Motorcycle diaries - Happy New Year from Hanoi!

Happy New Year dear family and friends!

May this year be full of interesting events and exciting encounters! It may be easy or difficult, but much depends on how we assess it and master the challenge - and who's beside us and with us - our family, friends, all people who we know, love, appreciate and learn from...

Our adventures continue... Today we came to Vietnam's capital Hanoi from Da Nang with an overnight train, which was not as bad as expected (at least not for someone who grew up in former Soviet Union :) Our bike will come with the same train tomorrow, and then we'll head off to the scenic Halong Bay. The weather here is very autumn-like, especially after nice day on the beach we spent yesterday in Hoi An by +30C...

Now off to celebrate New Year 2010! Cheers!

Motorcycle diaries - Vietnam East coast continued: Hoi An

Today we came to a famous silk city of Hoi An (not that I knew about its existence before our journey). It's lovely - many restaurants on the river, dark streets lighted just with Chinese paper lanterns, where local people play mah-jong and some instruments I couldn't identify... There're silk cloth and fabric shops everywhere, since it's an old silk trading city. Very nice. Lots of tourists as well (probably this place is indicated in the Loney Planet travel guide :)

We let the candles float on the river, and it looked so romantic - dark river full of shimmering candle lights in the colourful paper flowers. We also took a short ride on the old wooden boat, and city looked beautiful in the darkness, under the almost full moon, and with all those shimmering lights around...

To say the truth, we were really happy to come here, and finally get our pizzas and glass of Bordeaux wine! In the last 2 days the only food available were the variations of noodle soup. Funny, but we're truly children of civilization. Not that we didn't like it, being in all those local places, being the only Western people and trying out only local things. We did enjoy it! But then, when you want to have your pizza or burger, and it's just not there, you appreciate it so much more, when you finally get it :) Our first stop in Hanoi will be in McDonalds or Burger King, I assume :)

Hoi An

Motorcycle diaries - Vietnam East coast

We left Saigon and continued towards Hanoi along the coast line on the road AH1. Landscapes at the beginning were quite boring, and traffic was really mad. I think we survive only due to excellent driving skills and reactions of Ilkka. Why so many Finns are such good drivers? :)

We reached city of Phan Rang by night, and the last 2 hours of our ride were really scarry. Ilkka got a wound on his finger responsible for pressing the break. And our bike got a wound on a place responsible for a clutch :)

In Phan Rang we got a room in the city's only hotel, and went to eat in a local street food court. People were very friendly, but we anyway felt ourselvs like two aliens :)

Today we drove until small coast city of Quy Nhon. Landscapes have changed, and now they are incredibly beautiful. Azure blue sea, colourful fishermen's boats, mountains in all shades of grey and brown and endless rice fields... Scenery changes after every turn of the curly mountain road. It's wonderful!

 

 

 

Motorcycle diaries - Good morning Vietnam! - Saigon

"There are 9 million bicycles in Beijing"... And there is at least 1 million motorbikes in Saigon!

Now, we are in Vietnam. While crossing the border, officials told us that we can't enter and drive in Vietnam with Thai motorbike: Vietnam has transport agreement only with Cambodia and Laos. They suggested us to leave bike and get to Hanoi to arrange necessary papers. We were quite a bit embarrased. We sat down and thought in silence for a while. Both of us went through possible options. And then... then we took a bike and just walked through the border. Next second we hopped on the bike and drove away. We didn't look back. No one stopped us. Crazy feeling! Our first illegal border crossing! :) 

Saigon or Ho Chi Minh City

Amazing city. It's alive: it's moving all the time, it seems to be a living organism! All those bikes move around nonstop. Local people use their motobikes as we use cars: often you can see the whole family on a small Vespa, dressed nicely and driving to eat in a restaurant. Many bikes are also pimped up: they have Burberry or Gucci seat covers and nice tapes all over them :)

Streets of Saigon are full of people: young and old, locals and foreigners, many couples, many with little kids. People smile and laugh, talk, joke around. They look happy.

Funny, many local women wear pyjamas on the streets, it seems to be their normal daily outfits. They also wear those cute looking rice field hats and drive their old bicycles, selling lottery tickets.

There are not so many sightseeings in Saigon, but there are many nice small trade corners, and streets with colourful funky looking houses. And it's great just to walk, look around, smile to locals, have a small talk, sit down for a break and have an incredibly tasty and strong ice coffee... Just enjoy time in this city!

Food here is amazing, especially from those street stalls where most of local people dine. You just sit down at one of those small baby-kind-of chairs, point at the meals that others around you are having, and after some minutes you get your dinner - I don't know how all those dishes are called, but they taste delicious!

We both enjoyed this city, and it definitely has a soul. Air is charges with electricity of emotions - good emotions: love, joy, happiness. It's full of life! And I wish to come back here!

Tomorrow we're heading off to the North Vietnam (Hanoi) through beautiful and scenic coastline road.

Night traffic

 

Mini Notre-Dame in Saigon

 

Selling rice in a rice hat

Motorcycle diaries - Cambodia: Killing fields

Last day in Phnom Penh (December 24th) we visited one of the Cambodia's Killing fields, were people were killed and buried in the mass graves by Khmer Rouge regime between 1975 and 1979. The one we visited, Choeung Ek, is located 15 km away from Phnom Penh. Over 20 000 people were killed and buried there.

It is very hard to grasp what happened in this country during that time. We, in Europe, study those events in our history classes, but it seems to be so abstract - something that happened in this small country somewhere far away in South East Asia. We seem to be more concerned and touched with World War II events, and it's understandable in a way - this war had such an impact on almost every family, at least in my home country.

However, the scale of crime of Khmer Rouge in Cambodia is horrifying: out of 7,7 Mio. population in the 1970-ies, 3 Mio. were killed as enemies of regime during just few years, or died from tortures, starvation and deseases...

Meanwhile we also watched 2 movies about those times. One is called "Killing fields", it's a movie based on true story about American journalist, who worked for NY times, and his friend and colleague from Cambodia, who happened to be in the middle of the bloody events of the 70-ies in Cambodia.
Another movie is a documentary "S21", about those people who worked in the prison and execution site Choeung Ek. Many of them, who worked for Khmer Rouge that times, are now in their 40-ies or 50-ies. They were just young boys or teenagers, when all this was happening, and they were a part of the regime...

We also went to eat with family of our new local friend, who helped us a lot with our motorbike papers. We went to some restaurant outside the city, and our friend told us, that only rich people come to eat there. We paid 17 USD for 4 people's delicious lunch. Our friend works in the boat ticketing office, and earns 150 USD per month. He pays 80 USD for his apartment, and 50 USD for English school for his kid Pet. The rest is left for living.

No further comments.

Little Pet

Motorcycle diaries - Cambodia: Siem Reap, Angkor Wat, Phnom Penh

After it took us some time to cross the border, we finally entered Cambodia. What struck me here was poverty and spirit of sadness I could sense in people. All the way to Siem Reap on both sides of the road we saw empty unharvested fields, shelters and slums, and few local people moving along the road either on foot, or by bicycle, or on horse carriages, or - very few - on small scooters...

And than, all of a sudden, in the middle of nowhere arises Siem Reap, a strange city full of hotels, hostels, restaurants and shops. Everything here is devoted to tourism and tourists. But locals don’t seem to be happy. Sad faces and forced smiles are all around… 

Temples of Angkor

My first blurry memories about temples of Angkor are connected to the movie ”Lara Croft – Tomb Rider”. Then, my dear friend Darya told me about those incredible temples back in 2006 in Germany. I remember how excited she was telling me about Angkor Wat. I got interested, but not excited. Today, when I stood overwhelmed in front of those temples, I was thinking of her. I know she will make this journey to Angkor one day very soon…

Smiling Buddha at Angkor Thom

Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom and other temples indeed overwhelm with their anciety and majesty. Surrounded by water and jungle forrest, they melt in the sun and loud jungle sounds. Remnants of  extinct Khmer empire…They are definitely worth visiting at least once in life!

Watching sunset at Angkor Wat

Road to Phnom Penh

Both road and area from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh seem to be more developed that the one from Thai border to Siem Reap: green fields, decent houses, more happy looking people, more traffic on the roads, more cars and motorbikes…

But it seemed to me, that local people struggle... struggle to find their own cultural identity. Is it because of their recent history, and all those terrible crimes that were commited towards own people in the 70-80–ies? Pol Pot Khmer Rouge regime has thrown the country to the worst agrarian state, and country's intellectual elite was literally extinguished… Poor people… It is really heartbreaking what happened here…

All in all, Cambodia leaves quite daunting impression… The news headlines in the local newspapers report only bad or terrible news, business part of the newspapers doesn’t mention Cambodia at all, only other countries of the region… All this adds on to this spirit I could sense here: hopelessness and despair…

What would this country need to establish itself and to help those people to raise their heads? A long-term program of development, stretched for at least 50 years, or 2 next generations, to give people example, and hope, and make them believe in themselves and their future… There must be potential in this country, as in any other one, it just needs to be discovered and developed...

Update: Now leaving Cambodia to Vietnam with very mixed feelings...

Another update: Spent some time in Phnom Penh today. Here people are a bit more cheerful. Maybe because capital is somehow developing, and there is a hope? Who knows...

And yet another update: Spent some more time in Phnom Penh. And no, they are not more cheerful, at least the vast majority. They have desperate look of trapped animals in their eyes, those poor people. And all those huge golden temples and enormous official buildings which look like palaces... Those remind me on Soviet Union and all its monumental constructions... And those corrupt officials driving Lexus all as one... I didn't feel myself comfortable at all here. Just wanted to write it all down, before I slide to political correctness.

 

Little kids from Cambodian border

Motorcycle diaries - Bangkok

Now, I am again on the move - this time on a new Honda Phantom fire edition motorbike, together with hubby Ilkka. This over-a-month-journey through South East Asia, that started here in Thailand, will bring us through Cambodia, Vietnam and Southern China to Hong Kong.

I arrived to Bangkok December 9th from Singapore - both excited about the upcoming adventure and sad after all those farewells we have to say to people who become close to us... Anyways, next days I decided to be a real brave tourist and explore Bangkok with a map in one hand and camera in the other.

What is Bangkok? It is definitely a total mess. In a positive sense of the word. All those tuk-tuks, taxi-meters, smily locals in pink shirts because of their King's birthday celebrated for over a week, food stalls and mobile kitchens, tourists in their "want-to-be-a-hippie" cloth from the next street bazaar and incredible amount of golden temples, buddhas and images of the King and royal family -  all this is Bangkok. It's very energizing and tiring at the same time. A great place to get pumped up with energy, especially during those winter days (was just thinking of Helsinki and it's minus 20C)!

But this is not all... Bangkok has many faces - its also young, fashionable and very friendly local people, lots of business travellers and expats, tailors, furniture and design shops, bars and restaurants, ultra-modern office buildings and residential estates, wide and bright roads, parks and green sites... Amazing city...

During those few days we stayed in two areas: Banglumpu (Chanasongkram) and Sukhumvit. The first one is filled with young tourists and vibrant with energy: street food stalls, bars, locals trying to sell anything you might not need, guest houses and nice tiny hotels... I think it's a very authentic old kind of Bangkok. Impressive Grand Palace and Wat Poh are located very near to this area. Sukhumvit is more of a trendy modern Bangkok, it's close to the other fashionable business area - Silom, with glass-and steel skyscrapers and fancy shops and restaurants...

We also drove throught crazy Bangkok traffic on our chopper and took a river boat, to watch modern hotel buildings neighboring slums... I wonder how this city will look like in some years, cause it seems to be very actively reorganizing and reshaping itself nowadays.

Ilkka is helping to park the boat :)

Oh yes, and we went to chill in Pattaya for couple of days. It reminded me very much on Phuket and somewhat on Kuta in Bali. Anyways, we managed to find a nice corner - Pattaya Jomtien Beach - where we spent couple of nights in very cozy bungalows.

Now, having spent in Bangkok a little less than a week, I can't claim to have understood its nature, or its culture. But I am sure I had enough time to catch some of its spirit...

Update: Tomorrow we're off to Cambodia and mystical and majestic Angkor Wat!

 

Some final remarks on Singapore

Few words... While flying to Singapore I wrote down what I expect from my stay there. I don't have this paper with me now, but as far as I remember, some of my expectations were the following:

- gain new impressions and experiences
- get to know and learn new people and insights
- understand better myself and what I am good at
- retain positive attitude
- be / become more open towards different and diverse opinions, cultures, mindsets, values
- travel a lot

Now, after my stay in Singapore is over, I can say that all this has become a part of my experience. I met a lot of new people, very different and very interesting, and learned a lot from them and their attitude towards life.

I was lucky to share my room with a very sweet, bright and open person, Paula, who also made my stay in Singapore so easy going, funny and memorable at the same time...

I went to school (SMU - Singapore Management University) and experienced 'their' way of teaching and learning. I also learned and contributed myself: my classes on Intercultural communication, Investor relations, Managing corporate reputation, and Negotiation skills for business - all of them were in a way interesting and enhancing for me, personally as well as professionally...

I had a chance to be part of Russia Singapore Business Forum - a yearly event that attempts to bring together businessmen from both countries and discover new chances and opportunities for them. Some of SMU students were invited to participate and work at this forum, and it was definitely a chance for me to get insights into the world of business I am interested in...

I went to many parties and events (even to Formula 1 Singtel Grandprix in Singapore!), I socialized and networked and had lots of fun! I met so many people of different age and background, some of them became good friends, some close acquaintants, and all will stay in memory in a very positive way. I realized how easy it is to meet new people and to gain new acquaintances in this part of the world - it seems that people become more open and sensitive once they leave boundaries of their own comfort zones in the home countries (maybe myself as well?!)...

I traveled a lot: Bintan in Indonesia, Kuala Lumpur and Tioman in Malaysia, Bali, Borneo, Malacca and now Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, China, Hong Kong... I believe that once one starts traveling, he / she gets a wonderful taste and adventurous spirit of it, and will always long for new destinations... At least this is what I discovered in myself...

Overall, it has been amazing time! I did feel a bit sad when leaving Singapore, but I am not anymore, since I know that I will catch up with all those wonderful people I became close with, and we definitely stay in touch!

And, who knows, maybe one day I come back to Singapore, to work and live. I am so open for opportunites to come along my way! And moreover I am creating them myself! :))

Ringing an IPO bell at Singapore Exchange :)

Catching up part 3 - Koh Phangan fullmoon party

The final journey before leaving Singapore was meant to be to Thailand - the place where our motorcycle odyssey starts...

We were 8 girls who went first to Phuket - a funny place that replicates lots of stereotypes of those kind of beach-vacation-locations, but our final destinantion was island Koh Phangan and famous full moon party. 4 more friends joined us already in Koh Phangan, and there we were - 12 girls from 8 countries, ready to dance the night away and meet the sunrise on the beautiful beach of this island...

This party is definitely something worth taking part in and experiencing: 5000 to 8000 young people, chilling and dancing to well-selected house music, sipping drinks from the buckets (yes, drinks are sold in buckets, not in glasses), and getting drained away under the night sky and huge white full moon until sun goes up...

We also went to see thai boxing, which gave us a bit of a weird feeling being out of place... Oh well, perhaps we were... Finally, we came over for the full-moon-party!

Obviously scarry happy with huge lizard in Phuket bar :)

 

Walking along Koh Phangan beach

Beautiful beach even by grim weather

Pictures are courtesy of my firend Laura from Spain

Catching up part 2 - Borneo

Another amazing trip of the last months was to the imperium of orang-utans - a mysterious island of Borneo.
There is much more to see and do in Borneo but visit orang-utans: climb one of the highest in South East Asia mountains - Kinabalu (4,095 metres), go snorkling, diving or jungle tracking, visit turtle island or just mingle with the aborigenes :)

So, my French and Canadian girlfriends and I flew to Kota Kinabalu (or KK, as locals call it), capital of the state Sabah in Malaysian Borneo, and next day headed off to Sepilok, rehabilitation center for orang-utans, located close to another city of Sabah state - Sandakan.  It was started in the 60-ies to rescue and rehabilitate orphaned baby orangutans. Tourists are aloud to visit one of the feeding platforms close to the entrance of the whole area, where orang-utans are feeded twice per day. What can I say? They are truly amazing - intelligent species, whose genes to over 90 % replicate genes of human beings...

After visiting our fellow species, we decided to do bit of a jungle tracking - brave girls dressed in a manner not very appropriate for the purpose... After being attacked by aggresive Bornean leeches, we decided to turn back... Finally we returned to KK, to do some snorkeling and just enjoy sun and the beach during next day on the islands close to Borneo...

Oh yes, in Borneo I tried durian - an awfully smelling fruit, beloved by many in this part of the world... It was also an experience, but I made it. So now I am durian-approved :)

 Island Manukan - perfect snorkeling next to Borneo

Catching up part 1 - Bali

Now, it has been a long long time, since I wrote anything onto this blog... Many things happened, many events occured, many places have been visited, and, sweet and sadly, many goodbyes were said in the meantime...

Currently I am in Pattaya Jomtien beach in Thailand with my beloved husband, chilexing (yes, this is a new word I learned from one dear Singaporean friend: relax+chill=chilax :D) under the sun and tanking power before our long journey on the bike all the way to Hong Kong...

But first I want to catch up on some events and trips that happened in the last months of my stay in Singapore: Bali, Borneo, full moon party at Koh Phangan in Thailand etc...

Bali

We went to Bali during SMU recess week: Oct. 5th to Oct. 11th 2009. First time and I loved it!

First day after we arrived, we stayed in surfers' paradize Kuta in the South-West part of the island: long wide beach with famous sunset, bunch of Australian sunny boys coming up to surf and show off their tanned trained bodies, abundance of small shops offering all kinds of staff one never even thought of, and crazy crazy traffic...

Next day we rented motorbike: Honda Tiger, and headed off to to East. We drove small curvy roads and finally reached Amed - tiny place with great diving sites. This was meant to be our headquater for the next 3 days... We stayed in the cozy bungalows "Good karma", located directly on the beach, and runned by one of the local men. And it inspired indeed a good karma for our Bali journey...

Next days we relaxed, went sailing and snorkeling, and Ilkka had a chance to loose some of his hard-earned money in a cock fight, where he was invited by one of his newly gained local friends...
We drove all around Eastern Bali, to the lake Batur, and active volcano mount Agung, and Pura Besakih - the Mother Temple of all temples in Bali...We arrived to Basakih by dusk, and experienced surreality and mighty of this temple, all covered with half-transparent fog and surrounded by wild and loud sounds of the night jungle...

We then drove down to the place called Ubud - spiritual and artistic center of Bali, where we visited monkey forest and saw famous kecak dance in one of the temples... Our last day we spent again in Kuta and tried our surfing, not without success yeah ;)

I think we both fell in love with this island, with its incredible spirit, magical traditions and rituals, with all its temples on every street corner, and inherently happy people, ready to burst in smiles anytime... Instrinsic happiness they call it...Something to learn from people who have few from material world, but lots from spiritual...

Notes of a student

Today I devote myself entirely to studying. At least I attempt to do so.

Currently reading chapter on Corporate Social Responsibility in the book on Corporate Communications. Now, throw the stones onto me, but I wonder why is it so extremely boring, if it is considered to be so extremely important. Or are we just trying to pretend, that we care, although deep underneath we are still all after old good profit and maximization of shareholder value. Is Gordon's Gekko "Greed, for the lack of a better word, is good" still adamant for us?

To be continued... went to bore myself more ;)

Update:
From discussion about negotiations: what is crucial  for negotiation between two parties:
1. Both parties should be in a position to move from their initial standpoint into the zone of mutual agreement.
2. Empowerment - person negotiating should have power to take a decision.

I have recently started with course on "Negotiation skills" and this one promises to be one of the best ever! Lucky me! :D

Remarks on Singapore

Spirit of Kiasu

This is one of the features of Singaporeans, something, that on the one hand drives them forward, but on the other hand may prevent them from doing what they really want to do - or even asking themselves, if what they do is what they want to do.

This is what Wiki says about Kiasu:

Kiasu is a Hokkien (a Chinese spoken variant) word that literally means 'fear of losing'. This word is so widely used by Singaporeans and Malaysians that it is incorporated into their English vocabulary (in the form of Singlish). It is often used in describing the social attitudes of people, especially about South East Asian society and its values. Its widespread use is often because these attitudes are common—to not lose out in a highly competitive society, or to the extent of parents imposing heavy study labour on their children in their wish to make them at the very top of all other students.

Most popular professions in Singapore are lawyers, investment bankers and doctors. All those can bring one to the top of the society, in term of financial success and recognition. But does it really make them happy? What I personally have observed, is that even when going out and having fun, many locals have this certain tension inside, as if they can never truly relax, let it go and just be themselves... I don't make any value judgments here, but just reflect on some of my brief observations...

In the zoo: taking care of each other 

Island Tioman in Malaysia

After sightseeing weekend in KL, we decided to have some rest and pump up some energy into our souls, minds and bodies - in beautiful Tioman island on South East part of Malay peninsula.

It took us just a bit over 6 hours to get there - by bus to the sea city of Mersing in Malaysia, and then by shaky boat to Tekek, capital of Tioman island - and here we are, my roommate Paula and I, in Berjaya resort & spa, in a little paradise close to equator.

What did we do during the weekend? We relaxed by the pool, watched the sea by low tide and went snorkeling, where we saw incredibly beautiful colorful fishes, a huge turtle, some unrecognizable sea creatures and all in all had lots of fun under tropical sun (and even managed not to get sunburn;)!

Sea at low tide

Pool joy

Trying out snorkeling

Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur

This post is about weekend in KL - September 3-6 2009

I just returned from the extended weekend trip to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. What can I say? It's definitely worth it - to visit, to see, to taste and to smell :) Once. And I don't feel coming back there again. At least not in the nearest future. Although the trip was great.

Petronas tower is indeed impressive, and it was worth it to wake up at 6 in the morning to secure the ticket to the sky bridge on the 41st floor of the tower, with a nice view to the city and to the gardens around the tower. And than again, just in less than 2 km from the masterpiece of modern architecture - shabby old houses, chickens in the dusty streets and rubbish on the pavements...
For someone it will be a charming combination of the ancient and raw with new and aspiring, maybe it is... But I didn't feel it this way - it's just disturbing.

Sky bar in the Traders' hotel with a swimming pool in the middle and a fantastic view to the lights of Petronas twins is a must: house music, delicious cocktails, international crowd and just a nice place to spend couple of hours on the weekend eve.

Batu caves, located a bit more than 10 km away from the city, is one of the tourist attractions...But also this place feels like man-made, with claimed to be world tallest goldish statue of Murugan, a Hindu deity (42 smth meters), lots of wild monkeys and smaller Hindu temples. This caves become epicenter of Hindu festival of Thaipusam in Malaysia.

Over 60% of population of this country is Muslim, and as white western woman I definitely didn't feel myself comfortable over there. After all, I was happy to come back to Singapore - and I am sure that culture shock would have been much greater (since I am still waiting for it to come here in Singapore), have I decided to go for exchange to Malaysia...

Petronas twin towers - view from our hotel room

Watch out for moose in Finland, and monkey - in Malaysia

Always on the run

and I truly enjoy it! Today I've done bunch of things (booked tickets for beautiful Tioman island in Malaysia, exchanged money, made some purchases etc. etc.) and even managed to the library, to read for my thesis.
I am looking forward for the weekend in the amazing Berjaya Resort in Tioman: if pictures reflect reality at least to some extend, we'll definitely have fantastic time over there.

Every time, when I see the Singaporean crowd, I am amazed by this multicultural but predominantly  Asian mix. Every now and then you see some Westerners, especially at the City Hall or financial district Raffles Place, or at touristic Orchard - but still, great deal how all all manage to live together in peace on this small tropical piece of land.

Singaporean crowd - Independence Day 

View from Singapore Flyer

 

Famous Singapore Sling