One of my few fantasies

A friend from work has decided to pack up shop and applied for a transfer to Silicon Valley. from what he says, the work is quieter than what he was expecting but he is enjoying the break away from home and the subtle differences that the US offers.

One of his indulgences was to splash out $60,000 on a V8 Chrysler Camaro. If I were to live in the US for a year, I would be parting with a third of that and looking for a early 80's Silver Deloreon.

Deloreons were the coolest cars going around when I was growing up, helped largely by the Back to the Future franchise. Any car with doors that open upwards get instant brownie points. Other than that, they just look cool. The Deloreon never made it to Australia and most have the steering wheel on the wrong side of the car for local use.

I went to Universal Studios in Los Angeles when I was a kid. I sat in replicas of KITT from Knight Rider and the cop car from Blues Brothers. There was a Deloreon on one of the stage shows and I was a volunteer in charge of rocking it for one of the shows but never managed to sit in it.

My fantasy will probably never come to fruition, but one can dream.

Hong Kong/ Macau funnies 2012

I couldn't finish a post on my holidays without mention of some of the funnies I saw on my trip.


 Firstly, the following was spotted near Central. The great thing about HK once being under british rule is that they had English street signs. I can imagine that this one was named after the famous Australian band of the 80's:

Ice House Street - Near Hong Kong Central

On my trip to Victoria Peak, I noticed the the following recycling station, with an interesting typo.

Taken at Victoria peak - They recycle everything down that way!

Macau was not unscathed. The below was a drink shop. Needless to say, I was not a consumer. 

San Ma Lo Macau. This place sold drinks.

I think the beow was seen on Wan Chai Road near Causeway Bay. I never went into this shop and have no idea wha it was, but it has an interesting English translation.

What is this place?

And last but not least, the following was a picture of a Nikon as campaign that was seen in Hong Kong and Macau. There were a few in the series, but if that girl was older, this would certainly look like what is commonly known around these parts as a Sanchez.

Nikon ad seen at a bus stop in HK

And that is a wrap for me.

Macau 2012 - The Casino's

It should come as no surprise that the big reason why I wanted to go to Macau was to visit the casinos. I had read much about the 36 or so casinos in the country and had hoped to do a couple a day and get through close to half of them.

The first thing that hit me about the place is how much the casinos were competing for patrons. I caught the ferry to Macau and even at th ferry terminal departing HK, there were ads and casino representatives trying to leave a first impression. When I left the ferry there were no less than twenty staff, mostly females wearing scad clothing, trying to hand out brochures and point you in the direction of their buses.

The bus stop at the ferry terminal was huge. It looked like the same location that the Grand Prix garages were and every casino had a bus, with the bigger casinos having bigger and more regular buses  What I discovered about Macau is that the casinos basically ran a free public transport system - so long as you were at a ferry terminal, the airport or the China border and you knew a casino near where you wanted to go, similarly, if you ever found yourself lost you could find the closest casino and bus your way back to the ferry terminal, then back to your hotel.

The casinos were far more elaborate and modern than I had imagined, however, every one featured Baccarat as their main game and most if not all targeted high rollers. This posed a challenge for me, as I am definitely in the low roller bracket and my preferred game, poker, was only offered at 4 or 5 casinos. Rather than play at several casinos as I had expected, I chose to visit casinos, occasionally played a few hands of roulette or three card poker and played all of my Hold-em poker at one casino that i particularly liked, Starworld.

Starworld issued the coolest membership card that I own. It is completely black, looks like a credit card and has  aces in the corners. It is membership to their "Poker and King" club and they had a corded off section reserved for high rollers and pro's. The table was empty while I was there, however, you just never know! I lost a fair bit in the first few days but recovered a bit. I ended up $900 down in the end but still feel I had value for money - most days my buy-in would last for a good session.

The prettiest casino was definitely the Venetian. A large portion of it was an upper class shopping centre. They had indoor gondolas, the shops looked like old buildings, the ceiling was a painted sky that looked so realistic, if it were not for the air conditioning you would think you were outside. I heard that it was a scale replica of the casino in Las Vegas, believable and impressive if true. The best looking casino goes to the Grand Lisbon - it looks like a giant flower and unmissable in the city skyline. I had a good view of it from my hotel. Best outdoor feature goes to the Wynn, whose water opera display went off every 15 minutes and was mesmerising. Biggest disappointment was the City of dreams, across the road from The Venetian. There has been lots of local media how James packer sold off Channel 9 to build this and it looked ordinary (in comparison to other casinos in the area). You can see why he is struggling to get his money back.

Grand Lisbon from the base of my hotel.

Venetian Casino - Cotai. Indoors 

Venetian Gondola - This was quite long, also indoors.

City of Dreams Dragon....meh!

I may not have seen all of the casinos, but I did see all of the major ones, and a few not so major ones. I'd love to go back here but probably wouldn't stay a whole week next time.

Macau 2012

Whilst the slow news days continue, I also spent a week in Macau during my Hong Kong trip. It had been a dream of mine for many years to go to Macau as I nearly won a trip years ago. I played a series of Poker tournaments in 2008 that had the first prize as a trip to Macau, all expenses paid, and entry into a major tournament. After 3 or so final tables, I attended the last tournament offered with a friend. We made the last 2 and did a deal where I ended up winning $6000 and I gave up my chance to my mate. Whilst it was an excellent decision financially, there was a part of me that wanted to make it to Macau, and I can now say that I have done it.

I had read before going that there were 36 casinos there, and whilst I was salivating at the thought, I didn't want to spend my whole holidays at casinos. This post will focus on some of Macau's other attractions. Firstly, whilst Hong Kong was under extended rule by the British, Macau was under extended rule by the Portugese - this meant that all the street signs were in Portugese and most people only knew about three and a half words of english. Macau is tiny, and if you were not into gambling, you could do it in 2 days but I tried to spend my days walking and exploring and my nights a the tables.

Before the Portugese handed Macau back to China, they did their best to empty their bank accounts and built several new buildings and memorials. The one below caught my eye. I was talking to a local about it - it is the Lady Buddha. It was designed by a Portugese sculpture, and as they are primarily Christian, the Lady Buddha looks like Mary. Most Buddhists are offended by the resemblance to Mary and as a result, few people pray here. Its a classic example of what happens when you do not understand others culture.

Lady Buddha

Below are some more elevated shots I took during my walking travels. The architecture of many buildings have a European feel to them. I also walked to the local central meeting point and strip shops (San Ma Lo). Visited a very old church there (which I wish I had taken some pictures of!)

View from my Hotel room - Hotel Royal.

View from highest mountain

Sky Tower - tallest building in Macau

In one of my walks, I went north and soon was lost. I remember walking through a cemetery.  There were both Christian and Buddhist graves side by side, and Portugese and Asian names. I kept pushing north and before too long, found myself at the China border. I was tempted to cross over to the other side but did not want to risk not having the right visa for reentry or to be stuck in China without my room or luggage, and thought better of it.

Gates of China from Macau

Macau is in 2 parts, the main part is attached to China,then there is a southern part called Cotai (it may be an Island). Much if not all of it is reclaimed land and the parts I saw were very modern. One of the last things the Portugese built was a friendship bridge. It was not a clear day when I travelled on it, but you can see in the distance the parallel bridge that is being built to hook up Hong Kong, China and Macau. Whilst this would be very convenient, I could imagine a fair few Ferry operators  being concerned about their business declining once this bridge is finished.

Under construction - bridge from Hong Kong to Macau and China

The food here was fantastic - inexpensive, high quality. I had a buffet breakfast at my hotel every morning and that was also great. I'd really love to come back here someday, but time will tell.

Hong Kong - 2012

I have mentioned in a few blog posts that I visited Hong Kong and Macau in April 2012. I would have blogged about it at the time, however, I was not writing a blog at that time. Today being a slow news day is as good a time as any to tell you my thoughts.

I had been to Hong Kong a couple of times before as a kid. They were family holidays, and so not much fun. My family never knew how to enjoy themselves once they arrived somewhere on holidays.

I spent most of my time in Hong Kong on the island. I was there for 4 days and it was terrible weather - always humid and rained most days. I did a little bit of shopping, bought a couple of digital radios and some watches for my dad. When I was young, Hong Kong was a shoppers paradise, nowdays, I think ebay has leveled the playing field - it is still relatively cheap, however, not as cheap as it used to be.

I spent one day going to Victoria Peak. I caught the tram up and did a massive walk back to causeway bay. The view was great and the air up there was fantastic. It surprised me how developed the mountain was, yet it still managed to have large green areas.

Victoria Peak - View from the tram up

Victoria Peak - Walking Path

Victoria Peak from the mountaintop.

In total, I was in Hong Kong for 4 days and loved it. I spent an additional week in Macau, but I'll tell you about that some other time.

Singapore Funnies

If this blog had readers, they would probably be as bored reading about my Singapore holiday as I am writing about it, but as it is fresh in my mind, I have one last post on it.

As should be plainly obvious, I'm not one to take loads of photos, but am very good at taking photos of signs or ads I see overseas that I am not likely to see in Australia.

Firstly, one from my hotel. Stayed at the V in Lavender. It was on top of a MTR station which was good but the room smelt of cigarette smoke. Rated as 4-star, but felt closer to a 3-star. There were 3 things banned in the lifts.

Lift sign at V hotel

 Now Smoking I would have guessed, pets I may have guessed but Durian? How smelly must it be for it to be banned in a hotel lift?

Onto a toilet sign. Now I come from a country where squatting is rare, so was not overly suprised to see a sign warning not to squat. What did suprise me was the element of humour used to illustrate the point

Dont Squat for your own splashing safety!

Now at a food court there was an ad for what I can only assume is a vegetarian feast. I didn't eat this one, but was tempted to, only because I liked the name

Buddha jumps Over The Wall

 Now I don't know if this one is deliberate or not, but this one has a very different meaning in OZ, particularly for men:

Jeweler in Little India - pity they were closed!

Last one, Singapore is a very clean place. In the airport toilets there were touchscreens requesting you to evaluate how clean you felt the toilets were. Don't worry people, sign is sanitised every hour.

Chanfi Airport cleanliness evaluation

For the record, I gave an Excellent :) .

Flyin' home

Took a red eye flight out of Changi airport. Flying out at 2am was hard work, particularly since I was on teh cusp of changing time zones. Had one screaming baby to deal with, but I was so tired that I managed a good 4 hour block of shut eye, and then another nap or two once I woke up. I don't think I have ever slept more on an 8-hour flight.

Arrived early afternoon (Sydney time) and did little more than unpack and recovery. My final reflections on Singapore -

• The humidity was tough at first, but you do get used to it. its also a good way to lose weight as I tended to eat less there.
• Food and clothes are cheap, however, I found most electronics to be on par with ebay prices. Food is generally fresher in Sydney - I had several good meals but not many great meals (this may have been as a result of not knowing where to go).
• Ice creams and Lassi's are great there.Had my fair share and then some. Also have lots of inexpensive juices there that help you deal with the humidity
• MTR is fantastic.- I found a few pics I took on the circle line (one of the emptier trains I took

Carriage view from the front

No driver! Front window looks straight onto tracks.

• I was there for 5 days. That is more than enough time to see Singapore. Wouldn't recommend staying longer unless you knew someone or has something specific to do
• WiFi hotspots were not as common as I expected. They were around, but you had to look for them.
• There was alot of camera security everywhere. I saw several platforms of 6 cameras pointing in all directions.
• November allows you to see the streets and shops line up with Christmas decorations I wish I'd taken pictures of Orchard Rd at night, but this was near my hotel

Christmas tree near Farrer Park

• The Casinos are horrible - if you want to gamble, go to Macau
• Our world is getting smaller - there were alot of Australian products and stores available in Singapore. I saw The Body Shop, Harvey Norman, Cadburys and Tim Tams (sure I saw more but none immediately come to mind)
• I enjoyed my tine in Singapore, however, cannot see me going back any time soon. Its a holiday that I'm glad I did but am in no hurry to go back

Last day in Singapore

I slept in a little bit after having a late night the day before. When I did wake, I went for a walk to nearby Little india and did some last minute souvenir shopping. Little India was all dressed up for a "Deepavali" festival that i had apparently just missed. I tried asking a few people what it was celebrating but did not get a good answer. I know it is something to do with the temple and is celebrated with flowers and firecrackers. yes, I could just do a search and research, but I much prefer using it as a trigger to converse with people and learn the old fashioned way.

Serangoon Rd, Little India

I then made it back to my hotel, packed my belongings and checked out at about 12:30pm. My flight wasn't due to depart until 2am the next day so i had a lot of time to kill. I went to a nearby food court and had a food dilemma. There was a big queue outside a prawn soup shop, and there was a Japanese place (which i was craving) but had no customers. No customers usually signals bad food for me, but the server was pregnant and I was a little sympathetic. The salmon meal looked impressive and was very filling, but was pretty oily and I regretted not having the prawn soup. To rub salt in the wounds, the people at my table had the prawn soup and were raving on about how good it was!

Japanese cooked salmon meal with Dragonfruit juice at Lavender Foodcourt

With alot of my day left, this was planned as a spare day, and I couldn't think of anything I really wanted to do. I went onto tripadvisor to see the "must do's in Singapore, and number 3 on the list was to ride the flight simulator at the Singapore Flyer. It took me way too long to find the Singapore flyer, in my ignorance, I had no idea that the big ferris wheel thingy that I kept seeing was called the "Singapore Flyer" and my map directions led me astray.

Singapore Flyer from the base.

I get there and it wasn't cheap - $215 SGD for 45 minutes. I have no flying experience but the cockpit is an authentic interior of a Boeing 737 with a 6000 megapixel screen. I watched a short training video and away I went! I flew from Macau to Hong Kong International to the old Hong Kong international (Kai Tak). The old airport was hard, you kinda had to fly into a red and white checkerboard onto the side of a mountain and turn a hard right, then drop quickly. It isn't a wonder as to why they closed it! I then did a loop around Sydney and my time is up. It was alot of fun, but it took a long time to get my head around all the controls and was a bit overwhelming at first. Still, would recommend it!

Boeing Flight Experience boarding pass

After a walk back through Raffles, I then had dinner, it was my opportunity to try the prawn soup and it was great!. I had a last minute Mango Lassi from Little India and picked up my bags and off to the airport.

Sentosa Island and Night Safari

After my failings at Marina Bay Sands, I was eager to get to Sentosa Island and try the Casino there. I had heard that the casino there had Texas Holdem I chose to take the MTR to Harborfront and do the boardwalk from there.

On a side note, let me interrupt to say how fantastic the MTR system is. Trains every 5 minutes, EZ link cards that only charge you for what you use, good intersecting stations and so easy to navigate your way around. I so wish we had a train system that good here. Same can be said for Hong Kong and the Gold coast (my 2 other most recent holidays). The only negative I have on it is that it starts to shut down at 11:30PM - way too early for a city that doesn't sleep!

Now, dear reader, the detail has not escaped me that I am very lousy at taking pictures and my entries are very verbose, however, this is something I intend to remedy. I did take a picture whilst on the boardwalk (albeit not a very good one).

My view from the Sentosa Island Boardwalk

From there I headed straight to the holdem tables, and whilst I lasted a little longer than I did at Marina Bay, the wait for a free seat was lenghty, the smoke from other players was still irritating and I still couldn't manage a decent win streak. I decided upon leaving that Singapore casinos were not for me.

I spent the rest of the afternoon walking around the island. I found it rather over developed and aimed at a family audience, as such, did not appreciate it as much as other places in Singapore. I decided to boardwalk back to the MTR and went back to my hotel to freshen up.

I had just enough time to make the Night Safari. I had planned on doing this early on my trip, however, sleep had the better of me. I made it just in time for the last 2 shows, a fire breathing show and Creatures of the Night, then squeesed in the tram ride and went down a walking path. I really enjoyed myself, more than I was expecting. It was nice walking through a zoo at night. 

Now I know what you are thinking, I must have taken loads of pictures at the zoo. Well, no, I didn't take any. I was a little paranoid about setting off a flash and was enjoying my time too much to be compelled to take photos. One thing I am good at however is saving bits of paper, so here was my ticket

Night Safari ticket

I missed the last MTR so caught a cab back to my hotel and called stumps to a good day.

Chinatown, Clarke Quay and Marina Bay Sands

My next day in Singapore was a Sunday. I had planned to see a show at the Marina Bay Sands, however, due to me misreading the schedule, missed the show. Instead, I tried my luck on the Casino floor. The interesting thing about Singapore Casinos is that you need your passport to enter the building (I suspect that this is a government requirement).

Once in, I played a bit of three card poker, but could not catch a hand. I did a punt on the money wheel with similar luck so cut my losses and moved on.My preferred game, Texas Hold-em, was not on offer here. What I did notice about the Casino was that the odds offered were very crude. I don't know if the tax rate is higher, or if they are trying to make more profit to counter the reduced local revenue, but either way, I don't intend visiting that Casino again.

The other annoying thing about the casino was everyone was free to smoke at the tables, or wherever else they want. It made me very appreciative of Australia's anti smoking laws - it is practically illegal here to smoke in any indoor confined space.

I then caught the MTR to Chinatown and had a look around. It was like an oversized shopping centre with lots of small shops. I've been to a fair few Chinatowns around Australia, and this was the first I saw that was indoors. It was probably the dirtiest place I visited in Singapore and I tried to do some shopping, but couldnt find anything I liked.

A short walk north landed me aat Clarke Quay. This was a beautiful place, lots of good restaurants, lots of nice scenery. I regret not taking some pictures, but I'd love to visit this place again if I were to ever return to Singapore. Had another brilliant ice cream dessert from one of the outlets - It was in a cone but looked like the Eiffel Tower.

I then walked through City Hall and Bugis back to my hotel room in Lavender and appreciated one of the nicer nights I spent in Singapore.

Lunch with a friend

I was fortunate enough to meet up with a friend on day 3. We met at Somerset and walked up and down Orchard Rd before finally settling on an Italian restaurant. we then did a whole lot more walking, had a delayed Ice Cream dessert from Häagen-Dazs. This was my first dessert from Häagen-Dazs (and was a place I've wanted to try for years! I've seen them in Hong Kong and Macau but never in Australia!). It was a little bit rich, but worthwhile just the same.

I first met this friend a couple of years ago and we ahve kept an email channel open ever since. It was very rewarding spending time with her. She was the inspiration I needed to start this blog as in our long talks she mentioned her own blog, and she may have inspired me in other ways, but time will tell. It was a delight catching up with such an upbeat and energetic person who has an exceptionally god handle of her life. She helped me clear my head a little and our talk was invaluable.

We parted in the afternoon when she went off to watch a movie with her friends. I took the opportunity to walk from city hall, through Raffles and down a subway mall to the Marina Sands. The weather did it's best to spoil my plans, but persisted anyways as I did not want to waste a day in Singapore. This day was the best of my trip by far!

First days in Singapore

One of the first things I like to do when I go on holidays alone is go for a walk, get completely lost then try to find my way home. I take a map with me, but try not to ask for directions.

My walk on this occasion took me from my hotel in Lavender through to Bugis then Little India. I then adopted what I've always known as "The Method of Zen" (I think it myght be a Prachett reference). This is where if you have no idea where you are going, look for someone who you think is going to the same place you want to go and follow them. This led me into a food court. I was contemplating ordering food when I realised that the TV screens were refreshing with ward numbers - I had followed my way into a childrens and womens hospital! I was not going to have my first meal in Singapore in a hospital!!!

I quickly found another exit and ended up near the top of Moulmein Rd. There were a lot of fancy cars in the driveways and I think I stumbled on a road sign that said "Newton Circus". What could this be? A real circuis? a shopping centre? some other attraction? I followed my way down regardless and ended up at a roundabout. Rather anti-climactic so I kept making my way down to Orchard and Somerset. Had a fish soup at a Food Republic food court then caught the MTR back to my hotel. I was completely exhausted and slept for hours. Tried to go out again when I awoke, but it was raining and I didn't have it in me. Not the best walk I've done, but at least I've done it.

Gone Scootin'

I've just arrived back from a short trip to Singapore. While I intend to elaborate more on the trip in the next few entries, thought I'd share a bit about the flight up.

My departure flight was on 'Big Yella Fella" out of Sydney Airport. This was my first experience on a budget airline, so was a little bit unsure of what to expect. My plane was an hour and a half late on departure,

Experience for me was quite good. The biggest annoyance was the kid behid me who kept pulling back my headrest and disrupting any opportunity of me napping.

Managed to get to my hotel and check in just in time to have one night on the town on Orchard Rd, thoght didn't get up to anything too excited as was rather exhausted by that point.