New York, May 2010

I have been back from New York for two weeks now.

The day that I came back, I went straight to bed from 3pm to 6am on the following day.

I was extremely tired from the 20 plus hour flight back and  the 13 hour flight delay did not help one bit.

The weather in May in New York is great. Cooling and dry.

I was quite suprise upon reaching New York, it was different from what I envisioned. It was completely bustling with life and vigor.

Shopping malls close late and eating places were overly abundant.

The streets were so organised as they have been using a grid system for the last 100years.

Navigation was simply moving from street to street in a numerical order.

Times Square was magnificent day or night and its packed with locals and tourist every minute.

You can't help but feel alive standing in the middle of Times square.

The neon signs that are flashing 24hours a day 365 days a year were not exactly energy friendly though.

One of my most memorable experience was looking down from The Empire State building.

The view was fantastic and was simply breath taking. The 1 hour queue to go up was not though.

There were many little parks littered all over downtown New York and they provided a little solace and relief for the working class and tourist as well. Singapore should have little pockets of these similar parks, it's like an oasis in the middle of all the concrete jungle.

It was a combination of good shopping, food and attractions that gave me a pretty good experience there. The Big Apple really lived up to its name.

I look forward to going back next year!

Milan, Italy 12th April 2010

My second trip to Europe this year was a mix of excitement and chaos. The destination this time round was Milan, Italy. My company was taking part in the Salone Internazionale del Mobile. The fashion capital of the world truly lives up to its name. The trip started of with a gruelling 18 hour flight via Singapore-Colombo-Dubai-Milan. It was really taxing mentally as well as comfort wise. I really hate these long flights to Europe, luckily the food served on Emirates was pretty good and they had big touch screens with great movie selections.

Milan weather was pretty good with occasional showers. Unfortunately, the day after we landed, Iceland had an enormous volcanic eruption, which screwed up everybodies flight itinerary going back and to other countries. I was lucky, I had to go Croatia to meet a customer and that flight was not affected. So by the time I left Croatia, all my flight schedules had resumed. Some of my colleagues were not so fortunate, they had to stay an extra 3-4 days in Milan.

I did'nt get much time to shop this trip nor get to see a lot of sights. The exhibition consumed most of our time and we did'nt even get to enjoy much Italian gourmet either. I did get to go to Duomo, the famous shopping district for a while though. The Louis Vuitton shops were filled with cash rich Chinese buying lots of bags!! Typical!!

I have to say, Milan is a very expensive city to live in. It was about 15-20% more expensive compared to Cologne which I went in January. Everything that I wanted to buy was expensive, even in the supermarket where the normal folks shop, cost quite a bit.

Due to the fair, almost  every part of the city was alive with product launches and open house. The whole city was vibrant and the design culture there was fantastic! Designers will show their work in department stores and shop windows and graphics was prominent on street walls, lamp posts, cars....etc. The whole city was ALIVE!!

The Metro for Milan was easy to navigate compared to Paris, most of the travelling was done on that and they had a fixed price ticket of EUR$1 for any length of trip. I also managed to visit a model kit shop but unfortunately was disappointed as it was very small and lacked range.

The service you get at the retail stores is really horrible. They don't like serving Asian customers and I lost count the number of times I got snubbed when asking for stock availability. In general, I find that Milan is filled with racist Italians, from the fast food joints to retail shops to even the garbage man!! And I thought Paris was bad!!! No wonder the Italians lost the war and changed sides, they are fucked up people!!

If not for the Fair, I don't think I will ever return for another visit.

Finger Boarding

Bought this when I was in Bangkok last month.

Its a mini toy skateboard. Apparentlly there is a whole group of people playing this around the world, just look it up in youtube and you will be amazed!!

I must say its very addictive!!

Hours of great fun learning tricks without getting hurt like in real skateboarding.

Bangkok 17th Feb 2010

Just came back from Bangkok on Sunday. It was our company trip and the everyone was in high spirits as its only the Third day of the Chinese New Year.

I did'nt take much pictures as I've lost count of how many times I've been there, so priority went to filling the stomach and feeding my eyes.

Visited a fixie shop but could'nt find what I want, Jerry and Chris wanted to buy bikes but hesitated. They went back the next day but the owner was not there, so they ended up buying nothing.

I extended my stay with some of the guys but ended up getting food poisoning instead. I went to the toilet about every 40mins for the whole day. This is the first time I have gotten food poisoning in Bangkok. I have been there more than 8-10 times and never gotten sick. I really believe that my immune systems is going downhill as I have been sick on almost every single trip I've made overseas recently. Looks like I really need to exercise more.

Anyway, as usual, I bought a lot of T-shirts and bermudas back again and managed to lace up a pair of cheap road wheels there. Also got my spectacles made and bought some fruit treelings for Fourth Uncle to plant infront of his house as I promised him earlier.

Even though I'm back to S'pore now but I still feel like going to Bangkok again sometime later this year. Its just so cheap and delicious and fun there, I never get tired of the place.