Lava Wall

Legaspi, Philippines - My travelling doll amidst the lava wall at Mayon volcano.

Got to see lava

If it is any consolation to myself, I finally manage to see lava. I thought I was about to waste my only decent holiday of the year being trapped in a dinky town with nothing to do but sit in my room watching tv. I finally decided I would just suck up my pride and call the taxi that fetched me from the airport to take me to see the volcano. Yup, I had a strong feeling I was over charged for the ride and it was quite a waste renting a 10-seater van all by myself. So he came and drove me to some of the sites that had great views of the Mayon volcano. Much to my delight, the volcano had some activity during the night I was there. In the night, you could see streams of lava flowing down the Mayon. It was a majestic sight. I couldn't get any pictures because it was too dark and I found it impossible to hold my camera still for more than 3 seconds.

The next morning, I got the driver to find me some willing villagers to walk me to the nearest lava site. This was rather difficult because the military had imposed a 6 km radius evacuation plan. The villagers had to take me through the routes where the military guards could not spot us. Fortunately, there were plenty of volunteers. Initially I had a guide, who then brought along the uncle who then brought along another uncle by the road side. I wasn't upset about the party but everyone they bring along means Pesos coming out of my pocket. We had a 30 odd minutes 'brisk' walk to the destination. They brought me to a point where the lava had formed into a huge wall and many coconut trees were brought down by the lava. The wall was still smoking so I did not want to risk my hands getting burned to climb it. The sulfur smell was still very strong so I just took a few snaps, had a short rest and started my journey back. Not 'Discovery channel' close but close enough for a tourist. A good experience for me and a profitable morning for my guides and driver. A win-win situation, I guess.

What am I doing here?

Immediately upon reaching Legaspi, I find myself regretting it because it was raining quite heavily and I have no idea what I am doing in some dinky little town in Philippines. I initially came to Legaspi and skipped the more touristy part of Philippines because I thought the volcano here was about to blow. Upon reaching here I find that for everyone life is as normal. People are still busy running around doing their usual thing, all the news you read is a little exaggerated. I have no idea how to get to the volcano and it seems the only tourists here are visiting relatives or some volcano specialists. I on the other hand am a tourist who knows next to nothing about a volcano except that my mobile phone theme is volcano.

I am going to stuck here for 2 more days without the trusty lonely planet because I decided to be adventurous and not let the lonely planet ruin my holiday. Now I scouring the local bookshops trying to find out where the hell is Legaspi, Philippines. Well I get what I asked for. Or I need to find the local bar and chat up with some locals who are willing to be my tour guide. Anyone would do but I wouldn't be complaining if it turns out to be a hot local Filipina.

My 4% fund

From the few places that I have stayed for a little while - Malaysia, US and currently Singapore, Singapore's deposit interest rate has been the most dismal. Currently, the rates for a savings deposit is about 0.25%. That means if you have 10,000 Sing dollar in a savings account in the beginning of the year, you will get only $25 at the end of the year. Yes 25 stinking dollars. If you have breakfast at Starbucks and then take a taxi to the bank to collect your one-year $10,000 interest, the breakfast and taxi fee would have almost wiped out all your interest. Moreover, $10,000 savings to a salary earning adult like me is ultra difficult to save (of course, with my lifestyle I almost spend it all).

Well, my colleagues and I have been scouring the banks for a better deal and quite recently there has been a few 'limited time only' 2.8% fix deposit rates if you put 20,000 and above. Good rates compared to 0.25% but $20,000. Somehow, I think I can do better than 2.8%. I have always boasted to the colleagues that I can top the 2.8% offer. I told them if they put money with me I will give them a 4% fix rate. Surprisingly, none has taken me up on the offer. I don't know why not!! Do they think I would run away with their money?

Lately, a bank has called me up and said they would give me a 5% loan for six months. 5% is not too far from what I am offering my friends. I have been thinking of taking it up to see if I can get back more money with it. Very tempting. I will let you know if I take up the offer. The chances of me taking up the loan is very high. Very high indeed.

Mad interns

(This was written 13 April 2006)

Today is the last day for our intern who came in from one of the local colleges. Almost from day one, we constantly had to keep her entertained by conjuring up menial tasks for her to do. Correction, maybe from day four onwards – after her id was created and she found out that she had no internet access. It really isn’t because my colleagues were mean or anything but whenever we give her quality jobs, jobs that required learning and understanding the business, she would complain or come up with a half completed jobs that took us more time to clean up. So for the past six weeks we have just been trying to keep her entertained, filling envelopes, filing, excel charts, no brainer SQL queries, crossword puzzles, sudoku, etc. If we don’t keep her entertained, she would come over to our desk and pester us. Her enthusiasm on non work related things when she is not napping on the job is really incredible.

She was the topic of many of our office gossips for the past few weeks. Some of the ladies couldn’t stand her and she could somehow sense it, so she ended up disturbing me and the other guy who could take her ‘rubbish’ most of the time. I even wrote in her report book 10 things she should learn from this internship. For example, thou should not sleep on your desk during the job, thou should learn to do your job with enthusiasm, etc. This was a reaction to her constantly posting posters of scantily clad women on my cubicle.

However, sometimes we adults or professionals who think we know better might benefit from learning about life from those who are more innocent. She was annoying but there was an innocence around her that was lacking in all of us. When she was happy, she smiled. When she was bored, she let us know about it. She bawled her eyes out when she left. I wish I could cry and feel more like her and not feel that my heart is becoming more and more calloused gradually.

Derms and All

Thanks for all your concern. The previous post was my sighing and my attempt to score some pity points. I have pretty much learned to live with what’s happening with my skin and am grateful that it doesn’t bother me as much as it can. Of course, I still wish it to go away as it is still embarrassing but it has improved quite a lot.

Yes, I grown rather tired of dermatologist because they tend to recommend the same treatment for a great majority of skin diseases. Corticosteroids. Now this class of medication has helped me a lot but I sometimes wonder if they worsen the underlying problem – which often goes undiagnosed. Of course I am not trying to undermine the work of dermatologists whom have spent a great deal of time learning their trade rather I see there are some underlying flaws in their approach of always treating the symptoms and not the cause. Just in case you are wondering, I think the better treatments are cyclosporine and Narrow-band UVB treatment. As with all medication, these treatment have their side-effects as well.

Skin deep

It's 12 something and I know I shouldn't be writing. Sleep, it does your body good. However, I am still up so I just thought I'd come up here and do some complaining. For the last few years, I have been struggling on and off with a skin problem. At first it was diagnosed as an adverse reaction to insect bites, now it is discoid eczema. Living with a skin problem is no fun. There were times when my skin was so itchy I wake up with blood on my sheets because I have scratching my skin in my sleep.

Fortunately, lately the condition is rather manageable. Also, most of the spots are covered by my usual long sleeve shirt and long pants. I shouldn't be complaining because I have seen pictures and heard stories of people who had to go through so much more. It is a terrible condition to live with and western medicine doesn't seem to have a cure for the condition only temporary solutions. Even going to the gym, I am always in a track pants. Hopefully, things go better in the upcoming months. Enough complaining already. Good night.

Don't delete this Blog

At long last, this is an update of my blog. I am updating this blog because I have told many people that I was going to update my blog weeks ago. I haven't updated this blog so long, I fear Blogger would delete this from their disk space. Fortunately, they don't have this policy because I think thousands of blogs will be deleted daily.

Anyway, my boss just had a talk with me today about my confirmation and I was really at a lost of words about what I want to learn in the future when it comes to my job. I usually can talk about most topics under the sun but when it comes to my future, I am stumped. My prophetic capabilities stop there. She wasn't asking about my predictions on the Singapore stock market (in which case I would likely say up) nor was she asking about who the next prime minister of Malaysia would be, she just asked about my aspirations in my current job. And my mind turned blank. There was nothing I could say that didn't sound like a lie. Sad to say but I wouldn't wish for any of you to be in my situation today. Just in case my colleagues stumble on this blog, I absolutely adore them and I am not in the mood for lying today.

I do miss my days as a temporary worker. Ah, carefree and unhindered. Roaming around collecting stories and experiences. Too bad I don't have an endless supply of money. If I did, I would be a total bum. Maybe, that is why I don't have an endless supply of money. God is trying to teach me character and hard work. An idle mind is the devil's playground. Fortunately, that statement is not in the Bible.

More China Pics

Sorry haven't taken the time to write much so I guess I will post some of my other China pictures. Actually I feel like writing but my thoughts are not very organised right now.


Monk's Ritual, XiangCheng, China. I managed to sneak a picture of a monk shaving another monk's head in this lovely and tranquil temple.




Bustling Marketplace, Litang, China. A typical, Tibetan-Chinese style marketplace. Another place to find some exotic and strange foodstuff for the typical city-dweller like me.




Temple Courtyard, XiangCheng, China. We were stuck in this little town for a day and we were grumbling a little because the town was not pretty. Moreover, it seems like the whole town is going through major reconstruction. However, the huge Tibetan temple at the place was enchanting. Tourist-free except for the four of us, quiet and the monks and the people were really friendly.




Head on a pedestal, China. Buddha head sitting in a Tibetan temple somewhere in Western Szechuan. After a while, I lost track of some of the temples that I have been.

The Journey to LiJiang

As with most trips I have done, sometimes the journey is more interesting than the destination. I didn't write much about my week long detour to Lijiang via the Sichuan-Tibet highway but the trip was very memorable. Yes, there were daily bus rides which most of the time were not so comfortable but the trip, the scenery, the company and the friendly people that I met made it memorable. Here are some pictures.


River towns, Yajiang, China - Many towns were situated beside a river. With a raging river, beautiful mountain landscapes, what more could a town ask for?


Kid Games, Litang, China - Kids playing at a monastery compound at Litang. Better than video games, if you ask me.


Blue Skies and Sunbeams, Yajiang, China - Blue skies, fresh air and vast open lands, this is the part of China that captivated me more than the industrilisation of modern China.


Monk's house, Litang, China - This friendly monk invited me in to his house for a chat.

Final few days: Hong Kong

I reached Hong Kong this morning and it means I have reached my final destination for the trip. I wanted to come over so that I could meet up with some friends and also to go to church for a Sunday. Somehow, one Sunday probably will not make up for the months or years of neglect of my spiritual life but at least it is a try.

Anyway, Hong Kong and its previous British rule means no more toilets that can't take toilet paper, no more spitting everywhere, no more smoking in the buses and those are very welcoming thoughts. Also, with all the Falun Dafa protesters in the Kowloon harbour area means I am kind of out of China.

I checked in to another el-cheapo Mirador Mansion beside the infamouse Chunking Mansion because it was cheap. It was also rather sleasy - about 10 bunk beds cramped together in a little room with 2 toilets in the side. After I agreed to the place, I was wondering why I had to sleep in a sleasy place like this since my flight is only 3 days away so I promptly checked in to the YMCA beside the Peninsula hotel. Now, the Peninsula hotel would be nice but the price of one night would be equivalent to another China trip.

Today there is a level 3 typhoon warning in Hong Kong and the walk around the Tsim Tsa Tsui promenade was nice and breezy. Hopefully, the level would go up a little so it will get a little breezier in Hong Kong.

Day ??: Guilin & Yangshuo

Guilin had a beautiful 7-star park. I was pleasantly surprised when I climbed up the Sky Pavilion to see a gorgeous view of Guilin. Also, since the pavilion isn't heavily touted on the tourist map or the lonely planet, there was only one other person there. Guilin definitely has its charm - gorgeous scenery and interesting food. I was thinking that some of the small limestones hill can be compared to Ipoh but Ipoh doesn't really have much to snare the tourists. Too bad. My hometown should be more interesting. Yangshuo lies an hour and a half south of Guilin. Another gorgeous little town, absolutely catered to the tourists. I knew I was going to face a rough time with the touts, when an 'Auntie' followed me from the bus and down the whole of West street - their most touristic street- despite numerous demands that I wasn't interested in whatever rooms she had. I did a little cycling around the vicinity of the town to the some scenic spots and the place was very interesting. We passed through padi farms and little lakes to reach the popular Banyan tree and Moon Hill. I'm glad the French tourists that came along with the trip didn't want to do the parks nor the bamboo rafts nor the caves, as I did not want to get wet at all. I did not have a guesthouse or clean clothes so I wasn't very interested to take the bus to HK all grimy and muddy. Maybe I did miss some interesting sites, but then Yangshuo is really near to Singapore/Malaysia and I can always come back for a prolonged weekend trip. Anyway, after the bicycle trip - I was all sticky and grimy so I would have to look for a shower before the bus trip. Maybe drop down the local Giordano and get a cheap t-shirt.

Day ??: Kunming & GuiLin

I have lost tracked on time so I am not sure what day it is but I did zoom past Kunming and will likely fly pass Guilin just the same. Anyway, Kunming was a nice change after some days in small cities. The city has almost the same type of shops, like Singapore - Carrefour, Giordano, U2..., so I guess I am not missing too much. It seems like I might be rushing a little if I am to make it to HK. That will depend on whether I can contact some friends else I will have 2 more days to spend in Yangshuo. Tried some Kunming food which was quite good but really didn't do the city justice as I stayed only 1 day. The same will go for Guilin. All I did so far was had bad food in Guilin which was supposedly a very good place for food. It seems like with their menu I can only read the simple dishes and the stupid waiters can't understand me enough to make recommendations so I end up with really plain and horrible dishes. The next time I will just do what I normally do and point at what the locals are eating but first I have to find the places to eat. GuiLin does have really nice lakes, rivers and mountain backdrops. Also, at night they block off the main street for a night market. However, it seems like there don't seem to have a large backpacker crowd here so I had a hard time looking for a cheap hotel. I ended staying in a 100 yuan room, which was quite nice but it has been the most expensive lodging I have paid so far. Also, I took the 25 hour train from Kunming to Dali. Wanted to fly but they didn't have a discount so I decided to savour the experience of taking a China train. I can't visit China and not take the train. The trains were more comfortable than the buses and there were attendants cleaning every so often and reminding the Chinese not too smoke in the cabin. Not too bad but the place was really packed with people and I had to worry a little about losing my stuff. For your info, most internet cafes in China block blog sites so I haven't been able to look at any of the blogs I have written or reply to any comments.

Day 13: Dali

I reached Dali in the afternoon and there was a little rain. The horse carriage that was suppose to send me to my guesthouse stop me in the middle of the city and I had to make my way to a guesthouse that I had in mind. Unfortunately, I was sidetracked by some of the touts along the way and stayed in another guesthouse that was affiliated. I found a Swiss guy, Patrick, that was on my bus from Lijiang staying at the same place and so we decided to share a room and cut the cost.

Dali (Old town) is a neat town, built somewhat like an ancient Chinese fortress built with four main gates. I suppose in more ancient time a wall would have surrounded the city but now only the gates remain. Also, there is a huge inland lake right beside the city. The main hotels are all in a satellite town to the south, Xiaguan, so there are not a lot of local Chinese tourists with their little flags crowding the streets.

I liked Lijiang better as Dali is a little more 'Chinese' which means it is a little dirtier. However, it does not mean that Dali is not a charming city. I had a really good time taking the chair-lifts to the top of Zhonghe Temple and there were no tourists once I hiked up the steps a little more. I found a great cafe on the top and had a really good time just reading and chilling out. I also did a little tour of the Lake in the rain but the places the boat took us to was not that interesting. The boat trip was nice as the rain made the trip very cooling and the raindrops dropping on the lake was very serene.

Day 11: Lijiang

I finally reached Lijiang after grabbing my bags from Qiaotou. It would be nice to stay in a place for a little longer than the short hops that has been happening. China is a big place and even in little places, it takes a few days to visit some of the sites.

Anyway, the old town of Lijiang is a very interesting place. The place is very nice and has a lot of friendly people. However, after a while you will see that the place is full of tourist. The old town is a little like a theme park with everything catered for tourism, which was fine with me since I am a tourist. This also means that there were clean toilets and the public toilets were impeccably clean. It was definitely cleaner than my guest house toilet so I paid the 5 jiao to use the toilet beside my guest house.

It felt a little touristy but I loved the place. The old town had 3 little streams running across the town and the water was clear. Staying a little longer just chilling out seemed more like a holiday than the bus rides but each journey has its own beauty.

Day 9 & 10 : Tiger Leaping Gorge

It has been a few days of just moving quickly through some really nice Tibetan-Chinese towns. The bus moved through some magnificent mountain passes and scenery was absolutely beautiful. However, the bus rides were not very fun. 7-8 hours of bus rides on the average everyday, with a bus full of smoking and spitting Chinese is not an enjoyable journey. Some kept talking to me despite my crappy Putonghua and I really had difficulty understanding their Sichuan hua, which is something like a mix of Mandarin and Cantonese. Anyway, after a few days of waking at 6am to catch the bus was quite enough for me so I was glad when I reach Qiaotou, the start of the trail to the Tiger Leaping Gorge.

I stayed one night at the Gorged Tiger Cafe which was run by Margo, an Australian lady. The Australian and American ladies that were travelling with me seem to think she was crazy but I thought she was really nice. Also, she gave us accurate advice on the conditions of the track and advice on what to take and wear for the track.

We took the upper road and found very few travellers, maybe because it wasn't the peak season. Six of us started out together and we planned to reach the Walnut Garden about 8 hours walk away. I really liked the trail as the view was gorgeous. Along the trail there were magnificent mountain backdrops, waterfalls and sharp drops down from the cliff. What didn't help was my el-cheapo shoe that seem to have no traction at all when we were walking through wet areas. The gorge trail was one place I didn't want to slip because one slip and quite likely my dad could collect on my travel insurance. Slipping wouldn't be fun. As we walk along, the ladies kind of rested for too long and by nightfall only Neal, a british traveller and I reached the Walnut Garden.

Also, Neal made some adventurous decision that kept getting us lost. First was deciding to go back to the trail from the road at 7:15pm when we were 30 minutes away from the guesthouse we were planning to go. So we had to track in the dark for a while because the path wasn't very clear in the dark. On the next day, we track down to the river and we decided to come up through the landslide. We quickly found that we could get lost even in short bushes. Walking through thorns were not very fun, we found out soon enough but managed to find the trail back after half an hour. Of course, we were never in any real danger because we could see the river below and the roads not too far ahead of us. It was tiring, getting off the trail, but it was fun.

Day 6 - Litang

Ok I am not going to be long as I have splitting headache from the altitude here about 4000m above sea level. Anyway, I am in Litang and will be making my way to XiangCheng on the way to Lijiang. Also, some technical glitch happen with my harddrive backup machine and I lost all the pictures from the first day till today. Will write more when I get more comfortable.

Day 3 & 4 : Emei Shan & Le Shan

I did a rush rush job to see both Le Shan Giant Buddha and Ermei Shan. There were a lot of construction going on in both places. Particularly, the summit of Ermei was closed due to construction so that was a little dissapointing. Ermei is a beautiful place but I did not get to see as much as I did not hike up. Most of the places are only accesible if you do a few hours of walking. The day I thought was really cloudy because I couldn't see many of the surrounding peaks but I overheard some other tourist say that the day was especially clear. I managed to stay up at one of these guesthouses to catch the sunrise and thankfully a screaming and rude monk awakened me by screaming for the receptionist at 6am in the morning. With most of the Chinese places I have seen, too many places have been artificially touched up or reconstructed. The museum at the foot of the mountain was nice as well. Whenever, I look at something like that and realise how young Singapore and Malaysia history is. History here goes to the BCE era whereas Malaysia history goes to the 16th century.

I also had to rush Leshan because I decided to do a detour in the route and go west toward Tibet before heading towards east again. The detour will probably eat up 5-10 days of my time so I will probably be in a rush for the remainder of the journey and probably have to fly in to Hong Kong. Tomorrow, I will head to Kangding and then to Litang near the Sichuan-Tibetan border.

Day 2: Chengdu city

I was overjoyed when I landed in China. It seems at last I have made my
way to China, the homeland of my forefathers. Some friends that I met as
I made my way to Chengdu asked me if I was going to kiss the ground. I
pondered on the idea for a while and then decided it was a little out of
character for me to kiss the ground. Also remembering that I do not have
a hepatitis jab, kissing the ground might transmit some unwanted
diseases. I expected the place to be a bit wilder with cars not obeying
traffic rules and everybody trying to get a few more of my hard-earned
dollars, but I was pleasantly surprised that people it Chengdu were
generally honest and traffic abiding. I was expecting India but guess
nothing really beats India.

One of the first thing that I noticed very blatantly was that my Chinese
is not enough for me to communicate. Yes I could manage 'Where is the
toilet?' but how many times does one have to make their way to the
toilet. Anything more than that I found rather unmanageable. Luckily,
the friends I met will still be in Chengdu for 1 day before flying off
to Lhasa. I can still let them do all the haggling and taxi and the
ordering of food till they leave tomorrow.

Chengdu is a beautiful city - the most beautiful chinese city I have
seen. It has to be since it is the first Chinese city I have been to.
The food is on the spicy side and I got to visit a few cultural temples
and parks. The city is very old and historical but with my kindergarten
level of Chinese I did not get to understand too much about what is
going on. Tomorrow, I will try to make my way to Ermei Mountain on my
own and have not decided whether to walk up the mountain or to take the
bus. Judging from what the others say, I'd probably take the bus or the
cable car up.

Day 1: Cheng Du + flight delayed

The flight to Chengdu is delayed for 2 hours tentatively, possibly a little later. Fortunately, there seems to be quite a lot of shopping and free Internet stuff to distract me from all the wait. I am walking around a little like a zombie because last night, I started packing at 1am and finished packing at about 4am. Usually I am quite a fast packer but I was distracted by the laundry and trying to sort out my first aid bag so I spent a little more time. Also I had to clean up my room before my Austrian friend, Ulfred, takes over my rental room. So by the time I went to bed, it was something like 5am.

Anyway, the airport free Internet service here limits me to 15 minutes. Quite interesting - it does make me more productive in churning out one of these blogs. Maybe I should organise my life similarly, in chunks of 30 minutes. I'd get so much done or spend all my time trying to update my organiser.