Whacked in Kuala Lumpur

In a few hours, I will depart from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore. Might be seeing this place more often in the future I guess. (my only gripe is the internet connection :p)

This time round, I wasn't scouting for photo opportunities, therefore there aren't any. I did bring my camera along, but it's still packed nicely in my bag. I promise to give it more action the next time I'm out.

On hindsight, the amount of alcohol I had on this trip was more than what I had in the last 3 months... and I only spent a week here. I attribute it to the fact that I had friends who were really good drinkers here. But the major factor is that I got to drink with Francis again. I remember not so long ago, we were drinking beer from 6pm all the way till 3am the next morning..... its a small pity that he won't be doing this again for a long long time to come. For those of you who know him, go find out why. :)

Many thanks to Fahim, who let me put up at his place for a few. It is distinctively in better shape than the last apartment he had in Singapore. Fahim is a nomad. I've known him for seven years, and he's been traveling from point A to point B as far as I can remember.

Here's to the friends (Cheryl, Thomas, Colin, Lola, Sue Lynn, Yew Jin, Juni) I made on this trip. We'll catch up real soon, and thanks for making this a memorable one.

Cheers

Dreams of Moscow

This was supposed to be written up much earlier in September, but I never got around to doing it till now. :p

Arrival in Moscow was a drag... all because of the rain. Rain, in 10 degree temperature, with heavy winds, is not a joking matter. I was somewhat stranded for about an hour before I was even able to hail a taxi to the hotel. On hindsight, I enjoyed the weather, and almost frowned whenever I saw the sun!!

I won't talk about work this time round, as there really isn't much to mention. Out of the whole trip, I only managed to visit central Moscow once, and I did a lot of walking (i mean kilometres worth) Taxis are still expensive, actually more so than when I was there a few years back. Price haggling over the fare hasn't changed much too. :/ The Subway is convenient, but woe to me, most of the place I am at, entailed at least a 700 metre walk to any station. Once you make it to the Subway, trains are like 1 per minute.

I don't speak Russian, maybe "this", "that", "I", "you" "here", "there", "left", "right", but that's just about it. So, when I stick my head into the "hole" in one of their convenience shops, I usually come out having my neck in pain, if I am trying to buy anything other than Coke or cigarettes....

Overall, Moscow is getting more expensive and more crowded. Given that people all over Russia come here to get a better living, its not surprising. I managed to catch some dinner with my friend (previous colleague), and he says the same thing too. His hometown is in St. Petersburg, a fair sized city, and his rent in Moscow has been increased 3 times since I last saw him.

The most memorable thing I did this trip, was walking 1 full kilometre to McDonald's..... following the road signs. It was near my hotel (not so near I found out, 3 kilometres), somewhere after Leninsky Prospekt. I have the photos of my little "trip". Let me find out where I put them, and upload them later.

Photo links to Flickr

The Korean Connection

October came and went, and I spent 3 weeks of it in Seoul and Busan. I loved the weather there (its fall), and the many conveniences you could experience while living there: like the abundance of convenience stores, availability of vending machines, free internet within the hotel... the list goes on.

I did find time to catch up with a few friends in Seoul, go window shopping, visit the bazaars in Busan and take some pictures. One thing I still noticed in Seoul, was how inconvenient it MIGHT be in Seoul, when you don't speak Korean. Most people you meet on the street would try to runaway the moment you spoke that incoherent, multi-faceted, guttural sounding (at least to them) language. The younger ones would try (I sincerely applaud their effort), however, but some still fail to understand.

Travel through the extensive subway was still good as ever, with the additional of more stations than when I was first there. The only gripe I have, is that the outer lying subway stations closed at about 10.30 - 11.00pm, which made late night outings pretty difficult this time round (I was living in an area just outside of Seoul.

The only regret I have is not being able to take more pictures. :(

http://www.flickr.com/photos/james_chuas/sets/72157602832083586/

3 weeks in Korea

Just woke up in Busan... its 11.30am. One of the few off days I am allowed to have throughout the 3 weeks I am in this country.

I haven't really been taking pictures, but I'll upload the few I took later. 3 more days and I'll be back in Singapore. Now I've got to go get changed, go out and take some serious pictures.

Crunch Crunch Crunch

And so I'm leaving on Thursday to Hong Kong... and so I'm left with zero project managers as they're still nursing their respective projects in various countries.... and so I've got my plate full, inclusive of numerous projects in as many countries.... bummer.

On the bright side of things, I'm still enjoying my daily Vietnamese coffee, courtesy of a few friends.. tsk tsk.

Fahim's moving

And so Fahim is moving out of Singapore, due to the recent local rental hike. His rental went up from $1600 per month to an asking price of $3000. What I can say is, good luck to the owner in getting another person to rent that place.

Short history about Fahim. He's a friend I've known for about 7 years (Fahim, if you see this, correct me if I'm wrong :p), and about twice my size... Holding a UK passport, he travels the world, scourging the scum of the earth, purging evil doers and instills justice. (he's in IT but I like to think it this way)

So he calls and ask for help in packing his place up before the movers come get his stuff. I agreed, and when I went over, I got a pretty bad surprise... and I'll just leave it at that, cuz he might turn me into a hamster if he saw what I was going to write.

So after he moved out, I had the cleaners come, the painters, the disposal crew and everything else. After about 5 days, the results stand out clearly, if I might say so myself.

I've moved...... yet again.

Due to my lack of research, I have been shifting my blogs (or what there is of it) from 1 place to another. First it was MySpace on MSN, then it was to friendster, and now here.

I actually went like "Hmm... this looks a lot nicer than mine..." after reading other blogs, and thought about how to get something like this.... and when it finally dawned on me (thanks to some reference links) that I should already have seen this on my Gmail... *slaps forhead*



Alright, more later. Now I've got to go get my smokes. ^^