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Hiking up the original Great Wall of China
My first visit to the Great Wall was when I was a wee little five year old lass. My mom, grandma, and I were in Beijing to get our visas/passports to move to Canada. Evidently, you had to personally go to Beijing to get these things, back then. My memories of that trip are extremely fuzzy, but I do remember desperately wanting to climb “to the top” of the Great Wall. Whatever that meant. And I remember being disappointed, when my mom, wearing incredibly impractical shoes, refused to go with me. Fast forward to 2015 and I was in Beijing again, with my Dad and Mom, for medical reasons…
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Angkor Wat
Angkor Wat inevitably comes up on many lists of must-sees in Southeast Asia, so I knew it was going to be one of the top destinations I prioritised from Singapore. Five months after moving to Singapore, I convinced a friend from Sydney to go with me. Siem Reap itself is fairly contained, a busy stop on the backpackers circuit with lots of cafes and restaurants to explore. The ruins of the ancient temples are in an archaeological park right by the city, and is the main tourist draw, of course. You’ll need to get a multi-day pass to explore it. There are many ways to explore the park, with van…
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London 2012
Sitting on a little patch of grass, surrounded by tall office towers in the centre of London, I am ready to watch the London 2012 Opening Ceremonies. As we get closer to the 9pm start time, the crowds gather and soon there are hundreds of us sitting around the square eagerly anticipating the show. Even the short spurt of rain can’t dampen our spirits. At 9pm, we chant down the last 10 seconds and kick start over three hours of a tremendous show. My favourite is watching and listening as individuals and small groups within the large crowd stand up to cheer their own country’s athletes on when their national…
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Shakespeare’s Globe
There are hollywood actors — pretty faces and gorgeous bodies, and then there are real actors — talented individuals who can memorize and execute hundreds of lines of script, on cue, with passion and conviction. The latter are the truly talented ones, but little recognised thanks to our modern society’s obsession with glamour and celebrity. In London, I had a chance to watch at play at the Globe Theatre in London’s Southbank recently. Along with three other friends, we stood amongst dozens of others in the centre of the traditional round theatre and watched a group of actors perform Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew, a comedy about a wild and fiery…
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24 hours in Brussels
Enroute to London, I spend a day in Brussels, capital of moule & frites, beer, and the European Union. At an internet cafe, I check my emails and Facebook and hear some shocking news that an acquaintance has died. C was actually my first scuba diving instructor, taking me through my intro to Padi course on the Perehentian Islands in 2008. I had an instant crush on him (what is it with scuba diving instructors?!) and feel like he played a role in my love for scuba diving. Such a tragedy, so young and alive, and the type of person to befriend everybody. I’m in shock and saddened. Life can…
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Never Never Dam
It strikes me that Amsterdam is like a modern day fairy tale city, a mini utopian world. Granted, I am a tourist, visiting for only a few days, so naturally I only see the shiny, beautiful, and pretty parts of the city. But having visited many cities, Amsterdam is the closest thing to that fairy tale picture perfect town we dream of. The canals and roads ring around the central area, forming picturesque streets lined with slightly leaning heritage houses in a multitude of colours. Each house comes with a little hook at the top, a feature carried through from the days when all these houses were merchant houses and…
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The Anne Frank House
Years ago, I read the diary of Anne Frank and must admit that I’d forgotten many of the details now. I’d forgotten that the house where the Frank family hid, was right in Amsterdam, but once I realised, I had to go for a visit since the house is now a museum. For those unfamiliar with the story, Anne Frank is a young Jewish girl who grew up during Nazi Germany. Her family emigrated to the Netherlands to escape Hitler’s regime, but when the Nazi’s invaded the Netherlands, they were forced to go into hiding in their father’s office building in the centre of Amsterdam. The museum is one of…
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International Reunions
I was lucky to catch up with two friends during the time I was in the Netherlands. Wouter is a friend I met seven years ago while studying in Milan. We met up for the day in Amsterdam and played tourist, visiting a cheese tasting shop and doing a canal cruise, wrapping up the day with a few beers by a canal. Though it’s been 7 years, both of us apparently look the same and we both feel it’s only been a few years…time flies! Mijiza, a friend I met through a fellow Canadian while in Sydney, lives in Rotterdam. She invited me to stay with her for…
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Walking tour of Amsterdam
I thought our guide was North American — he sure sounded like it. But he introduced himself as “Geert”, a very Dutch name and announced that he grew up in Portugal. Interesting… So our tour guide for our free three hour guided walking tour through Amsterdam’s historic centre is a Portugese-Dutch guy with a very American accent, a booming voice, and a witty sarcastic sense of humour. I like it already. Geert is essentially a “freelancer”, working for tips. The tours are free and organised by a group called the Sandeman tours. If you are happy with the tour, you can tip as much or as little as you want…
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“We are against war, and tourist menus”
That was the slogan written on the chalk board outside a restaurant in Trastevere, a once working class but now trendy neighbourhood in Rome, West of the Tiber river. Oh how I can sympathise with that! It’s not something you think about when living in your own city — you go to restaurants you like for specific foods or try new ones based on reviews or recommendations from friends. In Sydney, I know where to go for the best laksa, I have my preferred coffee shops, and I have a long list of restaurants and bars I have yet to check out. It’s much the same for Vancouver. But when…
