Penang revisited

Pictures can be found from picasa and facebook!

If you can recall, I actually visited Penang already on my first weekend as an exchange student. It was a bit controversy decision for me to go there for a second time, but as planning it, I realized that on the first time we really didn't see that much of it.

The day to travel arrived, twenty of us backed our backs and headed towards the Kranji MRT station and continued to Singapore customs in Woodlands. For me it took a while to get past the border...

I actually have to make a confession, I don't yet have my student pass (visa). I had three months of time from 7th of July onwards and I arrived to Singapore on 27th of July. I went to ICA to complete the formalities on 17th of October but after three hours of queuing and paper swapping they realized that my in-principle approval letter from the National University of Singapore had become void already, no shit... I was asked to contact my University and obtain a new letter immediately, cause I've practically been living and traveling as a illegal immigrant since the first weekends journey to Langkawi and Penang, and back. I reapplied for the letter and made the 90 SGD payments again to complete the formalities, I received my new IPA letter on Thursday 27th of October but decided not to go to the ICA for completion cause I had an exam on my PhD module on Friday just before leaving to Penang.

So now you know the reason why it takes a bit longer for me to go through the customs, to clarify, I don't have any problems at the border and they didn't have any questions (this time). But just to be sure I had my IPA letter with me to Penang. After crossing the Singapore customs we continued to cross the border bridge to Johor Bahru border in Malaysia and towards the bus terminal in Larking.

We ordered the bus to depart from Larking just to save some bucks with the travel costs. The trip cost were around 110 SGD per head which included the ten hour bus rides both ways and a accommodation in serviced apartments. The night was spent driving like crazy, of course we stopped to meet our good friend 7 Eleven to get some drinks which followed by a series of toilet stops. The bus was great, seats big enough and comfortable to sleep or have a movie theater in it! We occupied the last rows and put up a movie theater, I had speakers with me as always, who else would provide the party music. I recall us watching Captain America and American Psycho.

Brakes squeaked, we had arrived to our destination in Pulau Penang, to the town and beach resort area of Batu Ferringhi with lots of hotels like Hard Rock Hotel with Hard Rock Cafe night club. We left our bags to the reception of our serviced apartment cause there were no rooms empty at the moment, respectfully it was only 7am. We brushed our teeth and refreshed our travel strained bodies beside the pool.

As a group we started to walk along the beach street to find a open breakfast place. It felt weird, everything seemed empty like in a ghost town, no lights in the hotels, only some people washing cars trying to make a living. After a short walk we found two open restaurants that had a breakfast menu, and guess with what I settled; an American breakfast with bacon, sausages, beans, fried eggs and toasts, but of course I ate my precious dragon fruits that I had brought along all the way from the UTown Cheers. I just can't get enough of dragon fruits, It makes me a bit sad to imagine how will I replace those in my diet back in Finland.

By the way, to rewind couple of days, we went to see a movie in cinema back in Singapore. We watched the Killers Elite and there was a man bringing Dragon Fruits to Jason Stathams character! I believe they are the reason behind his real charm and power.

After the breakfast we walked back to the apartments to check if anyone had returned, but none had. We decided to jump in to bus and head to the main city of Pulau Penang, to the Georgetown.

Georgetown is actually the second biggest city in the whole Malaysia and the capital of the island and state of Penang. It has been made as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2008. The atmosphere of Penang is often likened to reflect Singapore back in the 1960s and 1970s.

We take our tour around the harbor scenery, visited the Little India and Chinatown sightseeing all the heritage buildings, the temples and markets. To note, the rainy season in Pulau Penang is in September and October turning down a bit already on November. Nevertheless we had a good weather for the most of the day until we decided to take a taxi towards the Penang Hill.

Penang Hill is a mountain reaching 833 meters above the sea revealing astonishing view over the Georgetown and the surrounding ocean. It is only reachable by either Penang Hill Railway viaduct build between years 1906 to 1923 or by a jeep trail which is only allowed for walking and small vehicles like scooters etc.

So because of the stormy weather we decided to head back towards the city and back to the Batu Ferringhi to meet others for dinner and pre-partying for the Saturday evening. Rest of the day was spent in a joyful spirit in the apartments, by the pool, in the streets and inside Hard Rock Cafe.

Sunday morning started with a mediocre headache, actually the worst that I have had on my trips, but it was fine after some painkillers. My friends had rented scooters to drive around the island and I asked to join. We were driving two on. We headed towards the mountains. We crossed the area of Teluk Bahang with the artificial freshwater lake and dam and all the way through the Kampung Batu Kecil to the town of Balik Pulau. The view from the spiraling mountain roads were breathtaking. We stopped for breakfast at a fruit farm in the mountains after passing the Teluk Bahang Dam. From there we continued the rest of the way. On our way back we found the other scooter boys and got our gang together for a picture.

Rest of the day was spent on a beach in front of the Hard Rock Hotel, we did some water sports like banana driving with seven people. Quite nice but a bit disappointing, the speedboat guy didn't make us all drop off until we started to tip the banana by ourselves.

After that I took a one to two hours nap at the shore of the beach while waving water cooling me down. My friend woke me up by bringing me a drink to refresh myself and we decided to go chill in the ocean. After the drinks we had a great idea of doing back flips from each others shoulders. After couple of jumps it was my turn. On the second jump I felt like stepping on top of something alive while my leg going in it. But I wasn't sure. I jumped the third time and while making my way back to the surface I felt like a whip hitting around my wrist burning and electrocuting it all at the same time. I had accidentally got my hand inside jellyfish tentacles and it was wrapping around my wrist. Luckily I was close to the shore, I walked out of the water without knowing what to do, my hand burning and swelling. My friend poured some fresh water on it which was amateur mistake, but how could we have know. One local from the beach shouted to me and told us to get some vinegar from the hotel to rub on it and so we did. Other solution and said to be better would have been peeing on it. Just for you to know! I was told not to take a shover or use any soaps for at least one hour to let it settle.

While walking back from the hotel pool we saw the warning signs indicating jellyfishes. Luckily these weren't the poisonous ones as the local guy told us. You could feel the hand burning a bit over a 24 hours but now it's already starting to be fine. It seems like I won't be getting a permanent scar from it after all, which is actually most usual in these cases.

Five minutes after we had threated my hand we saw the guy darkening like it was falling down, the locals told us to get inside in five minutes and so we did. The rain was amazing, it emptied the streets of people and filled them with water. The storm was over as suddenly it arise, although it roamed almost an hour.

Around 6pm our bus had arrived and we jumped in for the trip back. The movie theater was again formed and this time we enjoyed movies like RED (recommendable action movie) and Gladiator (legendary as always). Around 4am we reached the border customs of Malaysia and Singapore and got home back to UTown just before 5am.

Again a great trip with lots of memories. Thank you everyone!

A Retreat to Bangkok

Here you can find some pictures about and around Bangkok from facebook and picasa.

The trip to Bangkok was to be the last and a farewell trip organized by my local friend for this semester. And at the moment it looks like it...

The Retreat to Bangkok was intended for a group sized around 25 people that we know well and really want to travel and party with. Of course there is tons of more people but our accommodation price and size were to be kept within a reasonable limit.

The plans were made over the weekend, so some left on thursday and rest on friday. The flights back were also scattered due and according to school schedules. Some got back on sunday or monday and the last of us departed on late tuesday. Ps. I could have stayed till wednesday...

Our supposed departure time on friday to Bangkok was 6pm from the Changi airport. In the end we were allowed to board the plane around 7.15pm and departure took part around 7.30pm without any notifications of flight delay. We should have arrived to Bangkok 7.30pm local time, but finally around 10.15pm local time we were able to leave from the airport to our designated accommodation.

I'll admit that not all of the delay was because of the Tiger airlines, part of it came with the fact that one of us needed to buy a visa on arrival due to the country of his origin and nationality. We were almost leaving from the airport without him after 45min of no contact waiting and trying to call to the immigration service to sort out what had happened to him, but luckily we got all through. From the airport we took a private van to ride us to our accommodation with the cost of 150baht ~3.5eur per head for around 30min ride.

The first nights were spend in a hotel called Happy House located in the backpackers area of Bangkok, close to the Khao San Road district. The rooms were nice with private bathroom, hot shower and air-con with price around 300baht ~ 7eur per night if sharing a double or triple room with a friend.

The first arrivals on thursday and friday morning had already seen lot's of thinks like a big Muy Thai (Thai boxing) match in the central arena and lots of sightseeing around the temples. We had organized a get together with the group in the hotel bar around 9.15pm but in the end we made it there from the airport somewhat after 11pm! We had planned to see the State Tower with the Sky Bar on the first night but in the end we rearranged that for the second night due to the late schedule. The first night was just about chilling out and chatting. I never ever I had ever have to drink so much in the game of "never ever I had ever", but what happens in the game stays in the game! And of course by the night advanced we tried the local cuisines from the food stalls beside the relaxing backpackers route.

Part of the group, mainly the ones who arrived on thursday or friday morning left to check out a supposed party to be open till 6am. Normally in Bangkok, the clubs close at 1am or 2am, you can always find some differences between club cultures. In the end it looked like the club was open, cause the last of us chilled by the hotel bistro till 5am before hitting the bed and we didn't catch up with the clubbers...

We woke up around 10am and headed down to enjoy some breakfast from the hotels restaurant. The first of checked out from the hotel at 11am and headed to organize everything in our upcoming resort for the weekend in the serviced apartments. The roads were messed up with the traffic, but thats normal in Bangkok. A trip of 4.2km took almost an hour with taxi for the price of 150baht ~3.5eur. How can they make a living out of it?

The weekend was spend in a luxury serviced apartment in Seven Place Executive Residences. We had one Type A residence and two Type E residences. We also had the luxury of using the hotels rooftop sky pool over the night!

Type A: Grand Suite 300 sq.m.
Spacious with 1 large living room, 3 bedrooms king-size bed with balconies, 1 large dinning room, 3 bathrooms with Jacuzzi & 2 showers and separated maid quarter.

Type E: Royal Suite 285 sq.m.
Spacious with 1 large living room, 3 bedrooms king-size bed, 1 large dinning room, 3 bathrooms with Jacuzzi, bath tub & shower and separated maid quarter.

Around 3pm almost everyone had arrived to the estate and a group of us left to have a lunch together to taste the local cuisines. I had the funkiest Tom Yum soup ever! After that some headed for sightseeing, others to have a thai massage or to chill out by the poolside. Around 7-8pm we tried to gather everyone again to have a small get-together group party. If I recall correctly the first night in the serviced apartment was when we left to see the amazing views from the Bangkok's finest, the State Tower Sky Bar, lebua. The view was amazing and really worth it. To pay a visit to the sky bar itself was for free and the taxi ride to the tower cost practically nothing compared to the prices in europe.

After catching our breath back seeing the breathtaking views we headed to eat some local cuisine and were else could we end other than the worlds famous Ronald's McDonalds! You know how it tastes, I think I really don't have to describe the feeling, it was the best... The rest of the night was a mixture of Jacuzzi, rooftop pool and some good chilling out with lovely friends.

Imagine waking up to a lovely scent of freshly baked toast and squeezed orange juice, yep, that's what happened next. By the day we headed to the biggest small stall market Chatuchak in Bangkok. The place was a shopaholics heaven as well as backpackers paradise, the variety in everything was just overwhelming. Chatuchak Weekend Market is one of the world's largest weekend markets covers area of 70 rai (27 Acres) altogether divided into 27 Sections, contains more than 15,000 booths selling goods from every part of Thailand. Must to visit!

By the night we had another get-together party by our serviced apartments. First we headed as a group to have a supper. We headed to this small diner by the street, after the first table had ordered and 30min passed our table decided to head to find a different place. We had a group of six after my estonian bro left back to the hotel directly. We found a place I had saw cross the street previously. It was a goldmine! Buffet dinner of everything, seafoods, poultry, beef, pork, everything, some ready cuisines, fruits, jellies,  salads, deep fried stuff like springrolls... everything you can imagine. We also got two grills to cook our food in the table, everything was fresh of course!

Later that night I had a french wine and cheese tasting party on a balcony over Bangkok with two lovely french girls while others headed to have crazy time by the rooftop pool.

Happened later that night around 2-4am... By the night I had my first bad allergic reaction, anaphylaxis, after eating some spicy seafood nuts noodles my friend had ordered previously. Luckily that night I got a french nurse to take care of me and I immediately took my antihistamine allergic pills and albuterol ventolin inhaler. The reaction stopped after the rapid part of turning red and a huge pressure in my hands and legs, I didn't have any problems to breath but I think it was because I took a doze from the albuterol inhaler. We were thinking about getting me into a hospital but in the end we decided to look if the antihistamine helps, the redness and pressured started to ease a while later and I went to rest on the bed for the night. In the morning I was ok, nothing to worry! It's always nice to check the treatment proceduress afterwards, adrenaline and immediate hospital care required...

We checked out from the serviced apartments around 12pm and headed to leave our stuff again in to the Happy House hotel where some of us would stay for the last night from monday to tuesday. From there we went to have a nice lunch with the group of five that was left. Actually there were still six of us left but the german guy had decided to do a day trip by bus to a local village.

On monday we tried to visit the royal Grand Palace inside the Bangkok but were denied accessing by the palace guards due to the reason that royal family was arriving there later on. By the gate we also met a local senior police officers who explained the reason for us and after that he was very helpful about pointing us all the places to visit and how to get there. In the end I got a feeling that he was a Tuk-Tuk ride organizer rather than a real police officer, but can't really say in the end... He was nice, although we didn't not visit any of his recommended places.

Around 6pm we headed back to the Happy House. We had the nicest collision of minds on that night, me from Finland, my bro from Estonia and our lovely nurse from France. Image the meeting of minds just loving the same music, videos and showing them to each others and laughing their brains out for 6 hours! The german guy returned from his day trip around 11pm and joined us for a while. The estonian and german had to leave for a plane earlier in the morning and they went to sleep while we continued for a while before hitting the bed too. I can recall my estonian brother leaving and hugging his bro (me) in the morning! The rest of us woke up around 10 and headed for breakfast, after the breakfast the german guy was already so late that he had to take a 450baht ~11eur taxi to the airport.

The last and the best day.

With my french friend I had the best and relaxing day in Bangkok. We just walked around the backpackers area for 4 to 5 hours sightseeing some riverside buildings and narrow roads that had treetops hanging over the streets as roofs. It is just something so beautiful and calming for me. After some walking and shopping we decided to go for a massage. I had never had a paid massage in a massage pallor and I was about to have my first now. I took the Thai massage and she took Oil massage. She was escorted to a private room for a massage while I changed into massage pants and shirt. The massage started by the masseuse washing my feet. After that I relaxed on the bed and just closed my eyes to enjoy the overcoming feeling of the full body thai massage. By the way the ones with the dirty mind back there, the real thai massage doesn't come with the "happy ending" you perverts.

Thai massage is just a full body massage and I can promise you all that I will have it every time I visit Thailand or Malaysia at least once. In Bangkok the 1 hour massage cost 180baht ~4eur!

Ps. After my friend had also finished her massage and we had left from the massage pallor she told me that she thinks that the oil massage might end up with the happy ending for the guys...

The relaxed feeling of the body and mind was amazing. After the massage we both got the same feeling to find something to eat. We headed to a close by hostel bistro where I had a three cuisine set meal with dessert for 160baht and she had a local cuisine of a Pad Thai noodles with mango yoghurt shake. After the delicacies we wandered through the booths of incredible nice and relaxed style clothes. I can recall thinking about one girl that I had met previously in finland before leaving to Singapore and imagining her matching the clothes on her, the style of the clothes was just made for her! Maybe we'll see each others in Bangkok later, just tell me if you are doing the trip later this year!

Around 4pm we arrived back to the Happy House hotel to catch up with our ordered minibus ride to the airport, the ride was a bit late due to the reason that they were gathering people from lot's of different hotels and hostels. We left around 4.40pm but it was ok for our schedule. The price of the ride was 140baht which is very cheap compared to the 450baht taxi ride our german guy had to made. Our plane left in time at 8pm and we arrived to Singapore and home just after the midnight.

Amazing trip with a new country and city to love!

NUS-SMU Joint Party

For the ladies night we organized a NUS and SMU get together party at AVATAR club. We had free entry for first 100 NUS and SMU students and for the next 100 only 12S$ with one free drink. And not to forget, we had total of 100 free drink coupons for the first ones to sing up for our party event!

And of course for girls it was free entry and freeflow the whole night!

The party was amazing, we had a V.I.P. table and got a complimentary bottle of champagne from the Senior partner!

Swisshotel Helipad party!

What an awesome night, I think the topic already describes almost everything! I got some free V.I.P. invites for advertising the event! I'll have to admit, on that party I was the mister big spender, bought two bottles of Moët & Chandon! <3 And in the after party at Soul I ordered four rounds of tequila, that's how I roll, epic winning!

Ps. here is the links for the pictures in picasa and facebook!

Chilling at the helipad

Team KL 2011 - Mayhem to Kuala Lumpur

Here you can find some pictures about the trip to Kuala Lumpur on facebook and picasa albums.

Ps. i had not recharged my battery and so it run out on the first day around 1pm...

The mayhem to Kuala Lumpur was the second group trip that I organized with my singaporean friend. The journey took place right after the crazy trip to Pulau Tioman over the inclosing weekend.

The main idea of this trip was to get to know more about the individuals inside the active group of exchange students. So what we did was that first we posted a tip about the upcoming event for the attendees of Tioman trip and after that posted the brief trip info to our NUS Exchange Students 2011 group to fill the free spots and not to necklet anyone. The trip was supposed to be organized for 25-30 people, but in the end we ended up ordering two rental travel busses (27 seats comfortable and big enough to sleep properly with air-con) for approx. 54 attendees.

This trip wasn't just about jumping to bus, having fun with organized drinking. We though that it would be better to show everyone how they can do it by themselves as a backpacker. So we decided not to arrange the pick up directly from the NUS campus area but rather from a bus terminal in Malaysia, the decision was also made to keep the travel costs lower. The costs for traveling both ways and one night of accommodation in serviced apartment were estimated to 75S$ which was the prize for the trip.

The journey began. We arranged a meeting at the Kranji MRT station located in the upper north Singapore at 11pm o'clock. At the MRT station we gathered the main group together while some informed me that they will show up a little late. From the Kranji we all left as a group towards the Singaporean customs in Woodlands. And actually this time.. as I recall, everything and everyone went without problems through the customs. From the customs we headed towards the huge bus terminal Larkin in Malaysia. The point for this was to show and teach everyone how to find their way to the Larkin, because from there you can leave to anywhere in Malaysia and even to Thailand.

We arrived to the Larkin bus terminal around 00.15am and we had some time to have proper dinner or midnight snack before the bus ride. At 1am we had divided the group inside the two rental busses and started heading towards KL. Can't remember anything about the 5 to 6 hour bus ride due to the fact that I was asleep the whole time.

The busses dropped us off at KL around 6am. The streets looked freakishly dead otherwise in so traverse and lively country. We walked to our serviced apartments and refreshed ourselves by the poolside. We were able to get one apartment for to drop off all the luggage that everyone had. After 7am we all started to leave towards Petronas Twin Towers for the ticket queuing. The first ones to queue from our group arrived there at 7.20am and we got the tickets at 10am for the last visit time of 2pm and 2.20pm. While some of the group queued (10 tickets per queuer) for the others the rest of us headed for breakfast. We were the last group to get tickets before closing the counter, so to get the tickets there I suggest to arrive and start to queue around 6-7am latest.

The sky bridge level in Petronas Twin Towers had previously been free for public with the queued tickets but now the tickets had started to cost 10RM each, which still wasn't that bad. There was some confusion about the tickets because we though that they would be free... I gathered money from 27 people including me attending the breakfast at Petronas Tower ground level. All the money was spent to get the tickets but I got only 26 tickets for me and my group. I was organizer so I accepted to my responsibility to be the one without the ticket then. So I wasn't able to go to the tower and some poor bastard took one ticket without paying for it... At first I felt a bit disappointed but then in the end I actually didn't even care.

After we got the tickets we started to head towards the Batu Caves.

Things to note with taxis in KL. Never take one which is waiting in front of an expensive building like Petronas Towers or in a group of taxis waiting and drivers chatting. They have always fixed prizes, like from the Petronas Towers they offered prices like 120-200RM to go to the Batu Caves and back... plus they would wait for you to visit the caves. The deal doesn't sound so bad, but if you just pick a cab from the street and demand a meter taken you are good. There is still a possibility that you are jumping into a rogue cab with meter fixed to go faster. The oneway taxi ride from Petronas to Batu Cave was only 15-20RM, so you can see that the fixed rates are just to scam the tourists.

The Batu Caves were amazing, while arriving there you could see this completely steep 200meter high rocky mountain rising and in front of it a huge at least 50meter high gold painted statue of the Hindi god of war and victory, Murugan.

Imagine a staircase with 272 steps ascending in front of you into a vast complex of caves some over 100 meters in height and reaching up into the surface. The stairs and caves filled with hundreds of rock climbing and jumping monkeys trying to grab any food you might have with you. Some birds flying inside the cave through the shades of light descending into the cave from the surface. The caves are filled with shrines of the Hindi gods. From the entrance you could see the whole city of Kuala Lumpur opening in front of you like a flower in the break of day.

After Batu caves everyone headed for lunch with their own groups and started head back to the Petronas Towers. I headed back to the serviced apartments with my friend to take care of the check-in routines for the rooms around 1-2pm. After check-in and room arrangement I had to take a power nap to keep my body going.

Around 6pm the sun was about to set and we decided to look for a cheaper bottles for a little pre partying, we found some local vodka (Moskov vodka) and whiskey bottles in the price range of 20-25RM while brands like Absolute Vodka stayed around 150RM for 0.7l bottle. We had pre party in two different apartments, I provided music for our apartment from my Spotify Premium on MacBook Air.

When the time was turning to 11pm we decided to head out for some clubbing. At the moment the best club (at least by the locals) in KL was called Zouk (there is also one  Zouk in Singapore), so we headed there. Beside the  Zouk was also a "better" gentleman's club with the fixed entry for both of the clubs for the same ticket. I arrived to the club with a group of 20 people, I got in but at that point I saw that the girls didn't. I had not paid yet for my entry so I started to see what's the problem. It was the fact that girls were under 21... The girls started to think about leaving to other club but I didn't want the group to split so I started negotiating with the bar manager. After 15minutes of talking I got everyone inside to the club but with one restriction, we were allowed only to be in the  Zouk side, but that was good enough. So in the end the group still spitted in to two, ones on the gentleman's club side with entry to  Zouk and to the  Zouk only group. We were clubbing till 3am and then headed back to apartments for after party.

By of course I was one of the two last ones standing. We were chilling and listening Bob Marley until around 6am we got an idea to go to the pool. We tried to ask and get permission to go to the pool from the night security guard. He even called to the reception three times asking if we could go for a swim. In the end we were denied for the access and we headed to sleep.

The second day started without a hangover followed by a cold shower around 11am. By noon we gathered all of our stuff in to one apartment and checked out from the others. I think the mayhem by night went successfully cause guys were saying that they were more drunk than even on Tioman! I'll have to confess, I didn't drink even a one drink in the  Zouk, just bought a bottle of water when leaving the club! But I had the best time ever dancing with the girls and guys the whole night!

On the second day some just went for a dinner and chilled by the pool, some did travel to Kuala Lumpur Tower where you could have a 360 degree view over the KL for the price of 48RM. KL tower has actually a better view and it's higher than the sky bridge in the Petronas Twin Towers. You could also find a huge shopping mall with a indoor theme park with world wheel and 5 story roller coaster.

Around 4-5pm we were picked up by the busses. In the middle of the way we stopped for a nice dinner and then continued back to Singapore. We organized the busses take us directly through the customs to the PGP in NUS campus and GR in UTown. So we saved some nerves and didn't had to go through all the hazel with the local busses and MRTs. We arrived home around 11pm, which was quite comfortable for those who had classes in the morning.

In conclusion one hell of a trip, again thanks for everyone!

Ps. Just to note! The trips that we organize are not with planned day time tourist style activity. I understand that from the fact that some people wants to travel pre planned and go tourists and some don't. That is the reason why we give you all the info to see and visit in the event briefing. What to see, when to see it and other tips, you can choose what you wanna do or even if you want to travel alone or with a capful (full taxi) of people to make it easy.

and to add... Lonely Planet the South-East Asia on a shoestring is must for every backpacker (group)!

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.

Ladies night

In Singapore there is always a ladies night on wednesday in most of the bars. It means that wednesday is the night to go out and to meet all the other exchange students and also everyone else worth to meet. It actually seems that Singapore focuses on wednesday night when making party plans. Though they also party on saturday too, so it's kinda like the same what we have in finland with the little saturday (wednesday) and actual saturday but just opposite.

Usually everyone goes to the the Chijmes area to hit the freeflow in Insomnia or at La Baroque. I usually go to the latter one. In La Baroque the freeflow starts at 9pm and lasts until 23.30. Freeflow means that for the entry fee you can drink all that you can handle for the time being. It covers white and red wines, beers, ciders, drinks with vodka, rum, whiskey, gin etc. so almost anything you want. And of course, because it's ladies night they can go inside free and also drink free, guys have to pay the 20S$ entrance fee which is not much for all that.

Funny thing though here in Singapore is that usually the age limit for ladies is 18+ and for guys 23+, even at the same bar.

After the freeflow, usually some of the exchange students gathers back to the Bridge or go clubbing in the bars like Zouk, Attica or Zirca. And Of course there is tons of other clubs worth to visit, just check around!

So I arranged a gathering and some pre-drinking before the ladies night with my local friend. At the pre-drinking there were about 20 exchange students. We wanted to keep this small because we were planning and talking about our second trip at the same time there. We left a around 8.40pm with a taxi to the Chijmes party area.

First we were thinking about going in to the Insomnia but when we arrived around 9pm to Chijmes area we saw the hundred meter line already going in... Ok, it was the first ladies night for the vast number of new exchange students. So we decided to head to La Baroque which was downstairs almost below Insomnia. There we only waited around 5minutes.

We were in, even though I think that not all of us were over 23+ year old. But the fun started, it took around 15-30 minutes for the bar to be filled with people. I knew around fifty of the exchange students there beforehand and got to know lots of new ones. I just love to socialize! Usually in Singapore there is always a live band in the bar and oh boy when  was surprised when the band took the stage, it was the exactly same band that I had heard 8-9 months ago when visiting my brother. Ok, that wasn't bad because they were actually good back then and good now too! Playing and singing all the mainstream songs, everybody just loved to dance there!

After the freeflow ended I headed back to the Bridge, I had promised to see my local friend there. Most of my friends continued to the Zouk to party! We headed back to the UTown to discus about the upcoming trip. At the same time we were multitasking and inviting people to join as in UTown for a chill-out on one of the Graduate Residence balconies. This was on the 12th floor. I can remember some of us staying up until 7am. after hitting the bed I woke up around 11am to organize the next trip to Pulau Tioman for the upcoming weekend!

So if you want to club with the girls, just move down to either Attica or Zirca. Else if you want the freeflow you might wanna check the Insomnia or La Baroque. Else, just hang around "The Bridge" with your drinks and mingle with the rest of the folks! Just remember to dress appropriately - long pants and covered shoes for the guys and bring your ID!