King Lee Gumption

Heng Yang 衡阳 for 3 Days

2011-05-29T23:56:00.004+08:00

Shanghai 2011

2011-05-09T00:23:00.001+08:00

It was just a few days in Shanghai but it was intensive! Will miss the folks back there...

南昆山, 云海 and 北江 3 days out!

2011-02-06T08:05:00.007+08:00

On a fair weekend, we went out for some long distant driving in ShenZhen, the whole plan was to just go where no one had went... well that was the idea for us. I had no idea what was in store except that we one of the place has some bicycle for rental and we can go explore some newly made tracks left behind from the recent "Games" in China. One of the best thing was that we were in a BMW X6 that went vrooomm!

We went to so many places that it is hard to remember where.. but it was all over China south. We were on waters, lakes, rivers, mountain and spent the night in a very luxurious resort and it did a brief hiking trip around the famous rivers of China

The the final day we went cruising around the mountain areas and found ourselves at a popular cross country region... Too much things too eat and see. Did a bit of fruits picking from a farm and it was all so nice!

Zhuhai to Macau Geocaching

2011-01-15T07:56:00.007+08:00

Once more...Zhu Hai beckon us to return for the final cache to be found! This time we were really equipped for we knew there were supposedly 1999 steps of stairs to ascend. And what lies ahead was really a nice cool day all suitable for climbing these stairway of small steps. Did not take us long to get to GZ and once we were there the cache has no-where to hid. We got hold of it and signed our big names on it and declared this mountain conquered. Went up to the summit and looked at a great big coin like monument with a lot of numbers of it... all significant to the return of Macao to China. Then it was all free time, we went eating.... and had Häagen-Dazs ice cream, coffee at a prime shopping estate and eventually found ourselves in a KTV! My very first time in a Zhu Hai KTV joint. Singing to our heart content. These places do not use wireless mic and the sound quality was excellent!

words coming soon

Death wishes?

2010-12-07T23:18:00.010+08:00

Five Regrets of the Dying
By Bronnie Ware, Platinum Quality Author

For many years I worked in palliative care. My patients were those who had gone home to die. Some incredibly special times were shared. I was with them for the last three to twelve weeks of their lives.

People grow a lot when they are faced with their own mortality. I learned never to underestimate someone's capacity for growth. Some changes were phenomenal. Each experienced a variety of emotions, such as denial, fear, anger, remorse, more denial and eventually acceptance. Every single patient found their peace before they departed though, every one of them.

When questioned about any regrets they had or anything they would do differently, common themes surfaced again and again. Here are the most common five:

1. I wish I'd had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me. This was the most common regret of all. When people realise that their life is almost over and look back clearly on it, it is easy to see how many dreams have gone unfulfilled. Most people have had not honoured even a half of their dreams and had to die knowing that it was due to choices they had made, or not made.

It is very important to try and honour at least some of your dreams along the way. From the moment that you lose your health, it is too late. Health brings a freedom very few realise, until they no longer have it.

2. I wish I didn't work so hard. This came from every male patient that I nursed. They missed their children's youth and their partner's companionship. Women also spoke of this regret. But as most were from an older generation, many of the female patients had not been breadwinners. All of the men I nursed deeply regretted spending so much of their

lives on the treadmill of a work existence.

By simplifying your lifestyle and making conscious choices along the way, it is possible to not need the income that you think you do. And by creating more space in your life, you become happier and more open to new opportunities, ones more suited to your new lifestyle.

3. I wish I'd had the courage to express my feelings. Many people suppressed their feelings in order to keep peace with others. As a result, they settled for a mediocre existence and never became who they were truly capable of becoming. Many developed illnesses relating to the bitterness and resentment they carried as a result.

We cannot control the reactions of others. However, although people may initially react when you change the way you are by speaking honestly, in the end it raises the relationship to a whole new and healthier level. Either that or it releases the unhealthy relationship from your life. Either way, you win.

4. I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends. Often they would not truly realise the full benefits of old friends until their dying weeks and it was not always possible to track them down. Many had become so caught up in their own lives that they had let golden friendships slip by over the years. There were many deep regrets about not giving friendships the time and effort that they deserved. Everyone misses their friends when they are dying.

It is common for anyone in a busy lifestyle to let friendships slip. But when you are faced with your approaching death, the physical details of life fall away. People do want to get their financial affairs in order if possible. But it is not money or status that holds the true importance for them. They want to get things in order more for the benefit of those they love. Usually though, they are too ill and weary to ever manage this task. It is all comes down to love and relationships in the end. That is all that remains in the final weeks, love and relationships.

5. I wish that I had let myself be happier.

This is a surprisingly common one. Many did not realise until the end that happiness is a choice. They had stayed stuck in old patterns and habits. The so-called 'comfort' of familiarity overflowed into their emotions, as well as their physical lives. Fear of change had them pretending to others, and to their selves, that they were content. When deep within, they longed to laugh properly and have silliness in their life again.

When you are on your deathbed, what others think of you is a long way from your mind. How wonderful to be able to let go and smile again, long before you are dying. Life is a choice.

It is YOUR life. Choose consciously, choose wisely, choose honestly. Choose happiness.

Geocaching Guang Zhou

2010-12-06T09:43:00.006+08:00

It was such a long journey, woke up early in the morning and headed off to Hung Hom for a direct train to Guang Zhou. And by late morning, we were at GZ and our friends drove from Zhu Hai over to pick us up at the station. All these for one singular purpose, geocaching!

We wasted no time and headed out to find about 3 geocaches, and soon enough I realized something was amiss... The google map of GZ is offset by almost 700m and all my geocaches plot was pretty off the mark and we had to resort to trial and error on our finds using the map. But it proved to be quite adventurous as we went forth and asked the folks around for the artifacts mentioned in cache stories... Eventually, we found 2 caches and we all were pretty happy and celebrated with a nice dinner! Learned a couple of facts about some poems and a Chinese person named "鲁迅". A scholar/writer/revolutionist in older China! read about it at http://zh.wikipedia.org/zh-hk/%E9%B2%81%E8%BF%85 . The trip ended in a day and we took the train back to HK and was quite tired after all these journey....

Singapore and Messboy Wedding

2010-11-22T01:28:00.017+08:00

Singapore, I was there for a week, yes back in the motherland for holiday. Kind of strange how that sounded. Went back to my hometown for a holiday. Stayed in my brother in law and my mom's consecutively all the days. This time we planned nothing, no visit, no touring, no housecall, nothing. Simply just be back and does nothing. However we still need to eat. And the choices we made are mostly, simple and local delights. Singapore is once again changed into a busier and more crowded country. At 10pm there are peak hour like human traffic running in the MTR system. But one thing is for sure, the food tasted just like I last remembered; and that's the best thing. Nostalgica!

There were countless choices and even after a week, I have yet to try them all. Of all the dishes I had, Chicken Rice ranked top for I had it twice. Tried even the Burger set since Celes was rather interested in this "Branded" and expensive fastfood chain. Met up with a couple of folks this time and spent a little time on Geocaching and managed to find a measly 5 out of 6. It was good time, simple time but good. Nothing funky, nothing glamorous. Even our walk in Sentosa went pretty peaceful and we had an hour watching the "Song of the Sea" performance which I do not ranked highly for the SG$10 spent. One night, coincidentally was the date set by our "MessBoy" for the wedding banquet in celebration for his public love declaration to a lovely lady. It had been years I last met this bunch of comrades. They had all grown a bit, me too. All of us had a good time being together in a feasting mood. It was great seeing the changes as well as remembering some of those things we did together while we were in uniform. "MessBoy" was in extremely good spirit and we all celebrated his BIG day with some mischief but was still something of a civilized level. Just like that, dinner was over and we all said our farewell and it was time to depart... and soon I departed Singapore, back in HK. I would say time indeed flew while this very week. The routine of life resumed in HK as I go about with my work week. And all memories the more treasured. I'm glad it all happened the way it did.

Samsung Galaxy S i9000 improvements

2010-11-01T22:45:00.010+08:00

It had appeared that the world most laughed at phone is now almighty in the hands of the "right" folks.

For those using this phone and want it to fly....

- Rooted
- No Lag
- Super Froyo 2.2
- GPS improvement
- Circular Battery mod
- Excellent battery life based on my usage pattern
- Quardrant Benchmark:: 1372

Go get the ROM V7 and follow the instruction on post 1,2 and 3... and you'll be all fine!

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=817703&page=1

New Toy

2010-10-28T23:10:00.002+08:00

Sorry for the lacking of update.. I had been updating at Facebook a lot. It appeared that the new way of celebrating ourselves is via Facebook and doing small snipplets of our happenings... A good thing that happened... I bought a new phone Samsung Galaxy S i9000 (Unlocked) Been really into it to flash/tweak/customize it to be the best that it can be... Perhaps soon I'll be most motivated to blog about the whole thing and summarized some interesting tips and tricks around it.. but in the mean time.. I'm still engaged!

Buffalo WHR-HP-G300N wireless Drop on DD-WRT

2010-07-31T11:18:00.037+08:00

Bought a Buffalo WHR-HP-G300N wifi router to capitalize on the low price as well as it ability to utilise DD-WRT roms. But having quite a lot of trouble with it for a few reasons. The stock ROM was pretty much unappealing as well as useless. It has issues with HGC.com in Hong Kong, it would drop the bridge WAN side of the connection after certain period of time. And would also drop plenty of packets.

On the other hand however, the DD-WRT had other issues, due to the use of Atheros WIFI hardware in this router, there seems to be a kernel/driver runaway issue with WIFI ath0 adaptor being offline after certain kernel warning in var/log/messages:

Jul 30 16:06:46 user.warn kernel: ath_node_xmit_single: TID pause count 0
16:07:58 user.warn kernel: ath_node_xmit_single: TID pause count 0
16:08:27 user.warn kernel: ath_node_xmit_single: TID pause count 0
16:26:23 user.warn kernel: Sending cwmmode action frame to ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
16:26:24 user.warn kernel: Resetting; Code: 01
16:26:25 user.warn kernel: Resetting; Code: 01
16:26:26 user.warn kernel: Resetting; Code: 01

The way around the issue after some figuring is to perform a stop/start of the wifi adaptor on the router. Hence here is a cron I quickly made up to check /var/log/message for the string "Resetting" and do a down/up of the wifi adaptor. This can be entered into the DD-WRT "Administration->Management->Cron" Additional Cron Jobs area. It is persistent, the job will still be there after a power reset.

*/3 * * * * root [ -z `tail -1 /var/log/messages|grep Resetting` ] && logger -p info 'wlan ok' || (logger -p alert 'Bouncing ath0' && ifconfig ath0 down && ifconfig ath0 up)

With this the router is all alright till a newer release from DD-WRT come along. Currently: DD-WRT v24-sp2 (07/16/10) std - build 14815

Update A new update (wrt ver 14929) seemed to have solved this wireless issue, still monitoring: http://www.dd-wrt.com/site/support/other-downloads?path=others%2Feko%2FBrainSlayer-V24-preSP2%2F08-12-10-r14929%2Fbuffalo_whr_hp_g300n%2F

Latest Update(11 Feb 2011) can be found here: http://www.dd-wrt.com/site/support/other-downloads?path=others%2Feko%2FBrainSlayer-V24-preSP2%2F2011%2F02-17-11-r16214%2F
Worked pretty well with me router!

Zhuhai Geocaching Retake!

2010-03-13T01:39:00.010+08:00

珠海一天游！就是为了寻找地理藏宝。何民安(Abe)差点就放了我们飞机，幸好他及时赶到码头，所以我们陆陆续续地准时出发了！我们三人一大清早出发，10am 到达和重遇珠海的寻宝三侠(Garry, Yoyo, 阿牛)。

记得上回的寻宝经历，我带了寻宝三侠到珠海的一些名胜地点，爬了不少的阶梯，攀登了几乎3个山顶，累得大家都快倒下了。那时的他们毫无心理准备，这回他们可放心了，因为我们要到的地方都很轻松，也很独特。

第一地方在金鼎镇，海港 10km 以外的地方。到了目的地，停下车来，发现我们站在一个停车场里。宝藏呢？我也一头雾水？幸好最后何民安有了重大发现，整个气氛都变得有趣了，我们的惊讶惊动了一间快餐店的服务生，她走出来问我们要什么。。。。我们6人傻傻的只傻笑一番，说在周围看看而已。她也就不理会我们了。第一个geocache带来的喜悦和经历都很特别。我们还根据geocache的指示到附近的店要免费咖啡，不过失败了。可能我们的派去的代表忘了说密语吧。

很快的，我们享有了丰富的满族风味的午餐，在前山公园寻宝时闹了一番。最后总共成功了找到了4个geocache, 何民安(Abe)也吸引了不少的好奇眼光。他可是我们秘密武器，可以撩人注意力，方便我们的秘密搜索行动！大家都对今天的表现很惬意，经历也非常独特。三侠最后送别了我们，也计划下次的聚点将会是在澳门！让我们期望下次的欢愉吧！

Geocaching with U Mag and Chris

2010-02-18T22:24:00.006+08:00

Chris is in town, a little bit of background about Chris, he's from Germany and currently lives in Italy; near the border of Austria. He's in town for a 2 week of geocaching. We were thrilled to have his arrival which means we can go out there and do some serious geocaching. So one of the weekday we planned one walk up to the Peak, nothing sensationally special but we also had with us another crew, the U Mag crew; who will be writing up about geocaching in their magazine. So up we went, 7 of us from central and on foot, along the famous 8 geocaches link route.

Chris was clearly having fun as seen from his behavior, he demonstrated to the newbies about geocaching while I filled in with some of the commentary and we were on to a great walk up and hunting for caches. Took us about 2.5 hours to get onto the Peak for Burger King; and waiting for us was Aiyana Lo, a model for the photoshooting. She was all beauty in blossoms and full of youthful vitality. We went forth for the highest peak known as Victoria Peak and we did quite a number of photos while enduring the super cold wind! It's impressive the kind of occupational spirit our model has while shooting in the chilling wind with just her sportwear.

Hence a day spent this way, explaining and see how newbies enjoy the game while doing some work at the same time. Chris was also helping out trying to provide the best details for their writeup. At the end of the day we were all done and hungry, the crew waved goodbye and off we went to fill-em-up. At a popular restaurant name Tai Wing Wah! All thanks for "So Far" for the booking we were able to get a seat promptly and had a great "9-dish" dinner! It was a great day and night!

FYI, the U Magazine coverage had been published in issue 224: Tour 4 潮玩 Geocaching 變身 GPS 尋寶奇兵 http://www.umagazine.com.hk/issue_content_past_detail.php?issue_no=224#travel Really cool name.

First Mcdonald's Birthday Party

2010-01-30T12:13:00.005+08:00

This is the first time ever ... in my entire growing up with McDonald's since my school days till this old age. To be attending a McDonald's birthday party. I mist admit that I am greatly over aged in some ways in such an environment but hey! it's Ivy's birthday party and it is happening in a McDonald's near me! It's one of those event that I managed to see it from start to end. I was one of the enthusiast who gave a thumb up when the idea were solicited. I was also coincidentally there when she made the booking at McDonalds... So naturally I had to see how it will turn out!

Ok, D-day and I was living just about a few tram stations away from ground zero! And there it was! All the balloon, the archway, the name of the birthday girl! Nice little area cordoned off area for our group of partying ~~animals~~ friends. It was a party everyone would love to attend! Ivy was all smiles and tears at the same time but I can feel that she is well loved by her friends and family. There were lots to eat, buffet Mcdonalds (evil smile), I was having a go at everything I love on the menu and those that I had hardly tried too... turn out.. I was eating most of the time, even while photoshooting! Ok truth is, I feel safe when I'm stuffing my face among the "kids" here. There were laughters, games, familiar faces, pretty faces and the envoy from Mcdonalds are a cute little lady! One thing in common though, everyone is happy and showing it on they faces!

It lasted about 2 hours and soon enough, we had the "angel vs devil" cakes and I must say I can eat no more..A few interesting words from Ivy's parents(yeah they were there too, in Mcdonalds!)... reluctantly we had to disperse and go back to our own lives.... leaving only precious memories and those caught on camera. I had a great time! Thank you, and may your birthdays be many and joyous!

Snake Feasting

2010-01-23T11:48:00.006+08:00

The saying goes that if Adam and Eve were chinese... the snake would have gotten it and the world will not be damned! So here we are, a big group of chinese in Hong Kong! Doing what Adam and Eve should have done a long long long time ago.... Feasting on the snake and let the apple be. Such snake feast were favorite of men to boost their ~~sex performance~~ ~~fertility~~ health.... it also helps to keep the body warm during the winter season. Now it appears that it does something to ladies as well but don't ask me what... Ok, a big table, 10 dishes of goodies from chicken, snake, ducks, pork, lamb, beef.. u name it.. if it was moving.. now it isn't cos we ate it! One highlight of this feast is the wine/champagne that were brought along with zero cocking fees. Our Sandy Man is the wine host and brought us some really nice tasting with his fine collection of wine glasses.... Picture this, most of the folks around my table(there were two) were pretty ~~drunk~~ tipsy by the 5th dishes.... Some blushing.. others simply look ~~stoned~~ funny. There were more food than we can consume and we all had a great time! Thanks to the organizer for making this possible. Hong Kong Hiking Fever Facebook Group!

Prior to this gathering, I was at a place known as Cyberport... yeah... geocaching and trying out my HTC Hero with geobeagle software installed. It brought me to the spot and I found the geocache promptly with my geosenses. Apart from that, I had my fair share of 3D movie the same morning... Avatar! Nice movie, room for improvements in the realism but it's a good watch! It's another fantastic day!

Here's the ~~drunk~~ faces around the table and some from behind too. ;)

Sam's in Town!

2010-01-15T23:38:00.001+08:00

Sam is back! He was passing through Hong Kong once more. He had went across the globe to live and then to several parts of Europe, Asia, Oceania and now he's passing HK for a few days for city living. We spent some time out shopping for a good camera in Mong Kok and after much deliberations between Panasonic GF1 and Canon S90.... he bought the latter as its a lot more suitable for his kind of traveling life.

Where Sam is there's always food, Hong Kong is that kind of place to tastes some nice one. We went shopping around Hong Kong, eating stuffs from restaurants and from the streets stalls.. .he just tried everything.. smelly toufu, etc.... whatever looks interesting... This time, also get to meet his family members for a quick dinner! It was all nice too as we went north for a day spa! Catchup with pals we got to know in Australia, and many stuffs..... And just like that after a few days... he flew off to Singapore again... planning his next entourage to Taiwan before getting back to London! This dude flies the sky!

The Poh's in town!

2009-12-13T13:10:00.010+08:00

It had been a long while we last met up with the Poh's family from Singapore, the last we met in Melbourne while I was living there 4 years back. They made plans this winter to get down here and have a good time as tourists. They had 2 days of Disneyland and we soon found ourselves united in meals. Dinner and breakfast were consumed in good fellowship. Once more, HK winter had proven to be pretty unreliable, it was warmer than ideal. But it also made it a lot more comfy for the tropical visitors to adapt. This round we have the Poh Family and 3 relatives member.

On a very nice and clear day we headed out to see the big buddha on Lantau island. We went out so early at 9:30am and had to wait for the cable to start at 10am. Off we went up to see the village+Buddha(again for me) and I was the ~~sortof~~ tour guide. Brought them to see Anita Mui tablet inside the Buddha body and we also made way to find one geocache(yes you read correct, a geocache) along the wisdom path. But Jasmine was not to thrilled seeing us walking along cliff edges and went off crying..... So the geocache was off and we had a good view of the Phoenix peak (凤凰山) and took some nice photos that they can remember for years! Lunch in the temple with non meat dishes was nice and more than what we all can eat and soon it was time to get back to town. Most of the folks were tired and had a short nap on the MTR back to the hotel. At the end of the 3 days spent with them I was starting to wonder when we will meet again... and which country will that be?

Here we go, around the table for a vegetarian meal on Lantau Island

Cycling in Tai Mei Tuk

2009-12-06T11:29:00.008+08:00

Went on a cycling trip with HK Hiking Fever, these dudes do not just do hiking, some kind of cycling sure works up good appetite for dinner afterwards. There were some geocaching involved, to be exact, 3 geocaches were found along the way. The journey covered 25km over a relatively flat terrain and eventually ended with a nice dinner in an Italian restaurant.

Here's a shot around a table from a dinner in an Italian style restaurant. After a 25km cycling event.

500th Geocaches Milestone

2009-10-26T11:38:00.011+08:00

Special milestone for geocaching. Big 500 on a day out hunting on the eastern part of Hong Kong island. Melodicbard(A Geocacher) and myself decided to try grabbing a couple of new geocaches hidden just 2 days before and we headed off to the famous 龙背 "Dragon Back" which is not a very high mountain to scale. After grabbing the first FTF(First to Find) title for the first hidden cache I was convinced to try another geocache up high on Collinson Peak! Away we went through some covered up trails, bashing and hiking for real through some thick vegetation; good thing there were no giant spider webs across our path. By the time I found the bonus cache I was actually hoofing and sweating like mad. Can't imagine an autumn day where temperature was at 30 degrees at high noon. By the way, it's Chung Yeung 重阳 holiday here in Hong Kong and many locals are out and about in the rural areas, but nobody come up to Collinson.

Having done this bonus cache we had already committed ourselves to a large loop to reach the last of our planned cache. After some hours of hiking and slipping/sliding down steep slopes we made our way down 1000steps to the cliff where we promptly earned the 2nd FTF status of the day. It was 2pm and the Shek-O beach was full of ~~bikinis~~ people. We spent 2 hours there enjoying ~~the babes~~some bbq chicken wings and fries while cooling off and pondering what do we do next!

After 2 hours of brainstorming.... we decided to head to Victoria Harbour on a rented boat to find a cache that was established just weeks before. Timing was crucial as we made landing on the wave breaker during sunset and it was such a beauty having the sun setting behind the bay and mountainous backdrops. Having found and sign the log on the TRUE final cache of the day... we walked towards Causeway bay... into a steak house and ordered some big ass steaks to celebrate this day of 500 Milestone and 2 honorary FTFs... Not to mention the bonus tough cache and the sunset cache. We had LIVED!

Some stats: Total Distance covered: 9.6km Ascend/Descend: 633m/741m

Yunnan Days 2009

2009-10-01T11:11:00.027+08:00

8 Days in Yunan 云南 starts on a weekday from Hong Kong

Day 1 was spent on the journey from Kun Ming(昆明) to Dali(大理). Arrival time in Dali was near sunset and we wasted no time to get booked into the hotel and spent a good night resting from the 6 hours coach ride. This unique Singaporean owned accommodation named "阿星" hotel is a 5-6 stars lodging and sparks a grand lobby as an attraction. Morning came quickly and we departed the hotel and found ourselves in a mega million dollars temple park in Dali. A spectacular shrines location with the grand 3 holy pillars overlooking the entire Dali and Ear Sea! It takes a golf carrier cart 15mins to get from the base to the mid level of the park just to give an idea of how big this place is. This is where the novel "天龙八部" described about Dali being a city of shrines and the formidable "一阳指" martial art skill(fictional of course). At an altitude of 2.1km above sea level the sunshine here was scorching and the sky/heaven nearer than ever.

Then it was time to see something called the "古城" or old city in Dali, it's newly built but based on the old city design centuries ago. There are craftsmen making silverware for sale and all the local eating/crafts delights in this 1km square city. We did not spend too much time here and found ourselves watching a local tribal "白族" "三道茶" performance. A dance depicting the tribal heritage as well as courtship/marriage scenes... That didn't last too long and we quickly went our way to the next destination..

Li Jiang "丽江" is on a 2.5km altitude flat plateau and along this plain lies interesting geographic landscapes. Visited a section ("观音峡") of the main tea delivery route named "茶马古道"; a gouge with a 150m waterfall. named "观音跳瀑" Fascinating as well as serene, it is like a paradise tucked away in a hidden land only to be accessed by boat and a tunneled train.

"虎跳峡" is a must go tourist spot. A spot where the river narrowed to 30metres and caused the 100m wide river to squeezed itself into a fiery white water roar! From the parking area there is a 100m descend down a series of stairs down into the valley. The roaring sound of fierce running water is the unmistakable sign that we are at the spot where once a Tiger leaped across the river at this narrowest point; hence the name of the valley. The shear force of nature just meters away where we stood; just above the rushing rapids had our heart racing with excitement and awe. The return trip up the steps was quite a workout as we were exerting ourselves in 2km altitude which mean our body need to work almost twice as hard to function properly. There were plenty of touting for a carriage service where 2 guys will chairlift a body either up or down those 300 over steps, for a fee of course. Thanks to our local guide "卓玛"(female) whom is a local living in Shangri-la. A land of paradise over 3.5km in the highland. A common name for this place is Heaven on Earth: "天上人间"

We arrived at Shangri-La, a 3.5km altitude highland with a very very different way of life. The locals here are mostly natives from the tribes around the region. They believe in letting nature have its way; they let their toddlers run their own lives and never have the fear of losing them, death is not feared in this land, it is revered. We had many insights into the way of the "中甸" locals and realized life can be a lot more carefree and "stressless" under their culture and beliefs. This land has some linkage to Tibet and their temples and architectures are proof of it. We even tried their roasted lamb which I think is totally..... stiff! Seafood is almost non existence here and there's a feeling that heaven is just upstairs... Air is thin at this height and it takes a while for the body to get used to it; a bit of headache and breathlessness is common for some while some will need to purchase oxygen tank to get some relief.

An attraction here would be the little "布达拉宫" that is like a smaller version of the original one in Tibet, the lama lives their secluded lives in this city and we tourists will come and take photos of them and their surroundings. It's something to behold this temple/city as it is like we had gone to Tibet. The locals here practice a couple of death burial. There are such thing as sky, land, water, tree burial. The highest level and most sovereign is the the sky burial "天葬". The dead is cut into pieces and fed to the vultures on the high burial grounds.. bones are crushed and made/mixed into meat balls and tossed into the air to be eaten by these fauna. It is believed that the dead will be brought to heaven through this burial.... For reasons of the water burial where bodies are cut up to be fed to the fishes in the rivers... we decided not to eat fish while in this region... call us silly but we ain't getting much appetite towards food derived from the local rivers.

丽江对我来说是个很特别的一个地方。这块绿色大地中的城市有着悠久的文化历史，吸引人的民族与特色。来到这里的感觉就好像到了一个无忧无虑的世界，人就自然的放松了下来。虽然繁荣与文明已经在这里某个地方扎根和蔓延着，夜晚的时候就可以察觉到；尤其在丽江古城范围。从我的导游"胖金妹"知晓,要逛这古城可需5天的时间,可惜我这回是有限的停留, 就在四方街兜了个圈就离开了. 也去了一间bar坐了两个时辰, 也尝了那里出名的腊排骨火锅和奶茶. 当晚下着雨,是难得一见的十年大雨... 空气都变得寒冷的,我们搭了一台德士花费$12元回酒店休息了..

在丽江的早晨我们从辉煌的住宿出发, 向着山出发了! 看了"玉水寨"的神像, 也感受了多个玉水瀑布的美. 天还是下着细雨....

这里就是焦点之一! 玉龙雪山范围有这么一个表演, 非看不可. 印象丽江是出自于大导演"张艺谋"的创作. 融合了丽江许多少数民族的culture, 也加上了文化交接的音乐,舞蹈和特色. 是个大型表演! 很令人感动, 回味无穷. 最遗憾的就是天气把舞台后方的背景给遮盖了,看不到雄伟的"玉龙雪山". 纳西族有着多么吸引人的性格, 舞蹈和歌曲, 虽然不算高科技, 不过可有趣极了.

玉龙雪山附近有这么一个仙境名为白水台, 白蓝色的水跟随着一个又一个的小瀑布梯级流下真的漂亮极了. 在这里看水可是一点也不无聊, 还觉得很逍遥, 宁静和纳威. 这一站可让我们喜出望外!

从丽江坐了8个小时的车到了昆明, 在翠湖停留一会儿, 看了个玉器市场, 尝了当地的蘑菇火锅, 住进了间很豪华的旅店. 夜晚也和其他游客到附近的"Carrefour"逛, 吃当地人的民食作宵夜, 花费 20元!

这一天早晨看了茶道, 药道, 吃了过桥面线. 很踏实. 买了300元的普洱茶!

最后的焦点! 九乡国家级的山洞公园! 这地方很神奇, 有山谷划着小舟, 有巨大的山洞探险. 山洞里的七彩灯光把里头照得特别独特, 神秘. 这地方可是不简单, 罕见的自然景象.

从山洞里出来, 坐了吊车回到公园的门口. 这个九乡的公园也功德圆满. 也代表了我们的旅途将要接近尾声了.

Last day of our 8 days in Yunnan. Early in the morning we were at the flower market, "are these flowers?" were our first question at our first contact with the flowers here. They were so so different from what we had commonly seen. They had undergone some kind of modification and arrangement and they look special and spectacular! What can I say, flowers I had never dream of.

Within hours of this surprising discovery, we were back in Hong Kong, our start point of the journey... We told ourselves... we gotta come back again!

Part I of the 8 days video:

Part II of the 8 days video:

Part III of the 8 days video:

Part IV of the 8 days video:

Zhuhai 珠海 Geocaching

2009-09-05T01:28:00.009+08:00

Twas a time where geocaches were few and was kind of hard to reach in Hong Kong, we made plans to visit a new frontier not too far away. Zhu Hai (珠海).

Even though it is September and kind of was in some kind of Autumn, it was still as hot as can be. As hot as 35deg Celsius according to my senses. We took the first boat from HK to Zhu Hai and quickly landed without much drama. Met our 3 hosts who were quite keen to know what Geocaching is all about. We wasted no time and set our course for the "Lovers Walk" in our near 8 seaters CRV. The geocache was quickly found following a brief introduction about what they are and why are we doing it. It was all for adventure! Each geocaches was placed for a reason or two, this one is about the Peal Girl; a story about how a girl with a pearl and poison..... go google it for the details.

After some time under the hot sun around a hill on an island name 猫狸岛, we were pretty much dehydrated and hungry! Our hosts brought us to a really nice restaurant for a good feeding. See those pics, I must say those were tasty stuffs owing to our starving bodies.

Right after lunch, we wasted no time and headed for some parks, interesting names those parks had, 竹仙洞 and 白莲洞. Very clean and peaceful parks with at the side of some hill/caves. Those were really serene moments to experience with the sun on it's descending course.

After a few more caches we were ready to take on a bigger challenge, a multi-cache! We headed for the geocache coordinate but found out that this park is so new, we hardly could locate the entrance. By the time we found the 1st clue point, the sky was about to turn dark. We hurriedly completed the whole cache run and by dinner, we had found 6 geocaches altogether. 6 for 6 for 5 of us in a car.

In celebration for our hardship as well as achievements, we pampered ourselves to a hot pot dinner. Famous in Zhu Hai and we had more food than we can consume.... Everything was so delicious.... All thanks to our 3 hosts who I hope had as great a time as me! Shall we try this again someday in time?

A new toy - Casio FC100

2009-08-02T11:52:00.007+08:00

Out of many new toys this is one of my recent one above HKD1000. The Casio Ex-FC100 is one digital camera that packs quite a lot of power in the size of a compact camera. It has 5x zoom and shoots video(HD and High Speed). It takes excellent pics in good light and can do quite a few interesting tricks. Especially in video mode.

Check out the video.

Taipei 2009

2009-06-07T17:54:00.009+08:00

7 days Taiwan this round is pleasantly nice. geocaching around the city brought me to places like president Ma resident and NTU. I had visited this land on several occasions previously but this time I noticed that the city is in a bigger chaos than before. the roads are still as dangerous and complex as ever but the folks here appeared to be more friendly. Not sure if this the effect of the "Chiwan" relationship going on around here but it's sure help geocaching whenever I asked for directions. Used to do financial runs here as well as some intensive military training. But this time it's all leisure, taking time to find some geocaches hidden in some interesting locations. 西门町 was an interesting walk with some mobile 小吃 running the streets. First 小吃 I had in Taipei is the 阿宗面线 which I found tasted a lot like Lor Mee. Quite pleased with the geocaching run that brought me to a few nice remote parks and the first geocache in Taipai happens to be in a hilltop graveyard behind a tombstone. How's that for being memorable. One main event during this week is Computex Taipei 2009, the second largest IT sourcing exhibition on earth. The show was great and the floors seemed neverending. The highlight would be the attractive showgirls that ruled the floors. Many products to be seen here and even with the H1N1 going around the globe this place feels just like any other except for a couple of sanitizer dispenser at the entrance. Saw quite a lot of new innovations and some new product releases such as new ~~showgirls~~netbooks and gizmos. There are two geocaches nearby so I had quite some fun both indoor and outdoor. Taipei 101 is now fully opened and standing tall as compared to few years back when I last stayed at Grand Hyatt watching the magnificence structure. The food in Taiwan are kind of sweet based but they are delicious in small portion and a small price. We had heaps of tasting of both city and country food. After Taipei it was time to see the countryside. Wulai 乌来 is a non-sulfuric hotspring that is a local favorite for a quick soak in the mineral rich water. There are many pools in the area. Public ones along the running river or privates ones with share or personal pools, I had the latter. It may be summer here but evening can be rather chilling in the valley and soaking in a pool of 40degrees mineral waters is simply, luxury! Not to mention counting the stars above and listening to the running streams below. What had been most memorable would be geocaching at places that tourist would not have visited. Seeing Wulai 乌来 waterfall and the Sakura garden nearby was such a treat. The 故宫 museum was crowded in the weekend but we still managed to have a close look at the highlights(jade vegge) despite of the H1N1 flu in the wild. Like I also said, risk nothing, gain nothing.

Little Food in Tiny Singapore

2009-05-13T12:42:00.011+08:00

Food anyone? I think this is the universal language, bud tasting! Up to this moment of about 6 days in Singapore, I had eaten some of the goodies of the land. These are not costly at all, each plate could cost from SG$1.4 to SG$3 except for the japanese Udon which goes for $12, I think. Food are as good as the good old days but I do feel that mad rush to cater for large crowds at hawkers centers. And I must say, the staffs working there are now speaking perfect mandarin! Of course they do, many of them are from China! More feasting, restaurant style as well as trying out a rather expensive SG$4.7 Yong Tau Fu at Bugis Street Food Junction as I was there for an hour or so due to the sudden rainstorm; during a geocaching day run if you had been following the blog. When I got home to my brother in law's place I was treated to a delicacy. DURIANS! Lots of them! two boxes filled with ripe bursting, strong flavoured and yellowish bulging fleshes with shrunken seeds... I took 2 days to finish them all.... That was AWESOME! Now I need to fast...... but wait.. I have two more days to go....

When some1 in the family goes away

2009-05-12T18:59:00.006+08:00

Someone in the family had gone away, for good. There are much to do, the shock, anger, despair and mourning arrives; not in any particular order. But they all came, in their own way and amplitude. A ticket to Singapore and I was faced with a typical Singapore chinese style funeral, a time to do our part for the deceased. The chinese way is standard, a few days of wake, a few session of chanting relieve for the dead and a good send-off for eternal rest. It would had been perfect if this was a christian funeral but sadly, the deceased made his choice.... Easy as it sounds, but there are just so many logistics, so many decisions and so many Indian Chiefs who thinks they are helping but could be otherwise. Much emphasis are placed on the procession and at times it would seems that those that are left behind are not the subject of the funeral. In just a matters of 3 days it was all done. Cremated at a fairly modern facility and buried in a restful place. We are returning to our daily lives like before and time will come when we might have to face another departure.... time will reveal itself..

Dawei in town

2009-05-07T11:36:00.007+08:00

He is back! This time he is alone! DaWei stopped by Hong Kong for a few days to R&R after being in a few parts of China for his granny birthday and some relative visits. The last time he was here with a friend and we went geocaching at some nearby places. This time is not different. We had two days together and most of the dinner were around Temple streets where seafood and delicacies are a plentiful. Geocaching with Dawei came out very fruitful as he has quite an inquisitive mind just like a seven year old! OK, maybe 10. But we attempted 4 geocaches and he managed to find 2 of them. 1 Did Not Find as it was "muggled" and hence missing! One of the highlight was the 45-55mins on the famous electric tram with George(who took time to join us)that travels from one end of Hong Kong island to another. We get to see the all famous quarantined "Hotel" where the first case of Swine FLU took place in Hong Kong and Asia. Yeah, we roamed Hong Kong at the H hours of Swine Flu discovery. The general sentiments on the streets; they don't give a sh*t about it as tourists as well as the local(helpers) just crowd all possible parks and lanes. However, there are some who wore a mask and looked the more suspicious..... Time flies and soon Dawei is gone and he managed to grab some "One Piece" and "Bleach" figurings.... if only they have Robin and Namie! Should I also blog about his Macau visit and AU$200 donation??

Macau Geocaching

2009-05-04T09:27:00.005+08:00

3 geocachers made plans to find all the geocaches in Macau! Frankly, there are only 3 at the moment! And they are all located in the south of the country. Off we went in the morning to Shun Tak for the ferry ticket, bought it from the "private" market for HK$100 each and upon boarding the ferry we were given free upgrade to first class; the gang was rather delighted with the good fortune! We headed to Venetian casino and signed up for membership and took a couple of bottled water and went off on foot to our destinations! This part of Macau is hardly seen or heard of before, most tourists are at the common places where you can find in any Macau photo book! The 3 geocaches brought us to 3 of the reservoirs and we made good time each to enjoy the journey! By sunset, we found ourselves standing on a "little hill" enjoying the view, feeling a good sense of achievement! Yes, 3 for 3 for the day run! And hundreds of photos taken! We had dinner and bought a HK$176 tickets back to Hong Kong! That was costly! Some photos are at: http://u81wg.tk

HK$1 Chicken dish

2009-04-29T00:07:00.006+08:00

Just had dinner in a chained restaurant in Tsing Yi. I hardly dine in a restaurant for the food are usually overpriced and undervalued. But this round it was something worth dining in for; HK$1 for a whole chicken! That would be like SG20 cents for a whole chicken, prepared in TeoChew style; soupy chicken in a sourish gravy. I came across this from a friend in Hong Kong and he happened to be Singaporean; what can I say, we are a lobang race! This turned out to be quite a treat where both of us dined in at this place and ordered 3 dishes and two white rice.. the bill turned out to be a mere HK$124. Also every table ordered the chicken dish! Who wouldn't? For those of you who are not familiar with dining out in Hong Kong you can compare it this way. A typical one person meal in HK in any outlet will easily go for like HK$30-$50. And with this chicken dish going for $1, plus rice going at $10, a two person meal can easily be just HK$21. This is all in a rather porsched environment, with a great window view of the "Rambler Channel".... Needless to say, this phenomenon only started these few months when the chain of Dao Xiang restaurant started to offer HK$1 dishes. Chicken is currently on, next month will see more varieties... I also noticed a HK$1 hotpot going on too... Lets go eat out with these kind of pricing happening all over HK! keep em coming! But keep the swine flu out!

Window of the World in SZ

2009-04-19T17:37:00.008+08:00

The window of the world is located in Shenzhen! Never expected this much fun visiting such a place with such a name and reputation. Well, to set the record straight, I was biased. No high hopes while visiting a paid park in SZ! But I was surprisingly wrong with this one. This park is cool. Catch my drift? The park is cool.. most visitors aren't! This is a great place to recall all the places that I had been to. All those famous landmarks around the world can be found here.. some were related to geocaches and some has a story tied to it. Very enjoyable until it rained like mad around 3pm. So I must say that I'm still missing US and Canada in there... Photos are here: http://rrp0k.tk

龍仔悟園 to Tai O

2009-04-12T16:08:00.005+08:00

A quick 1/2 day outing to see this 龍仔悟園 place! A nice cool and humid day to walk a bit of hills and slopes. The group of 14 led by Parry found ourselves mixed up in some rather long queues to get to and out of Tai O. There were 1000 persons in the queue for the BUS! BOTH WAY!!! The 龍仔悟園 is quite a good visit and things are working out there on its own without an owner! However, most of the goodies in Tai O had been swiped clean by hordes of visitors! Another special feature of Hong Kong holiday long weekend! Photos taken are at : http://n5eys.tk Distance (km) 6.460 Time (hh:mm:ss) 03:36:01 Pace (min/km) 33:26 Fastest pace (min/km) 11:02 Speed (km/h) 1.794 Fastests speed (km/h) 5.439 Climb up/down (m) +260.897/-336.291 Calories 2608

Geocaching with Team Spinmeout

2009-04-11T16:04:00.007+08:00

This day was designed such that we can comb the city for geocaches, 11 of them. Together with visiting Spinmeout team of 2 and our very own local geocachers of 7, we set forth early in the morning across the channel to HK Island! The gang was super efficient and each geocache were found rather effortlessly. An interesting puzzle was solved by making the gang members approach a total stranger and ask for help and it eventually worked out pretty well; that means the geocache was found! We had a great time, had lunch and another round of great time... and dinner and finally went our way feeling a sense of achievements! (Spinmeout went for FTF the next morning 8am!!) This will not be the last of such gatherings of great hunters... All the photos are kept at: http://cqd4s.tk

Video is at:

Ping Chau

2009-04-10T16:00:00.002+08:00

Organised by So Far out of the blue! There's 3 geocaches related to this island and we found 2 of them. Leisurely in a pack of 4. Had a nice meal at Kee Sum Cafe and then set of in search of the caches. Sue was exceptionally high today for she managed to find, retrieve and re-hide both caches! See those photos at: http://wm54y.tk Distance (km) 7.539 Time (hh:mm:ss) 04:45:36 Pace (min/km) 37:53 Fastest pace (min/km) 13:01 Speed (km/h) 1.584 Fastests speed (km/h) 4.612 Climb up/down (m) +366.209/-368.140 Calories 1460

Treasures of the Goddess Geocaching

2009-04-05T15:56:00.001+08:00

Hong Kong Geocaching is out again, to one of the toughest area to walkabout for geocaches. This round there are 5 geocaches and we really had them all. The sudden hot and cool weather was quite see-saw between comfy and burnout! The entire walk took us 11am - 6pm (7 hours) and I believe we had covered about 15km. My GPS logger was configured wrongly so no exact details available this time... It was really tiring for me especially when I was told repeatedly that my face all tomato red throughout the walk! 5 Geocaches found and it was a good day! Came across pas_by but didn't get to say hello but he'll appear when my video is ready. photos are at: http://tinyurl.com/d3vass

Art of West Kowloon

2009-04-04T15:50:00.001+08:00

Went out shopping by first visiting West Kowloon Promenade to see those art pieces on display there. The day was nice and cool and eventually I think it's a bit on the warm side even though it's cloudy and the sun hardly had a chance to get out and play it's tune. The art pieces were fine and I caught 2 german geocachers at GZ, I approached them and they were kind of taken aback but it was good to see fellow geocachers that I can spot from far far away! Some photos taken there: http://tinyurl.com/crao9v

My Best/1st time stuffs in Hong Kong

2009-04-01T15:19:00.003+08:00

Time spent in Hong Kong is like the clouds, it passes quickly that I can only look at the captured media to re-live that moments of triumph, joy and bonding. Here's the 60 things I had done in Hong Kong, many are 1st time in Hong Kong and many are memorable as I'm sure that it will never gonna happen again. So here's the 60 shots from the 60 events: http://tinyurl.com/cujf6f

Photos on Flickr

2009-03-20T16:21:00.007+08:00

Here lies all my photos on Flickr!

Japan Tokyo and Hakone 2009

2009-02-13T15:18:00.008+08:00

Chinese new year is here! Yes, here in Japan, Celes and myself went for a week escape in Japan! The destination is random and we decided upon landing that we'll go Hakone for some nice hot spring! It was a splendid idea! 2 days in Hakone for hotspring and geocaching! The train from Tokyo to Hakone is known as the romance train, nothing special about the train(as compared to the switzerlands) but it was a speedy train going at 120km/hr and soon enough we were at the spa resort! Very warm reception that knelt before us to receive us and explain the workings of the resort patiently and gracefully. I'm sure this is gonna be quite an experience, and it was! The first night was snowing and lying there in the steaming outdoor spa watching the snow flakes falling was something out of this planet! To top it up I had the whole spa to myself in the 42degress mineral rich water! Dinner at the resort was very appetizing after a good soak and soon I was online updating my geocache finds for the day! Hakone is a great place with a circuit tour that includes, train, cable car, rope car and pirate ship cruise at a relatively small land area! Two days is about enough but 3 days will be ideal to cover some of the hidden treasure/spots. Fuji mountain stands proud and tall with that white canopy top and it never cease to fascinate me. Tokyo is the largest city in Japan and by far the busiest, been here many times but this time it is geocaching by large! Found quite a few cleverly hidden caches and noticed quite a number of structures that I missed previously, Docomo Tower, how did I missed that the last time? Tokyo had changed a little and New Akihabara is full of cafe served by maids in anime attire! The food in this city always makes us keep eating more.... And soon enough it was time to leave this place to the see another kind of crowd, the Hong Kong crowd! How I miss the quiet subway train ride... Using phone on their trains are discouraged and are considered rude!

China Foshan 佛山 2008

2009-01-01T00:24:00.008+08:00

It had been a while.... Not that nothing had happened but a lot had happened that I'm sure would be quite a treat to blog about but I am choosing all travel adventures lately so that it will present a temperament on going places! For 2 days I was with a tour group headed for feasting in Foshan in China. The hometown of Huang Fei Hong 黄飞鸿 and birthplace of the gymnast Lee Ning 李宁! Ok, back to the goodies of the trip. It was gathered by a facebook group in Hong Kong that I'm rather active with due to their frequent hiking and leisure outing in Hong Kong. This is an excursion in line with their 1st year celebration. The coach ride took nearly 3 hours all thanks to the sluggish highway connecting ShenZhen to GuangZhou. By the time we got to Foshan, all 12 of us were starving and whatever food thrown as us all tasted like it came from heaven! Ok, I exaggerated a little. The food were rather nice and it was all Riverfood(河鲜) except for some of the vegetables and a whole chicken! Soon we were on our way to various sightseeing places in Foshan. The sky wasn't in good spirit that day and it was drizzling a lot and that did not wash down the haze hanging around the air... Ok, dinner was quite a treat with strange sequencing of the food; fruits and desserts came before the steamed vegetables and out of the blue there were a plate of French fries in a 10 course feast. But all praises for the food put before us! We were brought out for a evening walk at the flower lights show at the garden that evening. The surprising 5 star hotel was really a pleasant surprise! Full facilities and free Internet Access from the room itself and I took some time to get online to get some photos onto facebook! Started to feel a little like an online journalist.. Day 2 and it was drizzling and breakfast was pretty complete with congee and buns and it was all too much to stomach in one meal...... Lunch was a treat to the famous "母米粥" hotpot! Eye opening and all good tasting food with a lot of us going wild! There were sightseeings at the art/craft centre and the opera museum where we allowed to understand some "art" side of life. The free time at GuangZhou 上下街 was quite an experience with the rain following us... Before we knew it we were on the coach heading back to ShenZhen where we were dismissed.... The crowd heading back to Hong Kong was... like a flood!

Toronto 2008

2008-12-03T02:37:00.007+08:00

The state of thing in December in Toronto is quite simple. Plenty of snow and plenty of -ve temperature. The one week home stay in Toronto marks another chapter of living on Earth. The coldest and livable place to live in has a lot to offer. City like towns as well as suburbs that are as convenient as any place as long as there is a car to bring you around. The first few days were spent getting over the jetlag that had us all going like zombie no matter where we were. Got to visit Pacific Mall, the place where Peter Russell came across that Chinese handbag merchant. And I must say, Pacific Mall makes me laugh just by thinking of the comedy. The following days were spent living like a locals. Going shopping in malls and church. Snow, inches of them came falling from heaven and made life a lot more challenging. Got to experience scattering salts on driveway to keep the ice away from the road surface. Met a lot of friendly folks while we were there. This had been quite a communal visit and before we knew it, it was time to go. On a really challenging 20hrs journey home; and a 5 hours transit in Vancouver!

Switzerland 2008

2008-11-15T01:12:00.008+08:00

Zurich is the most populated place in Switzerland! Crowded like any other cities in the world and to make matter worst, smokers dominates this city. There is no law against smoking anywhere so it is common to have someone smoking next to you in public places, hotel otherwise is segregated. This is the least of my favorite city in this travel because everything became very costly once I set foot on this country via a train ride from Austria. Imagine a McDonalds meal going for SG$15 per set. Anyway, we had chinese fried rice in this city that tasted just fine.... After one night in Zurich, off we went on a train ride to St Moritz. A skiing town to the south of Switzerland. This town is situated 1.8km above sea level and the train did took quite a while to get there and the scenery along the journey was beyond words! There are mountains, lakes and plenty of green in this land. And we noticed how well tended are the residential houses throughout the country side. It was like all of them houses are dressed up for a special season. St Moritz has a lake up there amidst the mountains and it was simply paradise up high. I can imagine how it would look like in a month of two when Winter come full blown... This would be a white land of snow adventures. From St Moritz to Zermatt(Another skiing town) on the specially designed panoramic train known as the Glacial express took us a good 7 hours through the Swiss Alps. I think this would be heaven on earth to behold. The lunch on the train was really an experience of treat! When it all ended, we still hoped the ride would lasted longer but another great surprise greeted us! Zermatt is another gem to be explored; very Swiss and "Green"! This town forbids any gas/petrol driven vehicles, you can only see horse carriages and electric transfer to be the only way to get around town. Zermatt is the ultimate skiing paradise with all the chair lifts going all directions into the highlands where snow had already formed! This town is where I climbed a near 200m peak to find a geocache that had be overlooking the entire town! It's another achievement for the geocacher! After all the highland, we went low down to Interlaken; named for its location between two huge lakes. Another sight to see, great lakes and towns on the slopes next to the water boundary. How I wish I have a better way to capture all these to reminiscence later! We had our first Para Gliding of our life! A very costly 15mins of gliding across the sky of Interlaken. Seeing the town and slowly drifting among the light noon breeze was like floating in heaven! It was the most expensive stunts we had taken that lasted only 15mins. But when Celes had landed...... she needed a good 3 hrs to recover from motion nausea. The cruise from Interlaken to Thun gave us the cruise of a lifetime. Luxurious vessel and a good meal served as the stable ship journeyed for a good 4 hours in the good old fashion way! Though this is at ground level, the white tip of the mountains top are white with snow and reminded me of the Toblelone trademark! Geneva, this city is not what Celes expected it to be. A rather unsafe region near the train station and there are many races living in the zone. Africans, Chinese, Vietnamese, Cuban, French.. you get the picture. Pretty sorry looking area if you ask me. But there are many major laws made in this city. The Geneva Convention were established here as many wars had it way around this region. This wraps up this Europe tour and I was looking forward to going home.... for there will be another long haul journey to the west awaiting me... in a few weeks time..

Austria 2008

2008-11-12T17:53:00.007+08:00

Salzburg, home of Mozart. Most of the attractions here are Mozart related and they deserve the attention they are getting each day. This stop is purely a tourism stop and we purchased a tourist pass and started exploring this tourism rich city; and we were not disappointed. The city still maintains that historic look and feel to it. The snow mountains nearby offers a good bonus for a 15mins snow walking as we were totally unprepared for such an adventure after the 15mins cable car ride to the summit. The mystical fountain at Hellbrunn was a nice treat to trickery and deception. Even the Salzburg Zoo sparks an interesting walk along the base of a steep cliff where the animals are kept. The fortress tram ride and tour at the centre of town is a must! A relaxing city and totally un-relaxing for us this day as we rushed from place to place to take in all the wonders and surprises it has to offer. Day two in Salzburg is for relaxation. Slow walk into town and passes the famous Mirabel garden park and had a close look at the several art sculptures strategically placed around the city. Did a bit of windows shopping and realized they are selling a t-shirt that says "No Kangaroos in Austria"! Had a nice hotdog the Austria way and it was very tasty in the cold season. A slow stroll along Salzburg riverbank back to hotel reminded us a lot about our Melbourne river walk!

Hungary 2008

2008-11-08T18:52:00.009+08:00

The return of kinglee to Budapest! Weather is perfect for Geocaching! Went on a 10km geocaching trail with Celes and found many treasures besides the caches. Managed to bagged almost 8 geocaches in a single day including those that used to be occupied by the homeless last year. Many of the colors of summer is still lingering in gardens and parks and are still picture perfect with my little casio V8. Time flies.... it's been a year I last visited and look like little had changed in this city. Day 2 was spent with some look around the city and a rather tough trekking up the citadel where the statue of liberty is seated. The ascent was so tough for me(For I'm out of shape) and it felt like summer all over again! But the view up there was worth every drop of sweat. Not to mention the 5 geocaches I managed to locate! All at the expense my wonderful/precious CAP which I had no idea where I dropped it. Highlight was at the "Garden of Philosophy" by Nandor Wagner where you will find the five figures (Abraham, Echnaton, Jesus, Buddha and Lao Tse) of all time, and Abraham bowing down before them... go google it and you'll find the story in Wikipedia! In this trip, I managed to observe the beauty of this city and avoided the dodgy side of town. A side story; A policeman stopped me entering the "Heros Square"(which I surely belong) in the evening as there are some German senators holding an ~~orgy party~~ reception nearby. But I was allowed to enter the square using the opposite entrance??? Make not much sense but that's how things are ran with the law!

Germany 2008

2008-11-02T02:19:00.006+08:00

Destination Dortmund and Cologne took up a good four days. Dortmund is a shopping city that sees plenty of shoppers transiting across the country. However, I was not able to find the latest tech gadgets even in their specialized retailer. Cost of living is high in Germany and the pace of life is as fast as any budding cities, coming to think of it, Dortmund is a safe city even for an asian like myself walking around through the suburbs. Cuisines here are sourish by nature and beer cost less than water. Keeping sober is no easy feat from what I saw but I do managed to avert taking any alcohol even during Oktoberfest! I had the strangest tasting bottled banana juice in a restaurant. Geocaching was fine on foot for 10km across a very well known westfalen park south of the city center. This is the city that I had a kebab roll that tasted and cost so fine!! The train journey from Dortmund to Cologne only took 2 hours and I was geocaching in no time. Found a couple of easy geocaches quickly and went through the noon prayer service in the magnificent Cologne Cathedral. It was a very gusty day and by the time I was done with Cologne, it was like having a new hairdo! Without much ado, my next destination was fast approaching on a flight.... Hungary here I come!

London 2008

2008-10-28T11:21:00.010+08:00

London in 2008! Spent a full week in London in a friend's place. But getting there could do with some bowels relief. I had a bad stomach from SG and the 12hrs flight to London felt like a long and endless runs between my isle seat and the toilet. When I got to London I was already as dehydrated as ~~charcoal~~ hell. Took me a few days indoor to recuperate from it and from the mild fever that came along. However, in this time, I spent 24hrs on the PS3 finishing the game ultimate warrior. A rather commendable feat for a sick person new to that game. Of course with tips from my host whom had finished that game in three days. Another interesting outing was to meet up with friends in the country. one such interesting friend is the one studying there in Nottingham. The weather was lovely for the days I was out but was raining otherwise. London gave me the feeling that life is rather stressful and difficult. The folks in the city are full of agendas that kept them busy day and night. The tube was looking like it needed some form of overhaul for the volume it is ~~depressing~~ serving. Geocaching turned out rather fruitful with over 20 geocaches gathered and a couple of DNF(Did not find). On top of that. We stayed over at an occultist place with two dogs and four cats. Apart from the difference in our faith and belief, we got along really fine......

My first massage & SPA in ShenZhen

2008-10-19T17:20:00.032+08:00

I was thinking if I should be blogging about the Europe trip or the SPA visit I had yesterday and chosen the latter as it is still fresh in my mind. Just after the one month Europe trip across 6 countries I got a facebook invitation to visit a prestigious ShenZhen SPA center. Thinking it would be a good chance to pamper the fatigued body after the tiring 24hrs of air travel(A380 is no biggy...). Here's how it went. Traveled to Shenzhen via a direct transport and found myself going through both HK and China customs. Arrived to a smokers filled land called China! (This country ought to do something about 2nd hand smoking pollution!). Never mind, it was a nice cool afternoon at 4pm where we all met up, all 11 of us set off to this placed called the 水都国际健康俱乐部！For some unknown reason the leader decided to take cab to the place. Off we went in 3 different cabs and only 2 arrived at the SPA 5 mins later; our lead went missing together with 3 others girls!!!. After 15mins of search and rescue all 11 of us were gathered again only to find out that his cab took him to the 水都 hotel instead and made them walked almost ~~forever~~ 1km to the SPA place! So off we went forth into this luxurious looking lobby! My very first time to such place of leisure! Without getting into too much details of who and what I saw I must say that this is one service oriented place. There were male guides to help you ~~strip~~ disrobe and robe. We found ourselves taking showers before we get into the HOT/WARM/COLD pools with a whole assortments of waterjets outlet meant for massaging. Dry/Wet Sauna to cook ourselves and then it was all into the rest area on the 2nd and 3rd floor. Free fruits and some snacks were waiting while we find ourselves pampered by female guides serving us drinks and whatever we asked for… Large movie room and plenty of different choices of massage flavors available. Now that best part, I selected 香薰推油按摩 style meaning there’s some kind of essential oil while the massage is going on, else having my skin getting rubbed off isn’t my idea of relaxing. So off we went to little rooms where these young, attractive and friend beautician kindly helped us into massaging bed(with our clothes off!). A few conversations and after working through my back, legs, arms, shoulders and head our body was renewed and was all charged again. No it was not like that, at least not for me, a first time. It took time to understand what all these was for, a lot of contact and rubbing of oil and it lasted for a good 90mins. I would have be totally exhausted doing this onto others but the girl serving me looks like she can perform another 10 more of that strenuous course! At the end of the whole thing we had another quick shower and got back to our own clothing style; We were made to wear some Thai servant clothing while we were in the club so that we won’t run out into the street without paying… In summary, 11 of us spent about 3700RMB and it’s quite a reasonable price to pay for spending almost 5 hours in one place with all these facilities and treatments. We left the club at 9pm seeking for our next program to feed the flocks. Upon leaving that country back to HK I was still wondering if I had really appreciated the massage idea. It was all contact with an almost stranger which you get to meet 5 mins before all the rubbing starts and I must admit there are moment of muscular tingling and pangs but through it all do I really want to spend 90mins of my life being lifeless and being manhandled? My shoulders still feeling somewhat tired from the squeezing but it’s no major problem for me since it is something I know is for a better cause for I subscribe to the No Pain No Gain theory. Will I do it again? Probably yes cos to me it’s more a social gathering with friends and getting to spend some time doing later~~laughing~~ talking about who got the ~~uglier~~ ~~fatter~~ prettier masseurs….. That spa I'm talking about is: http://www.szshuidu.com/info.asp

Slowing Everything

2008-05-27T10:54:00.007+08:00

Sam is in town and so we thought of doing something "Hiroic". Why not, since he bought a new camera here in Hong Kong, the one that can slow time down. The all fad in the semi pro camera world, Casio Pro Ex-F1. A very controversial model that set a lot of heads turning. Even the hard core Canon/Olympus folks needed to bash the reputation of this model to keep it from taking over the rating of their priced models.

Nevermind of those camera realm, this camera does indeed pack a whole lot of fun into photography... and videography. It can take rather decent still photos, very fast action 60 frames a second of 6 Megapixels photos. Quality are good enough for my normal use. The video capability is something new. HD video capability and it can go further to shoot at 300fps, 600fps and 1200fps. Of course the catch is that the higher the frame rate, the smaller the frame size. But not sweat in the mean time since no camera can achieve that at that USD$1K price range. So off we went to slow time down... You should watch that video and see how we did it... literally. This camera has give me a new look at what's happening in our daily lives. The best part is, battery life is amazingly long!

Slowing down TIME

2008-05-08T13:18:00.007+08:00

Having bought a camera the night before, this is one great day to do shootout! And geocaching!

Mt Davis Geocaching

2008-04-09T17:07:00.003+08:00

On 5 of Jan 2008.
Facebook is an interesting platform once there is a good use of it. This time we had organised a geocaching outing using it. Turnout were pretty good and naturally some of them were new to this "Sport". We added some hiking around it to increase the fun level since most rural geocaches are hidden in some mountain areas. Soon enough, one geocache were found and we all headed to have a nice meal of "Wanton noodle".

By afternoon we were on to the higher grounds, a geocache located on a mountain that used to house some big guns(war period). Mount Davis is a fabulous ground for adventure. The geocache were found readily and the gang did had a good "leapers" photo shootout. This ground is common to war-gamers shootout but they are not here this very day. The fun level were great and we finally made our way down this memorable fortress.

Potoi Island 蒲台島

2008-04-08T23:47:00.007+08:00

On a great fair day in December 2007, we decided to join some friends to venture to Potoi Island(蒲台島). The 1 hour high speed ferry ride was quite something. The ocean was rough and it was all rocking and leaning along some part of the way. Good thing, Celes did managed to stay sober till the destination. Very quickly we explored the island after a quick bowl of instant noodles(餐蛋面) aka instant noodles with egg and ham. Walking around this island through some well paved road to some local attraction sites! Clear sky and a deep blue sea welcomes everyone. The long stairway up to the mountain top make take a bit of effort to complete. But the reward at the top is priceless. At the end of the day we took another ferry to another part of HK for dinner. Sunset is such a nice thing to see at the end of long leisure day.

Vienna

2008-03-21T23:53:00.001+08:00

On my 3 weeks of Europe tour comes Vienna of Austria. Took a near 5 hours train ride from Budapest to Vienna and went through the train customs while crossing the border. The weather was great and get to chat with some youth on the train who was doing some sort of a Europe tour himself. The only difference is that he does not Geocache unlike what I was aiming for in each city. The train passes through the coutryside and there were much to watch as the scenes passes by the window. Reach Vienna late afternoon and the hotel was simple and yet comfortable for a night. And I get to use the rooftop all to myself too. Off to see this city, this place is unusually pretty. I guess the name of being a city of creativity and music where Mozart once roamed. There are just so many place of interest to see and they are somewhat the most fascinating among my journey in Europe. And tourists are a plentiful in this city of dreams. There are still homeless roaming the streets and subway and that says a litte about the social states in this city. The night is not for the faint hearted so it is best to stay indoor in the night. I had a very good time geocaching and sightseeing in this city. No sound of music tour for me this time.

Budapest

2008-03-20T23:06:00.003+08:00

Feeling around Hungary and I was a bit hungry at the end of the day. This central-eastern europe region is quite something of its own. There is some sense of adventure in the air. A rather crowded and polluted city this is. With plenty of bricks structures and castles. It is strange that it rained for a short while before sunset and then everything was as cool as can be. This castle is huge and there are plenty of spaces to crawl around. A nice tramcar to bring us up to the peak to have a spectacular look of the entire city. What can I say about Budapest? I think it's the most affordable city I had visited in Europe so a good feasting is a must!!

Stockholm

2008-03-19T22:23:00.003+08:00

Similarly, this happened back in 2007 September. Sweden is a great place to be in, very costly way of life and definitely worth a visit in our lifetime. Stockholm is a crowded city and there are many similarities between many parts of Europe with this city. The architectural flavour are close to that of Spain and Denmark. The folks living here all looked european to me(They all look identical to me). Even the ducks swimming in the river is fresher than any I had ever seen. The changing of the guards at the palace is solemn and well executed too.

The all famous Swedish meatball and their very lovely looking hotdog is rather unique and sure taste differerent from those sold at "Ikea". Among the modern city there are classical streets that still carries the good old days shopping streets of Sweden. Actually, they looks and felt just like any european shopping alleys... For now I understand where that term came from.

Copenhagen

2008-03-18T21:18:00.007+08:00

This is a historical entry that happened in September 2007. The visit to Denmark was merely for two days and it was already one full day of geocaching and an evening of fine dining. The season is entering autum and every green are still fresh and the flowers are still as bright as ever. Being in a city at weekday provides a relaxing and real experience to the beat of this place. The changing of the guards were nice and peaceful. The tourist crowd was non existence and time spent at the local church was quite an experience. There are nice places to go around the City, nice gardens and even windmills and fortress were something new to me. Even the statue is uniquely...seductive. haaha. The red barracks once was the great military stronghold on this star shaped ~~garden~~fortress island. Once more, geocaching brought me to places that no tourist will go, the sea port and some interesting island spur that goes far and wide. Also the famous mermaid on the rock seats gracefully along the coastal front. This city is very tide and clean... I think it's even cleaner than the places I grew up in.

Macau

2007-12-28T20:27:00.001+08:00

Hailed as the Las Vegas of Asia and just within an hour boat ride from where I am living, this is a must go destination. The entire landmass is not huge but there are surely enough to keep us busy for a day, excluding any gambling. The newly built MGM was quite an eye opener, with many floor tables unopened due to the low patrons rate. But the scale of investment can be seen from anywhere on the island. Major spendings on structures and maintenance must of mega proportions. The city is fairly safe in daylight while we made our way around various attractions on foot and only to stop by to taste the samples offered by all the tourist shops.
Venetian was also known to be the largest casino in the region, we went round the shopping floorw which was quite impressive. We are on the 2nd floors and they have river of canal running thoughout which was boats ride similar to that of Sicily. An impressive decor of indoor skyscape gives the illusion of being outdoor. The setup were great but I have one misgivings over this. They allowed smoking in the building which was rather bad to have folks smoking in the air-conditioned space... The trip went well but the return ferry was a bit of a worry from the flurry of passengers trying to get on an over-booked ferry. It was all well once we got on the ferry and on our seats. About 2 weeks later, some ferries collided due to poor visibility and many folks were badly hurt.

FTF on Pottinger, on Christmas

2007-12-25T18:39:00.004+08:00

Here is a FTF story. If you have known Geocaching and had been following my trail of geocaching adventures, you will know that the FTF(First to Find) status is a symbol of status within the realm of geocaching. Each geocache can only have one FTF entry and most geocachers would be aiming to put this entry for every new geocache released. Hence the story starts. It was christmas and we knew about this new geocache on the summit of a mountain called Pottinger. Hence we organised a group of 10 via facebook; we have a facebook group for geocachers in Hong Kong. Set out to achieve 2 major goals. Have a good time showing new comers to geocaching by planning 3 gc hunt on a route through pottinger. We spent a fair amount of time at the Ammo Dump where the first GC was located, I quickly found the gc and waited to allow the rest to enjoy the hunt and that took us a whoopping 1.5hrs before we went on the trail to the summit. Goal number 2! The FTF status on Pottinger. I insisted on making haste and we did, we chose the direct route up the mountain which was not any beginner hiker would like to try. It was steep and ropes were there to help hikers up those sections. By the time we got up there were muggles around! Yeah, normal people that are not aware of geocaching and could cause harm to the geocache if compromised. The search started and I quickly found the large container hidden in .......... And we started to go through the NEW contents in this NEW container. We were all delighted with the well stocked cache until we suddenly realised a stranger standing behind me who suddenly gave a cry....He's holding something in his hand and he was looking at it... a GPS receiver! He is a geocacher also on the hunt for the FTF status.... but he was just 5 minutes late!!! It would be cruel of me to describe about the moment he realised that the FTF was gone only minutes ago! What I can say is that it's a cry of "despair" after all those hard climbing up to this summit! We were glad it wasn't the other way around. So we happily and with much relief made our way down the mountain to a place called Big Wave Bay where surfers were doing their thing on the waters. The third GC was missing and that's about as good an introduction to explain the threat of muggles to geocache. All happy, we ended our adventure by nightfall and it has been a very fruitful day! Not the mention that we had loads of fun and entertainment(from our rivaling geocacher)....

http://www.blogger.com/video-play.mp4?contentId=4c9f231b2fd41b25&type=video%2Fmp4

Sai Kung 西貢 Hiking/Geocaching

2007-12-23T21:05:00.001+08:00

Hong Kong has a great leisure and sport that far surpasses what Singapore can offer; hiking. There are more mountains here than living/usable land and to make the best of them, we climb them and enjoy the great views and relaxation it offers. So this one fine Sunday which was meant to be a rainy day, we responded positively to a facebook outing to hike across the southern tip of Sai Kung 西貢. We met up at the train station and went forth on a 20mins bus ride to the starting point. There were almost 20 folks on this event and it was a very manageable size for the organiser. Of course at the peak of the walk was where one geocache is located. A fellow geocacher and myself went off track for the find while the whole group watched on by the track. About 15mins later we waved the cache container and the gang gave a cheer for the discovery! Nothing beats sharing the experience of a hobby such as geocaching with muggles... hehe.. The rest of the descent from the peak was filled with chats about the adventures of geocaching... and I say... it was a good outing and the views were breathtaking! I event made a video on it and shared it on facebook. Do tune in to watch that video if u will.

TaiTam 大潭水塘 Hiking

2007-12-22T10:04:00.001+08:00

Winter in Hong Kong has proves(so far) to be rather comfortable. It's not cold and its definitely not humid at all. So a nice afternoon walk in the park proves to be very enjoyable. A hiking trip organised by a hiking group from facebook brough Celes and myself to this nice place called Taitam. We started our walk up from Quarry Bay and soon found the nice cement trail that leads us all the way to the reservoir. However, along the journey there are numerous relics area that are dumping ground for chinese idols; such are the plight of their goddess idols. Although dumped they are still being worshipped with joss sticks by some locals in the area. Not the best thing to come across for Celes I believe.

The resevoir came up to be spectacular even though the water level was kind of low that day. Along the walk there were new friends to be made and the walk clocked up a good 10 km based on the GPSr readings and measurement from Google Earth. I even made up a video of it just like what I did for the Lantau geocaching outing(all viewable on facebook if you're into that). The video arranging has resumed recently mainly because of a recently built a PC based on Intel Duo Core CPU and the Gforce 8500 chipset with a whopping 4Gb of ram. The pc is feeling 10 times faster than my previous small form factor machine. This is the going to be the start of a new gaming season! And a Merry Christmas to all season as well!

Barcelona Trip

2007-12-14T16:47:00.001+08:00

This entry is way overdue by 3 months. I was there in September.
Barcelona was all about seeing what Gaudi has done to it... well a lot of interests were placed in the designs of this one person who really defies many contemporary minds. We went and saw this world reknown church that is still being constructed, and it is already drawing thousands of of tourists each day!!! An unbelievable concept for a church, you gonna be there to see it to really awe over it. Walking around Barcelona and using their subways are accessible, there are interesting pieces of items in shops and tourists can also rent a bicycle around the city.. it's an interesting city! Not very far from our hotel were this magical fountain! I will try and recall the name of this place but it's massive use of land is just too generous. Standing at the height will get to see the whole horizon that Barcelona is sitting. An incredible soothing sight to see. The musical found was pretty good and it's majestic displacement of large volume of water into the air far exceeded what Sentosa is doing. Everything was great, the temperature, the sporadic light rain, the crowd, the air.... wait a minute... the air.... is full of smoking fumes!!! Too many smokers in this country again!!! Can't someone actually do something about smoking??? Especially at public places such as this. Anyway, we cut short of stay at the fountain so that we live a longer life.....

Geocaching at Lantau Island (Discovery Bay to Mui Wo)

2007-12-07T00:58:00.001+08:00

For the hope of driving some awareness of the Geocaching sport in HK, we organised a geocaching + hiking trip one sunday. Some folks can along and we had a great moment searching for geocaches along this scenic and vast landmass. HK has a lot to offer in term of exploring nature. There are practically many high hills and mountains to explores. Each of them have something to offer such as great scenic sight or extreme workout! There are 2 geocaches along this route from discovery bay to Mui Wo, both are generally straight forward traditional type. The group were all excited in high spirit upon finding the second cache at this superb scenic sight..... The whole journey did not take long to finish, we managed to complete this approx 10km walk in 2.5 hours. 30mins earlier than expected. We had a good time interacting as well as exploring new grounds... I even made a video of this and shared it on facebook, hoping to gather more attention for the HK scene. I'm sure we'll be doing a lot more of these in the coming days...

Visitors in Town

2007-12-03T10:21:00.004+08:00

We have visitors in town again!! From Melbourne and they had been to Japan, China and now in Hong Kong. At the same time we catch up with friends from Melbourne that are now in HK as well. We had a look around the good old traditional HK streets and had some nice food around Prince Edward locality. This day, we went out for a walk and it was no normal walk, it was a geocaching walk, we found ourselves faced with several odds that were against us to find a geocache at the pier. But eventually, perseverence prevailed and we were all happy and excited with our first find for the day; 2nd for Dawei and 1st for En. The view from the harbour were great and we attempted another geocache which unfortunately was hampered by a construction site. So it was a great day out, not to mention to help Dawei recover from the dramatic loss of $2000 to the Vanetian Casino in Macau the previous day. The Franklin Graham(Son of Billy Graham) was holding a mega evangelistic event at HK Stadium for 3 consecutive days. We were at the one on Friday and it was totally packed!!! During altar call, I guess thousands went forward to the calling. It was a magnificent sight for what significance it really meant to a life being saved!

Green is the Color

2007-11-30T00:53:00.001+08:00

Finding my very 1st geocache in Hong Kong. This is one major achievement! This cache is hidden just about 2km from where I'm living and there is little excuse not to get it. Although it is so near but to get there we have to take a bus, climb a hill, descend into a creek, climb another hill and finally after 2 more of such hills, we came to a pavilion where the cache is hidden nearby. Quickly found and logged.
However, along the journey there are great sights to behold(lots of stairs, some tombstones and a network of tracks), photography should be a lot better during sunset or when the sky is clear. Not on this day when there's a haze in the air.... Maybe next time we'll be up here for a clear day. This marks the 1st ever and officially declares that HK geocaching has commenced! The name of this cache : "Green is the Color"!

Mount Tai Tong (大堂山) Hiking

2007-11-27T22:23:00.001+08:00

This is the return of the King into "Hiking"!! Back into the wild, and the trigger came from an unexpected source; facebook(yeah I messed into facebook too). One day I noticed a group were doing a hiking in 大堂山 and openly inviting folks to join in.. So I did!!! Only to find out that it was most unexpected response they had anticipated! Well, we went and had some nice journey to the startpoint. The trip took almost an hour and we were in the "Wilderness". Haha, it was more like a suburb than any mountain, a easy track to hike up and down a mountain and we were soon at the planned destination!!! The set "turn-back" point was only 1/3 of the entire track system but it was already getting late... late for lunch!!!. We headed back to find ourselves having lunch at 1430hrs at a booked private restaurent... private for it's home cooked dishes... a kind of "私房菜" class of food.. it was good.. we stuffed our faces with whatever landed on our table(and some from other table)... Did I shared that there were around 50 walkers??? yes.. 4 tables full of folks stuffing their faces!!!! What went well was that we found ourselves interacting and making new connections with new found friends.. Something that is a treasure of itself.... We were all glad from the experience.. Only to look forward to future walks!!!

Updates???

2007-11-15T18:14:00.001+08:00

Yes, there are updates added each day... actually there are many posts per day... The only catch.. they are all added at the back of the chronological order. 能的话，把从前的记录都搬到blogger里。。。。

Rome Roam

2007-10-31T12:00:00.001+08:00

Here's something I meant to share for a while... Roaming in Rome. For 4 days and 3 night I was in Rome, a very old city that interested me because of a very unique spot; the vatican city. This is the centre of all Catholicism, the pope's headquarters and a landmark of the religion world. Being in Italy there were opportunities to see the local cultures. Indeed, there were plenty to see.... and I was not alone, there were thousands of other tourists in town roaming this city.

I made most of the travelling on foot, only to hop on the subway to get to the vatican museum one morning in ensuring to get in front of the queue. The museum attracts so many visitors that the queue on Tuesday was 500m long. when I got there on Wednesday, the queue was only 200m and I was within the museum after 45 mins. Many folks asked what are the places worth visiting and here's what I will sincerely respond: Understand the purpose of your journey and match those places that has what worthwhile. However, having said that, there are some must go places in Rome, the Vatican museum is a must go and a good strategy is needed to avoid getting stucked in a queue for hours. Do not get overly excited about the romanic buildings in Rome, they are all over Europe so there's no need to get too hyped up over any individual majestic looking one. Each little object here has a story, and it will takes years to hear them all, and the best part, a lot of them are made up and some are told up to 100 hands away. A good understanding of the historic significance of the item of interest is needed to appreciate the displays. Else you will have to resort to renting those self-paced audio guides which I believe is a good thing, even though I didn't rent one for I had heard too much(from those loud english/chinese tour guides) and will suffice from reading the brief description off every tablet. Photos from various interesting part of Rome, the city is full of relics that are both from the remains of the roman empire or catholic origins. And they are all done in great proportion. Also displaying the massive number of tourists in this city. Are they here for the same reason as I? Did I not shared about my great coming to this city? Geocaching! The great Vatican city is where the St Pietro(Peter) is situated, very magnificent basilica(church cathedral) and piazza(open space/square), and the best part is.. the entry is free!! Inside you will find lots of things(catholic) to look at and the famous statue of St Peter with his toe being worn out by the touch of millions of pilgrimage visitors; you can goggle this on the net to see that toe. Some interesting photos taken while I was just idling around doing nothing much but resting. 1. Inside the St Pietro. 2. A painter drawing something related to the Piazza and 3. One of the many crow at Piazza St Maria Magglore very near to where I was staying. Then it was all scott free geocaching, found a few geocaches as I was already pretty much exhausted, seen a few nice structure like the one called the Castle of St Angelo. Notice one of the begger in the photo? They are many all over the city. Also geocaching brough me to many HIGH places where great panoramic view of Rome can be appreciated. Even while on the flight to Rome was quite a treat the see great mountains from above. There are many fountains to relax and make wishes. Advertisement space must be very limited and costly, notice how Macdonald utilised a bike parked in a lot for ads and directions. Something that had me amused a little. Another day of adventure, the quick 45 minutes queue into the museum and a quick appreciation of the place; it is huge!!! There are displays from the Egyptians times and lots of Roman carvings and sculptures everwhere, mostly nude... The map gallery is the best of all, a long hallway full of maps mostly drawn or collected by the vatican, it would suggest that the empire were trying to gather plenty of intelligience during one point in time. There are many paintings and each has some story behind it as well. Some are very captivating; like that lady holding the head of a fallen warrior.... that had me standing there for 5 minutes staring at it. Almost towards the end of the museum tour there are some unique displays from Asia and from the more recent history related to the pope. Found some stamps on display bearing diplomatic ties with Singapore, never knew that ties existed. The exit out of the museum is a long spiral walkway down and was quite a fascinating experience. Once out of the museum, it was all Geocaching, gone to pick up a few on the day and interestingly some of them were located near the must-visit tourist places. The colloseum is one famous spot where the Gladiators graduated. There are a lot of relic and ruins remains of the olden roman empire and the walk around these sites and take hours.... And that's probably the reason why I sprained my ankle there... the remaining walk was even slower than ever. Nearing nightfall, with my sprained ankle, I made it to the famous Trevi fountain, where many were tossing coins over their shoulders into the pond in hope of the wishes(or a return to the eternal city) will come true. This is a lover's paradise and I(and hundreds others) can see why. It was the most done up fountain among all that I had seen, the lighting's in the night were quite spectacular and that place looks a lot bigger than I anticipated. I had my pizza in one of the eating place there and hanged around the fountain observing all the wishers and the many camera flashes from tourists. Even at 10pm the crowd was still packing the place. News lately said someone threw a pail of red paint/dye into the fountain and the whole thing turned red... I had nothing to do with that since I have already left Rome for a month! (read about it here at http://ap.google.com/) Overall, I enjoyed this city, a little tricky to walk with all the rock paved roads and the people at some places are less than friendly looking. On the fourth day I packed up and made a slow proceed to the train station with my swollen ankle. Next, Stockholm for a night of transit.

Settling in HK

2007-10-29T22:59:00.001+08:00

Been here for 2 weeks now, getting used to the way of life here now..... All thanks for folks who were very concerned with what plight had befallen me in Singapore. Had stone in the kidney and 2 of them were blocking the tubeway and have to undergo 2 medical procedures to get them out of the system. Recovery has been on full steam the past 3 weeks and I'm ordered to consume 3 litres of water each day; like a camel. Yes I know who is Hua Mulan in the comment. But I never get to figure out the story behind taking up such a handle??? By the way, just connected up the Broadband, a whopping 18Mbps downstream speed, this is gonna be real interesting...

Flying HK

2007-10-15T17:40:00.000+08:00

Here I am, after a long ordeal and much re-scheduling of the flight.. I'm at the airport waiting to board the night flight to HK. I do not like night flights as there are so much challenges for the pilot to take off and land. And also the hassle of reaching a city that is already closing for the day.

It has been fun and painful month both holidaying, sightseeing, travelling and also being hospitalized for a medical reason that everyone least expected. No matter what, I'm glad that I'm on the road of recovery and will keep that god-speed on track.

In the days or week to come, I'll have another chapter for exploration of another country/city/culture. Life is always so full of adventures.....

Released

2007-10-12T18:26:00.000+08:00

All good to go.
Another 48 hrs and I'll be gone again.

The + Hotel

2007-10-10T13:24:00.001+08:00

As I lay on the bed of the final hotel in Singapore as the finale of my europe trip, there a constant pain in my abdomen. A pain that just started this morning after I was pushed into a room full of masked individuals. Once in that bright and chilling room I was able to see the all famous beehive lighting. Within minutes I was out cold and when I came around I am already in my room; the + hotel. Everything happened very quickly since a few days back as I was brought before 4 different professional practitioners that progressed me in this stage. Going to take a few more days before I can check out of this most expensive hotel that serves 3 meals a day and every now and then someone will come check on me. Check out my dinner taken with my PDA. It is simple and nice; I meant the food, my PDA phone is surely more than nice and has been my best mate. Good thing that there is a personal TV with local channels that I can enjoy all the local screenings. Bleeding is still common and the constant tugging pain in my abdomen is keeping me in a semi comfortable pose. Just had a sleeping pill to help me doze of as there will be another proceedings tomorrow morning. Looks like that pill not having effect as I'm still up tapping this blog on my dopod. Hope I'll knocked out soon and let God be the bearer of my pain. Day number 2 and all looking positive. Trying to get used to the new pain each time I visit the loo. All treatment procedures are complete, blood is still present and resting is essential for speedy recovery.

Cooling Off

2007-10-05T13:07:00.001+08:00

Sitting here in a Macdonalds to cool off. Is this tropical place has become too warm and humid for me??? For someone who grew up here it is still puzzling how I managed to survive all these years in this climate... Mac in Singapore are dominated by students unlike those of Europe; which are only affordable by the working class folks.. Coming to think of it. The compensation for this heat is the affordability of the necessity here..

Back in town again!

2007-10-04T23:02:00.002+08:00

This has to be it. My very first Europe tour since ....never.

8 countries in total, they are chosen in the ranking of cost of living and my interest level. Here's a summary of the travel and a detailed blog will be written when the photos are being processed(7000s over shots).

Firstly UK, London,

This is a huge city with a high cost of living for everything is computed in pound and it is very costly! Chinese food in the city are priced so high that a decent meal for 2 will cost up to SG$200.

Italy, Rome,

Not the best place to live in cos the city is in a chaotic order due to the remains from the Romans times. Plenty of history to see and a lot of Roman Catholicism relics to visit.

Germany, Munich,

A simple city with a high cost as well. The very state of the art airport and a high hotel costs. Apart from that, the whole place feels kind of CLEAN! Yes cleaner than Singapore!

Spain, Barcelona,

A mid level cost of living and a rather Spanish style city. The architecture in the country seems to adore balcony, everyone has one no matter what size it come in. They have their dogs roam around it, plants seating on it or simply leaving it empty, but each apartment have one.

Denmark, Copenhagen,

My 2nd favourite of the whole trip. Clean city and a safe place to roam around alone. A lot of space for tourists to explore and some parts are surely very interesting. Geocaching is very fun here.

Sweden, Stockholm,

The most expensive place to live in Europe, very high cost of living and the train system is very good. Bullet trains run through this country and it kind of resembles Barcelona in some way.

Austria, Vienna,

Very interesting country, folks kissing away in public and it's quite a technologically advanced city. A lot of homeless roam the city at night though but it's still a good place to sight see.....

France, Paris

My favourite of all the cities for there are so much to see, they have incorporated many interesting flavors from countries like Barcelona, Rome and Vienna. They are plenty of swindlers and profiteers at the airport that made the country looks really bad.

Here they are... my Europe trip all done in 3 weeks. Full time!!! Glad to be in SG for a few days before I move on to my next country. Guess whats my fist two meal in Singapore. PIG TROTTERS and CHICKEN RICE!!!!

Oh.... Singapore, Singapore too.

Singapore has aged a lot, a lot of stuffs are getting really old and lackluster. However, it is still the most affordable place to live in as long as frugality is observed.

Going Paris

2007-09-30T11:41:00.000+08:00

Too much time on hand now as I'm waiting for my flight to Paris in Vienna Airport airport. Arrived early so that the unexpected will get its remedying resources. So I'm comfortably seated on a couch and tapping on my dopod for this entry.

So far I had seen London, Rome, Barcelona, copenhagen, Stockholm , budapest and Vienna. They are all mega cities of mega proportion. Each has it's unique flavor to offer and my favourite at this juncture would have to be... Vienna! followed by copenhagen! They have great sights that appeal to me. Their cities are orderly and well planned without much discomfort to visitors.

Now I am entering the final stop of my europe tour cum geocaching there are tons of photos and videos to process. Judging from current count, there will be aroud 5000 shots and 5 hours of video clips in queue.

Rome Rome

2007-09-26T11:38:00.002+08:00

Rome was one adventure that had me totally exhausted. From the journey within Rome I had blisters on both of my feet and to make it worse I even sprained my ankle.

The city of ROME is like, one big messy colony. The roads are all over the place, small streets are everywhere and those staying in the city have very interesting setup which has came down from the Roman times. Their dwellings are between two streets and there's a central courtyard in the middld of it in which then surrounds another structure... confusing? yes, you have to see it or watch a documentary to visualize it. The places to go in ROME, well, I tried it by foot and they are all reachable if you have 4 days to roam around. Geocaching was quite strenuous as I only managed to bag 6 out of 9 on two partial days of geocaching. Once again, the city is chaotic, you have zebra crossing in which you should have no problem crossing if you DARE to do it. They cars in the city are just countless!!! In one big tourism boom due to the ROMAN history and Catholicism, the cost of living here is pathetically HIGH! A simple small pizza meal and a soft drink will set you back for AUD$10. Soon you see what I mean. Even a soft drink at tourist attraction ground were going at 3 euro a 500ml. Well, since I'm only here for this time space of my life I'm gonna not be bothered too much about all these costs. But it sure sting the wallet big time.

I went to many FREE(and paid ones without entering) exhibits and a paid one at the Vatican Museum. You can feel most of it the ROMAN culture from the outside without getting inside to see similar artifacts unless you are on some kind of a tour and the tour guide has plenty of interesting stories to tell. Some self guided walks are available with electronic audio devices that works throughout the coverage area and the commentary will cover all the artifacts that is on exhibit. The Vatican city is a MUST to visit for it's the main reason ROME is so vibrant. The heart of all Catholics and they are very very rich! The St Peter square is breathtaking and the St Pietro is a fascinating place to enter(free) and take zillions of photos. The crowd is like water; non stop, even when it was pouring outside they kept coming. There are much to see in there.. too much that I spent two days within the Vatican. A lot of stories that I had chosen to skip many of them or it'll take a month to tour the exhibits. Once outside the Vatican, the city traffic welcomes anyone who need to commute. The sound of ambulance resonates around the whole city non stop; though I did not get to witness any of the reasons behind it. A lot of the minor road are not paved with smooth and flat surfaces, it's padded with rocks and I sure pity those on the scooters to be bumping all the way down most roads. Each steps we take lands on some uneven surface and probably the reason I sprained my ankle by missing a proper step. Tourism is simple a way for profiteering off folks whom want to get rid of some $$$ but that's how $$$ are spent at this part of the world. This city is surely something for the adventurous and daring individual unless you are with a tour group. Scenic spots are all over the city and there are never-ending awe to what architectual height can be achieved in this region.

London Report

2007-09-17T11:30:00.001+08:00

London is one BIG city, see the pic I attached for something BIG I came across as I just arrived at the city. The London Cab is quite comfortable for a short ride from the Paddington Station. Without much delay, we went to see the tower bridge. This has to be the best bridge along this section of the river, and having it next to the London bridge sure make the London bridge looks "unglorified". There are much to do and to see, geocaching will be a one day affair and a lot of walking and sitting around as well.... Hence.. more entries will be coming soon...

Hiatus Report

2007-09-12T11:28:00.001+08:00

It should be nice to give an update on the Hiatus.. Yeah right, hiatus report.. haha.

Here I am, with friends from the past. Serious looking bunch by todays standard. Brings back good memories from the good old days. Bendemeer feels like just happened yesterday and time just flew past these ** years. There are much to talk and so little time. Everyone has their curfew to get back to their families and it all ended up nice and early. This should happen more often, if only I'm back in Singapore more often too....

Hiatus

2007-08-26T13:04:00.001+08:00

This is deja vue, something that had happen a couple of years ago. I am about to go on Hiatus! And when I do return it will be in a very different dimension. Till then, I am glad that these years had been very personally fulfilling. There are new friends made and are good companion as well as companion along the strange path of getting to know this country. There was a nice meal with some good men, all have something to share and something to offer; blessings and goodwills. I with for all my friends here on this piece of HUGE island good health and joyfulness in their seek for the meaning of life.... Before I disappear, kinglee.net blog will be reduced to a few entries until I put to back to it's full blown state. In the meantime, stay tuned, I won't be away too long. But It may take weeks.

Bye Melbourne

2007-08-25T10:53:00.001+08:00

Ahh.... Winter is coming to an end soon and there are signs of Spring in botany. Colors are appearing in the wild; and some man made displays. The very same thing that jumped out at us when we first came here was to experience Springtime with all the colors explosion. Nature all awaking from their 3 months of slumber and all competing for attention; perhaps God's attention to appreciate their beauty. Even the fresh oysters we had looking so appealing with the touch of the yellow lemons..... mouth watering indeed. Might be the last time we walk this Botanic garden, the flower clock is full of life and colors once more. The ducks received a good teasing from Celes while there were er.... eating grass... Celes was trying to touch them while they were busy pecking at the grass and occasional try to peck at Celes to get her to back off.. But in the end.. we chased that duck around abit... And the first time we went into the greenhouse in the botanic garden, a very family sight; a tropical forest.. yeah, I had lots of those years that I have to sleep in one while serving in the military. Workout are still one importance of our lives, You Yang is our new favourite place to climb and walk and pant and marvelled at the view from the top. Celes is new to this ground and it was surely a good climb with occasional folks passing by on the way. At the summit, Melbourne looks so distant and Geelong is just not too far away in the skyline. This is still one sanctuary for birds as we were constantly being entertained by some funny birds calls. After workout, it's time to feed ourselves. Williamstown is another great spot for... Fish and Chips. Any my usual addition to it are oysters. Freshly bought from the boat as if they were just caught; could be just a placebo effect playing tricks on us. The band was playing at the month end marketplace.. We had a good share of cheescakes and muffins... all in one cosy afternoon. Then it was heading home for packing... a whole lot of packing.

Serendip Reloaded

2007-08-23T05:52:00.001+08:00

We promised that we will return again to this park and we did! It was a chilling day out to see those familiar animals and to find new interesting looking duck and wallaby to add to my photo collection. This round we made it straight for the Geocache and found it without much drama. Left a geocoin and travel bugs in the cache so others can bring them along on their journey around the world. Sam was with us today as we had planned to do Serendip and then head to You Yangs for BBQ. Unfortunately, rain came and we made our way back to the city shortly. Hmm... did I also mentioned that we went wallaby chasing too? shhhhhhhh..... Although we only spend about an hour at Serendip it was interesting enough for us to head back when rain started to fall. Having made it to the City we drove along the Yarra river and found a good spot to dispose off the BBQ food. Yes, dispose them off into our digesting systems. The river is peaceful and quiet, a cooling noon and very delicious Chicken Steaks, Lamb Shanks and panfried eggs+onions. In one word. Delicious!! BTW, that cat, just happened to be there staring at us so I took a snap.

Mount Baw Baw

2007-08-06T07:22:00.001+08:00

We drove ourselves to Mount Baw Baw; Mt St Gwinear side. This is the less known side of the reserve that are purely all snow seeing and offer nice cross country skiing and lots of Tobogganing. Celes must have climbed that slope over 20 times to enjoy the bumpy ride down. It was all fun with many screams coming from all over. Fun-filled as well as physically exhausting. At the bottom of the snow run and Celes managing her gloves as they were getting really drenched after 15 over runs... I was purely playing camera/video man which is a lot less tiring... But got to stop my hands from shivering while taking videos... After we almost used up our energy on the slopes we took a stroll around the area and steps on some fresh snow. It was beautiful with all the white around and my cheeks was blushing from all the cold and wind. It has been raining alot today but hey!.. no one actually was complaining up here. Managed to geocache along the way and found one traditional cache on the final turnoff to the mountain.

Relatives and Snow

2007-08-05T11:20:00.001+08:00

As one of my blog entry stated, it would be pointless to go places alone and not share them with my loved ones. So here we are, revisiting this Ruffey Lake Park for it's theraputic offerings. It calms a person to walk this park, go try it! At the same park but near the BBQ facilities, this section sparks some nice trees that are telling us that winter is indeed here! Both far end of the park are some neat amusement facilities, A rather long slide and some fascinating playground got us interested in exploring them. Celes played this slide over 5 times.... This one captured with her hands in the air! Near the park lives one of our relatives living in Doncaster, they had been here over 30 years and are enjoying a retired lifestyle; very much admired by many from back home. It's always good to catch up with them and offer our time to help or get help from them in anyway convenient. As usual, we had KTV in their home and a nice lunch + Dinner..

Serenidip Sanctuary

2007-07-30T12:22:00.007+08:00

Let's see, the names of these animals are:


Eastern Bearded Dragon
*** Ducks
*** Wallaby
*** Bustard
Mud Ducks
Tweety Bird
Tawny Frogmouth
Emu

Actually, some part of the names are missing and I have to go look them up again the next time I visit this fascinating sanctuary. Located between Geelong and Werribee this place is like a Free Zoo! I was meant to go geocaching and one of the geocache is hidden within this place. We had such a great time being fascinated by the animals and taking moments observing them we actually missed finding this goecahes as time ran out for the park's gate was about to close at 4pm. On with the adventure.

The walkway with several observation decks that are very well placed to have a good view of the creatures in this 5 star sanctuary. Celes got a fright from the proximity between this Frogmouth while we were closing in towards a funny looking bird on the ground. This Bird appears to be very old and just leaning on the branch ... like a frog. And it has a mouth just like that of a Frog. No wonder it has been named Tawny Frogmouth. There are 4 trails in this sanctuary with each having something special to offer. Each trails range from 800m-1.5km long and there's this free range king size Emu running about around the park at 50km/hr. This park is very well maintained and all the cages are well design to deliver all the animals that we can actually go chase them around.... And the best part of it all.. it's FREE!. Gates open from 10am-4pm. Now you know why we missed the geocache as we were so drawn in by the displays that we had to dash for the car at 4pm.

The 13th

2007-07-29T12:18:00.001+08:00

I was out on a one man mission to hit 13 caches in a roll. And this entry was a little delayed as other events came up before I blogged this very adventurous day. The Ruffy Lake Park and Doncaster Municipal Garden are great parks; great views and super land size! Not to mention the BBQ and picnic facilities all over the place. No wonder there are countless number of folks and their dogs running about this piece of serene landscape on a weekday afternoon. And I'm one such addition to the crowd. The open space are such relaxing to behold and there are actually chairs under some of the tress offering good shades. There's a student sitting on one of the chair in the distance. Even though its winter but this very day feels just like Spingtime. There are some great caches hidden in this place and I'm always very thankful to the cache's owners for bringing me here to enjoy such findings. After all the walking about the park I was pretty starved and tired so it was time to take a bite. The Krispy Kreme donuts I brought along tasted fantastic under this BBQ shed where there are comfortable chairs and great view in front while I had my way with this delicacy. Of course to make the record complete I had an apple too; in case Celes is reading this entry and was alarmed at the amount of sugar in that donut. Everything was perfect this very day. 13th cache was found by 4pm and a very happy kinglee was home celebrating this day's high score feat. One thing at the back of my mind; it will be total perfection if I can share all these adventures with my loved ones.... It will be in vain if I gained the whole world but not have it shared with my loved ones....

New New Kid in Town

2007-07-25T08:04:00.001+08:00

Yes, there's a New New Kid in town, on his first orientation in Melbourne, we brought him out Geocaching! Yes. a hefty 5 finds on this very day of arrival. It's a little too cold for him as he is still getting acclimatized to the temperature difference between Singapore. The location is just 15km outside Melbourne and there were nice things to see, and also good geocaches to hunt for. It was a pleasant surprise that all the geocaches were found without any drama; and was instantaneous. As if some guiding force was helping us. Here at an unique library at Eltham, we posed for a shot with a statue that Andrew initially thought was a real person/muggle. So here we are, inaugurated a new kid in town! And we even did the infamous Possom Hunt Geocache that was a Night time cache!

You Yangs Reloaded

2007-07-22T02:59:00.001+08:00

Grabbed Andrew along for a Geocaching Saturday, as you can see what we found at You Yangs, something that reminded me of an opened durian. As a result of that scene, we later went hunting for Durian Gelato in Carlton. There are workout to be done with this 40 mins round trip up the peak of the You Yangs mountain. It was strenuous and had our heart pumping and panting from cardiovascular exertion. But the view up here is sure worth all the climb, and winter does not feel like winter anymore after such an exercise. The huge eagle geoglyph seen from the viewing platform. That is where one geocache is waiting for us. The reason we are at this viewing platform is to gather hints to get to that cache; these are called Multicache which we need to hunt for clues and hints to get to the real GZ(Ground Zero). Never strike me that this place is a paradise for mountain biking, there are special trails for bikes in cross country style. We witnessed several bikes went down the cliff over rocks covered path and it was quite impressive. Here we are, at the Eagle Geoglyph which from this angle looks like a duck head. We scour for the hidden cache and was about to give up when I spotted it; and that made my day! Very pleased with today's 8 finds and 2 DNFs. God must be blessing this day for the Fog in the morning vanished and the temperature became very tolerable.

Geocaching Weekend

2007-07-16T13:23:00.001+08:00

The weekend came and went quickly. So did we, we went to Dandenong to finish one more section of the park of geocaches. It has been raining a fair bit in the weekdays and everything was soaked and muddy. The Puffing Billy Track stood tall and unshaken from all the heavy downpour. Today we have Yen and Doreen coming along to offer extra help in searching for "Treasures". They are very hardworking folks judging from the way they scour for the hidden cache. Very fast paced couple from Singapore; I think they are still operating at SG clock! Soon, daylight passes and we managed to cover an impressive count of 9 found and 2 did not find stat! Very good result for a day starting at 9am and ending at around 5pm. Could not have done it without their participation. On top of that, it was a good social time spent too! This end shot taken at Olinda waterfalls. On a half day caching with Bluecat and we came upon a trainspotting site where a good network of rails can be observed from this very spot. Strangely, we only managed to spot a pickup truck moving on the rail. Not many train running on weekend I suppose. Also covered a cache that I wound not have done alone; In the cemetary. There are lots of tombstones, all sort of shapes and sizes. It was like a sculpture show in here. Found this very significant tomb with a memorial message inscribed on it. The cache is hidden nearby! This is Melbourne about 30km away. Taken with my Casio Z750 attached to a Monocular. Boasting a Zoom power of 25x with this shot. Got to practice more with this sort of coupled shots. Kangeroo ground where a pround standing structure has been built in memory of the wars that took place in the last century. This tower has a top deck that can see really really far!!

Geelong Gathering & Box Hill

2007-06-26T02:58:00.001+08:00

Geocacher gathering at Geelong was a get together at a vell facilitated park where there are BBQ and plenty of space to roam around. We drove from Melbourne for more than an hour to get there and witness how such an event are conducted. It was a simple informal gathering with a competition/challenge going on. Many teams appeared and I managed to recognise several team names that and link them to the person behind it. While in Geelong it would be good to do some geocaching nearby; here at Ocean Grove where one cache is hidden and the bigger treasure would have been the scenery and experience along this parkland. While geocaching we ran into BackPaqer(another geocacher) who is on the same few geocaches we planned for. So away we went with our 3 common caches. Another part of the coast where another cache is hidden, thanks to BackPaqer who supplied Skiing gears to probe for this cache. I had never anticiated this but this famous Bellarine Railway is so cool. I was standing on it and could not resist taking a photo. This is taken with my PDA as I had left my Casio Z750 at home. Some time later we were in another part of Victoria, this is the Box Hill locality. I know it may be hard to imagine but this is surely a special botanic garden situated in Box Hill, very few folks will know about it cos it SPECIAL! This day is about finding unique and hidden park area. This section of a hidden park are sits between a natural reservce area and a golf course. It is fenced up as a heritage site. There are several concentric patterns made for some bizarre purposes. We found the well hidden cache and enjoyed the place for a while and went off as the sun was about to set.

Poh's in Town

2007-06-24T12:24:00.001+08:00

One evening the Poh family came to town. They experienced the coldest days in Melbourne and had great fun playing in the snow at Mt Buller. The family of 4 is just short of being frozen stiff and in seek of some oriental food. Here we are at a Shanghai styled eating place to stuff our faces. It must have been a very tough and tiring journey cramped in a coach from Melbourne to the 12 Apostles along the Great Ocean Road. If motion sickness is common, there is this wrist band (http://www.travelband.com/morning-sickness.htm) thingy that can be worn to reduce/eliminate the discomfort. Sent the kids to bed and took an evening lookaround of Melbourne City. The evening is calm and makes a good time for walking outdoor. The fire display at crown was a very warming experience. Resting well on our sofa at our penthouse.... yeah rite, this is the crown casino hotel lobby where we just need to sit down for a rest after all the sightseeing and walking. Got home at 1230am and thats the latest we had ever spent out in our entire stay in thie city.

Vanishing Melbourne

2007-06-17T10:59:00.001+08:00

This is the day something extraordinary happened to Melbourne. It vanished! The morning started with such a thick fog that visibility was reduced to less than 100m. Air planes were force to land in Sydney and we all know that there's this crazy storm going on in Sydney..... Anyway, together with the fog is the all time decade low of 1 degress that sent everyone shivering in the morning rush to work. At sunset another wave of fog invaded the city and then it was just less than 50m visibility. Such an exciting experience, everything outside my windows seems to have vanished. The next day was a day set to break record; a day set to find 20 geocaches. Bluecat and I set off after the fog lifted around lunchtime and were on a bridge feeling our way behind every hidden spots and this first stop took us 30mins! All because it was a tricky one. We then moved on to tackle the rest on this not so chilling day. Like I had been saying all these while, we need an detective instinct to be able to solve each hidden location. This cache is set in the oldest cemetery in this neighborhood and it is just next to a tombstone. Feels like a tomb raiders while we were scouring this place. This cache brought us to this new neighbourhood that is so serene that anyone would want a piece of housing here. It's one of those dream houses in a dream neighborhood that anyone would want. This bridge waterways are full of ducks and these are curious ducks that came right up to us while we were crawling under the bright finding stuffs. At the end of the day, we manged to uncover 8 hidden spots after trying 12. This would mean 4 DNF(Did not find) and we ran out of daylight to keep going. So it's another great adventure looking for stuffs.

10 in a row

2007-06-11T07:52:00.001+08:00

We all know what are roundabout are; where car goes round them to negotiate into the desired turn. Yeah. This car is IN the roundabout! Well, it's not a real car but a nice little creative piece of decoration on this roundabout. There are plenty of roundabouts here in Victoria and I think they are very effective in reducing the number of accidents. Even in winter the flowers are still as brightly colored as before. This is one of many flowers in an interesting factory/heritage park/garden. Call it whatever you want as they are all in this 200metres square piece of ground. Very worthwhile making a visit as it is called Pipemaker park very near to edgewater/High Point shopping centre. Daisy in Winter? Do they blossom during Winter? I'm not much of a flower fan but this striking color is just irrational. Werribee caching and this artefacts is the the spot where a cache is hidden nearby. This is some kind of water treatment facility that was used ages ago by the community here. Werribee is a beautiful place to visit with all it's green and irrigating waterways. This dam was built in the OLD ages to irrigate the land around this place and is still standing strong. The park nearby is so relaxing and nice and it is just less than 30mins drive from Melbourne to get to this spot. I forgot to check on the condition of the BBQ stove here to plan for future BBQ outings. Might need to come back again to complete a 7 cache series I was meant to complete if not for my carelessness for not taking down the 6 clues found on the 6 caches that will give rise to the location of the 7th. However, I'm happy for this very day we completed 10 caches in a row. My personal best till date. Celes was tired(she wanted SHOPPING!)

SkyHigh

2007-06-04T14:51:00.001+08:00

This round, geocaching brought us to the northern part of Dandenong Mountain and it was well worth the trip. Skyhigh is a famous tourist attraction that serves the Melbourne City scape horizon to the beholder. A cold winter day out for a scenic experience and a chance to find a geocache hidden among the rocks on steep slopes. Kalorama is the name of this place and there are BBQ and picnic facility to face this great Monsterous view. Imagine yourself having a BBQ with this view as the background; of course with a beer in hand. Winter has brought a new freshness due to the much needed rainfall that colored everything green once more. A historic site where a plane crashed and now is a monument and the remains of the accident can still be seen in bits and pieces around the area. This geocache is cleverly hidden, that mean one has to think out of the box to locate this one. Geocacher will think of anything to hide their cache! Can you see Melbourne City Skyline in the distant? Put your mouse over the image to see the larger version and you will be able to enjoy the view we did. But you wont be able to feel the cold breeze and the scent in the air then.

FTF(First To Find) - Grampians

2007-05-28T12:56:00.001+08:00

Just a weekend getaway into the Grampians. A 250km drive west of Melbourne brought us to this place of interest. A piece of green land after the recent rainfall phenomena. The roos were grazing the greens in a happy fest and welcome the only two tourists at this time of the year to come really close for a photoshoot. My very first FTF(First to Find) cache. For those who are not into geocaching, FTF means that I'm the first one to locate and sign the logbook on a cache that has been released. Very rarely will one get this first spot on a logbook for there are so many enthusiasts aiming for the FTF place. This round it's just pure coincidence that I happened to see this appear on the map just before I set off for this trip. Then it was all geocaching and sightseeing, back to the Mackenzie Falls for the 3rd time, I think this will be the final time I'll be coming here again. The falls is still falling, although with a lot lesser water due to the recent drough conditions. The place has a lot lesser tourist because it's almost WINTER! And the only folks who will come visit at this time of the year are probably here for some other reasons(such as geocaching), hehe. When we woke up the next day, we came across this Emu loitering around the caravan park and we quickly took some funny snaps of it before it literally RAN off in high speed. We witnessed the two legged bird raced across the road and vanished around the corner. What a good start for another geocaching day! From 9am to 2pm were all trekking and walking up and down undulating terrain across this land. The Pinnacle walk has been altered due to the 2006 bushfire and now there are a lot more stairs and it was really tiring getting up there. Once up there, I secured my SECOND FTF on a new cache that were placed here not so long ago. Probably because of the bush fire and the high difficulty plus terrain factors this cache is till untouched by those avid hunters. We enjoyed the scenes, atmophere, ate some fruits and made our 1.5hrs descent to the "Wonderland carpark" below. It's one Helluva view and experience for this 2 days escape into the Grampians. And geocaching has been 10 for 10; 100% success rate.

100th - Triple Figures!

2007-05-24T14:22:00.001+08:00

I had made it! Achieved triple figure last night. It was just after dinner with 2 friends in Melbourne and then took a nice stroll to a nearby cache north of Melbourne. Found the micro cache rather quickly as it was late at night and muggles were few. Viola! My 100th cache marks a monumental mileston in geocachine. To celebrate, we went to Lygon street and had a nice ice-cream fest. A durian and Rum-Rasin cone tasted superb in a Melbourne winter evening. Now on to the next 100 caches.

New Geocachers

2007-05-20T04:37:00.001+08:00

One weekend, we took a risk by doing a BBQ with the great Dandenong view behind us. The weather forecasted rain and we simply hoped for the best the sky can offer us that day. And soon, the rain came pouring and the wind started to blow. IT WAS FREEZING; a very Dejavu experience from my previous BBQ at the very same spot. Got out of the cold and had a nice dessert at "Flippin Pancake" along the great tourist route at Dandenong. A warmth dessert being seated next to the fireplace in the restaurant. This red spider(which mean ice cream in a soda drink) looks so lustre in photo, and it tasted very soury and delicious! After all the sweet stuffs, the rain has stopped and we were still doubtful if a second or third wave of downpour is coming. So we made a parting shot here and splited! The 5 brave souls made way to the Spingvale Cemetary where I last visited to find a geocache without success; due to some unknown forces at work. This time with 4 more thinking heads and 5 pairs of eyes, we found this nice cache! It was fascinating for Albert and Mae whom have never seen a geocache before. We proceeded to find more challenges in geocaching, both Albert and Mae lost their "VIRGIN" cache for each having discovered the hiding place of a cache with their name on it. Just as we thought raindrops were starting to fall, a twin rainbow appeared in the distant and we must get out of the car to capture this distinct and magnificant colors. Although I did not get to cover my 5 intended caches due to the rain, but in the end we were rewarded with a great day out and a rainbow cheering our spirits.

Fireworks

2007-05-12T13:30:00.001+08:00

The beautiful night lights at Southbank, the place that I had spent almost 2 years of my existence; and I love it. There are quite a lot of lives running around this unique city and each of them have very specific dreams and goals - the melting pot of many cultures and diversities as one of my colleague told me. I can't agree more. The reason I was sitting at the far end of the river taking this shot is in anticipation of the next 15 mins that is going to come; the river fireworks. With loud blasts and exploding bangs the fireworks display started. The whole peace of the evening were broken and there were all fascination and colors in the night sky. The Crown Casino is celebrating 10 years of operations in Southbank and is putting up a 5 days of fireworks by the river. So there are plety of opportunity to shoot great fireworks with my Casio Z750. I'm impressed with the capability of this camera. It never fail to amaze me. Taken on the final evening where I took a far view of the show. 5 Days of fireworks has ended and soon peace will return to the southern bank of the Yarra river. Only to be broken by the hourly fire/flame show along the casino banks. The 5 nights has been very enjoyable and exciting with attempts to capture all the lights and patterns in the sky. The weather here is turning cold and its going to be winter in no time. A change of clothing fashion is imminent.

Fur Seals & Bendigo

2007-05-01T14:52:00.001+08:00

It was raining and we were out at sea off Phillip Island and in our direction were thousands of fur seals. The vessel took 45mins to get to the seals island and soon we were surrounded by thousands of curious seals, all swimming towards the vessel and meet all the excited visitors. I was wondering who is the tourist in this fest. The next day we visited the Nobbies which the seal island can be seen several miles away. It is nice, warm and dry today to enjoy this great tourist attractions. Saw a couple of interesting snakes, birds and carcases along the walkway along the cliffs and it all was really nice and relaxing. On the same day, geocaching goes places as we came to a wind farm where several wind mill were standing with the blades making the whooping sound. I never expected to be so near and the structure to be so BIG! It was just some place that is exilirating!!! On Anzac day, we drove all 150km to Bendigo to debut in a Geocaching mega get-together event. It was a large gathering and there were many faces that I only knew as nicknames on geocaches logbooks. It was great exchange and we attempted to do a joint effort to find a geocache near the venue and it turned to out be rather funny with a whole large group of 10 persons all hanging around a small bridge, with all sort of handheld reading panels and poles and mirrors; and scanning for item under the bridge. It would have looked like some sort of bomb squad for passerbys judging from the looks of some girls trying to cross the bridge and simply just stood there waiting for us to signal them to cross.. haha.. it was in good fun. You can read about the logs written by the different teams at http://www.geocaching.com/Howzat! Then there were great geocaching veterans to meet and see them in action. How they quickly get to the coordinates and locate the cache is quite impressive.

The Colors of the Wheel

2007-04-30T15:08:00.001+08:00

There is very little I can say about these photos. I have no clue on what occasion that this Ferris wheel is sited there at Birrarung but it is still there today but not too sure for how long. The magic of Colors in motion with a slow shuttle speed.
Quite a display of lights if you ask me.

More adventures

2007-04-13T09:28:00.001+08:00

At dights falls, a nice dam and park near the city fringe. The sound of water rushing, gushing and falling are so refreshing. We took out shoes off and walked across the edge of the waterfall and feel the water running it chill over our feet. Of course, all these would have been meaningless without someone to share with. I'm grateful for having Celes to share all these fond memories and special adventures. Over the weekend we set forth again for our treasure hunting at the North-East of Melbourne. Discovered new picnic grounds and several interesting places to chill out. This tree behind us is totally hollow and is still standing tall and proud.

Gavin and Kennis

2007-03-25T15:13:00.001+08:00

My long time friend(Kennis) from HK is being blessed with a God fearing man. I rejoice for you and give you my most sincere 祝福 of loving kindness and good health. 天下有情人在一起体验人生，是上帝最大的祝福和恩典！ Join me in sending our blessings to this loving couple at http://www.freewebtown.com/kennisgavin/

Geocaching with extra hands

2007-03-25T10:14:00.001+08:00

With 3 more dudes along this time we are set to go and have a taste of team geocaching. But before the action starts we had to fuel ourselves with goodies. Doing the BBQ on high ground with a spectacular view. Not to mention the amount of smoke we created. It was raining relentlessly every 15 mins and we really are glad this bbq is sheltered. After all the raining and recovering from the extremely cold wind today, we found ourselves looking among hidden places for caches, this one is near puffing billy and we were just in time to see the train on it's return trip. The train whistle was loud and deafening but sure reminds us of the good old steam train days. The folks are trying to pack all the swaps back into the cache container and it was quite a challenging task considering the limited clearance left to close the lid.

An Oz Wedding

2007-03-18T11:23:00.001+08:00

On St Patrick day, we headed to Eltham to attend a wedding ceremony. It was conducted in the open and with the scenic hills as the backdrops. The exchange of vows and wedding rings are such solemn moments that everyone held their breath and simply witness it.
With the bridegroom and bride in the background gazing into each other eyes in exchange of affections. We took this nice photo on a rather sunny and cool afternoon. It's always cold for celes as long as the temperature falls below 25 degrees.

Moomba Waterfest & Geocaching

2007-03-11T10:08:00.001+08:00

I have no clue what this 4 days festival is trying to achieve but it surely has a lot to do with water. So on the first friday evening there were water ski performance and it was quite entertaining to see formation skiing and some acrobatic stunts. The crowd was not big and it was a lot easier to get around and enjoy what has been presented. All the carnivals are in action like this ferris wheel that spun round in a alarming RPM! What I enjoyed was the lights and the colors on the fittings and it sure will go well with a "MOST COLORFUL" photo competition. The gambling mind surely will find this challenging, games that offer chances to win base on luck! Look at the attractives toys hanging on the stall. This is an Alcohol free event and I think it should also be a SMOKE FREE event since there are SO MANY smokers and there seems to be no where to run for a breather! Saturday is a simple day, it is called GEOCACHING day. Going to Fern Tree Gully and attempted a few of the interesting caches that are hidded around this region. There are places to go, sights to behold and lots of driving and navigating with the PDA to bring me as close as possible to minimised excessive fatigue. This is an example of where an easy category cache is hidden. Can you spot it? Beware if ever you need to put your hand into any space that you cannot see beyond for there may be creatures living in them. Snakes, Lizards, Spiders or Scorpions are my biggest concern. All geocaching alone will bore Celes stiff so a few of the caches are near sites that has something else to offer; a scenic nature walk. This walk brings us deep into the forest where we are confronted with trees that has lived several centuries. The trunk are incredibly huge and they are in the "Giant" tree categories. Besides trees, there are the inhabitants of this forest, the parrots! Many colors and totally fearless of human. These parrots are constantly being fed by visitors. Coaches load of tourists all armed with their cameras and bird food flocks to this place to enjoy what you are seeing in that photo. Hand feeding a parrot and many of them can be seen trying real hard to attract one onto their arm. And of course, Celes loves it! She has special bird food recipe all prepared for this occasion. We had been here for almost 5 times now and this time we really had a good go at feeding them birds through to overtime! Along the journey home we dropped by to a friend's abbot to have a typical Aussie night. A barbie(Barbecue) and an evening of board game! The 6 of us had a good time communing and entered a game of LIFE. I didn't turn out as the winner of the game but did managed to become a millionaire. That is achieved without an IT career!!! That could be a sign.

A New Beginning

2005-10-04T09:25:00.000+08:00

This is a new start, the return of the king!