Friday, February 16, 2007
11:13 PM
memories*
Thursday, November 30, 2006
11:22 AM
memories*
Saturday, February 04, 2006
12:23 PM
memories*
Saturday, January 07, 2006
10:03 AM
The flight is scheduled at 9pm. I was supposed to reach the airport two hours before that to check-in our luggage. Mum accompanied me to the airport by train. As I was still new to carrying my new 50-litre backpack, I was always slow when I tried putting it back on my shoulders after I left it on the floor.
We reached the airport at 6pm, which was still early so we decided to have dinner at Sakae Sushi. It was a sumptuous meal. When we finished, it was almost time for us to meet at Row 12, where I was supposed to check in, together with my classmates from BSM. I chatted a while with my mum before I left with my friends, heading for the boarding gates.
As we were still early, Sam and I went looking for Mel, and chatted a little with her before she left for Australia. Then we joined the others at the food court for some food and drink, and then stopped by some internet kiosks to chat and check mails. When it was almost time, we head for the gates to meet up with more of our classmates. The airline we are taking was Malaysia airline and we will be flying from Singapore-Kuala Lumpur-Johannesburg-Buenos Aires-Santiago. It will be the longest flight I ever took so far. It was a total of about 36 hours of plane ride.
04 Dec 2005, Sun (On our way to Santiago)
We were at our first stop - Kuala Lumpur. We were two hours ahead of the next flight to Johannesburg. As we were still early We followed Glenn around the airport and settled at Burger King for some food. Then we headed off to the gates when it was almost time. Everything went smoothly until one of my classmates, Fei ran into some problem with her transit visa to South Africa. Glenn and Ling tried to resolve the whole issue with the customs, while the rest of us were told to board the plane.
We waited patiently for news on the plane. In the end, the plane took off three hours later than it was scheduled. According to the crews onboard, they were trying to sort out the luggage. We knew something was wrong then, but couldn't confirm until we were at Johannesburg, where we received an SMS from Glenn that they were joined us later.
We had no choice but to board the plane from Johannesburg to Capetown to Buenos Aires to Santiago on our own without Glenn, Ling and Fei. We had no idea what will happen, whether we will know our way around in Santiago when we reached. However, everyone was consoling himself/herself that we can party all night without Glenn around. Danny was put in-charge of the group, while Lav was in-charge of translating.
04 Dec 2005, Sun (Chile Time)
Luckily, Glenn has arranged someone to pick us up at the airport. The bus that was supposed to bring us around also was there to bring us to our hotel. After some briefing from the guy who picked us up, we went to our respective rooms to unpack our stuff and bathe. Apparently, our trip was still going to be as planned.
After bathing, some of us met up at the lobby again and headed for somewhere nearby for some food. With the directions given by one of the hotel staff, we managed to find our way to Avenida Suercia for some food and drink with our limited Spanish. Avenida Suercia, is the name of a street where there are restaurants and bars along the road. It doesn't seem a safe place, where I would venture alone at night. But of course, we went back to the hotel safely that night. It was late in the night when we returned.
05 Dec 2005, Mon
We were supposed to meet up early in the morning for a bus tour around Santiago. The driver brought us around the city, showing us the old and new sectors. He also showed us to a street where there is a lot of universities and another with a lot of artifacts at Bellavista. Santiago indeed has a lot of private and public universities, which probably explains why the literacy rate here is high.
The bus happened to pass by Palacio de la Moneda, where the guards were changing shift then. The driver allowed us to get down the bus and moved closer to the square in front of the government building to watch few minutes of the procession. According to the locals, the changing shift takes place everyday at 10 a.m. During the handover, the military band will perform and there is also marching of the guards. There were many people, like us gathering around the government building watching the procession. Even the stray dogs are sitting on the grass patch, enjoying the guards' performance. (Yes, Santiago has a lot of stray dogs on the street!) While we were busy taking photos, some of us met this Chileno, who took out his Chilean and Argentina coins, and told us that the coin of the latter was in fact smaller than the former one.
We left the square after taking enough photos of the military ceremony. Across the street, there was a labour strike by Codelco employees. The moment they saw us they started shouting their slogans. The employees were actually unhappy that the mining company has been paying them too little even though the company is profiting from the increase in commodity prices. We took the chance to take a lot of photos of them. They cheered even more when they see us.
Later, the driver took us to an artifact shop somewhere near to Bellavista. However, the shop is so typically tourist spot that none of us bought anything. The only thing I like is the Rapa Nui chess set, but it was far too expensive.
The driver then brought us to a shopping centre, Mall Parque Arauco. We shopped around and ate at a pasta restaurant. We had some spaghetti, which comes in all forms. Mine contained so much flour that I couldn't really finish them. One of them we ordered even has a weird sour taste. We had pisco sour too. The pisco sour was a little too strong though. I didn't really like it.
After lunch, we took a taxi to the nearest metro station and from there we took a metro to another station, Universidad de Catolica. The latter station is where Estacion Central, the bus station is located. We checked out the price of tickets to Buenos Aires. We asked almost all the companies located there, and realised it wasn't going to be cheap as it was peak period now. Moreover, they only recognised Chilean students and not so much about international students like us. We decided to come back another day for the tickets.
We left for Cerro San Cristobal, which is a place of interest located near Metro Baquedano. We took a funicular up the mountain. The scenery was magnificent, and it was increasingly nicer as we climbed up the rest of the mountain from where the funicular brought us. At the top of the hill, there is the statue of Saint Maria, where the Catholic worshipped. We sat at the foot of the statue, hoping to wait for sunset. However, we then realised that the sun won't set until 9 p.m. We decided to leave early without watching the sunset because the funicular ends operation at 8.30 p.m. and we will then have to walk down the mountain.
When we reached the foot of the mountain, we were all famished, so we landed ourselves at Barrio Bellavista. It is a street with lot of restaurants and bars, but looked more decent than Avenida Suercia. We saw this Churros cart along the road, and some of us actually bought some Churros. We then tried to ask the owner of the cart about having dinner at Mercado Central, which is famous for seafood in Santiago. We then found out that the seafood market is opened till 3 p.m. only.
We then decided to settle dinner at Barrio Bellavista, so we asked the owner where to get cheap food. The owner then brought us to his friend's stall, which offered quarter chicken, with fries and drink for 1,490 pesos. He also told us that the shops closer to Cerro San Cristobal are more expensive. We decided to settle for that. The set meal is considered pretty cheap here, but the food was a little too oily.
We finished dinner at around 9.30 p.m. and hurried to the metro station, heading back to hotel. We stopped over at Lider supermarket again for more water. Then we walked back to the hotel from there.
06 Dec 2005, Tue
We had a company visit to Bank Association, followed by another visit to Chamber of Commerce. The Q&A for the first visit was pretty interesting. The speaker for the Chamber of Commerce was Mr. P. Hill, one of the representatives who attended the LatinAsia Biz Forum in Singapore. I liked this guy so much that I still remembered what he said back then at the business forum. He gave us a brief introduction into doing business in Chile during our visit and gave a lot of his own opinions regarding several issues, which make the whole talk quite entertaining. I really like his talk, even though some might actually find it boring. I guess he has left a strong impression in the LatinAsia Biz Forum.
07 Dec 2005, Wed
We got to wake up early in the morning, making our way to the South of Chile to Casa Silva. It is a vineyard located at Valle de Colchagua. The scenery there is so beautiful. I like the place a lot. I guess it's also because we have never had such countryside back in Singapore. All of us were busy taking photos of the mountains and greenery. It was a magnificent sight!
The guide brought us around the vineyard, explaining to us the different process of manufacturing wine. The grapes have to go through several rounds of selections before they can be made into wine. One interesting thing we observed in the vineyard was that there are always roses beside those grapes. We learnt that bugs will attack the roses before the grapes, so by planting roses will allow workers to react to any potential bug attacks.
After touring the vineyard, the tour guide brought us to wine tasting. He let us try three different red wines and one white wine. As it was supposed to be wine tasting, the employees at Casa Silva actually prepared a little metal pot for us to pour away the remaining wine after we have drank. Of course, it is a pity to throw the wine into the metal pot, but the problem is they poured us a lot of wine each time and there was four kind of wines. In the end, we drank about 3-4 glasses of wine. I was a little dizzy after the drinks.
Then the tour guide brought us to the restaurant, where we had a USD25 meal. Some think the meal is a little too expensive, but the food was really of big servings. I had salmon for main dish.
Then I had pisco sour for dessert. Since we are still in the vineyard, we also had two glasses of wine to drink. I don't dare to drink too much again so this time I drank only one glass of wine. After all the eating, I think I was in fact getting better, no more dizzy spell, but certainly so tired I slept through almost the whole trip back to hotel.
08 Dec 2005, Thur
There was no company visit. That's because it's the public holiday in Chile, known as Dia de la Inmaculada Concepción. It's a day with religious celebration since the most common religion in the country is Catholics. According to Ling, there will be procession on the street to celebrate the religious event.
In the morning, a group of us went to Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes located at Metro Bellas Artes. As I have the student card, it cost me about 300 pesos to enter the art museum. There was the US artist, Andy Warhol's art pieces on display. In addition, there were different Chilean artists and sculptors' work on display too.
The favourite corner of mine was this gallery with lot of kids' drawings, depicting the history of art. It was certainly interesting to look at the kids' art pieces. There was also a little corner in the same gallery where they have two big books for visitors to leave messages in them. Some of us left some words in the books to signify our visit. Another interesting thing is that even the toilet has a board for visitors to leave their thoughts and feelings.
After the art museum, we decided to head for Mercado Central for some seafood.
As we have a big group, we split into three groups, who tried different restaurants there. I went with Sab, Danny, and Sam to this nice little restaurant at the corner of the seafood market.
We ordered Congel Eel and some mixed seafood soup. The Congel Eel is supposed to be one of the best foods in Mercado Central. The food tastes pretty good, just a little expensive.
09 Dec 2005, Fri
We went Cerro Santa Lucia, a Spanish house. The house used to belong to some Spanish. It was like a beautiful castle, built on a hill. The surrounding was made into a park, where a lot of couples were spotted in every corner making out. The interesting thing about the house is that you can see almost the whole city at the top of the house, where there is a little fortress. There was also a little chapel somewhere in the middle of the hill.
On the way back to the hotel, we stopped over at Coppelia, a gelato store for some Italian ice-creams.
10 Dec 2005, Sat
We went to Codelco, the largest mining company in Chile. The representative from the company was a very animated guy. He makes the talk very interesting. He first brought us to put on the safety gadgets. We had problems walking with the heavy lamp on the helmet, and the heavy gadgets around our waist. We were also asked to wear boots before we set off for the mine.
He then brought us into a mine, which is rather different in that the mine is inside a mountain, so we were heading up instead of going down. He then showed us around the mine, including the control room. Inside the control room, several men were controlling their joysticks in front of computers, as if they were playing some computer games. Apparently, the company uses robots to help them with the crushing of the rocks and transporting the rocks around the mine.
He then brought us around the inside of the mine. It was so dark inside that we had to used our headlamps to guide us. There was also a lot of puddles of muddy water in the cave. Some of our boots were so short that at one point, one of the employees had to carry us on their back to cross the puddles of muddy water.
The whole trip was certainly an eye-opener for all of us. It ends off with a good meal, offered by Codelco. We had pisco sour and wine. The food was great!
11 Dec 2005, Sun
Election day for Chile! We took the bus to Estudia Nacional, one of the stadiums where the voting is held. We seemed to be very prominent when we stepped into the stadium, probably because we look Chinese, and are obviously not locals. A journalist and her photograph actually approached us and asked us questions in English. As we walked towards the stadium, many photographers came near us to take our pictures. I think they probably thought it's fresh to see Chinese around at the voting venue.
We stood around the stadium, observing the people voting. We then stepped inside the stadium to where the resting rooms are. It was pretty eerie without the lights. This is especially so because the stadium was supposed to be the place where the people went missing during Pinochet's reign.
Anyway, we went closer the booths to check out the voting forms. They are very different from those we see in Singapore. Although I have never voted before, I think the voting form in Singapore is simply folded into two once you have made your selections. However, the one in Chile, you have to fold it into an envelope, and then paste with a sticker given. We thought the sticker looks interesting so we tried asking the lady at the administrative booth to give us. She readily agreed to give us three, one for each girl.
We walked out of the stadium with our little stickers. Then we walked around the stadium. We approached this family along the way and tried asking them some basic questions in Spanish. With our limited Spanish, we managed to find out that anyone above 18 years old could vote. We also found out that the voting ends at five, and results will be out at night. The family was really helpful and friendly. They allow us to take photos with them and also showed us their IDs, which they need them for registering for the votes.
There were many media coverage at the voting venue too. Several stages were set up for live broadcast of the voting. I was quite amazed at the large generator in the form of a trailer that they used for their live telecast.
We stayed around the area for another few minutes, then we decided to head for this little town, at the outskirts of Santiago, called Promerie. According to the Lonely Planet, this town is famous for pottery and Chilean food. We haven't had much so-called Chilean food in Santiago, except for empanadas that are available almost everywhere.
We took approximately an hour bus ride to this town. Along the way, we met many helpful Chileans who guide us the directions. We had to stopped somewhere near a railway track, then take a mini local bus into the town.
When we reached the town, we were greeted with shops and restaurants. There were many pottery and copper artifacts on sales at those shops. We bought some souvenirs from the shops there with our bargaining skills.
Then we settled for this little restaurant at the corner of a street. We had this gigantic pot of meat, which consists of pork, chicken and beef. There are also sausages and some internal intestines in the huge pot. It was called parillada mixta and the one we ordered was supposed to be for five persons' share but it certainly was too much for the seven of us, especially since we still got one empanada grande. In fact, parrilla is a typical Brazilian food which I found out later, but it can be found in both Argentina and Chile. Anyway the food was too much for us so we had no choice but to takeaway the food.
We took the local bus out to a town called Melipilla. The same family was on board the local bus. Before we alight at the bus terminal, we took a photo with the family. At the main station of Melipilla, we took another bus which takes us back to Santiago. When we walked past this shopping mall at the bus terminal, two couples approached us. The guys look so much older than the girls, but apparently they look like couples. They actually asked us for a photo together and we readily agreed to it.
By the time we got back to the hotel, we were still very full from the food we had.
12 Dec 2005, Mon
It is the last day of the BSM. We went to Universidad de Catolica for some lectures. There wasn't much stuff as compared to the rest of the course. The worst thing is that I was having some problems with my contact lens, so I couldn't give my full attention on the lectures. But one thing I like about the university is that they have nice campus.
I went back to the hotel with some of them on the bus. The rest went their separate ways to do their own touring and shopping. I took a little rest before I went shopping with Fei. We went to a spiral shopping centre, but I didn't buy anything from there because things in Santiago aren't really cheap.
At night, we had a gathering. It was wine, food, beer etc. We had great fun chit-chatting at the side of the jacuzzi pool!
13 Dec 2005, Tue
We parted from the main group for our individuals' extension. Four of us (Sab, Danny, Marc & I) decided to stay one night in Santiago before we left for Mendoza. We bided goodbye to the rest and took the metro to Che Lagarto, Santiago, the hostel we have booked.
It was near to Metro Los Heroes. After leaving our bagpacks in the hostel, we set off to the nearby commercial area. We came across a stall selling Mote con Huesillos. It looks like the Chilean version of "dao suan". It's corns in peach syrup. We bought one small cup to try. It's a little too sweet for my liking.
Walking along the commercial district, we came across a lot of people basking. It's really fascinating to see people gathering around the baskers as the latter performed on the streets. We entered a cafe for lunch.
Then we visited the Museo Chileno PreColumbian. It was a museum, where they exhibit artifacts mainly from the pre-colonisation period. With my ISIC (International Student Identity Card), I got my free admission. My other friends were not as lucky. They had to pay 3,000 pesos each, but fortunately, the staff there were nice enough to give us discounts on account that we were all students. In the end, they allowed my friends to get two tickets for three persons. The museum also provided free English and Spanish guide. Of course, we took on the English one. Some other visitors from Canada, Israel joined our tour group around the museum too.
After the guide, we were supposed to meet up with Ivy and gang to Palacio Cousiña Home, which used to be owned by some rich French family who resided in Chile. However, we found out later that it was already closed. So we then went ahead to Pablo Neruda's house, hoping to catch the opening hours. It is located near to Metro Baquedaño. Unfortunately, the museum of the Nobel Prize Literature winner was closed by the time we reached. But there was a dance performance held outside the house. According to the guards of the house, it was a free performance of Pablo Neruda's poems. We watched the rehearsal since we were two hours ahead of the performance time.
After that, we still had some time off, so some of us wandered to this Tango class located along the alley near Pablo Neruda's former residence. We watched as the dancers practiced for their new year performance.
When it was almost 8 p.m., I joined the rest to watch the dance performance, which was spectacular though I couldn't really understand the poems.
Back at the hostel, we took turns to bathe. I then decided to chat with some backpackers at the living room. I ended chatting and eating with two Scottish ladies and two gentlemen from Australia. It was a fruitful talk with the experienced backpackers, as they had been in South America for quite a while even though not all of them know the language there.
14 Dec 2005, Wed
We left early morning for the bus terminal to catch our bus to Mendoza. It was a 7 hours ride there. Mendoza is a city located in Argentina, which is famous for their wineries and advertures tours. Along the way, we see only mountains and valleys. I also managed to catch the sunset, which was amazingly beautiful.
When we reached the borders between Argentina and Chile, we had to get off the bus for immigration checks. Outside the immigration point, there were many stalls selling drinks and food. There was this owner’s son, a little boy who is cute that I can’t resist not taking photo of him.
By the time we reached Mendoza, it was already afternoon. We had no Argentine peso with us, so had no choice but to walk to our hostel, Campo Base II with our heavy backpacks.
I was panting heavily as I walked to the hostel. The walk was certainly killing me. We left our bags there and left the hostel shortly to look for food and money changer. We got our money changed and then settled at some pizza store for some cheese pizza. The rest actually wanted to go for some beef steak, since Argentina is famous for its beef but we couldn’t find a nice restaurant for our meal. We then went shopping around, trying to get tickets to Buenos Aires or Iguazu Falls. However, tickets to Iguazu Falls were fully booked. We were left with only one option - travel to Buenos Aires. At the Andesmar travel agency located in the city area, we meet Ling, who was supposed to travel to Peru with her friends. Her Hungarian friends couldn't get the visa to Peru, so she came to Mendoza. We then went shopping with her in the city area. I bought some clothes, which was somewhat cheaper than in Singapore.
15 Dec 2005, Thur
We booked the package to Rio Mendoza for rafting and set off from our hostel at about 9.30 a.m. We took a long ride to the river. We went past the river along our way to the main office. The water looks muddy.
Putting on the necessary equipments and leaving our backpacks in the main office, we took another mini bus further up the river.
It was certainly fun and thrilling paddling the rubber boat down the river, which was supposed to be around grade 3 or 4. That means the river has quite strong current and was supposed to be quite thrilling with the strong currents. As it was my first time water rafting, it took me a while before I paddle with my oar at ease. The current was so strong, we always felt that we might fall out of the boat. Luckily, we managed to overcome all the strong currents with our experienced guide, Oscar in our rubber boat. But it was no so lucky for the other boat. Three in that boat fell out at the same time when they went pass some strong currents. It was extremely enjoyable rafting in that river even though we were greeted with chilling wind and water.
During the rafting trip, we also got to know some foreign friends from Germany, US, and Australia. It was not only a thrilling activities, but also one that we met very nice and friendly people. Hopefully, we could keep in touch with them.
We took a quick bathe, then settled at a cafe located at the main office for some beer and food. The cafe is located near the river, so it was quite interesting to face the river as we eat and drink. We board the bus back to the bus terminal after eating. We were supposed to catch the 7.30 p.m. bus to Buenos Aires. The German was also on the same bus as us. We took Andesmar, one of the bus companies. The service on-board was excellent, even though ours was considered ¨cama¨, so-called second-class. There was Bingo at the beginning of the journey, which made us super alert since the staff was reading out the numbers in Spanish, and for us, we took a while to figure out each number with our poor translation skills.
16 Dec 2005, Fri
At the bus terminal, we parted with the German guy, who went off to a hostel. We went to purchase our tickets for Iguazu Falls. Since our last ride on ¨cama¨ seats, we simply fall in love with the second-class, so we got ourselves seats from Tigre Iguazu, a subsidiary of Via Bariloche. The ride was scheduled at 9 p.m.
By then, Sam and gang have arrived. They took the cab to Hostel Che Lagarto, while we decided to take the cheapest option - by bus. We left our bags with the hostel and joined a Hawaii guy, Nick to an Italian restaurant located near our hostel. The servings at that restaurant is huge, so they are within reasonable price range.
It started raining, so we returned to the hostel and lingered around there before we departed for the bus terminal for Iguazu Falls.
17 Dec 2005, Sat
We reached there in the afternoon and managed to find our way to a guesthouse Ezen recommended. Ezen was in South America few months ago. The guesthouse is owned by a nice, gentle lady called Maria Elena. Each room costs 25 peso, which is considered pretty good since it has private bathroom and the room is well-kept.
We were so famished that we went to a restaurant located near the junction to our guesthouse for a late lunch. Then after that, we walked to the bus terminal to check out the buses to Iguazu Falls. Little did we expect, we were too late. The last bus left at 5 p.m. so we were stranded at the terminal. We decide to check out the timing and purchase a Great Adventure tour for the next day.
Just as we were about to leave, we met the rest who have returned from the attraction. They happily told us the interesting stuff to look out for in the Iguazu Falls. Then we followed them to their hostel to take a look, and then they stopped over at ours.
At our guesthouse, we met Elena’s son who gave us permission to enter their house. Their house looks grand. We went to the second level and actually got to see the sunset.
Then we went for dinner at Colour, a restaurant with pretty nice food and services. Later at night, we went to their hostel for drinking sessions. We ended up sleeping in their hostel, instead of ours.
18 Dec 2005, Sun
We woke up early to make our way back to our hostel for a change of clothes. Then we hurriedly went to the bus terminal, hoping to catch the earliest bus. We then realised the first bus was 40 minutes later, so had no choice but to wait for that bus at the terminal.
The bus arrived but Ivy and gang were not in sight so we decided to leave without them for Parque Nacional Iguazú, the Argentinian side of the Iguazú.
A long, winding road took us to the entrance of the park, where we had to pay about 30 pesos. The bus then brought us to the tourist centre. We alighted the bus and walked into the park. The lady at the information counter told us to go Estación Garganta del Diablo first.
We followed her instructions and took the train, known as Tren Ecológical de la Selva to the station, where a short path leads is to Garganta del Diablo(The ´Devil´s´Throat). That’s where we can view Salto San Unión, Salto Floriano and Salto Santa Maria. The falls look beautiful.
We took numerous photos of them before we proceeded to the other station, Estacion Cataratas. The road from the station leads us to Circuito Superior (Upper Circuit), where we can have an aerial view of the remaining falls that include Salto Mbigua, Salto Bernabé Mendez etc. When we finished with the upper superior circuit, we walked till we found the station where we could take the Great Adventure tour.
We were taken on a truck into the forest. The guide was very nice. She spoke in both English and Spanish to cater to the diverse groups of tourists on the vehicle. Along the way, we saw this palm tree that doesn’t really look like one. It’s probably because the forests in Argentina are sub-tropical, hence the tree looks tall and thin. The interesting thing about this palm is that people eat the heart of the palm, and once the heart of the palm is removed, the plant dies. However, the heart of the palm is still served as a delicacy in Puerto Iguazú. At one spot, the truck dropped us, and we boarded a boat that goes through and near the Brazillian falls, and through the Devil´s Throat and other falls. We were all so wet at the end of the boat ride because they simply throw us into the water. However, it was fun and thrilling because we got a closer look at the foot of the falls. The falls look magnificent!
After the ride, we took another short ride to Isla San Martín. Isla San Martin is a separate atrraction situated at the heart of the falls. At the top of the island, we can see a spectacular view of the San Martin Fall. There is also a huge window formed in the rocks, which allow the view to the Rivadavia Fall and Escondido Fall. The sceneries on San Martin Island are great! It´s hard to describe them, but you would love the place if you have come and see them for yourselves.
We had little time left, so we decided to drop the idea of visiting the Brazilian side of the Iguazú Falls. Our bus departs for Buenos Aires at 5 plus, so we went for dinner at Color again. We ordered a plate of the heart of palm, and the rest ordered their favourite beef.
Then we took a quick bath at the guesthouse before taking our ride back to the capital.
19 Dec 2005, Mon
We checked into Che Lagarto at Buenos Aires.
After leaving our stuff in the room, we went shopping around Avenida Florida. Lot of shopping malls were located along that street. As it was about lunch hours, we settled at this cafe around the region for some quick bites. Food wasn’t that fantastic, but I guess we had no idea what’s nice around there so can’t complain too much. We then continued our shopping around the town area, and met Ling once again. We also met Sam and gang while shopping. I still remembered as we walked along the street, there were many Tango performances by amateurs and basking. The whole street looks busy and interesting.
However, in Argentina, there are also a lot of policemen around, almost everyone, spanning from shopping malls to commercial buildings. The scary thing is that they all wear bullet proof vest. We heard recently there was a gunshot at one of the bank along Avenida Florida too. Some of our friends witnessed blood on the glass the previous day before we arrived. We didn´t really see the damage done to the glass as we walked down, but we had to watch out for our stuff every now and then, as pickpockets were common in Argentina.
Anyway, we went shopping with Ling again. On our way back to hostel, we came across two supermarkets, Supermercado Shanghai and Supermercado Singapur. The signboard looks similar but what caught our eyes were the word ¨Singapore¨. Out of curiosity, we walked into the one labelled Singapore. We talked to the employees. They were from Mainland China. Most of them have lived in Argentina for years. Their families are into supermarket businesses. We chatted with some of them. It feels closer at home chatting with some Asians, especially in Chinese since most of the time we had enough of communicating with our broken Spanish with the locals.
After dropping our shopping bags at the hostel, we met up at Cafe Tortini for dinner and Tango performance. The cafe is the oldest tango performance area, and is famous for Churros with chocolates. Unfortunately, that night the churros were sold out so we didn´t get a chance to taste them. But the dance and singing performance were great, especially the two vocalists.
20 Dec 2005, Tue
In the morning, we went to La Boca, a place where football fans will certainly know. This is where the La Boca Juniors train. It is the best football team in Argentina, and has recently won the South America cup. Beside football, La Boca also has some houses painted in colours, where tango performances are available. These colourful houses are a common picture in the postcards of the place. However, La Boca is also notorious for its high crime rate. One of our friends, Cindie was robbed off a lot of money at La Boca. We were on high alert on the street, wherever we were.
We decided to spend another day shopping at somewhere near Subte Carlos Garlos. Apparently the stuff there we heard are cheap. I bought myself a shirt and a skirt. These are my fourth and fifth collection from Argentina.
We got sick of shopping after one full day. We decided to chill out somewhere while waiting for 6p.m. because we were supposed to meet the rest at this restaurant near the river for buffet. We ended up at San Martin Park, where there is a war memorial monument standing there. When it was almost time, we took a cab to the restaurant. The rest were late. However, the restaurant, La Bistec only opens at 8 pm so the whole group of us were sitting outside Havanna, one of the famous cafe in Argentina with alfajores, a type of chocolate and caramel biscuit available in Mar de la Plata.
At 8 p.m. or so, we entered the restaurant. The service and food are not bad. We had a hearty meal. I think I like the desserts the most. I had my lemon pie!
21 Dec 2005, Wed
We spent the morning at Plaza de Mayo, and a little tour in Museo de Casa de Rosada. Casa de Rosada (Pink House) is the government house which was painted in pink on the front. That was also where Eva Peron greeted the crowd at the balcony. Those who have watched ¨Don´t cry for me, Argentina!¨ would probably remembered that scene.
We also went into the museum which introduced the various Argentinian presidents. These presidents always have a slash and a baton with them. These items are supposed to represent their honarary positions. The slash is also a unique symbol for Argentinian president. Inside the museum, there is also a fort in the government house.
We also made a trip into Banco Nacional, one of the largest bank in Argentina. It is a grand colonial building, located next to Casa de Rosada. The inside looks beautiful too.
Then we headed back to the Italian restaurant that Nick introduced us. I had my big plate of “pollo with papas fritas” (chicken with french fries) while the others had their beef, pasta and wine.
We later headed back to hostel. It was almost time for us to leave for the airport.
22 Dec 2005, Thur (Capetown time)
Upon reaching Capetown, we were picked up by the shuttle bus driver to our hostel, Big Blue. The hostel room is pretty big and clean. I think it’s one of the nicest hostels we lived in so far.
After checking in, we headed for the Waterfront that is within walking distance from our hostel. We had lunch at this fast food outlet there. The meal cost me about SGD10! Everything in Capetown is relatively expensive, almost the same price or higher than Singapore. I think it’s because Waterfront is a rather touristy area.
After our tour of Waterfront, we took a cab to Holocaust Centre, located near in town. It was like a recap of the history of the Jewish massacre in Germany. I also acquired some new knowledge as I browsed through the displays from the war.
We then walked back to hostel from the Holocaust Centre. Along the way, we stopped by the supermarket for some groceries. Christmas decorations lined the streets in town. We could feel the Christmas seasons in the air.
23 Dec 2005, Fri
We took the morning boat ride to Robben Island. Standing on the ship deck, we could admire the beautiful scenery of the water and sky. The island was where Nelson Mandera was kept as a political prisoner with many other. Upon reaching the island, a bus took us around the island, with a guide explaining to us some background of the island. For instance, there used to be a quarry where the prisoners work in.
Then after about 45 minutes of bus ride, we were allowed in to explore the jail with a guide. The guide was an ex-prisoner then. She had this very funky looking hair, which probably took her hours to gel it I guess. However, she was really engaging speaker, sometimes telling us her own experiences in the jail. She could also easily recite the political people in which cells.
The island looks beautiful on the outside, but according to the guide, life in the prison was totally different. Most prisoners captured were because of some political reasons back then. Now the prison has been turned into a government place, where they educate the visitors of the life of Nelson Mandera and people supporting his doctrine.
On the island itself, there are a lot of penguins too.
We took the boat back to the harbour at Waterfront. We had lunch together at Marine Wharf´s foodcourt. That is where we met Ivy and gang. They had just returned from the Robben Island too.
Some of us went back Big Blue Hostel to get Johnnie before we headed for Table Mountain. We took Rikki´s cab there, which costs us 10 rand each. It took us to the cable car area. As I have my student card, I got discount for the cable car ride, so lazy me bought return tickets so that I won´t have to climb that mountain. Some of my friends actually bought only one way, except for the girls.
The cable car is damned cool! It can actually rotate 360 degrees, so we can see the surrounding view of Capetown from within the cable car. The view at the top of the mountain was magnificent too! We can see the different mountains in Capetown from Table Mountain. Table Mountain probably got its name because the top of the mountain is relatively a flat plateau so we can walk from one end to the other to see the sceneries without climbing any further.
Danny and Jiarong actually went abseiling. It certainly looks fun but too expensive for a try, 295 Rand. I would probably try if I got the money. In fact, before the two guys, Shyle and Geri already went for it.
Instead of trying out, I simply walked around the mountain top, taking photos. The scenery is really awesome!
Then take my cable car ride down the mountain. Some of my guy friends actually walked down the steep mountain. They were shagged by the time they reached the hostel. I was relieved that I didn´t join them in the walk, otherwise I would have stranded at the middle of the mountain because I would be so tired I wouldn’t have the perseverance to descent the mountain.
24 Dec 2005, Sat
We took on the Cape Peninsula tour package with the hostel. That includes a tour around the coastal area, a lunch and entrance fees to the national parks and other attractions. The bus took us to Camps Bay. Nice beaches around there.
Then next stop - Hout Bay, where there is a boat ride to see seals and go underwater to see fishes. I didn’t go for the boat ride, but went walking around the harbour. There was a flea market with nice ostrich eggs craved or painted with pictures, nice necklaces etc. on sales.
There is this very interesting restaurant and bar along the beach. Check out the name of that place!
In addition, the beach there looks lovely!
Then we dropped by Chapman´s peak for some photoshoots.
Next he drove us to Simon´s Town. That's where boulders is. At Boulders, that’s where we see the penguins. There were lot of them on the beaches and near the bridge when we could be only almost one feet away from them. The entrance fee into the penguins' home is 20 Rand, which sufficiently allows you to get up-close with the penguins even though we are stuck inside the wooden barricades that are also the bridges that you link you to the penguins' area. There are two main routes into boulders and one on the outside. We didn't have time for the longer walkway that leads to the beach around that area, but we finished walking through the two short routes to see the penguins real close.
Then we head to the national park near Capepoint for lunch. The food were pretty good for a picnic with curry pasta, bread, ham, salad and nachos.
After stopping over for lunch, we finally head to where everyone awaits - Cape of Good Hope. The guide later told us it is in fact a fallacy that the two oceans meet because you can't really see it in South Africa. However, we still took pictures of Diaz Point (Cape Point). That’s the most southern part of South Africa. The wind there was so great. Many times I was nearly blown away, so I dared not venture out too far. However, I managed to take some nice photos of the place.
We headed back to hostel around 5 plus. After taking a quick bathe, we dressed up for the dinner at Docks Restaurant. Shyle helped me put on some make-up for my eyes and I put on the new skirt and top I bought in Argentina.
By the time we finished, it was almost 8 pm. The sky only darkens then. We had an expensive meal at the restaurant. Shyle, Geri and I shared a seafood platter for two and a ostrich fillet. The food wasn’t that great. In the end, Ivy talked to the manager or at least the person-in-charge. I think they felt bad so they actually gave us free desserts and some discounts off our bill.
We then left for BuddhaBar for some drinks together. I had one cosmo, recommended by the bartender. It was pretty soothing to drink. Then I had half a shot of German Tequilla. As I am never a good drinker, I dared not drink much. The shot was so strong that I can feel it going up my head. We spent a total of 400 over for all the drinks. Ouch! That’s a lot for a night.
Luckily, our hostel is located near to BuddhaBar. The moment I reached the hostel, I fell asleep. It wasn’t until morning 9 am before I woke up. I actually had one miss call and two messages but apparently I was pretty much too drunk to answer the calls.
25 Dec 2005, Sun
I went to Clifton Beach with the girls. The sun was very bright, so we thought of buying an umbrella to give some shelter. Just as the vendor was trying to install the umbrella, a huge gust of wind blew and the umbrella flew. The end of the umbrella hits Su´s right cheek. She fell to the ground. Blood was gushing out of her mouth.
We took her to the first aid. The medic told us she probably needs two stitches, so we immediately tried to hail a cab to send her to the nearest hospital. We waited for a while in the attack of the huge winds. We had no choice but to resort to asking Alvin to send Su in their car to the hospital.
As the car couldn’t fit all of us, Geri and I stayed behind with Ivy and Sam while the rest went to the hospital. We went into the water, which was freezing cold. The sand was beautiful though, white and sandy. The colour of the water was also lovely. It looks so clear.
Little did I realise later, I got tanned at the end of the day. Back in the hostel, I took a photo with the staff at Big Blue Backpackers Hostel.
26 Dec 2005, Mon
We left for the airport early in the morning in cabs because we couldn’t get any other cheaper transports. Each of us pay around 58 Rand for the cab.
27 Dec 2005, Tue (Singapore time)
Back in Singapore, looking very tanned now!
Credits:
Cast members: Prof Glenn, Ling, BSM classmates & Mel
Photographers: Danny, Sabrina, Jiarong, Prabhav, Wen & many others
memories*
amigos*
james
min
ting
tcy
karen
rui
christina
dufu
pris
pq
weibin
elson
geri
hoo
lei
shuhua
xuan
jason
karen
meiqi
wee kwang
ernest
dagger
LJ