Quatre mois la tête en bas !

Wanna go to Singapore?

matt — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 02:00:00 +0800

A few words for those who don't speak french… Just in case you may be wondering, I'm fine. I'm still looking for a job in Paris after a few weeks of holidays meeting my friends, going skiing and so on. This post is too make my report about Singapore available online. Sorry for you, it's only in french - anyway, you won't have learnt many things, given that most of you were in Singapore when I was there!

En français maintenant, je fais ce post pour mettre en ligne mon rapport sur mon séjour à Singapour. Quelques personnes me demandant des détails pratiques et mes impressions, j'imagine que ça peut en intéresser d'autres. Faites-en bon usage et tenez moi au courant si vous partez là-bas!

télécharger le rapport (pdf)

End of the year, end of the blog?

matt — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 02:11:00 +0800

I think I will stop this blog with this article ... My time in Singapore is over now and my new life is about to begin! I'm still hesitating about starting a new one (a new blog, for the new life I don't hesitate that much) with my life and some pictures I may shoot in the future. It will almost depend on my future life and the time I'll have to do this. Let's wait and see :)

Anyway, I had a lot of fun and pleasure setting this blog up and writing some post, sharing with all the readers my adventures in Asia! Thanks to all those that came and read my posts, and special thanks to those who posted comments! You all contributed to build a nice map with a lot of red dot on the right column :)

And to have a nice end, I put here some pics I made during my holidays in the mountains. I spent Christmas there with my family. There was hardly enough snow to ski (even if already more than in a lot of other places) so I went for a walk with my parents during one afternoon. I hope you'll enjoy these mountain pics, especially you asian people who seldom saw snow!

Good bye! And of course, I cannot forget these usual seasons greeting: Happy New Year to all of you! May this coming year fulfill all your dream and see your undertakings be successful!

The Angkor temples

matt — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 01:30:00 +0800

Here are some of the pictures I made when I was in the temples of Angkor. I took a lot of pictures since I had hardly anything else to do (so strange to travel alone :)), I put here the most interresting, I hope you'll enjoy!

You can go to this post to have a lot of details (well, it's a long post but still there're few details in fact)!

Fading lights in Paris

matt — Thu, 21 Dec 2006 17:18:00 +0800

Here are a few pictures I took in Paris the day I came back and the following weeks. The weather is quite different from the Singaporian one, colder and more dry. And the thing is, cold winter evenings are a good occasion to shoot urban landscapes with wonderful colors! I hope you'll enjoy these few pictures with the Eiffel Tower, my new neighbour :).
About my life, nothing much to say, I've seen a lot of friends, ate a lot of good french things, drunk some good (and less good, thank you krevet for the brunch one :)) french wine… The basic french life to make it short :).
Or at least the basic life of a french guy coming back from Singapore and having nothing to do in a hurry! (Yes, these little things like finding a job or writing reports about my "holidays in Asia" will wait the new year to come :p)

My last week: In Cambodia

matt — Wed, 20 Dec 2006 00:57:00 +0800

Location: Cambodia: Siem Reap, Phnom Penh, Sihanoukville
Date: 3rd to 8th of December
Transportation: Jetstar plane (2h, 140 s$ to Siem Reap, 120+40 s$ back from Phnom Penh)
Housing: guesthouses, between $3 and $7 (5 to 10 s$)
Price: around 320 s$ without plane

Location - Overview

Sunday: flight and 1st day of temples

My flight to Siem Reap was quite early in the morning (6.00) so I decided to spend the night in the airport to avoid to pay the taxi alone at the night fare. Well, I cannot say it was obviously a brilliant idea, but I managed to sleep a few hours in a dark part of the check-in zone (Of course, JetStar is a lowcost company, there's no early check-ins and you cannot go to the transit area and its comfortable armchairs). If you ever are in the same situation at Changi Airport, there is a kind of terrace upstair to watch the airport (in the area before immigration), it is almost quiet and dark, but not very comfortable ...

So, I went at the counter at 4.30, there were already some people queuing, they must have woke up very early ... The flight was sleepy we'll say, even if I can remember the ray of the rising sun hitting my face and creating beautiful landscapes outside :). Arriving in Cambodia, you have to pay 20 us$ for the visa. Immigration wasn't what we can call efficient and it took almost an hour to go through. Siem Reap is a very small airport, almost nothing there. There were a counter with taxi and motorbikes, $5 and $1. I took the motorbike and asked him to go to the Popular Guesthouse, following the Lonely Planet recommendations. The driver asked me in english if I was staying 3 days and willing to visit temples and so on. At the end, he suggested me to hire him as a driver for the day, not without explaining he had a family and the oil was expensive and blabla. I first planned to take a bicycle, but I was tired so I decided to take him for a day.

He first drove me to the park entrance, mandatory stop. The pass for 3 days is sold $40, quite a huge amount of money if you compare to the price of food (can eat well for $4). But when you ride in Siem Reap you can see a lot of beautiful hotels, there is obviously wealthy people coming here (my driver explained me that with the money paid for 2 or 3 nights in such an hotel he would be able to buy a car and work everyday (no rain problem) and earn much more and make a new life…). The driver was quite ok, but he drove me first to the most crowded place, I really felt bad. Crowds in Angkor can really waste everything I think. Basically, the driver doesn't have the right to enter the temples (only for the official guides (~$20 a day)) so he drops you at the entrance and waits. When there is more than one entrance, he may drop you at one and wait you at another one but that's all. Since I explained him I was planning to take a bike for the other days, my driver tried not to drive me to the most remote temples (the big circuit), asking me more money. Since $8 was already among the highest prices for a day, I refuse and we made the small circuit. Leaving Angkor Thom (the "city"), there were far less people in the temples and I enjoyed much more.

So on Sunday, I visited: (small circuit)

the Bayon: one of the biggest, so many people there...
Thommanon: smaller, less people, nice and ok
Chau Sey Tevoda: just in front of the Thommanon, was being repaired, not much to see
Takeo: a big mountain temple. same as before, not too crowded, quite natural…
Ta Prohm: the 'Tomb Raider' temple. They left the temple in its natural state, with all the trees destroying walls and footpaths. Very wild and natural, nice to wander inside
Banteay Kdei: cannot remember anything very special but the rain for 10minutes there and listening Beck with my iPod waiting for it to stop
Sra Srang: a big pool and a terrace facing it.
Prasat Kravan: five tower with an unique sculpture inside one of them. made a nap :)
Angkor Wat: the biggest, most crowded and maybe more interesting still. Many things to see there, I stayed quite a long time and didn't see everything. But I had no guide and it was very crowded again

I watched the sunset on the top of Angkor Wat and came back after it, arriving at the guesthouse at 6.30pm (sun sets at 5.30). I spent a short evening with Johannes, a german friend, we ate at the guesthouse, the food was good and went out to drink a beer. It is simple and safe, there are two streets with only restaurants and bars and many policemen to look after the scooters and bikes as well as the public safety.

Monday: temple day 2

After my motorbike experience of the previous day, I decided to try the bike. I paid $2 for the day and had a lot of time to watch landscapes and enjoy peace and tranquility of the Cambodian country… Without kidding, I really appreciated riding a bike there, it is very flat and there is not to much traffic once you left the main road. Of course, you have to go to the temple area (and come back, even harder) and it takes around 40mins on the main road. But after it, you really go where you want at your own pace and enjoy landscapes. Parking the bike is not often a problem, since there is a guard in front of each temple usually and they can look after it for free. When there is no guard, the children around will ask you money to 'look after' the bike, you don't really know what happens if you don't pay, I didn't try and moved instead. These children are a big point of Cambodia. The population is very poor and the parents are asking the children to sell some more or less useless things to the tourist instead of going to school. These kids (almost girls, some young boys) are really jumping at you and won't stop trying to sell you their goods before you leave the place. I found it pretty annoying, you don't want to be rude with them, it's not really their "fault", but they are boring. They all speak english quite well, that's kind of funny to see so young people being able to speak without the help of school or anything, just spending their time with tourists!

On this second day, I made the big circuit, it was quite cool, the weather was fine and there weren't many people around. Temples I've visited are:

Pre Rup: quite an old temple, was very calm in the morning
East Mebon: there are some nice elephant sculptures at the corner, temple not so special
Ta Som: well, nothing special i think
Prasat Krol Kô: a small temple lost in the nature, I stayed there alone for a nap, was nice
Neak Pean: you must be motivated to build an island in a middle of a pool to dig some other pools… original
Banteay Prei: again, nothing very very special, the basic temple stuff with a little something different
Prah Khan: big temple, many things to see and time to spend. a strange greek-style monument in the east
Baksei Chamkrong: just on the border of the main road, down the hill of
Phnom Bakheng: One of the first temple built there, it's on the top of a hill (10-15 min walk). Supposed to be a good place tu see the sunset, but it was really overcrowded, you may prefer Pre Rup, Lonely Planet said.

I rode back at night, without light, it was not much of a problem anyway. I spent the evening with Johannes again, we ate at "the Khmer kitchen", it was very tasty and people were friendly (I even went there again the day after). The pumpkins and coconut soup is actually good, you must try ;). The beer is cheap (can have a glass for 50cts) and we had a nice evening before saying goodbye, Johannes leaving for Thailand the day after.

Tuesday: Angkor Thom

The third day was my last one in Siem Reap. So I had to go to the main remaining temples, in the royal city of Angkor Thom. There wasn't much distance to ride, so I slept quite a lot (fact is I woke up at 6.15 the day before, thinking it was 7.15 - forgot to change the Singaporian time of my phone :) - and I had a big day after this). I first went to the Landmine Museum, it is almost on the way to the temples. This museum is held by a local guy that fought in the army as a child. He knows how to destroy or make safe landmines and he cleared a lot of areas in Cambodia. The museum is a place where a lot of landmine are shown as well as some explainations on the way they work. But it is also a community for the children who were hurt by the landmines. With one arm or one leg missing, these children are useless in their family and the museum is an occasion for them to learn english and have an education. This museum isn't a really pleasant place, but to my mind it is important to see something else in Cambodia than the very touristic area of the angkorian temples. After half an hour there, I took my bike again and went to Angkor Thom, the royal city.

I had already been there on the first day but left because there were too many people. This time, I arrived at 11.30am I think, and there were far less people. All the groups are going back to Siem Reap to have their lunch, so the area is clearer :). I went to many sites inside the city, following the guide I printed before leaving. I enjoyed having a guide to provide me some information about the temples, their specificities and what you have to look at. Otherwise it is boring to go for one temple after the other, they're just the same (I know this feeling, I had no guide on my first day). This guide can be found freely on the internet at ?.

Let's come back to my third day, I've done:

the Terrace of the Elephant: a long terrace with sculpture of elephants, not too hard to guess :). Nothing really special.
the Terrace of the Lepper King: just next to the previous one, a little bit more interresting because they recently found a second wall behind the first one (yes, the khmer seem to have been funny people) and the sculpture on this new wall are better than on all the old walls.
Tep Pranam: if you've been to Thailand, nothing new: it's a sitting Buddha, with a long terrace. Colorful in this rocky environment!
Prah Palilay, an old temple, nothing to see I'm afraid, but it's on the way :)
the Royal Palace and Phimeanakas: it wasn't really awesome, but it's big, you can try to imagine how life was at the time, but there are very few clues but rocks and water. And another mountain temple/pyramid at the middle of the Palace (the so-called Phimeanakas), the private chapel of the king.
the Baphuon: it cannot really be visited, there are important works being done by French Foreign Affairs ministry. The counterpart is that there are some explanation about how it was and how they work to rebuild it, it was quite interesting.
Prasat Suor Prat towers: not so much to see but a few towers…
South Khleang: almost the same, an old building, a few lines in the guide but nothing really huge
Prah Pithu: my last temples. Yes there are five under the same name. What is nice about these one was the calm and silence: there were nobody (yes, it was almost dark and there were some rain, can it explain something? seriously, they're less popular than some other and there is a lot of nature around). Enjoyed it before going back on my bike…

I had a good evening, my first real one being all alone. Going to the restaurant alone is not very funny and you just realize how long it can be to wait your food having nothing else to do but looking at the paintings or photographs around :). But the food was good (the Khmer Kitchen again and a Laab beef if I remember well. If you like mint, you can order it!

Wednesday: Sihanoukville by bus

I booked a bus to Sihanoukville in a travel agency in Siem Reap. The guesthouse also hadthe service, but it was overpriced. The regular price is $3,5 for Phnom Penh and $3 more to go to Sihanoukville. I had $3,5+$5 and the guesthouse was even more expensive. You have to take the 7.00 bus in Siem Reap if you want to be able to catch the last one leaving for Sihanoukville in PP in the afternoon. The bus seem to be unable to ride in the dark in Cambodia (so forget the night buses, of course).

I woke up early to be picked-up at the guesthouse at 6.15. We arrived around 7 at the taxi/bus station. It was very messy - I really don't know if I would have been able to find my bus without the pickup service :). The bus was not one of these VIP one with only 27 seats you can see elsewhere. It was a good old one with real Cambodian inside. The trip is 6 hours to Phnom Penh, and I had almost six hours of khmer karaoke, nice nice nice. My neighbour was nice, even he really liked putting his legs in front of my seat without asking anything. We made some breaks: I may have bought some fried spiders (at least it looked like, I didn't try) and other nice delicatessen.

My bus to Sihanoukville (let's say SHK in the following) was scheduled at 14.30, I had more than an hour to spend in PP (you guessed it's Phnom Penh). I walked to the river and back, buying some food in a bakery. Despite the Lonely Planet award, I didn't find it tasty or anything… These little things make you feel the Lonely Planet is not a french guide :). The streets are quite dirty, sometimes only made of dirt. It was, let's say, interresting.

I took the second bus for a 4 hours ride to SHK. It was almost dark when I arrived there. The bus drops you in the center, which is something like 4 kms away from the sea. I decided to go to the seaside for the night and following day, after all I was here for it. I walked there (not because I was hard to find a moto to drive me there, don't be afraid, there wasn't any five minutes without someone coming and asking) as I had nothing else to do. The seaside is full of guesthouses and bars. It seemed impossible to find a room under $7 so I took one at the Same-same guesthouse, just on the beach. I had a quick dinner (alone again), tried to shoot a few pics, walked barefoot in a pooh (thanks cambodian people doing this on the beach…) and decided to go to bed trying to wake up early in the morning and enjoy the desert beach.

Thursday: Being ill for my last day of asian sea

Even if I first tought that early could be as early as the sunrise (around 5.45), it actually was 8 or around. The checkout time was 12, so after a fried rice breakfast, I decided to walk on the beach trying to reach a less developped area.

The beach I slept at (Serendipity) is really too much developped: there isn't any meter of beach without a bar or a guesthouse and it's quite sad. It doesn't mean too much people and it's still quite nice (and believe me I don't like crowded beaches) but I wanted a quieter place. To find it, you have to walk at least 30 to 40 minutes to the south-east, and what you find is a dirty area, full of plastic bags and others pieces, some concrete parts… not so nice. I walked an hour to the Otres beach, it was far more calm and natural, but still dirty. Maybe I was unlucky with high tides?

I stayed there reading for a while and made the way back under the sun.

I still don't know if this was the reason for my feeling bad, but coming back to my room, I had a headache and fever. I gave my room back and ate something, and after this I found myself alone, ill and without anywhere to go but a sunny beach… Nice afternoon in sight. I made my way again along the beach to the free area and found a tree to protect from the sun. I stayed there doing nothing the whole afternoon, just hoping the fever will drop and headache will fly away. I was also wondering if I had caught something so bad that they would not let me come back back to France. Well, to put it in a nutshell, it was a nice afternoon :).

I waited for the sunset to go back to town. I made my way back by feet (almost one hour, I was really dying at the end, don't really know why I didn't take a mototaxi) and at the end my head was so hot I was unable to understand anything. But I found the nicest room I ever found at the Angkor Inn, near the bus stations. I managed to bargain the price (I guess my dying state inspired pity) to $4 for an aircon/cable TV/hot water room. After the dinner (good food and very nice people, I definitly advise you to go there), I just went to bed for a fantastic night full of hallucinations and mighty dreams.

I woke up at 3.30am and enjoyed the cableTV, watching the french channel TV5 with the singer Raphael - nice souvenir - but I was already feeling better. I slept again a little bit and woke up at 6 to prepare for my last day.

Friday: go to Phnom Penh and wait the plane

I took the bus at 7 and arrived in PP around 11. I was still a little bit ill and didn't want to move a lot, so I made my way slowly there, but I had a nice day.

I first went to the Central Market, just next to my bus station (there are few companies, and a different station for each company if I understood well). There were a lot of unpleasant smells, butchers working without any cold storage (and temperature there is quite warm) and many many things everywhere. I didn't stay and I moved to Wat Phnom, a temple built on a hill (Phnom in khmer - and Penh is a girl that came there I think, anyway the town is named after this hill). There is a park around the temple I stayed for a while. A Cambodian girl came and talked to me. Her situation wasn't nice: she was 28, pregnant for more than 8 monthes with knowing the father and rejected by her own mother because of this, she was sleeping in the streets and had no other money to live but begging. It would not have been so sad if she was alone, but they are so many. She was speaking english because she worked in a bar before having the baby, but she wasn't able to read anything. It make me feel strange to talk with someone like that, makes me realize stronger than before how much lucky we are… Of course she wanted money from me (and she had a little) and he talk was not free in some way but she made it quite good, without asking too much, it wasn't so bad. And she was funny, she explained me I looked like a monkey with my beard (thank you girl) and repeated me many times that I wasn't looking good and I'd better eating something. (Maybe I was really ill?).

Eating that's what I made after leaving this girl in her park. Eating like a rich again, forgeting the poor people all around (well, like a rich is $4, not that much back in Europe but still, can make a small week for a poor Cambodian). I went to the Khmer Borane Restaurant near the royal Palace: the food was good, but I waited so so long. And the cashier was a very old woman: it was funny to see her and all the young waitress around, she was like the wise mum looking after everybody.

After my lunch I went to the Royal Palace and silver Pagoda. I won't say much about it, it wasn't very nice, it's true that's kind of impressing but when you've spent some days in Bangkok you are kind of vaccinated against temples dans glittering buildings ;). Going out of the Palace, I took a taxi to go to the Tuol Sleng Museum in the south of the town.

This museum is an old school the Khmers Rouges used as a prison and torture center. Once again, it's not very funny but it's a part of Cambodian history and it's still in all their memories… The museum is impressive, there are a few informations, enough to understand it was so bad. Another bad thing is that the museum doesn't have enough money to keep the building in good shape and that the government doesn't want to give money for this, as if they prefer forgetting about all this quite fast.

When I went out of the museum, the man who drove me there was still waiting (more tha one hour I think) because he understood I was going to the airport after the museum. So I went to the airport with him for $1,5.

Once at the airport, I ate a very expensive panini (no way to find cheap food in this airport) and waited my plane.

The flight was ok but I arrived in Singapore five minutes too late to catch the right bus back home, so I took one randomly and I arrived on the other side of the island (Woodlands) where I took a night bus down to Orchard road and finally a taxi back to NUS. It took me 2 hours to go back from the airport instead of 30 minutes by taxi, but I saved 20 s$ :).

That's the end of the stories :)

Quick sightseeing of Cambodia

matt — Tue, 19 Dec 2006 02:15:00 +0800

Yes, I'm back for more than one week now and I remained so still on my blog ... Well, coming back is not so easy, lot of people to see, lots of little things to do and not that much time to blog :). But I found the time tonight to publish some pictures from my Cambodian trip. It is only the pictures from the second half of my week, those regarding Angkor and the temples will follow soon, I promise. I hope all you people I left behind in Singapore and travelling around are fine, that the last exams were easy and that you enjoy your holidays! Take care and enjoy the pics :)

Over lah!

matt — Sat, 02 Dec 2006 17:09:00 +0800

No more school
No more exams
No more evenings spent in vain trying to study
No more boring paper to read
No more uninteresting assignement to work
No more IVLE forum to read
No more 'I speak because there is a participation grade' useless discussion …

… Yeah, my semester here is over! And if everything goes well (and it should), any semester is over ... I'm done with school :) I must admit I was waiting for that moment for a few weeks now, because going to some boring lectures and write assignements and exams is not so motivating. Well now it's over and even if what's coming next may be worse :) I really enjoy it.

What's coming immediately next won't probably be that bad, since I'm flying to Cambodia tomorrow on the very morning, sightseeing Siam Reap and Phnom Penh and maybe go to the beach in the south ... I'm coming back on the evening of Friday to check out of my room on Saturday and take the big plane back to Paris via Frankfurt. I will be in the cold in the morning of next Sunday!

Last week was good too, even if studying was sometimes boring. But I didn't study too much, don't be afraid. Tuesday, I went to some french people who live and work here for 5 years. He is trader and she is inner space architect (does it have a meaning in english? :)), they have a small girl and soon another child. We talked about Singapore and how was their life, why they are here ... It was very pleasant to speak with french people, to drink Ricard and eat real bread with cheese :). Thanks to them!

Yesterday was a nice evening too. We went in the old malay quarter and ate in a cheap restaurant with some norvegian girls and few other people. Then we moved to a Chinese bar where some girls were singing. They even sang a Chinese 'Jingle bells' - Christmas is really coming here -. Volume was too loud but it was funny. And it was my last evening in Singapore too ... Tonight I will go to the airport and try to sleep a little bit there before grabbing my plane tomorrow ...

Next post next weekend probably, if I have some time in Singapore, otherwise will be a french one :). Right now is goodbye to german friends at the New Asia Bar :)

An Unconvenient Truth

matt — Mon, 27 Nov 2006 10:41:00 +0800

I've been to the cinema yesterday, it is far more exciting than staying in his room reading lectures notes or lengthy articles. Anyway, next exam is on, let me remenber…, tuesday, it's quite far away :). And furthermore I went for a so called intelligent film, I think I was allowed to :)

So I've seen the Unconvenient Truth, (La vérité qui dérange, in french), the movie featuring Al Gore, the former american vice-president. It deals with global warming and climate changes. The film is easy to see (some would said 'spectacular' in a pejorative way) and not too hard to understand (to put in in a nutshell, it targets the ordinary American people…). I didn't learn many things as I'm quite interested by the topic and already read things about it, but it puts basic things in a way that everybody should understand and be afraid of. Especially American people I mean…

Because even if the film is not so extraordinary in itself, even if we see Al Gore and his life quite too much, we cannot help but thinking that it could have an effect on American politics and American people. And this is, too my mind, the most important point of this American film made for American people: it seems that they're becoming aware of all this, and given on the one hand their weight in the whole process and on the other hand their present official position, it is quite a good news for all of us!

Another question that raise seeing Al Gore so brilliant and well informed in the film is why these crazy Americans chose Georges Walker Bush twice for being their president ... but it's just another question I guess!

For more information, you can visit www.climatecrisis.org, the official website.

Hong Kong, China and Vietnam in 7 days …

matt — Sun, 26 Nov 2006 14:48:00 +0800

... is obviously too short, you must think :). And you're probably right. But we had only seven days and wanted to see a little bit of these places, so we decided to try it. If you're not afraid spending a lot of time in buses, train and taxi and have so little time like us, here is the detailled outline of our week!

Location: China & Vietnam
Date: 25th of September to 1st of October
Plane: SG-Hong Kong (JetStar, 174 s$) and Hanoi-SG (Tiger Airways, 140 s$)
Price: around 750 s$ all inclusive

Location - Overview

Total time spent in transportation: more than 63 hours, that more than 2 days and an half :) …

7 hours of plane (Singapore-Hong Kong and Hanoi-Singapore)
40 hours in trains (Hong Kong-Guangzhou, Guangzhou-Kunming, Lao Cai-Hanoi)
16 hours of bus (Kunming-Hekou/Lao Cai, Hanoi-Halong Bay and back)

Kilometers travelled (excluding plane, too easy :)): 2750 kms

Hong Kong to Guangzhou: 170 kms (3hrs - 60km/h)
Guangzhou to Kunming: 1650 kms (25hrs - 66km/h)
Kunming to Hekou (chinese border): 350 kms (12h - 30 km/h)
Lao Cai (vietnamese border) to Hanoi: 250 kms (12h - 20km/h)
Hanoi to Halong Bay and back: 330 kms (6h - 55km/h)

It makes no doubt it was kind of travelling trip :).

This hasn't been that much a problem since most of the time was in trains. Travelling in the train is not too much boring: you can move/walk/chat and meet some people. It is also fine to stay hours watching the amazing landscapes. Beside this, hours compressed in sleepers bus or small minibus weren't very nice (but still allright :).

The price of our week was around 750s$ split like this:

300 s$ for plane
200 s$ for transportation excluding plane
100 s$ for food
50 s$ for housing (sleeping in train is cheap :))
100 s$ for visits, bars ...

Let's go for the details!

day1: Hong Kong

(here are pictures, in a french post)

We flew from Singapore on Monday morning 6.40am. It's quite early especially when back home from Malaysia at 1am the same night :). It was JetStar, arrived around 10.20am in Hong Kong. We waited maybe half an hour at the customs and finaly arrived outside around 11.30am. We had an appointment at 1.30 at Central MTR and chose to take the cheap bus (21 hk$ and 2hrs instead of 100$ for the express train, 45min). Being a little bit early we tried our luck and looked for a room before going to Central. Following the lonely planet listing, we went to Alisan Guest House, near Causeway Bay MTR. This guest house has rooms in a big building, and strangely the entrance is not at the written adress, just in another close street. Took us 15min to find it, at least, not good for the appointment :). We had a triple room for 80 s$.

Then took the MTR to Central and meet my friend Youssef. He brought us to a nice barbecue restaurant. You just pay 14 s$ and eat as much as you want. Can also pay 7s$ and drink as much red wine as you want, of course we did! After this nice lunch, we went to the Peak, taking the bus near Central for 2 s$.

Up there we walked around, watched the sunset and the city in the night, the view was nice. We took the tram to go down (4 s$) and met another friend, Marie. She and her boyfriend Rob showed us nice bars :). We went back for a good night with the last MTR.

day2: Hong-Kong to Guangzhou

Waking up just before check out time at 12, the morning passed very fast :). After leaving the room, we took the tram (cheap 2hk$) to the ferry pier (near Central) and then the Star Ferry (cheap again, 2.20 hk$). We walked around in Kowloon, had lunch in a small restaurant and then took the train to the Chinese border at 2.30pm (costs 36.50 hk$).

The border is well organized. There were no problem, the officier just asked me my adress in China ... since I was not to stay any place more than 12hrs, it was complicated :). But I just putted Guangzhou, it was ok. We took the train (70 RMB, ~14s$) there just after the border to go to Guangzhou. I think there are trains every two hours, but we were lucky and one was just leaving when we arrived.

Once in Guangzhou, we had to buy the ticket for the next train, 25hours to Kunming. We needed to take the next one, in 7 in the morning. We managed to have tickets after half an hour of queuing (well, chinese queuing is far less clean than singaporian one, there are people everywhere overtaking you ...) and a discussion with a non-english speaking employee. Since everything was written in Chinese on the ticket but figures, we weren't sure a t all to have the right ticket :). We didn't even paid exactly the same price for each (around 320 RMB). Then we took the subway to the center of the town and checked in the International Youth Hotel. It was ok, the triple room was big and not too expensive (420 RMB). After a dinner in a foreigner restaurant, we felt like to see the real life of the town, so we crossed the river with a ferry to the street of Chinese bars (for Chinese). We ended in one, it was quite strange. People were playing dices with the waitress while some dancers performed on the stage. I really had the feeling to be outside the scene, understanding nothing around, discovering new things. I liked it. But we didn't stay long and came back to the hotel, we had to wake up early to catch the train.

(here are pictures of China, in a french post)

day3 : train to Kunming

We woke up around 5 bacause we were told to be a the station 1 hour before departure. Checking out the hotel, we found a taxi sleeping in the hall, he woke up and brought us to the station. It was allmost closed when we arrived, lights were off and hardly anybody there. It was so strange once again, a so big empty building ... We waited for a while and finally got in the train around 6.40. A train we would leave only 26 hours later ...

Chinese trains are comfortable, I enjoyed travelling in it. In the class we bought, there are 6 sleepers per cabin, and the higher it is, the cheaper. Eating is quite convenient, there is someone passing in the corridor to sell chinese food (soup, rice, some meat and veges) when it's eating time. And it's quite cheap, around 15 RMB. For twice the price we also tried the restaurant. It had been quite hard to order since everything was in Chinese and people didn't speak english at all, but we were saved by a girl they brought from God knows where, and the food was good. If you want to do cheaper, they are also selling these instant noodles you can see everywhere in Asia and there is hot water in each wagon.

The trip was not too long, I read, wrote, played card, slept and enjoyed the landscape for a while. Chinese landscapes are so huge ... Was a good trip !

day4: Kunming and trip to Vietnam

We arrived around 9am in Kunming. First step was to organize our travel to the Vietnamese border in Hekou (chinese side)/Lao Cai (vietnamese side). The crossing is only opened during the day and the trip there is around 10hours (for 300km ...) by bus. The best way to do it was by night bus, so we looked for it. We found a sleeper bus departing at 7pm. The office is just right of the station, we were guided by Chinese to three other offices before, was funny how they tried to help us. Ticket was 112 RMB.

Since we had the whole day in Kunming, we decided to go to the western hills, a little bit outside of the town. Took the bus 44 (I still remember the nice Chinese people trying to explain how to go there :)) and arrived not far from the bottom station of a cable car (a French cable car :)). Western Hills is the site of the Dragon Gate, a dozen of temple celebrating Chinese deity. There were quite a lot of Chinese tourist there, beside old Western and Japanese people. We also walked a little bit in the mountain around, it was good to leave these giant cities for a while.

Coming down to town, we went to a very good restaurant (and still so cheap), 1910 La Gare du Sud. We were too early we had to wait for a while, but the were pouring tea as soon as we drank one sip, it was funny and pleasant. Then once again we weren't able to order, the menu was in Chinese. After 15 or 20 min, another customer arrived and fortunately he was speaking a little bit english. We just asked him to take anything he would have eaten :). It could have been dangerous, but it was finally very good. We were then in a hurry to catch the bus and ran across the streets of Kunming to arrive to this nice kind of bus. The good point of sleeper bus is that you can lie on the sleepers. The bad point in China is that Chinese are slightly smaller than us and we were so packed. It was probably the worst night of the travel, but still, we managed to arrive in Hekou in the early hours of morning.

day5 : Crossing to Vietnam and going down to Hanoi

(here are pictures, in a french post)

After this good night we weren't very powerful and we got scammed in some way by a small Chinese guy when going down the bus. He proposed to help us buying the tickets for the train to Hanoi (to be taken in Lao Cai on the Vietnamese side) before we cross the border. So we paid the price of the night train with sleepers (around 20 us$) for a hard seats train worthing less than 4 us$. Not very bad, but it made me angry for the rest of the day :). The border crossing was ok, we met some Israeli, Ales and Shoham, we made the trip to Hanoi with. They had just spent one month in China and all the things they said gave me the will to go there again ! Later, probably :).

The train was quite long, it departed around 10am and arrived in Hanoi only after 9pm for only 250 kms ! At the station, all the taxi wanted to led us somewhere for a lot of money ... Those with meter having just putting it on a while before ... So nice to be welcomed like that. A small guy called us a real taxi and tell him to go to his guesthouse/travel agency. Usually we just don't go for this kind of thing, but well we had nowhere to go anyway and we were fed up of travelling, just wanted to relax :). We stayed in this guesthouse (22 us$ for a triple room), it was almost clean and ok and people were friendly. We also booked a trip to Halong Bay with them for the day after with them (30 s$).

Finally, we went out in Hanoi to eat and sightsee a little bit. We went to the bar Le Maquis. It is a very good place everybody should visit in Hanoi :) with a good friendly atmosphere. The city of Hanoi shows a lot a little french things, it's quite funny and pleasant to hang around there !

day6 : Halong Bay and french evening in Hanoi

We booked one of these organized trip through the travel agency. It is possible to do it by yourself, but it is kind of hassle to save nothing at the end we read in the guides ... So we left Hanoi in the morning in a minibus. It wasn't very comfortable, the ride was something like 3 hours which seemed more than 6 ! We arrived at 11.30am in the harbour. There were so many people and so many boat there, it wasn't very nice. I think we were Saturday and it wasn't very good for crowd, but still, I found it too overcrowed ! We took a boat and went to these famous islands in the bay. It was unquestionably beautiful, but seing so many people around made me feel like sick. I think it is better to do it on a two days tour, this way you escape from the crowd and spend a nice night in the middle of the bay. After a good lunch on the boat, we stop on a island to visit the caves. It was impressive but once again there were so many people ...

After the trip back in the minibus which seemed as long as the first way, we met a friend of Adrien in Hanoi. She was to study there with another french girl from her school, there were also two girls buying vietnamses handicrafts to sell it in France they met few days before. So we were a lot of french and Johannes had a hard evening. We ate in a vietnamese restaurant (I tried goat, tasted not specially good neither bad) and went to some bar after this. It was a good evening.

day 7: Hanoi and back home

To begin this last day, we had a wonderful french breakfast at Baguette et Chocolat, a local restaurant employing socially excluded people if I remenber well. Anyway, that wasn't the point, their french bakeries were sooooo tasty ! After this, we walked in the old quarter of Hanoi, enjoying these little streets with people selling small things everywhere. It's funny, each street is specialized in something. There is the street of pharmacies, one is dedicated to children games ... We also went to a temple on the island in the middle of the lake which lies in the middle of the town. That's good to have a lake in the town, a little bit like home in Annecy :).

After a last lunch, we took the taxi to the airport and then our plane back to Singapore. End of an intensive week (and a long story about it :)) ...

Week-end à Bangkok, les photos

matt — Sun, 26 Nov 2006 00:08:00 +0800

C'était il y a déjà deux semaines ... Un super week-end avec Adrien et Noémie (une française qu'on a rencontré içi), avec plein de temple et de Boudhas, des rues animées à toute heure, des chauffeurs de tuk-tuk fous, des masseuses thaïlandaises :) et des soirées cools avec des intiens et leurs potes francais. C'était un chouette week-end quoi !

Les photos suivantes vous donneront un petit aperçu du week-end, ya aussi du texte en anglais si vous voulez :)

La semaine de révision en Thaïlande en image

matt — Sat, 25 Nov 2006 23:47:00 +0800

Ben oui, il ne faut pas oublier que ce gros week-end entre Koh Pha Ngan et Hat Yai était censé être consacré aux révisions. J'ai donc promené tout au long du voyage une bonne quantité de polys et un livre sur la gestion de la relation client. Et je n'en ai évidement fait qu'un usage très modéré :) Ce n'est pas l'envie qui manquait, rassurez-vous, mais on n'a pas eu beaucoup de temps avec tout ce que l'on a fait !

Voilà les photos de ce voyage bien sympa et plein de soleil, de mer et de bonne nourriture thaï !

Trip to Bangkok

matt — Fri, 24 Nov 2006 16:05:00 +0800

Location: Thailand
Date: 10th to 13th of November
Transportation: Thai Air Asia plane (2h, 160 s$ 2-ways)
Housing: guesthouse, 420 bahts for a triple room (20 s$)
Price: around 400 s$

Location - Overview

There's not much to say I guess. Bangkok is the capital of Thailand for a few centuries now and is quite famous ! We took the plane in the evening on Friday and came back on Monday evening, having then 3 days there.

Saturday: Week-end market in Chatuchak and AIT

We arrived late on Friday (around 2am at the guesthouse) so we slept quite long on the morning. We took a breakfast at the israeli guesthouse we were in, the Greenhouse in Thanon Rambutri if I remember well (first one we found, it was not so easy to find a guesthouse in Khao San neighbourhood at 2am on a friday night). Then we walked to the river and took a boat down to the Tha Sathon (central pier). This boat is a good way to see Bangkok from the river, it was pleasant.

Then we took the Skytrain to the very north, last station, of Mo Chit. We had an appointment with a friend from the INT (my home school) at 7pm and decided to spend the afternoon there. The Chatuchak market is just near the station on every Saturday and Sunday. It is a huge market with many many things, some clothes, of course, but also some pets, flowers, paintings, handicrafts ... It's quite beautiful and incredibly cheap. We stayed 4 or 5 hours there (and I'm usually not that fond of shopping :)) !

At night, we took a van to go to the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) where my friend Laurent and other people from the INT are studying. There were a party there where every country cooked something to make the others discover their local food. It was good. Then we experienced the local pub and its cheap whisky. This is quite strange, people are dancing around the tables, but it was a good evening. We went back to Bangkok at 3am ...

Sunday: temples, temples and french evening

We didn't wake up very early once again ;). After a lunch in Th. Rambutri, we walked in the direction of the Grand Palace. At the middle of the trip, a guy wanted to give us some advice. "You should not go there on Sunday, many people are praying, foreigners are not welcome", "Have you been to this Buddha, this one and this temple". "Try also to go to this shop, they're selling gems at an uncredible price". Well, we'll see mister ... "I call you a tuk-tuk, he can drive you everywhere for cheap" (80 bahts for the whole trip, the driver waiting everywhere). Well, we finally followed. I think he was paid by the shop ? but anyway the day was ok.

So we went first to Wat Intharawihan and its 32m high standing Buddha. It was the first one and we appreciate it. But it's true that at the end of the day, after thousand Buddhas, you don't even have a look at them anymore :). After this we went to another temple but monks were praying or something like that, it was closed. We walked around in the garden, I spoke with an english-speaking thai (not so easy to find) and took tuk-tuk again to the shop the guy wanted us to go. There were beautiful gems, that's true, but still a little bit too expensive for my student purse :). We didn't stay long and people there weren't boring, it was ok. Then the tuk-tuk drove us to the Wat Saket and Golden Mount. This is another temple, but next to it there is an artificial hill from where you can see Bangkok. The view was not very special, but the place was calm and we stayed there for a while. When we came back, the tuk-tuk had left without even being paid :), so we had free trip ! We walked in the street following a Lonely Planet walking tour. We went through the Romaneenart Park where we made a stop, lying on the lawn. There were Thai people all around, some children playing, it was nice. Then we walked to Wat Suthat and visited it while the sun was going down. The end of the tour was in the Pak Khlong flower market. There where beautiful flowers everywhere, and so cheap once again. So sad I cannot bring it back to France :). As we had an appointment for dinner in Suhkumvit, we took a tuk-tuk once again. Crazy tuk-tuk :).

We spent the evening with some french people, some we saw the day before, some new ones. We ate in a good restaurant in a soi (an lane-way that runs of a bigger treet) of Suhkumvit, the neighbourhood of embassies and well-known hotels. It was pleasant and interesting to talk with some french people studying there, to compare with our experience in Singapore for example. After the restaurant, we went to the Saxophone, a live-music bar near Victory Monument. I really enjoyed the place, they were playing some good groovy jazzy music and had nice cocktails. We talked quite a lot again and went back home around 1am. We walked through Khao San road before going to bed, but everything was closing, we were late.

Monday: Grand Palace, Wat Pho and massage

Waking up quite early to have the time to enjoy the whole day, the went first to the Grand Palace. We went into the Palace without paying, it was interesting but nothing really phenomenal ... then we just skipped the Wat Phra Kaew and its emerald Buddha. We judge it was woth the 200 bahts they were asking for it and we already saw so much temples ... We just went to the close Wat Pho ant its giant lying Buddha (45m long!). Actually this temple was very cool, not to many people, nice gardens, small statues everywhere. I liked it.

After this temple morning, we wanted to try the well-known thai massage (well, try again for me, but still :). We went to the Wat Pho massage school, it was very pleasant! Then we ate in a small thai restaurant in front of the Grand Palace and took the boat down to Chinatown. Once there, we walked in the markets for a while (they weren't as nice as Chatuchak) before taking the taxi to the airport ... the trip is already finished!

Bangkok is definitly an interesting city, so lively all the time, mixing so many old things with new ones, with an overwhelming circulation and tuk-tuk and cars everywhere ... There are not that many things you really have to do there, it's more a matter of enjoying the atmosphere, walking around ... and three days are enough for this !

Trip to Koh Pha Ngan

matt — Fri, 24 Nov 2006 12:36:00 +0800

Location: Thailand
Date: between the 17th and the 22nd of November - low season but weather was ok and less crowd
Transportation: Singapore-Hat Yai by night bus (15h, 35 s$) and back by plane (1h30, Tiger, 90 s$)
Housing: guesthouses, usually around 350 baht for double room (15 s$)
Price: overall less than 500 s$ (including 100$ diving)

Location - Overview

Koh Phangan is a well-know island in the Thailand Gulf. It belongs to the Koh Samui archipelago. The three main islands are tropical paradise destinations. While Samui is the biggest island of the Gulf, Tao is famous for its diving spots and Phangan for its fullmoon party. This monthly held party gather up to 10,000 people on the southern-shore beach of Haad Rin. But the rest of the time, people can enjoy a nice island atmosphere and perfect sand beaches. Almost what we've done ...

Friday, November the 17th : night bus

We left NUS at 5pm and took bus 200, MRT, bus 160 to Johor Bahru, Malaysia and its famous Larkin bus terminal. This is a good way to save a few dollars instead of taking the bus directly in Singapore. As it was the beginning of the holidays for Singaporian schools, we weren't much confident in our chance to find a bus to Hat Yai (Thailand) direct. We arrived at Larkin around 6.40pm and we managed to find a bus departing at 7pm for Hat Yai. The bus was quite full and I believe we've been lucky. This seemed to be the only bus for Hat Yai departing. You can find it at the counter 36. Price is 73 MYR.

The trip was quite nice but so long ... We arrived around 8.30am (local time) in Hat Yai after queing for a long time at the Thai border around 7am. There weren't that many people but the officiers weren't very efficient! We changed money (no more ringgit needed ...) before the border but the rate was better in the travel agency in Hat Yai.

Saturday the 18th : van and ferry

Hat Yai is only a stop in a long journey ... The bus brought us directly to Davis Travel where we bought a minibus ticket to Surat Thani (240 bahts), the harbour for the islands. The agency was selling joint tickets (for 500 bahts) with the ferry, but this was for a slow ferry at 4.30pm arriving at 10pm in Koh Phangan. Leaving Hat Yai around 9.30am, we arrived in Surat Thani around 2.30pm. Once again, the bus brought us directly to a travel agency who tried to sell us ferry ticket for 650 bahts. We finally bought it 350 bahts. It was a fast ferry, leaving at 4pm from Donsak, one hour away from Surat Thani. We met an odd Singaporian guy on the way: Although he had finished his school for 6 years, he wasn't working for real yet, enjoying travelling and freedom. That is really unusual for Singapore and he explained social pressure was quite high toward him!

When we arrived in Thong Sala (the main city of Koh PhaNgan) at 7pm, the taxis literally rushed at us. And since sleeping in the city is not nice, we had no choice but to bargain with them. We were only a few farangs (foreigners) on the ferry as it is low season and nobody was heading to the same beach. This was good for taxis but not that much cost-effective for us. With Adrien, we wanted to go to a Thong Nai Pan, a remote place in the north-east, but being only two it was obviously overpriced (800 bahts for the taxi). So we managed to reach an agreement with the other people (a French girl, a Canadian and the Singaporian) to go to the nearest nice (according to french Guide du Routard) guesthouse, Cookies, for 50 bahts of taxi each.

This place was nice, populated with people you just expected on such an island, smoking not only tobacco ... We were tired, we just had dinner and went to bed.

Sunday the 19th: Taxi through the island

On the morning, I walked along the coast around cookies, it was so still. Thong Sala seems to be within walking distance (30 to 40 mins). Since we wanted to go to Thong Nai Pan (TNP), we decided to leave after breakfast. In Thong Sala, we managed to find two german people who were going to TNP too and we shared the pick-up taxi for 150 bahts each. The trip is around 1hr on bad dust roads. I think it's quite impossible to go there when it really rains ...

TNP is very remote. Since the trip there is quite long, there is a real feeling of being far from the crowd and the stress of the city. The beach is really beautiful and just lively enough. At least during the low season: there were closed resorts and very few people on the beach (we saw maybe 25 different people (foreigners) there!). We slept at the Baan Panburi Village in a quite simple hut for 350 bahts. There is a nice bar just in the middle of the beach with a free pool you can play all night long against local people. Name is the Flip-flop Pharmacy. The restaurant next to it is nice too.

The weather was not perfect since it was the north-east monsoon and this beach was thus directly hit. This means nice waves on the beach and some 15-minutes rain three or four times a day. Nothing really bad, you just have to take your towel back from the beach to the hut 15 meters away :).

Monday, the 20th: on the road again

While we thought we would have a few days lying on the beach reading our books for the coming exams, our trip was finally more about moving all the time. This was ok too, reading can wait after all :). We had to leave TNP only one day after coming since we wanted to dive and there weren't that much possibility to do this there. It was possible, but just meant taking a taxi to the other side of the island, dive and come back, and it was pretty expensive. Since we had to leave TNP the day after anyway, we prefered trying to go directly on the other side of the island. The taxi to Thong Sala was organised by the guest house for 100 bahts at 4pm and once there, we took another taxi to Chaloklum, a small fishermen village in the north of the island for 150 bahts each. We arrived there at night, we just made our way through the village, asking for diving and then we took a guest house on the beach a little bit further, something like a 15 mins walk. It was the Chaloklum Bay Resort. We just had a room in the main building for 300 bahts, but it was ok. We were the only customers there, it was strange. So many bungallows and nobody in ... Beach was beautiful but probably not nice for swimming, not deep enough for at least 500 meters.

Tuesday, the 21st: diving boat, taxi, night ferry

Waking up early in the morning, we walked back to town and found a diving club ready to go (the Chaloklum Divers, held by german nice people, on the main street of the village). They were going to Sail Rock with a few people, it was looking nice, we went too. For 2400 bahts each, we had two dives and everything around. The way to the spot was something like 1 hour of boat. the sun was shining so much ... The day was wonderful, visibility and currents excellent for this time of the year they said, with more than 20m. and almost no currents while it can sometimes be 2m. and strong currents. We'd been lucky :).

After diving, we were drove by the club to Haad Salaad, a very beautiful beach on the west side of the island to spend the afternoon. Once again, beautiful sand and perfectly clear water on this monsoon protected side. We had a wonderful sunset there too. After that, we decided to take the night ferry to save one night, anyway we would have had to sleep in the main town and take the 7am ferry to be on time for the flight back. We went back to Thong sala, 150 bahts each again ...

The night ferry at 10pm is 300 bahts and was actually ok. There are matress on board you can sleep pretty well. You arrive quite early (4.30am) in Surat Thani, that's the only point. Once there, we were led to a travel agency who sold us tickets for Hat Yai (250 bahts).

Wednesday, the 22nd: van, Hat Yai, plane

The other reason we took the night boat was that we wanted to visit a little bit Hat Yai instead of spending the day in transportation. We left Surat Thani at 6am and arrived around 11am in Hat Yai. Following the Guide du Routard's advice, we went to Thong Nga Chang waterfalls. It is 45 minutes away from town with these shared taxi, a mix between bus and pickup taxi. The way there is only 30 bahts, but the entrance is 200 bahts for foreigners! Anyway, it was worth, the waterfalls were really beautiful, we swam there, water was quite cold but ok.

We just had a little problem to go back. The taxi told us to be there at 4pm. We were there, but there weren't taxi anymore ... We waited for a while and were finally brought directly to the airport by a Thai guy. It wasn't so easy to communicate, they were speaking very very few english. But anyway, we arrived at the airport five hours early, enough time to read for the exams. A little bit at the end of the trip ... was reading trip after all :).

La nuit des filles, c'est tous les mercredis !

matt — Thu, 23 Nov 2006 20:03:00 +0800

Ils sont sympas ces Singapouriens, ils font une soirée spéciale pour les filles toutes les semaines ! Le mercredi, c'est ladies' night et dans la plupart des boites de la ville, l'entrée est offerte. Il en est bien souvent de même des consommations, donc open bar toutes les semaines pour les filles :). Et puis ils sont surtout pas bêtes et ont bien compris l'intérêt commercial de l'opération :)

Tous les mercredi, des hordes de filles accourent en direction des clubs de la ville-état et les garçons suivent, bien évidement, en payant le prix fort. Alors qu'une bonne partie des "exchange students" içi était de sortie tous les mercredi, nous nous sommes rendus compte avec horreur et effarement (si, si!) que nous n'y étions jamais allés. Donc mercredi dernier, nous avons testé le Double O (avec prononciation anglaise, hein :)).

Adrien a l'air d'apprécier :)

La clientèle est essentiellement jeune, étudiants pour la plupart. En fait, le double O ressemblait à une soirée de l'université, ou plus précisément des étudiants étrangers (en échange) de NUS. Je crois que cette fois-ci était encore pire que d'habitude de ce que j'ai entendu, car c'était la dernière occasion de sortir un mercredi pour beaucoup d'entre nous qui vont repartir chez eux ou en voyage en Asie à la fin du semestre, après les exams. J'ai croisé beaucoup de visages qui me disaient quelque chose en tout cas.

Franck, sur la gauche, est un français étudiant en architecture. Vous aurez reconnu Sam sur la droite.

Les boites ferment à 3h du matin, la musique s'arrête 20 minutes avant. Retour en taxi et attente devant le point de dépose des taxis pour regarder le spectacle. En particulier des américains phytophones assez impressionnants ... Une bonne soirée au final!

Phytophone: qui aime parler aux plantes ... :)

De retour de Thailande (bis)

matt — Thu, 23 Nov 2006 18:26:00 +0800

Ca faisait un petit moment que je n'avais pas posté. C'est pas que j'avais oublié mon blog ou que je n'avait rien à raconter, bien au contraire, mais le temps s'accélère dangereusement en cette fin de semestre ! Déjà plus que deux grosses semaines avant le retour, le rangement des sandales et du débardeur, le soleil qui se couche à 16h, l'accumulation des couches de vêtements pour combattre le froid ... Ici il fait encore et toujours une trentaine de degré, le soleil brille toujours de 7h à 7h et les gens sont encore et toujours en short. Comme la saison des pluies semble arriver, il faut juste ajouter des averses tout les après midi.

Qu'est-ce qui s'est passé en deux semaines depuis mon dernier billet ... Dans le désordre :

un week-end à Bangkok avec Adrien et Noémie, une française en échange aussi,
un gros week-end (ou une petite semaine, au choix :) dans le sud de la Thailande à nouveau, avec notamment l'ile de Koh Pha Ngan et des plongées magnifiques,
la finalisation des derniers projets , le business plan pour CS4260 et un super travail d'analyse statistique des bases de données clients d'un opérateur mobile américain pour le module CS4266: IT and CRM,
une soirée au Dbl O (prononcez dobeule oh comme double O en anglais),
Georges W Bush est venu dans notre université mais on avait pas le droit de le voir visiblement. Et il a raconté des trucs pas bien nouveaux qu'on a regardé à la télé en direct.
Noémie nous a fait des pâtes avec de la sauce tomate. Ca faisait longtemps que je n'avais pas dégusté ce plat typique de l'étudiant français. Faut que j'en profite, dans 9 jours je serais plus étudiant ...

Ce qui me permet d'enchainer sur ce qui m'attend maintenant :

Un exam bien chiant pour un module tout aussi chiant (le CS4250, évidement)(Module que j'ai noté en conséquence dans l'enquête de satisfaction de mes cours et j'ai évidement pas voté pour le prof en "prof de l'année". Ils sont marrant ces Singapouriens d'élire un prof de l'année, j'ai pas le sentiment que ça se ferait facilement en France :). C'est le samedi 25 au petit matin,
Trois autres exams les 28, 1er et 2 décembre. Plus ou moins rigolo je pense ... On verra bien !
Des révisions pour ces mêmes partiels peut-être :),
Plein de billets en retard sur ce blog à écrire :p,
Une petite semaine au Cambodge, aller Singapour-Siam Reap (au nord ouest, avec les temples d'Angkor Wat, ancienne capitale de l'empire Khmer) le 3 au matin et retour Phnom Penh-Singapour le 8 au soir. Tout seul, j'ai trouvé personne avec les mêmes dates ...
Avion du retour le 9 au soir. Paris le 10, son froid, sa grisaille, j'ai hâte d'y être. Peut-être pas pour la météo :)

Penang: cool life and sightseeing …

matt — Fri, 10 Nov 2006 14:26:00 +0800

Last week-end I was in Penang island, in the north-west of Malaysia. Regular readers already know a few things about it from this post, and I have to write a more detailled one about the trip later, but you can already enjoy these few pictures and their comments ...

Now I'm packing my bag for Bangkok tonight. Life's so hard sometimes ... :)

Oh and, by the way, french readers, I promise I will write french a little bit when I'll be back from Thailand. Sorry but for the moment, I'm trying to aquire some new readership here in Singapore!

Dinner at Crytal Jade in Holland Village

matt — Fri, 10 Nov 2006 12:58:00 +0800

Yesterday i had a dinner with Lulu, Alisa and Kit, the people from my CS4250 group. Wu Dan was missing to have the full group, though.

The Crystal Jade is a chinese restaurant chain in Singapore, serving traditional chinese dishes. We had many of them yesterday, sharing each dish in a pure traditional chinese way. To my mind it is quite nice to share instead of having each one his one dish, you can taste a lot of things and speak about it with your friends :).

We also talked about many other things with these Singapore foreigners (they are chinese (lulu) and thai (alisa and kit), but have been living in Singapore for 4 to 8 years now!) like the way people work at the university, our modules and lecturers, my traveling life :), differences between europe and asia on many things ... It was very interesting and I enjoyed the evening very much. Thank you guy and gals :) !

We made a picture session at the end of the dinner, so as to keep souvenirs …:

Packed month to come …

matt — Thu, 09 Nov 2006 02:56:00 +0800

Here is a little post to keep you aware of my projects for the next month ...
I don't know if i will have so much time to write in the next weeks: my schedule is likely to be a little packed with exams coming, projects to finish and still so many places to go to :).

I spent the week-end in the island of Penang, malaysia. Even if Penang is a malay island, the trip was not one of these 'wonderful beach trip' again. Actually Penang is a big island in the north west of Malaysia and the most interesting thing on the island is probably its biggest city, Georgetown. With its 500,000 inhabitants and its rich history, the town is quite nice. We had a very cool week-end with Adrien and Gabor (my hungarian CS4260 and CS4266 teammate). I guess I have to write a little bit more about it and to publish pictures we took, but it will wait (and don't know how long it will, since some posts about september trips are still to be written :)).

Friday evening, I leave Singapore again to fly to Bangkok, Thailand. We're going with Adrien and Noémie, a french girl usually studying computing in Grenoble. We'll meet Laurent from the INT there, he's a former classmate of mine. I think it will be a enjoyable week-end once again. Will tell you more later (woh, some posts to be written again ...) !

I'll be back on Monday evening for my last three days of lecture here (and probably for a while :)) before leaving for Malaysia again. This time, we will drive (yes, drive :)) toward the center of the country and its highlands with the usual german people. It sounds very good too ... We'll stay there for a little week, since it will be our reading week. (We won't forget to take some books, we're supposed to read, aren't we? :)).

Saturday the 25th will be my first exam (this nice CS4250). One week later, on the 2nd, I will finish with CS4266. I will then have one more week before taking the plane back, and I think I will go to Thailand and its beautiful beaches, in order to make a huge stock of sun before coming back to the french winter. Anyway, this is in more than three weeks, I'll see !

If there were only travel, it would be quite easy ... but I will also try to see local people the most that I can before leaving. Tomorrow I will eat with some teammates (Lulu, Alisa and Kit - yes you know two of them) and I will probably eat with the people from another team in the week after.

We also have a few things to do in Singapore before leaving. Like going to this famous ladies' night (every wednesday is free flow and free entrance for girls in many places in Singapore) (so we must go there on a wednesday, problem, there is only one left :)), going to the new asia bar, maybe do a boat trip, go to the Ministry of Sound, a well-known club here ... (as you can see we really did few about clubbing and going out here, everything is still to be made ;) !)

To put it all in a nutshell, my last month here is going to be pretty busy, but woh woh woh, that's nice, I like it. (Some people may recognize these words I borrowed from a well known kazak actor, Borat :p). I'll keep you aware the best that I can!

Oh, I have a last little thing I'm sure you will be glad me to tell you. Since many readers of my blog seem pretty concerned by my look and especially my hairs, I have to warn you I've been to the hair-dresser this week-end, I no longer look like a strange animal. Don't be afraid, i won't look clean long, my beard is growing again. Little picture ?

Le mystère du Palais de l'Isle révélé !

matt — Wed, 01 Nov 2006 14:31:00 +0800

Il y a un petit bout de temps de cela, j'avais aperçu avec un grand bonheur sur le fond d'écran d'un de mes camarades '"l'image" typique d'Annecy, le palais de l'Isle. C'est une ancienne prison au milieu des canaux d'Annecy, ville que l'on surnomme parfois "la Venise des Alpes", capitale de la Haute-Savoie et ville la plus proche du domicile de mes parents (un peu chez moi, quoi :)). L'image vous dira peut-être quelque chose, c'est l'un des monuments les plus photographiés de France ...

Bon toujours est-il que j'avais aperçu l'image furtivement, que j'avais pensé que c'était un heureux hasard et que le bougre ne devait même pas savoir la beauté de l'endroit. Enfin il avait le droit à ma sympathie quand même, surtout qu'il venait de terminer une jolie présentation Keynote (l'équivalent (enfin, équivalent …) de Powerpoint) sur son MacBook Pro :). Mais le cours avait continué, tout à nos problèmes de planning des Systèmes d'Information (SI) stratégiques.

C'est mon second module de la semaine, le mercredi matin. Son doux nom original est CS4251: Strategic IS Planning, il est enseigné par le Dean du département IS (pour système d'information en anglais) de l'école d'informatique (la School of Computing, ma faculté :)). Et je ne sais pas si ca a un lien (mais je crois avoir compris que si), ce professeur est plutôt intéressant, motivé, bon communiquant, en bref c'est une personne intéressante. Il a un jeu de fléchette dans son bureau à coté d'articles de journaux le présentant comme un professeur dynamique et apprécié de ses élèves, avec une photo de lui faisant son jogging … Pour faire une petite parenthèse vers la France, ça pourrait être pas mal si les dirigeants de nos écoles étaient eux aussi choisis parce qu'ils sont les plus motivés et les plsu compétents du corps enseignant. C'est pas l'impression que ça donne pour l'instant - les intiens (les gens de l'INT, mon école) me comprendront :).

Revenons au module. J'ai dit que le prof était intéressant, ça veut pas dire que le contenu du cours l'est forcément dans sa globalité. En fait j'ai pas vraiment l'impression d'apprendre grand chose, c'est même plus souvent moins poussé que ce que je connais. Je pense que c'est un peu de ma faute, j'aurais peut-être pas du être si curieux l'année dernière en stage (ni toutes celles d'avant d'ailleurs :)). C'est donc plutôt un module généraliste sur les systèmes d'informations (SI) et les processus décisionnels autour des SI en entreprise. L'intérêt pour moi n'est quand même pas nul, le professeur apporte pas mal d'illustrations et d'anecdotes, plutôt dans un contexte asiatique ou américain, c'est pas mal.

Il y a aussi les projets. Deux projets, dont les tenants et aboutissants nous ont été expliqués en détail, initiative du professeur que j'ai bien apprécié. Le premier projet consistait à effectuer une analyse stratégique du système d'information d'une entreprise et d'apporter des nouvelles idées d'applications à développer dans l'intérêt de l'entreprise. Le rapport devait être rédigé en se mettant à la place d'une équipe de consultants travaillant pour l'entreprise et devait ensuite être présenté à la classe. On avait le choix de l'outil parmi ceux abordés en cours, j'aurais même pu refaire un peu de Balanced Scorecard (un souvenir, c'était le sujet de mon rapport de stage) mais ça n'était pas très adapté à notre cas.

Le second projet, que nous avons rendu hier, nous plaçait encore dans le rôle d'une équipe de consultants, mais cette fois-ci dans une approche plus globale au niveau d'une industrie et un tâche différente : produire un rapport sur une technologie émergente et son impact sur l'industrie en question. Nous avons choisi d'analyser l'impact de l'introduction de la biométrie dans l'industrie de la banque de détail … tout un programme :). Bon on s'en est sortis, et pas trop mal je pense. Mon groupe (je suis avec Devin, Kelvin, Brendan et Tze Mai, singapouriens) est assez efficace et c'est agréable de bosser avec eux. J'ai quelques fois du me battre pour imposer les idées issues de ma (courte) expérience professionnelle mais j'ai toujours eu gain de cause :). (C'est pas eux qui vont m'avoir, non mais ! :)).

En résumé, un module plutôt intéressant, mêlant théorie et mise en pratique de manière assez habile et avec un prof intéressant. Et puis, en plus, ma connaissance globale du sujet en a fait un module assez confortable pour moi …

Bon, et notre histoire de Palais de l'Isle alors ? A la fin du cours de ce matin, un gars m'adresse la parole en français, m'explique qu'il a été en échange à l'Université Joseph Fourier (presque comme ma petite soeur (salut :)) à Grenoble et qu'il y retourne régulièrement (en France, pas à l'UJF :) car il y a rencontré sa femme. Enfin régulièrement, c'est jamais plus de deux fois par an, ça doit pas être facile facile, d'après l'expérience que j'en ai … Ce gars est chinois, il vient de Shangai, s'appelle Kai et se retrouve à NUS deux ans après l'avoir quittée pour y effectuer un master. Il a bossé dans l'autorité de gestion du port (PSA International) au niveau des services informatiques, pour conseiller le DSI, entre temps. Et y retournera à la fin de l'année. On a discuté de la France, des différences avec Singapour, du marché du conseil, de plein de choses intéressantes … Ca m'a bien fait plaisir comme discussion. Et comme il vient en France en décembre, on s'y croisera peut-être. Ah oui, et puis, c'est lui qui avait Annecy en fond d'écran : sa femme est haut-savoyarde :).

Bon, c'est pas le tout, je suis en cours moi :). En CS4260, vous vous rappelez ? Aujourd'hui, on étudie les "Online Brokers" …

Les Oiseaux

matt — Sun, 29 Oct 2006 02:05:00 +0800

Sortant d'un bar de trop
il perdit son oiseau
c'est drôle quel temps fait-il
il vend des oiseaux
sur un coin de trottoir
il vend des oiseaux
aux enfants qui mangent trop
il vend des oiseaux
on vend bien de la musique ...

"Gino", par Les Têtes Raides

L'ami Gino, qui vend des oiseaux dans la chanson des Têtes Raides, il aurait été content avec moi aujourd'hui, parce que j'en ai vu plein, des oiseaux. Des jolis, des moins jolis, des grands, des petits, des piailleurs, des calmes ... plein d'oiseaux !

Ce n'est pas vraiment arrivé par hasard non plus ... Nous avions ce parc des oiseaux de Jurong sur notre liste des choses à faire et le grand soleil qui brillait cette après-midi conjugué avec une envie de travailler assez limitée a fait le reste.

Après une bonne grosse heure de transports en commun, nous sommes arrivés là-bas juste à l'heure pour le spectacle des 'Birds of prey' (les prédateurs, en gros : des aigles, des vautours et faucons ...). C'était assez impressionnant, les oiseaux était bien dressés et le spectacle rodé. Ca faisait même un peu trop spectacle à mon gout, mais c'était le but :). Deux petites images d'un jeune volontaire et d'un des animaux planant au dessus de nos têtes :

C'était sympa sans être fantastique : la demi-heure était suffisante :). Après ça, nous avons fait le tour du parc, de pélicans en flamands roses, de perroquets (vi des Parrot micky, j'ai pensé à toi :)) en autruches, de pigeons en pingouins, il y en avait pour tous les gouts. Et il y avait aussi tous ceux dont je ne connais pas le nom :). Quelques photos :

Après ça, on a mangé dans un bon mall bien traditionnel (mais on a même pas fait de shopping) et on est rentrés en bus, pour essayer. Résultat : c'est pas plus court et pas spécialement mieux quand il y a beaucoup de monde dans le bus. Pas sensationnel comme info m'enfin fallait tenter :)

Enfin une fois rentré, j'ai fait ce rapport sur la biométrie. ce ne fut pas très facile, mais j'ai vaincu. Ca a quand même pris beaucoup trop longtemps :). Bon comme ça demain je pourrais attaquer le dernier gros morceau, les télécoms aux US (oui j'ai fait semblant de commencer il y a deux mois pour ceux qui s'en rappellent, mais en fait non :)