'Would a traveller go back at the end of a trip and do it all over again? Relive all the hassles, the heat, the misadventures?
Yes. Usually, anyway. If only for those rare moments that are travel, that make it vital. Even if those moments take forever to come, they're worth the wait. They're the same reasons that keep s alive. Wouldn't most people go back and be a kid again, go through all the hurts, bruises and misunderstandings of growing up, relive everything, just to be able to smell spring the way we did when we were ten?'
- Laurie Gogh, Kite Strings of The Southern Cross

On Cambodia - Impressions

"I felt beautiful when I was in Cambodia. I was sweaty, and my hair was matted and all over the place. I was happy and hot and accomplishing a lot and running around, and I could feel my heart beating, and I felt beautiful."
- Angelina Jolie, when shooting Tomb Raider in Cambodia

It's been 2 weeks since I came back from Cambodia.. I've been meaning to write a piece on my travels but well, kept postponing it. Now the impressions I have are not so fresh and it seems that there are a lot less things to write about.. but still, the country merits some observations..

First things first, I had a great time in Siem Reap! (the only place I visited, due to time constraints). Before landing, I had an image that the airport was going to be.. you know, small, cheap looking, with the usual concrete-plaster-tile ensemble.. Couldn't be more surprised because the whole building shows great use of materials.. Raw concrete with smooth finishing (class!), combined with wood, sculptures, heck they even have glass-rimmed courtyards with beautiful gardens inside! Oh well, I took it as a sign of greater things to come, and dutifully marched to the line of immigration officers. After seeing my nationality in the passport, the officer serving me wanted to learn some words in Indonesian haha.. n I learnt my first Khmer word, "Soksabay" which means "How do you do?" =D

The city itself was pretty small, and well, honestly the buildings are simple and nondescript. Funny atmosphere of a city that you know is fast developing and building, but also retains a kind of village feel.. Reminds me a lot of smaller cities in Indonesia..except for one thing.. Siem Reap's clean!! Not-much-litter-lying-around clean.. which made me think, "What's wrong with Indonesia that we cannot do such a thing?" Hufh, anyway, it was also bloody hot and dusty, even with the large amount of greenery around.

On the streets, the most popular mode of transportation is tuk-tuk.. which is totally cool if you can appreciate the slower things in Life haha.. Seriously, though, the feeling of breeze in your hair (even if it's 40 degrees Celcius breeze..) makes it a nice experience. Motorbikes abound too, and what's so amazing is that all of them are seemingly for hire.. As soon as you make eye contact with a guy on a motorbike, he'll ask, "Motorbike, lady?" Once, I was right smack in the middle of the road trying to cross when a motorbike passed in front of me, and the moment I looked at the rider, he asked, "Motorbike, lady?" totally taking his eyes off the road and looking back at me when he was moving forward! That's what we call determination.. Anyway, it somewhat awes me that the pace of vehicles are so slow there, since the road is actually good and wide enough (unlike Hanoi with it's crawling traffic jams..). What sets the 'pace' of a place, I wonder? Coming from a place like Singapore, I think I'm starting to assume that everyone will surely go faster, faster, faster if they can, and it calms me down that there are still places people take it slow.

Talking about slowness.. DO NOT wait until you are very hungry to go into a restaurant in Siem Reap, because by the time they serve you the food, you'd have been almost willing to eat the table.. Ah, the downside of the slow pace I loved.. Great food though, mostly different kinds of curry the call "amok" (Somehow because of the expression 'run amok', I kept having an image of someone running around after eating that curry...)

The buildings, the pace of life, the food, and then.. there's the Cambodians. I have a very good impression of Cambodians, though yeah, my friends and I had several glitches like the boatman trying to extract a few more dollars above the agreed price, etc. I guess I'm comparing them to other SEA people - Thais, Vietnamese, Malaysians, Filipinos, fantastic fellow Indonesians - and I find Cambodians... sincere..

Hmm... yeah I think the word sincere describes my impression well.. When I was shopping around in the Old Market, the vendors asked me to look at their wares, but none were forceful.. The moment I smiled they'll just smile back and not try to 'detain' me, and funnily enough they seem to use this line a lot when saying good bye: "Good luck to you, lady/sir.." Anyway, I just feel that everyone is around doing their business but also accepting me as a tourist in their midst, and I don't feel like an intruder but I don't feel like a 'walking wallet' either.. Wonder if it's because there are still relatively few tourists in the area, but I sure hope things won't change with more and more people coming.. (which will surely happen, seeing how charming Cambodia is)

An incident I still remember... at one point, I was exploring a temple early in the morning, and a Cambodian lady selling scarfs approached me and said good morning.. Wanting to be nice and thinking I had lots of time anyway, I chatted with her a bit (Indonesians are still somewhat exotic to them hahaha..), but the whole time we were chatting I was waiting for her to start selling her stuff.. After about 5 minutes, she was like, "OK lady, good luck to you, have a good day!" smiled and started walking away just like that! I was dumbfounded hahahaha.. Half of me was glad because it seems she was curious about me without seeing me as a tourist, half of me was like, "Uhm, I don't look like the kind of people who buy scarfs?" hahahaha..

Next up: on the famed Angkor Wat and 'the other absolutely amazing temple', Ta Phrom.

Wanderlust..

"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness..."
- Mark Twain

The holidays are coming! (A friend told me, though, "You gotta get over your mistress first..")
Ah well, freedom is virtually 5 days away.. Yay!

Anyway, in line with my newfound appreciation of Singapore, actually I fully intended to just stay here and take it slow.. I imagine having lots of time to raid the library, to revisit my favorite ulu places around the island, to take up French and Mandarin in my own time again, to sketch, to paint, play the piano, cook..

BUT! Some capoeira people are planning a trip to Bangkok and inviting people along.. I thought, well, why not, since it's just a 4 days trip. Then..I went browsing for Thailand travel guides in the library...and it made me want to backpack large swathes of Thailand hahaha.. After all, we might as well make full use of the carbon footprint of our flights, right?

So then.. Somehow a thought popped into my mind: "Hey what about Cambodia? Angkor Wat?" I looked at the book shelf.. Tons of books about Thailand, but very few about Cambodia.. That settles it: Cambodia here I come! Previously, hesitating whether to go because I couldn't find a travel partner. (I'm bold enough to backpack Cambodia alone, but I don't have the guts and the heart to tell my parents I'm backpacking Cambodia alone huhu..) That's settled for now, though,a friend's joining me and I think it'll be great fun! Yay!

Wwll, what's 2 weeks of travel in 3 months, I thought.. Then, some friends were talking about the Shanghai World Expo and before I realized it, I was sms-ing my dad, "Dad, what do you say we go to Shanghai to see the World Expo?" My fingers moved on their own I swear! Dad's reply "Of course! You take care of the timing and tickets." I gotta admit that having a Dad that dotes on you and likes the same things you do is kinda nice.. I was already imagining going down museums and checking out old buildings with my Dad telling me Chinese history...

...when my mom calls, "Ching you're going to Shanghai with Dad? I'll join you. Let's go to Suzhou as well.." Waa.. Told my mom that the condition for her coming along is: "No shopping" hahaha.. This will be a cultural and history trip since both me and my Dad are Chinese culture fans =D

...so much for staying in Singapore hahahaha... The whole month of June I'll be hopping around: Sg - KL - Shanghai - Suzhou - Hangzhou - Shanghai - KL - Sg - Bangkok - Siem Reap - Phnom Penh (?) - Bangkok - Sg... plus maybe some Northern Thailand or Canmbodian cities.

Oh, wanderlust!

Interesting Turns..

Gotta say that yesterday, though tiring as hell, was a really cool day.. Finally some really interesting experiences in Manila! We had lunch with a community that lives in a rehabilitated slum - now it looks like anything but a slum.. small but really nice houses. The thing is, the lunch was very unusual and supposedly it came about from meals prepared for US Marines before going to battle..

When we reached the village outdoor space, there were rectangular tables lined up, forming one long table, but instead of tablecloth, the tables were laid with banana leaves. "Creative," I thought, but nothing special. Then, we were told to wait somewhere else while the food was being prepared. When we came back.. whoa, in the middle of that long table food was laid out directly without any plates! There was a long line made up of small mounds of rice, noodles, chicken, mango salad, salted egg, rice, noodles,etc repeated several times..

"Wow this is getting interesting!" I thought. Roma, our co-ordinator, shouted "Aha!" three times before eating, just like soldiers going into battle (though I assume soldiers won't exactly shout 'Aha!' but something more macho/violent..)
Roma: "Ok! Now you can attack the food! You must eat with your hands..."
*No problemo, I thought.. We cool Indonesians do it all the time..*
Roma cont'd: "...and before you feed yourself, you have to feed 3 other people first.."

???!! Well, I happened to be standing in front of my architecture tutor, and I have nothing against him, really, but the idea of feeding your tutor with your hands, and vice-versa? Uhhh......huhuhuhuhu.... In the end, got it done, with my tutor helpfully starting, saying "Ok, so what may I feed you?" hahaha... It was really fun to do it with studiomates though haha.. This is what it looked like after about 20 minutes..



Next up, we volunteered to help build houses for Gawad Kalinga.. which means.. it's time to don my construction worker persona again! *Shiela versi kuli semen pun muncullah...Eng-ing-eng!* We dug, scooped, dug some more, compacted soil, etc etc, your typical preparation for building house foundation. The irritating thing was that there was some other building demolished already on the site so digging was such a tiring and torturous job.. There was more rubble than soil. Teammates were great though, and trying to speak Tagalog to the Philippines people who helped build also was fun. Plus, call it a fetish if you will, but I think my studiomates all look totally cool in construction-worker-mode hahaha... Pretty amazing how holding a spade can transfrom the usually-metrosexual archi guys...

Ate some really good food too, these few days. There was 'turon' , banana wrapped in rice paper skin then deep fried, eaten with a sauce made from mango, jackfruit and some milk I think..*photo also will be uploaded ASAP* And trust me readers, this sauce is heavenly!! Oooooh!!! In the end I was just scooping some sauce into banana leaf pieces and slurping it haha.. I think it's the best thing I've eaten here so far.

There was also coconut juice with evaporated milk.. It's the usual young coconut water and flesh (what we call 'kelapa muda' in indonesia), but mixed with ice and thick, sweet milk.. It's so good I wonder why no one outside the Philippines had thought of it before... at least, not that I know of..

Lastly, there's the friendliness of the people I meet in and around the rehabilitated areas, some of the poorest areas of the Philippines. It really touches me that they prepare such good food for us, and when we went around site surveying, they were accompanying us, greeting us, asking us if we need any information at all.. According to Roma from Gawad Kalinga, previously some of these people live without any dreams, any dignity.. When the social workers came to talk to them, they would look on the floor.. Now, when I go around the site I can see that they are proud of their houses, their gardens, their lives...

I'm touched by Roma, who told me her story of giving up a high-flying accountancy job to be a social worker... She's only 24, but holds an important position in Gawad Kalinga, not least because she can speak 3 Philippines dialect that makes it easy for her to communicate all over the Philippines. She said that her parents were very upset when she gave up such a well-paying job for helping the poor, and yet, she wants to be able to say that while she is young and idealistic, she did what she could to make a difference. It makes me think again about Indonesia, and what I can do for my country, and strangely, also about China, and what I can do for my heritage.

3 days to go, and I'm glad I'm in this trip.

Encore Manila..

Something about Manila that I kept wanting to write but keep forgetting. There are a lot of tranvestites here! Like, a lot.. Or maybe it's just so much more than I expected since most Philippinos I come into contact with are members of my church and that becomes my impression of the Philippines..

Oh well..

5 days have gone by.. kinda can't wait to go back to Singapore and shut myself in my room reading haha.. I've a bit too successfully converted my room into a cosy personal library..

Fortunately though, to make time in Manila pass faster, I've been reading great books since I came.. finished 'Perahu Kertas' by Dee, and am reading 'The Angel's Game' by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. The latter is about an author who got paid to write a religion from scratch... not write about a religion, mind you, but write a religion.. Concocting his own brew of myths, stories, miracles, characters.. And meanwhile, he got involved in murders, intrigues, scandals, and love affairs... Such is the world of Carlos Ruiz Zafon... His previous book 'Shadow of the Wind' is one of my favorite also. Back to the book, then, reader.. Fare thee well!

"You don't look well," he pronounced.
"Indigestion," I replied.
"From what?"
"Reality."
"Join the queue."
- conversation between David Martin and Senor Isaac, a.k.a Guardian of the Cemetery of Forgotten Books

Morsels from Manila (3) - Unslumming Slums

People here eat tofu by first deep-frying it, then drenching it with soya sauce and scallion topping.. which is just the way I love it.. yum!

That aside, yesterday we began work in an area that was previously one of the worst slums with a notorious reputation - the Manila people love to say that in the past when you ask taxi drivers to take you to Baseco they would refuse wholeheartedly, since it was filled with criminals. However, after a devastating fire, a Philippines charity group called Gawad Kalinga (will write more about them. My utmost respect for them.) has been working to convert the slum area into a community village, and it does work. The whole place is very lively, especially in the evening, that it felt great just walking along the streets and looking at people chatting, eating, kids playing all kinds of games, running, rooster and dogs around... It illustrates perfectly well the Jane Jacobs mantra: "Eyes on the street", since almost everyone knows everyone else, and as the result the street feels like someone's living room instead of just a strip for vehicles to pass by.

Work has been quite fun, though for the most part I spent my time drawing cartoon characters for the kids instead of doing fieldwork huhuhu... I love it when they come to me, say words in Tagalog, like "Paruparo!" (butterfly) or "Itik!" (chick), then I would refer to my little Filipino-English dictionary, check out the word, exclaim an enlightened "Ah! ok.." and proceed to draw on pieces of paper or their hands hahaha.. After some time, some of the kids called me "Ateh drawing" huhu.. "Ateh" means big sister in Tagalog. To be honest,I learned basic level of Tagalog, like asking what's your name, where's your school, how many siblings you have,without even realizing it.. thanks to talking to the kids.. I must've looked like an idiotic foreigner trying to chat with 5 kids at once while consulting a mini phrasebook at the same time, but hey it pays off! ;p

That aside.. working the whole day in an area where people are just blatantly poor, then coming back to a comfortable hostel and eating a nice dinner.. I don't know exactly how to behave or what to think.. Selfishly, I'm coping by telling myself that at least during the day I'm working to try and see what we as designers can do for people..but who am I kidding.. That's why I respect the Gawad Kalinga people so much.. I can really see the difference between the living conditions inside the GK villages compared to some of the nearby areas that are still slums, and it's at least comforting to know one can really make a difference with the right model, the right management, and a lot of money. (This last bit is really important.)

About the slums.. Walked through slums around Baseco and it's my first time really going into a slum area.. A slummed-up slum where the ground is made up of rubbish heaps, not soil, and people's houses are assembled from whatever materials they can find.. As an architecturally-trained student, there's much that can be analysed, admired even, since a slum really is an amalgam of people's determination to build, their creativity, economical thinking, and pure survival instinct.. Multiply that by the hundreds, continue adding layers, and you get a large slum like Baseco, Kibera (Africa) or Dharavi (India). Complex, to say the least. Can't say much, I really think pictures say more for these kind of things.

A clumsy farewell, then, readers.. Cheesy as it sounds, whatever your situation is right now -relationship problems, school stuff, family etc etc - just give thanks, just be grateful... because, if you're like me, people like us can't even comprehend how lucky ourselves are...

Morsels from Manila - part 2

Hmm... I think I should write something interesting about Manila instead of just complaints, and so, here we go. One of the most interesting things about the Philippines, and Manila, is that it was influenced by so many cultures, so many races.. Hence,the resulting cultural amalgam is worth spending some time to tease apart and understand.

A bit of a history lesson: the indigenous Philippines people were very closely related to Indonesians, especially those from Sulawesi, which is just below Southern Philippines. Then came 400 years of Spanish rule, after which the Spaniards sold the Philippines for US$20 million to the Americans.( By the way, the name Philippines came about because the Spanish conquistadors dedicated the islands to King Philip II of Spain.) During World War II, the Japanese took over the Philippines, and after 3 years under Japanese rule it gained independence. (Disclaimer: bits and pieces assembled from conversations with people, including those responding to my very limited Tagalog, so take with a pinch of salt.)

Well, the presence of all these cultures can be seen in today's Manila. Philippino language has quite a number of words similar or almost similar to Indonesian, for example, 'mahal' also means expensive, 'pintu' (door), 'lelaki' (guy), 'anak'(child), 'nasi' (rice), 'gandum' (wheat) all mean the same things. 'pasuk' = 'masuk' (enter), 'kris' = 'keris', etc.. and they also have a musical instrument they call 'kolintang', the exact same thing as ours. In terms of food.. the snacks and cookies are very similar to Indonesia.. people eat a lot of chips (kerupuk, which here they call 'chicarron') made from rice, cassava, tapioca, corn, jackfruit etc. When I was walking past a market that sold traditional Philippines cakes (kue!) I felt I was right back in Indonesia, it was kinda surreal hahaha...

The Spanish influence is also present in food.. It's common to find people selling 'turron', which is a typical Spanish snack (that I had a good time trying out when I was backpacking in Spain.. aah.. those Gaudi and Calatrava buildings..). Their marks are also imprinted on the design of the Philippines traditional costume (Go ahead, you want to google it don't you), which doesn't look like it belongs to a Southeast Asian nation at all, if you ask me. Until 1985, Spanish language was a compulsory lesson in school.To say "bye" , you can say "adios", and to this day people from Manila are called 'Manileños'.

The Americans.. thanks to their reluctance to learn any other language than English (just a little joke here..) left a very useful legacy: that the average Philippino / Philippina has a decent level of English, with reasonably good pronounciation. From the jeepney driver, waiter, people on the street and even people in the slums, there is no problem communicating in English. Ah yeah, and today when some people saw my totally ang-moh (that's Caucasian for those who don't speak Singlish..) looking German tutor pass-by, they shouted: "Hey Joe! Joe!" hahahaha... (I think it refers to this - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G.I._Joe - but I'm not sure)

Lastly, the Japanese.. in some parts of Manila, the shop names and advertisements include a lot of Japanese writings.. and Japanese food seems to be quite popular.. but so far that's all I managed to gather....

As for Philippines culture itself, I'm still learning, though actually several incidents convinced me it's just the same as in Indonesia. One interesting point might be, here popular eateries are called 'turo-turo', which means 'point-point', where several containers of dishes are arranged and you just point to what you want. That certainly saves me from learning the Tagalog names of dishes!

And for now, babay! (that's 'bye' in Tagalog)

Terribly Terrible Taxi Drivers

Day 3 of 11, and sad to say, in my eyes Manila has not redeemed itself.

Most of my disappointment has to do with the taxis.. Readers be warned: Manila taxi drivers do not know Manila streets.. as in, they get lost very often and even the taxi drivers have to ask the police, people on the way, etc to get to the destination. We've taken taxi 4 times, to various destinations, and each time the driver did not know the way. Go figure. Plus, once I saw a taxi with a Phillipina lady stopping by the side of the road, and then both passenger and driver were talking to a policeman and pointing around, asking which way to go.

Wait, there's something worse. The drivers did not actually tell us that they did not know how to go!! It was like, "We want to go Santtillian street" "Sure" but after a few meters the driver would start mumbling to himself, then stopping by and asking people. And what's worse (yes it's just gonna get "badder and badder" from here...) is that you have to bargain for the taxi, even if they had put the meter on... Yep you read that right... So here's my story...

Was going to meet up with a friend in a hostel, and flagged down a taxi. "Do you know how to go to Saint Illian street?"
"Yes.."
Got in to the taxi, driver said, "What street did you say again?"
"Saint Ilian"
"Hm... mumble mumble.. I think I need to ask people, you know..."
"Oh. Ok." *thinking, whatever lah, as long as I get there, and luckily I wasn't in a hurry*
Driver asked," So, how much you want to pay..?"
Me: "Huh?"
Driver: "Because I need to ask around you know.. what about this, 200 pesos?"
This time, it hit me that he was asking me to pay more, probably because we would need to go round and round..
Me: "But you have the meter. It is still running, doesn't matter if we need to ask around."
Driver: "Hah...meter... hah..." *His face was like, 'who are you kidding man..what's the point of using meter..'
Me: "Never mind. Drop me now please, just at the side of the road over there."
Driver: "ok ok, what about like this, you pay 100 pesos?"
At this point I was just super-pissed that I insisted he dropped me at the side of the road, but in the end I agreed to add 20 pesos to whatever price is on the meter, which was 60 pesos. 20 pesos is about 80 singapore cents, and being someone brought up in a well-to-do family, in normal situations I would just pay whatever price is named, since the money would mean much more to the other person than to me. Well, I was just pissed and wanted to piss the taxi driver as well...

Later that night, I took another taxi with some friends, and this time, the taxi driver, again, said he knew where we wanted to go, and agreed to put the meter on, but ended up going round and round, stopping so often to read a map we brought, and speaking to us in Tagalog in a very patronizing tone that in the end I just wanted to strangle the guy.. I even suspected that he pretended not to understand English just so he could go around and charged us higher. (We were kinda directing him since we somewhat know the layout of this part of the city already)

When we got down from the car my friends had to chill me huhuhu... Went to get some drink, and while I was drinking a can of cold beer to cool down (I admit this had to do with my temper that time, the afternoon taxi incident passed through my mind, and I thought, "Wait a minute.. that guy wanted to charge me more because he needed to go around asking which way to go... he WANTED ME TO PAY MORE BECAUSE HE CANNOT DO HIS JOB???! WTH??!"

So yeah. Well I'm sure Manila cannot be judged just from the quality of its taxi drivers, but for now on, I am very negatively biased towards this city. 8 more days to go, let's see.

Morsels from Manila

Manila... Touched down around 12 noon.. The Philippines is an amazing sight from above - Manila is surrounded by beautiful mountain ranges and well.. for me it seems like the city is surrounded by folded green velvet hahaha..

Anyway, found out that the Clark airport is actually around 2 hours car journey from the actual Metro Manila. Note to self: Do more research when taking budget airlines. Eventually we entered Manila, though.. and hey! I felt like I was back in Indonesia! Almost everything from the weather, the building types, the traffic, the cars, the scenery.... Oh wow.. The only different thing is that signs are in English and Tagalog. Found the hostel, located in quite an interesting area where all the street names are space objects (Jupiter st, Polaris st, Juno st, Orbit st etc). It's actually a studio apartment converted into a hostel, and very cosy! Great first impression of Manila....

... but things kinda went downhill from there.. Took the train to see sunset at Manila Bay (Interestingly, the sunset here is great because the air is opaque due to pollution..). Manila has 3 train lines with the trains looking like KTM (Kereta Api Tanah Melayu from Malaysia). Well, no problem with those, clean and good. Then we reached the Central Manila station.

Hmm... the station itself does not look like a Central Station because it was very dilapidated, and -gasp! - banally modernist.. Walked to Manila Bay, and uhm... reached Manila Bay... and saw a bit of sunset.. and that was it... The thing is, the whole walk consist of a rather barren pavement beside one long, wide concrete road and the so-called landmark buildings are mostly neo-classical cast-concrete entities smothered with pastel-colored paints. (Nothing personal against pastel colored paints.. It's just that I've seen enough of salmon pink and pale yellow Corinthian pillars in Jakarta.) The absence of street food is noticeable, though for the adventurous 'balut' - duck egg with embryo - is very easy to find. Then, there was the smoke, the cars (My apologies for contrasting Manila with the more charming bycicle-laden Vietnam), the smell.. Actually, the smell makes it kinda fun..As one walks, one is really assaulted with various kinds of smells, leaving one's imagination guessing as to what is the source... Hahaha...

As it grew darker, there's not much of street lamps, which, combined with the large scale of roads,pavements and buildings, and the barrenness of it all, creates a rather eerie atmosphere...

Oh, and the last thing... Manila is not a vegetarian friendly city.. not even pescatorian friendly! It was difficult to find vegetable dishes around *tho there's always Subway*. On the other hand, if you love chicken, then this is the place. As we walked along Jupiter st, there was no shortage of billboards with various smiling chicken characters (One of the greatest contradictions in life.. Chickens advertising for places that aren't exactly chicken-friendly..).

The most interesting thing in Manila is probably the jeepney, a special public transport modified from ex- US army jeeps. It's pretty long, and passengers sit in two long lines at the back facing each other while the driver is in front facing the road. Then, when it's time to pay passengers just pass coins from those at the back to those closest to the driver, and each time the driver receives and puts money in a box without really looking.. I wonder if the driver trusts the passengers so much to give the correct amount of money, or he's just got a sixth sense to know if it's correct!

Another good thing would be, everyone here speaks English pretty well, and signs are mostly bilingual, so if you're a traveler that doesn't like to learn a bit of local language (though then I would question your definition of 'traveler'), this is a pretty good place to start.

Well well, for now, that is my impression of Manila.. I know I'm painting a bleak picture of it, and I do hope it will change.. It's Day 1 out of 11, for goodness sake!

For now, though, magandang gabi! *Good night in Tagalog*

On China - Food!

Even considering the risk of diabetes, these things are totally worth it!

Well, well.. It's impossible to talk about China without talking about its food *which, Wikipedia will tell you, can be traced back to 400,000 years ago... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Chinese_cuisine * I gotta say that I thoroughly enjoyed the food in China, whether in small restaurants or street stalls, and just in case you are wondering, nope I didn't get any stomach trouble at all.

Actually, street stalls are God-given since the food is so cheap - you can get pretty stuffed for the equivalent of S$1 - and the variety is great. Popular street food changes according to seasons. Since it was winter when I was there, the common snacks include jian bing (which is kind of like flour crepe with egg, spring onion, and wheat crackers inside), bing tang hu lu (the above photo, which is fruits on a stick, coated with sugar. The sugar melts too easily in summer so this is a winter delicacy. And man, when one bites that cold, sweet, crunchy layer of sugar, to reach the juicy mandarin oranges below...owwww...), and hong di gua (baked sweet potatoes.. They use oil drums as an oven haha..)

Another thing I cannot forget is the dumplings.. I had some dumplings stuffed with egg and chinese chives, and these hot, steaming dumplings just make you forget that outside the temperature is below freezing ;p Lots of stir-fried vegetable dishes available, and contrary to popular believe, you can find things that are not too oily / uses so much seasoning. Well, but it is true that Chinese food contains quite a lot of oil and sugar. One of my favorite drink in China is 'peanut milk', which is like soybean milk, just made from peanuts. It's sold in bottles and dang, they really didn't hold back on the sugar.. It tastes great, though.. Had a discussion with a friend on whether Chinese people will get diabetes and other diseases due to all this unhealthy food.. The thing is, most Chinese people I see are really not fat, considering the things they eat. Or maybe they just didn't eat as much as us, over-excited tourists who patronizes so many snack stalls we passed by in the name of winter survival.. Am suprised I wasn't really chubby by the time I got back..

Anyway, my moment of revelation about Chinese food came when my Beijing friend brought me to a commercial food court (Actually, the place looked like it is under Singapore management.. and the brand name is the same, I think it was Food Junction). Thing is, the place only has Chinese food and each stall specialises in a different Chinese cuisine, from different regions.. You've got Beijing, Shanghai, Henan, Sichuan etc, and that's when it hits me that so far I've been lumping an amazing variety of cuisine into one banal category- "Chinese food"- which clearly doesn't do it justice. I mean, it's a bit like lumping Italian, French and Spanish cuisine into one and calling it 'Western food'.

Talking about Western food, as much as you can, DO NOT eat Western food in China, because it's expensive and totally not worth it. I had a really lame tuna panini one night in Starbucks just because I was wondering whether Starbucks, as a famous Western brand, can serve decent Western food in China. (Answer: nope) Oh, and according to my friend, the only place to get decent coffee at a reasonable price is McDonald's. I didn't crave coffee when I was in China so I really don't know, but there you go.

But hmmm.. if you ask me if I crave some egg and chive dumplings right now....

The ChinaMania continues...

classic Beijing snapshot.. ahh..

*Newsflash: Dissertation topic on Beijing, approved! Well technically it's about informal landscapes, but Beijing is chosen as a case study. Which means.. I can spend lots of time reading about a subject that totally fascinates me while calling it 'research' hehehe.. Now this is what you call 'work smart' *

Anyway, the more I read about China and Beijing, the more I want to try and live there, be a part of it all.. And the more frustrated I become when reading about all the destruction of cultural heritage that's going on.. And, on the grounds of cultural revolution alone, the more I hate Chairman Mao...

I can't pour in the jumbled up thoughts in my mind, but basically, the Cultural Revolution screwed China upside down by destroying traditions, destroying urban fabric, destroying appreciation of imperial China and the wealth of culture, beauty and refinement that it represents.. The maxim of the 'revolution' is to destroy the Four Olds - Thoughts, Culture, Customs, and Habits. I just find it ironic that the bits that should be preserved, like appreciation and pride for China's imperial history and the architectural manifestations is brainwashed away, while bits like corruption (which was rampant towards the end of imperial rule) came back right away after the Revolution and is still deeply ingrained. Talk about disastrous failure.

I've fallen in love with the hutong, no denying it. My view might be the naive, romantic outsider view that sees it as a very unique way of life that deserves to be preserved while the very people inhabiting these hutongs think they are sub-standard dwellings and want to move away to modern apartments. Then again, it is possible to make these places beautiful AND comfortable as well, it is a matter of political will and whether people view heritage as something important. I mean, look at all the famous European cities.. Paris, Rome, Venice.. what gives the city character are all the old buildings, and I don't mean the landmarks like Colosseum, but just the typical old housing.. Beijing is in the process of gutting itself and dang, few things are more painful than seeing something you love in the process of self-destruction..

I guess for now, I'll just have to accept that China and perhaps *though I hope not really* the majority of its people do not care about the priceless, irreplaceable architectural heritage that it is thoughtlessly destroying. After all, if the existence of rundown, neglected hutongs is still sinonymous with poverty, it is unfair for Chinese people too. Guess what I gotta do is be very, very passionate about saving the heritage I just fell in love with, and hope this passion infect as many people as possible..

On a side note, I read about an overseas American tycoon that started buying up old buildings in Beijing so that the government and developers cannot raze them.. He went to the extent that he took apart an old building in a soon-to-be-destroyed area and reconstructed it piece by piece somewhere else.. Wow.. The hua qiao blood in me is boiling already!

"A measure of any great city is its potential for accidental discoveries, those places without entrance fees and tour guides that make you want to stay longer in hopes of finding the next one. Despite the advanced stage of the Old City's destruction, Beijing still held this attraction."
- Michael Meyer, The Last Days of Old Beijing

On China - People (2)

getting to know the Chaoyang Library English Corner

Yups, the in-thing in China now is English corners where foreigners can drop by and talk with Chinese people - they have in in universities and libraries, as far as I know. Out of curiosity, went to one in Beijing, and.. well I guess you could see from the photo that I had a great time =D

The very inspiring thing was that there were grandpas and grandmas that speak way better English that some youngsters I spoke to, simply because they really aren't afraid to speak up. It was very interesting to speak to them as well, because they grew up during the Mao era and saw how China changed.. we were talking using lots of vocab like "reactionary", "Red army", "commune".. Heavy stuff, hey.. *btw the Chaoyang Corner is made up of around 50 people, the people on the photo were part of my group hehe*

So yeah, the 'system' is that the class gets divided into groups based on how many foreigners come in, then we just chat around. Surprisingly in my group there was a guy who knew a lot about Indonesia, because he was a travel agent. I learnt how to say 'Bandung' in Mandarin hahaha.. And being a 'hua qiao' *overseas Chinese* put me in the exotic category, somewhat.. there were some people from my grandpa's region! *Fujian* Was speaking Fujian with them though my Fujian accent is waaaay lousier compared to my Chinese accent.. The thing about language is, as with everything, it's not just what you say but how you say it.. I don't mean the accent, but the sincerity and the desire to communicate.. We were also using a lot of hand gestures and smiles, and well, let's just say I felt really at home I was sad to leave the class..

There were other foreigners of course, and they really spoke Mandarin! Hardcore man, one American guy even told a Chinese joke which instantly earned him enormous favour. Actually, some foreigners I met in China were really into Chinese culture and language, which.. made me a bit ashamed... *sudden awakening of Chinese roots..yeah..* The student I met on the night train also said it's kinda amazing how these foreigners come and learn so much about China that they actually know more stuff than the average Chinese person.. Hats off to them..

But back to Chinese people. Am glad to say that the friendliness and sincerity of the people I met *At least the Beijingers and Dong Bei people.. Shanghai people supposedly aren't that friendly...* spurred me to really learn Chinese culture and language.. Three weeks of travelling did more to me that years of forced Chinese tuition, parents' prodding, desire to read comics.. I believe now that the very strong longing to communicate with other people is the best motivation to learn a language.

On an additional note, a lot of Chinese people are excited to learn English, I think. On one occasion, I was going to have lunch in a small restaurant with a friend, and we had difficulties with the menu. *Photos but no English* So, we asked our waiter if anyone there could speak English.. She went to the back room and a few moments later came out together with another girl.. Before that girl came to our table, she looked hard at the other waiter as if asking for encouragement, then shouted *yeap, shouted, the whole restaurant could hear* "ALRIGHT LET'S GO!" like she was going for a sports competition =D China is fun fun fun!

China Diaries - On People (1)

Alright, won't keep postponing all the stuff I want to write about China, since I'll be going to Manila soon and then I'll have Manila to reflect on also.. and then I'll have thought indigestion huhuhu.. That's the thing about travelling.. Long after the actual travel is done, one can still savour, mull over, and learn from the experiences gained..

But on to the main points. I've written before of my HUGE inferiority complex of not being able to speak Chinese, and an image that stuck to my mind was of me being scolded/looked down on by some old/middle-aged/young (yeah I have an active imagination) Chinese person for looking like a Chinese but speaking like an American gone wrong..

Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, my inability to speak Chinese, coupled with the fact that for the most part I was hanging out with "lao wai"s, brought lots of fun to my travel. One of the first incidents was when I had to top-up my prepaid SIM card.. I kept replaying in my mind how to answer the possible questions..Whether I want a new SIM or just to top-up? check. The card value I want? check.
"Hi miss, I want to top up my SIM card, 30 RMB please.."
"Which $#%%$#%$fgregg?"
"What...? OH!" *I gathered that she meant which phone company*
"Uhm...uhm..." *tried to show label in mobile phone to her, but she couldn't read English huhu..*
In the end, I called my Beijing friend to explain to her which company did my SIM card subscribe to huhuhu.. and then, an old man inside the shop who had been watching my idiotic attempt to communicate approached me and asked, "Are you Korean?" *I get this a lot, somehow.."
"Ah no.. am Indonesian Chinese..that's why my Chinese is not good.."
"Oh don't worry, it's okay.. we are all still Chinese people.."

Needless to say I was morally buoyed by this show of solidarity haha.. The thing is, I don't know whether my luck is just good, but the Chinese people I met, from taxi drivers to waitresses to people on the street and the train, were very friendly and very accepting of me as a non-white foreigner.. It really made me fell in love with China.. No more inferiority complex!

The night train ride from Beijing to Dalian was particularly memorable.. I was struggling to hoist my backpack onto the top baggage compartment when a tall Chinese man came and helped me to it.. Then, he struck a conversation with me saying I must be a foreigner because Chinese people don't use backpacks.. A pretty and very soft-spoken lady joined in saying, "Yes, when you came in all covered up I thought you might be a boy.. your bag is so big!" They said something more and I didn't really understand, so another person, a student from Dalian, joined in to translate because his English was good.. And before I knew it I was talking about Chinese people, my impressions, my background, and asking about theirs too.. The Chinese man was a landscape architect! In the end we communicated through drawings because he wanted to know how vertical gardens are done in Singapore, and we pestered the student so often because the landscape architect would be saying something, and I'd have a blank face and turn to the student, and he'd say "Drainage.." Hahaha... And when the lady spoke it was with such soft tones that I realized the Chinese language is indeed beautiful..

At another time, was looking through pirated books *yes, a concept I really love.. will blog about it next time* when the vendor showed some English books to me and said "These ones are really good!" Amongst them was the book titled: "Why men marry bitches", so with my minimum Chinese I told the vendor, "Uncle..Do you know what this book says? It says here, good men likes naughty women...." And he blushed! I mean, HE BLUSHED!! And he just looked so adorable hahahahaha.. We both laughed and before I went off he said, "Yes, actually you are right.. Good men likes naughty women..." *Anyone wanna try to disprove that?* ;p

I'll be back...

Last view of Beijing: snow sprinkled runway

... to China.....

Aaaaah China... Just came back home and dead tired but I feel that I gotta at least scribble a quick update (Just wanna relish the feel of my MacBook keyboard haha.. and kinda miss blogging since I had lots of thoughts but couldn't blog in China)

Aaaaanyway.. for those wondering how was China.. it was AMAZING..... Totally tops my expectations hahaha.. Had no problem with toilets and cleanliness at all, met so many interesting people, saw really cool *and cold!* places, and sorted out my loose threads hahaha.. 

Actually... I fell in love with Beijing.. huhuhu... Dang even the cold weather couldn't dampen my spirits when I was wandering around the hutongs.. The bare trees lent the whole city kind of a poetic air.. and the food... oh gosh the food... Will never look at "Chinese food" the same way again.. I admit that Singapore food is great for its variety, but I've always loved street food and the Beijing street food scene is just fantabulous!

Oh well, am gonna do a series of posts on China since I've got lots of thoughts about China and Chinese people haha.. This is just a glimpse on my current feelings towards China, especially Beijing, which is highly, highly positive.

On the other hand, since I started wandering around 2 years ago, this is the first trip where I actually missed Singapore.. haha.. and quite often, at that! Every time piercing cold wind blew on my face, I just automatically remember the Singapore sun huhuhu.. Thing is, Chinese winters are fiercely cold, and there's something about the realisation that you could DIE just by staying outside a bit too long, that gave me renewed appreciation for our great tropical weather. I love Singapore weather, that's for sure. *Oh and I realise European winters are for wusses.. Because even some guys from Sweden were conquered by the combination of -20 temperatures and really strong wind in Beijing..*

So yeah, really content right now since I'm back in this sunny little island, though missing Beijing a bit. Gonna try to find work / volunteer so I can go back to China in summer =D Excited about school and happy since this semester shouldn't be as busy as the last one. All pumped up on learning Chinese.. must improve!

But first... hoahm... Good night everyone!

Cina..

Barusan ngepak kemaren malam.. dengan perasaan paranoid karena entah udah berapa banyak orang yang bilang di Beijing lagi dingin minta ampun, termasuk temenku yang orang Beijing.. Huhu.. Yah, kalaupun nantinya aku mati beku di Cina..

. . . .

Ok, mari ganti topiknya. Tadinya waktu memutuskan pergi ke Cina, cuma spontan aja *ok not that spontan sih.. Lebih tepatnya sih nekat..*, tapi semakin lama.. jadi semakin excited.. Bagaimanapun juga, itu dataran tempat nenek moyangku berasal, yang waktu kecil sering diceritakan papaku sebagai "orang-orang keturunan Naga". Nasib punya Bapak yang supporter Cina abis, aku tau bahwa orang-orang Cina itu dulunya ilmuwan, dokter, astronom, pelaut, sastrawan dan seniman yang handal2. Coba ya, kertas, buku, tinta, bubuk mesiu, sutra, kompas dan masih banyak lagi itu kan asal mulanya dari Cina.. Nggak lupa teknik arsitekturnya yang semakin aku dalami, semakin mempesona.. Belum lagi, kung-fu.. karena pada saat anak2 cewek lain mengidolakan Hanson, Westlife, 5566, Rain sampe kini Robert Pattinson, aku tetap setia pada Jet Li dan Jackie Chan, hasil 'didikan' papa dari kecil yang setiap ada film kung-fu baru bakal membonceng aku naik motor untuk nonton di bioskop.. *Salah satu kenangan masa kecil paling indah =) *

Tetep aja, sulit banget buatku untuk merasa 'Cina'.. Bahkan aku nggak bisa jatuh cinta dengan bahasa dan budayanya seperti aku jatuh cinta dengan bahasa Indonesia atau Perancis.. Padahal, bukannya nggak keren juga. Ada untungnya juga trip ke Cina. Untuk persiapan, aku banyak baca buku tentang sejarah Cina, Cina kuno, arsitektur Cina dan urban planning-nya budaya Cina dan cara orang2nya berkomunikasi.. Paling nggak sekarang aku lumayan curious tentang Cina. Baru nyadar bahwa menjadi "keturunan Cina" cuma berarti kakekku adalah orang Cina yang migrasi ke Indonesia, itu saja, karena soal budaya dan tradisi Cina, aku sama sekali buta. Deg2an juga karena mata sipitku pasti bakal bikin masalah kalo aku nekat ngomong bahasa inggris di sana.. Udah siap2 mental untuk dipanggil "Cina aspal" - asli tapi palsu..

Selain itu, anehnya Cina, apa yang dilihat di film, dibaca di buku2 filosofi, beda dengan apa yang kudengar dari sekeliling beberapa tahun terakhir ini..

Di film2, orang2 Cina punya nilai moral yang tinggi, rasa setia kawan, integritas, prinsip.. Tapi, coba, dari mulai guruku, teman, sampe papaku sendiri *seperti ditulis di atas, supporter Cina abis* bilang hati2 sama orang Cina, karena mereka itu paling licik, paling cari untung, penuh tipu daya.. Cewek2 Cina konon terkenal agresif, businessman2 Cina terkenal menghalalkan segala cara.. 

Dan lagi, idealnya, setelah melalui proses peradaban 5000 tahun, harusnya orang2 Cina itu sangat berbudaya.. Kenyataannya? Banyak teman2 yang pernah tinggal sehostel dengan orang2 Cina daratan cerita, yang katanya mereka jorok banget lah, suka ambil makanan orang di kulkas lah, kasar etc.. Tambahan lagi, katanya di Cina sekalipun, budaya antri itu nggak ada, orang2nya suka meludah sembarangan, toilet umum nggak bisa diharapkan *masukan dari internet, ditambah cerita trauma mamaku sendiri..*. Waktu tur ke Australia kemaren, sempat ketemu dengan banyak orang Cina, dan berhubung 2 adikku adalah 'pembenci Cina abis', jadinya mereka berdua malah terus-menerus observe kelakuan orang2 Cina itu, dan sering 'laporan' ke aku.. "Ci masa ya tadi ada bapak2 Cina, karena toilet cowoknya ada orang, dia cuek aja lho masuk ke toilet cewek.. Dasar orang Cina..", "Ci, tadi ya aku mo ngantri, trus langsung diserobot segerombolan orang Cina.. Dasar orang Cina.."

Well, well. Apa ya penyebab "keretakan" antara image orang Cina dalam buku2 sastra dengan di dunia nyata ini? Yah walaupun dalam kenyataan juga orang Amerika bukanlah superheroes Hollywood, dan orang India gak joget2 sesering itu... Apa gara2 "Cultural Revolution"nya Mao Tse Tung yang dengan gebleknya malah menyuruh orang2 intellektual pergi ke kampung untuk jadi petani sehingga sekarang budaya Cina jadi kental sifat "kampungan"nya?

Oh well, aku bakal punya kesempatan sendiri untuk pergi dan melihat kehidupan orang Cina, di pusat kebudayaannya lagi, Beijing. Let's see apa setelah ini aku bakal merasa lebih Cina dan lebih bangga mengaku keturunan Cina, atau malah aku menyamar jadi orang Jepang sekalian =D

Calmly Cairns...

Cairns is a city in North Australia that I chose for the family holiday simply for the "exotic-sounding name" factor.. Aside from the fact that it's a popular base to explore the Great Barrier Reef..

Dang this town is so calm.. in a nice way.. When we first came we couldn't believe we've arrived at the city center because all we could see was one storey buildings unformly built in beach bungalo style, painted in pastel colors.. Green, lush mountains form the backrop for the city, while the beach peeps from in between the buildings...

It lends new meaning to the phrase "the good life" ... (Though I was talking to the hotel receptionist and got a glimpse of just how bad the racial separation problems between the white Australians and the Aborigines are..)

Well.. went snorkeling with middle bro and Dad, which is an achievement because it took a lot of my persuasive powers to convince my Mom that it is not dangerous.. Mom and Grandma, in turn, enjoyed the beauty of the reefs on a semi-submarine..

Took a 7km cable car ride atop mountainous rainforest, of which the highlight of my day was when my Mom went into the forest, saw the big trees and thought them pretty cool (she normally would not be found in these kind of 'habitats'...) Ended up in an Aborigines cultural village, tried out how to throw a spear and a boomerang (not as difficult as I imagined, and fun!)

Family going back tomorrow while youngest bro and I will stay back 3 more days for, hopefully, more exploring and walking. Been really enjoying Australia, and the company of my family.. Guess one great thing that emerged from this is that I get to show my parents the activities I usually like to do, the way I usually like to explore, and they've been pretty cool about it. Glad for that.

It's true that people live through their experience.. that days count more if you experience new things everyday, while they don't count if you just live a monotonous life..
And boy, I've been living it up this holiday!

Briefly Brisbane

Stopped over in Brisbane for 2 nights. Some cool stuff:

1. Went to Dreamworld theme park with the whole family and it was unexpectedly pretty fun *ok I know I'm negatively biased towards family holidays, but it's just because in my family we really do have very different characters and hobbies*. Kudos to Mom for trying out this thrill ride called "The Cyclone" that..well... spins you around, basically.. Went on a ride called the "Tower of Terror" with my bros.. supposedly one of the fastest thrill rides in the world.. Let's just say it was surprising, and if you want to experience being catapulted from 0 kmph to about 120 kmph in several seconds, this one's for you..

2. I understand now why Gold Coast is called Gold Coast... We arrived there nearing the evening where there weren't so many surfers, and well.. the place is basically a long, long, long stretch of soft, beige sand..as far as the eyes can see.. combined with aquamarine waters and cool rushing waves.. I had my doubts about visiting Gold Coast because I thought it would be just like any other commercialised beaches.. but even Skeptic Shiela admits that it's beautiful..

3. For the first time in my holiday I experienced the Australian summer..haha.. because in Melbourne and Sydney the weather was like autumn in Europe..brr!

Aside from those, Australia has unexpectedly diverse and great food.. Arguably better than Singapore.. According to a friend from Melbourne who've stayed in Singapore, it's because a lot of immigrants who come to Australia open eateries, and do all the cooking and serving themselves.. True enough, when we went to Korean restaurants, all the waitresses are Koreans.. Vietnamese restaurants = Vietnamese waitresses, sushi outlets = Japanese cooks and waitresses.. This is where Australia wins hands down, since in Singapore the cooks / staffs who prepare the food will not be the "authentic" nationalities.. Still kinda searching around for authentic 'Australian' fare though.. you have the typical kangaroo burger and steak, crocodile meat, baramundi (a type of fish), and drinks and desserts made from bush plants.. but I think Australian food is not really Australia's selling point..

Brisbane city is very walkable (though hot), and the City Hall - a rather nice building - is now a free museum chronicling Brisbane's history. Now, if you ever go there, I think there's one thing absolutely worth seeing: go to the toilets, because they use huge solid marble slabs as.. the cubicle divider.... Easily one of the most lavish public toilets I've seen!

Suddenly Sydney, and Mom, and Dad..

.....
....
....
...ok, so I've stood in front of the Sydney Opera House.. and only then did I truly appreciate what a piece of engineering marvel that is.... And Sydney does have a very beautiful harbour..

Went inside a rainforest in the Blue Mountains near Sydney. Loved it. Tall fern trees.. Lush moss carpet... And the inside of the forest feels like it's air-conditioned... I think some Singaporeans would kill to have that kind of rainforest weather inside Sg's nature reserves..

Australia.. is nothing like I expected.. Seen the fairy penguins (Penguins are indeed so very bloody cute!!!), seen the fantastic coastline, seen the weird plants and animals, seen the particular style of architecture, seen the clothes people wear on the street, seen the climate... Am considering overstaying and being an illegal immigrant...

Honestly.. I'm still lingering on my memories exploring Melbourne's laneways (Oh yeah, in the great debate of whether Sydney or Melbourne is better, I'm definitely with the Melbournians.. Lots of reasons..)

On another note.. Quite some stuff happened.. Among which was a big row with my parents over issues that kept reappearing, like my backpacking around and how I could never really forgive my mom for all the things she said to me while I was growing up...

I think, I can finally let go of my vengeful feelings that I thought I couldn't help having.. Just feel so relieved now, a lot lighter.. Straightened out a lot of misunderstandings with my parents.. AND secured their blessing to work in any part of the world I choose to. Very glad about that.. It felt bad when I really want to work outside Singapore and my parents can only point out how Singapore is "safe and convenient".

I can't believe my parents thought I'm obsessed *actual word used by them* with dating a European just as a "ticket" to move and live to Europe. It's ridiculous to the point of being funny, if only I can ignore the fact that my own parents thought I'm that scheming....

I can't believe my parents said, " You're our daughter, we will always be here for you.. Even if you are pregnant right now, we will be with you.."

Oh wow... That's very reassuring...

Ah well, they promise to not make ridiculous assumptions anymore, and I'll try to be more open now that I'm not very defensive and hateful towards them.

Hufh, a lot of sorting out. Make no mistake, I still think I'm very, very lucky, at least to have parents that never, ever complain about providing for the kids financially. AND they have provided so much more than enough. They've got lots of good sides, and my promise is that I'll remember more and more of their good sides than their weaknesses as parents.

Ufh, well.. So far this family holiday has been unexpectedly enjoyable... So glad!

On to Brisbane tomorrow!

Melbourne On My Mind

Can't. Get. Enough. Seriously.

The architecture student in me is having the time of her life. Fantastic superimposition of Victorian and modern architecture. Totally cool use of materials. Weird and wonderful forms. Alleys and lanes. Graffiti. Quirky spaces.

Concentrated, and intense.

And not so many people so there's so much space.

Dang staying in Singapore is becoming more and more difficult.

A! AAA!

(image can be found here: http://www.textually.org/textually/archives/images/set3/australia_kangaroo.jpg)

*Australia! Another Adventure Awaits!*

*I just love playing with words starting with the same letter...*

Anyway, will be off to Aussi on 3rd Dec till the 23rd, following the route: Canberra - Melbourne-Sydney - Blue Mountains (maybe) - Brisbane - Gold Coast - Cairns (Great Barrier Reef!). It's a family holiday and I'm the one in charge of planning the route haha.. pretty cool trying to accommodate the whims and fancies of every family member.. Shopping for Mom (and plenty of rest stops..and not too much outdoorsy stuff..), museums and parks for me n Dad (Yay!), weird food for my middle bro (kangaroo and crocodile steaks..), and hot Aussie chicks for the youngest one (though I don't need to plan for this..)

Was thinking of going backpacking alone while waiting for my family to join me in Aussi, but in the end am going first with my youngest bro. Was wondering if it'll be difficult to connect because of our age gap, hadn't talked to him for long, etc, but if these few days serve as an indicator, we'll have a good time talking nonsense =D Actually, am pretty proud for being a big sis that my bros can connect easily with..hahaha..

Some facts I find interesting about Australia...

1. Christmas is in summer.. which is totally a far cry from all the Christmassy stuff I'm accustomed to hearing/ watching.. oh well am gonna do some beach Christmas shots w/ the bro haha..

2. Half of Australia is used for sheep rearing.. somehow now when I see a map of Australia there's a "soundtrack" of sheep bleating in my mind..

3. There's a "flying doctor" service that provide medical care to people living in the Outback.. cuz many people would die, isolated, without this kind of service..

4. Of course, it's home to Sydney Opera House and Federation Square! in fact, I've made a list of all the buildings I want to see, and I'll try to 'tick' everything!

5. The title of Australia's national song, "Waltzing Matilda", is German for 'carrying a backpack'! I thought this is just so cool!

So yeah, am really excited about going there... I think when I stand in front of the Sydney Opera House - such an icon of Australia for architecture students - it'll take me several seconds to really register that I'm standing there.. Just like when I first stood in front of Eiffel..

Strange thing is, what makes it a little less exciting..is the fact that people speak English in Australia hahaha.. somehow, I've come to associate traveling with trying to communicate with people with a different language, and speaking English just doesn't give the same 'kick' hahaha..

Oh well, Aussie here I come!