a few weeks ago, the geek took part in an online porsche contest and won the first prize – free weekend rental of a porsche. choice of model of porsche was subject to availability during the weekend that he wants to redeem the prize.

a week before the singapore gp, we trooped down to bugis junction to receive the prize. no this porsche is not the prize, its just eye candy for passersby to generate publicity.

the geek redeemed his prize 2 days ago. so this was what greeted me bright and early saturday morning.

considering that its just the two of us, this is a huge ass car. so off we went to gallivant. we began with our appointment with eli solomon at singapore rare books, then had prata for breakfast at the near by casuarina curry. head east to the harvey normal warehouse sale at expo, following by a stop at bedok food centre for cheng tng and finally checked out bollywood veggies at the north west of singapore before heading back to bishan.

it was a good pace considering that we kept within the legal speed limits and was very cautiously negotiating long and heavy vehicles and road works that seemed to have sprouted everywhere we went.

its fun having access to a car, but being responsible for one is not my kind of thing.

more pics here.

i’ll be visiting three cities this year end. elated!

i had awesome geek time over the weekend. on saturday we went to a day trip to the base of gunung ledang (formerly and commonly known at mt ophir) and on sunday we make botak jones burgers with botak jones  – the man himself – at the national museum of singapore!

a highlight of the day trip promoted to be the durian buffet lunch at gunung ledang resort. being the tail end of the durian season, the range was rather mediocre but since i’m no durian connoisseur myself it didn’t bother me too much.

what i enjoyed more was the short hike up the start of the infamous mt ophir climb.

beyond those gates lay the trek to the summit. entry requires park fees and an accompanying ranger. in any case, i don’t think i’ll ever attempt anything like that. 5h treks in the day i can do, but not an overland hike with all the barang.

what i did do however, is prop myself against the running water of puteri falls.

no i’m not in that picture, so there is no need to scrutinize the tiny faces.

on sunday, i attended a very enjoyable burger building workshop with bernie utchenik at the national museum of singapore. this workshop is part of a series of the life & living – food & culture programme.

each participant was given 200g of beef patty and an assortment of condiments to mix into the patty. i chose garlic, onion and bread crumbs.

i learnt that egg and bread crumbs could be used as the binding agent to hold the meat together. also, the fiber of the meat retains its cellular integrity that will hold the patty in its shape when left to sit. no one told me this in home economics.

once our patties were nicely pat into shape. the in situ bbq began with bernie grilling the patties for us, topped with bacon and cheese.

yum! my very own botak jones burger.

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.

full post after i’m done with post processing and uploading all the pics.