short sedona vacation

Just back last night from a short vacation in Sedona, Arizona. Met with family and did a lot of hiking. It’s my second time there – last time we did basically the same things and the same hikes but it didn’t seem old doing them again. It’s such a relaxing place.

first impressions of israel

I arrived in Tel Aviv, Israel, last Friday for a one week work summit. Upon returning to San Diego after leaving Singapore I joined a group that is partnering with another R&D site just south of Tel Aviv. So today concluded my first business trip to Israel but I still have tomorrow for sight seeing in Jerusalem before a late night flight back to San Diego. The view from my hotel in Tel Aviv just after checking in last Friday

The work week is Sunday to Thursday here so we also had last Saturday for sight seeing so some of us hired a guide to tour around the North near Galilee. We mostly visited the main sights of Jesus’ life, his home while living with Mary and Joseph in Nazareth, the sea of Galilee near where he gave the sermon on the mount, the rock he and peter cooked fish and peter built the first church beside the sea of Galilee, Peter's Family house and the river Jordan where Jesus was baptized.
For lunch I had one of the fish the guide told us was still left over from after the sermon on the mount. Fish and chips, Israeli style.

We also had a work team building in Jerusalem Tuesday night at the Tower of David- a light show covering the history of the city over 3000 years. Before coming to Israel I didn’t know exactly what to expect. I'd heard stories of everyone carrying guns around the city but I couldn't really believe it. People always exaggerate what they don't know and it turns out it's not true, but couldn't help but notice our guide did have a pistol tucked into his back pant waistline and two other people not with our company that had joined our group- who I later found our were part of the security for our group. I can say that this is the first time I've had armed bodyguards looking after me (well, for our whole group actually).

The Tower of David at night

oh, yeah, one other interesting thing was the government started passing out gas masks to all the citizens while we where there- one of the distribution sites was at our office. Actually, only adults get gas masks, the children and babies get small gas tents to protect them in the case of chemical attack. I may have seemed strage to me but to the coworkers this was not that big of a deal...


Actually, I like it here a lot and it seems much safer than I'd imagined. Even walking around at night, the streets are still full of people and it feels surprisingly safe. Especially after spending the last three years in Singapore it's amazing to be around so much history intertwined with normal life. Just a few minutes walking south of the hotel is the port of Jaffa- one of the oldest in the work at about 4000 years and the place Jonah headed out to sea before being swallowed by a whale. The old neighborhoods are so cool to walk around night, full of character, life, bars and restaurants. The food is really fresh and healthy- literally I've never seen so many different types of salads in my life- and the people are friendly. I had never even considered coming to Israel before this but now that I’ve been here I am really excited about coming back and seeing more of the country. It will be nice to get home to san diego on saturday though.

rain and planes

It’s been a week in San Diego and so far it's a lot of rain. On my first day here last Saturday San Diego had the first measurable rain in 163 days, and today it's been pouring all day long. People in San Diego don't see much rain so when they do, they drive really crazy- I noticed the roads don't deal with the water, allowing it to drain off quickly, as well as the Singapore roads. The first rain days of the season see literally hundreds of car crashes on the roads throughout the county since the roads are at their most slick state when wetted after the long dry period.

Over the weekend I flew up to Sacramento for my brother's swearing in to the Bar Association. It's a quick flight up to Sacramento and was pretty routine until after we landed. After we reached the gate and the seatbelt sign was turned off things got very strange. Nobody got up to grab their bags, stand in the aisles and push to the front to get out first. This is so common and almost second nature to me after being on flights in Asia so long that I really had to fight the urge to keep seated and wait for the people to deplane in such an orderly manner. It's actually pretty nice, and doesn't take any longer to get off the plane.

In Sacramento we also had a turducken for dinner Saturday night. a turkey stuffed with a chicken that is stuffed with a duck which is stuffed with ... stuffing. First time having it and it was pretty good. Coined "The Trinity of the Fowl" by our grandfather. The turkey part exploded during the cooking splitting it in half It was a bit of a mess to cut and ended up as a huge plate of fowl and stuffing

Yogjakarta, Java, Indonesia

A holiday weekend meant a chance to get out of Singapore for a short vacation. The destination was Yogjakarta, Indonesia. This is a place I've wanted to see for a few years and recently it's become much easier to reach since one of the budget airlines started up a direct flight to and from Singapore. In 2006 there was a large earthquake causing damage to many of the buildings and historic temples- it also coincided with massive mud slides and an eruption of Mt. Merapi nearby.... direct flights from Singapore were stopped making the trip a little more involved and difficult to see over a weekend. There's a lot of interesting places to see in Java- from cities, historic sites and temples, and volcanoes. The main reason people travel to Yogja is for the Buddhist and Hindo temples of borobudur and Prambanan. The damage from the earthquake at Prambanan was still evident as about half of it was still closed off and under repair.

Horse and carriage is still commonly used for transportation around Yogja, alongside cars, bikes, and scooters

Wile walking around the city we came across a group of kids customizing their bikes on the street- these were like low-rider bikes I'd see in San Diego- you never know what you'll come across in Indonesia


We had a better view of Mt. Merapi from the city.... after driving all the way up the view point we found it completely clouded in and raining with no view to the peak at all. You should see a giant volcano where the cloud is



Borobudur - A Buddhist temple build somewhere around 750AD and used for many centuries. It was eventually abandoned then rediscovered in the early 1800's by Raffles during his posting in Java. Souvenir hunters looted the temples for artifacts - many of the Buddha heads have been stolen- for years until a effort was launched under UNESCO in the late 1970's restoring it to it's current form.






The holiday weekend happened to Vesak, a Buddhist holiday celebrating the birth, enlightenment and passing of Buddha. As Borobudur still functions as a Buddhist temple, there is a massive pilgrimage there over the holiday. We decided to see the temple the day after the holiday as over 10,000 people are usually expected to visit during the festival.

Prambanan, a Hindu temple from the similar time period around 800AD- it's also a UNESCO site and had been extensively restored by the mid 1900's only to be seriously damaged again during the 2006 earthquake. Even though about half of the complex is still closed for repair it is an impressive site none-the-less.

Italy trip 2009

The whole trip in Italy was short- just one week in total. Three nights in the Cinque Terre along the coast, two nights in Venice and the last two nights in Verona before flying back to Singapore.

The Cinque Terre area in northwest Italy is a national park made mainly of five small towns along the coast, all connected though a network of hiking trails. It's a beautiful area full of limoncello, pesto, focaccia and fresh seafood. Unfortunately a huge storm hit all of Northern Italy for the whole trip so it was cold and wet the whole trip and only did one short hike between Monterosso where we stayed and Vernazza, the next town south. The view from the hotel in Monterosso
Riomaggiore- the town furthest south
A small limoncello production setup in Monterosso


After Cinque it was a long train ride to Venice and though this was my third time to Venice it was the fist time actually staying there on what's considered the main islands. Just as I had always suspected, it's a pain walking with your luggage trying to find your hotel in the maze of the Venetian streets... especially since it was also in the rain. It's not difficult and actually fun to wander around the city using the main markers for Rialto, Academia, etc. for reference but when you try to find a specific address... that's where it gets difficult. Eventually, theorecically, with enough time you can find any place in Venice (at least one time), and if not, it's best to just enjoy walking around or stopping at a cafe on a square to have a spritz and watch the tourists go by (there's something cilivized about this drink I like but could never find it in Singapore). On the second day we took the boats out to Murano and Burano islands.
St Mark's Square in Venice
The Rialto Bridge- used to be the center of finance and power for Venetian trade.


From Venice, it's a short ride to Verona on the way back to Milan. Verona is the location of Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet. It's also home to the Romans third largest arena at the center of the city which is still used today, mainly in the summer for a season of outdoor opera performances.
Juliet's Balcony- said to the location of the Capulet family house where the balcony scene in the play took place, though in reality it was set up to attract tourists who forget that it was actually a play and not reality where the scene occurred. Still, it's one of the biggest attractions in the town......and below the balcony is the statue of Juliet where a tradition of rubbing her breast (and having someone take your picture while doing it) began long ago. It's not unlike the tradition of rubbing the foot of St. Peter statue in the Basilica at Vatican City... though that tradition has been going on so long the foot has been replaced several times after gradually being worn away with every touch.. What will be the fate of Juliet's breast which has already been polished to a shine?... of course there's a boob job joke coming up in the future.

The Verona Arena- Completed in 30AD and still used today, it's the 3rd largest Roman arena built- the Colosseum in Rome being the first.

Night scenes in Verona

Murano

I just got back into Singapore from a week vacation in North Italy with, not unexpectedly, one of the highlights being the day off Venice in Murano- partly but not only because of a huge freak storm that hit all of northern Italy which meant we saw a lot of rain. It's been almost three years since my last time in Murano for the goblet class at Abate Zanetti by Elio Quarisa and for this trip I had a few specific things to see... the top being to find Davide Fuin's workshop to watch him working. He's one of the best Venetion goblet masters still working- my instructor, Ron, had taken a class from him at Corning several years ago and I'd seen some video of him working from that- since then I've heard that's he pretty open to people visiting his studio and watching him work as well. So on Murano, after about an hour there it started pouring rain and in such cases, just about the best place to be is in a glass studio next the furnace at 1000+C degrees... so we walked way out of the tourist area to the studio's address, rang the bell, exchanged some words in English to the lady who answered in Italian and she buzzed us in, still not sure what we were doing there.
After walking in the door I quickly started to explain the story about how one of my instructors had taken a class from him and I'd see his work before and had traveled here to see him was hoping to look at more of his work... to which she laughed nervously and said "I don't really speak English... but you're a friend of Davide, I see. He is working inside," and she took us back to the studio. He was working with his team inside and they were very friendly to us. I got to see him make a few goblets and few larger tops for bowls which I think must have been samples of options for a custom order. Once they finished for the day he came over and talked a little with us. I told him one of my instructors had taken a class from him and he remembered him and he told us his storeroom was upstairs if we wanted to see. It was packed with literally hundreds of pieces and they'd sell it at relatively cheap prices. It seems they don't advertise to sell their work directly there.. if you happen to come in they will sell it, but it seemed most of the work was sold to custom orders or to other resellers on Murano or in Venice. It takes years, like 10-20 years working every day, to get to the skill level that Davide Fuin works at and many of the younger people on Murano either don't want to become glass blowers or don't want to continue making glass in the classic venetion designs. We talked to another glass house earlier that day that had six generations of glass masters in the family- each was taught by the father passing down the tradition and technique- the latest master though, the 6th generation, doesn't want to continue working in the same technique and designs and his work is much more contemporary and he wants to work as a glass designer and not the master blower- which is good since he wants to express himself differently and appeal to a wider market but at the same time, as this happens, hundreds of years of secrets and technique are being lost. Normally a simple goblet of Davide Fuin would go for 140-150 euros; older pieces from previous generations will go for much more. We got one goblet and one simple tumbler…. I must have been in a very strange mindset when I was there because now I’m kicking myself for not buying more goblets… they were so many nice ones… but at the time I was thinking I just wanted something more simple from him that would use on a normal basis which is why I got the tumbler- as a souvenir I think it serves the purpose better since it reminds me of the trip when I use it .. those goblets are more for just sitting on the shelves.
The goblet and tumbler we got from Davide's factory storeroom.


Here's a few other pictures of a studio I had taken on the last trip to Murano in 2006.A glass furnace and tool bench at the Elite factory on Murano- from the 2006 trip.

Afterwards the sun was out and we went to another shop to visit a friend, Amy, from when I was there in 2006. She’s working under a master glass engraver and had been in Murano for four years. It was good to chat and catch up.. she showed some pictures from the high waters of December 1st, 2008 and from just a few days before when the water was high enough to come up into their shop.

Murano is really a great place to visit… I think more so if you have something specific to see or do there since otherwise you can just find yourself wandering though the shops randomly looking at so many trinkets… half of them actually sadly being from China.

San Diego cups

When in San Diego early February I was very lucky to spend a few days at the glass studio and made some cups I was pretty happy with. It was very unexpected to get so much time glassblowing and I really had fun while catching up with friends, especially since it's only a few times a year that I get the chance. I was also invited to another friend's studio in Encinitas one of the mornings and I made a few things there as well. Thanks Ron and Cindy! I really wish there were a studio set up in Singapore...

Blown at Fat Baby Glass in La Jolla: 3 cups (I forgot to take a picture of one other goblet I made at the studio...)

Blown at Cindy's Studio in Encinitas: cups

CA again

I'm at the airport again getting ready to board a flight back to California for my home leave trip. Flying into LAX I'll spend almost a week in San Diego in and out of the office and a few days in Sacramento visiting family. It turns out the whole family will be in Sac at Nathan and Michelle's that weekend so it will be good to see everyone.

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