Three day stopover in Dubai

Posted by Ramon at 10:18 United Arab Emirates
Aug 112010

When I was planning my trip back home, from Singapore to the Netherlands, I scheduled a 3 day trip in Dubai.

The trip didn’t start as I hoped; my flight towards Dubai was severely delayed and eventually cancelled. Emirates moved the passengers from that flight to a new flight, which was 8 hours later than the original flight. However, they put us in a nice hotel in Singapore with breakfast and airport transportation.
So the next morning, I had another 45 minute delay before I was finally on my way to Dubai.

In my previous post I wrote about my scuba diving plans for Sunday. Unfortunately I had to cancel this as I ended up with a seasonal flu earlier that week. Because of my blocked nose and ears and coughing, I could not go scuba diving.
Instead, I enjoyed myself roaming around Dubai for 2.5 days.

Dubai is extremely hot; 45~50*C during early afternoon. Also it’s very humid.
I did not last long without water. I drank at least 1 bottle every hour. Dubai is so hot, that even bus stops are equipped with air conditioning!

Because of the delayed flight I arrived in the afternoon. Around 4:00 pm I left the hotel and took a taxi towards the brand new Burj Khalifa building. The Burj Khalifa is the tallest man-made structure ever built, at 828 meter. In front of the tower they have a huge ‘swimming pool style’ lake with an amazing fountain called the Dubai Fountain. The fountain is animated with performances set to light and music and every 20~30 minutes they play a different song and the fountain ‘dances’ according to the music. This is really cool!

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The Burj Khalifa has it’s observation deck at the 124th floor, at 453 meters. You can see the main business district of Dubai on Sheikh Zayed Road and far beyond. You can see the dessert on one side, and the World Island project on the sea side.

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Back to earth! The observation deck made me hungry and I entered the Dubai Mall which is the world’s largest shopping mall based on total area and has over 1200 shops. After 30 minutes I finally found the restaurants and ended eating some Lebanese kebab. I spent the rest of my evening roaming around the mall (yes, I got lost). The mall contains a huge aquarium with large sharks and colourful fishes.

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Second day; no scuba diving. I decided to visit the Dubai Museum first thing in the morning as it was just 5 minutes away from the hotel. After the museum I walked towards the Dubai Creek.
I got tired and bored so I flagged a taxi to take me to the Burj Al Arab. This one is the sail shaped 7-star luxurious hotel located along the beach. If you weren’t a hotel guest you were not allowed to get anywhere near the building. However, just outside on the beach next to it, you can take some nice pictures.

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After the Burj Al Arab I grabbed another taxi to drive to the Dubai Marina for lunch. Dubai Marina is a project with 4 artificial lakes, many expensive high-rise apartments and office towers. Before I started walking around the marina I decided it was time for a pizza for lunch. It was mid day so there wasn’t much to see and do although it was a Sunday so I expected more people out there. It was really quiet and most shops were closed. Got tired and I didn’t feel like waiting for the evening so I flagged another taxi to drive me around the Palm Jumeirah; a artificial island shaped like a palm tree. It looks nicer from the sky…
The Palm contains 2o expensive apartments and hundreds of villas. On top of the palm you will find Hotel Atlantis Resort.
Got tired, went back to the hotel to swim and relax.

On Monday, my third day, I slept until late morning and went back to the Dubai mall to eat lunch and take some more pictures of the area. After a while I decided to try out the metro system in Dubai. Their train stations look extremely cool and high-end. I took the train and alighted 2 stations later in the middle of Dubai’s main business district on Sheikh Zayed Road.
The rest of the day I slept at the poolside on the roof of my hotel.

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Then time to eat, time to pack and sleep early as my flight to Dusseldorf the next morning at 8:40 am.

Enjoy the pictures in the Dubai album!

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Manila, Dubai, the Netherlands and a new photo camera

Posted by Ramon at 08:00 Uncategorized
Jul 282010

It has been a while since my last post and there are some updates.

Three friends and I spent four days in Manila, the capital city of the Philippines. We did NOT do any sightseeing while we were there. Only food, drinks and some shopping malls. Two of Asia’s largest shopping malls are located in Manila and we decided to visit one of these; Mall of Asia (MoA).
Other than this… nothing. We tried many kinds of Filipino food and had lots of drinks. Everything is so much cheaper than Singapore and Europe.

We spent time with some friends we knew from Singapore and two cousins of a colleague at RIM, and of course a few locals :)
I plan to visit Manila and other parts of the Philippines again early next year.

After returning to Singapore I felt it was time to invest some money in a new photo camera. The one I had, a Nikon CoolPix P5100, was pretty old and I wanted something new.
After lots of comparing, hands-on testing in shops and tossing a coin I finally decided to buy a Canon PowerShot S90.
I am still looking for the waterproof casing, which I need for underwater photography. However, I have never heard anything from the shop where I purchased this camera… Perhaps later this year.

Ok. Now my plans to visit the Netherlands.
People keep asking me “when are you coming back” and “what time is your flight” and “how long will you stay‘ and so on…

NOTE:   All times and dates are LOCAL times for each location.

I will fly to Dubai on 07 August at 01:45. (midnight)

My first day in Dubai will be sightseeing and I already booked a ticket for the 828 meter tall Burj Khalifa skyscraper. For the second day I plan to go scuba diving in one of the other Emirates.
Day 3 is just leisure; beaches, shopping and relaxing.

Then, after three days in Dubai I fly to Dusseldorf on 10 August at 08:45. (morning).
If everything goes as scheduled, I should be in Dusseldorf at 13:45. (afternoon)

On Saturday 21 August I will fly back home in the afternoon and reach Singapore on Sunday around 14:00.

While I am visiting the Netherlands, I can be contacted on my Dutch mobile number. If you do not have this number, feel free to contact me. Make sure you let me know on time if you wish to meet me. I expect to be quite busy each day.

Another new thing is that I am moving out of my apartment this week and will be moving to a nicer, more modern apartment. Since June 2009 I have been renting public housing that was a bit older, sketchy and dirty. The great thing was that I got a low rent and was located next to the city area. Just a few minutes walk to Chinatown and the river side with its cafe’s, clubs and restaurants.
This week I am moving to a private apartment (condominium) with a pool, gym, 24 hour security and located even more central!

Because the rent will be much higher than what I used to pay, I have decided to start sharing a unit with other people. I will rent the master bedroom with en-suite bathroom. That means I still share the living room and kitchen areas.

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The start of my second year in Singapore

Posted by Ramon at 03:40 Uncategorized
Jul 052010

On July 4, 2009 I left the Netherlands for what was supposed to be a 4 week holiday in Singapore and a trip to South Korea. I arrived in Singapore on July 5,  things went different and I never went back! Mwuahaha *evil laugh*
Today, one year later, I start my second year in Singapore. YAY!

Although my official departure from the Netherlands was October 1st, and I started working in Singapore on September 27th, I have been roaming around Asia for one year now.
Visiting several countries and making tons of new friends, I enjoy it more than ever before!
Simply read my previous posts and view the photo galleries to get an idea of my experiences during the past 12 months.

Anyway, enough about the 1 year in Singapore stuff…
It’s time to travel again: Manila!
From Thursday until Sunday (8+9+10+11 July) I will be in Manila together with 2 friends from work and one of their friends.

In August I will be flying back home for a 11 day ‘vacation’ after 3 days in Dubai.
Because I have many people that like to meet me, make sure you let me know on time if you feel like meeting me.

I will look forward to meet people when I am at home for 11 days.

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Three days and three nights of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Posted by Ramon at 06:20 Vietnam
Jun 012010

Friday the 28th of May was Vesak Day, a public holiday in Singapore. This three-day weekend was a good opportunity to explore a bit more of South East Asia.
I decided to go to southern Vietnam, to Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) which is also known as Saigon. After the war it was renamed after communist leader Ho Chi Minh.

Thursday evening I boarded my flight with Jetstar from Singapore to HCMC international airport. The flight was about two hours. Due to the -1 hour time difference, I arrived at 9:00pm local time. Immigration went very fast and smooth. I had to get a visa prior to arrival, at the Vietnam Embassy in Singapore. This visit to Vietnam costs me three (3!!!) pages of my passport! One for the visa, one for the immigration stamps and for some reason they staple your application form in there as well…
After taking a taxi to the Windsor Plaza Hotel, checking in and taking a shower I wanted to check some of the hotels facilities. One of these was the largest nightclub in HCMC. Very convenient! :)

On Friday, my first real day in Vietnam, I started my sightseeing tour in the city. After visiting one temple, I met this local guy named Hai. He suggested I should hop on his motorbike and tour me around the city. I wasn’t really convinced that this was a good idea until he showed me some kind of book with feedback from other tourists. I jumped on his bike, and we started a 2 hour sightseeing tour on his bike. This is a bit scary in the beginning… it’s fast and with about 4 million motor bikes in the city it is a bit dangerous if you are not used to it. Surprisingly we didn’t crash. He showed me some of the ‘top sights’ of HCMC, such as the Vĩnh Nghiêm pagoda, the Opera house, City Hall and old French styled architecture as well as the markets and the Saigon River and its boulevard.

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During lunch I treated my new friend/tour guide. I wanted to try pho, which is beef noodle soup. This was extremely yummy and I ate this every day in HCMC.
We discussed my sightseeing plans, and I wanted to go to the Cu Chi tunnels. These tunnels are made by the Vietnamese during the war, and were the key to victory in the war.

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It took us about 90 minutes to get there, as they are 75km away from the city. Since 75km on a motor bike starts to hurt your butt, we had a brief stop at a sugar cane farm. There I tried a sugar cane juice drink, which was extremely sweet but taste nice.
On our way back to the city, we had another stop and I tried some Vietnamese coffee. I don’t like coffee… but Vietnamese coffee taste really nice! During my three day trip I tried hot coffee, and iced coffee (with ice cubes in it).

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After the tunnels, we went to Cholon, district 5. This is the old Chinatown of HCMC and the largest in Vietnam. He took me to a market and some other sites. We decided to take a ride in a Cycle rickshaw. A bit slow. Now it was time for food! I told Hai I wanted Vietnamese spring rolls, and other local food. He took me to this place near or in Cholon where had our dinner and some drinks. After 4 glasses of Tiger beer (from Singapore) and 1 small bottle of vodka he was getting a bit drink and I reminded him he needs to drive me back to the hotel… He said he was fine… and his driving skills didn’t get worse… just a lot faster. After this day I needed a shower and some clean clothing. I decided to check out some other nightlife later… but was tired and left around 2:00am.

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Because I completed most of my sightseeing on Friday, used the Saturday to rest, relax and visit some of the ‘upscale’ shopping malls in town. I also visited the largest market in HCMC which was crowded. A good place for souvenir shopping and sightseeing.

My day ended with a nice dive in the pool at the roof of my hotel (24th/25th floor).I requested late checkout in my hotel and they extended it until 2:00pm free of charge. This allowed me to make Saturday night a very loooooong night.

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Because I had 1.5 million Vietnamese Dong left…  I wanted to get a good massage. The hotel had one of the ‘best’ spa and massage salon and the prices were really cheap.
I signed up for a2 hour full body massage and 1 hour foot massage, for just 25 SG$!!
After my 2 hour body massage I had my 1 hour foot/leg massage. Different masseuse.
First I didn’t expect much but it was extremely good and relaxing. So eventually I ended up paying 90 SG$ because I tipped the massage girls quite a lot (they smiled nice at me).

At 6:30pm I had my free shuttle bus to the airport. Once I arrived, I noticed the check in counter for Jetstar wasn’t open… I waited and waited… and then they announced the flight was delayed for 2.5 hours. Great!
I was supposed to arrive in Singapore at 00:30 midnight; instead I had my departure at HCMC at 00:40 midnight. I arrived at my home at 3:15am. Around 3:45am I was sleeping and 2 hours later I had to wake up.

My stay at Ho Chi Minh City was surprisingly good! With its huge bed rooms and bathroom, king sized bed and extremely friendly employees that speak good English, made this hotel was one of the nicest hotels I’ve stayed at so far! The food (pho, spring rolls) taste really good and Vietnamese girls are really pretty.

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I probably schedule a trip to Hanoi -Vietnam’s capital- later this year.
The Vietnam album shows all the interesting photos taken during my three day trip to Saigon. Enjoy :)

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Time for some updates!

Posted by Ramon at 07:32 Uncategorized
May 212010

Hello and thank you for still reading my blog!
I know it has been very quiet recently… so I thought it may be time for a few updates.

Early May my parents visited me in Singapore for almost 2 weeks. They enjoyed 7 days in Singapore and 4 days in Bintan, Indonesia.
During their days in Singapore I had the role of tour guide and translator, showing them around the nice places Singapore has to offer. Including Sentosa, Singapore Zoo, the Flyer, city area… Chinatown… pubs and restaurants and many more.

They’ve left and now it is time for my own travel fun.

On the 27th of May I will be flying to Vietnam’s largest city; Ho Chi Minh City. Previously known as Saigon, HCMC is located in the south of Vietnam. I will spend 3 nights and 3 days in HCMC.
Yesterday I collected my passport and Vietnam Visa, which I paid 85$ for and all that’s left is planning my trip and changing Singapore dollars into Vietnamese Dong.
Currently 1 SG$ is 13463 dong, which means… I will pay like 150000 dong for a drink! Sounds expensive….

I will be travelling alone, which I think is going to be very interesting. Vietnam is one of those places where absolutely nobody speaks English and everybody tries to rip me off. It’s probably like Shanghai, but worse :)
The good thing is that many Vietnamese girls are really pretty and that should be lots of fun :)

If everything goes well, I should be flying back to Singapore on Sunday evening. Arrival is just after midnight, which means I got about 4 hours of sleep before I have to go to work. No worries, I am getting used to just a few hours of sleep.

Less than 5 days after my Vietnam trip I will be packing my stuff again. This time for my second scuba diving trip at Pulau Tioman, Malaysia. Friday night until Sunday night. This is for the PADI Advanced Open Water Diver certification. The rest of June I will be working, studying and taking my 4th BlackBerry exam. July same, except for a weekend get away to the town of Malacca, Malaysia. Malacca used to be a Dutch colony a long time ago.

Wait… I’m not done yet… August!

In August I am returning home. Yes, home… and Dubai.
Just temporary for a ‘vacation’. From Singapore I will be flying to Dubai, and stay there for 3 days. On day 4, I fly to Dusseldorf. In August I’ve been 13 months in Asia, mostly Singapore. Time for go home for 11 days.
I think I said something about visiting London as well, but I probably cancel this. So, just the Netherlands for 11 days.

Anyway, first a few days in Ho Chi Minh City, southern Vietnam. Once I’m back I will write a nice story about my trip, and of course add some photos :)

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