agent u

I like Singapore.

Even though the city has been under siege all day by a big thunder storm...
Managed not to get too wet though. First by staying in bed, reading a good book, until it was no longer morning, but late afternoon and then by hiding underneath a big umbrella whilst having lunch. (And that's one of the things I really appreciate about Singapore. All the outdoor restaurants. Miss that sooo much in HK.)
However, when the rain and the lightening finally gave in, I was ready. Ready to hit the streets of Singapore.

So I walked.
And at one point I stumbled upon Anderson Rd.
Just had to check it out.
And I soon noticed that I wasn't the only one on this posh street.
It was lined by police.
Don't know what was going in, but it looked very important...
However, I decided to ask one of these policemen, if I was walking in the right direction for the botanical gardens (because of course I managed to forget the map in my hotel room).
And as I asked the question and he walked off to consult one of his colleagues, a silly, but quite exciting, thought popped into my head...:
What if they think I'm some sort of agent/terrorist (IRA, Hezbollah, well you name it...), who is trying to distract them by pretending to be an innocent lost tourist, while my terrorist partners, manages to get to the important people the police are lining up for, and within minutes after I gratefully thank these policemen for their help, a bomb will go off...
Hmm, maybe not so likely..., but whilst waiting for the directions (in real life, not in my vivid imagination) I tried to look extra blond, innocent, and foreign-babe-like (just in case)... And I had to laugh at my own thoughts and tell myself that maybe I should try and separate real life from the book I'm currently reading...

Over and out
//Agent U

sex and the city

OK, I'm not ashamed to admit it. I laughed and I cried. I felt it, I enjoyed it and I cried a little bit more (both happy and sad tears).
I sat there envious of their beautiful shoes, clothes and handbags.
I sat there envious of the wedding dresses Carrie tired on, the friendship they share, and I envied their continued search and trust in the one-big-love...
The movie was just what I hoped it would be.
Long live Sex and the City.
Long live beautiful designer shoes.
And long live love.

Haven't been to Singapore since 2001. But now I'm back. I left a rainy HK behind me this morning and arrived to much nicer weather conditions in Singapore.

Last time I was here, I came here after a somewhat weird Australia trip with two of my old Posten colleagues... This time I'm alone, but am seeing my new "Posten" people tomorrow.

Feels good to be here. Exciting. Job wise it is going to be very interesting to meet the people over here and get a better insight of what I actually do... :-) And since I haven't been here for a while, I'm also sure there is a lot of catching up to be done with different shopping centers etc... But most of all leisure wise, I have my fingers crossed for a sunny weekend. And if that is what I'm getting, you will find me by the pool!

nightly adventure

Since Kris had been an "illegal immigrant" for 3 days, we thought it was due time to go to Macau last night to get stamps in the passport, so he would become legal again...

So we ran down to the ferry pier but when Kris tried to pass through the passport control he got shown to a special customs room where papers needed to be filled in and money payed, as a punishment for being illegal... However, after that we were good to go and on our way we were.

Spent a few hours in the Venetian, won money on both roulette and Black Jack, got the stamps in the passport and happily returned to HK after that. Mission accomplished.

tropical spring party

To tunes of Shakira, Ricky Martin, ABBA and The Creeps - Ooh I like it, we danced away all Friday night, both in and out of the pool.

We were over 200 poeple that celebrated that the tropical spring finally is here with, for a fee, "free" food & drinks. Some of us got really drunk (Kris), and some of us stayed on the more 'just tipsy' level (me). But all of us had a real good time!


During the night there was a best dressed competition (Kris was one of the runners up!), a hoola hoop competition (that none of us entered, but we tried the hola hoops out later on and practised, and got so hooked that we took the hoops with us to the bars we visited when the pool party was over...), and of course the traditional and obligatory get thrown and/or throw someone in the pool game... (I think we all got and did both...).

tropical times again

The sun finally came out this morning after days and days of constant rain...
Which suits perfectly on a Friday, when it's tropical times all over again...

Last year, before I put on my tropical outfit, I wrote the following words: Am off to a Tropical Spring Party tonight. Promise a report tomorrow. And it will most likely say, great party, got drunk and had fun.

This year, I just go with the above statement.

Later...

angels

When angles cry, it rains.
And the last days it truly has rained.
I guess the angles tears fall for all the earthquake victims.
Mine does.

back to normal...

The weather has been beautiful since I got back to HK. The city stands proud of it self and everything is normal.

I have started my new job (which feels great) and I have moved houses (which also feels great, even though body is hurting a bit from all the carrying), but otherwise all is normal.

However, I can't stop thinking about the victims of the earth quake. How the guys that we met on our trip are doing (are they ok, alive etc?), how are the horses, the pandas, the stunning little mountain villages that we drove, rode, walked past, the extremely helpful lady that ran the restaurant where we ate in Song Pan, the kids that I gave pens and clothes to...

I should be up there, helping, doing something.
I shouldn't be sitting here on my arse feeling as happy as I do...

me, riding and water

As most of you know I had an incident a few years ago of falling into water when riding... (I was in Greece, I was riding a scooter and the rest is history...) That incident was quite painful, but very funny and people still like to remind me of it...

To make sure not to disappoint anyone I (or my horse actually) decided to do the whole maneuver all over again... So on our last morning of riding, as we were leaving our little camp, I went flying over my horses head straight into the water!

Mind you, last time I tried this "me, riding, water-thingy", it was a beautiful Summer day, I was wearing shorts and the water I fell into was the cooling Mediterranean.
This time around it was a cold morning in the Chinese mountains and I was wearing several layers of clothing plus gloves and a beanie, and the water I fell into was a river filled with freshly melted snow from the mountain tops above.
It was bloody freezing!
However, very funny!
With a scream and a big splash, there I was, soaking wet.

And the fall seemed to be appreciated, not only by my guides and fellow riders, but also by the guides from the neighbouring camp, who were cheering loudly when I quickly ripped all my wet clothes off and shivering got a set of dry ones on instead...

I'm such an entertainer...

the adventure

After a flight up north to China and then an almost 10 hours bus ride, Tiina and I reached our destination for our latest travel adventure. A little town called Song Pan situated in the mountains next to Tibet.

This is where we last Thursday morning sat up on "our" horses. And as we sat up, the sky, that had been heavily grey and rainy the last 24 hours, cleared up and the beautiful sun came out, and that certainly also cleared a few worries regarding slippery mud paths and cold wet clothes from our minds too.

From there on it felt like we were one with nature. Surrounded by nothing but snowy mountain tops, trees with leaves that were just starting to spring out in their most fresh light green colour, the sound of the clipper-clop from the horses as they walked on, the birds flying high up in the sky, the furry yaks munching on grass and bushes, and that fresh mountain air. Absolutely marvelous! And such a beautiful way of rewinding and recharging the batteries...

I kept on filling my lungs with that freshness over and over again and the smile on my face just wouldn't fade away.

We sat up our camp in a valley next to a river, where we were fairly sheltered from the cold winds, but as we had a big fire going and big yak fur coats on the cold didn't bother us too much. Not until it was bed time in our little tent anyway... Then it was cold, really cold! Consequently we had a sleepless night, but that's all part of the beauty of adventures...

The next morning our guides took us on a long beautiful horse ride, through little Tibetan villages, green meadows, rivers and forest covered mountains, to a mountain called the Ice Mountain. 4000 meters over sea level and with an amazing view. Absolutely stunning!

We were definitely tired, a bit sun burnt, but very happy when we returned to our camp, and we sat down by the fire and told a few stories.

The sun rose the next morning to warm up our frozen bodies. And believe me when I say that I needed the sun more that ever that morning (but that's an other story...). However, we set off through our breathtaking surroundings and life just felt great!

It was with pretty sore bums and legs we said good bye to our very hard working and very cute horses later that afternoon. But also with very big smiles on our faces.

I know that I just told you in my previous post about asking for too much..., but I just must say:
Oh how I love traveling, adventures and new beautiful experiences.

earth quake

Sometimes you get more than you ask for.
Like me wanting adventures...

Yesterday I found myself in the middle of a "real" adventure, as a big earth quake shook China. And I was there, more or less in the epicentral of the quake. An earth quake that measured 7.8.

Just as our plane were to leave to HK the ground moved.
Chengdu airport was shut down and we were stuck in the plane.
Now from my perspective, being totally isolated from the outer wold in this "metallic tube", it was a very boring and trapped experience. We were not allowed to move for almost 9 hours, all we could do was wait... But we were so lucky, because outside our little airplane world, houses fell apart, people were injured, people were killed (they now say 10000 is dead, and they are still counting) and all I felt some movement of the plane. Bizarre..., but as I said, very lucky.

I am now at home, safe and sound, in HK, and the whole experience feels surreal.
It was an ending to my trip that I never in a million years could have expected. But I guess adventures come unexpected at times.

shangri-la

When two blond Scandinavian girls rocked up to Shangri-La Hotel in Chengdu earlier this afternoon we could feel a few stares... The guy that helped us unload our dirty back packs from the back of the taxi seemed a bit confused, and the girl that checked us in wasn't that willing to start off with...

OK, we hadn't had a shower since Wednesday, and we smelled of both horse and camp fire, but since Tiina and I are true believers in luxury back packing, we really thought finishing off a pretty rough trip in style was the greatest idea ever!

And I still believe that. Especially as we now have had some yummy room service and just spent 2,5 hours in the hotels beautiful spa... Smelling like honey and roses my head are about to hit the pillow. And I can assure you that this girl will sleep well (have hardly slept in 3 days, so it's due time...).

We have a date with some cute pandas in the morning and then we fly back home to HK again.

Will tell you more about our horse adventure tomorrow.

Night.

olympic flame

Being a lady of leisure (no work for over a week!!) and with Kris having the afternoon off, we decided to go to the movies. After a very bloody time with Rambo we walked out of there and found ourselves surrounded by a whole heap of people.

So we joined them. Stood there on the side of the street and waited and looked.

As we quickly realized that the olympic flame was on it's way!
Cool, we will be able to be part of something historical we thought, even though we just a few moments earlier, had been totally oblivious to that fact...

Anyway, a good 15 minutes later we ask the policeman next to us when to expect the running man with the fire....? 10 minutes he says. Ok, good, let's run down and by milk in the meantime.

5 minutes later we're back and very very quickly realize that the people are leaving....
So much for being part of history....

last nights celebration

Flowers, friends and champagne.
What better means are there when you celebrate your last day of something you're very happy to leave....

The flowers were delivered to me at work.
A big beautiful bouquet of white lilies, that now fill my living room with the most amazing sent. On the card it said: To bigger, better & fabulous things.
So great, that's definitely what I'm heading for... And the flowers made me feel very special and very loved. Thank you so much Kris. x x x


The friends started dropping in around 22.00.
Drinks, snacks, talk and cheers followed.
And as the champagne started to flow, the happy atmosphere in the room started to bubble with it. And I have to say that I feel I'm truly blessed having such a great bunch of people to hang with.

Later we moved on for drinks at Wagyu Lounge.
And when I felt it was about that time, I took the hand of my man (who by then finally had finished for the night and closed the restaurant) and walked home with a quite tired but happy smile on my face.
Had a great time guys, thank you for celebrating with me!