Places Visited

1 - Singapore - Close friends and relatives in Tampines, travelled more than 20 times since 1999. More often than not, the trip was meant as a gadget-purchasing trip. The very first trip was for a Yahoo!Chat gathering on 1999, the latest trip was to meet relatives in Tampines and purchasing the Panasonic GH1. Looking forward to early 2010 for the opening of Universal Studios Singapore.

2 - Indonesia - Pontianak for jalan-jalan, bored during my Fokker 50 days. Jakarta for the change of scenery, Medan for the food. Pretty boring.

3 - Cambodia - Phnom Penh and Siem Reap for the shopping (cheap fabric and clothings) and of course the Angkor Wat and Royal Temples.

4 - Japan - Osaka and Tokyo. Osaka for shopping, and Universal Studios Japan. Tokyo for the irreplacable experience of Akihabara, people watching in Ginza, and a must-go trip to both Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea. HK Disneyland is yawnfest half-day affair catering to families, not to thrill-seeking adults.

5 - Australia - Tamworth, New South Wales. Stayed there for 2 years for my education (British Aerospace Flight Training). Sheep, horses and agricultural farm about, this is the prime example of the Australian outback, folks! Tamworth is, after all, the country music capital of Australia. With that title, also comes the general stereotypes of "get of my lawn", and general mistrust to outsiders from some folks here. During our stay we had to "earn" our trust from them before they welcome us into the community. Excursions to Armidale, beautiful countryside with deep ravines, gorges and riverbeds. Taree, Narrabri, Gunnedah, Coffs Harbour, Port Macquarie, Scone, Mudgee, Dubbo, Coonabarabran, and Moree were our training stops during the day, if you can imagine an even more remote outback town, these stops are it.

Sydney for the fast-paced city life, although the city lacks a "soul" to begin with. The climb above the Sydney Harbour Bridge can be breathtakingly phenomenal. For some reason, was not compelled to visit the Sydney Opera House.

Melbourne for that "soul" Sydney is lacking, and its phenomenal arts and cultural scene, especially the great plays and musicals.

Perth and Adelaide? Boring small towns.

Brisbane for its awesome night life, shopping at Pacific Fair in Broadbeach, lounging around the sandy beach looking at half naked bodies, and hitting up the thrillrides at Dreamworld and MovieWorld. Not interested in the slightest, for SeaWorld.

6 - New Zealand - Auckland. First thing that comes to mind? LOTR country. I am not, however, a nature person. In the end? Auckland Sky Tower base-jump! Live it up and seek those thrills! Next up? Auckland bridge bungee jump, and some day, a tandem(or solo) skydiving.

7 - China - Shanghai. Boring. Mainland Chinese are like village people thrusted into the fast city-life settings. In the end, they end up bringing in their kampung mentality while entrusted with modern daily life technology, that more often than not, reverse engineered from other countries. When you procure these technologies or upgrade your life into the urban-life setting, this comes with years of assimilation as well as adherence to the generally-understood city-life etiquette. Try driving in Shanghai and not getting a heart attack! City is dirty, with overhanging haze over the atmosphere. Only go here because I had to. Avoid if you can.

8 - India - Mumbai. Congestion to the max! Airport hotel is less than 5 minutes away, but because of poor road infrastructure and the obvious backward mentality, that trip can take up to 1 hour! A job that can be done by one person, assigned to three person instead. City and the outskirt are beyond dirty, yes it is just like that dunghole of a place you in Slumdog Millionaire. Only with buying here are cheap Himalaya products, fabrics and books, although the book quality is worse than recycled paper. Keyword here is cheap. Careful on eating out, and bring your own water bottle. Never drink out of the supposed boiled water, or eat cooked food on stalls or be prepared to have the diarrhoea of your life! Hotel food can be cheap, because of the discrepancies in currency, and relatively safer to eat in-house. However, because of that discrepancies in currency, finish your worthless rupees there and dont bother bring back, or pay using plastic.

South Africa - Johannesburg. "District 9" country is relatively accurate. civil unrest and scuffles among locals and visitors often breaks out due to the misconceptions that visitors are thought to be coming to take the jobs away from the locals. However, if you are willing to brave this, you'll be rewarded with plenty of chance with unbeatable and unique experience like wildlife Safari at Kruger National Park. The Safari excursion , depending on your luck, may be as "in-your-face" as much as you'd think that those flimsy mesh wires or plexy-glass barriers may not be able to protect you from the close provimities of the African wildlife that approaches your vehicle. Nothing beats waking up to an African sunrise, or sitting by the bonfire listening to local folklore and stories as the sun sets. Must-do!

Saudi Arabia - Jeddah. Did this during the Hajj season. The experience further confirms my hatred towards the Arabs and their selfishness. Nothing really much to see, unless you are there for the Hajj or Umrah. Boring as hell.

Switzerland - Zurich. If you like clocks, old watches and mechanical time pieces, this is the place to be. If you like old buildings, museums and medieval architechtures this is the place to be. If you like to experience as a local Swiss in a farm far away from the hustle and bustle of the city life, this is the place to be. We did a week-long stay at a farmhouse setting at a small Swiss township between Engelberg and Eienwaldi, where a typical Swiss farmlife experience like milking the cows, hay collecting and other farm chores are done. Got your fill? Drop by Lucerne for a relaxing day around Lake Lucerne, and visit the Wagner Museum. Lucerne preserves that small Swiss kanton town life while still providing an up-to-date facilities if you need one. Then we head up to the Swiss Alps or course! Tour-life setting? Drive up to the Rotair station and hop on the rotating cable car up to the frozen glaciers on top of Mount Titlis. We then headed to Zermatt on a horse-drawn carriage, to a car-less little village on top of the Swiss Alps for the almost all-year round skiing, and the magnificient view of the Matterhorn.

Germany - Frankfurt/Rust. Did not stay in Frankfurt, but instead went to Rust for Germany's theme park the Europa Park.

Italy - Rome and Vatican City. Rome on Segway is tremendous fun, with visits to the Circo Massimo, Bocca Della Verita, Roman Forum, Traian Pillars, Palatino Hills and or course the Colloseum.Also visited the Pantheon , the Spanish Steps, and the Trevi Fountain. The Vatican City visit was self-made, not on tour, and was not enjoyable, to me at least. We managed to visit St. Peter's Basilica only. I am scheduled to go to Rome tonight, and with a 3 nights stay there, a second , proper tour visit to the Vatican City will keep away that previous trip I made as a long forgotten bad memories.

France - Paris and Cannes. Ce magnifique! Paris! Went countless time to Marne la Valley for Parc Disneyland, as I am the annual passholder. Downtown Paris from the Da Vinci tour, the Segway tour on twilight, Paris Catacombs to see the 7 million graves bored into the walls of the tunnels snaking underneath Paris, or a lazy boat ride over river Seine. The Lourve is of course a must, particular once the Apple Store Paris is finished there. *Apple fan here*. The Segway tour runs either in the morning or in the evening, where you are taking on a circuit around Paris on Segways. The tour starts on Pilier Sud, the southern pillar of the Eiffel Tower, taking you to the Napoleon's Tomb, Champ Elysees, Musee d'Orsay, Lourve, Arc de Triomphe and Place de la Concorde among other places. The most awesome aspect of the tour is to see the sun set on Paris and see the lights around the city lights up, truly making Paris the City of Light.

Cannes for its summer beaches, nightlife, and shopping at La Croissette.

Spain - Barcelona. Theme Park! Went to Universal Port Aventura for their thrill rides, Universal-owned, but Spanish styled. Also did the Barcelona Segway tour, visiting Paseo Marítimo, Barceloneta, Paseo Juan de Borbón and Avenida Litoral among other places, on the Segway. Did not have time to watch the bullfighting spectacle in Andalusia as we are running short of time.

Sweden - Stockholm. Stopover from KL before we operated Stockholm - New York. did not do muc. Ikea culture is prevalent here. During winter, the lake near our hotel in Sollentuna freezes up, hard enough to allow skating, and in the summer, a nice barbeque by the lake side with cooling summer weather. Nice precursor before we head across the big pond to......

U.S.A! - New York, Atlantic City, Miami, Orlando, and Los Angeles, with many little excursion while in these major areas. New York? Headed up to Jackson, New Jersey to Six Flags Great Adventure, to ride the east coast most extreme thrill rides, including the world's tallest and fastest roller coaster on earth, the Kingda Ka!

Shopping heaven to the cheapskate? Head to Woodbury Commons for items on discounts perpetually all year round. Woodbury Commons settings is not like your typical mall, shopping brands are given a HOUSE to fill in their goods, and you go shopping by going from one house to another, while walking within this almost like a housing-development like area. Imagine your housing area, but instead of people living in them, you have a shopping brand with all their wares in it! Brands like GAP, Coach, Burberry, Abercrombie and Fitch, Saks Fifth Avenue, Fendi and Giorgio Armani, as well as regular store brands like Sony and Seiko. I actually ran out of money while shopping there, while looking longingly at that Seiko Kinetic Perpetual that was discounted off 60%. Crazy!

If cheapskate just simply disgusts you, then drop by Manhattan! Fifth Avenue. Enuff Said. Apple Store Fifth Avenue, SoHo and 14th St. Enuff said. Ground Zero. Central Park. 30 Rock (Rockefeller Plaza). Nintendo World Store. Millions of Best Buys, Walmarts, FYEs, GameStops, anything and everything you can think of, on this little Manhattan island arranged gridwise. Shows? The endless choices from the recently finished Cats, the crowdpleasers The Lion King, Wicked, or Hairspray, the always entertaining Rockettes at Radio City Halls, live concerts and performances at Central Park or Radio City Hall itself, talk show studio audience visits to shows like The Late Night Show with Jimmy Fallon, or even those with eccentric tastes who would prefer Cirque du Soleil performances. A simple experience, like what we did, sitting down in Times Square while soaking up the atmosphere at night is alone an experience of its own.

Or if you are architechturally inclined like I do, grab a ferry, and drop by Ellis Island and climb to the top of the Statue of Liberty. Have to get there early as the line is always long, and in the summer, they even close the ferry service as early as 11am as the allocation for visits there gets full. Winter visits can be more relaxing but, winter weather in NY can be brutal. Trinity Church, as seen in National Treasure movie. Madison Square Garden. Wall Street. Even South Street Seaport as seen in I Am Legend.

Museum hopping is next. The American Museum of Natural History, you people who had watched that Night at the Museum movie would recognize this.

Shopping? FAO Schwartz. Tiffany's. Macy's. Bloomingdales. The entire Fifth Avenue.

I had so much fun, it is truly a City that Never Sleeps. There is always activity going on around, even up to the wee hours of the morning. Travelling around is fast and cheap with the New York Metro, the key here is to align the Avenue with the Street, Avenue being the longitude, Street being the latitude, and you'll be travelling like a New Yorker!

Atlantic City for the sight and spectacle, nightlife and if you're into marine and fishing gear, this is the place as well. We've bought some gear for the family boats here as well.

Miami and Orlando, Florida. Walt Disney World. Once you've been here, the rest of the theme parks in the work will feel like a children's playground. 14 days was never enough for us, as we were theme park commandos with relatively healthy feets and high energy level and endurance as well. I kid you not that once that 14 days of powerwalking is said and done around Walt Disney World, we've walked 40km! From Magic Kingdom, to Hollywood Studios, to the one-and-only EPCOT and to the largest of the parks of them all, the Animal Kingdom, NOTHING beats the theme park experience like how Disney does it here. Magic Kingdom for your typical Disney rides you see around other Disney parks around the world. Hollywood Studios for the most technological advanced and engaging theme park ride in my opinion, the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror. EPCOT for travelling around the world within a single park, as well as the multiple G-force experience aboard the Space Shuttle on the Mission:Space ride. Disney saved the best for last, the almighty Expedition Everest and the pinpoint accurate representation of an African savannah within a theme park setting, the Kilimanjaro Safari ride at the Animal Kingdom. You then STILL have 2 more water parks, Blizzard Beach and Typhoon Lagoon, with water chute drops tallers than 4 storeys high, to Downtown Disney, Disney's own downtown Street filled with multiple sensory experience that will delight your taste (Planet Hollywood, authentic New Orleans southern cuisines and seafood, Irish platters, Chinese, Moroccan, Italian, and even Norwegian if you like!) to the delight of the senses ( Comedy clubs just like the ones you see in Seinfeld, and good,clean fun, Disney nightlife for teens and adult alike, as well as a PERMANENT Cirque du Soleil show here, the only one of its kind in the world!) In Disney World, we dont travel by car, the transportation service here by shuttle bus is airy, comfortable and most importantly, ON SCHEDULE. Service is so reliable, parents are encouraged to test it out with their teenage kids so that they can have the freedom of choosing an attraction of their own, while the parents can enjoy quiet and personal time of their own away from their kids.

Of course, Orlando is not only about Disney. Universal alone has two parks, their standard fare Universal Studios and the Islands of Adventure, featuring rides based on Marvel Super HEroes, and extreme thrill rides like Dueling Dragons, where riders rides two separate coasters with near misses to each other to simulate the duelings. They are currently re-renovating the area to seriously compete with Disney World, with their Wizarding World of Harry Potter themed land in that park. What is even more good news is that, Universal Studios Singapore is an almost carbon copy of the Florida Universal theme park, with a new Transformers and Battlestar Galactica ride, exclusive for the Singaporean theme park!

That is not all! Busch Garden is another extreme thrill ride park modeled after Six Flags, and we also went to Cape Canaveral for the Space Shuttle launch center visit. Remember the movie Armageddon? Plenty of actual movie locations for that movie there.

That is still not all! Miami itself is bustling with activity. Oceanfront view, enticing nightlife, very much like the scenes you see in CSI:Miami. Those who are into marine sailing, will find Miami a haven for these activities. I had to endure a trepidating experience with the future father-in-law and his fascination with fishing and sailing, when we sailed from Sunset Harbour in Miami to Florida Keys for a week while he assess who his daughter is setting her eyes on. Safe to say, I get a thorough grilling, emotionally and not a bad sunburn as well. :lol:Fishing isn't that bad, when there is activity around it, it's the waiting that made me squirm....besides the grilling from Arthur.

Los Angeles. City of Angels. Hollywood. A thriving "car-pimping" scene. More celebrities per square feet than anywhere else in the world, or so says Conan O'Brien himself, which I am glad that he had moved to LA himself. Shopping? Rodeo Drive and Sunset Boulevard. Entertainment? Well for me, the theme parks again, of course! Knott's Berry Farm, Six Flag Magic Mountain, Disneyland and Disney California Adventure, Universal Studios Hollywood. My hero of the late night show host (Conan O'Brien) has finally moved to LA, making my own personal bucket list of meeting him more possible than when he was there in NY doing his show there. Great all round weather, beach setting for my place, although it can get hot sometimes, and prone to fire because of the dryness. Also prone for earthquakes, where we Angelinos predicting as "The Big One". I see myself moving here once all obstacles are overcomed, until then, the commute between KL and LA is unavoidable. Good news is, my work trip now includes KUL-TPE-LAX (KL - Taipei - Los Angeles) now, so hopefully I get to see LA more often, not to mention my beloved.

Well, there you have it. Future Places To visit includes:-

1 - Moscow, Russia - I want to see the Red Square
2 - London, UK - Believe it or not, I've never been to the British Isles. Just to completion sake, I have nothing of interest to visit there.
3 - La Paz, Bolivia or Rio de Janeiro, Brazil - I have to start somewhere on the South American continent. La Paz because of the altitude difference, and Rio for the intriguing Brazilian way of life.
4 - Maldives - The Travel Channel show I saw made me salivate the chance to live off an island setting and zero care in the world.

This post has been edited by stringfellow: Aug 24 2009, 05:29 AM

As dirty as KL. "Dirty" here also means the general attitude of the city folks. They live in an urban setting but their behaviour does not reflect that, they still encased with their backwater life attitude. It is a pity, but understandable because China has been thrusted into rapid development WITHOUT the change to catch up on their city living cultures as well.

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Added on August 24, 2009, 1:59 pmNew additions comes to mind:-

1 - Taiwan - Taipei. The complete opposite of any city in China. Modern, responsible and up-to-date folks living in urban setting. English widely spoken, compared to Shanghai. Haven for shopping of electronic stuff, provided you know where to find it.

2 - Netherlands - Amsterdams. Tulip City. Architechturely inclined folks will love the surroundings in Westerpark. Lots of canals for those looking for a slow, lazy canal cruise around the canals in Amsterdam. Feeling for an exercise? Rent some waterbikes and pedal you way around these canals, trip starts from Rijksmuseum. Feel like a bit of walking and self-touring? Walk along "The 9 Streets" or Straats what they call here, and get lost along these tiny little alleyway and corners. During summer, it is sooooo nice to lie down on the grassy picnic area in Westergas, pack yourself some lunch basket goodies and people-watch. Dutch folks are pretty good looking. Night life? Red Light District, or De Wallen. "Meat on display" through see-through glass, take your pick and spend the time however you choose to. Don't be surprised if once you are "done" inside and step out, you'd get cheered on by complete strangers passing by outside of these "establishments" :lol:The general vibe here is lie back and relax. Head into many of the "bruin cafe", order a cup and people-watch and relax. Or if you like, drop by hash bars, and "do the joint", although the "bruin cafe" we went do sell and allow patrons smoking "their joints" there inside the cafe itself. Weird Neds!

3 - Estonia - Tallinn. We took this cruise going from Stockholm to Talinn during the last KL-Stockholm-NewYork trip we had , since we had a long stay in Stockholm and there's nothing much to do in Sollentuna. Took the Viking Line for the late evening cruise which would arrive in Tallinn in the morning. Our cruise ship was the "Lirica" ,and we were greeted at Stockholm Port by the entire crew at the harbour pier before boarding. A couple of bars, nightclub-like settings and table-serving restaurant. Cabin is a little small, and as the journey was to for the trip to Tallinn, and not for the luxury factor of the ship, which isnt luxurious by any mean, we had 4 to a cabin and retire for the night, arriving in Tallinn the next morning. Churches, cathedrals and castles if you are into these things. Places like Katarina The Second Castle, Kaarlie Evangelical Lutheran Church, Saint Mary The Virgin Cathedral/Dome Church. Weird thing about their worship places, is that instead of the standard looking cathedral or churches, they employ domes as the high mark of their architechture. Drop by roadside cafes, people-watch, and headed back for the cruise trip back to Stockholm.


This post has been edited by stringfellow: Aug 24 2009, 01:59 PM

New addition!

Italy - Rome & Vatican City.



All-in-all, an unbelievable journey! Next trip, probably in the next 3-4 months time, I'd venture a trip to Venice (see what the big is, seeing their claim of the most romantic city in the world...really?), and Pompeii, to visit the vineyards and the ruins of ancient Pompeii totally buried under the massive Pompeii volcanic explosion, under feets of ash.

Didn't have time to visit that in Barcelona, the trip was pretty short, and I wanted to get my coaster badge of honor for riding Porto Aventura coasters there. Probably will do that one day, and the bull run as well!