More photos from Marrakesh!

More photos from Marrakesh! These come from the second day in the Marrakesh, where we went outside of the Medina, and went around the city, to the Jardin du Majorelle, which is a garden owned by Yves Saint Laurent, and many other places.. Enjoy!

photos from Marrakesh, on a cold cold day

its getting cold here in bath! and there's like little drizzles all day.. bought most of the things necessary to make the room cozy so i'm really enjoying staying at the hostel! still having orientation at school though, and everything is still very relaxed. can't wait to settle my modules!

orientation's really different here. no freshmen teambuilding camps, sports camps, smuz camps, asoc camps.. only bashes and parties haha.. went to one last night for international students with gav, mich, sueann, geri and shun hao (bathies for short) and it was quite lousy.. haha at least there was free food, but the music was weird, and the crowd, if you can call it a crowd.. was weird too.. so we went back for a mooncake festival get together! thanks shunhao for the mooncakes by the way! it totally reminded all of us of home..

Anyway I've finally managed to put together a FIRST batch of photos from Marrakesh, which is mainly about the souks and the main square there called Place Jemaa El Fna. the Souks are small little shops that line narrow winding streets, supposedly with alot of pickpockets, but we all got through unscathed :) Marrakesh was such a refreshing break from all the european cities, and so different! all the buildings are like red in colour, and green doors are a popular choice. i think its their national colours, which adorns the national flag and soccer team too.. Problem with Marrakesh is, it is so touristy! I heard tourism contributes to almost 50% of Morroco's GDP, and Marrakesh is just full of tourists, and everybody is just out to snatch the tourist dollar. Add to this the high unemployment and 50% literacy rate.. you get a high degree of desperation which shows in people's attitudes, especially towards tourists.

People will ask for money for any reason.. or for no reason at all.. alot of the photos shown below were followed by heckling for dirhams, which is the morrocan currency. We had dinner with the French lady who was the owner of the Riad, and she was lamenting that Morroco was a difficult country to govern due to the fact there was two distinct ethnicities, the arabs and the berbers, and both spoke differnet languages, and there was no true morrocan language. People would speak French, Arab and/or Berber.

Putting those difficulties aside, Morrocco is lovely in its own way, but I have to admit, the experience was so much better due to the beautiful Riad we were staying at, and that Gavin is such a great travelling companion (of course he typed that) ANYWAY. but yah.. 5 days was just nice :)

Photos from the souks! more from marrakesh and the SAHARA desert soon..

Memories of Copenhagen

Quoting dickson's wise words, "they say a picture says a thousand words, how abt a video?"

this was from the day we went to Tivoli amusement park in the centre of Copenhagen. I smuggled a camera into the ride and hid it in my sweater sleeve, and whipped it out just as we got going.. enjoy!

Finally finally in Bath :)

Arrived in Bath yesterday. Alright!! Like.. finally.. seriously.. after over a month of traveling, living out of a backpack.. using other pple's internet.. SLEEPING ON E FLOOR! not being able to wash and DRY dirty clothes.. YESS!!! i have arrived at home for the next 4 months.. Hurray for JJ!


For starters, Bath is just beautiful. Everyone I've met so far has said its very beautiful, Brits and other Europeans alike. And it really was..


Gavin's good family friend, Uncle Asoka, drove us all the way to Bath from London. Thanks alot uncle! He has been so wonderful to us, offering help at every turn. When we first got to London, he brought us around, and really took great care of us! On top of that, Auntie Asoka cooks amazing food! Everytime we visit their house in Houndslow, we get super filled up with great food. It's amazing how someone can offer so much help for almost nothing in return.

We got to Bath at about 2pm, checked in and got our keys, and started settling in! Enjoyed every moment of it :) we went shopping for necessities and all at MArks and Spencers and I finally got to do my long delayed laundry. By yesterday.. I had no clean clothes left. And after the washing came the drying, which was super troublesome, as the dryer didn't work very well. Thus on my first night in the hostel, I slept with clothes drying on every inch of available table or chair space. The accomodation is a flat at Pulteney Court (pronounced POLTney court) that fits 3 poor souls with a tight budget. Gavin and I are in the same flat, with another roommate called Yang Yang from Beijing.. its gonna be interesting :)

My Room!

le Kitchen and Bathroom

Le Grande Hallway

We had a great chinese dinner tonight! The girls (Mich, Sue Ann and Geri) finally arrived, and they cooked us Black Pepper Chicken, Stir fried mixed veggie and mushroom & onion omelette, the last of which I had a hand in, and promptly turned the omelette into scrambled eggs.. lol.. whoops.. sorry guys.. Problem was.. we forgot to buy a spatula, or the thing that u use to fry stuff.. so equipped with the mighty chopstick, the only thing we had.. how was I expected to flip the damn thing? haha.. That brings to mind what was probably the funniest moment of the day.. We were cooking, and Geri stepped out of her room and exclaimed, "Ok I give up, I cannot make my bed.. I just don't know how!!" Like.. huh? don't noe how to make her own bed? since when was the bed sheet such a tricky mechanism.. So i stepped in to the room to take a look ad I couldnt stop laughing! ok lets just say, now she noes what a duvet cover does.. haha ok sorry Geri! she's actually a very smart and driven girl.. so smart and driven that sometimes we refuse to acknowledge her as a girl!

Ok i noe the photos of bath aren't that impressive, but wait till i go around with the huge ass camera! nicer ones coming soon.. don't worry!


Oh yah.. went running with Gavin this morning, and damn he is really fit.. we ran about 2km upslope towards the university, and it seemed like forever to me, like totally dying! remember its UPSLOPE! i don't even think we have a 2km upslope route in Singapore apart from the gym, setting the incline to like.. 3-4%?
But yah, we get even nice scenery when we're running.. damn..

Back from the Sahara desert

Just got back from the Sahara expedition! It's abt 2am now in the morning, so I gotta get some rest in order to catch the 9am flight back to London! Morroco was amazing.. The towns, people, and of course the desert.. Next stop. London!

First time to Africa: Marrakech beckons!

Marrakech Airport

Streets

After a night of walking around London, we caught an early morning flight from London Luton Airport at 6am to Marrakech in Morroco. So far, its amazing! Haven't took much photos yet though, cos it just doesn't seem safe to whip out the camera to take pics. We're staying at this place called a Riad in the middle of the Marrakech Medina, which is the old town of Marrakech. So far its just mazy winding streets surrounded by walls made of red clay, with no street signs in sight, or at least understandable street signs. Everything looks very foreign, and so different from the European scenery I've been exposed to for almost a month now. First time to Africa! Woohoo!

Will upload pics once I find the guts to take some! But we have heard quite a few stories of the number of thieves around, so we're really playing it safe now. Went out for a walk just now to buy some mineral water, and we kept getting pestered by little boys, trying to help us carry stuff for money. To a certain extent, it seems like many townfolk are just out to earn, or cheat the tourist dollar. A slight blemish on an otherwise enchanting and ancient town.

Just before leaving for London we met up with Becky's friend Josephine, who just came in from Singapore, and she brought us around Leicester Square to show us the normal clubbing spots, and good restaurants. London is so much more alive at midnight compared to all the other European cities! We were eating at a chinese restaurant at 1130, and the streets were still filled with people!

Gavin and Josephine

But as a result, everyone was soo tired when we met at Luton airport at 4am, after taking a cab and coach to the airport. Gavin had abit of trouble at the customs due to the no liquid rule, and all of us started recounting our experiences where we lost creams and lotions and other stuff to the European airports..

Alright! Been spending about 2 hours lazing around within our Riad right in the middle of Marrakech, and I'm gonna go walk the streets.. but its just so comfortable here! And our landlord boiled mint tea for us.. It's just so peaceful and all.. amazing..

Leaving Copenhagen

Just about done packing, and ready to catch tomorrow morning's early flight from Copenhagen to London Stansted, and will be in London with Gavin till the 16th, then we're off to Morroco for a week! Leaving here with mixed feelings. On one hand, I'm one step further to finally settling down in Bath. On the other, it has been so much fun! Special thanks goes out to Ben and Dickson, especially Ben, who has endured my presence in his room for almost a week! We cooked together, took turns to bathe, dry clothes, eat coco crunch breakfast, clear the flooded bathroom.. Ok more about Copenhagen when I get the time to do up the photos! For now.. it's onward looking to London and Morocco!

Naxos

Woke up this morning.. and it was raining and gloomy and just bloody cold, so I spent the whole day lazing away in Ben's hostel! finally had a good excuse to do what I wanted to do for a long long time haha. WEll, we did go to the supermarket, i sent hilda off to the bus stop, and I'm going to go for a run PLUS do the laundry, so it wasn't exactly lazing away either.

Anyway since I'm so free, here it is! Photos of Naxos, Greece finally.. Naxos is the largest of the islands, and supposedly quite traditional and not as touristy as the other islands like Santorini and Mykonos. We suntanned on the beach and swam abit, cos our hostel was right next to the beach! To get around, we rented an All-Terrain-Vehicle, or ATV for short, and drove round the island! It might look like the toy car that you could rent for 2-3 dollars from like.. tampines central, BUT ITS NOT! and has a top speed of 60kmph. Initially I underestimated this speed, cos we drive so much faster in cars usually, but it actually feels damn fast on the ATV, PLUS Jo almost drove off a cliff, and Shihui almost toppled the whole thing while rounding a bend, so I think thank goodness we couldnt go any faster :) but it was so much fun since we got to visit the smaller villages within the island!

Apiranthos

We met this other Singaporean lady called Zee, who's working in Shanghai and travelling around Europe for a holiday. She had been travelling alone for the past 1.5 months, which all of us found amazing. So had dinner with her, plus ice cream, until she got picked up by this Greek guy for drinks. no wonder she wants to travel alone!

As for food, the greek traditional dishes were quite cheap compared with the rest of Europe. My personal favourite, the Moussaka, which looks suspiciously like lasagna, with meat, and cheese, and eggplant inside.

Stuffed tomatoes with rice
A damn good tower of steak, that looks like ice cream

Enjoy the pics!

they must be random errors.. black swans they're called

Just got to Copenhagen! It's great to see ben and dicky again, and i'm raring to explore Copenhagen. Denmark is the first Scandinavian country I've visiting, and its SO expensive.. I guess its a hint of what i'm going to get in UK, but to put things into perspective.. a Macdonalds meal costs around 45 Danish Kronos.. which is roughly 13 SGD? like.. wth right.. Anyway I started cooking with Ben, so that is another hint of what to expect in UK.. and to all the skeptics out there, we have been doing rather well!

Anyway the errors that I talk abt in the title refers to the way I got to Copenhagen.. I misread the date on my online confirmation for the air ticket, which to my credit I booked months ago. And as a result, had to make a change at some expense which I'm absolutely ashamed of.. haha but its a lesson learnt, albeit a slightly expensive one, but things could have been worse as always. It amazing how I can check everything else written on the slip, like the flight number, departure terminal, baggage limit, time of flight, EVEN the terms and conditions.. but not the date. As the title of the post suggests, in the end its luck, and if you have a sample population of a hundred flights to take.. the probability of you screwing up one is quite high! Anyway I took a 540am bus on Thursday morning, to catch a 553am train from Maastricht, which switched dropped me at Utrecht at 8am to catch the 815 train to Schipol. And thankfully, that bit didn't screw up. Kinda getting used to carrying the huge ass backpack of mine around.

This part of the post is going to be dedicated to the Maastricht pple, especially since Jo was complaining that I failed to mention them in previous posts. I miss you guys already! Shihui, Jo, Cake & Andrew.. and also Shuyuan who travelled with us earlier and is in Helsinki braving really cold weather. Many thanks especially to Shihui and Jo who practically cooked every dinner for me, and endured my many small requests. They were my unofficial "kar kias" lol. Thats the beauty of bunking in with girls, they have this natural motherly instinct to want to cook for you.. hahaha.. well thats the end of that, and now its back to guys having to survive in the kitchen.. but as i said b4, Ben and I have been doing a pretty good job :)

Here's what we had for dinner/supper

Went to Tivoli amusement park today, and we had lots and lots and lots of fun.. took all the the exciting rides multiple times cos there weren't many pple.
Okay will write more later today cos we're going on the river cruise of Copenhagen

getting used to a place

Have been in Maastricht for almost a week, and I think I'm really liking this place! I seriously hope Bath is as nice.. It's a beautiful and interesting town by itself, and is close to so many other nice cities to visit; over the weekend, I took a bus to Aachen in Germany and Tongeren in Belgium. Aachen was real fun, especially since there was this arts & craft festival held in the main square. PLUS the FOOD was amazing.. BRATWURST!! and there was this fried potato thing.. and to make it better, they combined bratwurst with curry sauce, and called it CURRYWURST! which was damn nice too.. We met this guy called Cyril, who has helped SMU students studying Maastricht settle into the area, and he gave us a tour of Maastricht and Tongeren, which was even more enlightening since he knows the area extremely well. Dutch pple are just really nice and polite, and thankfully most speak English. The greeks are even nicer! Totally unlike the French..

Main Cathedral in Aachen

ANYWAY photos of all that gonna come up real soon! plus the rest from greece, and slovakia, and nijmegen and of course maastricht.. omg im never going to get it all done

Today the plan is to bus over to Liege in Belgium, walk around for a couple of hours and get back for dinner with the rest after they finish classes. Gonna be our last dinner together cos I'll be taking the train to Amsterdam early in the morning to catch a flight to Copenhagen where I'll meet up with Dicky and Ben. Feels strange cos I've been traveling with them for close to three weeks already. alright time to get going! its like.. when u travel alone, the motivation to leave the comfort of the hostel is nonexistent. I just feel like hanging around to sort out my photos, clear email.. ok enough of this crap.. im getting out now!

Athens

greek coffee

greek coffee is SOOO thick i swear.. u could scoop it out of the cup and eat it like cake. ok thats abit extreme, but its really thick, but surprisingly sweet, and not too bitter. I got to try it at this "kopitiam" like cafe near our hostel, where there were a couple of old men playing cards. the owner was a 50ish guy called George and he used to be a seaman on a ship which would sail though Singapore. And of course, what he remembers about singapore - clean, strict, geylang etc.. anyway most greeks know singapore to be a clean and strict city.. thats about it.. like wth right.. we have a casino now.. WOW.

catching up with the present

To be honest, this blog is about 2 weeks late as I left Singapore on 19 Aug at 11pm, after 3 days of hastily settling last minute stuff and packing that huge backpack (27kg, as i found out eventually at the check in) that will be the bane of my existence for the next 1++ month of traveling. Took a 13hr flight to London Heathrow with a connecting flight to Athens the next morning, and met up with Shihui and the rest of the Maastricht gang in the afternoon. It wasn't my first time flying alone, but somehow this time it felt kinda destabilizing, maybe cos I didn't spend enough time preparing, or I was rushing around all the weeks before exchange, and never really had time to settle down and prepare, or I haven't spent so much time in solitude for a long while.

Anyway it did feel good to meet the rest, which had resounding implications, like, you can go pee without lugging the huge backpack with you.. haha.. thats really about it actually

Athens was nice. We stayed at Athens Backpackers which is a hostel really near the Acropolis, so most of the ruins of interest were within walking distance. I was a little more interested than the others as they had seen 2 weeks worth of ruins in Italy before I arrived and joined them, but nevertheless we endured the amazingly hot yet not humid greek sun and trudged through the Acropolis ruins and the Athenian streets. And the long postponed suntanning began for me too! YEAH