Category: Personal

Travel Journal – Phuket, Again…

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It has become almost an annual pilgrimage since my first visit in 2009, with only a break in 2011. I had wanted to post this right after I came back in April but only these few days I had only found time to sort out the photos I have taken over the past few months. No thanks to Ingress, in particular.

I almost had to cancel this trip because for the better part of the week before my flight, I was down with flu. It was particular bad two days before, when I was shivering in cold in spite of the warm weather. It would have been really sad if I had to cancel the trip, because I love Phuket and I would miss it dearly if I can’t go.

This time round I stayed again at the Woraburi Resort. There wasn’t much changes and the staff are still as friendly. What has changed, is that some of the staff can now speak Mandarin, perhaps as a reaction of the tourism industry in Phuket due to the number of mainland Chinese tourists flooding all parts of the world. Two of them attempted to speak to me in Mandarin even though they heard me conversing in English with my companions. When I told some friends of this, their reaction was horror, and even revulsion for being mistaken as mainlander Chinese. I have to say that Singapore appears to be the only place in the region that rejects the new reality of a resurgent China, even though we had no problem adapting to the influx of Japanese and Korean tourists in the past. For a predominantly Chinese place to reject Chinese, it has got to be another first for Singapore! The eradication of Chinese education in Singapore has been so successful that many Singaporean Chinese have become OCBC – Orang Cina Bukan Cina. Well done, PAP!

Anyway, rants aside. I had once again visited Phuket during the Songkran. The reason being that is the only time where I can play with water with abandon and not worry about getting soaking wet. While I would admit I hated being sprayed in the face and eyes with high-powered water guns, that doesn’t really happen very often anyway. It helps a great deal to get the stress and frustrations out of me as well.

I will end here and let the pictures speak for themselves. Unfortunately I ain’t very good at photography so I might not have captured the essence of what I saw very well. But I do hope it manages to bring out the beauty of the place so others may visit the place to experience it for themselves.

Travel Journal – Phuket

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It was pretty dramatic before this trip. On April 11th, a large earthquake struck near Sumatra in the afternoon and a tsunami alert went out over the entire Indian Ocean. I was crestfallen when I heard Thai authorities closed the Phuket airport. I attempted to find out the situation in Phuket over social media but after 2 hours I was none the wiser as fools repeatedly retweeted outdated messages and rumors, drowning out most of the useful information. For e.g. at 8pm Phuket Time someone was still retweeting a message that the first tsunami waves will hit at 5:45pm Phuket Time. Just how that information would still be useful to anyone was beyond me. I ranted to my friends that the strength of social media – its users – will also be its undoing. Fortunately, the tsunami warning was lifted by 10pm Singapore time (information which I obtained from NOAA) and the Thai authorities re-opened the airport an hour later (information passed on by a concerned colleague who was following the news on traditional media). I quickly packed my stuff as the trip will go ahead.


Photo Courtesy of xinyun.sg

This is my third visit to Phuket and the first time I stayed at a resort near Patong Beach. The last two times I had stayed at resorts in Karon Beach and then Kata Beach respectively. Personally I prefer the other two beaches as they are more tranquil and far less commercialised than Patong. That’s of course not mentioning that the resorts at the other two beaches are much cheaper and they have better amenities like swimming pools, and in my opinion better breakfast included. But Silver Resortel isn’t bad at all, the staff are polite and it comes with free Wifi. It’s also just about 5 minutes away from the beach, and within walking distance is Jung-Ceylon (perhaps the largest Shopping Mall in Phuket itself) and Bang La Road where all the interesting pubs are. In the case of my previous visits, I had to pay 500 baht at the hotel counter to purchase Wifi access and a lot of money is spent on transportation between the resort and Patong.

While I had enjoyed my last two visits (and still very much enjoyed it, considering the company I had), I enjoyed this visit even more because I get to experience the Songkran – the Thai New Year. I was however told that the Songkran in Phuket was way milder than other parts of Thailand, for e.g. Chiang Mai, which lasts several days. Basically, everybody just keeps making me wet (no pun intended!) on April 13th itself.

I wasn’t originally aware that I will be there during the Songkran. When I was told, I wasn’t particularly thrilled and in fact I felt dreadful since I don’t really enjoyed getting wet. I arrived a day before the Songkran and was exceptionally pissed when I repeatedly get sprayed on the face by irritating foreigners (not the local Thais!) with their super-soakers. Thinking back, I still didn’t enjoy that in particular because unlike the Thais who douse anyone with water as a cleansing ritual and to welcome the New Year, these foreigners were simply just picking on any unwary or unsuspecting passer-bys whom they know cannot retaliate. I really dreaded what is to come the day after.

Oddly, even though a lot of the Thais may are also just playing with the water, the Thai people themselves give us a lot more respect than the foreigners. Even while they might not actually be discriminating when splashing someone, they warned me in advance so I am ready for it. When they don’t, they just throw the water at my torso or lower body. Since this is part of their culture, I take it in my stride and either smiled or wave at them when it happens. Unlike the foreigners, no one deliberately “cums to my face” with their hoses or super-soakers, even when they are clear that I don’t mind getting splashed. After that, it’s no holds barred. I get splashed by the mobile squads on a pickup coming in the other direction or passing me by on the road. At times they come at me from the sides when I passed by their shops. I even recalled the Tuk-Tuk stopping by a traffic light and a pickup was just 2 car lengths ahead. A Thai chap smiled at me and then dipped his scoop into his barrel of water. As the Tuk-Tuk started moving past him, I quickly shout a warning to my friends to be ready and before I am even done with my warning, we were splashed. I realised that once I am wet from top to bottom, it simply means I am a “free-for-all” target for anyone. After a while, I just get used to it since for the entirety of April 13th, my friends and I went through several cycles of drying up and then getting completely soaked again. My only regret is that I didn’t have to equipment to keep my camera dry or the water resistant cameras which would allow me to snap photos of the Thais enjoying themselves, and I should have gotten myself a super-soaker too.


Photo Courtesy of xinyun.sg

The Songkran allowed me to experience the Thai culture up close and unlike Chinese New Year in Singapore, it was a lively affair. From the chap spraying water at us with his water soaker while dancing to the loud music (see photo), to the chap running after our Tuk-tuk with a bucket of water shouting in Teochew – tan! tan! tan! (meaning: wait! wait! wait!) – it brought my friends and I lots of joy and laughter. Perhaps this is what happiness is all about, as for that one day they forget all their worries and enjoy themselves with abandon. Comparatively, we find Chinese New Year in Singapore a chore of constant feasts and dealings with pesky relatives asking dreadful questions. I find Singapore exceedingly boring, pressurised and mundane. Perhaps that’s the difference between a tourist and a resident of the area, though I will still insist the food in Phuket – even just their fried rice – is way better than that of Singapore. I won’t be surprised that at the rate we are going, sooner or later tourists will find no better reasons to visit Singapore where things are expensive and food really taste terrible. (Just today my colleagues from Germany who are here on business told me that the Pad-Thai at a Thai restaurant was terrible. The portion is small and there was more tofu than meat. Whatever happened to our reputation of being a ‘food paradise’? While those who own homes may not be affected by housing rents, this is a testimony that commercial rents is certainly killing businesses – at least the eateries. They are resorting to cutting down on costlier ingredients to stay profitable.)

Anyway, here are the photos I managed to take on this trip when it is relatively safe to take out my camera (or my mobile or tablet).

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Random Discourse – Credit Card Fraud

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This is the only indication that something was awry on a Saturday afternoon more than a month ago (see picture). I was a little puzzled why I am getting these SMS when I am not making any online purchases. After all, I only receive similar SMS when making online purchases with my HSBC card.

Anyway, I logged in to my account and found no transactions so I ignored them. However, I start getting calls from ‘Unknown Number’ for the next 2 hours. As such calls (or those showing up as ‘Private’ on my phone) are normally from agents trying to introduce fund transfers, new insurance policies or a new credit card / credit line, I generally just ignore them. I was thinking to myself that these companies are getting so desperate they even work on Saturday afternoon. In fact, I even received one such call on Sunday.

When I was at work on Monday, these calls continued and I finally decided to answer one of them during lunch with the most hostile tone I can imagine. I had enough of these incessant calls and was ready to ‘reward’ the hapless soul on the other end for his persistence with a chewing out.

When the guy identified himself to be from HSBC (and not ‘on behalf of HSBC’), I was a little alarmed since the banks typically do not do sales calls on their own. All the more so when he further identified himself to be from the security department in charge of credit card fraud. It is not just because of the SMS I have received over the weekend but also because con men are also known to impersonate bank staff. I made a mental note not to give to this person my card security code or any codes if more SMS were received. I am certain that if they were con men, they would want some of these information to complete the transaction.

The guy (I can no longer remember his name) then asked me whether I had made 2 Internet purchases made a few days ago with my card. The purchases are over US$250 and over US$450 respectively and in fact were made to purchase very different items (including female handbags). That’s almost US$1000! When I confirmed that I haven’t made any of these purchases, he then asked whether my last transaction was to a certain gaming company in Germany (which I did make). By then I decided that the guy is probably genuine because he has not asked me any personal information yet and in fact, he was actively providing me information that is confidential. If he wasn’t genuine, then he must be a very sophisticated hacker / con men trying to lure me into a false sense of security.

In the end he told me that my card will be canceled and no funds will be released for these two transaction. He informed me that a new card will be sent to me in a few days and only then did he do the usual identity verification (IC number & date of birth).

This must be the season of Internet credit card fraud because a few of my friends also recently report fraudulent transactions and they only detected them after checking their statement. They had a pretty hard time convincing the bank that they didn’t make those transactions and to get those charges waived. Fortunately for me, this is the second time HSBC has caught fraudulent transactions on my card and I thanked the bank for its proactive action. Perhaps I should really do fewer purchases online…

Photos – The Pinnacle

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My friend who is a resident at The Pinnacle lent me two resident passes and I went with some friends over the holiday weekend and took some pictures. The view from the Sky Garden on the 50th floor is breathtaking but I wonder whether the residents who stayed there will still appreciate it after some time. I noticed that quite a bit of precautions were taken on the 50th Floor to deter those people who choose it as a spot to be a ‘jump off point’ to their next life. Unfortunately, that makes photo taking at that level difficult, since a lot of times the metal grills end up in the way and spoiling the photos.

The 26th Floor is restricted to residents only and fortunately I had a resident’s pass so that gave me access to that level. It has also a sheltered running track, a ‘Sky Gym’ and a children’s playground. I took two different group of people there over both Friday and Saturday. The photos on the 26th Floor were taken on the subsequent visit.

Situated just a stone’s throw away from the CBD and in between two MRT stations (with Outram MRT being the interchange station between the NE and EW lines), I think the residents got a good deal for a unit there.

Photos – Marina Bay Sands

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I still have a few more days of leave to go after coming back from Phuket and it’s no good cooping up at home. So I head down to town in the late afternoon of a rainy Tuesday to the Marina Bay, hoping to take some photos of the Marina Bay Sands and the Helix. If you ask why did I go to the Marina Bay Sands instead of Resort World Sentosa which has opened earlier, the answer is simple: Marina Bay Sands is easily accessible on foot or by public transport without any add-on cost.

My first impression of the place? WORK IN PROGRESS! There’s still a whole bunch of scaffolds, construction equipment (cranes) still in operation and many construction workers milling around putting the final touches to the place. Even the Helix itself is half completed.

The impression is similar for Resort World Sentosa when I looked across from Vivocity. Frankly, both of the Integrated Resorts [IR] are nothing more than construction sites in their final stages of touching up. Had it been just any other mall or commercial building, it would not have been allowed to open.

Thus, all the glitches and issues in them are of no surprise to me. While a human baby is expelled from the mother’s body before its head grows too big for its passage through the birth canal, the IR was forcefully opened so that the casinos can begin operation. Had there been more delays, there will be damage (financially and economically) to the entire project. Very much like a baby staying longer in the womb would have died stillborn.

Either way, there is really nothing spectacular about Marina Bay Sands until its own sky garden is opened. It’s just another high end mall like Ion Orchard with shops selling branded goods. The view of the skyline of the Central Business District [CBD] from it or the Helix is another matter entirely. If you want a good photo of the skyline of Singapore, this is one of the place to go to snap some pictures. Personally, I would return in the evening some time in the future to obtain some night shots of Singapore’s skyline.

So, here’s the pictures I took. They might not be impressive since I ain’t a photographer and I take them for my own pleasure. At least I am proud to say I didn’t rip them off from someone else’s site.

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