A month ago, we had a chance to fly down to Bali, Indonesia and opted to stay at the Novotel in the secluded town of Nusa Dua. We chose Nusa Dua because of its isolation (the point of the trip was R&R, so leaving the town was not something we were planning to do anyway) and we were upgraded to a suite on arrival, not that we made much use of the kitchen. Nusa Dua has no beach parties, no temples, actually aside from the beach, there is nothing too noteworthy to see or do. But because of this, the beaches were pretty empty, I am talking kilometers of beautiful beaches with only a handful of people.

In the mornings, we would eat before heading down to the beach and in the evening we would head back to our resort and swim in the artificial lagoon (although it was a fairly large lagoon, it was still crowded and full of kids while the sun was up, but it transforms into a peaceful place to swim at night… By the way, random frogs occasionally swim in the lagoon too). The resort had a restaurant down by the beach where you could get drinks or food and at night, they put some tables out on the beach for dinner.

On our first night there, we decided to go down to try it out, and we ended up being the only patrons there. It was pretty amazing, having dinner on the beach that we had all to ourselves. To make things even better, the full moon was out and it was so bright that we could see our own shadows on the beach!

We also found this little shack near another resort, I believe it was meant for the workers of the resort to eat there, but we ate there anyways. I mean Nasi Goreng for $1US ?? Can’t really beat that. We also got to try Tebs, a carbonated “Tea Cooler” and Tehbotol, a sweetened cold tea.

We did spend the last day exploring south east Bali, most notably, heading to Uluwatu Temple, home of these extremely cunning monkeys. If you are not careful, they steals your belongings and will only return them when you trade for them with bananas. orz

As usual, Flickr photostream here (if you saw the photos on Facebook, then there aren’t too many additional photos on my photostream this time)

India was intense. We had to change our plans on the first day since we couldn’t get a train to Varanasi like we originally planned. Instead, we went from New Delhi to Jaipur to Ranthambhore to Agra to Varanasi and then back to New Delhi. Pretty packed itinerary for a 7 day trip I’d say!

We saw a lot of historical monuments, and the only day it rains, of course, was the day we went to see the Taj Mahal. Luckily, it didn’t really take away from the beauty of the building. I was quite impressed with how well preserved all these places are (not just the Taj, like most of the heritage sites we visited were very well maintained, not to mention high in security)!

Of course seeing all these sites are just part of what made India interesting. I think the other part was the fact that we weren’t on a tour. People were just so curious about us, probably because most of the Asian tourist I saw in India were with a tour. We were walking around Red Fort in New Delhi and suddenly these two teens came up to us and wanted to shake our hands and take a photo with us?? Strange.  Or we’d be driving down the highway and you can see everyone in the surrounding cars just blatantly staring.

One of the best was when we stopped outside farm near a small town, we were trying to chase some antelope or deer. So as we ran through the tomato field, these kids saw us and started running with us. By the time we stopped, there were probably 15 kids surrounding us, and they all wanted to be in the photo, etc. Needless to say, I had alot of fun with the children I met during my travel in India.]

Another time, we were sitting in a train station for about 2 hours. At the time, we didn’t know most people waited for the trains at the platform as opposed to inside the waiting area, so we were the only visible foreigners in the waiting area. This, of course, drew alot of unwanted attention from people, and even the cows wandering the station (yes, there were cows. In the station..) As we were about to leave, these two young men, probably around my age, came up to us, and gave us very beautiful hand drawn card!! It was very, well strange yes, but also touching? cute? I don’t know the word.

Oh, by the way, everyone there knows Japanese, totally was not expecting that. And I jumped off a moving bus, true story.

Mt. Kota Kinabalu was a different experience. Although, heightwise, it was comparable to Mt. Fuji the physical feature of the mountain, the terrain, the camps and just about everything else felt completely different.

The summit was very… pointy (for lack of a better word). I guess I understand now why they limit the number of climbers allowed on the mountain, because Lowe’s Peak only has room for 5 climbers at a time!! My climbing partner and I made excellent time, arriving at the summit just after a group of Malaysian Navymen. In fact, we made such good time we arrived a good 1 hour before sunrise and had to hide behind some rocks a few meters below the peak because it was too cold up there.

Unfortunately, clouds kind of ruined the sunrise, but in all honesty, I didn’t really climb it for the sunrise anyway. We made good time going down the mountain as well and enjoyed some time out in town, where I ended up drinking 6 oversized  flavoured Yakults.

Photos and more detailed blog post later this month … hopefully.

Also, India and Mt. Kota Kinabalu are removed from the list since I’m going there next month!

1. North Korea
2. Antarctica
3. Nepal
4. Tibet
5. Mongolia
6. South Africa

And when I was a kid, I wanted to be an animator, little did I know…

ps. I liked Ryan’s #8 (Space). I definitely want to go there as well!

I was in Taiwan for a quick long weekend trip, it was pretty relaxing. Didn’t do anything special: ate alot, slept alot and free wifi in the hotel room!

As per my usual custom, I went out and tried alot of strange drinks:

• Ice cream beer floats : Ice cream is yummy and beer is not bad either. You would think putting those two together would be a good idea. It is not. Actually the beer was just really bad beer, maybe if it was in something a little more … fruity, it would totally work (I’m gonna have to try this).
• Asparagus juice: sounds bad but tastes pretty amazing (kind of tastes like sugar cane juice)
• Yogurt flavored green tea: uhh gross (apparently it tastes like Calpis, which I hate)
• Yogurt flavored lemon juice: uhhh gross x2

Other things that happened:

• Almost missed my flight (boarding was at like 7, flight was at 7:25. I didnt get to the airport until 7:18)
• Saw fireworks in mid-flight en route to Taipei
• Taipei 101
• Binge eating
• Night market
• Taxi driver felt up my friend
• Also, bought some stuff

The hilight for me was definitely the night market:

Full flickr set here:

Have a good weekend everyone~!

Sorry South Korea, I’m just not that excited about being there. See, when I originially booked, I didn’t know I’d be in the middle of moving and that work would be this busy. But I guess this is a much needed break after my freakout yesterday, although part of the reason for the freakout is because I’m going to Korea. I really wish I booked it for next week instead, but oh well… 

[Chatlog slightly editied - for length and I'm pretty sure the world doesn't need to know about my bowel movements etc.]:

Owen: y so morbid
me: SO MUCH WORK
me: I spend my lunch time rushing home so I can get all my moving stuff in palce, cause they delivered furniture at lunch today
me: then my nightimes working
me: and my daytime working
me: and im flying to korea tmr
Owen: so how’s the new place
me: I DUNNNO
me: i havent slept there
me: its close to work at least
me: so i can go back during lunch
me: but no phone
me: no internet
Owen: I didn’t know you moved
me: and everythign is still in boxes
me: havent had time to unpack
Owen: I… I see

…

Owen: so wtf is with Korea
Owen: HOW DO YOU GET A LIFE LIKE THIS
me: OK I BOOKED KOREA IN JAN
Owen: LOL
me: im so stressed =_=
Owen: well, uh, take care? lol
me: im like once accident away from some mental breakdown
me: where I slaughter everyone with a sausage

…

me: OH
me: AND
Owen: and?
me: I cant find my phone charger
me: my phones at like 30%
me: hows this gonna last me till sunday
Owen: take care of yourself k
Owen: come back ALIVE
Owen: AND SANE
Owen: keep sane

…

me: omg
me: i hope they have signs in english in korea
me: cause if not
me: im gonna
me: PISS IN THEIR KIMCHI
me: WHEN THEY ARENT LOOKING
Owen: don’t get arrested and raped in a Korean prison
Owen: would suck

23 December : Hong Kong to Amsterdam
Depart 00:05
Arrive 05:45

24 December : Amsterdam to Nairobi
Depart 10:20
Arrive 20:25

25 December : Nairobi to Kilimanjaro
Depart 07:30
Arrive 08:30

I get a full day (29 HRS!) in Amsterdam which is great! Spending the night in Nairobi? Not so great. But the only other alternative was a 1hr stopover in Nairobi. It wouldn’t be a problem except when it comes to checked-in luggage, I have terrible luck.  So 1hr? I really doubt they can get my luggage over in time, and unfortunately, I need my gear… you know… to climb Kilimanjaro.

Getting back to Hong Kong isn’t as bad:

3 January : Kilimanjaro to Nairobi
Depart: 20:10
Arrive: 21:10

3 January : Nairobi to Bangkok
Depart 23:55
Arriving 13:35 (Jan 4)

4 January : Bangkok to Hong Kong
Depart 18:40
Arrive: 22:25

Ok… 5 cities, 5 countries. That’s a pretty grueling flight schedule! But, I bet I’ll be sleeping the whole time on my way to back from Africa (and the HK-> Amsterdam is a midnight flight for a reason, ie I should be sleeping!!!). An added bonus is that I’ll get Amsterdam to myself! Apparently its a ghost town during Christmas over there, but that won’t stop me from enjoying it.

My goal for the one day there?

1. Find a way into the city
2. Find breakfast
3. Find a coffee shop and enjoy a nice hot drink
4. Take a lazy afternoon stroll around town, enjoy the empty city.
5. Have an early dinner at a small restaurant.
6. A quick evening drink.
7. Head back tot he hotel early.

That is probably the laziest mini trip I’ve ever planned. Speaking of which, I don’t have any hotels booked yet. I’ll save that for later (procrastination wins again!)

And yes, I finally got the Flickr photostream embeds working (it wont work, however, if you are reading this via an RSS reader like Google Reader or Facebook Notes)

What was I doing there? Nothing in particular I guess… I ate alot of food though! (note: I normally don’t take photos of food. Well I do, but I normally don’t take photos of food and put them up on the net. This time someone made a request so I’ll let it slide. You can find the food-only photos here)

This was my second breakfast of the day. Pineapple bun with a huge ass glob of butter.

Some half cooked eggs with soy sauce and some sort of slat mixture? It was actually quite good

It wasn’t all eating…

… I wandered around Orchard Rd, absolutely amazed at how much things had changed.

Apparently you can play air-guitar for money on the streets -_-; (well its better than sitting there and begging I guess?)

At the scene of the crime where an alien was murdered!

.. subway entrance o_o

Concluded the trip by eating a stingray! (it was quite good)

All in all, a short but satisfying trip!