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Happy Birthday Caden

by on Jul.23, 2007, under Uncategorized



pineapple, originally uploaded by wantunn.

One of the food items at Caden’s birthday party today. The pineapple is basically the holder for anything we can stick to it with a toothpick.

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Bangalore

by on Jul.13, 2007, under Uncategorized



Traffic signal, originally uploaded by wantunn.

So I’m finally back from my very first trip to India. Looking back, a lot of my expectations about India were pretty off the mark.

Food
I had no issues with the food there (in fact, I absolutely loved the local cuisine). You can pretty much get any type of food you want in Bangalore (Chinese, continental etc) although as usual, Chinese food in a non-Chinese country always tastes odd to me.

Water
Although I didn’t try drinking out of the tap, at least the water from the taps were clear, unlike some countries where you get brownish tap water. Might have just been the hotel and office though.

The Hotel
.. was pretty much fantastic. I stayed at the ISTA hotel and the rooms were clean and very very well decorated although you can tell it’s pretty much catered towards the corporate traveler. Lots of glass in the decor and broadband in the room (wired) as well as common areas (wireless). The odd thing is that we found out on the last day that the wired Internet access was payable while the wireless was free.

People
The people in general were all very friendly and many went out of the way to make our stay more enjoyable.

Sights
We didn’t get much of a chance to see the local attractions but I’m sure we would have if we had more time.

Traffic
This is the one thing about Bangalore I didn’t like. The traffic jams seem to be non-stop and every one has one hand on the horn at all times. There are few real designated crossings so walking around can be real exciting.

Airport
Was probably my least favorite part of the whole trip. Coming in, we didn’t hang around in the airport but on the way back, we had to wait for an hour or two and it was pretty nasty. The seats (all of them) had suspicious brown stains on the cushions and we had the off cockroach crawl over to say hi.

All in all, I’m still happy to be home with my family.

Attached picture of a traffic signal somewhere in Bangalore. It’s still working so I don’t know why it’s absolutely covered in cobwebs. If I get the chance I’ll post the video I took of the traffic countdown signal that starts from somewhere around 120 seconds.

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Pool @ ISTA Hotel

by on Jul.10, 2007, under Uncategorized



IMG_0303, originally uploaded by wantunn.

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Window View

by on Jun.29, 2007, under Uncategorized



Window View, originally uploaded by wantunn.

Took this out of the window behind me in the office.

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Chinatown

by on Jun.15, 2007, under Uncategorized



Chinatown, originally uploaded by wantunn.

Taken during my lunchtime stroll.

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S5 on S1

by on Jun.14, 2007, under Uncategorized



S5 on S1, originally uploaded by wantunn.

Picture of my new Canon Powershot S5IS taken with my Canon Powershot S1IS

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The Royal Pita Maha Bali

by on May.30, 2007, under Uncategorized



Villa – Bedroom, originally uploaded by wantunn.

So this was the first time we had ever tried staying at a villa and it was definitely a refreshing change. We stayed at the Royal Pita Maha which was promotion via Planet Fitness (and UOB as well I think).

Right from the start, we could tell it would be different when the pickup at the airport escorted us to the vehicle and offered us ice cold towels and drinks (apparently he had a cooler box in the back of the mini van). In fact, all the staff we encountered here were excellent and friendly and this includes every bellboy, waiter, gardener etc.

On arrival at the villa, we were seated at the 3rd floor restaurant for our welcome drinks before being led to our villa. At this point, I was wondering what happened to check-in but it was all prepared in advance and all I needed to do was to sign the registration slips once we reached the villa.

Incidentally, our villa was situated halfway down the valley (the river we white water rafted on previously runs through the bottom of the valley). This made it fantastic in terms of privacy but going to the restaurants can be a pain (literally) due to the number of stairs. Definitely not recommended for those with problem climbing stairs. Alternatively, you can chose to take your meals in the villa which we opted for dinner and it’s pretty amazing how they can bring everything down to the villa in one piece.

The villa itself was pretty nice, totally glass fronted with 3 rooms, bedroom, living room and toilet/bath and an infinity pool in front. The only problem we had was that the water in the pool seemed to be perpetually cold, probably a by product of being situated in the valley.

All in all, our stay here was enjoyable and I would definitely return for another visit if possible.

For more photos, jump over to http://www.flickr.com/photos/wantunn/tags/royalpitamaha/

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water

by on Apr.06, 2007, under Uncategorized



water, originally uploaded by wantunn.

Taken in the pool while taking my kids swimming today.
A reflection of the top of the water from the bottom.

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San Francisco – Part II

by on Mar.18, 2007, under Uncategorized



golden gate bridge, originally uploaded by wantunn.

Second visit in about 2 years.
I’m surprised I still recognised many of the landmarks and I could actually do a little bit of tour guide-ish type stuff :P

For a bunch of 6 guys, we sure did a lot of shopping (some would say too much) and not enough sightseeing. I guess we didn’t really have that much time to work with but hopefully everyone managed to get to do or buy whatever they wanted, be it shopping for bags (coach, timbuk2) or seeing the golden gate bridge (which really doesn’t look golden to me) to having a meal at some obscure fast food restaurant (never heard of Arby’s before this).

All I can say is thank goodness for the GPS and the excellent weather.

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airport in seoul

by on Mar.18, 2007, under Uncategorized



airport in seoul, originally uploaded by wantunn.

This is where we got off, cleared the security checks again and got back on the same plane on the same seat. All in the space of under 2 hours.

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