checkered shirt...from Levi's signature or Uni Qlo...$50
Jeans...Levi's signature or Zara or Topshop or Timberland...$50--$100...checked, jeans from uni qlo
shoes...Some shop from Ion or Timberland...$150...checked, shoes from Everbest
Some polo tees...probably from Nike warehouse...$70...checked, from Nike factory outlet
PS3 SLIM or PSP
A new computer...$1500
A new handphone...LG joy or cookie or i-phone
A scarf (don't really know why but just want to buy)...from Zara or Burberry...$30--???
Total...($1980--$2330) + ???
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Prague 2009
It is finally time to carry on with my travel reflections.
After a beautiful experience at Vienna I was on the move again, this time to Prague. The city of a thousand spirals, the mother of European cities. I must say Prague has always been the country I want visit most and obviously it topped my priority list during my planning.
Unfortunately I had a bad start; it started pouring the moment I got off the train. I opened my umbrella and WOSH! A gush of wind blew and my umbrella was “inverted” straight away. I even had trouble finding my way to the hostel and the ATMs there are so unfriendly in the sense that if you want to withdraw say 2000 CZK (the rate is 1 SGD = 13 CZK), the machine will just dispense you a 2000 note. And shops, restaurants there really expect you to give them exact or near exact change for all purchases.
After settling down I began my exploration
Interesting thing to note: You basically need not pay to get onto their public transport over there. I got a ticket for their trams, boarded with about 20 people and realized ten seconds later that I was the only Douchebag who got a ticket.
It was raining the whole day, which was really abnormal as rain in Europe usually doesn’t last longer than 20 minutes. I was wearing a singlet, a sweater and a wind-breaker and my hands were shivering and smoke coming out of my mouth with every breath. Out of desperation I decided to buy a Starbucks coffee on the go to hold in my hands for obvious reason.
The rain really spoilt my sight-seeing mood and it made it hard to take pictures.
The astronomical was disappointing; lots of people gathered around for the clockwork hourly show of figures of the Apostles and other moving sculptures. Everyone had to look up and strain their necks in the process only to see some lousy mechanism which won’t even earn the smile of a current five year old. After the show its really interesting to see everyone’s facial expression…the “what the F%#K” face.
Charles Bridge was a bit disappointing too as it was under construction and its forever packed with people, tourists, street artists and beggars. But I learnt two things from the museum. First is that the bridge is actually not straight, to prevent enemies from pushing their ammo carts and driving their horse carriages across that easily. Second is that there is a modern legend saying that the foundation stone was laid in 1357 on the 9th day of the 7th month at 5:31 AM and that Charles IV chose this time so that when one writes out the opening time, they write the sequence of odd numbers, 1-3-5-7-9-7-5-3-1. But of course is the year 1357, how would they have the technology to declare the time to be 5.31 AM?
I joined this free walking tour too.
Great guide, who is an American
An American, bringing an Asian dude around on European soil. I love it
Learnt quite a bit of history from him
“What’s the difference between a republic and a people’s republic?”
“It’s like comparing a jacket and a straitjacket.”
“Australians what’s the capital of Canada?”
“Canadians what’s the capital of Austria?”
“What’s the origin of Jaywalking?”
“Years ago in New York Jay was the slang word for idiot, and thus stupid pedestrians were termed as idiots walking by drivers”
Plus I learned that the Czechs sort of came up with the first air-con. They placed a fan behind a man-made waterfall for cold wind.
I also caught a string puppet show, Don Giovanni by Wolfgang Mozart. Didn’t really understand as everything was in Italian hah, but just watching the puppet show is worth the money.
The classical music concert was my first in a church, felt kind of cool listening to those absolute classics with the chandelier hanging above me.
After a beautiful experience at Vienna I was on the move again, this time to Prague. The city of a thousand spirals, the mother of European cities. I must say Prague has always been the country I want visit most and obviously it topped my priority list during my planning.
Unfortunately I had a bad start; it started pouring the moment I got off the train. I opened my umbrella and WOSH! A gush of wind blew and my umbrella was “inverted” straight away. I even had trouble finding my way to the hostel and the ATMs there are so unfriendly in the sense that if you want to withdraw say 2000 CZK (the rate is 1 SGD = 13 CZK), the machine will just dispense you a 2000 note. And shops, restaurants there really expect you to give them exact or near exact change for all purchases.
After settling down I began my exploration
Interesting thing to note: You basically need not pay to get onto their public transport over there. I got a ticket for their trams, boarded with about 20 people and realized ten seconds later that I was the only Douchebag who got a ticket.
It was raining the whole day, which was really abnormal as rain in Europe usually doesn’t last longer than 20 minutes. I was wearing a singlet, a sweater and a wind-breaker and my hands were shivering and smoke coming out of my mouth with every breath. Out of desperation I decided to buy a Starbucks coffee on the go to hold in my hands for obvious reason.
The rain really spoilt my sight-seeing mood and it made it hard to take pictures.
The astronomical was disappointing; lots of people gathered around for the clockwork hourly show of figures of the Apostles and other moving sculptures. Everyone had to look up and strain their necks in the process only to see some lousy mechanism which won’t even earn the smile of a current five year old. After the show its really interesting to see everyone’s facial expression…the “what the F%#K” face.
Charles Bridge was a bit disappointing too as it was under construction and its forever packed with people, tourists, street artists and beggars. But I learnt two things from the museum. First is that the bridge is actually not straight, to prevent enemies from pushing their ammo carts and driving their horse carriages across that easily. Second is that there is a modern legend saying that the foundation stone was laid in 1357 on the 9th day of the 7th month at 5:31 AM and that Charles IV chose this time so that when one writes out the opening time, they write the sequence of odd numbers, 1-3-5-7-9-7-5-3-1. But of course is the year 1357, how would they have the technology to declare the time to be 5.31 AM?
I joined this free walking tour too.
Great guide, who is an American
An American, bringing an Asian dude around on European soil. I love it
Learnt quite a bit of history from him
“What’s the difference between a republic and a people’s republic?”
“It’s like comparing a jacket and a straitjacket.”
“Australians what’s the capital of Canada?”
“Canadians what’s the capital of Austria?”
“What’s the origin of Jaywalking?”
“Years ago in New York Jay was the slang word for idiot, and thus stupid pedestrians were termed as idiots walking by drivers”
Plus I learned that the Czechs sort of came up with the first air-con. They placed a fan behind a man-made waterfall for cold wind.
I also caught a string puppet show, Don Giovanni by Wolfgang Mozart. Didn’t really understand as everything was in Italian hah, but just watching the puppet show is worth the money.
The classical music concert was my first in a church, felt kind of cool listening to those absolute classics with the chandelier hanging above me.
Sunday, August 9, 2009
Shopping list
checkered shirt...from Levi's signature or Uni Qlo...$50
Jeans...Levi's signature or Zara or Topshop or Timberland...$50--$100
shoes...Some shop from Ion or Timberland...$150
Some polo tees...probably from Nike warehouse...$70
PS3 or PSP...$300--$600
A new computer...$1500
A new handphone...???
A scarf (don't really know why but just want to buy)...from Zara or Burberry...$30--???
Total...($2150--$2500) + ???
Jeans...Levi's signature or Zara or Topshop or Timberland...$50--$100
shoes...Some shop from Ion or Timberland...$150
Some polo tees...probably from Nike warehouse...$70
PS3 or PSP...$300--$600
A new computer...$1500
A new handphone...???
A scarf (don't really know why but just want to buy)...from Zara or Burberry...$30--???
Total...($2150--$2500) + ???
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
JB police cheif
Recently the new JB police chief made a few statements that caught my attention.
1) Singaporeans owe the Malaysian government millions of unpaid traffic fines.
Fine isn't it better to carry out some actions rather than ranting to the press?
2) In response to the worrying high crime rate in which he is tasked to clamp down on.
He claims that the statistic might be false as he still see Singaporeans streaming in.
Dear Sir...
let me share with you some insights
The recent inflation wind in Singapore was blowing so strongly that people just have to find cheaper alternatives to chill-lax, and the risk of running into robbers is something these people are willing to take.
While noticing that there are many others going with them, they know that the risk decreases significantly and there is incentive to not cancel their trip.
After the inflation wind we have the recession tsunami. Every country is supposedly hit. We all know that with recession comes unemployment. With a rise in unemployment comes a rise in crime rates.
One last thing, the Singapore-Malaysia currency exchange is at a all time high. Need I say more?
1) Singaporeans owe the Malaysian government millions of unpaid traffic fines.
Fine isn't it better to carry out some actions rather than ranting to the press?
2) In response to the worrying high crime rate in which he is tasked to clamp down on.
He claims that the statistic might be false as he still see Singaporeans streaming in.
Dear Sir...
let me share with you some insights
The recent inflation wind in Singapore was blowing so strongly that people just have to find cheaper alternatives to chill-lax, and the risk of running into robbers is something these people are willing to take.
While noticing that there are many others going with them, they know that the risk decreases significantly and there is incentive to not cancel their trip.
After the inflation wind we have the recession tsunami. Every country is supposedly hit. We all know that with recession comes unemployment. With a rise in unemployment comes a rise in crime rates.
One last thing, the Singapore-Malaysia currency exchange is at a all time high. Need I say more?
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