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.

Paris, France, 25th Jan 2010

We left for Paris on Monday for the Maison fair. We saw endless fields of snow enroute to Paris. Paris was not as cold as Cologne but still cold by any standards. Other than the visiting the trade fair, I visited the tourist attractions as well.

Its my second time in Paris, not much has changed, the subways are still packed as before and full of impatient French people.

I went to the Champs-Elysees this time as I missed it previously.
Its the end point of the infamous gruelling Tour De France and I wanted to stand infront of it ever since reading it in the papers during my secondary school days.
And it was fantastic!!

What is a trip to Paris without seeing the Eiffel Tower!!!

I never get tired of it, its magnificent!!! My colleagues had to drag me to leave!!

Its just amazing how big it is. I feel dwarfed standing below it, I was there at night and the cold and the lights just somehow made it more magical, I feel like I'm in some fairy tale in a different world.

Cologne (Koln) Germany 22 Jan 2010

I'm back in Koln, Germany again. Its been a while now since the last time I was here. My company is taking part in the IMM Koln Fair 2010. We arrived in Frankfurt at around 8pm German time and took the train to Koln. It was freezing cold.

This time round it was much colder than before, the first day was minus 5 degrees!!! It was so cold I had a hard time finding my dick when I want to pee because it has shrunken!!!! KNN!!

Anyway, set up for our booth was fairly quick, this time round there was already heating inside the hall, not like previously when the door was open!!!

1 more week to go before returning to Singapore.

Last Trip of 2009 : Part 3 Had Yai

After we left Penang, we headed towards the Malaysia-Thailand border at Bukit Kayu Hitam in the state of Kedah. We parked the car at the Malaysia border, paid the private carpark attendant and hope that my friend's brand new STI will be there when we come back. Below are the photos of our Had Yai trip(Lots of pictures). Enjoy.