My One Cent Worth of Thoughts

Yes! I have done it! I have thought and talked so much about it that I have finally sat down this fine afternoon and did it! No more procrastination. No more just talking and not doing. 

I have created my travel blog!  I have so many photos and journals that is putting me off from starting.  But heck! I will just start with the latest one and work backwards.  Sounds like a brilliant plan right? I can see you just nodding your head in agreement. I thought so too! Thanks for agreeing!

Who knows… This may just well lead to my next career move. Travel writing! People making me offers to travel to their countries and write about them. Free hotels, free food sampling at Michelin standard restaurants, exotic places… Sighhhh… It’s nice to dream sometimes.  It may just materialise if I write enough and my dreams may just MANIFEST!  Meanwhile, what you can do is to admire my nice photos, adventures (or mishaps) and feel free to ask me for travel tips!

I can feel the Wanderlust stirring in my blood again. Sigh! I have not set foot out of Singapore since last September!! (Unless you count Johor…) I have never been caved in for such a long time. I have always had the “luxury” to travel on the job. Hands seem to be trembling as I am typing. That must be one of my withdrawal symptoms.

I have always wanted to mark down countries/cities where I have travelled to. However, being a person of many plans but few executions (less, not that I’m back in Singapore. Somehow, I feel as if all my time has been sucked away to God-knows-where.), the beautiful laminated map has been lying, forgotten til this moment, on the floor of my spare room. Poor map, I will probably use it as a mat once it gets more furry with dust.

Anyway, I found this less attractive but more convenient map.

There! The red bits are highlighting the countries which I have been to. Strange. For all the money which I have spent, it seems that I have covered miserably few. Looks like I have to spend more time on Africa, South America and Eastern Europe. Failing miserably there. Well, at least it’s better than Pig’s one. Some consolation there.

Hmmm.. The map is jutting out. I have no idea how to adjust it. Duma, Help!!!!

Here’s the link to Create your own visited country map

Managed to access the internet from one of the ulu Greek islands. They are charging me 1.50 euros for a miserable 15 mins!!! Since I still have 5 mins left, I felt that I should let everyone out there know that I’m still alive and kicking somewhere on earth.

Damn! It’s difficult to type with long extended fingernails with french manicure. Will tell you how I almost poked my eyes out when I tried to remove my contact lenses. Long nails are huge pains in asses. I will leave the exciting story till next time! Meanwhile, ciao! And keep your eyes on the space for more interesting tales from Greece!

Really late now, supposed to be in bed. However, I will not be around for the next 2 days, so it will be better for me to pen it down, before random amnesia kicks in.

Sitting crosslegged on the bench in the terrace just outside the deserted Herreninsel museum (in Chiemsee, a really beautiful town with a clear sparkling lake) (no one, except me, was insane enough to brave the winds and leaves swirling in the air and ground), the realization of my change in mentality struck me.

The old me would never have done that. Before reaching a destination of interest, a schedule would have already been planned beforehand. Then I would march from one place to the next with sheer willpower (usually after I start feeling numbness in my legs) and determination. The motto was ‘Cover all grounds or drop dead’! With singlemindedness, I combed the entire town til near exhaustion. Scorning at the people sitting around on benches and drinking coffee at the cafeterias, I stalked on with conviction.

Perhaps I have more time for exploration, as compared to the short 3 weeks I had during previous travels. Now, I have the luxury to pick the season and weather to brave my adventures. Or perhaps, my new found (hopefully not a 3 minutes interest) hobby of photography has allowed me to look at trees, blades of grass in a different light. There are times when I simply stand around, roam aimlessly and shoot at anything that interests me. Sitting at a sidewalk cafeteria, sipping a cup of hot chocolate and observing the people around me, has ironically become my favourite pasttime. Now, I find the prowling tourists amusing and feel a sense of deja vu. Nothing beats having the idleness of afternoon tea and scribbling thoughts (evil ones as usual *cackle*) in my notebook or diary.

People may think I am so atypical but yes, castles are rather special to me. I simply love sitting on a bench, looking out at the far scenery (if it is possible) under the shade and muse about what great kings thought about when they were lounging there (or perhaps, the benches were not there in their era, but nevertheless….). Well, it doesn’t have to be kings, any normal person of that time would do. What would they be thinking and doing? How was life before the invention of electricity and modern equipment? Were they contented with their lives for most of them had to work til they died? Nah, don’t worry, I am not going crazy, yet.

Those are the joys of solo travelling. Some people looked at me in horror and exclaimed, ‘Isn’t it boring?!’ Well, truthfully, it is a totally new experience for a person like me. Perhaps, my subconscious self is more introvert than I realise and sometimes, not having to make conversation can be happiness in itself. Instead of expanding my brain power on conversations, it is turned inwards on self reflection and generating new thoughts and questions. If I were to confess that solo travelling is totally fun, there will be 2 kinds of conclusions derived by people around me. 1. I am totally mad. 2. I am totally selfish. What am I? A mixture of both, or none at all? I like to believe that it is just me.

First time in Fuessen, 2 months back : We managed to catch the Hohenschwangau on film, but missed the Neuschwanstein because it started raining, by the time, we sent off for Castle N.

Second time in Fueseen, this morning: The minute I laid my tiny little feet on the Fuessen soil, it started pouring. That didn’t look promising at all. Of course, it lived up to its promise, it poured from the moment I arrived and to the second I left. What a waste of time, I might as well, stay at home and watch vcds for the whole day. Unwilling for the whole trip to go to waste, I bravely went up the mountains. At the bridge, I managed to snap a few shots of Castle N. But, I am not too optimistic with the final products

1. It felt like the whole world was on that bridge, so as you can imagine, there were people jostling me, elephants stomping on the bridge. Not exactly the perfect environment for masterpieces.

2. There was a steady drizzle throughout the whole day, causing a slight mist to rise, fogging up the breathtaking scenery. I wonder if there will be mushrooms growing in my camera after its bath.

3. The skies were a gloomy grey, not an ideal background for any photos, unless you are taking black and white.

The only heartening beauty spots, were the autumn colours of orange and red, dotting the green tops. It is not a full blown autumn yet. However, to a *san gui like me, all the 4 seasons were fantastic. In my homeland, it is summer the whole year round. The Germans went, “Oh wow! You must love your weather! Summer all year round!” You could practically see their drool seep out of their mouths. Maybe it goes by the theory of ” The grass is always greener on the other side.”

Anyway, I have decided to stay at home for the rest of the holiday. It seems that when I coop myself up at home, it is bright and sunny outside and vice versa. I think I must have offended some weather god or goddess. Now what?!

I am really looking forward to this holiday. Because, for a change, I have people to travel with me. I am really used to my one-man-trips, a camera around my neck, my backpack full of titbits and sandwiches, water bottle, diary, notebook and digital camera. Yep, 2 of them, did I ever tell you that i am a camera freak? But I still have not mastered the art of photography, despite my picture snapping.

When I travel alone, the great thing is, I get to decide on north-east-south-west, any direction I want. No need for 15 minutes conferences and consultations. But, I seldom get my image on the pictures I take, there are buildings, people, nature, but not me. My lunches would be a book in my left hand and a spoon in my right. I get to enjoy my book and I don’t have to look around, be bored and watch people stare at me. For some reason, I am always being stared at. Haven’t these people seen humanoids before?!

Despite all the great things about solo travelling, I am looking forward to this triple trip, to argue about what to eat, where to go and who gets to sleep on the floor! I haven’t seen them for almost 7 months and am truly glad to see them (or the food they bring over from Singapore?). There are few people who bother to come all the way to visit me. Thanks!

Hung-up Pen

Well, you are probably wondering, why there is a surge of posts today. I am hanging up my pen (or is it keyboard?) for 2 beautiful weeks! Beautiful as I don’t have to work, not because I don’t have to write blogs. On the contrary, I enjoy penning blogs a lot. It gives me the chance to be truly sarcastic and offensive, the freedom to scribble down my warped thoughts and the chance to skive during work. (Yes, don’t tell my boss about it!)

Since I started the blog, I have, sort of, got used to writing something everyday. But I might not miss it much in these 2 weeks, because once i have the chance to have fun, I just forget everything else. Another defect discovered. Sigh. But I will bring my notebook along and faithfully take down descriptions of every leaf and blade of grass I see. 2 weeks later, I will have so many blogs posted that you will probably swear off me for at least a year!

Niagara Falls, touted as the highest waterfall in the world. Since I was, and still am, in the USA and only 7 hours away (well, not THAT near, I realised later. But that is another story altogether.), I thought, I might as well drop by and take a look. Big Mistake! That was referring to my decision on picking 4th July to catch a sight of the great falls. I saw great floods of people more than any water element.

Well, the Niagara Falls was definitely one of the most majestic waterfall that I have seen in my whole life. But the roar of the water had been drowned by the chattering of the tourists. And it was really hard to appreciate this wonder of nature when you were jostling to catch a view or snap a shot. At night, the waterfall was lit up with a myriad of colours. This only further increased the perception of how man-made the waterfall was.

When I compare the feeling of being on top of the waterfall and standing in the middle of the mountains (and they are not even considered to be the tallest mountains in the world! ) in Nepal, they are 2 totally different set of emotions. The great waterfall didn’t excite me, I just took photographs for the sake of taking them and proving that I have been there. When I was standing in the middle of the snow capped mountains of Anapurna, it struck me that I was so very insignificant, as compared to them. The grandeur, the tranquility and the breathtaking scenery. From where I stood, I could only see the sky, the beautiful sky, set against the white mountains. Well, usually people would describe the sky as the background. But the mountains took up most of the composition of the view that I have seen. Everything was simple in the mountains, but complicated at the falls. THe mountain has been let alone as much as possible, while the falls had been capitalised as well as they could. A town and various tourist traps had sprung up around the falls, destroying the natural beauty of it.

Give me the mountains anytime! Mt Everest base camp in year 2004, is anybody interested?