The trip and its moments (for now)

I never imagined that I would be flying alone to London, then travelling to certain lesser known quarters of Europe this year (at least not so soon), but I did in the end. Having always joked about visiting and living off JG, I couldn't turn down the prospect when it was brought up in earnest. The schedule seems to permit, and besides i was yearning for a getaway before the year end finds me consumed in work. So in a whirlwind of two months, I unexpectedly found myself paying for a long-flight plane ticket and finding out about hitherto unheard of cities. Just two days before I flew off, I hurried to the library near my office late at night - before the library closes, of course - and borrowed a guide book (de rigueur for backpacking) that turned out to be pretty helpful.

Fast forward to two days ago. My plane touched down at Changi, and before long I was nestled in the west-bound train from Tanah Merah station. Having been surrounded by Europeans and moved in lush open spaces for the better part of the two preceding weeks, I found myself curiously scanning the local train and trying to reconnect with the old reality. Only some waking hours ago, I was standing in the tube (underground) going to Heathrow. Stretch the time further back by a day, and I was on another plane before transiting into an express bus while blustery winds were sweeping outside.

My mind says I am not jet-lagged, but I think my body thinks otherwise. Except for waking up for lunch, I slept nearly the whole Saturday away before waking up for dinner. This I attribute not to jetlag, but to the fact that I probably never had a good, proper rest while I was travelling. It is not helping that as it is i sleep very late when Im in Singapore. God knows what damage my sleeping patterns are wreaking on my health.

I have been asking myself how do i respond when someone asks me how was my trip. Seriously, I don't know. The trip was good, no doubt, and I guessed we've had our fair share of excitements. Yet it's hard to describe to others an experience that is made up of many parts. There are many bits of memories that linger on still, and i thought it best that I write them here before they become dusted into the mists of memories. Hey, even memories have their age.

1. Apart from a few hours that had me slipping in and out of slumber on the plane, it was nearly 48 hours before I slept again on another continent.

2. Except for return air tickets and accomodation for first two nights, we did not book accomodation nor did reserach nor had a confirmed itinerary for the rest of the trip.

3. Had lunch in the Alps with a view of lush greenery, high-rise mountain peaks and a blue sky above.

4. Summer BBQ in London, accompanied by beer and followed by at least 5 shots of I know not what liquor. Plus good karaoke - English and German songs.

5. Had bbqued prawns that were marinated in beer. Prawns were yummy!

6. Learnt about a 'How are you today' joke.

7. Stayed in hostel, dodgy motel, people's homes, rooms in apartments for budget travellers, friend's apartment - all except a hotel.

8. Checked in late at night into what JG dubbed a 'dodgy fugitive hideout' motel that has only one non-english speaking counter staff. Sign language was duly employed by JG. On a positive note, it was a nice motherly lady who seemed to be in her fifties.

9. Boiled water in glasses heated in microwave for our instant cup noodles that we brought from London. Had to rotate the glasses for fear of them cracking, then doing this for a couple of times.

10. Swam in the Adriatic sea and a beautiful lake called Bled.

11. Followed a dodgy young girl who was drinking with an old man to her home to check out accomodation - late at night and through deserted roads, no less. We didn't take this in the end.

12. Rummaged through garbage bins - the large ones for entire residential block - in London. Had to be supported at waist by JG while my upper half body was hoisted inside the large container bin.

13. Lost my IC (suspected thrown away), favourite sweater, 8GB thumbdrive, and mayber other as yet unrecalled items.

14. Incurred elbow injury and suspected hip injury (hopefully not or nothing serious).

15. Stupidly left my battery charger at home and ended up wasting pounds to pay for expensive batteries which i did not exhaust in the end because my obstinate camera decided it needed its own vacation, too.

16. Seen and eaten the most enormous, gigantic pizza in all our lives combined.

17. Had numerous take-away breakfast consisting of sandwiches that inevitably became our lunch.

18. Ate Squid-ink Risotto and scampi (lobster).

19. Saw Geroge Orwell's famous novel 1984 on film in a TV in a hostel in a territory that was formerly part of the communist federation. Somewhat ironic.

20. Paid money to visit a historical palace which is unhistorical and crappy. Totally kena 'Kah'.

21. Met an intelligent guy who came up with his own language - with grammar and syntax and what not - at the age of 13 (if i recall correctly) and who told us that he was featured/mentioned in the local papers in two back-to-back pages recently - a rarity. His mum was a linguistic professor and his dad an artist, we learnt.

22. Can't remember the amount, but paid ridiculous sums for two bottles of coke.

23. Planned for a journey for Day 4 only the night before. Then the plan changed completely on the following morning by a twist of fate, happily.

24. Carried backpack and walked in increasingly heavy rain to bus stop that was said to be 200m away but which turned out to be some 800m away (i reckoned).

25. Bought rocher flavoured gelato that tasted like vanilla. Kena Kah again.

26. Tasted home-made tiramisu and tiramisu from cafe. Both were deliciously good.

27. Found out that French butter bread (1 pound from Tesco) is atas-ly called brioche.

28. Learnt that Greenwich is not prounced as Green-Wich but Gree-Nwich.

29. Slept on a bed which is probably unclean coz i suffered irritating itchy bites the following day which are probably the works of bed bugs. Yeww.

30. Ate grapes that are washed in icy-cold river and they were, well, icy cold.

31. Was told that beer is ang moh (caucasian) liang teh (herbal tea) and is probably the reason why i didn't fall ill in this trip. Have never had so much beer in the same period ever in my life.

32. Assumed the role of pseudo DeeJay trying to catch English songs on available radio channels while on the road.

33. Am officially known to disappear out of the blue. Otherwise known as getting caught up with photo-taking.

34. Had wine at a cafe in an old castle and witnessed a Russian wedding taking place with some supposedly medieval rituals incorporated into the ceremony.

35. Danced (by that, meaning i shook my body and hands while on the same spot) at an open-stage music festival and had other europeans smile at us. The atmoshpere and music was great, and one's body just naturally grooved to the beat.

36. Had absolutely tasty grilled squid that we all loved and JG can now die without regrets.

37. Found out what FKK stands for. No, we didn't do a FKK.

38. Caught a West End Musical, at long last.

39. Stayed in a hostel for the second night only to find it crappy coz we couldn't turn on the lights and had to move in stealth at night so as not to wake our half-asleep room-mate who muttered from his bed 'i have an early train to catch'.

40. On day 8, we dined at America's most famous restaurant, which JG and Jean gleefully told me before dinner.

41. Later, realised that to use the toilet at said most famous restaurant, one has to use the code number given in the receipt to unlock the toilet. Thankfully, we had retained ours.

42. Stayed in a really nice apartment on the last leg of our trip and even caught America's Top Model from the comfort of our room. It was good to embrace Television again.

43. Had nice breakfast the following morning prepared by host which consisted of bread, marmalade, sliced ham and cheese, butter, tea, honey syrup. Except eggs which our neighbours had but we didn't, and JG was upset because he really loved eggs and would have killed for them. It was a very good breakfast nevertheless.

44. Tried to rent a car in early days but either it was too exorbitant or none was available.

45. Finally rented one on Day 9 from Budget, and that resulted in our budget bursting through the roof. But it was necessary, for that's the only way to see the alps and enjoy the beautiful countryside. With the occasional company of U2, Roxette, and Hotel California on the radio, our road journey was blissfully scenic. Did i mention the 50 hairpin turns that JG had to manoevure?

46. Each day ended with us doing accounts and recording our expenses. We have accumulated a heap of receipts.

47. Despite having had enough of pizzas, we had it again on Day 7 because our Japanese friend whom we met on the trip told us that the restaurant served the best pizza she had ever eaten in her life. It's questionable, but let's just say I've had better pizzas.

48. Got absolutely sick of bus rides which we have to pay additional money for putting out backpacks in the luggage compartment of the bus because we are not allowed to bring them up the bus. (Kah again!) Managed to beat the system for two bus journeys though.

49. Had good beef steak and spaghetti at a restaurant in an alleyway that has a nice two-man (pretty old men if i may add) band playing wonderful music. Found out when we were paying that there's a 10% charge to total bill for having dined when there's a live band playing. Always read the fine lines.

50. Bought a 200ml tube of sunblock and a shampoo only to have them thrown away at the end of the trip because we only had hand-carry luggage.

51. We are nuah creatures and wanted to nuah but the trip was anything but.

52. Walked into a hotel in a rather decrepit town which the guidebook says 'Avoid (this town) if you can'. Checked the rates out of curiosity, and because we were really tired of walking. Turned out that the staff was most wonderfully helpful and tirelessly assisted us with checking available accomodation elsewhere even though we didn't stay at the hotel. To repay her kindness, we gave our most pleasant smile and sincere thanks and - what else - took a picture with her.

53. Saw two Japanese female tourists running in our direction and JG joked that they were running into the Gucci shop. Turned out that this was no joke and indeed the case.

54. Had Japanese curry chicken rice from Wasabi for dinner when we got back to London. Weather was cold and we were hungry and it was late. Oblivious to our surrounds, we tucked into our hot curry rice while taking the Jubilee line back to JG's home.

55. Missed fireworks and Paul Young's open-stage concert because of unexpected stormy weather which JG theorized as due to some change in air pressure, whatever.

56. Thankfully, we did not have any unpleasant meals. Almost all were good, not counting those that we ate on the go. The last dinner at Bled was memorable for the wrong reason though: we had to fan off irritating houseflies, and JG and I unleashed our combat power and exterminated quite a few of these pesky scums, besides resorting to decoy by placing used plates on other tables. Oh, we were the only ones in the restaurant; the rest were dinning al fresco.

57. Legend has it that Xiao Long Bao in its ang moh manifestation is known as Xiao Long Tequila. I had a really good laugh over this.

58. Where we travelled to, few Singaporeans have set forth because immigration officers were always surprised to see a Singaporean passport and ended up having to scrutinize it.

59. On top of that, quite a few locals who talked with us invariably assumed we are Japanese. 'Sushi?' 'Konichiwah?' We can only guess that the Japanese are well-travelled, and I'm sure it's not I who was mistaken as Japanese. :)

60. Came across a guy called Mario (at least in his fifties) who is apparently the general manager and Chief de Tour Guide on a cruise. He's an immaculate salesman and a crowd pleaser who sang songs in a wide specturm of foreign tongues, and he jokingly introuduced himself as Mario Pavarotti. At the precise moment of sunset, he wished everyone the best and invited all to enjoy the sunset with a glass of the cruise's cocktail/champange that is pronounced as 'Boom Ba la Boom Boom'. That didn't come free, of course, and you bet there were tourists who went for it. Hats off to Mario Pavarotti.

That's all the exciting, or not so exciting, stuff I could recall for now.