Ian Han

September Supreme

2007-09-30T18:59:00.000+08:00

This blog has turned to a monthly blog, instead of being daily/weekly. I wouldn't care if this blog ends up as a yearly blog or a dinosaur blog. But, I can't resist mentioning about my special September.

Yes, it was my birthday. and I love the person who made the little card for me there and bought the cake.

September was really a blast for me. Many forging memories that could only be shared with my closed ones. Whether its my hall buddies, malaysian friends, and exchange friends.

Hell, I even tried eating 4 pieces of fried chicken, 15 nuggets, 1 burger, 1 bowl of poridge, 1 fries and 1 sundae in a Macdonalds buffet. After greedily stuffing everything into my full stomach while suffering, I learnt something.

Always know what's the limit and have more time for more important responsibilities.

If not, everything you've earned could just come crashing down.

Wake me up when September ends.... seriously.

I'm not dead yet

2007-08-21T12:14:00.000+08:00

Hola! Who says this blog is dead?

It's a shame that I drop by into my blog lately, just for the links to my friends' blogs. Then, I've discovered most of my exchange kaki's blogs either not updated, defunct, or locked. Tsk.. tsk..

My camera has been giving me many problems, so no pictures in this post. Sorry.

A quickie update on after I flew back from Munich.
-suffered jet lag
-flew to Alor Setar to pray for my late uncle
-suffered jet lag from the earlier flight again
-met the kakis for dinner
-bought new pair of jeans
-flew to Redang with family
-did snorkeling, sunbathing, play pool, ate lots of buffet meals
-came back realised the new jeans too tight already
-celebrated wai hsiang's birthday in strawberry fields
-drove back to Singapore
-checked in Sheares Hall
-went to Padang to witness Sheares win rag and flag :)
-settled in hall, go zouk, chilled in hall for the rest of 1 week

today, I realised that I can fit into jeans again. wheew. met my Prof today about my FYP. We ended up chatting more about national security, and Malaysian politics.

staying in hall is fun now. really fun.

In Dubai now

2007-08-05T11:40:00.000+08:00

Starnbergersee

Updating blog has not been my priority for the past 2 weeks. In addition, I doubt I'll be updating them soon. Hectic schedule awaits me once I touchdown in KL. 7th Aug to Alor Setar. 8th to 10th Redang Island. 11th back to Singapore. That is when I know, no more travelling.

Prague

2007-07-27T20:03:00.000+08:00

Finally after 3 trips to Europe in my lifetime. These are the countries I've covered.

That's more travelling than I've done in South East Asia. I've only been to Singapore, Thailand and Brunei so far. Hell, I think its even more than the number of cities or towns I've visited in Malaysia. The "Malaysia, Truly Asia" campaign is not working on me.

Back to the topic. ~~Plague~~ Prague. Photo album here.

Top to bottom: A church, old European buildings, tourists and the Prague's main square.

Finally, my first travel to an Eastern European country. Where capitalism and tourism industry are still fresh there. That explains the swarm of tourists in Prague. Well, honestly, for me, Czech Republic is well known because I used to support the football team in Euro '04.

We took a 6 hour train ride which only costs 59 euros return ticket. We slept on the train for most of the journey, even I was supposed to study for my exam on Thursday, 1 day after returning from Prague.

Wilson brought cool sleeping accessories on board the train. Reminds me of the Demonhunter from Warcraft 3.

The astronomical clock near the town square

Prague's most famous landmark, Charles Bridge. It's about 700 years old.

Lots of tourists rushing to the front to touch the famous Saint statue on Charles bridge.

Another sign that shows how many tourists Prague has.

Another landmark is humonguous. The Prague castle. It's like a little town inside for tourist. Awesome.

"The castle is right there on the hills."

Then we visited the Communism Museum. Traces of communism in Eastern Europe are nothing but history and all being kept in museums.

Off goes Communism, comes the jazz bars in Prague. At a cheap price for the drinks and entertainment as well. Czech's famous beer, Pilsner Urquell tastes good as well. Smooth, very smooth taste.

The hostel we stayed was the Boathouse. Although it only takes 20 minutes tram ride from the city center, it was hard to believe for a place like this to have a "Hostelworld.com certified" hostel in this vicinity. But, it was 1 of the best hostels I've ever stayed in Europe. Clean. Family-runned hostel. Breakfast included. Cheap dinners in the hostel. Great common area to chill and talk to other tourists, who were all Americans, whom we met and brought to another jazz bar on the other night.

No photos with them, as my batteries were being charged. We talked to an interesting chap from Texas, Lucas who's like a walking IMDB(International Movie Database). Even the other Americans were stunned by his movie knowledge. We asked him what's his favourite movie of all time. His answer was, "Batman Begins".

I just realised I still haven't chose my favourite movie of all time.

Prague is quite a cool city. Great nightlife. But, I realised there's not much sights or landmarks there. Going to Prague once is enough, but still fulfilling.

Gotta thank Wilson for being my full-time navigator in Prague. Navigating Prague is not easy as the road names in Czech language sounds strange.

Filler post

2007-07-26T20:11:00.000+08:00

Sorry for not updating for more than a week. Just came back from Prague on tuesday night and been studying for todays test. So, this entry is just a filler-post to keep readers entertained.

Question: What can ensure peace in the Middle East?
Palestinian and Israeli enjoying Shisha together.

No wonder Amsterdam is so peaceful and friendly amid the racial variations. (From Mario's viewpoint, sadly I didn't get the experience the "peaceful lifestyle" in Amsterdam yet)

That is Kalil, from Palestine. Who says Muslims can't enjoy in Beerland/Porkland like Germany.

Left: Behzad from Iran. Behind: Wajdie from Israel. He's my house representative. Something like block head in hall. But their beards are no match for my beard. =)

German names

2007-07-18T06:27:00.000+08:00

Ever wondered how Surnames/Family Names were derived? Notice that some english names could be related to one's ancestor's profession. Such examples like, Smith(Blacksmith?), Porter, Shakespear (Spearman?), Archer (like Johnny Archer), Miller, and Shepherd.

Same goes for Germans here, at a larger extent i think, like Bauer(farmer), Schmidt (Smith),...

or some famous Germans...

Schumacher, maybe shoe maker?

Claudia Schiffer ( could be mariner, or someone who deals with ships)

Bastian Schweinsteiger (Pig stepper, hey, its still a profession)

and This is what I found quite a while ago in Salzburg. (Lower center)

Should be an obvious translation for those who don't know german.

woot. woot.. its raining at night.

2007-07-18T05:51:00.001+08:00

Finally, something to cool down Munich and her people after experiencing 2 back-to-back days of 35 degrees celsius. The weather's been crazy lately.

Last week, it was colder than when I first came in spring April, due to the constant rain.

Really cold, about 12 degrees during summer is something that we need to question Al Gore's movie.

During our BBQ, it was really cold with the wind slashing our thin flesh with the chill.

Even with the help of the happy pyromaniac with a full bottle of flammable liquid in her hand, Jieming had to borrow my red jacket.

Suddenly, this weekend when summer decided to show up. So, many rushed into the nude tanning area in the gardens to sunbath until it became a non-nude area, due to the massive crowd. So, some people, according to their blogs, were dissapointed. But it was still a good day to jog. =D

Although summer here is alright compared to Malaysia and Singapore, rooms are not conviniently equiped with fans and aircon. So, some rain and wind should help a lot for us here.

So when comes the heat, off goes the shirt.

Oh, an answer to Chin Joo's question and something I haven't noted in my blog: My flight back to KL is on 4th August. So, I'll reach KL on 5th August.

And to my NUS and hall friends, I'll reach Sg on 10th August. A lot of catching up to do definitely....

%*((#$!! The rain just stopped right before I finished this post.

1 Week update

2007-07-15T19:40:00.000+08:00

Just a short post, because I should be studying. =)

We had barbecue among all the NUS students somewhere in front of my room. From the picture, you can see roughly the number of NUS students in Munich, well expect for the 2 at the upper right.

Mohaideen, who's Muslim and can't eat pork. Cos of pork remains/oil on the grills. Still, it's great that he came for the gathering. Check out the background, those 2 are my Palestinian neighbours smoking Shisha. They quite smart to use some of our burnt charcoal for their Shisha fuel. I wonder if it's ok when pork oil actually drips onto the charcoal below the grill.

At least, theres Reuben to feed him halal potato chips. Overall, it's good leh. Everyone enjoyed it, according to their blogs. You're welcome everyone! =)

On Saturday, I made an imprompto trip to Nuremberg, just 1 hour 40 mins away. Just a solo getaway trip while my friends were mugging for their exams. I only have 1 paper this week.

Just a relaxing trip for the day. Visited a museum about Nazis in Nuremberg and a toy museum, which is Nuremberg is supposed to be famous for.

Deja Vu?

I guess Nuremberg has a huge Turkish community as well. Look at this Shisha shop.

Look how tall Shishas can be.

I found this in Ming Feng's photo album.

Something he bought for 4 Euros. He likes his funny pose. But, look at Reuben with his shades. Why did the logo block me?! I was attempting something funny as well. :/

Lego

2007-07-11T20:24:00.000+08:00

What could an Asian like me amuse people in Munich?

Few days ago, I was carrying a 20 kg sack of rice back to my hostel. Those who saw me carrying these were giggling or just asked me, "OMG...! Is that a sack of rice?!". Many angmohs were stunned to ever seen so much rice before.

Rice is essential to our diet. But, they are rather scarce and expensive over here in Western countries. They usually come in small boxes of 1 kg. We were fortunate to find a considered back home regular sized sack for only 23 Euros.

Enough about food, time to introduce my new toy. The Lego Batmobile.

I was never a Batman nor DC comics fan until now.

The Beautiful & Beasty Batmobile.

There's even Technic parts in the engine compartment. I havent installed Flash in my computer. So, no animated GIF for u all. But, just imagine the gears turning when I push the car forward. Pretty cool rite. But try to spot a missing lego block. First time I encountered a defect in lego products.

Even the flames can turn.

The size is no ordinary compared to legomen.

Indeed the force is strong in this one.

The cockpit has nice comfy seat that reclines.

The car is huge that you need 1 legoman to steer and another for the pedals.

Definitely a great buy. 60 Euros. Thats 120 Sg Dollars. It made the B-Wing I bought, that cost 80 Sg Dollars a kiddie toy. Best of all, its the most difficult lego I've ever constructed. 2 Books inside. 4 hours to construct.

I felt young again, even though I had stiff neck looking for the parts that were scattered on the floor.

As an endnote, here's an advice to the readers. Thats what I learnt from the German culture.

RECYCLE!

Kult Fabrik

2007-07-10T05:38:00.000+08:00

Kult Fabrik. In English, Cult Factory. I've been hearing about this club for weeks. So after some great dinner last Friday, Mario, Reuben, Ming Feng and I decided to find out whats so special about Ostbahnhof's Kultfabrik. FYI, this is only my 2nd time in a club in Munich. First was at Nacht Gallerie when Kat's friends visited 2 weeks ago. Throughout exchange, others were only in Berlin, Muenster and Vienna. Yeah, my nightlife is mostly restricted to only beers and wine among small group of friends.

The moment we exited the S-Bahn station, we could see a large stream of young people heading towards a similar direction. There is even a sign for it. So much for spending 5 minutes to find directions to Kultfabrik in the Net before we left.

It's unfortunate that I didn't bring my camera on that day, as my camera is bigger than the size of my palm.
From that exact directory I saw at the entrance, I realised how huge is this place. It's like a city itself! Like a Studentenstadt of clubs! Wait a minute.. when I explore around the place, there are actually seperate club management where ticketing system are different for different clubs. I expected it to be an MoS city.

We didn't have the mood to club that night so just hanged loose around bars that were ample there. Kolsch beer which is only served in Cologne is amazingly served here as well. Best of all there is a Kebab store in the middle of all the neon lights around. Price? Same as the average Munich price, 3 Euros. We were also lucky to watch a free boxing match between a German and a Russian. Surprisingly, the German won.

For the highlight of the night, we went to number 23 from the directory above. Great place. Although the entry costs 10 Euros each, the bouncer was nice enough to let one of us in to check out the place inside before we decide to enter. I decided to enter to see the inside for myself. Well, the rest is history.

It was a great and enjoyable time in KultFabrik. I won't talk about the places especially number 23 in details, one have see the place themself. Actually, let's just say, you'll hate me for not bringing my camera on that day.

Finally a gathering

2007-07-06T19:54:00.000+08:00

Great food by Jeremy(Grace's boyfriend who is visiting her for 3 weeks), great gathering in Studentenstadt, great time. Nothing much to blog about this. Just that is high time that the huge group of exchange kakis meet together. Finally the Studentenstadt kakis got to meet the Dulferstrasse kakis. Looking forward to next week's barbecue!

Click here for the photos

Apart of this, I finally updated 3 posts of my June trips!
My awesomo cycling trip in Switzerland
Muenster revisited
Berlin Trip

Finally, back to normalcy in blogging.

I'm back

2007-07-02T04:28:00.000+08:00

Ahh..Yes, it's been more than 2 weeks away from this blog. A great holiday indeed.

I dare say the period of my absence here was the most eventful part during this exchange. Many trips once again. Concerts. More clubbing. More alcohol consumption. Shelf full with empty bottles. Reminisced the good ol' days in Muenster last year. More mileage on the Autobahn. Shattering speed records with a 1.3 liter car. Completed my itenary of Germany after Berlin. Forget about Hamburg. Rediscovered Munich in the right perspective. Many friendships bounded closer. More walls being torned down. Rediscovering myself even more through friends here. Learnt new recipes to cook. Started having programming lab in school. Henry gone to Barca. My longer hair is getting hideous. Gained weight. 2 sides of my pocket became lighter. Right side, because of less money. Left side, my Nokia 6280 has gone crazy, so I had to change to my old spare small Sony Ericson handphone.

No wonder I didn't have time to blog.

I found from sitemeter.com that I had almost 200 visits the past 2 weeks of my absence. I may brag about this, but that means 200 dissapointments for the past 2 weeks. But, I'll take the chance to appreciate the visits by various places recently(very surprising!) like, Germany, Malaysia, Singapore, US sometimes(California), Italy!, Australia(Perth, Sydney and Melbourne), United Kingdom!, and once, Thailand! Thank you. Thank you. These visits are like continuous support for me in keeping me motivated in the blogging culture, which something I hated last year. **Those attention seeking bastards.** =)

The question is... will I update these events as backdated post? Only time will tell..

Today, we went to Germany's Legoland.

Just click on the picture to link to the photo gallery.

29.50 Euros entry to this amusement park which is 1.5 hours away from Munich. Mediciore rides. No, the rides/rollercoaster are not made of Lego bricks! But great presentation of anything they could produce from Lego bricks. Clearly, the smartest and most innovative toy company in the world. Still manage to sell their overpriced toy, that is made of cheap materials to adults and old people, like me who bought a 60 Euro Lego Batmobile.

How am I gonna bring this big box back home? I haven't thought about it yet. =)

Berlin

2007-06-24T18:40:00.000+08:00

Since almost everyone has been to Berlin before and had recommended me the places of interest there, I'll just give a short summary of our Berlin trip. Initially, it was planned that me and Grace go to Berlin for 2 nights by trying "Mitfahrer", that is something like hitch hiking system in an organised manner.

The Berlin Train Station

Then I found that Jun Ming, my hall kaki, gonna visit me around that period. So, I recommended him to join us. So, he took a train trip himself, since both me and Grace had the hitchhiker trip already.

We stayed at A&O hostel. Not the central 1 but the Eastern side. Where the communist East Berlin used to be. It was an experience to see another side of Berlin. Runned down buildings. Cheap kebabs. Cheap breakfast. Urine smell everywhere. But, the main reason I chose that location was the happening night spots are in this area.

First day

Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, Brandenburg Gate, Reichstag(Parliment building), Walked along the 17th June Street without my jacket, explored the night spots in the east Berlin(instead of doing a Pub crawl, we walked around instead)

Second day

Checkpoint Charlie- It's pretty hot inside and lots of exhibits to read. Many interesting ways of escaping the East side were displayed. Tons of fun like watching Prison Break. Besides climbing the Berlin wall, theres digging tunnels, using diving gears, hot air balloon, ramming the wall with a bulletproof truck, hiding oneself in suitcases and etc. Was supposed to be a place where you feel sorry for the Berliners. But, I had to applaud the escapees or those who failed. The best part was about this guy who escaped to the prosperous West side by tunnelling and 20 years later he became a successful physicist and went to space. That was the only part that touched me.

Jewish Museum- Clearly after a nasty holocaust, anti-semitism awareness was important in this museum. Mel Gibson should pay a visit inside too. Okler, it's the most modern looking museum Ive ever visited.

Thats Jun Ming in Sony Center. Where IMAX theatere is.

Then we were looking for clubs in Berlin. However, most of the famous ones we visited were having gay and lesbian night. I thought Cologne is already the gay capital of Germany. But, later I found out that there was a homosexual parade the day before. In the end we found 1 near our hostel and clubbed until 5 am. Nice atmosphere, but the music was lousy.

Third day
Jun Ming flew off to Paris early in the morning. Our driver sets off at 6 pm. So, we tried to explore the rest of Berlin as much as possible. Like, the Berlin cathedral, a shopping district of Berlin, and the vicinity of Zoological Gardens. Then finally our trip was over.

Now I know why so many people recommended me Berlin. It has the interesting architecture and history. Though it's not as prosperous as Munich, Berlin will be a force to be reckoned with in time to come. More cosmopolitan than Munich that I could speak English most of the time. I'm sure Berlin will top London in the next ten years with its excitement. But right now, Berlin can still be improved.

I O U

2007-06-19T23:50:00.000+08:00

Dear Diary,

I'm deeply deeply sorry for my lack of attention and affection for you lately. Many things have happened lately, especially the free-falling of your visiting rates. This may seem hard on you, but I have some other issues to attend to this time. So, please don't let anyone question my commitment towards you.

I hate to admit that I won't be updating you for the next few days once again. Tomorrow I'll be expecting another Singaporean visitor, who will bunk over at my place for 2 nights. He's Jun Ming. I was digging through my old photo album for a picture of him. This is what I found.

2 years ago. Haha.. I miss my Shisha actually. It was accidentally dropped while I was cleaning my room.

So, I'll be owing you few posts once I return from Berlin this coming weekend. Till then, stay online always!

Yours truly,
Ian Han
Your sad and busy blogger

Muenster Revisited

2007-06-15T19:22:00.000+08:00

We rented a car once again. Only 100 Euros for 1 whole weekend with GPS included. But, this time, it was a 1.3 Daihatsu Sirion. So, Autobahn thrills were severely limited.

But driving on the Autobahn wasnt the main test. It was finally time I drove manual car independently around the streets of Europe, where traffic lights and pedestrians are everywhere. Wilson gave Grace and I the honor to be the drivers of this trip. Everyones safety was in my hands which had no experience with manual cars except during driving lesson 5 years ago.

Luckily, in Europe, when the traffic lights turned from red to green, the yellow light will flash first. So, I could start doing the balancing trick of the clutch before it turns green, or I had more time to start my engine if the engine died.

Grace drove initially. I think she didnt make the engine died once. That is because, she just passed her driving test few months ago.

As for me, I had to admit I can't count the number of times my engine died. But, I think it was only 3 times that the car behind horned me in traffic lights. There were some other problems when I tried to reverse the car. Demoralised, I felt like pasting the "P" (probation) sign on the car at that point.

The only thing I'm proud of during this driving trip.

Even Wilson was excited.

Look at the sheer ecstasy in him.

Check out his super saiya hairstyle after that. Hohoho.

We visited Eagles Nest and Cologne along the way. Then we finally reached Muenster, where I used to stay for 3.5 weeks last year during immersion program.

I visited my host mother whom I looked forward to see her again. The feeling was great. It was like homecoming. The memories of a small town was still intact. I still remembered the tour guides we had around the small town last year. So, being a "tour guide" for the Wilson, Kat and Grace was no problem.

My second best trip after the swiss cycling trip definitely. I got to see familiar places like Go-Parc, Aasee, Christiane's home, the churches and cathedrals, the Promenade, and even the nice graveyard next to Aasee once again. I bet my other immersion program mates can't disagree.

Short update

2007-06-13T19:02:00.000+08:00

My stomach's feeling upset now after eating too much chilli back to back for lunch and dinner yesterday. Hopefully I can finish this post before I have to storm into the toilet again.

Good news is... my imersion host mother, Christiane Pott replied to me really fast this morning. I'll be driving up to Koln and at the same time return to Muenster, where I once stayed there for 3.5 weeks last year. Talking about killing 2 birds with a stone in this trip.

That's us. To the right is Boon Song, another NUS student friend who I stayed with during imersion. We were under the same host family. Feeling excited now.

Now back to my road trip. We didn't do much in Zurich, apart from shopping there. Most clothes there are slightly cheaper than the same ones in Germany. So, we took the chance to shop for summer clothing. So far, these are the clothes I bought...

Guess what she's doing..

It's a special device innovated by the Germans to communicate with someone else by just a hanging string.

Noler, its just her smelling some sample of coffee beans inside the sphere in the coffee museum in Zurich. Quite interesting especially when they feature some commercials for coffee from the 50s to present day. Still remember the classic Nescafe theme song? Good old days.

Next post is about Hiking up of the hills near Jungfrau(means Virgin) Mountains.

Remainder of road trip

2007-06-13T00:51:00.000+08:00

**** This is my first backdated update, it has been 4 weeks. So, remembering what happened is pretty hard now****

After our mediciore trip to Zurich, Kat drove us to 1 of the mountain region of the Alps, called Jungfrau. That's where Interlaken city is, which I didn't know where was that even after this trip. Which was a great thing, because we drove straight up to a small town, Grindelwald, which is much nearer to where the action is. Interlaken is where the nearest train station is. So, the car rental was a great idea after all.

Driving up these mountains towards Grindelwald was a new awesome experience for Kat definitely. Even if I didnt get to drive that day, checking out sceneries was also an awesome experience.

Halfway up there, we stopped by to take some pictures after we couldnt bear to miss such scenery.

We learnt not to worry so much about that.
The best sceneries are all up there.

Real reflection. No photoshop. Too bad I wasnt there though. Only Kat witnessed this marvel, while the we guys were struggling up the mountains with our bikes.

Nice little houses by the mountains

I guess more pictures will bore readers more. So, I'll proceed to the best part of the trip.

1 highlight has to be scaling up the high mountains by 3 forms of transportation.
First was driving up without my license. I guess their mountain ranger wouldnt pick on us there.

Amazing.. notice that the GPS is still functioning for a remote area like this.

Second was cycling up around 1000m of height to a small town above from Grindelwald, when we rented a bike for 40 Swiss Francs a day. I dare say that even with a trip to Muenster and Berlin after that, this has to be the best moment in my exchange life.

Third form of transport was walking up there after 75% of the journey, when my legs began to take its toll.

Hee... that's not me though. It was Theodore who gave up only after 2% of the journey. Not because he's unfit, but one needs to know how to use the gears of the bicycle well. They don't call a mountain bike for nothing in this case. But, I had the same problem later in the journey. While Wilson being determined to cycle all the way up, I was pushing my bike the rest of the journey.

This was how high we cycled. The area where the houses are below was our starting point.

Even the cows ~~lazing~~ grazing around made me feel that life's is not about pushing hard so much. So, I sat and enjoyed the breeze and scenery.

Truth is.. my legs and butt were killing me! Pleasure cycle has turned to a freaking marathon for me now.

I spotted this guys who had a punctured tyre. I think my situation is much worse than him now.

I was determined to finish this even 3 hours had already passed. Before we set off trip actually, we asked a tourist information girl about this trip initially. According to her, she cycle this route last year and it took her only 1 hour 40 minutes! Thats half of my duration! Those Swiss are darn healthy la. I had few motivation and words of encouragement by some old people or ladies who cycled past me. Was it motivation or just himulation?

Anyway, after almost 3 hours and 40 minutes and world class sceneries, I saw the MOST BEAUTIFUL SIGHT ever...

Finishing point! Theodore reached first cos he took a bus up to the 2nd last stop and continued. Wilson finished 15 mins later. I reached half an hour later.

Could be the best meal in my life. I was so hungry pushing the bicycle up the slope. Finest Swiss Rosti. Much better than Marche's. Max the carbohydrate. Max the ommph.

Later after replenishing our energy, we cycled back using a different route hoping to meet Kat who is hiking down along the way.

Unfortunately, there were still upslopes on our way down, cos we needed to cross over to the otherside of the mountain. So, we didnt meet Kat along the way.

That long stretch of pass lagged us for another 1 hour. But the rest of the downward slope was fun and dangerous. Luckily, my brakes were disc brakes. There was 1 point, Theodore locked his brakes on steep gravel road, that he almost crashed into the doors of the cable car station. We were laughing our asses off, the whole scene looks damn funny.

Wanna know how fun downslope is? From the top of the portion of the hill in this picture to the spot we took this shot, it took us less than 5 minutes.

We actually scheduled to leave this place on the same day evening. But, due to exhaustion, we stayed another night. Clearly, the main reason was we were quite attached to this place already. Definitely a 5/5 rating trip for me!

Road Trip part 2

2007-06-12T14:08:00.000+08:00

Just a short update, because I'll have a mini German test later. Wish me luck!
If the post is too short for you, here's my updated photo album to keep you entertained. Please do check out Jungfrau Mountain album and my cycling photos.

Back from the last post. The rental may be cheap (140 euros for 5 days that is), but we had to pay 145 Euros total for petrol. Well, I'm not complaining, but that's how it is when driving outside Malaysia.

So overall, we paid 71.40 Euros per person. That's really worth it, considering how many Swiss towns we visited. We even drove up the mountain top instead of taking cable car that costs around 7 Euros a time.

1 thing interesting is that based on car rental policy, every returning cars must be pumped with full tank. so, when we acquired the car, the car was already full tank. Not like, in Langkawi, when we rented cars there, we had to rush to a nearest petrol kiosk before the car runs dry. it's because some kiasu people would make full use of the petrol before returning.

So, we stopped by Freiburg, which is near the Swiss border. Look. Their longkang(drain) is so nice. They even have a saying that, if you accidentally step into it, you'll marry a Freiburger. How sweet.

That's why they don't need steel covers like in KL. Maybe DBKL or MBPJ can come up with this kind of crappy story, so they won't receive so many letters of complaints when someone or even a car falls into an exposed longkang.

We stopped by Schafhausen, in Switzerland. My second time there and I have not blog about it yet. I guess I don't have to blog about the first 1 anymore. =)

Only landmark there is Rhine Falls. Not a really big waterfall. Just that it has the proximity of it for tourists. Look how close was I to the waterfall.

I saw some Indians who bathing by the waterfall also. Suddenly, I felt this place has Hindu blessings.

Stayed over in Zurich. Tried to enquire the cheapest accomodation, but we didn't know that we need to bring tents to pitch. It's a camping spot! So, we had to settle for a hotel in the end and the idea of sleeping in the car didn't materialise after all.

Road Trip

2007-06-11T06:04:00.000+08:00

That's us. From left, me, Theodore (a Greek, not Spartan), Kat, and Wilson.

Just came back from our 4 Day road trip. It was from Munich-Freiburg-Schaffhausen-Zurich-Grindelwald(somewhere in the Alps)-Bern-Basel-Karlsruhe-Munich.

This explains why our car rental is so cheap. No, not only the 28 euros sticker, but the amount of "advertising" services we did for their company. We surely did a great advertising for the rental company across Germany and Switzerland. Even some local approached us and asked us whether he can rent this car from us.

An ugly car topped with ugly stickers all around. So unglam.

If there were a suggestion box inside the rented car. I would suggest to them to improve their layout of stickers to something like this.

Decals! Surely a win-win situation. Make their advertisement sporty and impressive for advertising. Also can make customers satisfied.

Anyway, that car we rented is an Opel Meriva 1.6 Liter. If the Meriva sounds familiar to you, here it is.

So our car was once affiliated with the current European Champions. So it's quite a branded car leh. =)

But best fact has to be that it was the first time me sitting inside a CAR since i'm in Germany. That is 2 months not in a car! So, I was worried that I might not be used to its claustrophobic experience or excessive carbon monoxide or something like that.

Best of all.. the car is in manual transmission.

My first time using a GPS! Just choose a specific address in anywhere of Germany or Switzerland, then a nice woman voice will tell you where to go. *Turn left now* *Be prepared to turn 'half-right'*. Even there's *Please notice the speed limit* as a reminder.

Yup, 160 kmh.. even its a small little Meriva, this could be done easily in Autobahn (Germany's highway which there's no speed limit). The car reached to 180kmh once, but I couldn't take a good shot while the whole car was shaky. There is a cool feature in the car that automatically raises the radio volume proportionally to the speed of the car to counter the wind sounds when we tried to break the sound barrier along the Autobahn. =)

Only Wilson drove along the Autobahn. While I missed the chance to do so, cos I left my drivers license in Malaysia. Doh'. I conveniently discarded my license at home, thinking that I wouldn't drive in Germany.

Well, nothings all lost, when I still can find time to take good scenery photos from the moving car.

I may bore you all or not with more of these photos in the upcoming posts, but being the best trip I had this semester so far allows me some bragging rights for next few posts. =)

On a sidenote, special thanks to my Dad who helped to send my license by DHL. I may expect it to arrive 2 days time. Hopefully, I can lose my Autobahn virginity soon!

Another thing is.. before I forget... after checking Yahoogroups. Here are the belated birthday wishes that I missed throughout my absence in my road trip.

To Jit Wei (Beside me). My exclassmate since Form 3.

Alex Chen. Who is still in Melbourne researching on ways to improve men's libido. =) All the best there! My classmate neighbour from form 3 to form 5.

To Yoong Yit. Who just finished NUS recently. My exclassmate for 2 years.

and Siew Ching. My classmate since form 2. Sorry that I can't go to London again this year. Europe is still pretty huge to explore.

Happy 23rd Birthday!

2 classes canceled this week

2007-06-07T04:13:00.000+08:00

Perfect. To further add to the headline, thursday's a holiday as well. =) So it was a relaxing week for me. Had barbecue with Wilson's angmoh friends near the Munich zoo.

Sorry. There's no pictures on this 1, until I get them from Kat. No picture, no write-ups in my blog. That's my blogging style. 50% picture, 50% text. Thats my blogging rule of balance not only to keep readers entertained, but also to prevent myself from sleeping while typing thisssssszzzzzzzz...... I guess I'm typing too long already.

Anyways, I was too free, so I played around with photoshop. It's been a while doing that.

I was inspired by an adidas advertisement I saw last year and recently a wall collage in the Munich City Museum.

This was just out of pure fun. No photoshop skills. Waylon was caught yawning when grace took this picture in Venice. From the pic, you can tell that..."Don't let boredom overcome you in holidays."

Hehe.. no punt intended on Waylon. Just so happened that he has all the right pose at the right time. Unlike me, who just stand, put hand in pocket and smile in front of the camera.

Tomorrow, I'll be setting off for our road trip! Woot!.. I wonder how is it like. 4 days non-stop around Switzerland. Sweet Chocolaty Switzerland. Before signing off here's my recently updated, but backdated trip post. http://ian-han.blogspot.com/2007/05/major-trip-part-3-ruegen-island.html

Found something

2007-06-04T20:53:00.000+08:00

I was browsing around peoples blog until I realised Doug got a new blog!

http://www.xanga.com/douglas_tan

New life, new love, new job, new blog eh.. Well done!
Hooray! More sources to get myself updated for events in Malaysia.

Was rushing my ass of for class just now. So proud that I made it on time punctually, until I realised that today there's no class, while there will be a replacement next week. Doh'! So much for rushing of my homework today.

At least today, because of that, we had an earlier dinner, while watching MTV movie awards.

Featuring, the best kiss event..... Will Farrell and Sacha Baron Cohen! Warning, explicit content! heh..

A notable spoof done by some amateurs. Everyone loves to do a 300 spoof. But I must say this is the best so far: United 300!

Later we tried some rum offered by Mario's french hostelmate, Jerome. Strong stuff, 48 percent! Cool thing is that it's made out of sugar cane. The packaging in a box dispenser is quite cool also. Later, Jerome, a canadian, Jeff and I drank and chatted about our misfortunes of speaking German with Germans. It's fun to talk easy and slow paced German with angmohs. It's like setting difficulty level lower, while the experience is still there.

On Wednesday night, will be setting off for a road trip with Kat, Wilson and his kaki. I'll be back around Sunday night. Till then.

Battlefield Europe

2007-06-03T06:38:00.000+08:00

No. It's not Axis vs Allies in World War 3. Nor the Black Death Plague. It just shows my progress in "conquering" Europe, not in this exchange program alone, but in my lifetime. Yes. I've been to Europe three times already, but the red coloured countries are the only countries I've visited. Surprised me for while. The light brown ones are the ones that my exchange friend have visited generally. Europe is not small after all.

Maybe I should close my eyes and point a country randomly for a trip in July? Fun right. Don't be surprised when you suddenly see a red dot near Russia or Bosnia! Or maybe Iceland! Whee.. Nevermind if I fail to conquer, Holland should be painted RED soon! Time to paint Amsterdam red. Oh wait, their district in Amsterdam already in red colour. Opps Hehe..

Another observation from this map is that Munich is right in the center of the map. Clearly, offense in the Eastern front is not doing well. Nevertheless, an all-out attack on Amsterdam should be carried out first to gather some essential "goodies and supplies" that clearly defines that Eurotrip should be. =) and I'm talking about delicious desserts and truffles la. Like what my friend recommended. =)

I'm shrinking!

2007-06-01T16:24:00.000+08:00

I'm missing those chances of going to gyms back in Singapore or Malaysia. The nearest gym which is in my hostel costs 5 euros per visit. Yes, PER VISIT! That is 23 freaking ringgit just to pump iron! No wonder, I've been so free blogging around while I can spend my free time in the gym.

Maybe I should start doing daily pushups again.

There are many things I miss about home, but surprisingly, the exception is FOOD. The thing I miss most is my favourite past time: Pool. Gone were days when I would chill out in the pool room in my hall. In Reugen, I finally got some piece of action in the hostel. The price is not bad, 1 Euro coin for every game. In Malaysia, its 3 ringgit. Singapore 2 dollars. Not as expensive as I expected.

Snooker is still my favourite game. But lack of practice means no more snooker.

Friendships back in hall, Singapore. This was my farewell gathering@ the roof top. Really looking forward to return to hall, just be a 'retiree' senior and have fun.

Z-PARC in Malaysia. This was taken in Langkawi, 2006. No matter how bad the weather was or too short the trip was, it's still the best holiday I had in the year eventhough I had a Eurotrip then. Company is still the best. So, anymore trips end of this year? Please don't plan 1 while im here! Where's my shirt?

Family. But I think they miss me more than I do.

Rag. Yeah.. I'm not those sentimental type of person like my fellow rag kakis. But, I surely miss rag as much as them right now, since there is a chance I won't be able to witness this years rag.
Check out the video that we made. We unexpectedly won 200 dollars for that when Yenbin just sent our video to some competition without us knowing. Haha.. good job.

I'm wanting to blog about Ruegen Island trip and last night's gathering, but I'm still lacking of photos. This is the first time where I'm actually waiting to blog, rather than my blog waiting for me always.

My first ordinary post

2007-05-31T04:56:00.001+08:00

Finally a simple daily blog post. Nothing fancy about any trips in this post. Just an update from yesterday. But clearly a moment that I've been waiting for. Wanna know? Read on. From chronological order, 12 am: Right after I had a noodle made by Mario and returned from Ruegen, I watched Lost's season finale.

Shouldnt type anything more about it. A real shocking part in the end, even if you know that Lost is continuing for the next 3 seasons until 2010. I shall end here.. if not ill see some hate messages in my chatterbox. But before that.. hehe, I must say the episode is damn good, well written and much better season finale than the other past 2 seasons. Ok.. done.

As you know season finales are mostly 2 episodes long, so I slept around 3 am and woke up around 8 something for grocery shopping. So, I had a major headache all the way and further fueled by the pouring rain and chilling winds. But, it was instantly cured unexpectedly when I was forced to carry 6 bottles of wine plus 6 bottles of coke. Thats 1.5 x 6 litres + 1 x 6 litres = 15 kg, in a box, while enduring the cold winds and rain. Sure adreneline rush killed off the headache instantly. But I shouldnt complain about the weight. Reuben carried 20 kg sack of rice while holding an umbrella. RESPECT.

Aldi. Grocery shopping in Germany for foreign students made easy and cheap. Eat Aldi. Drink Aldi. Buy Aldi. Even theres Talk Aldi. Serious! They have their own prepaid service also, which Im using now. But with lousy reception.

After a good meal, had the moment that I've been waiting for...

Notice that I've been wearing cap always.

Tada! No more cap! and new haircut! No more hiding my overgrown hair beneath the darkness in my cap.

Noler, I'm not a vain person. Must show and be proud of my new hair for a friend who cut my hair. Besides, she also cut another friends hair, Wilson's.

That's Grace. Our "freelance hairstylist". Must stress these 2 words because she really put an effort to style our hair and its free. It was all done in my room with newspapers laid on the floor.

Yikes!

Thanks a lot Grace! Comments are welcomed in my chatterbox. Not because I'm vain or bimbotic, but all these comments are good (hopefull all) inputs for my friend. As by me, I say its pretty good, but she needs a new pair of scissors that is sharper, so that it doesnt pull peoples hair while cutting.

At night, we watched Pirates: World's End

Starring Chow Yun Fatt and Johnny Depp

Like the other Pirates film, this 1 has the most complex plot where many of the characters changed sides from good to bad or vice versa. But forgiven le.. since pirates are meant to be cunning. Shouldnt talk so much about this film. Just sit back and enjoy the jokes and action.

The cinema costs only 5 euros for a normal movie. Not bad le.. Its like watching cineleisure in Singapore, but getting to watch some funny German premovie advertisements is the best la.

Major Trip part 3: Ruegen Island

2007-05-30T07:14:00.000+08:00

Finally! I can update my Ruegen Trip blogpost. Thanks to Chong Wee for compiling and burning all the photos by the rest and I. He even did a nice cover for us.

After going to some world famous places like Salzburg, Vienna and Venice, I settled for a somewhat unique and different trip to an island. Ruegen Island is only famous for being the largest island in Germany. It's located in the north of Germany. So, it took 11 hours to reach there and we had to depart at 620 am!

There's the regular 4 of us. The train towards our last stop was only 2 carriages long. This shows how remote Ruegen Island is. 4 of us met in the subway station before we meet the rest at 6 am.

Incidentally, the night before we left, there was a huge Studentenstadt Culum, something like beer+concerts+sausages+kebabs+games festival right at my doorstep.

1 of the concerts. I decided to sleep early cos of the fear of missing the train. But, the other 3 partied on until much later. Apparently, while I was sleeping, they had some beer drinking duel on each other. Girls should know that challenging guys in alcohol drink is always futile. So, poor Wilson the guy had to take care of them by bringing them up to the hostel to sleep and then wake one of them who was drunk up single handedly, while I had my sweet sleep. Kudos to Wilson!

So our trip went without a hitch.

So, we reached our destination at 530 pm. 1 day wasted on the train!

We checked into our hostels. 5 beds. 2 double-deckers. Wilson is so happy being on top sleeping. While I prefer bottom.

We took a stroll around Ruegen's finest parks. Check out the ripples. No inteference sia.

A little R&R.

Is this pespective trick? She may be small, but lets see if we compare with my height.

Hmm.. maybe there's no trick afterall. Btw.. Jialin is a full time student in Munich. Not an exchange student like us. So don't mess with her German. She's in the same spanish class as me.

We also took a boat. Not a cruise like they promised. Oh well, it was fun though.

This is me after the next stop. The rest were still on the boat, and took a photo of me. Yes, it's amazing that my pale-faced and seasick-look still managed to put up a smile and wave at them goodbye. What to do... a man must always show that he's strong from puking on a rocky boat.

There was kareoke session also. There was "Scissor Sisters - Don't feel like dancing" in the machine. But, I failed miserably.

We sat on a steam train for a short thrill.

The best part of the trip: Beach games! Played volleyball and frisbee. I even tried swimming in the sea with some of the juniors. It was so cold that I suggested a survival game, that the last man in the cold water wins. Nah.. I almost win.

Every night there will be card sessions. Mostly bridge. Sometimes asshole-taidi.

The best has to be poker- texas hold'em. (The 1 where James Bond played in casino royale) Instead of using poker chips, we used Haribo Gummy Bears. Innovative huh. No, the winner did not eat them.

Very convenient. Anywhere also can play.

The trip wasn't exactly happening as expected. But, at least I gained some things.

1) Know that many Singaporeans study in Germany. Germany is still popular among middle eastern and China students.

2) Gotta know the current exchange students better. Like Wilson, Jieming, Chong Wee, Yu Cheng and also Grace. Hee..

3) I managed to experience beach life which it's usually unthinkable in Germany.

4) Learnt some tricks in Bridge.

5) Found out that my photography skills need to be improved! Gotta thank Chong Wee again for the photos! The photos taken by others like Chong Wee, Raymond and Jieming are great! For instance, the 3rd picture of this post (the pier) was taken by Jieming. Not me! Wanna see mine?

The angle should be improved. Oh.. wait.. maybe it's because of the person in front! =P

Major Trip part 2: Venice, Italy

2007-05-24T23:30:00.000+08:00

V for Vienna and Venice! Finally my big V-Trip is over.

Voila! Allow me to introduce Venice.

A Vanity city, with great View, and the Vanguard of all cities with canals. Even Dubai's Very big Palm Island cant top it for sure. The island may be small, but it ain't a Village. Visitors would be Victims of getting lost Venturing around the city without a map. It's impossible for Vehicles like cars and Vans to be in the city. This city may not have Vivid colours in its surroundings/ buildings nor Varying building styles, the combination of an old city with canals and narrow roads makes it Very special. Too beautiful to expect Vandalism there. Violin players everywhere. Venezia in Italian. Venedig in German. It's still the big V in the end.

Venice. A great Vacation to Visit. Great Value for money even though prices here can be Viciously expensive. Venice. That's all the V I have out of my Vocabulary.

Ok. I may have made Venice further over-rated like what many people have commented. I do agree it can over-rated for many backpackers or low-budget tourists. This is because Venice is ideally for Honey-mooners, cultured people and well-off people (not like us). It's a great place to chill in cafes drinking 2.50 euro cappucinos, on top of paying 5-10 euros for sitting outside. I'm serious! We even saw american tourists doing their own makeshift accapella performance by the streets to finance their further travel plans in venice.

We could have sat this gondola. It's around 78 euros for 4 of us in total plus some further payment as tips to the gondola rider. On top of that, it's only 50 minutes ride. Next time I'll just buy and bring an inflatable rubber sampan.

Then we could have our own "private" boat and park around as we please.

Venice is also famous for narrow roads everywhere. So, you'll see human-traffic jam sometimes. This is because Venice was built hundreds of years ago. So, further renovation or development is impossible.

No, not this narrow. Its just us using a shortcut.

This narrow. This is average only. Can be half is this. Reminds me of playing cs_italy in Counterstrike last time, not only because of the lanes but I was able to hear some classical music around. Sorry, didn't see any chickens to kill though.

Venice is also famous for masks like these. It's based on their history in Venice where there was a man named Casanova (now I know where the word came from). Check the story about him here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casanova . Quite interesting. But after reading that, please continue reading my blog ya. I even bought 1 for my mum as a souvenir because it looks like a clown. Sadly, I only bought a palm sized mask, while a life size mask costs over 50 euros.

Sighz.. damn blardy expensive ler this place. But we still had a great time there by doing economical activities. Besides visiting those boring cathedrals, we...

ate at a decent restaurant after eating pizzas in cafes. 14.50 Euros for a 4 course meal + 2.50 Euros for the open air ambience. Notice that we were just drinking plain water.

bought the cheapest souvenir there. Around 40 cents each. Venice is also famous for glass making. So this is the smallest glass souvenir they have.
Good to give friends. I didnt buy though. Cos, I spent my last remaining money for my mum's mask. Grace bought quite a lot of them.

ate 6-7 Gelatos there. Finally, something cheaper here. Only 1 Euro each.

tried an Italian special drink called "Spritze". Not bad and it's sweet.

Besides walking around, we took some time of to rest anywere we could sit.

Hang around on the bridge.

Enjoyed great views during sunset.

Jason bought a spongy thing from a guy who sold it on the bridge.

Although we had to stay in this pricey hotel (68 euros for 2 nights), the view was awesome since it's right in the city center. So we also took some time to chill in our hotel to enjoy the sceneries and cam-whore.

Swim? Hee... no way. The canals may look clean without floating rubbish, but the sewerage and toilet system of Venice is still not perfect. In other words, the waters are not clear, even if people dont litter rubbish inside.

Vatican City may have the pope. But it's Venice that has the overwhelming pigeons!

Don't I look caring towards animals?

Quite cool pose... by the pigeons.

Most importantly, the company that I travelled with made my trip worth. Thanks, guys and girl.

Next up. Major trip part 3: Ruegen Island. I'll be away tomorrow early morning till monday. Hopefully less travelling next month. Too tired already.

Till then.

Major trip part 1: Vienna, Austria

2007-05-23T22:09:00.001+08:00

Ok. So Vienna is only 5 hours away. So this trip is not so major le.. Just that I hope this trip would be considered "major", so that no further "major" spending in future trips. I have done the following trips so far...

1) Fuessen, Neuschwanstein Castle
2) Salzburg
3) Konstanz + Schaffhausen (not updated yet)

Thanks to Jeremy(left) for showing us around Konstanz. Even though our visit was planned last minute. =)

4) Stuttgart (not updated yet)
5) Vienna
6) Venice

Sorry, I always have to do a recap because of my irregular updating.
Future trips...
7) Ruegen Island (north of Germany)

Proposed trips.. (if have time and monay le)
8) Cologne and Muenster (again! whee)
9) Berlin
10) Amsterdam
11) Dubai =) (if I can change my Emirates Flight)

Firstly, introducing those who visited me last week...

1) Jaburu, who won the business competition in Riga with Veron and Adi. Congrats! and sorry for the misintepreted arrival time.

2) Waylon, on the next day to join us for this trip.

Thanks for visiting yea! It's an honor to have someone to fly all the way to Munich to visit me.. hee.. But, I realised that entertaining friends in a foreign soil, which I'm only 1.5 months experienced here while studying and upkeeping my own chores here is not easy le.. So, for those who want to visit me, your 'application' will be revised by me thoroughly.. heee..

Ok! back to the main topic. Vienna. City of Classical Music, Gardens, Royalties (because one of them's death started World War 1), Palaces, Museums, Arts... So why was I still there, you'll ask?
After visiting significant landmarks like the Schloss Schoenbrunn, Hundertwasserhaus, Hofburg Palace, Augustiner Church.. etc..i realised: forget about art, history, mozarts, musuems...

Just be a cam-whore in front of buildings, landmarks and statues that I have no idea what they are and make your friends get plunged into a vast green pool of envy.

So fun. Can be a 'boy-band'.

Had a Gulasch

Stayed in a nice hostel room which is like an attic.

Of course, we cam-whored ourselves with vienna's finest statues.

Horse carraiges are popular in Vienna

Apart from cam-whoring, I lost my opera-virginity. Yeap... can't believe they were so happy when we purchased a 35 euro opera+classical ticket from this man!

During the half-time of the opera, a small celebration by me and Waylon for being able to stay awake.

In the end, the show was not bad le.. thanks to the emcee who interact with the audience and the songs they played that are quite famous actually (they are classical songs).

We also went to a huge theme park. Only ride I took and that interests me was this 1. Cos instead of sitting position, we had to lie down in this roller coaster. Also, this roller coaster is brought up by a single turning pole that moves the vehicle round a spiral track. Very smart.

Lastly, we leart how to make apple-strudels in a palace. But, I better learn to bake normal cakes first.

I almost forgot to introduce me and my travel mates in this trip: From left, Grace, a baker-lady(not with us), Waylon, Me and Jason. Just read their post on vienna in their respective blogs to know more.

Happy Mother's Day!

2007-05-14T15:58:00.000+08:00

Just got back from Stuttgart and Switzerland yesterday. Damn tired. Here's a belated Happy Mother's Day to every mothers in the world. But most importantly, this greeting goes to 1 mother that made everything possible in my life. =)

To Blog more?

2007-05-09T19:49:00.000+08:00

Blogging? I never liked writing, let alone blogging for outside people to read. As a low-profiled peason, blogging used to be the last thing I would consider. But for now, Im too free to blog some updates before I lose my mood to blog again. During this exchange program, my timetable is quite bizarre,

Monday- 3 lectures that spans from morning till evening
Tuesday- 3 lectures (same as monday)
Wednesday- 1 lecture (evening)
Thursday - 1 lecture (early morning)
Friday - no class

Effectively, I have 2 full lecture days. My weekends are not considered as my free day, as this are period for me to travel to some other towns. (Salzburg 2 weeks ago, Zurich this coming week, Vienna and Venice the following week, Ruegen Island end of this month). So that leaves Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays to rest or travel in future.

Okie, time to update on what I have done for the past 2 weeks. Click on the links.

1) Spring fest in Munich

2) Salzburg Trip

3) Dachau Concentration Camp

4) Fell sick

5) Watch football in Allianz Arena

6) Singapores Stammtisch

Jogging in cold weather is bad

2007-05-02T17:52:00.000+08:00

Today, I jogged in the English Gardens, which next to my hostel. Dont ask me why its called English. Even the directory for the garden below is in German.

Like I used to jog in West Coast Park frequently during my healthy days, I planned to do the same right here. Life's pretty good here when there's good beer and ample food daily. So, some form of exercise should be essential... I don't think walking and getting lost around munich which I'm good at would burn enough calories.

From the map you see, I jogged 1/4 of the map.... Don't laugh ok. I did a measurement from Google Earth. That was around 2.7 km. Not bad for a start yea... :)

However, the after effects was pretty bad. Somehow, I'm just not used to cardio exercise while breathing cold air. So, I ended up coughing a lot right after the jog. Then 3 days of running nose.
Maybe I should wait till summer. Till then, just witness the physical transformation of me. =)

Dachau Concentration Camp

2007-05-01T21:49:00.000+08:00

Concentration Camp. The perfect sign of Nazi's attrocities. A small peaceful little town's reputation was forever changed by this establishment.

No, it's not a mass-orgy. This art piece represents the heap of dead bodies (Jews, French, Gypsies, Homosexuals.. list goes on) that were left exposed when the crematarium became too busy. All thanks to 1 man who visioned a better Germany for his future.

Click here for photos on what me, Mario and Reuben saw over there.

"Arbeit macht frei" means work in this place will grant your freedom. The lamest way to cheat the inmates by giving them false hopes.

Salzburg Trip

2007-04-29T23:22:00.000+08:00

Piece of advice for exchange students in Munich: Drop by Salzburg for a day or two! Even you're not a Mozart fan or dying to look for happening clubs in Salzburg until you realised that Salzburg lacks the action for night life, just buy a damn Bayern ticket(27 Euros for max 5 ppl) and the train for 2 hours+ only! No way you could miss a UNESCO certified city which is so near to Munich.

No need professional photographers or DSLR cameras, Salzburg sceneries can offer what normal tourists with cheap cameras need. :-)

For some of those who are planning to travel to Salzburg for a day (recommended), here are the places you could visit...

1) Festung Hohensalzburg (Salzburgs fortress)

While Paris has its Eiffel Tower, and KL with Petronas Twin Towers, this fortress has been (and still) a landmark for Salzburg since its foundation. Plus, it a landmark that cant be missed from any parts of Salzburg.

The fortress from the square

From the otherside of the city

From the streets at night. Cool photo, as though the car is shooting lasers.

Besides listening to some educational tours around the fortress, can chill at the fortress, drink beer and enjoy the view.

2) Mozarts birthplace and house

If you're a fan of classical music, then another place not to be missed.

3) Walking along the old streets

Walking around this place is also enough to make your trip worthwhile.

4) Mirabell Palace

Nothing much about this palace, but the gardens are great.

2nd day

If your Salzburg trip is gonna last for more than a day, have a great accomodation at Yo-Ho hostels. Only around 19 Euros for Triple/Quad room. A perfect testimonial by Mario: "The best bed I've ever slept on in Europe so far!". (That is because his bed mattress cannot make it)

Then 2nd day should be the day for excursions outside Salzburg. Many great tours are organised in English.

If you're a Sound of Music fan, then you should go for that tour that takes tourists around the locations of filming like the Von Trapp mansion, or the hills where the girl sang. Another place would be Schloss Hellbrunn that my friend, Grace went.

If you don't fancy the Sound of Music like us, then a visit to the Bavarian Alps shouldnt be missed. Although its in Germany, its just a short journey there and the view from the bus is breathtaking. They should remove the windows for the bus, so that my photos of the sceneries from the bus wont have reflections.

We visited the salt-mines and dressed up as a salt miner.

Then we visited the nearby town called Berchtesgaden. Infamous to be a resort and base for the Nazis last time. But have to agree that the Nazis have a good taste on choosing locations for their retreat from stress in killing millions of people.

Its a great view from the town itself. Great place to bring your girlfriend or wife. Surely, will be a perfect honeymoon trip. However, since 3 of us (all guys) were up there, I guess theres, nothing else to write about.

In the end, it was a great trip. (Hooray, blogged a long 1 this time)

Spring Fest in Munich

2007-04-27T22:12:00.000+08:00

Spring fest (or Fruhlingfest) is sometimes nick-named "Octoberfest's lil brother". So, we decided to check it out. Found out that, just like Octoberfest, spring fest mainly caters for youngsters on the rides like a fun-fair while there will be beer tents which also serves food like pork knuckles that worth 1 weeks of meal for me, if I were to eat cooked food in hostel.

Behind us, thats the only ride which I feel packs the punch for any youngsters who want to have the thrills. Too bad I didnt bring my camera that time. So, this picture is from Jasons camera. This ride is something like any other ride you've seen any part of the world, be it from Gold Coast or Genting. But, only thing that interest me was this...

After going through some spins, the water fountain actually shoots higher to cool down the people. In the same time, you can splash water at your friends.

Just like every other fair, you'll see all the young people hanging around. But, 1 thing that puzzles me is that many girls there were wearing gothic-looking clothes. So, in short the fair is just so-so for me. Only great experience was the ride.

I heard that many people would expect some spectacular fireworks in the fair at night. But knowing that night only falls around 930 pm. So, we didnt bother to wait for nightfall and pressed on for dinner at some Italian restaurant. Besides, I dont think I'll see another a better fireworks experience than the 2007 New year countdown by 1Utama-Curve.

ill never miss home food

2007-04-27T07:13:00.000+08:00

amazing. 4 weeks ago, i envisioned myself eating kebab, instant pizzas, spagettis, and junk food everyday for the rest of my days in SEP. yeah, thats what an exchange student who know nuts about cooking would do. but, no!

this guy has deprieved me of having these kinds of meal for the past 2 weeks. everyday, he leads in cooking chinese food, with soup and rice. being the head chef among the gang, regular food among exchange students like us will never be the same again.

kudos to Mario!.. *knock* knock* knock* !!!..

wondered why I knocked, i learnt that after every lecture, students will routinely knock the table to show their appreciation and respect to the lecture. its just like replacing clapping with knocking on tables.

anyways, his special ingredients will come here by mid may, once his wife arrives. so, who says that im missing singapore/ malaysia food. ill surely blog about the special local food very soon.

generally, spices here are expensive. 40 grams of garlic costs around 2.50 euro (10 over ringgit). for those who learnt and remember history lesson about spice trade will be very dissapointed. but, in the end, its worth it. Adding ginger+garlic to fried chicken really does magic to the food. another fact about food in germany: the food here is salty. seriously, ever tried salty salad?

what I did last week: visited Deutsches Museum for the 2nd time, jogged in English garden, had a gathering among the singaporeans with some 5 germans. 1 of the best highlight is Deen introducing me to a great site: http://www.alluc.org/alluc/ . its much better than www.peekvid.com .

what I'm gonna do this coming week and beyond: go to the spring festival(lil brother of octoberfest in munich) on friday, saturday- go to salzburg till sunday, monday labour day(havent thought of what to do yet), following sunday go to allianz arena to watch a 2nd devision match of 1860 munich. so hard to get bayerns matches. anyways... forget about watching Bayern munich. they are not worth to watch this season, no ballack and lost the bundesliga title already. heh.

Did a biathlon

2007-04-20T15:45:00.000+08:00

I havent exercised for many weeks even before leaving munich.

So, the only daily exercise I do routinely here is just - walking. Yes, walking from train station to my room is exercise. Walking around/to places of interest in Munich like Deutsches Museum, Neuschwanstein, Hofbraeuhaus, and English Garden. Walking to get Kebab is also an exercise. Basically, not having a car is an exercise. Just like Singapore. So that means, in Malaysia I get zero exercise. That is why I was 12 kg heavier before coming to Singapore 3 years ago.

So finally, Ive done my first exercise in Munich. Not 1, but 2 sports. Yeah, cycling and swimming. Yesterday, Wajdie, my Israeli neighbour called me to go for a swim. The prob is the swimming pool is in Olympiapark, the international swimming complex for 1972 Olympics.

Gotta say wow at this impressive architecture, even this building is already 35 years old! Damn.. can thrash Bukit Jalil stadium anytime.

We cycled from our hostel through English Garden (cos I wanted to see how the other side of Gardens look) to a post office near my Uni for him to post some books to Ebay. Then we cycled on to Olympiapark. Just you think Autobahn is synonymous with cars. I was wrong. The urban cyclists like to have their own "mini Autobahn", so catching up with Wajdie was a problem. So, 1 solid exercise done already.

On the way, saw this..

thats the memorial for the Black September incident in 1972. If you watch Munich ( the movie) then you'll know. On top there are Hebrew words, which I didnt take.

Next, swimming. The entry was 3.60 euros. But, I could have gotten a student semester card for 15 euros, but I forgot to bring my student paper. The heating system wasnt good enough for me, so I easily got cramps after half an hour.

Cycled back with lactic acid in my legs. My pants and underpants wet with sweat. But my face was chilling and dry from the wind. Heh.

After dinner(thanks to Super Mario and Bros), checked out a so called "start of semester Party that even have a DJ". But turned out to be a small bar 3 times the size of my room with 20 over ppl only. So, we left after drinking beer and cocktail. Then I KOed on the bed, knowing my body has taken its toll. If this goes on again, I could be a biathlete.

Ok.. signing off with this picture that I photoshopped.

Class starts

2007-04-18T13:06:00.000+08:00

I attended 2 lectures on Tuesday. 1 English and 1 German lecture. German lecture is about car engines. That is why I'm trying to attend the next 1 again today. Hope that he doesnt ask me any questions.

Just added a new photo gallery, called Photo Art. Any pictures I took and edited with special effects belong in this album. This is more fun than blogging.

Castle, Lakes, Hills, Snow Mountains, Villages and Magical Things..

2007-04-15T08:25:00.000+08:00

Meet Bavaria's bests. From left: Lake, Snowy Mountain, Hills, Hohenschwangau Castle, and Little Towns.

Neuschwanstein Castle

These 2 photos are done by combining few shots into panoramic view. First Ive tried with my 3 year old camera.

How to get there? We took a train from the main station to Fuessen. The journey lasts 2.5 hours. In Fuessen, forget about walking about the town. Just go straight to the castles by bus ride of about 5 km. On the spot, the 2 castles are a sight to behold. The "Disney" castle , Neuschwanstein built by a Bavarian King, while the other is his Daddy's. Just walk and trek around the area with this map below. Gotta admit, my legs did ache halfway during the trip.

To further explain, here's my photo gallery for the trip. Click here.

Later, we went for dinner and gathering with the rest of the SEP gang. Obscenely, there are more than 20 NUS ppl in Munich this semester! Looks like I wont miss Chinese food and Singapore at all! Hurhur..

Next feature, my hostel room... till then.

Quickie Recap

2007-04-13T17:59:00.000+08:00

Okie.. finally time to blog once again. What can I say? This blog is just to tell everyone back at home that I'm alright and having a whale of time. So, don't expect it to be journal, diary or some sort.

Recap day 1

I flew on Emirates airline from KL-Dubai-Munich. This picture was somewhere above India at night. Cool thing about Emirates is that they offer over 500 channels of entertainment on the personal LCD screen. Watched few movies, particularly X-Men 3 (finally!, not bad movie) and some tv series like Scrubs for the first time.

Stopover in Dubai for 3 hours, made use of the free wireless there and expected another visitor to Munich this coming May. hmmm... even the whole hall knows about it. -_-", according to Abhi.

Reaching Munich on Easter day was the most stupid mistake ever made so far in this trip. The hostel office was not opened that day. So, I stayed in a hotel nearby. Later, received a mail by Kat (fellow hostelmate) that even 2nd day of Easter is holiday! So, that means I couldnt check into my room for the first few days. Perfect.

Well, I walked around Munich town on a particularly quiet day. So the main square was supposed to be quiet, i assumed. But, some people still flocked over an area.

To watch this! A Chinese man was putting up some of his balancing skills. I salute him for balancing while the wind was blowing quite strong.

Anyways, staying in hotel was an experience. Late TV programs have some "interesting" advertisements. Even Playboy has their own airtime that night.

Day 2

Finally met Kat for the first time in the morning. Gotta thank her for offering her place for me to sleep for the night. I joined her and the rest of the SEP group to visit the Deutsches Museum.

Yup. Germany has an illustrious background and history of their technological advancements, that the main exhibits are their innovations and inventions of the past. It became more of a science center than a museum. Found this awkward cos I watched Night at the Museum on plane few days back. I expected to see Atilla the Hun, Mummies or something. Hee..

Day 3

Jason helped take me around the town to settle all my admin stuffs, like matriculation, accomodation, banking, insurance, applications., etc.. With his help, I managed to settle everything in 2 days. Amazing.

Later went for some shopping in a huge hypermart. Only this caught my eye though. 1 crate of beer, 0.5 l x 12 bottles costs around 10-12 euros. Brands like Augustiner, Becks, includ. I better find out some way to transport them without a car soon. I'll fill in the updates soon, once I secure my best method of transporting this to my hostel.

Day 4

Bayern Munich vs AC Milan that day. No wonder so many Italians roaming around the street. I was expecting them to brawl in the streets. Maybe they are not like Roma fans. In this picture, there is me, with 80000 fans, 22 player, 10 substitutes, 4 referees and 2 managers behind.

Yeah.. the game was on that time.

For more pictures, just check out my personal picasa web album.

Revamp my blog?

2007-04-12T06:25:00.000+08:00

Revamp? Since I'll be embarking an unforgetable and adventurous exchange program, finally my blog should function like what everyone expects. But wait, I won't say it will be a frequently updated blog. I don't want to deliver empty promises to my blog reader/fans.

So what changes/additions you'll see in my blog in future?

1) Pictures of food in almost every post

Whether its cooked or purchased, food must be taken before eating. Sooner or later, my blog will be like food lover's.

2) Holding a glass of beer in front of the camera

Yes. Adding a photo of me drinking beer somehow shows how exciting my life in Germany is. Can't explain why. Maybe that makes me look cool and happening , i guess. :)

Maybe, I can be a food critic someday. Like food lover.

I know Kung Fu

2007-03-25T09:25:00.000+08:00

DnD is over, means hall year is almost over. My preparation for my Germany trip is still far from over. Here is the list of my preparations.

- collect visa

- vacate my room

- deal with the boxes of my barang-barang

- fix my big hard disk

- buy some new clothes
- insurance

At least ive settled my flight which is 2 am, 8th April from KLIA. Gonna fly Emirates, woot! But... knowing that its 2 weeks to go, I shouldnt waste more time... sighz.. Believe me, I've been so excited with this trip since 2 years ago. Now, I'm gonna miss this place and home.

Anyways, time to change the mood. The main reason for updating this blog.... DnD (dinner and dance) pictures. DnD is an annual hall dinner where people flaunt their costumes with respect to the themes (movies theme).

First.. the Matrix,

Neo and Agent Smith

Man in Black hunted Death Note boy, Kira.

Alice and Queen of Hearts in Wonderland. This is how the next version of the Matrix will be.

Neo with Obi-Wan

Jan-Jan with Mama-san.

Nip-slip!

The pageant's bodyguards

Smith with Count Dracula brides

Neo taking down Resident Evil minions

Then Neo said, "It ends tonight".

The epic battle ended with a double KO.

We had fun in the end.

Have a great week!

Ian on leave

2007-02-15T09:53:00.000+08:00

Yea... Ian is on leave until he is contented with the other site he's working on. Kinda lazy to handle 2 sites at the same time.

Here's the site I've been working on... www.sheares.nus.edu.sg/shout

a publicity poster I did. yeap, thats my hand.

another earlier poster

ok.. signing off with this pic

recap of 2006 (part 2)

2007-01-21T05:17:00.000+08:00

Joker, my previous post is recorded at 13th of January althought I actually posted it today which is 21st January! Ill try to figure on that out soon, well.. soon after I get a good nights sleep first. But, before I do that, just let me continue my recap pictures session. Yeah.. the easiest and laziest way to update the blog :). Thought of posting my Europe trip which is supposed to be in part 2, but I decided to put pictures of December holidays in Singapore instead.

DND BASH @ ZOUK

VISIT TO ASSISI HOSPICE (Some Cancer hospital to help out)

Block C Night Cycling

Saving ian-han.blogspot.com

2007-01-13T12:29:00.000+08:00

Well done, Ian. 2 and a half weeks not posting anything. So this post is about salvaging what Ive remembered for my first 2 weeks in NUS of the year. But what amazes me is that blog counter was raised from 40 something to 100+ over this period. Not bad, considering that I only told less than 10 friends about this blog. Well, I'm not bothered with the presence of visitors, since my main aim for this blog is to train myself blogging once I'm out travelling in Europe again this April.

Been laying low, but had watchful eyes on you.

First Week (6 till 13 Jan)
Now I understand the rationale of regular blogging. Unless I have short-term memory, I have to dig my brains out to remember what I've done for that period, to the extent of looking through the IHG (Inter Hall Games) calender.

Friday, right after I posted the previous post, went to Vivo City to catch a movie named, "Charlotte's Web" with Wey Ling, Jiet Shern, Ai Lin and her bf, Jesse.

Yeah, something like Babe the pig, but without any 'Baa-Ram-Ewe' action with other sheeps under his command. This movie is more about friendship, love and.. you get the picture la.
Later went to eat dinner @ Kim Gary. Singapore's first Kim Gary that was opened recently. Same kind of dishes there, but the baked rice+soup+drink is about 9.90 Sing dollars. A nice restaurant considering it faces the sea and Sentosa Island outside.

First week was nothing much to mention, apart from watching the Queen on Friday, bugging Japheth about SHout, watching and supporting IHG games, meeting Charmaine in most games that involves my hall and hers and attended a total of 2 hours of class for the week. I think I haven't mention this in my blog, I'm not only 2 modules for this sem, since I'll be leaving for exchange to Munich before final exams. So, that is why I'm taking non-examinable modules, like my German and projects. But attending this 2 hours class is worth mentioning, cos this Automotive Engineering specialisation lecture involves everything you need to know about cars, but of course more technical. Lets just say, this lecture is finally something I can pay attention to. Another thing is the lecturer's language and vocabulary is.. somewhat acceptable and same frequency to a small class with all guys inside. NUS just bought a Caterham recently also for 'Study Purpose' just for us. Good job! Hope that they'll allow us to take a spin with it. This machine can go 0-100 kph in 3-4 secs. Sweet.

Another picture to share. The 'Sea of Orange' supporting the badminton team. Honestly, I always thought cheering seems gay, but joining a group of friends who bang bottles on wooden blocks, blowing whistles, screeming around and blaring horns is a good experience after all.

Try and find me

Second Week (6 till 13 Jan)
Went to Vivocity with Potato and ZQ (sorry I dont know how to spell your name). Took them to Kim Gary for lunch. Realised the queue in front was longer than my first visit. I guess HK food took a late start here in Singapore compared to Malaysia, but a very promising 1.

This is what we see from Kim Gary.

Check out Merlion's cousin in front of the ship compared to the real Merlion far behind on the Sentosa Island.

Later that evening, me and JK went down to Suntec, Siam Kitchen for Jun Ming's farewell dinner joined by all the Rag-kias, Jian Wei, Choon Han, Yen Bin, and Weyling. Will get the pictures from Choon Han and Yen Bin soon.

Will update later.. too tired already.. signing off!

Goodbye, cya in CNY

2007-01-05T14:17:00.000+08:00

Just arrived back in Singapore. Great to see the regular faces again. Most of them appear to be darker since I left.

Well, Shiqin aka. Potato came back few days ago from his exchange program which lasted for a semester,

Well, this is an old photo. This time, he did return from Hong Kong for exchange in one piece and not so edible already after losing a lot of meat there.

Another 1 who came back was ... Mr. Dong, but only for few days before he returns to Perth to build kangaroo-friendly roads for the Australian government.

At the corridor in front of our rooms. Clockwise from me: Janice, Jung Kiat(neighbour), Derrick Dong, Jess, Abhi (Jesus and my neighbour too).

Both of them came and chill around in place. Good news is Potato will be taking Waylon's room which is the exclusive penthouse room. Waylon just left to Canada for exchange.

Later that night, learnt how to play Mahjong in the lounge. A big thank you to Yen Bin, Wey Ling, Choon Han, Wai Keong and Ming Feng for the help! Played Mahjong without money for my sake. That was fortunate for them, after I beat them for the first 3 games in a row. Beginners luck huh.. Even Choon Han commented that the 1st game I won was the fastest game he ever played, before he managed to arrange his tiles. Looks like this game can potentially be my new found hall hobby if this lucky streak goes on. :)

Thought that as a special Banana, like me, Mahjong tiles characters are difficult to be identified, until I made this on my own...

Pictures of 2006 part 1

2007-01-03T13:08:00.000+08:00

Here's a recap for 2006 ...

New year celebration @ the Curve
Clockwise from me: Chinjoo, Kevin, Wai Hsiang, Yujin, Soon King, and Douglas

CNY in Cameron Highlands with family

Did a makeover of my hostel room

Giving sweets to Children during Chingay parade

With the other clowns. From me: Zhao Hui, Yun Zhi, Sosan

DnD with Block C guys. I don't think I have to name all of them, right..

Part 2 (my Eurotrip + holidays) will be coming soon. All these recap are only based on photos that I have. Other events without pictures I'm just too darn to lazy to write about or I just can't remember them. So, dont think my 2006 is very uneventful/boring, because my camera spoilt for a long time early of the year.

Year of Double Oo Seven

2007-01-02T03:26:00.000+08:00

Before I blog about new year celebrations, as a good practice, I'll put an effort in acounting everything I've done. So since I haven't updated anything for the past 2 days, I shall write a short update about the day before new years eve which is kinda short :) cause I woke up around 1 something pm. I always make sure to have at least 9 hours of sleep during holidays.

Later that evening, played futsal with the gang: in my team, Chinjoo, King, Jeff(joo's cousin), Yujin, and Kevin. Opponent team: Gan, Zi Chow, David and his 2 friends and Doug. As a team we lost overall, but i managed to score 2 goals, 1 was between chow's(keeper) legs and another was doug's error by my soft tap into the goal. Quite contented that I have the stamina to run up and down the court for 1.5 hours (compared to last year when I could die only 15 mins of the game) but still lack the speed and acceleration to chase the ball or opponent. So, nevermind, hope to play more in Sg to accomplish 1 of my resolutions which I will type about later.

At night, we tried Battlefield 2142 for the 1st time. Quite a fun game considering only 5 of us played. Overall, didnt manage to spot much difference between B2 and B2142. Only thing cool was the Mech Warrior vehicle to terrorise your opponents. While playing with weapons of the future (year 2142), nothing still beats the sweet moment of knifing your enemies from behind. Right, Kevin?

Arsenal lost again. To Sheffield Utd. Wenger still upbeat in winning the premier league. I don't care about what he says anymore. Makes me more dissapointed if the team loses while keeping our hopes high. Just try winning the next subsequent matches without worrying too much of the tables is important now. Next test: Arsenal vs Pardew's team. Not WHU.

Next day, on new years eve, the initial plan was go to 1Utama at 4 pm. But we ended up in 1 Utama only at 930 pm, not because I woke up late but we at least did something fruitful in my house rather than lepaking, bowling and movies(which is quite unlikely since a lot of ppl there). Z-Parc ate the extra nasi lemak meal catered from my mum's earlier gathering. Then we played Imaginiff, a board game which tests how well we know our friends. Quite a good idea, but some questions were too trivial or unanswerable, which was why we only played once.

Later in BU, first thing: collected my new specs..

Blue color specs. Wanted something in between study type and fashionable specs. Too fashionable can be too demanding on my dress sense. Too study type makes me like nerd later. So I decided to play safe.

After chilling around in BU, 1130 pm, we went to the open space car park to wait for year 2007. This was how we waited....

Ah.. perfect place to avoid the snow-sprays (too old for this nonsense already, issh) and B.O. of crowd. We sat on this spot for an hour talking about our own resolutions. Honestly I havent really thought of mine yet. But I said about playing more football to be a regular player since thats 1 of them. Most of them said of getting attached. Good idea to break the single tradition of Z-Parc guys. The notable 1 is Deo quiting smoking. All the best to him!

Hmmm.. what are they looking at thats more interesting than New Year fireworks thats behind them? They were not posing fyi.

Another fireworks display! This is what you get when competition escalated between 2 big shopping complexes thats near to each other(1 Utama and the Curve). This round the Curve won.

~~HAPPY NEW YEAR!!~~

All the best to all readers with their dreams and hopes for this new year! I can't wait to start a new chapter of my life when I'm back in Singapore and beyond when I'll fly off to Munich this April. Then fly back to Singapore for my final year for my bloody Eff-Why-Pee. Looks like I won't be spending much time in Malaysia this year apart from now and this coming CNY. Maybe this December but it depends on my Eff-Why-Pee ler.

I shall return to Singapore the following day, 4th of January. That time, holiday mode like now will be nothing more than sweet memories recorded in this blog. Finally realised this blog will serve me well in the long run.

Fang Zhong ler

2006-12-31T02:58:00.000+08:00

I'll be leaving back to Singapore on the 3rd of January, provided there's still tickets for that day. Only after 9 long days in Malaysia, all of my worries of my studies(results), NUS life, SEP stuffs and hall matters are beginning to drain away from my thoughts. Can not blame myself since I've been through a hectic semester.

Finally, I got what I need from the Malaysian mega sale on Friday: new black pair of Jeans, reebok slippers, and pullover for Munich. My new specs were still not ready yet, so I guess, I have to pay a visit to Focus Point again soon :). Even Wai Hsiang, Joo and Doug wanna go back there again to check their eyes. Hee..

Apart from shopping, we went to this baseball shooting range located at rooftop of 1Utama directly above Parkson. In a netted area, the pitcher machines shoots out balls at one's desired speed (from 40 mph to 60 mph) at a price of RM 6(as student) for about 15-20 balls. Only me tried, as Joo tried before and Doug and Hsiang chickened out to save some of their himulation in front of some of experienced girls there.

The only thing I'll ever remember from this occasion is the funny helmet. Reminds me of someones hairstyle that I know.

Quite a cool concept for shoppers in 1U to get some recreations. Only thing bad is the hot weather, since the rooftop level are heated by the centralised aircon condensor plus wearing this gay helmet. The machine behind me accepts the token inserted. Speed of the ball and height of projected ball also adjusted from that machine.

I've never even played softball in my life before, but managed to hit a home-run only once out of 30 balls. Even getting a slight slice of the ball was a proud feat for me already.

I realised that the funny looking helmet could suit the body-hugging shirt that Doug tried earlier...

Okok. just playing around. Its just photoshoped the helmet onto the picture. But he really did wore this tit-baring shirt.I actually took the trouble to photoshop a nice looking helmet for this photoshoot as a tribute to Douglas for his milestone of driving alone for the first time!

After dinner with my dad, my dad and i went to a spa in SS2 same row as Prince Cafe. Actually, my parents enjoy a good massage especially for the feet (which is called reflexology- since based on chinese studies, a good therapy on the feet reflects well on the entire body of a person). But as for me, its just pure pleasure and pain at the same time. Its like playing futsal on stone trails used in reflexology. Somehow my over-sensitive feet couldnt take the fact that someone massages your ticklish feet. But I decided to give it a try and followed my dad there since I had my first jog since 4 months ago, so maybe I thought I deserved some massage after some exercise. Usually nowadays massagers come from China thanks to their skills they acquired there i think. So communication was problem for me there. When she massaged too hard, I'll get pretty tensed up and all she said was something that I've learnt today.. "Fang Zhong, Fang Zhong..." = relax relax. And all I can respond to her was "ok, nono, pukeyi, or keyi". Isshh... lucky my dad was there to translate.

Such massage whether its agonising, painful, relaxing or satisfying yesterday summed up my day to get a good nights sleep and to think of the good days left ahead of me before my holiday runs out.

Hit da' spot

2006-12-30T16:05:00.000+08:00

Yup. I've moved from wordpress to blogspot already due to a lot of reasons. It's not that I'm unhappy with wordpress, but wordpress is suitable for bloggers who prefers minimalistic contents without pictures or fancy layout. But at a price of having an own hosting server, wordpress 2.0 (server required) offers much more options of editing compared to xanga and blogspot. Wordpress is good and user-friendly, but it does not fulfill my needs of more layout editing in long term. Layout editing can be very time consuming and might irritate some readers, but that's what I fancy to keep my passion of blogging alive.

So, there you have it, blogspot is now and hopefully the future of my blogging life. Sweet. Slowly, I'll learn more about HTMLs to tweak more on the layout design. So far, the time I've spent on editing blog layouts compared to typing blog is like 5:1. Hopefully this ratio could be reduced when I'm contented with my layout. I'm still just a noob in photoshop and htmls.

Later I'll update again ler, about the header image, yesterday's shopping, and futsal.. and more. Futsal in 20 minutes time. Ciaoz. Goodbye ianhan.wordpress.com. Hello ian-han.blogspot.com

Karaoke Marathon

2006-12-30T05:46:00.000+08:00

Kanasai! My latest post got accidentally deleted when I reedited the photos. Have to try remembering what I wrote to retype. Duh’!

Ever since I came back from Singapore, the earliest time I wake up is 10 am. Yesterday, I woke up at 1215 pm. So much for healthy living at home compared to hall. In hall, it’s the opposite that I wake up the latest 8 something am thanks to the anti-mosquito fogging, noises of hall and sun shining onto my bed. Why must-da-bed shine?! Anyway, time for my first event coverage!

King, Doug, CY and I went to Songbird@SS2 from 3-9 pm. A much cheaper karaoke place compared to Neway and Redbox with a much more convenient location. From the picture, apart from the uncleaned ashtray, this old and lil’ rundown karaoke place is still rather clean and well-maintained. But, after 6 hours, the room carpet smelt of sweet chilli from our snacks. Even Doug’s pants got the share of that smell.

The snacks served was not bad. The sandwich looks the chicken naan served in Sheares Hall but a smaller version for it to still qualify as a sandwich. The snacks managed to keep us out of hunger and added to ones waistline to break his belt.

A karaoke session would not be complete without some good ol’ boy band songs like Westlife, BSB, take that and more. Not forgetting some Linkin Parks to provide some pleasure of screaming around. Also, there will be me and CY to add some oldies like beach boys, frank sinatra and other 80s songs in da box. But the best part was some Indo songs introduced by King like Samsons and Sheila on 7. Never knew of good indo songs besides Peter Pan. Sweet.

After that, we had a late dinner at Wong Kok Char Chan Teng. There, found that CY’s recently permed thick hair has a good function: hiding stuffs in her hair like a pencil.

All of us went to my house to discuss about the upcoming new year celebrations. I was thinking that we should have enough of outdoor new year celebrations. All of my past 4 new year celebrations involves the same thing: crowded sweaty people, fireworks, snow sprays and some dance music to attract the crowd. 2003 was Sunway Pyramid, 2004 was Mont Kiara, 2005 was Bangsar and 2006 was the Curve. Maybe it’s time to settle for somewhere quieter and a relaxing new year. My house can be an option since my parents will be out. In efforts to plan a new year celebration, we ended up looking through leng luis friendster accounts through CY’s and King’s accounts in my laptop. ‘aDuh!

LAY em’ OUT

2006-12-30T05:33:00.000+08:00

after 2 hours of working on the header bannerfinally my layout is as good as ready, but theres room for improvementsweet… can strike off no.1 in the list.

reasons on why i chose this design is actually wanting to try a jigsaw effect. after painstaking work on it without any other reasons, i finally realised this jigsaw effect does have a representation of my life which is like a puzzle, full of mysteries. That is why this blog could help me discover myself more. don’t ask me about the island. i couldn’t find any other better picture to fit in since i left my external harddisk which has all my treasures of photos inside.

too tired to update anything about yesterday. apart from watching some chinese movie at home and playing cs with doug in clutch gamer the whole afternoon.

still dont know how to upload picture. photobucket has no respond. help!and yes, i won’t add chatterbox for now yet. cannot corrupt my blog ler. it’s my baby..

The sweetest beginning

2006-12-30T05:23:00.000+08:00

Aloha! Hello! Guten Tag! Selamat Datang! Ni Hao! Konichiwa! Hi! Yo!

If you see this corny line above, means you’ve witnessed the event of my life: Pon Ian Han is starting a blog. Woot! Celebration!~~~

Before popping the champagne, I still need to set things straight first.
1) Work on an improved layout
2) Learn how to upload files and photo properly
3) Install a chatterbox. Oh wait… screw that, I know a lot of abusers in the midst.
4) Post at least 3 stuffs by this year! (4 more days) Posts includes my new year resolutions, reasons why i blog (im not an attention seeker!), and happenings like Xmas celebrations.

In event I fail to accomplish these by this year, I have to add these in my new year resolution which is quite packed already. Must have a quota this time then its more realistic to succeed.