17-05-2009 kusu island - the turtle island

Hello everybody

Today, i wnet to kusu island (a singaporian island), after a 30 minutes ferry trip you reach this island (with a little stop in St Johns iland in between). KUSU ISLAND means the turtle island, and it is like a turtle sanctuary, there is a budhhist temple on it and the 9th month of the lunar calendar there is something like 90000 devotees who will pay their respects there.

there is also a little malay temple at the top of the 120 steps of a little little hill. 

some baots that you can meet going out of the harbour of Marina south pier

The Indian temple and its devotees praying

The gifts offered by the devotees in the malay temple, they put one or two stones in water in a bag and hang it to the trees or whereever else they can

If you want, and really if you want you can go for a swim, personally i wouldn't because the island is surrounded by the big cargo and tanker boats waiting to come in the Singapore harbour

Some of the turtles you can find all over the island, the 2 last ones being the marbble "big sized" turtles in front of the chinese temple 

some of the flowers you can find there

without forgetting the spiders...

Coming back to Singapore you can see the skyline like you never saw it before...

Write to you soooooooooooooooooooon

kisseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees

15-05-2009 Singapore art festival opening - HELIOS II

Hello evry body

I know, i know it is once again a lomg time that i ahven't updated the blog but better later than never

So from may the 15th to june the 14th takes place in Singapore the art festival and for its openning the group Malabar (a french one) has performed their show called helios II. a 20 meter long mantis on which one musiceiens and artist are performing their show.

that took place at the marina barrage, the place where the future casino is beeing built.

a very nice and enchanting 70 mintues show full of crzy characters and very original performances, but let's have a look by yourself...

 

And after the show a little walk on the bridge of the Marina Barrage, in order to take some pictures of the skyline by night

Write to you soooooooooooooooon

Byyyyyyyyyyyyye

10-10-2009 esplanade, opera, boat quay

Hello everybody,

i already posted something on these places but not with day light pictures so i thought it would be good to do it now. after a walk at the bukit thima nature reserve ( yes a place i like because it is the second time in 2 week ends that i go there)

Let start by the skyline you have in front of you when you are on esplanade with its famous Merlion

Then comes the opera, this kind of futurist building that some people here call the Durians ( you remember this stincky fruit) 

Then the esplanade bridge and i couldn't resist to show you its by night version the other way round

after a 900 meters walk you arrive in Boat quay with its buildings, its sculptures ( like the bird by Botero)

or those two other ones representing the beginning of the trading between locals and britsh colons

or the jumping boys. i found this reflection of a building in another building funny so here it is, especially for you readers !!!

you can also find the sculpture representinf Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, the creator of Singapore. or little piece of nature lost in the middle of a building

a UFO ? no it is what you can see if you were siting at a restaurant on boat quay, an artist drawing the boat quay houses...

and to finish a very colourfull building which is the house of art, sorry i don't remember exactly the name :-( 

 

Hope you liked it

write to you soooooooooooooooooooooon

ciao ciaoooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

09-05-2009 worldwide music festival in Singapore

Hello everybody

Yes!!!!!!! something music related in S'pore!!!!!!!!!!! on saturday on Sentosa Island at the "cafe del mar" bar on siloso beach was organised the world wide music festival. in fact the festival took place all the week end long all over Singapore. so i let you imagine the site, beach,  nice bar with swimming pools, coconut trees, nice sunrise, to resume : very cool & nice !!!! 

The Prog'

The Place : The Cafe del Mar

The beginning in the afternoon

A sprayer and a guys who was doing a amazing beatbox !!!!

No the DJ on the right side is not on fire but it is just me doinf effects with my camera !!!

just a sample of the people dancing

I will built the video later on and put it on the blog ASAP

write to you soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooon

biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiises

08-05-2009 poker eve at mine

Hello everybody

after having experienced a poker eve during the week until 4 o'clock in the morning, i noticed, especially the day after at work, that it wasn't a good idea at all so we decided to set up the poker eve this week on the friday evening.

We were 6 of us, on the first picture from the left to the right, Julien, Vincent, Vanessa, Simon, mathieu and me behind the camera of course ( yes... a franco french poker eve!!!!, but we had a bbq at the swimming pool before with my italian and english neighbours )

this time i just lost 10 SGD which is 20 less than last week, if i continue like this next week i will start winning !!!!

the two winners of the day have been Mathieu (2nd) and Simon (1rst)

write to you soooooooooooooooooooon

Muchos besoooooooooooooooooooooos

05-05-2009 Sri dhandayuthapani temple

Hello everybody

time for me to introduce you another indian templ that is 500 meters far from mine. the Sri dhandayuthapani temple is Saivite, that is, it is dedicated to Shiva one of the Hindu Trinity and Hindus over the centuries have looked upon their deities as constituting a family: Shiva as father, Parvathi as mother, elder son is Ganesha and the younger is Murugan who depicts the five senses and the searching mind. Murugan carries a 'vale' a long spear to symbolize Murugan as the destroyer of all evil forces.

The major festival held annually in this Temple is Tahipusam when 'kavadis' are carried by devotees of Murugan. 'Kavadis' are in various forms. Elaborate ones contain skewers that pierce the bodies of the devotees and needles that pierce their tongue or cheeks. The devotees fas and abstain from sensual pleasure in a test of their resolve to seek self-perfection. Devotees carry 'kavadis' to fulfill an oath taken and as a penance. For Hindus none can absolve their sins except the sinners themselves.

Devotees who carry 'kavadis' begin their journey from the Vishnu Temple in Serangoon Road and end in the Thandayuthapani Temple where the skewers are removed.

I know you must probably fed up with indian temples but they are places that i find completely amazing, shapes, colors, and people behaviours.

so unfortunately i think that it won't be the last one that i will show you on the blog.

write to you soooooooooooooooooon

ciaooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

watdefekizit quizz 6

Hello everybody

or Hello Alina should I say, yes my dear you have been the only one to play to the watdefekizit quizz number 5, so... either the quizz is not interesting anymore or the people think that they can catch the H1N1 by a blog!!! or people just had something else to do this week!!! or you, readers, want to punish me for the late publication of the post on the watdefekizit quizz 5

any way i will give a last try this week hoping that the watdefekizit quizz 6 won't be the last watdefekizit quizz...

so coming back to the game, 

picture 1:

sign that you can find in the lifts in S'pore, at least those that are equipped with this "technology" there is a urine detector that send a signal to the receptionnist and you are caught in the lobby to explain why you couldn't have waited to go to the toilets... of course you will get a fine in the end

No good answer

funniest answer, my dear you are the winner as you were the only player (don't make me say that it is the only reason why you won because your answer was funny (just would like to remember you that the second world war started by this kind of bad joke on french people made by a german! :-) )

Picture 2 :

yes you are wright my dear, it is  a no Durian sign, this stinky fruit that is forbidden in airports, hotels, cabs, almost everywhere, that's to say how they stink !!!!!

funniest answer :

see picture 1 result

Picture 3 :

This is a sign that you can find in front of the president palace, airforce bases, zoo, any places you are not allowed to come in, there is no intermediate step, you won't be stopped and fined you will just get shot !!!!!!

no good answer

funniest answer :

see picture 2 that will lead you to the picture 1

well to summarise, one good answer for Alina and 3 funniest answers for Alina, well my dear I think you are the definitive winner on this one...

So now perhaps the last watdefekizit quizz, the watdefekizit quizz 6 (who knows !!!)

Picture 1

Picture 2

Picture 3

Good game !

03-05-2009 Bukit Thima nature reserve,

Hello everybody,

Today i have been to the Bukit Tihma nature reserve . this is not a zoo or anything where the nature didn't keep its rights but It is a small 1.64 square kilometer nature reserve near the geographic centre of the city-state of Singapore, located on the slopes of Bukit Timah Hill and parts of the surrounding area. The nature reserve is about 12 kilometres from the Downtown Core, Singapore's central business district.

Despite its small size, it is considered one of the most productive pieces of nature. Together with the neighbouring Central Catchment Nature Reserve, it houses over 840 species of flowering plants and over 500 species of fauna. Today, it is one of the largest patches of primary rainforest left in Singapore.

I have spent almost 4 hours among the monkeys, the crab-eating macaques with their long tail, the bugs, spiders, the colourfull plants, turtles, birds, once again a good way to forget that 15 minutes ago you were surrounded by building and sky scrapers.

nota : don't forget your mosquito repellent, if not i know some who will be more than happy !!!!!! even if i took mine i have been bitten like mad...

but place to the pictures once again ...

I hope you liked it as i did !!! because i really did !!!!

Write to you sooooooooooooooooon

La biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiise

02-05-2009 Going out in clarke quay

Hello everybody once again

Tonight i went out with some friends (my poker mates not to say their names) and we have been to a first bar called the China one ( too teenager for us so !!!!) we moved to the Lunar bar, nice place for chinese with chinese people, i think we were 4 non chinese inthere, but any way at the first floor you are welcome by a nice picture (which i didn't realise it is supposed to prepare you for what is coming next but hey...) then a nice decoration and then a stage where a band is performing a concert in chinese of course, and at the 2nd floor pole dancers everywhere.

Please believe me that i didn't take this picture on purpose with the reflection of the exit sign where it is !!!!!! (by the way this is the picture that is welcoming you at the entrance)

the mix of capitalism and communism!!!!

The band...

and the pole dancers...

Then we went to l'ATIKA, a very nice Club where at the first floor an R&B music is inviting you to dance and when you want to go for a fag or a little bit of wamrness and humidity ( i am speaking about the weather of course) you can go to the patio where some table (aquariums with fishes inthere) are waiting for you to have a little rest, the rest you will need before going to the 2nd floor where a nice house, techno music is played. tonight was the night of the models (something like 25 gorgeous girls all 20 cm taller than me !!!!) but anyway good evening, nice places...

Write to you soooooooooooooooooon

Biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiises

02-05-2009 from Mount Faber to Sentosa Island by cable car

Hello everybody

Today I went up to the mount faber which is the highest point of S'pore. with its 105 meters high this place offers you a very nice spot for sight seing over S'pore and is the starting point of the cable cars to Sentosa ( with a connection to S'pore harbour )

Arrived on Sentosa island, i went to the aquarium called underwater world , quite small but interesting anyway, a lot of species (some i had never seen before like the sea dragons, and the opportunity to touch sharks and stingrays, nice jelly fishes, colourfull fishes, and its masterpiece the glass tunnel...

Then i have been to the dolphin show where the show wasn't that nice because it is the love season now and the dolphins are more interested in ... than performing the show. but anyway, a small show with blue and pink dolphins...

As a conclusion and an advice, NEVER go to sentosa island during a 3 days week end, it is madness !!!!!!!!!!!! too many people who fucking don't care about walking on your feet to be the first to see what they will see anyway at one point ...

Write to you soooooooooooooooooooooon

Biseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees

01-05-2009 Kong Meng San Phor Kark See buddhist monastery

Hello everybody

today woke up at 14h30 after having gone outyesterday evening for the Manu's farewell party in Singapore ( loof bar which is a roof top bar, than the "superclub" and went to clarke quay ) 

So the days having started that late, i just went to the  Kong Meng San Phor Kark See Monastery,

being the Singapore's biggest Buddhist monastery. The Kong Meng San Phor Kark See Temple is the main place of worship and practice for Singapore's Buddhist community. The Monastery came to be known as the "Kong Meng San Phor Kark See" owing to its location at the Kong Meng San area. Another very amazing place where the atmosphere is very interesting, a very widely spread monastery, with 2 temples dedicated to indian divinities. But now place to the pictures

 

Write to you sooooooooooooooooooooooooooon

muchos besooooooooooooooooooooooos

29-04-2009 evening at the raffles, chijmes and clininc bar in clarke quays with Tarnos and Australian colleagues

Hello everybody,

after having gone to bed the day before at 4 o'clock in the morning, i went out with ome colleagues who came to Turbomeca Asia Pacific in order to show them a little bit of S'pore.

So we started by going to the legendary Raffles Hotel in orderto have a Singapore Sling coktail

a few words about the Raffles Hotel :

The hotel was founded by the four Armenian Sarkies Brothers (Martin, Tigran, Aviet, and Arshak Sarkies). They opened the 10-room colonial bungalow at Beach Road and Bras Basah Road owned by an Arab trader, Syed Mohamad Alsagoff on December 1, 1887. The original location was by the seaside, although continued reclamation means that the site is presently some 500 metres away from the shore. No Asians were permitted as hotel guests until the 1930s. Designed by architect Regent Alfred John Bidwell of Swan and Maclaren, the current main building of Raffles Hotel was completed in 1899. The hotel continued to expand over the years with the addition of wings, a verandah, a ballroom, a bar and billiards room, and further buildings and rooms. The Great Depressionspelled trouble for Raffles Hotel and, in 1931, the hotel went into receivership. In 1933, however, the financial troubles were resolved and a public company called Raffles Hotel Ltd was established.

Upon the start of the Japanese occupation of Singapore on February 15, 1942, it is commonly said that the Japanese soldiers encountered the guests of the Raffles Hotel dancing one final waltz.During World War II, the Raffles was renamed Syonan Ryokan, incorporating Syonan ("Light of the South"), the Japanese name for occupied Singapore, and ryokan, the name for a traditional Japanese inn. More than 300 Japanese troops committed suicide in the hotel using grenades following the liberation of Singapore.

The hotel survived World War II despite the hardships Singapore faced and the use of the hotel at the end of the war as a transit camp for prisoners of war. In 1987, the government declared the hotel a National Monument.

In 1989, the hotel closed for an extensive renovation, at a cost of S$160 million. The renovation was carried out by Ssangyong Engineering and Construction, a South Korean construction firm acclaimed for its overseas projects.

It re-opened on September 16, 1991, after being restored to its state during its heyday in 1915. The hotel has built an extension with a similar design, for a shopping arcade and new rooms.

a few words about the Singapore Sling :

The Singapore Sling is a cocktail that was invented by Ngiam Tong Boon  for the Long Bar in Raffles Hotel in Singapore sometime between 1910 and 1915; it is a kind of sling, a traditional type of cocktail. The recipes published in articles about the Raffles Hotel prior to the 1970s are significantly different from the current recipes. There were also different "Singapore Slings"--those drunk in Singapore at large, and the recipe used at the Raffles Hotel. While the recipes around the city varied significantly, the cocktail at the Raffles remained the same. The original recipe used gin, cherry brandy, and Benedictine (most often in equal parts).The drink was shaken and strained into a glass, and then filled to individual taste with club soda. The recipe used by the hotel was the result of recreating the original recipe based on the memories of former bartenders and written notes that they were able to discover.

The current Raffles Hotel recipe is a much modified version of the original, most likely changed sometime in the 1970s by Ngiam Tong Boon's nephew.

The original recipe used at the Raffles Hotel originally included club soda to taste. The modern Singapore Sling is available on all Singapore Airlines flights, and the drink is free on all classes of travel

Then we went to have dinner at the Chijmes:

Having undergone a spectacular facelift as a national heritage site, CHIJMES (pronounced “chimes”) is now a popular dining, shopping and entertainment site. CHIJMES Hall, the restored chapel, provides a breath-taking backdrop for musicals, recitals, theatrical performances and weddings.

Formerly one of the last few cloistered convents in the world, the fine gothic architecture is a favourite theme among photographers.

and we finished by a coktail in clarke Quays at the clinc bar :

Write to you soooooooooooooooon

Bisouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuus !!!!

28-04-2009 poker eve at mine

Hello everybody

that is done my first poker eve at mine, with 2 colleagues Mathieu, Manu  and a friend from one of these colleagues Julien.

Mathieu                                                                  Manu

Julien

It started at 21h00 by some sushis and a few drinks and then palce to the game, cave : 10 SG dollars, it lasted up to 4 o'clock in the morning and i lost 30 dollars in the end !!!!! so yes i recave twice !!!!! but i haven't been the only one to loose money, Manu has been the winner of the evening and left with 70 dollars more than when he came in

the winner and his money

a very good evening even i didn't win, but finished definitely too late !!!!!!! quite hard the day after to go to work and to be efficient

Next time i'll win....!!!!

Write to you soooooooooooooooooon !!!!!

Biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiises

watdefekizit quizz 5

Hello everybody

first of all sorry for the delay  for the quizz but once again my social life din't enable me to update the quizz on time, but anyway here are the winners and the answers from the watdefekizit 4 :

Answer N 1 :

this is the national Monoply championship that took place just in front of my window at the plaza singapura mall's terrasse, see the real picture and another one to show you how the hostesses looked like

goods answers : 

everybody who answered Monopoly following the first good answer from CHAPEIIIIIIIIIIIII !!!!

Funniest answers :

Miguelito with the spanish comuniuty having brought flamenco to S'pore

Answer N 2 : this is an air purifier that you can find il almost all the cabs in S'pore, some of them smelling quite good, and some other stinking like hell !!!!

no good answer :

funiest answers :

Miguel with the deshumidifier ( even if i don't know if your answer mate was serious or not ?!?!? :-)

Simon with his mosquito repelling helme

TCHAPEIIIIIIIIIIIIIII : with the puss puss ambulance

and Vincent with the stroumph cesar sculpture

to resume you have been all funny on this one ( thanks for that )

Answer N 4 :

this a sign that is before the escalator, and you can find these blue marks on each step of the escalator, just in order to tell you how to do, just in case you could have thought about puting your feet somewhere else !!!!!

No good answers on this one neither

funniest answers :

Definitely Miguel : with the allez les bleus slogan

but the other one made me laugh too, so same thing as the previous one all winners

now the watdefekizt N 5

Picture 1

Picture 2

Picture 3

Good Game

and write to you soooooooooooooooooooooon

BYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYE !!!!!!!

27-04-2009 mustafa centre, plaza singapoura et istana park

Hello everybody

as it has been quite a while that i havn't put any picture i thought that that it would be welcome by you readers that i show a litt

le bit mor of singapore and what is now common for me ( but i realized that i didn't show you al ot of small things)

so let start by the Mustafa Centre, located in Little India, an area that you know now, this mall is a big messy mall where you can find everyt

hing you want or need ( yes everything ) form the TV to the screws, cameras, food, everything...

it is the only one like this in all Singapore and it has really to be seen once to know hoa an "arab mall" is in Singapore. in front of the mustafa center you can find the usual landscapes from Little india, fruits stalls and other CD or DVD shops 

as a contrast then you can find in Orchard Road (the street in the video from yesterday, just in front of my place) the Mall Plaza Singapoura with its 7 floors

there i Had my dinner in a food court ( note that this one is very clean and new, not as all the food courts in Singapore) : crispy noodles with duck, tofu, pak choi and a marinated boiled egg swimming in a so called gravy sauce for 2,25 euros of course !!! ( Simon if you read this, nothing o be compared to your marvellous gravy sauce, humm i am dreaming about your roasted dinners mate !!!!)

and on my way back home i took just few pictures of Istana Park just to show you that Singapore is not just a pile of buidings

And now it is once again midnight and it is time for me to go to bed to try to recover from my fucking jetlag... !!!!

so write to you soon

ps : tomorrow poker evening so perhaps no no post but you will have the pictures on wednesday with the answers of the watdefekizit quizz

La Biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiise a Touuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuus

26-04-2009 back to S'pore

Hello everybody

a movie is sometime better than sentences...

write to you soon...

25-04-2009 from paris airport

Hello everybody

it's time now to come back home (at least my home for 6 months), after a bloody good week full of my daughter, family, friends and more (alina if you read this...)

The blog will restart to be updated on a daily basis ( at least i will try...)

tomorrow i will put some pictures of my week in france and then we will come back to normal (Singapore and surroundings)

write to you sooooooooooooooooon

bisouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuus

17-04-2009 from changi airport back to france

Hello everybody

it is with a big pleasure that i am writing this post now because that means that i am on my way back home for a week holliday. I will join my daughter and my girlfriend and  of course my family and my friends (first party on saturday!!!!!)

that also mean that my posts in the blog will be interrupted for one week !!!! i know i know that is sad but it is to make a better come back in one week with a lot of pictures

i will anyway try to do the wednesday watdefekizit quizz but i can't promise anything

that being said, i wish you a good week end, a good week next week and ...

... write to you sooooooooooooooooooooon

biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiises

15-04-2009 S'pore incoherences

Hello everybody

here is the time to speak about one of the not coherent things at all in S'pore

you must probably know that if you spit in the street, you get a 200 SGD=100 euros fine. if you throw a cigarette end in the street you get a 200 SGD=100 euros fine. if you come in singapore with more than an open paquet of cigarettes you will be taxed and will have to pay for a fine of 1000 SGD=500 euros. if you cross the street if the little man is red, you get a 200 SGD=100 euros fine. if a cab picks you up not at a taxi stand he will be fined 130 SDG=65 euros. and finally ( and be sure that i am not making a complete list of the interdictions of S'pore) if you don't wear your seat belt in a car or a cab you are fined 200 SGD=100 euros buuuuuuuuuut these bengladeshees or indians workers you will see on the pictures below won't be fines at all if they are transported the way they are. you can find this kind of 'vans' everywhere on the motorways here and in the city

you can see the little sticker on the white one at the back onthe right that they are allowed to charge 21 people at the back !!!! imagine 21 people, i will try to take a picture of this kind of overloaded truck one day

But hey, that's the way it is...

ps : sorry for the quality of the pictures but didn't have my camera today i took the pictures with my phone

write to you sooooooooooooooooon

bisouuuuuuuuuuuuus

watdefeckizit quizz 4

Hello everybody

Here we are, the wednesday has come ,so come the amswers of last week :

1rst picture : this shop is in fact a hair dresser and believe me when you see the pictures of the guys and their haircut you just don't want to go and get your hair cut there

good answers :

Zoe (in fact Jerome) was quite close with the barber

funniest answers:

I don't know woh because this person didn't sign but the answer : Kian Heng Auto Spare Parts Company was a quite funny one

2nd picture : here is the complete picture

good answers :

Lolo was almost there

Simon you're a star mate (even if you didn't win the funniest answers last time it doesn't mean that i didn't laugh, it is just that sometimes i have to make choices, believe me it is hard but ... I miss you mate !!!!!)

funniest answers:

once again the "i don't kbnow who" with the Green Giant before shaving

3rd picture : Here is the complete picture of this pouss pouss taken in China town, just a pouss pouss without any engine but with a fuel tank, exhaust pipes, and all the most useless accessories...

good answers :

none

funniest answers

simon with my washing machine plumbing

ps : i suspect that the " idon't know who" is miguel ( let see...)

and now the watdefekizit quizz number 4 :

picture 1: watdefek of national championship is it? 

Picture 2

Picture 3

Write to you sooooooooooon and goooooooood gaaaaaaaaaame

11 to 12-04-2009 Bintan Island indonesia

Hello everybody

2nd week end to indonesia, but this time for 2 days and a more comfortable concept of hollidays week end (a 3 days week end in Singapore: from friday to sunday)

so I took the ferry at 9h10 on saturday morning (yes an early wake up as you have to be at the ferry terminal 1 hour before)

and here we go, direction Bintan, after one hour journey you arrive on this beautiful island with white sand beaches and palm trees... very sunny on this saturday.... ( how lucky !!!)

I was joined by Vincent(a TAP colleague) who didn't really enjoyed the boat trip (almost about to turn to green colour)

but well we safely arrived and that is the essential, the resort is part of the Nirwana gardens and is called Nirwana resort hotel, and i have to say i don't really like resort but for once i quite enjoyed it !

some picture below of the resort

Hey guys i want you to look at the landscape and not at this girl in bikini!!!!! as you can see on the other picture below the swimming pool has got a marvellous sight on the cristal blue sea (yes yes check if you focus a little bit you will see the line between the swimming pool water and the sea :-)

Some other pictures of the beaches, so boring .... :-)

some other ones ...

What would you think about a nap in front of such a landscape ???!!!!

Now a little bit of art (at least for the beginner that i am !!!)

Very nice resort where you can enjoy the peace and the lanscapes and also a nice swim in the pool, except when you fall face to face with this new joiner that is at least one meter long and that is not afraid at all to swim among the people

And you can also find this kind of ones at the corner of the gardens...

sorry i don't want to be crual but i just wanted to be sure that you noticed the difference between the sea and the pool !

The programm of the week end has been, arriving on friday morning and check in at the resort, then go to have a bite at pasar hole hole a little village close from there, and then come back for a little snorkeling tour. 20 minutes far from the resort, by boat, at the barracuda bay, you are left for one hour to snorkel among the coral and the fishes. amazing colours and a lot of different species of fishes. blue yellow green purple are there and in all forms, to summarise a very nice hour spent in the cristal sea.

I met 2 very nice american guys who arrived one week ago in singapore and who just came for the day (as I did 3 weeks ago) and invited them to join for a drink at the bar in the swimming pool (the little roof you can see on the last picture on the right) and there while we were having a nice coktail (seven's heaven for me) we met a group of people (almost all drunk but funny, i even met Edward whoo was living in Portsmouth before !!!!) who were there for a wedding. the alcohol helped them of course to invite us on behalf of the married couple to join the beach party given for the wedding in the evening at the Mana Mana beach club. which we did of course! after a nice buffet at the resort (see food and meat and, and, and,...just enough to ruin my walking efforts in the Mac richie reseervoir !!!) we went with a dedicated buggy to the beah party where we have been given a bracelet to access the open bar ( la classe !!!) and we have started to socialise with the guests hoping that the married couple wouldn't come to ask who we were...

but well not feeling really comfortable anyway and willing to avoid the meeting with the married couple we decided to leave and to go to the pub of the island where there was a very nice live band playing quite nice music, and a couple of drinks later went to bed...

sunday morning was a raining one, but luckily the sun pushed all these clouds away and stayed there for the rest of the day, just enough for me to improve my colours.

and after a entire day between beach, swimming pool, sun baths, and chats here and there with japanese, finish, english, and other nationalities we took the ferry back to Singapore.

result cost wise : 

47 SGD=23 euros for the ferry return ticket

110 SGD=55 euros for the resort (breakfast included)

and a couple of euros for the coktails... (depending on how many you drink !!! :-)

Write to you soooooooooooooooooon

olivier

10-04-2009 Mac Richie reservoir

Hi Folks

once again the rain was against me today, it started once again well but it finished by the biggest shower i have ever had in my life...

But before that i had time enough to do 4/5th of the reservoir tour.

I can tell you that by this weather going for a walk in the jungle makes you sweat a loooooot !!! but i was well prepared and i had taken my little bottle of water...

Anyway, this place is very very very nice, it is good to go out of the malls, buildings, sky scrappers, ... and be in the middle of the jungle is something quite amazing : by the size of the trees, or all other plants.

the size of the ants is more than amazing, see picture with the bottle to see the size of the ant

it is quite nice to go over this suspended bridge, even if the guy is telling you that the lightning strikes are about to fall from the sky and that it is dangerous to be on the bridge (made of metal of course). they even ring a very noisy bell ( you can here it in kilometers around) to warn you that the lighning strikes are coming.

Summary, you can have a very good walk that takes you something like 2.5 to 3 hours

Write to you sooooooooooooon !!!

ps : tomorrow : INDONESIAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!

09-04-2009 robertson walk and dinner at "les bouchons"

Hello everybody

woooooowoooooowooooo!!! that is done i have found a place where there is almost 10 wine bars, and  good restaurants other than asian!!! and there is even a Xuraskeria!! yes!! yes!! Pierre yves L., if you read this i know you are coming in 2 weeks, so we'll have to go there to compare it with the Dallas one!!!

anyway, yesterday evening i had been invited to join Tiphaine and her french colleagues, very nice people, very nice place and very nice restaurant.

summary, a good evening...

Today, I am going to Mac richie reservoir, and to the botanic gardens and i have to prepare my bag to leave for indonesia tommorow morning, this time i will spend a night there in a luxuous resort (i would have prefered a small bungalow in front of the sea but once againeverything was booked) so programm : boat trip for snorkelling and boat trip for fishing and of course : Playaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa and sun! i am going there with Vincent, a new colleague who joined TAP 10 days ago

Mac Richie reservoir :

One of the last primary forests in Singapore … Ideal for a nature day trip in Singapore, walking along the lake, enjoying the “Tree Top” suspension bridge, hunting for a lost Japanese shrine or having a romantic picnic at night!

The Mac Ritchie Reservoir is Singapore’s main water reservoir. More than 1 km2 of primary forest still flourishes there. You can also observe remnants of 20th century rubber trees plantations. 

The Tree Top Walk is a suspension bridge, located at the 2 highest points in Mac Ritchie. It is 25 meters high at its highest point. It offers you a panoramic overview of the park. Go there during the morning, so you can have a chance to observe birds.

I will go also for hunting a lost Japanese Shinto shrine located in the park dense jungle. Indeed, during the WW2 Japanese occupation of Singapore, the Japanese used British prisoners to built a shrine called Syonan Jinja. When the British forces re-occupied Singapore , the Shrine was destroyed. However, ruins of the shrine remain. The National Heritage Board declared the site a Historic Site in 2002, although no plans have been made public to develop or to protect the site.

i will try also to have a look at the Jelutong Tower, an observation post reaching 20m in height.

Write to you sooooooooooooon

08-04-2009 Little india by night - the indian part

Hello everybody,

I am about to get a 3 days week end and i am almost fucked : all the flights are sold out, all the hotels,resorts,guest houses are fully booked

i don't know what i will do this week end :-(

but any way, i am full of ressources and i am sure that i will come back with beautiful pictures once again to share with you all.

let's speak about my evening in little india, i already spoke to you about it but i went in the arab part of it, tonight i went to the real little india ( like mumbai...)

You walk in the middle of india, after one hundred meters you why it is called "little India"

you can find some very modern computer shops

or some restaurants in old colonials buildings, you caneven find some pieces of united kingdom (pubs, ...)

a lot of little markets places, fruits, vegetables, and so on..., the picture below on the right is the meal i had tonight (i was that hungry that i thought about taking a picture after having eaten 3/4 of it, sorry!!! it is called a murtabak muton, sort of eggy crep stuffed with onions, muton meat, curry, ... soooooooo gooooooooood !! i love it, and you have to eat that with a good lime juice with 100000 ices cubes)

there is also a long street where you can find tens and tens of jewelries like these 2 ones, gold everywhere !!! no comment about the decoration !...

Then in front of each temple, you can find this little stall where the indian fellows buy this flower crowns to give them as gifts to gods, some picture of one of the temples you can find there

the 2 following ones are pictures of a goddess with 5 arrows in the head and a god of war with heads and hands taken to ennemies

Sorry, i would have 1000000 things to say about little india (smells, people, colours, beautiful sarris, ...) but i am feeling more than tired now and i need to go to bed

so i wish you all a good night and ...

... write to you soooooooooooooon

biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiises

watdefekizit quizz 3

Here we are, the wedneday has come ,so come the amswers of last week :

1rst picture : the electrical alimentation of the tuk tuk

good answers :

Lolo ( well done on this one, i am amazed)

once again my mum (i swear i didn't give her the answer, mum please stop giving the good answers people will think we are cheating)

funniest answers:

les mariols with the 3 answers about Tiphaine ( thank you very much for this laugh you offered me !!!!!) I just want to know if the answers were from Marie or Olive or both

2nd picture : a small cake in a pig shape on the food market in bangkok (picture published in the bangkok message

good answers :

once again my mum

Virignie was very close so i grant her a good answer

funniest answers:

once again les mariolles (see above)

3rd picture : it is the cockroach i found in the corridor of my residence one evening (4 cm long), close from the sink lid

good answers : 

Lolo

my mum

funniest answers:

Les mariols

So the conclusion is that the Mariolles have been very very very funny for me (perhaps less for Tiphaine...)

the watdefekizit quizz number 3 now !!!!!!

picture 1 : wich kindof shop izit ?
picture 2 : watizit ?
pictrure 3: watefekizit?
Good game !

05-04-2009 the zoological gardens of S'pore

Hello everybody

So, as I told you i got almost pissed yesterday, so I let you imagine the hangover this morning, but anyway (i got up at 8h00 because i couldn't sleep more) i got prepared and left after a quick go to the swimming pool and a shower.

 20 km far from my place, situated in the middle of a Big natural reservoir the zoo is lost in the middle of the nature, offering you along the visit this kind of landscapes

The Singapore Zoo is a model of the `open zoo' concept. The animals are kept in spacious, landscaped enclosures, separated from the visitors by dry or wet moats. The moats are concealed with vegetation or dropped below the line of vision. the animals are housed in beautifully landscaped glass-fronted enclosures. Oppressive cages which typify old zoos, are absent.The end result is a feeling of openness.

The sun was there, and not helping my hangover, but everything started well.

at one point the day turned to a bad day (still with the hangover as a background) my 1rst camera run out of battery, my second one too, and then it started to rain like hell so with all these events i decided to come back home (swearing to myself to come back at one point because i even didn't see 1/20 of all the animals...

but just some pictures of what i have been able to see before coming back for a nap

I have to leave you now to finish my week end by a big sleep, so as i am used to say :

write to you soooooooooooooon

kisseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees

04-04-2009 barbecue evening (first social event !!!!)

Hi all

that is done, the social lifa has sort of begun. yesterday i got my first evening with new people here.

french, japanese,austrian, spanish (miguel it is good to hear this spanih english accent, it remind me of you !!!!!), and other nationalities were there around a farewell barbecue at a Condominium (so called condo), i have been invited by Vanessa (a colleague from TAP)... Vanessa if you read this, thanks again by the way.

Good atmosphere, and good alcohol, i got almost pissed...

write to you sooooooooooooon

byyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyye

04-04-2009 Jurong birds park

Hello everybody

After a busy week as i was saying in the previous message, i decided not to travel abroad during this week end because i wanted to sleep a little bit in the morning, to get a good rest so i prepared a little typical tourist program in singapore, i started by the Jurong bird's Park

The Jurong park is a 20.2 hectare open-concept park, with 8000 of birds of 600 species but once again i let you see by yourself

This one above on the left looks a lot like a friend of mine called Jerome (exactly the same hair cut

Tomorrow the zoological gardens

write to you soooooooooooooon

bisouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuus

30-03-2009 boat trip along the river between clarke quay and boat quay

Hello everybody, 

first of all, all my appologies for this delay updating the blog, but busy week + being very tired and some social life that i try to improve, all these factors made that i couldn't update it on a daily basis as i started to do .

but anyway, back in time a little bit, on march the 30th, i went for a little trip with some colleagues (from Dallas and Tarnos) around the city in order to show them how lucky i was to be here, and we did a liitle boat trip, which allowed me to take a few pictures from "the water level"

I hope you will like them

View from boat quay

view from boat quay                                              view from the middle of the bay(singapore has got his london eye !!!!)

The opera and few other buildings                                                                                            

Write to you sooooooooooon !!!!

bisoooooooooooooooous

watdefekizit quizz 2

So here are the results of the watdefekizit quizz number 1 :

special thanks to the players for having played, ( special special thanks to Simon for trying to motivate the other ones )

1rst picture : the penis of a buddha in the indian temple (cf message on indian temple in china town)

good answers :

my mum ( i love you mum, i know now why i am so clever)

Alina (i swear i didn't give her the answer)

funniest answers:

sorry but none made me laugh

2nd picture : the reflection of an illuminated bridge (chaning colors) in boat quay

good answers :

Alex dit Gigi :  reflection of a lamp on the water

Alina (i swear i didn't give her the answer)

funniest answers:

simon : "A map of your route home from the local bar after a night out." it could have been but note that i drunk just 5 drinks since i am here ( i lost 4 kilos...)

and Zoe :( even if i think that it is jerome who wrote this message as my godchild is not old enough to play)

"trajectory of a snail that had taken too many magic pills"

3rd picture : some jelly tears that the singaporean put in the mango juice ( very gooooood ! )

good answers : 

nobody

funniest answers:

Vincent dit vinz : "a traffic light for ants"

the watdefekizit quizz number 2 now !!!!!!

picture 1

picture 2

picture 3

Good luck to all and next week the results ...

Write to you soooooooooooooooon

bisooooooooous ...

27 to 29-03-2009 The Bangkok trip (Thailand)

Hello everybody (and the other ones)

I will first start by appologising for the delay of this message Regarding Bangkok, but i arrived on sunday at 2h30 am at mine(after a flight delayed) and on monday I had 2 colleagues from Tarnos and Dallas and i made them a litlle tour around singapore. Just note that i refused a drink tonight in clarke quay and that i had just a pot of chinese instant noodles in order to have enough time to update the blog. Anne, I hope this explanation will make you feel guilty...

So by where will i start ?

perhaps by the arrival at the airport, very hot, even more than Singapore, we took a cab to the town center (they really don't all speak a proper english or they don't speak english at all !!!!)

the taxi driver dropped us something like 2 kilometers from our hotel ( the Sawasdee welcome inn) the problem is that when you ask someone for the sawasdee, everybody will give you a different  direction to go, there are something like 20 sawasdee hotels around Bangkok downtown... :-)

so after having been left there we walked and it is not long after you start walking that you find yourself in a tremendous messy street with food, shops, restaurants, bars, prostitutes, ... everything in fact...

in the streets the first thing that amazed me was the electrical network, or the electrical jungle should i say.

the you can see little temples everywhere, or medium temple, or big temples (almost everybody has got a mini one in their garden or top of the stairs)

but well we dropped our luggages at ( I say we because i was travelling there with Tiffaine : see previous messages ) the hotel after having taken a tuk tuk.

very cheap hotel ( 2.50 euro per night!!! ) but for 2.50 euros you have what you pay for, meaning nothing just a bath room where toilets and shower are in the same room but when i say in the same room, that means that you can have your shower sitting on the toilets :-) but the essential is that it was clean !

we went for a walk then but quite tired we have been just walking in the street i was speaking about before, had dinner, and came back to the hotel in order to have a good rest in order to be operationnal for the rest of the week end

saturday morning we left the hotel and went to drop our luggages in another hotel ( this time 37 euros per night ( you can imagine the luxury : almost 18 stars ) and we left by tuk tuk of course to the Chatuchak market. what a mistake, we have learnt that when you take a tuk tuk you have to tell him a couple of things before :

- how much ?

- no sponsor ! no stop ! no chinese center ! no japanese center

in fact they propose you a price but it with a stop at a chinese center ( but not a random chinese center, a diamond factory) where if you buy something they get 5 liters of oil for free) so no worries because you can still buy a little elephant for 50 thai bath = 1 euro at the tourist shop in order not to buy for 5000 euros of jewellery.

So i have been tourist this tuk tuk tok there this day !!!!! and i came back with a little bouddha in jade.

anyway here we are, finally arrived at the chatuchak market, where you can find everything, clothes, food, decoration, gardening stuff, and some of these strange people doing some beat box or jungling with some soup (see video), 

this market seems like a little bit like the souks in marroco but with an asian touch !!!!to give you an idea of the prices,  i have bought 10 thai trousers for 1500 thai bath=15 euros

after that we have been to Phra Pathom Chedi, this bell-shaped, orange-tiled chedi (buddhist temple), located in Nakhon Pathom provincial capital, some 56 kilometres west of Bangkok, is the tallest Buddhist monument in the world, and is where Buddhism was introduced to the Thailand-to-be some 2,300 years ago. just an AMAZING place!!!!!, there are something like 100 bonzes and a 20 meters long lying buddha in gold, people stick these gold leaves on the god and goddess (if you find a gold leave on the floor you have to stick it on your front head, what i did :-)), they knock the gongs and bells all aroung the chedi, they pray and make gifts, they put little coins in a line of 100 bowls (one in each bowl), and other customs, if i can call that like this.

after that we came back to bangkok for little longtail boat trip, you have to see the engines of the boats, they are as big as my entire car in france... and it is a scenic !!!!) so went down the river and then came in the popular floatting area where low class people live, whooowh! you can still see temple everywhere every 100 meters, and all sorts of houses in all sorts of materials.

nightmare of the nightmare in the middle of the trip my camera battery died (and of course i had left my spare one at the hotel) so i had to continue with my small digital one.

after the boat trip, we bought a couple of tourist things, and the guys is explaining you that an opium pipe is sold 500 thai bath= 10 euros but just for you even if the price indicated is 2900 thai bath, this is "the price for tourist groups where they have to pay a comission to the guide"

second time that you realise that in term of money they try to trap you everytime they can!!! not to use another word...

after this boat trip, we came back to the hotel, had dinner there and went to bed early, once again to have a good rest for the sunday

sunday morning, quick but big breakfast at the 18 stars hotel  buffet :-), and go for the royal Palace !!!!

note that you need to wear trousers or long skirt to come in (no shorts or hot mini skirts)

I haven't seen that much gold in my entire life !!!!! i think i won't tell you a lot about it but let you have a look at the pictures because sometime it is better than words

the only tihng that i will say is that with our bags on the back it was something like 40 degrees, i lost almost 1,5 liters sweating like a little pig !!!! not to say a big Pig! even more than my carrefour experience !!!!!

then for lunch we went by skytrain to pratunam market, had a beer to save our completely dry throats, and dived into this huge market but after chatuchak it is something already seen so we left this place togo into a big mall where we had lunch in a KARAOKE food court ( very funny !!!!)

then we went for a thai massage of one hour, so relaxing... at least until the moment I have been quite surprised when the girl who was massaging me proposed me a special massage for 500 thai bath, 10 minutes before the end!!!! my colleagues laughed at me and told me that it was very common, they call that the "happy ending", and believe me it wasn't a cheap massage place but more a poch one.

Going out from this massage session, we went for a walk in the main street of bangkok where there was a music festival with other attractions...:

- 2 concerts

- a titi boys contest ( groups of 5 to be abble to attend the contest ) and believe me even not pissed you canbe trapped by thesee guys who really look like women...!!!!!!

- a little food market

- a little hand made art/decoration market 

and after all that it was time to leave for the airport where the flight has been delayed for 2 hours (usual for tiger airways at first sight

So i hope this delay is excused by the length and the details of this message, even if once again i feel bad by having to choose so few pictures but that's the it is !!!!

wrtite to you sooooooooooooon

bisous

ps : message started at 20h15 and finished at 1:10 in the morning (Anne i really hope you feel guilty :-)

some other pictures for free !!!....

29-03-2009 saturday feed back and sunday program in bangkok

Hello readers

Just another quik one to prepare you to what will come tonight on the blog...
yesterday was a very hot day the program has been :
- changing from one hotel to the other
- Chatuchak market ( tremendously huge market) - (funny video to come)
- we left to visit the craddle of the buddhism in thailand 2800 years ago ( 80 km of Bangkok)
- long tail speed boat trip around bangkok and in the popular floating area - amazing ...
- and finiched at the hotel (completely exhausted) end of the day = 11h00 pm

programm of today :
- visit of the royal palace
- tour in SUKUMVIT traditional shoping area
- Thai massage
- and other things if i can
- plane at 20h10 tonight( bangkok time : one hour less than S'pore)

write to you tonight and i will try to make an update tonight with the videos and pictures but i can't swear that i won't be tired so perhaps on monday only :-(

bisooooooooooooooooooooooous

27-03-2009 from the airport

Dear Readers

I said that i wouldn't leave any message this week-end but a last one from the airport before flying to Bangkok

I went to the airport with Freddy Krugger from Mars listening to an album of Michael Jakson (i let you imagine the volume level !!!!)

I am speaking about the funniest taxi driver i have ever met

i have to board now

write to you soon

PS : still a low participation to the quizz
PS2 : Maman, arrete de laisser des reponses au quizz sur tous les messages laisse les uniquement sur le message du quizz ;-)

Kisses to everybody

Byyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyye

26-03-2009 trip to Bangkok (thailand) from friday to sunday

Hello readers

Sorry but today there won't be any pictures, but it is for a good reason, instead of going out shooting nice views and so on and so on, i have spent my evening to prepare my trip to bangkok in Thailand. I qm going there with tiphaine (with the good spelling this time), you remember the girl imet in Bintan (indonesia)

we are leaving on friday evening and coming back on sunday evening, what ? the program ? temples, chutachak ( an enormous market), the floating market, temples, temples, and perhaps some other temples.... and i am sure that i am far away to know what is waiting for us there

I am sure that i will come back with a million of pictures..., the counterpart is that i won't update the blog for 2 days ( you will have time to guess what are the pictures of the watdefekizit quizz... :-)  )

By the way i was about to forget, i find that you are not that much to play to the watdefekizit quizz, so a little effort will avoid me thinking that it wasn't a good idea. ( i know, i am heaaaaavy )

Special message to my poker mates, simon and miguel : "THANK YOU" for having been the 2 first players, i love yooooooou !

ps : Miguel, no it is not pictures of me, i can't reduce that much a picture

ps2 : today it is Bernard birthday, so if you could wish a happy birthday to Bernard, I am sure that he would be happy, so please we all wish a happy birthday to Bernard by leaving a comment for him ( personally i wish you a happy birthday Bernard ! )

write to you soooooooon

bises

olivier

watdefekizit quizz 001

Here are the 3 pictures : watdefekizit ?

Picture 1

Picture 2

Picture 3

Please answer by posting a comment and don't forget to sign in order to know who will be which winner...

every wednesday, there will be :

- the answers of the previous week pictures

- the winners list by pictures

- a special award for the funniest answer

- of course 3 new pictures to let your brain warm a little bit

write to you soooooooooon

and answers next wednesday

bisous, bye

25-03-2009 what i forgot yesterday and dinner in boat quay

Hello everybody,

first of all i would like to come back on 2 major events of yesterday :

the first one being that for the immigration and the working pass i had to go through a blood test (if VIH positive i cannot stay in S'pore) and a lungs Xray test (if i have the TB neither can i stay in S'pore)

the second event of yesterday is that i tryed for lunch the chicken feet( in a small food court quite popular one and very cheap one too), it is weird to eat the nails but except that it is like our french pork feet but in smaller and with less meat... (that is done and i won't do it again!!!)

today i had the results of both tests and.......................................................I am fit to work in Singapore !!!!!!

tonight i went to boat quay to eat with Tiffaine (excuse moi pour l'orthographe tiffaine...) a girl i met in indonesia last weeek end. the place is the most touristic one and all the restaurants are offering you a discount going from 20 to 30% at the beginning with a free beer or free glass of wine. they are even bothering you too much to eat in their restaurant ...

We both had the speciality of S'pore : the Chili Crab, that you eat only with a big plastic protection on your clothes (see below)

Very good but you look like a monster at the end of the crab and despite of the protection i managed to ruin my poloshirt, i even managed to project some crab sauce on Tiffaine's hair(sorry again for that Tiffaine).

I had the idea today to do every wednesday a quizz with at least 3 pictures or 3 pieces of pictures i have taken so that you could try to guess "what the fuck it is" you will leave your answer on the comments on the blog and every wednesday, there will be :

- the answers of the preious week pictures

- the winners list by pictures

- and a special award for the funniest answer

- of course 3 new pictures to let your brain warm a little bit

I hope you like the idea ( if not i will just stop thinking that it was a bad idea ), the name of the quizz will be "watdefekizit quizz"

write to you soooooon

bises a tous

24-03-2009 temple street in china town

Hello readers

First of all, a big WHOW !!! 327 visits in 8 days. that means that i am right to do this blog and i don't do it for nothing, BUT in total 19 comments, which could mean that :

- either my mother or my girlfriend are spending thetr day on the blog

- or that you are a lot to come to have a look but too shy or not interested to leave a message

Please believe that i am very happy to read these comments when around 22h00 i start updating the blog (tired and alone at mine... no don't cry...)

SO PLEASE LEAVE COMMENTS if not not i will believe that the first reason is the real one !!!!

This being said, let me tell you about my discovery of the day, the chinese temple of china town

how to go : take a cab to temple street

and any way, you can't miss it ( yes you have seen this picture already but by night as last time it was closed when i arrived in the evening)
Here is what you can see when you come in and you lift your head up to the sky, impresssive isn't it (my english teachers would be proud of me by reading this question tag ! :-)
Then, i can't put all the pictures of the gods and godesses that are inthere but believe or not there are thousands and thousands (a lot of very small ones on every walls) this is the biggest piece of the temple, for info, there is a full made of pure gold buddha in this temple but this was closed when i arrived (i already lived this situation before, no ?)
Another one that i like because it is the only one not being skin coloured

another one, but i swear i stop now even if took 158 pictures (after having deleted the bad ones of course), you can see at the feet of this one the gifts given by the buddhists ( fruits, ...)At the 4th floor, you can find the garden, where there is another part of the temple I will speak about later on, but before, you see the wall with all these little squares on it ?

In fact these little squares are just thousands and thousands of little bouddhas again (see picture below), and everywhere around the gardens, in fact this temple is known as the 100000 bouddhas temple (and they all ahve a number)

In front of this wall there is the temple with the largest buddha praying wheel in the world

And it turns !!!!!!

It is really a shame that i don't have more storage space to show you more pictures (always the feeling not to chose the best one !!! arghh !!!) and more time (because it takes a fucking while to upload the pictures) but anyway i am sure that i will find a miraculous way at one point.

thank you very much once again for your interest to the blog

and write to you soooooooon

bye bye

ps : i am on my way to go to bed at 23H00!!!!!, it is the first time since i arrived, i am still under jetlag and completely exhausted (3 to 4 hours of slepp per night)

23-03-2009 little evening in china town and clqrk quays

Re hello everybody

Just a quick one with pictures of the contrast you can face in a 10 minutes walk in the same evening between china town and clark quays

People playing majhong or a weird chines game

a guys painting some caligraphies with his foot standing on his head

the central clark quays

The clinic bar, where you have your drinks in wheel chairs or in an hospital bed, and the coktail are serve in plastic bags like a perf at the hospital

and the boat going along the river in clark quays, 

bye bye i am going to bed now ( 0h30 )

write to you soon

23-03-2009 here are the pictures and the story of bintan (indonesia)

So here we are, 

first of all, not to play with your nerves and to make the time to wait for the pictures too long, but only to answer to some comments some people made, i don't want to bother you with my working days because you won't be interested, but i am not just having good times here to travel around and visit nice places, I WORK TOO !!! believe i am working like mad...

but anyway, let's start the BINTAN day, after having missed the saturday, i was more than determined to go there on sunday (hoping that the weather would be good), so i woke up at 6h00 to take the first 8 o'clock ferry in tana

h merah ferry terminal (cost of the journey:44 SGD), and let's go for a 1 hour journe

y, during the one you can see around 1000 big freight carrier boats queuing to come in singapore harbour.

when I arrived in Bintan (Bandar Bentan Telani terminal), i had to pay 10USD to buy my visa valid for 7 days, then i had to avoid the guys who wanted to take me by cab for a fortune and i finally took the bus to Nirwana Garden's resort.

there i paid 10SGD to access the resort beach, which i left quite quickly because it was too crowdy for me, so i left for the mangrove for a little boat trip, so i put a lot of  insect repellent in order to avoid to catch the dingue the fir

st week, and of course as it wasn't really sunny at the beginning of the boat trip i didn't put any sun cream!!!!!!

so the entry in the mangrove :

a large river surrounded by a sort of a very dense jungle

Then the river start to become more and more narrow and you can start seeing these weird roots flying between air and water

You can also find some little fishermen villages lost in the middle of nowhere

These fisheermen, far to earn enough money with their fishing were also producing charcoal with this big natural oven ( 15meters high ) burning mangrove trees which if you listen to them gives the best charcoal ever

A Boat lost in the middle of the mangrove

You are in the mangrove, the deeper you go the most you can feel this weird feeling of being in the jungle... with roots and trees averywhere in all the shape you didn't even think of before (and at the end it starts stinking too ... not not that much, so you can still bear it)

Then you can find this kind of roots... weird shape ? isn't it ? i swore at the beginning of my blog that i wouldn't make any sexual jokes or anything like this but these roots just look like DICKS !!!!!

And some other roots like these ones, called gibbon trees roots and they can be very very very big !!!!

here is now the first animal we saw in the middle of the mangrove, you won't see any pictures of monkeys because they were too fast me, but i can tell you they are not that cute ... so coming back to this iguana, it was almost 1,50 meters long and din't seem to be anoid by us being there

The second animal we sau was a black and yellow mangrove snake ( i don't remember the name...), during the day the snakes are almost all sleeping and become active during the night, we saw something like ten of these ones, we also sau a python but the piscture wasn't that good so ...

I said almost all sleeping... except this one with his big yellow head, they are very venimous !!!! I was insured !!!! if i would have died my familly would have received 20000 SGD !!!! i am cheap, am i not ?

another fisherman house

After  big SUNNY trip  of one hour and a half in the mangrove among the trees, in which one the insect repellent is completely useless because the water is salted and the mosquitoes don't like salty water, I though the trees were protecting me from the sun so i didnt add any suncream to my useless repellent ) , i decided to go back to the beach to go a some snorkeling

water temperature ( i don't know because i didn't take the exact temperature but the water was more than lovely and completely seethrough )

long beaches of white sand and behind, the jungle, with palm trees in front of course

I came back by the last ferry in singapore, with a french girl that i met waiting for the bus with who i went for dinner in clark quays ( just to play the contrast card: nature/night life area)

The result of my day was :

- a lot of nice pictures in my head

- a lot of uice memories

- the wish to go back to bintan but in the south which is wilder than the north

- and a body completely burnt by the sun ( up to my toes ( which are the most painfull today in my shoes...!!!! )

The typical tourist

But anyway you can imagine how I felt yesterday evening at mine ( reviewing this day....)

write to you soon

cheeeeeeeeers

22-03-2009 a day in bintan island of indonesia

sorry everybody it is 1h00 in the morning and i don't feel like updating the blog with the pictures

but i spent a FUCKING marvellous day today, paradise on earth !!!!!

i will share that tomorrow ( you will see the pictures !!!! wohohohohohohoooooo! )

mangrove, beaches, snakes, giant lizards, monkeys, squirels

write to you soon

byyyyyyyyye

22-03-2009 00h30 little message to say thank you

that's it

click on the title to watch the video message on youtube

write to you soooooooon !!!!!

21-03-2009 little india mosquee and arab street

Hello everybody

in fact Bintan as been cancelled and postponed to tomorrow as today i woke up at 11h00 am ( i was too tired and still under jetlag )

luckyly i didn't go, as today there has been the biggest storm i 

have seen since a week i am here, i hope tomorrow i wiil be able to make it.

So as a plan "B", i went to little india (an area in Singapore), where walking in the gardens there i could see a singaporean wedding 

then i visited the mosquee

and finally i finished my afternoon by walking in arab street where you can find a little piece of marroco, little souks and big textiles area, i even had a good kebab for lunch

and believe me (or believe the pictures) when it is starting to rain, you don't want to stay

outside

ps : i don't see a lot of people laving a lot of comment on my blog (is it boring or you don't want to ??? i am sad :-( i am updating this blog without having any feedback :-(

anyway

write to you sooooooooon

20-03-2009 prepare my trip to BINTAN(indonesia) for snorkeling

Hello readers

today, nothing special except that i am planning my trip to an indonesian island called bintan. i am going there to do some snorkeling in the blue water !!!!! it is at first sight a marvelous spot where you can see a lot of fishes species, and other octopuses, corals, ...

i will have to change some US dollars in order to pay for my indonesian visa ( only currency accpeted to pay for the visa ) and there i can pay in singaporean dollars.

i contacted also an old french friend who is in S'pore and we will meet tomorrow evening, the first appertiser at mine !!!!!!!!! i am excited, to see him and his familly and to do the first appertiser at mine !!!!

tomorrow i can't promise that i will have the time toupdate my blog with the pictures of BINTAN but i will do it at least on sunday

i am very looking forward to going there, hoping that the weather will be good and the rain will stay away !!!!

introduction of bintan :

Bintan leads a double life: the northern tip of the island, Bintan Resorts (Lagoi), 1 hour from Singapore by ferry, is a colony of Singapore in all but name, full of expensive resorts and manicured lawns. As it has very little in common with the rest of the island, the resorts are covered in the Bintan Resorts article.

Separated from the resorts by checkpoints and armed guards, the rest of the island is "real" border town Indonesia, home to electronics factories, fishing villages and local style resorts (beach and adventure type) along the East Coast Bintan.

The colorful capital of Bintan, Tanjung Pinang, 1.5 hours away from Singapore by ferry, used to be a local destination for prostitution and gambling (just like neighboring Batam), but after a clamp-down by the local authorities it is regaining its rightful reputation as one of Indonesia's most historical cities, with its ancient vibrant market partly located on stilts in the sea.

19-03-2009 china town

Hello readers

That is done i have managed to win the fight versus my new camera, i think in fact that the big thing is that i was trying to make the most difficult pictures possible : the pictures by night

now after having read 187 pages of the user guide, i think that is fine but you will tell me...

anyway... today i went to china town where you can feel that the chinese new year's eve was not that long ago.

i started by visiting an indian temple, in which one you can't come in if :

- you don't take off your shoes

- you don't pay 3 singaporean dollars for your camera (for info : 5 if video camera)

very amazing place where the indians come to pray a lot of gods, they make gifts to the gods and pay a "man" so that he pronounces a prayer for them to a particular god

then i went along the streets and i arrived too late to visit the chinese temple that was closed; but perhaps tomorrow... i passed by a place where senior people were playing chess, majhong,... ...

i ate in the street in this very nive and living place, for 5 singaporean dollars ( 2,5 euros) a dish with 2 kinds of noodles and sea food ( very nice and not that spicy, that was very good...)

all this with a lime juice for 1,5 SGD

in fact everything went well, but i can tell now that my belly is not that fine, so i don't know if it is because of the very spicy food of the lunch or of the food tonight

anyway, i am very happy to have been able to see a little bit in the day light

speak to you soon

cheeeeers

18-03-2009 clark quays the night life place

Hello evrybody ( like if i had a million readers !!! :-) )

first of all, i would like to apologise as all the pictures you have seen so far are taken by night, sorry for that but i am working quite late and when i get out from work the night is already there. you will have daylight pictures this week end.

ok let's come back to my day, today first interviews at work and quite productive day, it was also a very sunny day !!! (steam on glasses due to the humidity ... )

for lunch, very nice restaurant close from the prison ( on the walls of the prison you can see signs showing you that if you approach too close you can be shot !!! ) i managed to ruin my shirt by eating a beef hor fun with chop sticks, a saucy dish, it was quite stupid but you know me, i did it...

and then tonight, i went to clark quays, a very active night life place with a lot of restaurants, bars, night clubs, once again it is a mix of everything, like everywhere here. i have seen something like 100 japanese ( i say japanese even if i am not that sure that they were japanese, but just to cope with the cliche...) taking pictures all in a row with their tripod, amazingly funny )

Jerome, i need your help !!!! i am getting mad with this camera, i need  the help of a prfessional... i am not satisfied at all by the result of the pictures and it is very fustrating

i hope you enjoyed the video from yesterday and i will try to put some more

now i will try to go to bed, last night was still very short, still under jetlag effect ( slept one hour more than the day before ) with this rythm i will sleep normally this week end for my first trip on the islands...

write to you sooooon

bisoooooooous

17-03-2009 carrefour and swimming pool

March the 17th, the first really sunny and very hot day, and the first day i want to go out from my appartment to go to do some food wine and alcohol  shopping in Carrefour in plaza singapoura a big mall ( yes there are something like 8 carrefour in sinpore !!! ), i came back with something like 40 kilos ( please note dear readers that my hotel is only 800 meters far from my place ) and i can tell you that carrying 40 kilos under this weather is a nightmare. i arrived at mine and i was as melted as the butter in one of the bags....

so i decided to go to the swimming pool ( see video ) to relax a little bit after a long day working and a very short night, still because of the jet lag

tomorrow i will try to go to clark quays ...

write to you soon

bisouuuuus !!!!

ps : i am not that fat!!!! the video is in 16:9 ( i swear !!! )

16-03-09 my first day at work

Today, went to work at 7:55, but it was to early ( they start at 9 there and nobody kept me aware of that

nice team !!!

lunch at a food court, sort of big place with a lot of small restaurants

a part from that, after one day only in singapore, i found my flat, and more than that i am in it at the moment i am updating the blog

i didn't have time to go to the swimming pool because i preferred unpacking my stuff first and make this place a little bit more like mine... the decoration is to almost to puke but i will improve that time after time.

but it is very central and quite well located ( let see who is gonna see it first ... )

quit tired now so won't write a big one tonight

write to you soon

bisoooous

15-03-09 End of the first day in Singapore ( wooooohoooohooo !!!! )

So, in fact, as i didn't sleep at all in the plane, i fell asleep like a big piece of shit at 12:30 and woke up at 5:00 pm. whoooo ! that was good.
then i left in the direction of the marina area, where i had a light meal ( bloody hell, they don't know what mild means :-) i think for them mild is "more than fuc... spicy" at least for me. what amazed me the most is that they manage ( picture to come ) to incorporate eyes in a fish that is twice bigger than a rice grain!!! and i can tell that it is quite weird to eat being watched like that by a hundred of fish i your plate !!!! they are very strong these singaporean !!! :-)

i am more than very very very amazed by this city, i thought that i couldn't be that amazed but i feel like a sort of a farmer going out of his country side and arriving on another planet. even if i think i have seen quite a lot already on this planet but... never say never !!! it is like on another planet !!!!

it was today the last day of the sales in all the big malls here, and believe it or not it is like all the people here have decided to buy a Huge large XXXXL flat TV screen ( it was funny during the 30 minutes i spent to wait for a cab, to see this "crazy consumption". special message for Virginie and Herveline : i wasn't the one who bought the most today !!!

As i am updating the blog from the internet room in the lobby ( so far... ), you will have to wait for the end of the week to see the pictures i have already started to take. special message pour Jerome : be kind with me i am just starting to use this sort of computer that i have bought as a camera !!!! i think i will bother you a little bit with the settings and other stuff.

i will now go back to my room to iron a shirt and a pair of trousers for tomorrow ( introduction day with the singaporean team ) special message for Linda : yes i will iron !!!!!

Donna : you owe me the contact of your mate in Singapore

gros bisous once again and for the last time of the day

write to you tomorrow !!!!!

15-03-09 Arrival in Singapore

Here we are !!!! or 'here I am' better said. i arrived this morning at 7:30 in singapore, a sort of a big hot wave slapped my facem and after the first cigarette ( after 14ghours without smoking !!!!) i felt better even if i didn't enjoy at all this bloody cigarette because of the hot air.

but anyway, i spent already a couple of hours in a mall just in front the hotel ( quite practical !!! ) and dear readers be aware that i just got equipped with a marvelous camera with which one i will be able to share with you all what i will discover here, and i am sure that there is plenty of things to discover.

My first feeling is that this place is the place where there are a lot of forbidden stuff. you can't study in the breakfast areas in the mall, you can't put your feet outside of the blue signs on the escalators ( just in case the stupid idea of doing it could go through your head ... )

i am quite excited about all that i have to say ! but now i have to leave in order to start my shooting session : direction the marina area