Thoughts on Singapore

   Having spent four days in Singapore on the way to Australia back in December, I'd like to share my thoughts on it as much as possible for such a brief stay. Singapore was a very exciting city/state to visit, especially considering that the only previous experience I had had with Asia was southern Turkey, which is of course a lot more like Europe than the Far East.
   Singapore is very modern and innovative, as well as very clean (largely thanks to their strict laws and 200$ fines for littering). The modern architecture, which often feels more like futuristic architecture rather than modern, was simply incredible and mind blowing. Everywhere you walk on the streets, you're sure to run into some amazing buildings. The Marina Bay Sands hotel (the famous three skyscrapers connected by a swimming pool on top) is one of the finest examples, along with the Gardens by the Bay right next to it.
   The Gardens by the Bay include a Malay, Chinese, Indian, colonial and palm garden among others (all of them simply beautiful), two futuristic conservatories, seen here on the right,  and also iconic artificial trees. An artificial tree sounds like a pretty awful and useless idea, but these trees looked unlike real trees and instead made you feel like you're somewhere on another planet in an Avatar-like sci-fi film (instead of making the gardens look like an ugly plastic amusement park). These tree structures also support real plants to live on them, making them very useful. This entire area along with the esplanade made me feel like I had been teleported into the year 2038 or something like that, and in a good utopian kind of way.
   The esplanade includes a lotus shaped ArtScience museum, a sports stadium floating on water, the famous Merlion statue and a durian shaped performing arts centre. A durian is a popular fruit that is banned in most places in Singapore because of its foul smell, which Wikipedia claims "has been described variously as almonds, rotten onions, turpentine, raw sewage, and smelly socks". Another 200$ fine for bringing one to the hotel.
   Often times modern architecture has been criticized for making different places around the globe look a lot more similar to each other, which is a serious problem in my eyes. However, the modern architecture in Singapore somehow just felt unique. I was standing there between the Marina Bay Sands hotel and the Gardens thinking that there's no way you could see or experience anything remotely like this in Europe or America. Checking out panorama photos of downtown Singapore, you might feel that it doesn't look very unique, however it is completely different and a lot more powerful up close.
   Singapore also has a rich multicultural heritage, with a fleshed out Chinatown and Little India among other places (72% of the population of Singapore is of Chinese and around 10% of Indian descent, with 13% being of Malay heritage). These areas are very atmospheric and different from each other. Of course the food is delicious. Hawker centres provide you with cheap, but extremely tasty stall food. The Clarke Quay is a riverside area with tons of restaurants, ranging from Thai and Korean to Russian and Cuban.
   Another nice thing about Singapore is that between its highrises and in densely built areas there is still a lot of nature. The streets are very green, having a lot of exotic trees on them. This often creates the feeling (at least for me) that Singapore is a city in a rainforest and not a city that has replaced the rainforest. Despite it being one of the most densely populated countries in the world, there is still room for nature reserves. The Bukit Timah reserve was a really nice and relaxing rainforest 12 kilometres from downtown. It was easy to forget that civilization was everywhere around.
   The climate was very unusual for someone like me. Basically there are two seasons, the dry one and the rainy one. There aren't any significant temperature changes over the year (always a pleasant 20 or 30 something degrees Celsius). In fact, I checked that the coldest temperature ever measured there is 19.4 degrees, with the warmest being 36 degrees (pretty mild considering that it was pushing 50 degrees in Adelaide when we were there). We happened to be in Singapore during the rainy season, which was a unique experience. It would usually rain once a day, not for too long, and everyone would have their umbrellas ready. It would also dry off pretty fast after the rain.
   One interesting thing is that despite its success, people have limited political freedom in Singapore. In 2009, for example, it was ranked 133rd out of 175 nations in the Worldwide Press Freedom Index. Singapore has been ruled by a single political party (the People's Action Party) since its independence from the UK in 1959. They have often oppressed opposing parties and opinions, and yet they have managed to guide the country to a huge economic success.
   Singapore was for me a very exciting place to visit, very global and yet very unique, with a lot packed into a relatively small area. It's changing rapidly (I'm looking forward to the planned second and third phases of the Gardens by the Bay), with a lot of the esplanade having been
completed in the last few years. Anyway, it was difficult to write this, because I had so many chaotic ideas and things to say about Singapore that were hard to convey and there's still a lot to be said. Singapore has so much: fantastic traditional areas like the very colourful Little India, wild nature reserves, monkeys playing on rooftops, innovative architecture, a huge variety of people from all over the world, the night safari, famous cuisine, world-class shopping, beaches and so much more. Definitely worth visiting, whatever kind of traveler you are.

Lazy

Okay, I haven't posted in a while, as usual. In short, after Crescent City we went to San Fransisco where we spent a day, then we went to Yosemite National Park and we stayed in a hotel in Mammoth Lakes (a Californian ski resort, where in some places there was still snow). Next day we went to Death Valley, a really rad place, and spent the night, plus the whole next day, in Las Vegas, which is crazy as hell. Then we shot off to Utah, more specifically Zion Canyon, stayed in a little town called Springdale, another full day there. Then we went to Bryce Canyon and after that to Grand Canyon, which was grand. Then we went down South to the true Arizona and spent a night in Sedona. Airplane in Phoenix on the next day to Tampa, Florida. A relaxing and really warm week in Florida, including Don Pedro Island (dolphins, manatees, pelicans, turtles there), Orlando with Universal Studios (The Hulk was a fun ride http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVdZROJf9Ag) and Daytona Beach. Then back to Toronto, where I tried Ethiopian food, really tasty, and I've been back in Europe for two months already.
I want to post some pictures soon, but I'm pretty busy right now.
Last week I was in Vienna, Austria for five days with the German class and next week I'll be in Belgium again for a week.

Vancouver and more

So, I'm in Portland, Oregon right now. Pretty fun.
I'll just kick off where I ended last time. Vancouver, July 20th, probably. After taking care of the car, Aarne's family took us to the Vancouver Aquarium, in Stanley Park. The recreated natural environments such as the rainforest are always rad. And the 4D cinema, with the wind, back-poking things and such stuff, of course. Dolphins, colourful frogs, sea cucumbers and belugas were among the creatures living in the aquarium. We had dinner in Gastown later, it's a more historic part of town.
On Thursday it was time to visit Vancouver Island, one of my dad's high school friend named Peter Wiles. The island is pretty big, I don't know how many hours it would take to ride from one end to the other. It's also supposed to be quite dangerous in the nature there, with many cougars and bears. Anyway, Pete lives in a cozy house in a village called Cumberland, near Courtenay, if that means anything to you. It used to be a mining town, and it's pretty run-down now. It even had a Chinatown back in the end of the 19. century. They stopped the mining in the 60's.
We visited a mountain there, which still had snow on it. Didn't sadly visit the top, because it was really cloudy there. We also went to a seaside restaurant/pub on that day, where you could see seals looking out of the water. Pete took us to Cathedral Grove on the next day, with really tall trees. One of the highlights in my opinion was a river with some waterfalls, I don't recall its name.
We returned to Vancouver by ferry on Sunday. A grill with the other Tork family and three games of croquet with Aarne and Anne's daughters Annika and Aliina. On Monday I woke up around 5:10 AM to go walk around in town before leaving for Portland. Aarne's work started at 6, so he took me to the SkyTrain station near the airport where he works. The SkyTrain is kind of like a subway, but the rails are often above the ground. I went to downtown and then to North Vancouver via the Seabus. It's a pleasant area (or city, as it officially is, part of the Greater Vancouver) on the edge of a mountain, so it's on a slope.
Later Anne took us over the border to Bellingham airport in Washington, where we rented a car. In the evening we arrived in Portland, which is said to be one of the most environmentally friendly cities in the world. My dad has a friend there too, Erik Teose, and we stayed at his place. We (+Erik's family) went to a Mongolian restaurant where you basically stuffed your bowls full of food and they cooked it, really good place with an interesting system. Next day (yesterday) we went out of town to see a few waterfalls. It took a while to walk up to them, but the view was great.
Today we left Portland and I am now in Crescent City, California (I started writing this blog post yesterday, didn't have much time, though). We saw a bit of Redwood National Park which has even bigger trees than Cathedral Grove on Vancouver Island. It's also the park where they filmed the Ewok planet for Star Wars. Anyway, I'm done for now.

Back in Canada

I woke up 40-50 minutes ago here in Vancouver hearing that two of my uncle Arne's car wheels had been stolen. Well, that's that.
Anyway, I left Estonia with my family on the 14. July. The flight from Helsinki to Toronto was pretty uncomfortable, as I wasn't sleepy, and there wasn't really a lot to do on the plane. But it was good to be back in Toronto. The day after arrival we went to downtown, kind of obviously, and I showed some places to my brother, now that I felt less like a newcomer. Eaton Center, the side of Lake Ontario, the Toronto University grounds and so on. Later Tiina took us to a free outdoors cinema, where they showed "How To Train Your Dragon". They had loads of technical issues but after an hour or so, they finally got it going.
On the 16. I walked to Danforth Avenue from our base on Burnham Road. There was a South-East Asian Festival somewhere around there and later at Woodbine Park down south I saw the Jazz Festival, same one as last year, there were some good performers. I liked a band called Left Foot Yellow, who played, and I assume composed, some instrumental rock songs.
The 17. was our last full day in Toronto, we're going back soon though. Soon we will start our little road trip in the States, and then we'll shoot off to Florida from Phoenix and then we will return to Toronto. Anyway, on the 17. I decided to walk around and explore (something I've become obsessed with recently) by myself. I went North, to a rich neighborhood. From there I went into a park, the one that's connected to Sunnybrook Park. It felt like it would never end. It was a great park, but in the end I wanted to find a way out and which ever way I went, there were just more plains, baseball fields, horse stables and so on. Eventually I did get out, obviously. It was through a campus of York University. Ten I went to Eglinton, and after an hour or two I was back home. We then went to Chinatown with my family, with many classic products in the smelly supermarkets, such as bean flavored ice lollies.
So, we had a flight to Vancouver two days ago. Staying at my uncle Arne's and his family's place around South Surrey, which I think is about an hour's drive from downtown. I've never been this far west before, until now the most west place was probably Florida, but I visited that in 1995, when I was a 1 year old.
It was a nice flight, loads of space. In the evening we all went to White Rock, a little town near Surrey, and there actually was a white rock there, on the beach.
What I like about Vancouver is that there's a lot of water here:

We went to Granville Island, which is in downtown. Filled with places like a food court, broom shop, some art shops and a brewery. There was also a show where some guy who called himself Dynamike, rode on a 3 metres (maybe) high unicycle while juggling machetes. Later I walked around by myself on the North coast of downtown, Stanley park and some other bits there. Pleasant area.
I'm not exactly sure what's gonna happen today, currently they've been dealing with the car, so I've had time to write here in my blog. Oh, and I'll try get some photos soon.

More Norway..

Okay, the next day, Saturday, was the best day of the trip. We went through the snowy mountains and across a fjord on a ferry, eventually our bus arrived somewhere between the mountains, where the vegetation was a lot lighter and richer than elsewhere.

There was a path leading to a glacier, it was a few kilometres to walk.




The road went uphill and there was a rocky river close by so I went off track and went on next to the river. Anyway, at some point the vegetation ceases to exist, instead you get this grey dry rocky land, with a single tone greenish lake. That was one hell of a place, it blew my mind away. Here:


That was the view from the glacier,which I decided to climb:


That was truly the highlight of the trip..

That was the view from the rocks, glacier's on the left:


Well, that place was really amazing. It felt so unlike Europe, so unlike the rest of Norway. That's a place I MUST visit again.
A little town who-knows-where:



Another old Norwegian church:

We spent a second night in the same hostel. During the rainy evening there were dozens of us watching Eurovision, which included so many cheesy tunes (Ireland's song was especially horrific). Well, that's the way Eurovision is, but everybody still watches it....(including me).
After a bad night's sleep we headed back off to Oslo. It was mostly rainy there sadly. Visited some museums, had some free time, went back to the hostel, after which I explored the suburbs alone.
Next morning, we started going back, popped through a cave painting museum in Sweden and arrived in the port of Stockholm in the evening. I visited the buffet on the ship, that was the first proper dinner I had had on the trip. After a sleepless night, we were once again in Turku. No time to look around this time, we continued to Helsinki, a two hour ride which felt like 15 minutes. Ship, arrived back in Tallinn. The first thing I had to do after returning was visit the supermarket, because Estonian prices felt really heavenly compared to Scandinavia's ones.
It was a nice trip, better than the Russian trip back in September (though that was fun too).

Norway

Okay, another science class trip which I decided to join. 1 week, with around 50 people. Ship to Helsinki, the first stop was a limestone mine in Finland.

After that, we headed off to Turku which, along with Tallinn, is the European capital of culture 2011. It seemed like a sleepy little town by nature. We spent the night on the Turku-Stockholm ship, ships are always fun.
We were gonna spend a lot of time in the bus during the trip. Main activities: chat, half-sleep, eat cheap food, watch movies on the TV of the bus (such as Fight Club, Into The Wild, The Hangover, The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button and Die Hard 4), listen to music and enjoy the scenery. It was around 7 hours to Oslo from Stockholm. We passed Fahlun and its copper mine. Apparently, in the 19. century some guy died somewhere in the mines and his body was found 42 years later, unchanged.
We spent the night in a hostel in the suburbs of Oslo, the whole area was surprisingly pleasant. I think that if I had to move to Scandinavia, I'd move to Oslo.
On Friday we went up North. We visited another mine, this time a silver mine. We had to stuff ourselves into minecarts, which took us into the mountain. We had to wear earplugs, the train was quite noisy. This mine seemed to be built more organized. Fun, like all three, that we visited.
Anyway, we went on with the bus (loads of hours spent there every day, kind of lost track of time there. For example, I fell half-asleep and when I woke up, I felt like two hours had passed, while it was only some fifteen minutes actually. Sometimes my thoughts started acting independantly, I kind of saw some stranger outside and I decided that he was an adventurer and a bird watcher, for no apparent reason. Half-sleeping can be pretty interesting) and soon there were a lot of mountains and waterfalls, as well as several fjords around us. We visited stave churches, nice and mystical, Viking-like, as seen here.
Time passed, the vegetation went darker, and there were now many patches of snow everywhere.
We spent the night in a hostel in a little town (in Norway any settlement with over 200 people is a town) in the mountains. I'll put more photos in another post.

Russia (Cont.) & Belgium

I kind of left that Russian trip unfinished and dangling around, so here's a brief and happy ending: We visited the Solovetski islands during the next day and came all the way back to Helsinki by bus, we had to spend the night there, so I went walking around (for a while) with some friends. I remember that I fell asleep in one of the bars of the ship, after some Finnish guy came, somehow pinched me behind my ear and said that I'm not allowed to use that area as my sleeping space. That's that.
I should say a few words about visiting my dad in Brussels too. In fact, scratch "Les Contamines, France" which I had already put as the title of this post. This deserves to be a separate post, so I'm gonna call it "Russia (Cont.) & Belgium". I prefer neutral names here to make it easier to navigate.
Anyway, it was in the end of October, one week. Whole family. My dad lives there because of his work (Galileo project). Nice humble place, Brussels is. We took a car and saw the countryside and villages of Southern Belgium too. Quiet and really relaxing area. Belgium seemed somewhat lazy.. We popped through Luxembourg also, where I hadn't ever been to before. While walking around in the downtown, I happened to see one of my schoolmates, it felt pretty weird seeing his face there..
The nature was great, sadly I didn't have much time to experience and explore it (which I love doing) because of my parents.. Well, I'm going back tomorrow.