Oslo

When I saw Swiss Air ticket to Oslo for less than $450 back in August, I told myself I had to go. Here I am today, a week before Thanksgiving in Oslo.

Weather is cold on my first day in Oslo. However, it is unbelievably calm as I head to Vigeland Sculpture Park, a beautiful park result of one man’s artistic approach to human form. Sculptures in a wide range of situations such as standing, walking and sitting donated by Norwegian sculptor Gustav Vigeland, whom he had worked for almost 20 years creating 212 sculptures of bronze and granite. 

The bridge is the first in the park featuring bronze sculptures of men, women and children playing or just simply posing for the camera. The focal point of the park is a 14 meter high monolith of intertwined human figures, representing human desire to reach out to the divine. Residing on the plateau around the monolith is granite sculptures of people in groups in various positions. 

Day is clear and surprisingly windless, as I try to trace back from where I came from. Soon I  find myself following a group of people heading to a neighborhood by the waterfront of urban renewal with high-end apartments, office  space, retails, and restaurants. This neighborhood is the Tjuvholmen in the borough of Frogner in Oslo. High end restaurants and cafes along the boardwalk, speciality stores for your wardrobe and home, this area is definitely for people with deep pockets. 

Offices and apartments characterized by unique architectural diversity and outdoor space. Towards the end of the strip lies the Astrup Fearnley Museum flanked by a sculpture park. The museum consists of modern and contemporary art, justified by the design and structure of the building itself.

Fredrikstad is a cosy city with deep historical roots, is just an hour train ride from Oslo. Downtown Fredrikstad is peaceful and gorgeous with cinema, cafes, shops and restaurants. As it’s almost Christmas, shops are decorated with reeves and selling holiday gifts and baskets. “Would you like to have coffee?” asked a shop associate as I browsed through some men’s styles and fashions at a store. What a great idea this is, and it would definitely makes shopping more friendly and personal. 

At the center of downtown, city workers are erecting Christmas trees and Holiday lights. I make my way to the Old Town which is less than 10 minutes boat ride from city center. It is one of the best-preserved, and prettiest, fortress towns in Scandinavia. Unfortunately, my day here is wet and damp but I will not be dampened by the weather today. A bowl of soup would be nice. Unfortunately, soup of the day is the only hot item in the menu at this cafe. The rest is cold cuts, muffins and bagels. But I’m not complaining as the soup is delicious.

Where are the Christmas decor and market I asked a lady who runs a shop selling children’s clothing and souvenirs. “Oh, it is next week!”. Okay, I’m a week too soon; rows of houses between shops and cafes, I could imagine the crowd during Spring and Summer seasons in Fredrikstad.

The Holmenkollbakken hosted the 1952 Winter Olympics in ski jumping, cross-country skiing and Nordic combined events. It has been ungraded several times since the 1892 opening, from wooden superstructure to concrete tower. I can’t remember the number of steps climbing to the top (almost) but the structure is amazing either looking down from the top or down looking up.

Like any other Scandinavian cities, Oslo is not cheap. A small bottle of water is about $2.50 at Seven Eleven; think twice before you decide to use the toilet at the Oslo Main Train Station, it costs more than $2 per entry; and a plate of Phat Thai at a regular restaurant is $20. 

And by the way, my soup at Fredrikstad cost $13.

It has been a pretty good year in travel for me in 2016. What’s in my traveling agenda for the coming year, Japan’s Osaka and Kyoto is on my list while I hope to find other great deals before deciding. Happy traveling 2017 to all that reads my blog.

Macau

Macau is among the world’s richest regions, and its economy is heavily dependable on gambling and tourism. Inhabited majority by Chinese, it is one of the most populous places to live in the world. The Hong Kong International Airport provides ferry service for transfer passengers, making a visit to Macau an easy pass which I found out. After an exhaustive trip in Mongolia, I was looking forward to some relaxation and good food here in this tiny peninsula known as the “Las Vegas of the East”.

My friend and I stayed at Taipa, consider a new town of Macau with a growing residential area of mostly upscale apartment complexes. The old town consists mainly of old shop houses selling varieties of almond cookies in different flavors, gift shops, coffee shops, cafes and restaurants. My first bite was the pork chop bun, made famous by the locals in Macau. It reminded me of a burger but without all other ingredients that came with it. Temples are scattered everywhere in Taipa. Trees with roots hanging down from trunks are sacred places to place altars for people to worship. Tourists were not as much, but instead, locals were seen busy with their daily chores as though no one else was watching.  

My friend took me to another side of the city for Macau’s famous Portuguese tart. It was at the original location where it all started. We bought a few and ate by the water which was still occupied by locals living makeshift houses dotting along the coastline. We stopped by the one of the new casinos in Taipa, Studio City 8, on our way back to the hotel. It was beautiful but unfortunately, the crowd was missing making it an almost deserted place. It was reported the new casinos were built to cater for the newly rich clientele from China but they were nowhere on sight. Perhaps they had found other places round the world to dispense their cash. 

The ruins of Saint Paul’s Church is one of the most recognizable sites in the world. A UNESCO Heritage Site, the ruins is now consist of the southern stone facade sitting proudly on top of a hill. I had never seen so many people taking selfies with the facade as a background before. It was fun taking pictures of people taking selfies as each has a pose which was distinctively theirs. After we bought Macau’s famous almond cookies, we head to a local coffee shop for dessert. Ginger almond pudding served warm was one the best desserts I have tasted in years. It was so smooth yet tasty. I could have ordered the same one, but I had to try others as selections were pretty awesome.  

At the heart of Macau downtown is the Senado Square. Tiled in wave of black and white stones, and surrounded by neo-classical buildings, the square is filled with activities. Old merchants are side by side with other fancy places. The Square also served as a platform for the locals to voice their opinions against the government which I witnessed.

I spent the last evening in Macau at Taipa, taking an early evening walk to a row of lime green Portuguese-style buildings located near a pond of water lilies with high rise buildings in the background. It was a serene atmosphere to contemplate after a long day of walking, shopping and eating in Macau. The place was a good photo op for wedding pictures. It is an interesting place to visit not just for the view but also a place to know a little history of Macau and Portuguese influenced in the peninsula.

I ended my trip in Macau that evening with a bowl soup of pork’s meat, intestines and liver. Delicious!

Ipoh

Ipoh is an interesting city in Malaysia which is best known for its excellent local fare. People from as far as Singapore come to the city just to get a taste of its local dishes from Ipoh’s “Hor Fun” (a complete one-dish rice noodle meal) to “Nga Choi Kai” (chicken with beansprouts in soy sauce). I visited a friend who lives in Ipoh, and stayed at her beautiful house in one of the newly developed townships within the city. The city has changed so much, and it is fast becoming one of the best places in Malaysia to visit.

Row of old shophouses in the Old Town area turned into cafes, restaurants and specialty stores. Old coffee shops and mom and pop stores still coexist among the new ones, though they are slowly dwindling away. As soon as I arrived, my friend, Annie drove me to a coffee shop for “Nga Choi Kai”. Delicious and half the price for the same dish in Kuala Lumpur, capital city of Malaysia. 

Ipoh is surrounded by limestone hills, so it is not hard to find limestone caves turning into temples notably Sam Poh Tong. The temple is the oldest and most famous cave temples in Malaysia. The temple facade dates back to the 1950s and a stiff climb of steps will lead you to an open cave with an excellent view of Ipoh and its surroundings. There are a few other famous temples in Ipoh, and it is quite impossible to see most of them in one day. 

Annie suggested I see a new condominium development which is near completion. Price range from RM300,000 to RM450,000. Impressive design, almost as lovely as those in Kuala Lumpur and probably cost RM200,000 more. Later we stopped by an old coffee shop for lunch. An old man in his 90s’ was selling peanut pancake at RM1 a piece. It was delicious, and he was so active for his age. Looked like he enjoyed what he was doing, and also the place gave him space to get together with his friends. I bought the local biscuits and ‘heong beang’ (fragrant biscuits) to take home at the old town area. My dessert for the day was soy drink. It was a corner store that sells only soy drink (cold and hot) and “tau foo far”, soybean curd with liquid ginger or gula melaka. There was a bee line of people and cars waiting for their orders to be taken. 

Concubine lane is rumored that wealthy Chinese merchants and British officers kept their mistresses away from the prying eyes of the wives. Abandoned for a number of years, today the row of shophouses are preserved and revived into a beautiful place, selling gifts, souvenirs and other knick knacks. Cafes too are slowly cropping up.

Ipoh may not have the elegance of a big city like Kuala Lumpur or as culturally rich as Penang, it does has its charm and delight. As I head to the train station for my departure back to Kuala Lumpur, I could sense the pride of the majestic building influenced from the British Indian colonial architecture. The Town Hall which is directly opposite the Main Train Station is another fine example of the neo-classical style by the British. If you take time to either walk, bike or drive, you will be able to see and experience a lot more in the once quiet town. 

It’s no wonder Ipoh is voted by Lonely Planet as one of the top places in Asia to visit in 2016.

Images of Malaysia

   

Mongolia

I am doing the 3M this year; no it is not the 3M manufacturer of Post-it products that many of us are familiar with, they are the places that I visited during my Spring holiday - Malaysia, Mongolia and Macau. 

Let me begin with Mongolia. It is a 10-day tour from Ulaanbaatar to the South Gobi and back. Tan Be Be, an avid traveler and a friend made all the travel arrangements to the place nickname as the Country of Blue Sky. Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia is better known as UB by the locals has just over 1 million people but rush hour traffic is as bad as places like New York City. 

Sukhbaatar Square or Ginggis Square is the city’s main square surrounded by various government buildings including the State Opera House and the colonnade monument of various influential figures which include Genghis Khan and Kublai Khan. Not much activities going on here except it is a place for people watching  Sun sets after 9 PM in May, and weather can be unpredictable. The owner of the hostel asked,” You not cold? You in shorts.” Really, I just flew in from NYC, and I had endured cold weather back in the days when I studied in Chicago. I could not help noticing the number of Korean restaurants and mini markets appearing in the capital. It seems like Korean has a strong presence in the business community, after all Samsung is one of the main financiers backing the new airport coming up in UB by year end. 

The Gandantegchinlen Monastery , a Tibetan-style Buddhist monastery is another point of interests in UB. Buildings and temples  scattered the surrounding area where hundreds of monks lived. Its main temple houses the statue of Megjid-Janraiseg (87 feet high), which means “the Lord who watches in every direction”. The moment I took my camera out, I was asked to pay. At that moment, I came to realize why iPhone is such an ideal accessory to have in time like this.

We travelled with a driver and a guide. Two other people from Germany joined us as well. It was a small group, which was good as I didn’t think it would be comfortable on the van we were traveling. The Russian van as the local referred to is built to withstand the harsh Mongolian weather and the rugged terrain. Journey was tough as we bounced around most of the time. It helped to have a smaller frame like myself compared to the German travelers. I could tell that they were not comfortable as one has to turn around the face the front as his seat was facing backwards. The wind kept coming on strong day and night throughout the entire trip. At times during the night, it was so strong that it gave me the scary feeling our ger (camp made of wooden frame covered with wool felt) might be blown away.

Landscape is beautiful in Mongolia. The Orkhon Valley, is an extensive area of grassland on both banks of the Orkhon River and it includes Kharkhorum, an old capital of Chingis Khan’s Empire. The grassland is still grazed by Mongolian nomadic pastoralists. The fun part was when we had to take a quick bath at one of the streams. The river was partially frozen and water was very cold. It was like a one two three done shower.  We only had 2 proper shower during the entire 10 day trip, and believe me it was rather uncomfortable after 2 days.

The Flaming Cliffs is also known as Bayaanzag is a region of the Gobi Desert in the South Province of Mongolia. Large dinosaurs’ skeletons were found here, and the name was given by explorer Roy Chapman Andrews. The cliffs turned red especially sunset, hence the nickname by the famous explorer. A museum and tourist camp are currently being constructed to cater the increasing number of tourists coming here.

Khongor sand Dunes is known as the singing dunes. You can hear the movement of the fine sand when the wind blows across the desert claimed most articles I read online. Unfortunately, wind was so strong that I was trying to cover myself from the sand hitting my face that I could hear no music. As I climbed higher toward the top of the dunes, I found myself sinking deeper into the sand. A storm was coming, I felt tiny raindrops coming down. I hopped down as quickly as my legs could carry me.

Yol Valley is wide at the entrance, and gradually narrows into a remarkable gorge. As the guide walked us further in, weather got windier, colder and icier. It was amazing to see how thick the ice formation was at this time of the year. Beneath the ice, we came across a hole even a human being was able to pass through.

Tsagaan Suvarga or the white stupa is an impressive cliff shaped strangely by natural phenomenon. The colored layers indicated different times the cliff was shaped, and it is more impressive from afar looking like the ruins of an ancient city. 

These are just some of the highlights from this amazing Mongolian trip. However, the country is not for everyone to visit at least for now in my opinion. A proper toilet is almost non existence outside UB. Most of the toilets which locals referred to as ‘the drop’ is either zinc or plywood built. These toilets are built several feet away from the ger tent. Ground was dug deep with two plank of plywood for you to squat while doing your business. Be warned, not all of them have doors.

Food is not amazing in Mongolia. Affected by extreme weather condition, meat especially goat and dairy (coming from sheep) and animal fats are primarily used in Mongolia’s daily diet. Eggs, spices and vegetables are seldom used in their diet. If you are not a meat lover especially goat’s meat, it is best to take some seasoning and chilly sauce with you. Looking back it was fun and definitely an eye opener for travelers expecting the unexpected.

People watching people in the selfie world in Macau