Colombo Sri Lanka

Just landed in Singapore at 8am this morning, very tired. Flight SQ was 1am Colombo time, which was way past 3am Singapore time. After lack of sleep the previous night (flew in at 1030pm landed midnight Colombo which was 2am).

The session was good. We went to Sky Lounge at Kingsbury which is a nice hotel. I stayed at Grand Cinnamon hotel, 5-min walking distance from the backgate of the hotel. The street always strikes me as Jakarta 10 years ago. Told Hasitha it seems that he lost a bit of sparks in 2 months since I last saw him during the kickoff. He joked around his 45 years old age and 29-year old boss, which of course isn't true (2 years younger are more accurate). Going for a round of golf tomorrow.

I am so tired, should probably take care of my body and health, and be ready for 3pm discussion with Amor and culture team.

Ming Lee's farewell

Spent Friday attending Ming Lee's farewell after cancelling my trip to Bangkok. Then yesterday a nice dinner party at Ming Lee's place well prepared by her and her husband Agustin. They are nice hosts, and very generous. They invited us to their house at Seletar, and hosting a dinner from 7 thru midnight with lots of wine, sake, and more wine.

I am now awake on Sunday afternoon typing this note while getting ready for my flight to Colombo. Laundry is on, vacuum my room, threw away garbage, and recycle newspaper. Also had packed, run 30 mins, and play a bit of game. So it's been a productive mundane weekend.

Now I am going to write about our holiday.

This is in front of Paris Nord train station, after train from Brussels

The following morning we explore the Paris around La Marais neighbourhood, this is Hotel Du Ville

Department store, closed on Sunday (boo)

Mom and Dad

Breakfast with croissant budget at a cafe nearby Pompidou

A nice church at Jardin Nelson Mandela that is under construction

This is the backyard of the Bourse

Papa at Netherland

Museumplein Amsterdam

Henry and Mom at I Amsterdam sign

Cafe Restaurant Amsterdam

Random post

Cafe Restaurant Amsterdam, Westerwerk

Vienna

I had a terrible jetlag, so it is 230am right now and I am wide awake. Might as well documenting my thoughts of the recent holiday before time and memories fade away...

Next up is Vienna, a well developed city. It feels wealthier, especially off our train which departed from Venice, which is another expensive city. The city is clean, I spotted the main sights around the compact area which I had researched throughout my trip.

Breakfast onboard the OBB train

Resting at OBB Lounge

In essence we spent the day around the Stephendom, travelling from Schwedenplatz U-Bahn (the metro stop), strolling towards south passing Fleichmarkt, Stephansplatz, around the Vienna Opera house and finally Karlsplatz. The St Stephens cathedral is of course majestic, but what I can remember is the stop for horse-carriage next to it. We also wander around the shopping street, and found Petersplatz where the magnificent St Peters church was a highlight.

Domkirche St. Stephan

Graben

Hotdog stand or Vienna's hotdog (Würstelstand)

In front of St. Peter's Church

The Baroque interior of the Church

We then stroll to the and Albertina where we stop to rest at the junction near the famous Sacher Hotel. Through a kirschy time-travel exhibition that depicts the old Vienna from Roman time. It looks interesting for history-buff we had the time.

We passed the large public square Heldenplatz where the old imperial Palace was.

Public square & gardens in front of the old imperial Hofburg Palace, with imposing statues

Heldenplatz

 Crossed to the east for Vienna Opera House (Wiener Staatsoper), arriving at Ringstrassen area.

There is tourist information centre where we rest, while Henry and Mom hunted some photo at Sacher hotel.

Velvet sofa at Cafe Museum

Sacher torte

Apfelstudel with vanilla sauce (divine)

Original "Wiener Schnitzel"
golden brown breaded veal cutlet, parsley potatoes, lettuce and cranberry sauce

Viennese mixed sausage platter
four kinds of different, typical Viennese sausages,
onion mustard, horseradish, gherkin and rye bread

The desserts bar

Omigosh

We then capped our trip via a superb lunch at Cafe Museum, a smart cafe on Operngasse with replicas of original Adolf Loos decor, a former hangout for Klimt, Schiele & others. It opened in 1899; although their desserts selection is very tempting, we selected Vienna's speciality. My favorite is the original Wiener Schnitzel (made of veal not pork) and Apple strudel (Apfelstrudel).

Karlsplatz

 

Paris

Why is Paris always have this unique flair in the air. The weather and atmosphere seems dramatic, and chic when I stroll around the city. We are back to Singapore right now, landed 7am this morning, and after a quick check at luggage services, we quickly take taxi home to rest before my office hour. The 3-day in Paris passed quickly. We use the first day to stroll around the city and has the one experience of tourist cheat over the ticket - infuriating. Other than the upsetting experience in Paris (which seems like everyone we know had experience in Paris) we enjoyed our final leg of the journey...

Arrival at Paris Gare Du Nord station

Department store, closes on Sunday... (boo)

Classic Hotel Du Ville

The following morning we went to explore Paris by ourselves, nearby La Marais neighbourhood

Breakfast with a croissant at a budget cafe around Pompidou Centre

Church (Paroisse Saint Eustache) that is adjacent to Jardin Nelson Mandela.
The nearby site is under construction, also the RER interchange for Les Halles-Chatelet

The Bourses

Louvre Pyramid

Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel

Musee D'Orsay

Pont Royal

Mini bug at Palais Bourbon

Lunch at Le Saint Germain

outstanding Pave du Thon (seared tuna steak)

big plate of mussels dish (very good as well)

third dish we ordered was Pork Medallion

Eiffel view from Esplanade des Invalides

Musee Rodin

Walking along Invalides

Invalides

Afterwards we took bus 89 back to our accomodation which was at Le Marais. That is a good bus touring around the city passing famous sights (preciously the direction we were walking earlier in the morning!). A bus ticket costs 2 Euro on board of the bus, if you bought in advance from ticket machines, the generic ticket (which can be used for bus,train,tram, or metro) costs 1.90 each or 14.40 in a pack of 10.

the next morning Carousel near Place du Concorde

Champ-Élysées

Arc du Triomphe

We then continued to shopping at Outlet area La Vallee, which is at the end of rail RER A, the last station just before Disneyland Paris. A couple of very good brand at good deal, we shopped at Tumi and Gucci.

At night we went straight to sunset at Basilica.