Without regret

Vik, a tiny town at the southern tip of Iceland, boasts a famous cluster of cliffs and stacks called Reynisdrangar visible from the expansive black beach, permanently obscured by a fog of sea spray that engulfs the entire coast with an inpenetrable, milky lens. The beach probably knows no such thing as a breeze, its entire length misted with a haze stirred wildly by the turbulent open water that crashes heavily onto the rugged Icelandic coastline, wild as her violent geologic past. Braving the biting wind that makes even opening the eyes a painful struggle, and then in a moment, drawing in deeply, the cold, damp Icelandic air - it leaves you wanting, feeling small, weak, afraid.

Beautiful silence

Jokulsarlon, a glacier lagoon in south Iceland, is stunning in countless ways. Most breathtaking, perhaps, is its deafening silence punctuated with the gentle dripping purrs of the ice melting, while your serene reverence for the almost holy atmosphere can suddenly be shaken by a crack of shattering ice, followed by a satisfying splash of water. The soft rippling stirred by playful seals is only rudely interrupted by the half-hourly amphibious ride that clumsily ferries shivering tourists into the lagoon. And to the relief of the awestruck wanderer strolling by the black sand bank, it quickly disappears behind the larger ice floes. He is grateful for the luxury of crisp, peaceful silence.

Tomato man, Luxor, Egypt

As we passed tomato fields over Luxor's Nile banks, jolly farmers waved warmly, at some point greeting us with attempts at giving us a few fat fruits as gifts, lopping them towards the balloon. We swooped low but unfortunately, not low enough. We could see the Valley of the Kings in the distance, and rose so high that any sense of vertigo was lost. The patchwork farmland was dotted with fluffy white sheep, farmhands and children chased the balloon's shadow, donkeys in tow. The green boundaries of the Nile banks ended abruptly where desert began. Egypt is beautiful.

Alexandria, Egypt

Merchant selling poached sea creatures (site of the Lighthouse at Alexandria in background) -- including numerous cowries, sea stars, conchs, hard corals, red sponges, small sharks and a turtle shell. More photos of Alexandria here.

Alexander the Great, forever immortalized in the city of Alexandria, founded Egypt's major port that served as her capital for thousands of years. Famous for her ancient lighthouse -- one of the ancient wonders of the world, prolific with tales of the gargantuan beacon guiding many a wary traveller in ancient times -- Alexandria's picturesque Mediterranean coastline and city center is sprawling with Greek and Roman architecture.

A castle is now built atop the ruins of the ancient lighthouse, now turned obligate tourist destination. Many merchants display their wares, flanking the path leading up to the castle. Alexandria's vibrant street life, lovely Mediterranean weather and beautiful cityscape make her my favourite city in Egypt.

Luxor, Egypt.

The Collosi of Memnon, March 2008. More photos of Luxor.

Back from the land of the pharoahs

Check it out!!! It's the freakin' end of March and I haven't visited blogger for ages. It's almost like I've become so lazy that I've neglected my cyber enclave for the sluggish alternative that is Facebook, only to realise now that so many of my imageshack photos are gone. Well, we'll fix that up some other time.

Meanwhile, the new year has come and gone, major events at work at a stand-still due to red-bloody-tape, and I've been to Egypt and back, all in a month and a half.

The state of my spanking new (once yellow) sneakers is testament to the dusty adventure I've been on in the desert wildnerness that is Egypt. That is to say, that dust, desert sand and ash from the permanent haze there really took a toll on my clothes and lungs.

But it was a lovely holiday with family and friends, and I've made so many new acquaintances that are just a joy to have around on vacation.

Egypt, in spite of her lovely polluted air, is gorgeous. And once acclimatised to the endless harrassment from local merchants, and getting used to being marginalised because of one's gender, it is a pleasant experience. Luckily, Cairo was progressive enough that women were evidently more empowered than the less cosmopolitan areas like Luxor and Aswan.

So I'm back from the trip visibly unharmed, but thoroughly satisfied with the adventure.

This trip, I was threatened by merchants twice for attempting to bargain (this happened in the more ulu areas of the country), molested by a meek looking young man (but I made sure he was properly ashamed before making a run for it), got suitably dust-coated in the Valley of the Kings when I decided not to wear long pants, cooked from the outside in Aswan as temperatures soared to 34 degrees, and chilled in windy Cairo and Alexandria where the weather turned out to be a comfortable 18 to 24 degrees.

We took a hot air balloon over the West Bank of Luxor, strolled through Karnak at night when the atmosphere was one of awe and reverance, settled down on the Nile as we cruised for 4 days south toward Aswan.

We circled the Aswan high dam in searing heat, and joined a pre-dawn convoy to Abu Simbel, my favourite place in Egypt, where the famous Temple of Ramses II appeared behind a hill overlooking Lake Nasser, and the monstrous statues of the ancient Pharoah's likeness simply took my breath away.

Later, I braved a personal record of not taking a shower in 53 hours, during which we boarded an overnight train to Cairo. There, the formidable Pyramids greeted us in an anti-climatic rising from behind the hazy cityscape, where tarred roads led up to the Pyramids and between them. The beauty of neighbouring Alexandria and its gorgeous coastline made the 3-hour drive from Giza city worth it.

I don't know how to describe the feeling of having touched 3000-year-old monuments upon which the foundation of a mighty empire rested.

Coming back from it all, reality is hard to stomach. I've learnt to embrace a new language - Arabic, and it is really beautiful. I've lost my immunity to chilli, evident in my stomach's poor response to local food the week since I've returned. I've made a new friend, my Egyptian guide, whose passion for his country's ancient history is truly admirable, and whom I've learnt so much from.

A bunny's (second) life

Because I haven't installed Photoshop on this machine (which is why I'm grumpy and have not been updating) I attempted to make a collage of some second life snapshots on Power-effing-point 2007, which has a weird user interface by the way. Because also, these snapshots are of good quality they didn't need editing. I wish I could say the same for my photos of my first life, of which I've neglected to post bad photos of 3 huge but very dead mud crabs I prodded at East Coast 2 Sundays ago at low tide.

So having completed Puzzle Pirates in less than a day, and having the other game I loaned turn out to be broken (!!), staying in on this wet cold Sunday only means to finally get down to exploring second life once and for all, since I'm going to need it for work very soon.

The Singaporean community on second life is small but very friendly, and their domain on second life, otherwise known as Kaki Isles, is so well done-up I spent the entire afternoon exploring and interacting the objects and spaces there. Some kind regulars took me around and showed me some cool hide-outs, while my second visit saw me invited to a small informal gathering of sorts, as you can tell from the snapshot at the bottom -- a motley crew indeed.

Bintanpalooza

Way overdue. Backlogs unleashed!
*warning: bimbo post.

Kayaking in Krabi (part 2)

I knew we had to do this when I researched on what to do in Krabi. A tour that cost us 550baht each (~SGD25) was booked in town at the agent that took us to phi phi, and included a pick up from our hotel lobby, transport out of town through the outskirts that looked much like Boleh Land but nicer, and 2 experienced guides. As the pickup made its way through small dirt roads we admired the looming limestone cliffs and giggled at the silly Irishmen so desperately slathering on copius amounts of sunblock.

We stopped at a modest hut that led to the mangroves. After packing our crap into waterproof bags, we promptly set out to drag our kayaks into the water and hopped right in. Paddling out against the current toward the bay, the misty waters simply... took our breath away. The halfway across the choppy waters, we realised we didn't have lifejackets on :0000

Slugging it out across the bay, we then skirted the opposite limestone cliff. When we finally approached the river mouth, we took a rest from the paddling and let the tide take us in. Steep cliffs flanked either side and climbing vegetation, including some gorgeous palms, slithered up the rock face. We reminisced King Kong and proceeded to scoff at how impossible it must have been for the blonde to run barefoot on this kind of substrate AND still look ravishing.

The stillness of the canyons was unsettling yet overwhelmingly serene. As we took it all in in silence, Dave mumbled something about Apocalypse Now, and then we said no not really this is more like Anaconda. In the stillness, we stopped for a break, and the boys took a smoke, while I lay down on my back, still reeling from the surreality of it all.

And then it rained. Our guide took out a large knife and chopped up a plump pineapple for everyone. "Leave the skin on your kayak for the monkeys" He said.

Monkeys?!

We paddled into the mangroves, dominated by rhizophora, so we had to negotiate delicately between all the prop roots, colliding with the trees every now and then. I nearly freaked at what seemed like the ventral view of a large ass spider going up a trunk right in front of my face, only to collect myself when I figured it must be a tree-climbing crab.

As we made a sharp corner past a cliff and thick mangroves on the other side, loud shrieks greeted us and only too quickly, a very soaked monkey (it was raining) hopped in front of me and grabbed the pineapple skins off my kayak. One, two, three, more and more OMG I squealed pleasedon'tstealmycamera as one sat next to me when I ran out of fruit, and proceeded to rest her arms on mine looking imploringly into my eyes. She had a baby holding on to her!

When the monkeys decided that we were out of candy, they scooted up the cliff and half watched us paddle forward, half savouring their spoils of the morning. Not so crab-eating macaques eh?

We followed the river through as it made a nice loop in the cliffs before we emerged to the same bay we crossed earlier. A full 3 hours later, we made it back to the kayak hut, thoroughly soaked, shagged out, and still gushing from the adventure.

Why Krabi needs little commentary (part 1)

Because photos can tell all. I'm not sure how to even paint a more accurate picture of the beautiful scenery off the coast of Krabi we admired in awe as we slugged it out on a kayak across a choppy bay into serene estuaries that snake through mangroves and steep canyons, or the breath-taking view of phi phi island and its nearby sisters glowing in the sunlight, or the stunning clear waters so notorious for its snorkelling and diving experiences.



Because cheap transport on Krabi to the dive/snorkel/kayak spots is negligible, we had to spend on hiring guides and transportation to and from the outskirts of Ao Nang town. But in the end, it's all worth it. Krabi still has an old charm to it not yet entirely bastardised by tourism. Thais are friendly as usual. Even though we arrived in Krabi to a tsunami warning and numerous aftershocks from the Indonesia earthquakes, we shook off the nerves and enjoyed ourselves thoroughly. The only complaint: too short a holiday (and some rain :[). No time to laze on the beach.

But it's too easy to get there. With daily flights to Krabi on Tiger Airways (which is cheap, comfy, and has pretty stewardesses!) and cheap accomodation, there is hardly any excuse to miss this quick holiday destination.

I miss my days of leisure already.

Chinatown in mid autumn

I always wanted to see what this whole tooth relic thing was about, and stepped into the tooth relic temple in Chinatown this evening to be surprised (because I am suaku) to be greeted by a blast of air-conditioned air. The bunny was also surprised by other strange things, like how the entire perimeter was lined with larger-than-life animals of the zodiac, and how the entire interior was decked in gold and red wood, "saturating" the atmosphere to the extreme irritation of my retina. I also didn't find the said tooth in the end.



I'll be back on Saturday night, hopefully, refreshed, thoroughly guilty and suitably raring to embark on a new phase in life. Realistically though, I know I will be a jittery bundle of nerves about Monday.

A day at the Nee Soon Freshwater Reserve (and many spiders)

Bright and early yesterday was spent at a less familiar part of the island also known as the general-blurry-central/north-area thankfully, with a duck as guide. Also, a bunny without a camera means she steals from his flickr too. Thanks for all the pics!

Walking through the muddy waterlogged reserve of Nee Soon, north of Lower Peirce and east of Seletar reservoir, you can easily admire the many wild freshwater fish that thrive in the acidic shallow waters, critters that dart over the water surface, numerous wolf spiders nervously racing across your path, friendly butterflies that flit among the shrubs and water plants sluggishly, and lazy orb weavers in languid loathing (I'm sure) of the many ugly harvestmen that loiter around their webs, probably being annoying and kleptoparasitic.

Thankfully, the weather remained sunny as long as we still had the energy to carry on. Because I like spiders more than anything else I saw, here's a closer look at the spider highlights of the day. All photos by the duck.

Kampong Lorong Buangkok

I must enjoy my days of leisure to the full before I join the workforce full-time. Oh what a boring bunny I will be. A duck saved me from a boring Friday with a trip to Singapore's last kampong in Buangkok.

Situated on the east bank of Sungei Punggol off Yio Chu Kang Road, Lorong Buangkok snakes through the low-lying kampong that is prone to flooding. Quaint houses flank the lorong along with the more rustic ones that house anything from chicken runs to junk yards on their front porches. As we explored the area, a cloud of mosquitoes followed us so mozzie-gear is advised for any visit in the future. Past the banana plantations and tall grasses lies a healthy stretch of forest that was home to many gorgeous animals (see his flickr for pics). I spotted many fat golden ant mimic spiders that looked like velvet ants but they were too frisky to have their picture taken.

We arrived there after a rainstorm and the place was absolutely soaked. I wonder what it must be like during the spring tides! Many friendly dogs inspected us as we explored the kampong (which must have to do with my smelling of 21 dogs and 13 cats from a bunny roll-around in the shelter that morning) and its outskirts. Later, we met a couple of playful pups gnawing on the remains of a pineapple.

We walked for over 3 hours in the entire area but didn't see enough cos I was thoroughly throbbing with mozzie bites and said maybe we should get out of there? We'll definitely go back there soon.

More of Greece (and commencement "movie night")

I spoke too soon; another door has promptly slammed in my face (and only through fault of overzealous bureaucracy), and to think my hand was halfway in there reaching for the icing already. I cheer myself up with more photos of my trip to Greece last month. If only I could move to a Greek island...

Also, the University Scholars Commencement dinner saw many clever (and surprisingly low-budget) costumes paraded to celebrate the theme "dress-as-your-favourite-movie-character" night. I like to think our Charlie's Angels get-up was rather ingeniously lame.

Greece: we are an amorous bunch

Oh I have no patience to deal with all you lousy photo sharing webbies omgsnnnorrezz. With the sad 100mb limit on flickr, I've uploaded pictures of only my tour of the greek islands and wanderings of athens, sans the museum pictures. That leaves about oh, just a few gbs of photos of Delphi, Olympia, Meteora... Mycenae and Epidaurus. Agh, the bunny is not a patient one.

Greece was amazing. Greek men are highly flirtatious, and murderously goodlooking, while I cannot say the same about the women. Everything was perfect, except perhaps the food, the overbearing advances of european men and the bunny falling sick on the way back from Meteora. I will blog about the travels in more detail later, oh hail procrastination. Meanwhile, exciting intertidal trips await this June, as well as more commiserating on my sad, unemployed, slobby state. Hurrah hurrah, summer is here. ... ... ... ...............

Jln Penis

Don said I should have 'Stomped' this but 1. I don't know how, 2. Endorsed blogging on a frivolous site run by a politically partial newspaper is not exactly something I'd like to embrace, 3. I'd want to put this up on my own site first. In any case, this is way overdue, mostly because the connection at home cannot reach google/blogger, which really ruined the weekend!

'Jln Remis' was vandalised sometime last week and remained so for a few days before it was cleaned on Saturday. I had intended to take a photo of the ingenious vandalism but due to laziness, had put it off til Saturday morning, and how lucky I was to have caught it right before they came to clean it off. Excellent way to start the Christmas weekend!

Accidental tourists

YC, sheep and I made a trip down to Bugis and walked over to Arab Street to check out the DIY shops. We certainly did not expect to become curious explorers in a place so familiar yet completely new. Mostly because we ended up walking along the more "scenic" alleys.

Gorgeous artwork by our streetside amateurs were brightly lit in the warm afternoon sun and, armed with 2 cameras, we couldn't help taking 123876 photos of the grafitti we saw. (Of course, YC, armed with a permanent marker, found himself obliged to add to the grafitti whenever possible.) Pics credit to Sheep and YC.

We fell in love with this piece of vandalism. How do you do that with spray paint? Putting things in perspective:




Gotcha!


Wallman. (Check out his shoes!)

I had to. I'm sorry. I look retarded but damn! It's a psycho killer bunny with wings!! Almost every transformer along the alleys had grafitti on it. Love it.

House Of Japan, a quaint second hand apparel store along Haji Lane. I love the painted entrance. Bought a pair of ripped jeans here for only $10.

We found a mountain of wooden boxes and naturally, YC couldn't control his juvenile tendencies himself and readily placed one upon his head (complete with a Vulcan salute. "I come in peace [pieces?]"). One would think it's the natural thing for him to do. Hilarious fun. A nearby construction worker was laughing at us.

An attempted "cool" shot on insistence of Sheep for her online project (here), where she shoots random Singaporeans on the street to document Singapore street style. I'm quite flattered to be featured there, given I'm probably the last person you'd think of as "stylish". (Note grafitti: it's a dude in a bunny suit!)

Down at the DIY shops, Sheep and I went suitably mad over the quaint 'lil trinkets we saw. YC naturally feigned interest for all of 15 minutes maybe and then proceeded to play pranks. Subtle, but still pranks no doubt.

See what I mean?