Exams are finished!!!

This was actually a short exam time. Today I had both my exams, Financial management and Array Signal Processing. Both of there were quite okay, ASP was actually rather easy. There have been much worse exam papers in the past. I hope I can celebrate with some (exchange) students in the next few days.

On Thursday and Friday I have already planned a short trip to Malaysia. We (four of us) will rent some bikes and take a ferry across the Malaysia River. Then we want to cycle some 60km the first day, stay in Tanjung Balau for one night and then come back to Singapore the next day. Just a little bike trip, but it should be nice!

Apart from that I want to finish writing up my thesis by the end of this month. The minimum goal is to finish a final draft and make maybe a few changes when I'm back to Germany. So I won't be bored the last 9 (!) days in Singapore...

Exam time

Its about time for a posting related to my studies in Singapore. This week was the last week of lectures here at NTU. By last Tuesday I was finished with all my lectures as well as with my assignments. But of course there are still the final exams. Funnily I have both my finals on the same day (yeah I'm only taking two, because I'm writing a Thesis/"Studienarbeit"). The exams are scheduled 21st April, so it is still enough time, but I should get started with seriuos studying... Well, up to know I'm still a bit lazy, but I'm confident that it is getting better when the exams are approaching. :-)

I hope that I find some time to finish the postings about my last trips. I'm always kind of lagging behind... For the Singaporeans (or other NTU students) among my readers: Good luck for your exams!

Thailand: The South

We finished our Thailand trip with some island hopping in the South. The first island on the list was Ko Samui. The trip there (night bus) was quite painful and took around 18 hours in total... But in the end we arrived in a nice chalet at the beach. The sea and the beach were nice, just the weather could have been better. We didn't actually do much there. We had to relax from the strenuous stay in Bangkok. On the beach was a big firework every evening. All the tourists couldn't wait until New Year's eve and bought the fireworks from the merchants.

I guess you know me good enough to know that I can't stay at the beach for the whole day. Thus I did a slightly adventurous jungle hike one afternoon. There was a little hill quite close to our chalet and I pictured that you have a nice view from up there. So I aimed for one big boulder you could spot from the bottom. Of course there was no trail up this hill - I rather had to fight my way through the jungle. It wasn't very dense though, but the slope was quite steep. But having climbed the boulder finally I was rewarded for my efforts (see pictures). The next challenge was to find the way back (passing some wild animals...) - but I managed that finally, too.

The next island was Ko Phangan - famous for the monthly Full Moon Party. Since there is an extra New Year party we went there to catch this one. You can describe the whole thing in just one word: CRAZY.
The whole island was almost fully booked - we could only find a one-bed-room for the three of us, one hour away from the party beach. On the party itself there were only Europeans/Westerners on the beach - you could hardly find any Asians. It was a great party though. And alcohol in this place is damn cheap... Unfortunately I still had to recover from a fish poisoning a got on Ko Samui. But I enjoyed myself anyway - even if I couldn't party as hard as the others.

After having cured our hang overs we went on to Krabi - the bus ride: no comment (I really started hating Thai travel agencies). Krabi is definitely my favourite place in Southern Thailand. The limestone formation look just incredible - especially Rayleigh Beach is breathtaking. The first challenge we faced, however, were the fried insects on the local market in Krabi town. The girls were very eager to try them - so they finally convinced me too. We tried silk worms, bamboo worms, grasshoppers and crickets. They looked more scary than they actually tasted. It won't get my favourite snack, but it was not too bad - much better than Durian for sure...

The next day my travel mates went on to Ko Phi Phi. Since I had only two days left I stayed in Krabi and I didn't regret it! Rayleigh beach was really awesome. You could climb one of those giant limestone rocks and have a great view from up there. On one of the surrounding islands, the James Bond movie "The Man with the Golden Gun" was actually shot. I haven't been to that particular island but the others were equally amazing. The beach and the sea were really great as well - unfortunately it was very touristy. The beach was quite crowded...

In the last morning in Krabi I went kayaking in the mangrove forest. The whole thing was a bit short, but the area was really beautiful. We went along the forest and paddled up a canyon. In the canyon there were a lot of monkeys. And some of them even jumped in the water and swam over to the boats! They knew of course that the guides alway bring some fruits for lunch.

After that it was already time to leave. I had to get to Phuket to be able to catch my plane back to Singapore the next morning. This time I took the public bus - not better than the private ones, but at least nobody tries to scam you. I didn't see much of Phuket though. I just spend one evening in Phuket town, walking a bit around, getting a nice last dinner and a Thai massage. The restaurant was a very nice place, it rather resembled a gallery than a restaurant. The Thai massage was totally amazing. I wasn't exactly gentle, but you felt totally relaxed after it. She squeezed every single muscle of my body for more than two hours - and that, if I remember right, for a price of 200 Bath (<5 Eur).
Like that the last evening in Phuket was a great conclusion for the Thailand trip. Thailand is definitely a great place to visit - I just think that everything is a bit too touristy already. But I have probably been only to the major tourist spots. When I come back I will try to go to the less famous and popular places - I think the you can enjoy it even more.

Around Bangkok

After staying for a few days in Bangkok we felt the strong urge to escape the noise, the pollution and the hectic. That's why we booked a day tour package to see some interesting places around Bangkok. Well we managed to escape noise and pollution... but not really the hectic. It turned out that our tour guide was a former army Sargent - at least this was our impression. We were more or less chased through the places at the various stops. It was actually a bit annoying but we enjoyed the trip nevertheless.

First stop: Military cemetery of the Second World War. A lot of soldiers died when Japan invaded this region. Many of them died during the construction of the Burma Railway. From Wikipedia:
The Burma Railway, also known as the Death Railway, the Thailand-Burma Railway and similar names, is a 415 km (258 mile) railway between Bangkok, Thailand and Rangoon, Burma (now Myanmar), built by the Empire of Japan during World War II, to support its forces in the Burma campaign.
Forced labour was used in its construction. About 180,000 Asian labourers and 60,000 Allied prisoners of war (POWs) worked on the railway. Of these, around 90,000 Asian labourers and 16,000 Allied POWs died as a direct result of the project. The dead POWs included 6,318 British personnel, 2,815 Australians, 2,490 Dutch, about 356 Americans and a smaller number of Canadians.

Second stop: The bridge over the river Kwai and the War Museum. The museum was mainly about the construction of the Burma Railway. The bridge was actually the most crucial point of the whole railway track. You might have heard of the bridge from the novel or the movie.

Third stop: Bamboo rafting and Lunch. Well, not much to tell here, wasn't exactly white water rafting...

Fourth stop: Waterfall. Nice waterfall and some lime stone formations. Due to the dry season it was a bit small though.

Fifth stop: Elephant riding. It's actually funny to ride on one of this big guys. It feels almost like on a ship.

Sixth stop: Tiger temple. The last stop was in the tiger temple. The temple had a tradition as sanctuary for various animals until one day a villager turned up with a injured tiger baby orphan. So they cared for this as well... and finally they got more and more and the grew bigger and bigger. Since they are used to people you can actually pet them. Still a bit scary though...

Seventh stop: Back to Bangkok. It was an interesting and entertaining trip. But sometimes the motto "less is more" definitely applies. If the schedule would have been less tight we'd enjoyed it even more.

Lewis Pragasam & Friends

Ever heard of Lewis Pragasam, eh? Well, I have to admit that I had never heard of him before Wednesday last week. There is a series of concerts here at NTU called the "Lunchtime Concerts", where they would invited different groups/artists for a one hour informal session. In the past I have seen a string quartet, the NTU Chinese Orchestra, the NTU String Orchestra and others. Last week's Wednesday Lewis Pragasam & Friends were invited.

Lewis Pragasam is an internationally highly acclaimed drummer and percussionist from Malaysia. The music they played is Jazz is the wider sense or World Music to be more precise. Anyway the concert was plainly breathtaking! It's been a long time I've seen such an awesome concert. I guess the last one on this level was Dream Theater two years ago... :-) Lewis' style of playing the drums is pretty unique. He seems to be sitting completely relaxed, hardly moving his upper body. But at the same time his arms move in an incredible speed and precision. The other musicians he brought with him were equally great. So it all added up to an amazing perfomance.The different pieces they played were very diverse and the hour was over much too quickly.

Enough words, listen to it yourselves!

Bangkok, Thailand

My second trip around South East Asia in December actually started in Bangkok, Thailand. I stayed there for one day before I went to Siem Reap in Cambodia. After that I came back to Bangkok and met Karin and Lola, my two friends from NTU.

The capital of Thailand is with a population of over 8 million in the city and probably more than 15 million in the metropolitan area unbelievably huge. Even when standing on some high building in the center you couldn't make out the end of the city. Since the public transport is very poor (2 skytrain lines, one subway line) the traffic is always congested. I believe in whole Bangkok is traffic jam from 8am to 8pm, or even longer. That's probably why the pollution in Bangkok is really immense. After a day walking around in the streets of the city I felt my eyes burning and my nose full of black grime. I actually found out that the best mean of transport is the river taxi on the Chao Phraya River and the canal taxis in the different side arms of the river. They have a fixed price and they get never stuck in the traffic jam. Of course you have to take one of the so called "Tuk-tuks" at least once, or your Bangkok trip is not complete. Their exhaust fumes smell probably worst, their drivers like to scam you and you almost every time end up paying more than for a cab... but the atmosphere of riding in these passenger trikes is just unique.
The city is very lively and there are a lot of interesting things to see. There is an uncountable number of bigger and smaller temples. Some of them are definitely a must see, like the temple of the reclining Buddha. The river banks and some parks are nice places to chill out. There is a lot of shopping, anything from cheap street markets to expensive shopping malls - and of course all the tailors (well I was talked into buying a custom made suit as well...). The nightlife is very diverse, from cheap booze on the backpacker's street Khao San Road to expensive clubs and bars. Not speaking of the infamous Pat Pong, but I actually left this one out, honestly!

The first major tourist place I visited was the temple of the reclining Buddha. All the temple buildings have this particular Thai style and are extremely shiny and colorful. The Buddha statue itself is gigantic - 46 meters long and 15 meters high. And of course all covered with gold. It is a very impressive view and I especially liked his cheeky smile. :-)

After meeting up with Karin and Lola we went to the Grand Palace. This place served for a long time as official residence for the Thai king - you must know that the Thai people are very proud of their king. But the current king is not living there. Here again the abundance of gold, china and colors is just overwhelming. Within the complex of the palace is the temple of the Emerald Buddha. There you can see one of the most famous Buddha statues - but it is actually made of jade...

Another very famous temple in Bangkok is Wat Arun - the temple of the dawn. It is situated directly at the river and from the upper level of the temple you have a nice view over the city. The stairs to reach this part are actually quite steep...

Being in Bangkok for Christmas we had to check out the night life for sure. With temperatures of about 30°C and just some very kitschy Christmas decoration in the shopping malls we never really came into a Christmas mood. But we enjoyed ourselves anyway. On Christmas eve we have been to the supper club. Its quite a famous club with branches all over the world. The special thing about the club were the beds on the upper level. The music was a bit too Latin but we had fun nevertheless. There was quite a big crowd there, especially a lot of Westerners - interesting how many people have nothing better to do then clubbing for Christmas. ;-)
Two days later we went to the skybar of Bangkok. This place was really amazing - I have never been to an open air bar on the 63rd (or something around that) floor. The view on the city was breathtaking - so it really helped that the air up there was actually fresh. It was probably 5 degrees colder than down in the streets and is was clean - at least much cleaner than 60 floors below. The drinks were a bit expensive (500 Bath - ~11 Euro) but it was definitely worth it!

The last day in Bangkok - before we went on further South - we visited the Chatuchak Weekend Market. This one crazy place! The market is really huge, more than 1 square kilometer big and several hundred thousand visitors each day. You can virtually get anything there: cheap clothes, antique furniture, used books, pet food, plants, knives, tools, jewelry, faked brand stuff... The two girls went on a shopping spree - I was rather wandering around and watching the crowd. I bought a memory card and a book though.
After that it was time to leave Bangkok and catch the bus to Ko Samui. In conclusion the chaos in Bangkok is sometimes really crazy. But the city has a unique atmosphere and we definitely enjoyed the stay there.