singapore and more...

2007-01-20T06:44:00.000-08:00

Step 5: Back in Thailande (from 31^st to 2^ndjanuary)

We spent few time at Chatuchak market for Christmas presents. By night it was new year eve. We spent it with a French couple, Elodie and Baptiste, met sooner in day. While bombs were bursting we were at the Bayoke Tower (the tallest building in Thailand) eating a great buffet and admiring the view... By midnight we went to an outdoor bar to kiss at midnight. At that time we weren’t sure bombs have burst. A bit after midnight they kindly asked customers to leave. Security reasons: to close all bars and pubs: 2 more bombs have burst at 12 in a night club...it was pretty freaky!

Matthieu left the next day and me I spent almost 2 more days there...walking around, visting. I left the 2^nd at 11pm to France...I was sad cause it was the end of my trip, but I knew I did the most difficult 1 month ago: to leave all my friends overthere and to know that I will never see everyone together again. I am sure now that I want to do a worldwide once in my life...Baptiste and Elodie are doing one right now for 8 months and I want to do that. 1 month it’s already great and I know I did a lot these past few months and I discovered I like traveling!!!!

2007-01-20T05:19:00.000-08:00

Step 4. Vietnam (from 18^th to 30^th )

Vietnam is composed by 80 millions of people for 330 000km² (Laos is 15 times less populated for 230 000km²). Although we are in Asia and they speak vietnamese they are using the same alphabet than us (more or less, but compare to the other languages overthere!). Hanoi is the capitale with less than 4 millions people and 2.5 millions of motorcycle (that’s why traffic there is packed!!!!). As a former French colony you can find some baguettes as well and also some specialties like dog meat...

It was my turn to be sick...so we didn’t do a lot the 1^st day. Afterwards we hung around the old quarter. I loved it...I love Hanoi. It’s a beautiful city, very crowed, polluted, messy and it is dangerous to cross streets but streets are so nice, and even if people jump on you to sell something they stay nice even if you don’t buy anything, architecture is nice, I don’t know I just felt good there. It’s funny because all shops in a street sell the same things, so you can find the “shoes street”,”souvenirs street”, “repair motorcycle street”, “gravestones street”...

We decided to do a 3 days trip to Halong bay (we thought it should be THE tremendous place while our trip). So we spent days around a beatutiful limestone landscape, did some kayak, did a small trek on Cat Ba Island (the biggest Island), sleept on a boat, sailed between rocks...I loved it too. Awesome!

Back to Hanoi we took a plane to Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC). We spent 2 days in HCMC and I really don’t like it. It is not as nice as Hanoi but as polluted and crowed as it is.

We were there for Christmas Eve and it is funny to see how they celebrate a such important fest in Europe. For us, it is not a Family thing...everyone is in the street, throwing away shaving cream and other stuffs, children are dressed up in Santa Claus, angel or even elk. It was quite –very- difficult to be far away of my family but I appreciate to see something else as well.

We decided not to go in Cambodia, because doing so many things in such few time is quite tiring, and you can never stay in a place and really enjoy it. Instead we wanted to spend more days in Vietnam as we liked it and then took a plan to Bangkok and spent our last days at Ko Phi Phi...I was very keen on this idea, but flight ticket was freaking expensive (194 US$ for one way!!!), so.....we forgot this plan and decided to take the open bus from HCMC to go back to Hanoi (NO???and yes!!!!we did that!!!) as it allowed us to still visit Vietnam by stoping where we wanted and flight tickets from Hanoi to Bangkok were half the price.

So we did a lot of bus travel, by night, by day (more than 30 h).

We stopped 2 days at Nha Trang, an attractive coastal town. We had a lot of fun there: we rent a motorcycle and I drove it ( just for remind: I don’t have my driving license :-) ), and of course we had an accident while I drove:someone tried to overdrive inner me at a roundabout (??? Do you understand what I mean?? Anyway just to say I wasn’t the only responsable:-) ). Fortunatly I am not a crazy driver and I didn’t drive fast (that’s why maybe the guy tried to overdrive me!!!)...Oh btw I didn’t tell you...the guy who tried to overdrive me was on bicycle (Yes, he was!!!shame on me :-( ). Anyway, we also did island hopping, snorkeling (Matthieu tried but he was quite stressed), sunbathing:nice

Afterwards we went to Hoi An for 2 days, a great city, small less traffic I loved it as well. This place is also the place for tailored suit and we did it, one each. The first day they took your mesuration and the next day you come for a try and they make changes...So fast and so well it’s incredible.

Finaly we reached Hanoi and took a plane to Bangkok...we needed times to order our luggages: it was almost end of the trip, so we had a lot of Christmas gifts.

2007-01-20T04:45:00.000-08:00

Step 3: Laos (from 11^th to 17^th)

About Laos. Laos is composed by 5.3 millions of people and 85%of them live in rural area. It was merely shelled during Vietnam war (“Laos earned the unenviable distinction of being the most heavily-bombed place on earth” from BBC article.). As it was a –strong- communist government tourists weren’t allowed to go in before 90s. Nowadays, it is still a communist one but government understood the importance –the opportinuty- to open its border to foreign firms and foreign people...good for us.

In the morning we crossed the Mekong river and I saw a Laos town for the first time. I had many first impressions: slower life, people less “aggressive” with tourists, the road wasn’t tarmac and dusty...

From there we took the slow boat for 2 days (the slow boat not the speed boat as in the Lonely Planet they say it is “at your own risk” because tourist died) with a night stop at Pak Beng. Afterwards we arrived at Luang Pra Bang.

Luang Pra Bang is the 2^nd largest town in Laos, after Ventiane the capital. As it was the former capital, it is filled with a fascinating array of magnificent temples, historic monuments and crumbling French colonial houses.

We stayed 4 days there, in order to ride a bike around streets, to see the beautiful Kuang Si waterfall and to swim there, to visit temples and musuem. We saw tremendous sceneries. We also spent 1 day in a cooking class in a restaurant to learnt Laos food....it was awesome. Saddly Matthieu was ill 1 of these days. We wanted to try local food, so we ate at the night market but one night he tried something he didn’t digest (=tourista).

We finally left by night bus to Ventiane (210km for 8h :-), VIP bus with aircon=windows that you can open, hole in the ground). We arrived at 6am at Ventiane and at this time NOTHING is open!!! So we waited to go in a restaurant, took a breakfast and slept on a chair. I didn’t like Ventiane. I didn’t find it nice, beautiful or interesting....I was quite excited by the fact that we would take the plane to Vietnam!!!

I really appreciated to travel in Laos after traveling in Asia because as french colonized it there are still some french stuffs: good baguette, vache qui rit, local talking french.

2007-01-20T04:21:00.000-08:00

Step 2 : Thailande (from december 5^th to 10^th)

Thailande is very touristy country. It is composed by more than 62 millions of people for around 510 000km² (552 000km² and 60 millions of people for France). In Thailande you can find everything: big cities, amazing beach and great mountains scenery. Bangkok is the capitale and due to a fast expansion it is not a very nice city: too much polluted, not easy to go from place to another, from the point of view of architecture there is no harmonization...I mean i’m not a great fan of Bangkok.
We left Singapore December the 5^th by plane to Bangkok. There I planned to leave luggages to a friend because I didn’t (and I couldn’t travel with all I gathered in 4 months in Singapore) but it didn’t match, so I left everything at the train station ( I was pretty worried about that I have to say!!).

We took a night train-see picture on the left-(the most confortable I have ever seen, but slow:14h for 700km) to go to Chiang Mai (the 2^nd largest city). We stayed there 1 days and did a 3 days trekk around with walking, elephant riding, rafting driving and sleeping in spartiate dorm in small village, eating wild pork and rice cooked in a bambou. It was very nice, and it was my first experience of living in a place where there was no electricity so activity by night is not very thorough :-)

After Thailande we planned to go to Laos. Air ticket was quite expensive, so we chose to go there by boat. But first, we did a 1 day drive to Chiang Khong, the Thai/Laos border and slept there. Doing travel by day is quite interesting as you can admire scenery and it is exactly what we did. North of Thailande is very mountainous and it's beautiful.

2007-01-20T03:26:00.000-08:00

Step 1: Singapore (December, 4^th)

Good by !

My last exam was December the 4th, and I picked up Matthieu at the airport right afterwards. For my last night in Singapore we first went to the famous Lau Pa Sat food court, and then with some we went back and ate French products directly imported from France: wine, duck paté, french salami, cheese, chocolates...and Paj brought Australian wine.

It was a great great night and thank you all for coming...I was quite upset to leave everyone but I was also very happy you can discover French stuffs and you enjoyed it (especially Paj and Steph with the duck paté).

Here are some pictures of this night (cheesy or pathetic?)

2007-01-19T03:20:00.000-08:00

ONE DREAMING MONTH

Mission: Take maximum profit of culture, landscape, people, food ... be aware of unpredicted events/delay ... don’t spend to much money... be careful of not being sick...enjoy it!

What: 1 month travel (from december 4th to january 2nd) with my bagpack (left)

Where: around some of the SEA countries (see map above: what we plan to do)

2006-11-26T22:46:00.000-08:00

FILIPINO FILIPINO (babo babo bab babo babo bab babo babo ba)

At the end of the semester, in order to not screw up your exam, you have one week to revise, and then you have 2 weeks of examination. As my all my exam was at the end and in a row, I had to week to revise which was more than enough…so I decided to travel to Philippines with some other friends from November 18^th to the 22^nd included:6 days (what a short trip, isn’t it Stephanie?)

Philippines officially the Republic of the Philippines is an island nation located in the Malay Archipelago in Southeast Asia, with Manila as its capital. It comprises 7,107 islands and it is huge!!!!

The Philippines is the fifth-largest Christian nation (after the United States, Brazil, Mexico, and Russia): about 85% of all Filipinos are Christians.

My team:

This time women were merely represent: 5 girls for 1 boy (luckily or sadly for him ). It was my first travel with them but Aanchal. Asma and Carly from Canada, Mat from USA, Michealla from Germany, and Aanchal still from HK. It was a great team and I had a lot of fun!!!

We landed in Manila and we spent our 1^st day walking in it (and lost around of course), visiting intra muros (the old quarter), attending at a philippino wedding (gross I know), walking around, making a short ride with a horse (5of them + 2of the guide…poor horse).

Finally by night we planned to take the bus to Banaue, (up to the North), but even with a map, many people looking at it, and asking thousand of people we found the bus terminal too late and missed our bus…but find another one.

We slept in the too much cold aircon

and we arrived at a small town where we had to get out in order to take a jepney to Banaue. We got in because the sign on it said it went to Banaue, but when we asked the driver he answered: “ I don’t know. We’ll see”. So we were pretty afraid not going where we wanted to. Sometimes he took off the sign and put it back few seconds afterwards…we never understood why!!
We finaly arrived at Banaue at the beginning of the morning, rented a Jepney for the 6 of us and went to the rice terrace.

Banaue has famous rice field. They were built 2000 years ago, in the middle of mountains and people did that bare hand. As it wasn’t the harvest time fields weren't green but even considering that what we saw was impressive and huge!!!We walked down and up the mountains but although on the edge of rice paddy.Of course Aanchal lost her balance and put her foot in the wet paddy :-)…

By evening we took the bus the way around…yes, we did 10 hours get there in the morning and 10 hours again to get back, in the same day: we really wanted to see that, but it definitely worth it!

Once arrived in Manila we found another bus with the aim of going to the beach. After the bus and boat we arrived in magic place: Tamaraw beach. There, there were the 6 of us and another couple, that’s all. By night we usually went on the beach close which was more crowded…of ladyboy or shemale whatever you call them…funny!! Otherwise we spent 3 days sunbathing, snorkeling, visiting, and having massage: pure laziness.

We finaly got back to manila by evening and with Micheala we went out with some random Philipino guys we met. We danced all night long before going around Manila for the last day and got back by plane to Singapore (and directly do the nightclub hopping: ladies night!).

6 days was quite short and were in a rush, but we did a lot…I want to go back there again, we missed so many things…

Philippines is a beautiful country and local are very nice…but I have never seen so much poverty than in Manila: children are everywhere, alone, in the street, ask for something, ghettos, entire family living outside…but local people told us not to give money otherwise they will keep living in the street and they will not try to find another way to leave….but it’s hard not to feel guilty and not to give them something.

2006-11-10T19:48:00.000-08:00

Mac GYVER is Singaporean!

I have already told you that Singaporians study hard, a lot a lot! Anytime you go in a study room there is someone, and recently opening and closing time of library were extented to revise our exams.
Anyway, the rumor has it the workload is the highest in the School of Architecture. Some people live there many days without going back home! You will say 'it's not possible? how do they sleep?' Easy...under tables, with ruban (the one you use for Xmas), they wrap it between table feets: your bed is ready. They work and when they are tired, hop hop hop they gonna sleep under the table! Crazyyyyy:-)

2006-11-05T00:23:00.000-08:00

BALI – LOMBOK

2 weeks ago there was a huge celebration for the end of Ramadhan, which means day off, no school, holiday, viva vacancia…anyway, this day was a Tuesday, fortunately for me day which I have all my compulsory tutorial. So I decided to take profit of this situation and go away from Singapore: Indonesia I’m coming!!!!

The republic of Indonesia is a nation of islands consisting of 18,110 making it the world's largest archipelagic state.
With a population of roughly 220 million, it is the world's fourth most populous country and the most populousMuslim-majority nation (around 85% of the population is Muslim): Bali is mainly Hindu but Lombok is mainly Muslim!

My team:
As I skipped 1 week class nobody could do that :-( I went with Didi, a Dutch guy, for couple of days but then he had to leave :-(, I finished my trip alone.
I Flew from Singapore and arrived Wednesday night the 18^th, and slept at Kuta

October, 19^th

Morning KUTA
Hanging in main streets and beach of Kuta. Kuta is big tourist place in Bali. A lot of people are not going further than it (dixit lonely planet). You can find beaches, with waves if you want to surf, an attractive nightlife.
It’s here than in 2002 and 2005 took place attempts…and you can easily the place:they didn’t construct anything else there and built a simple monument with names of people who died: impressive.

Afternoon: flew to Lombok, with a local low cost. I wasn’t very confident in this company…if Didi would have not been with me I would have never flown, I was too scared! When you check in your luggage, they ask you to weight you with your handbag, it means you go on the weight normally dedicated to luggages. Then it was the smallest plane I have ever taken: 18 seats. No stewards of course, the captain explain the safety procedure. But everything was alright.

Anyway we arrived early in the afternoon, so we decided to rent a mob: Didi was the driver and me, as usual, the passenger. It was the first time for Didi, and Indonesian’s circulation is approximately as bad as in Malaysia maybe worse. They don’t care about the white line, for them it’s like a third way. You have to stick on one rule if you want to survive on the road: the bigger is always winning! So when you hear a honk from a bus or whatever, it doesn’t mean it wants to overdrive you and you have to go on the side. It means it is overdriving you so be aware of your ass!!! But Didi did well!!

We went to Sukarara. On the way, 2 policemen arrested us, because we stopped at the red light (I swear it’s true!!). In fact, when you want to turn you don’t have to stop whatever the color of the light. They wanted us to pay 100 000 Rupiah (10€) for that otherwise they kept the Didi’s driving license: it was clearly corruption. After at least 15 minutes of negotiation, they let us go without paying anything. In Indonesia you can bargain everything, even corruption!

picture: market on the way to sukarara.
It was the first time i saw pink, yellow, blue, purple and green chicks :-). They color them, because children are more attracted by them.

Sukarara is small village where very few tourists are going. We had to buy some gas and the seller, Sam, was very nice with us. He shown us women who were weaving sarong (traditional tissue used as a dress for official ceremony) and he invited us to his house to eat, drink and presented his family. His wife weaved as well, so they wanted us to try them: so we did J

They were so very friendly and so curious about us.

In Lombok a girl cannot get married if she doesn’t know weaving. So, from 9 girls learn to weave. To do a sarong they need one month which one week is used only to build the pattern. Girls get married between 13 and 20 years old (and 20 years is quite old) because “girls are easy growing here” said Sam. We left this place, non without buying a sarong for each of them J

October, 20^th

Woke up at 4am and picked up at 5am. Direction Rinjani Volcano. We booked for a 3 days trekking: the main attraction of our trip. This Volcano is 2^nd highest volcano in

Indonesia

, 3700m, and it is still in activity (last eruption in 2004).
8am we started from Sembalun, with a guide, two porters, Didi and me.

Each of the porters carried 25 kg at the beginning (food, cook’s utensils, tents…). They always wore the same clothe whatever the weather (hot, cold, wet…), and they climbed it wit h flip flop!!! Even with that these disadvantages they did it pretty fast, almost as fast as us!
They pamper you. Even if they arrive after you, they take care of everything: tent, fire, cooking…and you just take a nap coze as a lazy tourist you are tired ( I did it!). They are doing that once a week during the dry season, and once a month during the wet season.

We arrived at 4am at the base camp 2700m, took a nap, took pictures…and sleep early for the next difficult day.
On the right: picture from the base camp. After going to the summit you go down to the lake, and then go up to the rim on the other side

October, 21^st

Woke up at 2.30am to start climb at 3am. Didi learnt a bad news: he had to leave right after going to the top (as his plane from Lombok was cancelled).
The goal: to see the sunrise from the top 3700. It takes normally 3 hours to climb it, but I was very slow in the last part. As it was so sandy, I had to crawl!!! 1 hour!!! Everytime I did a step I slid. Anyway, we missed the sunrise :-(, but it wasn’t such a bad thing as it wasn’t so cold and we saw the island very well.
(on the left: the sun is rising, and we are not yet at the top...nonononononono!wait for us sun!!!).
Lombok was made by theses volcanos, it’s not a huge island, and from there we saw the entire island, and even the other volcano in Bali: nice weather!

We went back to the base camp for a huge breakfast, and with the guide we left quickly afterwards. He told me “we still have 8 hours to walk: it’s a big day today”…Didi!! I want to go back with you J
Didi went back and I kept going alone!
From the base camp, we went to the lake, down, down very down (especially when you know you have to climb it again!!). Ate there, took a shower in a (real) hotspring and climbed up the other side and went down to another base camp. I was pretty tired when we arrived (I’m wondering why!).

Here is panorama from Rinjiani I tried to do...

October, 22^nd

Last day …it was only descent to Senaru, it was better because I had muscle pain. Senaru is a beautiful village.

Afterwards, I went to the harbor to take a boat from here to Padangbai in Bali. Boat is slower than plane…but cheaper and anyway, I wasn’t able to do anything else today. I was just dreaming about a shower, a real shower.

2006-11-04T07:48:00.000-08:00

SIPADAN'S DIVING PICTURES

Someone who dived with us in Sipandan (borneo, previous post) took some pictures from underwater world, i have just fews :-(

You can recognize 2 white reff sharks, a trigger leopard (??), and the fish from 'finding nemo", the one who lives in the aquarium, and a big turtle (i hope you will find who is who) !!!!

There were so many things, and beautiful color...i wish i will convince people to have their dive certificate.

2006-10-17T14:59:00.000-07:00

NEVER ENOUGH...

here, it is early in the morning...exactly 6am, i am in a study room in Singapore and i am studying! I'm leaving tomorrow to Bali for one week...so i'm quite in a rush to finish project,assignment, tutotials! In a way i am working very late because i don't have the choice...but i am not the only one here!!!(and that, it's crazy!!!)

anyway...i was hungry, i decided to order mac donald: It delivers 24h a day, 7 days a week...you call it and it delivers on campus (a kind of dominos :-) ). that's so cool

I wanted to share with you one of their speciality: the Mc Fan-tas-tic!!what is it?? as it's not enough to eat rice for breakfast, lunch, dinner, desserts...As you understand, rice is quite important in your everyday meal. So Mcdo have created the 'riceburger'!!i'm not kidding...it looks like an hamburger but you find a sticky oily rice instead of bread. For sure i have to try!

good night and good appetit!

2006-10-15T10:55:00.000-07:00

BORNEO (Sabah)

2 weeks ago it was the mid-term break. while its means for local:working hard on project, it means for exchange students travelling more or less far away from Singapore!

It was hard to choose one destination...as i want to go everywhere :-). finally we decided Borneo.
Borneo is a big island on the left of Singapore, and upper. Borneo is well known for its wildlife nature, landscapes, animals and life :-). So, we went there for 10 days!! too short! from friday 22th of september till 1st of october...with the same team, and some welcomed extra people at the end!

Day 1.
Normally the first would have been a busy day: we should have climbed the mountain directly afterwards the flight. So we woke up at 3am to take the flight from JB in malaysia at 7.30am. But airasia, the lowcost we booked, decided it will be a unusefull day :-). 7 hours delay!!!7 hours in a small airport...Finally, we arrived at the down of the mountain it was already dark!!too late for us!!
picture:busy time at the JB airport

Day 2.
Impossible to have a place in the accomodation at the base camp in Mt Kinabalu! and as you climb the mountain in 2 days: no room, no climb!
So we went to the Hot springs...i was waiting for water springing from the ground (that's the point normally), but no. It was like my bathroom (in France) in public! i mean...we had a bath, and if you wanted hot water from hot springs we turned the tap!!! tourist trick!but i think it can be nice to do that after climbing the mountain.
We walked there, accross a butterfly farm, on a canopy and to a waterfall. Nice day...not very tiring, perfect before THE effort!

Day 3.
Big breakfast, before being at the feet of Mt Kinabalu. you have to pay a guide, entrance fees for the park, insurance..anyway, a lot of things, and at the end, only at the end, they give you a document with risk, problems you encounter, and some case in which you can't climb! Thank you for saying that at the end!!!!!
Mt Kinabalu...This is the highest mountain in South East Asia: 4 095 meters
you start at 1500 meters, and you stop for the night at the base camp at 3300 meters. Guides said you (i mean : non very fit :-) ) need between 3 and 6 hours to do that...For us it was 4 hours! It wasn't sunny for hiking, the weather was perfect:not too cold not too hot!and the landscape perfect as well!!!
Of course everyone is in bed latest at 9pm :-)...the next day will be hard!!
picture: views while the climb, and at the base camp(yes it was cold!)

day 4.
Wake up at 2am...hm i love that!!! light breakfast,and gooooooo. At 3 o'clock you start climbing for the last 2.7km until the top. It's pitch black...so you need a nice torch on your head (does it ring a bell to some people :-) )
The objective is to arrive before the sunrise, and watch it sitting on a rock....and we did it. we arrived 10 minutes before. we were lucky because it wasn't neither foggy nor rainy...just windy. So we spent roughly 40 minutes there to take picture, make some "ohhhhh" "aaaaaaah" "beautiful" ...it's beautiful overthere but you rae happy to go down because it's very cold!!
Finally we went back to the base camp for a real and huge breakfast...we deserved it!
Afterwards you go down...more or less slowy, it depends on you, on your ankle :-) and on the rain. It suddenly started raining when we went down, and we had to walk for 4 more km!!!so we ran...saddly Sandra, hurted herslef...ouch!!! :-)
When everyone was there, we took a bus to Sepilok...on the way i watched the landscape. Some parts are beautiful because it is rainforest, but most of the landscape is saddly Palm trees. They cut and destroy the rainforest to plant Palm Trees, because you can earn money with the oil palm.

Day 5
Wake up at Sepilok, one of the 4th Orang Outan rehabilitation center. It's a huge park where Orang Outan and others wild animals live. Twice a day, there is a feeding, and tourists can come, admire and take million pictures of them.
Afterwards, we took a mini bus to go for a 3 days jungle trek, at the river Kinabatangan, and the road to go there was...it wans't a road in fact, just a muddy pathway...very good for your bump :-)
just after arriving, we went for our 1st boat trip on the sungai kinabatangan, the largest river in Sabbah. We saw a lot of monkeys (long tail, short tail, probiscis -long nose-) birds, and even a crocodile (ok, half of the crocodile!!). As we are lucky, our boat engine just broke in the middle of the river...so we had to wait for the other boat. The other boat try to dragg us, but it didn't have enough oil...we stopped again, and we switched boat...we finally arrived, later than expected but safe!!!

Day 6
For this day the program was a boat trip early in the morning, a trek in the jungle and the last boat trip. While the boat trip we saw a lot of monkeys and so one...but the most impressive was the trip in the jungle. Full of big trees, leetches, flowers, big spiders, mud...we were like in Lost (without the others!). We didn't see any python, but the tenant of the hostel said he has already seen one huge swalling whatever animals...that's why when they are going to the jungle, they always have a knife: in case of a python would be hungry....brrr, freaking!!!
picture: early in the morning on Kinabantaga, lost in the jungle (we have the look..that kill!:socks on pant), and a big spider with a drawing of a skull.

Day 7
Last breakfast at the Sepilok jungle hostel before going back to the urban jungle. today is mostly a transport day: bumping mini bus first, then another crazy fully mini bus and taking finally another minibus to Semporna, lats destination.This town is not very special, but our hostel was great. it's a floating hostel!!! but...you have to take your "shower" in the toilet as usual, except...this time you have to flush yourself :-). it means, you only have a bucket that you fill to rinse and do everything in fact!!! but it was ok for 3 days...
we met again others people from NUS: Erica, Marlous,Eva,Owen and Cecilia. All of us slept in the same dorms, it was funny. my first night without being a "couple" with Kris. Quite nice actually to have some new people.

Day 8
Wake up early...today is the diving day at Sipadan. Sipadan is very (small) famous. it is considering as one of the most beautiful place to dive. It's quite far away from the semporna coast:1 hour by boat. You are not anymore allowed to sleep on the island, it's a protected place now. We have done 3 dives in a day: at the barracuda point, the drop off and another one (i don't remember!!). It was beautifull everywhere: i saw turtles, dorine starring in nemo, boxfishes,coral, barracudas, small shark and a huge guitare shark (around 3 meters!).
The drop off point is very impressive: you are near to the shore, and it is swallow but suddenly it's deep, a wall. 600meters deep...we didn't go so far of course. It was such an awesome day!!!

Day 9
crazy day. Normally it should have been the relax day in our trip: no travel, no hiking...nothing but laying on the beach. and it fact it was!!! We took a boat to go to mabul, another famous diving spot, but just for tanning a little bit. The beach was great...we saw some floating resort..with small hut on stild. if i have to go somewhere for my honeymoon i will think about this place.
Afterwards, we came back. When we disbarked at Semporna, a man came and invited us to go to a hotel for free food for dinner. It's a diving shop tenant. We went there with Uncle Tchan, and it was a charity fest...free food and free flow drink until the end of the party. It was amazing...we didn't know him and he invited 9 of them to eat with him there and payed everything. we were amazed!! When we were the last ones, he invited us to go to a bar...we followed him. Once again he payed the drinks all night long. The bar was a kind of deserted karaoke bar: so we were not ashamed to sing...even chinese song (with Marlous but i have to say, it was a disaster!!!when you don't know neither the lyrics nor the rythms...not good!!)...

It was our last day there, and we had really well finished with this unexpected night...
pictures: Girsl on the beach at Mabul, sunset, Uncle Tchan performance, something strong that Sandra experiment, Johann cheerleaders performance, cheers at the charity party

Day 10
time to go...the first day where we get up so late!!!took a bus to Tawau for catching the plane and going back to Singapore!!! Our plane didn't have any delay...it was even earlier at Singapore than expected!

These holidays were fully booked and really awesome...but 10 days it's so short!!!that's incredible; and you lose so much time in transport.

hope you enjoyed the picture and thank you to people who have read until here.
time to bed...next post:BALI!

2006-10-06T01:49:00.000-07:00

DIVING IN PALAU AUR...

hello hello...

i know i haven't up date since a long time...but combine both of my travels ( i came from a 10 days holidays...too good!) and my study is quite hard!! It's unsane! and the one who think i'm working, saddly it's not true!

ok...so my diving. Afterwards a little pool session, we had to try in real open water. So we went to palau Aur, for the week end.

the program was:

leaving by bus friday night, arriving saturday early in the morning, 3 dives, sleep, and 2 dives sunday for finally coming back sunday night.

it was amazing...i was afraid, because even in the swimming pool i had to equilize (and it's only 2 meters!!!), so what could happen in 18 meters deep?

anyway...everything was cool. i saw a turtle, a rockfish, lion fish, tonne of nemo, coral, fucking hurting jellyfishes...

here is some pictures, not underwater unfortunatly!!

here is my group:(left to right)
Darius, johannes, Johannes, Johann (German are not very creative with name :-) ) and Martin

Sandra, Ina and meeeeeeeeeeeeee........
Ina was my diving buddy(last picture below) . In fact you never dive alone, you have to stay very close to your buddy in case of...incidents. So we dived holding our hands (cute isn't it!!?)

Let's play at "where is...the americane?" i have one on my picture, find it! (easy easy!!)

2006-09-15T01:46:00.000-07:00

DIVING LESSONS

hello hello...H-3 before taking a bus from Singapore to Palau aur, with the aim of diving...ouhou i'm exciting but also fucking stressed!!!15deep...it will be incredible!!

i just post you some great picture from my diving lesson in the NUS swimming pool...

2006-09-15T00:52:00.000-07:00

WEEK END IN KUALA LUMPUR

just a little post my last trip last we in KL (Kuala Lumpur for the non intitiates). We left early on friday and came back late in sunday evening. This time i didn't travel with Johann, Kris and Sandra...i travelled with some other friends: rachel from canada, Jun half japonese half english, Aanchal and Stephanie from HK, and Roy and Dominic the deutsch ones. A bif team of 7...a little to big top manage everyone in my opinion...and i am sure some people will be agree with me :-). As usual we took a bus...around 6 hour from Singapore. and a usual when you take you take a bus...something happen (crazy malaysian driver!). This time, for the return when we arrived at the boarder, the bus driver said he wasn't allowed to go in Singapore!!!we were more than 10 people wanted to go there, and even if we were only the 7th of us, he never said he couldn't go there. so he proposed to refund 2 $...kidding me...after talking, arguing around 1 hour; he finally accept to tranfer us in anothe bus. we were worried, he didn't wait for us (because at the boarder you have to get off the bus, go the customs and after get in your bus!)...but no...everything was ok afterwards :-)

So almost 3 days, it's great...we had time to visit the twin towers: Petronas! that's fucking huge!!452 meters !! but unfortunatly, we are not allowed to climb at the top...thet maximum is the bridge joining the twin towers...already 170m!!! i could'nt show you great picture from there, because it was raining at this time...(f***!!!!!).

we walked a lot (and lost sometime...hopefully we had a map, so we could put our feet on the map :-) )...in chinatown, little India, the main streets...i have even been in the National Mosque of Malaysia. Women are not allowed to go there without covered shoulders and a veil on their head...so we did it!!!(we are not pretty like that???!!!)

we went also to the BATU CAVES...it 's an hindi temple in caves...for reaching this temple there is a stairs with roughly 270 steps...here is waiting for us Gods Godess, and also many monkeys!

KL is the crazy town...a mix of Bangkok (for the noise, the mess and smells...) and Singapore (for the modern building). I think KL wants to be as modern as Singapore...so they build lots and lots of new building...to do that they destroy a lots of old house, a part of their culture...as Singapore did!But ihad a lot of fun there...i saw the highest building in the world houhou...
cya guys...

2006-09-03T08:35:00.002-07:00

Shopaholic in Singapore

Singapore is very famous for its 'mall'. A 'mall'...it's something like 'les Halles' in Paris...but here, some streets have malls everywhere!! That's a lot of shops!

Singapore people like shopping, and the saturday afternoon it's crowded. Shops are opened until 10 o'clock, almost everywhere, 7 days a week!yep it was open today guys!

So today, with Stephanie (from Hong Kong), we have decided to shop too. The trend is not exactly the same, but it's ok. The thing is...Asian girls are smaller, and thiner!!!their hips are so tiny. Of course, shops don't have my size very often, and it was dificult to find something! I'm a fat girl here...great :-).
I can fit in every free size clothes in France, and here no way!! Just look at the panties picture: on the left it's my size in France, but here...it doesn't fit me!;on the right this is my size here:EL (Extra Large!).

here you can see a bag with brand i couldn't carry in France :-)

Ice cream...they eat ice cream like that: a piece of bread (green or pink it depends) around a block of ice cream! funny!

And the last but not least: a whitening cream. In the western side, we try to be tanned. It's fashion to be tanned, so we buy cream for fake tan. Here, Asian girls dont want to tan at all! so they use this cream...to be more more white, exactly the opposite :-). For example Stephanie uses this cream, and before going out she puts on some sunblock, and if it's too sunny she uses her umbrella: tan phobic girl, isn't it Stephanie? :-)

2006-08-31T11:33:00.000-07:00

Fake me harder!

Hi...again some pictures from a beach! but this time it's a little bit different from the others beautiful coast i saw. Here is Sentosa Island: Palm trees, sand, restaurants, sea...nothing special! yes it is...it's a fake a island. Everything is fake here but the water! the island was already there (what did you think!!!), but they brought the sand, they built the coast with beaches, they brought palm tree, even the rock are fake!!!Sometimes you can see some holes on it...from a wild island they have built a perfect Tourists paradise, and it's like Disney if you want seeing Mickey you have to pay to go in. (I took these picture from the skyline we took to go there.)

As you know (or maybe not), Singapore is the 1st harbor in the world...so guess how the water is clean and how the view is beautifull with all these tanks passing away.

In the other hand, the little island is just close by Singapore (45 minutes by bus), you could find some place where you can't see the boat, and finally it is still great to have a place to chill out for theweekend and to lye on the beach...so...fake is not so bad, i like it!!!!

2006-08-28T19:47:00.000-07:00

Bikini, shoes, medicine....Tioman Island go!

At Singapore, study is not a joke! People study very hard and they compete for everything. But the great thing is, you can build your own timetable!! So, i have my friday off!!! that's give it to me a long WE to travel!

This WE, we decided to go to Tioman Island. It's less far from Singapore than the last island i went, but it's still take around 6/7 hours. It's the biggest Island in Malaysia...very famous for its underwater world, waterfall, its jungle and the trekk you can do here ...

Of course, the team was the same...with a new arrival: Sandra from Sweden (they are everywhere!)...so, we are 4 now.

For the first time, i took a taxi for a 2 hours ride (so cheap)...and unfortunatly we nearly died...the driver was crazy, and the car a crap, i dunno how we arrived safely. anyway. We were on the highway, and 100 meters after the road split in 2 different ways, the driver stopped, and he tried to move back!!!!on the highway....as everyone screamed he stopped again, and he decided to turn back!!!!yeap!!!on the highway...so for around 100 meters, we were on the wrong way, face to face with the other cars!!! hopefully nothing happened, but it was really really scary!!!(below: freak out in the cab!)

We finally arrived on the island,and did nothing!! i was ill (cause of the aircon here!in class it's freezing, and oustide it's so warm!), so i spent my time between eating, laying on the beach and sleeping a lot, climbing palm trees :-).
The others didn't do anything either. it's pity!! That's why i don't have a lot of picture to show you :-(

As it is the biggest island, a lot of things are done for tourists, too much concrete in some place, and more dirty...i prefered Perhentian cause it was more a virgin Island, but it was still awesome!!!!!

2006-08-24T14:48:00.000-07:00

work in progress! (dsl pour la bannière!)

2006-08-20T11:37:00.000-07:00

once upon a time in paradise island...

last week i went to the Palau perhentian. We left Singapore Monday night...and we arrived tuesday morning. It needs nearly 10 hours by bus to go there, and more when you bus broke up in the middle of nowhere, and you needed to take 3 bus instead of 1!!! :-). Finally, we needed around 12 hours to go there.

Here are my travel buddies: Johann the German boy, Kristoffer the Swedish...

We lived in one bungalow for the 3 of us...not a lot of space, but it was cool. The only problem i had on this island was: the toilet. desgusting and...one flush. two flush. no flush. You flush (i'm not kidding!!!maybe Germain and Charly have seen the same thing...)... so believe me, you have to be patient! (Bcoze first you have to fill your tiny bucket and then to flush :-) ) anyway...

This is the view from our room, the restaurant where we ate so much time...

We spent 5 days to do nothing: laying on the beach, swimming, snorkelling, sunburning (speciality of Johann:-) ), dancing, drinking, eating. And you know what: the less you do, the less you want to do.

I didn't dive there, i just did snorkelling...and i have already seen a lot things! of course many many nemos and their houses, 1 green turtle (at least 1 meter) and many babies turtle, a shark (hopefully a little one), some coral, feeding fish...

it was hard to came back and started classes afterwards!!!

2006-08-13T01:43:00.000-07:00

Campus life in the National University of Singapore!

Take a look at the map to know exactly where i am...Singapore is this tiny island just under Malaysia. It is located just 1° above the equator, that's why humidity is very high with a quite regular temperature around 30°C (and soon a lot of rainfall).
4.2 million people live in 697 KM² (remind: france is 550 000KM²!). Population is mainely reparted between Chinese, Malais and Indian. The main Religion is Bouddhism...anyway...

i have been there for 2 weeks!
First of all, this is my room:Room type B, about 12m² (restrooms for all my floor, with a sink in my room), that is not the best but it could be worse: some has a room type C (without sink and of course without bathroom!). But, now after fews days, i am felling great inside! i have just move out...because it was a temporary room, they have just given me a brand new room today! ( i am moving in, that's why it's quite messy :-) )

To survive here, the most important thing is the "transbonder" (it sounds like a science fiction movie!!!)...(the transponder, say it with a strong german accent, is the black thing in my hand)

it is as important as the bagde in INT. You can't go anywhere without your transbonder! for example,i need it to take the lift!!!!and i can only go to my floor...even in my block...so you guess that i can't go to the other block. After that (because, it is not enaugh secure like that!!)...on my floor, you have to open a kind of main door at each floor with the "transbonder"(on the picture)! And of course, you open your room with the magical transbonder! It looks quite secure...but as everywhere you can cheat!

Now the campus....
26 000 people study at NUS, and there are 13 different schools.

here is one of the Hall where you can live...

NUS provide a lot of activities: there is a swimming pool, a lot of tennis courts, squash courts, football playground, basket ball playground and you can do a lot of sport: diving, canoe, windsurf are the most amazing for me!!

and the last but not the least: the food!...everyone agrees here to say, that you 'll not fine the best Asian food here, me, i have no idea so far!
you don't eat in a self like us...here, the canteen is pretty strange for a french guy...you don't have a place to pick up your food, but many places. the place is a "food court" (easy to understand) and there are many tiny restaurants called "hawkers"...each hawker has its speciality: muslim food, veggi, chinese, japonese, noodles, thai, local delight...so you can change every day.

My first day was a little bit difficult: jetlag, worries, knowing no one...i tried to be social and played "netball" (famous sport here), but i could only recognised my team thanks to their shirts' color :-) ...but, now it is okay! i know some people, i am going out, i visite the town and i have even already done a trip in malaysia...

2006-08-06T23:43:00.000-07:00

SHIFUMI at Bangkok (27/07/06 au 31/07/06)

Jour 1 :
Seulement 24H après être arrivée à CDG, j’ai enfin débarqué en terrain inconnu (ct vraiment long !). J’avais beau savoir qu’en sortant de l’aéroport la chaleur allait me tomber dessus, ben ça surprend quand même. J’ai atterri à 14h…mais le temps de passer à la douane, récupérer mes valises, faire du change, trouver le bus, attendre le bus, d’arriver en ville avec les embouteillages de malade qu’il y a, et de trouver la rue des « guesthouses » il était 19H. La nuit tombe très vite ici, et à 19H il fait nuit. J’étais crevée alors j’ai pris le 1er hotel qui avait l’air pas trop mal. Normalement pour 400baht (8€) t’as une chambre déjà bien…moi pour ce prix, j’ai eu un truc…comment dire…pas top ! ils ont du voir arriver la touriste en sac à dos :-) ! J’ai vite fait le tour de la chambre pour voir s’il n’y avait pas de scorpions ou d’araignées avant de dormir moyennement rassurée.

Jour 2…à la fin :
Je me lève…et qu’est ce que je trouve au pied de mon lit ? un énorme cafard…mais énorme ! il gisait les quatre pattes en l’air, j’ai pas cherché à comprendre ce qui avait tué ce colosse (la vieillesse, un poison avalé plus tôt, une bêbête encore plus grosse…) j’ai refais mes bagages pour un nouvel hôtel !!!!y a pas moyen, je reste pas là. Pour le même prix, j’ai trouvé une chambre propre, grande et en plus une piscine sur le toit ! cool…pour se rafraîchir un peu en fin de journée.
Voici la rue grouillante de monde où se situe mon hotel.

alors au programme : visite de la ville, des temples, des marchés
Je me suis baladée un peu dans Bangkok…je dis un peu parce que Bangkok c’est une ville champignon très étendue. Même si j’adore marcher, ici tu peux pas trop: la ville n'est pas faite pour, il fait super chaud et y a plein de circulation. Pour vous dire, la ville ne compte que 10% de la population thai (plus de 10 millions d’habitants quand même) mais avec 90% des voitures de tout le pays !!!!Donc oui, Bangkok est très bruyante, vraiment pollué et ça se sent ! De toute façon ici, ça sent toujours quelque chose tu n’as jamais le nez reposé. Ca peut être l’odeur de la pollution (comme après qu’il ait plu sur un sol chaud), les poubelles, le poisson séché ou pourri (g pas su faire la différence à l’odeur) et la bouffe à toute heure de la journée. La grande majorité des personnes sont minces, et pourtant tu as l’impression qu’elles mangent tout le temps !!! Leur spécialité c’est les petites cantines de rue…c'est-à-dire une petite charrette avec de la nourriture et tout le nécessaire pour faire cuire . Ils se baladent comme ça ds la rue pour proposer à manger. C’est marrant à voir et très pratique…un peu plus difficile à supporter après un petit déjeuner tôt le matin :-)

Sur la photo à droite, on ne voit pas bien mais le gros tas à gauche ce sont des sauterelles frites, à côté il y a des grillons, des criquets, des larves…il parait que ça à le goûts de poulet…ouai ben c’est ça, je leur fait confiance, moi j’ai pas pu !
Voici un marchand de fruits…avec des superbes couleurs, des fruits inconnus et des goûts délicieux

Les rues sont bondées, il y a plein de gens de cultures différentes et il n’est pas rare de croiser en pleine rue des « monks ».

En effet, en Thaïlande 95% de la population est bouddhiste. Proportionnellement, il doit y avoir plus de temples en Thaïlande que d’églises à Rome, donc le bouddhisme est très présent dans la vie quotidienne des Thai. Les temples sont des lieux ouverts et conviviaux où les Thai vont pour différentes occasions (mariages, funérailles, prières, enseignement…). J’ai donc pu en visiter quelques un.
Tout le monde doit poser ces chaussures à l’entrée, et les femmes n’ont pas le droit de parler aux « monks » !
Ces temples (« wat ») sont vraiment impressionnants : les couleurs sont vives, superposition des toits colorés, façades recouvertes de faïence multicolore, de verre, de miroir, des bouddhas dorés, sculptures mythologiques…bien loin de nos églises tout ça !!

Voici le temple du Bouddha couché, "Wat Pho"...il mesure 45m de long et 15m de haut, et se trouve dans une enceinte a peine plus grande.

voilà un autre temple, "wat Mahathat" plus petit que le précédent mais coloré tout de même.

Voilà petit tour d'horizon (rapide!!!) de Bangkok. Je vais m'améliorer sur la position des photos, parce que la g un peu galéré à les placer
bisous a tous..prochain post:from Singapore!