Hong Kong and Macau - Unexpected awaits

Picasa and facebook albums for pictures from Hong Kong and Macau! Pictures from the Bungee Jump in Picasa and facebook albums!

It has already been over three weeks since the trip to Hong Kong and Macau. While writing this I'm traveling back to Singapore from Penang, Malaysia where we enjoyed a weekend with friends. Actually I'm already back in Singapore, chilling in our apartments common area lying on the sofa while listening some Finnish reggae.

...

ja vaikka ootkin kaukana sielä

kuule 

me tavataan vielä

...

and even though you're faraway there

listen

we'll meet again

...

And so we landed on Hong Kong international airport after four hours of airtime. Most of the time was spent on sleeping but after three hours I decided it's time to focus on a bit about where we would spend our nights. I used the last hour of the flight wading through Lonely Planets on my laptop. We found several places for our budget in TST, Tsim Sha Tsui. Actually TST is a major tourist hub with various restaurants and shops to cater tourists. Previously it was known about its food courts and hawker centers whom had already vanished a long time ago.

We shared a taxi with another backpacker and headed towards the TST. He had already booked his accommodation. The ride from the airport was beautiful, the road twisted through harbors, shipyard cranes, high-raisers and graceful bridges while everything lighted up beautifully. We arrived at TST around 11pm and realized that most of the hostels and hotels close for the night at that time. We walked around for almost an hour without any luck, although we checked out some apartment but they were a bit too expensive compared to the price we had read about.

We were already about to head back to one of the more expensive ones but then luckily, in a corner of the road, some indian guy shouted that do we need a room and yes, we did. He offered to show the room for us first before we had to pay anything etc. He took us to a narrow dark road between big high-raisers just capped by horizon, supposedly was to be a shortcut. I remember looking my friend into his eyes and seeing the same dubious gaze that was overwhelming me too. We were going to be mugged, we thought. The man saw our distress and insisted us to follow him by convincing that it was a real shortcut to the hostel. Ok, we followed and actually everything went well, we got our nice enough room with air-con and wifi for a reasonable price. The room was really small but big enough to sleep, we weren't planning on staying in the room, rather walking all day around.

People living and playing in cardboard box houses
above the busiest street of Central Hong Kong

We had agreed to meet with the guy we shared a cap with to look around the TST over the first night. We were 10min late from our meeting place so we lost him, but it didn't stop us. On the first night we started checking around the bars and clubs around the TST area. At third club we met some weird group. They started to talk to us by asking if I'm a rugby player etc. one of the guys was 34year old CEO from Canada for his own company going to Finland for a business meeting to meet the Rovio brothers to talk about the rise of Angry Birds, how they found and used the market... and in the end we got back to our apartment around 5am. I had my laptop with me and decided to check´a bit what to do the next day, but luckily I found a friend in skype from Finland to keep me company and suddenly the sun was already rising. I went to bed after 7am.

Unexpected awaits

Over the second day we had arranged to meet with my Finnish friend in the Central, Hong Kong. Actually he is working in Zurich but was on a business trip in Hong Kong. So we met in the Central and headed for dinner at Soho area located in the Hollywood road area. The whole area consists of pavement and open street escalators just for pedestrians. We took the escalators the whole way up and started heading back down visiting various pubs and sightseeing the area. Around 7-8pm we decided to head back home to change into proper clothes for late supper and clubbing. By the time my friend was rather interested about my work and educational situation which we talked quite a lot, we also talked about his international job and what he has been doing over the past years. The company he works for has offices in Zurich, Paris, Frankfurt and Espoo and now he was in Hong Kong for a month long marketing project trip - sounded pretty nice!

Lightshow of Hong Kong harbor front buildings

Around 9pm we arrived back to Central to meet my friend and guess what... his CEO for dinner. Actually my friend had spoken about me to his CEO previously. So we had a nice dinner, from where we continued in to a bar, second, third, fourth... Long story short, at some point between the conversation I was asked to apply for a master thesis position and workplace in a year or two in Zurich during the week. We had some cigars to shake hands and continued into a A-list night club to celebrate the Hong Kong night life. From there we left around 5.30am towards the MTR (you read it right, Mass Transit Railway compared to MRT, Mass Rapid Transport of Singapore). The first MTR train to TST left at 6.06am and the gates were opened, around 7am we got back to our apartment to catch shuteye.

We were woken up by our lost friend at 11am. We were supposed to meet him at his apartment around 10am but luckily he didn't wait and started to look for us. It was actually a weird coincidence that he founded his way back, it was the same guy that picked us from the street that waved for our friend too. None of the people he asked had heard about our hostel in Chungking Mansions on the 36-44 Nathan Road. Actually the building is well know as the most affordable accommodations in Hong Kong. The building is filled with independent low-budget hotels, hostels, shops and other services. I could say that it is a place worth visiting, it has been previously described in literature as a "post-modern Casablanca - all in one building".

The sunday was spent walking around the Hong Kong Central area, visiting The Peak also referred as Victorias Peak with the amazing view over the opening sky scraping landscape of Hong Kong. We also walked the whole three kilometers route around the Aberdeen Country Park mountain beside The Peak. While walking around the mountain you could see the view opening to every side, definitely recommend! From the top of the peak we took a taxi to visit the Aberdeen part of the Hong Kong on the other side of the island. It was beautiful with its dining boats and ferries light up in the darkening night. After dinner in  Aberdeen we took taxi back to Central and visited the ferry harbor to check where the ferry departs for Macau. We saw the light show of Hong Kong and visited one of the busiest Mac Stores in the world filled with mourning fans to give their condolences to late Steve Job and his life work building Apple. The rest of the day was spent walking around the TST to show it to our found friend. We called it a night around 5am.

Macau

Macau Tower

Actually the main reason behind the journey to Hong Kong was to visit at Macau just to jump the worlds highest bungee at AJ Hackett Macau Tower. The bungee is jumped from the platform standing at the height of 233meters. I had made the booking for me and two of my friends already over a month in advance.

We had the best breakfast in a while at the Pret A Manger close to the Macau ferry terminal. If you don't know about Pret a Manger, you really should check it out! The ferry ride from Hong Kong Central to Macau took around one hour which we spent watching the movie Fear And Loathing in Las Vegas to get us in the proper mood for casinos. Just to note, the amount of money spent in Macau casinos is already triple the amount that flows in Las Vegas.

We spent the day walking around the city, just gasping our breath over the expensive view of casinos more bigger than another. The day disappeared swiftly, suddenly it was already 6pm and our supposed jump was to happen at 7pm which was the latest time for jumping on week days. We started to head for taxis, tried and tried to get one, some stopped but most just drove past. None of the taxis wanted to take us to the Macau Tower and it was raining, we were all wet. Clock turned to 6.45pm, we were told to be at the tower at least 20min before jumping time. We were already late, this could not happen! How can we miss our only change for the jump just by the fact that taxis wont take us. We were thinking that it might be that they won't let us jump due to the strong storm wind and rain but not by the fact that we would be late...

We started running towards the tower, we remembered from the map that there was a big water gap between so we started to sprint around it towards the tower. We just run, we were all wet from the rain and sweat when we reached the tower. I had already changed to my best clothes for the casinos and now they were all wet... but that didn't matter, we reached the tower at 7pm. We run around to find the way to get up there and in the end were appointed downstairs towards the elevators reaching the top levels. At downstairs we found a guy who called upstairs and asked if there is time for us to jump, they told us to rush up quickly. After paying the tower entry fee and couple of minutes later we reached the 62floor, where we were approached by jumper coordinators. We were told that the weather conditions are really bad but they check the possibility for jumping, we paid the 2499HKD for the jump per each. Normally the paid jump is not reimbursable due to bad weather but in our situation they told that they would reimburse it which was nice. It took a while but we were allowed to jump around 7.30pm.

I was the first one to go! The free flow of over 6 seconds with speed reaching close to 200km per hour before starting to rebound back up within 30meters of the ground. One of our group had the most severe case of fear of heights, but I think the jump cured him a bit!

Guinnes World Records Bungy Certificate

We hereby certify that Harmanen Juhana has successfully jumped off the world's highest Bungy platform at 233 metres above ground here at the Macau Tower; and is officially entitled to ask the world "Do you have what it takes?"

We all made our jumps and we are hooked! We received our AJ Hackett membership cards which will give us 20 percent discount at every AJ Hackett activity around the world and the next two jumps at Macau Tower for 888 HKD each and the fourth jump for free!

After the jump we walked back to our guesthouse to take a shower and ready ourselves for the upcoming casino night. We checked some casinos: Casino Lisboa and Grand Lisboa, Sands Macao, MGM Grand Macau, Wynn Macau and Galaxy Starworld etc. Of course we played... and lost some. This was the first night which we decided to call as night a bit earlier and we reached the guesthouse around 3am just 4hours before we had to depart for the airport.

Macau, hear me! Next time it will be at daytime with the jump video!

Destination Bali, Part II

Here is a link to my photos of the second part of the recess week trip to Bali on facebook II and picasa! These pictures cover the trip to Lovina through temples, waterfalls, hot springs etc. and back to Kuta and Kerobokan.

From Ubud we started heading to Lovina, a seaside town with various water activities to offer. We rented a charter for just two people for the whole day to drive us through the mountains to the northern side of the island. On the way there we visited numerous of attractions varying from lake temples to waterfalls and hot springs.

First on our route was Taman Ayun, the Royal Temple of Mengwi Empire in Bali. It's strategically located beside the major roadway between the two main cities in Bali, the Denpasar and Singaraja. The temple is set on a land surrounded by a big fish pond so it looks like drifting on the water like an island. Inside it has a beautiful temple building with multistoried roof and Balinese architecture. The beautiful landscape of the garden in front courtyard is very welcoming. Even though it's the Royal Temple it was the most un-touristic temple we had visited on our journeys in Bali with a most calming more natural like garden.

After the temple we continued our journey towards Lovina. When driving through the beautiful landscapes of rice terraces and high soaring mountains we stopped to admire a breathtaking view opening to every direction.

The next stop on our ride was a local food market called Candi Kuning Market. It's located in Bedugul. It provides fresh fruits, vegetables, spices, and such exotic flowers as delicate orchids and roses. The combination creates an array of wonderful colors. Spices include nutmeg, pepper, paprika and turmeric. A wide variety of fresh fruit and vegetables can be found here, as well as jeruk bali (pomelo) and durian. From the food market we bought some local chips resembling snacks like dried vegetable slices, spinach leafs and flower pedals. We also bought some local strawberries they raise on the mountains all over the year due to suitable climate. The market was supposed to be only for locals but the increasing tourism had brought the small stalls with all you can imagine stuff to buy also there.

The ride continued only for 15minutes and we arrived to the lake temple of Ulun Danu Beratan. It's a Balinese Hindu Temple located at Candi Kuning countryside, Baturiti sub district and Tabanan regency. The distance from Denpasar town is about 50 km north from Denpasar towards Singaraja, so on our way. The temple is surrounded by a beautiful view of surrounding mountains on a lakeside of Beratan. It is situated in the plateau area with a cooler atmosphere. On the northern side of the temple is Pucak Sangkur mountain and in the east side there is the Beratan mountain which is also referred as Pucak Mangu or Pucak Pangelengan. On the southern side locates the Terate Bang mountain and in the westside there is the Tapak and Watukaru mountains. A part of the temple is located in the lake creating a mystical atmosphere especially on a foggy day.

From the temple we continued our way through the mountains to our next destination before Lovina. The Gitgit waterfall is a very beautiful tourist destination in north part of Bali. Gitgit waterfall is located in the plateau area with the height about 35 meters and it is surrounded by tropical tree and emits the constantly natural water debit during the year. There are some plantations protecting the rain forest around the waterfall and in this place we often met the wild monkey to get the water from this waterfall. The waterfall is free to visit. From the road it was nearly 20min walk downhill to the waterfall. When we got down and had taken some pictures we changed into our swimsuits and hopped in to the water. To be honest it was more of a scary sneaking through the slippery rocks to the pouring water. The water was coming down so hard that you were barely able to withstand it's force and balance in it to keep yourself standing. I had to hold my friends hand to get her to accompany me to the waterfall too.

From the waterfall we continued our ride through the city of Singaraja to check-in to our hotel in Lovina before continuing to hot springs. The driver took us to a quite nice looking complex of four buildings with four bungalow style apartments in each. You could always get a room for cheaper price but the room was nice enough and not too costly, in the end only 175 000 IDR for two people.

Our predefined final destination was the hot springs of Air Banjar located close to Lovina beach. The sacred hot springs "Air Panas" of Banjar are set in the midst of the jungle in a landscape of a beautiful tropical garden. It consists of three public and one private pool. The sulphuric water is of volcanic origin and has an warm temperature around 40 degrees Celcius. It's said to be ideal for people suffering from rheumatic diseases. The hot spring water gushes from the mouths of eight stone carved nagas which are mythical dragon-like creatures, into the oblong shaped upper pool.

From the upper pool the water overflows from the mouths of five more nagas into the largest of the three pools, which is square shaped and situated at a lower level from the depth of one to two meters. Adjacent to these pools is the third and smallest one from which the water pours down via three four meter high spouts, giving you a strong, reviving massage.

After the refreshing and replenishing bath we headed back to Lovina and the driver continued back to his home in Ubud. At that night we watched a beautiful sunset over the quiet seashore filled with sailboats arrived from all over the world. We had a nice dinner and a good chill night in a local club with live music. We didn't stay in the tourist filled beachside restaurant clubs but headed a bit further away. We also booked a dolphin watching ride on sunrise and morning snorkeling on the coral reefs of Lovina beach.

We woke up around 5.30am and headed towards the beach. We were picked up by a local guy with a balinese style boat and headed to the sea. There were at least 20 other boats too. We headed towards the city Singaraja while the sun was rising behind the receding island. We round a bit of circle with all the other boats trying to catch a climbs of dolphins in their morning swim in their natural habitat. We saw around 3-4 dolphins about 4-5 different times and told our driver head back to the beach. We were a bit hungry and wanted to have a breakfast before the snorkeling. 

The snorkeling was amazing, even though the corals weren't so colorful the fishes and the sea stars were. I have always been sceptic about snorkeling due to the mud ponds of Finland I have snorkeled in, but not anymore. I could recommend coral reef snorkeling to everyone! After the morning we booked a new charter to drive us back to Kuta for the rest of the week and weekend.

My friend wanted to stay at Kuta for her last days and I headed towards my friends villa in Kerobokan where I could live for free. Actually my friends from Singapore were also invited but only one took the offer beside me. Other exchange students from Singapore gathered to Kuta for the last days too, mainly because the close distance to the airport.

The Villa Onga was really nice, it consist of big green yard, swimming pool, fish pool, kitchen, living room, two story with 4 double bedrooms, outside chilling balcony etc. It was a home to my friend, five other finnish girls and two german guys. By that week the girls were on a boat trip so we were allowed to stay there for free in their apartments.

I spent my last to days there chilling, having fun, surfing, scootering around Kuta, Double Six, Old Man etc. We also visited the beautiful oceanside temple of Tanah Lot that could only been reached on low tide.

We had a lot of fun that weekend jumping to the pool with the Tarzan rope I plaited from three different ropes. Actually we had a minor accident too, I was the first one to test it... We had put a small wooden stick through the rope as a handle to hang on while swinging. I swung towards the pool, in the middle of the way the stick cracked and I fell on the poolside. I was lucky not to hit my head tough. My friend got terrified because it looked so bad, but I only got a minor head smoothie and back pain and a big bruise in my left calf. My back and head got ok over the day and weekend. But otherwise it was fun jumping to the pool.

After the trip while I was stretching in the gym I noticed a huge rip in my left calf inside the muscle, but from outside there was just big bruise the size of the whole calf. I should have gone to the doctor but you know me... At the moment the rip is getting smaller and I can't fit my whole finger inside of it anymore and also it's not that touch sensitive anymore, it doesn't hurt to walk or exercise. It's good, gooood!

On that weekend we also visited the bar and club complex of Double Six, the Sky Garden which consists of 5 story with total of 10 clubs and bars. There or after that my wallet got stolen, luckily I had only some money and my credit card there, nothing else important that I could have remembered or missed. For the last two days I had to borrow money from my friend to sleep, eat, surf, take a taxi to airport and get of the country with the airport service fee of 150 000 IDR per person.

In the end amazing trip and not feeling bad about losing the wallet.

Ps. I might be going back to Bali at some point to visit my friends again and to learn to surf properly!

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!

Chinese Lanter Festival

Here is a link to my photos of the festival on facebook and picasa! Check out the huge lanterns covering over 8 hectares of the Chinese Gardens. This year's theme was The World of Legends.

We were supposed to go to see the lanterns in a small group of four people, but in the end we ended up there just by two of us guys but we still had lovely and romantic night, haha! Just to note that it would have been a really nice place to go on for a date...

The Mid-Autumn Festival also known as the Moon Festival is a popular harvest festival celebrated by Chinese and Vietnamese people, dating back over 3,000 years to moon worship in China's Shang Dynasty. In Malaysia, Singapore, and the Philippines, it is also sometimes referred to as the Lantern Festival or Mooncake Festival.

The Mid-Autumn Festival is held on the 15th day of the eighth month in the Chinese calendar, which is in September or early October in the Gregorian calendar. It is a date that parallels the autumnal equinox of the solar calendar, when the moon is at its fullest and roundest. The traditional food of this festival is the mooncake, of which there are many different varieties. The Chinese festival is very traditional and a great way to celebrate.

The Mid-Autumn Festival is one of the few most important holidays in the Chinese calendar, the others being Chinese New Year and Winter Solstice, and is a legal holiday in several countries. Farmers celebrate the end of the fall harvesting season on this date. Traditionally on this day, Chinese family members and friends will gather to admire the bright mid-autumn harvest moon, and eat moon cakes and pomelos under the moon together. Accompanying the celebration, there are additional cultural or regional customs, such as:

• Carrying brightly lit lanterns, lighting lanterns on towers, floating sky lanterns
• Burning incense in reverence to deities including Chang'e
• Erect the Mid-Autumn Festival. Hanging lanterns on the bamboo pole and putting them on a high point, such as roofs, trees, terraces, etc.
• Collecting dandelion leaves and distributing them evenly among family members
• Fire Dragon Dances

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!