NUS finished

On Saturday morning at 11am on 19th of November 2011 - I had finally finished my studies in National University of Singapore. I was actually first one that I know to finish the studies completely. Moreover, the upcoming two weeks are meant solely for final exams and some of my friends are finishing their studies in the beginning of December, good luck for all of you guys!

After my last exam, we headed out to celebrate with my Finnish visitor and a good Pakistan friend. We went into an Italian restaurant called OChre in Somerset, one of the busiest and most expensive areas in Singapore,  the Orchard Road. The restaurant has a wide range of excellent but a bit expensive pastas and pizzas. There is actually some thinking behind the decision to choose this restaurant. I had previously heard a rumor about all you can eat pasta and pizza buffet offer for the price of 22sgd on Saturdays from 11.30am to 3pm. It was there, when we realized that it wasn't a buffet, we were actually allowed to order as many pastas and as many pizzas we wanted from the menu with the fixed price even though the pizzas and pastas cost more than that price separately. In the end we managed to indulge ourselves with six different pizzas and three different pastas before our bellies started bursting - the best pizzas and pastas that I have had in a long long while.

The upcoming night was filled with excitement. I had some free tickets to a beach party I helped to promote and sell tickets to. The night was success in every way, the swimming and partying in the beach clubs pools was refreshing. We started heading back home at 4am and finally went to bed at 6am already anticipating the following trip to Philippines with my friend from Finland.

Ps. Pictures will follow later, it takes eternity and a half to upload anything here in Philippines...

Destination Bali, Part I

Here is a link to my photos of the first part of the recess week trip to Bali on facebook I, facebook I½,  and picasa! These pictures cover the Kuta, trip to volcanic lake Batur and finally to the cultural village of Ubud.


Where to go on the recess week, that was the question? After the Bangkok I was asked by my french friend to accompany her also over the recess week. In the end there was a group of five girls and of course yours truly planning the trip. The first destination was to go to Philippines, but that was turned down later on by the fact that there is a typhoon season and one couldn't move or see much for that reason. Still I would have liked to go and see the typhoons, just loving big waves and strong winds!

The final group of us consisted six girls and two guys. Two girls from france, another two from Finland (although swedish-finns), one pakistani from Canada and one from Italia, then another one of my roommates from Spain and me. A solid group with only half of the trip planned, actually only four of the ten upcoming days, but thats the way I like it. It allows you freedom to choose what to do and where to go or just stay and chill out, maybe just inhale the culture. Main part of the group left already on wednesday 14th and rest of us, me and the french girl on friday after our lessons.

When going through the boarding I got picked from the line, maybe because of my long hair tied up loosely and shady "getting there" beard and my Indian style reggae clothes with saggy bag and a travelers backpack. The security guard wiped my whole backpack with clean tissue and then put it through some machine to test it for residues... but I was clear and allowed to board. After the boarding gate we watched some freakish Singaporean quiz show until we were allowed to board the plane, hrrr... just gives me chills.

The things that I can recall from the airplane was that I dozed before take off and woke up all high. On the air - I decided to start gathering the story for this trip, mainly because I had a feeling that it's going to be long one. We arrived to Depensar airport at Bali after 9pm, the sun was set already, as it was back in Singapore too. When you took your first step out of the airport and to the street, you could really feel it... the weather at Bali is colder and less moist than in Singapore, but the 26 degree night was still nice. To add, I actually like it here too, because you really can wear long reggae pants and long sleeve shirt.

Kuta

We met around 11pm in the Poppies lane I close to Kuta beach. From there some of the group continued to sleep while rest of us headed to the beach to enjoy some Bintang and just chill by the beach to gaze the scenery of people sending away beautiful lanterns over to the opening sea. At that night we also met my finnish friend studying here in Bali who arrived to the shore to greet us. Around 2pm we called it for the night. Sponsored by Bintang beer...

First night was spent in a premium hotel, the costs was around 550 000 indonesian rupees which equals to amount of proximately 50euros. It was not bad for huge triple (family room), with inclusive buffet breakfast, air-con, hot shower and bathtub, balcony, two swimming pools etc. In the morning we headed for the breakfast and chilled a while by the poolside. By then I noticed that I had forgot my swimming pants to Singapore, but naah, what to do, it just life. We headed out to do some shopping, I found a pair of swim trunks for the price of 75 000 IDR from which I only paid 50 000 in the end. When I asked my friend to estimate the prize of my surfing trunks he estimated 700 000-800 000 IDR which equals to 70-80euros, bua-ha-haa I said! Ps. you can really calculate it by yourself too later on, just take off four zeros from the price and you'll be good. Actually at the moment it's divisible with 12 000 but that's just minor pricking.

By noon we headed to the Padma beach which is a part of the huge Kuta beach, of course to hit the best waves. When arriving I messaged my friend, but he was surfing. So we decided to get our own surfboards and hit the waves too. The salesman trie to lure me with his beach prices, 100 000 for one hour. I knew that from the shops that were not on the beach you could get board for a whole day by just 50 000 IDR. In the end we ended up paying 50 000 IDR for two hours upfront. Just to say that in the end I surfed almost three hours, they really don't care that much.

So we hit the first waves with my finnish swedish friend. I think she was a bit smarter, because I just paddled to the big waves and wasted my time while she tried to ride the whitewash waves closer to the shore. After one hour of consistent trying my friend found us and we headed to "their usual place" to meet the others and to chill out. There we enjoyed some good fruit plates and continued back to the ocean. With my friend I was actually able to catch some waves properly.

After the sunset we headed to meet my other finnish friend studying here at the Bali as an exchange student. They had a housewarming party at their new Villa. It was nice, actually felt a bit like back home in finland because there were around 20 finns there. We partied until the morning hitting at least five different clubs around Kuta close by to the Poppies Lane I, II and also Legion road. From the last club we decided to take a taxi to the Villa to have after party. I think around one third of the way to the Villa I came to my senses and jumped out of the cap. From there I got a scooter ride from local for a small fee back to Poppis I directly to my hotel. I was home around 6-7am.

You could actually conclude the whole day by the words of Kaija Koo: "Kantakaa sitä kaljaa pöytään taas / vaahtoharjan aalloilla surffaillaan". And the same in english: "Just keep the beer coming / we'll be surfing on the whitewash waves"

On sunday, after the breakfast we headed out to the beach to gather a group together. From there I continued walking by the shore again to the Padma beach to see my friend.

The waves were far too direct and rough to be surfed on the Padma beach, so we decided to jump on some scooters. There were five guys of us on three scooters heading towards another beach closer to their Villa but a bit further away from Legion. We didn't have an extra helmet so I had to ride without one. The road from my friends Villa to the beach was amazing, a narrow road covered hardly with any cement snaking trough beautiful rice terraces.

That beach had a bit more dangerous reef seabed but it was high tide so we didn't worry. It was also my friends first time at that beach and on reefs too, but another guy told us where to surf a bit more safely. I rented a surfboard for one session, the price I paid in the end was only 35k IDR. The waves looked really good but they lacked the power and you really had to paddle to even try to catch the biggest waves. By that day we also organized ourselves (a group of four with variety of finns and swedish) a four wheel ride with a driver from Kuta to Ubud for 110 000 IDR per head.

Trip to lake Batur and Ubud

The trip started around 9am from the swedish girls accommodation that was located on the same Poppies Lane I. First we visited some Balinese cultural craftsmanship boutiques where you could see the manufacturing process of handmade textiles, carving of stone statues and figurines and assembly of silver jewelry. From there we continued towards one of the active volcanos in Bali and to the crater lake Batur beside it. We had a good view of the scenery from a buffet restaurant where we enjoyed our meal.

From there we started to head back towards Ubud to settle for the night, but we still wanted to see other stuff. On the way to a certain temple we first stopped to a natural coffee shop of Luwak coffee. It sells 60 000 IDR per mug, so quite expensive. It's actually a product of an animal called luwak (like a small weazel/dog animal) eating red coffee cherries. After that the seeds are collected from the pile of poo, washed and roasted to coffee beans. From there we continued to the Temple with sacred water ponds of replenishing power. Inside the temple you had to wear respective clothes to cover your legs and a yellow sash over your hip. I found the temple a bit too touristic and the feeling just got stronger in the end. They had made the exit route to go through a maze of shopping stalls and you were forced to walk through it.

Around 5-6pm we arrived to Ubud. There we just booked an accommodation before heading out for a walk around the Ubud's Monkey Street area. Even though the sun was already set we had a nice walk with some shopping by the side. When the night was closing in we headed for a lunch as a group.

Tuesday was spend around the Ubud tourist market, though I have to admit that I just walked it through for couple of times. I didn't feel like buying anything, even though my friend got a whole set of silver jewelry for under 300 000 IDR: earrings, ring, wristband, necklace and a pure silver chain. Tip: bargain, the first price for the wristband was 350 000 IDR, she got it for 60 000 IDR.

From there I continued my day just by myself walking around the city for an hour taking picture and visiting side streets for sightseeing. I ended up to the gates of the sacred temple area of monkey forest. To admit, it was a bit touristic place but quite nice. I actually got away from the main tracks and found a three-four story bamboo cafe treetop house that had been previously abandoned. I defied my fate by going in and climbing all the way to the top floor of the squeaky shack reaching over an opening gorge underneath. In the monkey forest there was also a temple, a tiny riverside road going inside of one gorge and lots of monkeys doing all kinds of stuff. At on place the wild monkeys were playing a game resembling the king of the hill. There was a small branch of old tree hanging over a shallow pond. There were around five monkeys trying their turn to be the last one hanging, the king of the branch pond. The monkeys were pushing and showing each other into the watery pond below.

And again I was able to delete all the photos I had taken. Luckily the town of Ubud is now days so civilized that they had an music shop that could sell memory card readers and a interned coffee to borrow one. I was able to recover my photos again with the PhotoRec software.

By the night we headed out for a drink or two. We ended up buying a jug (1.5liters) of beer by four of us: meaning me, one finnish girl, one italian girl and one french girl. I also bought a mixed olives tapas, just had to buy some tapas when I saw them been sold. Although it wasn't free and as good as in Spain, and the olives did cost as much as a proper meal I was still satisfied with my decision. We listened some live cover music for a while, after that we headed back to the apartment to chill and to enjoy a last beer of the day.

On the way back we also planned and booked a trip for us for the next day towards Lovina on the northern side of the island.

The past three weeks

After we arrived back from Bangkok on August 24th there has happened a lot. The past three weeks mainly consists of partying, birthdays, festivals, studying, working out and of course some resting.


The first week(end) in Singapore


On wednesday the was the ladies night, we hit the La Baroque for the second time for the free flow. Some of the guys continued to Zirca to party but I headed back to the Bridge to meet my friend arriving back from the airport to escort friend of his. From there we headed back to my flat at GR@UTown and had a 12th floor balcony after party as always for like ten to fifteen people till the morning.

On thursday the helipad party... followed up by the infamous friday with the craziest party at the Marina Bay Sands...

Saturday was the night for the Azzura beach party, I had arranged us a free guestlist with my friend through the DJ Jon White playing there. We got around 60 people in for free without the normal 30S$ cover charge. The party was amazing, there is swimming pools and hot pools to chill-out and bar to get everything. At some point I got a key card to Siloso Beach Resort on which attic I spent the rest of the night cause there were no taxies available. In the morning I headed back with the sky cable car for free from the Sentosa to Vivo City and took couple of MRT and busses to get home.

On sunday we rested, actually I arranged a party for monday...


The second week(end) and the first whole week in Singapore

The Avatar, I got a special deal to the club Avatar for the monday night. I got 100 first NUS students showing their matriculation/student card (guys) in for free and got 40 drink coupons too, as an extra I got also a VIP table, a complimentary bottle of Champagne and a bottle of Russian Standard Vodka from the Senior partner of the club. At the same time it was also a promotional night for Courvoisier cognac where's the picture from!

Rest of the week I can remember myself just resting, resting and doing a bit more resting and of course some studying beside the resting. And I visited the school pool for the first time too but for sunbathing only... Over the weekend we had some partying at the Attica and chilling over the night till 7am beside the bridge in a good company. On sunday we went to movie theatre in a group of two guys and five girls. The movie Crazy, Stupid, Love was actually a really good one, I could recommend warmly.


The third week(end) in Singapore


Over the next week I changed my life style, the daily program was updated, for the upcoming next weeks I decided to start exercising and studying. I started to go to gym and to swim at the pool every weekday and I created a profile to HeiaHeia to keep track of my progress. (feel free to add me as your friend)

So 1.5-2 hours at gym, 30min stretching and 1km swimming every day was my new daily plan, of course on top of that some studying and socializing. At gym I started to do 4 times 20 repeats with every machine and usually 10 machines which calculates to 10x80 = 800 repeats per day. After that a good muscle stretching and breast swimming by the pool with chilling. It takes less that 30min to swim the 1km but it's always nice to chill and relax by the pool too.

On friday we decided to see the Mid-Autumn festival or so called Lantern festival in Chinese Garden, there was to girls and two guys of us going. The girls left previously because we were still at the gym... In the end the girls ended up into Chinatown which was the wrong place and faraway so me and my swedish friend were the only ones to actually to go to the Chinese Garden to see the festival. It took us nearly two hours to to see and picture everything there, it was really nice.

After the that we headed back to Clementi MRT station to have a supper and meet up with the girls. We did some shopping for the upcoming weekend and had a good solid pepper steak meal with some beers... and in the end we went to bed around 9am next day...

Ps. I added some new photos to the Chinese Lanter festival / Mid-Autumn festival album and some custom ones too from the same night...

The crazy danish guys birthday beach party, that was the upcoming thing on the saturday. Around 3-4pm I decided to join with my mates and have some pre-party to honor our lovely friends, I offered some finish cuisines like Salmiakki and made some Fisu out of Fisherman's Friend and vodka, we had already previously drunk my Koskenkorva Salmiakki Vodka from Finland.

To note: In singapore you can buy comparable cheap vodka from IKEA, it's 60S$ for 2 bottles... I still think you can get better prices elsewhere. If you are coming to Singapore or flying out, remember to buy your spirits from Singapore duty-free, it's even cheaper that in Malaysia.

The danish had planned a nice night for us, first we headed to this Brazilian meat buffet place called Carnivore with just the guys, just crazy and yep all you fins out there, if you are coming here I will take you there! (if you are not vegetarians) Free tip: From 6-7pm it's 2 drinks for the price of one, so you might wanna plan it like that...

On the beach we chilled at the same place we had previously the beach party, there was no beach party in the Azzura beach club so it was open for public. We were enjoying the music, pools and hot tubs of the club for free while chilling and drinking our own cheaper drinks by the beach and the poolside. Most of us partied till 5-6am and headed back but the crazy danish in a small group of 5 people passed out on the beach and got home around 9am after the sandflies woke them up with tickling. Sunday we enjoyed a refreshing meal at our own food court in UTown.

Ps. here is some pictures of the bday party on picasa and facebook.

On sunday we had a birthday supper for my Pakistani friend who turned 24 like me, actually it seems like we are the old ones here... We had a group of four, us two and two russian girls joining us for the supper, we had a really nice time in a Pakistani restaurant in the Arab street and after that for the next two hours just chilling on mattresses and smoking a bit of shisha.

The fourth week

The next week started with the routine of everyday gym, stretching and pool and it felt good! I also did some research and work on my upcoming presentation about some school work which I will cover on later postings... But on wednesday I started to feel a bit sick, it might have been the excessive training, bad milk I drunk or the fact that I had a funky soup that day from which I found a maggot inside... But yep, that day I only felt bad in my stomach. On that evening we also had a Mid-Autumn festival in the UTown and we were able to see a Dragon Dance and Wushu shows.

On wednesday I went to the gym with my roommate, I did the normal series and stretched but felt too a bit bad so I decided to skip the pool for the first time. When the wednesday progressed I started to get really feeble and feverish. By the day I had no fever but after 6pm it started to rise, around 11pm it was already 38.9°C when I just started force myself to sleep. I had already previously sent messages to my professors that i'm in a high fever so I will go to the University Health Centre to get medical certificate for the proof of absence.

On thursday I skipped the gym and the pool and also the classes and went to the University Health Centre. By there I had fever of only 37.1°C which is practically nothing but I still got some good drugs to threat me and also some antibiotics for my still open wound at my toe cut from Tioman trip. So I got some painkillers, drugs for running nose in the morning and day, and also pills for the night for the runny nose and sneezing that causes drowsiness, antibiotics for the toe and some pills to suck on to cure the sore throat.

Now I'm already feeling a bit better and waiting for the upcoming trip to Bali on friday. There I will spend my recess week over the span of ten days from September 16th to 26th.

Catch you later and love!

Private Beach Party @ Tioman

There will be some pictures about Tioman on facebook and picasa.

The idea of the trip was to organize cheap trip to Tioman, Malaysia for a vast number of exchange students to get to know each other and form some sort of cross nationality groups. So we organized a three days and two nights trip to Tioman with only 150S$ per head, in the end that included travel costs back and forth, accommodation for both nights and a BBQ/grill beach party with all you can drink alcohol for both saturday and sunday. For some of you who might not know, Pulau Tioman is one of the duty-free islands in Malaysia, so the alcohol there was cheap compared to Singapore and Europe.

It was a lot of work to organize this trip. We posted the the brief trip information on three different Facebook groups to get everyones attention, but for convenience we only used one group to gather all the registrations and contacts. The trip was success even before it started, we had around 180 attendees but we only could take 60.

So we had to do some first-come-first-serve based selecting and also some male/female ratio and nationality balancing. After couple of work filled days and some sleepless nights we managed to get the group together. A lot of the work was caused due to the last minute cancellations and new recruiting and money collecting.

The trip started at 5am. For the trip we had ordered a rental bus to take us directly from UTown at NUS to ferry termimal in Mersing, Malaysia. The ride from our pick up point at UTown through the customs of Singapore and Malaysia took around 3hours. Of course everything didn't go as planned, one girl and one guy had forgotten or lost their disembarkation card which allows them to leave from the country. They had at least 10-15 minutes sit down interrogation beside the passport booth and after that they were taken to the interrogation room. After total time of over 30min and lots of answered questions later the unlucky pair was allowed to leave the country without the disembarkation card. The trip continued through the no-man lands to Malaysian customs and the apply for the free quick visa went without annoyances.

Around 8am we reached the Mersing and had a good one hour for the breakfast, some of the hungriest ones just settled with a "special burger" found from a small grill booth beside the ferry terminal while the others just waited or went for a breakfast into a nearby foodcourt.

The ferry left the port around 10am, we had asked from the ferry company if they can drive us directly to the other side of Tioman, to the Juara Mutiara beach, where our resort was located. The whole ferry was filled from our 60 person group so they agreed to our terms. To be honest, we had been scaring everyone about the boat trip cause of our previous ferry experience from Langkawi to Penang. This ride was calm and smooth, no jumping or puking even close by. Half of the group tried to rest, sleep and chill inside the ship and the other half watched the sceneries from the rear deck of the boat. The ride to other side of the Tioman was about two hours.

We reached the Tioman around noon, we arrived directly to the correct side of the island, right to the shore of our own resort, Juara Mutiara Beach Resort. We had booked the whole resort village, around 20 air-con 2 to 3 person beach apartments. After we had received and divided the keys everyone had free time to do what ever they wanted until the 7pm. That was the time we had arranged the BBQ/beach party to start. Some of the group hit the beach, others decided to walk a bit in the jungle and some wanted to rest the trip stress away. As a organizer I had a "special" room with my singaporean friend. Actually it was just the same room but there was a bathtub in the bathroom. We felt so overwhelmingly special... One could have not used it nor would have wanted to use it! The water from the shower was pouring so slowly that the it would have taken at least an hour to fill the tub and further more the bathtub didn't look so good to be honest. Still in the end, we felt special.



Booze trip was about to begin. We gathered a car full of volunteers to join us for a rental car trip over the mountain to the other side of the Tioman island. Even though the island is small, the ride across it took nearly 30 minutes due to the steep mountain road. The road was so narrow and fluctuating. The driver honked the horn before every corner to warn the inclosing vehicles. Luckily it had been cement covered now. Local friend of mine told that previously on a one trip a couple of years ago they had to push the car over the mountain due to rain caused mud floods. On the other side of the island we found the so called "capital" of Tioman. Actually it was a quite a small beachside tourist village. We had a nice car ride through the jungle and over the middle mountain of Tioman to the other side. When we got over the mountain and started to head down on to the other side, the view was just breathtaking. There we saw this huge blue lagoon with a sandy shore so white that it almost was painful for eyes to gaze upon it. The view from the mountain was just so bright. All across the shore there were small cabins and shops spread widely. When we arrived to the beach, at first we hit the duty-free shop for the beach party freeflow drinks and mixers. That was quite a big job actually.

The shopping list for the freeflow was (not include mixers or snacks etc.):
Smirnoff Blue Label 1.0l x12
Skyy Vodka 1.0l x5
Bacardi Razz 1.0l x2
Bacardi Limon 1.0l x2
Bacardi Carta Blanca 1.0l x2
Absolut Raspberry 1.0l x2
Barton gin 1.0l x7
Bombay Sapphire Gin 1.0l x1
Captain Morgan Spiced 1.0l x4
Jose Cuervo Blanco Tequila 1.0l x3
Jagermeister 1.0l x2
Cruzan Banana 1.0l x1
El Picu Mojito 0.7l x1
El Picu Caipiranha Lime 0.7l x1
El Picu Margarita Strawberry 0.7l x1
Changi Beer 24x0.33l x 3
Jaz Beer 24x0.33l x 2
Tiger Beer 24x0.33l x 5



After the whole shopping thing we decided to go for a nice lunch, we ordered almost everything from the diner and shared it. That was one of the best meals. The trip back to the Juara Mutiara beach, the only beach on the other side of the island went well. There we unloaded the truck to our apartment and headed to check out our upcoming beach party shack. The shack looked warm and welcoming, it was good for us.

Before the party we headed to chill out in the water and beach. Played some volleyball and some of us went jumping from the pier to the ocean. And of course, what else can I do than backflips! We were jumping from the far end of the pier so we were able to use the stairs meant for boats to unload people to clime up back to the pier. The underwater part of the stairs were covered with seashells stuck to the cement. Oh, boy those were sharp and and of course I cut my big toe from two different places, but I didn't worry about that back then.

The beach was really nice, although it was a lot different than the one in Langkawi where you could easily walk 500 meters from the shore. Here the shore was a bit steep and you could walk only about 50 meters, more or less. Beside the shack by the shore were two chained monkeys, I actually felt a bit sad for them. They were friendly and nice. At some point the owner decided to give us a show and she took the monkeys out of the chains and took them for a swim. The monkeys were so scared that they crawled and jumped to sat on the top of the owners head. And by the time I was holding keys and locks to the monkeys chains, I should have released them, but I don't think they would have survived cause they were so used to have some people around.

By the beach we also played some volleyball and around 6pm we headed back to our condos. Everybody started to gather around 7pm close to our apartment, anxious about the upcoming party. No one knew what to expect, but in the end everyone knew that we were party planners to be reckoned with.

Around 7.15pm we told everyone to start heading to the shack and that we'll rent a moped with a side van to get all the booze there. The ride arrived at 7.30pm, but at the same minute a monsoon rain started to pour heavily upon us, it was quite a show with some lightnings and strong whirlwinds!

In the end around 8pm we decided to take our shirts off and just ride the damn moped there despite the rain! Everyone was already there eating and loving the BBQ grill buffet. After I had gotten all the booze inside and organized the rest of the evening I could relax for a second and start to enjoy the night with the rest of the group. The food was good, there was some fried chicken, beef, noodles, rice, sweet and sour chicken, eggs, shrimps and all sort of delicacy. We partied by the shack doing rounds of tequila and jager shots and all crazy drinks till 1am and then tidied the place up a bit and headed to continue the party beside our beachside condos where we partied until sunrise around 7am.

On sunday I woke up around 11am, I didn't sleep so much but I still felt refreshed. The day started with a lovely breakfast brunch with some good morning after punch. We had bought some special bottles for this reason, the banana rum, mojito, caipiranha and margarita. Thats the way to start a day!

After breakfast everyone started to do different activities, some chilled by the beach while others went to do some snorkeling or hiking in the hills towards waterfalls. Actually to the waterfalls the trip should have been around 4-5hours back and forth, but no one found it, even though it took 5hours from them!

My decision was to hangout by the beach with a smaller group. There we played some sports like frisbee and volleyball, also played catch with this tiny soft ball that bounces a great deal from the surface of the water if you throw it in the right angle. It was quite cool and it needed some reflexes to catch it!

The freeflow and cost included beach party was supposed to be only on the first night, but we couldn't finish everything over one night. Around 4pm to 5pm when we were checking the budget we realized that we still had some money left. We asked from our resort could they organize buffet for us for the evening with that much money and they agreed. Around 8pm we had our second buffet party, the food was even better than the first night. We had shrimps, fried chicken, sweet and sour chicken, calamari, sausages, rise, fries and fruits etc.

Around 9.30pm everyone was full, but we still decided to get all the leftovers with us to the beach party for finger foods. The beach party was awesome, even though on first night there was around 80 people partying from NUS (even though our group size was only 60) we allowed them to party with us, just said to bring their own foods and drinks. We didn't want them to drink our payed drinks and foods for free, but still they did. At the second night party there was at least 100 partier by the shore. It was just whack. I had my laptop by the beach blowing some mainstream spotify music through a pair of speakers that I had borrowed from my South-African roommate. The owner of the resort was very friendly and even without asking he turned on the lights for us on the beach for us to enjoy the beach and the party. There I also made my Tioman famous drink called Juhana Juice, the secret ingredients were Bacardi Razz, Smirnoff Blue Label, sprite, half a lime squeezed in and a slice of lime on top! Thats just best beach drink ever!

At some point people just started to gather in the further end of the pier and someone shouted that the locals had caught a shark. Quite a big group of us went to see it, there it actually was, a one meter long shark. I hugged and kissed the shark! One of my norwegians friends wanted to do some fishing by the pier also at the same time and he caught a squid with his first throw! The squid was so nasty and I did one indescribable think, I put half of the squid in to my mouth while hanging it upside down, I'll just regret that, it didn't felt or look so cool afterwards! There was also this weird incident but I took care of it with a the locals. One guy that no one knew but was chilling and drinking in our party decided to steal the shark and run with it to the shore. I was running with the local guy who was in charge of the fish to recover it back. The guy just didn't realize anything, he couldn't comprehend that if he steals someone else's shark it's not that cool. I just hoped that we as organizer weren't the ones to be blamed, but in the end I was able to handle the situation with the local and retrieve the shark to its rightful owners. I think the beach party lasted till 4am, then we cleaned the beach and headed back 30meters to our condos and continued partying there until 8am or so.

Around 12pm I woke up and had a good strong breakfast with friends, actually I think it could have had been called already a lunch. We had couple of hours left to chill out and clean the place up. After 1pm we started to gather up and left to the pier to take a group photo. After the group photo, when the ferry was already arriving I decided to do the last backflip from the pier, everyone was watching and filming it and it felt nice. Actually it was quite a perfect one.

The ferry ride back was a bit longer and it took nearly 3hours and we stopped couple of times the get more people on. This ferry was bigger, at least twice the capacity of the first one. The ride back was also smooth, no roller coasters this time either. Around 5pm we started to head back to Singapore customs from Mersing ferry terminal. In the middle of the way we stopped to this huge chinese dining mall. At first we thought that this will be expensive lunch but when we got the menus it seemed nice. It was about 160RM for a 8 course meal for the whole table and it was around 8persons per table. So it really was nothing compared to what we got to eat. We had soup, fish, shrimps, chicken, pork, vegetables, fruits etc. and we couldn't finish it all, it was just amazing!

The ride back went fast, I don't know about the others but for me it was easy cause I'm a good sleeper. We cleared the customs and got back to Singapore around 11pm on monday just nicely before the National day of Singapore on tuesday.

Siloso beach party

The gathering on friday was just about making new friends. We had already decided to hold a new gathering on saturday. First it was just going to be a new direct gathering on the bridge and then tell people about different clubs before hitting in. But on friday night I met a couple of older exchange students from previous semesters (they did also know my brother). They told me that there were going to be a once in a month beach party on saturday. So we decided to arrange a pre-party there beside the beachside club.

On that day we were also planning our first trip abroad but we just hadn't chosen where. So we had a little planning pre-party for the small ad-hoc trip on first weekend in one of the apartments on GR. It was actually there when we decided not to dare risk to take anyone without the disembarkation card or student pass (visa) abroad due to possible fine of a 1000S$. Also the student pass would might have been revoked, but that would have only meant that you'll have to do the process again. So at that point the group size of the first weekend trip reduced from 8 to 3. We decided to try look out for some people from the upcoming gathering on the Siloso beach and we had already one Norwegian in mind. We found the Norwegian from the party and got him and his friend to join, so then the group increased to it's final size, 5 travelers.

So the arranged gathering took place again in front of the GR around 9.30pm. From there we started to divide people in to groups of four with directions to the beach party on Siloso beach on the Sentosa island. Even though the taxi lines were awful long and MRT route was a bit complex, everyone made it to the right beach. The word about the gathering had spread, in the end we had around 130-150 exchange students hanging out beside the club just listening the music and chatting. Of course at some point, part of the group went inside the club area and partied until 6am by when the club was closed. One could say that the club was awesome, it had outside pools and everything. If you want to check it out, here is a link to the Azzura beach club.

The gathering by the beach party was a great success! More about the planned trip still to come.