Ahh. There was a time where I had enough energy to queue hours and hours (and a few more) before a show so I could stand in the front row, in awe of amazing musicians. These are scenes I captured while I lose my voice (and balance) jostling among other sweaty fans. I would limit my photo-taking so I could enjoy the music in front of me.
I first discovered Durdle Door on Adam Partridge's Instagram feed. His photos inspired me to make a trip down the coast to see this beauty with my own eyes.
We decided to set base in Weymouth and travel to Wool station to get a bus to Durdle Door. The bus dropped us in the middle of nowhere and we had to walk some distance (down a narrow road, through a small wood and then trailer park). The moody weather back in Weymouth gave way to a clear blue sky by the coast above the rolling waves far out in the sea. Occasional strong winds brought gentle whiffs of the sea as we descend down to the beach.
I sure was blown away.
Write-up coming soon.
This turned into a 7AM trek when the evening before we were supposed to go up would not stop drizzling.
It was not the most scenic of treks by any means, but it was one of my favourites. It was a very peaceful moment, to walk among the countless tall trees in the very cool morning air, and lying on the small bridge to listen to the birds and the water running beneath me. It felt like I was there.
I even managed to get a small bird come up and pecked at my ankle when I stayed very still. Disney Princess moment completed.
One of the reasons why we spent four nights in Salzburg was to make day trips out of the birth city of Mozart.
Hallstatt is a small town along Lake Hallstatt and the area is on the UNESCO World Heritage List. It is easy to see why. Who does not enjoy a colourful small town by the waters?
To get there from Salzburg, one may need the patience for journeying. The steps are:
1) Bus 150 from Salzburg Hbf to Bad Ischl Bus Terminal
2) Train from Bad Ischl Bus Terminal to Hallstatt Bahnhof
3) A ferry across the lake
I was not aware Hallstatt is a popular destination so I was surprised to find the island has more tourists than I anticipated.
I imagine myself enjoying exploring the town a little more if the town is less busy.
Write-up coming soon.
A series from my 16-day part-holiday, part-volunteering trip with Project Give Pray Love (PGPL) to Vietnam. Founded by my lecturer and her mom, PGPL collects donation from Singapore and distributes them to the needy villagers. We stayed in S$15/night room reminisce of the 1960s Singapore, ate cheap and very nice local food, crossed a Monkey Bridge (you'll see), witnessed poverty both in the village and in the city.
It is not that the villagers are not working. Some of them weave and sell baskets but most work in the rice fields. A large number of the families we visited have one or two disabled members. Having one less body to work and more mouths to feed contributed to their poverty.
The best bit of the holiday part is the company. I got to tag along my lecturer and her mom to visit their hairdresser (who shifted his salon from Ho Chi Minh City to the provincial city, Long Xuyên due to higher standard of living in HCMC). We talked about our school days, traveling, ideas, politics, making our new Vietnamese friends guess our age and..being matchmade.
I have been asked, 'Do you feel good after this volunteering trip?' I already thought of this before my trip and now that I am back, I can confirm my initial thoughts. I do not feel any pleasure. The only certain feeling is perhaps the slight relief that these villagers who received our aid will have a short respite from their situation. Every click of the shutter I made during the volunteering period brings a new wave of guilt and indescribable helplessness.
I take slight comfort in the words of war photographer Larry Burrows, '...and so often I wonder whether it is my right to capitalise, as I feel, so often, on the grief of others. But then I justify, in my own particular thoughts, by feeling that I can contribute a little to the understanding of what others are going through; then there is a reason for doing it.'
Detailed write-up coming soon.
A large bucket of soap water, loops, and a man who is determined to bring happiness.
That was the combination for almost forty minutes of joy and laughter for everyone on a mild, late afternoon at Prague's Old Town Square.
With a dish atop an upturned bucket collecting coins nearby, this man dipped his loops into his bucket of soap water. He then raise them up carefully (as all the kids looked up in anticipation) and weave them through the air.
The kids jumped, grinning and laughing with sheer happiness. They clawed, poked and walked into the bubbles, having the time of their lives. The adults standing in a semi-circle watching the scene amused, with smiles on their faces.
On a few occasions the kids got so excited they walked right into the dish of coins and scattered them all over the now slightly soapy ground. The man stopped. His face tightened into a frown by the third, fourth time this happened. A few braver kids ran up and helped him to put the coins back. The man then stood up, grabbed his loops and starts again. His face broke into a grin again, as if he was never interrupted.
Watching the man, watching everybody, it is hard not to smile too.
Eventually the man stopped for a break. A few of the older kids decided to emulate the man. They grabbed the loops and realised it is too large for them to handle. The bubbles barely floated higher than their shoulders. Two of them then tried to handle the loops together. Still not the same as it was. The man had made everything looked easy, they thought.
Sometimes, happiness is a large bucket of soap water, loops, and a man who is determined to bring happiness.
Sometimes, happiness is this simple.
It is so easy to like Amsterdam. One day in and I can imagine myself living in the city (which inspired the title of this chapter).
A stroll through the city sees life bustling around on every canals and its alleys. The Netherlands is the first country in the world to make same-sex marriage legal. My visit coincides with Pride Month and the end of a school year so it is evident everywhere you look. A bag hanging at the end of a flag pole out of a window indicates someone in that family has graduated from High School.
Along yet another canal sits the bench made famous by The Fault In Our Stars movie. I kept expecting to see a small queue to take photo with the bench but the only ones in queue were a couple of pigeons.
A day trip out to the quaint Kinderdijk windmills on a gloomy day provides a break from the busy city life. I learnt from this trip how majority of The Netherlands is sitting below sea level and for nearly a thousand year, the Dutch's innovative ways of water management has seen them become renowned in this particular area. So much so that that windmills at Kinderdijk (a system made by the Dutch to keep the Kinderdijk-Elshout area flood-free) were granted UNESCO World Heritage Status in 1997.
I leave Amsterdam with the feeling that I have still so much of the city left unexplored.
Write-up coming soon.
Let it be on the record that I loved this road trip I did through China back in 2014. It was amazing. I would be freezing to death up in the snow-capped mountains (milking a cow and drinking it for breakfast) one day and the next, did sand boarding and having BBQ in the desert with the sun setting behind and then sleep in a tent among sand dunes after.
Along the way we drove through the majestic mountains, stopped by the winding road so we could throw snowballs at each other. We held a newly born bird and stopped by the creek to have some watermelon (I can neither confirm nor deny it was also a toilet break at the very same site).
Then there were the rainbow ridges and rocks at Gansu Zhangye National Geopark.
By sheer chance we got to witnessed the unveiling of Thangka, which is part of the celebrations of Tibetan Shoton Festival. A considerable crowd follows along as the lamas carried the Thangka up the hill as we were told it would bring one good luck to touch the Thangka (we all did)!
This was only possible because my friend and his friends so kindly allowed me to crash their sort of graduation trip. They were also the same group of people who looked after me and made sure I did not freeze to death and puke my lungs out from altitude sickness or something. THANKS YOU GUYS.
So after more than 2 years, I have yet to sort through the hundreds and hundreds of photos from this trip. In the meantime, here is a really brief highlight of what we saw.
Write-up coming soon.
Ah, York. A city founded by the Romans and at one time, ruled by vikings! It is also the home of York Minster, one of the largest cathedral of its kind in Northern Europe. I did a guided tour there which was really interesting.
It was a solo day trip and I wish I had more time to walk along the York City Walls and stroll along River Ouse.
I would go back (with company this time) so I can make them take way too many photos of me on the bridge in the last photo where Hagrid left Harry to look for Platform 9 3/4 himself (or die trying).
Write-up and video coming soon.
Write-up coming soon.
Lake Toba is the largest lake in Indonesia. It is also the largest volcanic lake in the world.
Getting there from Singapore means:
1) fly into Medan
2) a 4-6hrs car ride to Parapet
3) 30-50 minutes ferry ride into Tuk Tuk on Samosir Island
It's a bit of a journey, but it was fun.
I visited a few years back towards the end of October. The weather was a mix bag. I can have amazing blue skies and clouds one moment and the next I would be riding the motorbike for hours in the drizzle.
The majority of the population around Lake Toba are Bataks. Traditional Batak houses feature that distinctive roof with the curled ends.
We were attracted by the jetty going out into the lake so we drove down a very soft and muddy slope trying to reach it (we almost could not get back up the muddy slope, but that's a story for another time), only to find ourselves in the middle of the land of a farmer and his wife. There were no way for us to communicate and ask them how we could get closer to the jetty so we wandered around the muddy field among some crops that has an ox in it. With every step I felt like an intruder but my curiosity won.
While we were still trying to figure out how to get to the jetty, the man started leading his ox to the lake. The next thing we knew, he started splashing water on it.
As a person who grew up in the confined concrete jungle in Singapore, this was an arresting sight that made me consider what other alternate lives people may lead. I called a scene like this the 'National Geographic Moment' because that was all that was to me, a moment on the page of a magazine.
Until I started traveling.
