KOH PHANGAN 07

Koh phangan again! Yes but this time is with Lis and Jimbo. Its their first time in koh phangan and staying at Om's and T's place. Below is BOM CAFE which is about 15min drive to haadrin beach. Stay per night is about THB500.00 without aircon, nice clean environment on the hill with great view of the sunset. Downside of this place are that you might hear people getting into accident or people shouting for help in the middle of the night cos the slope here is a killer!

PIX: Bom cafe and whiskey their dog

PIX: Chill out place at Bom cafe.
PIX: Below is my fav ice coffee and my custom made curry fried rice which is not on the menu.
PIX: "T" was nice enough and bring us to this water fall place. Surprisingly, we were the only one there and that's great cos i believe no one wanna go to a crowded, touristy water fall with alot of pee in it.
PIX: Photo of "T" making his way back to the lorry, Little tadpoles, Lis climbing up the waterfall, picnic by the waterfall

PIX: On our way back, great sunset. Just imagine all of us behind the lorry lying down and looking at those great view passing us by.

PIX: Haadrin beach in the evening and dinner under full moon.
PIX: Sunrise party at haadrin beach outside ZOOM. What is better than dancing freely on the beach to psytrance and enjoying the sunrise
PIX: After party starts from 10pm till 3 to 4 pm at BACKYARD
PIX: Time to say goodbye to our dear thai friends and celebrate Om's 24th Birthday.

KOH SAMUI DEC 07

My first trip with liz and jimbo as well as my first trip to Koh Samui.

Thanks to my Polo colleagues, we get to stay in a nice hotel in Koh samui right in the middle of Chaweng beach :) Hugssss... they gave me a 200 dollar travel voucher as a birthday gift and i finally got to use it!

We started out our trip to Bangkok and again we took the bus and ferry to Koh Samui passing Koh Tao and Koh Phangan as Koh Samui is the last stop. As usual, we had dinner at BKK, get a cheap and good massage and took a nap in the bus till we reach the ferry terminal.

PIX: BKK Khaosan street, me and liz, dinner, Buddha statue at Koh Samui, Thailand flag,

PIX: Koh Samui hotel that we are staying, 1 queen bed, 1 single bed (for me), kitty cat security, my shopping collection from BKK

PIX: Lunch at WILL WAIT (haha...), suntan at Chaweng beach.

VIDEOS: CHAWENG BEACH
PIX: Dinner at a Irish Pub.
PIX: We went shopping and exploring the street and decided to watch "ah qua" (meaning transvertite) show down a small alley. liz n jimbo, some hardrock cafe that we passed by, the performers.

VIDEOS: SHOW 1, SHOW 2

VIDEOS: Of the shows

RECHARGE - MALACCA OCT 07

1st time going overseas with my party friends which I met at Zouk! A bunch of crazy party goers! The Global Gathering recharge party was located somewhere in Malacca at A'formosa resort. We took a bus from woodlands, change a bus at the Singapore custom, took a bus from johor bus terminal to Malacca and change into a cab to the hotel.

Sounds like a long trip ya? But if you are travelling with a group of great pals, you won't even notice it!

PIX: Our hotel room. 3 rooms share among 9 of us. Playing poker and using match sticks as $
PIX: All dressed up and ready to party! Makan at a little shop behind our hotel.

**The food were cheap and good!
PIX: GLOBAL GATHERING RECHARGE AT A'FORMOSA! In total there are 3 tents and a whole lot of people.
PIX: Party!!! It was rainy during that season and we have to party on the mud. Some people were doing the mud ski too lol... My advice is to take off your shoe and jus walk on the warm mud.

**Going back from A'formosa to our hotel was really far and we couldn't get a taxi. Tired and exhausted, we sat outside the party venue about 5am in the morning and waited for taxi. Down comes the ANGEL! A really nice guy who was one of the organizer in charge of the sound for the party offered to drive us all back to our hotel.. Thank you sooo much!

VIDEOS OF RECHARGE GLOBAL GATHERING!

PIX: Chicken ball rice at MALACCA.

**Always buy your bus ticket back to Singapore in advance Because we didn't and in the end all of us have to pay for 2 cabs to travel from Malacca to Singapore at about SGD20 per person. The cab will only drop us at the Malaysia custom and we have to walk over to Singapore custom... Hell of a ride, pain in the Ass and waste of money.

EUROPE TRIP - IBIZA 07

Ibiza! Yeahhhh... I am so excited.. We reached our hotel/apartment at night and the receptionist there was really friendly and he could even speak mandarin. Ibiza is a party and beach heaven but too bad we were short of cash and decided to spend the money on parties only and did not manage to visit the nice beaches. If you wanna go Ibiza, prepare to spend like there is no tomorrow because everynight, best clubs or dj starts from 50 euro. In total we were there for 4 days hence we spent about 125 euros just on clubs entries. (not including taxi to and fro)

PIX: Maps, tickets of clubs that we went, hotel name card, our apartment, me trying to act like a crazy women right after having a nice shower finally...

PIX: 2nd Day at Ibiza, met up with my friends from amsterdam and singapore, On our way from hotel to the streets near M bar.

PIX: Night time at Ibiza, me going shopping, sandman with his weed :P, pussy foot,

**All clubs tickets are sold at Bars. Usually there will be a blackboard stand outside showing the list of clubs and the cost. Clubs with good DJS are about 50euro and the rest of the clubs will be 40, 30 and 25 euros. They would also inform you where to get the bus to the clubs if you want to save money on the cabs.

PIX: AMNESIA

**Great place to party but 1st night when we were there, they told us that no cameras are allow. So we did'nt manage to take any pictures... But later at night, we understand why they did not allow that.. it was because, they have their own photographer taking your photos and giving you a ticket with a number where you have to collect the next day and pay about 10 to 20 euro per picture. Anyway it was way too expensive just for a picture, so next day we decided to sneak in with our camera as Paul van dyk was playing!

PIX: CAFE DEL MAR having Sangria!

** Cafe del mar does not accept reservation, so for those who wanna catch the sunset, pls be prepared to go before 4pm during summer. The dissappointing part of Cafe del Mar was that it used to be a place where people just chill out on the beach instead of tables and chairs.

Below is a picture of how Cafe del Mar was like back in the days..

PIX: Best sunset ever only at CAFE DEL MAR IBIZA.

After watching the sunset at Cafe Del Mar, we went to Privilege (world's biggest club) but it was gay night hence they were playing gay house. But still, i would say that it is a club worth going. For pictures, pls see http://www.facebook.com/pages/Ibiza-Spain/PRIVILEGE-IBIZA-OFFICIAL/46671369348?v=wall

PIX: Chilling out by the pool and having lunch with my pals, Ibiza airport, having a smoke break,

We were lucky and got to catch the fireworks at IBIZA.

EUROPE TRIP - LISBOA PORTUGAL 07 -FREEDOM FESTIVAL

FREEDOM FESTIVAL 2007 - LISBOA PORTUGAL

AUG 16 TO 20TH 2007 5days of non stop psychedelic trance dance party by the lake. 1st psytrance party we went to in Europe. It was AWESOME!!! Imagine... party by the nature with friendly folks and even kids. What more can we ask for?

Lesson that i learned from this trip is... we should study well where the party is located before booking a hostel/hotel because this was our first time to such parties and we weren't prepared for any camping and thot staying in a hostel would be just fine. But little did we know.. actually the party is far far away from lisboa town. During august, portugal was having some public holiday and the streets were really empty.. empty streets and shops are all closed...

Finally, we decided to abandon all our stuff, took our handbag and head for the airport to ask for help so that we can get to Freedom festival. The airport customer service was really helpful and directed us to the bus interchange where we took a bus to the party location.

PIX: Freedom festival 2007

PIX: MAP and bus ticket, freedom festival handband, me in lisboa town, little town located 20mins away from the party.

**the only way to the party from this little town was to take taxi or either you hook up with some local party goers so that they could give you a ride. This town is deserted and quiet as well.
PIX: 1st night at Freedom festival, chill out zone

PIX: Lighting and decos, me sitting there waiting for my coffee (pls note that there are no coffee with milk at the parties. Just espresso). During night time, the weather is really really cold and we did not bring any clothes with us at all and were freezing our asses off.
PIX: Friends that we met at the party, me and mabel finally got to buy the cheapest "sweater" that we found which cost about euro 20, me sleeping in the chill out area.

**Nunu our dear friend was really sweet by offering us their tent to bunk in the 2nd day but by then we already got a hotel room about 15mins away from the party location.

PIX: OLIVETREEDANCE my fav at the live performance tent. Pls visit http://www.myspace.com/olivetreedance

VIDEOS: olivetreedance 1, olivetreedance 2

PIX: Freedom festival in the day, mmm.. my lunch (chicken, chips and rice), kids and some folks sitting by the hammock which mabel had set up, look at how clean the party place is.

**What i love about Freedom Festival, unlike our singapore zoukout, all party goers are people who don't just dump their trash everywhere they go. During the 2nd day when i just woke up, i could see party goers going around picking up trash and putting it into the correct recycle bins. How nice is that?

PIX: Day time party at the main tent, can you spot me?

PIX: Sunset at Freedom Festival. Beauuuttifulll!

PIX: Last night at Freedom festival, my sloshed face after a few days of partying!

EUROPE TRIP - MADRID 07

MADRID - A place that i would never ever forget. Why??? It's because my handbag with all my stuff (camera, mp3 player, money, ID, passport, handphone etc...) was stolen at MCDONALDS. Imagine that! But still, i would recommend people who love shopping and clubbing to visit madrid. But pls beware of pick pockets...

But coming to think of it, i was too careless as well. So folks, always remember to sling your handbag and look after your belongings as the pick pockets are really really skillful and they come in groups. How mine got stolen? Oh well... we were having lunch at Mcdonalds and we choose to sit facing the streets directly. 2 women and a guy (who look like some tourist) walk into Mcdonalds acting as if they were looking for seats. A lady came infront of us, bend down, took some card "out" (as if she picked up from the floor) and asked if this card belongs to us. As we couldn't see clearly hence we stood up and took a look at the card... But little did we know.. the guy and the other woman behind us grab my bag and walk out immediately and the lady infront of us just walk out of Mcdonalds once we said that the card doesn't belong to us... and guess what.. i only found out that my handbag was missing when i had finished my meal and wanted to go out for a smoke! How silly was that?

Lesson learned! And the saddest part was not about the money.. its about the pictures that i took in amsterdam, london, seville, barcelona and 1st day when i touched down at madrid... memories all deleted...

**MUST!

1) Do register yourself with the ambassy in europe informing them your details and itinerary. 2) If you are travelling more than 2weeks, pls get a travel insurance. **remember to keep all the receipts of camera, handphone, mp3 player etc.. because you need all these as a proof when submitting a claim to the insurance company. My claim took about 6months just for everyone info.

3) Keep your ID at home!

4) Email yourself a copy of your ID or passport so that you can proof where you are from and you need that for making a temporary pass back to your country

5) Pls REMEMBER that during summer, most of the consulate and ambassy are CLOSE! I was really lucky!

** last but not least, never give up and spoil your trip because I went around asking and got to know that even you do not have a passport, you could still travel within europe with the police report :P so ... that's how i continue to my parties at Portugal and Ibiza! Negativity brings nothing!

PIX: Reflection of us chilling downstairs our hostel, streets in madrid

PIX: check out the colourful stunning flowers behind me, statue of a man chilling by the street, wonder what the police man was thinking right there, beautiful angle

PIX: Palacio de Gaviria - We did went Pacha but they only starts at about 2am and we were way too early.. so we went to the so called "gay street" and had some kebab!! It was really yummy! Later in the evening, we got to find out PALACIO DE GAVIRIA from the guy at the hostel and decided to go there instead. It was really beautiful! Historical place comes to life at night in MADRID. 3 rooms playing different sounds from RNB, 80s to trance and house.. A great place to boogie away your night away with sexy male and female dancers on the stage.

PIX: ALMUDENA CATHEDRAL - 3D effect gates to the beautiful church, Outside Almudena.

PIX: PALACIO REAL DE MADRID (Royal palace of Madrid) This is the official residence of the King of Spain in the city of Madrid.

**No photo taking allow in the palace.

PIX: ME, me , me!!! Having fun at the palace.
PIX: Having dinner with some friends that we just met who were staying in the same hostel.

PIX: Back from portugal to madrid to get my temporary documents (back to singapore) done.

Check out the tapas we had! scrambled eggs with cheese and potatos were my favorite.

PIX: oops!! caught me shopping.. I LOVE H&M!!! Mabel having Starbucks by the busy street, Unique building that we came across while shopping,

EUROPE TRIP - SEVILLE 07

SEVILLE located left side of SPAIN is a little city full of culture and dance.

We took a train from Barcelona to Seville which cost about SGD 150 per person. On our way to Seville, all you will see is empty plot of lands and cute little plants and trees planted in rows.

On our way there, it makes me wonder whether the trees are grown naturally in rows or did someone really planted all the trees one by one...

In Seville, be prepared to walk around the city instead of taking a bus or you will miss out the hidden beauty of it. Weather there is really really hot during summer, the best and cheapest way to satisfy your throat is the ice stick which cost about a few cents.

PIX: TRAIN that we took

from Barcelona, Houses on our way to Seville, Hostel that we stayed, View from our balcony.

** Surprisingly the hostel there is really clean but it was really embarrassing when we check in late about after midnight. Because the door was locked for security reasons and we have to wake the poor guy up to open the door for us.

PIX: Streets picture that we took while exploring seville by foot. Every where you go, you will see Mary, Jesus and of cos, some graffiti by the back streets.

PIX: Catedral de Sevilla (Seville Cathedral) - Outside Seville Cathedral.

**Outside Seville Cathedral you will get to see a really beautiful fountain. There are also horse rides which you need to pay and because of those horses, the place smells abit Icky.

PIX: Me having Yummy churros with thick hot chocolate, Seville palace.. but we didn't went in, more street photos..

PIX: Plaza de Espana, old map of Seville, Huge fountain infront of Plaza de Espana, little details on the bridge, the entire building is build with small little details that shows the history of spain.

**Recommended!

PIX: We met a local who is working at the flamenco gallery and he directed us to this hotel with a open garden concept where we can get the best view of GIRALDA. He told us that even some of the locals do not know this hotel. Sorry guys, i would like to share with you the name of the hotel, but i had forgotten the name :(

PIX: Bells and bells ( But get ready to climb up), View at the top, maps, tickets to flamenco dance performance, tickets to flamenco galleryPIX: FLAMENCO gallery - Both of us trying to pose like flamenco dancers, My shadow, Mabel trying to act like she is the painter hehe..., the painting i love most in the gallery

CASA DELA MEMORIA DE AL-ANDALUS best place for acoustic flamenco performance.

**Recommended!

Pls remember to get the tickets earlier because we only got to find this place around 4 plus in the evening and all tickets were sold out. We were on the waiting list but we have to be there around 7pm before the show starts and check with the counter again whether there are any tickets for us as this place only holds 90 spectators.

PIX: couple doing the flamenco dance, the guy clapping giving the beat and he too plays the guitar.

PLAZA DE TOROS DE LA MAESTRAZA - FAMOUS BULLRING IN SEVILLE

We went there and too bad there was no bull fight that day but we manage to go in for a tour. Pictures shown below are grabs from the internet because my camera and entire bag was stolen in madrid.