As our parents came to Asia for the graduation, we planned a trip for us to visit Bali together. We stayed at beautiful villa in Ubud called Tepi Sawah Villas & Spa Hotel which was situated in the middle of rice paddies. We then stayed in Nusa Dua at the Swiss-Belhotel Bay View Suites & Villas.
An amazing year full of memories caped off with a great graduation ceremony. Reshma graduated with distinction from INSEAD. Both our parents flew in for the ceremony. Unfortunately, Hemanshu's parents got stuck in Scotland as they were snowed in but we had a chance to celebrate together in Bali!
Check out this graduation video followed by a picture slideshow.
Reshma's INSEAD graduation was coming up! The soon-to-be graduates from Fontainebleau and Singapore agreed on celebrating in Sri Lanka! Reshma went ahead of time and visited Dambulla, Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage, Kandy, Sigiriya, and N'Eliya tea plantations. Hemanshu joined afterwards for the big celebration in Beruwala and also visited Dal.
Hemanshu visited 5 cities in India for work to recruit and train partners. He had a chance to visit Mumbai, Pune, Delhi, Hyderabad, and Bangalore. He also had a chance to catch up with family in each city!
We flew from Beijing to Shanghai to meet up with Adam and check out the last days of Expo 2010! The Canadian Pavilion was (of course) awesome - we got VIP treatment by simply showing our passports. The US Pavilion wouldn't accept our Canadian passport - they turned us away saying that they have way more people than Canada (even though the Canadian lineup was way longer!).
The Bund walkway had some of the best night-photography options. One side of the Huangpu River has these really old colonial buildings and the other side has these huge modern skyscrapers that were built over the past two decades!
We also made a friend - Adam and Amy's cat - Mao Mao - she was very shy and cute :)
Spent 3 days in Beijing. We had a chance to visit Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, Temple of Heaven, Great Wall (Sibmatai section), Acrobatic show, Summer Palace, and the Hutongs of Beijing!
Great Wall and the acrobatic show were the highlights! The weather was really cold and we were not prepared - both of us had at least 4 layers on at all time :) It always seemed foggy and we weren't sure if it was fog or smog. We also visited The Bird's Nest and The Cube - the Olympics 2008 venues!
We had an amazing long-weekend in Phuket in-between Reshma's semesters. We actually met up with Neil and Shilpi and celebrated Neil's birthday together!
Highlights included the Hong Caves, Simon Cabaret (drag queen show) and a 6 hour mountain-bike ride on a small island where we saw buffalos, rode on the beach and through rice-paddies. Patong is definitely worth avoiding so we stayed at the Avista Resort and Spa by Kata beach.
Short weekend trip to Sumatra where we vistied Medan and Lake Toba. Lake Toba is the largest volcanic lake in the world. We stayed on Samosir Island in the middle of the Lake so we basically stayed on an island within a bigger island (Sumatra).
We also visited Barestagi where they have two active volcanoes. We created an I-N-S-E-A-D rock sign in the crater! Just a few days after we left Mount Sinabung erupted after several days of rumbling! This mountain was right opposite Mount Sibayak that we had visited!
Reshma threw me an awesome surprise party. Everyone was waiting on the roof-top terrace of One-North. We had pani-puri and paw bhaji along with chocolate and mango cake!
We later went to the Lantern launch party on the roof-top of the Fullerton Bay Hotel. It is located on Marina Bay with fantastic views of the Marina Bay Sands Hotel.
Took a week vacation for a trip to Japan where we visited Tokyo, Kyoto, and Hiroshima! Reshma flew in from her semester at France, Hemanshu flew in from Singapore, and Reshma's parents flew in from Vancouver - we all stayed with Shantanu, Vrunda, and Shrey in Tokyo. Shrey turned 3 when we were there!
Tokyo highlights included the Imperial Palace, Harajuko, Omoto-sando, Shibuja, Hachinko, Meiji Shrine, and Hakone National Park. There is so much to do there. We even went on a vintage ship on Lake Ashinoko to view Mt. Fuji.
Travelled by Shinkansen (bullet-train) to Kyoto for two nights and Hiroshima for one night. The Shinkansen was awesome with speeds of 300km/h! Kyoto is full of temples and we visited many of them. Ones that we would recommend are Fushimi Inari Shrine, Sanjusangendo (1001 Buddha status from 1164 AD), Kiyomizu-dera (on top of a hill with beautiful views of Kyoto), and Kinkakuji (Golden Temple). We do not recommend Riyonji Temple which is basically a very boring zen rock garden (unless you like staring at stones). Also Nijo Castle was not that impressive.
Hiroshima was a must to gain an insight into how devastating the atomic bomb was and the effects it had on people for generations to come. The entire city was wiped out when the bomb was dropped on Aug 6, 1945!
It was great to have Shantanu and Vrunda who speak fluent Japanese in Tokyo as langaunge was a definite barrier there. We found people in Kyoto and Hiroshima spoke more English as the two cities are more touristy. For vegetarians, Subway was a life saver with basil-mayo in their sandwiches; also McDonalds with their pancake (hot cakes) breakfast!
When Reshma was in Fontainebleau, I had the chance to visit Saigon, Vietnam with some friends - including my first trip with Dheeraj who recently moved to Singapore. Highlights included our hotel illegally running Deep Freeze on their workstations, Vanessa's purse being snatched by a motorcyclist, crawling through the secret Cu Chi tunnels, shooting an AK-47, and boating down the Saigon River. The War Remnants Museum was a sad reminder of all the atrocities that took place until Saigon fell in April 1975.
Side note: I would recommend watchingThe Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers, which is a 2009 documentary film that follows Daniel Ellsberg and explores the events leading up to the publication of the Pentagon Papers, which exposed the top-secret military history of the United States involvement in Vietnam.
Good times in Kuching, Malaysia which is located in Borneo - the third largest island in the world. We checked out Bako National Park where we hiked through a rainforest and saw monkeys, boars, and a viper snake. Excellent organization by JJH Travel and Monocole corporation ;)
We stayed at Singgahsana Lodge which was a slightly nicer guesthouse/hostel with shared bathrooms. Nice bar on top. The only thing was that someone stole my Nike shoes which forced me to hike in my slippers the next day!
Reshma is in France celebrating her birthday today! Since we could not be with her there, I have put together a surprise video to wish her a fantastic birthday. This will be Reshma's second birthday in a row in Fontainebleau, a little town known for it's famous chateau, and scenic forests. It is also the home of INSEAD, Reshma's business school.
Hope you like the video Reshma! Make sure you watch it in HD :)
Whistler was a must as I missed the Olympics. We went snowmobiling in Whistler and stayed one night at the Delta Suites. At one point, we went as fast 89km/h! The weather was wonderful. It was barely zero degrees Celsius and snowed all day. We checked out Buffalo Bills night club afterwards. Neil, Shilpi, Amar, and Dorian made it out.
We had the pleasure of visiting Cambodia for 4 days during the P1/P2 break - We flew into Siem Reap where we spent 2 days, and then rented a group bus to Phnom Penh.
Siem Reap was the capital city and home of the 12 Century Ankor Wat temple that was built as the state temple and capital city. This temple is the symbol of Cambodia and appears on the national flag. We also visited other temples like Ankor Tom, Bayon, and Ta Prohm (Tomb Raider Temple). The "floating village" of Kompong Phluk was a must-see - the village is built high on stilts for the flood season. We visited a primary school there and gave the students books and pencils.
Phnom Penh is the capital today, and is a growing city. We had a chance to share a sunset boat cruise with a group of friends...thanks Lucinda and Jeff for organizing! The Royal Palace was okay.. we ran into some interesting challenges with the dress code - apparently shawls are not allowed so ladies make sure you cover your shoulders some other way. Bought some neat souvenirs such as paintings from the Russian Market. The most important place to visit (and saddest) was the S21 genocide museum (Toul Sleng). During the Khemr Rouge regime (1975 - 1979), this high school was converted into a prison. It is estimated that between 1.5 to 3 million Cambodians were killed during this period...a very heavy experience visiting the museum, but very insightful into the history of this country.
The food in Cambodia was amazing - we ate at some great restaurants which had a blend of European and Asia food. Also, finding vegetarian food was quite easy. All in all, this trip was fantastic!
We flew to Yogyakarta, Indonesia for the weekend. The highlight of the trip was to watch the sunrise at Borobudur. Borobudur was built in the 8th century and is the largest Buddhist temple in Indonesia - it is located between two twin volcanoes and two rivers. We started at 3:30am from the Phoenix Hotel ("Ponik" for the locals) and were at the top of the temple by 5am to watched the sunrise - it was spectacular!!
We also visited the Bird Market (Ngasem), Water Castle (Taman Sari), and Prambanan which is the largest Hindu temple in Indonesia built in the 9th century. The locals we met were very friendly and always smiling and willing to help. FYI: there is an entry visa fee and an exit fee for Indonesia so be ready to pay that.
As part of Russian Week at Reshma's university, we headed down to New Asia located on the 71st floor of the Fairmont Singapore Hotel. The views were fantastic and the drinks were just as expensive ;)
A collage of pictures from the past week as we celebrated Chinese New Year in Singapore. Pictures from China Town, The River Hong Bao Carnival, and One North party.
Celebrated Chinese New Year along River Hong Bao in Singapore. The fireworks started at midnight and lasted for about 5 minutes. I added the Singapore national anthem as the background music. To the right is Marina Bay where the Merlion is and to the left is the River Hong Bao Carnvial where they have nightly performances to celebrate the year of the Tiger.
To cap of Latin week's craziness, we headed down to Club Movida located inside the St. James Power Station. The theme of course for Latin Week was Carnaval. Everyone dressed in their very creative carnaval outfits!
Kuala Lumpur was awesome. Took the Nice Shuttle Bus there from Singapore. We had a chance to stay with Hemanshu's cousin Ketul, his wife Archana and daughters Maher and Kiana. Some of the places we checked out included the Thean Hou Temple, National Mosque, the soon-to-be capital Putrajaya, KL Tower, Petronas twin-towers, and Batu Caves where the world's largest Thaipusam Festival took place that weekend! Eric, our Taxi driver, was great - he even played the Michael Buble DVD for us in his car :)
To cap off a crazy week of orientations, courses, and initiations... the school coordinated a final party at Cafe Del Mar on Sentosa island. This place has changed significantly from our last visit 7 years ago. No one was allowed to stay dry. If you were dry, you were thrown into the pool!
We met Yee Ning in Singapore over 7 years ago during our student exchange program with NUS. Yee Ning since moved to Singapore from Seattle so we get to hang with her in Singapore again! Happy Birthday.
So we actually did end up going to Helipad after all! One of the INSEAD students had arranged a VIP list and we were on the "helipad" outside all night overlooking Clark Quay. We also got to see some fireworks. The helipad was on the 6th floor and not the 50th floor as I had imagined it but we had a great time. Good times..
