Shoot-out gear

Will be hoping to bring these babies with me on the trip. Can't afford them yet, so I'll be renting them for the two weeks.

the multi-purpose zoom lens ... for the gargoyle high above or quietly snapping the outdoor diners from afar

the wide angle lens ... to take in the mountain ranges

It's my first time using something besides my kit lens. So let's see how the shots turn out ... cross fingers...

The free & easy way

Planning our upcoming trip was a journey of some sorts. It was never as complicated as planning the wedding as we had only the two us to consider, not two families and 400 guests. Here's an account of our trip planning journey ...

1. Making our blue list
The first question that sprung to mind was 'Where to?' Let's draw up our top five destinations and deliberate over it, I suggested. After days of no action, we sat down and unanimously picked Europe.

2. Tour vs F&E
After going through the hassle of wedding planning, we were hoping to just hop on a tour and leave the hard work to someone else. The tempatation was great to sit back and have no worries. For suggestions of places of interest in Europe, we turned to the ever reliable Singaporebrides forum. It was clear we needed to meet the people in the business, so off we trudged down to Chinatown. We visited the usual suspects in People's Park Complex (after mistakenly roaming into People's Park Center) where we quizzed and probed the sales staff over similarly looking tour packages.

The upside? Pay your deposit, sit back, and wait for the confirmation. Cover many must-go places in 10 over days. NO PLANNING needed! They even tell you what to bring, how much money to carry with you and how much tips to pay the tour agent/bus captain each day.

The downside? Only one free day in Paris, plus what is left of a night. Packing off too soon after falling love with the place. Lots of traveling time. Too much in too short a time.

The F&E way started to gnaw away at the fringes of our minds. Some interesting debates in the forums plus encouraging backpacking stories began to emboldened us. Cost was an issue as well as time (time to plan and work the plan). Do we want more time to explore each city? and wander the streets? We took the bait and plunged in.

3. At the drawing block
Now that we decided on F&E, we had to pin down our destinations. Paris was a must. What next? To archaic Italy or the serene Swiss Alps, or the grand old city of London?
Should we get a Eurail pass or take budget flights? Where do we find affodable and good budget hotels?

Endless questions poured in. For answers, I turned to the public libraries with their impressive collection of Travel Guides and many helpful websites like virtualtourist (for pictures and many interesting tips) and tripadvisor (for hotel recommendation).

4. Connecting the dots
Among the first thing we did was to book our air ticket, amidst fears of rising prices due to escalating oil prices. We decided that SIA was a great way to fly, after considering the other cheaper flights that transit in other countries.

Next was to plan the inter-city logistics. After picking Rome and the Bernese Highlands as the other two destinations, it was a matter of which train or flight option has the lowest cost and yet does not compromise on our trip itenerary. In the end, the point-to-point train tickets edged out the eurail passes (best for multiple day trips) and Ryan Air flights (takes up half a day and not too cheap with its extra charges). We reserved two overnight train rides with 2 person bunks that cost close to a night stay in a luxury hotel. At least it will get us to our next destination while we sleep.

5. Cheap Stays
Accomodation was next and we went about with a budget in mind. However we had to settle for rooms of 70-100 euro per night for hotels with reasonable number of healthy comments in tripadvisor. The first choice was not always available so we went down our preferred hotels list. We had only three cities/town to work on, so made our reservations pretty quick.

6. Finer details
The last and final part was to work out itinerary (must-see sites and walks), entry ticket costs (passes vs indiv tickets), trip budget (in euros and swiss francs), and gear (backpack, packing list, camera gear, travel guides).

Now that most of the hard work is done, I just count the days...

Age of Tera-sours

I rarely go to PC shows and only pop in when I have something in mind to buy. With one every quarter, we are really quite spoilt here in Singapore, as we are allowed to bide our time in finding the right bargain on the wide variety of latest tech gizmos. Yet, the PC Shows never fail to attract a crowd, a spectacular crowd that is, everyday single time. Maybe this is one way the men gets back at their gf/wives who drags them to every Robinson sale.

Anyway I was there at the Comex'08 last weekend with the intention of buying a CF card for my upcoming trip. Entering the exhibition hall on the 6th floor, I couldn't help noticing the many booths selling external hard drives. The minimum storage is now 160GB, selling below $100 (and I bought an 80GB for my office a year back at almost the same price), and behold ... 1TB ... Tera?? ... a trillion bytes??!! Woah, we have moved so far from the age of 1.2MB floppy disk to this age of monster data storage. These 1TB ext drives are about the size of a bible but could probably contain copies of the bible in over 200 languages plus audiobook, with plenty of space left to spare. Leaving the hall with my puny 8GB Sandisk Ultra II CF Card, I was left wondering what I could do with one of those monster Tera drives.

I guess there lies the trap set by the many consumer goods maker, knowing that we consumers are always willing to spend more money on bigger and better products, with our expectations growing with each snazzy advertisement or sleek looking gadget. Maybe in the not too distant future, I'll lament on how times have caught up with the modest 1TB drive ...

For now I just hope my IT dept will move with the times and expand my inbox storage limit. How can you survive with 100MB nowadays??

Forty five minutes away

That's how long it takes to reach this Indonesian island, south of Singapore. Batam.

Memories of Batam before this trip - two distinct trips, poles apart. One day trip to a plastic moulding facility on a hot sunny day, passing through parched empty lands. And another an overnight disco -hopping reverie that left my ears ringing through the next day.

Well I was back again two Saturdays ago courtesy of Vicky's well laid plans. It was raining when we got to Sekupang, located on the north western tip of Batam. We were greeted my Mitra, Matt and Andrew, who then promptly whisked us off on a short tour of the island before taking us to lunch at the old Batam town. Our lunch stop was an ordinary-looking chinese coffee shop, much like those you find abundantly in Malaysia towns. Then came our treat, two fish dishes - Sup Ikan (with delicious yam-sweeetened soup) and Fish Curry (not the asam type). This was enough to whet our appetite for more of Batam.

With full stomachs, we headed next towards Batam Center. I must admit that the island now look better with more planted trees and the rain did help by providing a cool island breeze. Shopping was next on the cards. Don't expect great bargains but some of the labels are indeed cheaper compared to Singapore. We both bought a pair of jeans each.

Our home for the night was at the Holiday Inn, located at a remote corner of the Island, near the Waterfront City ferry terminal. For about $110 a night, this place was a steal. F1 visitors should consider this alternative accomodation if they find Singapore too expensive in September (but first they have to find a way back to Batam at night). Once we checked in, we took to the bed for a short afternoon nap.

For dinner, we were introduced to more of the local seafood. Andrew picked out live white-shelled crabs and crayfish from the small tanks while Matt lingered to play with the rest of the crabs. Prawns and fish were later added on and we feasted on a splendid seafood dinner.

The next day, we got to enjoy a slow breakfast buffet at the poolside before heading off to take our 11.40 ferry back to Singapore.

A big thank you to our host. This trip has gave me a chance to see a side of Batam not commonly revealed to day-trippers. Maybe we'll come back for more ... I hear there are roads leading down south to the smaller islands ...

Photos of Holiday Inn, Batam

Two weeks to Paris

We are going off on our honeymoon in two weeks time. Yes, the countdown that started when we first made the intial flight booking in June, is finally down to just 14 days. That comes to just 10 days in the office, and part of that time will be reserved to equipped my colleague with the necessary background, knowledge and short-cuts to handle my work. Good luck to him :P

Back to our plans. We are targetting just three European destinations, ie. Paris, Rome and the Bernese Oberland (Switzerland), in the 12 days that we are there. That will give us ample time to do the highlights (in a less hurried manner), while finding time to discover the city. It's going to be free and easy all the way. We've got our inter-city train tickets, backpacks, money-belt and Rick&Steve's Guidebook all ready.

I guess the planning and anticipation also makes up the whole experience. So I will savour the next two weeks to make the experience last a little longer.