Winterlude 2011

We came back to Canada just in time to take a peek at the 2011 edi­tion of the Win­ter­lude, our yearly win­ter fes­ti­val. This was Winterlude’s last week-end and even though some ice sculp­tures par­tially melted because of a warmer weather spell last week, the crowd was here.

Images of Singapore

Sin­ga­pore­ans seem to have two main activ­i­ties: shop­ping and din­ing. When you are done shop­ping, you grab a bite and when you are done eat­ing, you go for a walk with your credit card in hand for some exer­cise. The coun­try is one huge shop­ping mall and there is food just about anywhere.

Multicultural Singapore

I have this the­ory that every­one should be a minor­ity once in his life. The rich one among the poor, the poor among the rich, the short among the tall and the tall among the short ones etc. Just to expe­ri­ence what being on the other side of the mir­ror feels like.

Chinese New Year in S'pore

Happy Chi­nese New Year! 新年快乐！

As China and Chi­nese com­mu­ni­ties around the world cel­e­brated the begin­ning of the Year of the Rab­bit on Feb­ru­ary 2^nd, we joined the party in Singapore.

Bangkok's National Palace

So, did I fall in love with Thai­land? I can’t say I did, for a few rea­sons.
We enjoyed the scenery. The islands in the South, close to Malaysia, were great and peo­ple were really nice and help­ful. It only got worse close to touris­tic places and I must admit some tourists behave pretty badly in Thai­land where they seem to do things they would never do at home.

Say Wat?

Wat Pho, birth­place of tra­di­tional Thai mas­sage and home to the impos­ing Reclin­ing Bud­dha, Wat Traimit and its five-tons solid gold Bud­dha image, or Erawan Shrine, nested among Bangkok’s sky­scrap­ers, were all busy with tourists and locals alike.

It's A Mall World

Asian malls and mar­kets are some­what of a sur­real expe­ri­ence to most West­ern­ers. Upon enter­ing the maze of shops, peo­ple usu­ally go through sev­eral stages, notably “oh my God every­thing is so cheap”, “oh my God I have to bring that back home” and “oh my God I need to buy another suit­case to bring all that back home”.

Hello Bangkok

“We are now in Bangkok and we arrived ten min­utes ahead of sched­ule” bragged the flight atten­dant upon land­ing in the cap­i­tal. Gee, I would have rather arrived ten min­utes late and avoid the near-death expe­ri­ence when touch­ing down.