~ GO ~

What's In My Bag

noreply@blogger.com (Yi Lin) — Sun, 24 Apr 2011 16:20:00 +0000

I know that this is a really strange entry after a long, long hiatus from our travel blog, but it's got nowhere else to go since it doesn't fit into my Maybe Baby blog either.

Well, I got tagged in miss ene's blog on what's in her lovely (new) (Miu Miu) bag to do a similar entry in my blog. Now miss ene was a reader of our GO travel blog while we were on the road in 2009 and is now one of my favourite commenters on the newer Maybe Baby blog, so I'm more than happy to oblige! (Also because she said the lazy alternative of spilling the contents of my handbag onto the table over lunch did not count.)

Of course, what I tote around in my bag now is a far cry from the stuff I lugged around in my backpack during our GO trip. Dan did a post on the travel items that we found indispensable during our 10 months on the road and the only item in common in that post and this one are my Internet banking tokens. Money rule$!

So very quickly, here a brief rundown of the stuff that lives in my handbag:

The Bag

I change my handbag every few weeks depending on my mood. At the moment, I'm carrying a handy little Kate Spade tote. I love its trapezoid shape and the fact that it's structure (I don't like floppy bags), softness (important when it gets squished up against your body in a crowded train), depth and roominess all rolled into one. It's lightweight too because it's made of fabric, not leather. The bag can be easily secured and opened with a single magnetic press stud (making it convenient to reach inside and yet keeping its contents hidden from prying eyes and sticky fingers.) The straps are just the right length so that the bag hangs comfortably from my shoulder, arm or hands. Cost - can't quite remember but it couldn't have been very much since I bought it from an outlet mall in the US and there was a 50% Memorial Day discount on top of that.

The Contents

At first glance, there are only three items in my bag: an 'inner' bag, wallet and phone.

The bag-within-a-bag was a birthday gift from my colleague last year. It's thin and lightweight, so it doesn't add much bulk or heft to the bag. It's numerous pockets keep small, loose items nicely compartmentalised, and I no longer leave behind items such as my office access pass, ezlink card and keys whenever I switch bags.

The Kate Spade wallet was also a sale item bought in the US on the long trip (heck, every Kate Spade item I own is from a US outlet mall.)

The phone is decked in the cute, new 'lovebirds' design cover which the husband bought on a recent trip to Bangkok. I love it!

The Bag-in-a-Bag

Digging deeper into the inner layers of my bag-in-a-bag:

First up, two pouches that contain a few necessities. The golden Kipling pouch was also a cheap buy from an US outlet mall (damn, I miss shopping in the US!) Its three separate compartments contain just-in-case items which I don't feel safe without having on standby: plasters (for foot blisters caused by painful shoes), facial blotters, Panadol, hair ties, lip balm, comb and mirror (never know when you need to check your teeth!)

The smaller pouch is a gift from another colleague from a trip to Beijing. It doubles up as a tissue holder on the reverse side. I MUST have a tissue holder because I hate how crumply the plastic packets become after a few uses and the tissue becomes all crushed and gross-looking.

Next up is the work stuff: my Case Logic lanyard cum phone pouch (which my iPhone fits ever-so-snugly in) on which I hang my office pass, SD card (aka thumbdrive), office keys and email access tokens. It's actually too heavy to be worn around the neck and not too comfortable when it swings against my chest! But it keeps all the office necessities in one place.

There's also my sleek Muji namecard holder, a (free hotel) pen and pencil for scribbling notes during meetings and site visits.

Then there are the transport-related items such as my car keys and ezlink card, as well as the all-important Internet banking tokens (yups, all four of them) and my house keys.

I also carry around a few items that make my daily commute and lunch hours a little more pleasant: earphones (wound neatly inside a rubber holder), a bag hook which was another birthday gift and a collapsable I Love Children fan for those hot humid days (which is practically every day.)

Lastly, there are the latest additions which only joined the collection in the bag after I got pregnant: sealable puke bag from the ferry ride in Bintan and accupressure wristbands to manage/combat unexpected nausea attacks (although the urge to throw up has yet to hit), mints to remove yucky tastes (to reduce any urge of puking) and a rather old, very flattened mini muesli bar in case I get hungry. Although I would have to get very very hungry to want to eat it because it looks utterly unappetising after being carried around for five months.

Oh wait, lastly lastly, there's my new super slim super lightweight foldable umbrella. I usually hate cluttering my bag with an umbie, simply because it's not exactly the smallest lightest item to carry around on a daily basis - and you don't even need to use it on a daily basis! But, since the pregnancy, I've realised that my life and body isn't all about me anymore. I can no longer just heck it and make a quick dash for shelter in the event of rain because (a) I can't afford to fall ill and (b) I'm getting increasingly less nimble so I can't run very fast anymore and there's a higher chance of slipping on wet ground and falling. So there went $19 for a new black and white polka dot umbrella (I figured it was more interesting than plain black and would still match about just anything I wear.)

Writing this post has made me realise that there is loads of stuff in my bag! Too much? I regularly do a bout of housekeeping whenever I find my shoulders starting to ache under the weight of my bag, so I often remove items which I realise I don't use often enough to make it worth my lugging around. Such as extra make-up. So I don't really know what else to cut out. Ah well.

Another realisation is that I really need to get back to travel blogging. I've been spending the long weekend re-reading entries from the GO trip and it's been such a lovely trip down memory lane. I realised that there would have been so many incidents, experiences, thoughts and emotions already forgotten if not for them being recorded in this blog. I really need to start immortalising our Italy trip (from six months ago last November!) and our recent Bali babymoon before the memories are gone forever.

So miss ene, thanks for giving me a good kick-in-the-ass to keep this blog movin'. I really needed it!

We Did It!

noreply@blogger.com (Yi Lin) — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 15:23:00 +0000

It has been a long (but seemingly fast) 1 year and 2 months since we returned from our big trip in January 2010. Just as we thought that everyone had forgotten that we were once an energetic, adventure-loving couple (hard to tell judging from how sedentary our lives have become), Simply Her contacted me for an interview and a request to feature us in the April issue. The article was about planning and managing finances while taking a Gap Year from work. The writer had obtained the contact from a TNP journalist, who had interviewed us for a similar newspaper feature almost a year ago - but the story never made it to print. Bah.

Since about 90% of the interview for Simply Her also never made it to print, here is the full interview reproduced for our lovely followers. If you're planning to run away from home (and reality) for a while, this is your financial travel bible.

Simply Her: Please share with me your reasons for going on a sabbatical.

My husband and I have always been avid travelers. In fact, we both met in 2004 while working in the travel industry: him as a sales executive in an airline and myself as a travel consultant. We married in 2005 and decided to embark on efforts to start a family in 2007. But I saw then that family plans would prove a major obstacle to realising my dream of doing a year-long backpacking trip around the world. So we decided to put family plans on hold as it was more logical, practical and less expensive to travel as a couple instead of a family with young children. (I blogged about this for MaybeBaby, you can refer to the full story here: http://www.maybebaby.sg/blog/2010/05/08/the-story-of-us-her-story-part-3/)

SH: How long were you away? What did you do?

We traveled for ten months straight, from end-March 2009 to end-Jan 2010. We visited key cities (e.g. Los Angeles, San Francisco, Las Vegas, New York City, Boston, Miami, etc.) and National Parks (e.g. Death Valley, Grand Canyon, Everglades, Yellowstone, Yosemite, Zion & Bryce, Rockies, etc.) in the United States. From the USA, we visited several Caribbean islands such as Puerto Rico, St Lucia, the Bahamas, Barbados, St Kitts & Nevis. In South America, we traveled studied Spanish and traveled through Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Chile, Bolivia, Argentina and Brazil. Highlights included (click on links to read the posts):

- River rafting in San Gil (Colombia)

- Photographing hummingbirds in the cloud forest in Mindo (Ecuador)

- Whale watching and seeing blue-footed boobies in Puerto Lopez (Ecuador)

- Viewing the Nazca Lines, exploring Machu Picchu and eating guinea pig (Peru)

- Cruising amongst ice bergs and glaciers in Chile

- Doing a jeep safari amongst salt plains, coloured lagoons and wild flamingos in Uyuni (Bolivia)

- Traveling to the end of the world to Ushuaia; watching street tango; eating the best beef in the world in Argentina

- Experiencing life on the beach in Copacabana and Ipanema; walking amidst the Iguazu Falls and cosying up to exotic birds in Brazil

SH: What were your main financial considerations about being away from your job for so long?

Basically how we were going to fund our trip as well as keep expenses at home going (e.g. car instalment payments, insurance premiums, etc.)

How did you negotiate with your employer to take this time off?

I had been working with my current employer for two years at the time I broached the subject. The organisation I work in has been generally understanding and generous in granting staff no-pay leave to attend to personal matters and to take up opportunities for personal growth development, such as extended maternity leave, study leave, accompanying their spouse on an overseas posting, etc. but no one had ever asked for a year off simply to travel. I was very grateful when they acceded to request. I guess it helped that I promised to return to work for the organisation and not quit in the near future…

SH: How long did planning for this sabbatical take?

It was about 1.5 years from the time we made the decision to go until the time we left Singapore. Planning was done at a gradual pace throughout this time.

SH: What kind of financial arrangements did you have to make before going on this trip? (eg: arrange for your family to help you settle any legal issues, arrange to give your family power of attorney to handle your financial matters, set up GIRO account for monthly bills, set up internet banking, pay your bills in advance, etc)

- Meeting with financial planner to set the budget

- Setting up GIRO accounts for monthly bills such as utilities, car installment payments, club memberships, etc.

- Setting up internet banking so that we could pay credit card bills while overseas

SH: How much did you budget for your sabbatical? How long did you take to save this amount or How did you raise the money?

We budgeted S$60,000 total for two persons for 1 year. This included having to pay for all continuing expenses at home, such as home mortgage, car installments, insurance premiums, club memberships, etc. Over the 1.5 years leading to this trip, we made a very conscious effort to apportion a huge part of our income into a trip fund. We also cut back on small luxuries such as expensive dinners, shopping, etc. We only invested in items that we would use extensively on this trip e.g. a DSLR, a wide-angle camera lens, good-quality traveling bags, portable hard disks, etc. Our good friends also helped us out through their thoughtful farewell gifts, like a GPS unit, fleece jacket, Skype credits, outdoor equipment (e.g. dry sacks, scarves) and even a season pass to the Six Flags theme parks in the US. We tried raising some money by selling calendars featuring photographs we had taken while on the trip but while sales were good, the profit margin wasn’t very high.

Our budgeting for the trip would have been a lot more haphazard if it were not for our financial advisor. She worked out our target savings each month before our trip, and also helped us lay out a whole list of our monthly expenses that we tried very hard to reduce before we left Singapore.

- For example:

- i) My parents-in-law were staying with us in our HDB flat and they rented out theirs flat. We got a share in the rental income that they deposit into the bank for us.

- ii) My sister rented our car, so she has helped us cut our car installments by half with her rental fees.

- iii) We also looked into things like suspending handphone services from for a nominal monthly fee, premium holidays, and anything else that made sense.

SH: What was this money spent on when you were on your sabbatical?

Accommodation, plane/train/bus tickets, car rental and gas, food, entrance/tour fees.

SH: Please share with me about other financial commitments that you had in Singapore – mortgages, bank loans, monthly bills, gym/country club memberships, car payments, insurance payments, etc – how did you honour your commitments? (Please be specific on what kind of financial commitments these were, how much they were, and what you did to honour these commitments eg: iBanking, arrange for family member to pay your bills, etc)

- Home mortage for 5-room HDB flat: completely paid through CPF

- Bank loans: nil

- Monthly bills: suspended all handphone bills; paid for HDB utilities through GIRO

- Country club membership: talked to club to reduce monthly membership to nominal ‘absentee member’ fee for 1 year, paid via GIRO

- Insurance payments: bugeted for and paid via GIRO

- All credit card bills paid via iBanking

- Family members helped us make payments for things like income tax, conservancy charges, etc. through cheques or AXS machines

SH: Did you have an emergency fund (how much?) that you can fall back on in case of an emergency while on sabbatical, or for some reason, you can’t get your job back at the end of your sabbatical?

- We bought travel insurance for a year to cover any medical or other emergencies that may arise while on sabbatical

- We did not have an emergency fund. If we ran out of money earlier than intended, we would have just come home

- While my husband had to quit his job, my employer had held a place for me so we weren’t particularly worried about this aspect

SH: How else did you save money and cut corners?

- Before the trip: see above on how we saved the money

- During the trip:

- In the USA: constantly searched for and flew budget airlines for domestic flights, survived on Subway, fast food and Walmart roast chicken from the deli (cheapest food avail.) We stayed in motels throughout and conscientiously researched on and compared prices across booking websites. No shopping.

- In the Caribbean: we flew budget airlines from the USA and stayed in hostels where possible. We searched around for the less expensive cruises, which turned out to be a good deal as they covered accommodation, meals and transport. But we had to forgo day trips offered to cruise guests as these were very expensive. Instead, we took public transport and made our own way to public beaches or cafes in town to relax while the ship docked. Absolutely no shopping.

- In South America: cost of living in most South American countries is relatively cheap, which was one of the reasons we chose the Americas over Europe for this trip. Still, we constantly searched for cheapest hostels on booking websites and looked for inexpensive meals, often cooking our own in the hostel kitchens such as pasta and instant noodles. We also sourced for tours carefully so as to get the best value for money. As far as possible, we stay in hostels with that offer free WiFi so that we don’t have to pay for internet access. Minimal shopping limited to unique souvenirs such as inexpensive wood carvings from the handicraft market.

- Basically, it helps to invest in good quality equipment right from the start as these are relatively inexpensive and easily obtainable in Singapore (e.g. versatile backpack, smartly-designed outdoor gear that can cater to a range of weather conditions and temperatures, cameras, laptops, iPhone/iPod, etc.) instead of having something breakdown halfway (e.g. camera, laptop) in the wilderness and pay an arm and a leg to get it repaired/replaced. That said, we did have to replace a camera (that drowned) and my laptop barely scraped through the trip. Getting vaccinations beforehand and staying healthy throughout the trip helps cut down medical expenses too.

SH: Estimated expenses during Trip (food, lodging, airfares)?

- Airfare: $5,000

- Accommodation: $30,000

- Car rental, bus/train tickets, tours, food, miscellaneous (e.g. visa fees, toiletries, etc.): $15,000

- Insurance, country club membership fees, car instalments, utilities, etc: $10,000

SH: Mortgage?

Can’t really recall. Say $1,300 per month paid via CPF. We sold our HDB upon returning to Singapore.

SH: Money to parents?

Nil. Our parents kindly waived the need for monthly contributions while we were traveling (Thanks mum! Thanks dad! Thanks parents-in-law! *wave*)

Celebrating Singapore: Of Cream Sauces & Saucy Games

noreply@blogger.com (Yi Lin) — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 05:34:00 +0000

** Warning: this post is rated NC16. Parents - consider yourselves warned **

The week before my birthday, the husband had been raving deliriously on his Facebook status about how much he was looking forward to the "dirty weekend".

And no, he wasn't referring to the lack of showers (think, people, think!)

So much so that our friend Jeremy commented that Dan seemed more excited over the hotel stay than his birthday wife did. Tsk. Down, boy, down!

However, we were definitely both equally excited about one aspect of the weekend celebration - dinner with friends, from what we call our Social Events group. I'm guessing the nomenclature arose because we kinda started going out together when Mandy, Zen and I were working in MAS on the Singapore 2006 IMF-World Bank meetings a few years back. I was part of the team organising the social events for the delegates and their spouses, and we somehow must have agreed to continue coordinating "meetings" and social gatherings amongst ourselves, together with our other halves and friends like Jeremy, Grace and Shirley.

Every week or so, we get together to just Do Stuff. Any Stuff.

The ones with good hand-eye-ball coordination play a round of tennis every Tuesday. But not me and Dan, cos I am terrible in any sport that involves small balls and having my right arm extended by way of a racquet, golf club or pool cue. It makes me feel unbalanced. Plus, I hate bending down to place or pick up ball after ball after ball. Makes me grumpy.

Sometimes we go watch a movie. Sometimes we check out free events in the city. Sometimes, we just hang out over dinner and drinks. Or head over to someone's house for chips, ice-cream and DVD movies. Or play board games like Settlers, Munchkins and Dilbert. Or on the rare occasion, a bout of tone-deaf karaoke where we torture one another with our so-called singing (except for Miss Mandy "MAS Idol" Loh, who sings beautifully.)

The more complicated (and expensive) activities are stuff like wakeboarding and scuba-diving trips.

But we kept things simple for my birthday. Everybody came over to where we were - Changi Village Hotel - to La Cantina de Venezia for Italian rooftop dining. Well, everyone except for Mandy and Tim who were blissfully honeymooning and shopping for gifts for us in Greece. Heee.

So on a sticky, humid night in Changi, I was surrounded by:

Zen & Rob, long-time friends of Dannie and then me, AND fresh out of the wedding chapel in June!

Shirley, Mandy's Senior Best Friend (yes, there really is such a designation) and dedicated teacher (to secondary school kids, not to Mandy. Well, maybe Mandy too - we could all do with some home econs lessons.)

Jeremy and Grace, our future neighbours in Dream Home 2015 (Naked Wing)

Zen again! She gets double mention cos besides being Dannie's friend since forever, she and I were colleagues in MAS and then later again in URA

And of course, the man I'm stuck with for the rest of my life. But I'm not complaining.

And there was one more guy named Evan, who likes salsa, fast cars and Shirley (not necessarily in that order), especially the combination of Shirley and salsa (as in the Latin dance, not the spicy dip.... but then, who knows right? :P) It turned out that I didn't get a sufficiently clear picture of him because HE KEPT MOVING when his picture was being taken! And I didn't want to introduce him in my blog as The Blur Named Evan. That's not the way to treat new friends...

MOVING ON to the food (yes, only I can move, Evan cannot)...

We ordered a whole host of starters (fried calamari, buffalo mozzarella, garlic bread), pizza, pasta and meats. The portions were HUGE. Talk about a hearty Italian meal. The chef turned out to be unmistakably Chinese, but as Jeremy said, she looked like she was capable of frying up zhi char dishes large enough to feed ten people at a pop, thus the big portions.

That said, I realised only after downloading my pictures from my camera that we took only took ONE photo of the food the entire night. Here's the precious photo of me and the first dish served to our table:

Fried calamari and me!

And if you stare hard enough, you can just about make out the remains of my pasta carbonara...

Well, dinner went really well - lots of chitchat, laughter and passing of food around to share. Then Dannie had to spoil it all by REFUSING TO LET ME ORDER DESSERT!

What the....?! Which man actually dares stop his wife from ordering her dessert?! Especially if it's in an Italian restaurant. Especially if it's cake. Especially if it's tiramisu..... Raawwrrrrr!!!

I was just about to stick the dessert menu up his.... oh, wait... a cake? For me? Yaaaaaay! *BEAM*

The waiters brought me a cake! The husband had quietly placed an order for a birthday cake from The Patisserie (read: there goes $70) and Zen and Rob had just as quietly picked it up en route to dinner and asked the restaurant staff to hide it in the kitchen.

I wasn't the only one who got to blow out the candles. It was a surprise belated birthday celebration for Jeremy too - and I gladly shared the candles and birthday wishes with him (as long as he wished for Dream Home 2015... but now I know he wished for a nice new car cos it has been ordered and is arriving in February 2011.... JEM!!!!)

The face of a proud owner of a brand-new-coming-soon VW Tiguan

Half of Dream Home 2015. Applications are still open. Just bring money. Lots of it.

After dinner, we headed back to the hotel room for games. Dan and I had brought Party Scrabble with us, along with a deck of playing cards (designed by FHM, which Dan specially selected amongst all the other decks we had at home because "I think Jeremy would like them". I see. How thoughtful.)

But Jeremy had other plans, it seems. Plans that were worth more fun than a bunch of FHM girls in hand. He and Grace gave me a new party game called Saucy Charades! I suspect Jeremy was thinking of Dannie too when they picked out this game. Their thoughtfulness is immensely touching. Warms the cockles of my heart *wipes tear from eye*

(And for the record, when we met Tim and Mandy a week later, they presented Dannie with another deck of playing cards - this time with naked Greek couples (and more) in very interesting poses.... What kind of vibes has my husband been emitting?! Scary.)

But back to Saucy Charades...

Reading out the game instructions, which nobody ever listens to anyway and we all end up confused halfway through the game

Jeremy listening to the instructions and getting into the mood

Practicing his first charade already!

Saucy Charades is played like normal charades where people basically just have to act out a clue for their team mates to guess. Just that the clues here need a leeeetle more imagination, creativity and courage to act out. It also helps to have a very thick skin and lots of alcohol before you attempt to play the game.

No, putting on spectacles does not help you play any better. And there's no need to look smart for this game either!

That said, Saucy Charades is quite an intellectual game. You need to interpret the clues, figure out the best way to act them out, and think of how to silently prompt your team mates to arrive at the correct answer.

How would you act out phrases like:

- Rhythm method

- An enormous cock-up

- Never mind the quality, feel the width

- Lady Godiva

- A sperm whale count

- Get your hands off my plums

- Naked flames

- Physical jerks

- Getting your juices flowing

We played in teams of three mixed couples. We learned that it really helps to have your husband/wife play the game too. Unless you have absolutely no qualms about running over to your male friend and gesturing frantically with your hands at his crotch in response to the above mentioned sperm whale clue.

We also learned that some of us don't quite think straight. Jeremy spent the longest two minutes ever repeating an incredibly obscene hand gesture in the vicinity of his nether regions, and seemed very antagonised that none of us could understand what he was trying to get at (besides his crotch.)

It turned out that he was acting out the word BANANA.

Whatever happened to the more normal gesture of peeling an imaginary banana?!?! I made a mental note there and then not to let Jem get too near our children. Sicko.

In his defence, Jem claimed that he thought Saucy Charades meant that all his gestures had to be saucy! I told you nobody ever listens when the rules of the game are read out.

We kinda assumed that Dan and I would ace this game, with our lethal combination of our telepathy skills and his dirty thoughts. We were quite appalled when Jem and Grace kept getting winning streaks (not of the naked kind) and pulled right ahead. We finally managed to get our act together (no pun intended) towards the end and eventually tied with them for first place.

As a tie-breaker, we got Robert to act out the final clue for us to guess. After spending most of the precious two minutes guessing time gawking at Robert's unintelligible actions, Jem and Grace deciphered the charade and won the game. Darn!

Zen didn't know whether to laugh or cry or act blur when it was revealed that the strange moves that Robert put on her to act out his charade was "getting your juices flowing".

And so ends My Singapore (yes, I'm very up to date with STB's branding exercises) celebration, as well as my series of birthday posts.

Yes, I know I said in the beginning that there would be five entries. Apparently, I miscounted *blush* My math and in particular, mental sums, is really bad. As in zero-upon-ten type of BAD. Well, that's one thing that hasn't quite seemed to have improved with age!

Celebrating Singapore: The Sun(deck), The Sea(food) & The Spa

noreply@blogger.com (Yi Lin) — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 04:55:00 +0000

China

Denmark

England

Hong Kong

Italy

Japan

Norway

Poland

Sri Lanka

Sweden

Thailand

That's the list of countries that my family will be traveling to over the next three months to tour, work, study, visit my brother, transit in (or go to simply because someone won an air ticket to Rome by participating in a game on the Zuji Facebook fan page. Heh, heh heh.)

Yes, we're a bunch of six busy people, so much so that we'll be leaving my poor sister behind in Singapore, all alone on her birthday.

That's not the only thing we're leaving behind - the other thing being a giant carbon footprint *gulp* Yes, our big bad footprint. Not the acceptable types referred to in some wisecrack traveler's quote that says "Take nothing but memories; leave nothing but footprints".

So to lessen the load on our conscience, we opted to stay in a hotel - right here at home. It must have been more than three years ago since we did our last staycation at the Meritus Mandarin along Orchard Road because we had a voucher for a free hotel room stay. It turned out that the 2D1N vacation didn't have much of an "escape from the drudgery of daily life" factor - because the hotel was directly across the road from Dan's then-office. Suay.

Which is why I will never ever stay in a hotel in Marina Bay. I just cannot bring myself to do it. Unless it's a free room stay, of course. I'm a sucker for free room stays. Come on, admit it, who wouldn't take advantage of a freebie like that?

But I digress....

The day after my birthday, being a Saturday, saw us checking into Changi Village Hotel (possibly the hotel located furthest away from Marina Bay) for the weekend.

We brought half our room over to Changi.... nah, that isn't our luggage lah!

We love Changi Village Hotel for it's relatively secluded location at, well, Changi Village - which is practically next to the uninhabited (almost), rustic and undeniably wild island of Pulau Ubin right?

Fine. 'Wild' could be an exaggeration. But you get the idea - it's gets us pretty far away from the throngs of people suffocating Orchard Road and all the suburban malls on the weekend.

The husband booked a 2D1N weekend promo from the Zuji website (possibly contributing towards his own bonus) for less than $200 and because it was my birthday weekend, the nice lady behind the counter upgraded us to a Deluxe Room.

The room turned out to be more de-luxed than deluxe, but it was located on the highest floor of the hotel (which is all of seven magnificent storeys high) so we got a pretty nice view of the sea - and the URA carpark right below us. But I tried not to look at that too much in case it reminded me of work (no, I am not a 'parking auntie' who 'kiaps' parking summons under your windshield wiper for a living. And for the upteenth time - no, I cannot help waive your parking fines. I know how you people think.)

Pity we were asked to keep the drapes drawn cos the window cleaners were at work! Ah well, it's for their own safety I guess - in case they are greeted with a sight that burns their eyes and they fall off the ledge.

Well, luxurious or not, we weren't at Changi Village Hotel just for its rooms (although that was what the husband seemed to be most fixated on...) That was a secondary factor in choosing the hotel location.

We were there for THE SPA!

TA-DA!!!!

Ta-da (again!)

The Retreat Spa is located on the 8th floor of the hotel. We booked a couple package, which gave us access to the nice big suite on the 9th (and top) floor - and the right to hog it for a good part of the afternoon.

Ours! All ours for the afternoon! Bwahahaha!

The package came with a nice, hot, bubbling, outdoor jacuzzi with a view of the sea (and the URA carpark below, yes, yes...) and a chocolate fondue of bananas, marshmallows (which I don't fancy at all) and green apple cubes (strange ingredient for a chocolate fondue.) We were left to our own devices for twenty minutes in the water... which involved trying out every single jet in the bath, sweating like pigs from the hot water (and back into the hot water...) and well, eating the strange combination of green apples and chocolate. Very romantic. You should all try it sometime.

Ooooh, I spy a strange man in my tub

After twenty minutes, the alarm sounded, signifying the start of the next part - the massage! Yippee! Before that, a nice warm footbath with nice-smelling mineral salts that killed all the foot germs and made all the dead skin on our feet fall off. I told you it was romantic!

The massage was really good. Both masseuse were skilled in technique and exerted the right amount of pressure, alternating between gentle and relaxing, and firm and shiok. The essential oils felt finer than usual and seemed to be more easily absorbed by our skin, leaving a nice non-oily feel throughout - and after - the massage. Plus, they smelt lovely! The beds were the most comfortable massage beds I've ever had - nice and firm, and super wide (so I didn't have to worry about the masseuse kneeing me when she, erm, climbed on top...of...me...)

'Relaxing' was probably lavender oil. Not sure what oil 'Uplifting' was though.

And ooooh, the spa gave me a box of freebies from Phytomer! Yaaaay! Looked like my birthday was far from being over!

Stuff which you really need for birthdays once you're past 30 *sigh*

When the time came for us to leave, we simply transferred our relaxed bodies from the spa, to the room and then to the sundeck. The only programme that a lazy Libra likes is no programme.

Laying under the frangipani tree and staring into the lovely blue sky

All the deck chairs were taken so we embraced nature and shared the wooden deck with the ants and dead leaves...

Eyeing the rooftop restaurant where we had arranged to meet friends and some fried calamari (cos fish are friends) for dinner later

Reading yet another Star Wars book

Love the cleverly placed ledge at one end of the pool, perfect for lounging on and gazing into the sea

In the background: our spa suite on the 9th floor where we were earlier that afternoon

In the foreground: the wonderful guy who orchestrated my lovely birthday weekend

Just the two of us... and his bulging biceps

Act cute woah...

Catching a last glimpse of the pink sunset before we pack up and get ready for fried calamari (or did I mention calamari already?)

Earlier that week, my colleague asked if we would be spending the day at Pulau Ubin since we were staying at Changi Village. I think I choked out a horrified "WHAT?!?! Of course NOT!!!" Cycle up and down hills? Through a tropical jungle? And get all dirty and icky and sticky and sweaty and insect-bitten? Ewww. I. don't. think. so. Not on my birthday!

Don't call me lazy and unadventurous. I was just being practical, sensible and thrifty, and getting good value in return for our money by maximising our time spent in the hotel what!

Celebrating Singapore: Sindulgences

noreply@blogger.com (Yi Lin) — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 17:18:00 +0000

Did Anyone Say Sssssssshopping? (aka Sale/Spend/Spree)

One of the activities that I didn't plan for in the birthday programme was shopping for presents - for myself! At this time last year, shopping was pretty much a non-entity in our lives. Throughout our six months in South America, we only shopped on three occasions:

1. At the weekly animal market in Otavalo, Ecuador (thankfully, we only window shopped here);

2. At the daily handicraft market also in Otavalo (gosh, these people really like their markets); and

3. When we needed to get a replacement for Oly the camera in Bogota, Colombo (for those who didn't know him, Oly died a dreadful death by drowning while night kayaking in Puerto Rico.)

4. & 5. (Okay, actually we made two more major shopping trips while in the US where I ran amok at a couple of outlet malls. But this blog has no place for such unbecoming, embarrassing behaviour. Especially not that of a bag-crazy woman.)

Needless to say, there was absolutely no shopping to do on my birthday in San Pedro de Atacama. It was a very dry place indeed *sigh*

Well this year, I practically made up for that dry spell I suffered a year ago! :)

The evening's spoils

There we were, wandering around Vivocity while waiting for my parents to join us for dinner at Shin Kushiya, when I heard River Island whisper my name, inviting me to come in. It's true. I swear it did. And soon, Mango, Pull&Bear, Joop and a whole string of other stores joined in the merry chorus. You have just got to believe me! (I don't lie on my birthday....)

Hey, to my credit, I turned up for dinner with just ONE bag of shopping.... which contained a few smaller bags. Heh. I'm pretty happy with the selection of pretty tops, skirts and dresses that I got for myself. Now I just need to find more occasions to wear them. Shouldn't be a problem with the year-end festivities just around the corner.

Talking about bags, this was what Dan unceremoniously dumped onto my lap the moment I got into the car, when he picked me up from my office en route to Vivocity:

I think it's a bag made out of Kermit skin... :S

I had been dropping hints that I wanted a lovely lambskin bag in camel (as in the colour, not the animal itself) that I spotted in a store at Raffles City the night before.

Okay, fine: I blatantly described in great detail the exact model and colour that I wanted, right down to the location of the store within the mall. The only information that I could have missed out on was the price.... ahem. Ah well. But that's not important.

I even informed that my colleague Yanling, whom I was with when I saw the bag, would be in contact soon to drop further hints. Now this woman is the queen of organising office birthday parties and gifts for all occasions (farewells, housewarming, birthdays, anniversaries, etc.) so I knew my wants (no, my needs) would be well looked after *high-five Yanling and pat myself on back*

Imagined her stunned reaction when I snapped a photo of the green package and sent it to her:

Me: Er, is this the bag you asked Dan to get for me? :(

Yanling: Huh? HUH?!

Yanling: Nooooo!

Yanling: I have nothing to do with it! I swear!

Yanling: Wasn't me who told him to give you that!

Me: Er. Okay. Cos it's resembles a frog more than a lamb or camel...

Thankfully, it turned out that I was just being subjected to yet another round of Dan's trickery. Cos my real birthday bag gift turned out exactly as I had hoped for! :)

And if that wasn't enough, my sis got me another bag from the same store - in a lovely bright red. Yanling gave me one of those "bag within a bag" things to help me switch from one bag to the other without leaving behind my office pass or keys. And Zen gave me a pretty bag hook to keep my new babies off restaurant chairs and hawker centre stools. All very complementary gifts. Almost like receiving a bag gift set!

There were other gifts too: like a new 50mm lens from Dan (cos I stupidly cracked mine by packing it into the luggage on the flight to Koh Samui), a shiny diamante pendant from Yanling, Saucy Charades from Jem and Grace (yes, you read correctly - more on that in another post) and a pretty eye palette from Mandy (not seen in picture cos it was delivered in true Mandy style - late! :P But I love it, Mandy!)

My new arm accessories

Wearing my new shiny pendant at Nic and Mich's wedding last Sunday

Of Spaghetti & Other Sins

Okay, enough of shopping. I can hear the guys snoring over their keyboards already.

Birthday dinner with the family was at Garibaldi's along Purvis Street. I was very adamant on saving stomach space for good food and only allowed myself one small bowl of very yummy mee pok along Jalan Tua Kong, from the very famous stall at the Soy Eu Tua coffeeshop during lunch with Dan and Grace at Siglap (thanks for the treat, Grace!)

In preparation for the big dinner, my sister and I headed for Orchard Road to work up an appetite by walking around alot (which is sometimes more commonly known as "shopping".)

When the time came, we plonked ourselves expectantly in front of our plates, placed our orders and waited for dinner to be served by the attentive staff.

Yummy foccacia. My starving sister must have eaten half a loaf.

Paper-thin proscuitto and soft fried bread pillows

Pasta with mushrooms in truffle sauce

My sis and mum sit happy with their veal ravioli and crab linguine in vodka sauce

The hungry man goes for an entire salmon-trout (no idea exactly what fish it is, but it tasted good) that the waiter said was for sharing

Aaaaannnnndddd, as a birthday surprise, I got a little Tiramisu Turd of a cake served with a magic candle, courtesy of the restaurant :)

Ooooh, for me? Why, thank you!

A series of blur photos ensue, where my mum, sis and husband try to coordinate a birthday song amongst the three of them:

Cheeky fingers

He behaves for awhile...

Before delivering the final line of the song with much aplomb!

At this point, the mother-photographer got fed-up with the antics and in true motherly fashion, yelled at everyone to sit still for a minute so that she could get ONE decent photo that was in focus and not blurry. We tried...

... and obliged.

We'll say it again for the 1,938,473rd time - we do not look alike.

Just missing the dad (held up at school function) and the brother (dining on Danish delicacies in Copenhagen, like dry crusty rye bread and salmon in all forms....)

Dinner came up to a whopping $300+ for four of us. Ack. I've got mum to thank for the lovely birthday dinner.

We tried to tone down our palettes and give our stomachs a break from rich food later that weekend:

Simple fare at a Changi Village coffeeshop

Like I said, we tried to tone down...

It's rare that I bother to queue for food. So this International Nasi Lemak had better be good.

... but maybe didn't quite succeed.

Cheh. Super overrated *unimpressed*

The carrot cake beat the nasi lemak hands down! Cheaper, tastier and served right to my table.

Putting my new bag hook to use!

Wow. It was a true birthday sindulgence indeed *satisfied pat on tummy*

Celebrating Singapore: Of Shin & Sweet Stuff

noreply@blogger.com (Yi Lin) — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 16:55:00 +0000

Last year, we celebrated my 30th birthday in Chile. Somewhere in the Atacama Desert to be exact. Nothing fancy. Just the driest place on earth, that's all.

As we all know, deserts are naturally barren. Barren places have few resources. Lack of resources means limited varieties of food. And a particularly scarce type of food being birthday cake. In fact, it's really hard to find any dessert in the desert (oh, ho ho ho. Witty me.)

We scrounged around San Pedro de Atacama, the little dust speck of a town we were staying in, for days - just for a piece of birthday cake. Before that, I had never celebrated a birthday without cake before. Ever! We finally hunted down a hunk of dry sponge (well, what do you expect to find in the driest place on earth, right) in a tiny bakery a few days later. In the meantime, Dan impressed the socks of me (yes, only the socks) by pulling a few stunts to celebrate my big 3-0, which involved taking me to the moon, engaging a singing trio and showing me some nice scenery. Bear in mind that it's really hard to arrange a birthday surprise for somebody when she's with you 24/7 and you don't have friends to sneakily help you pull it off (the surprise, I mean. Thought that came out sounding quite wrong) either.

I always thought it would be cool to be whisked away on a fancy holiday for some romantic one-on-one time for my birthday. Celebrating in Chile last year was surreal; being alone with Dan was lovely. But I realised that the true celebration was in being in the company of family and friends on my special day. Of course, I won't complain if tonnes of good food and pretty gifts are thrown into the mix too!

So this year, we went all out to celebrate with a multi-day birthday party all around home - Singapore. I enjoyed it tremendously, so much so that I couldn't fit all the photos and stories into one post. So we now have a five-part special birthday series, titled Celebrating Singapore. (I wanted all the words in the title to start with 'S' but I couldn't bring myself to write Selebrating...)

I have to thank my lovely husband up front for signing away a good part of his October salary on his credit card. That said, it must have been much easier orchestrating this year's surprises with a ready crew of friends to lend their arms and legs (and cars and wallets) to his mission.

Even then after almost a week of celebration, I didn't manage to meet (and eat) with everybody whom I wanted to spend my birthday with. Which only gives us a great excuse and more opportunities for good food and great company later this year.

Sushi, Sashimi & Skewers

It all started with a surprise pre-birthday dinner at one of our favourite restaurants in Singapore: Shin Kushiya at Vivocity. Since Dan's secondary school mates opened their first outlet at Vivo four years ago, Shin has spawned a couple more branches in the city centre.

We love Shin for it's super fresh, chilled, thick cuts of sashimi.

The highlight at Shin, though, is the kushiyaki - or simply put, as seen in the following photos, grilled skewers. We ordered the premium mix, comprising 18 sticks of tasty meats and seafood to be shared amongst the four of us.

One of my absolute favourites from the kushiyaki range is the pork skewer filled with gooey melted cheese. Or is it cheese sticks wrapped in pork slices. Whatever. It's good.

As if all that wasn't already enough, we ordered individual main dishes to fill our tummies... more. Dan had the mentaiko spaghetti, which looked a lovely lady-like pink from all that fish roe in the pasta sauce. My parents had cold, slithery udon and soba, complete with a duck dip and mixed tempura.

For the records, it doesn't matter whether you're one, three, thirteen or thirty-one years old. Parents still think it's cute to snap candid shots of their kids eating at the dinner table - even when they're not quite done with chewing and swallowing what's in their mouth yet. Grrrrrr.

We were STUFFED! But what's a good meal without dessert to end it off on a sweet note right?

The Sweet Stuff

While Shin has really good desserts (their green tea mochi and black sesame ice-cream are top-notch), my mum had been hankering after the Hong Kong desserts at Honeymoon Dessert, also in Vivocity. Dan and I first visited Honeymoon Dessert during our stopover in Hong Kong where we stuffed ourselves silly with much-missed Asian fare, and agreed that it served pretty good sweets. So off we went to Level 1...

It was awfully difficult to choose from a range of over forty desserts. Everything looked good even when the buttons on our tops and pants/skirts were on the brink of popping off and scattering all over the restaurant floor. We eventually settled on three: black sesame paste, mango pomelo sago (or is it mango sago pomelo?) and some fancy rich combination of vanilla cream, fresh durian and ice-cream (tsk, tsk Dad....)

That night's dinner was a surprise addition to the birthday programme. We had booked the family and a table at an Italian restaurant for the next day - the actual day of my birthday - but my dad ended up having to attend a university function which he couldn't get out of (damn those students who kidnapped my dad!)

But hey, who's complaining about the extra dinner?

Shin Kushiya

#02-120 Vivocity

Reservations: 6275 8766

Also at Suntec City and Far East Square

www.shinkushiya.com

(as for Honeymoon Dessert: go locate it yourself! I'm only promoting Shin. Go ahead and call me biased!)

Nothing In Pictures

noreply@blogger.com (Yi Lin) — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 08:17:00 +0000

Yups, nothing.

Cos since we pretty much did nothing significant except live very normally for five days in Thailand. So..... there's nothing to blog about!

From the start, this was especially planned to be a very uneventful trip. I had just spent the last 4.5 months since returning to work rushing out some majorly major projects and was pooped to the bone when the work finally wrapped up in mid-July. All I really really really wanted to do after that was to sleep.

Sleep on the plane.

Sleep in bed.

Sleep on the deckchair by the pool.

Sleep on the deckchair on the beach.

Sleep on the massage bed in the spa.

Yeah, basically I just went to Thailand to sleep around. Er, with the husband. Only the husband.

Ko Samui is, of course, notorious for its all-night-long Full Moon parties on Ko Phangan, where up to 12,000 (and that's only for the low season) people gather on the beach and get raving high. I think it would have just given me a raging headache. Okay, I'll just admit it here then: I'm OLD and SUPER unhip! Bah.

Flights to Ko Samui on Bangkok Airways (the only airline that flies direct from Singapore) cost $400 per person, inclusive of taxes. Nope, not cheap. But until more airlines operate a direct route between our two islands, it's not going to get any cheaper. And especially not from end-July onwards, as it builds up towards the peak tourist season for Thailand.

Through a contact in the travel trade, we got wind of a fantastic deal at the Nora Buri Resort & Spa, located along Chaweng beach, just minutes from the airport. "Minutes from the airport" was a key factor in deciding on our choice of accommodation. We had had enough of 8-hour self-drives and 20-hour bus rides on our Americas trip, and just wanted to get to our hotel room as quickly as possible (no, not because we couldn't wait to tear each other's.... oh wait, there are kids who read our blog. Sorry mums and dads!)

The Resort was having a "buy 1 night, get 1 night free" offer, with free airport transfers, daily breakfast, one free dinner, free WiFi and spa discounts, and no limit to the number of free nights! Furthermore, we asked nicely and got upgraded to A PRIVATE POOL VILLA! *jumps up and down* It worked out to about S$100 per night for both of us, in a newly opened luxury resort. Awesome.

So, here is five days of pure nothingness in pictures:

View of the resort from The Barge restaurant

Chaweng Beach at low tide, as seen from our villa

My private pool

His private playground

Villa interior

At the spa at the Nora Buri Hotel in Chaweng town

Enjoying my daily slew of Thai treats: body massage, foot massage, pedicure - all for a few Singapore dollars each

Taking advantage of the free daily shuttles into Chaweng town for lunch

Cheap (but not very nice) Thai food in a simple eatery

Whacking a Samurai pork burger at Maccers in town

Wood-fired pizza and ice-cold local beer

Complimentary candlelight set dinner at the resort's Thai restaurant. It was very good.

When we got lazy to walk to the restaurant - room service!

My pickings from the breakfast buffet on our last day in Ko Samui - a vain attempt to be healthy

The quaint, rustic check-in counter at Ko Samui Airport

The little outdooor pedestrian mall, lined with shops and cafes, that leads passengers from the main terminal to our gate to board the flight

The departure lounge

And if you're reading this.... wow, you've made it through this really boring post about our nothing trip!

Okay, the next post will be better. I promise.

BIN There, TAN That

noreply@blogger.com (Yi Lin) — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 08:33:00 +0000

What's there not to love about Bintan island?

Helloooooo tropics!

All it offers is a taste of the simple, idyllic island life for the few days that you are there. For us, having just returned from a freezing Northern California and chilly, crowded Hong Kong in January, this little Indonesian island was h-e-a-v-e-n.

A shady character in shades being shaded by the shade

We were in Bintan with my extended family for a few days in mid-February. My mum had booked the usual corporate chalet at the Bintan Lagoon Resort (BLR). "Chalet" is a bit of a misnomer - it's actually a private pool villa, big enough to house 16 people in four rooms, a huge garden, barbecue pit, and even comes with its own buggy for getting around the resort. And it has a seaview, even though it's one street removed from the beachfront.

Surf's up - and so is the red flag. No swimming in the danger zone!

There's loads of stuff to do on Bintan, albeit expensive stuff. The usual offerings include golf, spas, jet skiing, boogie boards, and at the BLR's entertainment centre there's ping pong, foosball, Wii and PS3 games, pool and billiards and a game arcade. We had a quick and violent game of paintball, which left painful red welts on my skin. Seven months on, I still haven't sought revenge on my brother for hitting me square on the neck yet. Now that he's escaped to Copenhagen for the next six months, I'll probably have to give up the thought of ever getting back at him.

Sunny island days are best spent outdoors. My cousins took their kids (or rather, the kids dragged their parents) on an ATV adventure into the (semi) wilderness.

Menacing biker dudes

Cute biker chicks - especially the little one!

After throwing up all that sand along the beach, they came back in for a breather and joined the older folk around the mahjong table. Pong ah!

For once, Josh gives complete concentration to Chinese words

For me, backpacking for ten months throughout the Americas hasn't changed a thing - my favourite holiday activity is still lazing on a poolside deckchair, in front of the beach, enjoying the sun and seabreeze. In warm.tropical.weather. It felt nice to have left the cold Northern winter far, far, behind!

My favourite spot at Bintan Lagoon Resort

We have been coming to Bintan for quite a few years now. But what finally struck me on this particular trip was the grandeur of the resort lobby. "Grandeur" may be exaggerating it a bit, but having been subjected to the bare basics in American motel chains and budget hostels for almost a year, our standards of luxury have been redefined. Arriving by bus at the resort, to a resounding welcome by dancers and musicians, and to be served an ice-cold lemongrass drink, was akin to VIP treatment for us. The only nice hotels I recall staying at on the trip was the Hilton in Las Vegas and Doubletree Suites in Times Square, New York City. But American hotels pale in comparison to quality resorts in Southeast Asia (except maybe when it comes to giving out free warm chocolate chip cookies which Doubletree Suites did really well at.)

Megan enjoying a sunset swim

And when night falls, the dinner table fills up with home-cooked local food, like my mum's nasi lemak and beef rendang. And when you haven't eaten home-cooked local food for months at a stretch, chowing down in this humble villa beats visiting an expensive restaurant by miles (or kilometres, since we're back in Asia and on the metric system.)

Snapping the food before it gets all snapped up

It's now September. How time flies. Maybe it's time for another trip back to Bintan!

(P.S. As you have now realised, our GO blog will continue to live on, beyond our Journey of a Lifetime. For now, it's going to be sporadic at best, as and when we make short trips overseas. How far we go is probably limited to Asia for now, given our depleted traveling resources and the return of the cold Northern winter. Nevertheless, stay tuned!

And if you're wondering how we're getting along our other life journeys, you can check out our blogs on MaybeBaby - we're star bloggers! Okay, just two of the few other star bloggers I Love Children picked to blog. But there's good stuff there to read too, we promise.)

"High"-lights of South America

noreply@blogger.com (Dannie) — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 16:14:00 +0000

Hello, hello!

It's irrepressible, licentious Dannie again! It's been a long time since I posted an entry on this blog. We were near the end of our trip, and I made a bargain with the wife - she finishes the rest of the entries on the trip, and I'll put my newfound technical expertise at work to create what we call 'finale' videos.

It's been almost three months since we returned to Singapore, and our lives have been caught up with family, friends, food, work (Yi Lin just slid right back into her old job - it's like she never left! - and I am looking for a job that I will be happy at). I am also getting re-acquainted with my Playstation 3! Life is good :)

Ooooh... roti prata!

The bad news is that I took slightly more than a month to play and complete Final Fantasy 13, and while it was incomplete, I just couldn't tear myself away for the necessary number of hours to focus on any videos. The wife has been extremely patient with me there, and I love her for giving me the space I wanted.

The good news is the new video is done! This video focuses on the times we were in high places in South America. We paraglided and abseiled down a waterfall in San Gil, Colombia. We got tired out on a 2-hour trek up a mountain in Otavalo, Ecuador, and that was still peanuts compared to our trek in Huaraz with Ching Ching. We decided to give up after a day, and our tortured countenances turned into smiles and laughter. We took the easy way to Machu Picchu by riding the train to Aguas Caliente, but still dashed up the neighbouring Waynapicchu for a condor's-eye view of the MP ruins. We boarded a 45-minute flight to overfly the Nazcar lines and were pretty damned proud that we did not barf on the flight. We climbed a volcano in Guatemala, and were very fortunate to have a couple of fire-dancers in our group. They gave us a beautiful show atop the volcano, with a sea of clouds tinged with the color of the setting sun behind them. And in Brazil, we found the helicopter ride to fly past the statue of Christ the Redeemer so expensive that the wife had to stay grounded while I flew. But hey, at least I saw the stadium where Brazil will win the World Cup in 2014! :)

Making this video has been a very nice trip down memory lane. I hope readers of our blog since the beginning of our journey take the opportunity to reminisce with us. Click on any of the above links to see our stories, or go straight into the video below!

GO Highlights: Part 1

noreply@blogger.com (Yi Lin) — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 12:54:00 +0000

1 year ago.

2 people.

10 months.

19 USA states.

20 countries.

Presenting, the highlights of our Year of Adventure:

(credit to Dan for doing the video!)

It's Feeding Time!

noreply@blogger.com (Yi Lin) — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 07:21:00 +0000

We missed Chinese food so much!

Here's a snapshot of some of the delicacies that we wolfed down in Hong Kong...

Our first meal in Asia after 10 months. The iced milk tea was out of this world - we sipped, stared and sighed. Ahhhhh....

Char siew!!!!! Real char siewwww!!! Not little scrappy bits of red pork in noodles like we ate in Ecuador.

Char siew and nai cha again... and again... and again... and again...

A welcomed change from, dare I say, Ben & Jerry's...

Afternoon dim sum tea at Serenade Restaurant

My little siew mai

Pretty lacy patterns on a fluffy wu kok

Cute little sesame seeds sitting pretty on a char siew sou

STUFFED! 2 people is not a good number for a much-anticipated dim sum feast!

Moving on... Hong Kong's famous roast goose on rice

Isn't this little eggy darling oh-so-cute?! (and yummy!)

Next stop....

SINGAPORE!

Hellooooo Hong Kong!

noreply@blogger.com (Yi Lin) — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 07:08:00 +0000

We are so excited to be back in Asia!

Between trying to catch forty winks and catching up on movies in my cramped little window seat on Cathay Pacific, I kept toggling to the video channel to follow the route of the tiny airplane icon which represented our current location. After hours and hours of hovering over the big blue Pacific Ocean, our mini-me finally closed in on a giant land mass - China.

We arrived in Hong Kong at about 6am and breezed through immigration. Trying to navigate a Chinese city with 11 bags worn, hooked, strapped and slung all over our bodies is no joke. Getting entangled in straps when you screw up the order that the bags have to be worn or removed is even more un-funny. It feels like being trapped in a straight-jacket.

Still, emerging from the surging masses of passengers anxiously waiting for the luggage carousal to spit out their checked bags, we were reminded that there is nothing quite like Asian hospitality. True, we were in Hong Kong, where service staff have a reputation for being loud and rude. But we were received with nothing less than a warm welcome and friendly assistance when we bought our train tickets and when boarding the free shuttle bus from the airport to the train station.

Despite the risk of sounding really emo and sappy, I have to say this: what really touched our hearts that early morning was the sight of luggage trolleys neatly lined up along the train platform, all ready to receive passengers heading into the city. Even though there was not a single staff in sight, they had somehow made their presence felt simply by placing the trolleys there, for no other reason than for us to use at our convenience.

Throughout our time in the US, we had been so sick and tired of having to pay US$5 just to use a trolley at all the airports. There is no such thing as a free trolley. Having to swipe my credit card just to disengage a locked trolley, just so that I can use it for 10 minutes, is unfriendly, inconvenient and incredibly irritating.

I loved Hong Kong already.

Hellooooooo heavenly city!

Actually, I love Cathay Pacific. If not for the free stopover included in our ticket to LA, I might never have visited Hong Kong. Friends are surprised to know that this was my maiden trip to the city. Yeah, it's just a short 3hrs by plane from home, but Hong Kong, with its jam-packed streets and 24/7 hustle and bustle, had never seemed like much of a vacation destination to me. Given 3 hours in the air, I would rather visit Sri Lanka - which I did. Like... 7 times?

But after weeks of trawling cookie-cutter malls and fastfood joints in US' highway towns where time kinda just moseys along, Hong Kong's fast-paced neon-lit lifestyle started to hold some attraction for me. There are only so many Targets and Walmart Supercentres one can push a cart around before getting bored. I was looking forward to street food, walking alongside people on the street, busy cha chan tengs and even speeding around town on the MTR. Everybody warned us about the jams, the crowds and the noise, and suggested that we escape to Hong Kong's quieter islands instead. But after being rained in for days at a stretch in Portland, and rather bored by life in slow-mo in Palm Springs, being amongst lots of people was exactly what we longed for. We actually wanted see some sign of human life out there!

First, we had to find ourselves a hotel room. The problem with many hotels in Hong Kong was that while most of them were relatively affordable, WiFi access is charged separately - and expensively. Finally, we settled for less-than-luxurious lodging and free WiFi at Alisan Guesthouse, located right above the Causeway Bay MTR station. For S$40 per night, we were given a tiny room with minimal walking space (thank goodness our luggage could fit under the bed), air-conditioning and an ensuite bathroom. The owners were friendly and spoke really good English. They even made appointments for much-anticipated acupressure massages for us at their favourite massage and reflexology centre.

If we had been any taller, we would not have been able to fit into the bed

Bags stored, showers taken and limbs massaged, it was time to explore the city!

All the names of the various neighbourhoods in Hong Kong used to confuse me to bits. I had no mental map of the city from reading online travel guides and all the recommendations that my friends' helpfully dished out over Facebook. Thankfully, being on the ground helped alot and I finally got my orientation all sorted out.

Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon

We took a slow ride on the Star Ferry from Hong Kong Island to mainland Kowloon. Choosing the scenic route over the zippy MTR line gave us a good view of Hong Kong's famous skyline, cloudy at it was. We strolled down the Avenue of the Stars, Eastern cinema's equivalent of the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Unfortunately, I'm not a fan of Chinese movies, so spotting stars' stars wasn't too exciting an activity, given that I couldn't recognise 90% of the names out there.

Thankfully, Bruce Lee was there to spice things up on the windy waterfront.

Little Dragon Lee vs Kungfu Panda Cho

And with all those requests to deliver a Golden Tiger this year, I thought I had better make a few furry friends for good luck.

Wave a furry paw for luck!

Soho

We were here to ride the never-ending line of ascending escalators in search of The Peak.

Hip, crazy Soho

Shops crammed into every corner

Hong Kong Zoo & Botanical Gardens

Funnily enough, we never made it to The Peak. The escalators finally came to a stop midway up the hill. We tried locating the Peak Tram but ended up descending, rather than ascending.

Lost. Very lost.

We walked into what we thought were the Botanical Gardens and somehow found ourselves amidst gibbons and orang utans at the zoo...

No view from The Peak here. How about some primates instead?

In the end, we satisfied ourselves with a view of the city from the almost-peak. Super fail.

A good enough view since we were too lazy to re-navigate and get up to The Peak proper

Causeway Bay & Wan Chai

Being terribly jet-lagged, we spent most of our 3 days in Hong Kong in our own backyard. We would wake up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed every morning at 4am, all ready to start the day. Since the world out there wasn't ready to receive us yet, we busied ourselves writing entries for the blog and planning our activities for the day.

We didn't need to plan too much, really. By 5pm, we were dragging our aching feet along the narrow streets and lumbering around like sleep-deprived cavemen - hunched over till our knuckles almost kissed the ground. Try hard as we did to fight the sleepiness, we eventually decided that it was no fun being tired and grouchy in Hong Kong, and hit the bed for a short snooze, emerging from our mid-afternoon hibernation at 10pm in search of food.

And at 10pm, there was no lack of food at all - and it's not all burgers and pizzas. We're talking about real food here! (and that will bring us to our next post... everybody's favourite topic!)

I shall say it again - I LOVE ASIA!

Causeway Bay - still very alive at 10pm

Back Where We Started

noreply@blogger.com (Yi Lin) — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 06:55:00 +0000

Since the sis is too swamped with work since coming back from Portland to do her long-overdue second post on the city, we're moving on without her first ... to sunny Palm Springs! (But check back for her post on how 3 squawking Asians held up a chairlift while snowboarding in Oregon. It could just have been us...)

We left Portland in the midst of a grey wet winter for good ol' southern California. We flew on Southwest - our favourite US domestic carrier after JetBlue - cos they let passengers check in two bags each for free. Which is, well, two more free bags than suckypucky American Airlines and United. Those wretched moneysuckers. Plus, Southwest is pretty affordable and at least you get fed a packet of nuts and a drink. While the snack selection can't beat JetBlue's free-for-all basket selection of blue corn chips, animal crackers and Doritos munchie-mix, Southwest's offerings did the job when it came to fighting the munchies during the short flight to Los Angeles.

Upon landing at the airport, we picked up our spiffy rented Chrysler Cruiser and headed for Palm Springs right away. No time to waste when it comes to chasing sunshine during winter! We loved what greeted us on the other end of the highway two hours later:

CLEAR BLUE SKIES!

PALM TREES!

GENTLE ROLLING MOUNTAINS!

AND A SNOWLINE THAT WAS WAAAAAAAY ABOVE OUR HEADS.

The weather was beautiful. We got tanned golden brown while walking around outdoors in air-con temperatures.

Winter in Palm Springs!

Life in this desert oasis is a bit atas or geared towards high-spending retirees. Beautiful resorts and golf courses abound, alongside posh restaurants, chic cafes and boutiques-that-I-didn't-even-consider-entering.

But travelers on a budget need not forgo a visit to Palm Springs. We got a room at Travelodge for about US$60 per night.

Travelodge - highly-rated on the ever-so-reliable TripAdvisor website

Travelodge held true to its promise of 'affordably hip rooms':

Easily the most modern and stylish of all the motel rooms that we've stayed at in the USA. And we have stayed in MANY rooms on this trip!

Crisp white bed linen! *salivate* I love love love the feeling of clean white sheets!

The room was perfect. We were really pleased to be treated to such a nice stay during our last days on the continent. It really helped that Pizza Hut down the road had an unbelievable promotion - US$10 for any pizza: any topping, any size! It was really hard not to go crazy and 'whack' an entire large Super Supreme just because it was the most value-for-money. Our inner Singaporean cringed when we forced ourselves to be sensible and stick to a modest 'medium'. Even then, I was stuffed, especially since the cheerful waitress kept bringing us Pepsi refills non-stop, on-the-house.

Fantastic weather and much-missed palm trees aside, our real reason for being in Palm Springs was for the Desert Hills outlet mall! It's one of the biggest Premium Outlets mall in the US and it took us two days to cover all the stores. Aside from scoring some good deals for ourselves (well I had to buy new work clothes, didn't I?) we helped friends pick up a few branded goodies from Coach, Kate Spade and Gucci. Ooh la laaaaa! But even with the factory prices, there was still stuff that I flat-out couldn't afford or see any good sense in splurging on - like Diane Von Furstenburg's dressy prints and golden Jimmy Choo slingbacks. As drool-worthy was they were, I just couldn't find it in me to be a guilt-free high-spender. (And I guess that's a good thing? The husband seems to agree.) While the shopping in Desert Hills was good, it just didn't have the added kick that tax-free shopping in Oregon did!

In between trawling the discount racks and chowing down on pizza, we embarked on a more serious mission in LA - paying tribute to Michael Jackson's star along Hollywood Boulevard.

Here's to you, King of Pop

The rest of LA didn't hold any interest for us since we had already played tourist in Hollywood and chilled out on the idyllic Santa Monica pier at the start of our trip. Except for one thing (or person, rather):

Meet TSUI LYN!

Why does my face look 3 times bigger than hers in this photo?!

Tsui Lyn and I were classmates in SCGS in Sec 3 & 4, and later in the same arts faculty in VJ for 2 years. Since then, she's been living in LA and working in the film industry doing post-production marketing initiatives. It was great catching up with each other 12 years later over coffee along 3rd Street Promenade in hip little Santa Monica.

Back in LA. Back where we started this amazing journey down the Americas 10 months before. We hadn't even made it home yet but it felt like our adventure of a lifetime had come full circle already.

Portalando!

noreply@blogger.com (Lint) — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 04:02:00 +0000

It is a peculiar feeling to be heading to the again for the 3rd time in a year. It is the first time in my life I had done so, spending 3 weeks in NYC and the surrounding regions in May (Summer)...

Family trips are always fun

another 2 weeks in NYC in Oct (autumn)..

Biz trip to the UN..hence the silly heels in the park

and now, 5 weeks in Portland, Oregon (Winter!). Up til about 5 days before I left, I was still pronouncing it ‘Or-re-gon(e)’, until someone casually mentioned “Ohhhh…!! Ore-gen! How wonderful!”

Maybe I got it mixed up with the spice….

Anyways, I was excited because (1) I was on a course to study a particular branch in psychology (Yay! Time to be a student again!) and (2) I got to wear my winter clothes I stocked up on my last NYC trip! I have come to conclude that apart from tweezers, boots are girl’s best friends.

Oh and yes, I must also (obligingly) point out that (3) I get to meet sis and Dan again after more than 6 months!!!

Travelling with them is a total treat because sis is a great planner (and knows all these places to go and discounts to get) and Dan is a great companion for stupid adventures. And chicken-eating.

Chicken whores at work

So the first 5 hours was non-stop yakking about what’s been happening for them, and what’s been happening at home. – like Mom scolding dad stupid for putting cucumbers into Asam curry. Sigh. What would I do without my family? We settled into the apartment that I got for my 1 month stay here. It was a cosy decent place that was quite aesthetically pleasing.

Living on the sofa and out of my luggage

Sis went ahead to book us all Beginner Snowboard classes and passes for Saturday at the ski resort about 1.5hrs drive from Portland – Mt Hood, that was part of the ..um…. Mt Hood National Forest. Yes. That is it’s name. I did not make it up just because I have occasional amnesia bouts in my Geographical knowledge.

The drive there was beautiful. We drove along the famous Columbia River highway that embraced us with spectacular views of the Mt Hood river (I didn’t make that up either) and up up up toward the top of the mountain where it started to get chilly. At the corner of my eye I noticed a snow-covered car whiz by, and it seemed so totally out of place amongst the green trees and bright skies. Well, 5 minutes later, snow started falling onto the windscreen. It is amazing how little bits of frozen water can thrill a fully grown adult. At least 2 of us in the car, not the other 2 who spent several weeks freezing their Chinese asses off in the cold. In fact, poor (why does he always get referred to as ‘poor’ in this blog??) Dan had to dig out his Alpaca sweater for me from the bottom of their perfectly packed knapsack, as they were not intending to head into snow anymore on this trip. Ah well. The price you have to pay to watch a pig on a snowboard.

Suited up and ready to roll...

Goat on board

We grabbed all our snowboard equipment in a hurry, and made our way out into the snow for our first snowboard lesson! We learnt how to strap up, glide down gentle slopes, turn left and rights and of course, brake. Then, it was up to the elementary slope 'Buttercup'!

Board meet snow. Snow meet board. Butt meet snow. Snow meet ass crack.

As you can tell, in a short span of 2 hours, I have now become an expert in ‘snowboards for beginners’, and if you don’t want to suffer more than you should in your first attempt to throw yourself off a mountain face, you might want to catch the next entry for some precious ‘snowy tips’.

Portland!

noreply@blogger.com (Yi Lin) — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 02:00:00 +0000

Before arriving in Portland, I had no idea what there was to see and do in this Oregon city.

I only knew that I had 2 things to look forward to:

(1) Tax-Free Shopping

Oregon is one of 5 sales-tax exempt states in the USA (the others being Alaska, New Hampshire, Delaware and Montana.) Which can only mean one thing - GOOD SHOPPING!!!

And there IS some fabulous shopping indeed, just 20 minutes south of Portland at the Woodburn Company Stores outlet mall, which carries brands like Coach, Calvin Klein, Banana Republic, GAP, etc. The best deal I got was a Banana Republic dress that cost US$16! Coming straight from California which has the highest sales tax in the country (9%), tax-free purchasing was a huge relief and kinder on our budget.

(2) FAMILEEEEEEE!!!!

Well, just one member of the family - my sister! We last met in May when the folks joined us in the US for a holiday. She guest-blogged about Six Flags in Montreal and artery-clogging American food.

Waiting at Portland airport bright and early at 7am

Two interesting things about the sis:

(i) She looks nothing like me. We would make good visual aids for teachers educating kids about Opposites.

Me:
- Dark-skinned
- Ruler-straight hair
- Large eyes
- Double eyelids
- Round face
- Most resembles: Malays, Thais, Indonesians and the hot favourite - Philippinas

Her:
- Fair-skinned
- Curly hair
- Small slanty eyes
- Single eyelids (but they recently doubled, somehow)
- Pointy-chinned
- Most resembles: Japanese

We do have 2 family traits in common though:
- The Nose
- eyebrows that end midway (they have no tail ends)

See for yourself:

With Popeye and Teng Ning, my sis' colleague. My sis and Dan have 1 thing in common - a love for all things chicken. Esp. if they come in buckets of 9 pieces and above.

Our names are rather similar too: Yi Lin, Li Lin. Which made it quite a nightmare in the pre-handphone era when our friends from school would call the house phone to speak to us about school stuff. Countless times, I've retrieved the phone from a parent informing that there's a call for me, and talked for 5 minutes to the girl on the other end of the line, only to find that I've been talking to my sister's classmate (all of 4 years my junior) all the while. The following is a template of a typical "wrong" conversation:

Caller: Hey, what do we have to bring for art class tomorrow?
Me: What art class? There's no art tomorrow.
Caller: Yes there is.
Me: No there isn't.
Caller: YES THERE IS!
Me: NO THERE ISN'T!

*repeat last 2 lines a few more times*

*pregnant pause*

Me: Hang on, did you want to speak to YI Lin or LI Lin?

Uh huh. Confusing.

(ii) She's a Life Coach and arguably the youngest in Asia to be professionally certified by the International Coaching Federation. Which means that she coaches people in making significant breakthroughs and achieving their dreams through powerful living.

And here's what the chicken-guzzler and maniac-driver-of-our-car looks like when at work (click here). Impressive career profile eh.

The girl was in town for a month-long training programme related to her coaching work. After helping her move her luggage into her apartment, we headed to Walmart, bought a blow-up air mattress and crashed in her cozy flat for 3 nights. I didn't mind sleeping on the uncomfortable mattress cos it meant that we could use her washing machine and dryer for free!

A lovely studio apartment in downtown Portland

Our very own loft

While the sis attended classes during the day, Dan and I explored downtown Portland on our own. Portland is reputed to be the most environmentally-friendly city in USA, with green initiatives such as an energy-efficient public transport system in the form of electric trams and buses, green buildings, widespread recycling measures and the most impressive on record - razing down a 6-lane highway running through the city centre and replacing it with a waterfront park.

This used to be a highway

Taking an afternoon stroll along the waterfront. Nice park. Hated the grey wet wintry weather.

Reflections of a pink sunset

Portland has a historical downtown filled with interesting buildings but unfortunately, the constant winter wetness was getting to us, so we stayed indoors most of the time. Our favourite place to hang out at was Powells - a massive book store, with the biggest new and used book collection in the world (more than 1 million books!), which took up an entire street block. Dan spent hours reading entire Star Wars books in the SciFi section, while I hung out with my sis and her friends at Metaphysics. Yeah, sounds incredibly intellectual I know, but I was reading mostly about astrology, horoscopes and what the psychics had to say about my future. They read the truly mind-jolting works by famous authors like Carl Jung and friends.

Queuing to sell our stash of used books. Only managed to sell 1 book, which earned us US$4.95 in store credit. Poooh.

I hear from my sis that the weather in Portland has improved tremendously over the past weeks with the approach of Spring. So look out for our guest blogger's upcoming posts about the fun side of Portland!

Coasting California

noreply@blogger.com (Yi Lin) — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 16:00:00 +0000

Thinking Tall

I measure in at 1.6m. Just barely. If I stretch my neck a little longer, the top of my head may just scrape the 1.6m mark. More often than not, my official height rings in at 1.59m. And on some worrying occasions, 1.58m (but only on the lousy inaccurate height charts.... *ahem*)

Even with the assistance of two nice gentlemen called Charles and Keith, I can barely be seen peeping out from behind a podium. Which is why when making presentations for work, I remind myself to think tall... and to wear my highest heels.

Having returned from a visit to the California redwood forests, I now have a new imagery to help me think tall - I can pretend to tower over my audience like a redwood tree looming over a field of say... shrubs. Haha. Redwoods grow to nearly 112m in height! That's roughly as tall as a 45-storey block of flats at home. It would require 70 girls of my height standing on each others' heads to measure up to this tree.

And if all 70 girls were my age (a nicely rounded 3-o makes for easy calculation), our combined ages would just about match that of the tree. Yeah, a redwood can live to be 2,000 years old.

Cruising through the Avenue of the Giants

The Californian redwood is the tallest tree in the world. But when it comes to girth, it's cousin, the Giant Sequoia, also found in California, wins branches down. The bark of the giant sequoia alone is 80cm thick! The base - 12m in diameter. Age? An astounding 3,200 years at its oldest.

I'm already amazed that giant tortoises can live to be almost 200 years old. Wandering around in the presence of 2,000-year-old beings at the Redwood National Park was rather daunting. In the midst of these ancient giants, I felt seriously small and silly for feeling old at 30.

Both these giants sprout from seeds the size of an oat flake.

Trying to measure up to a redwood. Just slightly wider than Dan's height, this one is already considered skinny, given that redwoods can grow up to 7m in diameter.

Lunch = some kind of sandwich + a Star Wars novel

Reaching across the base of a toppled-over tree

Eureka!

The drive along the Northern Californian coast from San Francisco to Portland, Oregon took a few days. Along the way, we stopped at a small picturesque historical town called Eureka. The name reminded me of my teacher in Secondary 1 - an excitable but klutzy and plump, bespectacled spotty-skinned lady - who loved repeating the story of how Archimedes yelled "Eureka!" in the bath upon formulating his displacement theory. She was particularly enthusiastic about telling us how he ran naked through the streets of Greece. She repeated that part quite a few times. Thus, I now equate "Eureka" with a naked Greek man, and not some scientific discovery. It's not my fault.

As we were strolling along the quiet waterfront, a little old lady approached us. She seemed friendly enough, giving us tips on which beaches and restaurants to visit, but it soon came to light that her main purpose was to evangelize. She handed us pamphlets bearing the testimony of a former-Buddhist-now-Christian. Hmmm, okaaay, but just cos I'm Asian doesn't mean I'm a Buddhist. Sigh, stereotyping at work again. It didn't help that when we said that we were from Singapore, she brightly piped up (after a long can-hear-crickets-chirping pause), "I've been to Shanghai!" Ordinarily, I would have patiently explained that Singapore is not in China. But after ten months of saying the same old thing, I just couldn't find the enthusiasm to correct her. At least I politely answered the all-time-favourite question, "How come you speak such good English?"

Eureka waterfront

Eye-catching mural

We were particularly excited by the presence of a couple of two used-books stores in Eureka as we were hoping to sell or trade in our stash of read novels. Unfortunately, we only managed to sell one book at the first store and the staff at the second store took one look at what we had to offer - and rejected us, claiming that they wouldn't be able to sell our books. Heyyy, it's not like we read trash, you know. After all, Lovely Bones had been just made into a movie recently and Star War enjoys never-dying popularity through the ages right? Gee, picky picky, some people.

Rejected...

... but not too dejected to enjoy a yummy sandwich and good coffee in a cosy corner

I Felt The Earth Move Under My Feet

After leaving Eureka, we drove to Trinidad beach, just 10 minutes away.

The path down to the beach

Along the way, we passed a number of signs carrying tsunami warnings. Although earthquakes in California can be expected, given that the Pacific Ring of Fire hugs the entire Californian coastline, it was hard to believe that this peaceful beach could be a tsunami hazard area.

Mystical Magical

Far away from glamourous Hollywood, vibrant San Francisco and San Diego Seaworld, this is California's quieter, mysterious side.

A sheet of water covers the beach

A cold but beautiful day for the beach

California as you've never seen it

No bikini hotbods here, but beautiful nonetheless

We busied ourselves with photographing a persistent seagull tugging at the tough rubbery remains of an octopus that had washed up on shore. It honestly didn't look terribly appetising, not quite the likes of Ken Ken Cuttlefish. But it was fun to watch (when you're traveling on a tight budget for months at a stretch, your idea of fun changes alot...)

I think octopi taste better as tako pachi...

All of the sudden, the octopus carcass started swaying violently. And so did the bird. And so did the entire beach! I felt my wide-eyed gaze sweep across the sands to meet that of a local walking along the beach. He nodded gravely and mouthed the word I was dreading - earthquake. Another word flashed across my mind - tsunami....

We should have retreated to higher ground immediately. We should have run for our lives. Instead, we continued to quickly snap a few more shots of the dead octopus... WHAT WERE WE THINKING?!?!?! Yeah, I kept a keen eye out for 30m-high walls of water speeding towards us at 80km/h.... but WHAT WERE WE THINKING?!?!

Common sense (and paranoia) finally prevailed and we hurried (practically ran) up the bank, slammed the car doors after us and sped to safety along higher ground. Thankfully, we didn't see any images of giant waves bearing down on us in our rear-view mirror. We only learned later that the town of Eureka was badly hit by the 6.5-strong earthquake. No one was hurt but traffic lights collapsed, power was cut and items displayed for sale in stores were broken to bits. And to think that we had just left Eureka before the quake hit the town...

Stopping to stretch our legs and catch sunset after speeding away from the quake

Hanging out with the tallest trees in the world and wetting our feet on the eerily beautiful beaches made Northern California quite an unforgettable destination. I'm glad we made the trip up north. It was, literally, a moving experience.

Hmmm, that could be a signboard warning about tsunamis... time to get back into the car and move off!

The Electric (Tour) Company

noreply@blogger.com (Yi Lin) — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 20:18:00 +0000

According to hundreds of reviews posted on TripAdvisor.com, touring San Francisco is best done on a Segway. Until recently, Segway tours offered by 2 different companies hogged the top 2 spots on the rankings of recommended activities in San Francisco. This month, a guided walking tour bumped the Segway guys down to 2nd and 3rd place.

Well these walkers probably had no clue what they lost out on in San Francisco by choosing to pump their legs instead of zipping around on a Segway, besides maybe a few hundred more burnt calories than us wheelies.

Not to say that tackling those infamously steep Frisco slopes isn't fun. It is - for one's first day in the city, when we went without a car in SF earlier this year. After that, we started noting which way the slopes rolled and planned our walking route around avoiding the uphill climbs. This time, on our second visit to SF, we wanted to see more of the city - on a set of wheels.

While the cost of renting a car within SF isn't expensive, parking in the city is a bi*ch. Multi-storey carparks (or garages, as they are called in the US) are few and far between. Curbside parking spaces are limited and leaving our car lurching at a 45-degree angle for hours at a stretch is rather worrisome. So is not having enough coins to feed the greedy metres which gobble up to US$1 for every 15 minutes.

Forking out US$70 each for a Segway tour isn't cheap either but the rave online reviews convinced us to give it a go. Traveling is all about discovering new experiences and given the limited authorised usage of Segways in Singapore, it would be our first time on one. I think you can now sample a ride on a Segway within the confines of a building in Singapore, but we're a long way from seeing tourists zipping around on these neat machines alongside vehicular traffic down Orchard Road.

Morning Rush

We woke up bright and chirpy, hopped onto the 'F'-line streetcar to Beach Street, only see a guide on a Segway trundle out of the tour office and down the road, with a lone tourist on her (w)heels. We had arrived 10 minutes too late and had missed the morning tour! Since the tour company only ran 1 daily tour in winter (as compared to 2 tours a day in summer), we had missed the boat for good.

The nice owner pointed us to another tour company offering a similar city tour on wheels. We practically ran over to the office and found the morning's participants already decked in safety vests and helmets and in the midst of the briefing. Argggh. Too late again! Thankfully, this second tour company offered afternoon tours and we promptly signed up for the 1pm ride.

So in the meantime....

A hot fudge sundae for lunch!

As with our first sundae experience at Ghirardelli Square last year, the ice-cream and chocolate samples were really good. One tip though: stick to the plain ol' sundae with milk chocolate fudge. I love dark chocolate but the fudge tasted strangely sour. And lay off the incredibly salty peanut butter. Sour and salty are not great flavours for a sundae.

Back at The Electric Tour Company, 1pm:

The Electric Tour Company offers electric bike tours over the Golden Gate Bridge as well as Segway tours in San Francisco and Sausalito. The name reminds me of this television series for children in the 1970s and 1980s - The Electric Company, which I loved watching after I got home from school. Some of you may remember it:

Participants have to attend a safety and introductory briefing before being allowed anywhere near the machines. After that, we are assigned our wheels and taught how to operate the controls, mount and dismount the Segway safely, how to accelerate, steer, brake and stop, etc. We putted across the parking lot at 'training speed' - 10mph (16km/h) - slaloming through tiny orange cones.

No training wheels - just training mode

So is the Segway a dangerous machine?

Well, as with any bicycle or motorised vehicle, the Segway on its own is probably less dangerous than a horse, given that it can't go anywhere by itself without a driver. But under conditions of misuse, horseplay or inconsiderate riding, yeah, somebody could get hurt pretty badly. The directional handle bar is highly sensitive to movement, so tilting it too far and too suddenly in either direction could send your Segway into a crazy whirring spin. And just like cycling or in-line skating, you cannot let the wheels of your machine touch that of another machine while in motion. One lady did just that. She sent her Segway tripping in 1001 different directions at once and fell right off it.

With our guide convinced that we all had our Segways under control, he took us out of training mode with a few jabs at our control panels and raised the maximum speed limit to 16mph. We filed up in pairs, forming a Segway convoy and hit the road alongside cars, trams and buses.

Each individual Segway is equipped with a walkie talkie. The guide speaks into his set and we get a wonderful introduction to San Francisco as we had never known it before - quirky stories about the residents of Little Italy, the woman whom Coit Tower was named after, the best restaurants and pubs in town and an overview of the architecture around us. The guide brought us to a swimming area at Fisherman's Wharf and showed us a crazy Irish man languidly doing the backstroke in the freezing water. We expertly navigated gentle slopes and pedestrian crossings, and avoided potholes like plague. One place we weren't allowed to go was Lombard Street - the crookedest street in the world. That is for the Advanced Segway Tour. Serious!

Terrorising the city on wheels is much more fun than on foot!

Stopping for a break at Washington Park

Being left to run amok up and down a pier at Fisherman's Wharf

We created quite a spectacle on the streets of SF. Tourists snapped photos of us. Cars slowed down for the people inside to gape at us. We waved and posed for photos and felt like mini-celebrities for the day!

This guy, however, was not impressed

I wish...

I wish we had Segway tours in Singapore! In SF, anybody can buy a Segway to ride about town. Anybody who has about US$30,000 to spare, that is. But seeing how I can't even blade down the designated cyclist/skater track along East Coast Park in SG without requesting that people keep to their lanes and yelling at walking mobs to move over to the pedestrian path instead of strolling four abreast in the face of bikes and skates, I'm not too excited at the thought of dodging errant Segways anywhere on this island. However, guided tours where users are briefed on how to operate these wheeled machines in a controlled environment would raise the bar for fun city tours in Singapore.

If we do eventually get Segway tours in SG, just remember, for goodness sake, not to ride in the park (note somebody's sheepish look in the clip):

Sans Snow In San Francisco

noreply@blogger.com (Yi Lin) — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 19:56:00 +0000

The Last Few Days In Snow City

Every December, Flagstaff transforms into a vast white winter wonderland, perfect for skiing and snowboarding enthusiasts to take to the snow bowl for some powder action. Fully aware that we were not well-equipped for a day on the icy slopes sans ski suits and waterproof gloves, we settled for a more relaxed afternoon at one of the designated snow parks just minutes from the city.

Unfortunately, we got off to a late start that day. It certainly didn't help that while queuing for what was intended to be a snappy lunch at the KFC next door to our motel, somebody decided to upgrade his 2-piece combo into a full blown chicken buffet. I don't blame him. That's just how American fast food chains sink their claws into you. US$5.95 for 2 body parts with 2 choices of sides which we don't particularly fancy (coleslaw - ugh; whip - ugh; corn on cob - gets stuck in teeth; biscuit - ugh; fries - coming outta my ears already). US$7.95 for all-you-can-eat-chicken.

Frolicking in snow vs eating unlimited fried chicken in a nice warm restaurant. It was obvious what the one-man Kentucky Fan Club wanted. Plus, even the heartless Tin Man from Oz wouldn't have been able to turn down those pitiful pleas of, "Please, please, baby, can I have the buffet? Please?"

The late afternoon buffet, coupled with a 4.30pm sunset literally looming on the horizon, meant that we wouldn't make it to the snow park before it closed for the day.

We improvised by swinging into the open field down the road from our motel and turning it into our playground. The snow was fresh, thick (knee-deep in some parts!), soft and untouched. Well, no longer!

We made snow angels...

Guess who made the incredibly neat angel, and whose angel has a dead plant crawling up its skirt.

You know how kids in those Peanuts and Calvin & Hobbes cartoon strips build snowmen by trundling a snowball around the snow field until its as big as a person? Well cartoons lie!

We tried piling the snow up and shaping it into a ball to form our snowman's body. We couldn't get the snow to stick and stay in place. The powdery slopes just kept crumbling. Needless to say, we didn't even get round to creating a head for our snowman. The snow soaked through our woolen gloves, jeans and sneakers and numbed us from inside out. I was on the fast track to turning into a snowman instead of building one.

It's funny how frozen fingers can be stone-numb and yet feel unbelievably painful. In the end, we gave up and simply tossed handfuls of snow into Dan's buttoned-up jacket. We managed to get some semblance of a lumpy crooked torso.

The snow clung to us, creating a frozen layer over our clothes, which slowly melted and soaked us in cold water.

Project Snowman 2 wasn't much of a success. In fact, our snowman just looked like a bigger less-cute version of our baby snowhutt in Project Snowman 1, which we did last April in Yosemite.

Dan refused to acknowledge the two snow-things we created were the same. According to the man, our snowman-building skills have improved because now, we've added snow-aliens to our repertoire. Talk about skills upgrading.

(Note: I just learnt the secret of snowman-building from a friend a few days ago. You need to have a flask of hot water on hand and sprinkle the water over the snow as you shape it, to melt the icy crystals and set them in place. As Dan suggested, hot pee should work too, if you don't mind having yellow snow-chinaman.)

Blue Peter is up for grabs for the next Alien vs Predator movie.

The sun set not long after, turning fields of snow into fields of gold.

Bye bye snowy place

Fleeing Flagstaff...

And from the fields of gold, we headed back to Phoenix for our flight to the Golden State.

Enough of savouring the Golden State from a Tetra-Pak. We're off to California!

HOLA SAN FRANCISCO!

It was our second time in San Francisco on this trip. We loved it when we first arrived in the city in April. We found a new reason to love it more this time round - it doesn't snow here. We stayed at the Travelodge on Market Street again. At about US$30 per night for AA members, it was once again the best deal out there. Some of the rooms were under renovation in April last year and we were pleased to be assigned a newly refurbished room. We giggled when we saw the same crusty old man at the reception who roared my name out with gusto on our last visit, "Tan YYYYYEEEEEE Lin!" We snickered into our hands like before when he thundered, "Tan YYYYYEEEEEE Lin!" for the whole of America to hear when we checked in. He was alot nicer to us this time, alot less crusty. Which was nice.

We love the motel's location on Market Street. The F-line streetcar which trundles down Market Street all the way to Fisherman's Wharf stops right outside the motel. It's also within walking distance to the shops on Market and the Orpheum Theatre. Which was absolutely fabulous because...

All happy and smug that the snow didn't follow him from Flagstaff to Frisco

...we were in town to catch a musical at the theatre - WICKED!

All exited to be finally watching Broadway's Biggest Blockbust...

The star character whom the show was named after

I've been wanting to watch Wicked since 2008, when I was in Melbourne on a work trip and chanced upon a theatre that was showing it. My CEO mentioned that it was a really good musical but I didn't get a chance to watch it then. Another chance passed us by in New York City in May - the tickets on Broadway were sold out for weeks.

I was pretty thrilled when I found a used copy of the book for US$3 at a bookstore in the Florida Keys a few weeks later, and made a mental note then to return to San Francisco to catch the song-and-dance version of the story before we flew home.

People were all dressed up for the theatre. Well, we wore the best we had.

Following the not-so-yellow carpeted road to the Land of Oz

Our verdict of the musical: Definitely worth catching. Funny, witty and an interesting narrative of how the Wicked Witch of the West got her title. The show doesn't follow the written version completely, which may be a good thing, given the traditional story's unhappy (unhappy for the witch, but not for Dorothy and her friends) ending. Unfortunately, the songs were immensely forgettable. I can only remember one key tune from the song "Defying Gravity" and that's only because the song title is printed on the back of Dan's souvenir t-shirt.

Sitting on the plush blood-red theatre seats, it was hard to believe that just a week before, we were roughing it out on a volcano in Central America and traipsing down the spine of the Andes a few months ago. And now there we were, treating ourselves to a Broadway musical.

I don't think I will ever stop counting our blessings.

Mead Me There

noreply@blogger.com (Yi Lin) — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 05:34:00 +0000

This has to be one of the hardest entries to do.

Cos other than taking a few photos of a lovely sunset at Lake Mead - the largest reservoir in the United States, we pretty much didn't do anything else here. So it's kinda hard to write about nothing.

Since I'm failing miserably at entertaining our readers, I'll at least try to pass off some geeky facts about Lake Mead as a blog post.

Lake Mead was formed in 1936 as a result of the damming of the Colorado River by the great Hoover Dam. It stretches 180km behind the giant concrete wall and across 2 states - Nevada and Arizona.

With a surface area of 640 square kilometres, the reservoir is almost the size of Singapore (700 sq km.) Just imagine an entire city sitting within all that water with cars, trains and expressways running across its surface. If you're Singaporean, that imaginary picture makes the little red dot you're living on seem even more puny.

If you hail from a country which, when placed on a map, isn't entirely obliterated by a mere letter in its name, then the imagery won't get you very excited (see, we get a kick out of living on an itsy bitsy teeny weenie island!)

Since it really wasn't possible to visit all 35 cubic kilometres of Lake Mead, we just popped in for a visit along the Nevada end of the lake. With traffic heading towards the Hoover Dam at the pace of a sickly snail, it took what felt like forever to reach the shore. By then, the brilliant patch of blue we spotted from our car had turned into a pink pool under the 4.30pm sunset.

Blue for the early birds; pink for the slow coaches

Boats docked at the marina. Too dark and cold for a late afternoon sail at 4.30pm

No, I wasn't peeing into the long grass when taking this pic. Just for the records.

Clouds sweeping across the sky turn a darker pink

Kungfu Panda's not happy with the slacker sun who refuses to stay out beyond 5pm. Hiii-yah!

As for the Hoover Dam - nah, didn't visit it. We managed to sneak a peak while driving through the area. The preview of the grey monstrosity couldn't entice us to join the line of cars heading for the giant concrete slab.

And with that, it was back to Phoenix and on the flight to our next destination....

...SAN FRANCISCO! (again)

The Big Crack

noreply@blogger.com (Yi Lin) — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 05:34:00 +0000

Poor Dan.

During the earlier stages of trip-planning, we had envisioned a week-long birthday celebration for him spent lounging on a Mexican beach at Club Med Cancun, surrounded by sexy bikini-clad women and sand between his... toes.

In the end, we had to give the sunny Yucatan a miss. Damn those budget constraints.

Look what the poor guy ended up with as a sorry replacement:

Fields of snow

Once again, poor Dan *cue sympathetic "awwww" from reader* (yes, that means you. Do it. Please?)

This is a guy who doesn't sleep with the air-conditioning on back home (and by default, cured me of my nightly air-con habit), hates the cold, doesn't own any decent winter clothing, and has a like-hate ('love' is too strong a word) relationship with snow.

Fresh from South America, the cold treatment we received in Ushuaia was not yet a distant-enough memory for us to welcome snowy days again with new eyes. It didn't help that Guatemala was uncharacteristically (or in the words of our hosts "crazily") cold when we were there.

We thought we had planned an unflappable Great Winter Escape by heading to Arizona in December, and that the great red deserts of Southwest USA would kindly offer us some respite from the wintry white blanket falling over most of North America. Plus, since the price of some Mexican sunshine wasn't within reach, why not treat Dan to a visit to a World Heritage Site instead? Standing on the edge of the Grand Canyon would make a memorable birthday experience indeed.

Well, we learnt the hard way that:

(1) The reference to the south in "southwest" isn't exactly a heavyweight when the region located in North America.

(2) The Grand Canyon is located at an elevation of 2,134m above sea level - high enough to catch more than a few snowflakes during winter.

On the bright side, it would definitely be easier to find some sweet birthday treats in Arizona than it was hunting down a slice of cake for my birthday in the Atacama.

I was well prepared to see a smattering of snow at the top levels of the Grand Canyon and maybe in Flagstaff, the gateway to the national park. I only realised that we may have gotten more than what we bargained for when my friend Dawn mentioned on my Facebook page that it was the perfect time to go skiing in Flagstaff....

I certainly wasn't expecting this much snow:

Bbbrrrrrrrrr!

Nevertheless, we took advantage of the blue skies that day to visit the Grand Canyon - affectionately termed "The Big Crack" by Dan. He enthusiastically demonstrated the use of the term, "On my birthday, my wife is going to show me a Big Crack." Ha.ha.ha. What.Ever. Luckily for him, birthday boys get to enjoy special privileges, which include immunity against getting pulverized by the wife for making lewd jokes at her expense.

Gazing over The Big Crack

At 26km-wide at the maximum, the Grand Canyon isn't the widest in the world. I had always thought that it was the deepest, with walls stretching 1.83km into the bowels of the earth, but it isn't. That title goes to a gorge in Nepal.

Nevertheless, the Grand Canyon is undeniably wide and very deep. Stretching hundreds of kilometers into the horizon, it's sheer size is visually overwhelming. Gazing over the South Rim and literally seeing no end in sight, I found it hard to wrap my brain around how massive this single canyon really is. It's like looking out into the ocean but instead of water, you see rock. It was so unreal, it literally looked fake, like a painted backdrop in a photo studio.

People looking so very tiny in comparison with the Grand Canyon

The Grand Canyon was formed millions of years ago by the simultaneous uplift action of the Colorado Plateau and the downward carving forces of the mighty Colorado River. From where we were, the powerful river was a mere blue-green squiggly line and the roads leading to the bottom of the canyon looked like limp spaghetti.

Obviously, if you go over the edge, you have a really long way to fall before you literally hit rock bottom after about 1.4km. If you want more time in the air, jump from the North Rim - it's higher.

No, seriously, please don't. The very first drop from either rim WILL kill you. Bouncing down the canyon wall till you reach the base is only an added thrill.

Some 600 people have died in the Grand Canyon since the 1870s. 53 fatalities were due to accidental falls. 48 deaths by suicide. 23 as a result of homicide (!!!!!!!) The rest through plane and helicopter crashes, flash floods, dehydration, drownings and other factors.

I decided to take the advice of a wise little elementary school student whose haiku graced the exhibit at the park visitor centre:

The Canyon is deep
I stay away from the edge
I obey the rule

Oi! You! Obey the rule!!!!

Amazingly, we had picked the best weather to make our visit. The minimum temperature that day was a whopping 3 degrees Celcius, falling to minus 7 at night.

The day before, it was minus 3 at the max, and minus 9 at night.

Prediction for the following day was 1 degree max and minus 8 at the minimum.

We made a good call on the weather, huh? Brrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

I've said it twice and I'll say it again: Brrrrrrrrrr!!!!

While we were bitterly, bitterly cold that day, the freezing temperatures didn't stop us from enjoying the spectacular views (before they were totally blocked by a thick curtain of falling snow.) The cold only drove us into each other's arms more tightly! Awwwwww.....

Celebrating our birthdays with each other in a year of adventures!

So yeah, even though he was freezing most of the time, this lucky fella received many a cuddle on his birthday and is thus not that poor a thing.

But thanks for the sympathy anyway. (You can stop feeling sorry for him now.)

Onwards To The Red Rock State

noreply@blogger.com (Yi Lin) — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 05:32:00 +0000

Over the Christmas season, we hopped and skipped and flew and drove and made our way from Guatemala to Florida and onwards to Arizona.

It was our first Christmas celebration away from the family and thus the quietest one ever. We spent Christmas dinner in bed in a motel near the Miami airport with a large pizza that was delivered straight to our room and a heavy dose of American TV. Okay, maybe it wasn't that quiet an event - the Muppets and kooky characters from Family Guy can be quite a rambunctious bunch.

On Boxing Day, we flew to Phoenix. Never again are we flying American Airlines.

Reasons (and really valid ones too):

(1) You have to pay for your first checked bag. Yes, the first bag - you know, the one where you put all your travel necessities; the one that almost all other airlines in the world (even those hailing from countries worse off than Great Uncle Sam's mega-continent) let you check in for free?

(2) You get a drink (hooray) but you don't get any snacks. Not even peanuts. Those are for sale. Or you can opt to buy an all-American snack - the American Airlines Giant Chocolate Chip Cookie.

(Ginormous American Lady seated next to Dan along the aisle had no qualms ordering that. Dan waited till she had finished chowing down on her American-sized snack before he asked if he could get pass her to visit the washroom. She said, "Sure!" and sucked in her belly by a few invisible inches, which she thought would give him enough space to stroll through onto the aisle. He stared at her in disbelief. She finally got the hint and heaved herself up from her seat to let him pass.)

(3) There is no personal entertainment onboard the flight.

(4) Should you wish to watch the movie showing on the tiny screens lining the aisle, you have to purchase earphones at US$2 a piece.

Before you say that we're being total spoiled brats and are too ngiao (stingy) to pay for anything onboard a flight, we have to point out that other local airlines have managed to provide almost all the above cabin comforts at no additional cost to paying passengers. And their airfares are comparable to or cheaper than AA's too.

Our favourite local airline is Jetblue. The fares are cheap, you check in your first bag for free, you get a drink and your choice of 2 snacks from a snack basket, you get a personal entertainment screen where you can watch local TV channels and cable onboard, and you can plug your own earphones into the entertainment set.

We also really like Southwest. They only lose out to Jetblue in the in-flight entertainment arena but they make up for their lack of fun by being really nice and letting you check in 2 bags for free.

So what is AA's excuse for being so crappy huh?

---------------------------------------------------------

We didn't do much in Phoenix. Instead, we hit the road the very next morning and drove ourselves to Sedona, just a couple of hours from Arizona's state capital. After spending 7 months being car-less in the Caribbean and Latin America (except for the occasional golf cart and 1-day rentals), it felt really good to be in control behind the wheel again.

Sedona is a small town set amongst chunky blocks of red mountain. While Sedona sits on the edge of the Colorada Plateau - the same one which the Grand Canyon and Bryce Canyon sit on - unlike the latters' red rock wilderness, it is inhabited. And by really kooky residents too. We saw business signs offering palm and tarot readings, 'new age' products (like exotic incense and twangy music CDs) and the occasional tour promising UFO-sightings *cue twilight zone music*

We visited the Red Rock State Park, a small nature reserve in Sedona with lots of beautiful scenery to offer. Although declared a public park in 1991, Red Rock is not slated as a national park. It's relatively small proportions of red rock features cannot hold a candle to the grandeur of Bryce Canyon and Zion National Park, both which we had visited last year in Utah.

The beauty of Red Rock lies in its intimate setting and quiet nature trails. There are no carloads of tourists pouring in throughout the day. No free park shuttles that ferry large groups of camera-toting visitors from viewpoint to viewpoint. At Red Rock, you can almost have the whole park to yourself.

Taking in a lungful of desert air

It's the desert - it's always sunny

And yet, you can still see signs of a desert winter

Evidence that the temperatures drop below freezing at night

Pretty patterns form when a stream ices over. A passer-by saw me so enthralled by something on the ground and called out to ask me what I had found there. Nothing much - just some ice!

Following the trail to the lookout point

These bright orange rocks are 250 million years old. The red hue is due to the high levels of iron in the sandstone.

Cacti dot the landscape throughout Arizona

Sedona's dramatic red rock landscape

Sadly, Red Rock State Park is slated for closure in June this year due to lack of state funding. The same fate awaits 12 other state parks in Arizona. Only the 9 parks that generate the most revenue in order to fund the parks' operations will remain open.

For Red Rock, it means that members of the public will no longer be allowed to enter the nature reserve.

And with its closure, there goes yet another little sanctuary for people to escape to. We are indeed very blessed to have experienced the quiet magic of Red Rock before it gets neglected and eventually, forgotten.

Streets Of The Arch

noreply@blogger.com (Yi Lin) — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 06:37:00 +0000

The beautiful old town of Antigua is Guatemala's most visited tourist destination. Declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979, the cobblestone streets of this lovely Latin American city are still lined with colourful but unassuming buildings conserved since the 16th century.

A tall pale-yellow arch built in 1631 - Arco de Santa Catalina - is the face of the city that welcomes one and all to Antigua.

Dan giving the Latin American thumbs-up for Antigua. (We learnt in Rio de Janeiro to stay clear from the universal 'OK' sign - which apparently means 'a**hole' in Brazil. There's no knowing what it means in Guatemala!)

Living life on different sides of the arch

This charming Guatemalan city couldn't have been more different from the tiny island by the same name, which we had earlier visited on a cruise of the Caribbean. Instead of spending the day lazing on the palm-fringed sands of Antigua-the-island, we got a fair bit of legwork under our belts pacing the streets of Guatemalan Antigua. Our Haviana-ed feet didn't take too well to the slippery well-worn-till-they-shine cobblestone paths. But basking in warm tropical temperatures and Antigua's laid-back, festive, year-end atmosphere capped only by Central America's sunny blue skies, we weren't in the mood for socks and shoes!

In Antigua, it's not just the buildings that hail from the past...

An ornate stone doorway. And arched windows that serve no useful purpose except for people below to look up into the blue blue heavens.

Beautiful arched walkways that let in so much natural light that people have to squeeze up against the walls just to find a sliver of shade

... you can also see glimpses of the past in everyday life on the streets.

A cute old Beetle slowly put-putting past the Catedral de Santiago (1542)

Who needs to recycle shopping bags when you don't even need one in the first place? Just tie up the goods with string and carry them on your head!

Although carefully preserved over the past 30 years, touches of modern life have managed to creep through the city's walls over time, but in very tasteful and subtle ways.

A modern annex and 16th-century facade lean into each other. It's all about balance and mutual support. The new kid on the block doesn't overwhelm the old.

A blink-and-you-will-miss-it Maccers outlet. No golden arches here. Same goes for Burger King and Citibank. Crass in-your-face commercialism promoting fast food and fast cash has no place in Antigua.

We stayed right across from the mercado local, a busy mess of make-shift stalls selling everything from clothes, toys, festive decorations, household items, shoes, hats, pirated DVDs, game consoles and every tropical fruit and vegetable available. It was just 2 days to Christmas when we were there. All the locals were frantically shopping for food, clothes, Christmas tinsel and toys. There was a huge buying - and selling - frenzy throughout the market. I got myself a jungle hat to replace the one I lost in the Bolivian desert.

Tiny oranges on a string

That woman in green looks like me in the office on Christmas Eve. Can't wait to knock off and head home for the festivities!

Typical Guatemalan dress - an ornate lacey top over a woven skirt

Guatemalan food is very simple, comprising of hearty stews, grains, salad and steaming hot tortillas (wheat-flour pancakes) that come in a cloth-wrapped basket.

Got Meat? Check. Bon appetit!

Fried chicken is the other popular option.

(Note to travelers: they don't do they equivalent of popcorn chicken here. Don't be fooled by the pictures. Those crunchy pieces are actually fried intestines... )

Waiting for our order at a hole-in-the-wall fried chicken joint. An enterprising lady selling hot tortillas positions herself at the door, tempting exiting customers to pick up a few tortillas to go with their freshly-fried chicken meal.

Fried chicken joints weren't the only hole-in-the-wall businesses we visited in Antigua.

Guess what store this darkened doorway leads to? See wall for clue.

For US$3, Dannie finally decided to relieve his wife from hairdressing duties and treat himself to a long-awaited haircut by a professional. He emerged from the shop barely minutes later with a longish but neat mullet hairdo.

Very handsome! Very latino!

Holding his breath for the end result after dispensing instructions to the barber in Spanish

Hot Rocks!

noreply@blogger.com (Yi Lin) — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 07:02:00 +0000

From Brazil, we took our first ever flight in South America on Taca Airlines - only to leave the continent. Actually it was a 3-in-1 flight that took us from Rio de Janeiro back to Lima, then to San Salvador and finally to Guatemala City, changing planes at each stop. It got a bit nerve-wrecking in mid-journey when our flight departing Lima was delayed, causing us to miss our connection in San Salvador to Guatemala. Or so we thought. We were incredibly relieved to find our plane still waiting at the gate for passengers who had been delayed by their previous flights.

Didn't we just spend six leisurely months wandering around South America? So why the rush to get to Guatemala on time?

We had given ourselves only 3 days to visit Guatemala before our flight back to the USA on Christmas Eve: 1 day to get to Vulcan Pacaya, 1 day to scale the volcano, 1 day to get back to the airport for our flight to Miami. We wanted to complete all our air travel before the super peak Christmas-to-New-Year period.

We had first heard about scaling Pacaya from a German traveler whom we had dinner with in Colombia sometime in August. Her tales about leaping across a river of glowing lava (which, as we discovered later on the trek, was probably an exaggeration) and watching other tourists' Crocs sandals melt before her eyes convinced us not to give Guatemala a miss - if only to scale this active volcano.

Pacaya may be about 23,000 years old but is very much still alive and kicking. And erupting. It may not be spewing its red hot molten guts too often nowadays, but the volcano still coughs up the occasional lungful of ash, plentiful enough to shower the nearest city, Antigua, in black dust.

Having discovered how my body reacts to climbing a mountain while in Peru last year, I was understandably nervous about climbing yet another one, be it snow-capped or on fire. I trawled online reviews and climbers' accounts of their Pacaya experience. Many related how difficult the climb was despite them being young and having an above-average level of fitness.

For one, the thick layer of ash blanketing the path made taking each step akin to walking in quicksand. One step forward, 2 steps back.

Secondly, climbers who chose to stay for views of sunset atop the peak spoke of how tricky and dangerous the descent in the dark was.

Next, I read about how some people lost their footing and had either ripped their skin open on the sharp lava rocks or suffered third-degree burns from landing on the burning ground. Gulp.

Then, it didn't help that our hosts in Guatemala City - just before they saw us off on a van to Antigua (the most popular base for trips up Pacaya) - mentioned that previous guests have had their shoes torn to shreds on the trek.

So I formulated a simple battle plan: rent walking sticks for the hike to help me keep my balance on the soft ash and sharp rocks; choose a morning ascent and complete the descent before sundown; and set aside money for new shoes.

I was relieved to hear that tired trekkers could hire "horse taxis" to help them scale the mountain. But given my dubious horse-riding skills on the trek in Peru and on our horse-riding excursion in Mendoza, I was highly aware how uncomfortably butt-aching a four-legged cab ride up and down the volcano would be. Besides, it's really wimpy to have an animal plod about on your behalf while everyone else is walking up, isn't it? Oh my pride, my pride.

On the very morning that we left Guatemala City for Antigua, our van driver advised us to choose the afternoon ascent over the morning climb, as the glow of the lava was more prominent after sundown. I was really not prepared to be told at 10am that I would be climbing a volcano at 2pm that same day!

We went anyway.

I had to admit, it was a beautiful day to be outdoors.

Perfect day for a walk in the park. Or on an active volcano.

The path started out gradual and fairly firm to touch, but quickly transformed into slippery ash-covered slopes. I found it easier to bound lightly across the powdery surface, moving quickly down the path before giving the loosely-packed dirt a chance to crumble under my weight.

A note of warning to those attempting the hike: taking the road less traveled here is not a good idea. Stick to the well-beaten path. A couple of smarty-pants hikers decided to take shortcuts across the slopes where no one else was treading. Their foolish attempts sent large loose rocks hurtling downhill and would have hit unsuspecting climbers quite painfully if not for other alert tourists and guides who yelled "watch out!", just in time for the human targets to jump out of the way of the oncoming rocks.

Can't make it up on your own? Hire a horse-taxi. (Wimp!)

My personal mule service carrying our pack and water-bottles so that I could climb unhindered. I only needed to carry my own camera.

As we neared the summit, we could feel the ground burning up through the soles of our shoes. Treading cautiously along the banks of the lava rivers, the heat on my feet became unbearable, forcing me to back away from the glowing rock. Amazingly, our shoes held up despite the intense heat. I think Nike and Adidas deserve some credit here for their volcano-proof soles.

It was incredibly surreal being so close to molten lava and watching the viscous red ribbon of glowing liquid rock snake through the cracks in the craggy black face of the mountain. If you got close enough to peer through the crevices, you could see flames licking hungrily at the air (and errant fingers) near the surface.

Happy to have made it to the summit. Happier still to be standing side by side with lava rivers!

A must-do on the volcano - roast marshmallows over the hot rock! Honestly, the best marshmallow I've ever tasted. Some people made popcorn too!

Watching sunset atop the peak was a magical experience.

Worth the climb. Totally worth the climb.

Then, the sea of tourists parted as the fire goddesses appeared - a couple of tourists in our group who performed a fire dance before the setting sun.

Head and pois lowered in a respectful commencement to the dance

An offering to the sun, sky, clouds and mountains

Hula-ing with finesse

A dance fit for the gods

Lights out!

Fire-mountains, a fiery sunset, lava rivers, flame-toasted marshmallows, fire goddesses performing an enthralling dance offering - our first volcano experience could not have been more complete.

Fire in the sky

Oh, the descent back to our waiting van was a piece of cake too. We just had to buy a torch to combat the darkness. Duh!

Getting Closer to Jesus

noreply@blogger.com (Dannie) — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 08:02:00 +0000

Brazil.

Skimpily dressed people hanging out at the beach. Favelas where drug lords rule. Kilo buffets filled with foods of all kinds. You would think that this was a country of self-indulgent decadence. Maybe it is, but then again, maybe it isn't.

Brazil seems to have a religious streak hardwired into the population as well. For one, the long-distance buses in Brazil tend to screen Christ-related movies, while Buses in Peru and Argentina tend to screen popular Hollywood movies.

Two of the movies we got to watch in Brazil were 'Fireproof' and 'The Passion of Christ'. The first was a touching story of how the power of Christ helped heal a broken marriage. It was so good that both the wife and I found tears in our eyes by the end of the movie; and I just had to get a copy for my parents - I think they will like it too! The latter was the controversial movie directed by Mel Gibson, which graphically depicted the pain and agony Christ went through before He finally died for our sins.

Which, of course, brings me to the iconic Christ the Redeemer statue atop the Corcovado mountain in Rio de Janeiro. The statue was last seen by most Singaporeans in the movie 2012 being swamped by a tidal wave, but we're glad to report that this New Wonder of the World is still safe and sound.

Despite standing in a high, prominent spot in Rio de Janeiro, it is pretty difficult to snap a nice, good shot of the statue. For one, it was on top a mountain, so distance played a part. Then, you would also have to take into account the often misty/cloudy weather that seems part and parcel of Rio. Our path to Jesus was therefore full of little steps as we made our way closer and closer to Him.

Our first glimpse of him was when we wanted to go cycling along Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas. Because we were told that there was a helipad around the lake where we could get a helicopter ride to fly round the statue. But, one look at the gloomy, low-lying clouds and we decided that that wasn't the day. Besides, you know how lying is a sin... it was just not an auspicious day!

Our very, very first look at Christ the Redeemer

There was a bit of sun a couple of days later, and we DID cycle round the lagoon and make it to the helipad. Unfortunately, the prices were quite a bit higher than our hosts at Rio Dolphin had presumed. We had expected a short flight for about 70 Reals, but the cheapest flight turned out to cost 150 Reals. And it did not take off from this particular helipad, but the one nearer to Sugar Loaf Mountain, which would take too long for us to get to (by which time the clouds would swamp the mountain again).

The next level up was 230 Reals, but did not include flying past Christ the Redeemer. Moreover, no others were taking that particular route, and I needed 4 pax to make a flight.

So we were eventually forced to 'upgrade' all the way up to a flight costing 280 Reals. Or rather, I was 'upgraded'. It just did not make sense for both of us to pay almost 600 Reals for a 12 minute ride in a helicopter! So, after some debate, it was decided that I should go alone while she waited at the helipad for me. And she would just view the video footage I shot later. Alas... the restraints of budget shackles us!

As my friend Celine remarked, not many Singaporeans can say they flew past Jesus on a helicopter!

Oh, and a recommendation to those who ever intend to do a helicopter ride in Rio de Janeiro. Do whatever you can to either sit beside the pilot in front, or if you have to sit at the back, take the extreme left seat! I discovered, to my chagrin, that all the good views are on the left, and being seated on the right-back seat, I was forced to shoot my video past the bellies and hands (holding cameras) of two other guys. Gah!

From the helipad, you can only see His back

Just hoping that by the time my flight was announced, the statue would not be shrouded in clouds!

So, I had my close encounter with Christ, but the wife was still unenlightened. And frankly, my close encounter was really too, too brief, and left me wanting more. We had already decided that we would be taking a half-day city tour in Rio de Janeiro that includes a visit up the mountain to Christ the Redeemer. The only question was when. After all, it would so totally, totally suck to take a ride up to the top of the mountain, and find that we can only see half of Him, right?

The next few days turned cloudy again, and we filled our time with a visit to the favela. And another realisation hit us. With the favela on one mountain, and Christ the Redeemer on another, most residents would have a constant reminder that Christ was constantly watching over them. Serendipity or design? We can't decide!

A good view from a favela

View from another part of the same favela, just 15 minutes later. See how fast the weather turns?

With our little side trip to Buzios beckoning, we decided to just take a leap of faith, and book the tour for the next day. And wonder of wonder, miracles of miracles... the weather turned out perfect! The vertical panorama you see on the upper part of the blog's sidebar was taken during the tour, as are these other pictures below.

Welcomed with open arms

The heart design on his chest was a nice touch

We took a normal picture, because we refused to take cheesy ones like most others - with arms similarly outstretched!

I remembered flinching while watching them nail Jesus to the cross, in the Passion of Christ

Radiating benevolence

And then, the most amazing thing happened. As the wife and I were snapping pictures of Christ the Redeemer up close, we saw a circular rainbow appear right about Christ. To my eyes, it looked like the energy ball in the Dragonballz cartoons, the standard last gasp effort of Son Goku to pulverise deadly enemies. But we knew it wasn't an enery ball (duh) - it was a weather phenomenon our friend Gerald has described as an icebow (not rainbow). To us, it was just beautiful, and a very apt way of ending our path to finally find ourselves at the feet of Christ the Redeemer.

Surprisingly, none of the others in our little tour group noticed it. Only us. Are we blessed or what? :)

Buzios By Bardot

noreply@blogger.com (Yi Lin) — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 14:11:00 +0000

There are a handful of Brazilian icons who have brought their beautiful country fame in many aspects.

There's Pele and Ronaldo, who have graced many a pitch in the World Cup football finals with their nifty footwork and agility.

There's Helo Pinheiro, better known as The Girl of Ipanema, and the singer behind that hauntingly catchy bossa nova tune of the same title, Vinicius de Moraes.

There's Oscar Niemeyer, the 102-year-old Brazilian architect whose modern, edgy buildings form the skyline of the capital, Brasilia. His futuristic creation in Rio de Janeiro, which looks like a spaceship parked by the sea, houses the museum of modern art.

There's supermodel Gisele Bundchen, leggy, bronze and beautiful, who has been pelted with names like "fur scum" for, well, wearing animal pelts.

Then, somewhere along that time line came Brigitte Bardot, former actress, model, singer and key ingredient in the popularisation of the bikini in the 1950s. (She's now a whoppping 75 years old, by the way.)

Huh? She's not even Brazilian. And what did she do for Brazil?

Buzios by Bardot, that's what. Nope, Buzios isn't some French eau de toilette - it's a small fishing and whaling village about 2-hours north of Rio de Janeiro.

Well, it used to be a small fishing and whaling village. Up to 1934. That's when Brigitte Bardot arrived on its shores on a vacation with her then Brazilian boyfriend. The buzz that followed on her celebrity heels eventually made Buzios a popular holiday destination. Details are scant as to how she actually helped promote and elevate Buzios' sunny reputation, but she must have done a fair bit because a bronze statue of her now sits in the centre of town.

Of course, we didn't go to Buzios because of Brigitte Bardot. We didn't even know such a lovely place existed. It was thanks to John and Nina, our hosts at the Rio Dolphin Inn, who suggested that we make a side-trip from Rio and spend a couple of nights in Buzios. The couple spends Christmas in Buzios every year with their dalmatians Yangyi and Genki (who rummaged through my beach bag left carelessly within reach of their spotty paws and gobbled down my newly-bought bread rolls... which John kindly replaced.) At first, we were loving the vibe of Rio's crowded beaches too much to want to get away from the city, but John and Nina convinced us that we would love Buzios' quaint laidback charm and cobblestone streets (I recall saying somewhere in my previous entries that we're a tad tired of quaint cobblestone villages), just like how their other guests had. We eventually let them book us on a northbound bus and waved them goodbye at their gate.

Aaaannddd..... WELCOME TO BUZIOS!

Picture taken from our porch!

Buzios is a warped squiggle of land sticking out of Brazil's east coast and into the Atlantic Ocean. It's undulating coast creates many different beaches, about 26 sandy parcels, all cradled in bays, protected by the harsh pounding waves sweeping in from the Atlantic. I loved gazing at the little blobs of colour interspersing the big blue body of water - fishing boats - while bigger, fancier sailing boats ferried tourists around on beach-hopping cruises all day long.

Getting from beach to beach is easy - you just hop onto a water taxi and zip along the coast to your desired sand patch. You can also rent a buggy to get around the hilly peninsula. We were expecting to see rickety little golf carts putt-putting along the streets and struggling up the steep slopes. Well, we were so wrong...

I'm a Barbie girl, in a Barbie world. Life in pink...

Seems like we should have higher expectations for a place that was "founded" by a glamourous French starlet! S$60 and up isn't too high a price to pay to get a semi-stylish convertible to yourself for an entire day. But since we were staying right smack in the middle of some very good beaches, we decided to hike the sandy trails to the nearby beach instead.

Guess we weren't the only ones who decided to take a stroll...

Who dares cross my path?

When I first saw one of these little lizards, the shade of the green band across its torso was so evenly positioned and so fluorescent that I thought somebody had spray-painted it as a joke! It was as bright as that neon highlighter ink that I used to line my school textbooks with. I felt so sorry for the lizard and was going on and on about how cruel some people could be to animals when...

I saw another one.

And another one.

And another.

Okaaaay. So I don't think these crawling green highlighter markers are the result of Bart Simpson going around Buzios with a can of spray paint after all. Fascinating little creatures. I tried looking up the Internet for information on these reptiles and why is it that only half their bodies are shaded green but all references to lizards in Brazil pointed to "lounging like a lizard" on a Brazilian beach. Not quite what I was looking for.

The perfect camouflage - half leaf, half earth.

On our first day in Buzios, we walked to Praia Azeda and its small sister, Praia Azedinha. The water was calm, clear and cool - a far cry from the huge crashing surf on Ipanema in Rio. I had a whale of a time floating on my back without worrying about being pushed under by a giant wave or swept out to sea by the ripping current. I loved wading around the rocky banks, where small schools of little reef fish milled around my legs. Make that vicious little reef fish - they took many a sharp nip outta my calves. (Should I take that as a compliment that I have nice legs - albeit to fish only?)

Praia Azeda. Across the rocky ledge in the background is Praia Azedinha.

Both Praia Azeda and Azedinha are very small beaches. Which makes for a rather intimate session with all the other visitors. We stepped over a few outstretched ankles and squeezed ourselves into a tiny spot of sand on Azedinha and settled down on our cangas (sarongs, in Brazilian-speak) for our favourite beach activity in Brazil: voyeurism.

Working hard towards graduating from a frilly skirt to a skimpy Brazilian tanga

I wasn't the only person surreptitiously photographing this pair of lithe girls on the cliff. Their deep brown skin looked beautiful against the dark rocks.

Smiling for a self-portrait

Find a spot by the beach bar - old fishing boats perched on rocks, beautifully painted and stocked with fresh fruit and strong liquors

Run out of interesting people to spy on? There's always your own husband to watch (closely) in his spiffy new Brazilian-style trunks

The next day, we trudged a little further to Praia Joao Fernandes. This beach was much bigger than Azeda and Azedinha, and more commercial. The top of the beach was lined with wooden shacks, plastic chairs and beach umbrellas, under which people were enjoying ice-cold beers and coconut water straight out of the husks. The restaurants rented out beach umbrellas and deck chairs. Vendors plied the sands with bamboo poles balanced on their shoulders, draped with colourful cangas, and a tempting range of floaty white cotton sundresses and swinging bikinis pieces. Locals lugged styrofoam boxes filled with canned drinks, juices, ice-cream and hot food for sale. One enterprising ice-cream seller reached over our tanning torsos to hand us a couple of lollipops, even though we declined to buy anything from him. "Marketing", he grinned. Sure, but for an S$8 ice-cream bar? No thanks. But thanks for the lolly anyway.

We whiled away the day just reading, snoozing, tanning, swimming and people-watching. I had the additional pleasure of browsing the mobile bikini and dress stalls in search for the perfect white cotton sundress and yet another bikini. One of the vendors let me pull a sundress over my wet body and told me to run along to model it for my esposo, hoping that Dan's approval would convince me to buy the dress. His plan backfired - Dan didn't think it looked too great. At least I had someone else to blame when I returned the damp slightly salty dress to the vendor. I didn't succeed in finding another bikini either, cos I didn't like the ubiquitous twist-tie, one-size-fits-all tube top designs that were all over Buzios. Ah well, I guess a girl can only find so many perfect bikinis in a lifetime.

Praia Joao Fernandes. Dan claimed that the girl in the foreground was Jennifer Love Hewitt. I couldn't be sure enough to be able to agree with him.

Butt-floss galore

Even the aliens come all the way from outer space just to tan on this beach

At sundown, the streets in Buzios - albeit fashioned out of age-old cobblestone - throb with nightlife. Stylish restaurants, chill-out cafes, low-lit bars and no-frills eateries sit alongside one another. Throw a stone and you'll hit a souvenir store that's still open, waiting to catch revelers pouring onto the pier after a sunset cruise. Need another bikini or pair of boardshorts for tomorrow's beach? Just step into a store and select from the many choices available.

Boats come to a halt at sundown. It's quiet out at sea but look further inland and you'll find that the night is still young!

As for us, we were too knackered to stay out late. We knocked back a pizza while giving our fingers some exercise on our macbooks at a cafe with free WiFi and called it a night!

Hey, living life on a beach is tiring okay!

At the top of the world... before we crashed onto the bed.

~~~ GO ~~~