blackblog.

Sunday. Glazing sunlight. After having a quite relaxing breakfast with Oli and planning the upcoming trip to Hongkong in February I got in contact with Peter & Pascal in order to use this beautiful day in a Park. To be more precise: Get to the Chinese Gardens. So we got there by MRT – In contrast to most other interesting places in Singapore, it is just 2 Stops away from Boon Lay.

Walking around in these Gardens is quite impressive – Although this garden was built and designed just few years ago, I felt like in China! Really relaxing to walk around and enjoy the silence of this park. By accident, we walked into the Turtle conservation center, which is, according to Guinness Book of World Records the largest (or better: hugest) collection (or how do you call it?) of living turtles world wide. You could see turtles of many different kinds: Small, big, camouflaged, … Even the worlds only double-headed turtle is to be seen there. Especially the giant turtles were really impressive.

Finally we got back to Boon Lay in order to get some dinner at Jurong Point. So another weekend is over.

Update: I really hate it, when I hit “save” instead of “publish”… So this post was left as draft for one week…

Bukit Timah is the highest point in Singapore with 164 meters above sealevel. Actually this hill is nicely located within the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve, a 66 ha small area, which hosts the tiny little rest of Singapore’s primary Rainforest. By walking up the hill you can listen to many rain forest birds and even see monkeys. The main way up the hill is paved, so this is not much of an rain forest experience…

But there are some little paths available, that give you a kind of jungle experience. Pretty enjoyable, but only go to Bukit Timah if you have never seen rain forest or you really have to kill time. There are way better places (but not in Singapore) to see a primary rainforest… It’s more a park than a nature reserve – Probably because this area is to small to keep the sounds of the nearby expressway and other signs of civilization out.

Yowhey, I’m back from my Christmas & NewYear vacation (far up north *g*) to Phuket, Thailand. To be more precise, I got to Patong Beach, which turned out to be a… Let’s say: Not perfect decision. Just by hearing “Ah, Patongs rocks!” and so on I decided to go there – But unfortunately, I did not consult background literature… And so I was just trapped in the “Mekka” of the primitive European All-Inclusive-”Party-Palmen-Weiber-Bier“-Hedonists… Actually it was quite funny to watch all these people getting drunk and lurk for Thai girls in order to get you-know-what. I stayed at the Dive Den guesthouse: This place has reasonable prices (around 5€ per night) and is quietly, but centrally located – And: It’s really clean. So maybe when you go Patong, check this place out.

It had been a very relaxing time – Instead of just doing sightseeing or doing party, I just chose to get up to the beach, sit in the shade of a palm-tree and read… This is the next funny point: Almost all tourists there get “Chilli-Crab”-style after the first day on the beach… Yes, in the tropical sun, it is an absolute PERFECT idea to stay in the sun between 11-13h and just use sunblock 8 (Ruhrpott-Lady to other women: “Ja, wir wissen wie stark die Sonne hier ist, gell Helmut, deswegen nehmen wir ja Faktor 8!” – Next day: Completely red…) – I applied 20 as usual and stayed in the shade. Got brown skin, but no sunburn. Harhar!

Of course I also tried out all the famous parts of Thai cuisine such as red, yellow and green curries or (my favourite) Pad Thai. Even in Patong Beach you can get them at a nice price of about 50 Baht (around 1€) when you stay away from the tourist restaurant and get to some places, where locals eat. I found out, that the Patong Wet-Market and the Banzaan Market are a good place to take first steps – After knowing some thai phrases its also easy to get to one of the street restaurants: There I got the best food for the lowest price. Same with fruits: Go to the market! Cheaper and better. But negotiating the price can be fun

Of course I did no spend the whole time just in Patong: I also did daytrips around the island. First of all, I booked a daytrip to the Group of Phi Phi Islands. With rather beatiful beaches and scenic views, I also got the view of destroyed coral reefs and tour-guides that did not even try to stop people from breaking parts of corals… We visited famous Monkey Bay and Ko Phi Phi Leh, where part of the movie The Beach was shot. After that the speedboat got us to Ko Phi Phi Don, where we had lunch at a beach resort. Unfortunantely some clouds arised when we left the island… So the beach & leisure part was aborted by rain (see pic). But this tiny little island, being just a beach: Beautiful!

My next daytrip took me to Ko Raya Yai… This trip for snorkeling was the best I did in the entire time! Intact coral reefs, beautiful scenic views and lots of tropical fish shining in all colors of the rainbow… I enjoyed a full day of just snorkeling, swimming, feeding the fish and relaxing aboard. The best part: The were no other boats around – Because Raya Yai is not very popular for tourists… Because it is just one Island and no movies have been shot there…

One other interesting thing to mention: In my guesthouse I met another guy from Germany. Peter is also doing his internship in Singapore and now the funny part: He’s also stying at NTU! So we spent some time together – Especially one great day at the beach. We both got to Phuket cause we did not know what to do between Christmas and New Year… Argh… Some coordination would have been nice…

Time was running out fast – And New Year arrived. So I decided to get down to the beach in order to get an impression of the fireworks. And yes: There were fireworks. And firecrackers. Everywere. Just: Boom-Boom-Bang. For hours. It just rocked! Somehow I was not really in the mood of doing party or drinking… Maybe you know why

And faster than I thought it was over… Summary: Patong is not the perfect location for chillout. Too many tourists. Too many primitive people. But: Good weather, nice beaches and after some digging: Nice food. Actually this vacation cost me less than 350€ including the flight – This is I think good value. Now I’m happy to be back in Singapore!

Today, by reading some other tour blog, I found out, that quikmaps.com offers an easy-to-use service to draw lines, markers and whatsoever on GoogleMaps…

Just yesterday GoogleMaps added local streetmaps for Singapore – better than the blurred sat-pics… Wanna know where I stay at the University? See here!

Because many people asked where I had been and what I did… So here is a first version containing some of my major trips. All the stuff I did in Singapore itself is missing – Not enough time to get it all in!

So: Enjoy the map!

P.S.: Today I will get to Thailand, to be more precise: Phuket Island in order to spend there some days for vacation… So: Merry Christmas! Stay tuned!

This year I will not be at home for christams – and sending a christmas gift half around the world in order to transport it back some month later is just stupid. So I got just some monetary gift for christmas in order to get myself something useful. Guess what I thought about: Getting some cheap electronic gadget – Mainly because this stuff is a little cheaper around here.

The last few weeks I looked around the city in order to decide what to get. I finally decided to get an iPod Nano with 8gb storage. The official price of Apple is here at 439s$ (~ 216 euro), which is already around 33 euro cheaper than the German offer. Checking out the prices at popular places like Funan Center or Sim Lim Square showed prices as low as 408s$. But lower than 400 seemed to be impossible… So just yesterday I checked at 8flags, which is the official computer store of Nanyang Technological University. And they got a really nice price…. 365 s$ (= 179 euro)! And there was just one left… So I directly got a shiny new iPod nano for christmas. To make it clear: I would not have purchased an iPod nano for 249 euro, because this is way overpriced – But 179 is ok to me.

Actually I really like it, but probably I will get some better headphones… They really suck. But the rest is just nice!

One thing really annoyed me – It was not possible to play all podcasts in a row (like in an playlist etc). But thanks to some people in blogosphere that already got a solution: Just turn off the “shuffle” option. Then you can play podcasts in a row. With “Albums” or “Songs” it is not working…

As stated in the last post, it started raining on Sunday. Actually it did not stop the whole night til Monday having a thunderstorm every 3-4 hours. And when it was not a thunderstorm, it was just raining. Sometimes faster, sometimes a little slower. It was just continously raining from Sunday morning til Tuesday night – Way heavier than the whole-rainy-day-rain you get in Europe (eh Great Britain).

As seen in the news, there had been 345mm rain in the 20hrs of Tuesday! This is even for Singapore a lot – leading to heavy flooding in the central and northern area of Singapore. The record rainfall per day was in December 1978, when they had 585mm on one single day. Just to have an comparison: In Nuremberg there are just 623mm per Year! In Singapore usually has just 284mm of rain in December – but this year definitively more compared to last year and way more than exspected.

Today it is better – Blue sky again this morning. But there is some heavy thunderstorm to be exspected around afternoon…

When I woke up it was already raining… And actually it did not really stop til sunset – Sometimes it rained pretty heavy, then seemed to stop and finally started again slowly. This has been the first really rainy day since I’m here.

But nevertheless: I made some appointment with some of my co-workers in order to get to EastCoastPark, to be more precise: To the East Coast Seafood Centre, a very famous Hawker Center featuring not only Seafood, but also many delicacies at reasonable prices. Oliver, a German student, who is also staying at NTU joined us on my invitation. So I met with him for the bus at 0945 in order to get to Dhoby Ghaut station on time (we were supposed to meet my co-workers at 1100). Of course we arrived late by some unknown (*cough*) reason – but this did not matter, cause the others got stuck due to a bus breakdown.

Finally we hit at East Coast Park around 13:00 – beeing really hungry, mainly because I left out breakfast (as usual). But it was worth waiting for: Beeing a group of 6, we ordered a huge stock of food: Excellent freshly barbecued Satay (Mutton, Chicken, Beef & Pork – of course with the usual rice-cake-cubes and cucumber slices) with an outstanding sauce, Oyster Omelett, Curry Laksa, Fishhead Curry, Chinese Barbecued Chicken Wings and Bak Kut Teh. Everything was really good – No wonder why this place is famous! Uh, I just forgot to mention: Another thunderstorm was coming, just when we were finished eating. Although we were already really full, we got some nice dessert: Ice Kacang and Rojak. It also took some time to finish up this stuff – But it started raining slower, so we left heading back to the city…

After sleeping pretty long I decided to get to the famous Jurong Bird Park. So I took the Shuttle Bus to Boon Lay and then the Bus 251 down to AYE / BoonLay where the Bird Park is actually located. Adminission fee is with about 16s$ quite high – but I assure you, it’s really worth paying this!

Besides many tropical birds in cages, they feature also a large stock of Flamingos, Pelicans and Tucans… But the way best part is the so called Lory Loft: An huge aviary with a rather countless number of parrots (and other rainforest birds) showing all colors of the rainbow. The birds fly around like crazy and you feel yourself in an: “Prepare for impact” mode…

Besides that that is a second pretty huge aviary where you actually walk through the rainforest ending up right in front of a (artificial) waterfall. By walking around you can spec a really huge number of birds being beautifully colored. Most Zoos in Germany cover a bird section – but this is really nothing compared to what’s shown here! Of coure, here there is no need for expensive climate control, heating and whatsoever. Just build a cage, throw some trees in there and let the birds in! Jurong Bird Park is a must-see when you get to Singapore!

Most of my friends know it already: Eeating weird & uncommon food is one of my hobbies. So I’m always on the run to catch nice food, which is seasoned the traditional way (and not the to-european-taste-adapted-way) and offers good value, meaning: low price for good quality.

Sushi is no more considered to be something really special, because it is widely available in Europe. But Sashimi are something, that is way harder to get in acceptable quality for a reasonable price. Last week we went to a very nice Japanese Restaurant close to Marina Bay. My co-workers took care of ordering – And they ordered well! Sushi was of extraordinary quality – definitively the best I ever had. The best part were the inside-out makis containing also the japanese-style mayonaise. But the Sashimi were absolutely mindbreaking – Excellently fresh and a wide selection of tuna, salmon, prawns and some other fish. Together with the fresh wasabi it was a real delight. Besides Sushis & Sashimi they ordered a large variety of Don, Noodles and Teriyaki. Altogether an excellent dinner.

To be honest: This place was really expensive for Singaporian standards – But really cheap compared to Germany. A selection like this would cost you a fortune, probably around 40 euro per person. Here it was about 22 sing$ (about 11 euro), which was absolutely OK for this meal. Probably I will get to this place again, because all the food was really good. Sushi is nice, but besides that the Japanese cuisine has way more to offer…

Unfortunately I felt not fit enough to go to ZoukOut at Sentosa on Saturday night (cause of my infection), so I got to bed quite early. As an immediate result, I woke up really early… At 8am. So what to do I though to myself… So I looked outside and saw the blue sky and sun was shing…. Hhm. Beachday!

At about 9:20 I was at Siloso Beach at Sentosa unfolding my towell in the shade of a palm tree. After applying some sun-blocker (protection factor 30) I started reading. Current book is “Freakonomics” of Steven Levitt. Beach started to get crowded at around noon – By that time I decided to grab some food at one of the nearby restaurants. As last time it ended up in a sushi meal. So the rest of the afternoon I just did nothing but swimming, reading and so on… You might say pretty boring, but in respect to my infection this was probably the best thing to do. As beach refreshment I recommended fresh thai young coconut. Perfectly refreshing drink!

At around 1600 I was sick of beach and hit for Chinatown, to be more precise: People’s Park Complex. This hawker center is probably one of the most popular in Singapore. I finally got some Loh Mei, a south-chinese dish involving almost all kinds of seafood, fish and meat in a Laksa-like sauce – this was chosen because I had no idea what to get and this stall had the longest waiting Q. So I enqueued not knowing what I was heading for – They guy in front of me, who I asked what Loh Mei actually is said: “Uh ya like it. Like Laksa, but better, lah! Not knowing what you eat is Singaporian! You here longer?”.

After finishing this rather nice dish I decided to head for the dessert place in order to get some Herbal Jelly and Mango/Pomello paste.