No one realizes
how beautiful it is to travel until he comes home and rests his head on his
old, familiar pillow.
Vietnam in 2011
Having been back
in Singapore for the past 22 days, I can’t help but reminisce whenever I post
process pictures or browse through them on facebook. While writing the instep
report in the afternoon, it was an emotional journey for me trying to recall
how I started my baby steps to travelling Europe and surviving as a student in
a foreign land.
I couldn’t help but pass the emotion onto
vern and toad. Toad told me
‘looking through the pics
i want to go back..
tees build me a time machine
please’
when I said he
just needed money, he said
'hahaha
by the time i get
no time to go like this alrdy
with friends;
oh wells. I guess it’s something that will be edged into memory
for time to come.
3 more days and im due to start my next adventure in Vietnam. I
will be studying for 3 weeks prior in Saigon prior to my internship where I
will spend 2 weeks there and the subsequent 20 weeks in Hanoi.
As the day approaches, there’s this nagging feeling in me,
something which I cannot describe in words but I think uncertainty and a tiny
tinge of regret has something to do with it. The past 3 weeks in Singapore has
made me grow quite comfortable with how safe and wonderful Singapore is, that
being said I refer to the food and friends but definitely not the weather.
Having grown attached to some of the spirit of hall, the climbing club and
friends around, the anchor sinks slowly into the ground giving inertia to leave
this place. It often makes me wonder if I made the right choice applying for
this programme.
Unlike Europe, my next destination is totally different. It will
not be as organized nor easy to communicate with the people there. It will
definitely be a big challenge for be this time round. Sure, I’ve backpacked in
Vietnam before but this time its different. I will be working alone in Hanoi.
Its like being thrown headfirst into a waterfall. When people hear that I’m going
for another overseas programme, all they see is how much fun I’m going there
and that I must have quite a shiok year having gone for exchange prior to that.
But they do not see what I worry about. What if I can’t master the Vietnamese language?
What if I cant work with the people on the ground? What if I am unable to adapt
to the life there? What if.. What iff what iff. It is so full of uncertainty! I
foresee that it will be tough in the beginning and you’ll have me bitching but
nothing sinks jon tee! After all, I think I’ll learn many life lessons here
despite the sacrifices I’ll be making just to be in Vietnam. Not all lessons
are taught with a nice straight road paved out for you. Some are through the
ones which are filled with pod holes and these are the ones which teach you
best. Okay I shan’t start going all philosophical here with my analogies but I’ll
miss you when I’m there.
If you even read my blog, I will not be posting nice travel
experiences but more of the lessons I’ll pick up there as well as boring diary
like posts documenting my experience in a totally new culture and language. But
as much as I would like, I want to try travel the indocine region, do deep
water solos at Halong bay and climb the mountain in Sapa. But one step at a
time yea….
Well, my last Euro trip ended with the Baltic state of Latvia. I really wanted to visit the other Baltic states during my short exchange in Europe but flights were rather inconvenient from Scotland. So i seized the opportunity to fly from Stockholm where flights were about 50 euros.
A city of spires, churches, museums and one of the mos vibrant social scenes in the Baltic, Riga is Latvia's capital city. At one time an influential port city, today Riga is a popular destination with many europeans. This is thanks to a plethora of historical and cultural attractions.
It was too, the only place which i didn't meet any Singaporeans cept 1 random exchange student from NUS. (damn our luck
Riga is a pleasant little small town where everything is in walking distance. It was quite different from the other European cities i visited because of its medieval heritage and Russian influence. Remember those scenes with the overly thick animal fur coats and squarish fur hats from Russian pictures, you see it everywhere here. You can find many of that in the markets around town. Although the Latvian currency, Lats, are rather big (about 2.4 SGD to 1 Lat), most of the stuff there are rather cheap, especially the local eats.
Unfortunately for us, we didn't manage to escape the cold. A storm brewed the moment we stepped into our hostel (Friendly Fun Franks Hostel). The winds were so strong that you could see the snow float horizontally from the window. Temperatures ranged from -10 to -15 degrees, warmer than Sweden but still cold enough to make your fingers tingle with pain. Also, with the cobble stone pathways layered with black ice, every step we took, with extreme caution. Even my hiking boots couldn't prevent me from slipping haha. With the many Public transport (bus 22) was rather cheap, ~70 Latvian cents to the city center. Alternatively, if you have a big group, you can opt to take a cab which shouldn't be too expansive as well.
Honestly, i was rather disappointed by my hostel for the amount i paid relative to other hostels. The room was very small, the toilets weren't heated and worst of all, the walking tour was utterly disappointing. I regretted not listening to Justin's recommendation to take the yellow suitcase tour. The tour brought us around major landmarks in Riga but because of her poor PR skills, she couldn't offer any historical or more informative remarks about those places except, 'here we are at freedom monument' or 'this is the St Peter's Church'. Absolutely horrible.
But on the lighter note, Riga is rather quaint in a sense that the architecture and the culture is more scaled towards Russian influence. A fine example would be the Russian Orthodox Church and random things which we would find quirky like a Rabbit play area where a miniature town is built in the park for Rabbits to hop around. Like Singapore, because the town is so small, everyone flocks to the same spots, like the Skyline bar, where the locals claim that it's nice to dress up just to go in and local eateries like Lido, a marche style restaurant that offers cheap Latvian cuisine. As it only gained independence when the Iron Curtain lifted, Macdonals and Starbucks were considered as novelties and couples would flock there for their dates. You'll also see random christmas tree monuments throughout the year as the Latvians are proud to proclaim that they founded the Christmas Tree. As for food wise, do try the cheesecakes at Sweetday Cafe.
Medieval Insignias
Oldest Bar in Riga, since Medieval times. Its still using candle light!
Freedom Monument
Nativity Cathedral, Russian Orthodox Church where there are no chairs
Interior of LIDO
Christmas Market, where they sell things from mulled wine to animal fur
Blackhead's House
Riga itself can be covered within one day with continuous walking. With that, I seeked out things to do at the outskirts of town. Somehow, it being the peak of the festive season and winter, many things were closed. Things like the Gauja National Park, Soviet Secret Bunker and many others were closed and many tours were unavailable. Even when we wanted to rent a car, the cars were all fully booked with available ones being overly inflated. With the help of the friendly tourist officers, we planned a trip to Sigulda. With the first bus departing Riga bus station at 10 plus on a Sunday, we explored the infamous markets that took up occupancy in old zeppelin hangars, you know those german war air balloons.. Having occupied several hangars, the market was huge with an indoor and outdoor market! Each section bringing new surprises. Each hangar housed a different section of the market from meats, cheese to fresh fish. Somehow, the wet market reminded me of the markets back home. When looking for cheap eats, the market is the right place to go! Chinese Style chai fun (vegetable rice) was the most common way of displaying their food. What you do is select the dishes you want and they'll heat it up in the microwave for you. Their fried rice is one of the best i had in Europe. You can choose several dishes. It will make you full and all for less than 1 Lat! Pastries there was also extremely cheap. You can get stuff as cheap as 5 cents! I was also rather amazed by their fish market. The fishes were so fresh that you can still see them breathing and many fishes there were considered premium fishes back home. It was considered rude to take photos of their stuff so sorry guys, no pictures!
Zeppelin Hangers turned into the market where most locals get their produce from.
Chai Fan Style
Having travelled most of Europe getting around with English, Latvia proved challenging with most people being unable to speak english, so i had to improvise and use sign language and pointing with my phone haha. The bus ride to Sigulda took slightly over an hour and a half and it brought us to a totally different place with thick white snow instead of the black ice shoveled to the side of the roads in Riga.
Sigulda is a destination for the citizens to escape the crowded streets of Riga. It claims to be Latvia's winter capital and the Switzerland of Latvia. It houses the only authentic bob sled facility that allows tourists to enjoy the thrill of the actual olympic sport in the world. However, that can also burn a hole in your pocket. The town is dominated by castle ruins and unspoiled nature.
Aided by the tourist office there, we got a cab to Turaida Castle and walked back. On the map, it looked really far but everything was actually very near.
Turaida Castle, built in 1214
some of the artefacts in the Turaida Castle Museum
walking to the next landmark
Gutman's cave is the deepest and largest cave in the Baltic countries. On the walls of the cave there are inscriptions from the 17 Century. Having read there, we were led to believe that it was a cave where you can explore like the ones in Budapest. But instead it is only 19m deep, 12m wide and 10m high, practically just a hole in the wall. The cave is considered the oldest tourist attraction in Latvia because visitors, from even the earliest days, wanted to leave “decorations” such as names, initials and the dates of their visits engraved on the walls of the cave. Inside the cave you may even find coats-of-arms and names of various barons and estate owners. These were made-to-order for a fee by local craftsmen who would wait for wealthy visitors near the cave armed with tools, stepladders and templates. Today, it is no longer permitted to write on the cave walls because it is a protected archeological and geological monument.
The legend of the Rose of Turaida also began in this cave and after reading the story behind it its just another lame love story which isn't even interesting haha. You can google it if you're interested.
Gutamanis cave
The scenery was just amazing and i really enjoyed the trek from attraction to attraction. After all any amount of snow is winter wonderland for a snow deprived asian like me.
Honestly, i thought this was a random castle ruin until i was looking through wikipedia links and stumbled upon this. Apparently this castle dates from the 14th century and was destroyed in war in 1601.
Krimulda Castle
Finally after exploring the northern part of Sigulda, it was time to return to the main Sigulda area to catch our bus back with the help of this Gondola. It is the only other way to cross the Gauja river besides the car. And unlike a cable car service, there's only 1 that runs every hour. The service is rather primative with a girl running the gondola collecting your money and manually opening the doors for you. Haha and since it was around the Christmas period, it was quaintly decorated with christmas lights. But in the summer, it transforms into a bungee jumping platform into the Gauja river for as little as 20 Lats!
Incoming Gondola
Iconic symbols of the native people from Sigulda who once made canes for tourist to support themselves walking on the slippery rocks in the nature parks.
With that, the chapter of my Europe Adventures has come to an end. Many places to go, many things to do but to each at its own time.
This was the very first time I’ve seen and played with so
much snow! I would say, snow decreases the age of an average person by 5 and
for tropical Asians like me who have not experienced so much snow their whole
lives, 10 years. It was truly a journey of discovery through the Scandinavian
country of Sweden.
Christmas of the year 2012 will always be a special one for
me. Not only was I studying overseas, all the mini gatherings around Europe
built up to this, the big hall 2 exchange overseas Christmas trip.
D-12hrs, we were awaken by the inconsiderate French
neighbors living on the 4th floor, blasting their dance music so
loud that by 1am, I was wide awake. D-9hrs, we were out of the house and trying
to get the last bus that leaves Glasgow for Edinburgh. What amazed me was that
only on our last trip to Edinburgh airport did we realize that the bus that we
usually take to Edinburgh passes by a bus stop that we could alight and walk to
the airport. We have been wasting time and money taking to the Edinburgh Bus
Station and walking to Waverly Bridge to take Airlink, the bus that services
the airport from Edinburgh. Haha
skyping justin from edinburgh airport
The flight to Skavska was the usual. Konked out way before
the flight took to the skies and by the time the plane arrived in Sweden, I was
totally rejuvenated! Housten, team uk has touched down at ground zero. 1.5hrs
later, team germany+Amsterdam+Singapore consisting of Potter, Poh E, Wei Chong,
Kenryu and Dyanna arrived from Berlin and we made our way towards Stockholm.
Welcoming Team Germany
The journey was long but having not seen each other for so
long, it was a good opportunity to catch up with one another and laugh bout
other adventures together. We finally reached Stockholm after 2+ hours and met
up with team Sweden+France+Finland, Justin, Shuk, Alwin and Shearn, not
forgetting the advance party of Team Singapore, Marky and Theresse and Team UK,
YY and Hualin.
My time in Stockholm was spent shopping for groceries for
our meals in Camp Alta, Kiruna and that last minute Christmas gift exchange
gift. But before we knew it, it was time to board the train where the 18hour
journey up north would soon start. In my opinion, if you plan to go up to
kiruna, just fly. It was just because the plane tickets were too expansive (cos
we booked to late) that we opted for the cheaper version.
grocery shopping in stockholm
I don’t know if the train had some magical powers but most
of us had an average of 12hrs sleep there! Some didn’t even realize that half
of the train changed. Everything was moving as planned and it was only another
2 more hours before we arrived at Kiruna. We stopped at a station between Boden
and Gallvare, 2hours away from Kiruna and that was when disaster struck. Little
did we know while we took a break in the white snow, experiencing our first
snow ball and chilling cold, the train was experiencing a technical error of
which, the engine was down. Soon, we were notified that we would continue on
once the engine starts but soon after, the train company made the call that we
would not be continuing up to Kiruna that day because it was too cold (-40 deg)
and it would be too dangerous of the engine were to break down again.
testing the -20 deg temp
things we do in the train
It was the worst news we could get, having planned for this
since the start of the exchange. The much-anticipated Christmas dinner in our
cabin in front of the lake at Camp Alta would now be spent somewhere else. As
we remained optimistic for the train to proceed on as planned, the train
reversed and headed towards the nearest proper town, Lulea, a two-hour ride
away. The winter sun disappeared and darkness fell. Feeling sian and
disappointed, we were dropped off in the cold at Lulea with our groceries and
bags in the snow, while busses came slowly to relieve the over crowded train
station and bring them to the pre arranged accommodation in Lulea – Scandic
Hotel. It was all quiet and as the snow fell upon the decorative Christmas tree
outside in the artic cold, we huddled inside waiting for our turn for the bus,
looking for alternative solutions to get up to Kiruna.
Apparently Scandic Hotel was the best hotel chain that Lulea
had to offer and it was not that bad. Having to make the most out of this outcome,
several of us suited up and went out to play in the snow. Shearn said that it
was fairly obvious that it was the first time I saw proper snow as I was
running around experimenting and jumping into snow! We made a snow slide off
hardened snow, ran around sliding on ice, jumped into knee deep snow, snow ball
fights etc etc etc. It was fun and it was cold….
all our bags and groceries at scandic
braving the cold
It took fairly long to gather all 17 of us for dinner but to
our delight, the staff had prepared a meeting room for us due to the shear
numbers! Being considerate Singaporeans or rather lazy to queue ones, we
basically just talked cock inside, and discussed different ways to get up to
Kiruna, one of them was a 8-10hr drive in a van on the icy roads if there was
no hope that there would be a train up. To our surprise, Poh E and Dyanna made
Santa hats with our names for us! Haha Merry Christmas! When we finally went
out to get our food, everyone was staring at us like what the hell are these
Asians doing with Santa hats. But even that didn’t damp our spirits. However,
food ran out and all that was left were rice, fries and meat balls. Damn those
chin people for taking mountains and leaving none for the rest. So that was our
Christmas dinner of the year 2012. I also felt quite bad for the kitchen staff because
they were called back at the last minute to prepare food for a train load of
hungry and angry people.
the conference room just for us!
christmas gift exchange
Being residents of hall 2, we took no time to entertain
ourselves and played Polar Bear till the staff chased us out. It was apt timing
too! Christmas was here and time for the gift exchange! What better way to do
it than put it under a pine tree out in the snow? Although things didn’t work out the way it
should, it was one of the best Christmas I had. And it goes to show that its
not always the big lavish things or location or event but the company that
matters. And this was the perfect example how many years down the road; we will
still remember this hall 2 overseas exchange Christmas.
The next morning at 7am, through the semi consciousness of the
lack of sleep, we received the good news – train service will continue enroute
to Kiruna at 10am. It was a relief for us, especially me as I didn’t favor
driving a manual van for 10hours to Kiruna and back.
Onward we went, towards Kiruna, lugging the many bags of
groceries meant for our hearty Christmas dinner along. Looking outside the
train window, with the heavy snowfall and limited vision, I felt extremely
relieved that I didn’t have to drive through all that! 5 hours later, we
finally arrived inside the Artic circle, in the mining town of Kiruna. It was
colder than in lulea! Snow piled up everywhere as we made ourway to Camp Alta
at the outskirts of the city built on mine.
The camp consisted of many chalet style buildings scattered
around a giant frozen lake. Our house was huge! It had a big living area with a
giant flat screen to nuah and a proper dining area and kitchen. Too bad none of
us had a hdmi cable, but most of us felt immediately at home. While some
cooked, the rest just nuahed and waited for dinner to be served!
Nuahing
dinner in our cabin
As we thought we would never see the northern lights, a
knock came on our door as we prepared to go out for a sauna session. There was
a break in the clouds and there it was, the Aurora Borealis peaking through the
clothes. Although it was weak, at least it was better than nothing. While some
headed over to the sauna first, the Aurora started to dance but the show was
quickly covered by the clouds once again. Oh wells. I guess it was time to head
to the sauna. Haha.
Aurora Borealis
The suana against the moonlight
This trip was full of new experiences! Never had I gone to a
sauna built on a lake that freezes over a meter thick in winter, jumped into a
hole in the lake after over heating in the sauna, ran out into the freezing -30
deg cold. tried super cooling water, threw boiling water out into the -30 deg temperature and had it turn into vapour instantaneously, made snow globes with food colour and many more!
The suana above the lake
frozen shorts
Riding the snowmobile was an interesting way to get to the ice
hotel. Riding through the artic scenery with the winter sun hiding at the
horizon was truly an amazing journey. But first, we had to wrap up in so many layers
that we look like we’re on a EOD suit so as to not become a popsicle out there.
But wearing the overalls they provided minus our age by 10 for every pit stop,
we would be jumping into the thick snow and making attempts on snow angels!
The standard artic attire would require 15 mins to put on
and consists of; upper layer: thermals, long sleeve, fleece, down. Lower layer:
thermal tights, snow pants, thermal socks, cotton socks and boots. You also
wear gloves so thick that its impossible to take photos on a normal compact
camera.
making snow angels
I felt that the ice hotel wasn’t as fantastic as I expected
it to be but it did have many impressive ice sculptures I must say. But I
wouldn’t pay so much to stay in a freezing room! It was a pleasant journey to and
fro on the ice mobiles but the ATs were rather irritating, trying to cut here
and there and not listening to instructions.
entrance of the ice hotel
dragon decor
ice bar
crafter at work
setting back home
early dinner before dog sledding
Tried reindeer kebab and it was fantastic! The same day, we
went for dog sledding. Honestly I expected the huskies to be much bigger in
size but these dogs were rather small compared to their Siberian counterparts
but were extremely agile and able to go distances from 300-500km in a day. On the way back, due to the fatigue of the
dogs, I had to get down and help push the sled upslope. Magawd. It was shag.
Imagine running through the soft snow with so much clothing in the freezing
temperatures. The air was so cold that I coughed for an hour after that. But it
was kind of worth it because I go to stand at the back after the slopes. The
dogs were so cute! Talked to the owner of the company and he said that he and
some of his dogs were the dog sledding champions many years back. Everything
that we say that day from the transportation kennels to the sleds were all
built by him.
dog sledding
With all the activities packed back-to-back, the day ended
quickly and so did this Christmas adventure. As we chilled round the fire in
the teepee (native Lapland cone shaped tent), playing would you rather, the
snow started falling heavier and so did the love between poh e and yuzheng.
Haha im kidding.
the adv party at the teepee
The check out the next day was at 11 and everybody thought
that meant that the cabin should be inspected at 11 and not gtfo at 11. Most
woke up at 10 because we slept like at 5-6am and because they said we couldn’t
get our cleaning deposit back if the place needed a cleaner. From the lady
saying omg this place is a mess to this is acceptable to get your deposit back
in 30mins, level Singaporean like a baus.
early morning shoot
As we parted ways at the train station, with some leaving to
Spain, London and us to Riga, a part of me felt sad because of the people and
fun I’ll be missing the next semester when I do my internship overseas.
Nevertheless, the people of Hall 2 are still the best and it was a great
gathering from all over the world.
