91F Outdoor Observatory

Taipei, Taiwan

A local guy once told me, the best way to photograph the Taipei 101 was to lie down on this bench located right outside the shopping mall. Well, I didn’t take his advice but when he insisted and demonstrated how to take the photo and I merely passed him my camera.

One thing for sure, the view from this bench was definitely better than the ones from the highest lookout point. I recalled being so excited when purchasing the ticket to the open air deck. 

Well it was quite a view indeed...

Walking the Torq

Mount Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia

As we stood at the edge of the vertical descent, I wondered if we were over ambitious with our itinerary. Instead of going back from where we came from, Walk the Torq took us on a different path altogether – a 430m rock traverse & ascend and a 6m Monkey Bridge. Somewhere in the brochure it was stated as easy, suitable for beginners and most encouragingly; anyone, age 10 to 70, can climb the Mountain Torq via ferrata.

The hardest part for me was taking that first step over the ledge at the beginning of the descent. Surprisingly once you get past that, it all became easier and before long, we were walking on steep rock surface taking in the view. Two things I learnt:

1. Don’t rely on a breakfast bar eaten at 2am to sustain you through your summit climb AND Walk the Torq (there’s simply not enough calories to go around).

2. Don’t start your descent after 8am. The sun will burn you mercilessly and a slow progress will guarantee you to miss the buffet breakfast (as we did)…

Satay (pronounced /ˈsæteɪ/ SA-tay)

Kundasang, Sabah, Malaysia

We came across a shop smoking profusely along the market place of Kundasang. As it turns out, it is very famous for its barbeque chicken satay. Sticks of succulent chicken chunks and wings were seen grilling over burning charcoal. We couldn’t resist not buying some. I took a big bite out of the chicken chunk and discovered the real deal – it’s chicken bum...

The Muddy Bunch

Survivor Island, Sabah, Malaysia

One of the many highlights of my unforgettable holiday in Sabah had to be getting down and dirty in a mud volcano on this island. Getting in was not difficult, thanks to the slippery mud that helps you slip right in. Unlike what I imagined, the mud was surprisingly cold (mind my ignorance of associating volcano with heat…). 

With the mud so thick, it’s impossible to sink and soon I realized that any sudden movement could cause me to flip helplessly into odd positions. At times, air bubble blobbed out of nowhere, exploding on the surface! I never imagined having so much fun in a pool of mud surrounded by the jungle. To top it all, out of the mud and into the sea - just let the waves do the washing. =)

Exotic Coffee Anyone?

Bali, Indonesia

We were on our way to Kintamani and our guide suggested a detour to this coffee plantation that serves Luwak coffee. So far, I have only seen this on the National Geographic channel and never thought that the opportunity would come my way to sampling it. You see, what makes the Luwak coffee ‘special’ is that the ingredients – in this case the coffee beans – were first processed through the gastro-intestinal tract of a civet cat. Apparently, this Luwak cat’s main diet consists of coffee beans and having digesting only the skin and what little flesh of the fruit, the beans were excreted intact. 

...Well of course we humans decided that we should collect them, have it cleaned, roasted and savoured as an exotic beverage. And I, for some reason I do not know myself, went ahead and tasted it. Would you? 

Announcement!

Hanoi, Vietnam
During my first night in Hanoi, I was awaken in the wee hours of the morning by a loud noise that sounded like an announcement coming from the streets. Having no clue what was being announced, I took it that I was not in danger when I see the locals going about their morning routine paying no attention to the announcements in Vietnamese. Later that morning, I found out that it's their BBC news broadcasted twice a day, once in the morning and the other in the evening over loudspeakers installed strategically in the streets!