life @ wales part 3

Back again...to my little tiny blog world that is my connection back to the tiny island of singapore.... friends' who dunno i existed on the icq.... my life is here.. to tell u wat is going on over here on another continent.

This time round, some got news update on some new visit. This week is the final week of lectures. Next week will be preparation week and then the big day on thursday, our damn exam. Let it be over soon, I pray. One senior lecturer (frank), ex-HOD I heard, organise a social gathering at his house on tues and wed. Its FREE BUFFET. Been a typical singaporean, of coz I must be there. FREE BUFFET leh, how can dun go? Soooo lugi. Well, so the form is passed ard in the lecture hall. My kakis and I normally sit at the highest row in the lecture hall, so we are normally the last to receive anything, normally.

When the paper finally got to us to fill in our names, -wow- tues is almost full, and wed have a lot of slots. Why? Becoz assignment is due on thurs, so everyone wanna go on tues and leave wed for assignment. Damn. No more slots for us. So we thought, maybe wanna go on wed. Who cares abt the assignment? Come on, there's no scholars among us. We are not the kind of model students who studies in school from 9-5, then go back hostel and continue wacking the books till u fall asleep. Then again, I actually do wack the book till I fall asleep, and that is normally 5 mins after I open the book.

So good, after a brief discussion, we intend to go on wed. But too bad, I'm suppose to fill in the names and I forgotten all abt it! arghz! So I told the rest, nevermind, give it a miss. Maybe its more interesting to stay in the hostel to drink my bottle of vodka and then play pokers... stakes starting from one pence.

Later the annoucement came in, assignment submission date change to wed. WOW. Great, so this time round, I tell myself to that I'm gonna sign up my kakis for the FREE BUFFET (hey, its free, must go else not singaporean liao). So I sent the administrator an email the next day. WOW, wed is full and ask us if we might going on tues! My god, singapoean damn good. FREE FOOD sign up very fast, change date also very fast! Probably the tactical training in singapore to get up the train/bus before anyone can goes down, go in front of the person in front of you to grab a cab, food piling competition at restaurant that serves buffet. I must be either not pure breed enough or I do not receive enough training. So I inform the administrator that tues is a bad day since our assignment is due on wed. (Hey, I can tell her that the assignment is too easy, actually its not, can't i?). So after a couple of email exchange and spoken to the house owner, we are on the wed's slot. How nice of them. Din I told you, the welsh people are very friendly, very very friendly. A friend lose his wallet on the coach, and he can get it back with anything intact, including his ic and money.

Here comes wed, after assignment submission, we had an afternoon, waiting for time to pass while waiting to go to Frank's house. So we set off from hostel and start walking. No one bring the map. We only know the general direction. So off we go in the general direction and after some time, we did reach the place in one piece, and no miss path. How nice. Ain't we lucky. Afterall, this is Aberystwyth. YOU CAN'T GET LOST. Come on, its a small town. YOU CAN'T GET LOSE. For a person with a bad sense of direction like me who can't get lose here, how can you? I can get lose inside Queensway Shopping Centre, but not in Aberystwyth town. I have not really try climbing the mountain, so I dunno if I can get lost up there but down town, NO WAY. 2 rules to follow. Walk in one direction, and if u hit the beach, u know u gotta turn back and go reverse direction. If you hit the train station, ya safe.

Friday is our last lecture. Very relaxed. Just getting our assignment back and some tips...some...or rather i must say... almost no tips. Then since its last practical as well, and we know there's nothing to submit, most of us did nothing except chat with the support people who are with us for 2 weeks while we are there, surf the net and some even take photo. Nothing much left. Some are working there, some are post-graduates doing research, and some are final year students who finished their exams.

During our last lecture, the lecturer told us to go down to Shrewsbury if we have nothing over the weekend. She says we can go there for some REAL shopping. Hey, this is a very some town. The only place u really did some 'decent' shopping here is this kmart like chain called b|wise. So a few of us make some plans to go there on sat.

After lecture, a friend and I head down to town. Wanna try to climb another hill, to see what is that pillar on the hill that we are seeing all the time. Walking along the beach, we got to a spot at people are surfing! My god, wat this goddamn temperature, they are surfing? They siao ah? We have our first rainy days since we got here. People here been telling us that the weather has been very good for the past 2 weeks. It rains very often in UK. Indeed, it finally rains, so the weather is colder than usual.

We got to a yatch club area. There seems to be some ducks and a white ...errr... im still trying to decide if that is a swan I saw, or a goose. They swims toward us, then get out of the water and walk toward us. Wow, this is kool, fresh meat for BBQ, I thought. The white swan/goose stop right there and look at us, probably hoping that we will give it some food. The rest of the ducks got out and walk ard the white swan/goose looking for food. Ney, we got no food on us. So we just stood there and look right back at the swan/goose. After a while, it probably decided that we are not going to give it any food, it dump its load on the floor and walk back towards the water and swim away. WOW! This swan/goose is clever. It knows the concept of 'do not eat and shit in the same place'.

Then I remember something, I forgotten to bring my films with me, and I'm just left with one last shot. We have not even start to look for the hill! So we thought we might just end our days and go back to hostel. So we went back to main town area and get some ice-cream, then took a bus back to hostel. We there met some other classmates and learnt that they are going up to Snowdonia area. A very beautiful mountainous area. A place beyond Harlech Castle, the place we went last sunday.

Waking up early on sat morning is a very sinful thing for me. Since we are suppose to meet another group of classmates at the train station for the trip to Shrewsbury, I have no 2nd options. While on the train for 2 hours, we do what we do best. Play Daidi. Nothing much u can do. The other best thing is sleep. Taking photo is bad, especially for a film user like me. My camera does not have this function called 'delete'. Finally we reach the place and hey, the tallest building I can see if no more than 3 stories. For a moment, we are thinking if the lecturer is conning us to come here. We gave her a card to show our appreciation. Maybe she dun like that card.

Luckily, or maybe unluckily, we found some information at the train station. Some maps on where to shop, what to eat, and where else you can go from Shrewsbury. So we briefing read through them. There's a castle at Shrewsbury, and its just right outside the station. So T(3 of us in this trip) suggested that we visit the castle last, just before we meet the other group of friends (we decided to go separate but meet at the station at 7pm) to go back to Aberystwyth. Y and I are fine with it.

So off we go to seach for food. I look through the brochure and I'm on for some mexican food. All agreed and we go searching it for. Hey, indeed there is some REAL shopping here. Its like a mini-orchard road. I found all the telco shop just few shop spaces from each other. Very nice. Finally some decent shopping ground. The ladies might love it, and heng we got no ladies in our group. O2 got this exclusive mobile phone from Samsung, D410. It look really cool, something of similar design like that siemens phone where you slide down the dialer key, but bigger in size and smaller than that Nokia 7650 brick.

Hey, the town look small on the map and this time, I really got lost. I gotta do a couple of u-turn before we find the restaurant. Its going to cost us around £20 for this meal, and none of us are feeling rich right now, so we skip on the mexican food. So we went to search for food again, this time we just go into some sandwich bar inside Pride High Shopping Centre. The most common bread meal here is baguette. Its like taking a french loaf and stuff it with filling of your choices. Each loaf is about 6 inches. Well, I had a couple of baguettes before, so thought I should try out something different. I see they have one type called double-decker. Sound interesting. So I ordered that. It sure take quite a while for my order to come. I first thought that they might have lost my order, esp after the fact that 5-6 people after me on the queue number are getting their food but not me. When it finally came, its is BIG. I see no one around me ordered that. Its actually like BigMac except that they use normal squarish bread we eat for breakfast instead of the burger bread or the french loaf. Now there is more filling in it than the baguette meal. Definitely it looks more price-worthy. My 2 mates can only look at food with envy.

After the meal, we went shopping. Walk here walk there, found nothing much to buy. I was tempted to buy a pair of leather shoes. It looks good and cheap. Someone thought a nice t. Well, he discover it first, dun think its a good idea for both of us to buy the same t. So I left the place empty-handed. We got bored with the shopping. Then we saw on one of the brochure mentioning something about a place called Bishop's Castle. So we thought that visiting a castle is better than doing some shopping here. So we gather that we got only 15 mins to find the busstop before we have to add another 40 mins for the next bus.

Off we go searching for the bus stop. Finally found it and got onto it. It cost us £3.80 and an hour ride there. So I slept on the bus, to do some catching up on sleep since have not been sleeping well for the past few days. Finally got the place, we alight. We look at each other, big drop of sweat appear next to our face, crow flying above our heads (those who read comics will under wat i'm trying to express). My god, its a small town, extra small town. Even Clementi Interchange also bigger than the town! And we saw no castle in sight. SIAO LIAO! I hope there is a castle and its not just a town name..... We found a castle lookalike building 50m down the road. Its damn small but if its a castle, at least its some comfort.

Walking towards the hopeful castle, we pray. When we got there, I saw the signboard 'XXX XXX church'. SIAO LIAO, this time kena con big time again! &*^%£%£$~# How much more conning must I endure???? I caught hold of an old lady and ask her if Bishop's Castle is just a town. And she reply the horrifying YES. So we decided to quicky take the bus back to Shrewsbury, which should be arriving in a mins. We get back to the stop but see no bus. I check the time and well, according to the brochure, the bus should have left. My friends are more hopeful. They believe the bus that is going back has yet to come. So 2 of them wait while I go see if I can search for more info on the town. I finally found some brochures on the town and on its map, it state a spot with the name 'Castle Remains'. Oh, so there is indeed a castle. I called them on the mobile but they still prefer to go back Shrewbury. So I go back to the stop to look for them. When I got there, the bus has left! All look at me, eyes big big. SIAO LIAO. Now we are stuck here for 2 hours. Its another 2 hours before the next bus is going back to Shrewbury.

Without much choices, we go walk ard the town, search for the Castle Remains. Finally got there, it is indeed Castle Remains. THERE IS JUST ONE DAMN PIECE OF WALL, and its not even a FULL WALL. Its like a height of 2m and length of about 5m or so. ARRRGGHHHZZZZZ... There's a board on telling the history of the castle. Some drawing on how the castle looks like. First built in the 11th century, the castle is given to a bishop. So that is why its called Bishop's Castle. Sighz, this is depressing. So we just walk around the town and try to get lost to see if we can find anything interesting. Its an old town, and everything is on a slope. We did manage to get lost for a while, and bump into the local residence area, which is very modern. A far cry from the town's look. We also saw a 3-wheels automobile. An ancient design, I thought. The one with 2 wheels in the rear and a single wheel in front. I really wonder who design it.

We still got 40 mins left to kill. We go back to the castle to take some pictures. There I saw an amazing sight. A queue of ducks, yesh its a queue, walking down a slope and into the church one by one in a nice single queue! WOW! Even humans can't do that. My only pity is that I did react fast enough to grab my camera and take a picture of it. I'm too amaze by the sight. There is no one guiding there. They move in a file formation back into the church and eat their food there! A little comfort for my 'conned' trip to Bishop's Castle.

So finally catching our return bus back to Shrewsbury, and it also happened to be the last bus back. When we go back, its much faster, only 30 mins. So we quicky make our way to the castle since its 6.30pm already. And this time we are damned again. The castle is CLOSED! ARGHZ! Its only open till 5pm. "£%^T%^$&$~# I cannot believe my luck. Really sway man. Like the hokkien saying, "lang sway chee jiao pih qwek"... literally it means that a person down on his luck, keeping a pet bird and it will turn into a chicken. We have nothing much left to do. So we went to search for a restaurant to eat.

Just 4 hours ago, the place is packed with people, like a busy sat afternoon in orchard road, and now it look like a deserted town to me! ALL THE SHOPS ARE CLOSED! Oh my god, I dun believe it. Its summer! Hey, the damn sky dun turn dark until after 10pm! Wah lau eh ... where got such thing wah! "£$^%^~#^ We pray hard for BK to be open but its closed. Only left with Mac. We cannot be choosy liao, no options left. If we want to wait till we get back to Aberystwyth, it will be 9+ before we can have dinner. T is complaining already. He's the only person complaining of eating dinner at 6pm.

We thought our days have ended when we went back to Aberystwyth. Not so. The other group of friends wanna go climb up the constitution hill and shoot the night scene of the town. Well, I'm not with my tripod but what the heck, just go up and try. If I can manage to take some pictures, good for me, if not worst situation I climb the hill again, with my tripod the next time. Well, it does get cold at the top, but not as freezing cold as I thought.

Finally we end our day after we climb down the hill, making our way to Spar, our equvalence of 7-11 back in Singapore, to get some food for supper.

life @ wales part 2

Back from lecture. How nice, you guys must be thinking.. " wah soooo good life ah! Can go surf net and blog in the afternoon...". Well, got an assignment due tomorrow, and becoz i very the hardworking.... finish most of the questions already. Now just wait for the gathering of everyone to do a final compilation of the top best answer :-) And becoz I MISSSSSS u guys back in sg as well...errr. I tink so... I think again.. hmm.. nevermind, not important...

We tried hogging the lecturer for more tips on the assignment. You can say we are partially successful. She did give abit of the tip of the head of the answer and let you go wonder what the hell is the tail. How nice of her. Of coz, the best reply is that "I can't have too many of you scoring As..so its ok if you guys can't do it"..... Wow, that solves all mysteries...X file case closed. *chopped-sealed-signed*

I did say I wanna talk abt other castle trip and the Corris Railway. Well, Corris Railway is nothing much. Just some old rail system that existed longer than me and my father and my grandfather added together. In the past, Wales several rail lines to help them with their transportation of timbers and watever (I got lost in my own thoughts when someone is talking about the history of the whole thing) down the mountain. Now only this one is left for tourist purposes, this one does not include those rail that we took to Devil's Bridge and other tourist spots, built to carry human.. i believe... not sheep. Its exciting hor.. hearing the choo-choo...choo-choo....But I tell you lor, healthy males NSmen who still go back for reservist and still take IPPT, think they can run faster than the rail!

We all first thought that we need to take a rail to the castle. We are wrong. The coach bring us to the rail station, which is also the rail museum. Then took a rail into the woods and then stop there and listen to some nice welsh man giving us a speech on the history. Then took the rail back again and look into the museum for a 2nd speech. Dun ask me what are the speech all about. I forgotten 99%...the remaining 1% is about....errr. hmm.. think I forgotten them as well.....

So finally the coach is going to bring us to the Harlech Castle. Its a long-and-not-so-smooth ride. First it drives through the town, through the mountainous area. Wow, i tell you, its SHEEP again. BBbbbbeeeeehhhhhhhhhhh... Again, I can only see my kerbah from far! sighz. Nevermind, carry on. But its really very scenic, something that probably is hard to find in asia, most part of asia, I think. I might be wrong. Afterall, I haven't done much travelling myself. Been the ulu singaporean I am, I know nuts. Still I love the scene, as long as you don't tell me to climb the mountain on foot.

You see small cottages that keeps domestic sheep and some of them even own horses. Sound like some dreamland for some fellas I know of. In the mist of enjoying all these scenes, we are also busy with playing daidi (Big2 or to those who still dunno what it is or never went to poly or been through army, its a card game. fullstop). Think we are seen as the daidi quad. Anywhere we travel, we are playing daidi. What to do? Typical chinese lor. Nothing to do, play card lor. Well, first 5 mins, you see the scenic mountain, u go wowwwww... 10 mins later.. okkkkk.. 20 mins later.... errr.. are we getting out of it yet???? So one important note to you guys going travelling, bring your poker card with you. You never know if you can find daidi kakis.

Next came the coast. Its also very beautiful. Once you are out of mountain range, you get into the ocean road, curving round the mountain. It aint smooth ride. While 3 players sitting down playing daidi, i gotta do it standing. Imaging balancing myself on a rough ride, holding my cards, enjoying the sceneries, and work out a strategy to win them all. Well, no one likes to shuffle. So since we ain't playing money, my objective in the game is not to win, its not to lose. Its take even more balancing power to distribute the cards.

When we hit the coast, many ppl on the coach start to wake up and u start to hear lotsa digital camera go click click click... Impressive, everyone is on the digital. 2 guys brought video cam. Only see a handful that uses film, like me. The setback of that is that I can't really ask someone else to take a picture. Its normally the holding, or the focusing or the framing. And best, someone alwayz like to go..."wait hor wait hor, dun move, I take one more just in case...." wah lau! I told her..."expensive hor.. cannot cannot..u dun do that when ya on film, unless ya in a wedding".

Finally we reach the castle. we are the FOOT of the castle. Gotta walk our way up the steep slope! I wonder who the hell design and built the road on 25% incline slope?? First time seeing a FULL castle, I'm impressive. Getting to the top of the castle gives you a birdeye view of the surrounding. Well, it just cost £9500 to build Harlech Castle. Anyone interested??? Actually its the equivalence of £9.5 mil in today's currency. Now, that is not cheap. It took 7 years to complete. Built in the 13th century, it has it grand days in Wales.

After that we had hi-tea at another location. A bar by a HUGE lake. Wow, where to find in Singapore? Lim kopi, outside in the open with air-con temperature, facing the lake and surrounded by teh mountain. I tell you, its almost heaven.. almost, except the fact that my kerbah is some distance away from me up on the mountain and that I don't have the habit of drinking liqour so early in the day.

The other day, we went to the Devil's Bridge. Took a rail ride through the woods and mountain to reach the place. About an hour ride there. I dun have to describe to you guys. Same usual descriptive noun. So I save my fingers some typing. Going there is to see some waterfall, WORLD-RENOWED waterfall. Kay, I got there, I walk the trail, hike my way there and wat do I see.. a waterfall... a SMALL waterfall. I'm not impressed with the waterfall though the walk through up and down is interesting.. and breathtaking.. *breathe very very hard* Along the track, its written on the brochure that you can encounter the Robbers' Cave. Sound really cool. When we got there, its a cave... Cave my arse. I think my mother's HDB flat's storeroom got more depth than the cave! &*()^&$%#^£%

The train ride back is exciting. Exciting because we took a private chartered train back. We missed the 12.30pm train, and the next one and the last one is the 4pm. At 2.15pm, there's this private going back. Initially the rail guy says its private and chartered, so we can board it. But I guess we put up a poor and miserable face, and seeing us to pathetic and I guess he don't want us to stay at the place for nearly 2 hours just to wait for the next train, he walked back to us and let us board the train. WOW! SOOOOOooo nice and save us from wasting 2 hours looking for spiders at Devil's Bridge.

Well, when we go there, we are sitting inside an enclosed carriage, and on the way back, its an open carriage. Its FREEZING man. And challenged to take the ride back all the way without putting on my sweater, its a mistake but definitely an experience worth going through. Imagine your flesh loses all feelings, cold winding washing your face and having to hold an almost ice-cold camera to take the scenic view. On the bright side(yeah.. its bright..with lotsa clouds... I hate the damn cloud, they always go missing when you need them) I can take picture, better view comapred to inside the carriage.

Ok, enough juice pump out of my brain. Time to get back to assignment. Till then... I wonder what can I update you on next in wales... probably... bishamon and his finally-caught-fresh-kerbah..... bbbbbeeeehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

life @ wales

Wales.. a place west of England... the place where the welsh hate the english rule. Initially I mistakenly think that I'm going to Swansea, the 2nd biggest city in Wales. Frankly, doing some research and I can't really find much happening things to do. So ask a london friend what does he knows about Swansea. His comments was that its a 'niao bu shen dan, gou bu la shi, wu gui bu shang an' place (literally it just means that birds dun lay their eggs here, dogs dun shit here, turtle dun come up the shore). I really dunno how to reacted to that. So start planning my trip and finding out ticket pricing to the super-duper ulu place. Even a colleague's husband's colleague gave the same comment. Well, nothing much more can I say about that. Later I found out its the wrong place! I'm suppose to go to Aberystwyth, and my londoner friend says...its even worse.....¬.¬"

After arriving here, it ain't that bad. Peaceful and small town. Most people are friendly here, except the actual UK people who come here to study. In fact there is a lot of international students near the hostel i'm staying and most of them are very friendly.

Over in London, u see people going to the park to do 'beach' activities like sunbathing, frisbee-ing, volleyball etc. Over here, they did the same thing in the backyard of the hostel. WOW. And best of all, the beach is just at the base of the mountain. What can I say. Probably people are kinda lazy to go down there. So they just down their clothes, get into their bikini wear and having their sunbathing right just behind their room, in the backyard. Exciting. Fun. Eye-candy but hey, WHERE ARE THE HOT BABES??? Rumours had it that one block has lotsa such activities. I'm still searching.

Its just a fun thing. We dun get to use the term 'xia shan' (going down to the mountain) in Singapore. Over here, when we say 'xia shan', its really IS 'xia shan'. The most sian mountain I ever climb while doing my national service also cannot compare to the slope i gotta climb IF i'm walking back from the main campus to my hostel campus. At 25% incline, its no joke. Tried jogging one day here and give up cause the cold air is killing me, and the damn slope.

Recalling one conversation with some classmates, D cup and above are such rarity in singapore. Over here, I think the B cup and below might have to pay exhorbitant prices for their bra. What a reverse culture. There's more on 'reverse culture'. When we are in sg, everyone wanna stay in the building coz its much more cooler than the temperature outside. Over here, everyone wanna get out, at least for me! Its warm in the building. Its much much cooler outside. U get server room condition under the sun. You get almost freezer condition when it gets too cloud. HOW I HATE THE CLOUD HERE! Because its so cooling, u can overtan and sunburn yourself without realising it. Its just too cooling.

Ok, I believe no one is interesting in know what i'm studying here and I believe I dowan to talk abt it since I fall asleep while typing. As I mention earlier, this is small town. Very peaceful and quiet. I have yet to see their nightlife (main reason been dowan to take a bus to town and then cannot find the way up the mountain again). They have 2 beaches here, namely the North Beach and South Beach. And they are just next to each other. How nice. One small little mountain to conquer on one of the beaches and a fallen castle.

The fallen castle is an art. What is left on behind are just the walls, and its not even complete walls, but still, wat is left behind is still beautiful. The mountain that we tried to conquer isn't as bad as we thought. Its not the tiredness of the leg that is killing, its the strong wind that is blowing. 3/4 of the time, we dun have much feeling in our hands. They are almost numb, and frozen. But at which level of the mountain, u get a even better scenic view of the town and its surrounding. Well, we thought we will find nothing much at the top. We are wrong. There's a gift shop at the mountain top, but its closed. There's even some benches been set there for visitors to sit. As we explore more, we came to a sheep farm. kooooooool. Lotsa sheep....and shit.

Looking across the grass patch, into the far end, u see nice greeny fields. Among them you see spots of black dots in fields, and guess wat.. its SHIT! The lamb are eating most of the time I saw them. Good life. Nothing to do. Wake up, eat-shit, sleep. Iterate process again. Maybe I should be a sheep in my next life. Bbbeeeehhhhhh will not lure the sheep to you. I tried... very hard. Only manage to get them attention. Some look up from their meal, then walk away.... there goes my kerbah...$%^%&%£$# Hey, those little lamb are very cute... very... wish I got take one home... fresh kerbah every day :-) While eating dinner one day, we are arguing abt the different between mutton and lamb. Ram as brought into the conversation. So a china-girl said that ram is 'hei yang' (black goat) but I say its wrong. 'hei yang' is black sheep! Hey, what do i know? I dun stay in a place where there's a likelihood of more sheep and human beings.

The other thing that I enjoy doing is to eat ice-cream in cold weather condition. Very shiok. As the saying goes 'cold on the outside, cold on the inside'.... very very nice. Till my next update on my visit to the Corris railway and Harlech Castle in Snowdonia........Stay cool (hot in sg).... bbbeeeeeeeehhhhhhhh

great singaporean walk - part 2

Now its back to news update again! Hey, did I ever mention that I'm still on day 1 and its incomplete yet! At the same write up, the time at that point of memory is around 6pm and well, its still BRIGHT. YESH, ITS BRIGHT! Their evening takes eons to end before the night decided to wake up and come out.

After that, we decided to get down and continue our journey to Eiffel Tower. Our feet are sore, so we decided to take the Metro. Afterall, we bought the unlimited train ride for the day. We lugi on that! sighz, wanna be more adventurous and walk. Its really fun though. We even come across some kind of bread competition or fair before reaching Louve Museum.

Nothing much exciting after taking the view. Just waiting for nightfall coz I wanna shoot the nite view up in the Tower. Walking ard the base of the Tower, came across lotsa Red Beret. I wonder again .... I really wonder if there's some death note from some left side or right side ppl who go allah ard asking the yankee to leave the middle east country. Too bad, nothing happen again. If I get to shoot the falling tower, I wonder how much I can sell it.... hmm... thought for "that" day.

Looking for food ard the Tower area is not easy, especially if u dowan to over-spent your budget. But important citeria is that the restaurant MUST HAVE A TOILET! First time in my life, gotta check out the restaurant and see if it got a toilet before deciding if I wanna eat there. Well, frankly, I dun see it and I see my partners are hungry and tired, so decided to choose the only one we came across that serve escagot on their menu. But hey, they do have a toilet, somehow its hidden from view...underground is the word. Well, at least now I can tell people, I have escagot for side dish, and I had it in Paris. How lomantika!

Making our way up the tower is no easy choice. Gotta queue for the lift and it seems the whole world wanna rush up to the highest level, where u are suppose to have the most splendid view. Again, 2 descriptive nouns for u, frigging cold and big wind. Standing outside the chamber and waiting for the sky to turn total darkness is another chore. From 9.15 till 10.15, we waited and the damn sky doesn't seems to want to let go of its last bit of skylight. We gave up. With all those foreign students ard (some are drinking, talking loudly, running around, and I suspect one is singing some national anthem), we are having a headache and start to make our way down. I must say, the great singapore training of squeezing your way into the lift come in handy. Do not believe in lady first and "ya first"... else u can never reach ground floor.

Finally we decided to go on our last destination. The nightlife along Moulin Rouge. Now this is exciting and worrying, especially my dear good friend kept pumping me with horror stories of the european countries. But too bad for us, we din manage to get there. we are totally exhausted and someone in the group fall sick. He's saying abt the bad dessert. Trying to make him puke it out is not working. So we decided to call it a night, esp so that its almost midnight. Counting back how much distance I have walk, its probably up and down orchard road, from orchard mrt to cityhall mrt a couple of times.

So a rest is indeed what we need, especially so when we need to adjust to the jetlag and 6 hours time difference. The other thing we rush to so many places is that we are only in Paris for a night. The very next day, we are taking the Eurostar, leaving for London. Day 1 finally ended..........

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The beginning of Day 2 :-

Well, waking up and preparing for our last visitation to the Sacre Coeur in the Monmarte region. Thankfully we can leave our backpack in the hostel after checking out, else its 20kg on our back and walking ard.

Nothing much eventful till we reach the place. Its very near to our hostel, hence we just walk there, for about 15 mins. It has a nice view. The place has a very good view of one side of Paris. This church is situated at the high point of Paris, up in a hill(or do I call it a mountain?!?!? For sure its much higher than bukit timah mole).

I can't believe my luck. First day, we got 'conned' into paying more for our tickets. And what can I say, I got it from a counter at the airport. And now I got 'chopped' by some street artist. We have no idea what is going on. A friend and I was standing along the pavement, waiting for another friend to catch up, then some artists just approach us and pull us to one side and started draw portrait of us. For a moment, I thought they wanted us to practice their drawing on us. But I know I'm wrong. Frenchmen do nothing for us, or maybe I should say MOST instead of all. My reception did helpfully wrote me a very much appreciated note about me wanting to break my big note. Mentally I was doing some counting, how much should i pay... how much.. think think think. A friend finished first and when I ask him how much the guy is asking for.. my jaw dropped.. literally.... #£$^%%&*£$% I cannot believe it, we must be looking like robert to them. My friend pay his artist, and well, I got no choice but follow suit. My other friend tried to bargain but not successful. We are seriously be CHOPPED. There's goes my XXX number of wanton mee into that fella pocket.

I still remember his word clearly .... "singapore... very rich country"... damnit, now I know why he says that! I must be not looking poor enough. Now I just hope he dies soon and his work is worth a million, then I got a million dollar portrait in my hand.. I hope, I pray, I wish, I want....arghzzzzz

Inside Sacre Coeur, its pretty nice but not as grand as Notre Dame. After that not much eventful. Went walking around the neighbourhood, then went back to our hostel, pick up our backpack, and make our way to the station to take our Eurostar ride!

Good bye Paris ..... London here I come.....Damn, so tired that I'm sleeping on the train. Missed out the great view when the train travel from Paris to London.

One big mistake, meeting 2 other fellas at the Waterloo station. Its a BIG interchange station and there seems to be many arrival/departure halls. Spent over an hour searching for each other. Time wastage again! Finally found the other group, we make our way to the hostel. Nothing much eventful, other than the fact that we are staying above a pub. Gave a call to a friend(k) working in London to bring us out for dinner.

So he brought us to Arabian region and we had some Lebanese food. Hey, I'm not complaining. Was asking for something special, something that is not common in sg and great over in london. Ask another londoner friend on food and he told me, "Chinese and indian food". I tell you, I dunno how to react to that. I seriously dunno how to react to that. Maybe he doesn't know that I'm a chinese or I have more than enough chinese and indian food in sg.

Something interested during dinner. Its almost 9pm when we had our dinner. The food we ordered are kinda interesting. Something that I have yet to try in Singapore. Some raw meat, liver, and I can't remember what else. Each of us choose one side dish to share and then followed by 2 main course. Its filling for the 6 of us. At 10pm, there's a belly dance performanced by a fairly sexy asian looking exotic woman. Kool! My first live belly dancing performance. WAIT, thinking abt that, its ain't first anymore. I caught the first one in sg during some art street fest. Should have ask my friend with the video cam to shoot and maybe I can pass the clip to another friend who does belly dancing. hmmm.. i wonder does she shake like that as well?? Maybe I should ask her when I went back.. maybe, provided I dun get clobbered by the beau.

After that we just walk ard the area. Went to the Hardrock cafe since a friend is suppose to help a couple of his friends to get some t. Nothing eventful again, except for this limo that went past. So K mention that we can rent that and try it out. It ain't that expensive, and shared among the few of us. A good thought. Rent a limo and it comes with a driver that will fetch us around. Interesting. Will thinking abt it the next time I'm back there.

So again we end our night at ard midnight. Heading back to the hostel, we thought our night has ended. Nothing much is happening. The pub sure is rowdy, especially since its friday night already. So we thought that it might get too noisy for us to sleep. Well, we got an interesting quarrel going on downstair. So we just hang on by the windows and listen to it. I guess we are all tired, the ZzZz bugs settle in right after I closed my eyes.

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The beginning of Day 3 :-

Early morning wake up and try to had our breakfast. Well, it comes free with our hostel. Singaporean attitude, FREE MUST TAKE. Nothing much, just some bread and butter. Free flow though. After that, we head on down to Mdm Tussand, the famous wax Museum. Wah! I'm in awe. The entrance fee is not cheap. The website says students got discount, when we got there, no damn discount! sighz, 'conned' 3 days in a row. When I leave home, I must have forgotten to pray to god, whichever god that will help be avoid getting 'conned'.

Its awesome inside, they are done very well. Its almost real, almost. The most famous people comes with their own photographer to take 'professtional' pictures for u. The first room, its the world sexiest (or was it ex-sexiest) man, Brad Pitt and ...errr.. I can't remember which lady is sharing the room with him. Was it J Lo. For sure its not Britney. She's in some hanging position, doing some pole dancing. That's the celebrities room for u.

Next comes the room filled with movie characters. Personally I think the big green guy is the best of all. You got Bond, you the not-so-black Jackson, you got Indiana Jones, and of the very famous Charlie Chaplin. Some other that I never knew who they are. Famous before my time, might even before my father's time. Who cares anyway, they are history.

Sport room is interesting. I wonder what are all the world leader figurines doing inside the sports chamber. The most crowded area is the one with Bush and Blair on your sides with you giving a speech. Gandhi and Pope and Dalai Lama are in the same chamber as well. But I think the Pope is the most stylo. No one more stlyo than him liao, i say. Ok, definitely the scandal-filled Beckham is there, with a photographer for him. Owen is somewhere hidden in a corner. How sad. Oh, Queen E is there as well, together with another photographer. I guess this chamber shld be sports and history. Lotsa historical fellas there. Found Einstein, Mozart, Van Gough.

After that we started the Live Chamber. Its suppose to be some horror walk, with live actor coming out to scare you. Somehow I believe they only enjoy scaring people who wear skirts. I heard nothing but scream from the ladies. Not one of us has been scare-d. NOT ONE.

Then its followed by some ride to see the 'Spirit of London'. Just some history of London. Nothing much. And end of it u exit by the souvenir shop. We come at a bad time. The planeturim chamber is closed for maintenance. Wasted. It should look really kool, standing next to planet Venus. As they say, woman are from Venus... So many I can find lotsa nice nice women on Venus... maybe...

Din planned much for later part of the day. Went to a nearby supermarket and bought some food for lunch. K joined us. Make our way to Hyde Park and had our lunch under the sun, sitting in the park on the grass patch in the Speakers' Corner. Too bad no one is grumbling then. Its sunday that they grumbled, I heard. Its a nice feeling. Something none of us won't wanna do when back in sg. Probably when u suggest to your partner.... "dear ah, shall we go to the park, sit on the grass patch and eat our lunch there..."... its almost 100% chance that you will get...."u siao ah, tau pai ah?.. go park eat? under the hot sun? eat until underwear also wet? u must be siao".....

Finishes luch, we make our way to Kensington Palace. Along the way, we stop by an art museum. Its seriously is art. Trust me, if u guys are there wif them, u guys will probably go ⌐.⌐" .... K mention something like "the handwriting uglier than mine"... I think we are just not arty farty enough for that...none of us are. I think my drawing of 25 years ago will be just good enough to go into that museum. If my mom would have seen it, she will probably regret throwing away all the "treasures" that I used to scribbled when young.

We walk past the palace without realising it. That just show its not eye catching enough. Too lazy and tired to make a U turn. We head for dinner. Someone suggest buffet and K told us there's one chinese buffet nearby. So we say, why not? 5£ for chinese buffet, sound fair to me. When I go and try it out. I tell u, its one of eth worst chinese buffet I ever had. If this shop is in Singapore, it will close shopping within a month. I bet my arse on it.

After dinner, its The Eye and Big Ben. Both are in the same area. So we make our way there. Walking round the region taking photo from different angle and skylight. Once again, we are waiting for nightfall. We are at this bridge when I thought I saw some comet look alike thingy flying down. I was like...errr... It look like the same one in the movie "Armageddon". KOoooool. But wrong, its not. Just some plane doing some testing flying or playing with the engine.

While waiting for total darkness, I sat on one of the bench by the Thames river. So when someone called me to move on, I just go. Luckily, someone wanted hang ard and shoot hot babes pix. So the rest of us just stand around shooting other things. For a moment, I'm thinking..how come i feel so light.. then I realise, I LEFT MY BAG ON THE BENCH! I tell you, the first thing come to my mind is to pray hard to god and make a dash for the bench. Maybe I did left a trail of fire behind. All my money and tickets is in the bag. If I dun find it, they will probably throw me down the river. Luckily, its still there. Luck me. I really think my heart skip a beat then. At least I'm still alive now to type u this story.....hopefully i dun face it again. Even the Live Chamber at Mdm Tussand dun even scare me. Doubt my heart can take attack like this!

After that we went back to hostel to meet up with the last member of the group before heading down to Tower Bridge. Nothing much happened. Just walk and shoot and see. So we just walk and shoot and see. When at the bridge, and the clock strike 12, there's fireworks! We are surprised. Everyone wonders what celebriation is going on. Eveyone is tired, so we decided to take a bus back. OH NO! We missed the last bus! Damn, K still tell me bus is 24 hours (later I found out that it does service 24 hrs but somehow the night rider doesn't service the Tower Bridge after 12.. I wonder why). So we make a dash for the Tube Underground and we missed it! Now we gotta walk back! I won't mind walking back, if not all so many days of walking. My feet and ankles were totally sored. Thought they might give way anytime.

When we reach the hostel, we are totally worn out. But hey, 15 mins later, a fight break out at the pub below our hostel. Now that is live entertainment. Watching a fight from a safe distance. We are on the 2nd floor. I believe one of the staffs who tried to seperate the 2 group of ppl fighting. He got hit twice.

After the show, nothing much left. So we just snoozed. No one set the alarm. We are very tired. So we just rest well.

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The beginning of Day 4 :-

No one bothers with the free breakfast anymore. We prefer the sleep. So we just ended up lazing around. Some of us went out to try to look for food but most of the shops are closed. So ended up buying back something similar to KFC and had that in hostel. Someone getting fit soon for not having access to the Internet. So thinking of the going to the nearby internet cafe to surf and check some emails. WOW! Its expensive. £3 an hour? No way. Called K and he told me that is expensive. So make our way to Waterloo station and search for those £1 an hour internet. Found it. Dunno why its situation underground to another shop. Making use of bomb shelter like singapore ?????

Planning to go to St. Paul Catheral but ended up at in some museum. Think its some D-day anniversary, so some kind of exhibition going on. Went up and lotsa european war history. Singapore history exhibition is like a single floor. This one is like 6 floors! WOW! Give up half way. After that pizza buffet. Wow, we seems to be eating alot since we are there. I can feel my tummy growing! sighz

How nice of my group mates trying to find out where is that SOS place that one of my salsa kakis told me abt. A very happening salsa place in London on Sunday. Finally got there and its is really happening. Becoz there's cover charge, so only I went in while my travelmates went else where for kopi. Anyway, it stop at 11pm and its 10.15 when I'm there. Its really happening. I'm very impressed. Its kinda stressing to step into the dance floor. Too many too good dancers around. Too many. In singapore salsa scene, u see a few good ones. Over there, u see almost EVERYONE is good. sighz. That tells me, time to brush up my skill.......

Well, next day we had to wake up very early to take an early train to Aberystwyth. So we end the night early. Nothing much left. No more quarrels. No more fight. The pub is closed when we got back there. So I guess it will be a quiet nite. Its good. What more do I want other than some peaceful quiet nice sleep. Lotsa sleeping to catch up. Till then........


Now gotta brave the freezing cold weather again back to lab. gotta wake up early since planning to visit one place of interest. will update again when I got the time. At least im done wif travelling. Now its hostel and studies.....

great singaporean walk

Trill is an under-statement for my upcoming (or rather it actually started since i'm behind 'time' on the blogging). I guess its the worries and pressures that are topping up that is giving me bad nite sleep for the few nites before flying off!

First time i'm going to europe. First time i'm away for so long. First time i'm going on a backpack trip planning it MYSELF. First time i'm away from my comp and internet for a month (not to mention the all-singaporean-guys-muz-do ns). Too many first time.

Finally, the moment i'm waiting for, BOARDING the plane. Finally flying off and well, i dun seem to get to sleep well. Gotta wind the clock back 6 hours since Paris is 6 hours behind. Damn, probably spoilt for Emirates. Individual get to have their own screen and select the movies they want to watch, Thai dun. They believe in SHARING. I guess the whole damn plane share one movie. sighz. So after the transitting at the next flight, telling my 2 other travelmates, gotta convince ourselves to have a good nite sleep since we are expected to arrive at Paris at 7am and it will be the start of our tour! DAMN! I thought I have lie on the seat for eons, refusing to check my watch. When I finally have to get up to stretch myself, looking at the clock, I can't believe my eyes..... LESS THAN 3 HOURS HAVE PASSED! "£%^&"£%^*('#' And the process goes on.....

Now I know why Singapore In'tl Airport can keep winning for so many years. Their GDC Airport sure is rundown. And I wonder, seeing so many policemen running around, I was wondering... hmm... is there a bomb nearby? That will be very exciting!! Giving you ppl live commentary on it. Paris is COLD and DRY! Stepping out of the airport to ask for some directions almost got me frozen! Now, who the hell told me that summer is HOT??!?!? I still bring sleeveless tshirt, and luckily, I decided to bring one sweater along juz in case since the night before, a friend called me to warn me abt the weather there. Was still arguing with her on the point that she told me to bring my winter coat. So i say, "WINTER COAT? I'm going in SUMMER, why bring winter coat? siao ah????"

We got one morning to see 4 of our key sight. Notre Dame, Louve Museum, Arc De Truimph and Eiffel Tower. First we must make my way to the hostel, carrying 20kg of dunno-wat-i-packed-inside backpack. damn. I must say, the receiption are really helpful, and thanks to him writing a note for me in french on breaking up my 500€ into small notes, else I will have huge problem breaking it. He even tried to teach me to say it but my tongue really got tied. Speaking to the french on the street is like u try to talk to those old uncle on the street in singapore. You talk to him in mandrain and they reply to u in hokkien and nothing more. Same here, speaking to them in english, i can reply in french. -shrug- So yellowpages slogan is the best of way here. "Let your finger do the talking".

Its a really HUGE church. The celling is so damn high. I believe the durian lookalike building in singapore will also lose lor! They win hands down! Trust me, and remember that is built many centuries ago lor! I'm impressed, more than impressed. And well, lotsa saints there I dunno. The only person I recognised is Joan of Arc! Ok, nothing to do with the movie but I do know that character. really.

We decided to take climb the stairs to the tower. I called it the neverending stairs. Halfway through, I thought I heard someone mentioning abt 4xx steps. I was hoping I hear wrongly. hoping and god is not helping me! sighz. Finally reach the top and its a spendid view. Yeah, its really cool and worth the money and climb! Oh, point to note, nothing is free, nothing. Anything u need to climb, its not free.

Next on the list to hit is Louve Museum. When we got there, the place look crappy. We are still in doubt. We just wonder what is going on. How come front potion look weird. The pavement is not done up probably, just filled with sandy stones(frankly, i dunno what to call them). Its only later we realise that we are coming in by the rear. -ops- well, so we see those building surrounding it. Another awesome display. Wonderful. Incredible. Excellent. But I'm not that impressed after walking for 3 hours. Finally we hit on the pyrimad, the museum WITHIN the pyrimad. I was told its WITHIN but hey, WHERE THE HELL IS THE PYRIMAD?! I dun see it at all, then we realise its an UNDERGROUND museum and well, we dun feel like paying to see wat the hell Napolean is doing. Of coz there's painting by Picasso and Van Gough. But still, we are tired, and we are still very far from the other 2 sites. Did I mention that the rear have 4 buildings enclosure that form a square the floor size is bigger than that of Takashimaya.

Further up ahead is a park, a REAL park. That is another 15 mins of walking, straight ahead. There's ponds in it, people feeding ducks. And 2 open concept cafe within the park. And i'm most impressed by the 2 policemen riding on the horse, esp that huge meatrod danging beneath it. Finally we are out of Louve Museum. From front to rear is like...err...1km...2km... somewhere there.

TOILET!! WE NEED TOILET! AND ITS FRIGGING NOT FREE!!!!! What to do, I don't to get caught doing it in the bushes. sighz. Continue the journey, its a long long walk towards Arc De Triumphe. Half the journey is just some walking pavement and the other half of the journey to it is like window shopping in Orchard Road! Well, we are lucky, there seems to be some photo exhibitions on the pavement, so we got some entertain while walking the long journey. The other half is Champs Elysées, your answer to window shopping in Orchard Road in Paris. Do I look like a shopper, so no updates. Our eyes are trying to find some great eye candy. There are. Some very interesting ads. and when I say interesting, I mean BUILDING-SIZE ads. Human size are outdated already. Of coz, french hot babes is the other things to look out for but somehow, we dun get to see much. how sad. Maybe I'm not at the beach yet, maybe.

Going up is another climb. &^$%"£$%#&%^ But again I must stress, ITS REALLY VERY BEAUTIFUL. Well, its not sunset when we were up there, its a pity but we dowan to pay AGAIN to climb it. Half way up it, u can to see the museum and it tells u the history of it. Very interesting. The drawing of the 16th century(or was it 17th century) plan.

From it, u can see that there are 10 paths (or was it 12) leading out. Each path has its own beauty. Its really beautiful. Getting a good angle and doing paranoma is excellent. To save u the trouble, they are selling that view and again, its not CHEAP.


----- to be continue ----- (tired from the thinking back and typing and braving the cold walk from hostel to lab in 7 degree nite wearing on a shorts and sleeveles t)