My wife and I thoroughly enjoyed our trip to Tokyo. Although we do not speak the language, it didn't really matter although my knowledge of the Chinese words do help quite a bit. We arrived at Narita erminal 2 very early on 27 Sep 08. By 10am we were on the Keisei Limited Express to Keisei Ueno Station in downtown Tokyo. Our hotel, The Oak, is located less than 5 minutes' walk from Inaricho Sta (G17) which is one train stop from Ueno Sta (G16). We should have taken the subway to Inaricho. Instead we took a long walk from Ueno [View Full Entry]

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For a nation with Chinese, a 75% majority, it is an irony that Singapore should have a Chinatown on its map. Singapore was a nation of Malays and was part of the Johore state from which Raffles assumed control and sovereignty for Great Britain in 1819. So there was a time that the Chinese was a minority. So Singapore's Chinatown must have been born at that time in its history. There are Chinatowns in many countries and cities where the Chinese is a minority, namely Thailand, Japan,South Vietnam, San Francisco, New York City etc. I have had the opportunity to visit [View Full Entry]

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I spent my memorable childhood in this immediate neighbourhood. Much had been demolished to make way for progress. I am glad that at least some parts have been spared and preserved for posterity. For how long, nobody knows because Singapore is a land-scarce nation. It is very tiny that it has become necessary to reclaim land from the sea. What used to be a sea-front bungalow is now hundreds if not thousands of meters from the sea. As a boy, I had to walk hundreds of meters to my school. Together with my siblings and children from the neighbourhood, I used [View Full Entry]

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27 Dec 2007 - I started off the round-Penang bus trip from the bus terminal at Komtar. I took the Jetty-Teluk Pahang bus which travelled along a small stretch of busy Penang Road to Burmah Road. It would then travel to Pulau Tikus to Tanjung Bungah, a fishing village. The road after TB is very windy and soon I found myself in Batu Ferringgi, another fishing village with many private apartments and four and five-star hotels by the beach. In the evenings, there is a thriving night market catering for tourists. The bus would proceed along the coast road to Teluk [View Full Entry]

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Wherever I go travelling, I always like to seek out my favourite food and sights. In this first update, I like to take you to Penang which I visited during the 2007 Christmas holidays [View Full Entry]

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