'fish pedicure.' and actually once you can get used to it... it's quite nice.

Phnom Penh

Towards the end of August I decided to fly to Phnom Penh, Cambodia, with a few of my friends to meet up with Joe- an old college friend who was out traveling around S.E. Asia for a few weeks. Actually Joe had been out to Singapore once already last year to visit and that time we took a trip to Thailand to see Bangkok and Phuket. This time I think Joe was much more adventurous and he went off on his own quite a bit. Before we met up with him in Phnom Penh he had already been to Koh Samui, Thailand; Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; and Siem Reap, Cambodia. As you can see in this picture below, he's a seasoned traveler, feeling at home in Asia.

Joe- blending in on the gritty streets of Phnom Penh. (note: with the guidebook in his left hand he's sure not to get lost)

This was the first time I'd been to Phnom Penh and really I've always had mix thoughts about visiting. It's reported as quite shocking even to those travelers who have seen Bangkok or Jakarta (as I had) because of it's unorganized, dirty, and crowded streets filled with beggars and cripples (from residual unexploded ordinance)- everywhere. Extreme poverty is something that can been seen all over the world and it's not easy to get used to, and it's almost unimaginable to see how people survive with almost nothing, living out their lives everyday in filth all in public view with hardly any privacy, something I've really taken for granted most of my life- just having somewhere to go (like a house) to go to get off the street. The city wasn't as bad as I had read about though and I thought some of the places I saw in India were much worse than this.

In my opinion Phnom Penh is not really not a tourist city in that there aren't many well known tourist attractions which I find somewhat strange since in the early 20th century before the Vietnam War and subsequent rule of the Khmer Rouge it was considered one of the most beautiful cities in S.E. Asia and known as the Paris of the East. During the war, the Khmer Rouge was an underestimated force even while fighting erupted and they littered the jungles with millions of land mines, many of which are still active. Following the American withdraw from Vietnam, and Cambodia, Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge forces marched into the city in celebration. Shortly after, this the celebration ended and one of the known world's largest genocides began as he began the reassignment of everyone form the city to the country side where they were forced to work in the fields as slaves to establish his vision of an agrarian utopia. Almost anyone educated, anyone with glasses, or anyone found to listen to the radio or watch television were taken, tortured then killed. In total, nearly 2,000,000 people were executed by their fellow countrymen serving under the Khmer Rouge. Before this war, Cambodia had a flourishing pop music and culture scene- all of which was wiped out as all urban areas were evacuated. Even looking at the history of existing facts of what happened it's hard to believe or understand why this occurred. At some point momentum seems to have taken over and anyone serving in the military who opposed was also killed, few even knowing for sure why they were doing it but at the same time afraid to oppose for fear of being killed.

So now the state of Phnom Penh is a bit mixed. It's since been reoccupied by people and still growing into a busy city as people carve out livings from businesses but it's still establishing itself and maintains an undertone of a wild boom town. Booths to check your guns before entering bars or clubs weren't uncommon, neither was getting frisked (a real frisk by some serious looking dude, not like they do at the airport). Most of the recent tourism has been based on the Tuol Sleng genocide museum- a former school converted by the Khmer Rouge into a human processing center and torture site, trips to the killing fields where thousands were killed in the country side, or live shooting ranges where people could shoot anything from hand guns to tank cannons for a small price. I've heard the shooting ranges have more recently been toned down in attempts to curb Cambodia's image of a lawless place. I really had no desire to visit any of these places- not that I don't it's important to remember and respect what had happened but it's really depressing to see. Joe and my friend Patrick went to see the genocide museum and I think they both felt sick by the time they returned.
While it's hard to understand what had happened in Cambodia's past, it's also hard to understand other things that have been occurring more recently there as the billboards all over town and signs posted in most hotel rooms remind you that having sex with children is a punishable crime. Sex tourism, especially for underage children, had become common and more immediately attests to how sick, selfish and greedy people can be to take advantage of those in less fortunate situations than themselves- and it's the same greed causing men to sale their children into sexual slavery for money as the financiers and bankers who continued to get rich while knowing at some point their practices would collapse, sending us into the current world financial crisis. People can be very bad at times.

Despite not shooting any guns, visiting the genocide memorials or having sex with anyone including children I managed to have a memorable and mostly fun time during the two days we spent there. So- what else is there to do in a strange Asian city with some of the most dirty streets with some of the worst drivers around but to rent bikes and experience it. While Joe and Patrick went to see the genocide museum, Fal and I rented some bikes and took off to see the city.The bike ride route: We started somewhere near the city center and made a route to go south then come back up along a canal we saw on the map (turns out the canal looked much better on the map than in person). After heading up the canal we continued on to try to see the giant Beong Kak Lake... which though we heard was nice, I think it was better on the map as well since access to the lake shore was limited and we barely could even get a glimpse of the sun setting over it. Never-the-less we did get to see a lot of the city and experience riding in the traffic, soaking up the noise, dust and pollution. Phnom Penh drivers are noted to be very bad and the only rule of driving seemed to be "don't hit anything", and though the traffic also drives on the right side of the road (since it wasn't a British colony), you wouldn't necessarily notice it since say you had to go only a short distance you can just go ahead and drive on the left side rather than try to cross traffic- seriously there aren't any rules. Somehow it seems to work though and strangely I felt more comfortable on a bike in traffic there than I do in Singapore. The traffic is a mix of cars, trucks, pedestrians, bikes, scooters, tuk-tuks, and ox-drawn carts and stray dogs.
The canal had the most glassy... black water I've ever seen. Of course it takes a lot of pollution to make water like that. It really wasn't as nice as it looks in the picture... but as a source of flowing water it was of course a center of activity with housing and businesses built up around it the entire length.

the girl at the shop where we rented the bikes and her miniature designer dog the size of your hand. I was very surprised to see so many of this type of bred miniature dog around the city... somehow they seemed out of place but I guess people like what they like...

The Silver Pagoda in the royal palace complex, originally constructed with 5,000 silver tiles for the floor.

Touring the Central Market. This was pretty standard for a an Asian market. Though in the wet market I was surprised there were so many frogs and eels which must be fresh from the Mekong River.

Patrick enjoying some stuffed and skewered frogs cooked there at the market.

Later we saw just how fresh the frogs were... these were offered for sale- already skinned and beheaded... but not dead as they were still moving. I guess they must sale this many in one day... otherwise I have no idea why they would skin them all alive like that. Walking in these markets you get used to seeing beef, pork, poultry and fish butchered and laid out in the heat but this was more than slightly disturbing to me. At the top of the picture you can see the eels... yes they are alive as well.

Lots of shirts were available for purchase, too.

Our hotel was right along the Mekong River on Sisowath Quay. Around sunset, sitting at a cafe along the Riverside Boulevard on the Mekong, time really seems to slow down and it's easy to imagine what the city must have been like in it's prime so many years ago. There is still evidence of it in other parts of the city where some of the remaining French buildings are now being renovated, many of the turned into boutique hotels for the growing tourist influx.


Overlooking Riverside Boulevard to the Mekong from the hotel balcony at night and the next morning

An introspective looking tourist in a Phnom Penh cafe

Looking back on the trip there isn't any major thing we saw or activity we did that made the trip special or necessarily worth recommending others to go see the city. I would not normally recommend this trip as we did it- as the only destination, but I would definitely recommend it to see in addition to other sites in Cambodia- Siem Reap (and the temples near Angkor Wat) being by far the largest attraction. I think in general these kinds of trips have become my favorite since there is no agenda or itinerary- instead you can just go to live and explore for a few days with no pressure to finish everything or rush to see any one thing.

Also See Fal's pictures of Phnom Penh

Singapore Rainbow

Walking home from work on the first day after getting back from the Philippines I saw this rainbow- One of the few I remember seeing while here

progress

A picture of the constuction site that's been next to my condo since I've moved in. It's getting close to being finished and it's starting to look a lot better than the pit in the ground that was there when I moved in.

Taken Jan 2007

Barcelona

Barcelona ia a great city and coming from London I was also very happy that it was warm. It's also a great city for architecture and Gaudi's works are scattered throughout the city. The old city is really cool, full of narrow windy streets with cafes and shops.

Barcelona from Parc Guell

The Sagrada Familia church- unfinished when Gaudi died it's still under constuction

deserted neighborhood street at night

Jamon- cured ham is everywhere.

Street Festival. People in Barcelona stay out very late
People waiting for a drink at the street festival

Barcelona has some scattered pieces of modern art throughout the city. These were purposely place to act as points of interest and points to congregate or meet as they easily identify a location. So you can tell someone to meet up at The Cubes or meet at El Gato and they will know exactly where you mean. See what I mean? :"The Cubes" at the beach. It was also interesting to find out that the beaches were built up especially for the 1992 Olympic Games held here. Barcelona has historically been a town of commerece and the port area was used for docks and trading, not relaxing and tanning as they are now.

El Gato de Botero on Rambla de Raval

leaving tain...

After leaving tain I went on with a few of the others to Inverness for a day and half before taking the overnight train back to London. Inverness was designated as a City in Scotland going into the year 2000 which seems to be a big deal since the tour guide said the last time a town was made a city was over 100 before. The population didn't really matter when renaming a town as a city but one requirement is that it had to have a Cathedral which Inverness did. It's also the site of the Highland Games and we were there one day after they were held...I'm sure you've seen some of these events held in the games... the caber toss- seeing how far they can throw a giant tree trunk. They also see how far they can throw other things like rocks and hammer and just weights of different masses. I think the highlands of Scotland must be a rough place to grow up.



Loch Ness is very near Inverness so I went on a tour to see if I could catch a glimpse of Nessie.Actually I had never realized how big Loch Ness is - It's not the largest in surface area but because it's so deep it's total volume is greater than all the other lakes in England and Whales combined. It's also very beautiful, surrounded by sharp rising hills covered with grass and heather. Urquhart Castle is also right on the lake. As a historical strong point in nothern Scotland it had stood for hundreds of years occupied by differnet rulers of the time.












After Inverness I took the overnight train back to London. This time it was a direct train with no change so it would be a very long ride. I think from about 9pm to 9am the next morning arriving in London Euston Station. Because it was an overnight train sleeping train again you needed to make reservations in addition to having a ticket. I guess I made the reservation too late because I didn’t get a bed and had to spend the whole night in just a normal seat. NNL

So arriving in London I had one day to see the city before getting to the airport that night to fly to Barcelona. Not knowing what to do in the city, I got a ticket for a hop on- hop off city bus tour which ended up being pretty good for getting around and seeing the main tourist sites. London Tower. Tower Bridge. River Thames. Parliament Building. Big Ben. Buckingham Palace. Picadely Circus. Hyde Park. Fleet Street.

The Tower of London- inside are the crown jewels...
The Tower Bridge. I think this is a nice looking bridge.
London Bridge. This is the most recent of the London Bridges, the last one that stood in the same place was falling down so some American bought it and shipped it over to Lave Havasu in Arizona and rebuilt it.
Big Ben. You'll never guess what time I took this picture.
Buckingham Palace.

The London Eye... I don't think this is iconic of Singapore since it's pertty new there- installed for y2k. Singapore liked it so much that they coppied it and built their own one here, but bigger of course.

I was surprised how much I was able to see in a pretty short time…given I only had half a day. And London was freezing also... It was fun to go around the city for one day but since I had no warm clothes I couldn't enjoy too much and I was ready to move on to some warm weather- in Barcelona