Travel Mexico City @ 23 March 2009

A business symposium brought me to the amazing Mexico City. As usual, the flight and transit time were excruciatingly painful, about 30 hours in total one-way, but it was worthy. It was my first exploration in Central America region. It struck me that this city shared many similarities to Rio de Janeiro, which I visited not long ago. Both of the cities are huge in population (Mexico City has a population of 20 Million), presence of slum areas, Latin America and soft spoken (yup, that surprised me or perhaps Spanish are just too loud). Though I did not stay too long, I still manage to squeeze some spare time to explore some exotic attractions this city offered – The Basilica of Guadalupe, Teotihuacan Pyramids and Anthropology Museum.

The whole City is full of these trees with purple flowers. Awkwardly similar to sakura!

The city night view from my hotel room.

Majority of Mexicans are Catholic which had been incorporated with local beliefs and cultures. The interesting fact is that Mexicans still celebrate some festivals which were rather contradictory to Catholicism, such as Festival of Dead which glorifies the return of dead souls. Lady Guadalupe is the most worshipable saint throughout Mexico. She has an equivalent status to virgin Mary but her skin colour is black. According to the local history, Lady Guadalupe showed her miracle image to the priests in a poncho, a type of Mexican costume. The original copy was exhibited in Basilica of Guadalupe. According to the tour guide, many parts of Mexico City are currently suffering sinking problem, Basilica of Guadalupe is one of the examples. Tracing back to the geological history, Mexico City was built in the midst of five lakes. To prevent the further sinking, many buildings have been undergone the structural strengthening.

The Basilica of Guadalupe, which suffers from sinking problem.

The miraculous puncho shown by Lady Guadalupe.

Mexico is popular with its exotic civilizations, such as Aztec, Maya, Teotihuacan etc. This was indeed the first time I had the chance to study these civilizations. They were indeed equally stunning, striking and different from Egyptian civilization that we are all accustomed to. They built step pyramids which were solely deployed for ritual scarification. Their pyramids were normally solidified whereas Egyptian pyramids were purposely compartmentalized to store mummies and artifacts. One similarity was that the priests sat at highest hierarchy in the social status after the God or King. Teotihuacan was a blood-thirsty nation whereby they believed God could only be appeased by blood offering. Therefore, people would poke (finger, arm, penis!) or even sacrifice themselves to squeeze the blood out of their body for God. Teotihuacan was a parallel civilization with Maya, interesting enough, both of the civilizations disrupted in the same period. The most probable cause might be the lack of water and food resources. The alien theory was considered as the lamest and most ridiculous one, from the despicable tone of our tour guide.

Teotihuacan Pyramids which glorified human sacrifies. Citizen were sacred if their blood was sacrified to God. The above is Pyramid of Sun.

Before visiting Teotihuacan Pyramids, our tour guide brought us to a Mexican Indian corporation shop. My first thought was that it must be an usual trick of our cheeky tour guide. I had to apologize for that thought as the corporation was really genuinely local and his explanation of tequila and artisans definitely deserved my purchase. This region was famous for obsidian, quartz, jade and other mineral rocks. Obsidians rock is extremely rigid, a black solid which glows with various stunning colours (gold, silver, rainbowish etc.) under the sunlight. In the ancient time, Teotihuacan conquered the trade of obsidians in the adjacent area as it could be used to produce decorations as well as weapons. Besides, we were shown how to produce a local drink known as Pucke, a similar drink to tequila. Jokingly, Pucke is also known as Mexican viagra. It was milky and has a strong fermented smell. I still preferred my tequila with limau and salt.

Tequila, a blasting drink with the twist of lime of salt. Pucke, a milky white fermented drink which was known as local viagra. Tried both myself, tequila beat the hell out of pucke.

Obsidian rock with glowing gold colour under sunrays.

Colourful costumes of Mexican culture.

Teotihuacan (as exotic as it sounds) pyramids – The Pyramid of Sun and Moon, was known as “The City of God” by translation. Apparently, it was the place where men could turn to God. The base area was same as the Giza Pyramid in Egypt but the height was only half of that. It was windy with scorching sun but I enjoyed the scenic view very much. The steps were numerous but having experience of climbing the unimaginable Angkor Wat, this was just ABC. Vertigo was always my phobia but strangely enough, I have no problem with deep diving which involves great height underwater.

Pyramid of Moon in Teotihuacan.

I spent 3 good hours in Anthropology Museum, having my foot sore so much but worthy. It was the finest museum of its kind in the world. I was awed with the varieties, quantities and qualities of the exhibitions. Extremely impressive, it gave you the best perception of Central America history. The only drawback was that the descriptions were mostly in Spanish. Chronologically, the style and nature of the exhibitions altered but equally awesome. On the second floor, the Mexican costumes were well presented, such a colourful race! Outside the museum, I witnessed a very typical and interesting ritual, whereby four local Indians hung their foot upside down and spinning from top to down, stun show! See the picture and look at the height! It supposed to spin 52 repetitions to represent one year cycle and to cast away misfortune, accompanying with indigenous music and chanting.

Mexican locals who performed stunning ritual shows.

In conclusion, Mexico city surprised me. I did not expect too much prior to the trip but its rich culture and uniqueness caught me off guard. I wish I had more time to seek for more surprises.

Some of the amazing collections from world-class Anthropology Museum.

Tioman Shark Dive 8 March 2008

I had my Advanced Open Water Dive certificate in Tioman. The feeling of revisit Tioman with more relaxation was definitely somewhat different. Our diving date coincided with public holiday. The booking was so full that we had to board the night ferry from Mersing jetty, so did the return journey. I should conclude that the night ferry experience was ‘rocking’ up and down due to downpour and current. My dive buddies were Apple, Carrie and Fei. We stayed in Berjaya Tioman and dived with B&J Dive Centre. B&J was professional in diving business – equipment was well-maintained, boat was spacious and dive master was responsible. We did 3 dives with B&J, together with many foreigners. I did not rent any underwater camera this time but our Finnish diver friend, Timo, was kind to provide me photos for blogging.

Berjaya Tioman Beach and Spa Resort. Comfortable and scenic.

Magician Rock (52 min, 18.9 meters)
Magician was famous for its cool and colourful coralscape. I did not spot many special fish species but the coral view was pleasant. Right after descending, I spotted a juvenile harlequin sweetlip which was in the middle of transition to its adulthood. The physical appearances of juvenile and adult sweetlip differ from the dotted size on their body. This transition sweetlip had both big and small dots on its body, sweet!
Another adventure was my personal confrontation with the Titan Triggerfish attack. That was a hell of an excitement! I was taking my sweet time to glide through the coral while suddenly my buddy and dive master signaled warning to watch out my back. By the time I turned around, a nasty and bitchy triggerfish charged to my direction. Retreat and recharge again, it was within my arm-length and I could clearly saw its sharp and piercing tooth. Fighting to save my ass off, I hit the triggerfish repeatedly with my pointer. Huh, the stubborn triggerfish finally backed away and I was halfway to the surface! My buddies were watching the whole show with amusement, pity me…

Striking nudibranch searching for mates

North Point (52 min, 20.7 meters)
The dive site had some coral walls. Both macro and large species could be spotted here. I was excited to spot my first Barramundi Cod. It was shy and searching for shade when we went after for closer look. Besides, we also spotted a giant moray eel, as long as my height! Its sleeky body was pretty much exposed between the boulder slit. Check out the photo!

Giant moray eel! Secure your finger first...

Barramundi Cod, one of my wish list to spot

Renggis Island (61 min, 12.0 meters)
My 2nd time to dive Renggis. It was right in front of Berjaya Tioman Resort. My first dive was a night dive and I did not really enjoy it. My anticipation for this dive was therefore a bit reserved. Well, it turned out that this dive was awesome! We spotted many creatures – black-tip shark, cuttlefish, chevron barracuda, turtle, all sorts of clownfish and anemone.... It was a close encounter with a pair of cuttlefish. These creatures were amazing. They changed their body colour and pattern in a blink of time. Once, I spotted them emitting fluorescent colour while hunting at night, cool thing. There were more than one black-tip shark in Renggis. They were as big as my size, but fatter and bulkier! The only thing I wanted to complain was the surging current and thermocline.

Ever changing cuttlefish

We had half-day strolling Kampung Tekek, enjoying the fried rice and chicken, chatting non-sense, annoying Apple and Carrie, playing ‘moneyless’ mahjong…. In short, we had a quite relaxing diving holiday, well, put aside the ferry ride and gruesome driving journey. Also, I was satisfied with my diving skill, improving bits by bits. Keep diving, diver Fox…

My Travel Experience, Part 3 (Europe & Amsterdam)

Part 4 (Europe, Amsterdam)

Not wanting to travel alone, I shared my prize with a friend. The tour that I won was a budget tour. In fact, the itinerary was so compact that we stayed in every country for only two or three days. So much to see but so little time to utilize, I would say it was quite a challenge. The countries that we had covered were France, Holland, Germany, Monaco, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Italy and so on. I had vague memory on this tour, since the schedule was too congested. During that time, Euro was not established yet and therefore, we had so much fun in exchanging foreign currency in each country. As the first time to explore Europe, European countries were very similar and very different to me. Odd enough, their languages were so different in pronunciation but yet they shared the similar wording. They had their own food and cultures but soccer was pretty much dominant throughout the whole Europe. As much as I like French food, Italian food was exquisitely comparable to Spanish and Chinese food. Brand name, such as Gucci, Prada, Armani, Porsche, Ferrari etc. became too common in Europe.

There were two small but intriguing European countries worth to mention in this tour. Liechtenstein was the smallest country in Europe. It was famous for its stamp publication. The country still has their king system. Similarly, Monaco was small and scenic, popular for its winding F1 track and world-class Monte Carlo casino. Unfortunately, I still used film camera at that time and none of the photos were taken digitally.

Bridges in Amsterdam.

Amsterdam was the most typical harbour city to me. Local sailors bid farewell and travel far ashore while foreign sailors stopped by to refuel, to rejuvenate and even to get laid in the red-light district. That was always the image in my mind and it was exactly how I felt when I set afoot on this city. Amsterdam are world-renowned for many things – clog, cheese, tulips, window girls etc. Afterall, Amsterdam is always branded with XXX – Sex, Drugs & Rock n Roll.

Sea of Tulips.

The cutest snapshot in Keukenhof Garden.

In Keukenhof garden, I had seen the prettiest and the most variety tulips in my life. Their colours were so vibrant as if they were artificially painted. We spent more than 3 hours to snap shots but none of them justified the freshness and perfection of those tulips. You got to see with your naked eyes, for once in your life! Strolling along the notorious red-light district, I did feel some kind of pity and, well, kinky. The truth was raw and savage. Inside a transparent cubicle, the prostitutes elaborated their body to attract customers. The customer could even negotiate the price before making a deal. How pathetic… but somehow, prostitution was legal, so did the drug taking, and no one was complaining about the free window browsing.

Can you believe that Tulips originated from Turkey!?

My Travel Experience, Part 2 (France)

Bon Jour, we are talking about France today. France is worth to visit a dozen. Fashion, political power, wine, agriculture, architecture, history, sports, glamour, cinema…. Anything you can think of elegance, France has it all and be the best. It is a country which can self provide and self maintain, a country with veto power, strong defense system and yet stylish and artistic to the max. There are hundreds reasons French people can be so proud of themselves. Strangely, I found French people warm and friendly. The trick is to speak French with them, no matter how broken, they will offer their help more than willingly. Why they abhor English so much? Please study European history.

Paris is the most beautiful metropolitan city I have visited. No question about it. The air is aromatic with scent of romance and roses. Café and perfume shops are around corners all the time. The fact that from London to France is just 3-hours train distance made me travel to Paris for 5 times during my study. Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, Notre Dame Cathedral, Sacré Coeur, The Louvre….. You definitely need more than a week to explore Paris. The Louvre… how can I not mention that. The museum design is a beauty itself. It holds 4 most famous masterpiece in the world– the Mona Lisa, Winged Victory of Samothrace (Nike), Venus de Milo and Slave statue by Michelangelo. Another art museum worth a visit is Centre Pompidou. Totally different style from the Louvre, Pompidou exhibits the most futuristic and modern art works, be it in video, painting, audio clips or merely random poets. It may not be the cup of your tea but it definitely stretches your imagination and challenges your tolerance.

I travelled to Southern France (Loire Valley) with a small group of friends and had a blast of mid-spring time. At the heat of my final PhD writing, I decided to take a break and it was the most relaxing tour ever. We cycled to the suburb of Southern France, where Poppy flower blanketed the field casually, the sunny sky was painted with bright blue hue, freshest air and green vineyard combination, backdrop of unbelievable royal castles, mouth watering foods served in any restaurant you bumped into…. The peace, relaxation, fulfilment and tranquility was something I can never forget. I can only imagine if I retire there, I can live more than 150 year-old.

Next stop is Europe…. Yup, you heard it right, Europe. I always believe in lucky draws because I did win a Europe trip before. Yup, you heard it right again, do not shot me. I paid nothing to travel Europe one time when I won a lucky draw from STA Travel…. To be continued…

Moulin Rouge


Castle in Loire Valley

Poppy Field at suburb of Southern France


Rideau Castle in Tours

The most famous landmark - Eiffel Tower in Paris

My Travel Experience, Part 1 (England)

I always want to write something about my travel experiences. This is the best timing to flash back as I started to explore the world in year 1998. That will make it 10 years of unforgettable experiences. Flashing back, I am contended and proud of the journey I overtook. Most of my friends already knew that I am a travel hunger freak. My travel style and expectation changed with time. I will write it in many parts, symbolizing phases how I embraced my travel hobby, how I felt about each country.... The feeling are raw and personal, please do not get offended.

England was my virginity (God bless Queen Elizabeth!). Well, practically, I conquered Singapore before England but please forgive me for saving my virginity to England. The culture shock was nothing but all. Ashamed of myself, I was clueless about the differences between England and United Kingdom during my very first visit. In fact, they spoke ‘unconventionally’ as what I expected from TV. England oh England… I definitely had mixed feeling on this country. I love Her and I hate Her as much as I love London and I hate London. It was the country full of palpable antiquity, academic excellence and staunch believe in science and novelty but at the same time, it was also a country stained with hypocritical history, notorious gloomy weather and filthy snobbishness.

I had been staying in England for more than 5 years. It was my greatest privilege to pay countless visits to British Museum, my favourite place besides Science Museum. Living in London is excruciating when costs and expenses drown you but it will be a paradise if you have no worry on money. Leceister Square, Tower Bridge, Tower of London, Buckingham Palaces, Greenwich….some places worth to set my footprint. I did explore other cities besides London, such as Manchester, York, New Castle etc. but they were somehow shapeless to me, similar castles, similar garden and similar weather. Scotland was something different. It was William Wallace (Mel Gibson from Braveheart) who drafted the image of Scotland to me and it was exactly how I felt when I visited Edinburgh, a city with preserved history, breathtaking sceneries and unique accent.

Huh… I definitely need more spaces to blog. England itself already consumes a substantial part. To be continued… my next country is the dearest France, where I keep going back falling under Her irresistible charms. London or Paris? You must be kidding me, my friends….. London is old grumpy grandma and Paris is young sinful gorgeous mistress, make your pick….

Tower Bridge

Oxford

Chatsworth House, Sheffield


Trinity College, Cambridge

Visit to Malaysian Association for the Blind

I was glad to begin year 2009 with such a meaningful day. Serving community service organized by PETRONAS, I had the chance to visit Malaysian Association for the Blind (MAB) in Brickfields. Part of the new executive training, we were required to design activities for the blind people but out of our surprises, the MAB principal decided to plan the activities to surprise us. We virtually reached there without a clue what to expect.

I was so worried that I might step into a gloomy hut where many blind people started to complain and weep. I realized the thought was absolutely silly! We were welcomed by cheerful Geofrey, a blind graduate from University of Malaya. Watching him deliver a lively speech with Braille note, we were all deeply touched. Later, we were shown a short video clip on their Mt. Kinabalu conquer. Personally, I climbed Mt. Kinabalu before and I knew exactly how challenging it was. To me, they were more than heroes, but living proves that determination was invincible. According to the principal, they were planning to conquer Mt. Tahan, which was more challenging and thrilling.

Malaysian Association for the Blind (MAB) in Tun Sambanthan. www.mab.org.my

Touring the centre, we knew more about the MAB facilities. MAB is a place for blind people to learn their skills and having fun, such as Braille reading, learning massage techniques, friendship networking etc. By then, we knew how blind people read, use computer, carry out sports and recreation activities etc. We were paired with a blind buddy each to interact and communicate. A blind person can officially declare blind for 3 level – B1, B2 and B3 (Total blindness, visual impaired and blur vision). My blind buddy, Rostam, was fully blind since born. We chatted about living, activities, future and so on. Throughout the conversation, I had not heard him complaining a single thing about his life even though he had not seen the world before. At that particular moment, I was so ashamed of myself. We complaint how ugly is the colour of a shirt, we complaint how dark is the sky, we complaint how bad is the building design, we complaint how ridiculous is the movie, on and on….

My cheerful buddy, Rostam, who has the positive attitude about his life. My full respect.

My buddy was a skillful massager. He was due to finish his course in this May. Of course, I was more than willing when he asked me to become his practice subject. Huh…. That was such an awesome experience, a first class massage. I was no doubt that he could pass his test with flying colour. He told me that he hoped to earn living by himself with this skill. It was a fine Friday. So, after lunch, Rostam would have to walk for almost 1 km to reach the mosque for praying. As a non-Muslim, I stayed in the centre and chatted with other colleagues. We were all touched by many different true stories – some lost their eyesight after brain cancer or accidents, some born with blindness, some gradually became blind out of no reason etc. The most heartbroken one was about a little girl who could not see, hear and talk. All she could interact was by hand touching signal.

Afternoon activities were fun. We had the chance to experience their leisure activities. I played goal ball (blind hand ball) and blind ping pong. How? By hearing of course, you can imagine the difficulty. Our day ended with ‘We Are The Champion’ song and whole-hearted speech. The day was unforgettable, the day that I remind myself how to cherish life, how to appreciate everything in my life, how to treasure each moment you can see…. No doubt this visit changes the perspective on how I view life. I will always remember this day before I complain something.

Any donation to Malaysian Association for the Blind:
P.O. Box No. 10687, Kuala Lumpur 50722.
You can donate, to be a volunteer or to provide employment for the blind. MAB is just off the Tun Sambathan station in Brickfields. Around Jalan Tun Sambanthan, there are also plenty of massage centres by blind people.


"WITH YOUR HELP, OUR WORLD BECOMES A LITTLE BRIGHTER, EVERYDAY"
~ Malaysian Association for the Blind

World Heritage - Malacca

Being recognized as world heritage (Penang and Malacca) is definitely a good news to Malaysian. Congratulation! This means an influx of foreign tourist, booming the tourism to maximum. Malacca has indeed full of its own charms. This place is the birthplace of Sultan system in Malaysia as well as many tradition and culture. Baba and Nyonya are legendary while Hang Li Po story gives you endless imagination. Let's hope Malacca flourishes with more colour of history....

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This building is absolutely an eye candy for photographer.

Unique and colourful trishaws add spices to Malacca culture.

Stunning statue to guard the church.

Typical protocol and counsel arrangement with Sultan.