Category: Asia

Singapore on two wheels.

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Aaand I did it – the 50 km cycle around Singapore. Something I have dreaded and looked forward to at the same time.

Tour de Singapore has been an exhausting journey, both physically and emotionally. While the physical tiredness from having to attend weekly spinning classes in preparation was very much expected, the emotional part came as a surprise. The pressure only came in much later, closer to the race – I was growing nervous and restless, unsure about the road safety and whether I would be fit enough to complete the distance. It was amplified by the fact that one of my friends who was joining the ride with me was no longer joining. It felt like I lost a bit of emotional support. It also did not help that half of the time I was wishing I had decided to forget about this whole cycling thing and join my friend on a 3-day football charity trip to Cambodia from 14th-16th Feb. (The title of this post at one point in time was dangerously close to be “Cambodia: Of Football, Happy Pizza and Fried Tarantulas” had I chosen to go.) But I had too much of a sense of commitment in me to quit halfway as tempting as the Cambodia trip sounded.

And I’m really I happy I went through with it. It was a well-spent 5 hours of my journey and looking back at all the preparation that I had done, it was the only right thing to do, really.

(Although after hearing the exciting stories from Cambodia, I did have a sliight regret, but hey, you can’t have everything).

So read on, if you want to find out more about what happened before, during and some observations that I reflected upon completing.

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Nepal, food wise.

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I am perfectly aware that I do still have a long overdue post to write about my trip to Nepal in April last year. But in the spirit of Chinese New Year overeating (which also explains the absence of posts over the past week due to uncontrollable food consumption), I thought it would be wise to slot in this post about Nepalese food, inspired by the recent post-trip gathering to a Nepalese restaurant in Little India in Singapore.

Before that, just a little background regarding me and food photography: I hate taking pictures of food. It is perhaps partly due to the fact that I believe in just indulging in the food the moment you see it, but mostly due to me being just plain lazy. I don’t have the habit of taking out my phone/camera and snap pictures of the dishes that are served in front of me. Unless if it looks something like this.

This certainly warrants some exception.
This certainly warrants some exception.

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Aliwal Urban Art Festival.

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I love Singapore, particularly because of how easy it is to get from a place to another. The country is small enough that you can get from one end to another in less than two hours by the train. This feature is especially important since we only have one Saturday and one Sunday – weekends should comprise of more days in a week!

It came especially handy today when I felt like I had so many things to do and that many people to see. I had a friend to meet for brunch, two friends to meet for tea and a bunch more to meet for dinner. The amazing thing was that even with such a packed schedule in a day, I’m glad that I managed to sneak in some time to check out the Aliwal Urban Art Festival, thanks to Singapore’s small size and efficient transport system.

I wouldn’t say I understand much about art and music, but they have always sparked my curiosity. In Singapore, the art scene seems to sprawl in the underground known only by a handful and appreciated by even fewer people, which makes it even more intriguing.

Although I didn’t get to spend much time at the Arts Festival, it definitely was one of the highlights of my day. When I reached the Aliwal Arts Centre, I was greeted by the loud music of ‘I am David Sparkle’. Definitely not my staple kind of music, but it grew on me with every song they played.

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The drum set fell apart at one point in time!

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Myanmar: Good to know before you go.

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We all need a balance in our lives.

To me, one of the most important balances to have is being able to see all the important sights during travel while still having that element of surprise. It is the balance between the “Ohh, I’m glad to see this world-renowned structure” and “Wow, I did not know such beauty exist in this world!”.

If that makes sense.

There were a few times during my trip in Myanmar that I thought to myself “thank goodness my friend told me about this” or “I wish I had known this before”. In my sincere attempt to continue to be Myanmar tourism evangelist, I have compiled this list of good-to-know-before-you-go so you can maximise your trip without me spoiling much of the surprise the place beholds.

  1. Flip flops are the way to go. Forget about your sneakers or flats. By the end of my trip, I visited more than 30 temples and none of them allowed you to wear any footwear inside. Unless you have extremely patient friends who don’t mind to wait while you tie and untie your shoelaces and unless you want dirt-stained footwear as keepsakes from Myanmar, stick to the flip flops. One tip: bring a plastic bag to carry your flip flops around the temple since most places will ask for donation if you put your footwear at a cabinet outside the temple.
    Expect to see these signs everywhere in Myanmar (minus the monkeys)
    Expect to see these signs everywhere in Myanmar (minus the monkeys)

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My Top 10 Myanmar Moments.

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“This is Burma. It is quite unlike any place you know about.”

If I were as eloquent as Rudyard Kipling, that would probably be my default reply whenever someone ask how my recent trip to Myanmar was. But I am not. Instead, I always come up with a lame three-word sentence that goes along the lines of:

“Myanmar was incredible.”

(Or replace the word “incredible” with “awesome”, “beautiful”, “lovely” and other praising adjectives that do not really say anything.)

In return, I normally get raised eyebrows and somewhat non-subtle skepticism from my listeners.

I don’t blame them. After all, the country is a hidden South East Asian gem, only opening up its economy to the world in the last two years. It is still shrouded in mystery (although I guess the biggest mystery to most of my fellow South East Asians is why we want to visit the place in the first place since there is an unspoken rule of the closer a place to our place of birth, the less interesting it is).

Anyway, since I feel the need to make up for my verbal incapability in travel story-telling, I have resolved to turn into Myanmar tourism evangelist through writing to do the country some justice it so deserves. However, I am not going to bore anyone to death by putting my travel itinerary here. Instead, I am going to list down my 10  personal favourite moments during my 9-day travel to Mandalay, Bagan and Yangon.

Continue reading “My Top 10 Myanmar Moments.” →