Category Archives: Travel

Nay Pyi Taw, the next land of opportunities?

March 1, 2012 – 4:59 pm

After 5 days in Nay Pyi Taw, we see so much land available in Nay Pyi Taw for development. In Nay Pyi Taw, they had an airport which is funded by the Chinese government. The airport is impressive but like I mentioned in my earlier posts, its not fully operational and currently only serves domestic flights.

Hotel Zone was still developing. If I’m not wrong, there were less than 10 hotels in the hotel zones with a number of them currently under construction.

There are only a handful of tourists attractions such as the Gems Museum and the Uppatasanti Pagoda.

In Myanmar, there isn’t any auto-roaming facilities and therefore, I reckon this is something the government had to work on. The roads are cemented and at the divider, there are watering facilities which will water the plants at specific times. I look forward to more exciting developments in Nay Pyi Taw. This trip had been another eye-opener for me and I’ve learnt quite abit.

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White Elephants. Yes it is.

February 28, 2012 – 11:10 am

In Nay Pyi Taw, there is an elephant enclosure at the foot of Uppatasanti Pagoda where it houses white elephants. Their skin are soft reddish-brown and pink when wet. In Myanmar, White elephants are a symbol of power and fortune and at the enclosure itself, there are 6 of them.

The next time if you visit Nay Pyi Taw, remember to take a look at the White Elephants.

Hotel Zone at Nay Pyi Taw

February 26, 2012 – 11:58 pm

In Nay Pyi Taw, the government has designated an area as the hotel zone where all the hotels are being located. However, most of these hotels are resorts and most of the hotels are actually still under construction.

In my opinion, the government had not really developed its tourism sector and there are much left to be developed and enhanced. There are currently 2 shopping malls in Nay Pyi Taw, both located within walking distance from my hotel. However, the size of the shopping malls are approximately half of Eastpoint Mall.

So far, I understand that there is 1 cinema in Nay Pyi Taw which is showing local movies and 2 overseas movies, Harry Potter and Alice in Wonderland. The tickets are priced at USD$3, USD$5 and USD$8, depending on your seats.

For your information, all visitors into the malls are subjected to security checks, which is a similar arrangements in Manila.

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From Yangon to Nay Pyi Taw

February 25, 2012 – 12:42 pm

There are 2 ways to travel from Yangon to Myanmar’s new capital, Nay Pyi Taw. You can either travel by car, which is approximately a 4 hours ride or travel by air via its domestic airline Myanma Airways which will take approximately 1 hour.

For me, I took the domestic airline at departed at 6am (local time). It was definitely an experience. It was a propeller plane and in my opinion, not very well maintained. Its also the first time when I can actually see the cockpit of the plane. The experience was like that of traveling via budget airline. The plane did not descend gradually, it was more like an experience on a roller coaster, it just went straight down.

Over at Nay Pyi Taw, we arrived at Nay Pyi Taw International Airport which was not fully operational. There were aero bridges and baggage belts, but they were not in use.

Based on what I understand, the airport should open within the next 6 months.

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A night in Yangon

February 25, 2012 – 1:51 am

Its not a day in Yangon since I arrived around late afternoon in Yangon on Monday. It was a hot day in Yangon and we checked into Hotel Yangon which was about 15 minutes drive away from Yangon International Airport. Before the trip, I knew that I will be having problem with roaming since there isn’t any telco partner for my service provider but I thought probably they will have a decent internet connection. But I guess, I was wrong. There was wifi connection, but it was just not sufficient to support video calls.

Traffic in Yangon was crazy, but probably not as bad in Ho Chin Minh City in Viet Nam. What caught the attention of me was a lorry that was carrying a large number of people.

Like many other countries, there are street stalls too.

If you are traveling to Myanmar, do take note that they do not accept USD in CB series. You will also have to make sure that the notes are clean as each and every note will be scrutinize by the staff.

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2011 Top 10 Blog Post

December 30, 2011 – 9:56 pm

From Singapore to Hong Kong, my Top 10 blog posts focused on food, the developments of Punggol and my March trip to Hong Kong. In 2011, 2 of my poly friends, wifey and I witnessed one of our friend’s wedding in Hong Kong. It was a time for wifey and I to spend some time together in Hong Kong and Macau.

No.10: Gong Cha in Hong Kong
I was quite excited when I saw a Gong Cha outlet in Central. At the point of time, I was still very much crazy about Gong Cha. In Singapore I had a cup or 2 everyday and so its no surprise that I wanted to have some when I see one in Hong Kong.

No.9: Local delights for breakfast in Hong Kong
Huifan and I went on a breakfast expedition on the 5th day of our Hong Kong trip which brought us to Shan Shui Po. It was a place where you can experience the life as a local. It is a place where their regular customers gather, usually senior citizens. I like the feel of the place as it was uniquely Hong Kong.

No.8: Take 5 at Novena Square
Once in awhile, I will do food reviews on my blog. In January, I visited Take 5, which opened a new outlet in Novena. It was not a positive review and that was my last visit.

No.7: Marina Bay Sands Skypark – A different experience for every visit
I’ve made many visits to Skypark since it opened. I blog about my 5th visit to the skypark because it was one of my longest stay on the skypark and it was the first time we witness sunset and nightfall at the skypark.

No.6: Mido Cafe @ Temple Street in Hong Kong
Our food expedition continues at Mido Cafe @ Temple Street which is famous for their baked rice. Mido Cafe is one of the traditional tea cafes that you would see in Hong Kong dramas where there are windows and blinds, simply no air conditioning.

No.5: Maritime Experiential Museum and Aquarium
The word aquarium was misleading since there is no aquarium in the first place. But the museum is still pretty much interesting, if you are boat person. What I was impressed with was the Typhoon Theatre which was a 360 degrees multi sensory display where we got to experience the rough seas that the ship had to go through.

No.4: Soya beancurd at Old Airport Road
Soya beancurd revolution? I’m not sure if it is but surely the recipe was improvised and we managed to get some really tasty soya beancurd of a different texture. Where are they located? All at Old Airport Road Market.

No.3: Official Opening of My Waterway@Punggol
I was invited to the official opening of My Waterway@Punggol. It was a development that was the highlight of Punggol as an eco-town. Its a waterway that cuts across Punggol where residents are able to run or cycle along it. White doves were released and as Punggol is an eco-town, the white doves were actually made of bio degradable materials.

No. 2: Punggol Waterway
Just before the official opening of My Waterway@Punggol, I got an exclusive guided tour conducted by HDB. It was my first visit to the waterway at night and it was simply impressive.

No.1: Our visit to Punggol Promenade
A new Promenade opens in Punggol in March this year and it has a bridge that brings residents from Punggol to Pasir Ris (Lor Halus to exact). Ethan and Ezanne enjoyed themselves, especially when they got a chance to take a photo at the bicycle park.

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Place Bellecour

July 4, 2011 – 12:24 am

When you are in Lyon, you will have to visit their city centre Place Bellecour. Here, you will be able to find many heritage buildings which I personally love their architecture.

As you walk along the streets, you may notice vintage cars traveling along the roads.

Place Bellecour is also where you will find their tourism icon, which I thought is something that you should not miss.

In case you have more questions on what to see in Lyon, I’ve included a video by Lyon Tourisme in this post to give you a better overview of Lyon.

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Transportation in Lyon

July 3, 2011 – 2:04 am

In Lyon, there are quite a few modes of public transport. You can either travel by bus, taxi, tram or metro and personally I thought, out of my 4 days in Lyon, the most trustworthy mode of transportation is metro.

I understand from my local friends that tram routes or bus routes may change depending on road conditions. For example, if there are road works, the tram or bus service may choose to stop service at a particular bus stop. The charges for tram, bus and metro is the same. Its a standard flat fee of 1.60 Euros regardless of the distance if you purchase from the ticketing machine. However, if you purchase your bus ticket when you board the bus, then it will cost 2.00 Euros.

For taxis, similar to Singapore, there is a meter in the taxi itself to calculate the fare based on the distance traveled. However, you might want to note that in most cases, we realised that they tend to round up the charges to a full figure. For example, if its 4.30 Euros, they will round up the charges to 5 Euros. I’m not too sure if this is a common practice though.

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The efficiency of the French

June 29, 2011 – 12:39 pm

When I first arrive at Charles De Gaulle, I thought to myself, this is going to be one of the most complicated airport that I’ve been to. When I arrived at the immigration, somehow, there isn’t any proper queuing system but at least I will say, clearing the immigration is almost a breeze.

However, things changed when I was waiting for my luggage.

It took me and other passengers almost an hour just to collect our luggage. After my 2 hours train ride, I finally arrived in Lyon. It took me more than 2 hours before I was able to check in into my apartment. Maybe we are not used to their working style and maybe they just like to do things slowly and carefully, but I’m quite sure, this is something that I’m not looking forward to.

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Honeymoon Dessert in Singapore

May 14, 2011 – 7:42 pm

In September 2010, Sze brought me to a dessert shop at World Trade Centre at Causeway Bay. It was near 11pm and there was still a long queue after we left. In March 2011, I wanted to bring wifey to this dessert shop again but sadly, there isn’t enough time for us to visit.

On Friday, by accident (I use the word accident because it was totally unintended and I had no knowledge that Honeymoon Dessert has arrived in Singapore), we came across Honeymoon Dessert and guess what, we had desserts for lunch.

We ordered 5 different types of desserts. First we had Mango Pomelo Sago. It tasted slightly different from the one I had in Hong Kong as the coconut taste was much stronger, probably they had too much coconut milk in it. They were not stingy with the fillings and I’m sure you will enjoy the mango and pomelo.

Next, we had 3 different types of pancakes. We had banana pancake, durian pancake and mango pancake. It was definitely not a disappointment. The pancakes filling was a mixture of the fruit and cream and you will be surprised by the portion they had for the fillings, it was quite reasonable.

The last desert we had was Baked Mashed Taro Sago Pudding. Baked sago on the top and yam filling at the bottom. Wifey enjoyed it.

Our total damage was about $25 and I thought it was alittle on the high side. Nevertheless, both of us enjoyed our lunch very much. If you are interested, Honeymoon Dessert has 3 outlets in Singapore, 1 at Vivocity, 1 at Bugis and 1 at 313 Somerset. You can visit their website for the locations of their stores as well as their menu of desserts.