Travel

So where do I start?

Plenty of stuff happened… yet it feels like nothing much happened.

Hong Kong trip’s over, and although there’s some really bad incidents that happened during the trip, I’m really way too tired to recount those incidents here.  At least the trip ended well, though my mom started nagging the moment we stepped back into our house.  Sigh… so much for a “happy” ending.  I hadn’t bothered to do any write ups, upload any photos, and geez I didn’t even bother to do reviews on Tripadvisor.  Darn.  What’s with this laziness….

Bruno recently taught me some basics of DOTA 2 (did I mention that he was a semi-competitive pro DOTA 2 player?), and we had fun watching the just-concluded Shanghai Major.  We met like 3 times consecutively after work to catch the games together on his tablet, mostly at Suntec because there’s free Wifi to take advantage of.  Streaming of video just eats so much data, omg.  Although the event was a huge mess, there’s some really awesome dota games that went on.  And even though I’m still newb at everything, at least now I roughly know what exactly the game is about, what objectives are the teams trying to achieve and what they are trying to do in the game.  DOTA is definitely not a game that I will play as it requires too much strategy and skills (yes I’ll admit that I suck when it comes to using brains in a game, and I have zero gaming skills), but it was much fun watching the games.  Just like I’ve never played StreetFighter, but I love watching those tourneys too.  And Bruno was very patient in teaching me certain game play terms, some rules here and there, some character abilities, etc.  And it helped a little, I guess, that I’m familiar with Warcraft races and skills. But I have to give credit where it’s due – Bruno’s a good teacher.  Thank you!  :D

Oh, and I was somehow swooning at two guys from Team Liquid, who happen to be Finns.  :3 Hey I didn’t know they are Finns until I googled about them… Too bad they have girlfriends already, haha!  =X

The next Major will be held in Philippines, and Bruno and I have this crazy idea to fly there just to catch the games.  LOL!  I mean, it’s quite rare to have a Major held so close to Singapore, so I guess Manila is probably the closest it can get for us.  But yeah I guess we’ll see if we can grab the event tickets this Saturday first.

And no, in case any of you reading this is wondering, no no no Bruno and I are not together.  Nor will we be together.  He isn’t looking for a relationship (he values his freedom too much) and it’s really purely just friendship between us.  Okay, maybe slightly more than friends, since we know each other’s innermost secrets, but that’s where the line is and we both have no interest in crossing that line. Yes we enjoy each other’s company, but no, we really are not that compatible.

On to work~  Work has been dull.. it’s just a mad rush every first two weeks, and then slack for two weeks, and then mad rush again.  I don’t know how long can I continue to do this… sigh.  But what else can I do anyway?  Meh.

Hadn’t been playing any PC games lately.  Was so addicted to Crusaders Quest for the past couple of months, and now that I’m gonna quit that game (I just haven’t uninstall it), I’m suddenly at a loss what to do.  Yeah I have some games in Steam that I haven’t touch (Bastion is one… it’s just sitting there in my Steam library), some games that I wanna replay (oh Neverwinter Nights, how much I’ve missed you), some old games that I’ve just bought (hi, Arcanum~), and some games that I’m waiting for DRM-free version before I buy (oh yes, I’m looking at you, Grim Dawn).  So, we’ll see just what I’ll play this weekend. Hurhur.

Two more days to Hong Kong trip with parents! And I haven’t even start packing my luggage yet, damn.

Having my dinner at Percolate now, chilling to the relaxed atmosphere while watching the rain pouring outside… It’s kinda therapeutic, to be honest.

Haven’t been updating this blog for awhile… But then again there’s nothing much to write about anyway. Nowadays I’m just meeting up with Bruno every now and then, for dinner after work, and on some Saturdays. It’s always nice hanging out with him – no pressure, no expectations, no nothing. Just two relaxed souls, with not much problems going anywhere and everywhere. We kinda share the same preference for food too (except that he loves lamb and I don’t), we hate hot weather, we love to walk (though he needs to rest pretty often), and we have somewhat similar interests. We talked about everything and anything… There’s really no taboo topics between us. Lol.

I just helped him celebrated his birthday yesterday. We finally tried the salted egg lava croissant at Antoinette, and after that I brought him to S.E.A. Aquarium at RWS. We both hadn’t been there before, so we kinda enjoyed ourselves there. But we both got so exhausted at the end of the day lol. Though I guess that’s a good thing? :3 I’m not the best person to hang out with, but I hope he truly did enjoy himself! :P

I’m just hoping this relatively new friendship will last for a long long time to come, no matter what may happen in between. :)

I don’t usually have a bucket list, but more like a wish list.

Though now, I do have a bucket list (though admittedly some of the stuff in the list is unattainable).

But here goes:-

• To visit Netherlands’ fields of tulips
• To embark on a solo trip overseas (anywhere)
• To view and experience Northern Lights
• To spend Christmas AND New Year in a winter country with snow.  Lots of snow.
• Visit Japan, namely Tokyo (for cherry blossoms, Disneyland, Disney Sea, Ghibli Museum, Kiyosumi Garden, Akihabara, Shinjuku, Shibuya, Harajuku), Osaka (for Universal Studios, and maybe a side trip to Kyoto), Hokkaido (for Sapporo Snow Festival, and maybe a hot spring resort stay at Noboribetsu).
• Visit Maldives before they disappear under the rising sea levels
• Do a free & easy multi-city Europe trip just to take in the main sights – at mainly these destinations: Paris (France), Lucerne (Switzerland), Vienna (Austria), Venice (Italy), Santorini (Greece), Tromso (Norway), Prague (Czech Rep), Reykjavik (Iceland)
• Go onboard a journey on Orient Express.

Now let’s see which one is attainable, and which isn’t.

To visit Netherlands’ fields of tulips – Can be arranged rather easily, actually.  Just that apart from the tulips, I’m not really interested in anything else, although I could combine a tulip field trip in Amsterdam with other Europe cities.

To embark on a solo trip overseas – I almost nearly do it for this year end, but I guess I should spend the money on a new rig instead… I can easily do this for either Hong Kong or Taipei at some point.

To view and experience Northern Lights – OK this is somewhat on the mid-difficulty level.  Northern Lights are elusive; it doesn’t mean that you go to the right place and you can see them.  You need to be there at the right time too, and hopefully the skies are clear for you to view them, without any light pollution from the city.  And the places where there’s a high chance for tourists to view the Northern Lights are far away from tourist cities – you’ll need car transport or you  need to sign up with Northern Lights tours, which can cost quite a bit.  Tromso (in Norway) is a good place to view it, as it is up north in Norway, but it has become a tourist spot just because of that.  Food and accommodation are way overpriced… So unless I have a lot of money to burn, the best bet to strike this off the bucket list is to visit Saariselka (at least I’m slightly more familiar with this place) and hope for the best.

To spend Christmas AND New Year in a winter country with snow – Well this is already on my list of to-dos.  Just that I ain’t sure when exactly can I embark on that trip.  I have year-end closing to worry about, and that my mom still refused to let me travel by myself. I’m pretty sure I’ll get it done eventually.  Just not sure when.

Visit Japan – This isn’t that hard, but looking at the sheer amount of places I wanna go… I may have to split this into two trips.  One week trip just for Tokyo and Osaka, and another week’s trip for Hokkaido.

Visit Maldives before they disappear under the rising sea levels – Not too sure about this too.  Yeah Maldives is a place I’ve always wanted to go – but I don’t want to settle for a cheap accommodation just to get my arse there.  I want that perfect Maldives holiday – house on stilts over the water with glass floors, where manta rays and small sharks greet you every morning beneath your feet.  So getting there isn’t an issue – but the cost of staying there is.  Will I ever live my dream vacation in Maldives?  Not sure… maybe.  At least it doesn’t cost as much as the next two items on the list…

Do a free & easy multi-city Europe trip just to take in the main sights – Now this.  I’ll probably need one or two months away from work just to do this at one go.  Okay, I could break it up to several trips, but at the end of the day, each trip will take at least two weeks.

Go onboard a journey on Orient Express – This one – I’d say it’s just unattainable and leave it at that, lol. Just a 2 day 1 night train trip from London to Venice cost USD3,230 per person.  Yup, just for a 2d1n train trip, and it’s not even a round trip.  Just one way.  Okay if Europe 2d1n trip is too much, how about Singapore to Bangkok then?  But even so,  just a one way trip (2 nights) cost USD2,690 per pax. Yup.  And Scoot cost just SGD$39 during sale period, and it takes only 2 hrs 55min. I mean, yeah sure, all meals onboard are included, you are travelling on a luxury train, where breakfast is served to you in cabin at your preferred timing, where you get to sip classy tea with sandwiches and cakes in an afternoon tea setting in your own cabin too… but holy cow, that’s a lot of money.  Maybe when I win Toto first prize some day.  Maybe.  Which is actually not possible since I don’t buy Toto.  =_=

Sigh.  So much for a relatively unattainable bucket list.

I used to have many places that I wanna go.  Okay, not “used to have”, but places that I still wanna go.

Places like Maldives, Japan, Taiwan (yes, again), certain states in US, London (yes, again too), Norway, Sweden, Iceland, Denmark, Scotland, Switzerland, Barcelona, Vienna, Venice, Prague… did I just list out almost the whole of Europe?  LOL.

But I guess I’ve almost forgotten about one place which I used to clamour about going – Amsterdam.

Not for their night life, not for their red-light district, not for their drugs, but in April-May, for their tulips.

Only people close to me will know that I’m not really like typical girls who love roses.  Instead, I love tulips.  I have no idea why, though.  I just love tulips.  All colours, all sub-species of tulip.  And it was only during my sis’ wedding, then I know that tulips grow taller overnight. o.O

But yes, tulips.  In April to May, fields and fields of tulips will blossom in Holland, as they are famed for tulip cultivation.  I wonder how exactly it’d feel to see fields of tulips right in front of me…. like this:

I think I’ll die a happy woman.  Probably.