my 4 year old niece to me:

my computer can talk, your computer cannot talk.

me to my niece:

my computer has internet, your computer has no internet.

its either a vandal or a loanshark, that vandalised every lift landing of my 20 story apartment block with a spray painted O$P$ following by the name of a certain person, his address and mobile number.

in this day & age where folks are no longer as neighbourly or kay-poh as before, such humiliating tactics that hinge on public opinion does not work because people just don’t care anymore.

the neighborhood dynamics have changed.

i don’t know who lives in that specified apartment and it does not bother me if he is financially embarrassed or not.

i’m just peeved that the corridor is vandalised.

last week i participated in an educational guided walk along the coast of st john island with singapore’s biodiversity with the focus. the walk was organised by raffles museum of biodiversity research.

the impression that most people will get from the above picture is that we were threading on barren waste land.

it is however, teeming with life – you just need to keep your eyes peeled for…

the fiddler crab

siyang quotes a study that proved that their long eye stalk are organs that give them the signal to stop feeding to prevent over eating, which was what the crabs did with they eyes removed.

the sea star

the drills

look at the trails made.

and many others that i’ve forgotten to name. avid nature buffs that update on uforest and wild singapore can provide more details.

aka holiday after a holiday or there’s so much to do in singapore.

just a day after i checked out of the hotel in bali, i checked into the swissotel merchant court in singapore – just for a night though. my sis booked a room so that we didn’t have to put up with one more-all-through-the-night road works.

living in hotel rooms are always fun.  the decor is nice, the room is made for you, bright sparking clean toilets – ooh i love hotel toilets just as much as the niece – and aircon all the time. i never grew up with the luxury of airconditioning so having any aircon at all already makes me feel like i’m in a hotel.

after dinner at central we walked around clarke quay and caught a glimpse of acrobats at the river festival, which the 4 year old correctly identified as “trapeze”. perhaps i’ll pop by the festival again this weekend to catch more than a glimpse of it.

before checking out the morning after my mom came by with the nephew and took a dip at the swissotel pool.

check out mr manhunt 2029

on monday my favorite pss girls and i spent a day at the zoo foc because i  obtained a corporate zoo pass. we managed to catch all three animal shows and some feeding times at the enclosures. i didn’t visit the outback enclosure considering that i’ve been to werribee and healesville.

white tiger feeding

the mother baboon held on to the baby’s tail to keep it in check and even continued to restrict the baby’s radius while multi-tasking. today, i noticed my mom doing that to my nephew by holding on to one of his legs, and multi-tasking.

rainforest kidzworld – a totally transformed “children’s world at the zoo”

another new feature – educational and scenic boat ride across mandai reservoir

first sighting of bali from the plane

the moment dt and i landed at the airport, we knew we had to come back again already. the rest of the trip went smoothly, enabled by the friendly and efficient service staff and the incredible cool weather.

through our 4 days in bali, we enjoyed sunny days that had cool breeze all day and even cooler nights. even the humidity was lower.

it was near evening by the time we arrived at our accommodation. so dt and i made dinner plans at jimbaran bay as recommended by my sister. jimbaran bay is a long stretch of seafood restaurants that provides 2 day transport for all patrons. the restaurants there also offer a sunset view by the beach.

so that’s exactly what we got – seafood dinner by the sunset at the beach.

from sea level to much above sea level the next day was where we went on our day trip. a day trip in bali does not entail a coach with a fixed itinerary. instead, it means what you get a personal driver who can customise what you want to see.

the day trip was included in the package we got from a tour agency in singapore, so we didn’t’ expect such exclusivity. the guide that day from batravco prima ltd gave us a really good low down on the main attractions in bali and even accommodated our request to lengthen the trip to visit more sites.

after visiting the cottage industries and an organic planatation, we ascended the mountainous region to have lunch overlooking mt batur.

before our last destination at tanah lot, we made a shopping stop at ubud market. bargaining in tens of thousands is so confusing.

although i did managed to get some stuff, for me finding a rare gem is not something you can shop for, but a moment that can be captured in a photograph when you happen to be at the right time and the right place with good lighting and at an appropriate angle. the picturesque postcard photographs are nice, but not a big deal because its generic. therefore being complimented that my photographs have a postcard quality is not at all a compliment.

this is my all time favorite photograph from the trip. at every conceivable lookout point in bali, you can expect to see people setting up shop to sell things to tourists. this elderly man here however was only passing through, when he was hailed by an ang-moh tourist to buy his hat. seizing the opportunity, the elderly man gingerly made his way to the raised platform and in delightful subservience haggled an offer.

the highlight of the trip would have to be white water rafting along ayung river. the operaters managed the whole trip very well. they pick you up from your accommodation and make a stop at their head quarters near the end point of the rafting trip. you can deposit everything at their lockers or bring your valuables in the water tight bags provided. the staff will captain the raft and be responsible for holding on to the belongings in a bigger water tight bag.

at the end of the journey, we disembarked onto an alfresco dining area etched from the river bank for a buffet lunch after being promptly handed a towel to dry off. a short walk from the end point is the head quarters of the operators which also offers shower facilities.

to top that off, somewhere in the middle of the journey, a staff of the operator emerged from no where to snap some shots of us in action with the DSLR. we could then purchase copies by the time we arrived at the head quarters.

we were returned to our accommodation by mid afternoon. dt and i walked around the touristy stretch of kuta beach for the rest of the evening for dinner and shopping.

we only had the morning to ourselves since we had to check in by 2pm on our final day. to wrap up the trip, dt and i indulged ourselves with a 3 hour spa in the resort.

the fun didn’t stop there. i believed i had the most scenic flight ever on way back to singapore. we flew over volcano tops and crater lakes and over the many meandering shorelines. the view from the plane kept changing over the 2.5 hour journey, the setting sun also made the sights more spectacular, the cloud formation resembled the nebula.

view the rest of the pics here.