Ireland, Days 1 to 7, Dublin, Giant's Causeway, Cliffs of Moher, Connemarra

29th Nov to 5th Dec

I'm writing this from Manchester, England at the moment.  I was in Ireland from the dates above, going through Dublin, Giant's Causeway, Cliffs of Moher, Connemarra, Limerick, Galway and Belfast.  The weather was terrible on the 5th of December but otherwise, it wasn't so bad.  I met some cool people, and some strange people, along the way.

For the last time

Today in the early morning I'll be leaving Norway for good.  Off to Irish shores, after that I'll be going around the UK, then to Germany and Finland.

This time I'll be leaving with only 20 kilos of clothes, lots of memories and much more experience than when I arrived here 5 years ago.  Am I sad leaving Norway?  Part of me says yes, but mostly not really, I've had enough for reasons as mentioned earlier which I'm not going to go through again.  Life is a never ending journey and we'll see where I go next, but life in my opinion is always on an upward trajectory.

We're going nowhere but up!

And that should be your motto as well!

Stockholm, Sweden, Day 3 - ABBA museum

Today I spent most of my time at the Abba museum after dropping off my luggage at the office in the morning.  Later in the afternoon I went back to pick up my luggage, said goodbye to the guys and caught the bus and plane back to Oslo.

12th November Woke up at 8am or so.  Had breakfast, checked out then caught the tram and metro down town, from there I walked to the offices, had a short chat with the guys, dropped off my stuff and went to the ABBA museum.  Why'd I pick the museum?  Well I wanted to go Skansen but the weather wasn't good so I picked the museum instead.

The way to ABBA.

Stockholm, Sweden, Day 2 - Vasa museum

Today I spent most of my time at the Vasa museum and then later in the afternoon I went down to the offices to meet the development team and had a chat with Johan after that.  It was an early night for me compared to the day before.

11th November Woke up at 8am or so, it was a real struggle since I slept quite late the night prior.  After breakfast which was the typical Scandinavian style breakfast I caught the tram to Slussen, took a short walk, and then the bus to Strandvägen and from there it's a short walk over the museum.

Along Skeppsbron.

I spent about 5 hours at the museum.  There's a short film, an English tour, and several floors to explore.

Stockholm, Sweden, Day 1 - Södermalm, Gamla Stan

Last week I received an email from a company in Stockholm saying they wanted to hire me and offered to pay for some days for me to stay over in Stockholm.  So I did.  I booked flights and accommodation for 3 days.  Yes this was completely unplanned and random.  It's one of those extremely random moments.  The strangest thing is, I did not even apply to work for this company which makes it even more random.  I had a 30 minute chat with them over Skype and next thing you know I'm off to another adventure.

I know.

USA, New York, Day 7 - The High Line, Central Park

6th October This morning I woke up relatively late, around 8:30am.  I had to check out before 10am, it was a slow morning, but we checked out before 10am and left our luggage at the hostel.  Thereafter breakfast was at Ange Noir Cafe which was a block down, I had a bagel.

Nom...

USA, New York, Day 6 - Rockefeller Centre Top Of The Rock, Lego, Veselka, Grand Central Terminal, Times Square

5th October I woke up around 9am after days of getting up at 5am and sleeping late.  I sure needed it.  It was a very slow start to the day.  I eventually left the hostel around 10ish am and first stop of the day was the Rockefeller centre.

Rockefeller centre.  Lego store is on the right.

Canada, Ontario, Day 5 - Maid of the mist, Waterloo, back to NYC

4th October So this morning I got up at 5am again for another early start to the day.  I was really tired but there was no time to rest, today we were going to take the maid of the mist tour, go to Waterloo for lunch and shopping and then after that it was back to NYC.

5:45am The group met downstairs where we had a quick early breakfast.  It was buffet but we only had about half an hour to eat, so we couldn't eat too much.

Breakfast.

Canada, Ontario, Day 4 - Niagara Falls, Watkins Glen (NY)

3rd October This morning I woke up again at 5am for an early start, like previous days.  This time I had to be at Gray's visitor centre located at 777 8th Avenue by 7am.  Of course it was also raining that morning, not too heavy, but still raining.  Thankfully it petered out the rest of the day.  But I arrived with around close to half an hour to spare.  Thereafter the Spanish speaking people got into another bus and the English speakers got into another bus.  The English guide was a Japanese guy named Hide who had been living in NY for over 10 years now.

The burrito from the previous night from Chipotle was put to good use in the bus as my breakfast.  We finally set off around 7:45pm after everyone was confirmed on board.  There was also a Spanish guide on the same bus.  Some people on board the bus couldn't get to stay on the Canadian side due to some visa requirements, so they had to stay overnight on the American side.  There was a woman from Singapore sat close to me, and for some reason she couldn't go to the Canadian side, she wasn't sure of what her visa allowed her to do, and so she had to stay on the American side.  There was also some Norwegian women in their 50s and a young Swedish couple.  Yep the Scandinavian aura still follows me wherever I go.

Anyway if you're thinking why Niagara Falls, you can thank "Superman II" for that.  Since I was young beyond I can remember I've always wondered about the Niagara Falls.

USA, New York, Day 3 - Washington DC, Lincoln Memorial, White House

2nd October This morning I got up early to catch a bus to Washington DC, a day trip.  I woke up around 5am and intended to catch the 8 am megabus which would've taken us into DC close to 12:30pm.  My friend M wasn't too enthusiastic about waking up that early, so we didn't leave the hostel until after 7am.  I spoke to some chick in the hostel kitchen who had a lego keychain.  Turns out she has some Swedish boyfriend who plays video games, and she's waiting to move there, apparently waiting for some visa or something.  I'm not sure.  But yeah, the Scandinavian aura definitely follows me somehow.  Anyway we arrived shortly after 8am and didn't know if there were even seats left, so I opted for the bus that left shortly after 9am and decided to have breakfast first.

USA, New York, Day 1 and 2 - Getting Lost, Brooklyn Bridge, Museum of Art and Design

So on the 26th of Sept I decided to go to New York, and so I did.  I booked flights, accommodation, and it was all done in a matter of 2 hours after I made the decision to.  Spontaneous and crazy, yes that is me.  My flight was on the 30th of Sept flying from Oslo to Helsinki and then Helsinki to New York.  It was a long flight but I love the city of New York and the US in general, so I thought "hey why not?".  It'll be my third time and I'm already a pro at navigating the metro.  So I decided to spend a week there.

The End of the Road (Enden av veien)

So I’m finally leaving Norway.

If you have never seen the awesome Transformers cartoon from the 80s when the autobot Hot Rod opens up the Transformer matrix of leadership transforming into Rodimus Prime and tells Galvatron to take a hike, this is the perfect time to watch it.



I could have applied for permanent residency and stayed here without a work permit, but I don’t see the point.  Why do you ask?  The tales are numerous and time is limited, but for a few reasons listed as below.

Inspiring students in Singapore Polytechnic

A few years ago I gave a talk to some aspiring students in Singapore Polytechnic, this afternoon I finally uploaded the video onto YouTube.  The audio isn't very good though but hey it did inspire those who attended that day.

Romsdal, Day 4 - Gudbrandsjuvet gorge, Valldalen valley, Ex Machina

July 27th We packed our bags and left at 12pm.  Our last day in Romsdal was spent going to the Gudbrandsjuvet gorge and the Valldal valley where the movie "Ex Machina" was filmed.  Unfortunately we could not take pictures of the Juvet hotel which was restricted to guests only, but still we got sweet shots of the area.  Later we stopped at Valldal to have fish and chips and then we caught the train back to Oslo.  Last year we were also in Valldal for a stopover.

Romsdal, Day 3 - Rauma river

July 26th We were pretty tired today since we did a mountain hike the day before.  Most of the day we were relaxing in the apartment, me, uploading photos and the other guys were chilling as well.  Still we did a short hike in the afternoon in the forest near the river.  There's a small beach and a lake which was really nice, minus the amount of mosquitoes.  Later in the afternoon it started to rain so we retreated back to the room.  Later in the evening we played "Risk" and decided what we were going to do the following day.  The plan was to visit the Valldal valley where the movie "Ex Machina" was filmed, really good movie by the way if you haven't seen it!  And then later in the afternoon catch the train back to Oslo.

Romsdal, Day 2 - Trollveggen, Trolltindene, Stabbeskaret

July 25th Did another incredible hike today starting from Trollstigen to part of the Troll peaks, on a route called “Stabbeskaret”.  When we were at the top we were at 1431m above sea level, our starting point was around 300m above sea level.  Our overall ascent was around 1200m since we had to up and down and points along the route.  Shifty rocks, going uphill and downhill on snow, it was a challenging hike but truly amazing.  Lakes, waterfalls, drinking water from a waterfall, what an experience.  There was actually good weather, which is all that makes the difference, considering only a few days ago where the weather forecast said it was going to rain the entire week that was a welcome relief.  It took us a total of slightly over 7 hours including breaks going up and down.

The starting point was Trollstigplatået, which is near the Trollstigen platform.  Last year I was in Trollstigen as well but didn't do this climb as I was going to Geiranger.

Trollstigen.

Romsdal, Day 1 - Oslo to Dombås to Åndalsnes redux

July 24th Last year I spent some time in August in Åndalsnes and had a truly epic mountain hike doing Romsdalseggen.  This year we were going to do another climb, except this time we stayed at a friend's place, on a farm actually.  It was really insanely cool.  The previous day I stayed in Olympiatoppen sports hotel, where athletes go and train.  It was quite nice and I had a nice walk around the lake called Sognsvann after dinner.  Why did I stay in a hotel?  I've had too many hotel points and just had to spend some before they expired in July so the hotel stay cost me nothing.  It was a nice hotel but as usual service was really terrible.  Hospitality is truly awful in Norway for some reason.  I've never had service as bad as anywhere in the world.  Unless you're counting Africa.

Amsterdam, Netherlands, Day 4 - Rikjsmuseum, Museumplein

June 8th Spent the entire day at the Rijksmuseum, a national museum dedicated to arts and history.  It's pretty big, so you can easily spend an entire day here.  I woke up at 8am, checked out at 10ish and spent the rest of the day until 5pm (closing time) exploring.  Finally it was time to catch the bus to the airport where I bought stroopwaffles, had dinner and checked into my flight.

Amsterdam, Netherlands, Day 3 - Sandeman's tour, The Hague, Japanese Garden, Clingendael Park

June 7th Epic day of exploring Amsterdam and the Hague.  I walked at least 26 km today (16.1 miles) which is more than the distance of a half marathon.  There's a really beautiful Japanese Garden, only open 6 weeks in the year located in The Hague, a city about an hour's drive away from Amsterdam, so I paid a visit and did a lot of exploration.

Amsterdam, Netherlands, Day 2 - Anne Frank House, Westerkerk, Red Light District

June 6th Another day of epic exploring in Amsterdam.  I was going to do the Anne Frank house tour in the morning, followed by a city tour in the afternoon and then the red light district tour in the evening but due to crazy long queues outside the Anne Frank house I didn't do the city tour and instead went up the Westerkerk tower and then did the red light district tour in the evening.

Amsterdam, Netherlands, Day 1 - Downtown Amsterdam

I was in Amsterdam from June 5th to 8th, primarily for an interview with an unnamed company.  Basically it was just like the last time I had an interview in Norway**.  It was quite good timing as well since the last time I was there in 2013 I didn't get to see much of the city as it was just stop overs, but this time I actually got to stay a few nights and actually explore.

Education, setting a trend in motion

So I'm a big firm believer of education.  And I mean the real stuff that teaches you critical thinking not mouth spew or learning business from someone who has never even run a lemonade stand in their entire life, which is pretty much all of academia.  Like almost everything in life, the best way to learn is to do it rather than handover cash to an academic institute for the benefit of some piece of paper.  But at the very basic level, we need to know our Math and Science.

Today I read the following, anyone interested in their country's future must read this article.  Why is this important?  10-20 years down the line these children are going to be the upcoming leaders and parents.  The future including wealth is moving to Asia.  Look at the top 5 countries.  This is a trend in motion that cannot be stopped.  Honestly if I were living in the west right now as a parent I would be extremely worried.  For all you parents I certainly hope your children if you have any, are getting the best education they can.  10-20 years down the line we're going to see a very different world from today's present.  This is not only due to education, but a host of other economic trends.  A trend in motion will continue and it will not be stopped.  Having being witness to all of this while growing up, I can tell you a story of how a classmate of mine who we considered to be a typical student moved to Malaysia to study a period of time and how everyone thought he was a "genius" when he did.  I've also heard of students going to Australia and then acing their Math classes like it was just well, easy peasy.  It's not unheard of to even hear of Singapore students scoring high distinctions for English at university level even though they're in high school.  But this just confirms what I've known all along, that the Asian countries set high standards while the other countries set, how should I put it, "not as high" standards?  Seriously man what the hell is Europe spending all its money on other than shoving it into the hands of useless politicians?  You'd think with all that socialist spending things will improve.

Something to think about.

London, England, Day 5 - British Museum

30th March Woke up at 8:15am this morning since it was check out day.  I left my luggage in the luggage room and walked over to the British museum closer to 10am since that's when it opens.  The museum is just massive, with approximately 8 million items on display.

British Museum.

London, England, Day 4 - East End, Brick Lane, London Museum

29th March Another early start to the day.  The east end tour started at 11am, so woke up a quarter to 9.  I met Rosa in the lobby and we headed off around 10:15am to Liverpool train station.  Meeting spot was at the statues outside of McDonald's.  There were 4 of excluding the guide whose name was Bliss. So she told us the east side of London was founded by immigrants who did all the work.  And during the black plaque turns out it wasn’t the rats who caused it but the dirtiness of the area where people would literally drop dead, or there would be so much pollution you couldn’t even see your hand in front of you.  Jack the ripper would be killing people and no one would find out who he is, even today his identity remains unknown.

London, England, Day 3 - National Gallery, Undiscovered London

March 28th This morning was an early start since I had a tour at 10:30am.  I met a girl named Rosa who's Mexican and on exchange in Vienna at the moment.  She was staying in the same hostel as I was and part of the same group.  After a short trip to the YHA where we picked up a few more people we caught the underground to green park to meet the larger group.  From there we proceeded to Buckingham Palace, St James Palace, Pall Mall, Trafalgar Square, The Mall, Horseguards Parade, Whitehall, Downing Street, Westminster and Big Ben.

London, England, Day 2 - O2 Climb, Tate Gallery, Les Miserables

March 27th Started off the day with a wake up called at 8:30am.  My room for 3 had no roomies for now which was nice.  The room was very simple, one bunk bed, one single bed, and a small sink with a mirror.  The downside was that I was on the lower bunk bed and the ceiling was ridiculously low so whenever I got up I hit my head.  I caught the underground to North Greenwich in the morning for the O2 climb, height was 52metres/170 feet.  The weather wasn't so bad that day so it was a nice short climb.  Talked to two English ladies who lived in London and were doing the climb.  It was Easter break so that's why they had time off.  There was a German couple and everyone else was English.  So the guide was just telling us the silly questions that he's been asked, like "If that's the River Thames then what's the river on this other side" (It's the River Thames), or "Is that the Eiffel tower?" (which was a water tower).  It was bouncy going up the stadium and bouncy if not steep, coming down.  It was a nice climb to the top, but no SLR photos only mobile phone cameras allowed.

After the climb I had lunch in the Harvester then caught the underground to Southwark where I visited the Tate gallery.  Spent about 2 hours or so there, and watched a short interesting documentary about blind people painting.

London, England, Day 1 - Big Ben, Trafalgar Square, Miss Saigon

I was in London from March 26th to 30th, primarily to watch a documentary (yes I flew all the way to England to watch a documentary :)) but since the last time I was there in 2010 I didn't get to see much of the city I thought I'll expand my schedule and add a few more days so I can explore the city more as well as watch a few musicals.

March 26th  The day started with an unearthly wake up call at 4:30am.  Flying into Gatwick I arrived around 12pm or so after going through customs at the pace of a snail.  I had completely forgotten that the UK is not part of the Schengen area, but thankfully I always carry my passport when travelling.  After I checked into the hostel to drop off my baggage I went to a Thai place to eat some noodles.  And had to also buy a power adapter since I had left mine at home.  I went back to the hostel and then checked into the room before walking to Trafalgar Square and then to Big Ben.  But not before collecting tickets to Miss Saigon at the Prince Edward Theatre.  I was too tired to fully appreciate it but it was really good, I had caught the late evening show.  Sat in the front row and that was different.  Got to smell all the special effects literally.  If you like Asian girls for sure you would like Miss Saigon, it was full of Asian women.

National Gallery Trafalgar Square... lots of people

Lion (which were modelled after domestic cats so they were sitting incorrectly!)

Fountain Trafalgar Square

Pigeon...

... on top of Shaun the Sheep

Elizabeth tower housing big ben bell.  Taken near Westminster Abbey.

London eye redux.  Yeah the weather was pretty bad that day did I tell you?

Miss Saigon cast at the end

Whiplash! $60,000 in 13 years

If you haven’t already seen “Whiplash”, the movie about a kid grinding his way seeking to earn the respect of his teacher, I recommend it.

How far can you push yourself?

Watching this movie reminds me a part of my life where I was won a 60K AUD (50K USD) scholarship from a state University in Australia.  Now you must be thinking how is this related to Whiplash?  You see, in Whiplash the kid was really competing not with others, not with his teacher, but himself.  Except mine was a lot longer than a 2 hour movie.  It’s a 13 year journey through time and space.  The journey called education, and the journey of oneself.

Helsinki, Turku, Happy Lunar New Year!

These past couple of days I spent some time in Helsinki and Turku.  Helsinki I'm no stranger to, I've been there maybe five or six times now.  It's an awesome city, the Finnish are simply incredible at design and that resonates with me.  Turku in its hay day used to be the capital of Finland, now they have approximately 175 000 residents living there and from the looks of it, a substantial student population during the day I was there.  It's about 200km away from Helsinki and buses and trains run there pretty often.

This time I visited the Natural History Museum, National Museum, went x-country skiing in Paloheinä, Turku Castle, Turku Cathedral and also did a countdown of Chinese New Year from Kamppi.  Plus ate a lot of food of course.

Happy New Year 2015 adios 2014!

Wow what a year!  So much has happened!  2014 was an utterly fantastic year.  I visited Malta, the US, Russia, Spain, the Czech Republic, Finland, Latvia, Spain and of course Norway.  Some of these countries more than once!  In Malta I got to see artefacts older than the pyramids and experience beautiful landscapes.  In the US I went venture capital fundraising in California and visited the inside offices of Twitter and even got to pitch to a person working in Mithril Capital, billionaire Peter Thiel’s (founder of Paypal) fund, walked past the offices of Mozilla, got an accidental tour of Google, and had a stopover at LinkedIn, ate clam chowder (again!), rode a bike over the Golden Gate bridge and (finally after years!) went to watch the incredible Wicked play in New York.  In Finland and Latvia I visited castles, fortresses, went on forest hikes, and went to a countryside wedding.  In Russia I went to majestic palaces and mountains.  In Spain I visited the unique architecture and art of Barcelona, Madrid, Valencia and the sandy beaches of Alicante.  In Czech Republic I re-visited the Charles Bridge, Prague Castle, saw the origins of Škoda in the town of Mladá Boleslav and ate tasty duck several days in a row.  In Norway I went forest hiking and mountain climbing.  There’s so much beauty and amazing things to see and learn in this world, yet the majority are more concerned with the trivialities of life.