Something is wrong with the FB picture upload today so I can’t do another entry on Sri Lanka, so I’ll take the chance to introduce the latest addition to my zoo – a really big parrot.
He is a pressie from my uncle and just makes my other parrot look like a dwarf. He’s twice the size of the other and bigger than my head.



Thankfully he’s like cos he loves to climb on people. Just let him run around and he will gravitate to the nearest person and climb up their body. Loves to kiss too hahahaha

 

I wonder if they will start sharing each other’s bad habits soon. Hahaha the newbie only likes flat seeds not the fat fat ones and will throw them all over his mat while the old one likes to scream at the dog to show it’s supremacy in the household. Never a dull moment here.

I haven’t tried letting both run loose at the same time, dunno what mischief they will start doing! At least for now, they enjoy seeing who makes the bigger feather ball!

If you are in the mood to revisit lost civilizations, and feel like a tomb raider, this ancient Buddhist city with over 2500 years of heritage maybe a nice stopover.

Renting a car is advisable for lazy ppl like us who want maximum coverage for minimum time. Here we just zip from one place to another.

 

There are a few highlights of this trip which attempts to piece together the lives and living conditions of Buddhist scholars in the first century - we visited the grounds of their universities, their man made ponds, aqueducts and refectories.

 

The refectories are their canteens which have these long 15m troughs where rice and curry is placed for the monks to dine on. It's so long, as it feeds 5000 monks in probably the earliest approximation of a buffet line. Nom nom nom!

 

Intricate moonstones that describe the path to reach nirvana are inscribed at the entrances to the monasteries and the cute little statues on the steps symbolize stepping on these idols of money and leaving it behind you.

 

Here is also the oldest dated tree in the world - a Bodhi tree reputed to be over 2000 years old. Struts made of gold support the branches of the tree- like a large bonsai tree covered with bling bling. With so many trees around, naturally you get a lot of monkeys too. Very fun to watch their antics - this one came to steal the flower offerings of Buddha! He must be trying to be like the Monkey God :P

 

There is a Buddha statue famous for inspiring the first PM of Sri Lanka in his dark days. According to our guide, Sri Lankan stone masons place greater emphasis on facial expressions and keep the rest of the statue unadorned to draw the attention to the face.

 

There are 3 gigantic stupa we visited, which house Buddha's ashes. Apparently these huge mounds are encased entirely in solid bricks and it's also because they are so huge, when they were first discovered, they were covered on trees and looked like hills.

Here you can pretty much see the before and after. The first one was rebuilt by the people and they repaint the surface every year in lime-based paint for an annual event. The other two stupas are left in the way they are discovered. Their plaster walls have been worn down, exposing the brick interior.




The prickly durian-like one is covered in scaffolding and undergoing careful restoration works according to Unesco requirements. Looks like the Death Sun from the Twilight Imperium boardgame

 

The white one has been rebuilt and covered with a special lime based paint according to ancient traditions! They actually reapply the paint year after year for a special festival which is coming up and loads of pilgrims will come pay their respects in the ancient city.



Here's a pic of myself with the Anuradhapura guide and our tour guide, Danushka. Many thanks to him for shipping us around all the while. 

This city is interesting for Buddhists and the Stupas are very magnificent. However if you are short of time, unlike Sigiriya which promises thrills and scares, Anuradhapura here is just a look see, ooooh aaaaah experience. you can google all pics online so if you lack time or US$25, you might give this a miss.

In Miami, I managed to catch the sunrise. That was truly beautiful.
This time,being at the west of the country, catching the sunset was my perogative.

 
 
 


So here are some shots of the sun setting over the Mt Lavinia beach. This is really beautiful, as there is nothing to the immediate west of Colombo, just the pure horizon.

 

Happened to catch a very nice inter school beach touch rugby as well. Being an events manager, I just couldn't help taking pics and mentally calculating the price of doing such a setup. It's a very bad occupational habit.



Well now we're off to tour the rest of the country!

Sri Lanka is famous for its many ruins or archaeological wonders.

For the last few days we chartered a minivan up North to wander about some of its most famous sights – the Dambulla cave temples and the Sigiriya Lion Fortress.

"Dambulla cave temple is a World Heritage Site (1991) in Sri Lanka, and  is the largest and best preserved cave temple complex in Sri Lanka. The rock towers 160 m over the surrounding plains with more than 80 documented caves in the surrounding area. Major attractions are spread over 5 caves, which contain statues and paintings. These paintings and statues are related to Lord Buddha and his life. There total of 153 Buddha statues, 3 statues of Sri Lankan kings and 4 statues of gods and goddesses. The latter include two statues of Hindu gods, the god Vishnu and the god Ganesh. The murals cover an area of 2,100 square meters. Depictions on the walls of the caves include the temptation by the demon Mara, and Buddha's first sermon. (Wikipedia)"



The former was basically a collection of Buddha statues situated in caves on a hilltop, it’s very much like something from the Temple of Doom. The statues are pretty fascinating and it’s definitely a challenge to have all these structures shipped inside. It also has the largest Buddha statue ever (in that particular position – yeah need to use special delimiters to have this achievement).

 

And they have a Buddhist broadcast station – hmmm must be like Gregorian chants! Or perhaps they do music for Buddha Bar.

 



( And here is closeups of the biggest cave! )




Got no time to post my Sigiriya posts yet but that is a very nice place.
My advice for those coming to Sri Lanka for holiday, pack more money as it’s a very expensive tourism spot!!!

The highlight of the trip was Xuelun and Yahamali's wedding.
We were all gathered primarily here to learn about the Sri Lankan customs for weddings.

Definitely more ritual intensive than our watered down Singaporean wedding of just tea ceremony and expensive restaurant dinner. The one we attended was a Buddhist wedding.

 

First there is a dance by traditional dancers to clear the way for the bride to the venue. This was quite interesting, accompanied by drumbeats and loud hails by a conch shell horn which sounded like an elephant's roar.



Then the priest would start a very long speech, where according to Yahamali, all his speeches had to be in poems, so they were very sing song and very long. She did say he was very OTT and she wanted to laugh on stage. I think I would to if I had subtitles! But it did feel like he was relating 'Days of Our Lives' in Tamil.



Then he led them to throw leaves which supposedly symbolizes the removal of one's sorrows. I guess marriage does remove single hood woes! No more ticking biological clocks.

Then exchange of rings and for the groom to hang a necklace around the bride's neck. At this point the priest's OTT would reach new heights as every sentence was punctuated by the conch shell elephant roar.

The bride's dad would tie both parties' last finger together with a string and drip water down it, symbolizing giving his daughter to the groom. And the whole room would start singing a song in Tamil. I guess a good parallel to American weddings is if everyone was to sing 'Say a little prayer for you' in slowmo Tamil -- "I'll say.... a... little.... prayer for you... *elephant roar*!"

The groom would then feed his wife some rice cakes which I guess symbolizes he will have to feed her for life and give her his purse strings!

  

Then some more photo taking... And then as with all typical Sri Lankan meals, we wait 1 hour before the buffet starts. Yeah they have buffets here with loads of spiced foods but inevitably it takes a while to serve. A very very long time. Wedding favors are really sweet fruit cakes. That's one thing we find hard to deal with, the amazing amounts of sugar and salt that inundate our system with every meal.

 

And then.... "Everyday they're shuffling". The highlight of the wedding is dancing. The wedding hall turns immediately into a strange nightclub with Bhangra and Angmoh music mixed together! But no bullying of the bride and groom according to local practice so we took the chance in the chaos not to dance but to ply Xuelun with alcohol! Yes that is one Singaporean custom we exposed the locals to.



The ending would be for the couple to take a trip in a really nice car for one ride round the villa.

And then it's off to the hotel room to work off the alcohol! And perhaps to work at making the next generation of little Luns!

Since we are here for Xuelun’s wedding, he kindly arranged for us to stay here at a villa- Haus Chandra
It’s at Mount Lavinia, famed for their splendid beaches (which are the only beaches in Colombo where you can safely enter the water)

 

The villa is very well decorated and incredibly comfy, love the way they designed the rooms.

 

Very homely, and they even filled it with a lot of fantastic treasures. I even found Tintin’s Arumbaya Fetish (The Broken Ear) here. I wanna bring it back!!!!

 

The most humorous part of this villa has to be the bathroom…. It’s open air! With simple wood blinds to stop u from mooning the Sri Lankan ladies.
Hahahahaha imagine if you wake up with a hangover and a morning stiffy! I think will shock the saris of the ladies here!

 

Colombo, capital of Sri Lanka, is alright. Not many things are happening here and there is a lack of shopping and other tourism amenities. I think for the people it’s mostly work work, rest rest at home. So we are trying to find things to do here. 

The seaside is nice, but I hear it’s not particularly safe to swim in it….. Supposedly the sewage serves as food for the fishies here. Hahahahha no wonder the mudcrabs here are gigantic!!!

 

Buildings here are more colourful than Al Khobar and less dusty/sand coloured. They have some buildings that are pretty cool like the Young Men’s Buddist Association (YWBA) – (I can so imagine the song – danced by a bunch of hip monks!)



As it’s still the Vesak Day holiday, the skies are full of flying jellyfish (lanterns). If I was Pacman, I’ll probably think I’m surrounded by a plague of ghosts!

 

The trees are very fashionable here. Even they are draped in the finest colours :)
And some Pano shots to have a look at the Colombo streets.

Next to my hotel is the sea!

N next to the ocean is the train tracks, making for a picturesque ride round the seaside.



It's quite a beautiful place here. And plenty of photo opportunities everywhere.

 

I particularly like this pic - capturing the train, the city bus and the tuktuk all in one shot. Trains here are very crowded so I dunno if we will get a chance to squeeze on it later.



In fact their rail lines are used to transport more than just people, here u can see ppl transporting a portaloo. Don't ask me what happens if the train comes by.... KABOOOOOOM PIAK PIAK PIAK PIAK!

Reached Sri Lanka last night and yeah right now it’s our first morning here. The sun wakes up even earlier here so it’s scorching hot even at 6am!

We did go for a night sojourn around the area but there wasn’t much to see as most of the places around were closed ( we arrived at midnight).

Well the most happening nightspots have got to be….. NOPE not the nightclubs or the casinos. In fact the casinos just had a bit of neon lighting only. Punters inside were bidding on SG20cent to $1 (yeah very cheap cheap to gamble here).




The most happening joints were actually the temples. Glitzy, with sooooooo much lights everywhere. for a one week celebration of Vesak Day so that’s why the Buddhas are all decked out in their bling bling.

Well we are still looking for things to do… Hungry!!! Here’s to a fine week in Sri Lanka!

Haahhaha my last acting gig in a long while (Absolutely Charming) and I don't go out with a bang. In fact I show how bad my social skills are where I give the most corny lines in picking up hot actresses!!!

Damn cheesy!!!

 
 
 
 
 

I think I need lessons in dating!

I suffer from Amnesia.

There are blocks of memories that are missing from my mind. I wonder where they have gone. This revelation was made by Faz today when Justin met the both of us for supper.

It's shocking, there are so many things from our makeover pageant in 2007 we both cleanly forgot. According to his minority report, we posed with sports cars, did runway walks with hot Angmoh models, and more.he even remember who were the judges and what we did during the shows.



No doubt it as been years but wahhhhh I can barely remember the stuff we went through.

I only remember the clothes and that is because it's on my blog. In fact I don't remember the hectic ness of the changing area. I remember my Mr World changing room madness cos that was a tiny dark room with more than 10guys working out/stuffing themselves into little swimwear. Yeah this makeover pageant is tame in comparison. Haha

Well the rest remember that they were in it for the freebies, yeah pageants come with lots of freebies like free clothes, makeovers and photoshoots. If I remember my reason, it's a combi of freebies and also cos I wanted to do something if fervent while still young.

So it is agreed that apparently I'm the overly noisy crazy guy on the first day we met. Just walk up to the rest to shake hands and then start yakking away with my friend, Zac. Haha funny how these first impressions are! I wasn't thought of as the friend who would be a keeper but yeah, it's good to be with the rest of this cabal.

My selective amnesia does let me retain certain stuff like Cale's deportment classes. Heh which has since changed my gait and the rest term as my signature walk. Haha yes, i don't feel it myself but it can be seen when I watch myself on tv! Hmmm but I think I could do with refreshers, I wonder whether there is anything I missed out.

Hmmm if my memory is so selective, I better read my past entries more carefully. Those who forget their past is doomed to relive it, right? Maybe I underwent some lobotomy like Eternal Sunshine on a Spotless Mind!

Time for another small compilation of my over drawing on Draw Something.
Sometimes it gets easy to get bored of the game but it's just drawing for friends that makes it therapeutic :)

Today's therapy includes the ever lovable Cookie Monster, Vice of KOF, Lulu from the Noose, Dong Fang Bu Bai (Love Lin Ching Hsia), and more crazy fatalities from Mortal Kombat.

I hope the makers of Draw Something can come up with new words for me to draw :)
After I saw the Andy Warhol exhibition at the Art Science Museum, I was telling Justin that our random scribblings might one day be considered art (if we become notorious)!

 
 
 

Just came back from MBS visiting the Art Science Museum with Justin.
Our primary goal was to visit the much hyped Titanic Exhibition as well as the Andy Warhol Exhibition.

The latter was unique, and as I am quite a neanderthal in the fine arts. I appreciated mainly the unique colour styles of the movie starlets. Yeah it's still the movie stars like Marilyn that capture my attention.

 

 

The Titanic exhibition was pleasantly good. While the artifacts were limited, I'm sure the best ones are in other museums, what I loved were the areas in between the main exhibits, aka the hallways which were done up to look like the hallways of the Titanic interior. Those really set the mood - it's like really being in the Titanic, (if you disregard the crying kids saying they wanna go home).



My favourite part has to be the area done up to look like the corridor facing the sea, OMG, it's damn romantic, with all the little starry lights and being able to lean out of the deck to look at the sides of the ship. Totally captured the feel and idealism of being on a cruise.



Kudos on the icewall. Back in NUS, I knew that I would die if I fell asleep in the Central Library - it was sooo cold. Here, touching the ice wall, I don't think I would be able to finish my dying monologue before I turn into a popsicle.

 

The wall where you checked if your boarding pass belonged to one of the living or the dead was really good. Everyone worked hard to find their names. I remember this mum who happily shouted to her kids "We're all alive. The whole family's alive". As for me, I belong to the Netherworld - According to Justin, this means my boarding pass is better for getting 4D numbers.

But it's really poignant when you read about some of the highlighted stories of the passengers - their bravery against the odds.
Their stories will live on through the people who have visited the exhibition.

Oh here are postcards we created in the museum. It's an exhibits which is supposed to let you use museum exhibits to show how the Art Science Museum inspires your creativity. Guess this shows how depraved we are! (Justin's the LOTR, while mine is the Shark)

Back on the topic of transiting, my transit point for the Saudi Trip was to the nearby city of Doha.
Just barely half an hour away, we only had time to eat a mini sandwich on the QA flight before we touched down.

No need to fill any emigration forms here! All very fast and east. You do need your credit card for a visa on arrival (QAR 100).

 

And yay, I met my colleagues from the Qatar office there.
Wonderful city, less rigid than Al-Khobar. No bak kwa though. Haha, architecture here is very beautiful and shopping is indeed impressive here.

 
 

Visited the Villaggio, an endless labyrinth of shopping. It's designed like a Venetian city, complete with gondolas and every shop has a useless 2nd level which is just for decor! Yes it is quite interesting. And there is an artificial sky painted there which looks very funny when you see the Mickey Mouse balloons stuck on it. Limbo!!

 

It even has an indoor roller coaster and ferris wheel. People can get trapped here in the cavernous labyrinth.
They say Singapore is a shopping city but this is a real shopping experience, of cos that might not be as good for the retailer because I was going ooooh and aaaaaah like a Smurf with an asthmatic attack than actually shopping.

 

Walked around the Khalifa Stadium, and the hotel shaped like a torch. These were built for the Arab games and it’s quite a unique structure. One wonders if it gets very hot during the day with all the heat trapped by the glass. Maybe it’s the Torch for more than one reason. (Next to it is the Astrolabe, haven’t checked the story behind it yet!)

 

We then went to Souq Waqif, a sort of shopping district with a lot of old buildings. With the heady smoke of the shisha pipes and the saccharine smell of rabid perfume, you will feel like you're in your own Arabian fantasy.



I have no idea what's a lebddae but this looked like some escort agency signage, so in we went to find fancy Arab dates!
While we did not find anything like belly dancers in their twirling skirts, we found something more yummy!
Arab dates are excellent, very juicy and moist - Don't leave Doha without some!

 

Ahhhh and we got to play with falcons! The sheiks bring them in from Siberia for hunting fun and they allow you to pose with them! You can get one for the price of a car in SG. Yes it’s pretty ex but it’s the Chihuahua for the non-metrosexuals!
I wonder if my cockatoo will sit on my hand! But knowing him, he'll probably shit in my hand too!

One night in Doha is probably not enough to explore all the nooks and crannies but it was nice chance to see the Middle East. Here’s to the next trip!

OMG WTF!

Hahahhaha what am I doing on 9Gag Singapore?
Does this make me the posterboy for dubious storylines??

Aiyoh! Hahhahaa I wonder what my gang will say about this!

I always like to visit the countries I transit in,
After all, the job is done and I'm already here.
Who knows when I'll get a chance to visit these places again.

So while time spent there is measured in joss sticks as the Chinese martial arts shows call it, they have been pretty nice.

 

London - my transit point for Miami - just makes me feel like I'm on the Harry Potter set. The brickwork everywhere gives the place it's character and there is a sense of timelessness there.

 
Not all the train lines were up so it gave a bit of problem as I rushed to different places in my limited time there. I hope this won't happen to SG. 

 

However truth be told, I don't think I could enjoy the place for long, the brickwork makes the place feel stiff and stuffy. Even a little oppressive, of cos this is my view and it was made after coming from Miami. Doesn't help that the skies were grey.

 

Shopping was ex there, and my dad asked me to visit Harrod's. But I found Portobello market a much more fascinating experience! Bought nice scarves for my mum and some cool artwork for my friends back home!

I probably will be back here again and let's see how things will change, 

Will talk about Doha in my next entry :)

The MRT has failed 3 days in a row and I was affected by the Circle Line fault.
As one of the “lucky” Singaporeans who were caught by the train failures recently, I got to say it’s an interesting experience.

I missed my direct bus to the office and so I took another bus to the nearby station to catch the circle line up. Unfortunately when I reached, there was a guy at the turnstile that told us the trains were down and advised us to take the bus.

So off I went to the other side of the station to grab a bus. When I walked there, another SMRT personnel came out to tell us the trains were up and running so we all headed back to the station.
Strangely, in the station, announcements were still going on saying the trains were delayed by 20 mins. The station manager still let us go past the turnstiles.

Inside we waited for 5 minutes before seeing the train inching (literally inching and crawling) to the station. It took 5 minutes before it could align itself to the door. And then the doors stayed shut.

It was 20 minutes before one of the station staff came down and forced the doors open with an override (the override involved knocking on the door and asking the SMRT person inside the train to override the doors. Why she didn’t do it before I will never know). Then they got everyone off the train saying the train was down…

So some people headed up to get alternative transportation. I stayed behind to wait cos it would take me too long to go to my home area and get another bus (after all the announcements were still saying it would take 20 minutes).



So I sat on the floor (the marble is very cold, my butt just froze!) and turned on all my comps to start working. Yes I’m a mobile events manager, can do work in any part of the Earth! Quite interesting actually.

 

Another it was another 40 minutes before they finally announced the trains were cancelled and to ask everyone to take the shuttle buses.
But the shuttle buses can only ferry 30 pax each time so it wasn’t viable and I took a bus to another mrt station on the NS track to go to work. Very funny, when I could not scan my card (cos I never completed my first trip), the station manager said I must pay $0.70 for my first trip.

Lucky I am not one of those who blow my top easily. I just told him straight, SMRT should refund me for my trip, not I pay for my delay. He then agreed sheepishly… I dunno why he doesn’t think from the consumer point of view rather than the flawed SMRT point of view.

Well SMRT still needs to get their act right…. I think it’s high time they stop thinking about their profits and start remembering that first and foremost their infrastructure was paid for by our taxes and they work for Singaporeans.

I hope the Ministry does help them overcome their problems. If Singaporean productivity is affected by poor transportation, it can only affect our GDP and of course our Ministers’ income which is tagged to GDP.

But all the Singaporeans I saw who were affected by the rides took it in their stride. Everyone was orderly and no one blew their top. I guess we have come to accept that SMRT is no longer what it used to be.

Interestingly I just had someone ask me on this journal if I could sell heroin to them in Saudi Arabia.

Apparently, if you google "Al Khobar Heroin" my journal pops up as one of the top hits.
Hahahaha I think the reason for that is probably due to my role in Point of Entry.


 

But that part of me is dead in a pool of blood...

 

Nah sorry dude, no heroin here, the only drug I love is adrenaline!

While I'm still grabbing all my pics from Doha and Al-Khobar together, here is some more of Draw Something which I did for my friends!

I usually find some nice inspiration on the net for the drawings, like the one for Shadow below which I got inspiration from Film Noir. Strangely the rest are all from comics!

 
 

Hahahha I just realised that the Sentinel and Scorpion have the same pose hahahahah!

I think my drawing is still quite horrible, curse these fat fingers but I hope that my friends like it!

I am not a great artist, but I do like to indulge in art, so it's nice to play Draw Something with my pals.

Here are some of the ones I drew which I kinda like for my own personal reasons hahaha!

 
 

Hmmmm hope I can find more interesting things to draw for friends.... I wanna draw a Marilyn or Amy Winehouse :P
Come play with me!